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New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the largest city and the most important business center in the United States. The city is also home to a nearly unrivaled collection of world-class museums, galleries, and performance venues. Home to the United Nations, it is, along with London, Paris and Tokyo, considered one of the four primary global cities of the world.
The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of New York City
New York City has a population of over 8 million people contained within 309 square miles (800 km²). Immigrants from over 180 countries live in the city, making it one of the most cosmopolitan places on earth. People from all over the U.S. are also attracted by the New York City's culture, energy, and cosmopolitanism, and by the dream of making it big in "theBig Apple."
New York City serves as an enormous engine for the global economy, with an estimated gross metropolitan product of US$488.8 billion in 2003, the largest of any city in the United States and the sixth largest if compared to any U.S. state. If it were a nation, the city would have the 16th highest gross domestic product in the world, exceeding that of Russia ($433 billion).
The area that now constitutes New York City was inhabited by such Native American tribes as the Manahattoes and Canarsies long before the arrival of European settlers, as attested to by discoveries of arrowheads and other artifacts in areas of the city that are not occupied by buildings today, such as Inwood Hill Park and Riverside Park. European settlement began with the founding of the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam) on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1626. Many Huguenots seeking religious freedom also settled in the area.
In 1664, English ships captured the city without struggle, and it was renamed New York, after James, Duke of York to whom the territory had been given by his brother Charles II. The Duke of York in turn took his title from the City of York in England, hence the prefix 'New'. When James succeeded his brother as James II in 1685 the colony, including New Jersey, became a Royal one. At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, in the Treaty of Breda the Dutch formally signed New York over to the English and received the colony of Run, one of the Banda Islands, in return.
At the start of the American Revolutionary War, the city was the scene of important early fighting at the Battle of Brooklyn, suffered a great fire in which much of it burned, and fell into British control for the remainder of the war, not to be regained by the Americans until 1783. The anniversary of "Evacuation Day," when the British finally left the city at the end of the war, was long celebrated in New York.
During the 19th century, the city population boomed by an influx of a vast number of immigrants. In 1811, the city street grid was expanded to encompass all of Manhattan with a visionary development proposal called the Commissioner's Plan. In 1819, the opening of the Erie Canal had a tremendous impact on the city's economic developement, as it opened the city's port to the vast agricultural markets of the Mid-western United States and Canada. By 1835, New York City overtook Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States.
During the Civil War, the city's strong commercial ties to the South, as well as its growing immigrant population, led to a split in sympathy between the Union and Confederacy, culminating in the Draft Riots of 1863, the worst civil unrest in American history.
After the war, the rate of immigration from Europe grew steeply, and New York became the first stop for millions seeking a new and better life in the United States.
In 1898, New York City took the political form in which it exists to this day. Prior to 1898, New York City consisted of Manhattan and the Bronx, which was annexed by the city from southern Westchester County in two separate actions: the western portion in 1874, and the remaining portion in 1895. In 1898, a new municipal government, originally called "Greater New York," was created by new legislation. It was divided into five boroughs. The Boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx covered the original city and the rest of New York County. The Borough of Brooklyn consisted of the City of Brooklyn as well as several municipalities in eastern Kings County. The Borough of Queens was established in western Queens County, and covered several small cities and towns, including Long Island City, Astoria and Flushing. The Borough of Staten Island contained all of Richmond County. All municipal governments contained within the boroughs were abolished. A year later, the area of Queens County not contained within the Borough of Queens became Nassau County. In 1914, the state legislature created Bronx County, shrinking New York County so it contained only Manhattan. The five boroughs are now considered to be generally coterminous with their respective counties.
In the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. Interborough Rapid Transit (the first subway company) began operating in 1904. The New York skyline soared in the 1930s with the building of some of the world's tallest skyscrapers.
In the decade immediately after World War II, the city experienced an economic and residential boom from returning veterans, and waves of new housing were constructed in eastern Queens. In 1951, the United Nations moved into its permanent headquarters in Manhattan (from its temporary first headquarters in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens), further boosting the city's civic pride. It was not long, however, until the city slid into gradual decline in the mid-1960s with the loss of population to the suburbs and the erosion of its industrial base. Like many US cities, New York suffered severe race riots in the 1960s, and by the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation for being a crime-ridden relic of history. In 1975, the city hit bottom and had to restructure its debt through the Municipal Assistance Corporation, headed by Felix Rohatyn. The city was also forced to accept increased scrutiny of its finances by an agency of New York State called the Financial Control Board.
