Book-Online-Hotel.com Information United States New York City

New York City waterways: 1. Hudson River, 2. East River, 3. Long Island Sound, 4. Newark Bay, 5. Upper New York Bay, 6. Lower New York Bay, 7. Jamaica Bay, 8. Atlantic Ocean

City waterways: 1. Hudson River, 2. East River, 3.
New York City waterways: 1. Hudson River, 2. East River, 3. Long Island Sound, 4. Newark Bay, 5. York Bay">Upper New York Bay, 6. York Bay">Lower New York Bay, 7. Jamaica Bay, 8. Atlantic Ocean New Boston and 228 miles (373 km) from Washington, D.C.. The city's total area is 468.9 square miles (1,214.4 km²), of which 35.31% is water. The city is situated on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island. The Bronx is the only borough that is part of the mainland United States.
New York City's significance as a trading city results from the superb natural harbor formed by York Bay">Upper New York Bay, which is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey. It is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island in York Bay">Lower New York Bay.
The Hudson River flows from the Hudson Valley into York Bay">New York Bay, becoming a tidal estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The East River, actually a tidal strait, stretches from the Long Island Sound to New York Bay, separating the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.
The city's land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. One possible meaning for "Manhattan" is "island of hills"; in fact, the island was quite hilly before European settlement. See also: York Harbor">Geography of New York Harbor

Climate

New Pittsburgh. Temperatures below 0 °F (-18 °C) occur once per decade on average, but daytime low temperatures in the 10s and 20s °F (-12 to -2 °C) are common at the height of winter. Springs are typically mild, with high temperatures averaging in the 50s °F (10 to 15 °C) in late March to the lower 80s °F (25 to 30 °C) in early June. Summers in New York are hot and humid, with temperatures commonly exceeding 90 °F (32 °C), though high temperatures above 100 °F (38 °C) are somewhat rare. Autumns are comfortable with sunshine and average temperatures in the 50s °F (10 to 15 °C).
Because of its location along the Atlantic Ocean, New York City is prone to huge winter storms called nor'easters. These storms bring wind, rain, coastal flooding, and in the heart of winter, huge snowfalls. Most of New York's biggest snowfalls are a result of these. Each winter, New York City receives about one or two major snowfalls, usually averaging between 8 and 12 inches (20-30 cm) per storm. The all-time record snowfall in New York's Central Park was during the Blizzard of 2006 on February 11-12, 2006 when 26.9 inches (68.3 cm) of snow fell in Manhattan. These storms are rare and hit about once a decade. On average, the city receives about 30 inches (76.2 cm) of snow each winter.
Also, due to its location on the east coast, New York City can be prone to tropical cyclones, although they are rare and usually much less strong than ones that hit further south in Florida, North Carolina or along the US Gulf Coast. Hurricanes and tropical storms, if they do hit, usually strike in late summer and early fall.

Environmental issues

New York's high population density and growing need for resources present challenges to protecting its environment. Air pollution, while not as severe as in cities like Beijing, remains a problem. The city's air has high levels of ozone and particulates, and residents in some neighborhoods have very high rates of asthma. Some parts of the city are also at risk if current global warming patterns continue and sea levels rise. The city has taken steps to enhance its efficiency and restrain demands on environmental resources.
New York's unique density facilitates the highest rate of York City">mass transit use in the United States. New York is one of the most energy efficient cities in the country as a result. Gasoline consumption in the city is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s.[4] Since the 1990s the city has been a national leader in municipal environmental policy. The city government is required to purchase only the most energy efficient cars, air-conditioners and copy machines. New York has the largest hybrid bus fleet in the country, and some of the first hybrid taxis. City planners concerned about future electricity demand have introduced experimental underwater turbines in the East River to take advantage of tidal currents.
The city is also a leader in energy-efficient green office buildings, like York City)">Hearst Tower and 7 World Trade Center, which recycles rainwater and uses it in toilets and for irrigation, and uses computer-controlled heating and lighting.
New York's water supply is fed by a vast United States with drinking water pure enough not to require processing by water treatment plants; only chlorination is necessary to ensure its purity at the tap.[5]

Government

Main article: York City">Government of New York City

Since its consolidation in 1898, New York City has been a metropolitan municipality with a "strong" mayor-council form of government. The mayor and councilors are elected to four-year terms. The York City Council">New York City Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51 Council members whose districts are defined by geographic population boundaries. Each councilor represents approximately 157,000 people. The mayor and councilors are subject to eight year term limits. The most recent election was held in 2005.

New York City Hall, seat of city government since 1812.

City Hall, seat of city government since 1812.

