Manhattan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Manhattan
—  Borough of New York City  —
New York County
Midtown Manhattan as seen from the GE Building.
Midtown Manhattan as seen from the GE Building.
Location of Manhattan shown in yellow.
Location of Manhattan shown in yellow.
Coordinates: 40°43′42″N 73°59′39″W / 40.72833°N 73.99417°W / 40.72833; -73.99417
Country United States
State New York
County New York County
City New York City
Settled 1624
Government
 - Borough President Scott Stringer
 - District Attorney (New York County) Robert M. Morgenthau
Area
 - Total 33.77 sq mi (87.5 km2)
 - Land 22.96 sq mi (59.5 km2)
 - Water 10.81 sq mi (28 km2)
Population
 - Total 1,620,867
 - Density 70,595/sq mi (27,256.9/km2)
Website Official Website of the Manhattan Borough President

Manhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.

New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan (and which should not be confused with New York City), is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2007 population of 1,620,867[1] living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47  km²), or 70,595 residents per square mile (27,267/km²). It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 personal income per capita above $100,000.[2] Manhattan is the third-largest of New York's five boroughs in population but the smallest in area. It consists of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island, Ward's Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island,[3] and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a small section on the mainland adjacent to the Bronx.

Manhattan is a major commercial, financial, and cultural center of both the United States and the world.[4][5][6] Most major radio, television, and telecommunications companies in the United States are based here, as well as many news, magazine, book, and other media publishers. Manhattan has many famous landmarks, tourist attractions, museums, and universities. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations. Manhattan has the largest central business district in the United States, is the site of both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and is the home to the largest number of corporate headquarters in the nation. It is the center of New York City and the New York metropolitan region, hosting the seat of city government and a large portion of the area's employment, business, and recreational activities.

The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon).[7] A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the Hudson River). The word "Manhattan" has been translated as "island of many hills" from the Lenape language.[8] The Encyclopedia of New York City offers other derivations, including from the Munsee dialect of Lenape: manahachtanienk ("place of general inebriation"), manahatouh ("place where timber is procured for bows and arrows"), or menatay ("island").[9]

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Colonial

Lower Manhattan in 1660, when it was part of New Amsterdam. The large structure toward the tip of the island is Fort Amsterdam. North is on the right in this map.

The area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to pass New York Harbor, although he did not enter the harbor past the Narrows.[10] It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped.[11] Hudson came across Manhattan Island and the native people living there in 1609, and continued up the river that would later bear his name, the Hudson River, until he arrived at the site of present day Albany.[12]

A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625 construction was started on a citadel and a Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam).[13][14] Manhattan Island was chosen as the site of Fort Amsterdam, a citadel for the protection of the new arrivals; its 1625 establishment is recognized as the birth date of New York City.[15] In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan from native people in exchange for trade goods worth sixty guilders, often mistakenly said to be worth twenty-four dollars; sixty guilders in the seventeenth century had approximately the equivalent purchasing value of one thousand dollars in modern times.[16] Additionally, the sale was transacted with the Canarsee tribe, who did not live on or have rights on the island; the Weckquaesgeeks who lived on the island itself were not contacted or consulted about the transfer.[17]

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony.[18] New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653.[19] In 1664, the British conquered New Netherland and renamed it "New York" after the English Duke of York and Albany, the future King James II.[20] Stuyvesant and his council negotiated 24 articles of provisional transfer with the British which sought to guarantee New Netherlanders liberties, including freedom of religion, under British rule.[21][22]


[edit] American Revolution and the early United States

J.Q.A. Ward's statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall, on the site where Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. President.

Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of major battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the disastrous Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. The city became the British political and military center of operations in North America for the remainder of the war.[23] Manhattan was greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the British military rule that followed. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city.[24]

From January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788, New York City was the fifth of five capitals under the Articles of Confederation, with the Continental Congress residing at New York City Hall then at Fraunces Tavern. New York was the first capital under the newly enacted Constitution of the United States, from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790 at Federal Hall.[25]

[edit] 19th century growth

New York grew as an economic center, first as a result of Alexander Hamilton's policies and practices as the first Secretary of the Treasury and, later, with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Midwestern United States and Canada. By 1810, New York City had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States.

Tammany Hall, a Democratic Party political machine, began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish, culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854. Tammany Hall dominated local politics for decades. Central Park, which opened to the public in 1858, became the first landscaped park in an American city and the nation's first public park.[26][27]

Thomas Nast denounces Tammany as a ferocious tiger killing democracy; the tiger image caught on.

During the American Civil War, the city's strong commercial ties to the South, its growing immigrant population (prior to then largely from Germany and Ireland), anger about conscription and resentment at those who could afford to pay $300 to avoid service, led to resentment against Lincoln's war policies, culminating in the three-day long New York Draft Riots of July 1863, one of the worst incidents of civil disorder in American history, with an estimated 119 participants and passersby massacred.[28]

After the Civil 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, a role acknowledged by the dedication of the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886, a gift from the people of France.[29][30] The new European immigration brought further social upheaval. In a city of tenements packed with poorly paid laborers from dozens of nations, the city was a hotbed of revolution, syndicalism, racketeering, and unionization.

In 1883, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge established a surface connection across the East River. In 1874, the western portion of the present Bronx County was transferred to New York County, and in 1895 the remainder of the present Bronx County was annexed.[31] The City of Greater New York was formed in 1898, with Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, established as two separate boroughs. On January 1, 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, and New York County was reduced to its present boundaries.[32]

[edit] The 20th century

The newly completed Singer Building towering above the city, 1909.

The construction of the New York City Subway, first opened in 1904, helped bind the new city together, as did additional bridges to Brooklyn. In the 1920s, Manhattan saw the increasing influx of blacks as part of the Great Migration from the American South, and the Harlem Renaissance, part of a larger boom time in the Prohibition era that saw dueling skyscrapers in the skyline. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London, which had reigned for a century.[33]

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers, which would eventually lead to great improvements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.[34]

A construction worker on top of the Empire State Building as it was being built in 1930. The Chrysler Building is below and behind him.

The period between the World Wars saw the election of reformist mayor Fiorello La Guardia and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.[35] As the city's demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and affluence to the working class, the city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under La Guardia. Despite the effects of the Great Depression, the 1930s saw the building of some of the world's tallest skyscrapers, including numerous Art Deco masterpieces that are still part of the city's skyline today.

Returning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom and led to the development of huge housing developments, targeted at returning veterans, including Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town which opened in 1947.[36] In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan.[37]

Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots and population and industrial decline in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation as a graffiti-covered, crime-ridden relic of history.[38] In 1975, the city government faced imminent bankruptcy, and its appeals for assistance were initially rejected, summarized by the classic October 30, 1975 New York Daily News headline as "Ford to City: Drop Dead".[39] The fate was avoided through a federal loan and debt restructuring, and the city was forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by New York State.[40]

The iconic view of Manhattan showing the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, May 2001.

The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the worldwide financial industry. The 1980s also saw Manhattan at the heart of the AIDS crisis, with Greenwich Village at its epicenter. Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) were founded to advocate on behalf of those stricken with the disease.

Starting 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 a cosmopolitan lifestyle.


Modern New York City is familiar to many people around the globe thanks to its popularity as a setting for films and television series. Notable television examples include such award-winning shows as Friends, 30 Rock, CSI: NY, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Will & Grace, Spin City, Gossip Girl and Sex and the City. Notable film examples include Miracle on 34th Street, Ghostbusters, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Cloverfield, and many of Woody Allen's films, such as Annie Hall, Bananas, and Manhattan.

[edit] Geography

Central Park is visible in the center of this satellite image. Manhattan is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, the Harlem River to the north, and East River to the east.

Manhattan Island is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and the East River to the east. To the north, the Harlem River divides Manhattan from The Bronx and the mainland United States. Several small islands are also part of the borough of Manhattan, including Randall's Island, Ward's Island, and Roosevelt Island in the East River, and Governors Island and Liberty Island to the south in New York Harbor.[41] Manhattan Island is 22.7 square miles (58.8 km²) in area, 13.4 miles (21.6 km) long and 2.3 miles (3.7 km) wide, at its widest (near 14th Street).[42] New York County as a whole covers a total area of 33.77 square miles (87.46 km²), of which 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²) are land and 10.81 square miles (28.00 km²) are water.[43]

One Manhattan neighborhood is actually contiguous with The Bronx. Marble Hill at one time was part of Manhattan Island, but the Harlem River Ship Canal, dug in 1895 to improve navigation on the Harlem River, separated it from the remainder of Manhattan as an island between the Bronx and the remainder of Manhattan.[44] Before World War I, the section of the original Harlem River channel separating Marble Hill from The Bronx was filled in, and Marble Hill became part of the mainland.[44]

Marble Hill is one example of how Manhattan's land has been considerably altered by human intervention. The borough has seen substantial land reclamation along its waterfronts since Dutch colonial times, and much of the natural variation in topography has been evened out.[8]

A modern redrawing of the 1807 version of the Commissioner's Grid plan for Manhattan, a few years before it was adopted in 1811. Note the absence of Central Park.

Early in the nineteenth century, landfill was used to expand Lower Manhattan from the natural Hudson shoreline at Greenwich Street to West Street.[45] When building the World Trade Center, 1.2 million cubic yards (917,000 ) of material was excavated from the site.[46] Rather than dumping the spoil at sea or in landfills, the fill material was used to expand the Manhattan shoreline across West Street, creating Battery Park City.[47] The result was a 700 foot (210 m) extension into the river, running six blocks or 1,484 feet (450 m), covering 92 acres (370,000 m2), providing a 1.2 mile (1.9 km) riverfront esplanade and over 30 acres (120,000 m2) of parks.[48]

Manhattan is loosely divided into downtown, midtown, and uptown, with Fifth Avenue dividing Manhattan's east and west sides.

Manhattan has fixed vehicular connections with New Jersey to the west via the George Washington Bridge, Holland Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel, and to three of the four other New York City boroughs—the Bronx to the northeast and Brooklyn and Queens on Long Island to the east and south. Its only direct connection with the fifth New York City borough is the Staten Island Ferry across New York Harbor, which is free of charge. The ferry terminal is located adjacent to Battery Park at its southern tip. It is possible to travel to Staten Island via Brooklyn, using the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, called for twelve numbered avenues running north and south roughly parallel to the shore of the Hudson River, each 100 feet (30 m) wide, with First Avenue on the east side and Twelfth Avenue in the west. There are several intermittent avenues east of First Avenue, including four additional lettered avenues running from Avenue A eastward to Avenue D in an area now known as Alphabet City in Manhattan's East Village. The numbered streets in Manhattan run east-west, and are 60 feet (18 m) wide, with about 200 feet (61 m) between each pair of streets. With each combined street and block adding up to about 260 feet (79 m), there are almost exactly 20 blocks per mile. Fifteen crosstown streets were designated as 100 feet (30 m) wide, including 34th, 42nd, 57th and 125th Streets, some of the borough's most significant transportation and shopping venues.[49] Broadway is the most notable of many exceptions to the grid, starting at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan and continuing north into the Bronx at Manhattan's northern tip. In much of Midtown Manhattan, Broadway runs at a diagonal to the grid, creating major named intersections at Union Square, Herald Square (Sixth Avenue and 34th Street), Times Square (Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street), Columbus Circle (Eighth Avenue/Central Park West and 59th Street)

A consequence of the strict grid plan of most of Manhattan, and the grid's skew of approximately 28.9 degrees, is a phenomenon sometimes referred to as Manhattanhenge (by analogy with Stonehenge).[50] On separate occasions in late May and early July, the sunset is aligned with the street grid lines, with the result that the sun is visible at or near the western horizon from street level.[51][50] A similar phenomenon occurs with the sunrise in January and December.