The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. In the 1990s, crime rates dropped drastically and the outflow of population turned around, as the city once again became the destination not only of immigrants from around the world, but of many U.S. citizens seeking to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle that only New York City can offer. In the late 1990s, the dot com boom fueled another frenzy of financial speculation that sent the economy soaring.
The September 11, 2001 attacks also struck at Washington, D.C., but New York was the city most affected, because of the attack on the World Trade Center and the thick, acrid smoke that continued to pour out of its ruins for a few months following the Twin Towers' fiery collapse. However, cleanup of Ground Zero was completed ahead of schedule, and the city has since rebounded and pushed forward new plans for the destroyed areas of the World Trade Center. The Freedom Tower, to be built on the site, is intended to be the world's highest skyscraper after its scheduled completion in 2008. Today, the city is poised to undergo yet another transformation, as a wave of both public and private-sector building projects will be reshaping large sections of the city over the next ten years. Furthermore, the city is also being impacted by a residential construction boom, with rapidly escalating real estate prices and permits being issued for over 25,000 new units of housing each year.
The City of New York is composed of five boroughs, each a county of New York State. Residents of the city often refer to the city itself as "the Five Boroughs," reserving the phrase "the City" to refer to Manhattan. Those less familiar with the city often (incorrectly) think
Manhattan is synonymous with New York City. The boroughs other than Manhattan are also referred to as "the Outer Boroughs."
Through the boroughs, there are hundreds of neighborhoods in the city, many with a definable history and character all their own.
Manhattan (New York County, pop. 1,564,798) is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban. It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers.
The Bronx (Bronx County, pop. 1,363,198) is known as the purported birthplace of hip hop culture, as well as being the home of the New York Yankees. It is the only part of the city on the mainland.
Brooklyn (Kings County, pop. 2,472,523) is the most populous borough, with a strong native identity. It ranges from a business district downtown to large residential tracts in the central and southeastern areas.
Queens (Queens County, pop. 2,225,486) is the most diverse county in the U.S., with more immigrants than anywhere else. Geographically it is the largest of the boroughs, and the legacy of its old constituent towns is still evident.
Staten Island (Richmond County, pop. 459,737) is somewhat isolated and the most suburban part of the city. But it in the last decades it has been growing more a part of city life (especially since the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in 1964, which has bred controversy and even a recent attempt at secession.
New York City is governed pursuant to the New York City Charter, as amended. The charter is enacted and amended by the New York State legislature, and occasionally through referendum. Though subservient to the State of New York, the city enjoys a high degree of legislative and executive autonomy. Like most governmental entities in the United States, the city government is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches.
Boroughs
The five boroughs are coterminous with their respective counties, but the counties do not have actual county governments. Each borough elects a Borough President, but under the current city charter, the Borough President's powers are limited—he or she has a small discretionary budget to spend on projects within the borough. (The last significant power of the borough presidents—to appoint a member of the Board of Education —was abolished, with the board, on June 30, 2002.) Currently, borough presidents
serve as ex officio members of various boards and committees.
Executive
The executive branch of New York City is headed by the Mayor, who is elected by direct popular vote. The mayor has executive authority over five divisions of city government as well as several independent government offices. The divisions, each comprising several city agencies and headed by an appointed Deputy Mayor, are:
The mayor has broad emergency powers which can be exercised in cases of emergency weather conditions, natural disaster, riots, civil unrest, invasion or other emergency. Most recently, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared a state of emergency during the 2003 North America blackout.
Legislative
Legislative power in New York City is vested in a unicameral City Council, which contains 51 members, each representing a district of approximately 157,000 people. Council members are elected every four years, and the leader of the majority party is called the Speaker. The current Speaker of the City Council is Gifford Miller, a Democrat. Like most legislative bodies, the City Council is divided into committees which have oversight of various functions of the city government. Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign it into law. If the mayor vetoes the bill, the
Council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote.
