New York City
New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the largest city, by population, in the United States. It is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. New York City is among the world's most important global cities, as it is home to many world-class museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, and international corporations. 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 cosmopolitan 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." New York City comprises five boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — each of which could be a major city in its own right. 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 megalopolis. New York 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 per capita GDP in the world, at about $59,000/head, about $7,000/head lower than Luxembourg. |
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| City nickname: "The Big Apple" | |
Location in the state of New York |
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| Counties (Boroughs) |
Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) |
| Mayor | Michael Bloomberg (R) |
| Area - Land - Water |
1,214.4 km² 800.31 km² 414.09 km² |
| Population - Total (2005) - Density |
21,766,731 (metropolitan area) 8,158,000 (city proper) 10,292/km² |
| Time zone - summer (DST) |
EST (UTC−5) EDT (UTC−4) |
| Latitude Longitude |
40°47' N 73°58' W |
| Official website: City of New York (http://www.nyc.gov) | |
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 Dutch fur trading 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
Algonquin 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.
In 1664, English 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, Duke of York, and became a royal colony in 1685 when James succeeded his brother 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 British 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-western 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 Democratic Party political machine.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city's strong commercial ties to the South, its growing immigrant population, and anger about conscription led to divided sympathy for both the Union and Confederacy, culminating in the Draft Riots 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 in 1899); and The Borough of Staten Island contained all of Richmond County. 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 (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 terrorist attack 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 firemen, 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.
Residents of the city often refer to the city itself as "the 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. List of Staten Island neighborhoods
See also: Neighborhood rebranding in 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, legislative and judicial branches.
The executive branch of New York City is headed by the Mayor, 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.
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 Five Families.
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
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 tidal 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 artificially enlarged, 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 km² (468.9 mi²). 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
As of the census2 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, 26.59% Black or African American, 0.52% Native American, 9.83% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 13.42% from other races, and 4.92% from two or more races. 26.98% of the population are Hispanic or Latino 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, 5.3% Irish, 5.1% Dominican, and 4.5% Chinese.
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 married couples 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.
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 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 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 American film 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 Financial District. 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. Many corporations 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
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 stereotypical "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."
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.
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 immigrants to the United States.The five boroughs are home to many distinct ethnic enclaves of Irish, Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Jamaicans, African-Americans, Iranians, Arabs, Jews, 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, Chinatown, Washington Heights, and the Lower East Side.
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 [1] (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.
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 some cases 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 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 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 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 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 between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) 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. 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 ball drop 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 Bronx Bombers don't play in Manhattan. Flushing, Queens is home to the legacy of the 1964 New York World's Fair (including the Unisphere), the US Open in tennis and Shea Stadium.
See also: List of New York City parks
New York is a city of "great museums" with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's assemblage of historic art, the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum's 's 20th century collection, and the American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium focusing on the sciences. There are also many smaller specialty museums, from El Museo del Barrio with a focus on Latin American cultures to the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design. A number of the city's museums are located along the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue.
In addition to these museums, the city is also home to a vast array of spaces for opera, symphony, and dance performances. The largest of these is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which is actually a complex of buildings housing 12 separate companies, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Other notable performance halls include Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
See also: List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
Main article: Media of New York City
Because of its sheer size and cultural influence, New York City has been the subject of many different, and often contradictory, portrayals in mass media. From the sophisticated and worldly metropolis seen in many Woody Allen films, to the chaotic urban jungle depicted in such movies as Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, New York has served as the unwitting backdrop for virtually every conceivable viewpoint on big city life. New York’s portrayal on television is similarly varied, with a disproportionate number of crime dramas taking place in the city despite the fact that it is one of the safest cities in which to live in the United States. New York has also been the setting for countless works of literature, many of them produced by the city’s famously large population of writers (including Jonathan Franzen, Don Delillo, Thomas Pynchon, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, and many others).
New York City boasts over forty daily newspapers in several different languages, including such national heavyweights as the Wall Street Journal (daily circulation of 2.1 million) and The New York Times (1.6 million), and America's oldest continuously-published newspaper, the New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton.
New York City is also the home of the four major television networks, ABC, CBS, the Fox Network, and NBC, and while the local film industry is dwarfed by that of Hollywood, its billions of dollars in revenue make it the second largest in the nation.
With its connection to media and communications and its mix of cultures and immigrants, New York City has had a long history of association with American music. The city has served as an important center for many different genres of music ranging from Big Band Era and jazz, to punk rock and hip-hop (the latter of which is generally acknowledged as having originated in the Bronx around 1973).
The lights of Times SquareSee also:
New York City boasts a highly active and influential theater district, which is centered around Times Square in Manhattan. It serves both as the center of the American theater industry, and as a major attraction for visitors from around the world. The dozens of theaters in this district are responsible for tens of thousands of jobs, and help contribute billions of dollars every year to the city's economy. Along with those of London’s West End theater district, Broadway theaters are considered to be of the highest quality in the world. Despite the name, many "Broadway" theaters do not lie on Broadway the street, and the distinction with Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway (which tend more toward experimental theater) is simply a reference to the seating capacity of the theater.
Although in much of the rest of the country American football has become the most popular professional sport, in New York City baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. A "Subway Series" between city teams is a time of great excitement, and any World Series championship by either the New York Yankees or the New York Mets is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team. For most American baseball fans, the most intense rivalry is between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, but in the city the rivalry between the Yankees and the Mets is just as fierce. Outsiders are frequently unaware that few baseball fans in New York are fans of both teams at once.
The New York metropolitan area is the only one in the United States with more than one team in each of the four major sports, with nine such franchises. At Madison Square Garden, 'the world's most famous arena,' New Yorkers can see the New York Knicks play NBA basketball, the New York Rangers play hockey, and the New York Liberty of the WNBA. New York's NFL teams, the New York Giants and New York Jets, play at Giants Stadium in New Jersey's Meadowlands. At the Continental Airlines Arena also in the meadowlands the New Jersey Nets play NBA basketball and the New Jersey Devils play NHL hockey. The New York Islanders are the third NHL team in the Metro area; they play their home games in Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. Also playing in Nassau Coliseum are the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League.
New York City is also home to two minor league baseball teams that play in the short-season Class A New York - Penn League. The Brooklyn Cyclones are a New York Mets affiliate, and the Staten Island Yankees are affiliated with the New York Yankees.
New York has also buried more sports history than most American cities ever experience: Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 until 1957, was torn down in 1960, and the Polo Grounds in northern Harlem, just across the river from the Bronx's Yankee Stadium, was the home of the New York Giants of Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1957 (and the first home of the New York Mets) before being demolished in 1964. Also, many outsiders are unaware that the current Madison Square Garden is actually the fourth separate building to use that name; the first two were near Madison Square, hence the name, and the third was at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue.
