New York City: the story on HearLore

New York City

New York City began as a small trading post on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, established by Dutch colonists around 1624. Before the first European ships arrived, the area was home to the Lenape people, who called the land Lenapehoking. The Dutch named their settlement New Amsterdam in 1626, and it was chartered as a city in 1653. The city came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York after King Charles II granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York. The modern city was formed by the 1898 consolidation of its five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Today, it is the most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 8,478,072 in July 2024. It is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the United States by both population and urban area. New York is a global center of finance and commerce, culture, technology, entertainment and media, academics and scientific output, the arts and fashion, and, as home to the headquarters of the United Nations, international diplomacy. With an estimated population in July 2024 of 8,478,072, distributed over , the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York City has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the country's second-most populous city. In 2021, 3,079,776 New Yorkers identified themselves as foreign-born, including 1,542,413 Latin American, 910,151 Asian, and 443,113 European immigrants. The 2020 Census found that New York City was home to 8,804,190 people. Los Angeles, CA, was the nation's distant second most populous city with 3,898,747 residents. Over 20.1 million people live in New York City's metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, both the largest in the U.S. New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities. The city and its metropolitan area serve as the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. An estimated 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The New York City metropolitan region is home to the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world, approximately 5.9 million as of 2023.

From Dutch Outpost To English Province

The first documented visit to New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano. He claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. A Spanish expedition, led by the Portuguese captain Estêvão Gomes sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Saint Anthony's River. In 1609, the English explorer Henry Hudson rediscovered New York Harbor while searching for the Northwest Passage to the Orient for the Dutch East India Company. He sailed up what the Dutch called North River, now the Hudson River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange. Hudson claimed the region for the Dutch East India Company. In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay was claimed by the Netherlands and named New Netherland. The first non-Native American inhabitant of what became New York City was Juan Rodriguez, a merchant from Santo Domingo who arrived in Manhattan during the winter of 1613-14, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch. A permanent European presence near New York Harbor was established in 1624, making New York the 12th-oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States, with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on a citadel and Fort Amsterdam, later called Nieuw Amsterdam, on present-day Manhattan Island. Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan. The colony of New Amsterdam extended from the southern tip of Manhattan to modern-day Wall Street, where a wooden stockade was built in 1653 to protect against Native American and English raids. In 1626 Peter Minuit, the director of New Netherland, as charged by the Dutch West India Company, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie, a small Lenape band, for the value of 60 guilders, about $900 in 2018. A frequently told but disproved legend claims that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads. Following the purchase, New Amsterdam grew slowly. To attract settlers, the Dutch instituted the patroon system in 1628, whereby wealthy Dutchmen, patroons, or patrons, who brought 50 colonists to New Netherland would be awarded land, local political autonomy, and rights to participate in the lucrative fur trade. This program had little success. Since 1621, the Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland, on authority granted by the Dutch States General. In 1639-1640, to bolster economic growth, the Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade, leading to growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves, particularly with the Dutch West Indies. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant began his tenure as the last director-general of New Netherland. During his tenure, the population of New Netherland grew from 2,000 to 8,000. Stuyvesant has been credited with improving law and order; however, he earned a reputation as a despotic leader. He instituted regulations on liquor sales, attempted to assert control over the Dutch Reformed Church, and blocked other religious groups from establishing houses of worship. In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed. The terms of the surrender permitted Dutch residents to remain in the colony and allowed for religious freedom. In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the victorious Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname, which they had gained from the English, and in return the English kept New Amsterdam. The settlement was promptly renamed New York after the Duke of York, the future King James II and VII. The duke gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. On the 24th of August 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Anthony Colve of the Dutch navy seized New York at the behest of Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and rechristened it New Orange after William III, the Prince of Orange. The Dutch soon returned the island to England under the Treaty of Westminster of November 1674. Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between 1660 and 1670. By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200. New York experienced several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population in 1702 alone. In the early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a trading port as a part of the colony of New York. It became a center of slavery, with 42% of households enslaving Africans by 1730. Most were domestic slaves; others were hired out as labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with the American South. During construction in Foley Square in the 1990s, the African Burying Ground was discovered; the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 graves of colonial-era Africans, some enslaved and some free. The 1735 trial and acquittal in Manhattan of John Peter Zenger, who had been accused of seditious libel after criticizing colonial governor William Cosby, helped to establish freedom of the press in North America. In 1754, Columbia University was founded.