Judicial
Unlike the rest of New York State, New York City does not have typical county courts. Instead, there is a single Civil Court, with a presence in each borough and city-wide jurisdiction, and a Criminal Court for each New York City county which handles lesser criminal offenses and
domestic violence cases, a responsibility shared with the Family Court. Unlike other counties in New York, judges for Family Courts in New York City are appointed for ten year terms by the mayor, instead of being elected.
Criminal cases are handled on indictment by the Supreme Court in each New York City county. The Supreme Court also handles larger civil cases, and grand juries sit in each county. Thus, unlike other states and the Federal Government, in New York, the Supreme Court is not the highest court. Appeals are handled by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The highest court in the state is the Court of Appeals.
Crime
Since 1991, New York City has seen a dramatic reduction in crime and is now among the safest cities in America. This downward trend has continued unabated for nearly fifteen years now, and has shown no signs of reversing its present course. Today, many neighborhoods that were once considered off-limits are now thriving with new businesses and housing, and many residents feel safe to walk the streets late at night. Over the past 12 years alone, violent crime in the city has dropped by three-fourths, and the murder rate in 2004 was at its lowest level in over forty years.
While the exact reasons behind this drop in crime are a debatable issue for many New Yorkers, it has undoubtedly been aided by the use of COMPSTAT, implemented in 1994 by the New York Police Department to map crimes, analyze problems and devise solutions.
New York City's crime rates vary by neighborhood and borough. Staten Island is the safest borough in the city, Queens and Manhattan are in the middle range, while Brooklyn and The Bronx have the highest crime rates.
There have been some notorious crime sprees. For example, on July 29, 1976 the "Son of Sam", pulling a gun from a paper bag, killed one person and seriously wounded another, in the first of a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year.
As soon as the SicilianMafia moved to New York in the 1920s, they became infamous with their hits on businesses that did not pay money to them. They had also set up smuggling rings and fixed boxing matches. The Mafia flourished due to a distrust of the police in the Italian-American communities in New York. The five largest crime families in New York were the Bonnanos, the Colombos, the Gambinos, the Genovese, and the Luchese. The assimilation of the Italian-American population is choking the Mafia in New York, although they still operate.
For New York City crime Statistics see http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/cspdf.html.
New York city, viewed from the TERRA satellite. The prominent green rectangle is Central Park, on Manhattan island. Ground Zero can just be distinguished, as the largest of the pale spots near the southern tip of Manhattan.
New York City is sited among an archipelago of islands astride the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard of North America, surrounding the fine New York Harbor, which was the very reason for the city's founding. The city itself has been built on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and on western Long Island (Brooklyn and Queens), as well as on the mainland in the Bronx. There are also some smaller islands in the surrounding waters.
Upper New York Bay is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey, and is connected by the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island to Lower New York Bay, which is partially surrounded by Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New
Jersey, and is open to the Atlantic Ocean.
The shape of the land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch times, most dramatically in Lower Manhattan, and continuing in modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. A number of smaller islands have been artificially enlarged, and the map of islands in Jamaica Bay has been completely transformed.
New York has a humid continental climate. The city is adjacent to water, so temperature changes are not as drastic as those inland. It snows in New York every winter due to the city's latitude. Because of its key position, New York had been king in the shipping passenger trade between Europe and the Americas for quite some time, until the airplane came into wider use across the Atlantic.
New York winters are typically cold, and sometimes feature snowstorms that can paralyze the city with over a foot (30 cm) of snow. Springs are mild, averaging in the 50s (degrees Fahrenheit, 10–15 degrees Celsius) in late March to the lower 80s °F (25–30 °C) in early June. Summers in New York are hot and humid. It is common for summer high temperatures to exceed 90 °F (32 °C), although it often stays below 100 °F (38 °C). Autumns are comfortable in New York. However, the weather in New York is notably unpredictable, even if not to the degree experienced in some other parts of the world. Mild, almost snowless winters and chilly summers surprise New Yorkers from time to time; there have been huge snowstorms as late as the second week in April; and there can be large temperature swings from one day to the next. Travelers are advised to check forecasts and bring several layers of clothing in late fall and in the early spring months (e.g., November, March, April).
Although most of the city is adequately above sea level, parts of it could be threatened in the future if the current patterns of global warming continue.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1,214.4 km² (468.9 mi²). 785.6 km² (303.3 mi²) of it is land and 428.8 km² (165.6 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 35.31% water.