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which operates the zoos and aquariums in the city, is currently undertaking The Mannahatta Project, a computer simulation to visually reconstruct the ecology and geography of Manhattan when Henry Hudson first sailed by in 1609, and compare it to what we know of the island today.[8][8]

New York's Five Boroughs at a Glance
Jurisdiction Population Land Area
Borough of County of estimate for
1 July 2007
square
miles
square
km
Manhattan New York 1,620,867 23 59
the Bronx Bronx 1,373,659 42 109
Brooklyn Kings 2,528,050 71 183
Queens Queens 2,270,338 109 283
Staten Island Richmond 481,613 58 151
8,274,527 303 786
19,297,729 47,214 122,284
Source: United States Census Bureau [52][53][54]

[edit] Adjacent counties

[edit] National protected areas

[edit] Neighborhoods

Manhattan's many neighborhoods are not named according to any particular convention. Some are geographical (the Upper East Side), or ethnically descriptive (Chinatown). Others are acronyms, such as TriBeCa (for "TRIangle BElow CAnal Street") or SoHo ("SOuth of HOuston"), or the far more recent vintage NoLIta ("NOrth of Little ITaly").[55][56] Harlem is a name from the Dutch colonial era after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands.[57] Alphabet City comprises Avenues A, B, C and D, to which its name refers.

Some neighborhoods, such as SoHo, are commercial in nature and known for upscale shopping. Others, such as Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, Alphabet City and the East Village, have long been associated with the "Bohemian" subculture.[58] Chelsea is a neighborhood with a large gay population, and also recently a center of New York's art industry and nightlife.[59] Washington Heights is a vibrant neighborhood of immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Manhattan's Chinatown has a dense population of people of Chinese descent.[60][61] The Upper West Side is often characterized as more intellectual and creative, in contrast to the old money and conservative values of the Upper East Side, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States.[62][63][64]

In Manhattan, uptown means north (more precisely north-northeast, which is the direction in which the island and its street grid system is oriented) and downtown means south (south-southwest).[65] This usage differs from that of most American cities, where downtown refers to the central business district. Manhattan has two central business districts, the Financial District at the southern tip of the island, and Midtown Manhattan. The term uptown also refers to the northern part of Manhattan (generally speaking, above 59th Street)[66] and downtown to the southern portion (typically below 14th Street),[67] with Midtown covering the area in between, though definitions can be rather fluid depending on the situation.

Fifth Avenue roughly bisects Manhattan Island and acts as the demarcation line for east/west designations (e.g., East 27th Street, West 42nd Street); street addresses start at Fifth Avenue and increase heading away from Fifth Avenue, at a rate of 100 per block in most places.[68] South of Waverly Place in Manhattan, Fifth Avenue terminates and Broadway becomes the east/west demarcation line. Though the grid does start with 1st Street, just north of Houston Street (pronounced HOW-stin), the grid does not fully take hold until north of 14th Street, where nearly all east-west streets use numeric designations, which increase from south to north to 220th Street, the highest numbered street on the island.[42]

[edit] Climate

Although located at around 41°N, Manhattan has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen classification Cfa).[69] The city's coastal position keeps temperatures relatively warmer than inland regions during winter, helping to moderate the amount of snow which averages 25 to 35 inches (63.5 to 88.9 cm) each year.[69] New York City has a frost-free period lasting an average of 220 days between seasonal freezes.[69] Spring and fall in New York City are mild, while summer is very warm and humid, with temperatures of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher recorded from 18 to 25 days on average during the season.[69] The city's longterm climate patterns are affected by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, a 70-year-long warming and cooling cycle in the Atlantic that influences the frequency and severity of hurricanes and coastal storms in the region.[70]

Temperature records have been set as high as 106 °F (41 °C) on July 9, 1936 and as low as -15 °F (-26 °C) on February 9, 1934. These temperatures are not common and have not been matched or surpassed in more than seven decades. Most recently, temperatures have hit 100 degrees as recently as July 2005 and 103 degrees in August 2006, and dropped to just 1 above zero as recently as January 2004. New York can have excessive days of rain or long stretches of dry weather.

Summer evening temperatures are exacerbated by the urban heat island effect which causes heat absorbed during the day to be radiated back at night, raising temperatures by as much as 7 °F (4 °C) when winds are slow.[71]


 Weather averages for New York City 
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °F (°C) 38
(3)
40
(4)
50
(10)
61
(16)
72
(22)
80
(27)
85
(29)
84
(29)
76
(24)
65
(18)
54
(12)
42
(6)
62
(17)
Average low °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 inches (mm) 3.4
(86.4)
3.3
(83.8)
3.9
(99.1)
4.0
(101.6)
4.4
(111.8)
3.7
(94)
4.4
(111.8)
4.1
(104.1)
3.9
(99.1)
3.6
(91.4)
4.5
(114.3)
3.9
(99.1)
46.7
(1,186.2)
Source: [72]

[edit] Government

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan has been governed by the New York City Charter, which has provided for a "strong" mayor-council system since its revision in 1989.[73] The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Manhattan.

The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.[74]

Since 1990, the largely-powerless Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Manhattan's Borough President is Scott Stringer, elected as a Democrat in 2005.[75]

Robert M. Morgenthau, a Democrat, has been the District Attorney of New York County since 1974.[76] Manhattan has ten City Council members, the third largest contingent among the five boroughs. It also has 12 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents. As the host of the United Nations, the borough is home to the world's largest international consular corps, comprising 105 consulates, consulates general and honorary consulates.[77] It is also the home of New York City Hall, the seat of New York City government housing the Mayor of New York City and the New York City Council. The mayor's staff and thirteen municipal agencies are located in the nearby Manhattan Municipal Building, completed in 1916, one of the largest governmental buildings in the world.[78]


[edit] Politics

Presidential elections results
[79][80]
Year Republicans Democrats
2008 13.5% 89,906 85.7% 572,126
2004 16.7% 107,405 82.1% 526,765
2000 14.2% 79,921 79.8% 449,300
1996 13.8% 67,839 80.0% 394,131
1992 15.9% 84,501 78.2% 416,142
1988 22.9% 115,927 76.1% 385,675
1984 27.4% 144,281 72.1% 379,521
1980 26.2% 115,911 62.4% 275,742
1976 25.5% 117,702 73.2% 337,438
1972 33.4% 178,515 66.2% 354,326
1968 25.6% 135,458 70.0% 370,806
1964 19.2% 120,125 80.5% 503,848
1960 34.2% 217,271 65.3% 414,902

The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. Registered Republicans are a small minority in the borough, only constituting approximately 12% of the electorate. Registered Republicans are more than 20% of the electorate only in the neighborhoods of Upper East Side and the Financial District. The Democrats hold 66.1% of those registered in a party. 21.9% of the voters were unaffiliated (independents).[81]

Local party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Controversial political issues in Manhattan include development, noise, and the cost of housing.

Manhattan is divided between four congressional districts, all of which are represented by Democrats.

No Republican has won the presidential election in Manhattan since 1924, when Calvin Coolidge won a plurality of the New York County vote over Democrat John W. Davis, 41.20%–39.55%. Warren G. Harding was the most recent Republican presidential candidate to win a majority of the Manhattan vote, with 59.22% of the 1920 vote.[82] In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 82.1% of the vote in Manhattan and Republican George W. Bush received 16.7%.[83] The borough is the most important source of funding for presidential campaigns in the United States; in 2004, it was home to six of the top seven zip codes in the nation for political contributions.[84] The top ZIP code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the United States presidential election for all presidential candidates, including both Kerry and Bush during the 2004 election.[85]

[edit] Crime

Policeman leads upper class people through the Five Points in an 1885 sketch

Starting in the mid-19th century, the United States became a magnet for immigrants seeking to escape poverty in their home countries. After arriving in New York, many new arrivals ended up living in squalor in the slums of the Five Points neighborhood, an area between Broadway and the Bowery, northeast of New York City Hall. By the 1820s, the area was home to many gambling dens and "houses of ill repute", and was known as a dangerous place to go. In 1842, Charles Dickens visited the area and was appalled at the horrendous living conditions he had seen.[86] The area was so notorious at the time that it even caught the attention of Abraham Lincoln, who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address in 1860.[87] The predominantly Irish Five Points Gang was one of the country's first major organized crime entities.

An NYPD boat patrols the New York Harbor.

As Italian immigration grew in the early 1900s, many joined the Irish gangs. Al Capone got his start in crime with the Five Points Gang,[88] as did Lucky Luciano.[89] The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) first developed in the mid-19th century in Sicily and spread to the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration. Lucky Luciano established La Cosa Nostra in Manhattan, forming alliances with other criminal enterprises, including the Jewish mob, led by Meyer Lansky, the leading Jewish gangster of that period.[90] from 1920–1933, Prohibition helped create a thriving black market in liquor, which the Mafia was quick to capitalize on.[90]

New York City experienced a sharp increase in crime during the 1960s and 1970s, with a near fivefold jump in the total number of police-recorded crimes, from 21.09 per thousand in 1960 to a peak of 102.66 in 1981. Homicides continued to increase in the city as a whole for another decade, with murders recorded by the NYPD jumping from 390 in 1960, to 1,117 in 1970, 1,812 in 1980 and reaching its peak of 2,262 in 1990. Starting circa 1990, New York City saw record declines in homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, violent crime, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and property crime, a trend that has continued to today.[91]

Based on 2005 data, New York City has the lowest crime rate among the ten largest cities in the United States.[92] The city as a whole ranked fourth nationwide in the 13th annual Morgan Quitno survey of the 32 cities surveyed with a population above 500,000.[93] The New York Police Department, with 36,400 officers, is larger than the next four largest U.S. departments combined. The NYPD's counter-terrorism division, with 1,000 officers assigned, is larger than the FBI's.[92] The NYPD's CompStat system of crime tracking, reporting and monitoring has been credited with a drop in crime in New York City that has far surpassed the drop elsewhere in the United States.[94]

Since 1990, crime in Manhattan has plummeted in all categories tracked by the CompStat profile. A borough that saw 503 murders in 1990 has seen a drop of nearly 78% to 111 in 2006. Robbery and burglary are down by more than 80% during the period, and auto theft has been reduced by more than 90%. Overall crime has declined by more than 75% since 1990 in the seven major crime categories tracked by the system, and year-to-date statistics through May 2007 show continuing declines.[95][96]

[edit] Demographics

Manhattan Compared
Manhattan
[97]
NY City
[98]
NY State
[99]
Total population 1,537,195 8,008,278 18,976,457
Population density
per square mile
66,940 26,403 402
Median household income (1999) $47,030 $38,293 $43,393
Per capita income $42,922 $22,402 $23,389
Bachelor's degree or higher 49.4% 27.4% 27.4%
Foreign-born 29.4% 35.9% 20.4%
White 54.4% 44.7% 67.9%
Black 17.4% 26.6% 15.9%
Asian 9.4% 9.8% 5.5%
Hispanic
(of any race)
27.2% 27.0% 15.1%

According to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there were 1,620,867 people residing in Manhattan on July 1, 2007.[100] As of the 2000 Census, the population density of New York County was 66,940.1/sq mi (25,849.9/km²), the highest population density of any county in the United States.[101] If the 2007 census estimates are accurate, then the population density now exceeds 70,595 people per square mile. In 1910, at the height of European immigration to New York, Manhattan's population density reached a peak of 101,548/sq mi (39,222.9/km²). There were 798,144 housing units in 2000 at an average density of 34,756.7/sq mi (13,421.8/km²).[43] Only 20.3% of Manhattan residents lived in owner-occupied housing, the second-lowest rate of all counties in the nation, behind The Bronx.[102]

The New York City Department of City Planning projects that Manhattan's population will grow by 289,000 people between 2000 and 2030, an increase of 18.8% over the period, second only to Staten Island., while the rest of the city is projected to grow by 12.7% over the same period. The school-age population is expected to grow 4.4% by 2030, in contrast to a small decline in the city as a whole. The elderly population is forecast to grow by 57.9%, with the borough adding 108,000 persons ages 65 and over, compared to 44.2% growth citywide.[103]

According to the 2005-2007 American Community Survey, Manhattan's population was 56.8% White (48.4% non-Hispanic White alone), 16.7% Black or African American (13.8% non-Hispanic Black or African American alone), 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 11.3% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 16.9% from some other race and 2.4% from two or more races. 25.1% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. [3]

56.2% of the population had a Bachelor's degree or higher. 28.4% were foreign born and another 3.6% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parents. 38.8% spoke a language other than English at home. [4]

In 2000, 56.4% of people living in Manhattan were White, 27.18% were Hispanic of any race, 17.39% were Black, 14.14% were from other races, 9.40% were Asian, 0.5% were Native American, and 0.07% were Pacific Islander. 4.14% were from two or more races. 24.93% reported speaking Spanish at home, 4.12% Chinese, and 2.19% French.[104]

Historical populations
Census Pop.  %±
1790 33,131
1800 60,489 82.6%
1810 96,373 59.3%
1820 123,706 28.4%
1830 202,589 63.8%
1840 312,710 54.4%
1850 515,547 64.9%
1860 813,669 57.8%
1870 942,292 15.8%
1880 1,164,674 23.6%
1890 1,441,216 23.7%
1900 1,850,093 28.4%
1910 2,331,542 26.0%
1920 2,284,103 −2.0%
1930 1,867,312 −18.2%
1940 1,889,924 1.2%
1950 1,960,101 3.7%
1960 1,698,281 −13.4%
1970 1,539,233 −9.4%
1980 1,428,285 −7.2%
1990 1,487,536 4.1%
2000 1,537,195 3.3%
Est. 2007 1,620,687 5.4%

There were 738,644 households. 25.2% were married couples living together, 12.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 59.1% were non-families. 17.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them. 48% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2 and the average family size was 2.99.