Current sports issues include Bruce Ratner's proposal to move the New Jersey Nets to a new Brooklyn Nets Arena, and a proposal to build a West Side Stadium in Manhattan for the New York Jets in 2008. Both of these construction proposals have stirred considerable opposition, and may have an impact on the City's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
See also: List of New York City sports teams
Unlike most of America's car-oriented urban areas, public transportation is the common mode of travel for the majority of New York City residents.
The city is served by an extensive network of parkways and expressways, including four primary Interstate Highways enter the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area: I-78, I-80, I-87 and I-95. Interstate 287 serves as a partial beltway around the city, and there are numerous three-digit Interstates of I-78 and I-95.
New York City boasts the most extensive network of public transportation in the United States. The world famous New York City Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It is the most extensive subway system in the world when measured by mileage of track (656 miles of mainline track), and the fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004). The subway system connects all boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway via the free Staten Island Ferry (which connects to the 1 and 9 subway lines). The city is also served by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's PATH subway system, which connects the borough of Manhattan to New Jersey. In addition to these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately operated (many to be taken over by the MTA sometime in 2005), which serve nearly all areas of the five boroughs. Because of the extensive mass transit system, many New Yorkers do not possess cars or even driver's licenses.
A typical subway entrance in the financial district.Responsibility for providing public transportation falls to a variety of government agencies and private corporations. Amtrak provides long-distance rail service. Short-distance rail, primarily for commuters from the suburbs, is operated by New Jersey Transit, the MTA (serving Long Island, Connecticut and regions in New York north of the city as the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which also operates regional bus terminals.
The Port Authority also owns and operates the four major airports in the New York City area, JFK International Airport in Jamaica, Newark Liberty International in Newark, New Jersey, La Guardia Airport in Flushing, and Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey. JFK tends to handle international traffic, whereas La Guardia tends to handle shorter domestic flights, and Newark handles both international and domestic; Teterboro is New York's primary general aviation airport, handling heavy business jet traffic together with cargo and medevac flights and some light plane traffic. The first airport in the city was Floyd Bennett Field, now closed as an airport and today part of Gateway National Recreation Area. The Port Authority also operates the AirTrain service, a train which connects the JFK and Newark airports to local subway and heavy rail systems.
Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. There are two officially recognized car services in the city. "Medallion taxis," the familiar yellow cabs, are legally permitted to pick up passengers hailing them on the street. The T&LC also regulates and licenses "car services," which are legally permitted to pick up only those customers who have called the car service's dispatcher and requested a car, although most of these pick up hailing passengers as well.
Many private ferries are run by NY Waterway, which provides several lines across the Hudson River, New York Water Taxi, with lines connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and other operators. There is also the free Staten Island Ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island, operated by the New York City Department of Transportation.
New York City is served by the publicly-run City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university in the United States, which has a number of campuses throughout the five boroughs. The city is also home to a number of other institutions of higher learning, some of national or even international reputation, including Columbia University, Fordham University, New School University, and New York University, among many others.
New York City is also a major center of academic medicine. Manhattan contains the campus of the world-class Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and NYU Medical Center and their medical schools. In the Bronx, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is a major academic center. Jonas Salk, developer of the vaccine for polio, was an intern at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Upper Manhattan. Brooklyn also hosts one of the country's leading urban medical centers: SUNY Downstate Medical Center, an academic medical center, the oldest hospital-based medical school in the United States. Professor Raymond Vahan Damadian, the discoverer of the MRI, was part of the faculty from 1967 - 1977 and built the first MRI machine, the Indomnitable, there.
Dedication to the sciences starts early for many New Yorkers, who have the chance to attend such selective specialized high schools as the Bronx High School of Science (which boasts the largest number of graduates who are Nobel Laureates of any United States High School), and its rivals, Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School.
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New York City has by far the most famous skyline in the world; because of its high residential density, and the extremely high real estate values found in the city's central business districts, New York has amassed the largest collection of office and residential towers in the world. In fact, New York actually has three separately recognizable skylines: Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Manhattan (also known as Lower Manhattan), and Downtown Brooklyn. The largest of these skylines is in Midtown, which is the largest central business district in the U.S., and also home to such notable buildings as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. The Downtown skyline was once characterized by the presence of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Today it is undergoing the rapid reconstruction of Lower Manhattan, and will some day include the new "Freedom Tower" which will rise to a height of 1,776 feet when it is completed in 2009. The Downtown skyline will also be getting notable additions soon from such architects as Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry.
The Downtown Brooklyn skyline is the smallest of the three, and is centered around a major transportation hub in Northwestern Brooklyn. The borough of Queens has also been developing its own skyline in recent years with a Citigroup office building (which is currently the tallest building in NYC outside Manhattan), and the City Lights development of several residential towers along the East River waterfront.
Panorama of New York City from Empire State Building in the spring of 2005See also: Tallest buildings in New York City
New York has ten sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International (SCI): Beijing, Budapest, Cairo, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Rome, Santo Domingo, and Tokyo.