When was New York City founded by Dutch colonists?

New York City was founded by Dutch colonists around 1624. The first permanent European presence near New York Harbor was established in 1624, making New York the 12th-oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement in the continental United States.

Who was the first European to visit New York Harbor?

The first documented visit to New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano. He claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême.

What is the current population of New York City in 2024?

New York City had an estimated population of 8,478,072 in July 2024. The 2020 Census found that New York City was home to 8,804,190 people.

When did slavery end in New York State?

Slavery was completely abolished in New York State in 1827. The state passed a Gradual Emancipation Act in 1799 that freed slave children born after the 4th of July 1799, but they were indentured until they were young adults.

What happened during the September 11 attacks in New York City?

Two of the four hijacked airliners were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on the 11th of September 2001, resulting in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of 2,753 people. This included 343 first responders from the New York City Fire Department and 71 law enforcement officers.

Revolution And The Capital Of A Nation

The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765, as the Sons of Liberty organization emerged in the city and skirmished over the next ten years with British troops stationed there. The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War, was fought in August 1776 within modern-day Brooklyn. A British rout of the Continental Army at the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776 eliminated the last American stronghold in Manhattan, causing George Washington and his forces to retreat across the Hudson River to New Jersey, pursued by British forces. Fought on the 16th of November 1776, on the island of Manhattan, the Battle of Fort Washington was the final devastating chapter in General Washington's disastrous New York Campaign. Seeing how precarious the American position was, Howe launched a three-pronged assault on Fort Washington and its outer defensive works. The combined British-Hessian assault force of 8,000 men grossly outnumbered the fort's 3,000 defenders. At 3:00 P.M., after a fruitless attempt to gain gentler surrender terms for his men, Magaw surrendered Fort Washington and its 2,800 surviving defenders to the British. After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, the British made New York their military and political base of operations in North America. One of New York City's key distinctions in the late colonial period was its role as the headquarters of the British Army in North America, almost continuously from 1755 to 1783. The city was a haven for Loyalist refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom promised by the Crown, with as many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation, the largest such community on the continent. They ran to the British Army, which offered freedom to enslaved people owned by rebel masters based on the 1779 Philipsburg Proclamation issued by British General Henry Clinton. Historians estimate that 10,000 enslaved people sought freedom by escaping to the British during the Revolutionary War. By 1783, New York City had become the largest fugitive slave community in North America. Free and self-emancipated Black people entered New York City during the British occupation seeking protection. When the British forces evacuated New York at the close of the war in 1783, they transported thousands of freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia, England, and the Caribbean. The attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the Conference House on Staten Island between American delegates, including Benjamin Franklin, and British general Lord Howe on the 11th of September 1776. Shortly after the British occupation began, the Great Fire of New York destroyed nearly 500 buildings, about a quarter of the structures in the city, including Trinity Church. The fire started in a wooden building near White Hall Slip, called the Fighting Cocks Tavern, a fun house visited by the city's most disreputable residents. It was fanned by winds south west of the city and spread rapidly into the night, demolishing 493 buildings and houses in the process. In January 1785, the assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital. From the 11th of January 1785 through 1789, the Congress of the Confederation met in New York City, at City Hall, which later became Federal Hall, and at Fraunces Tavern. New York was the last capital of the United States under the Articles of Confederation and the first under the Constitution. As the capital, New York City hosted the inauguration of the first President, George Washington, and the first Congress, at Federal Hall on Wall Street. Congress drafted the Bill of Rights there. The Supreme Court held its first organizational sessions in New York in 1790. In 1790, for the first time, New York City surpassed Philadelphia as the nation's largest city. At the end of 1790, the national capital was moved to Philadelphia, where it remained while the new capital in Washington, D.C. was being constructed. During the 19th century New York City's population grew from 60,000 to 3.43 million. Under New York State's gradual emancipation act of 1799, children of slave mothers were to be eventually liberated but to be held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties. An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Negro Slavery in New York, L. 1799, Ch. 62. A significant free Black population gradually developed in Manhattan, made up of former slaves who had been freed by their masters after the American Revolutionary War, as well as escaped slaves. The New York Manumission Society worked for abolition and established the African Free School to educate Black children. It was not until 1827 that slavery was completely abolished in the state. When Did Slavery End in New York State?, New-York Historical Society. Accessed the 16th of January 2024. In 1799, New York passed a Gradual Emancipation Act that freed slave children born after the 4th of July 1799, but indentured them until they were young adults. In 1817, a new law was passed that would free slaves born before 1799, but not until 1827. Free Blacks struggled with discrimination, and interracial abolitionist activism continued. New York City's population jumped from 123,706 in 1820, 10,886 of whom were Black and of whom 518 were enslaved, to 312,710 by 1840, 16,358 of whom were Black. Also in the 19th century, the city was transformed by both commercial and residential development relating to its status as a national and international trading center, as well as by European immigration, respectively. The city adopted the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which expanded the city street grid to encompass almost all of Manhattan. The 1825 completion of the Erie Canal through central New York connected the Atlantic port to the agricultural markets and commodities of the North American interior via the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish and German immigrants. In 1831, New York University was founded. Several prominent American literary figures lived in New York during the 1830s and 1840s, including William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, John Keese, Nathaniel Parker Willis, and Edgar Allan Poe. Members of the business elite lobbied for the establishment of Central Park, which in 1857 became the first landscaped park in an American city. The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, of whom more than 200,000 were living in New York by 1860, representing over a quarter of the city's population. Extensive immigration from the German provinces meant that Germans comprised another 25% of New York's population by 1860.