Manhattan's population was spread out with 16.8% under the age of 18, 10.2% from 18 to 24, 38.3% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.9 males.

Manhattan is one of the highest-income places in the United States with a population greater than 1 million. Based on IRS data for the 2004 tax year, New York County (Manhattan) had the highest average federal income tax liability per return in the country. Average tax liability was $25,875, representing 20.0% of Adjusted Gross Income.[105] As of 2002, Manhattan had the highest per capita income of any county in the country.[106]

The Manhattan ZIP Code 10021, on the Upper East Side is home to more than 100,000 people and has a per capita income of over $90,000.[107] It is one of the largest concentrations of extreme wealth in the United States. Most Manhattan neighborhoods are not as wealthy. The median income for a household in the county was $47,030, and the median income for a family was $50,229. Males had a median income of $51,856 versus $45,712 for females. The per capita income for the county was $42,922. About 17.6% of families and 20% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.8% of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over.[108]

Lower Manhattan (Manhattan south of Houston Street) is more economically diverse. While the Financial District had few non-commercial residents after the 1950s, the area has seen a significant surge in its residential population, with estimates showing over 30,000 residents living in the area as of 2005, a jump from the 15,000 to 20,000 before the September 11, 2001 attacks.[109]

Manhattan is also diverse in religion. The largest religious affiliation is the Roman Catholic Church, whose adherents constitute 564,505 persons (more than 36% of the population) and maintain 110 congregations. Jews comprise the second largest religious group, with 314,500 persons (20.5%) in 102 congregations. The next largest religious groups are Protestants, with 139,732 adherents (9.1%) and Muslims, with 37,078 (2.4%).[110]

The borough is also experiencing a baby boom. Since 2000, the number of children under age 5 living in Manhattan grew by more than 32%.[111]

[edit] Landmarks and architecture

The skyscraper, which has shaped Manhattan's distinctive skyline, has been closely associated with New York City's identity since the end of the 19th century. From 1890–1973, the world's tallest building was in Manhattan, with nine different buildings holding the title.[112] The New York World Building on Park Row, was the first to take the title, standing 309 feet (91 m) until 1955, when it was demolished to construct a new ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge.[113] The nearby Park Row Building, with its 29 stories standing 391 feet (119 m) high took the title in 1899.[114] The 41-story Singer Building, constructed in 1908 as the headquarters of the eponymous sewing machine manufacturer, stood 612 feet (187 m) high until 1967, when it became the tallest building ever demolished.[115] The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, standing 700 feet (213 m) at the foot of Madison Avenue, wrested the title in 1909, with a tower reminiscent of St Mark's Campanile in Venice.[116] The Woolworth Building, and its distinctive Gothic architecture, took the title in 1913, topping off at 792 feet (241 m).[117]

The Chrysler Building. The tallest building in the city from 1930 - 1931

The Roaring Twenties saw a race to the sky, with three separate buildings pursuing the world's tallest title in the span of a year. As the stock market soared in the days before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, two developers publicly competed for the crown.[118] At 927 feet (282 m), 40 Wall Street, completed in May 1930 in an astonishing 11 months as the headquarters of the Bank of Manhattan, seemed to have secured the title.[119] At Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street, auto executive Walter Chrysler and his architect William Van Alen developed plans to build the structure's trademark 185-foot (56 m)-high spire in secret, pushing the Chrysler Building to 1,046 feet (319 m) and making it the tallest in the world when it was completed in 1929.[120] Both buildings were soon surpassed, with the May 1931 completion of the 102-story Empire State Building with its Art Deco tower soaring 1,250 feet (381 m) to the top of the building. The 203 ft (62 m) high pinnacle was later added bringing the total height of the building to 1,453 ft (443 m)).[121][122]

The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1972, and is currently the tallest building in the city.

The former Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, once an iconic symbol of the City, were located in Lower Manhattan. At 1,368 and 1,362 feet (417m& 415m), the 110-story buildings were the world's tallest from 1972, until they were surpassed by the construction of the Sears Tower in 1974.[123] By the end of the 20th century the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were arguably among the world's most famous and recognizable buildings until their destruction in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Freedom Tower, a replacement for the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, is currently under construction and is slated to be ready for occupancy in 2014.[124]

In 1961, Penn Central unveiled plans to tear down the old Penn Station and replace it with a new Madison Square Garden and office building complex. Organized protests were aimed at preserving the McKim, Mead, and White-designed structure completed in 1910, widely considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City.[125] Despite these efforts, demolition of the structure began in October 1963. The loss of Penn Station—called “an act of irresponsible public vandalism” by historian Lewis Mumford—led directly to the enactment in 1965 of a local law establishing the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, which is responsible for preserving the "city's historic, aesthetic, and cultural heritage".[126] The historic preservation movement triggered by Penn Station's demise has been credited with the retention of some one million structures nationwide, including nearly 1,000 in New York City.[127]

The "twin towers" of the former World Trade Center, New York's tallest buildings from 1972 to 2001.

The theatre district around Broadway at Times Square, New York University, Columbia University, Flatiron Building, the Financial District around Wall Street, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Little Italy, Harlem, the American Museum of Natural History, Chinatown, and Central Park are all located on this densely populated island.

The city is a leader in energy-efficient "green" office buildings, such as Hearst Tower, owned by Englishman Samuel Fox, and the rebuilt 7 World Trade Center.[128]

Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue, on the south by West 59th Street, and on the east by Fifth Avenue. Along the park's borders, these streets are usually referred to as Central Park North, Central Park West, and Central Park South, respectively. (Fifth Avenue retains its name along the eastern border.) The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. The 843 acre (3.4 km²) park offers extensive walking tracks, two ice-skating rinks, a wildlife sanctuary, and grassy areas used for various sporting pursuits, as well as playgrounds for children. The park is a popular oasis for migrating birds, and thus is popular with bird watchers. The 6 mile (10 km) road circling the park is popular with joggers, bicyclists and inline skaters, especially on weekends and in the evenings after 7:00 p.m., when automobile traffic is banned.[129]

While much of the park looks natural, it is almost entirely landscaped and contains several artificial lakes. The construction of Central Park in the 1850s was one of the era's most massive public works projects. Some 20,000 workers crafted the topography to create the English-style pastoral landscape Olmsted and Vaux sought to create. Workers moved nearly 3,000,000 cubic yards (2,300,000 m3) of soil and planted more than 270,000 trees and shrubs.[130]

17.8% of the borough, a total of 2,686 acres (10.9 km²), are devoted to parkland. Almost 70% of Manhattan's space devoted to parks is located outside of Central Park, including 204 playgrounds, 251 Greenstreets, 371 basketball courts and many other amenities.[131]

The African Burial Ground National Monument at Duane Street preserves a site containing the remains of over 400 Africans buried during the 17th and 18th centuries. The remains were found in 1991 during the construction of the Foley Square Federal Office Building.

[edit] Cityscape

Skyline of Midtown Manhattan, as seen from the observation deck of the GE Building
Skyline of Midtown Manhattan, as seen from the observation deck of the GE Building

[edit] Economy

Manhattan is home to some of the nation's most valuable real estate. 450 Park Avenue was sold on July 2, 2007 for $510 million, about $1,589 per square foot ($17,224/m²), breaking the barely month-old record for an American office building of $1,476 per square foot ($15,888/m²) set in the June 2007 sale of 660 Madison Avenue.[132]

Offices along Sixth Avenue.

Manhattan is the economic engine of New York City, with its 2.3 million workers drawn from the entire New York metropolitan area accounting for almost two-thirds of all jobs in New York City.[133] Manhattan's daytime population swells to 2.874 million, with commuters adding a net 1.337 million people to the population. This commuter influx of 1.459 million workers coming into Manhattan was the largest of any other county or city in the country, and was more than triple the 481,000 commuters who headed into second-ranked Washington, D.C.[134][135]

Its most important economic sector is the finance industry, whose 280,000 workers earned more than half of all the wages paid in the borough. The securities industry, best-known by its center in Wall Street, forms the largest segment of the city's financial sector, accounting for over 50% of the financial services employment. (Before the financial crisis of 2008, the five largest securities-trading firms in the U.S. had their headquarters in Manhattan.)[136] In 2006, those in the Manhattan financial industry earned an average weekly pay about $8,300 (including bonuses), while the average weekly pay was about $2,500. The health care sector represented 11.3% of the borough's jobs and 4% of total compensation, with workers taking home about $900 per week.[137]

New York City is home to the most corporate headquarters of any city in the nation, the overwhelming majority based in Manhattan.[138] Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the United States.[139] Lower Manhattan is the nation's third-largest central business district (after Chicago's Loop) and is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange (Amex), the New York Board of Trade, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and NASDAQ.[140]

Seven of the world's top eight global advertising agency networks are headquartered in Manhattan.[141] "Madison Avenue" is often used metonymously to refer to the entire advertising field, after Madison Avenue became identified with the advertising industry after the explosive growth in the area in the 1920s.

2006 statistics showed that the average weekly wages paid to Manhattan workers is $1,453 (excluding bonuses), the highest in the country's 325 largest counties, and the salary growth of 7.8% was the highest among the ten largest counties. Pay in the borough was 85% higher than the $784 pay earned weekly nationwide and nearly double the amount earned by workers in the outer boroughs. Manhattan's workforce is overwhelmingly focused on white collar professions, with manufacturing (39,800 workers) and construction (31,600) accounting for a small fraction of the borough's employment.[133][142]

Historically, this corporate presence has been complemented by many independent retailers, though a recent influx of national chain stores has caused many to lament the creeping homogenization of Manhattan.[143]

[edit] Culture

Times Square is the center of the city's theater district.

Manhattan has been the scene of many important American cultural movements. In 1912, about 20,000 workers, a quarter of them women, marched on Washington Square Park to commemorate the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed 146 workers on March 25, 1911. Many of the women wore fitted tucked-front blouses like those manufactured by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, a clothing style that became the working woman's uniform and a symbol of female independence, reflecting the alliance of labor and suffrage movements.[144] The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s established the African-American literary canon in the United States. Manhattan's vibrant visual art scene in the 1950s and 1960s was a center of the American pop art movement, which gave birth to such giants as Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein. Perhaps no other artist is as associated with the downtown pop art movement of the late 1970s as Andy Warhol, who socialized at clubs like Serendipity 3 and Studio 54.

