
#redirect New York City
''Old talk moved to:'' * /Archive 1 * Talk:New York City/Archive 2 (title of article) * Talk:New York City/Archive 3 * Talk:New York City/Archive 4 == Adjusting history section == I changed the wording of the history summary slightly regarding Native Americans. I thought the existing wording could be read to imply that we only know about Native American inhabitants because of the archaeological evidence, which is obviously not true. I linked explicity to Lenape, and I also threw in a mention of Giovanni da Verrazano and Henry Hudson, since it seemed to be that even summary of NYC history would be lacking without a mention of them. -- User:Decumanus 03:29, 2005 Mar 22 (UTC) == Skyline pic == I'd like to restore the picture that had been in the "Skyline" section, and remove the pic of Columbia University (which I had added myself last week). In terms of relevance to the article, I think this is a better way of prioritizing. It's also a nice picture to close the article with. --User:Jleon 14:00, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) : I like the idea of a skyline photo, but maybe we could find a more recent one? The skyline looks kinda different now. User:PZFUN 02:34, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::How the hell can you have an article on NYC without a photo of the Trade Centers both standing and collapsed! That attack made such a major impact to life in the city, and the nation in general. 02:45, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Manhattan-centric photos == ::the reason all the pics are of Manhattan is because the tourists who are going on vaccation, then posting these pics are afraid to leave manhattan --I think User:JimWae made a very good point in the earlier discussion about how all of the photos here are of Manhattan. I think a big part of the problem is that there are hardly any photos even in the boroughs' respective articles. Does anyone have any good pics of the other boroughs that they can share? If not, perhaps I'll take some myself in the coming weeks. --User:Jleon 16:36, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) : I just looked through all of the photos that I have in iPhoto, and I don't have ''any'' from outside of Manhattan. I'm actually really surprised about that. I have a couple of AirTrain, but I don't think those would help the New York City article. I can go out and take some tomorrow, but I think its supposed to snow. Maybe one of Grand Army Plaza? Williamsburg Bridge? User:PZFUN 02:34, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) Some ideas from --User:JimWae 03:07, 2005 Mar 23 (UTC) : * Photos: Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, Rockaway, JFK airport, Unisphere, Bronx Zoo, Archie Bunker's neighborhood (shows there are residential areas), Whitestone Bridge, commuters on Staten Island Ferry, Verrazano Narrows, Bronx blight, people fishing from a pier (somewhere?), some industry, a traffic jam on LIE - one or 2 that show NYC is a place where people live & do not immediately scream "NYC is unique". * How about NewYearsEve@TimesSquare, Rockefeller Xmas tree, neighborhood celebrations, kids playing stickball, sightseeing tours, parades * for lists- how about movies & TV shows shot in NYC? Famous NYC artists * Article will likely still focus a lot on Manhattan - but link to that article should be prominent at top. * Manhattan article photo suggestions: Washington Square Arch, Wall Street (indoors), people jogging on seawall. -- I live on University Place, so I will try to walk the two blocks (how horrible!) to Washington Square to get some photos fo the arch tomorrow. User:PZFUN 03:25, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) Some alternatives: Brooklyn *:Image:DSCN3630 brooklynskyline e.JPG *:Image:Coney-Island-Boardwalk.jpg *:Image:Green-Market-Grand-Army-Plaza-Large.jpg *:Image:Grand-Army-Plaza-Arch.jpg Staten Island *:Image:Verrazano-Narrows-Bridge.jpg (also Brooklyn) *:Image:Statenisland.JPG Queens *:Image:Unisphere.jpg *:Image:JamaicaBay.jpeg (also Brooklyn) General *:Image:MARTHACOOPERsubwayart.jpg (nice book cover) *:Image:New York area.PNG (yes, I know it's Hudson County, trouble uploading revised version) *:Image:DSCN3629 earphonesboy e.JPG (trans-borough) --User:Pharos 03:21, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::I have many, many photos of Staten Island, some of which I get around to uploading in the near future, and also many of Brooklyn street festivals. There are probably at least a few decent ones in the bunch. -- User:Decumanus 03:52, 2005 Mar 23 (UTC) I've got some neat photos I took from the air of Central Park (with Christo's Gates) that I'd be happy to upload, but I'm afraid I'm not sure how that works. Can somebody point me in the right direction for instructions to upload pix? --User:RoySmith 02:25, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) *OK, I figured it out on my own :-) I've downloaded :Image:CentralParkWithGatesFrom2000feet.jpg. I'm open to suggestions as to where it would best be used. Could work for New York City, Central Park, or even The Gates. My personal preference would be New York City User:RoySmith 04:12, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) **There's no reason an image can't be used on multiple articles. This a a great and rather illustrative shot of Central Park and definitely belongs on that page, and probably on The Gates as well. I'm not sure though if there's a section it would fit in for New York City and certainly the Midtown skyscrapers also in the image are not underrepresented here.--User:Pharos 04:27, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Culture of New Yorkers== ::How exactly is the culture section complete?? It says rude, self centered, and then goes on to talk about upstate new york????? I mostly finished my condensing here and I think trimmed it by 50%. The only thing I didn't keep was the ref to Robert Moses. It really fits better under history or infrastructure or somewhere else anyway, so let's get it in there. User:Kaisershatner 16:55, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) --OK, I added a mention of him in the history section. I'm surprised I had overlooked his absence before, altough he is found in the main history article. --User:Jleon 17:10, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) == New York City related topics box == I appreciate the effort to summarize, but isn't this just duplicating the purpose of :Category:New York City, and then in a non-hierarchical, limited, and arbitrary way? All of these topics, and many more, are already categorized in an broader organized structure.--User:Pharos 03:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) : Not really. This gives a fairly clear idea of some of the major topics that are available about NYC, and tables like this are used all over the place on other country and city articles. User:PZFUN 03:47, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) We should list a few major topics like at :Template:Life in the United States, (History of, Geography of, Culture of, Economy of etc.) but it doesn't make much sense to replicate a somewhat random portion of topics in the categories, like including the International Center of Photography, but not say, the Brooklyn Museum. There are hundreds of these specific topics, and listing just a few will always be arbitrary.--User:Pharos 04:16, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Image Clean Up Vote == I propose we take a vote about how to either clean up or replace the images on this page. I'm going to list all the current images on the NYC article below, and then I think we should discuss whether or not they should stay on the page or if we should find better quality images of the same thing to replace them, or replace them entirely. Or, alternatively, move then to other parts of the article. This is to help us make room for more non-Manhattan images, and to streamline the images on the page to make sure they're exactly what we want. ===== :Image:Midtownnyc4.jpg ===== I quite like this image, the only issue is that it seems very similar to Image:Midtownsouthnyc.jpg, so perhaps we might want to decide which one to use and replace one? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Uss_los_angeles_airship.jpg ===== I like this one, but I also think that there should be some images of earlier NEw York. Maybe some paintings? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Constructempire.gif ===== I'm not sure this image is necessary, it seems more appropriate for the Empire State Building Wiki. I think that we should have some other 1930's-1960's images of New York, perhaps some from another borough? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I think the one problem with the two history photos is that they are from the same time period. Although I like both of them, maybe we could replace one of them with a painting of the city from the 1700s or 1800s. That would provide a much better contrast with the modern-day photos. --User:Jleon 14:17, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Midtownsouthnyc.jpg ===== This is a really nice image, but my only concern is that it is very similar to Midtownnyc4.jpg. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I really like the fact that we use both because it provides something of a panorama of the city. Only including one of them would be excluding a lot of valuable visual info about the layout of the city. --User:Jleon 14:02, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Usgs_photo_five_boroughs.jpg ===== This is helpful to explain the geography of the boroughs, but maybe it should be more detailed and larger? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :I spent a lot of time making these series of images for the New York articles. They are already 300px, the standard size we tend use for inline maps in Wikipedia, and which is pretty much the upper limit for width in an article (note I generally make maps for viewing in line, not as thumbnails to be enlarged and viewed on the image page itself). I don't think any more detail should appear in the wording, since it would become quite crowded, and harder to read. I experimented quite a bit optimal size of text, amount, etc., to remain uncluttered and found, for my purposes, that this worked best, to emphasize the boroughs and the contrast between land and waterways. I would not be adverse to a more detailed image in addition to this, for parts of the city, but anything on a finer grained scale is going to wind up not taking in the five boroughs. -- User:Decumanus 05:10, 2005 Mar 23 (UTC) ===== :Image:City_Hall_2.jpg ===== This is one GREAT image! User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Ny.terra.600pix.jpg ===== I like this, but maybe we should have a few photos of the geographic features of New York (Colisters, the seashore, Palisades) instead of this? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --A lot of people who come across this article may know nothing about NY's geography, and while the map above it shows the political and basic geographical boundaries, this picture shows the extent of urban development, as well as the location of major parks. It's also the best satellite image of the city I've personally ever seen. --User:Jleon 21:13, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Newyorkstreetscene.JPG ===== I'm really not sure that this is the best image that to be here. I think maybe we should get some photos of Flushing, or maybe Chinatown or Little India. But that street scene isn't particularly diverse in my opinoin. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --The resolution of the pic is a little too low, but I think it is very diverse. A pic from Flushing or Chinatown would likely be predominately asians, not a true image of a melting pot like this one. --User:Jleon 13:46, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :How would a photo from Chinatown or Flushing be diverse?? They'd all be from the same race. The point of this photo is that New York is a melting pot in which people of all races interact with and are surrounded by each other. The photo is pretty diverse, in my opinion, and pretty typical of a Manhattan street scene. It's good to have photos of people on a page with lots of photos of things. User:Moncrief 21:38, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:New_York_Stock_Exchange_Flags.jpg ===== Great image, but maybe some images of Wall Street would be better? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --An image of the exchange that included some of the street probably would be better. --User:Jleon 13:49, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:OrchardandRivington.JPG ===== I really dislike this image. I think there are some instances in the Lower East Side of more traditonal housing stock so that you can really see the architectural detail. The building on the corner is a new building. Maybe we should try and get some other images from the Lower East Side, or maybe some of "SoHo"-style buildings? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :An encyclopedia is meant to reflect what is. If there are new buildings in the LES, and there are, then why not include new buildings in a photo of the neighborhood? That being said, it's not a particularly remarkable image so why not take a better one of your own? User:Moncrief 21:38, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC) --To be honest, I can tell you that isn't even a new building anyway. Its exterior certainly looks refurbished, but new residential buildings in NYC never have fire escapes, and you can tell by the window insets that very think masonry was used in its construction. Personally, I think the photo is just fine, but one of SoHo could be just as good. --User:Jleon 01:55, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Libertyskyline.PNG ===== This is a great image, I'm not too concerned about the "brownness" at the end. Maybe this is the one that should go in the introparagraph? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --The two things that take up the majority of space on this photo are water and sky and it is somewhat misleading for it to be placed as a "skyline" photo since it is only of Lower Manhattan. --User:Jleon 13:55, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:HarlemBrownstones.JPG ===== I like the idea of this image, but I think we could try to get some photos that aren't at sunset, because this one is very dark. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Empirestatebldg.jpg ===== A great image, but I think it could be made smaller. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:MET_NYC.jpg ===== This is a fantastic image, I love it. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Timessquare.jpg ===== Hmm.... I'm not too sure about this one. Maybe a photograph of that crazy corner with the Washington Mutual ad with the giant beanstock on 42nd and 8th would be better, because its much brighter. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I think we should have another pic of Times Square, but I think its essential for it to be of the Crossroads, not of 8th avenue. I think it'd be nicer to have a daytime photo too. --User:Jleon 14:27, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Yankee_stadium.jpg ===== I like this, maybe we could try to find an image of the outside of a stadium during the day time? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I was thinking the exact same thing myself. --User:Jleon 13:58, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Grand_central_terminal_exterior.jpg ===== I like this one too, but I also think it would be really helpful to have a photograph of the interior of the station itself. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --A nice interior shot probably would be better, since that is what most people see when they think of Grand Central. --User:Jleon 15:53, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::Good luck with that. If you can take a beautiful one, then you are a true master. From my experience, the light inside is quite dim with those dull yellow walls, and photography that captures the essence of the interior space is very tricky. There's a reason the classic high-contrast [http://www.afterimagegallery.com/nytgrandcentral.htm light streaming through the windows] shot from the New York Times you see in posters are so enduring in their appeal (BTW taken 1935, so under copyright). -- User:Decumanus 02:23, 2005 Mar 25 (UTC) ===== :Image:South_ferry.jpg ===== I really like the idea of this image, but I think perhaps we could do something like have an image of Union Square at rush hour, because you can look down from the mezzanine and see all the people. Or, if we want to concentrate on "outer borough images", maybe one of Boro Hall station? --I agree. The chain-link barriers in this photo are not at all represenative of the subway system and you can't even see any people on the platform. It's definetly not an informative image for people who have never been to NYC. --User:Jleon 13:41, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) A few possible views (larger versions available, or someone could go get a photo): *[http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0300/ny0387/photos/120111pv.jpg 23rd Street on the Lexington Avenue Line] (clearly shows wide track area - I rather like this one) *[http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0300/ny0387/photos/120124pv.jpg 72nd Street on the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line] *[http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0300/ny0387/photos/120147pv.jpg 181st Street on the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line] (cool-looking but not really representative) A view of an island platform (between parallel tracks) might be good. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 07:21, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Taxis_NYC.jpg ===== I'll try to take an image of taxi's going down Fifth Avenue to try to hit two birds with oen stone, an image of 5th Ave (big landmark) as well as the taxis. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Midtown.jpg ===== I think this image is just too old. The skyline has changed quite a bit since then. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --It's true this pic is very old. From this particular vantage point what's notably missing is the Time Warner Center, Worldwide Plaza, and the Conde Nast HQ. I think once the NY Times building is completed it will be impossible to use this pic. I've scoured the NYC-related articles in the other major languages of wiki and couldn't find any Midtown river-view pics better than this one. An East-river view would probably be even better than this too. --User:Jleon 13:37, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Article Length== After several rounds of editing (and just now moving huge sections of Talk to an archive) I see no sig. change in article size. I'm no expert on this, but I'm guessing it's because of the images. Is that true? Is the best way to cut the article size for us to resolve the picture-related discussion as above? Just wondering. User:Kaisershatner 15:32, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --My understanding of wiki (and I could be wrong about this), is that the photos don't add anything to the number of kilobytes taken up by the article other than the simple coding in the edit box that puts them there. This would be on account of the pictures already being saved on wiki's servers, and therefore the article merely contains the instructions to display pics that are saved elsewhere. I think what takes up the memeory is only the number of characters within the edit box. Anyway, your condensing did put the article under 60k, so I think that's a good start. --User:Jleon 15:44, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Revert it!== I think I accidentally doubled the page size and I can't revert due to access problems. Help! User:Kaisershatner 15:04, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC) --After a couple of tries I think I got it fixed now, I've had this happen before where it just inexplicably duplicates portions of the article. You may want to go in though and make sure all of the recent changes you were making are still there. --User:Jleon 15:32, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Photos (again)== I LOVE the new history photo, JLeon - very evocative and a nice addition, imo. Can anyone take some photos of sights and scenes in the outer boroughs and put them on this site? Someone mentioned well above that the photos on this page are Manhattan-centric and that is completely true. This is a page about the whole city, not just Manhattan. I'd say crib them from the Brooklyn, Queens etc pages but they are not very rich with photos either. It's fun to have photos you've taken on Wikipedia! I'd do it myself but I'm 3000 miles away. Just a thought -- because this page really needs outer-borough photographic representation (as do the individual outer borough pages for that matter). User:Moncrief 21:30, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC) I've brought this up on the various photo request pages, but no luck. This shouldn't be too hard; can someone get a photo of a subway sign with a bunch of services, possibly at the Times Square mess? A rollsign on a car might also be nice; I'm thinking about photos to add to New York City Subway line, route and station nomenclature. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 15:09, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Reiterating my wish that someone would take some Outer Borough photos for this page. Help! It's really embarassingly Manhattan-centric. User:Moncrief 06:51, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC) --I think I'll go and take some photos of Jackson Heights this weekend. Thats the best possible locale I can think of for this. --User:Jleon 12:32, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Yay! Thanks. User:Moncrief 18:54, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC) --Ok, I have the pics of Jackson Heights. I want to give them a quick run-through on Photoshop first, so I should be posting them sometime in the next few days. I'll put one each on the Queens and Jackson Heights articles too. --User:Jleon 13:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Taxi rates== The article states: >As of May 2004, fares begin at $2.50 ($3.00 after 8 pm, and $3.50 during peak, weekday hours). Prices increase based on time elapsed and distance traveled. Is this still the correct fare scale? If so, "May 2004" should be replaced with "March 2005" or "early 2005." If not, the date should be changed and the fare scale corrected. It's no good having a reference to "May 2004" in there today. It's from the "Taxis" section of the article. User:Moncrief 03:00, Mar 25, 2005 (UTC) == "Largest" vs. "most populous" == --When talking about American cities (or even international ones for that matter) the terms "largest," "biggest," etc. are used universally in place of "most populous." It's just inconceivable to think that someone would become confused by us using "largest" in this article, so I truly believe we should change it back. --User:Jleon 23:23, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC) *It's far from inconceivable, though not as likely as when saying "Russia is the largest country". "Most populous" is unambiguous & "largest" is not. --User:JimWae 01:33, 2005 Mar 26 (UTC) --Well cities are thought of as population centers, not as vast areas of land like a country. Also, when the metropolitan area is considered, NYC is certainly the largest geographic urbanized area in the country (with LA being a close but definite second). Anyone misinformed enough to be confused about "largest" probably wouldn't even understand the word "populous" anyway. --User:Jleon 03:34, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) *Juneau, Alaska is the largest city in area in the USA. Juneau includes a 3081 square miles (composed of 2,593.6 mi2 of land and 487.6 mi2 of water.) The city is larger than the state of Delaware. Non-US people cannot be expected to know what US people know. Changing it to "most populated" would be OK with me. --User:JimWae 04:36, 2005 Mar 26 (UTC) **As I see it, there's no good reason not to use the most accurate word. Let's go with "most populous".--User:Pharos 04:40, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) ***Agreed. "Most populous" is unambiguous and clear. "Most populated" sounds bad. —User:Lowellian (User talk:Lowellian) 01:32, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC) For a bit of international flavour, I can report that in Australia "largest" when talking about cities refers to population, not the geographic spread of the city. - User:Mark 06:19, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Current Issues, Getting ready to resub yet?== I exported large sections of Talk to Archive 4. In almost all cases they were issues that were 100% resolved and not ongoing. I moved out one section pertaining to pictures since it duplicated the greater debate about pictures which I left on this active talk page. Recently, I think we've been drifting up in size. Maybe we should focus on final cleaning? Remove the red links, add more footnotes. Resolve the photo debate. Also, I think whomever pointed out that we should have a 9/11 picture, or a pre-9/11 pic of the WTC, is correct. It's one of the single most important moments in the history of the city. The stock market crash might be the only other with the same importance (IMO). User:Kaisershatner 20:03, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Official name? == The article starts out with "New York City (officially named the City of New York)", but I'm thinking it would be more correct to have The City of New York. That's the way the NYC official web page [http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?front_door=true] seems to do it (see, for example, the copyright notice at the bottom of that page). User:RoySmith 02:54, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Most Skyscrapers == I was wondering if anyone can check the facts on the statement that NYC has the largest collection of skyscrapers in the world. I think Shanghai might have surpassed us in the past few years. A BBC article from 9/13/03 says of Shanghai that "at least 3,000 high-rise buildings have gone up; another 2,000 are on the drawing-boards". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3105948.stm I don't think we have anything approaching 5,000 high-rises in NYC, but I haven't counted. "High rise" probably includes buildings shorter than skyscrapers, anyway. The Wikipedia article on skyscrapers suggests 152 meters as the minimum height to be a skyscraper. Sources seem to use all different kinds of criteria. Skyscraperpage.com lists only 246 "buildings" for Shanghai (less than one tenth the number cited by BBC), and of these only 56 exceed the 152-meter minimum. (New York is listed as number 1 with 683 "buildings", of which 186 exceed the 152-meter minimum.) http://www.skyscraperpage.com/cities/ Emporis' list of the 200 tallest buildings includes 27 NYC buildings and only 12 in Shanghai: http://www.emporis.com/en/bu/sk/st/tp/wo/ But I don't know how to explain the above data in light of the BBC article, unless the study cited by the BBC includes much shorter buildings (like 2 stories). If anyone can resolve these discrepancies and confirm/correct the statement about NYC's collection of skyscrapers, I'd be interested. --User:Nomenclaturist 02:34, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC) -- It really is amazing to see the huge differences in how these lists can be made. It's hard to believe that the SkyscraperPage would say that LA and Toronto have more high-rises that Shanghai. The number from the BBC article also seems somewhat incredible; if they're talking about buildings over a height of 60 feet or so, then Tokyo and Sao Paolo would probably be contenders as well. I've also seen some counts that place Hong Kong as having the most number of high-rises but it appeared to be from a very convoluted definition of "high rise." My feeling is that the higher the threshold of what you consider to be a "skyscraper" is, the more NYC would come out on top. Shanghai is probably the only place that ''could'' surpass NYC in the near future, but it doesn't look to me like it has happened just yet. --User:Jleon 13:44, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Demographics, Jewish Community== I reverted the changes by 62.161.27.52; first of all, thanks for providing an updated reference estimate of the Jewish population. Second, I'd encourage you to get a user ID, makes editing and conflict resolution much easier. With respect to your change, while the detail about the declining Jewish population is correct, I think it belongs in an article about the history of the Jews of New York. User:Kaisershatner 18:20, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC) Hi, I agree that it belongs also to an article about the history of the Jews of New York. But it also belongs to New York demographics, because the plumeting of the number of jews in NYC, and the white flight in general, is a key to understand NYC demographics. 62.161.27.52 (I've got some problems with User ID (my conexion is very slow), that's why I don't it anymore. Ps : Sorry for my English, I'm not a native speaker --But how can we put historical demographic trends for one ethnic group without having to include all major groups? This has come up before when someone was trying to write about the suburbanization of Italians in the "Demographics" section. Historical trends are too large a topic to even be touched on in a small section like that. Besides, what evidence is there to support your numbers? I'm sure the number of Jews declined in the 1970s and 80s, but one of the largest immigrant groups during the 90s were Russian Jews who now make up nearly half a million people in Brooklyn & Queens. There has also been a surge in the Hasidic population in Williamsburg, and an influx of Uzbek Jews in Kew Gardens. I really doubt the number is half it was in the 1950s. --User:Jleon 13:50, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---But we don't have any article about Ethnics groups in New York City, so my idea was to put informations about them in the Demographics section of the article, before somebody tries to create a real article. But maybe you're right, and I'll try this afternoon to create an article "Ethnics groups in New York City". 62.161.27.52 ---Etnic groups in NYC? There may not be enough disk space to cover them all :-) --User:RoySmith 14:25, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---The article "New York demographics" is not done yet. Can we put informations about NYC ethnic groups in that article ? Because NYC demographics are nothing but the demographics of its different communities. 62.161.27.52 14:42, 12 April 2005 (UTC) ::62.161.27.52, thanks again for your contribution. I expanded the Demographics of New York City article, so if you want to work on that, it is probably a good home for the information you had put into the main article. User:Kaisershatner 18:47, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Redirect verbiage == Do we really need all of: NYC redirects here. For other uses, see NYC (disambiguation). New York, New York redirects here. For other uses, see New York, New York (disambiguation). This article refers to the city of New York in the state of New York in the United States. For other uses see New York (disambiguation). At the beginning? I understand the desire to make sure people find the article they're looking for, but the final result is a jumble of italic text that distracts the reader from the heart of the New York City article. Sometimes being correct is not the same as being useful --User:RoySmith 13:03, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC) --I agree completely, at a certain point it just becomes overkill. --User:Jleon 13:24, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC) :These are useful for people that type the things that redirect here, though I do agree that the condensed way it is now is better. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 00:42, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==NYWiki== Am I just out of it that I didn't know about the [http://www.nywiki.com/new-york-city/index.php/NYWiki:About NYWiki] site? (Probably, and that's okay). It's a pretty great site with a lot of information. Check it out if you don't know about it (perhaps some of you started it...) User:Moncrief 00:25, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC) == The new pics. == -Well I uploaded a total of four new pics of Jackson Heights today. One of them is here, and there's one each under Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, and the New York City Subway. I didn't neccessarily want to replace this article's pic of Harlem, but I thought that was a good place for the new one to go since its within the "culture" section and right next to the paragraph on gentrification. I also have about two dozen other pictures of JH I took on Sunday which I could try out if anyone is unhappy with the ones I posted. --User:Jleon 13:46, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC) :YAY! Non-Manhattan photographic representation in the NYC article! Thanks so much for doing that. Personally I like the photo you put on the Jackson Heights page the best - I like photos where you can see people and what a typical street looks like. The photo here is great (the elevated subway tracks, the storefronts), but it looks a little unclear until you click on it and the foreground has all those cars in it. This is not a big deal and it's your call, but I do like the street-scene photo with the people even better. Either way, thanks. User:Moncrief 17:51, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC) --OK, I went back into photoshop and recropped the image to eliminate some of the visual clutter. Its very difficult to get any nice photos of Roosevelt Avenue because of the elevated subway and the street traffic, but it really is the focal point of the neighborhood. --User:Jleon 18:24, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Looks good, Jleon. Thanks! I went to Jackson Heights and Roosevelt Avenue last summer when I was in NYC and had a look around. Fascinating area. User:Moncrief 02:43, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) ==Requested move== New York City to New York, New York to comply with city naming standards and also to please those straight-laced people who belive all cities should be city, state in the U.S. -- User:Dralwik 00:42, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) Voting over – see decision below ===Support=== #Strongly support returning the only US city exception to the defacto cityname, statename convention (which has recently also been adopted for all Australian cities except their 5-10 capitals). User:Niteowlneils 01:20, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #I vote in Support of a move. User:WhisperToMe 03:09, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ===Oppose=== #Oppose. I think applying this naming convention uniformly to major cities is unfortunate (and most unfortunate with this most major of cities). I think the name of the city alone should suffice; there isn't a disabmbiguation issue. So in my ideal Wikipedia, the non re-directed article title would be simply "Detroit" instead of Detroit, Michigan and so on for U.S. cities without dab issues that are over, say, 500,000 in population. If, for example, UK cities can get by with article titles of single town names like Kenilworth even for lesser cities, why not major U.S. cities too? A long way of saying: Oppose. User:Moncrief 01:40, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. It's ''actually called'' New York City. That should be enough. "New York, New York" is the postal address of New York County (Manhattan).--User:Pharos 02:32, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose Leisure outpacing sense once again. Think of the reader. --User:Wetman 02:43, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. (P.S. Kenilworth isn't a City status in the United Kingdom.) User:Proteus User_talk:Proteus 11:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Strongly oppose- This is completely redundant for a number of reasons. This is the rare (if not only) instance in which the name of the state is ''contained'' within the name of the city. Add to that the fact that the name of the city is "New York City" not "New York, New York." This is a clear case in which needless technicalities end up hurting the experience for the reader. I didn't raise too much of a fuss over this discussion with Chicago, but now I wish I had. Why don't you start in with Mexico City, London, Tokyo and Paris too? --User:Jleon 12:39, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose The word "City" is necessary to prevent confusion with New York State; what confusion is adding the state name preventing? User:Donald Friedman 13:33, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) #Oppose The "use most common name" is more important than the city name policy, which isn't really supported by consensus. We've been through this before, and all other title suggestions for this page are inferior to "New York City", because ''everyone calls it New York City.'' Even the [http://www.nyc.gov official New York City website], which is at nyc.gov (standing for New York City) says "Welcome to the official New York City Web site. All other names for the city are restricted to limited contexts in actual usage. The only unambiguous and generic name for the city is "New York City". User:Nohat 17:43, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. It's a city. People call it New York City. It's not New York State. Relatively few people call it New York, New York, unless they're writing a postal address or singing along with the old Sinatra tune. 22:59, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. During the last round of debate, I was ambivalent about the choices, but since then, I have come to feel that "New York City" is definitely the best title for this article. -- User:Decumanus 01:21, 2005 Apr 29 (UTC) #Oppose. Oh no, not this old chestnut again! User:Jdforrester User_talk:Jdforrester 01:51, 2 May 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. Would cause further confusion with the same-named county --User:Berkut 07:41, 2 May 2005 (UTC) ===Other=== #Abstain. I'm going to go off in left field here and say that I think the article should just be called "New York". It may not be the official name, and it may not match some naming convention, but it's what most people call it, and thus it's what most people are most likely to type into the search box to find it. And they'll be surprised to find an article about New York State there, and it'll be two more clicks before they get past the referenced disambig page to where they were looking to be in the first place. But I imagine I'm in the minority on this, so I think I'm just going to Abstain. --User:RoySmith 02:41, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ===Discussion=== I would argue that it is not even necessary to gain consensus to move it back, as it was moved ''to'' "New York City" without consensus (the only poll I found from that time period ended up a virtual tie, 17-15). User:Niteowlneils 01:20, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) :As an editor, I find the convention saves a lot of time. I can type Puyallup, Washington or Miami, Florida without having to take the time to check if the article is actually ''there''. User:Niteowlneils 02:49, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) Also, I believe formal uses (ie written) should out-weigh informal (ie verbal/IM/Text msging) ::What if you don't KNOW what state the place is in? Lots of people might know a city name without knowing the state name, particularly though not exclusively non-U.S. users. Anyway, this isn't the place to debate the general Wikipedia policy, just the NYC article. User:Moncrief 02:52, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) :::There's always the disambiguation page. User:WhisperToMe 03:09, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) Whoever is voting here should be aware that "New York, New York", is basically ''never'' used around the city.--User:Pharos 03:28, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::::Nor is it used around the country (see my comments below). User:Moncrief 03:29, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) ---- I think applying this naming convention uniformly to major cities is unfortunate (and most unfortunate with this most major of cities). I think the name of the city alone should suffice; there isn't a disabmbiguation issue. So in my ideal Wikipedia, the non re-directed article title would be simply "Detroit" instead of Detroit, Michigan and so on for U.S. cities without dab issues that are over, say, 500,000 in population. If, for example, UK cities can get by with article titles of single town names like Kenilworth even for lesser cities, why not major U.S. cities too? A long way of saying: Oppose. User:Moncrief 01:40, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) :That has been rejected recently at Talk:Chicago%2C_Illinois#Name_format and Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_%28city_names%29#New_proposal (proposal started with a 500k cut-off) and probably other places in the past. User:Niteowlneils 02:26, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Isn't that unfortunate? How many international users are going to think to type in "Chicago, Illinois" if they want to read the article on Chicago? (And I do know that "Chicago" redirects there and not a dab page; I think instead "Chicago, Illinois" should redirect to "Chicago"). Now that I'm aware this debate has been going on, I'll be sure to add my two cents to it throughout Wikipedia. User:Moncrief 02:28, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) I reopened the debate at Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_%28city_names%29#New_proposal. Please help!User:Dralwik 14:34, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ---- It's ''actually called'' New York City. That should be enough. "New York, New York" is the postal address of New York County (Manhattan).--User:Pharos 02:32, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) :It may be most often "actually called" "New York City" in and around New York, but I don't believe that holds true in the rest of the country. User:Niteowlneils 02:49, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::So what do you think other Americans actually call it? "New York, New York"? If I heard someone saying that (and I live 3000 miles from NYC), I'd think they were talking about the Frank Sinatra song. What else other than "New York City" or just "New York" do you think people call the place? People in the NYC area tend to call NYC (or at least Manhattan) "the city"; in the rest of the country, we certainly don't say "New York, New York"! User:Moncrief 02:57, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) :Pharos' point is important. So I will put it in bold: the name \"New York, New York\" is not an acceptable title because it is ambiguous. It is the postal address of only the borough of Manhattan and not the rest of the city. Only the name \"New York City\" unambiguously refers to the entire city. Application of the so-called preemptive disambiguation policy in this case actually results in a title that is more ambiguous, not less. User:Nohat ---- Wikipedia:Naming conventions (city names)#United States and Canada says: :''Cities in the United States and Canada, however, will be disambiguated with a format ofCity, State or City, Province (the "comma convention"). Over 30,000 U.S. city articles are already in the form of "City, State" even if they do not need disambiguation. Those U.S. cities which need additional disambiguation will be disambiguated with their County (e.g. Elgin, Lancaster County, South Carolina and Elgin, Kershaw County, South Carolina).