Civil War And The Birth Of A Megacity

Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing the city's ties to the South and its dominant party. In 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood called on the aldermen to declare independence from Albany and the United States after the South seceded, but his proposal was not acted on. Anger at new military conscription laws during the American Civil War, 1861-1865, which spared wealthier men who could afford to hire a substitute, led to the Draft Riots of 1863, whose most visible participants were ethnic Irish working class. The draft riots deteriorated into attacks on New York's elite, followed by attacks on Black New Yorkers after fierce competition for a decade between Irish immigrants and Black people for work. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground. At least 120 people were killed. Eleven Black men were lynched over five days, and the riots forced hundreds of Blacks to flee. The Black population in Manhattan fell below 10,000 by 1865. The White working class had established dominance. It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history. In 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, was dedicated in New York Harbor. The statue welcomed 14 million immigrants as they arrived via Ellis Island by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the United States and American ideals of liberty and peace. Inaugurated in 1886, the sculpture stands at the entrance to New York Harbour and has welcomed millions of immigrants to the United States ever since. Between 1886 and 1924, almost 14 million immigrants entered the United States through New York. The Statue of Liberty was a reassuring sign that they had arrived in the land of their dreams. In 1898, the City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn, until then a separate city, the County of New York, which then included parts of the Bronx, the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens. The opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. In 1904, the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River, killing 1,021 people. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst industrial disaster, killed 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in building safety standards. New York's non-White population was 36,620 in 1890. New York City was a prime destination in the early 20th century for Blacks during the Great Migration from the American South, and by 1916, New York City had the largest urban African diaspora in North America. The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition. The larger economic boom generated the construction of skyscrapers competing in height. New York City became the most populous urbanized area in the world in the early 1920s, overtaking London. The metropolitan area surpassed 10 million in the early 1930s, becoming the first megacity. The Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello La Guardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance. Returning World War II veterans created a post-war economic boom and the development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County, with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations headquarters was completed in 1952, solidifying New York's global geopolitical influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world.

