   #copyright

New York City

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: North American Geography

   City of New York
   Skyline of City of New York

   Official flag of City of New York

                                    Official seal of City of New York
   Flag                             Seal
   Nickname: " Big Apple; City that never Sleeps; Gotham"
   Location in the state of New York
   Location in the state of New York
   Coordinates: 40°43′N 74°00′W
   Country United States
   State New York
   Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx)
   New York (Manhattan)
   Queens (Queens)
   Kings (Brooklyn)
   Richmond (Staten Island)
   Mayor Michael Bloomberg ( R)
   Area
    - City 1,214.4 km²  (468.9  sq mi)
    - Land 785.5 km²  (303.3 sq mi)
    - Water 428.9 km² (165.6 sq mi)
    - Urban 8,683.2 km² (3,352.6 sq mi)
    - Metro 17,405 km² (6,720 sq mi)
   Elevation 10 m  (33 ft)
   Population
    - City (2006) 8,213,839
    - Density 10,316/km² (26,720/sq mi)
    - Urban 18,498,000
    - Metro 18,709,802
   Time zone EST ( UTC-5)
    - Summer ( DST) EDT ( UTC-4)
   Website: www.nyc.gov

   New York City (officially the City of New York) is the largest city in
   the United States and one of the world's major global cities. Located
   in the state of New York, the city has a population of 8,213,839 within
   an area of 321 square miles (approximately 830 km²), making it the most
   densely populated major city in North America. With a population of
   18.7 million, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the largest
   urban areas in the world.

   New York City is an international centre for business, finance,
   fashion, medicine, entertainment, media, and culture, with an
   extraordinary collection of museums, galleries, performance venues,
   media outlets, international corporations, and financial markets. The
   city is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations, and to
   many of the world's most famous skyscrapers.

   Popularly known as the " Big Apple" and the "City That Never Sleeps",
   the city attracts people from all over the globe who come for New York
   City's economic opportunity, culture, and fast-paced cosmopolitan
   lifestyle. As of June 2006, the city was distinguished for having the
   lowest crime rate among major American cities.

History

   The region was inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans at the time of
   its European discovery by Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano. Although
   Verrazano sailed into New York Harbour, he is not thought to have
   traveled further than the present site of the bridge that bears his
   name, and instead sailed back into the Atlantic. It was not until the
   voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East
   India Company, that the area was mapped. He discovered Manhattan on
   September 11, 1609, and continued up the river that bears his name, the
   Hudson River, until he arrived at the site where New York State's
   capital city, Albany, now stands. The Dutch established New Amsterdam
   in 1613, which was granted self-government in 1652 under Peter
   Stuyvesant. The British took the city in September 1664, and renamed it
   "New York" after the English Duke of York and Albany. The Dutch briefly
   regained it in August 1673, renaming the city "New Orange," but ceded
   it permanently in November 1674.
   The Castello Plan depicting New Amsterdam on the southern tip of
   Manhattan, 1660.
   Enlarge
   The Castello Plan depicting New Amsterdam on the southern tip of
   Manhattan, 1660.

   Under British rule the City of New York continued to develop, and while
   there was growing sentiment in the city for greater political
   independence, the area was decidedly split in its loyalties during the
   New York Campaign, a series of major early battles during the American
   Revolutionary War. The city was under British occupation until the end
   of the war, and was not finally evacuated until 1783.

   New York City was the capital of the newly-formed United States under
   the Articles of Confederation from January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788, and
   under the United States Constitution from March 4, 1789 to August 12,
   1790. In the 19th century, the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825
   enabled New York to overtake Boston and Philadelphia in economic
   importance, and local politics became dominated by a Democratic Party
   political machine known as Tammany Hall that drew on the support of
   Irish immigrants. In later years, known as the Gilded Age, the city
   became the first metropolitan American city to transform from one
   populated by native American citizens of mostly middle class standard
   to one where the upper classes enjoyed great prosperity and wealth
   derived from the growth of a poor immigrant working class. This
   transformation was among the first changes in New York which later
   spread to other cities and henceforward society in general looked to
   the city has the cutting edge of change. The transformation of this era
   was also associated with economic and municipal integration,
   culminating in the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898, a
   consolidation which was repeated in other cities across the country as
   well.
   Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930.
   Enlarge
   Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930.