::''There is some dispute as to the general applicability of this convention and no real consensus to support it. See the Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (city names).
--User:Philip Baird Shearer 11:04, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
:Philip's point is important. There is in fact no real consensus to support the policy other than the fact that Rambot enacted the policy in ''de facto'' way by creating many thousands of aticles that adhered to it. There was a poll on whether to adopt the policy, and only 4 people voted on it, hardly enough to constitute consensus, regardless of the outcome. There are so many downsides to adopting an alternate name for this page that adheres to this "policy", and the only upside as far as I can tell would be the dubious benefit of "consistency". User:Nohat 17:56, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
----
--Here's another very important reason why I'm opposed to all of this: automatic redirects might seem like rather inocuous things at first, however, many people don't seem to understand that redirects are routed through Wiki's search protocol. If you don't believe me try typing in one of the things that redirects to the New York City article now and see how much longer it takes for the article to appear than if you just typed in "New York City." This article is viewed by thousands of people every month, and forcing the vast majority of them through the delays associated with the redirects is just plain wrong. Also, the countless articles throughout Wikipedia that have "New York City" hotlinked would also experience these same delays as well. --User:Jleon 17:34, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
:Unfortunately, since searches elsewhere are not case-sensitive, people will type "new york city", and still be piped thru a redirect, rendering this argument largely moot. User:Niteowlneils 20:24, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
--Its not a moot point for the hundreds (thousands?) of articles that link to "New York City." Besides I would presume the case sensitivity issue is something that will be fixed much sooner than the redirect issue. --User:Jleon 20:30, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
===Decision===
User:Violetriga User_talk:violetriga 15:24, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
== Bizarre vandalism ==
Does anybody know what's happening with this page? It appears to have been vandalized, but it's more than that. I've made several attempts to revert it, and I just get the vandalized text back. It looks like other people have had the same experience. Very strange --User:RoySmith 01:31, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
:Appending "?action=purge" to the URL fixed it. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 01:50, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
What caused this? Was it some clever vandal-hacking, or just some strange glitch in the wiki software? --User:RoySmith 13:18, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
== Consulates associated with the UN ==
The lead paragraph contains the sentence:
:''and the hundreds of international consulates associated with the United Nations''
My understanding is that consulates deal with commercial and passport type issues, are unlikely to have any involvement with the UN, and there are presumably lots of them in New York because it has lots of people and lots of business. Those consulates would be subordinate to a country's 'Ambassador to the United States' based in Washington.
Dealing with the UN would however be the responsibility of a separate 'Ambassador to the United Nations'. Not sure whether this means countries actually maintain 'Embassies to the United Nations' in New York, but it seems likely for at least the larger countries. -- User:Chris j wood 19:44, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
--You're right they are embassies, not consulates. NYC has most of the international consulates for the US as well but they are not directly related to the UN. I'll go in and fix. --User:Jleon 20:21, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
== explanation for extra spaces ==
I created a lot of extra spaces because the photos and tables mismatch with the text with a 17 inch screen (mine).
User:Revas 3:30 (CET) 14/05/05
--Hmm, thats weird. I have viewed this article today on two different screens (one of them 17in.) with two different browsers and I didn't see any problem. I think this may come down to your settings for text display. Does anyone else experience these problems? --User:Jleon 01:37, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
== Visibility of contents ==
(copied from user talk pages -- User:Chris j wood 19:14, 13 May 2005 (UTC))
Hi, what was your intention of breaking apart the intro just to add the heading "overview"? I think its pretty clear that for most large city articles the intro serves ''as'' the overview. I've also never heard of what you're calling the "convential position" of having those separate, and I think the article looks much worse now. --User:Jleon 18:21, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
:Firstly let me congratulate you on your speedy response. I've actually yet to see the results of my edit (apart from the pre-save preview) as all Wikipedia will give me is ''Sorry- we have a problem... The wikimedia web server didn't return any response to your request.''
:However the intention was not about breaking up anything, but rather about making sure that the contents were shown in a rational place in the article. When I first looked at the article, viewing full screen on a 17" monitor with medium sized font, I couldn't even tell that it had a contents list, and I therefore assumed it was a fairly short and lightweight article. Obviously I was sufficiently motivated to scroll down and find that wasn't true, but other readers may not. The contents list performs an important 'selling' task in giving the reader a quick view of how comprehensive the article is, but only if readers don't have to scroll to see it.
:Or to put it another way, here is what the Wikipedia:Manual of Style has to say about the lead section:
::The lead section is the section before the first headline. It is shown above the table of contents (for pages with more than three headlines). The appropriate lead length depends on the length of the article, but should be no longer than three paragraphs in any case.
:(my emphasis). The lead section before my change had four relatively long paragraphs. Please feel free to change what I have done, but do please consider the need for the contents list to be immediately visible. -- User:Chris j wood 18:48, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
::--OK I understand what you're trying to do, but this created a lot of "negative space" by creating a mismatch in the placement of the contents and the main info box. Other large cities tend to have fairly large intros like New York's, and I can't imagine anyone giving up from thinking that is the entire article. --User:Jleon 18:52, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
:::Ok, I've managed to display the article now, and I see what you mean about the whitespace mismatches. Obviously someone had carefully aligned the contents and the info box, and my change kicked them out of kilter. I've tried again; if you still don't like feel free to revert. Will copy this discussion to Talk:New York City -- User:Chris j wood 19:14, 13 May 2005 (UTC)
--Well it definetly looks a bit better now, but my concern is that people won't really be reading the overview if its buried directly under the contents box. I guess it all has to do with how individuals use Wiki, because personally I never pay any attention to the contents boxes. Let's have an informal vote for who would prefer the old format and who likes the new organization. --User:Jleon 02:02, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
=== Votes ===
*Keep contents list visible. For the reasons I give above. -- User:Chris j wood 11:59, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
*Restore to the original format. Having the four small paragraphs for the intro above the TOC is very similar to other city articles (i.e.- Paris, Tokyo). I don't think most readers use the TOC box very often anyway. --User:Jleon 12:19, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
==African Burial Ground?==
I am surprised to find that there is no mention (nor even an article in wikipedia regarding it) of the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan. This burial ground is a significant part of the city's history, and for anybody who remembers, became a big issue for a brief period after it was discovered (many objected to the examination of the bodies and graves). I will including it in the list of parks and grounds near the end of the article. I hope that someone can give it a more comprehensive treatment.
--User:Sophitus 16:13, May 19, 2005 (UTC)
Okay, I don't know how to include the African Burial Ground in that list of NYC-related topics. When I try to edit it, all I find on the edit page is something like {NYC topics}. Could somebody who knows how add the African Burial Ground to that list under the section "Parks and Grounds"?
--User:Sophitus 16:19, May 19, 2005 (UTC)
--You're totally right. I added it to the List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City, instead of to the parks list beacuse its use is largely cultural (like the Irish Hunger Memorial or the Holocaust Memorial). If I remember correctly, the memorial itself is currently under construction, but the site is still used for various cultural activities. I will likley go in and write the article for it this week if no one else gets to it first. --User:Jleon 17:15, 19 May 2005 (UTC)
-Ok, here it is: African Burial Ground. --User:Jleon 14:13, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
== Reducing this article ==
Lately, I put 2 sections of this article into their own articles, and still this page is over 32KB. What can I do next to keep it from being large?? User:Georgia guy 19:30, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:Uh, why don't you slow down a little bit. This article is the colloboration of many active editors (of which I don't see your name in any recent contributions) and (although yes boldness is good) it would be wise to take a pulse of how things are going before deciding that you need to chop the article up. -- User:Decumanus 19:34, 2005 Jun 2 (UTC)
--I agree 100%, I have already restored partial versions of the material, but would personally prefer them totally restored for the time being. What is the point of having an major heading with only a link below it? Also why have an article called "transportation in NYC" and then a separate article still called "mass transit in NYC"? We need to progress more slowly with the trimming process, there's really no need for urgency. --User:Jleon 20:02, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
==We now have a lot of subway photos==
Thanks to User:Aspersions (though they're all from the surface and in Manhattan). See commons:IRT, commons:IND and commons:BMT. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 03:52, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
:''This is an article about New York City; see also NYC (disambiguation), New York (disambiguation), and New York, New York (disambiguation).'' [[image:NYC_Midtown_11.jpeg|thumb|right|290px|Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005]] New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the largest city and largest metropolitan area, United_States_metropolitan_areas, in the United States. It is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. The City is regarded as the United States' most important global city, as it is home to many world-class museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and stock exchanges. The city is also home to all of the international embassies to the United Nations, which has its headquarters in the city. Located in the state of New York, New York City has a population of over 8 million people contained within 309 square miles (800 km²), including immigrants from over 180 countries who help make it one of the most Cosmopolitanism cities on earth. Many people from all over the United States are also attracted to New York City for its culture, energy, cosmopolitanism, and by their own hope of making it big in the "Big Apple." The city is at the heart of the New York Metropolitan Area, which, with over 22 million people, is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world, and is the epicenter of both the Tri-State area and the BosWash. New York City proper comprises five boroughs: Brooklyn, the The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — each of which could be a major city in its own right. The City serves as an enormous engine for the global economy, and is home to more Fortune 500 companies than anywhere else in the United States. Its estimated gross metropolitan product of US$488.8 billion in 2003 was the largest of any city in the U.S. and the sixth largest if compared to any U.S. State. If it were a nation, the city would have the 16th highest gross domestic product in the world, exceeding that of Russia ($433 billion), and the second highest List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita in the world, at about $59,000/head, about $7,000/head lower than Luxembourg. ==History of New York City== :''Main article: History of New York City'' Long before the arrival of European settlers, the New York City area was inhabited by the Lenape people, including such tribes as the Manahattoes, Canarsies and Raritan; Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor, in 1524. Following the 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson, European settlement began with the founding of the fortified United Provinces fur trade settlement of New Amsterdam (''Nieuw Amsterdam'') in the New Netherland colony on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1626. In that year, Peter Minuit established a long tradition of shrewd real estate investing when he purchased Manhattan Island and Staten Island from Algonquian_peoples tribesmen in exchange for trade goods (legend, now long disproved, has it that the island was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads). Minuit's settlement was also a haven for Huguenots seeking religious freedom.