The Struggle And The Comeback

In 1969, the Stonewall riots were a series of violent protests by members of the gay community against a police raid that took place in the early morning of the 28th of June 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. They are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights. Wayne R. Dynes, author of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, wrote that drag queens were the only transgender folks around during the Stonewall riots. The transgender community in New York City played a significant role in fighting for LGBT equality. In the 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates. Growing fiscal deficits in 1975 led the city to appeal to the federal government for financial aid, which President Gerald Ford denied in a speech paraphrased by New York Daily News as FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD. Mr. Ford, on Oct. 29, 1975, gave a speech denying federal assistance to spare New York from bankruptcy. The front page of The Daily News the next day read: FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD. Moreover, the speech spurred New York's civic, business, and labor leaders to rally bankers in the United States and abroad, who feared their own investments would be harmed if New York defaulted on its debt. The Municipal Assistance Corporation was formed and granted oversight authority over the city's finances. For nearly two decades, from 1975 to 1993, as chairman of the state-appointed Municipal Assistance Corporation, Mr. Rohatyn had a say, often the final one, over taxes and spending in the nation's largest city, a degree of influence for an unelected official that rankled some critics. His efforts to meld private profit with the public good defined him: In the perception of many, his name was synonymous with two institutions, the M.A.C., which was hastily created in 1975 to save the city from insolvency, and Lazard, formerly Lazard Frères, the storied investment firm that started as a dry-goods business in New Orleans in 1848. While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through that decade and into the beginning of the 1990s. New York City's population passed 8 million for the first time in the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of New York City as of the 1st of April 2000, was 8,008,278, the largest enumerated census population in the city's history. The previous peak was in 1970, when the enumerated population stood at 7,894,862. Further records were set in the 2010 and 2020 censuses. Population, New York City Department of City Planning. Accessed the 27th of January 2024. The enumerated population of New York City was 8,804,190 as of the 1st of April 2020, a record high population. This is an increase of 629,057 people since the 2010 Census. Important new economic sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged. The year 2000 was celebrated with fanfare in Times Square. New York City suffered the bulk of the economic damage and the largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Two of the four hijacked airliners were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, resulting in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of 2,753 people, including 343 first responders from the New York City Fire Department and 71 law enforcement officers. Former FDNY commissioner on losing 343 firefighters on 9/11: We had the best fire chiefs in the world, Fox News, the 11th of September 2021. Accessed the 30th of January 2024. Of the 2,753 people killed at the World Trade Center, 343 were first responders from the Fire Department of New York, while another 71 were law enforcement officers from 10 different agencies. The area was rebuilt with a new World Trade Center, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and other new buildings and infrastructure, including the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the city's third-largest hub. The new One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and the world's seventh-tallest building by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic, a reference to the year of American independence. The Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan began on the 17th of September 2011, receiving global attention and popularizing the Occupy movement against social and economic inequality worldwide. New York City was heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. At least 43 people died in New York City as a result of Sandy, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $19 billion. NYC Still Vulnerable to Hurricanes 10 Years After Sandy, Bloomberg Businessweek, the 13th of October 2022. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. Hurricane Sandy swept through New York City in October 2012, leading to 43 deaths and an estimated $19 billion in damages. New York needs to step up its efforts and spend the $15 billion in federal grants that it received for recovery efforts, a new report by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released on Thursday said. Flooding led to a days-long shutdown of the subway system, Flegenheimer, Matt. Flooded Tunnels May Keep City's Subway Network Closed for Several Days, The New York Times, the 30th of October 2012. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. As the remnants of Hurricane Sandy left the city on Tuesday, transit officials surveyed the damage to the system, which they shut down on Sunday night as a precaution. What they found was an unprecedented assault: flooded tunnels, battered stations and switches, and signals likely damaged. and the first weather-related closure of the New York Stock Exchange since the Great Blizzard of 1888. Strasburg, Jenny; Cheng, Jonathan; and Bunge, Jacob. Behind Decision to Close Markets, The Wall Street Journal, the 29th of October 2012. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. Superstorm Sandy forced regulators and exchange operators to keep U.S. stock markets closed Tuesday, in the first weather-related shutdown to last more than one day since the Blizzard of 1888. The decision to close the New York Stock Exchange and other U.S. equity markets for a second straight day, reached by midafternoon Monday, renewed questions about the industry's disaster preparedness. The resulting long-term damage to multiple subway and road tunnels Superstorm Sandy: The Devastating Impact On The Nation's Largest Transportation Systems, United States Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight, and Ports, the 6th of December 2012. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. The most damaging impact of the storm, from a transportation standpoint, was on the highway, transit, and rail tunnels in and out of Manhattan. All seven of the subway tunnels under the East River flooded, as did the Hudson River subway tunnel, the East River and Hudson River commuter rail tunnels, and the subway tunnels in lower Manhattan. Three of the four highway tunnels into Manhattan flooded, leaving only the Lincoln Tunnel open. While some subway service was restored three days after the storm, the PATH train service to the World Trade Center was only restored on November 26, four weeks after the storm, and subway service between the Rockaway peninsula and Howard Beach is not expected to be reopened for months. spawned long-term efforts towards infrastructural projects to counter climate change and rising seas, including $15 billion in federal funding received through 2022 towards those resiliency efforts. Ten Years After Sandy; Barriers to Resilience, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the 13th of October 2022. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. Of the $15 billion of federal grants appropriated for Sandy recovery and resilience, the City has spent $11 billion, or 73%, as of June 2022. In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in the city was confirmed. With its population density and extensive exposure to global travelers, the city rapidly replaced Wuhan, China as the global epicenter of the pandemic during the early phase, straining the city's healthcare infrastructure. Robinson, David. COVID-19: How New York City became epicenter of coronavirus pandemic, what that means, The Journal News, the 27th of March 2024. Accessed the 13th of January 2024. New York City's rise this month to become the new coronavirus pandemic's epicenter has far-reaching implications for communities statewide. Most pressing, the rapidly spreading virus that originated in Wuhan, China, threatens to overwhelm New York state's entire medical system, prompting a dire push for thousands of new hospital beds to treat infected New Yorkers. Further, the outbreak, which topped 44,600 confirmed cases statewide as of Friday, including 23,000 in New York City alone, is also devastating the entire state's economy and draining government coffers at all levels. Why New York City's density, tourism made it vulnerable to coronavirus. Through March 2023, New York City recorded more than 80,000 deaths from COVID-19-related complications. Tracking Coronavirus in New York: Latest Map and Case Count, The New York Times, the 23rd of March 2023. Accessed the 13th of January 2024. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 6,805,271 cases have been reported. At least 1 in 243 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 80,109 deaths.