   New York's colonial heritage was arguably unique in British North
   America at the time of the Revolution, since New York was the one
   metropolitan city of note which started as a non-British colony of
   Dutch heritage. This heritage was reflected in city's heavy focus on
   trade, commerce, guild, and civic life which was the hallmark of other
   Dutch cities. Although by the time of the Revolution, with nearly 80%
   of it's population of English origin, New York City was virtually
   uniform as a typical British community, it's Dutch commercial
   inheritance was crucial in making New York the most important city in
   North America in the 19th Century once the Erie Canal was built.

   The War of Independence caused substantial upheaval to this British
   colonial life. Due to the effects of war and the continual occupation
   of the city by the British for most of the war, it's population was
   nearly halved. The battles in and around New York caused significant
   damage, which was worsened by a suspicious fire that leveled nearly
   half of the city. Furthermore, once Great Britain recognized the United
   States and abandoned the city, thousands of Loyalists and the thousands
   more of troops and their families also left. When General George
   Washington finally rode in triumph into New York, the city was almost
   deserted with most of it's upper classes, including its merchants,
   traders, bankers, and builders gone when they left with the vast
   British fleet.

   For the next decade, patriot New Yorkers returned in numbers, and
   although there was fear of large scale reprisals against the remaining
   loyalists, the fears were proven unfounded. New Yorks largest newspaper
   remained owned by a famous loyalist and it became well patronized and
   funded by the city's re-established patriotic upper-class. Starting in
   1800 thousands of mostly New England Yankees moved into the city. Their
   numbers were such that by 1820, the city had far outstripped it's
   pre-War population, was largely middle class with a growing
   upper-class, and was fully 95% of American born heritage. Its economy
   was a vigorous artisan and craftsman society second to none in the
   United States while its banking and commercial sectors were fast
   becoming dominant in the country as a while. From 1800-1840 the city
   grew in wealth and power and never again would the city have such a
   substantial stable society of American born citizens.

   It was into this stable Protestant middle class American society of
   stockbrokers, guildsmen, bankers, artisans, craftsmen, merchants,
   shippers, porters, and shopkeepers, and well paid laborers, all
   operating in an early republican environment of volunteer firefighters,
   watchmen, and other civic organization that thousands of mostly
   illiterate unskilled Catholic Irish fleeing the rural depression of
   their homeland disembarked onto New York City in the 1840's. The social
   change was an earthquake. Lacking the bureaucratic civic structure of
   today, the city's infrastructure built as it was an a volunteer network
   of similar minded individuals collapsed. Partisan networks developed to
   protect neighborhoods of native Americans from the Irish and vise
   versa. Crime spiraled out of control as competing ethnic volunteer
   groups vied for control of the municipal patronage and it's utility
   networks of fire, sanitation, garbage, and police. For roughly forty
   years the city was in constant upheaval as riots, civil insurrection,
   marches and counter-marches, demonstrations and counter-demonstrations
   swept the old New York city permanently away. In it's place was born
   the modern city of professional police, fire, and other utility
   services, traffic control, neighbourhood development, factories,
   foundries, and the whole panoply of what came to be known as Gotham.

   As technology, infrastructure and laissez fair capitalism continued to
   transform the city a series of new transportation links, most notably
   the opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, expanded the city's
   environs and bound together the newly-enlarged city of Gotham.
   Additionally, while immigration spiked and fell between 1842 and 1892,
   a new wage of immigration began in the late 19th and early 20th
   centuries which once again transformed the city's demographics. The new
   European immigration brought further social upheaval, and old world
   criminal societies rapidly exploited the already corrupt municipal
   machine politics of Tammany Hall, while local American barons of
   industry further exploited the immigrant masses with ever lower wages
   and crowded living conditions. In a city of tenements packed with cheap
   foreign labor from dozens of nations, the city was a hotbed of
   revolution, syndicalism, racketeering, and unionization. In response,
   the upper classes grown fat on the city of Gotham utilized partisan
   hound-outs, organized crime groups, heavy handed policing and political
   oppression to smash groups which refused to be coopted. Groups such as
   the anticapitalist labor union IWW, native American patriot
   organizations such as the American Protestant Association, and
   reformers of all stripes were fiercely repressed, while crime lords
   that became too independent disappeared. Additional demographic changes
   accelerated when in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of
   African-Americans as part of the Great Migration from the American
   South. The Harlem Renaissance blossomed during this period, part of a
   larger boom in the Prohibition era that saw the city's skyline
   transformed by construction of the skyscrapers that have come to define
   New York. New York overtook London as the most populous city in the
   world in 1925, ending that city's century-old claim to the title.