{|align=right |[[Image:NYC_1848.jpg|thumb|right|280px|New York City and the East River, 1848]] |- |[[Image:Old timer structural worker.jpg|thumb|right|280px|A workman helps raise the Empire State Building 25 floors higher than the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), completed just one year before, 1930]] |- |[[Image:WTC-looking_north-orthogonal.jpg|right|thumb|280px|The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001 attacks.]] |- |[[Image:Midtownsouthnyc.jpg|thumb|right|280px|Lower Manhattan, looking south from the Empire State Building, 2005]] |- |} In 1664, England ships captured the city without struggle, and the Dutch formally ceded it to the English in the Treaty of Breda at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667. The city was renamed New York, after James II of England, and became a royal colony in 1685 when James succeeded his Charles II of England as King of England. New York was greatly damaged by fire during the Battle of Brooklyn at the start of the American Revolutionary War, and was occupied by the Great Britain until November 25, 1783. On this date, marked annually thereafter as "Evacuation Day," George Washington returned to the city and the last British forces left the United States. On April 30, 1789 Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall on Wall Street. The Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation met there, and New York City remained the capital of the US until 1790. During the 19th century, the city was transformed by immigration, a visionary development proposal called the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan, and the opening of the Erie Canal, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Mid-west United States and Canada in 1819. By 1835, New York City overtook Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States. Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall, a United States Democratic Party political machine. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city's strong commercial ties to the American South, its growing immigrant population, and anger about conscription led to divided sympathy for both the Union and Confederate States of America, culminating in the New York Draft Riot of 1863, the worst civil unrest in American history. 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 in 1886. In two separate actions in 1874 and 1895, New York City (and New York County) annexed sections of southern Westchester County known as the Bronx. In 1898, New York City took the political form in which it exists to this day. Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, were established as two separate boroughs and joined together with three other boroughs created from parts of adjacent counties to form the new municipal government originally called "Greater New York". The Borough of Brooklyn incorporated the independent City of Brooklyn, recently joined to Manhattan by the Brooklyn Bridge, and several municipalities in eastern Kings County, New York; the Borough of Queens was created from western Queens County (with the remnant established as Nassau County, New York in 1899); and The Borough of Staten Island contained all of Richmond County, New York. All municipal (county, town and city) governments contained within the boroughs were abolished. In 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx county, making five counties coterminous with the five boroughs. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German Immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River; and on March 25, 1911 the Triangle Factory Fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 145 female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. Interborough Rapid Transit Company (the first subway company) began operating in 1904, and the railroads operating out of Grand Central Terminal thrived. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London, which had reigned for a century. 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. Both before and after World War II, vast areas of the city were also reshaped by the rise of the bridges, parks and parkways of coordinator Robert Moses, the greatest proponent of automobile-centered modernist urbanism in America. A post-World War II economic and residential boom was associated with returning veterans and immigration from Europe, and huge tracts of new housing were constructed in eastern Queens. In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan. Like many US cities, New York suffered population decline, an erosion of its industrial base, and race riots in the 1960s, and by the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation for being a crime-ridden relic of history. In 1975, the city government was on the brink of financial collapse and had to restructure its debt through the Municipal Assistance Corporation, headed by Felix Rohatyn. The city was also forced to accept increased scrutiny of its finances by an agency of New York State called the Financial Control Board. The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. In the 1990s, crime rates dropped drastically and the outflow of population turned around, as the city once again became the destination not only of immigrants from around the world, but of many U.S. citizens seeking to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle that only New York City can offer. In the late 1990s, the city benefited disproportionately from the success of the financial services industry during the dot com boom, one of the factors in a decade of booming residential and commercial real estate value increases. New York City was the site of a September 11, 2001 attacks on September 11, 2001 when nearly 3,000 people were killed by the terrorist strike on the World Trade Center, including New Yorkers employed in the buildings and hundreds of New York City Fire Department, policemen, and rescue workers who came to their aid. Thick, acrid smoke continued to pour out of its ruins for months following the Twin Towers' fiery collapse. The city has since rebounded and the physical cleanup of Ground Zero was completed ahead of schedule. The Freedom Tower, intended to be the world's tallest skyscraper after its scheduled completion in 2009, is to be built on the site. Over the next ten years, the city expects a wave of public and private-sector building projects to reshape large sections of the city, and a residential construction boom has resulted in permits being issued for over 25,000 new residential units every year. ==Boroughs and neighborhoods== Residents of the city often refer to the city itself as "Five Boroughs," reserving the phrase "the City" for Manhattan, and referring to the other boroughs as "the Outer Boroughs." Those less familiar with the city often (incorrectly) think Manhattan is synonymous with New York City. Through the boroughs, there are hundreds of neighborhoods in the city, many with a definable history and character all their own. Manhattan (New York County, pop. 1,564,798) is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban. It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers. ''See'' List of Manhattan neighborhoods. The Bronx (Bronx County, pop. 1,363,198) is known as the purported birthplace of hip hop culture, as well as being the home of the New York Yankees. It is the only part of the city on the mainland. ''See'' List of Bronx neighborhoods. Brooklyn (Kings County, pop. 2,472,523) is the most populous borough, with a strong native identity. It ranges from a business district downtown to large residential tracts in the central and south-eastern areas. ''See'' List of Brooklyn neighborhoods. Queens (Queens County, pop. 2,225,486) is the most diverse county in the U.S., with more immigrants than anywhere else. Geographically it is the largest of the boroughs, and the legacy of its old constituent towns is still evident. ''See'' List of Queens neighborhoods. Staten Island (Richmond County, pop. 459,737) is somewhat isolated and the most suburban in character of the five boroughs, but has become gradually more integrated into city life in recent decades, particularly since the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in 1964, an event that bred controversy and even a recent attempt at secession. ''See'' List of Staten Island neighborhoods. ''See also'' Neighborhood rebranding in New York City. ==New York City government== :''Main Article: Government of New York City'' New York City is governed pursuant to the New York City Charter, as amended. The charter is enacted and amended by the New York State legislature, and occasionally through referendum. Though subservient to the State of New York, the city enjoys a high degree of legislative and executive autonomy. Like most governmental entities in the United States, the city government is divided into executive branch, legislative branch and Judicial branch branches. The executive branch of New York City is headed by the Mayor of New York City, who is elected by direct popular vote. The mayor has executive authority over five divisions of city government as well as several independent government offices. The divisions, each comprising several city agencies and headed by an appointed Deputy Mayor, are: Legislative power in New York City is vested in a unicameral City Council, which contains 51 members, each representing a district of approximately 157,000 people. Council members are elected every four years, and the leader of the majority party is called the Speaker. Like most legislative bodies, the City Council is divided into committees which have oversight of various functions of the city government. Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign it into law. If the mayor vetoes the bill, the Council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. Unlike the rest of New York State, New York City does not have typical county courts. Instead, there is a single Civil Court, with a presence in each borough and city-wide jurisdiction, and a Criminal Court for each New York City county which handles lesser criminal offenses and domestic violence cases, a responsibility shared with the Family Court. Unlike other counties in New York, judges for Family Courts in New York City are appointed for ten year terms by the mayor, instead of being elected. ==Crime== Since 1991, New York City has seen a continuous fifteen-year trend of decreasing crime and is now among the safest cities in America; many neighborhoods that were once considered dangerous are now thriving with new businesses and housing, and many residents feel safe to walk the streets late at night. Violent crime in the city has dropped by 75% in the last twelve years and the murder rate in 2004 was at its lowest level in over forty years: there were 572 murders that year compared to 2,245 in 1990. Some feel that the implementation of CompStat crime analysis by the New York Police Department in 1994 is responsible for the positive changes. New York City's crime rates vary by neighborhood and borough; Staten Island is the safest overall and Brooklyn and The Bronx have the highest crime rates. New Yorkers are famous for doing things "bigger and better," and this sometimes applies to criminal activity: Organized crime has been associated with New York City since the early 20th Century, when legendary mobsters Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano transformed it, although later decades are more famous for Mafia prosecutions (and prosecutors like Rudolph Giuliani) than for the influence of the Italian_Mafia#Mafia_in_the_United_States. Another notorious crime story is the serial killings by the "Son of Sam", who on July 29, 1976 began a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year. For New York City crime Statistics see http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/cspdf.html. ''See also:'' Timeline of New York City crimes ==Geography and climate== [[image:Ny.terra.600pix.jpg|265px|thumb|right|Terra (satellite) view of New York City]] [[Image:CentralParkFromAboveCropped.jpg|265px|thumb|right|Central Park in Manhattan looking south, February 2005, when the Christo installation The Gates was on display in the park (orange "gates" visible in photo)]] * New York City is situated among an archipelago of islands astride the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard of North America, surrounding the fine New York Harbor, which was the very reason for the city's founding. The city itself has been built on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and on western Long Island (Brooklyn and Queens), as well as on the mainland in the Bronx. There are also some smaller islands in the surrounding waters. The Hudson River, sometimes known in the city as the North River, flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tide estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The East River and Harlem River, really a single tidal strait, stretch from the Long Island Sound to New York Bay, separating the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. Upper New York Bay is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey, and is connected by the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island to Lower New York Bay, which is partially surrounded by Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey, and opens to the Atlantic Ocean. The shape of the land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch times, most dramatically in Lower Manhattan, and continuing in modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan (one possible meaning for Manhattan is "island of hills"; in fact, the island was quite hilly before European settlement). A number of smaller islands have been artificial island, and the map of islands in Jamaica Bay has been completely transformed. New York has a humid continental climate, though being adjacent to water it suffers less temperature fluctuation than inland areas. New York winters are typically cold (though not severely so; temperatures below 0-deg F only occur about once per decade on average), and sometimes feature snowstorms that can paralyze the city with over a foot (30 cm) of snow. Springs are mild, averaging in the 50s (degrees Fahrenheit, 10–15 degrees Celsius) in late March to the lower 80s °F (25–30 °C) in early June. Summers in New York are hot and humid, with temperatures commonly exceeding 90 °F (32 °C), although high temperatures above 100 °F (38 °C) are about as rare as subzero (F) lows in winter. Autumns are comfortable in New York and similar to spring in temperature. However, the weather is notably unpredictable, with mild, almost snowless winters (such as in 1997-98) and relatively cool summers (such as in 1992) an occasional surprise, and huge snowstorms arriving as late as the second week in April (significant snow after mid-March is fairly rare though). Travelers are advised to check forecasts and bring several layers of clothing in late fall and in the early spring months (e.g., November, March, April). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1,214.4 square kilometer (468.9 square mile). 785.6 km² (303.3 mi²) of it is land and 428.8 km² (165.6 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 35.31% water. Although most of the city is adequately above sea level, parts of it could be threatened in the future if the current patterns of global warming continue. ''See also:'' Geography of New York Harbor ==Demographics== [[image:Newyorkstreetscene.JPG|225px|thumb|left|A typically diverse group of New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.]] :''Main article: Demographics of New York City'' As of the census of 2000, there are 8,008,278 people, 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. The population density is 10,194.2/km² (26,402.9/mi²). There are 3,200,912 housing units at an average density of 4,074.6/km² (10,553.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 44.66% White (U.S. Census), 26.59% African American (U.S. Census) or Race (U.S. Census), 0.52% Native American (U.S. Census), 9.83% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander (U.S. Census), 13.42% from Race (U.S. Census), and 4.92% from two or more races. 26.98% of the population are Hispanic (U.S. Census) or Latino (U.S. Census) of any race. 35.9% of the population is foreign born (18.9% born in Latin America, 8.6% Asia, 7.0% Europe). The ethnic makeup is 9.8% Puerto Rican, 8.7% Italian-American, 5.3% Irish American, 5.1% Dominican Republic, and 4.5% Chinese-American. {| border="1" style="float:right; margin: 1em;border-collapse:collapse;" |+ Population trend | valign="top" | {| ! style="background:#efefef;" | Year ! style="background:#efefef;" | Inhabitants |----- | 1750 || align="right" | 22,000 |----- | 1790 || align="right" | 49,400 |----- | 1800 || align="right" | 79,200 |----- | 1810 || align="right" | 119,700 |----- | 1820 || align="right" | 152,100 |----- | 1830 || align="right" | 242,300 |----- | 1840 || align="right" | 391,100 |----- | 1850 || align="right" | 696,100 |----- | 1860 || align="right" | 1,174,800 |----- | 1870 || align="right" | 1,478,100 |----- | 1880 || align="right" | 1,911,700 |----- | 1890 || align="right" | 2,507,400 |} | valign="top" | {| ! style="background:#efefef;" | Year ! style="background:#efefef;" | Inhabitants |----- | 1900 || align="right" | 3,437,200 |----- | 1910 || align="right" | 4,766,900 |----- | 1920 || align="right" | 5,620,000 |---- | 1930 || align="right" | 6,930,400 |----- | 1940 || align="right" | 7,455,000 |----- | 1950 || align="right" | 7,892,000 |----- | 1960 || align="right" | 7,782,000 |----- | 1970 || align="right" | 7,894,900 |----- | 1980 || align="right" | 7,071,600 |----- | 1990 || align="right" | 7,322,600 |----- | 2000 || align="right" | 8,008,000 |----- | 2003* || align="right" | 8,085,700 |----- | 2004* ||align="right"| 8,091,700 |} |- | colspan="2" | (*) Estimate |} New York City is also home to the nation's largest community of American Jews, with an estimate of 972,000 in 2002, and is the worldwide headquarters of the Hasidic Lubavitch sect and the Bobover and Satmar branches of Hasidism. There are 3,021,588 households with a median income of $38,293; 29.7% contain children under the age of 18 and 37.2% are Marriage living together. 19.1% have a single female householder, and 38.7% are non-families. 31.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.9% are single residents 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.59 and the average family size is 3.32. Per capita income is $22,402; men and women have a median income of $37,435 and $32,949 respectively. 