History UsefulNotes / NewYorkCity

* '''The Bronx''' (Bronx County): The birthplace of hip-hop, it's also home to a famous zoo and the New York Yankees UsefulNotes/{{baseball}} team, until recently the most successful sports franchise on Earth[[note]]In case you are wondering, it was deposed in 2012 by Manchester United and Real Madrid, two European soccer teams.[[/note]] and still arguably the most hated. Since TheSixties, it's been the borough most associated with [[ViceCity urban deprivation]] (a longtime unofficial slogan was [[BrooklynRage "only the strong survive"]]); though it's still the least affluent of the Five Boroughs, it's not nearly as much of a WretchedHive as it once was. Fun piece of trivia: this is the only borough on the US mainland. Manhattan and Staten Island are their own islands, while Brooklyn and Queens are on the [[http://x9f.xanga.com/e031433007134280939779/b211607553.jpg western end of Long Island]].

* '''The Bronx''' (Bronx County): The birthplace of hip-hop, it's also home to a famous zoo and the New York Yankees UsefulNotes/{{baseball}} team, until recently the most successful sports franchise on Earth[[note]]In case you are wondering, it was deposed in 2012 by Manchester United and Real Madrid, two European soccer teams.[[/note]] and still arguably the most hated. Fun piece of trivia: this is the only borough on the US mainland. Manhattan and Staten Island are their own islands, while Brooklyn and Queens are on the [[http://x9f.xanga.com/e031433007134280939779/b211607553.jpg western end of Long Island]].

Undoubtedly one of the most (if not ''the'' most) cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, and culturally influential cities in history. (Though between 1996 and January 2013, there were no full-time country music radio stations in New York, and between 2002 and January 2013 there wasn't a frequency on the airwaves that carried it at all.)

Undoubtedly one of the most (if not ''the'' most) cosmopolitan, ethnically diverse, and culturally influential cities in history.

The area now known as New York City was originally inhabited by the Lenape tribe of Native Americans. The first European contact was in 1524 by the Italian (how fitting) explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano (whose name now graces the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn), but credit for mapping the region goes to Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch East India Company, in 1609. (The Hudson River would be named after him.) The Dutch established a trading post on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1613, and built Fort Amsterdam nearby in 1624 to protect their growing influence in the Hudson River valley. Within a year, a small town, known as Nieuw Amsterdam, began to grow around the trading post and the fort, and in 1626, the Dutch bought all of Manhattan and Staten Island from the natives in exchange for trade goods. As the beaver trade (the main reason for Dutch colonization) moved further north up the Hudson River, Nieuw Amsterdam became one of the main trading hubs of the East Coast of North America. The Dutch, viewing the Nieuw Nederland colony as more of a trading operation than a colonial enterprise, were unconcerned with its ethnic makeup, and thus allowed people of all ethnicities and religions to settle the growing city and turn it into a hub for immigration -- something that it remains to this day.

* '''Manhattan''' (New York County): The home of skyscrapers, Times Square, Wall Street, Broadway, arguably the world's most iconic skyline, and more museums, theaters, and restaurants than you can shake a stick at. The hub of the world's financial engine. Before 1874, this was all New York City was, and when you hear a local say "The City" (or an out-of-towner say "New York City"), they're referring to Manhattan. Even the U.S. Postal Service regards "New York, NY" as synonymous with the borough. Fun trivia: for all that it's thought of as "the Big City", Manhattan is a small sliver of land. At its widest it's just about 2.3 miles wide (and is less than a mile wide at some of its narrower points), and is about 13.4 miles long. It sure doesn't feel that way if you've ever been caught in gridlock...

After WorldWarII, with most of Europe in ruins, New York emerged to replace [[LondonTown London]] as the world's premier financial center and [[GayParee Paris]] as the capital of the art world. The UnitedNations Headquarters was built in Manhattan along the East River, turning New York into a political center as well. Midtown Manhattan went through a huge construction boom fueled by post-war prosperity. However, not all was well. Starting in 1950, New York's population began dropping, thanks to the highways (many of them built by the aforementioned Robert Moses) running out into the growing suburbs (though Moses's plans to put through freeways through the heart of Manhattan never went through due to neighborhood protests and the slow decline of his power). In TheSixties, the city, under the inept mayorship of John Lindsay, experienced a series of strikes by transit workers, teachers and sanitation workers, a riot between college students and construction workers, and a blizzard that crippled the city. The rise of container shipping killed New York's ports, as the new Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]] could handle the massive stacks of shipping containers that New York could not. Times Square became increasingly seedy, filled with porn theaters and other disreputable businesses, and came to symbolize the city's decline.