   New York City's ever accelerating changes and rising crime and poverty
   rates ended when World War One disrupted trade routes, the Immigration
   Restriction Acts limited additional immigration after the war, and the
   Great Depression ended the need for new labor. The combination ended
   the rule of the Guilded Age barons. The between the wars period also
   saw the end of Tammany Hall's eighty years of political dominance with
   the 1934 election of reformist mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. As the city's
   demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and
   affluence to the workers, the city's government and infrastructure
   underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia and his controversial
   parks commissioner Robert Moses who ended the blight of many tenement
   areas, expanded new parks, remade streets, restricted and reorganized
   zoning controls and in short established the city government which is
   the hallmark of municipalities across the country today.
   Lower Manhattan's skyline with the Twin Towers of the World Trade
   Center
   Enlarge
   Lower Manhattan's skyline with the Twin Towers of the World Trade
   Centre

   New York City played a major role in World War II as a port and a
   centre of finance and industry. It emerged from the war as the leading
   city of the world, with Wall Street leading America's emergence as the
   world's dominant economic power, the United Nations headquarters (built
   in 1952) emphasizing its political influence, and the rise of Abstract
   Expressionism displacing Paris as the centre of the art world.

   However, the growth of post-war suburbs saw a slow decline in the
   city's population. A decline in manufacturing, rising crime rates and
   white flight pushed New York into a social and economic crisis in the
   1970s. These problems plagued the city until the 1990s. Racial tensions
   calmed in these years; a dramatic fall in crime rates, improvements in
   quality of life, economic growth and new immigration renewed the
   formerly dying city.

   The city was one of the sites of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when
   nearly 3,000 people were killed in the destruction of the city's
   tallest buildings, the World Trade Centre. The Freedom Tower, intended
   to be exactly 1,776 feet tall (a number symbolic of the year the
   Declaration of Independence was written), is to be built on the site
   and is slated for completion by 2012.

Geography

   Satellite image showing most of the five boroughs, portions of eastern
   New Jersey, and the main waterways around New York harbor.
   Enlarge
   Satellite image showing most of the five boroughs, portions of eastern
   New Jersey, and the main waterways around New York harbour.

   New York City is located on the coast of the Northeastern United States
   at the mouth of the Hudson River in southeastern New York state. The
   city's geography is characterized by its coastal position at the
   meeting of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in a naturally
   sheltered harbour. This position helped the city grow in significance
   as a trading city. Much of New York is built on the three islands of
   Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island, making land scarce
   and driving the city's high population density. Environmental issues
   are chiefly concerned with managing this density, which is also a
   factor in making New York among the most energy efficient and least
   automobile-dependent cities in the United States.

   The Hudson River flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay,
   becoming a tidal estuary that separates the city from New Jersey. The
   East River, actually a tidal strait, flows from Long Island Sound and
   separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River,
   another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates
   Manhattan from the Bronx.

   The city's land has been altered considerably by human intervention,
   with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch
   colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with
   modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural
   variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in
   Manhattan.

   The city's total land area is 321 square miles. The highest point in
   the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which at 409.8 feet above sea
   level is the highest point on the Eastern Seaboard south of Maine. The
   summit of the ridge is largely covered in woodlands as part of the
   Staten Island Greenbelt.

Boroughs

   Throughout the boroughs there are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods,
   many with a definable history and character all their own. If the
   boroughs were each independent cities, four of the boroughs (Brooklyn,
   Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx) would be among the ten most populous
   cities in the United States.