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 8,008,278 people, 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. The population density is 10,194.2/km² (26,402.9/mi²). There are 3,200,912 housing units at an average density of 4,074.6/km² (10,553.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 44.66% White, 26.59% Black or African American, 0.52% Native American, 9.83% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 13.42% from other races, and 4.92% from two or more races. 26.98% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. 35.9% of the population is foreign born (18.9% born in Latin America, 8.6% Asia, 7.0% Europe). New York City is also home to the nation's largest community of American Jews, including hundreds of thousands of secular and observant Jews. New York is home to the worldwide headquarters of the HasidicLubavitch sect as well as the Bobover and Satmar branches of Hasidism.
A partial list of major ancestry groups reported by the 2000 Census for New York City residents includes:
West Indian/Caribbean - 7% (does not include Hispanic groups)
Irish - 6%
German - 3%
Russian - 3%
English - 2%
Polish - 2%
Sub-saharan African - 2% (does not include African-American, see race data above)
Arab - 1%
French - 1%
Native American - 1%
The median income for a household in the city is $38,293, and the median income for a family is $41,887. Males have a median income of $37,435 versus $32,949 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,402. 21.2% of the population and 18.5% of families are below the
poverty line. Out of the total population, 30.0% of those under the age of 18 and 17.8% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
There are 3,021,588 households out of which 29.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.2% are married couples living together, 19.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 38.7% are non-families. 31.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.9% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.59 and the average family size is 3.32.
In the city the population is spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 85.9 males.
Historically, the city developed because of New York Harbor, widely considered one of the finest natural ports in the world. The value of this port was greatly expanded upon in 1819 with the opening of the Erie Canal, which gave New York an enormous advantage over the competing ports of Boston and Philadelphia. The old port facility was at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, but today there is only residual activity remaining at Red Hook in Brooklyn, and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal in Staten Island. Since the 1950s, most shipping activity in the area has shifted to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. But despite changes in international shipping, trade and the teritiary sector have always remained the real basis of New York's economy.
Manufacturing first became a major economic base for New York City in the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of industrialization and the railroad. New York was formerly a national center for clothing manufacture, and some continues, sometimes in sweatshops. Like international shipping, though, manufacturing gradually declined in the late-twentieth century with rising land values. The city was also the first center of the American film industry, until it moved to Hollywood, California, and still has some television and movie production.
A New York City resident is a New Yorker, though there is some use of borough-specific identifications, such as Manhattanites, Bronxites, Brooklynites, Queensites and Staten Islanders. Sometimes people in the surrounding suburbs, many of city origin, are also called New Yorkers, but the term is rarely used to refer to
residents of Upstate New York. Residents generally refer to New York City (or sometimes just Manhattan) as "New York" or "the city". Ambiguity is resolved by writing "NYS" for the state and "NYC" for the city.
Throughout its history there have been many nicknames attributed to New York City; some of the most common include: "the Big Apple", "Gotham", "the City that Never Sleeps", "the Naked City", "the Capital of the World", "the World's Second Home", and many others.
To some observers, New York, with its large immigrant population, seems more of an international city than something specifically "American." But to others, the city's very openness to newcomers makes it the archetype of a "nation of immigrants." Among large American cities only Los Angeles receives more immigrants, but immigration to New York is considerably more diverse. It is not without reason that the city government maintains translators in 180 languages. Residents are accustomed to thinking of everyone in the city as a member of a minority in some sense, but they also have a shared identity as New Yorkers.
As in many major cities, immigrants to New York, and sometimes their descendants, tend to congregate into ethnic enclaves where they can talk and shop and work with people from their country of origin. This phenomenon is more pronounced in New York than in other U.S. cities, and the five boroughs are home to many distinct communities of Irish, Italians, Chinese, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Caribbeans, Jews, South Asians and many others, though there are also more multi-ethnic or cosmopolitan neighborhoods where people of different backgrounds can coexist comfortably.
The subway is a common denominator in the lives of many New Yorkers.