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New York has ten sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International (SCI): Beijing, Budapest, Cairo, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Rome, Santo Domingo, and Tokyo. Injured Reserve. See also: Tallest buildings in New York City. Bench. The borough of Queens has also been developing its own skyline in recent years with a Citigroup office building (which is currently the tallest building in NYC outside Manhattan), and the City Lights development of several residential towers along the East River waterfront. Starters. The Downtown Brooklyn skyline is the smallest of the three, and is centered around a major transportation hub in Northwestern Brooklyn. The Phoenix Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks 4 games to 2 in a very close series in which the final game was decided by only 4 points in overtime. The Downtown skyline will also be getting notable additions soon from such architects as Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry. The Mavericks defeated the Houston Rockets in Round 1 of the playoffs in 7 games. Today it is undergoing the rapid reconstruction of Lower Manhattan, and will some day include the new "Freedom Tower" which will rise to a height of 1,776 feet when it is completed in 2009. Under his tutelage, the defense of the Mavericks became stronger, and they easily qualified for the playoffs with an impressive 58-24 record. The Downtown skyline was once characterized by the presence of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. On March 19, long-time coach Don Nelson resigned, and his assistant Avery Johnson became his successor. The largest of these skylines is in Midtown, which is the largest central business district in the U.S., and also home to such notable buildings as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. At the All-Star break, the Mavericks acquired Keith Van Horn for Calvin Booth and Henderson, the latter being resigned only days later. In fact, New York actually has three separately recognizable skylines: Midtown Manhattan, Downtown Manhattan (also known as Lower Manhattan), and Downtown Brooklyn. The run-and-gun style of former times changed into a more balanced style of play. New York City has by far the most famous skyline in the world; because of its high residential density, and the extremely high real estate values found in the city's central business districts, New York has amassed the largest collection of office and residential towers in the world. The 2004-2005 brought in blockbuster trades which (among others) sent All-Star point guard Steve Nash to the Phoenix Suns but brought in burly center Erick Dampier, combo guard Jason Terry and defensive stalwart Alan Henderson. Although the absence of Nash visibly hurt the Mavericks' offense, the three acquisitions strenghened the team defense. See also:. The Mavericks management had to re-evaluate their strategy. Dedication to the sciences starts early for many New Yorkers, who have the chance to attend such selective specialized high schools as the Bronx High School of Science (which boasts the largest number of graduates who are Nobel Laureates of any United States High School), and its rivals, Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School. However, the Mavericks were eliminated quickly the playoffs, losing in the first round to the Sacramento Kings, a team which played clearly better defense. Brooklyn also hosts one of the country's leading urban medical centers: SUNY Downstate Medical Center, an academic medical center, the oldest hospital-based medical school in the United States. Professor Raymond Vahan Damadian, the discoverer of the MRI, was part of the faculty from 1967 - 1977 and built the first MRI machine, the Indomnitable, there. With the trio Nowitzki-Finley-Nash and NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, Jamison, the Mavericks continued their reputation as the best offensive team in the NBA. Notable were two rookies, Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels, who made an immediate impact. Jonas Salk, developer of the vaccine for polio, was an intern at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Upper Manhattan. Although the team struggled for chemistry, the Mavericks easily qualified for the playoffs. In the Bronx, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University is a major academic center. The Mavericks acquired Antawn Jamison, Danny Fortson, Jiri Welsch and Chris Mills from Golden State in exchange for Nick Van Exel, Evan Eschmeyer, Popeye Jones, Avery Johnson and Antoine Rigaudeau. Another high-profile trade sent Raef LaFrentz, Chris Mills and Jiri Welsch to Boston for Antoine Walker and Tony Delk. Manhattan contains the campus of the world-class Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and NYU Medical Center and their medical schools. In 2003-2004, two blockbuster trades were announced. New York City is also a major center of academic medicine. a good center), the Mavericks lost 2-4. The city is also home to a number of other institutions of higher learning, some of national or even international reputation, including Columbia University, Fordham University, New School University, and New York University, among many others. However, lacking an adequate inside defense (i.e. New York City is served by the publicly-run City University of New York (CUNY), the largest urban university in the United States, which has a number of campuses throughout the five boroughs. The "Big Three" Nowitzki-Finley-Nash were a 100-point-game waiting to happen and led the Mavericks into the Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. There is also the free Staten Island Ferry between Manhattan and Staten Island, operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. They finished 60-22 in the regular season, astonishing fans and critics with their sparkling offense. Many private ferries are run by NY Waterway, which provides several lines across the Hudson River, New York Water Taxi, with lines connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan, and other operators. But it was only in the next season when the Mavericks finally broke through. The T&LC also regulates and licenses "car services," which are legally permitted to pick up only those customers who have called the car service's dispatcher and requested a car, although most of these pick up hailing passengers as well. The Mavericks swept the Minnesota Timberwolves in the playoffs but lost again in the second round, this time to the Sacramento Kings. "Medallion taxis," the familiar yellow cabs, are legally permitted to pick up passengers hailing them on the street. Another blockbuster trade sent Juwan Howard, Tim Hardaway and Donnell Harvey to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Raef LaFrentz, Nick Van Exel, Tariq Abdul-Wahad and Avery Johnson. There are two officially recognized car services in the city. The 2001-2002 season was a great season for the Mavericks, with a 57-25 record and many sellout crowds in the American Airlines Center. Taxicabs are operated by private companies and licensed by the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission. This was also the last season in the old Reunion Arena before making the move to the modern American Airlines Center. The first airport in the city was Floyd Bennett Field, now closed as an airport and today part of Gateway National Recreation Area. The Port Authority also operates the AirTrain service, a train which connects the JFK and Newark airports to local subway and heavy rail systems. In the playoffs, the Mavericks won the first round against the Utah Jazz, advancing to the second round for the first time since 1988. JFK tends to handle international traffic, whereas La Guardia tends to handle shorter domestic flights, and Newark handles both international and domestic; Teterboro is New York's primary general aviation airport, handling heavy business jet traffic together with cargo and medevac flights and some light plane traffic. This move brought in fresh blood that secured the club’s first playoff visit in 11 years. The Port Authority also owns and operates the four major airports in the New York City area, JFK International Airport in Jamaica, Newark Liberty International in Newark, New Jersey, La Guardia Airport in Flushing, and Teterboro Airport in Teterboro, New Jersey. The Mavs made a blockbuster trade minutes before the trade deadline that sent Hubert Davis, Christian Laettner, Courtney Alexander and Etan Thomas to the Washington Wizards for Juwan Howard, Calvin Booth and Obinna Ekezie. Short-distance rail, primarily for commuters from the suburbs, is operated by New Jersey Transit, the MTA (serving Long Island, Connecticut and regions in New York north of the city as the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad), and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which also operates regional bus terminals. In 2000-2001, the Mavericks improved further and finished with an impressive 53-29 record, fueled by an impressive offensive triangle of Nowitzki, Finley and Nash. Responsibility for providing public transportation falls to a variety of government agencies and private corporations. Amtrak provides long-distance rail service. He was greatly helped by Nowitzki, who finally "arrived" in the NBA and established himself as a potent offensive threat. Because of the extensive mass transit system, many New Yorkers do not possess cars or even driver's