* '''Brooklyn''' (Kings County): The home of immigrants and, recently, trendy youngsters priced out of Manhattan. Historically, most sections are better known as working-class neighborhoods, though many neighborhoods, especially those close to the East River, are growing increasingly gentrified. It's sometimes called "The Bedroom of New York" because it is the most populous borough (being home to more than 2.5 million people), and while many of its people may work in Manhattan or elsewhere, Brooklyn is where they live and sleep. Fun trivia: before it merged with the rest of New York City in 1898, Brooklyn was its own city and was the 3rd largest city in the US, as measured in population. In fact, according to TheOtherWiki, if each borough was considered a city unto itself, it would still be the 3rd largest, behind only LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}.

* The NewYorkSubway. (Yep.)

* '''Queens''' (Queens County): The home of the two NYC airports, La Guardia (named after the city's [[TheGreatDepression Depression]]-era mayor) and [[JohnFKennedy JFK]], two World Fairs, underdog baseball team The Mets, the site of tennis's US Open, and lots and ''lots'' of graveyards. Fun trivia: it is the most ethnically and linguistically diverse area in the world, with native speakers of at least 140 different languages living within its 178 square miles. You can find a family-owned restaurant that represents virtually every ethnicity. Very working-class neighborhood.

* '''Staten Island''' (Richmond County): By far the least populated and most suburban borough, with three times fewer people than the next smallest, the Bronx. Home of what was formerly the world's largest landfill, where the World Trade Center debris was processed and with the very unfortunate name of Fresh Kills[[note]]a kill is a sudden narrowing of a river, a term going back to the city's Dutch founding era[[/note]]. Now it's being turned into a park, so Staten Island is home to nothing in particular aside from some small local museums and some of the last non-urbanized land remaining in New York City, [[note]]As amazing as it might seem, ''Manhattan'' has much of the rest of the non-urbanized land, most notably in the form of a small virgin forest tucked into the northwestern tip of the borough. [[http://forgotten-ny.com/2000/04/inwood-hill-park/ Yeah]], [[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&q=inwood+hill+park&fb=1&gl=us&hq=inwood+hill+park&hnear=inwood+hill+park&cid=0,0,1107014724353862266&ei=dT4AUYe-Oc7F0AGFu4HQBg&sqi=2&ved=0CJ4BEPwSMAA Seriously.]][[/note]] including a working farm. Also referred as "the forgotten borough" (or, for locals of a certain age, "the bastard borough") since people and politicians alike don't really pay it much attention. Most non-New Yorkers will only know this place as the destination for the Ferry. As a result, there have been persistent calls for the island to secede from the city (and, in some proposals, join UsefulNotes/NewJersey); they actually voted "yes" on a non-binding referendum in 1993, but incoming mayor Rudy Giuliani was quick to address a lot of the concerns that motivated that referendum, leading the island to ultimately remain one of the Five Boroughs.\\

* '''The Bronx''' (Bronx County): The birthplace of hip-hop, it's also home to a famous zoo and the baseball team everyone loves to hate, the New York Yankees, until recently the most successful sports franchise on earth[[note]]In case you are wondering, it was deposed in 2012 by Manchester United and Real Madrid, two European soccer teams[[/note]]. Fun piece of trivia: this is the only borough on the US mainland. Manhattan and Staten Island are their own islands, while Brooklyn and Queens are on the [[http://x9f.xanga.com/e031433007134280939779/b211607553.jpg western end of Long Island]].
* '''Brooklyn''' (Kings County): The home of immigrants and, recently, trendy youngsters priced out of Manhattan. Historically, most sections are better known as working-class neighborhoods. It's sometimes called "The Bedroom of New York" because it is the most populous borough (being home to more than 2.5 million people), and while many of its people may work in Manhattan or elsewhere, Brooklyn is where they live and sleep. Fun trivia: before it merged with the rest of New York City in 1898, Brooklyn was its own city and was the 3rd largest city in the US, as measured in population. In fact, according to TheOtherWiki, if each borough was considered a city unto itself, it would still be the 3rd largest, behind only LosAngeles and TheWindyCity.