   Manhattan (New York County, pop. 1,593,200 is the business center of
   the city and the entire country, if not the world. It is also the
   centre of New York's entertainment and cultural attractions. It is the
   most superlatively urban of all the boroughs, the most densely
   populated, and home to most of the city's skyscrapers and famous
   landmarks. It is loosely divided into downtown, midtown, and uptown
   regions. Manhattan is the primary "city" of New York City and is most
   frequently featured in the media as the epitome of the city.
   The five boroughs: 1: Manhattan, 2: Brooklyn, 3: Queens, 4: Bronx, 5:
   Staten Island
   Enlarge
   The five boroughs: 1: Manhattan, 2: Brooklyn,
   3: Queens, 4: Bronx, 5: Staten Island

   The Bronx (Bronx County, pop. 1,357,589) is the birthplace of rap and
   hip hop culture, as well as the home of the New York Yankees and the
   largest cooperatively owned housing complex in the United States, Co-op
   City. The borough has middle-class neighborhoods but also has some of
   the run-down areas of New York City. Excluding some of its surrounding
   minor islands, the Bronx is the only borough of the city that is
   entirely on the mainland of the United States.

   Brooklyn (Kings County, pop. 2,486,235), the largest borough in
   population was an independent city until 1898, and has a strong native
   identity. It is also the only borough outside of Manhattan with a
   distinguished downtown area. The business district is modern and there
   are large historic residential neighborhoods in the central and
   south-eastern areas. There are many well upkept areas, but like the
   Bronx, some run-down sections of the city are found in Brooklyn. The
   borough also features a long beachfront and Coney Island, famous as one
   of the earliest amusement grounds in the country.

   Queens (Queens County, pop. 2,241,600) is geographically the largest
   borough and, according to the US census, the most ethnically diverse
   county in the United States. Prior to consolidation with New York City
   it was composed of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch. It is
   home to the New York Mets of Major League Baseball, two of the region's
   three major airports ( John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia
   Airport), and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the 1939 and 1964
   World's Fairs and tennis' US Open. The borough is mainly residential.

   Staten Island (Richmond County, pop. 464,573) is the most suburban in
   character of the five boroughs, and has gradually integrated with the
   rest of the city since the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in
   1964, connecting it to Brooklyn, an event that caused controversy and
   even an attempt at secession. It is also connected to Manhattan by the
   free Staten Island Ferry. Until 2001, the borough was the home of the
   infamous Fresh Kills Landfill, formerly the largest landfill in the
   world, which is now being reconstructed as one of the largest urban
   parks in the United States. Recently, Staten Island is becoming more
   and more urban to the likes of its sister boroughs.

Climate

   Although located at a more southern latitude than Italian Tuscany or
   the French Riviera, New York has a humid continental climate resulting
   from prevailing wind patterns that bring cool air from the interior of
   the North American continent. New York winters are typically cold and a
   substantial amount of rain or snow can be expected. At least one
   blizzard a year is common; this often accounts for a significant
   percentage of the city's snowfall, since it is far enough away from the
   Great Lakes to avoid lake-effect snow. Snowfall varies from year to
   year, but usually averages about 2 feet (60 cm) in total. The Atlantic
   Ocean helps keep temperatures warmer in the city than in the interior
   Northeast, sometimes by over 10 degrees (thus, snowfall increases
   significantly beyond as little as 30 miles north or west of the city,
   in the Appalachian foothills). However, there has never been a winter
   since records began in 1869 in which enough snow to cover the ground
   did not fall at least once. April, May, and November are usually the
   wettest months.

   Despite being near the ocean, summers (as well as portions of spring
   and fall) can be extremely hot and humid. Areas right on the coast may
   be a few degrees cooler, but the humidity can make it feel just as
   uncomfortable as in the city. Severe thunderstorms are not uncommon,
   though tornados have been rare in recent years.
   Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
   Avg high °F (°C) 38
   (3) 40
   (4) 50
   (10) 61
   (15) 72
   (22) 80
   (27) 85
   (30) 84
   (29) 76
   (24) 65
   (18) 54
   (12) 42
   (6)

                                     62
                                    (17)

   Avg low temperature °F (°C) 25
   (-4) 27
   (-3) 35
   (2) 44
   (7) 54
   (12) 63
   (17) 68
   (20) 67
   (19) 60
   (16) 50
   (10) 41
   (5) 31
   (-1)

                                     47
                                     (8)

   Rainfall in. (mm) 3.4
   (86) 3.3
   (84) 3.9
   (99) 4.0
   (102) 4.4
   (112) 3.7
   (95) 4.4
   (112) 4.1
   (104) 3.9
   (99) 3.6
   (91) 4.5
   (127) 3.9
   (99)

                                    46.7
                                   (1124)

   Source: Weatherbase

Environment

   Central Park is often referred to as the "lungs of New York."
   Enlarge
   Central Park is often referred to as the "lungs of New York."