York City Hall">New York City Hall, seat of city government since 1812. The city has historically elected Democratic mayoral candidates. The current and previous mayor, however, are pro-choice, liberal Republicans considerably to the left of their national counterparts. Councilors are elected under specific issues and are usually well-known.
The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. Party platforms are centered on affordable housing, education and economic development. The city's political demographics are liberal and Democratic. Labor politics are important. Housing and economic development are the most controversial topics, with an ongoing debate over the proposed Brooklyn Nets Arena. 87% of registered voters in the city are Democrats. This is in contrast to New York state, which is less liberal.
The city has a strong imbalance of payments with the national and state governments. New York City receives 83 cents in services for every $1 it sends to Washington in taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more to Washington than it receives back). The city also sends an additional $11 billion more each year to the state of New York than it receives back.[6]
Because the state of New York consistently votes Democratic in national elections, many observers argue that New York City is insignificant in presidential contests. New York City, however, is the most important source of political fundraising in the United States. Four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the 2000 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and Al Gore.
The current mayor is Michael Bloomberg, a Republican (and former Democrat) elected in 2001 and re-elected four years later with 59% of the vote. He is known for taking control of the city's education system from the state, rezoning and economic development, fiscal management, and banning smoking in bars and restaurants. He is also known for his strong support of strict gun control laws, abortion rights, and aggressive public health policy.

See also

York City">Mayor of New York City
York City Council">New York City Council
York City Civil Court">New York City Civil Court
York City Criminal Court">New York City Criminal Court

Demographics

Main article: York City">Demographics of New York City
New York City Compared 2004 Census Estimate
NY City
NY State
United States Total population
8,168,338
19,254,630
288,368,698 Population, percent change, 1990 to 2000
+9.4%
+5.5%
+13.1% Population density
26,402.9/mi²
401.9/mi²
79.6/mi² Median household income (1999)
$38,293
$43,393
$41,994 Per capita income
$22,402
$23,389
$21,587 Bachelor's degree or higher
27%
27%
24% Foreign born
36%
20%
11% White
45%
68%
75% Black
27%
16%
12% Hispanic
27%
15%
13% Asian
10%
6%
4% As of the censusGR2 of 2004, there are 8,168,338 people (up from 7.3 million in 1990), 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. This amounts to about 40% of New York state's population and a similar percentage of the New York City metropolitan population.
Recently, New York City has had large numbers of foreign immigrants arriving, many long-standing residents leaving, an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, and a rise in the black middle class. In some areas of the city there is rapid growth fueled by immigrants and their children. Some areas are undergoing racial and ethnic transition; others are gentrifying.
The two most notable demographic features of the city are its density and diversity. By American standards, the city has an extremely high population density of 26,402.9/mi², about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest city, Russia represent groups larger than five percent. In 2000, the city was 44.7% white, 26.6% black, and 9.8% Asian, while people of Hispanic origin (who may be of any race) were 27% of the population.

A typically diverse group of New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

A typically diverse group of New Yorkers on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. New United States at more than 8.5 million persons. In absolute terms the increase of more than half a million people over the nighttime population is larger than anywhere else. However, as a percentage of the city's total population, the 7% increase puts New York mid-pack among cities with more than a million residents. This is because a disproportionately high number of people both work and live in the city compared with the national average.
Median family income in New York was $44,131 in 2003. The unemployment rate in March of 2005 was 5.2%, identical to the nationwide rate. The median age is 34, a year younger than the figure nationally. Nearly 30% of New York City households have children under 18.
New Yorkers belong to a diverse range of ethnic groups. 11.5% are African-American, 9.8% Puerto Rican, 8.7% Italian, 5.3% Irish, 5.1% Dominican, 4.5% Chinese, 2.1% Asian Indian, 1.8% Filipino and 1.6% Korean. Many of these minority populations have defined certain neighborhoods; examples in Manhattan are Chinatown, Harlem, Little Italy, and Spanish Harlem. The Irish have also had a notable presence in the city, and according to a 2006 genetic survey by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, about one in 50 New Yorkers of European origin carry a distinctive genetic signature on their Y chromosomes inherited from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the fifth century A.D.[10] Additionally, New York City is home to the nation's largest community of American Jews, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, with an estimate of just under one million in 2002. The city is the worldwide headquarters of the Hasidic Lubavitch movement and the Bobover and Satmar branches of Hasidism.

Crime

Main article: York City">Crime in New York City

Since 1991, New Phoenix.

Transportation

Main article: York City">Transportation in New York City

The Brooklyn Bridge, the world's first steel wire suspension bridge.

Grand Central Terminal, one of the two busiest train stations in the country.

The future transit hub at the World Trade Center site, to be completed in 2009.

The future transit hub at the World Trade Center site, to be completed in 2009. New United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New United States where more than half of all households do not own a car (the figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75%; nationally, the rate is 8%).[14] New York's uniquely high rate of public transit use and its pedestrian-friendly character makes it one of the most energy efficient cities in the country.

Mass transit

Main article: York City">Mass transit in New York City

New York's public transit system, which moves 2.4 billion people each year, is the largest in North America. The York City Subway">New York City Subway is the largest subway system in the world when measured by track mileage (656 miles of mainline track) and the world's fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004).[15] Life in the city is so dependent on the subway that New York is home to two of only three 24 hour subway systems in the entire world. New York City's public bus fleet, the largest in North America, supplements the subway. A vast commuter rail network, also the largest in North America with well over 250 stations and 20 rail lines serving more than 150 million commuters annually, connects the suburbs in the tri-state region to the city.[16] The commuter rail system converges at the two busiest rail stations in the United States, York City)">Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, both in Manhattan.