licenses. Led by Finley, the Mavericks earned their first 40-win season since 1989-90. In addition to these, city residents rely on hundreds of bus lines, both publicly and privately operated (many to be taken over by the MTA sometime in 2005), which serve nearly all areas of the five boroughs. In the following season the team finally "clicked" and started to win on a consistent basis. The city is also served by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's PATH subway system, which connects the borough of Manhattan to New Jersey. Noteable were the acquisitions of power forward Dirk Nowitzki and point guard Steve Nash, two seemingly unspectacular moves which would make a great impact in the future. The subway system connects all boroughs except Staten Island, which is served by the Staten Island Railway via the free Staten Island Ferry (which connects to the 1 and 9 subway lines). In the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, the Mavericks finished with a lowly 19-31 record, but Michael Finley and Gary Trent put up solid numbers and led their team to their first winning home record (15-10) for the first time since 1989-90. It is the most extensive subway system in the world when measured by mileage of track (656 miles of mainline track), and the fifth largest when measured by annual ridership (1.4 billion passenger trips in 2004). But they'd acquired some of the pieces that would help them start to turn things around in years to come. The world famous New York City Subway is operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Unfortunately, the constant changes made it impossible to establish any sort of team chemistry in '96-'97, and the Mavericks finished 24-58. New York City boasts the most extensive network of public transportation in the United States. He, along with Finley and Bradley, were expected to be the core of this new Mavericks team. The city is served by an extensive network of parkways and expressways, including four primary Interstate Highways enter the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area: I-78, I-80, I-87 and I-95. Interstate 287 serves as a partial beltway around the city, and there are numerous three-digit Interstates of I-78 and I-95. Undrafted rookie guard Erick Strickland was a pleasant surprise for the Mavs as he averaged 10.6 ppg. Unlike most of America's car-oriented urban areas, public transportation is the common mode of travel for the majority of New York City residents. Bradley would spend part of the next eight years putting up modest contributions for the Mavs and giving them solid numbers in terms of blocked shots. See also: List of New York City sports teams. In one of the largest two-team trades in NBA history, the Mavericks traded Chris Gatling, Jim Jackson, Sam Cassell, George McCloud and Eric Montross to the New Jersey Nets for 7'6" center Shawn Bradley, forward Ed O'Bannon and guards Khalid Reeves and Robert Pack. Both of these construction proposals have stirred considerable opposition, and may have an impact on the City's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Chris Gatling was the Mavericks' sole representative in the NBA All-Star Game, but he didn't last much longer in Dallas. Current sports issues include Bruce Ratner's proposal to move the New Jersey Nets to a new Brooklyn Nets Arena, and a proposal to build a West Side Stadium in Manhattan for the New York Jets in 2008. And Muursepp played in 73 games for the Mavericks over the next two years before leaving the NBA. Also, many outsiders are unaware that the current Madison Square Garden is actually the fourth separate building to use that name; the first two were near Madison Square, hence the name, and the third was at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue. Danilovic played in 13 games for the Mavs before opting out of his contract and signing with Bucker Bologna of the Italian League. New York has also buried more sports history than most American cities ever experience: Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1913 until 1957, was torn down in 1960, and the Polo Grounds in northern Harlem, just across the river from the Bronx's Yankee Stadium, was the home of the New York Giants of Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1957 (and the first home of the New York Mets) before being demolished in 1964. Thomas didn't play in 1996-97, and only ended up playing in five games as a Maverick before signing as a free agent with the New York Knicks. The Brooklyn Cyclones are a New York Mets affiliate, and the Staten Island Yankees are affiliated with the New York Yankees. This particular trade didn't really pan out for the Mavs. New York City is also home to two minor league baseball teams that play in the short-season Class A New York - Penn League. Within a week of his hiring, the Mavs had released Fred Roberts and Oliver Miller and traded Jamal Mashburn to the Miami Heat for forwards Kurt Thomas and Martin Müürsepp and guard Sasha Danilovic. Also playing in Nassau Coliseum are the New York Dragons of the Arena Football League. Don Nelson was hired as Dallas' general manager on February 7, and it didn't take him long to leave his own mark on the team. At the Continental Airlines Arena also in the meadowlands the New Jersey Nets play NBA basketball and the New Jersey Devils play NHL hockey. The New York Islanders are the third NHL team in the Metro area; they play their home games in Nassau Coliseum in Long Island. He made two visits to the NBA All-Star Game, and even played in each of the Mavs' games until the 2001-02 season. New York's NFL teams, the New York Giants and New York Jets, play at Giants Stadium in New Jersey's Meadowlands. By far the most important of these acquisitions was Finley who, after his first half-season in Dallas, would go on to average over or near 20 ppg for at least the next seven years of his Mavericks career. At Madison Square Garden, 'the world's most famous arena,' New Yorkers can see the New York Knicks play NBA basketball, the New York Rangers play hockey, and the New York Liberty of the WNBA. Green. The New York metropolitan area is the only one in the United States with more than one team in each of the four major sports, with nine such franchises. The first big move came in December, as Jason Kidd, Loren Meyer and Tony Dumas were traded to the Phoenix Suns for guards Michael Finley and Sam Cassell and forward A.C. Outsiders are frequently unaware that few baseball fans in New York are fans of both teams at once. By the time the season was over, only Derek Harper and rookie forward Samaki Walker remained from the opening-day roster. For most American baseball fans, the most intense rivalry is between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, but in the city the rivalry between the Yankees and the Mets is just as fierce. 27 different players saw action for this Dallas team, setting an all-time NBA record. A "Subway Series" between city teams is a time of great excitement, and any World Series championship by either the New York Yankees or the New York Mets is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team. The 1996-97 season was a year of transition for the Mavericks, as they basically re-designed their entire team. Although in much of the rest of the country American football has become the most popular professional sport, in New York City baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. And Don Carter, the only owner the Mavericks had ever had, sold the team to a group of investors led by Ross Perot, Jr.. Despite the name, many "Broadway" theaters do not lie on Broadway the street, and the distinction with Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway (which tend more toward experimental theater) is simply a reference to the seating capacity of the theater. At season's end, Dick Motta was relieved of his head coaching responsibilities and replaced by former Bulls assistant coach Jim Cleamons. Along with those of London’s West End theater district, Broadway theaters are considered to be of the highest quality in the world. The Mavs finished 26-56, fifth in the Midwest Division and 33 games out of first place. The dozens of theaters in this district are responsible for tens of thousands of jobs, and help contribute billions of dollars every year to the city's economy. But that particular statistic is more indicative of the Mavs' desperation to get points from somewhere than of how well they did as a team. It serves both as the center of the American theater industry, and as a major attraction for visitors from around the world. Overall, the Mavericks connected on 735 of their 2,039 three-point attempts, both new league records. New York City boasts a highly active and influential theater district, which is centered around Times Square in Manhattan. McCloud averaged 18.9 ppg and made 257 three-pointers, equaling the second-highest individual season total in league history. See also:. George McCloud, who averaged 9.6 ppg in his previous year, blew away his career-high scoring average as the Mavs resorted to the outside shot time and again due to their lack of an inside scoring threat. The city has served as an important center for many different genres of music ranging from Big Band Era and jazz, to punk rock and hip-hop (the latter of which is generally acknowledged as having originated in the Bronx around 1973). Kidd became the first Maverick to be elected a starter in the NBA All-Star Game, and finished second in the league in assists and fourth in