The exterior of Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

A popular haven for art, the downtown neighborhood of Chelsea is widely known for its galleries and cultural events, with more than 200 art galleries that are home to modern art from both upcoming and established artists.[145][146]

Broadway theatre is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. Plays and musicals are staged in one of the 39 larger professional theatres with at least 500 seats, almost all in and around Times Square.[147] Off-Broadway theatres feature productions in venues with 100-500 seats.[148] A little more than a mile from Times Square is the Lincoln Center, home to one of the world's most prestigious opera houses, that of the Metropolitan Opera.[149]

Manhattan is also home to some of the most extensive art collections, both contemporary and historical, in the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Guggenheim Museum.

The exterior of Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Manhattan is the borough most closely associated with New York City by non-residents; even some natives of New York City's outer boroughs will describe a trip to Manhattan as "going to the city".[150]

The borough has a place in several American idioms. The phrase "a New York minute" is meant to convey a very short period of time, sometimes in hyperbolic form, as in "perhaps faster than you would believe is possible". It refers to the rapid pace of life in Manhattan.[151] The term "melting pot" was first popularly coined to describe the densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side in Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot, which was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set by Zangwill in New York City in 1908.[152] The iconic Flatiron Building is said to have been the source of the phrase "23 skidoo" or scram, from what cops would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds created by the triangular building.[153] The "Big Apple" dates back to the 1920s, when a reporter heard the term used by New Orleans stablehands to refer to New York City's racetracks and named his racing column "Around The Big Apple." Jazz musicians adopted the term to refer to the city as the world's jazz capital, and a 1970s ad campaign by the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau helped popularize the term.[154]

[edit] Sports

Madison Square Garden is home to the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty.

Today, Manhattan is home of the NBA's New York Knicks, WNBA's New York Liberty, and NHL's New York Rangers, who all play their home games at Madison Square Garden, the only major professional sports arena in the borough. The New York Jets proposed a West Side Stadium for their home field, but the proposal was eventually defeated in June 2005, leaving them at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Today, Manhattan is the only borough in New York City that does not have a professional baseball franchise. The Bronx has the Yankees and Queens has the Mets of the Major League Baseball. The Minor League Baseball Brooklyn Cyclones play in Brooklyn, while the Staten Island Yankees play in Staten Island. Yet three of the four major league teams to play in New York City played in Manhattan. The New York Giants played in the various incarnations of the Polo Grounds at 155th Street and Eighth Avenue from their inception in 1883 — except for 1889, when they split their time between Jersey City and Staten Island, and when they played in Hilltop Park in 1911 — until they headed west with the Brooklyn Dodgers after the 1957 season.[155] The New York Yankees began their franchise as the Hilltoppers, named for Hilltop Park, where they played from their creation in 1903 until 1912. The team moved to the Polo Grounds with the 1913 season, where they were officially christened the New York Yankees, remaining there until they moved across the Harlem River in 1923 to Yankee Stadium.[156] The New York Mets played in the Polo Grounds in 1962 and 1963, their first two seasons, before Shea Stadium was completed in 1964.[157] After the Mets departed, the Polo Grounds was demolished in April 1964, replaced by public housing.[158][159]

The first national college-level basketball championship, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city.[160] The New York Knicks started play in 1946 as one of the National Basketball Association's original teams, playing their first home games at the 69th Regiment Armory, before making Madison Square Garden their permanent home.[161] The New York Liberty of the WNBA have shared the Garden with the Knicks since their creation in 1997 as one of the league's original eight teams.[162] Rucker Park in Harlem is a playground court, famed for its street ball style of play, where many NBA athletes have played in the summer league.[163]

Though both of New York City's football teams play today across the Hudson River in Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, both teams started out playing in the Polo Grounds. The New York Giants played side-by-side with their baseball namesakes from the time they entered the National Football League in 1925, until crossing over to Yankee Stadium in 1956.[164] The New York Jets, originally known as the Titans, started out in 1960 at the Polo Grounds, staying there for four seasons before joining the Mets in Queens in 1964.[165]

The New York Rangers of the National Hockey League have played in the various locations of Madison Square Garden since their founding in the 1926–1927 season. The Rangers were predated by the New York Americans, who started play in the Garden the previous season, lasting until the team folded after the 1941–1942 NHL season, a season in which it played in the Garden as the Brooklyn Americans.[166]

The New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League played their home games at Downing Stadium for two seasons, starting in 1974. In 1975, the team signed Pelé, officially recorded by FIFA as the world's greatest soccer player, to a $4.5 million contract, drawing a capacity crowd of 22,500 to watch him lead the team to a 2-0 victory.[167] The playing pitch and facilities at Downing Stadium were in dreadful condition though and as the team's popularity grew they too left for Yankee Stadium, and then Giants Stadium. The stadium was demolished in 2002 to make way for the $45 million, 4,754-seat Icahn Stadium which includes an Olympic-standard 400-meter running track and, as part of Pele's and the Cosmos' legacy, includes a FIFA-approved floodlit soccer stadium which hosts matches involving some 48 youth teams who are members of a Manhattan soccer club.[168][169]

[edit] Media

Manhattan is served by the major New York City dailies, including The New York Times, New York Daily News, and New York Post, which are all headquartered in the borough. The nation's largest financial newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, is also based here. Other daily newspapers include AM New York and The Villager. The New York Amsterdam News, based in Harlem, is one of the leading African American weekly newspapers in the United States. The Village Voice is a leading alternative weekly based in the borough.[170]

The television industry developed in New York and is a significant employer in the city's economy. The four major American broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC are all headquartered in Manhattan, as are many cable channels, including MSNBC, MTV, Fox News, HBO and Comedy Central. In 1971, WLIB became New York's first black-owned radio station and the crown jewel of Inner City Broadcasting Corporation. A co-founder of Inner City was Percy Sutton, a former Manhattan borough president and long one of the city’s most powerful black leaders.[171] WLIB began broadcasts for the African-American community in 1949 and regularly interviewed civil rights leaders like Malcolm X and aired live broadcasts from conferences of the NAACP. Influential WQHT, also known as Hot 97, claims to be the premier hip-hop station in the United States. WNYC, comprising an AM and FM signal, has the largest public radio audience in the nation and is the most-listened to commercial or non-commercial radio station in Manhattan.[172] WBAI, with news and information programming, is one of the few socialist radio stations operating in the United States.

The oldest public-access television channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, founded in 1971, offers eclectic local programming that ranges from a jazz hour to discussion of labor issues to foreign language and religious programming.[173] NY1, Time Warner Cable's local news channel, is known for its beat coverage of City Hall and state politics.

[edit] Housing

In the early days of Manhattan, wood construction and poor access to water supplies left the city vulnerable to fires. In 1776, shortly after the Continental Army evacuated Manhattan and left it to the British, a massive fire broke out destroying one-third of the city and some 500 houses.[174]

Loft apartments in TriBeCa.

The rise of immigration near the turn of the century left major portions of Manhattan, especially the Lower East Side, densely packed with recent arrivals, crammed into unhealthy and unsanitary housing. Tenements were usually five-stories high, constructed on the then-typical 25x100 lots, with "cockroach landlords" exploiting the new immigrants.[175][176] By 1929, stricter fire codes and the increased use of elevators in residential buildings, were the impetus behind a new housing code that effectively ended the tenement as a form of new construction, though many tenement buildings survive today on the East Side of the borough.[176]

Today, Manhattan offers a wide array of public and private housing options. There were 798,144 housing units in Manhattan as of the 2000 Census, at an average density of 34,756.7/sq mi (13,421.8/km²).[43] Only 20.3% of Manhattan residents lived in owner-occupied housing, the second-lowest rate of all counties in the nation, behind The Bronx.[102]

[edit] Infrastructure

[edit] Transportation

Grand Central Terminal, a terminal rail station, and a major city landmark.
Columbus Circle subway station is one of the city's busiest subway stations.

Manhattan is unique in the United States for its intense use of public transportation and lack of private car ownership. While 88% of Americans nationwide drive to their jobs and only 5% use public transportation, mass transit is the dominant form of travel for residents of Manhattan, with 72% of borough residents using public transportation and only 18% driving to work.[177][178] According to the 2000 U.S. Census, more than 75% of Manhattan households do not own a car.[177]

In 2007, Mayor Bloomberg proposed a congestion pricing system. The State Legislature rejected the proposal in June 2008.[179]

The New York City Subway, the largest subway system in the world by track mileage and the largest by number of stations, is the primary means of travel within the city, connecting to every borough except Staten Island. A second subway, the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) system, connects Manhattan to northern New Jersey. Transit passengers tender their fares with pay-per-ride MetroCards, which are valid on all city buses and subways, as well as on PATH trains. A one-way fare on the bus or subway is $2.00,[180] and PATH costs $1.75.[181] There are daily, 7-day, 14-day, and 30-day MetroCards that allow unlimited trips on all subways (except PATH) and MTA bus routes (except for express buses).[182] The PATH QuickCard is being phased out, and both PATH and the MTA are testing "smart card" payment systems to replace the MetroCard.[183] Commuter rail services operating to and from Manhattan are the Long Island Rail Road (which connects Manhattan and other New York City boroughs to Long Island), the Metro-North Railroad (which connects Manhattan to Westchester County and Southwestern Connecticut) and New Jersey Transit trains to various points in New Jersey.

The MTA New York City Bus offers a wide variety of local buses within Manhattan. An extensive network of express bus routes serves commuters and other travelers heading into Manhattan. The bus system served 740 million riders in 2004, ranking first in the nation, more than double the ridership in second-ranked Los Angeles.[184]

New York's iconic yellow cabs, which number 13,087 city-wide and must have the requisite medallion authorizing the pick up of street hails, are ubiquitous in the borough.[185] Manhattan also sees tens of thousands of bicycle commuters. The Roosevelt Island Tramway, one of two commuter cable car systems in North America, whisks commuters between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan in less than five minutes, and has been servicing the island since 1978. (The other system in North America is the Portland Aerial Tram.) [186][187] The Staten Island Ferry, which runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, annually carries over 19 million passengers on the 5.2 mile (8.4 km) run between Manhattan and Staten Island. Each weekday five vessels are used to transport almost 65,000 passengers on 110 boat trips.[188][189] The ferry has been fare-free since 1997, when the then-50-cent fare was eliminated.[190]

Penn Station, a major commuter rail hub in New York City, is directly under Madison Square Garden.

The metro region's commuter rail lines converge at Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, on the west and east sides of Midtown Manhattan, respectively. They are the two busiest rail stations in the United States. About one in every three users of mass transit in the country and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.[191] Amtrak provides inter-city passenger rail service from Penn Station to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; Upstate New York, New England; cross-border service to Toronto and Montreal; and destinations in the South and Midwest.

The Lincoln Tunnel, which carries 120,000 vehicles per day under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan, is the world's busiest vehicular tunnel.[192] It was built instead of a bridge to allow for unfettered passage of large passenger and cargo ships that sailed through New York Harbor and up the Hudson to Manhattan's piers. The Queens Midtown Tunnel, built to relieve congestion on the bridges connecting Manhattan with Queens and Brooklyn, was the largest non-Federal project of its time when it was completed in 1940.[193] President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first person to drive through it.[194]

The FDR Drive and Harlem River Drive are two limited-access routes that skirt the East Side of Manhattan along the East River, designed by controversial New York master planner Robert Moses.[195]

Manhattan has three public heliports. US Helicopter offers regularly scheduled helicopter service connecting the Downtown Manhattan Heliport with John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.[196]

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, most of which operate in Manhattan.[197]

[edit] Utilities

Gas and electric service is provided by Consolidated Edison to all of Manhattan. Con Edison's electric business traces its roots back to Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Illuminating Company, the first investor-owned electric utility. The company started service on September 4, 1882, using one generator to provide 110 volts direct current (DC) to 59 customers with 800 light bulbs, in a one-square-mile area of Lower Manhattan from his Pearl Street Station.[198] Con Edison operates the world's largest district steam system, which consists of 105 miles (169 km) of steam pipes, providing steam for heating, hot water, and air conditioning[199] by some 1,800 Manhattan customers.[200]

Manhattan, surrounded by two brackish rivers, had a limited supply of fresh water available on the island, which dwindled as the city grew rapidly after the American Revolutionary War. To supply the needs of the growing population, the city acquired land in Westchester County and constructed the Croton Aqueduct system, which went into service in 1842. The system took water from a dam at the Croton River, and sent it down through the Bronx, over the Harlem River via the High Bridge, to storage reservoirs in Central Park and at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, and through a network of cast iron pipes on to consumer's faucets.[201]

Today, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection provides water to residents fed by a 2,000 square mile (5,180 km²) watershed in the Catskill Mountains. Because the watershed is in one of the largest protected wilderness areas in the United States, the natural water filtration process remains intact. As a result, New York is one of only five major cities in the United States with drinking water pure enough to require only chlorination to ensure its purity at the tap under normal conditions.[202][203] Water comes to Manhattan through New York City Water Tunnel No. 1 and Tunnel No. 2, completed in 1917 and 1936, respectively. Construction started in 1970 continues on New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, which will double the system's existing 1.2 billion gallon-a-day capacity while providing a much-needed backup to the two other tunnels.[204]

The New York City Department of Sanitation is responsible for garbage removal.[205] The bulk of the city's trash ultimately is disposed at mega-dumps in Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio (via transfer stations in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Queens) since the 2001 closure of the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island.[206] A small amount of trash processed at transfer sites in New Jersey is sometimes incinerated at waste-to-energy facilities. Like New York City, New Jersey and much of Greater New York relies on exporting its trash to far-flung places.