Five Boroughs And A Global Stage

Under the Köppen climate classification, New York City has a humid subtropical climate, Cfa, and is the northernmost major city on the North American continent with this categorization. The suburbs to the immediate north and west are in the transitional zone between humid subtropical and humid continental climates, Dfa. The city receives an average of of precipitation annually, which is relatively evenly spread throughout the year. New York averages over 2,500 hours of sunshine annually. Winters are chilly and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow sea breezes offshore temper the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic and the partial shielding from colder air by the Appalachian Mountains keep the city warmer in the winter than inland North American cities at similar or lesser latitudes. Weather in New York, Climate and Weather. Accessed the 31st of December 2023. Sprawling across three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River in the north-eastern United States, New York City's climate benefits from the warm Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Ocean. This, coupled with the protection of the Appalachian Mountains inland, keeps the city warmer than other big American cities at similar latitudes. The daily mean temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is . Temperatures usually drop to several times per winter, and can reach for several days even in the coldest winter month. Spring and autumn are unpredictable and can range from cool to warm, although they are usually mild with low humidity. Summers are typically hot and humid, with a daily mean temperature of in July. Nighttime temperatures are degrees higher for the average city resident due to the urban heat island effect, caused by paved streets and tall buildings. Maldonando, Samantha. How Much Hotter Is NYC's Heat Island Effect Making Your Neighborhood?, The City, the 26th of July 2023. Accessed the 30th of December 2023. The city as a whole feels about 9.5 degrees hotter for the average New Yorker. That's thanks to the human-made surroundings that define the cityscape: tall buildings that limit air circulation, abundant asphalt and pavement, and the heat-generating things New Yorkers do fairly close to one another, like running appliances and driving. Daytime temperatures exceed on average of 17 days each summer and in some years exceed , although this is a rare occurrence, last noted on the 18th of July 2012. Readings of are extremely rare, last occurring on the 14th of February 2016. Extreme temperatures have ranged from , recorded on the 9th of July 1936, down to on the 9th of February 1934. The coldest recorded wind chill was on the same day as the all-time record low. The average winter snowfall between 1991 and 2020 was . This varies considerably between years. The record cold daily maximum was on the 30th of December 1917. The record warm daily minimum was , on the 2nd of July 1903. The average water temperature of the nearby Atlantic Ocean ranges from in February, to in August. Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in the New York area. Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of the 29th of October 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels, and subway lines in Lower Manhattan and other areas of the city and cutting off electricity in many parts of the city and its suburbs. The storm and its profound impacts have prompted the discussion of constructing seawalls and other coastal barriers around the shorelines of the city and the metropolitan area to minimize the risk of destructive consequences from another such event in the future. The city of New York has a complex park system, with various lands operated by the National Park Service, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In its 2023 ParkScore ranking, the Trust for Public Land reported that the park system in New York City was the tenth-best park system among the most populous U.S. cities, citing the city's park acreage, investment in parks, and that 99% of residents are within of a park. 2023 ParkScore Index New York, NY, Trust for Public Land. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. Gateway National Recreation Area contains over , most of it in New York City. In Brooklyn and Queens, the park contains over of salt marsh, wetlands, islands, and water, including most of Jamaica Bay and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Also in Queens, the park includes a significant portion of the western Rockaway Peninsula, most notably Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden. Maps for Jamaica Bay Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. Within the Jamaica Bay Unit, there are several places to visit. Floyd Bennett Field, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Canarsie Pier, Breezy Point, Fort Tilden, and Jacob Riis Park. In Staten Island, it includes Fort Wadsworth, with historic pre-Civil War era Battery Weed and Fort Tompkins, and Great Kills Park. Maps for Staten Island Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area. Accessed the 15th of January 2024. The Staten Island Unit is made of three different areas, Fort Wadsworth, Miller Field, and Great Kills Park. The Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island Immigration Museum are managed by the National Park Service and are in both New York and New Jersey. They are joined in the harbor by Governors Island National Monument. Historic sites under federal management on Manhattan Island include Stonewall National Monument; Castle Clinton National Monument; Federal Hall National Memorial; Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site; General Grant National Memorial, Grant's Tomb; African Burial Ground National Monument; and Hamilton Grange National Memorial. Hundreds of properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or as a National Historic Landmark. There are seven state parks within the confines of New York City. They include: the Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve, a natural area that includes extensive riding trails; the Riverbank State Park, a facility; and the Marsha P. Johnson State Park, a state park in Brooklyn and Manhattan that borders the East River renamed in honor of Marsha P. Johnson. New York City has over of municipal parkland and of public beaches.; The largest municipal park in the city is Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, with , and the most visited urban park is the Central Park, and one of the most filmed and visited locations in the world, with 42 million visitors in 2023. Environmental issues in New York City are affected by the city's size, density, abundant public transportation infrastructure, and its location at the mouth of the