   New York's population density has environmental benefits and dangers.
   It facilitates the highest mass transit use in the United States, but
   also concentrates pollution. Although gasoline consumption in the city
   is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s, New York City has
   some of the dirtiest air in the United States. Pollution varies greatly
   from borough to borough, and residents of Manhattan face the highest
   risk in the country of developing cancer from chemicals in the air.

   Recently, the city has focused on reducing its environmental impact.
   The city government is required to purchase only the most
   energy-efficient equipment for use in city offices and public housing.
   New York has the largest clean-air diesel- hybrid and compressed
   natural gas bus fleet in the country, and some of the first hybrid
   taxis. The city is also a leader in energy-efficient "green" office
   buildings, such as Hearst Tower and 7 World Trade Centre.

   The city is supplied with water by the vast Catskill Mountains
   watershed, one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United
   States. As a result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed
   natural water filtration process, New York City drinking water that
   originates from this reservoir does not require purification by water
   treatment plants, and under normal conditions, only chlorination is
   necessary to ensure its purity at the tap.

Demographics

   The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, a World Heritage Site, has
   greeted millions of immigrants.
   Enlarge
   The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, a World Heritage Site, has
   greeted millions of immigrants.

   New York is the largest city in the United States, with a population
   about double the next largest city, Los Angeles. According to 2005 New
   York City Department of City Planning estimates, there are 8,213,839
   people (up from 7.3 million in 1990), 2,984,544 households, and
   1,802,009 families residing in the city. This amounts to about 40% of
   New York State's population and a similar percentage of the
   metropolitan regional population. Over the last decade the city has
   been growing rapidly. Demographers estimate New York's population will
   reach 9.4 million by 2025.

   The two key demographic features of the city are its density and
   diversity. The city has an extremely high population density of
   26,402.9/mi² (10,194.2/km²), about 10,000 more people per square mile
   than the next densest American city, San Francisco. Manhattan's
   population density is 66,940.1/mi² (25,845.7/km²).

   New York City is exceptionally diverse. Throughout its history the city
   has been a major point of entry for immigrants; the term " melting pot"
   was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods
   on the Lower East Side, and according to some estimates as many as one
   out of every four Americans trace their ancestry roots back to New York
   City. In 2000, 36% of the city's population was foreign-born; 16%
   Naturalized citizens, 20% not citizens. Among American cities this
   proportion was higher only in Los Angeles and Miami. While the
   immigrant communities in those cities are dominated by a few
   nationalities, in New York no single country or region of origin
   dominates. The five largest countries of origin are the Dominican
   Republic, China, Jamaica, Russia and Italy.

   The city and its metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish
   community outside of Israel. It is also home to nearly a quarter of the
   nation's Indian-Americans, and the largest African American community
   of any city in the country. Among Latino New Yorkers Puerto Ricans have
   long been the city's largest ethnic group, but that has begun to change
   with new immigration from other Latin American nations. The Irish also
   have a notable presence; although relatively small in number in
   contemporary New York, a 2006 genetic survey by Trinity College in
   Dublin, Ireland found that one in 50 New Yorkers of European origin
   carry a distinctive genetic signature on their Y chromosomes inherited
   from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the fifth
   century A.D. Another historically significant ethnic group in the city
   are Italians, particularly southern Italians who emigrated in large
   numbers from Sicily and Naples in the early twentieth century. New York
   City has long had a large gay community, estimated to be between
   360,000 and 500,000 people.

Crime

   Since 1991, New York City has seen a continuous fifteen-year trend of
   decreasing crime. Violent crime in the city has dropped by 75% in the
   last twelve years and the murder rate in 2005 was at its lowest level
   since 1963: there were 537 murders that year, for a murder rate of 6.57
   per 100,000 people, compared to 2245 murders in 1990. New York City is
   now the safest major city in the United States with a population
   greater than 1 million and the fourth safest among cities with
   populations over 500,000. In 2004 New York City had a rate of 2,800
   crimes per 100,000, compared with 8,959.7 in Dallas; 7,903.7 in
   Detroit; and 7,402.3 in Phoenix. While some criminologists credit the
   continuous drop in crime to innovations implemented by the NYPD in the
   1990s, such as CompStat, economist Steven Levitt and others have
   pointed instead to improved socioeconomic trends.