* '''Staten Island''' (Richmond County): Home of what was formerly the world's largest landfill, where the World Trade Center debris was processed and with the very unfortunate name of Fresh Kills[[note]]a kill is a sudden narrowing of a river, a term going back to the city's Dutch founding era[[/note]]. Now it's being turned into a park, so Staten Island is home to nothing in particular aside from some small local museums and some of the last non-urbanized land remaining in New York City, [[note]]as amazing as it might seem, ''Manhattan'' has much of the rest of the non-urbanized land, most notably in the form of a small virgin forest tucked into the northwestern tip of Manhattan. [[http://forgotten-ny.com/2000/04/inwood-hill-park/ Yeah]], [[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&q=inwood+hill+park&fb=1&gl=us&hq=inwood+hill+park&hnear=inwood+hill+park&cid=0,0,1107014724353862266&ei=dT4AUYe-Oc7F0AGFu4HQBg&sqi=2&ved=0CJ4BEPwSMAA seriously]][[/note]] including a working farm. Also referred as "the forgotten borough" (or, for locals of a certain age, "the bastard borough") since people and politicians alike don't really pay it much attention. (It's by far the least populated borough. In the 2010 census the Bronx, which was the 2nd least populated area, had about 3 times the number of people Staten Island did.) Most non-New Yorkers will only know this place as the destination for the Ferry. For most people living in Staten Island, the only "attraction" the island has is a large mall. Staten Island also has ''four'' bridges; three of them connecting to different parts of New Jersey and the 4th one, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connects to Brooklyn, and is the longest suspension bridge in America. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge also has the most expensive toll out of all the bridges and tunnels in New York City in the year 2011, being around $13(!), though you only pay going in. The bridge is also the starting point of New York City's yearly marathon race. The Richmondtown neighborhood contains a preserved colonial village, which many New York schoolkids wind up visiting at least once on a field trip, and the whole island competes with Manhattan's Washington Square for the title of "most reputably haunted place in New York State."

-->-- ''CrocodileDundee''

* The Flagship sTore for Macy's

* Statue of Liberty. (Interestingly, it wasn't actually the first thing most immigrants saw. That was an elephant-shaped brothel.) (Yes.)
** Whether or not the Statue is in New York City is debatable. The Statue is on federal land within the territorial jurisdiction of the state of New York, although New Jersey argues about it on occasion (the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are right off the coast of Jersey City, and are thus actually much closer geographically to New Jersey than New York). For practical reasons, most people (read: everyone not from North Jersey) just consider it part of NYC and call it a day.
*** While decidedly a bit of federal park land, Liberty Island is fully in the city and county of New York, so yes, it's part of NYC. Nearby Ellis Island, which housed the immigration processing station (now a museum), is, as decided in a Supreme Court case, partly in both, however. (The parts of the island that were created by landfill, mostly dirt and rock from the building of the Subway, are in NJ).

* Ellis Island, unless that's in New Jersey too. New York's immigration processing center for decades. (Yes!)

* Carnigie Hall

TheEighties were a bit better, but that isn't exactly saying much. Wall Street was booming, and unemployment was inching down, but crime was still out of control, racial tensions were running high, and homelessness was becoming an epidemic. This all came to a climax in 1990, [[RockBottom when a record 2245 murders were recorded]]. The mayor during this time, Ed Koch, was far more conservative than many of his Democratic predecessors, taking a tough "law and order" stance in handling crime in the city. He banned the playing of radios on the subways, gave the police broader powers in dealing with homeless people, and sharply criticized Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson in 1988 (endorsing his rival AlGore instead), and has since become famous for his hawkish pro-UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} views. Of unique note was his stance towards LGBT rights; while fairly progressive for the time, enacting a landmark anti-discrimination act, he also made the decision to shut down New York's gay bathhouses over concern about AIDS, only later extending the ban to heterosexual "swingers' clubs" (such as the famous Plato's Retreat) to avoid [[DoubleStandard running afoul of the very law that he had enacted]]. It's been widely speculated (especially by many gay New Yorkers) that Koch, a lifelong bachelor, is a closeted gay man[[note]]As early as the 1977 mayoral election, the year Koch was elected, placards showed up in New York telling people to "Vote for [his opponent Mario] Cuomo, Not the Homo."[[/note]], and that he moved to close the bathhouses in order to [[ArmouredClosetGay shore up concerns about his sexuality]].