A City Of Many Worlds

Hudson River. For example, it is one of the country's biggest sources of pollution and has the lowest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions rate and electricity usage. Governors Island is planned to host a US$1billion research and education center to make New York City the global leader in addressing the climate crisis. As an oceanic port city, New York City is vulnerable to long-term manifestations of global warming like sea level rise exacerbated by land subsidence. Climate change has spawned the development of a significant climate resiliency and environmental sustainability economy in the city. New York City has focused on reducing its environmental impact and carbon footprint. Mass transit use is the highest in the country. New York's high rate of public transit use, more than 610,000 daily cycling trips, and many pedestrian commuters make it the most energy-efficient major city in the United States. Walk and bicycle modes of travel account for 21% of all modes for trips in the city; nationally, the rate for metro regions is about 8%. In both 2011 and 2015, Walk Score named New York City the most walkable large city in the United States, and in 2018, Stacker ranked New York the most walkable American city. Citibank sponsored public bicycles for the city's bike-share project, which became known as Citi Bike, in 2013. New York City's numerical in-season cycling indicator of bicycling in the city had hit an all-time high of 437 when measured in 2014. The New York City drinking water supply is extracted from the protected Catskill Mountains watershed. As a result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration system, New York is one of only four major cities in the United States the majority of whose drinking water is pure enough not to require water treatment. The city's municipal water system is the nation's largest, moving more than of water daily from a watershed covering New York Water Fact Sheet, United States Environmental Protection Agency. June 2010. Accessed the 29th of December 2023. New York City is home to the largest engineered water system in the nation, supplying more than 1 billion gallons of water each day to approximately 9 million people, representing half of the state's population. The city draws its water from reservoirs upstate, supplied by a 1,900-square-mile watershed, that's about the size of Delaware. According to the 2016 World Health Organization Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database, the annual average concentration in New York City's air of particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or less, PM2.5, was 7.0 micrograms per cubic meter, or 3.0 micrograms within the recommended limit of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines for the annual mean PM2.5. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in partnership with Queens College, conducts the New York Community Air Survey to measure pollutants at about 150 locations. New York City is the most populous city in the United States, with 8,804,190 residents as of the 2020 census, its highest decennial count ever, incorporating more immigration into the city than outmigration since the 2010 census. More than twice as many people live in New York City as in Los Angeles, the second largest American city. The city's population in 2020 was 35.9% White, 22.7% Black, 14.6% Asian, 10.5% Mixed, 0.7% Native American and 0.1% Pacific Islander; 28.4% identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. Between 2010 and 2020, New York City's population grew by 629,000 residents, more than the total growth of the next four largest American cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix, combined. The city's population density of makes it the densest of any American municipality with a population above 100,000. Highest Density States, Counties and Cities, 2022, United States Census Bureau. Accessed the 30th of December 2023. Manhattan's population density is , the highest of any county in the United States. Based on data from the 2020 census, New York City comprised about 43.6% of the state's population of 20,202,320, and about 39% of the population of the New York metropolitan area. The majority of New York City residents in 2020, 5,141,539 or 58.4%, were living in Brooklyn or Queens, the two boroughs on Long Island. QuickFacts New York city, New York; Bronx County, New York; Kings County, New York; New York County, New York; Queens County, New York; Richmond County, New York, United States Census Bureau. Accessed the 14th of January 2024. An estimated 800 languages are spoken in New York, and the New York City metropolitan statistical area has the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world. The New York region continues to be by far the leading metropolitan gateway for legal immigrants admitted into the United States, substantially exceeding the combined totals of Los Angeles and Miami. Nearly seven times as many young professionals applied for jobs in New York City in 2023 as compared to 2019, making New York the most popular destination for recent college graduates. According to 2022 estimates from the American Community Survey, the largest self-reported ancestries in New York City were Dominican, 8.7%, Chinese, 7.5%, Puerto Rican, 6.9%, Italian, 5.5%, Mexican, 4.4%, Irish, 4.4%, Asian Indian, 3.1%, German, 2.9%, Jamaican, 2.4%, Ecuadorian, 2.3%, English, 2.1%, Polish, 1.9%, Russian, 1.7%, Arab, 1.4%, Haitian, 1.4%, Guyanese, 1.3%, Filipino, 1.1%, and Korean, 1.1%. Historical demographics 2020 2010 1990 1970 1940 White non-Hispanic 30.9% 33.3% 43.4% 64.0% 92.1% Hispanic or Latino 28.3% 28.6% 23.7% 15.2% 1.6% Black or African American non-Hispanic 20.2% 22.8% 28.8% 21.1% 6.1% Asian and Pacific Islander non-Hispanic 15.6% 12.6% 7.0% 1.2% 0.2% Native American non-Hispanic 0.2% 0.2% 0.4% 0.1% N/A Two or more races non-Hispanic 3.4% 1.8% N/A N/A N/A Based on American Community Survey data from 2018 to 2022, approximately 36.3% of the city's population is foreign-born, compared to 13.7% nationwide, and 40% of all children are born to mothers who are immigrants. Camarota, Steven A.; Zeigler, Karen; and Richwine, Jason. Births to Legal and Illegal Immigrants in the U.S; A look at health insurance coverage among new mothers by legal status at the state and local level, Center for Immigration Studies, the 9th of October 2018. Accessed the 14th of January 2024. Throughout its history, New York has been a major port of entry for immigrants. The Newest New Yorkers: 2013, New York City Department of City Planning, December 2013. Retrieved the 9th of February 2017. The immigrant share of the population has also doubled since 1965, to 37 percent. With foreign-born mothers accounting for 51 percent of all births, approximately 6-in-10 New Yorkers are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. No single country or region of origin dominates. Queens has the largest Asian-American and Andean populations in the United States, and is also the most ethnically and linguistically diverse urban area in the world. The wider New York City metropolitan region is home to the world's largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region, enumerating 5.9 million as of 2023. The metropolitan area has the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere; the largest Russian-American, Italian-American, and African-American populations; the largest Dominican-American, Puerto Rican-American, and South American and second-largest overall Hispanic population in the United States, numbering over 5 million. Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, and Brazil, are the top source countries from South America for immigrants to the New York City region; the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean; Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa from Africa; and El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in Central America. New York contains the highest total Asian population of any U.S. city proper. Asian Americans in New York City, according to the 2010 census, number more than 1.2 million, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles. New York has the largest Chinese population of any city outside Asia, Manhattan's Chinatown is the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, and Queens is home to the largest Tibetan population outside Asia. Arab Americans number over 160,000 in New York City, with the highest concentration in Brooklyn. New York City has the highest Palestinian population in the United States. Uzbek Americans, Armenian Americans, and Albanian Americans are a rapidly growing segment of the city's non-Hispanic White population. The metropolitan area is home to 20% of the nation's Indian Americans and at least twenty Little India enclaves, and 15% of all Korean Americans and four Koreatowns. New York City and its metropolitan area have the largest population of Blacks or African Americans in the nation. New York City has the largest European and non-Hispanic white population of any American city, numbering 2.7 million in 2012. The European diaspora residing in the city is very diverse and many European ethnic groups have formed enclaves. With 960,000 Jewish inhabitants as of 2023, New York City is home to the highest Jewish population of any city in the world, and its metropolitan area concentrated over 2 million Jews as of 2021, the second largest Jewish population worldwide after the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in Israel. In the borough of Brooklyn, an estimated one in four residents was Jewish as of 2018. New York City has been described as the gay capital of the world and the central node of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, LGBT, sociopolitical ecosystem, and is home to one of the world's largest LGBT populations and the most prominent. The New York metropolitan area is home to about 570,000 self-identifying gay and bisexual people, the largest in the country. Same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults has been legal in New York since 1980's New York v. Onofre case, which invalidated the state's sodomy law. Same-sex marriage in New York was legalized on the 24th of June 2011, and were authorized to take place on the 23rd of July 2011. The NYC Pride March is the largest pride parade in the world. The annual NYC Pride March proceeds southward down Fifth Avenue and ends at Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan; the parade is the largest pride parade in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. The annual Queens Pride Parade is held in Jackson Heights and is accompanied by the ensuing Multicultural Parade. Stonewall 50 , WorldPride NYC 2019 was the largest international Pride celebration in history, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, with 150,000 participants and five million spectators attending in Manhattan alone. New York City is home to the largest transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens; however, until the June 1969 Stonewall riots, this community had felt marginalized and neglected by the gay community. Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender-rights demonstration in LGBT history, took place on the 14th of June 2020, stretching from Grand Army Plaza to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants. Christianity is the largest religion, 59% adherent, in New York City, which is home to the highest number of churches of any city in the world. Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination, 33%, followed by Protestantism, 23%, and other Christian denominations, 3%. The Latin Catholic population is primarily served by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Brooklyn, while Eastern Catholics are divided into numerous jurisdictions throughout the city. Evangelical Protestantism is the largest branch of Protestantism in the city, 9%, followed by Mainline Protestantism, 8%, while the converse is usually true for other cities and metropolitan areas. With 960,000 Jewish inhabitants as of 2023, Judaism is the second-largest religion practiced in New York City. Nearly half of the city's Jews live in Brooklyn. Islam ranks as the third-largest religion in New York City, following Christianity and Judaism, with estimates ranging between 600,000 and 1,000,000 observers of Islam, including 10% of the city's public school children. 22.3% of American Muslims live in New York City, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greater New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Western Hemisphere, and the most ethnically diverse Muslim population of any city in the world. Powers Street Mosque in Brooklyn is one of the oldest continuously operating mosques in the United States, and represents the first Islamic organization in both the city and the state. Following these three largest religious groups in New York City are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and others. As of 2023, 24% of Greater New Yorkers identified with no organized religious affiliation, and 4% were self-identified atheists. New York City is a global hub of business and commerce, sometimes called the Capital of the World. Greater New York is the world's largest metropolitan economy, with a gross metropolitan product estimated at US$2.16 trillion in 2022. New York is a center for worldwide banking and finance, health care, and life sciences, medical technology and research, retailing, world trade, transportation, tourism, real estate, new media, traditional media, advertising, legal services, accountancy, insurance, and the arts in the United States; while Silicon Alley, metonymous for New York's high technology sphere, continues to expand. The Port of New York and New Jersey is a major economic engine, benefiting post-Panamax from the expansion of the Panama Canal. Many Fortune 500 corporations are headquartered in New York City, Fortune 500 2011: Cities with most companies. CNNMoney. Retrieved the 21st of July 2011; Fortune, Vol. 163, no. 7, the 23rd of May 2011, p. F-45, as are a large number of multinational corporations. New York City has been ranked first among cities across the globe in attracting capital, business, and tourists. New York City's role as the top global center for the advertising industry is