steals while averaging 16.6 ppg. With its connection to media and communications and its mix of cultures and immigrants, New York City has had a long history of association with American music. Jackson led the team in scoring with 19.6 ppg, made 121 three-pointers and was the only Mav to start in all 82 games. New York City is also the home of the four major television networks, ABC, CBS, the Fox Network, and NBC, and while the local film industry is dwarfed by that of Hollywood, its billions of dollars in revenue make it the second largest in the nation. The team's two remaining stars, Jason Kidd and Jim Jackson, bickered throughout the season, though neither of them had any trouble establishing his individual stardom. New York City boasts over forty daily newspapers in several different languages, including such national heavyweights as the Wall Street Journal (daily circulation of 2.1 million) and The New York Times (1.6 million), and America's oldest continuously-published newspaper, the New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton. Jamal Mashburn had season-ending surgery to repair his sore right knee only 18 games into the Mavericks' schedule. New York has also been the setting for countless works of literature, many of them produced by the city’s famously large population of writers (including Jonathan Franzen, Don Delillo, Thomas Pynchon, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, and many others). For the second time in his career, Roy Tarpley was given a lifelong ban from the NBA for repeated violations of the anti-drug policy-- this one would stick, and Tarpley never played in the NBA again. New York’s portrayal on television is similarly varied, with a disproportionate number of crime dramas taking place in the city despite the fact that it is one of the safest cities in which to live in the United States. But despite a 4-0 start, the 1995-96 season was a disappointment in about every conceivable way. From the sophisticated and worldly metropolis seen in many Woody Allen films, to the chaotic urban jungle depicted in such movies as Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, New York has served as the unwitting backdrop for virtually every conceivable viewpoint on big city life. Many expected the Mavericks' improvement to continue with the franchise's first foray into the NBA Playoffs since 1990. Because of its sheer size and cultural influence, New York City has been the subject of many different, and often contradictory, portrayals in mass media. Of course, it can be argued that the Mavericks really couldn't get any worse than their disastrous campaign of the previous year. Main article: Media of New York City. It was the biggest one-year improvement in the team's history, and the highest in the NBA that season. See also: List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City. They jumped to 36-46, 10th in the Western Conference and only five games behind the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff spot. Other notable performance halls include Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. And the Mavericks' improvement was dramatic. The largest of these is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which is actually a complex of buildings housing 12 separate companies, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Second-year forward Popeye Jones had a great year as well, as he averaged 10.6 rebounds and led the NBA in offensive rebounds. In addition to these museums, the city is also home to a vast array of spaces for opera, symphony, and dance performances. Mashburn contributed 24.1 points per game, fifth in the NBA; Jackson averaged 25.7 points, but suffered a severe ankle sprain in Februrary which caused him to miss the remainder of the regular season. A number of the city's museums are located along the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue. The tandem of Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn combined as the league's highest-scoring pair of teammates. There are also many smaller specialty museums, from El Museo del Barrio with a focus on Latin American cultures to the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design. Roy Tarpley returned from his drug abuse suspension after three years and helped with 12.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. New York is a city of "great museums" with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's assemblage of historic art, the Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum's 's 20th century collection, and the American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium focusing on the sciences. Kidd averaged 11.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 7.7 assists in his rookie season, and even led the league in triple-doubles. See also: List of New York City parks. The addition of Jason Kidd infused the Mavericks with new life in 1994-95. Flushing, Queens is home to the legacy of the 1964 New York World's Fair (including the Unisphere), the US Open in tennis and Shea Stadium. The Mavericks also wound up with the #2 pick in the 1994 NBA Draft, and picked up Cal point guard Jason Kidd, giving them a solid tandem of Jackson, Mashburn and Kidd which would become known as "The Three J's". The Bronx Zoo is world-famous, and the Bronx Bombers don't play in Manhattan. At season's end, Buckner was fired as head coach, and the Mavericks brought back Dick Motta, who'd previously coached the team from 1980-87 and led the franchise to some of its most successful seasons. 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. It was still by far the worst record in the league, but the Mavericks again avoided setting an all-time futility record. 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. But 5-9 records in February and April, coupled with Buckner loosening the reins on his team a little bit, helped the Mavs finish 13-69. Now the World Trade Center site has itself become an important place for visitors to see. The possibility of finishing with the all-time worst record once again was a likelihood for the Mavs. 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. The Mavs started 1-23, and by the end of January they were 3-40. The World Trade Center was an important tourist destination before the September 11, 2001 attacks, which devastated the city and its tourist industry. Dallas selected Kentucky forward Jamal Mashburn with the fourth overall pick of the 1993 NBA Draft, but the team's progress was minimal, to say the least. Annually on New Year's Eve, hundreds of thousands of people congregate in Times Square to watch the ball drop as millions watch on television. 1993-94 marked Quinn Buckner's first-- and as it turned out, last-- season as coach of the Mavericks. Since then this has been an annual event drawing tens of thousands of spectators and in later years millions of television viewers. The Mavs finished 11-71. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in New York on November 27, 1924. But when Jackson was signed on March 3 and Quinn Buckner was hired to take over coaching responsibilities starting the following season, the Mavs managed to rally, closing the season with a 7-14 mark, including two straight wins to end the season. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn and along Queens Boulevard in Queens. The Mavericks started 2-27 and fired Coach Richie Adubato on January 13, replacing him with Gar Heard. The Mavericks came dangerously close to setting the all-time worst record in NBA history (9-73, set by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers). The "diamond district" (located on 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) 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. Jackson only played 28 games in 1992-93, a year that was also ruined by trades, a coaching change and injuries. In southern Manhattan, Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores. The Mavericks selected Ohio State guard Jim Jackson with the fourth overall pick of the 1993 NBA Draft, but he and owner Donald Carter couldn't come to terms on a contract for half of his rookie season. In recent years 23rd Street has become a major location for "big-box" retailers. Derek Harper was the team's sole bright spot, leading the team with 18.3 points per game. Macy's, the nation's largest department store, and the surrounding area of Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. Fat Lever underwent more surgery and missed the entire 1992-93 season. Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items. Herb Williams joined the Knicks as a free agent. 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. Blackman had made four All-Star Game appearances in his Mavericks career. The city also has 578 miles of waterfront and over 14 miles of public beaches. In 1992-93 the rebuilding began in earnest, with the Mavs trading Rolando Blackman-- who by that point had surpassed Mark Aguirre as the team's all-time leading scorer-- to the New York Knicks for a first-round draft pick. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, and Forest Park. The team fell six games to finish with a 22-60 record. 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. Brad Davis' back problems forced him to retire in mid-January, and Fat Lever had knee surgery again on January 29, missing the remainder of the season-- hardly worth the cost of losing two first-round draft picks. There are over 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland found throughout New York City, comprising over 1,700 separate parks and playgrounds. The few talented players the Mavericks had remaining to them were lost to injury. Patrick's Cathedral and the Brooklyn Bridge, among other attractions. The former Sixth Man Award winner's fall from grace was complete. 