The everyday lifestyle of New Yorkers differs substantially from that of other Americans, and has in some ways been compared to that of urban Western Europeans. Despite the best efforts of Robert Moses, residents are less attuned than other Americans to the 'car culture' that dominates most of the country. The well-designed New York Subway and the threat of congestion keep six in ten residents, including many middle class professionals, out of cars and off of the highways. Even the city's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is known to take the subway to City Hall each morning. This pattern is strongest for Manhattanites, who live in an area with better subway service and worse traffic, but more moderated for residents of the outer boroughs, especially in more peripheral areas, though many here too commute by train to Manhattan. This dependence on public transportation, the high population density, and a preponderance of mixed-use zoning, has also fostered a real "pedestrian culture" not seen anywhere else in the U.S.
Unlike most Americans, although less atypically for city dwellers, the great majority of New Yorkers live in apartments in what is usually seen as a very overpriced and difficult market at all ends. In this crowded city few can afford the closet space they feel they really need, and self-storage is a strong local industry. Again, the pattern is strongest in Manhattan and moderated, but still present, in the outer boroughs, which do have a number of suburban-style homes.
The common stereotype of the "hard-boiled New Yorker" is held by many. Denizens of the fast-paced big city are seen as self-centered, rude and brusque, and are reputedly so jaded that things that others would consider drawbacks to life in "the city" (crowds, noise, etc.) are instead marks of pride, the very lures that keep them from ever leaving. In reality, however, life in New York, though a bit faster-paced than elsewhere, is essentially normal, filled with feeling, caring people whose reality is hardly reflected in age-old myths about city dwellers.
No other city in the U.S. has experienced the effects of gentrification to quite the same degree as New York City; beginning primarily in the early 1990s (although in some areas, such as SoHo, starting much earlier), entire neighborhoods that had once been written-off became transformed under waves of newly-arrived young professionals (generally having been preceded first by artists or so-called “hipsters’). Although generally viewed as having positive consequences for the effected areas, many of the native residents of these communities have been adversely affected by the sky-rocketing housing costs associated with rapid gentrification. The neighborhoods that are probably the best examples of New York's gentrification include Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Manhattan's Lower East Side.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the old stereotype, for a time at least, was turned around as Americans felt increased sympathy with New Yorkers. In the city itself, attitudes also changed in some ways, but stayed the same in others. For example, pride in the city and their way of life increased for many, though others may have showed signs of paranoia.
Today, there is a palpable sense of optimism in New York; fear of terrorism has lessened dramatically, and a massive confluence of transportation infrastructure projects promises to greatly expand the city's economic potential over the next ten years. Furthermore, the drastic reductions in crime have resulted in what was once called "the ungovernable city" becoming a remarkably civilized place. Indeed, polls today show a vast majority of New Yorkers agreeing that the city "is moving in the right direction."
Although the city is famous for its high density and fast-paced lifestyle, there are over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland found throughout New York City, comprising over 1,700 separate parks and playgrounds. The best known of these is Central Park, which is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture in the world, as well as a major source of recreation for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, and Forest Park. In addition to these, the city also has 578 miles of waterfront and over 14 miles of public beaches.
St. Patrick's Cathedral along 5th Avenue in New York City
Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items, while Macy's and the area around Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. In recent years, the area around 23rd Street has become a major location for "big-box" retailers, while Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores. The "diamond district" (located on 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues) is the city's main location for jewelry shopping, and SoHo is now famous for high-priced clothing boutiques. Soho used to be the center of the New York art scene, but with the increasing commercialism of the neighborhood, most galleries have moved to Chelsea. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn, and along Queens Boulevard in Queens.
The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in New York on November 27, 1924. Since then this has been an annual event drawing tens of thousands of spectators and in later years millions of television viewers. Annually on New Year's Eve, hundreds of thousands of people congregate in Times Square to watch the ball drop as millions watch on television.
The World Trade Center was an important tourist destination before the September 11, 2001 attacks, which devastated the city and its tourist industry. The city was nearly devoid of tourists for months, and it took two years for the numbers to fully rebound with fewer international, but more domestic visitors. Now the World Trade Center site has itself become an important place for visitors to see.
Because of its sheer size and cultural influence, New York City has been the subject of many different, and often contradictory, portrayals in mass media. From the sophisticated and worldly metropolis seen in many Woody Allen films, to the chaotic urban jungle depicted in such movies as Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, New York has served as the unwitting backdrop for virtually every conceivable viewpoint on big city life. New York’s portrayal on television is similarly varied, with a disproportionate number of crime dramas taking place in the city despite the fact that it is one of the safest cities in which to live in the United States. New York has also been the setting for countless works of literature, many of them produced by the city’s famously large population of writers (including Jonathan Franzen, Don Delillo, Thomas Pynchon, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, and many others).