[edit] Education

New York Public Library, central block, built 1897–1911, Carrère and Hastings, architects (June 2003). This is the flagship library building; there are other buildings also used by the NY Public Library, elsewhere in the city.

Education in Manhattan is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Public schools in the borough are operated by the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States,[207] serving 1.1 million students.[208]

Some of the best-known New York City public high schools, such as Stuyvesant High School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, High School of Fashion Industries, Murry Bergtraum High School, Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, Hunter College High School and High School for Math, Science and Engineering at City College are located in Manhattan. Bard High School Early College,a new hybrid school created by upstate Bard College, serves students from around the city.

Manhattan is home to many of the most prestigious private prep schools in the nation including the Upper East Side's Brearley School, Dalton School, Spence School, Chapin School, Nightingale-Bamford School, and Convent of the Sacred Heart, and the Upper West Side's Collegiate School and Trinity School. The borough is also home to two private schools that are known for being the most diverse in the nation, Manhattan Country School and United Nations International School. Manhattan is home to the only official Italian American school in the U.S., La Scuola d'Italia [5].

As of 2003, 52.3% of Manhattan residents over age 25 have a bachelor's degree, the fifth highest of all counties in the country.[209] By 2005, about 60% of residents were college graduates and some 25% had earned advanced degrees, giving Manhattan one of the nation's densest concentrations of highly educated people.[210]

Manhattan has various colleges and universities including Columbia University, Cooper Union, Fordham University, The Juilliard School, Berkeley College, The New School, New York University (NYU) and Yeshiva University. Other schools include Bank Street College of Education, Boricua College, Jewish Theological Seminary, Marymount Manhattan College, Manhattan School of Music, Metropolitan College of New York, New York Institute of Technology, Pace University, St. John's University, School of Visual Arts, Touro College and Union Theological Seminary. Several other private institutions maintain a Manhattan presence, among them The College of New Rochelle and Pratt Institute.

The City University of New York (CUNY), the municipal college system of New York City, is the largest urban university system in the United States, serving more than 226,000 degree students and a roughly equal number of adult, continuing and professional education students.[211] A third of college graduates in New York City graduate from CUNY, with the institution enrolling about half of all college students in New York City. CUNY senior colleges located in Manhattan include: Baruch College, City College of New York, Hunter College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the CUNY Graduate Center (graduate studies and doctoral granting institution). The only CUNY community college located in Manhattan is the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

The State University of New York is represented by the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York State College of Optometry and Stony Brook University - Manhattan.

Manhattan is a world center for training and education in medicine and the life sciences.[212] The city as a whole receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities,[213] the bulk of which goes to Manhattan's research institutions, including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Weill Cornell Medical College and New York University School of Medicine.

Manhattan is served by the New York Public Library, which has the largest collection of any public library system in the country.[214] The five units of the Central Library—Mid-Manhattan Library, Donnell Library Center, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library and the Science, Industry and Business Library—are all located in Manhattan.[215] More than 35 other branch libraries are located in the borough.[216]

