Encyclopedia
New York City is the
largest city in the
United States and the twelfth largest city in the world, making it a major
global city. Located in the
state of
New York, the city has a population of over 8.1 million within an area of 321 square miles , 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, yet New York has the lowest crime rate among major United States cities.
New York City is an international center 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," the
"Capital of the World," or 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.
History
The region was inhabited by the Lenape
Native Americans at the time of its
European discovery by Italian
Giovanni da Verrazzano. Although Verrazzano sailed into
New York Harbor, his voyage did not continue upstream and instead he 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.
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 the last port British ships evacuated in 1783.
New York City was the
capital of the newly-formed United States from 1788 to 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's upper classes enjoyed great prosperity amid the further growth of a poor immigrant working class. It was also an era associated with economic and municipal integration, culminating in the consolidation of
the five boroughs in 1898.
A series of new transportation links, most notably the opening of the
New York City Subway in 1904, bound together the newly-enlarged city. The height of European immigration brought social upheaval, and the anticapitalist labor union
IWW was fiercely repressed. Later, 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 suffered during the
Great Depression, which saw the end of Tammany Hall's eighty years of political dominance with the 1934 election of reformist mayor
Fiorello LaGuardia. The city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia and his controversial parks commissioner
Robert Moses.
New York City played a major role in
World War II as a port and a center 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 emphasizing its political influence, and the rise of
Abstract Expressionism displacing Paris as the center 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 nation's tallest buildings, the
World Trade Center. The
Freedom Tower, intended to be exactly 1,776 feet tall , is to be built on the site and is slated for completion by 2012.
Geography
New York City is located in the northeastern U.S., southeastern New York state, and at the mouth of the Hudson River. The city's total area is 468.9 square miles , of which 35.31% is water.
Boroughs
New York City, officially the
"City of Greater New York", comprises five
boroughs. Throughout the boroughs there are hundreds of distinct , many with a definable history and character all their own. If the boroughs were independent cities, each would be among the 50 most populous cities in the United States.
Manhattan is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban of the boroughs. It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers. It is loosely divided into
downtown,
midtown, and uptown regions.
The Bronx is known as the birthplace of
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. Excluding its minor islands, the Bronx is the only borough of the city that is on the mainland of the United States.
Brooklyn , the most populous borough, was until 1898 an independent city and has a strong native identity. It ranges from a modern business district downtown to large historic residential neighborhoods in the central and south-eastern areas. It also features a long beachfront and
Coney Island, famous as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country.
Queens 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, two of the region's three major airports, and
Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the
1939 and
1964 World's Fairs and tennis' US Open.
Staten Island is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs, but has gradually integrated with the rest of the city since the opening of the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, an event that caused controversy and even an attempt at secession. Until 2001, Staten Island was the home of the infamous Fresh Kills Landfill, formerly the largest landfill in the world, and now being reconstructed as one of the largest urban parks in the United States.
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 can be snowy. Snowfall varies from year to year, but usually averages about 2 ft in total. The Atlantic Ocean helps keep temperatures warmer in the city than in the interior Northeast, 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.
Environment
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 Center.
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 does not require purification by water treatment plants, and only chlorination is necessary to ensure its purity at the tap.
Buildings
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 ,
gothic revival ,
Art Deco , international style , and post-modern . The
Condé Nast Building is an important example of green design in American skyscrapers.
Government
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 councilors are limited to two four-year terms.
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.
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 it 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 .
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
New York City is a major center for international business and commerce and is one of three "command centers" for the global economy . The city is widely regarded as a financial capital of the world and is a major center 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, including more Fortune 500 companies than any other city. New York is 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
fiber 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 harbor, but with the advent of
containerization most cargo shipping has moved from the Brooklyn waterfront across the harbor 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.
Demographics
City of New York
Population by year |
|---|
| 1790 | 33,131 |
| 1900 | 3,437,202 |
| 1950 | 7,891,957 |
| 1970 | 7,894,862 |
| 1980 | 7,071,639 |
| 1990 | 7,322,564 |
| 2004 | 8,168,338 |
According to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are 8,143,197 people , 2,984,544 households, and 1,802,009 families residing in the city.
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/mi˛ , about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest American city,
San Francisco. Manhattan's population density is 66,940.1/mi˛ .
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 to back to New York City. In 2000, 36% of the city's population was foreign-born. Among American cities this proportion was higher only in Los Angeles and Miami. New York City has long had a large
gay community, estimated to be between 360,000 and 500,000 people.
Since 1991, New York City has seen a continuous fifteen-year trend of decreasing crime; it is now the safest city in the United States with a population greater than 1,000,000 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 many 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 broader social and economic trends.
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 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 are collectively known as "
Broadway," after the major thoroughfare through the
Times Square theatre district.
The
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Jazz at Lincoln Center, the
Metropolitan Opera, the
New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic and the
New York City Ballet, is the largest performing arts center in the United States.
Tourism
40 million foreign and American tourists visit New York City each year. Major destinations include the
Empire State Building, 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 like the
Halloween Parade in the East 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 of parkland and 14 miles 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 meadow.
Flushing Meadows Park, the city's third largest, was the setting for the
1939 and
1964 World's Fair in Queens.
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 