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. Before the season even began, Tarpley violated the league's substance abuse policy for the third time and was banned from the NBA. Tourism is a major local industry, with hundreds of attractions. The 1991-92 season continued the team's descent. See also: List of famous New Yorkers. In March of 1991, Tarpley was charged with suspicion of driving while intoxicated and was suspended again by the NBA. 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.". The Mavericks' season only got worse from there, and they finished with a record of 28-54, falling behind even the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic. 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. On November 9 it was announced that Fat Lever would have season-ending surgery on his right knee, and that very night, Tarpley suffered a knee injury of his own which ended his season. Nationally, Americans felt increased solidarity with New Yorkers. The players they managed to acquire-- Rodney McCray, Fat Lever and Alex English-- were all in the twilight of their careers. 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. The team endured numerous changes in 1990, losing Sam Perkins to the Lakers via free agency and suffering injuries to practically their entire 1990-91 starting lineup. 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. Their brief 1990 playoff appearance would be the team's last until 2001. This process is exemplified by the cases of Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Mavs finished the season with four straight victories to surge into the playoffs, but three losses to the Portland Trail Blazers later, their season was over. Beginning primarily in the 1990s, although in some cases 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’. The team started 5-6 and Coach John MacLeod was fired, replaced by Assistant Coach Richie Adubato. No other American city has experienced the effects of gentrification to the same degree that New York City has. On November 15, only six games into the Mavs' season, Roy Tarpley was arrested for driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. With space at a premium, lack of closet space is a common problem, and self-storage is a strong local industry. The Mavericks returned to the playoffs in 1989-90 with a 47-35 record, but it was another season of off-court chaos. Many residents rent apartments, and some areas are under rent control and rent stabilization laws. The Mavericks were left undermanned, demoralized and disheartened as they finished with a 38-44 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 1982-83. The median sale price of a Manhattan apartment in 2004 was $670,000 [1] (http://citi-habitats.com/press/viewarticle.php?article_id=432), with prices in the outer boroughs lower but rising. James Donaldson went down with a ruptured patella tendon on March 10, 1989, and missed the rest of the season as a result. 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. During the holdout, Detlef Schrempf was traded to Indiana for Herb Williams, and went on to have the best days of his career in Pacers and Sonics uniforms. 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. But Dantley refused to report to the Mavericks at first, holding out for eight days. This pattern is strongest in Manhattan, where subway service is better and traffic is worse than in the outer boroughs. In mid-February, Mark Aguirre was traded to the eventual champion Detroit Pistons for Adrian Dantley-- ironically, the only man who outscored him during the 1983-84 season. 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. Roy Tarpley violated the league's antidrug policy and was given an indefinite suspension. Some celebrated ethnic/racial neighborhoods include Harlem, Little Italy, Chinatown, Washington Heights, and the Lower East Side. The Mavericks' 1988-89 season was decimated by injuries, suspensions, and the trading of two of the team's best players. Dallas started the season 9-3, but spiraled rapidly down the tubes after that. Regardless of ethnic origin, all groups share a common identity as New Yorkers. everything they could handle, but in the end the more experienced Lakers prevailed, defeating Dallas in seven games on the way to eventually winning their second consecutive NBA Championship. The five boroughs are home to many distinct ethnic enclaves of Irish, Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Koreans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Jamaicans, African-Americans, Iranians, Arabs, Jews, South Asians and many others, and there are also many multi-ethnic neighborhoods where people of different backgrounds coexist comfortably. The Mavericks gave L.A. 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. They dispatched the Houston Rockets in four games and the Nuggets in six, leaving only the defending NBA Champion Lakers between them and a trip to the NBA Finals. 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. The team had its most successful postseason to date in the 1988 NBA Playoffs. 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.". Aguirre lead the team in scoring for the sixth consecutive year with 25.1 points per game, and Roy Tarpley won the NBA Sixth Man Award with averages of 13.5 points and 11.8 rebounds. 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. Mark Aguirre and James Donaldson both played in the 1988 NBA All-Star Game, the Mavericks rattled off a franchise-best 11-game winning streak, and Rolando Blackman scored his 10,000th career point. 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. The 1987-88 season saw the Mavericks dip just a little bit in the regular season-- finishing 53-29 and losing their Midwest Division title to the Denver Nuggets-- but it was another successful year for the team. 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 stereotypical "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. John MacLeod, who'd led the Phoenix Suns to nine playoff berths including an NBA Finals run in 1976, was hired as his replacement. See also: List of major corporations based in New York City. Following the unexpected early playoff exit, coach Dick Motta, who'd been with the team since its inception, shockingly resigned as head coach. The city also has a large tourism industry. After a 22-point beatdown of the Seattle SuperSonics in Game 1, the bottom dropped out for the Mavs, as they lost Games 2 and 3 in close fashion before getting their backsides handed to them in a humiliating Game 4 defeat in Seattle. New York also has the most important scenes for art, music, and theater in the U.S., with an increasingly active artist's community. But despite the great expectations surrounding the team, they self-destructed in the playoffs. 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. The 1986-87 Mavericks team had their most successful regular-season ever, going 55-27 and winning their first Midwest Division title. The city is by far the most important center for American mass media, journalism and publishing. The Mavs drafted Michigan center Roy Tarpley with the seventh overall pick, who would go on to become a very talented-- but troubled-- member of the roster. 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). But four of those games were decided by four points or less, and Dallas won half of those, leaving Mavericks fans room to hope that they could finally top the Lakers in the following season. Many corporations also have their headquarters in New York. defeated Dallas in six games on their way to eventually winning the title. 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. In the conference semifinals, they ran into the Lakers again, and L.A. Today, New York City is the chief center of finance in the world economy, with Wall Street in Lower Manhattan's Financial District. The Mavs made their third straight playoff appearance and defeated Utah three games to one in the first round. The city was also the first center of the American film industry, until it moved to Hollywood, California, and still has some television and movie production. The '85-'86 Mavericks were an extremely high-scoring team, averaging 115.3 points per game, which would be unheard of in the NBA of the early 2000s. 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. Rolando Blackman represented the Mavericks in the 1986 All-Star Game, hosted by Dallas at Reunion Arena. Manufacturing first became a major economic base for New York City in the mid-nineteenth century with the advent of industrialization and the railroad. This allowed the Mavericks to have the steady hand at center that had been lacking throughout their franchise's existence. But despite changes in international shipping, trade and the tertiary sector have always remained the real basis of New York's economy. The Mavericks also traded center Kurt Nimphius to the Los Angeles Clippers for center James Donaldson, who would play for the Mavericks until halfway through the 1991-92 season. Since the 1950s, most shipping activity in the area has shifted to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. He would show flashes of brilliance in his three-plus seasons with the team, but unfortunately it wasn't until he was traded to the Indiana Pacers that he displayed his full potential. The old port facility was at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan, but today there is only residual activity remaining at Red Hook in Brooklyn, and the Howland Hook Marine Terminal in Staten Island. Dallas had the eighth pick in the 1985 NBA Draft-- again thanks to a trade with the Cavaliers-- and drafted German-born forward Detlef Schrempf out of Washington. 