Although 98% of American cities have a single daily newspaper with declining readership, New York City boasts over forty daily newspapers in several different languages, including such national heavyweights as the Wall Street Journal (daily circulation of 2.1 million) and The New York Times (1.6 million), and America's oldest continuously-published newspaper, the New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton. Even the distantly third most popular New York Daily News (786,000) has the seventh-largest circulation in the United States. There are seven daily newspapers published in Chinese and four in Spanish. Multiple daily papers are published in Greek, Polish, and Korean, and weekly newspapers cater to dozens of different ethnic communities, with ten separate newspapers focusing on the African-American community alone. Ethnic variation is not the only measure of the diversity of New York City's newspapers, with editorial opinions running from left-leaning papers like the Village Voice to conservative publications such as the New York Sun.
New York also contains the corporate headquarters of publishing conglomerates Conde Nast and The Hearst Corporation, and over 50,000 New Yorkers are employed in the newspaper and publishing industry.
New York City is the home of the four major news networks, ABC, CBS, the Fox Network, and NBC, and while the local film industry is dwarfed by that of Hollywood, its billions of dollars in revenue make it the second largest in the nation. The Kaufman-Astoria film studio in Queens dates back to the silent film era and was used by the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields. More recently, Silvercup Studios produced the hit television shows Sex and the City and The Sopranos. MTV broadcasts programming from its sound stage overlooking Times Square, several blocks away from the theater housing The Late Show with David Letterman. Over a thousand people are involved with producing the various Law & Order television series. There is also a large movie-studio complex currently under construction on a 15-acre parcel of the Brooklyn Navy Yard called Steiner Studios, which will add over 270,000 sq. ft. of new studio space to the city later this year.
New York City boasts a highly active and influential theater district, which is centered around Times Square in Manhattan. It serves both as the center of the American theater industry, and as a major attraction for visitors from around the world. The dozens of theaters in this district are responsible for tens of thousands of jobs, and help contribute billions of dollars every year to the city's economy. Along with those of London’s West End theater district, Broadway theaters are considered to be of the highest quality in the world. While plays and musicals in New York are often classified as either “Broadway” or “Off-Broadway” (or even “Off-Off-Broadway”) to denote theatrical quality or mass-market appeal, not all “Broadway” theaters are located directly on Broadway itself.
Music Industry and Music Scene
With its connection to media and communications and its mix of cultures and immigrants, New York City has had a long history of association with American music. Famous large venues dating from the 1920s, such as Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall have their smaller counterparts in the subsequent eras, from the Copacabana and The Bitter End to CBGB and Studio 54.
Although in much of the rest of the country American football has surpassed baseball as the most popular professional sport, in New York baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. A World Series championship by either the New York Yankees or the New York Mets is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team. For most baseball fans, the most intense rivalry is between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In New York, the rivalry between the Yankees and the Mets is just as fierce. Outsiders are frequently unaware that few baseball fans in New York are fans of both teams at once.
The New York City metropolitan area is the only one in the United States with more than one team in each of the four major sports (with nine such teams in all). In baseball, the number of current and historical franchises has enabled the occasional "Subway Series", when the World Series is played entirely in New York.
The professional teams using "New York" in their names are:
In 2004, the New Jersey Nets were sold to Bruce Ratner, who announced plans to move it to Brooklyn and build a new state of the art arena. The New York Jets also hope to move to the West Side of Manhattan and build a retractable roof football stadium in 2008 once their lease at Giants Stadium expires. Both of these construction proposals have stirred considerable opposition.
New York City is a finalist to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, with plans to build many new sporting venues if chosen. The proposed Jets Stadium on the West Side would also be used for the Olympic track and field events, but the uncertainty as to whether that stadium will be built is a weakness in the New York City bid.