21.2% of the population and 18.5% of families are below the poverty line, of whom 30.0% are under the age of 18 and 17.8% are 65 and older. In the city the population is spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 85.9 males. New York City's unemployment rate in March of 2005 was 5.2%, identical to the nationwide rate. ==Economy== [[Image:New_York_Stock_Exchange_Flags.jpg|right|215px|thumb|New York Stock Exchange (June 2003)]] Historically, the city developed because of New York Harbor, widely considered one of the finest natural ports in the world. The value of this port was greatly expanded upon in 1819 with the opening of the Erie Canal, which gave New York an enormous advantage over the competing ports of Boston and Philadelphia. The old port facility was at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, but today there is only residual activity remaining at Red Hook, Brooklyn in Brooklyn, and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal in Staten Island. Since the 1950s, most shipping activity in the area has shifted to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. But despite changes in international shipping, trade and the Tertiary sector of industry have always remained the real basis of New York's economy. Manufacturing first became a major economic base for New York City in the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of industrialization and the railroad. New York was formerly a national center for clothing manufacture, and some continues, sometimes in sweatshops. Like international shipping, though, manufacturing gradually declined in the late-twentieth century with rising land values. The city was also the first center of the Cinema of the United States industry, until it moved to Hollywood, California, and still has some television and movie production. Today, New York City is the chief center of finance in the world economy, with Wall Street in Lower Manhattan's The Financial District (Manhattan). Financial markets based in the city include the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, American Stock Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, and New York Board of Trade. List of major corporations based in New York City also have their headquarters in New York. New York is also the center of many of the service sector industries in the U.S., with more Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city than anywhere else in the country (including companies as prominent and diverse as Altria Group, Time Warner, American International Group, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, JetBlue, DC Comics, Estée Lauder, Sony Music Entertainment, and many others). The city is by far the most important center for American mass media, journalism and publishing. Manhattan's Madison Avenue is synonymous with the American advertising industry, while Seventh Avenue is nicknamed "fashion avenue" as it serves as an important center for the fashion industry. New York also has the most important scenes for art, music, and theater in the U.S., with an increasingly active artist's community. The city also has a large tourism industry. ''See also:'' List of major corporations based in New York City ==Culture of New Yorkers== :''Main article: Culture of New York City'' [[Image:OrchardandRivington.JPG|thumb|right|275px|Manhattan's Lower East Side (2004)]] New York City, sometimes called "The City That Never Sleeps," is famously fast-paced and active, and the American idiom "in a New York minute" means "immediately." The stereotype "hard-boiled New Yorker" has a reputation as self-centered, rude, and impatient, and takes pride in the crowds, noise, and hardships of city life. New York City residents are called "New Yorkers," although this term may also refer to suburbanites, and there is some use of borough-specific identifications, such as Manhattanites, Bronxites, Brooklynites, Queensites and Staten Islanders. Residents of the metropolitan area generally refer to New York City (or sometimes just Manhattan) as "The City," or "New York," and the acronym "NYC", as opposed to just "NY", help to avoid confusing references to the State of New York and the City. Other nicknames attributed to New York City include "the Big Apple", "Gotham", "the Naked City", "the Capital of the World", and the slogan introduced in 2005 by Mayor Bloomberg in an effort to win a bid for the 2012 Olympics, "the World's Second Home." ===Immigration and international flavor=== New York absorbs a greater diversity of immigrant groups than any other American city, and it absorbs a larger number of immigrants every day than all other U.S. cities except Los Angeles, giving New York an international flavor, and making it the archetype of the American ideal of a "nation of immigrants." The city government employs translators in 180 languages. [[Image:Libertyskyline.PNG|thumb|275px|right|The Statue of Liberty, icon of the city, rises from Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay in front of the Lower Manhattan skyline. The Statue of Liberty was from 1886 until the jet age often the first sight of the city for European Immigration to the United States.]] The five boroughs are home to many distinct ethnic enclaves of Ireland, Italy, Greeks, China, Koreans, Nuyorican, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Harlem, Iran, Arab world, Judaism, South Asians and many others, and there are also many multi-ethnic neighborhoods where people of different backgrounds coexist comfortably. Regardless of ethnic origin, all groups share a common identity as New Yorkers. Some celebrated ethnic/racial neighborhoods include Harlem, Little Italy, Manhattan, Chinatown, Washington Heights, and the Lower East Side. ===Commuter culture=== Because of traffic congestion and the well-designed New York Subway, six in ten residents, including many middle class professionals, commute to work via public transportation, making the everyday lifestyle and "pedestrian culture" of New Yorkers substantially different from the "car culture" that dominates most American cities. This pattern is strongest in Manhattan, where subway service is better and traffic is worse than in the outer boroughs. Even the city's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is a "straphanger," (subway commuter), and can be encountered on the train to City Hall each morning. The great majority of Manhattan residents live in apartments in what is usually seen as a very overpriced and difficult housing market, although there are immense neighborhoods of suburban-style homes in the outer boroughs. The median sale price of a Manhattan apartment in 2004 was $670,000 [http://citi-habitats.com/press/viewarticle.php?article_id=432], with prices in the outer boroughs lower but rising. Many residents rent apartments, and some areas are under rent control and rent stabilization laws. With space at a premium, lack of closet space is a common problem, and self-storage is a strong local industry. ===Current issues=== [[Image:Jackson_Heights_2.jpg|thumb|right|275px|Jackson Heights, Queens, NY is among the world's most diverse communities.]] No other American city has experienced the effects of gentrification to the same degree that New York City has. Beginning primarily in the 1990s, although in SoHo earlier, neighborhoods that had been seen as less desirable or unsafe became entirely transformed by the arrival of young professionals, often preceded by artists and “hipsters’. This process is exemplified by the cases of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in Brooklyn and Manhattan's Lower East Side. Although gentrification generally has led to lower crime, more business activity, and higher land values, many of the native residents of these communities have been adversely affected by the skyrocketing housing costs associated with these rapid changes. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, pride in the city and the New York way of life increased for many, though others may have shown signs of paranoia. Nationally, Americans felt increased solidarity with New Yorkers. Today, there is a palpable sense of optimism in New York, fear of terrorism has lessened dramatically, and a massive confluence of transportation infrastructure projects promises to greatly expand the city's economic potential. Drastic reductions in crime have changed "the ungovernable city" of the past into a remarkably civilized place, and recent polls show that a vast majority of New Yorkers think the city "is moving in the right direction." ''See also:'' List of famous New Yorkers ==Tourism and recreation== [[image:Empirestatebldg.jpg|130px|right|thumb|The Empire State Building, New York City's tallest building]] Tourism is a major local industry, with hundreds of attractions. Many visitors make it a point to visit the Empire State Building, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, United Nations Headquarters, the American Museum of Natural History, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Brooklyn Bridge, among other attractions. There are over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland found throughout New York City, comprising over 1,700 separate parks and playgrounds. The best known of these is Central Park, which is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture in the world, as well as a major source of recreation for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, and Forest Park. The city also has 578 miles of waterfront and over 14 miles of public beaches. Maritime attractions include the South Street Seaport, site of a historic port, and the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, housed in a World War II aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River. Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items. Macy's, the nation's largest department store, and the surrounding area of Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. In recent years 23rd Street (Manhattan) has become a major location for "big-box" retailers. In southern Manhattan, Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores. The "diamond district" (located on 47th Street (Manhattan) between Fifth and Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)s) is the city's main location for jewelry shopping, and SoHo, formerly the center of the New York art scene, is now famous for high-priced clothing boutiques, and the art galleries are now concentrated in Chelsea, Manhattan. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn and along Queens Boulevard in Queens. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in New York on November 27, 1924. Since then this has been an annual event drawing tens of thousands of spectators and in later years millions of television viewers. Annually on New Year's Eve, hundreds of thousands of people congregate in Times Square to watch the New Year's Eve#United States as millions watch on television. The World Trade Center was an important tourist destination before the September 11, 2001 attacks, which devastated the city and its tourist industry. The city was nearly devoid of tourists for months, and it took two years for the numbers to fully rebound with fewer international, but more domestic visitors. Now the World Trade Center site has itself become an important place for visitors to see. Many tourists only think of "New York" in terms of Manhattan, but there are four other boroughs which, if they can't compete in skyscrapers, still offer other kinds of attractions. Brooklyn's old Coney Island is still a center of seaside recreation, with its beach, boardwalk, and amusement parks. Many enjoy the spectacular views available from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry. The Bronx Zoo is world-famous, and the New York Yankees don't play in Manhattan. Flushing, New York is home to the leg
New York CIty
#redirect New York City
New York City
''Old talk moved to:'' * /Archive 1 * Talk:New York City/Archive 2 (title of article) * Talk:New York City/Archive 3 * Talk:New York City/Archive 4 == Adjusting history section == I changed the wording of the history summary slightly regarding Native Americans. I thought the existing wording could be read to imply that we only know about Native American inhabitants because of the archaeological evidence, which is obviously not true. I linked explicity to Lenape, and I also threw in a mention of Giovanni da Verrazano and Henry Hudson, since it seemed to be that even summary of NYC history would be lacking without a mention of them. -- User:Decumanus 03:29, 2005 Mar 22 (UTC) == Skyline pic == I'd like to restore the picture that had been in the "Skyline" section, and remove the pic of Columbia University (which I had added myself last week). In terms of relevance to the article, I think this is a better way of prioritizing. It's also a nice picture to close the article with. --User:Jleon 14:00, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) : I like the idea of a skyline photo, but maybe we could find a more recent one? The skyline looks kinda different now. User:PZFUN 02:34, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::How the hell can you have an article on NYC without a photo of the Trade Centers both standing and collapsed! That attack made such a major impact to life in the city, and the nation in general. 02:45, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Manhattan-centric photos == ::the reason all the pics are of Manhattan is because the tourists who are going on vaccation, then posting these pics are afraid to leave manhattan --I think User:JimWae made a very good point in the earlier discussion about how all of the photos here are of Manhattan. I think a big part of the problem is that there are hardly any photos even in the boroughs' respective articles. Does anyone have any good pics of the other boroughs that they can share? If not, perhaps I'll take some myself in the coming weeks. --User:Jleon 16:36, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) : I just looked through all of the photos that I have in iPhoto, and I don't have ''any'' from outside of Manhattan. I'm actually really surprised about that. I have a couple of AirTrain, but I don't think those would help the New York City article. I can go out and take some tomorrow, but I think its supposed to snow. Maybe one of Grand Army Plaza? Williamsburg Bridge? User:PZFUN 02:34, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) Some ideas from --User:JimWae 03:07, 2005 Mar 23 (UTC) : * Photos: Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, Rockaway, JFK airport, Unisphere, Bronx Zoo, Archie Bunker's neighborhood (shows there are residential areas), Whitestone Bridge, commuters on Staten Island Ferry, Verrazano Narrows, Bronx blight, people fishing from a pier (somewhere?), some industry, a traffic jam on LIE - one or 2 that show NYC is a place where people live & do not immediately scream "NYC is unique". * How about NewYearsEve@TimesSquare, Rockefeller Xmas tree, neighborhood celebrations, kids playing stickball, sightseeing tours, parades * for lists- how about movies & TV shows shot in NYC? Famous NYC artists * Article will likely still focus a lot on Manhattan - but link to that article should be prominent at top. * Manhattan article photo suggestions: Washington Square Arch, Wall Street (indoors), people jogging on seawall. -- I live on University Place, so I will try to walk the two blocks (how horrible!) to Washington Square to get some photos fo the arch tomorrow. User:PZFUN 03:25, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) Some alternatives: Brooklyn *:Image:DSCN3630 brooklynskyline e.JPG *:Image:Coney-Island-Boardwalk.jpg *:Image:Green-Market-Grand-Army-Plaza-Large.jpg *:Image:Grand-Army-Plaza-Arch.jpg Staten Island *:Image:Verrazano-Narrows-Bridge.jpg (also Brooklyn) *:Image:Statenisland.JPG Queens *:Image:Unisphere.jpg *:Image:JamaicaBay.jpeg (also Brooklyn) General *:Image:MARTHACOOPERsubwayart.jpg (nice book cover) *:Image:New York area.PNG (yes, I know it's Hudson County, trouble uploading revised version) *:Image:DSCN3629 earphonesboy e.JPG (trans-borough) --User:Pharos 03:21, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::I have many, many photos of Staten Island, some of which I get around to uploading in the near future, and also many of Brooklyn street festivals. There are probably at least a few decent ones in the bunch. -- User:Decumanus 03:52, 2005 Mar 23 (UTC) I've got some neat photos I took from the air of Central Park (with Christo's Gates) that I'd be happy to upload, but I'm afraid I'm not sure how that works. Can somebody point me in the right direction for instructions to upload pix? --User:RoySmith 02:25, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) *OK, I figured it out on my own :-) I've downloaded :Image:CentralParkWithGatesFrom2000feet.jpg. I'm open to suggestions as to where it would best be used. Could work for New York City, Central Park, or even The Gates. My personal preference would be New York City User:RoySmith 04:12, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) **There's no reason an image can't be used on multiple articles. This a a great and rather illustrative shot of Central Park and definitely belongs on that page, and probably on The Gates as well. I'm not sure though if there's a section it would fit in for New York City and certainly the Midtown skyscrapers also in the image are not underrepresented here.--User:Pharos 04:27, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Culture of New Yorkers== ::How exactly is the culture section complete?? It says rude, self centered, and then goes on to talk about upstate new york????? I mostly finished my condensing here and I think trimmed it by 50%. The only thing I didn't keep was the ref to Robert Moses. It really fits better under history or infrastructure or somewhere else anyway, so let's get it in there. User:Kaisershatner 16:55, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) --OK, I added a mention of him in the history section. I'm surprised I had overlooked his absence before, altough he is found in the main history article. --User:Jleon 17:10, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) == New York City related topics box == I appreciate the effort to summarize, but isn't this just duplicating the purpose of :Category:New York City, and then in a non-hierarchical, limited, and arbitrary way? All of these topics, and many more, are already categorized in an broader organized structure.--User:Pharos 03:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) : Not really. This gives a fairly clear idea of some of the major topics that are available about NYC, and tables like this are used all over the place on other country and city articles. User:PZFUN 03:47, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) We should list a few major topics like at :Template:Life in the United States, (History of, Geography of, Culture of, Economy of etc.) but it doesn't make much sense to replicate a somewhat random portion of topics in the categories, like including the International Center of Photography, but not say, the Brooklyn Museum. There are hundreds of these specific topics, and listing just a few will always be arbitrary.--User:Pharos 04:16, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Image Clean Up Vote == I propose we take a vote about how to either clean up or replace the images on this page. I'm going to list all the current images on the NYC article below, and then I think we should discuss whether or not they should stay on the page or if we should find better quality images of the same thing to replace them, or replace them entirely. Or, alternatively, move then to other parts of the article. This is to help us make room for more non-Manhattan images, and to streamline the images on the page to make sure they're exactly what we want. ===== :Image:Midtownnyc4.jpg ===== I quite like this image, the only issue is that it seems very similar to Image:Midtownsouthnyc.jpg, so perhaps we might want to decide which one to use and replace one? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Uss_los_angeles_airship.jpg ===== I like this one, but I also think that there should be some images of earlier NEw York. Maybe some paintings? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Constructempire.gif ===== I'm not sure this image is necessary, it seems more appropriate for the Empire State Building Wiki. I think that we should have some other 1930's-1960's images of New York, perhaps some from another borough? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I think the one problem with the two history photos is that they are from the same time period. Although I like both of them, maybe we could replace one of them with a painting of the city from the 1700s or 1800s. That would provide a much better contrast with the modern-day photos. --User:Jleon 14:17, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Midtownsouthnyc.jpg ===== This is a really nice image, but my only concern is that it is very similar to Midtownnyc4.jpg. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I really like the fact that we use both because it provides something of a panorama of the city. Only including one of them would be excluding a lot of valuable visual info about the layout of the city. --User:Jleon 14:02, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Usgs_photo_five_boroughs.jpg ===== This is helpful to explain the geography of the boroughs, but maybe it should be more detailed and larger? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :I spent a lot of time making these series of images for the New York articles. They are already 300px, the standard size we tend use for inline maps in Wikipedia, and which is pretty much the upper limit for width in an article (note I generally make maps for viewing in line, not as thumbnails to be enlarged and viewed on the image page itself). I don't think any more detail should appear in the wording, since it would become quite crowded, and harder to read. I experimented quite a bit optimal size of text, amount, etc., to remain uncluttered and found, for my purposes, that this worked best, to emphasize the boroughs and the contrast between land and waterways. I would not be adverse to a more detailed image in addition to this, for parts of the city, but anything on a finer grained scale is going to wind up not taking in the five boroughs. -- User:Decumanus 05:10, 2005 Mar 23 (UTC) ===== :Image:City_Hall_2.jpg ===== This is one GREAT image! User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Ny.terra.600pix.jpg ===== I like this, but maybe we should have a few photos of the geographic features of New York (Colisters, the seashore, Palisades) instead of this? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --A lot of people who come across this article may know nothing about NY's geography, and while the map above it shows the political and basic geographical boundaries, this picture shows the extent of urban development, as well as the location of major parks. It's also the best satellite image of the city I've personally ever seen. --User:Jleon 21:13, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Newyorkstreetscene.JPG ===== I'm really not sure that this is the best image that to be here. I think maybe we should get some photos of Flushing, or maybe Chinatown or Little India. But that street scene isn't particularly diverse in my opinoin. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --The resolution of the pic is a little too low, but I think it is very diverse. A pic from Flushing or Chinatown would likely be predominately asians, not a true image of a melting pot like this one. --User:Jleon 13:46, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :How would a photo from Chinatown or Flushing be diverse?? They'd all be from the same race. The point of this photo is that New York is a melting pot in which people of all races interact with and are surrounded by each other. The photo is pretty diverse, in my opinion, and pretty typical of a Manhattan street scene. It's good to have photos of people on a page with lots of photos of things. User:Moncrief 21:38, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:New_York_Stock_Exchange_Flags.jpg ===== Great image, but maybe some images of Wall Street would be better? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --An image of the exchange that included some of the street probably would be better. --User:Jleon 13:49, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:OrchardandRivington.JPG ===== I really dislike this image. I think there are some instances in the Lower East Side of more traditonal housing stock so that you can really see the architectural detail. The building on the corner is a new building. Maybe we should try and get some other images from the Lower East Side, or maybe some of "SoHo"-style buildings? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) :An encyclopedia is meant to reflect what is. If there are new buildings in the LES, and there are, then why not include new buildings in a photo of the neighborhood? That being said, it's not a particularly remarkable image so why not take a better one of your own? User:Moncrief 21:38, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC) --To be honest, I can tell you that isn't even a new building anyway. Its exterior certainly looks refurbished, but new residential buildings in NYC never have fire escapes, and you can tell by the window insets that very think masonry was used in its construction. Personally, I think the photo is just fine, but one of SoHo could be just as good. --User:Jleon 01:55, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Libertyskyline.PNG ===== This is a great image, I'm not too concerned about the "brownness" at the end. Maybe this is the one that should go in the introparagraph? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --The two things that take up the majority of space on this photo are water and sky and it is somewhat misleading for it to be placed as a "skyline" photo since it is only of Lower Manhattan. --User:Jleon 13:55, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:HarlemBrownstones.JPG ===== I like the idea of this image, but I think we could try to get some photos that aren't at sunset, because this one is very dark. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Empirestatebldg.jpg ===== A great image, but I think it could be made smaller. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:MET_NYC.jpg ===== This is a fantastic image, I love it. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Timessquare.jpg ===== Hmm.... I'm not too sure about this one. Maybe a photograph of that crazy corner with the Washington Mutual ad with the giant beanstock on 42nd and 8th would be better, because its much brighter. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I think we should have another pic of Times Square, but I think its essential for it to be of the Crossroads, not of 8th avenue. I think it'd be nicer to have a daytime photo too. --User:Jleon 14:27, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Yankee_stadium.jpg ===== I like this, maybe we could try to find an image of the outside of a stadium during the day time? User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --I was thinking the exact same thing myself. --User:Jleon 13:58, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Grand_central_terminal_exterior.jpg ===== I like this one too, but I also think it would be really helpful to have a photograph of the interior of the station itself. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --A nice interior shot probably would be better, since that is what most people see when they think of Grand Central. --User:Jleon 15:53, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::Good luck with that. If you can take a beautiful one, then you are a true master. From my experience, the light inside is quite dim with those dull yellow walls, and photography that captures the essence of the interior space is very tricky. There's a reason the classic high-contrast [http://www.afterimagegallery.com/nytgrandcentral.htm light streaming through the windows] shot from the New York Times you see in posters are so enduring in their appeal (BTW taken 1935, so under copyright). -- User:Decumanus 02:23, 2005 Mar 25 (UTC) ===== :Image:South_ferry.jpg ===== I really like the idea of this image, but I think perhaps we could do something like have an image of Union Square at rush hour, because you can look down from the mezzanine and see all the people. Or, if we want to concentrate on "outer borough images", maybe one of Boro Hall station? --I agree. The chain-link barriers in this photo are not at all represenative of the subway system and you can't even see any people on the platform. It's definetly not an informative image for people who have never been to NYC. --User:Jleon 13:41, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) A few possible views (larger versions available, or someone could go get a photo): *[http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0300/ny0387/photos/120111pv.jpg 23rd Street on the Lexington Avenue Line] (clearly shows wide track area - I rather like this one) *[http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0300/ny0387/photos/120124pv.jpg 72nd Street on the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line] *[http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny0300/ny0387/photos/120147pv.jpg 181st Street on the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line] (cool-looking but not really representative) A view of an island platform (between parallel tracks) might be good. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 07:21, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Taxis_NYC.jpg ===== I'll try to take an image of taxi's going down Fifth Avenue to try to hit two birds with oen stone, an image of 5th Ave (big landmark) as well as the taxis. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ===== :Image:Midtown.jpg ===== I think this image is just too old. The skyline has changed quite a bit since then. User:PZFUN 04:28, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --It's true this pic is very old. From this particular vantage point what's notably missing is the Time Warner Center, Worldwide Plaza, and the Conde Nast HQ. I think once the NY Times building is completed it will be impossible to use this pic. I've scoured the NYC-related articles in the other major languages of wiki and couldn't find any Midtown river-view pics better than this one. An East-river view would probably be even better than this too. --User:Jleon 13:37, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Article Length== After several rounds of editing (and just now moving huge sections of Talk to an archive) I see no sig. change in article size. I'm no expert on this, but I'm guessing it's because of the images. Is that true? Is the best way to cut the article size for us to resolve the picture-related discussion as above? Just wondering. User:Kaisershatner 15:32, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) --My understanding of wiki (and I could be wrong about this), is that the photos don't add anything to the number of kilobytes taken up by the article other than the simple coding in the edit box that puts them there. This would be on account of the pictures already being saved on wiki's servers, and therefore the article merely contains the instructions to display pics that are saved elsewhere. I think what takes up the memeory is only the number of characters within the edit box. Anyway, your condensing did put the article under 60k, so I think that's a good start. --User:Jleon 15:44, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Revert it!== I think I accidentally doubled the page size and I can't revert due to access problems. Help! User:Kaisershatner 15:04, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC) --After a couple of tries I think I got it fixed now, I've had this happen before where it just inexplicably duplicates portions of the article. You may want to go in though and make sure all of the recent changes you were making are still there. --User:Jleon 15:32, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Photos (again)== I LOVE the new history photo, JLeon - very evocative and a nice addition, imo. Can anyone take some photos of sights and scenes in the outer boroughs and put them on this site? Someone mentioned well above that the photos on this page are Manhattan-centric and that is completely true. This is a page about the whole city, not just Manhattan. I'd say crib them from the Brooklyn, Queens etc pages but they are not very rich with photos either. It's fun to have photos you've taken on Wikipedia! I'd do it myself but I'm 3000 miles away. Just a thought -- because this page really needs outer-borough photographic representation (as do the individual outer borough pages for that matter). User:Moncrief 21:30, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC) I've brought this up on the various photo request pages, but no luck. This shouldn't be too hard; can someone get a photo of a subway sign with a bunch of services, possibly at the Times Square mess? A rollsign on a car might also be nice; I'm thinking about photos to add to New York City Subway line, route and station nomenclature. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 15:09, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Reiterating my wish that someone would take some Outer Borough photos for this page. Help! It's really embarassingly Manhattan-centric. User:Moncrief 06:51, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC) --I think I'll go and take some photos of Jackson Heights this weekend. Thats the best possible locale I can think of for this. --User:Jleon 12:32, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Yay! Thanks. User:Moncrief 18:54, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC) --Ok, I have the pics of Jackson Heights. I want to give them a quick run-through on Photoshop first, so I should be posting them sometime in the next few days. I'll put one each on the Queens and Jackson Heights articles too. --User:Jleon 13:20, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Taxi rates== The article states: >As of May 2004, fares begin at $2.50 ($3.00 after 8 pm, and $3.50 during peak, weekday hours). Prices increase based on time elapsed and distance traveled. Is this still the correct fare scale? If so, "May 2004" should be replaced with "March 2005" or "early 2005." If not, the date should be changed and the fare scale corrected. It's no good having a reference to "May 2004" in there today. It's from the "Taxis" section of the article. User:Moncrief 03:00, Mar 25, 2005 (UTC) == "Largest" vs. "most populous" == --When talking about American cities (or even international ones for that matter) the terms "largest," "biggest," etc. are used universally in place of "most populous." It's just inconceivable to think that someone would become confused by us using "largest" in this article, so I truly believe we should change it back. --User:Jleon 23:23, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC) *It's far from inconceivable, though not as likely as when saying "Russia is the largest country". "Most populous" is unambiguous & "largest" is not. --User:JimWae 01:33, 2005 Mar 26 (UTC) --Well cities are thought of as population centers, not as vast areas of land like a country. Also, when the metropolitan area is considered, NYC is certainly the largest geographic urbanized area in the country (with LA being a close but definite second). Anyone misinformed enough to be confused about "largest" probably wouldn't even understand the word "populous" anyway. --User:Jleon 03:34, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) *Juneau, Alaska is the largest city in area in the USA. Juneau includes a 3081 square miles (composed of 2,593.6 mi2 of land and 487.6 mi2 of water.) The city is larger than the state of Delaware. Non-US people cannot be expected to know what US people know. Changing it to "most populated" would be OK with me. --User:JimWae 04:36, 2005 Mar 26 (UTC) **As I see it, there's no good reason not to use the most accurate word. Let's go with "most populous".--User:Pharos 04:40, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) ***Agreed. "Most populous" is unambiguous and clear. "Most populated" sounds bad. —User:Lowellian (User talk:Lowellian) 01:32, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC) For a bit of international flavour, I can report that in Australia "largest" when talking about cities refers to population, not the geographic spread of the city. - User:Mark 06:19, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Current Issues, Getting ready to resub yet?== I exported large sections of Talk to Archive 4. In almost all cases they were issues that were 100% resolved and not ongoing. I moved out one section pertaining to pictures since it duplicated the greater debate about pictures which I left on this active talk page. Recently, I think we've been drifting up in size. Maybe we should focus on final cleaning? Remove the red links, add more footnotes. Resolve the photo debate. Also, I think whomever pointed out that we should have a 9/11 picture, or a pre-9/11 pic of the WTC, is correct. It's one of the single most important moments in the history of the city. The stock market crash might be the only other with the same importance (IMO). User:Kaisershatner 20:03, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Official name? == The article starts out with "New York City (officially named the City of New York)", but I'm thinking it would be more correct to have The City of New York. That's the way the NYC official web page [http://www.nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?front_door=true] seems to do it (see, for example, the copyright notice at the bottom of that page). User:RoySmith 02:54, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Most Skyscrapers == I was wondering if anyone can check the facts on the statement that NYC has the largest collection of skyscrapers in the world. I think Shanghai might have surpassed us in the past few years. A BBC article from 9/13/03 says of Shanghai that "at least 3,000 high-rise buildings have gone up; another 2,000 are on the drawing-boards". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3105948.stm I don't think we have anything approaching 5,000 high-rises in NYC, but I haven't counted. "High rise" probably includes buildings shorter than skyscrapers, anyway. The Wikipedia article on skyscrapers suggests 152 meters as the minimum height to be a skyscraper. Sources seem to use all different kinds of criteria. Skyscraperpage.com lists only 246 "buildings" for Shanghai (less than one tenth the number cited by BBC), and of these only 56 exceed the 152-meter minimum. (New York is listed as number 1 with 683 "buildings", of which 186 exceed the 152-meter minimum.) http://www.skyscraperpage.com/cities/ Emporis' list of the 200 tallest buildings includes 27 NYC buildings and only 12 in Shanghai: http://www.emporis.com/en/bu/sk/st/tp/wo/ But I don't know how to explain the above data in light of the BBC article, unless the study cited by the BBC includes much shorter buildings (like 2 stories). If anyone can resolve these discrepancies and confirm/correct the statement about NYC's collection of skyscrapers, I'd be interested. --User:Nomenclaturist 02:34, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC) -- It really is amazing to see the huge differences in how these lists can be made. It's hard to believe that the SkyscraperPage would say that LA and Toronto have more high-rises that Shanghai. The number from the BBC article also seems somewhat incredible; if they're talking about buildings over a height of 60 feet or so, then Tokyo and Sao Paolo would probably be contenders as well. I've also seen some counts that place Hong Kong as having the most number of high-rises but it appeared to be from a very convoluted definition of "high rise." My feeling is that the higher the threshold of what you consider to be a "skyscraper" is, the more NYC would come out on top. Shanghai is probably the only place that ''could'' surpass NYC in the near future, but it doesn't look to me like it has happened just yet. --User:Jleon 13:44, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Demographics, Jewish Community== I reverted the changes by 62.161.27.52; first of all, thanks for providing an updated reference estimate of the Jewish population. Second, I'd encourage you to get a user ID, makes editing and conflict resolution much easier. With respect to your change, while the detail about the declining Jewish population is correct, I think it belongs in an article about the history of the Jews of New York. User:Kaisershatner 18:20, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC) Hi, I agree that it belongs also to an article about the history of the Jews of New York. But it also belongs to New York demographics, because the plumeting of the number of jews in NYC, and the white flight in general, is a key to understand NYC demographics. 62.161.27.52 (I've got some problems with User ID (my conexion is very slow), that's why I don't it anymore. Ps : Sorry for my English, I'm not a native speaker --But how can we put historical demographic trends for one ethnic group without having to include all major groups? This has come up before when someone was trying to write about the suburbanization of Italians in the "Demographics" section. Historical trends are too large a topic to even be touched on in a small section like that. Besides, what evidence is there to support your numbers? I'm sure the number of Jews declined in the 1970s and 80s, but one of the largest immigrant groups during the 90s were Russian Jews who now make up nearly half a million people in Brooklyn & Queens. There has also been a surge in the Hasidic population in Williamsburg, and an influx of Uzbek Jews in Kew Gardens. I really doubt the number is half it was in the 1950s. --User:Jleon 13:50, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---But we don't have any article about Ethnics groups in New York City, so my idea was to put informations about them in the Demographics section of the article, before somebody tries to create a real article. But maybe you're right, and I'll try this afternoon to create an article "Ethnics groups in New York City". 62.161.27.52 ---Etnic groups in NYC? There may not be enough disk space to cover them all :-) --User:RoySmith 14:25, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) ---The article "New York demographics" is not done yet. Can we put informations about NYC ethnic groups in that article ? Because NYC demographics are nothing but the demographics of its different communities. 62.161.27.52 14:42, 12 April 2005 (UTC) ::62.161.27.52, thanks again for your contribution. I expanded the Demographics of New York City article, so if you want to work on that, it is probably a good home for the information you had put into the main article. User:Kaisershatner 18:47, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Redirect verbiage == Do we really need all of: NYC redirects here. For other uses, see NYC (disambiguation). New York, New York redirects here. For other uses, see New York, New York (disambiguation). This article refers to the city of New York in the state of New York in the United States. For other uses see New York (disambiguation). At the beginning? I understand the desire to make sure people find the article they're looking for, but the final result is a jumble of italic text that distracts the reader from the heart of the New York City article. Sometimes being correct is not the same as being useful --User:RoySmith 13:03, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC) --I agree completely, at a certain point it just becomes overkill. --User:Jleon 13:24, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC) :These are useful for people that type the things that redirect here, though I do agree that the condensed way it is now is better. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 00:42, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==NYWiki== Am I just out of it that I didn't know about the [http://www.nywiki.com/new-york-city/index.php/NYWiki:About NYWiki] site? (Probably, and that's okay). It's a pretty great site with a lot of information. Check it out if you don't know about it (perhaps some of you started it...) User:Moncrief 00:25, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC) == The new pics. == -Well I uploaded a total of four new pics of Jackson Heights today. One of them is here, and there's one each under Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, and the New York City Subway. I didn't neccessarily want to replace this article's pic of Harlem, but I thought that was a good place for the new one to go since its within the "culture" section and right next to the paragraph on gentrification. I also have about two dozen other pictures of JH I took on Sunday which I could try out if anyone is unhappy with the ones I posted. --User:Jleon 13:46, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC) :YAY! Non-Manhattan photographic representation in the NYC article! Thanks so much for doing that. Personally I like the photo you put on the Jackson Heights page the best - I like photos where you can see people and what a typical street looks like. The photo here is great (the elevated subway tracks, the storefronts), but it looks a little unclear until you click on it and the foreground has all those cars in it. This is not a big deal and it's your call, but I do like the street-scene photo with the people even better. Either way, thanks. User:Moncrief 17:51, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC) --OK, I went back into photoshop and recropped the image to eliminate some of the visual clutter. Its very difficult to get any nice photos of Roosevelt Avenue because of the elevated subway and the street traffic, but it really is the focal point of the neighborhood. --User:Jleon 18:24, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Looks good, Jleon. Thanks! I went to Jackson Heights and Roosevelt Avenue last summer when I was in NYC and had a look around. Fascinating area. User:Moncrief 02:43, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) ==Requested move== New York City to New York, New York to comply with city naming standards and also to please those straight-laced people who belive all cities should be city, state in the U.S. -- User:Dralwik 00:42, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) Voting over – see decision below ===Support=== #Strongly support returning the only US city exception to the defacto cityname, statename convention (which has recently also been adopted for all Australian cities except their 5-10 capitals). User:Niteowlneils 01:20, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #I vote in Support of a move. User:WhisperToMe 03:09, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ===Oppose=== #Oppose. I think applying this naming convention uniformly to major cities is unfortunate (and most unfortunate with this most major of cities). I think the name of the city alone should suffice; there isn't a disabmbiguation issue. So in my ideal Wikipedia, the non re-directed article title would be simply "Detroit" instead of Detroit, Michigan and so on for U.S. cities without dab issues that are over, say, 500,000 in population. If, for example, UK cities can get by with article titles of single town names like Kenilworth even for lesser cities, why not major U.S. cities too? A long way of saying: Oppose. User:Moncrief 01:40, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. It's ''actually called'' New York City. That should be enough. "New York, New York" is the postal address of New York County (Manhattan).