[edit] Manhattanization

"Manhattanization" is a neologism coined to describe a construction of new tall or densely situated buildings seen as transforming the appearance and character of a city.[217] It was a pejorative word used by critics of the highrise buildings built in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, who claimed the skyscrapers would block views of the surrounding hills.[218]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ US Census Bureau Annual Estimates of the Population for Counties: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007
  2. ^ U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
  3. ^ [1], New Jersey v. New York, 523 U.S. 767 (1998), accessed 2008-01-04.
  4. ^ Barry, Dan. " A Nation challenged: in New York; New York Carries On, but Test of Its Grit Has Just Begun", The New York Times, October 11, 2001. Accessed December 22, 2007. "A roaring void has been created in the financial center of the world."
  5. ^ Sorrentino, Christopher. "When He Was Seventeen", The New York Times, September 16, 2007. Accessed December 22, 2007. "In 1980 there were still the vestigial remains of the various downtown revolutions that had reinvigorated New York’s music and art scenes and kept Manhattan in the position it had occupied since the 1940s as the cultural center of the world."
  6. ^ Bumiller, Elisabeth. "The Pope's visit: the cardinal; As Pope's Important Ally, Cardinal Shines High in Hierarchy", The New York Times, October 8, 1995. Accessed December 18, 2007. "As the Archbishop of the media and cultural center of the United States, Cardinal O'Connor has extraordinary power among Catholic prelates."
  7. ^ Full Text of Robert Juet's Journal: From the collections of the New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841 log book, Newsday. Accessed 2007-05-16.
  8. ^ a b c d Holloway, Marguerite. "Urban tactics; I'll Take Mannahatta", The New York Times, May 16, 2004, accessed 2007-04-30. "He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant island of many hills.'
  9. ^ "More on the names behind the roads we ride", The Record (Bergen County), April 21, 2002. Accessed 2007-10-26. "The origin of Manhattan probably is from the language of the Munsee Indians, according to the Encyclopedia of New York City. It could have come from manahachtanienk, meaning place of general inebriation, or manahatouh, meaning place where timber is procured for bows and arrows, or menatay, meaning island."
  10. ^ Sullivan, Dr. James. "The History of New York State: Book I, Chapter III", USGenNet, accessed 2007-05-01. "There is satisfactory evidence that Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into the outer harbor of New York in 1524.
  11. ^ Rankin, Rebecca B., Cleveland Rodgers (1948). New York: the World's Capital City, Its Development and Contributions to Progress. Harper. 
  12. ^ "Henry Hudson and His Exploration" Scientific American, September 25, 1909, accessed May 1, 2007. "This was a vain hope however, and the conviction must finally have come to the heart of the intrepid adventurer that once again he was foiled in his repeated quest for the northwest passage … On the following day the “Half Moon” let go her anchor inside of Sandy Hook. The week was spent in exploring the bay with a shallop, or small boat, and “they found a good entrance between two headlands” (the Narrows) “and thus entered on the 11th of September into as fine a river as can be found.”"
  13. ^ Dutch Colonies, National Park Service. Accessed May 19, 2007. "Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan."
  14. ^ Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park. Accessed May 12, 2007. See Legislative Resolutions Senate No. 5476 and Assembly No. 2708.
  15. ^ City Seal and Flag, New York City, accessed May 13, 2007. "Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch the date 1625, being the year of the establishment of New Amsterdam."
  16. ^ Letter of 1626 stating that Manhattan Island had been purchased for the value of 60 guilders, The College of New Jersey. Accessed April 26, 2007. The 60 guilders have been traditionally converted to about $24. Of course, this is a mistake, as 60 guilders in 1626 had a much higher value. The website of the International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam ( [2]) calculates its value as 60 guilders (1626) = Euro 678.91 (2006) , equal to about 1000 dollars
  17. ^ Loewen, James (1995). "Lies My Teacher Told Me", p. 122, Touchstone Publishing, ISBN-13 9780684818863
  18. ^ Williams, Jasmin K. "New York - The Empire States", The New York Post, November 22, 2006. Accessed May 19, 2007. "In 1647, Dutch leader Peter Stuyvesant arrived with an iron fist to put an end to the colony's rampant crime and restore order."
  19. ^ About the Council, New York City Council. Accessed May 18, 2007.
  20. ^ The Origins of New York State's County Names, New York Department of State, accessed April 27, 2007. "New York: in honor of the Duke of York.
  21. ^ Griffis, William Elliot. "The Story of New Netherland" Chapter XV: The Fall of New Netherland, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909. "In religious matters, Article VIII of the capitulation read, “The Dutch shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in Divine worship and in Church government.”"
  22. ^ Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park, accessed April 26, 2007.
  23. ^ Fort Washington Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed May 18, 2007.
  24. ^ "Happy Evacuation Day", New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, November 23, 2005. Accessed May 18, 2007.
  25. ^ The Nice Capitals of the United States. United States Senate Historical Office. Accessed June 9, 2005. Based on Fortenbaugh, Robert, The Nine Capitals of the United States, York, PA: Maple Press, 1948.
  26. ^ Blair, Cynthia. "1858: Central Park Opens", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Between 1853 and 1856, city commissioners purchased more than 700 acres (2.8 km2) from 59th Street to 106th Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues to create Central Park, the nation’s first public park as well as its first landscaped park."
  27. ^ Rybczynski , Witold. "Olmsted's Triumph" at the Internet Archive, Smithsonian (magazine), July 2003. Accessed May 29, 2007. "By 1876, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux had transformed the swampy, treeless 50 blocks between Harlem and midtown Manhattan into the first landscaped park in the United States."
  28. ^ Ward, Geoffrey C. "Gangs of New York", a review of Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, The New York Times, October 6, 2002. Accessed May 29, 2007. "The New York draft riots remain the worst civil disturbance in American history: according to the historian Adrian Cook, 119 people are known to have been killed, mostly rioters or onlookers who got too close when federal troops, brought back from the battlefield to restore order, started shooting."
  29. ^ Statue of Liberty, National Park Service. Accessed May 17, 2007.
  30. ^ "New Jerseyans' Claim To Liberty I. Rejected", The New York Times, October 6, 1987. Accessed May 19, 2007. "The Supreme Court today refused to strip the Statue of Liberty of its status as a New Yorker. The Court, without comment, turned away a move by a two New Jerseyans to claim jurisdiction over the landmark for their state."
  31. ^ Macy Jr., Harry. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form "Greater New York", New York Genealogical and Biographical Society from The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1998, accessed April 29, 2007. "In 1683, when the Province of New York was first divided into counties, the City of New York also became New York County... In 1874, to accommodate this growth, New York City and County annexed from Westchester County what is now the western Bronx... In 1895 New York City annexed the eastern Bronx."
  32. ^ Hermalyn, Gary and Ultan, Lloyd. Bronx History: A General Survey, New York Public Library, accessed April 26, 2007.
  33. ^ Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline", University of California, Riverside Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London..."
  34. ^ Rosenberg, Jennifer. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, About.com. Accessed May 17, 2007.
  35. ^ Allen, Oliver E. (1993). "Chapter 9: The Decline". The Tiger – The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100781540. Retrieved on 2007-05-25. 
  36. ^ "Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," The New York Times, August 1, 1947. p. 19
  37. ^ Behrens, David. "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."
  38. ^ Haberman, Clyde. "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)", The New York Times, January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007.
  39. ^ Zeitz, Joshua. "New York City on the Brink", American Heritage (magazine), November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007.
  40. ^ Firestone, David. "This Time, New York City Is All Alone", The New York Times, May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.
  41. ^ New York City Administrative Code Section 2-202 Division into boroughs and boundaries thereof - Division Into Boroughs And Boundaries Thereof., Lawyer Research Center. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The borough of Manhattan shall consist of the territory known as New York county which shall contain all that part of the city and state, including that portion of land commonly known as Marble Hill and included within the county of New York and borough of Manhattan for all purposes pursuant to chapter nine hundred thirty-nine of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-four and further including the islands called Manhattan Island, Governor's Island, Bedloe's Island, Ellis Island, Franklin D. Roosevelt Island, Randall's Island and Oyster Island..."
  42. ^ a b How New York Works, How Stuff Works, accessed April 27, 2007. "The island is 22.7 square miles (58.8 km²), 13.4 miles (21.6 kilometers) long and 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) wide (at its widest point)."
  43. ^ a b c New York—Place and County Subdivision, United States Census Bureau, accessed 2007-05-01.
  44. ^ a b Gray, Christopher. New York Times—Streetscapes: Spuyten Duyvil Swing Bridge; Restoring a Link In the City's Lifeline. The New York Times, March 6, 1988. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  45. ^ Cudahy, Brian J. Cudahy (1990). Over and Back: The History of Ferryboats in New York Harbor. Fordham University Press. pp. 25. 
  46. ^ Gillespie, Angus K. (1999). Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center. Rutgers University Press. pp. 71. 
  47. ^ Iglauer, Edith (November 4, 1972). "The Biggest Foundation". The New Yorker. 
  48. ^ ASLA 2003 The Landmark Award, American Society of Landscape Architects. Accessed May 17, 2007.
  49. ^ Remarks of the Commissioners for laying out streets and roads in the City of New York, under the Act of April 3, 1807, Cornell University. Accessed May 2, 2007. "These streets are all sixty feet wide except fifteen, which are one hundred feet wide, viz.: Numbers fourteen, twenty-three, thirty-four, forty-two, fifty-seven, seventy-two, seventy-nine, eighty-six, ninety-six, one hundred and six, one hundred and sixteen, one hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and thirty-five, one hundred and forty-five, and one hundred and fifty-five—the block or space between them being in general about two hundred feet."
  50. ^ a b Silverman, Justin Rocket. "Sunny delight in city sight", Newsday, May 27, 2006. "'Manhattanhenge' occurs Sunday, a day when a happy coincidence of urban planning and astrophysics results in the setting sun lining up exactly with every east-west street in the borough north of 14th Street. Similar to Stonehenge, which is directly aligned with the summer-solstice sun, "Manhattanhenge" catches the sun descending in perfect alignment between buildings. The local phenomenon occurs twice a year, on May 28 and July 12…
  51. ^ Sunset on 34th Street Along the Manhattan Grid, Natural History (magazine) Special Feature—City of Stars, accessed September 4, 2006.
  52. ^ American Fact Finder (U.S. Census Bureau): Table GCT-T1, 2007 Population Estimates for New York State by County, retrieved on July 2, 2008
  53. ^ County and City Data Book:2007 Table B-1, Area and Population, retrieved on July 12, 2008. New York County (Manhattan) was the nation's densest-populated county, followed by Kings County (Brooklyn), Bronx County, Queens County and San Francisco, California.
  54. ^ American Fact Finder (U.S. Census Bureau): New York by County - Table GCT-PH1. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2000 Data Set: Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF 1) 100-Percent Data, retrieved on February 6, 2009
  55. ^ Senft, Bret. " If You're Thinking of Living In/TriBeCa; Families Are the Catalyst for Change", The New York Times, September 26, 1993. Accessed April 26, 2007. "Families have overtaken commerce as the catalyst for change in this TRIangle BElow CAnal Street (although the only triangle here is its heart: Hudson Street meeting West Broadway at Chambers Street, with Canal its north side) … Artists began seeking refuge from fashionable SoHo (SOuth of HOuston) as early as the mid-70's."
  56. ^ Cohen, Joyce. " If You're Thinking of Living In/Nolita; A Slice of Little Italy Moving Upscale", The New York Times, May 17, 1998. Accessed April 26, 2007. "NO ONE is quite certain what to call this part of town. Nolita—north of Little Italy, that is—certainly pinpoints it geographically. The not-quite-acronym was apparently coined several years ago by real-estate brokers seeking to give the area at least a little cachet."
  57. ^ Pitts, David. U.S. Postage Stamp Honors Harlem's Langston Hughes, United States Department of State. Accessed April 26, 2007. "Harlem, or Nieuw Haarlem, as it was originally named, was established by the Dutch in 1658 after they took control from Native Americans. They named it after Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands."
  58. ^ Bruni, Frank. " The Grounds He Stamped: The New York Of Ginsberg", The New York Times, April 7, 1997. Accessed March 27, 2008. "Indeed, for all the worldwide attention that Mr. Ginsberg received, he was always a creature and icon principally of downtown Manhattan, his world view forged in its crucible of political and sexual passions, his eccentricities nurtured by those of its peculiar demimonde, his individual myth entwined with that of the bohemian East Village in which he made his home. He embodied the East Village and the Lower East Side, Bill Morgan, a friend and Mr. Ginsberg's archivist, said yesterday."
  59. ^ Dunlap, David W. " The New Chelsea's Many Faces", The New York Times, November 13, 1994. Accessed March 27, 2008. "Gay Chelsea's role has solidified with the arrival of A Different Light bookstore, a cultural cornerstone that had been housed for a decade in an 800-square-foot (74 m2) nook at 548 Hudson Street, near Perry Street. It now takes up more than 5,000 square feet (500 m2) at 151 West 19th Street and its migration seems to embody a northward shift of gay life from Greenwich Village... Because of Chelsea's reputation, Mr. Garmendia said, single women were not likely to move in. But single men did. "The whole neighborhood became gay during the 70's," he said."
  60. ^ Grimes, Christopher. "WORLD NEWS: New York's Chinatown starts to feel the pinch over 'the bug'", Financial Times, April 14, 2003. Accessed May 19, 2007. "New York's Chinatown is the site of the largest concentration of Chinese people in the western hemisphere."
  61. ^ Chinatown: A World of Dining, Shopping, and History, NYC & Company, accessed April 27, 2007. "No visit to New York City is complete without exploring the sights, cuisines, history, and shops of the biggest Chinatown in the United States. The largest concentration of Chinese people—150,000—in the Western Hemisphere are in a two-square-mile area in downtown Manhattan that's loosely bounded by Lafayette, Worth, and Grand streets and East Broadway."
  62. ^ Upper West Side, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "This is the traditional stronghold of the city's intellectual, creative, and moneyed community, but the atmosphere is not as upper crust as the Upper East Side."
  63. ^ Upper East Side, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "The neighborhood air is perfumed with the scent of old money, conservative values, and glamorous sophistication, with Champagne corks popping and high society puttin' on the Ritz."