* '''Brooklyn''' (Kings County): The home of immigrants and, recently, trendy youngsters priced out of Manhattan. Historically, most sections are better known as working-class neighborhoods. It's sometimes called "The Bedroom of New York" because it is the most populous borough (being home to more than 2.5 million people), and while many of its people may work in Manhattan or elsewhere, Brooklyn is where they sleep. Fun trivia: before it merged with the rest of New York City in 1898, Brooklyn was its own city and was the 3rd largest city in the US, as measured in population. In fact, according to TheOtherWiki, if each borough was considered a city unto itself, it would still be the 3rd largest, behind only LosAngeles and TheWindyCity.

* '''Staten Island''' (Richmond County): Home of what was formerly the world's largest landfill, where the World Trade Center debris was processed and with the very unfortunate name of Fresh Kills[[note]]a kill is a sudden narrowing of a river, a term going back to the city's Dutch founding era[[/note]]. Now it's being turned into a park, so Staten Island is home to nothing in particular aside from some small local museums and some of the only non-urbanized land remaining in New York City, including a working farm. Also referred as "the forgotten borough" since people and politicians alike don't really pay it much attention. (It's by far the least populated borough. In the 2010 census the Bronx, which was the 2nd least populated area, had about 3 times the number of people Staten Island did.) Most non-New Yorkers will only know this place as the destination for the Ferry. For most people living in Staten Island, the only "attraction" the island has is a large mall. Staten Island also has ''four'' bridges; three of them connecting to different parts of New Jersey and the 4th one, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connects to Brooklyn, and is the longest suspension bridge in America. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge also has the most expensive toll out of all the bridges and tunnels in New York City in the year 2011, being around $13(!), though you only pay going in. The bridge is also the starting point of New York City's yearly marathon race. The Richmondtown neighborhood contains a preserved colonial village, which many New York schoolkids wind up visiting at least once on a field trip, and the whole island competes with Manhattan's Washington Square for the title of "most reputably haunted place in New York State."

"New York, New York," the city so nice they named it twice. Officially, the City of New York, within the State of New York (although the greater metro area spills over into [[HollywoodNewEngland Connecticut]] and [[{{Joisey}} New Jersey]], the oft-mentioned Tri-State area). AKA The Big Apple or The City That Never Sleeps.

TheGreatDepression started in New York with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and the ensuing economic collapse led to the election of Fiorello La Guardia as mayor in 1933. A progressive social reformer and supporter of [[FranklinDRoosevelt the New Deal]], La Guardia is sometimes considered to be New York's greatest mayor. He abolished the corrupt "ward" system, broke the power of Tammany Hall, heavily expanded the subways, brought down [[TheMafia Lucky Luciano]], and instituted massive public works projects to build bridges, parks, airports (including the one that now bears his name) and highways. Parts of his legacy, however, are rather controversial, particularly those related to his chief planner, Robert Moses (who served long after La Guardia's retirement). Moses' critics have accused him of destroying neighborhoods (particularly the [[WretchedHive South Bronx]] and Coney Island) and uprooting thousands through the construction of highways, causing the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants baseball teams for UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and SanFrancisco respectively, and facilitating the growth of the {{suburbia}} that now blankets Long Island. Supporters, meanwhile, claim that he had built valuable infrastructure that allowed New York to avoid the fate of many Rust Belt cities and thrive into the present day and beyond.

* '''Brooklyn''' (Kings County): The home of immigrants and, recently, trendy youngsters priced out of Manhattan. Historically, most sections are better known as working-class neighborhoods. It's sometimes called "The Bedroom of New York" because it is the most populous borough (being home to more than 2.5 million people), and while many of its people may work in Manhattan or elsewhere, Brooklyn is where they sleep. Fun trivia: before it merged with the rest of New York City in 1898, Brooklyn was its own city and was the 3rd largest city in the US, as measured in population. In fact, according to TheOtherWiki, if each borough was considered a city unto itself, it would still be the 3rd largest, behind only Los Angeles and Chicago.

In 2012, the city was hit by Hurricane Sandy, which caused severe damage in Staten Island as well as widespread power outages, flooding the subways and gas shortages.