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. They won Game 1 in double-overtime against the Portland Trail Blazers in their first-round playoff series, but lost the next three games in a row, ending their season. Historically, the city developed because of New York Harbor, widely considered one of the finest natural ports in the world. The Mavs returned to the playoffs in 1985, but weren't as successful as they had been the previous year. New York City's unemployment rate in March of 2005 was 5.2%, identical to the nationwide rate. Mark Aguirre led the team in scoring again with 25.7 ppg, Sam Perkins made the All-Rookie team, and Rolando Blackman represented the Mavericks in the 1985 NBA All-Star Game. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 85.9 males. The 1984-85 team finished a game better than the previous year at 44-38. For every 100 females there are 90.0 males. The Mavs used it to select forward/center Sam Perkins, a former North Carolina Tar Heel with surprising range from the three-point line who would average 14.4 points and 8.0 rebounds in six seasons with Dallas. The median age is 34 years. But a trade the Mavericks made in their inaugural season of 1980 paid off for them in 1984, because they owned Cleveland's first-round pick, which ended up being the fourth pick overall. 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 Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers were next for the Mavs, and the young club fell short, losing four games to one. 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. Dallas finished with the fourth seed in the Western Conference playoffs, and their first playoff trip was modestly successful as they defeated the Seattle SuperSonics in five games. Per capita income is $22,402; men and women have a median income of $37,435 and $32,949 respectively. Mark Aguirre was named the team's first NBA All-Star, as he finished with an average of 29.5 points per game-- second in the league only to Utah's Adrian Dantley. The average household size is 2.59 and the average family size is 3.32. The Mavs also earned the first playoff berth in franchise history. 31.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.9% are single residents 65 years of age or older. The Mavericks' hard work paid off in 1983-84 as they posted a winning record for the first time in franchise history, finishing 43-39 and second in the Midwest Division. 19.1% have a single female householder, and 38.7% are non-families. The 6'4" guard would spend the next decade with the organization, averaging 15 points and 6.1 assists. 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 married couples living together. Derek Harper was drafted by the Mavs with the 11th pick of the 1983 NBA Draft. 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. Brad Davis was 10th in the NBA in assists with 7.2 per game, and shot .845 from the line, 6th in the league. The ethnic makeup is 9.8% Puerto Rican, 8.7% Italian, 5.3% Irish, 5.1% Dominican, and 4.5% Chinese. Jay Vincent and Rolando Blackman contributed 18.7 and 17.7 ppg, respectively. 35.9% of the population is foreign born (18.9% born in Latin America, 8.6% Asia, 7.0% Europe). Mark Aguirre led the '82-83 Mavericks with 24.4 points per game, finishing sixth in the NBA. 26.98% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. They couldn't sustain their momentum for the second half of the season, but they had clearly become a team to be feared. The racial makeup of the city is 44.66% White, 26.59% Black or African American, 0.52% Native American, 9.83% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 13.42% from other races, and 4.92% from two or more races. At the All-Star break, the Mavericks were 25-24, having won 12 of their last 15 games. There are 3,200,912 housing units at an average density of 4,074.6/km² (10,553.2/mi²). But the Mavs' 38-44 record signified a 10-game improvement from the previous season, and the fact that a third-year expansion team had even been in playoff contention at all was quite remarkable. The population density is 10,194.2/km² (26,402.9/mi²). In 1982-83, the Mavericks really began to make their run for their first postseason berth, but fell just short, finishing seven games behind the Denver Nuggets for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. As of the census2 of 2000, there are 8,008,278 people, 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. The Mavericks improved to 28-54, getting out of the Midwest Division cellar as they finished above Utah. See also: Geography of New York Harbor. But it was Jay Vincent who made the biggest difference for the Mavs in their second season, leading the team in scoring with 21.4 points per game and earning NBA All-Rookie Team honors. 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. Blackman contributed 19.2 points over his 11-year career in Dallas. The total area is 35.31% water. By the end of his seven-year Mavs career, Aguirre would average 24.6 points per game. 785.6 km² (303.3 mi²) of it is land and 428.8 km² (165.6 mi²) of it is water. The Mavs selected 6'6" forward Mark Aguirre with the first pick, 6'6" guard Rolando Blackman 9th, and 6'7" forward Jay Vincent 24th. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1,214.4 km² (468.9 mi²). The 1981 NBA Draft brought three players who would become vital parts of the team. 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). He spent the next twelve years with the Mavericks, and eventually his #15 jersey was retired. 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). But he started the Mavs' final 26 games, led the team in assists, and his career soared. Autumns are comfortable in New York and similar to spring in temperature. Journeyman 6'3" guard Brad Davis, who played for the Anchorage Northern Knights of the Continental Basketball Association, was tracked down and signed by the Mavs in December. At the time, there was absolutely no reason to expect that Davis would be any better than the expansion-level talent the Mavs had. 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. However, the Mavericks did make a player acquisition that, while it seemed minor at the time, turned out to play a very important role in the early years of their franchise. 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. But the Mavs started the season with a discouraging 6-40 record on their way to finishing 15-67. 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. In the Mavericks' debut game, taking place in the brand-new Reunion Arena, the Mavericks stunned the San Antonio Spurs, 103-92. New York has a humid continental climate, though being adjacent to water it suffers less temperature fluctuation than inland areas. He was traded to the Denver Nuggets, along with a first-round pick in 1986, in exchange for two future first-round picks that eventually materalized into Rolando Blackman in 1981 and Sam Perkins in 1986. A number of smaller islands have been artificially enlarged, and the map of islands in Jamaica Bay has been completely transformed. Kiki Vandeweghe of UCLA was drafted by the Mavs with the 11th pick of the 1980 NBA Draft, but Vandeweghe refused to play for the expansion Mavericks and staged a holdout that lasted a month into the team's inaugural season. 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). He had a well-earned reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but was also a great teacher of the game. 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. Dick Motta, who'd guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1975-76, was hired as the team's first head coach. 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. They joined the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, where they would remain until the league went to six divisions for the 2004-05 season. 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. At the 1980 NBA All-Star Game, league owners voted to admit the new franchise, and the Mavericks paid a $12 million entry fee to join the NBA for the 1980-81 season. The Hudson River, sometimes known in the city as the North River, flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tidal estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The last professional basketball team in Dallas had been the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, which moved to San Antonio in 1973 and became the San Antonio Spurs. There are also some smaller islands in the surrounding waters. The Dallas Mavericks franchise was first conceptualized by Don Carter and Norm Sonju in 1979, when they requested the right to bring an NBA franchise to Dallas. 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. They are owned by Mark Cuban. 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 Dallas Mavericks are a National Basketball Association team based in Dallas, Texas. See also: Timeline of New York City crimes. Avery Johnson. For New York City crime Statistics see http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/pct/cspdf.html. Pavel Podkolzine. 