  64. ^ Stroll the Upper East Side for Lifestyles of the Elite, Footnotes of the American Sociological Association, March 1996, accessed April 30, 2007. "Although not everyone who lives in the Upper East Side is wealthy, a great many are. According to 1990 census data, over 53 percent of all households boasts income in excess of $50,000 per year, compared to the city total of 27 percent. Over one-third of those households in New York City, who reported incomes of more than $200,000 in 1990 live in the Upper East Side. The area contains only four percent of all households in New York City."
  65. ^ Petzold, Charles. " How Far from True North are the Avenues of Manhattan?", accessed April 30, 2007. "However, the orientation of the city's avenues was fixed to be parallel with the axis of Manhattan Island and has only a casual relationship to true north and south. Maps that are oriented to true north (like the one at the right) show the island at a significant tilt. In truth, avenues run closer to northeast and southwest than north and south."
  66. ^ Jackson, Nancy Beth. "Living On/59th Street; Putting Out the Gold-Plated Welcome Mats", The New York Times, August 29, 2004. Accessed April 27, 2007. "Now anchored east and west by glittering towers, destination supermarkets and shops, 59th Street is more than where Midtown meets uptown."
  67. ^ NYC Basics, NYC & Company, accessed April 27, 2007. "Downtown (below 14th Street) contains Greenwich Village, SoHo, TriBeCa, and the Wall Street financial district."
  68. ^ NYC Basics:Orienting Yourself, NYC & Company, accessed May 1, 2007. "Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into East Side and West Side; street addresses increase with their distance west and east from Fifth Avenue, usually by 100 per block."
  69. ^ a b c d "The Climate of New York". New York State Climate Office. http://nysc.eas.cornell.edu/climate_of_ny.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. 
  70. ^ Riley, Mary Elizabeth (2006). "Assessing the Impact of Interannual Climate Variability on New York City's Reservoir System" (PDF). Cornell University Graduate School for Atmospheric Science. http://dspace.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/2623/1/MER+Thesis-new.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-03-27. 
  71. ^ "Keeping New York City Cool Is The Job Of NASA's Heat Seekers.", Spacedaily.com, February 9, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The urban heat island occurrence is particularly pronounced during summer heat waves and at night when wind speeds are low and sea breezes are light. During these times, New York City's air temperatures can rise 7.2 °F (−13.8 °C) higher than in surrounding areas."
  72. ^ "Historical Weather for New York - Central Park". Weatherbase. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=108503&refer=&units=us. 
  73. ^ "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission" (PDF), Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council."
  74. ^ Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, Cornell Law School. Accessed June 12, 2006.
  75. ^ Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Manhattan Borough President's Office. Accessed April 27, 2007. "Scott M. Stringer was sworn in as Manhattan’s 26th Borough President in January of 2006…"
  76. ^ Biography of Robert M. Morgenthau, New York County District Attorney's Office. Accessed April 27, 2007. "He returned to private life until 1974, when he made the first of eight successful bids for election as District Attorney of New York County."
  77. ^ Society of Foreign Consuls: About us. Accessed July 19, 2006.
  78. ^ The Municipal Building, New York City. Accessed April 25, 2007. "But did you know that the Municipal Building is one of the largest government buildings in the world? Or that more than 28,000 New Yorkers are married here each year?"
  79. ^ New York County Presidential Election Results, Think Quest New York City. Accessed April 30, 2007.
  80. ^ Election results from the N.Y. Times
  81. ^ Grogan, Jennifer. Election 2004—Rise in Registration Promises Record Turnout, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, accessed April 25, 2007. "According to the board's statistics for the total number of registered voters as of the Oct. 22 deadline, there were 1.1 million registered voters in Manhattan, of which 727,071 were Democrats and 132,294 were Republicans, which is a 26.7 percent increase from the 2000 election, when there were 876,120 registered voters."
  82. ^ President—History: New York County, Our Campaigns. Accessed May 1, 2007.
  83. ^ 2004 General Election: Statement and Return of the Votes for the Office of President and Vice President of the United States (PDF), New York City Board of Elections, dated December 1, 2004. Accessed April 30, 2008.
  84. ^ National Overview: Top Zip Codes 2004 - Top Contributing Zip Codes for All Candidates (Individual Federal Contributions ($200+)), The Color of Money. Accessed May 29, 2007.
  85. ^ Big Donors Still Rule The Roost, Public Campaign, press release dated October 29, 2004. Accessed July 18, 2006.
  86. ^ Christiano, Gregory. "The Five Points", Urbanography. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  87. ^ Walsh, John, "The Five Points", Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area, September 1994. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The Five Points slum was so notorious that it attracted the attention of candidate Abraham Lincoln who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address."
  88. ^ Al Capone, Chicago History Museum. Accessed May 16, 2007. "Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York.... He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender."
  89. ^ A Gangster is Born, Court TV. Accessed May 16, 2007. "By 1916, Luciano was a leading member of the notorious Five Points Gang and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders."
  90. ^ a b Jaffe, Eric. "Talking to the Feds: The chief of the FBI's organized crime unit on the history of La Cosa Nostra" at the Internet Archive, Smithsonian (magazine), April 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  91. ^ Langan, Patrick A. and Durose, Matthew R. "The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City" (PDF). United States Department of Justice, October 21, 2004. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  92. ^ a b Zeranski, Todd. NYC Is Safest City as Crime Rises in U.S., FBI Say". Bloomberg News, June 12, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  93. ^ 13th Annual Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities: Top and Bottom 25 Cities Overall, accessed May 16, 2007.
  94. ^ MacDonald, Heather. "New York Cops: Still the Finest - Bucking a national trend, Gotham’s crime rate keeps dropping. Here’s why.", City Journal (New York), Summer 2006. Accessed May 16, 2007. "But to his immense credit (and that of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has backed him), Kelly has maintained the heart of New York’s policing revolution—the now-famous accountability mechanism known as Compstat, a weekly crime-control meeting where top brass grill precinct bosses about every last detail of their command—even as he has refined the department’s ability to analyze and respond to crime trends."
  95. ^ Patrol Borough Manhattan South — Report Covering the Week of 04/30/2007 Through 05/06/2007[dead link] (PDF), New York City Police Department CompStat, May 6, 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  96. ^ Patrol Borough Manhattan North — Report Covering the Week of 04/30/2007 Through 05/06/2007[dead link] (PDF), New York City Police Department CompStat, May 6, 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  97. ^ Census data for New York county as of 2000 Census, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 29, 2007.
  98. ^ Census data for New York city as of 2000 Census, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 29, 2007.
  99. ^ Census data for New York (state) as of 2000 Census, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 29, 2007.
  100. ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved on 2008-01-31. 
  101. ^ "Population Density", Geographic Information Systems - GIS of Interest. Accessed May 17, 2007. "What I discovered is that out of the 3140 counties listed in the Census population data only 178 counties were calculated to have a population density over one person per acre. Not surprisingly, New York County (which contains Manhattan) had the highest population density with a calculated 104.218 persons per acre."
  102. ^ a b Percent of Occupied Housing Units That are Owner-occupied, United States Census Bureau, accessed April 18, 2007.
  103. ^ New York City Population Projections by Age/Sex & Borough 2000–2030, New York City Department of City Planning, December 2006. Accessed May 18, 2007.
  104. ^ Languages spoken in New York County, Modern Language Association, accessed April 25, 2007.
  105. ^ Sahadi, Jeanne. Biggest Income Tax Burdens: Top 10 Places, CNN Money, accessed April 28, 2007.
  106. ^ Newman, Jeffrey L. "Comprehensive revision of local area personal income: preliminary estimates for 2002 and revised estimates for 1969-2001", Survey of Current Business, June 2004. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Per capita personal income in New York County (Manhattan), NY, at $84,591, or 274 percent of the national average, was the highest."
  107. ^ Zip Code Tabulation Area 10021, United States Census 2000, accessed April 27, 2007.
  108. ^ New York County, New York, United States Census 2000, accessed April 27, 2007.
  109. ^ Steinhauer, Jennifer. "Baby Strollers and Supermarkets Push Into the Financial District", The New York Times, April 15, 2005. Accessed May 11, 2007.
  110. ^ New York County, New York, Association of Religion Data Archives. Accessed September 10, 2006.
  111. ^ Roberts, Sam. "In Surge in Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead Way", The New York Times, March 27, 2007. Accessed March 27, 2007.
  112. ^ McKinley, Jesse. "F.Y.I.: Tall, Taller. Tallest", The New York Times, November 5, 1995. p. CY2. Accessed August 14, 2008.
  113. ^ "Big Span Project Initiated by City; Manhattan Plaza of Brooklyn Bridge Would Be Rebuilt to Cope With Traffic Increase COST IS PUT AT $6,910,000 Demolition Program is Set — Street System in the Area Also Faces Rearranging", The New York Times, July 24, 1954. p. 15.
  114. ^ Gray, Christopher. " Streetscapes/The Park Row Building, 15 Park Row; An 1899 'Monster' That Reigned High Over the City", The New York Times, March 12, 2000. Accessed May 15, 2007.
  115. ^ Gray, Christopher. " Streetscapes/Singer Building; Once the Tallest Building, But Since 1967 a Ghost", The New York Times, January 2, 2005. Accessed May 15, 2007. "The 41-story Singer Building, the tallest in the world in 1908 when it was completed at Broadway and Liberty Street, was until Sept. 11, 2001, the tallest structure ever to be demolished. The building, an elegant Beaux-Arts tower, was one of the most painful losses of the early preservation movement when it was razed in 1967.... Begun in 1906, the Singer Building incorporated Flagg's model for a city of towers, with the 1896 structure reconstructed as the base, and a 65-foot-square shaft rising 612 feet (187 m) high, culminating in a bulbous mansard and giant lantern at the peak."
  116. ^ Gray, Christopher. " Streetscapes/Metropolitan Life at 1 Madison Avenue;For a Brief Moment, the Tallest Building in the World", The New York Times, May 26, 1996. Accessed May 15, 2007.
  117. ^ Dunlap, David W. " Condos to Top Vaunted Tower Of Woolworth", The New York Times, November 2, 2000. Accessed May 15, 2007.
  118. ^ "Denies Altering Plans for Tallest Building; Starrett Says Height of Bank of Manhattan Structure Was Not Increased to Beat Chrysler.", The New York Times, October 20, 1929. p. 14.
  119. ^ "Bank of Manhattan Built in Record Time; Structure 927 feet (283 m) High, Second Tallest in World, Is Erected in Year of Work.", The New York Times, May 6, 1930. p. 53.
  120. ^ Gray, Christopher. " Streetscapes: The Chrysler Building; Skyscraper's Place in the Sun", The New York Times, December 17, 1995. Accessed May 15, 2007. "Then Chrysler and Van Alen again revised the design, this time in order to win a height competition with the 921-foot (281 m) tower then rising at 40 Wall Street. This was done in secret, using as a staging area the huge square fire-tower shaft, intended to vent smoke from the stairways. Inside the shaft, Van Alen had teams of workers assemble the framework for a 185-foot-high spire that, when lifted into place in the fall of 1929, made the Chrysler building, at 1046 feet, 4.75 inches high, the tallest in the world."
  121. ^ "Rivalry for Height is Seen as Ended; Empire State's Record to Stand for Many Years, Builders and Realty Men Say. Practical Limit Reached; Its Top Rises 1,250 feet (380 m), but Staff Carrying Instruments Extends Pinnacle to 1265.5 Feet.", The New York Times, May 2, 1931. p. 7.
  122. ^ Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes: The Empire State Building; A Red Reprise for a '31 Wonder", The New York Times, June 14, 1992. Accessed May 15, 2007.
  123. ^ Barss, Karen. "The History of Skyscrapers: A race to the top", Information Please. Accessed May 17, 2007. "The Empire State Building would reign supreme among skyscrapers for 41 years until 1972, when it was surpassed by the World Trade Center (1,368 feet, 110 stories). Two years later, New York City lost the distinction of housing the tallest building when the Sears Tower was constructed in Chicago (1450 feet, 110 stories)."
  124. ^ "About the WTC". Silverstein Properties. http://www.wtc.com/about/. Retrieved on 2008-08-15. 
  125. ^ Gray, Christopher. " Streetscapes/'The Destruction of Penn Station'; A 1960s Protest That Tried to Save a Piece of the Past", The New York Times, May 20, 2001. Accessed May 17, 2007.
  126. ^ About the Landmarks Preservation Commission, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Accessed May 17, 2007.
  127. ^ "Requiem For Penn Station", CBS News, October 13, 2002. Accessed May 17, 2007.
  128. ^ Pogrebin, Robin. "7 World Trade Center and Hearst Building: New York's Test Cases for Environmentally Aware Office Towers", The New York Times, April 16, 2006. Accessed July 19, 2006.
  129. ^ Central Park General Information, Central Park Conservancy. Accessed September 21, 2006.
  130. ^ Central Park History, Central Park Conservancy. Accessed September 21, 2006.
  131. ^ Environment at the Internet Archive, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Accessed October 19, 2007.
  132. ^ Quirk, James. "Bergen offices have plenty of space", The Record (Bergen County), July 5, 2007. Accessed July 5, 2007. "On Monday, a 26-year-old, 33-story office building at 450 Park Ave. sold for a stunning $1,589 per square foot, or about $510 million. The price is believed to be the most ever paid for a U.S. office building on a per-square-foot basis. That broke the previous record -- set four weeks earlier -- when 660 Madison Ave. sold for $1,476 a square foot."
  133. ^ a b Average Weekly Wage in Manhattan at $1,453 in Second Quarter 2006 (PDF), Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Department of Labor, February 20, 2007. Accessed February 21, 2007.
  134. ^ "Commuting shifts in top 10 metro areas", USA Today, May 20, 2005. Accessed June 25, 2007.
  135. ^ Estimated Daytime Population and Employment-Residence Ratios: 2000, United States Census, 2000. Accessed June 25, 2007.
  136. ^ (1) New York City Economic Development Corporation: NYC Business Climate, Industry Overviews: Financial Services, retrieved on September 30, 2008. (2) America's 500 Largest Corporations, Fortune magazine, April 30, 2007, pages F-45 and F-64.
  137. ^ McGeehan, Patrick. Income Soars on Wall St., Widening Gap, The New York Times, March 23, 2006. Accessed May 1, 2007.
  138. ^ Fortune Magazine: New York State and City Home to Most Fortune 500 Companies, Empire State Development Corporation, press release dated April 8, 2005, accessed April 26, 2007. "New York City is also still home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other city in the country."
  139. ^ Noonan, Patrica. Testimony on Moynihan Station Draft EIS, Partnership for New York City, testimony dated May 31, 2006, accessed April 26, 2007. "Combined with the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Far West Side promises to become the logical extension of the largest central business district in the country."