* Rockefeller Center, Home of a large Christmas tree and where Creator/NBC is based

* Rockefeller Center

Capital or no, the city grew into America's financial capital not long after, thanks to a combination of three factors: the Erie Canal allowing easy access to the Midwest, the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury (and proud adoptive New Yorker[[note]]He was the bastard son of a Scottish nobleman and a part-Huguenot woman, born in Nevis in the Caribbean, grew up on St. Croix in the then-Danish Virgin Islands, and moved to New York (after a sojourn in New Jersey) after being accepted to King's College, i.e. Columbia[[/note]]) and the city's massive natural harbor. By 1835, it would surpass Philadelphia to become America's largest city. New York was a favored destination for [[MeltingPot immigrants]], particularly the Irish, who made up one-quarter of New York's population by 1850. During this time, services like [[NewYorkCityCops police]] and schools were established to keep pace with the growing population, and the Tammany Hall political machine, led by the notorious William M. "Boss" Tweed, began its rise to power by courting immigrant voters. It would elect its first mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1855. During [[TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]], New York's trade links to the South, its large immigrant population, and Tammany Hall's association with the Democratic Party made it one of the most anti-war places in the North, which culminated in the Draft Riots of 1863. To avoid the ravages of war and stay neutral, Mayor Wood proposed having New York secede and become a neutral city-state called the City of Tri-Insula.

** Whether or not the Statue is in New York City is debatable. The Statue is on federal land within the territorial jurisdiction of the state of New York, although New Jersey argues about it on occasion (the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are right off the coast of Jersey City, and are thus actually much closer geographically to New Jersey than New York). For practical reasons, most people (read: everyone not from northern Jersey) just consider it part of NYC and call it a day.

* '''Staten Island''' (Richmond County): Home of what was formerly the world's largest landfill, where the World Trade Center debris was processed and with the very unfortunate name of Fresh Kills[[hottip:* :a kill is a sudden narrowing of a river, a term going back to the city's Dutch founding era]]. Now it's being turned into a park, so Staten Island is home to nothing in particular aside from some small local museums and some of the only non-urbanized land remaining in New York City, including a working farm. Also referred as "the forgotten borough" since people and politicians alike don't really pay it much attention. (It's by far the least populated borough. In the 2010 census the Bronx, which was the 2nd least populated area, had about 3 times the number of people Staten Island did.) Most non-New Yorkers will only know this place as the destination for the Ferry. For most people living in Staten Island, the only "attraction" the island has is a large mall. Staten Island also has ''four'' bridges; three of them connecting to different parts of New Jersey and the 4th one, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connects to Brooklyn, and is the longest suspension bridge in America. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge also has the most expensive toll out of all the bridges and tunnels in New York City in the year 2011, being around $13(!), though you only pay going in. The bridge is also the starting point of New York City's yearly marathon race. The Richmondtown neighborhood contains a preserved colonial village, which many New York schoolkids wind up visiting at least once on a field trip, and the whole island competes with Manhattan's Washington Square for the title of "most reputably haunted place in New York State."

Capital or no, the city grew into America's financial capital not long after, thanks to a combination of three factors: the Erie Canal allowing easy access to the Midwest, the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury (and proud adoptive New Yorker[[hottip:* :He was the bastard son of a Scottish nobleman and a part-Huguenot woman, born in Nevis in the Caribbean, grew up on St. Croix in the then-Danish Virgin Islands, and moved to New York (after a sojourn in New Jersey) after being accepted to King's College, i.e. Columbia]]) and the city's massive natural harbor. By 1835, it would surpass Philadelphia to become America's largest city. New York was a favored destination for [[MeltingPot immigrants]], particularly the Irish, who made up one-quarter of New York's population by 1850. During this time, services like [[NewYorkCityCops police]] and schools were established to keep pace with the growing population, and the Tammany Hall political machine, led by the notorious William M. "Boss" Tweed, began its rise to power by courting immigrant voters. It would elect its first mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1855. During [[TheAmericanCivilWar the Civil War]], New York's trade links to the South, its large immigrant population, and Tammany Hall's association with the Democratic Party made it one of the most anti-war places in the North, which culminated in the Draft Riots of 1863. To avoid the ravages of war and stay neutral, Mayor Wood proposed having New York secede and become a neutral city-state called the City of Tri-Insula.