New York is located at the north-east of USA and is built on three islands of Long Island. There are five boroughs and hundreds of neighborhoods. New York on Google Maps
The five boroughs are called Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Manhattan is the smallest and the most densely populated borough. The Central Park and most skyscrapers, such as Empire State Building, are located on Manhattan. It used to be home of the World Trade Center until September 11 when the plane crashed into the North Tower. Now there is new skyscraper called One World Trade Center on the place of the old World Center. Brooklyn is the most populated borough which has long beachfront and Coney Island. Queens is the largest of the five boroughs, shares water borders with Manhattan and the Bronx and is located on the east of New York. Staten Island is the most suburban character of the five boroughs. It's connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The Bronx is home of the Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Zoo, the world's largest metropolitan zoo. The Bronx is also a birthplace of rap and hip hop music.
| City | Population | State | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York City | 8,175,133 | New York | 1,213 km2 |
| Los Angeles | 3,792,621 | California | 1,302 km2 |
| Chicago | 2,695,598 | Illinois | 606 km2 |
| Washington D.C. | 702,445 | Washington D.C. | 177 km2 |
The most used transportation in New York City is subway. The first station was opened in 1904 which makes it the second oldest subway in the USA. In 2002 an average of 4.8 million passengers used the subway each weekday. In 2013, the subway delivered over 1.71 billion rides. The city's 25 subway services run through all boroughs except Staten Island. The New York City Subway has the most stations in the world. Current official transit maps of the New York City Subway are based on a 1979 design by Michael Hertz Associates. The maps are not geographically accurate due to the complexity of the railway, but they do show major city streets as an aid to navigation.
The taxicabs of NYC are widely recognized icons of the city and come in two varieties: yellow and green. Yellow taxis are able to pick up passengers anywhere in the five boroughs. Taxis painted green, which began to appear in August 2013, are allowed to pick up passengers in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Taxicab vehicles, each of which must have a medallion to operate, are driven an average of 180 miles per shift. Medallions were first issued in 1937 when the city created a licensing scheme, setting the number of cabs at 11,787 which remained fixed until 1996. There are currently 13,347 regular medallions, running from 1A10 to 9Y99. The most used yellow cab was until recently the Ford Crown Victoria. In 2007, city officials outlined a project to replace existing Ford Crown Victoria taxis (which were discontinued in 2011) and other taxis by 2014. By 2015, the Ford Crown Victoria would be nearly replaced by Toyota Camry Hybrids and Toyota Prius V
Times Square is major intersection, destination of most tourists, entertainment center and neighborhood in the Manhattan section of New York City at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. The square is often called “The crossroads of the world“ or “The center of universe“. It is one of the world's busiest pedestrian areas, the hub of Broadway Theater District and a major center of the world’s entertainment industry. Time Square is one of the most tourists visited attraction, Approximately 330,000 tourists pass through Times Square daily and about 460,000 people walk through there on their way to work. Times Square functions as a town square but it is shaped more like bowtie with two triangles than a square. A lot of companies are located on Times Square such as Reuters, Viacom or MTV. Forming name of Times Square was Long Acre Square until 1904, when Adolph Ochs moved his newspaper's operations New York Times to the location of Times Square. Now the company owns New York Times Tower which is the fourth tallest building in New York. Time Square is the main place where a lot of New Yorkers celebrate New Year’s Eve. In past a massive crowd celebrated Victory in Europe Day in Times Square and on 2nd August 1945 the largest crowd in the history of Times Square gathered to celebrate Victory over Japan.
Central Park is a big rectangle-shaped urban park in Manhattan. The park was established in 1857 and in 1873 was extended to its current size. Central Park was established a National Historic Landmark in 1963. It is one of the most famous sightseeing spots in New York. The park receives approximately 35 million visitors annually which makes him the most visited urban park in USA. Central Park is home to over 25,000 trees. Central park is also home for a lot of animals: birds, mammals, arthropods, beetles and many more. Park drive is heavily used by pedestrians, joggers, runners, bicyclists and inline skaters. Running races take place in park on most weekends, many of them are organized by New York Road Runners. Central Park has two ice skating rinks, the Wollman Rink and Lasker Rink, twenty-one playgrounds for children, Central Park Zoo and two indoor restaurants. The most famous restaurant is Tavern on the Green, which is located at Central Park West and West 67th Street.
Chinatown is neighborhood in Manhattan, bordering Lower East Side, Little Italy, Civic Centre and Tribeca. Chinatown has the highest concentration of Chinese people in Western Hemisphere, estimated population of 90,000 to 100,000 people. In past, Chinatown was primarily populated by Cantonese speakers, however in 1980s and 1990s, large number of Fuzhounese-speaking immigrants also arrived and formed a sub-neighborhood located to the eastern portion of Chinatown, which has become known as Little Fuzhou. Nowadays many Fuzhounese and Cantonese speakers speak Mandarin- the official language in China and Taiwan. The housing stock of Chinatown is still mostly composed of tenement buildings, some of which are over 100 years old. In the past, Chinatown had Chinese movie theaters that provided entertainment to the Chinese population. During the 1970s, the Chinese theaters became less attractive due to increasing violence of gangs. These theaters are now all closed because of more accessibility to videotapes. Two New York City Subways stations runs through Chinatown- Grand Street and Canal Street. All streets in Chinatown have Chinese names as well, which are noted on street signs in Chinatown.
Mott Street is a narrow but busy thoroughfare that runs in a north–south direction in the New York City borough of Manhattan.
Little Italy is a neighborhood in Manhattan, where live about 100,000 Italians. Little Italy was home to dozens of restaurants that serve authentic Italian cuisine, but between years 2013 and 2014 eight of them closed down. Little Italy is famous due to organized crime of Italian Mafia which operated there. Since 2004, Sorrento Lactalis fund neighborhood events in Little Italy. The Feast of San Gennaro originally, the largest festival of New York City, was once only a one-day religious commemoration, arrived in the USA in September 1926 with the arrival of immigrants from Naples. The Feast of San Gennaro is a large street fair, that lasts 11 days, takes place every September along Mulberry Street between Houston and Canal Streets.
The fascinating part here is the way in which ethnic tourism—not only by Italian-Americans but by people who want to see an authentic urban village—keeps these neighborhoods going.
The Bowery Mural is an outdoor exhibition space that is located on the Houston Street. About 40 years ago, Keith Haring placed one of his artwork on wall in Bowery Mural, which is considered Haring’s first large-scale public work. Shortly afterwards, many artists vandalized the canvas with their graffiti tags. In 2008 Tony Goldman and Jeffrey Deitch began project to use the walls to present top artworks from artists from around the world. The mural series was initiated from March to December 2008 with a tribute to Keith Haring’s noted 1982 Bowery mural. In this time many artists were invited to create their artworks on this street.
The 100 Gates Project was founded in 2014 by Natalie Raben and Billy Rohan,New York City artist, pro skateboarder and founder of Samurai NYC. Natalie Raben helped Billy Rohan fund the public art initiative. It connects artists and merchants to create original murals on roll-down security gates. The project began to brighten up Manhattan. First gates were painted in the Lower East Side. By 2015 there were 75 gates that had murals on them. When an artist wants to create mural on one of the gates they pair up with merchant to collaborate on an art piece that will be available for the public view. Artwork is decided by what the merchant feels best represents the store and the community it is a part of. Click here for more informations about the 100 Gates Project.