--User:Pharos 02:32, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose Leisure outpacing sense once again. Think of the reader. --User:Wetman 02:43, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. (P.S. Kenilworth isn't a City status in the United Kingdom.) User:Proteus User_talk:Proteus 11:05, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Strongly oppose- This is completely redundant for a number of reasons. This is the rare (if not only) instance in which the name of the state is ''contained'' within the name of the city. Add to that the fact that the name of the city is "New York City" not "New York, New York." This is a clear case in which needless technicalities end up hurting the experience for the reader. I didn't raise too much of a fuss over this discussion with Chicago, but now I wish I had. Why don't you start in with Mexico City, London, Tokyo and Paris too? --User:Jleon 12:39, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose The word "City" is necessary to prevent confusion with New York State; what confusion is adding the state name preventing? User:Donald Friedman 13:33, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) #Oppose The "use most common name" is more important than the city name policy, which isn't really supported by consensus. We've been through this before, and all other title suggestions for this page are inferior to "New York City", because ''everyone calls it New York City.'' Even the [http://www.nyc.gov official New York City website], which is at nyc.gov (standing for New York City) says "Welcome to the official New York City Web site. All other names for the city are restricted to limited contexts in actual usage. The only unambiguous and generic name for the city is "New York City". User:Nohat 17:43, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. It's a city. People call it New York City. It's not New York State. Relatively few people call it New York, New York, unless they're writing a postal address or singing along with the old Sinatra tune. 22:59, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. During the last round of debate, I was ambivalent about the choices, but since then, I have come to feel that "New York City" is definitely the best title for this article. -- User:Decumanus 01:21, 2005 Apr 29 (UTC) #Oppose. Oh no, not this old chestnut again! User:Jdforrester User_talk:Jdforrester 01:51, 2 May 2005 (UTC) #Oppose. Would cause further confusion with the same-named county --User:Berkut 07:41, 2 May 2005 (UTC) ===Other=== #Abstain. I'm going to go off in left field here and say that I think the article should just be called "New York". It may not be the official name, and it may not match some naming convention, but it's what most people call it, and thus it's what most people are most likely to type into the search box to find it. And they'll be surprised to find an article about New York State there, and it'll be two more clicks before they get past the referenced disambig page to where they were looking to be in the first place. But I imagine I'm in the minority on this, so I think I'm just going to Abstain. --User:RoySmith 02:41, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ===Discussion=== I would argue that it is not even necessary to gain consensus to move it back, as it was moved ''to'' "New York City" without consensus (the only poll I found from that time period ended up a virtual tie, 17-15). User:Niteowlneils 01:20, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) :As an editor, I find the convention saves a lot of time. I can type Puyallup, Washington or Miami, Florida without having to take the time to check if the article is actually ''there''. User:Niteowlneils 02:49, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) Also, I believe formal uses (ie written) should out-weigh informal (ie verbal/IM/Text msging) ::What if you don't KNOW what state the place is in? Lots of people might know a city name without knowing the state name, particularly though not exclusively non-U.S. users. Anyway, this isn't the place to debate the general Wikipedia policy, just the NYC article. User:Moncrief 02:52, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) :::There's always the disambiguation page. User:WhisperToMe 03:09, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) Whoever is voting here should be aware that "New York, New York", is basically ''never'' used around the city.--User:Pharos 03:28, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::::Nor is it used around the country (see my comments below). User:Moncrief 03:29, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) ---- I think applying this naming convention uniformly to major cities is unfortunate (and most unfortunate with this most major of cities). I think the name of the city alone should suffice; there isn't a disabmbiguation issue. So in my ideal Wikipedia, the non re-directed article title would be simply "Detroit" instead of Detroit, Michigan and so on for U.S. cities without dab issues that are over, say, 500,000 in population. If, for example, UK cities can get by with article titles of single town names like Kenilworth even for lesser cities, why not major U.S. cities too? A long way of saying: Oppose. User:Moncrief 01:40, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) :That has been rejected recently at Talk:Chicago%2C_Illinois#Name_format and Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_%28city_names%29#New_proposal (proposal started with a 500k cut-off) and probably other places in the past. User:Niteowlneils 02:26, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Isn't that unfortunate? How many international users are going to think to type in "Chicago, Illinois" if they want to read the article on Chicago? (And I do know that "Chicago" redirects there and not a dab page; I think instead "Chicago, Illinois" should redirect to "Chicago"). Now that I'm aware this debate has been going on, I'll be sure to add my two cents to it throughout Wikipedia. User:Moncrief 02:28, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) I reopened the debate at Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_%28city_names%29#New_proposal. Please help!User:Dralwik 14:34, 1 May 2005 (UTC) ---- It's ''actually called'' New York City. That should be enough. "New York, New York" is the postal address of New York County (Manhattan).--User:Pharos 02:32, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) :It may be most often "actually called" "New York City" in and around New York, but I don't believe that holds true in the rest of the country. User:Niteowlneils 02:49, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::So what do you think other Americans actually call it? "New York, New York"? If I heard someone saying that (and I live 3000 miles from NYC), I'd think they were talking about the Frank Sinatra song. What else other than "New York City" or just "New York" do you think people call the place? People in the NYC area tend to call NYC (or at least Manhattan) "the city"; in the rest of the country, we certainly don't say "New York, New York"! User:Moncrief 02:57, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC) :Pharos' point is important. So I will put it in bold: the name \"New York, New York\" is not an acceptable title because it is ambiguous. It is the postal address of only the borough of Manhattan and not the rest of the city. Only the name \"New York City\" unambiguously refers to the entire city. Application of the so-called preemptive disambiguation policy in this case actually results in a title that is more ambiguous, not less. User:Nohat ---- Wikipedia:Naming conventions (city names)#United States and Canada says: :''Cities in the United States and Canada, however, will be disambiguated with a format of
New York City
:''This is an article about New York City; see also NYC (disambiguation), New York (disambiguation), and New York, New York (disambiguation).'' [[image:NYC_Midtown_11.jpeg|thumb|right|290px|Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005]] New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the largest city and largest metropolitan area, United_States_metropolitan_areas, in the United States. It is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. The City is regarded as the United States' most important global city, as it is home to many world-class museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and stock exchanges. The city is also home to all of the international embassies to the United Nations, which has its headquarters in the city. Located in the state of New York, New York City has a population of over 8 million people contained within 309 square miles (800 km²), including immigrants from over 180 countries who help make it one of the most Cosmopolitanism cities on earth. Many people from all over the United States are also attracted to New York City for its culture, energy, cosmopolitanism, and by their own hope of making it big in the "Big Apple." The city is at the heart of the New York Metropolitan Area, which, with over 22 million people, is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world, and is the epicenter of both the Tri-State area and the BosWash. New York City proper comprises five boroughs: Brooklyn, the The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — each of which could be a major city in its own right. The City serves as an enormous engine for the global economy, and is home to more Fortune 500 companies than anywhere else in the United States. Its estimated gross metropolitan product of US$488.8 billion in 2003 was the largest of any city in the U.S. and the sixth largest if compared to any U.S. State. If it were a nation, the city would have the 16th highest gross domestic product in the world, exceeding that of Russia ($433 billion), and the second highest List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita in the world, at about $59,000/head, about $7,000/head lower than Luxembourg. ==History of New York City== :''Main article: History of New York City'' Long before the arrival of European settlers, the New York City area was inhabited by the Lenape people, including such tribes as the Manahattoes, Canarsies and Raritan; Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor, in 1524. Following the 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson, European settlement began with the founding of the fortified United Provinces fur trade settlement of New Amsterdam (''Nieuw Amsterdam'') in the New Netherland colony on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1626. In that year, Peter Minuit established a long tradition of shrewd real estate investing when he purchased Manhattan Island and Staten Island from Algonquian_peoples tribesmen in exchange for trade goods (legend, now long disproved, has it that the island was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads). Minuit's settlement was also a haven for Huguenots seeking religious freedom.
{|align=right |[[Image:NYC_1848.jpg|thumb|right|280px|New York City and the East River, 1848]] |- |[[Image:Old timer structural worker.jpg|thumb|right|280px|A workman helps raise the Empire State Building 25 floors higher than the Chrysler Building (seen to the right), completed just one year before, 1930]] |- |[[Image:WTC-looking_north-orthogonal.jpg|right|thumb|280px|The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, September 11, 2001 attacks.]] |- |[[Image:Midtownsouthnyc.jpg|thumb|right|280px|Lower Manhattan, looking south from the Empire State Building, 2005]] |- |} In 1664, England ships captured the city without struggle, and the Dutch formally ceded it to the English in the Treaty of Breda at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667. The city was renamed New York, after James II of England, and became a royal colony in 1685 when James succeeded his Charles II of England as King of England. New York was greatly damaged by fire during the Battle of Brooklyn at the start of the American Revolutionary War, and was occupied by the Great Britain until November 25, 1783. On this date, marked annually thereafter as "Evacuation Day," George Washington returned to the city and the last British forces left the United States. On April 30, 1789 Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall on Wall Street. The Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation met there, and New York City remained the capital of the US until 1790. During the 19th century, the city was transformed by immigration, a visionary development proposal called the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan, and the opening of the Erie Canal, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Mid-west United States and Canada in 1819. By 1835, New York City overtook Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States. Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall, a United States Democratic Party political machine. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city's strong commercial ties to the American South, its growing immigrant population, and anger about conscription led to divided sympathy for both the Union and Confederate States of America, culminating in the New York Draft Riot of 1863, the worst civil unrest in American history. 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 in 1886. In two separate actions in 1874 and 1895, New York City (and New York County) annexed sections of southern Westchester County known as the Bronx. In 1898, New York City took the political form in which it exists to this day. Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, were established as two separate boroughs and joined together with three other boroughs created from parts of adjacent counties to form the new municipal government originally called "Greater New York". The Borough of Brooklyn incorporated the independent City of Brooklyn, recently joined to Manhattan by the Brooklyn Bridge, and several municipalities in eastern Kings County, New York; the Borough of Queens was created from western Queens County (with the remnant established as Nassau County, New York in 1899); and The Borough of Staten Island contained all of Richmond County, New York. All municipal (county, town and city) governments contained within the boroughs were abolished. In 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx county, making five counties coterminous with the five boroughs. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German Immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River; and on March 25, 1911 the Triangle Factory Fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 145 female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. Interborough Rapid Transit Company (the first subway company) began operating in 1904, and the railroads operating out of Grand Central Terminal thrived. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London, which had reigned for a century. 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. Both before and after World War II, vast areas of the city were also reshaped by the rise of the bridges, parks and parkways of coordinator Robert Moses, the greatest proponent of automobile-centered modernist urbanism in America. A post-World War II economic and residential boom was associated with returning veterans and immigration from Europe, and huge tracts of new housing were constructed in eastern Queens. In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan. Like many US cities, New York suffered population decline, an erosion of its industrial base, and race riots in the 1960s, and by the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation for being a crime-ridden relic of history. In 1975, the city government was on the brink of financial collapse and had to restructure its debt through the Municipal Assistance Corporation, headed by Felix Rohatyn. The city was also forced to accept increased scrutiny of its finances by an agency of New York State called the Financial Control Board. The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. In the 1990s, crime rates dropped drastically and the outflow of population turned around, as the city once again became the destination not only of immigrants from around the world, but of many U.S. citizens seeking to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle that only New York City can offer. In the late 1990s, the city benefited disproportionately from the success of the financial services industry during the dot com boom, one of the factors in a decade of booming residential and commercial real estate value increases. New York City was the site of a September 11, 2001 attacks on September 11, 2001 when nearly 3,000 people were killed by the terrorist strike on the World Trade Center, including New Yorkers employed in the buildings and hundreds of New York City Fire Department, policemen, and rescue workers who came to their aid. Thick, acrid smoke continued to pour out of its ruins for months following the Twin Towers' fiery collapse. The city has since rebounded and the physical cleanup of Ground Zero was completed ahead of schedule. The Freedom Tower, intended to be the world's tallest skyscraper after its scheduled completion in 2009, is to be built on the site. Over the next ten years, the city expects a wave of public and private-sector building projects to reshape large sections of the city, and a residential construction boom has resulted in permits being issued for over 25,000 new residential units every year. ==Boroughs and neighborhoods== Residents of the city often refer to the city itself as "Five Boroughs," reserving the phrase "the City" for Manhattan, and referring to the other boroughs as "the Outer Boroughs." Those less familiar with the city often (incorrectly) think Manhattan is synonymous with New York City. Through the boroughs, there are hundreds of neighborhoods in the city, many with a definable history and character all their own. Manhattan (New York County, pop. 1,564,798) is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban. It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers. ''See'' List of Manhattan neighborhoods. The Bronx (Bronx County, pop. 1,363,198) is known as the purported birthplace of hip hop culture, as well as being the home of the New York Yankees. It is the only part of the city on the mainland. ''See'' List of Bronx neighborhoods. Brooklyn (Kings County, pop. 2,472,523) is the most populous borough, with a strong native identity. It ranges from a business district downtown to large residential tracts in the central and south-eastern areas. ''See'' List of Brooklyn neighborhoods. Queens (Queens County, pop. 2,225,486) is the most diverse county in the U.S., with more immigrants than anywhere else. Geographically it is the largest of the boroughs, and the legacy of its old constituent towns is still evident. ''See'' List of Queens neighborhoods. Staten Island (Richmond County, pop. 459,737) is somewhat isolated and the most suburban in character of the five boroughs, but has become gradually more integrated into city life in recent decades, particularly since the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in 1964, an event that bred controversy and even a recent attempt at secession. ''See'' List of Staten Island neighborhoods. ''See also'' Neighborhood rebranding in New York City. ==New York City government== :''Main Article: Government of New York City'' New York City is governed pursuant to the New York City Charter, as amended. The charter is enacted and amended by the New York State legislature, and occasionally through referendum. Though subservient to the State of New York, the city enjoys a high degree of legislative and executive autonomy. Like most governmental entities in the United States, the city government is divided into executive branch, legislative branch and Judicial branch branches. The executive branch of New York City is headed by the Mayor of New York City, who is elected by direct popular vote. The mayor has executive authority over five divisions of city government as well as several independent government offices. The divisions, each comprising several city agencies and headed by an appointed Deputy Mayor, are: Legislative power in New York City is vested in a unicameral City Council, which contains 51 members, each representing a district of approximately 157,000 people. Council members are elected every four years, and the leader of the majority party is called the Speaker. Like most legislative bodies, the City Council is divided into committees which have oversight of various functions of the city government. Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign it into law. If the mayor vetoes the bill, the Council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. Unlike the rest of New York State, New York City does not have typical county courts. Instead, there is a single Civil Court, with a presence in each borough and city-wide jurisdiction, and a Criminal Court for each New York City county which handles lesser criminal offenses and domestic violence cases, a responsibility shared with the Family Court. Unlike other counties in New York, judges for Family Courts in New York City are appointed for ten year terms by the mayor, instead of being elected. ==Crime== Since 1991, New York City has seen a continuous fifteen-year trend of decreasing crime and is now among the safest cities in America; many neighborhoods that were once considered dangerous are now thriving with new businesses and housing, and many residents feel safe to walk the streets late at night. Violent crime in the city has dropped by 75% in the last twelve years and the murder rate in 2004 was at its lowest level in over forty years: there were 572 murders that year compared to 2,245 in 1990. Some feel that the implementation of CompStat crime analysis by the New York Police Department in 1994 is responsible for the positive changes. New York City's crime rates vary by neighborhood and borough; Staten Island is the safest overall and Brooklyn and The Bronx have the highest crime rates. New Yorkers are famous for doing things "bigger and better," and this sometimes applies to criminal activity: Organized crime has been associated with New York City since the early 20th Century, when legendary mobsters Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano transformed it, although later decades are more famous for Mafia prosecutions (and prosecutors like Rudolph Giuliani) than for the influence of the Italian_Mafia#Mafia_in_the_United_States. Another notorious crime story is the serial killings by the "Son of Sam", who on July 29, 1976 began a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year. For New York City crime Statistics see http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/cspdf.html. ''See also:'' Timeline of New York City crimes ==Geography and climate== [[image:Ny.terra.600pix.jpg|265px|thumb|right|Terra (satellite) view of New York City]] [[Image:CentralParkFromAboveCropped.jpg|265px|thumb|right|Central Park in Manhattan looking south, February 2005, when the Christo installation The Gates was on display in the park (orange "gates" visible in photo)]] * New York City is situated among an archipelago of islands astride the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard of North America, surrounding the fine New York Harbor, which was the very reason for the city's founding. The city itself has been built on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and on western Long Island (Brooklyn and Queens), as well as on the mainland in the Bronx. There are also some smaller islands in the surrounding waters. The Hudson River, sometimes known in the city as the North River, flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tide estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The East River and Harlem River, really a single tidal strait, stretch from the Long Island Sound to New York Bay, separating the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. Upper New York Bay is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey, and is connected by the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island to Lower New York Bay, which is partially surrounded by Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey, and opens to the Atlantic Ocean. The shape of the land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch times, most dramatically in Lower Manhattan, and continuing in modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan (one possible meaning for Manhattan is "island of hills"; in fact, the island was quite hilly before European settlement). A number of smaller islands have been artificial island, and the map of islands in Jamaica Bay has been completely transformed. New York has a humid continental climate, though being adjacent to water it suffers less temperature fluctuation than inland areas. New York winters are typically cold (though not severely so; temperatures below 0-deg F only occur about once per decade on average), and sometimes feature snowstorms that can paralyze the city with over a foot (30 cm) of snow. Springs are mild, averaging in the 50s (degrees Fahrenheit, 10–15 degrees Celsius) in late March to the lower 80s °F (25–30 °C) in early June. Summers in New York are hot and humid, with temperatures commonly exceeding 90 °F (32 °C), although high temperatures above 100 °F (38 °C) are about as rare as subzero (F) lows in winter. Autumns are comfortable in New York and similar to spring in temperature. However, the weather is notably unpredictable, with mild, almost snowless winters (such as in 1997-98) and relatively cool summers (such as in 1992) an occasional surprise, and huge snowstorms arriving as late as the second week in April (significant snow after mid-March is fairly rare though). Travelers are advised to check forecasts and bring several layers of clothing in late fall and in the early spring months (e.g., November, March, April). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1,214.4 square kilometer (468.9 square mile). 785.6 km² (303.3 mi²) of it is land and 428.8 km² (165.6 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 35.31% water. Although most of the city is adequately above sea level, parts of it could be threatened in the future if the current patterns of global warming continue. ''See also:'' Geography of New York Harbor ==Demographics== [[image:Newyorkstreetscene.JPG|225px|thumb|left|A typically diverse group of New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.]] :''Main article: Demographics of New York City'' As of the census of 2000, there are 8,008,278 people, 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. The population density is 10,194.2/km² (26,402.9/mi²). There are 3,200,912 housing units at an average density of 4,074.6/km² (10,553.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 44.66% White (U.S. Census), 26.59% African American (U.S. Census) or Race (U.S. Census), 0.52% Native American (U.S. Census), 9.83% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander (U.S. Census), 13.42% from Race (U.S. Census), and 4.92% from two or more races. 26.98% of the population are Hispanic (U.S. Census) or Latino (U.S. Census) of any race. 35.9% of the population is foreign born (18.9% born in Latin America, 8.6% Asia, 7.0% Europe). The ethnic makeup is 9.8% Puerto Rican, 8.7% Italian-American, 5.3% Irish American, 5.1% Dominican Republic, and 4.5% Chinese-American. {| border="1" style="float:right; margin: 1em;border-collapse:collapse;" |+ Population trend | valign="top" | {| ! style="background:#efefef;" | Year ! style="background:#efefef;" | Inhabitants |----- | 1750 || align="right" | 22,000 |----- | 1790 || align="right" | 49,400 |----- | 1800 || align="right" | 79,200 |----- | 1810 || align="right" | 119,700 |----- | 1820 || align="right" | 152,100 |----- | 1830 || align="right" | 242,300 |----- | 1840 || align="right" | 391,100 |----- | 1850 || align="right" | 696,100 |----- | 1860 || align="right" | 1,174,800 |----- | 1870 || align="right" | 1,478,100 |----- | 1880 || align="right" | 1,911,700 |----- | 1890 || align="right" | 2,507,400 |} | valign="top" | {| ! style="background:#efefef;" | Year ! style="background:#efefef;" | Inhabitants |----- | 1900 || align="right" | 3,437,200 |----- | 1910 || align="right" | 4,766,900 |----- | 1920 || align="right" | 5,620,000 |---- | 1930 || align="right" | 6,930,400 |----- | 1940 || align="right" | 7,455,000 |----- | 1950 || align="right" | 7,892,000 |----- | 1960 || align="right" | 7,782,000 |----- | 1970 || align="right" | 7,894,900 |----- | 1980 || align="right" | 7,071,600 |----- | 1990 || align="right" | 7,322,600 |----- | 2000 || align="right" | 8,008,000 |----- | 2003* || align="right" | 8,085,700 |----- | 2004* ||align="right"| 8,091,700 |} |- | colspan="2" | (*) Estimate |} New York City is also home to the nation's largest community of American Jews, with an estimate of 972,000 in 2002, and is the worldwide headquarters of the Hasidic Lubavitch sect and the Bobover and Satmar branches of Hasidism. There are 3,021,588 households with a median income of $38,293; 29.7% contain children under the age of 18 and 37.2% are Marriage living together. 19.1% have a single female householder, and 38.7% are non-families. 31.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.9% are single residents 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.59 and the average family size is 3.32. Per capita income is $22,402; men and women have a median income of $37,435 and $32,949 respectively. 21.2% of the population and 18.5% of families are below the poverty line, of whom 30.0% are under the age of 18 and 17.8% are 65 and older. In the city the population is spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 85.9 males. New York City's unemployment rate in March of 2005 was 5.2%, identical to the nationwide rate. ==Economy== [[Image:New_York_Stock_Exchange_Flags.jpg|right|215px|thumb|New York Stock Exchange (June 2003)]] Historically, the city developed because of New York Harbor, widely considered one of the finest natural ports in the world. The value of this port was greatly expanded upon in 1819 with the opening of the Erie Canal, which gave New York an enormous advantage over the competing ports of Boston and Philadelphia. The old port facility was at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, but today there is only residual activity remaining at Red Hook, Brooklyn in Brooklyn, and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal in Staten Island. Since the 1950s, most shipping activity in the area has shifted to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. But despite changes in international shipping, trade and the Tertiary sector of industry have always remained the real basis of New York's economy. Manufacturing first became a major economic base for New York City in the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of industrialization and the railroad. New York was formerly a national center for clothing manufacture, and some continues, sometimes in sweatshops. Like international shipping, though, manufacturing gradually declined in the late-twentieth century with rising land values. The city was also the first center of the Cinema of the United States industry, until it moved to Hollywood, California, and still has some television and movie production. Today, New York City is the chief center of finance in the world economy, with Wall Street in Lower Manhattan's The Financial District (Manhattan). Financial markets based in the city include the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, American Stock Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, and New York Board of Trade. List of major corporations based in New York City also have their headquarters in New York. New York is also the center of many of the service sector industries in the U.S., with more Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city than anywhere else in the country (including companies as prominent and diverse as Altria Group, Time Warner, American International Group, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, JetBlue, DC Comics, Estée Lauder, Sony Music Entertainment, and many others). The city is by far the most important center for American mass media, journalism and publishing. Manhattan's Madison Avenue is synonymous with the American advertising industry, while Seventh Avenue is nicknamed "fashion avenue" as it serves as an important center for the fashion industry. New York also has the most important scenes for art, music, and theater in the U.S., with an increasingly active artist's community. The city also has a large tourism industry. ''See also:'' List of major corporations based in New York City ==Culture of New Yorkers== :''Main article: Culture of New York City'' [[Image:OrchardandRivington.JPG|thumb|right|275px|Manhattan's Lower East Side (2004)]] New York City, sometimes called "The City That Never Sleeps," is famously fast-paced and active, and the American idiom "in a New York minute" means "immediately." The stereotype "hard-boiled New Yorker" has a reputation as self-centered, rude, and impatient, and takes pride in the crowds, noise, and hardships of city life. New York City residents are called "New Yorkers," although this term may also refer to suburbanites, and there is some use of borough-specific identifications, such as Manhattanites, Bronxites, Brooklynites, Queensites and Staten Islanders. Residents of the metropolitan area generally refer to New York City (or sometimes just Manhattan) as "The City," or "New York," and the acronym "NYC", as opposed to just "NY", help to avoid confusing references to the State of New York and the City. Other nicknames attributed to New York City include "the Big Apple", "Gotham", "the Naked City", "the Capital of the World", and the slogan introduced in 2005 by Mayor Bloomberg in an effort to win a bid for the 2012 Olympics, "the World's Second Home." ===Immigration and international flavor=== New York absorbs a greater diversity of immigrant groups than any other American city, and it absorbs a larger number of immigrants every day than all other U.S. cities except Los Angeles, giving New York an international flavor, and making it the archetype of the American ideal of a "nation of immigrants." The city government employs translators in 180 languages. [[Image:Libertyskyline.PNG|thumb|275px|right|The Statue of Liberty, icon of the city, rises from Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay in front of the Lower Manhattan skyline. The Statue of Liberty was from 1886 until the jet age often the first sight of the city for European Immigration to the United States.]] The five boroughs are home to many distinct ethnic enclaves of Ireland, Italy, Greeks, China, Koreans, Nuyorican, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Harlem, Iran, Arab world, Judaism, South Asians and many others, and there are also many multi-ethnic neighborhoods where people of different backgrounds coexist comfortably. Regardless of ethnic origin, all groups share a common identity as New Yorkers. Some celebrated ethnic/racial neighborhoods include Harlem, Little Italy, Manhattan, Chinatown, Washington Heights, and the Lower East Side. ===Commuter culture=== Because of traffic congestion and the well-designed New York Subway, six in ten residents, including many middle class professionals, commute to work via public transportation, making the everyday lifestyle and "pedestrian culture" of New Yorkers substantially different from the "car culture" that dominates most American cities. This pattern is strongest in Manhattan, where subway service is better and traffic is worse than in the outer boroughs. Even the city's billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is a "straphanger," (subway commuter), and can be encountered on the train to City Hall each morning. The great majority of Manhattan residents live in apartments in what is usually seen as a very overpriced and difficult housing market, although there are immense neighborhoods of suburban-style homes in the outer boroughs. The median sale price of a Manhattan apartment in 2004 was $670,000 [http://citi-habitats.com/press/viewarticle.php?article_id=432], with prices in the outer boroughs lower but rising. Many residents rent apartments, and some areas are under rent control and rent stabilization laws. With space at a premium, lack of closet space is a common problem, and self-storage is a strong local industry. ===Current issues=== [[Image:Jackson_Heights_2.jpg|thumb|right|275px|Jackson Heights, Queens, NY is among the world's most diverse communities.]] No other American city has experienced the effects of gentrification to the same degree that New York City has. Beginning primarily in the 1990s, although in SoHo earlier, neighborhoods that had been seen as less desirable or unsafe became entirely transformed by the arrival of young professionals, often preceded by artists and “hipsters’. This process is exemplified by the cases of Williamsburg, Brooklyn in Brooklyn and Manhattan's Lower East Side. Although gentrification generally has led to lower crime, more business activity, and higher land values, many of the native residents of these communities have been adversely affected by the skyrocketing housing costs associated with these rapid changes. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, pride in the city and the New York way of life increased for many, though others may have shown signs of paranoia. Nationally, Americans felt increased solidarity with New Yorkers. Today, there is a palpable sense of optimism in New York, fear of terrorism has lessened dramatically, and a massive confluence of transportation infrastructure projects promises to greatly expand the city's economic potential. Drastic reductions in crime have changed "the ungovernable city" of the past into a remarkably civilized place, and recent polls show that a vast majority of New Yorkers think the city "is moving in the right direction." ''See also:'' List of famous New Yorkers ==Tourism and recreation== [[image:Empirestatebldg.jpg|130px|right|thumb|The Empire State Building, New York City's tallest building]] Tourism is a major local industry, with hundreds of attractions. Many visitors make it a point to visit the Empire State Building, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, United Nations Headquarters, the American Museum of Natural History, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Brooklyn Bridge, among other attractions. There are over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland found throughout New York City, comprising over 1,700 separate parks and playgrounds. The best known of these is Central Park, which is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture in the world, as well as a major source of recreation for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, and Forest Park. The city also has 578 miles of waterfront and over 14 miles of public beaches. Maritime attractions include the South Street Seaport, site of a historic port, and the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, housed in a World War II aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River. Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue (Manhattan) being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items. Macy's, the nation's largest department store, and the surrounding area of Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. In recent years 23rd Street (Manhattan) has become a major location for "big-box" retailers. In southern Manhattan, Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores. The "diamond district" (located on 47th Street (Manhattan) between Fifth and Sixth Avenue (Manhattan)s) is the city's main location for jewelry shopping, and SoHo, formerly the center of the New York art scene, is now famous for high-priced clothing boutiques, and the art galleries are now concentrated in Chelsea, Manhattan. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn and along Queens Boulevard in Queens. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in New York on November 27, 1924. Since then this has been an annual event drawing tens of thousands of spectators and in later years millions of television viewers. Annually on New Year's Eve, hundreds of thousands of people congregate in Times Square to watch the New Year's Eve#United States as millions watch on television. The World Trade Center was an important tourist destination before the September 11, 2001 attacks, which devastated the city and its tourist industry. The city was nearly devoid of tourists for months, and it took two years for the numbers to fully rebound with fewer international, but more domestic visitors. Now the World Trade Center site has itself become an important place for visitors to see. Many tourists only think of "New York" in terms of Manhattan, but there are four other boroughs which, if they can't compete in skyscrapers, still offer other kinds of attractions. Brooklyn's old Coney Island is still a center of seaside recreation, with its beach, boardwalk, and amusement parks. Many enjoy the spectacular views available from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry. The Bronx Zoo is world-famous, and the New York Yankees don't play in Manhattan. Flushing, New York is home to the leg