Government

   The Manhattan Municipal Building, which houses many city agencies, is
   one of the largest government buildings in the world.
   Enlarge
   The Manhattan Municipal Building, which houses many city agencies, is
   one of the largest government buildings in the world.

   Since its consolidation in 1898, New York City has been a metropolitan
   municipality with a "strong" mayor-council form of government. The
   mayor and councillors are elected to four-year terms. The New York City
   Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51 Council members whose
   districts are defined by geographic population boundaries. The mayor
   and councilmembers are limited to two four-year terms. The "Board of
   Estimates" used to be considered the "upper house" of the city
   legislature until it was abolished in the early 90's. City Council
   offices are located at 250 Broadway, adjacent to City Hall.

   The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. 66% of
   registered voters in the city are Democrats. The party platform centers
   on affordable housing, education and economic development. Labor
   politics are important in the city. The city, however, is the most
   important source of political fundraising in the United States. New
   York City has not been won by a Republican in a Presidential or
   Statewide election since 1924.

   Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political
   contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the Upper
   East Side, generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns
   of both George W. Bush and John Kerry.

   According to the city government, New York City has a strong imbalance
   of payments with the state government. New York City receives 63 cents
   in services for every $1 it sends to the state government in taxes and
   other revenue (or annually sends $7 billion more than it receives
   back).

   The mayor is Michael Bloomberg, a former Democrat elected as a
   Republican in 2001 and re-elected in 2005 with 59% of the vote. He is
   known for taking control of the city's education system from the state,
   rezoning and economic development, sound fiscal management, and
   aggressive public health policy. In his second term he has made school
   reform and strict gun control central priorities of his administration.

   As the host of the United Nations, New York City is also home to the
   world's largest international consular corps, comprising 105
   consulates, consulates general and honorary consulates.

Economy

   360° Panorama of Manhattan seen from the Empire State Building
   360°-Panorama of Midtown Manhattan, the largest central business
   district in the United States.

   New York City is a major centre for international business and commerce
   and is one of three "command centers" for the global economy (along
   with London and Tokyo). The city is a major centre for finance,
   insurance, real estate, media and the arts in the United States. Other
   important sectors include the city's television and film industry,
   second largest in the country after Hollywood; medical research and
   technology; non-profit institutions and universities; and fashion.

   The New York metropolitan area had an estimated gross metropolitan
   product of $901.3 billion in 2004, the largest in the United States.
   The city's economy accounts for the majority of the economic activity
   in the states of New Jersey and New York.

   The city's stock exchanges are among the most important in the world.
   The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest stock exchange by
   dollar volume, while the NASDAQ is the world's largest by number of
   listings. Many major corporations have headquarters in New York; it has
   more Fortune 500 companies than any other city. New York is also unique
   among American cities for its large number of foreign corporations. One
   out of every ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign
   company.

   Creative industries, like new media, advertising, design and
   architecture account for a growing share of employment. High-tech
   industries like software development, game design, and Internet
   services are also growing; because of its position at the terminus of
   the transatlantic fibre optic trunk line New York City is the leading
   Internet gateway in the United States.

   Manufacturing accounts for a large but declining share of employment.
   Garments, chemicals, metal products, processed foods, and furniture are
   some of the principal products. International shipping has always been
   a major part of the city's economy because of New York's natural
   harbour, but with the advent of containerization most cargo shipping
   has moved from the Brooklyn waterfront across the harbour to the Port
   Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. Some cargo shipping
   remains; for example, Brooklyn still handles the majority of cocoa bean
   imports to the United States.

Education

   Fordham University's Keating Hall in the Bronx.
   Enlarge
   Fordham University's Keating Hall in the Bronx.

   The city's public school system, managed by the New York City
   Department of Education, is the largest in the United States. Over 1
   million students are taught in more than 1,200 separate primary and
   secondary schools. New York is also home to many major libraries,
   universities, and research centers.

   Much of the scientific research in the city is done in medicine and the
   life sciences. New York has the most post-graduate life sciences
   degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed
   physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions.
   The city receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the
   National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities. Major biomedical
   research institutions include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre
   and Rockefeller University.

   There are 594,000 university students in New York City, the highest
   number of any city in the United States. The City University of New
   York, the nation's third-largest public university system, provides
   post-secondary higher education in all five boroughs. There are also
   many private universities, including Columbia University, a prestigious
   Ivy League university established in 1754 and the oldest educational
   institution in the state, and New York University, the largest private,
   non-profit university in the United States.