  140. ^ Lower Manhattan Recovery Office, Federal Transit Administration, accessed April 26, 2007. "Lower Manhattan is the third largest business district in the nation. Prior to September 11th more than 385,000 people were employed there and 85% of those employees used public transportation to commute to work."
  141. ^ Top 10 Consolidated Agency Networks: Ranked by 2006 Worldwide Network Revenue, Advertising Age Agency Report 2007 Index, published April 25, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007.
  142. ^ Geller, Andy. "N.Y. Hits 'Pay'dirt: Manhattan No. 1 in Nat'l Salary Surge, New York Post, February 21, 2007. Accessed May 18, 2007.
  143. ^ Stasi, Linda. NY, OH: It's Cleaner, Whiter, Brighter, The Village Voice, September 24, 1997. Accessed June 20, 2007.
  144. ^ The Triangle Factory Fire, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, accessed April 25, 2007.
  145. ^ "Stylish Traveler: Chelsea Girls", Travel + Leisure, September 2005. Accessed May 14, 2007. "With more than 200 galleries, Chelsea has plenty of variety."
  146. ^ "City Planning Begins Public Review for West Chelsea Rezoning to Permit Housing Development and Create Mechanism for Preserving and Creating Access to the High Line", New York City Department of City Planning press release dated December 20, 2004. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Some 200 galleries have opened their doors in recent years, making West Chelsea a destination for art lovers from around the City and the world."
  147. ^ Weber, Bruce. "Critic's Notebook: Theater's Promise? Look Off Broadway", The New York Times, July 2, 2003. Accessed May 29, 2007. "It's also true that what constitutes Broadway is easy to delineate; it's a universe of 39 specified theaters, which all have at least 500 seats. Off Broadway is generally considered to comprise theaters from 99 to 499 seats (anything less is thought of as Off Off), which ostensibly determines the union contracts for actors, directors and press agents."
  148. ^ Theatre 101, Theatre Development Fund. Accessed May 29, 2007.
  149. ^ Music Details for Sunday January 5, 1997, ABC Classic FM. Accessed June 19, 2007. "James Levine made his Metropolitan Opera debut at the age of 27, conducting Tosca.... Since the mid eighties he has held the role of Artistic Director, and it is under his tenure that the Met has become the most prestigious opera house in the world."
  150. ^ Purdum, Todd S. " Political memo; An Embattled City Hall Moves to Brooklyn", The New York Times, February 22, 1992. Accessed March 27, 2008. ""Leaders in all of them fear that recent changes in the City Charter that shifted power from the borough presidents to the City Council have diminished government's recognition of the sense of identity that leads people to say they live in the Bronx, and to describe visiting Manhattan as 'going to the city.'"
  151. ^ "New York Minute". Dictionary of American Regional English. 1984-01-01. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-new1.htm. Retrieved on 2006-09-05. 
  152. ^ "The Melting Pot", The First Measured Century, Public Broadcasting Service. Accessed April 25, 2007.
  153. ^ Dolkart, Andrew S. "The Architecture and Development of New York City: The Birth of the Skyscraper - Romantic Symbols", Columbia University, accessed May 15, 2007. "It is at a triangular site where Broadway and Fifth Avenue—the two most important streets of New York—meet at Madison Square, and because of the juxtaposition of the streets and the park across the street, there was a wind-tunnel effect here. In the early twentieth century, men would hang out on the corner here on Twenty-third Street and watch the wind blowing women's dresses up so that they could catch a little bit of ankle. This entered into popular culture and there are hundreds of postcards and illustrations of women with their dresses blowing up in front of the Flatiron Building. And it supposedly is where the slang expression "23 skidoo" comes from because the police would come and give the voyeurs the 23 skidoo to tell them to get out of the area."
  154. ^ "Mayor Giuliani signs legislation creating "Big Apple Corner" in Manhattan", New York City press release dated February 12, 1997.
  155. ^ Giants Ballparks: 1883–Present, MLB.com. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  156. ^ Yankee Ballparks: 1903–Present, MLB.com. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  157. ^ Mets Ballparks: 1962–Present, MLB.com. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  158. ^ Drebinger, John. "The Polo Grounds, 1889–1964: A Lifetime of Memories; Ball Park in Harlem Was Scene of Many Sports Thrills", The New York Times, January 5, 1964. p. S3.
  159. ^ Arnold, Martin. "Ah, Polo Grounds, The Game is Over; Wreckers Begin Demolition for Housing Project", The New York Times, April 11, 1964. p. 27.
  160. ^ History of the National Invitation Tournament, National Invitation Tournament. Accessed May 8, 2007. "Tradition. The NIT is steeped in it. The nation's oldest postseason collegiate basketball tournament was founded in 1938."
  161. ^ History of the New York Knicks, NBA.com. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  162. ^ The New York Liberty Story, Women's National Basketball Association. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  163. ^ Rucker Park, ThinkQuest New York City. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  164. ^ The Giants Stadiums: Where the Giants have called home from their inception in 1925 to the present, New York Giants, dated November 7, 2002. Accessed May 8, 2007. "The Giants shared the Polo Grounds with the New York Baseball Giants from the time they entered the league in 1925 until they moved to the larger Yankee Stadium for the start of the 1956 season."
  165. ^ Stadiums of The NFL: Shea Stadium, Stadiums of the NFL. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  166. ^ New York Americans, Sports Encyclopedia. Accessed May 8, 2007.
  167. ^ "A $4.5 Million Gamble", Time (magazine), June 30, 1975. Accessed September 24, 2007.
  168. ^ Collins, Glenn. " Built for Speed, And Local Pride; Track Stadium Emerges On Randalls Island", The New York Times, August 20, 2004. Accessed September 24, 2007.
  169. ^ "Mayor Michael Bloomberk, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and the Randall's Island Sports Foundation Name New York City's Newest Athletic Facility Icahn Stadium", Mayor of New York City press release, dated January 28, 2004. Accessed September 24, 2007.
  170. ^ New York City Newspapers and News Media, ABYZ News Links. Accessed May 1, 2007.
  171. ^ Jaker, Bill; Sulek, Frank; and Kanze, Peter"The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area", Google Book Search, p. 113. Accessed April 25, 2007.
  172. ^ President's Bio, WNYC, accessed May 1, 2007. "Heard by over 1.2 million listeners each week, WNYC radio is the largest public radio station in the country and is dedicated to producing broadcasting which extends New York City’s cultural riches to public radio stations nationwide."
  173. ^ Community Celebrates Public Access TV's 35th Anniversary, Manhattan Neighborhood Network press release dated August 6, 2006, accessed April 28, 2007. "Public access TV was created in the 1970s to allow ordinary members of the public to make and air their own TV shows—and thereby exercise their free speech. It was first launched in the U.S. in Manhattan July 1, 1971, on the Teleprompter and Sterling Cable systems, now Time Warner Cable."
  174. ^ Great Fire of 1776, City University of New York. Accessed April 30, 2007. "Some of Washington's advisors suggested burning New York City so that the British would gain little from its capture. This idea was abandoned and Washington withdrew his forces from the city on September 12, 1776. Three days later the British occupied the city and on September 21, a fire broke out in the Fighting Cocks Tavern. Without the city's firemen present and on duty, the fire quickly spread. A third of the city burnt and 493 houses destroyed."
  175. ^ Building the Lower East Side Ghetto, accessed April 30, 2007.
  176. ^ a b Peterson, Iver. "Tenements of 1880s Adapt to 1980s", The New York Times, January 3, 1988, accessed April 30, 2007. "Usually five stories tall and built on a 25-foot (7.6 m) lot, their exteriors are hung with fire escapes and the interiors are laid out long and narrow—in fact, the apartments were dubbed railroad flats."
  177. ^ a b Highlights of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, United States Department of Transportation. Accessed May 21, 2006.
  178. ^ "New York City Pedestrian Level of Service Study - Phase I, 2006", New York City Department of City Planning, April 2006, p. 4. Accessed May 17, 2007. "In the year 2000, 88% of workers over 16 years old in the U.S. used a car, truck or van to commute to work, while approximately 5% used public transportation and 3% walked to work.... In Manhattan, the borough with the highest population density (66,940 people/sq mi. in year 2000; 1,564,798 inhabitants) and concentration of business and tourist destinations, only 18% of the working population drove to work in 2000, while 72% used public transportation and 8% walked."
  179. ^ Congestion plan dies - NY1
  180. ^ How to Ride the Subway, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York). Accessed May 11, 2007.
  181. ^ PATH Rapid-Transit System: Fares and QuickCard, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Accessed March 6, 2008.
  182. ^ Metrocard, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York). Accessed May 11, 2007.
  183. ^ PATH Frequently Asked Questions, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, accessed April 28, 2007. "PATH will phase out QuickCard once the SmartLink Fare Card is introduced."
  184. ^ Bus Facts, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York), accessed May 11, 2007.
  185. ^ About the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission, accessed September 4, 2006.
  186. ^ Lee, Jennifer 8. "Midair Rescue Lifts Passengers From Stranded East River Tram", The New York Times, April 19, 2006. Accessed February 28, 2008. "The system, which calls itself the only aerial commuter tram in the country, has been featured in movies including City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal; Nighthawks, with Sylvester Stallone; and Spider-Man in 2002."
  187. ^ The Roosevelt Island Tram, Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, accessed April 30, 2007.
  188. ^ Facts About the Ferry, New York City Department of Transportation, accessed April 28, 2007. "A typical weekday schedule involves the use of five boats to transport approximately 65,000 passengers daily (110 daily trips). A four-boat (15 minute headway) rush hour schedule is maintained."
  189. ^ An Assessment of Staten Island Ferry Service and Recommendations for Improvement (PDF), New York City Council, November 2004, accessed April 28, 2007. ""Of the current fleet of seven vessels, five boats make 104 trips on a typical weekday schedule".
  190. ^ Holloway, Lynette. "Mayor to End 50-Cent Fare On S.I. Ferry", The New York Times, April 29, 1997, accessed April 28, 2007. "Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday that he would eliminate the 50-cent fare on the Staten Island Ferry starting July 4, saying people who live outside Manhattan should not have to pay extra to travel."
  191. ^ The MTA Network, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, accessed May 17, 2006.
  192. ^ Lincoln Tunnel Historic Overview, NYCRoads.com. Accessed April 28, 2007. "According to the Port Authority, the Lincoln Tunnel carries approximately 120,000 vehicles per day (AADT), making it the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world."
  193. ^ Queens-Midtown Tunnel, NYCRoads.com. Accessed April 27, 2007. "The twin-tube tunnel was completed on November 15, 1940. When it opened, it was the largest non-Federal project of its time."
  194. ^ "President the 'First' to Use Midtown Tube; Precedence at Opening Denied Hundreds of Motorists", The New York Times, November 9, 1940. p. 19.
  195. ^ Kennicott, Philip. "A Builder Who Went to Town: Robert Moses Shaped Modern New York, for Better and for Worse", The Washington Post, March 11, 2007, accessed April 30, 2007. "The list of his accomplishments is astonishing: seven bridges, 15 expressways, 16 parkways, the West Side Highway and the Harlem River Drive…"
  196. ^ Yu, Roger. Airport Check-in: Speedy service from Newark to Manhattan coming, USA Today, December 10, 2006. Accessed April 28, 2007.
  197. ^ "New York City’s Yellow Cabs Go Green" Sierra Club press release dated July 1, 2005. Accessed July 19, 2006.
  198. ^ "History of the Electric Power Industry", Edison Electric Institute. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  199. ^ Ray, C. Claiborne. "Q&A", The New York Times, May 12, 1992. Accessed May 16, 2007. "In a steam-powered system, the whole cycle of compression, cooling, expansion and evaporation takes place in a closed system, like that in a refrigerator or electrical air-conditioner. The difference, Mr. Sarno said, is that the mechanical power to run the compressor comes from steam-powered turbines, not electrical motors."
  200. ^ A brief history of con edison: steam, Consolidated Edison. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  201. ^ New York City's Water Supply System: History, New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Accessed September 5, 2006.
  202. ^ "Maintaining Water Quality that Satisfies Customers: New York City Watershed Agricultural Program." at the Internet Archive, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, November 20, 1998. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  203. ^ "2005 Drinking Water Supply and Quality Report", New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Accessed July 19, 2006.
  204. ^ Chan, Sewell. "Tunnelers Hit Something Big: A Milestone", The New York Times, August 10, 2006. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  205. ^ About DSNY, New York City Department of Sanitation, Accessed May 16, 2007.
  206. ^ Burger, Michael and Stewart, Christopher. "Garbage After Fresh Kills", Gotham Gazette, January 28, 2001. Accessed May 16, 2007.
  207. ^ New York: Education and Research, City Data. Accessed September 10, 2006.
  208. ^ Gootman, Elissa. "Back to School in a System Being Remade", The New York Times, September 5, 2006. Accessed May 11, 2007.
  209. ^ Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed a Bachelor's Degree, United States Census Bureau, accessed April 28, 2007.
  210. ^ McGeehan, Patrick. "New York Area Is a Magnet For Graduates", The New York Times, August 16, 2006. Accessed March 27, 2008. "In Manhattan, nearly three out of five residents were college graduates and one out of four had advanced degrees, forming one of the highest concentrations of highly educated people in any American city."
  211. ^ The City University of New York is the nation's largest urban public university, City University of New York, accessed April 27, 2007. "The City University of New York is the nation's largest urban public university…"
  212. ^ New York City Economic Development Corporation (2004-11-18). "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Economic Development Corporation President Andrew M. Alper Unveil Plans to Develop Commercial Bioscience Center in Manhattan". http://home2.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fhome2.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2004b%2Fpr310-04.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1. Retrieved on 2006-07-19. 
  213. ^ National Institutes of Health (2003). "NIH Domestic Institutions Awards Ranked by City, Fiscal Year 2003". http://grants.nih.gov/grants/award/trends/top100fy03.htm. Retrieved on 2007-03-26. 
  214. ^ "Nation's Largest Libraries". LibrarySpot. http://www.libraryspot.com/lists/listlargestlibs.htm. Retrieved on 2007-06-06. 
  215. ^ The Central Libraries, New York Public Library. Accessed June 6, 2007.
  216. ^ Manhattan Map, New York Public Library. Accessed June 6, 2006.
  217. ^ manhattanize - Definitions from Dictionary.com
  218. ^ "Skyscrapers Soaring in San Francisco". Washington Post. June 29, 1969. 

[edit] External links

Manhattan local government and services
Maps, streets, and neighborhoods
Historical references
Historical geography
Community discussions

Coordinates: 40°43′42″N 73°59′39″W / 40.72833°N 73.99417°W / 40.72833; -73.99417

Personal tools