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. Didier Ilunga-Mbenga. 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 Five Families. Tariq Abdul-Wahad. 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. Keith Van Horn. Some feel that the implementation of COMPSTAT crime analysis by the New York Police Department in 1994 is responsible for the positive changes. Jerry Stackhouse. 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. Alan Henderson. 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. Devin Harris. 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. Marquis Daniels. 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. Shawn Bradley. Unlike the rest of New York State, New York City does not have typical county courts. Darrell Armstrong. If the mayor vetoes the bill, the Council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. C - Erick Dampier. Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign it into law. PF - Dirk Nowitzki. Like most legislative bodies, the City Council is divided into committees which have oversight of various functions of the city government. SF - Josh Howard. Council members are elected every four years, and the leader of the majority party is called the Speaker. SG - Michael Finley. 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. PG - Jason Terry. The divisions, each comprising several city agencies and headed by an appointed Deputy Mayor, are:. 22 Rolando Blackman. The mayor has executive authority over five divisions of city government as well as several independent government offices. 15 Brad Davis. The executive branch of New York City is headed by the Mayor, who is elected by direct popular vote. Don Nelson (coach). Like most governmental entities in the United States, the city government is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Detlef Schrempf. Though subservient to the State of New York, the city enjoys a high degree of legislative and executive autonomy. Steve Nash. The charter is enacted and amended by the New York State legislature, and occasionally through referendum. Eduardo Najera. New York City is governed pursuant to the New York City Charter, as amended. Jamal Mashburn. See also: Neighborhood rebranding in New York City. Jason Kidd. List of Staten Island neighborhoods. Jim Jackson. 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. Derek Harper. Staten Island (Richmond County, pop. Mark Aguirre. List of Queens neighborhoods. C - #24 Pavel Podkolzine (Павел Подколзине); (Russia). Geographically it is the largest of the boroughs, and the legacy of its old constituent towns is still evident. C - #28 Didier Ilunga-Mbenga; (Senegal). 2,225,486) is the most diverse county in the U.S., with more immigrants than anywhere else. SF - #9 Tariq Abdul-Wahad; (San Jose State). Queens (Queens County, pop. SF - #2 Keith Van Horn; (Utah). List of Brooklyn neighborhoods. SG - #42 Jerry Stackhouse; (North Carolina). It ranges from a business district downtown to large residential tracts in the central and south-eastern areas. PF - #50 Alan Henderson; (Indiana). 2,472,523) is the most populous borough, with a strong native identity. PG - #34 Devin Harris; (Wisconsin). Brooklyn (Kings County, pop. PG - #6 Marquis Daniels; (Auburn). List of Bronx neighborhoods. C - #44 Shawn Bradley; (BYU). It is the only part of the city on the mainland. PG - #10 Darrell Armstrong; (Fayetteville State (NC)). 1,363,198) is known as the purported birthplace of hip hop culture, as well as being the home of the New York Yankees. C - #25 Erick Dampier; (Mississippi State). The Bronx (Bronx County, pop. PF - #41 Dirk Nowitzki; (Germany). List of Manhattan neighborhoods. SF - #5 Josh Howard; (Wake Forest). It is the most densely populated, and the home of most of the city's skyscrapers. SG - #4 Michael Finley; (Wisconsin). 1,564,798) is the business center of the city, and the most superlatively urban. PG - #31 Jason Terry; (Arizona). Manhattan (New York County, pop. 2004-05 Record: 58-24. Through the boroughs, there are hundreds of neighborhoods in the city, many with a definable history and character all their own. NBA Championships: None. Residents of the city often refer to the city itself as "the 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. Logo design: A horse's head superimposed over a basketball. 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. Uniform colors: Midnight blue, White, Blue, and Silver. The Freedom Tower, intended to be the world's tallest skyscraper after its scheduled completion in 2009, is to be built on the site. Home Arena: American Airlines Center. The city has since rebounded and the physical cleanup of Ground Zero was completed ahead of schedule. Formerly known as:. Thick, acrid smoke continued to pour out of its ruins for months following the Twin Towers' fiery collapse. Founded: 1980. New York City was the site of a terrorist attack 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 firemen, policemen, and rescue workers who came to their aid. 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. citizens seeking to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle that only New York City can offer. 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. The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. The city was also forced to accept increased scrutiny of its finances by an agency of New York State called the Financial Control Board. 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. 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 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, to the East Side of Manhattan. 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. 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. 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. Interborough Rapid Transit (the first subway company) began operating in 1904, and the railroads operating out of Grand Central Terminal thrived. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. 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. In 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx county, making five counties coterminous with the five boroughs. All municipal (county, town and city) governments contained within the boroughs were abolished. 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 in 1899); and The Borough of Staten Island contained all of Richmond County. 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". In 1898, New York City took the political form in which it exists to this day. 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. 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. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the city's strong commercial ties to the South, its growing immigrant population, and anger about conscription led to divided sympathy for both the Union and Confederacy, culminating in the Draft Riots of 1863, the worst civil unrest in American history. Local politics became dominated by Tammany Hall, a Democratic Party political machine. By 1835, New York City overtook Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States. 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-western United States and Canada in 1819. The Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation met there, and New York City remained the capital of the US until 1790. On April 30, 1789 Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall on Wall Street. On this date, marked annually thereafter as "Evacuation Day," George Washington returned to the city and the last British forces left the United States. 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 British until November 25, 1783. The city was renamed New York, after James, Duke of York, and became a royal colony in 1685 when James succeeded his brother as King of England. In 1664, English 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. Minuit's settlement was also a haven for
Huguenots seeking religious freedom. 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. and the sixth largest if compared to any U.S. Its estimated gross metropolitan product of US$488.8 billion in 2003 was the largest of any city in the U.S. New York 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. 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 megalopolis. New York City comprises five boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — each of which could be a major city in its own right. 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.". 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 cosmopolitan cities on earth. The city is also home to all of the international embassies to the United Nations, which has its headquarters in the city. New York City is among the world's most important global cities, as it is home to many world-class museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, and international corporations. It is at the center of international finance, politics, communications, music, fashion, and culture. New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the largest city, by population, in the United States. Category:New York City public education. List of colleges and universities in New York City. List of movies set in New York City. List of television shows set in New York City. List of New York City Television and Film studios. List of New York City newspapers and magazines. List of books set in New York City. 40° 42′ 51″ N 74° 0′ 23″ W (http://kvaleberg.com/extensions/mapsources/index.php?params=40_42_51_N_74_0_23_W_). |