   The New York Public Library is one of the largest public library
   systems in the country. Its Library for the Humanities research centre
   has 39 million items in its collection, among them the first five
   folios of Shakespeare's plays, ancient Torah scrolls, and Alexander
   Hamilton's handwritten draft of the United States Constitution.

Culture

   Writer Tom Wolfe said of New York that "Culture just seems to be in the
   air, like part of the weather." Many major American cultural movements
   began in the city. The Harlem Renaissance established the
   African-American literary canon in the United States. The city was the
   epicenter of jazz in the 1940s, abstract expressionism in the 1950s,
   and the birthplace of hip hop in the 1970s. Punk rock developed in the
   1970s and 1980s, and the city has also been a flourishing scene for
   Jewish American literature.

   Wealthy industrialists in the 19th century built a network of major
   cultural institutions, such as Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan
   Museum of Art, that became internationally established. Artists are
   drawn to the city by opportunity, as well; there are 2,000 arts and
   cultural non-profits and 500 art galleries of all sizes, and the city
   government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National
   Endowment for the Arts.
   The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center.
   Enlarge
   The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Centre.

   The advent of electric lighting led to elaborate theatre productions,
   and in the 1880s New York City theaters on Broadway and along 42nd
   Street began showcasing a new stage form that came to be known as the
   Broadway musical. Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants, these
   productions used song in narratives that often reflected themes of hope
   and ambition. Today these productions are a mainstay of the New York
   theatre scene. The city's 39 largest theatres (with more than 500
   seats) are collectively known as " Broadway," after the major
   thoroughfare that crosses the Times Square theatre district.

   The Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, which includes Jazz at
   Lincoln Centre, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the
   New York Philharmonic and the New York City Ballet, is the largest
   performing arts centre in the United States.

Tourism

   The farmer's market at Union Square.
   Enlarge
   The farmer's market at Union Square.

   40 million foreign and American tourists visit New York City each year.
   Major destinations include the Empire State Building, the Statue of
   Liberty, Broadway productions, scores of museums from the El Museo del
   Barrio to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, the Bronx Zoo and New York
   Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and
   events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village and the
   Tribeca Film Festival. Many of the city's ethnic enclaves, such as
   Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are major shopping
   destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the
   East Coast.

   New York City has 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland and 14 miles (22
   km) of public beaches. Manhattan's Central Park, designed by Frederick
   Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the
   United States. Prospect Park in Brooklyn, also designed by Olmsted and
   Vaux, has a 90 acre (360,000 m²) meadow. Flushing Meadows Park in
   Queens, the city's third largest, was the setting for the 1939 World's
   Fair and 1964 World's Fair.

   New York's food culture, influenced by the city's immigrants and large
   number of dining patrons, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants
   made the city famous for bagels and New York style pizza. Some 4,000
   mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have
   made Middle Eastern foods such as falafels and kebabs standbys of
   contemporary New York street food. The city is also home to many of the
   finest haute cuisine restaurants in the United States.

Sports

   New York is home to teams in each of the major American professional
   sports leagues. Baseball is the city's most closely followed sport.
   There have been fourteen World Series championship series between New
   York City teams; such matchups are called Subway Series. The city's two
   current Major League Baseball teams are the New York Yankees and the
   New York Mets, which enjoy a fierce rivalry. The New York Giants and
   Brooklyn Dodgers were each originally based in New York City before
   relocating to California prior to the addition of the Mets. Today they
   compete as the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers,
   respectively. New York City is also home to two minor league baseball
   teams, the New York-Penn League's Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island
   Yankees, which are affiliated with the Mets and Yankees, respectively.

   In American football the city's teams are the NFL's New York Giants and
   New York Jets, who share a stadium outside the city limits in East
   Rutherford, New Jersey. The New York Rangers represent the city in ice
   hockey, although two other teams are in close proximity of the city,
   namely the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils. The National
   Hockey League is headquartered in Manhattan.

   New York has a rich basketball history. The first national
   college-level basketball championship, the National Invitation
   Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city.
   Rucker Park in Harlem is a celebrated court where many NBA athletes
   play in the summer league. New York City's NBA team is the New York
   Knicks.