Airports

Three major airports serve New York City and its surrounding suburbs: John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA), both in Queens, and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in nearby Newark, New Jersey. About 100 million travelers used these New York-area airports in 2005 as the metropolitan region surpassed Chicago to become the busiest air gateway in the nation. JFK and Newark's outbound international travel accounted for nearly a quarter of all U.S. travelers who went overseas in 2004.[17] JFK is the largest international air freight gateway in the nation by value of shipments.[18] Both JFK and Newark have rail connections to Manhattan.

See also

York City Subway">New York City Subway
Port Authority Trans-Hudson
Long Island Rail Road

Education and research

Main article: York City">Education in New York City

New York is a global center for research and education, particularly in medicine and the life sciences. New York has the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions. The city receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities.

Universities

The City University of New York (CUNY), with over 400,000 students the third-largest university system in the United States, has been called "the poor man's Harvard" because of its low tuition and record of graduating the highest number of Nobel Laureates of any public university in the world. Much of its student body, which represent 145 countries, is comprised of new immigrants to New York City. CUNY has campuses in all of the five boroughs.

The Washington Square Arch in Greenwich Village is the unofficial symbol of New York University.

University.

The Washington Square Arch in Greenwich Village is the unofficial symbol of York University">New York University. Columbia University is an Ivy League university in upper Manhattan. It was established in 1754 as King's College and is the fifth oldest chartered institution of higher education in the United States. During these early years, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, and Robert Livingston studied at Columbia.
United States with a total enrollment of 39,408. The University comprises 14 schools, colleges, and divisions, which occupy six major centers across Manhattan.
Fordham University, which has campuses in Manhattan and the Bronx, was the first Catholic university in the northeast. Yeshiva University is a competitive university in the Bronx with a strong rabbinical school. The New School, whose graduate faculty was founded by scholars exiled by totalitarian regimes in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, is known for its progressive intellectual tradition.
In addition to many more universities, New York City is home to several of the nation's top schools of art and design, including Pratt Institute, the School of Visual Arts, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Parsons School of Design. See also: York City">List of colleges and universities in New York City

Schools

The Bronx High School of Science has the largest number of Nobel Laureates among its graduates of any high school in the world.

The Bronx High School of Science has the largest number of Nobel Laureates among its graduates of any high school in the world. The New United States for gay, lesbian, and transgendered students.
There are about 1,000 additional privately-run secular and religious schools in New York. These include some of the most prestigious private schools in the United States, such as The Dalton School, The Brearley School, and York City)">Horace Mann School. The Archdiocese of New York of the Diocese of Brooklyn run an extensive network of important Catholic schools.

Libraries

New York City has three public library systems. The York Public Library">New York Public Library comprises simultaneously a set of scholarly research collections and a network of community libraries and is the busiest public library system in the world. The largest of its four research centers is the Library for the Humanities, which ranks in importance with the Library of Congress, the British Library, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It has 39 million items in its collection, among them the first five folios of Shakespeare's plays, ancient Torah scrolls, and Alexander Hamilton's handwritten draft of the United States Constitution.
The Brooklyn Public Library is the fourth-largest library system in the country, with an extensive foreign language collection in 70 different languages, from Arabic to Creole to Vietnamese. Offerings are tailored by library branches to the neighborhoods they serve.
The Queens Borough Public Library serves the city's most diverse borough with a full range of services and programs for adults and children. Lectures, performances and special events are presented by neighborhood branches. Internet access is available at every branch location.

Medical research

New Indomnitable, there. More than 50 bioscience companies and two biotech incubators are located in the city, with as many as 30 companies spun out of local research institutions each year.

Trivia

With over 8 million residents, New Buffalo, the second largest city in New York State.
Approximately two out of five New York State residents live in New York City.
More than a third of the actors in the United States are based in New York.[19]
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is so long – 4,260 feet – that the towers are a few inches out of parallel to accommodate the curvature of the earth.
Monaco.
Interstate 278 is the only highway to go through all five boroughs of New York.
See also: York City lists">List of New York City lists

Sister cities

New York has twelve sister cities. Parentheses indicate the year the relationships were formed.

Japan (1960)
China (1980)
Spain (1982)
Egypt (1982)
Dominican Republic (1983)
Italy (1992)
Hungary (1992)
Israel (1993)
United Kingdom (2001)
Australia (2000)
South Africa (2003)
South Korea (2003) Amsterdam, The Netherlands Although Amsterdam is not a sister city, due to New York's origins as a Dutch colony and original name (New Amsterdam) it can be legitimately considered New York's "mother city."
Canada Although Toronto is not a sister city, the city recently twinned with New York City.