Transportation
Unlike most of America's car-oriented urban areas, public transportation is the common mode of travel for the majority of New York City residents. High parking fees, alternate side of the street parking rules and traffic jams discourage driving, and the New York Subway—fast, efficient, but not always clean—provides the best alternative. There are also numerous bus routes in all five boroughs, and walking is often favored by locals as a practical and pleasant transportation method for trips of two or so miles or less. People living in the suburbs in eastern Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and
upstate New York either drive or use the city's far-reaching commuter railroad system to travel to the city. (See the "Mass transit" section below for more detailed information).
High tollway fees on bridges and underground tunnels help raise revenue and discourage too many commuters from using the crossings. New Yorkers who live in the city tend to take taxis, buses, subways, and elevated trains. Ferries are also a common mode of transporation between Manhattan and New Jersey, as well as other parts of New York City.
Four primary Interstate Highways enter the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area: I-78, I-80, I-87 and I-95. Interstate 287 serves as a partial beltway around the city, and there are numerous three-digit Interstates of I-78 and I-95. A strange fact is that none of I-78's spur routes actually intersect with it. The I-78 "child" that comes closest to intersecting with I-78 is I-478, the unsigned designation for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. I-278 is the best-known of I-78's "children"; it goes through all of the city's five boroughs (only entering Manhattan on the Triborough Bridge). I-78 ends at the foot of the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan; it was originally supposed to cross Manhattan into Brooklyn and Queens to JFK Airport, then curve north and end at I-95 via the Throgs Neck Bridge. Portions of this road were constructed, and are now NY 878 (sometimes labeled I-878) and I-295 (including its spur I-695); the latter was originally signed as I-78. The 1975 fiscal crisis prevented I-78 from being finished, as well as community opposition to the Lower Manhattan Expressway.
New York City boasts the most extensive network of public transportation in the United States. The world famous New York Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It is the most extensive subway system in the world when measured by mileage of track (656 miles of mainline track), and the fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004). The subway system connects all five boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway. The city is also served by the PATH subway system, which connects the borough of Manhattan to New Jersey. In addition these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately owned, which serve all areas of the five boroughs.
Responsibility for providing public transportation falls to a variety of government agencies and private corporations. Amtrak provides long-distance rail service. Short-distance rail, primarily for commuters from the suburbs, is operated by New Jersey Transit, the MTA (serving Long Island, Connecticut and regions in New York north of the city), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which also operates regional bus terminals.
Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. There are two kinds of taxis: "medallion taxis," which are the familiar yellow taxis, and "car services," which may only be radio- or computer-dispatched to pick up customers who have called for a taxi. Yellow cabs patrol most of Manhattan and may be hailed with a raised hand and must by law be taken anywhere within the five boroughs --although some drivers balk at this-- and parts of New Jersey (specifically Newark Liberty International Airport. As of May 2004, fares begin at $2.50 ($3.00 after 8 pm, and $3.50 during peak, weekday hours). Prices increase based on time elapsed and
distance traveled.
Ferries
Many private ferries are run by NY Waterway, which provides several lines across the Hudson River, New York Water Taxi, with lines connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and other operators. There is also the free Staten Island Ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island, operated by the New York City Department of Transportation.
Skyline
New York City has by far the most famous skyline in the world, which has become something of a tourist attraction in and of itself. Because of its high residential density, and the extremely high real estate values found in the city's central business districts, New York has amassed the largest collection of office and residential towers in the world. In fact, New York actually has three separately recognizable skylines: Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Manhattan (also known as Lower Manhattan), and Downtown Brooklyn. The largest of these skylines is in Midtown, which is the largest central business district in the U.S., and also home to such notable buildings as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. The Downtown skyline was once characterized by the presence of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Today it is undergoing the rapid reconstruction of Lower Manhattan, and will some day include the new "Freedom Tower" which will be the tallest building in the world when it is completed in 2007. The Downtown skyline will also be getting notable additions soon from such architects as Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry.
The Downtown Brooklyn skyline is the smallest of the three, and is centered around a major transportation hub in Northwestern Brooklyn. The borough of Queens has also been developing its own skyline in recent years with a Citigroup office building (which is currently the tallest building in NYC outside Manhattan), and the City Lights development of several residential towers along the East River waterfront.
New York City is served by the publicly-run City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university in the United States, which has a number of campuses throughout the five boroughs. The city is also home to a number of other institutions of higher learning, some of national or even international reputation, including Columbia University and New York University, among many others.