   As a global city, New York supports many events outside the big four
   American sports, including the U.S. Tennis Open, the New York City
   Marathon, and many amateur leagues in sports such as soccer, cricket
   and stickball. The New York Cosmos (1971-1985) was a former franchise
   in the North American Soccer League, renowned for signing the great
   Brazilian player Pelé. Red Bull New York, formerly known as the
   MetroStars, is a professional soccer club based in New Jersey that
   participates in Major League Soccer.

Architecture

   The Flatiron Building is a famous example of Beaux-Arts architecture.
   Enlarge
   The Flatiron Building is a famous example of Beaux-Arts architecture.

   The skyline of New York is one of the most recognizable in the world.
   New York actually has three separately recognizable skylines: Midtown
   Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, and Downtown Brooklyn. New York City has
   architecturally important buildings in a variety of styles, including
   French Second Empire (The Kings County Savings Bank Building), gothic
   revival (the Woolworth Building), Art Deco (the Empire State Building
   and Chrysler Building), international style ( the New School, Seagram
   Building and Lever House), and post-modern (the AT&T Building). The
   Condé Nast Building is an important example of green design in American
   skyscrapers.

   The residential parts of the city have a distinctive character from the
   skyscrapers of the commercial cores that is defined by the elegant
   brownstone rowhouses and apartment buildings which were built during
   the city's rapid expansion from 1870–1930. Stone and brick became the
   city's building materials of choice after the construction of
   wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of
   1835. Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own
   limestone bedrock, New York has always drawn its building stone from a
   far-flung network of quarries and its stone buildings have a variety of
   textures and hues.

Transportation

   The Brooklyn Bridge, the world's first steel wire suspension bridge
   Enlarge
   The Brooklyn Bridge, the world's first steel wire suspension bridge
   New York is home to the two busiest rail stations in the country,
   including Grand Central Terminal seen here.
   Enlarge
   New York is home to the two busiest rail stations in the country,
   including Grand Central Terminal seen here.

   New York City is home to the most complex and extensive transportation
   network in the United States, with more than 12,000 iconic yellow cabs,
   120,000 daily bicyclists, subway, bus and railroad systems, immense
   airports, landmark bridges and tunnels, ferry service and even an
   aerial commuter tramway. While nearly 90% of Americans drive to their
   jobs, only about 30% of New Yorkers do; about one in every three users
   of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's
   rail riders live in New York and its suburbs. Data from the 2000 U.S.
   Census reveals that New York City is the only major city in the United
   States where more than half of all households do not own a car (the
   figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75%; nationally, the rate is
   8%). New York's high rate of public transit use and its
   pedestrian-friendly character makes it one of the most energy-efficient
   cities in the country. A study by the environmental organization
   SustainLane found New York to be the city in the United States best
   able to endure an oil crisis with an extended gasoline price shock in
   the range of US$3 to US$8 per gallon.

   The New York City Subway is the largest subway system in the world when
   measured by track mileage (656 miles or 1,056 km of mainline track) and
   the world's fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4
   billion passenger trips in 2004). New York City's public bus fleet and
   vast commuter rail network are the largest in North America. The rail
   network, which connects the suburbs in the tri-state region to the
   city, has more than 250 stations and 20 rail lines. The commuter rail
   system converges at the two busiest rail stations in the United States,
   Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, both in Manhattan. Long-haul
   buses depart from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the nation's busiest
   bus station.

   Three major airports serve New York City and its surrounding suburbs:
   John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia
   Airport (LGA), both in Queens, and Newark Liberty International
   Airport (EWR) in nearby Newark, New Jersey. About 100 million travelers
   used these New York-area airports in 2005 as the metropolitan region
   surpassed Chicago to become the busiest air gateway in the nation. Rail
   service is now available to Kennedy Airport via AirTrain JFK. The
   service connects with the Long Island Rail Road at Jamaica and the city
   subway system at Howard Beach.

Sister cities

   New York City has ten sister cities. The year each relationship was
   formed is shown in parentheses below.
     * Tokyo, Japan (1960)
     * Beijing, China (1980)
     * Madrid, Spain (1982)
     * Cairo, Egypt (1982)
     * Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1983)

     * Rome, Italy (1992)
     * Budapest, Hungary (1992)
     * Jerusalem, Israel (1993)
     * London, United Kingdom (2001)
     * Johannesburg, South Africa (2003)

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