Difference between revisions of "Manhattan" - New World Encyclopedia

Revision as of 02:43, 19 October 2007

For other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation).

**Manhattan**
Location

The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River.
Government
County:	New York
Borough president:	Scott Stringer
Demographics
Population:	1,537,195
Population density:	66,940/mi² (25,846/km²)
Geography^[1]
Area:	33.77 mi² (87.46 km²)
Land:	22.96 mi² (59.47 km²)
Water:	10.81 mi² (28.00 km²)
Coordinates:	40° 43′ 42″ N, 73° 59′ 39″ W

Manhattan is a borough of New York City, New York, USA, coterminous with New York County. With a United States Census, year 2000, of 1,537,195^[1] packed into a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²), it is the most densely populated county in the United States, with almost 67,000 residents per square mile (almost 26,000/km²).^[2] The Island of Manhattan is the largest section of the borough, which also includes several smaller islands and a small section of the mainland adjacent to The Bronx.

A commercial, financial, and cultural center of the city, Manhattan has many famous landmarks, tourist attractions, museums, and universities. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations and the seat of city government. Manhattan has the largest central business district in the United States. It is the site of both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and is the home to the largest number of corporate headquarters in the nation.

The name Manhattan derives from the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon).^[3] A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of the Mauritius River (later named the Hudson River). The word "Manhattan" has been translated as "island of many hills" from the Lenape language.^[4]

History

Colonial

Lower Manhattan in 1660, when it was part of New Amsterdam. The large structure toward the tip of the island is Fort Amsterdam.

The area that is now Manhattan was long inhabited by the Lenape. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to pass New York Harbor, though he did not enter the harbor past the Narrows.^[5] It was not until the voyage of Henry Hudson, an Englishman who worked for the Dutch East India Company, that the area was mapped.^[6] Hudson discovered Manhattan Island on September 11, 1609, and continued up the river that bears his name, the Hudson River, until he arrived at the site of present day Albany.^[7]

A permanent European presence in New Netherland began in 1624 with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement on Governors Island. In 1625, construction was started on a citadel and a fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island later called New Amsterdam (Nieuw Amsterdam).^[8]^[9] Manhattan Island was chosen as the site of Fort Amsterdam, a citadel for the protection of the new arrivals; its 1625 establishment is recognized as the birth date of New York City.^[10] In 1626, Peter Minuit acquired Manhattan from native people in exchange for trade goods, often said to be worth $24.^[11]

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was appointed as the last Dutch Director General of the colony.^[12] The colony was granted self-government in 1652 and New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city on February 2, 1653.^[13] In 1664, the British conquered the area and renamed it "New York" after the English Duke of York and Albany.^[14] Stuyvesant and his council negotiated 24 articles of provisional transfer with the British which sought to guarantee New Netherlanders liberties, including freedom of religion, under British rule.^[15]^[16]

American Revolution and the early United States

Manhattan was at the heart of the New York Campaign, a series of major battles in the early American Revolutionary War. The Continental Army was forced to abandon Manhattan after the disastrous Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. The city became the British political and military center of operations in North America for the remainder of the war.^[17] Manhattan was greatly damaged by the Great Fire of New York during the British military rule that followed. British occupation lasted until November 25, 1783, when George Washington returned to Manhattan, as the last British forces left the city.^[18]

John Quincy Adams Ward's statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall, on the site where Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. President.

From January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788, New York City was the fifth of five capitals under the Articles of Confederation, with the Continental Congress residing at New York City Hall, then at Fraunces Tavern. New York was the first capital under the newly enacted Constitution of the United States, from March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790 at Federal Hall.^[19]

19th century growth

New York grew as an economic center, first as a result of Alexander Hamilton's policies and practices as the first Secretary of the Treasury and, later, with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the Mid-western United States and Canada. By 1835, New York City had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States.

Tammany Hall began to grow in influence with the support of many of the immigrant Irish, culminating in the election of the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854. Tammany Hall, a Democratic Party political machine dominated local politics for decades. Central Park, which opened to the public in 1858, became the first landscaped park in an American city and the nation's first public park.^[20]^[21]

During the American Civil War, the city's strong commercial ties to the South, its growing immigrant population, anger about conscription and resentment at those who could afford to pay $300 to avoid service, led to resentment against Lincoln's war policies, culminating in the three-day long New York Draft Riots of July 1863, one of the worst incidents of civil disorder in American history, with an estimated 119 participants and passersby killed.^[22]

Thomas Nast denounces Tammany as a ferocious tiger killing democracy; the tiger image caught on.

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 on October 28, 1886, a gift from the people of France.^[23]^[24] The new European immigration brought further social upheaval. In a city of tenements packed with poorly paid laborers from dozens of nations, the city was a hotbed of revolution, syndicalism, racketeering, and unionization.

In 1874, the western portion of the present The Bronx was transferred to New York County, and in 1895, the remainder of the present Bronx County was annexed.^[25] The City of Greater New York was formed in 1898, with Manhattan and the Bronx, though still one county, established as two separate boroughs. On January 1, 1914, the New York State Legislature created Bronx County, and New York County was reduced to its present boundaries.^[26]

The 20th Century

The construction of the New York City Subway, first opened in 1904, helped bind the new city together. Starting in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African Americans as part of the Great Migration from the U.S. Southern states, and the Harlem Renaissance, part of a larger boom time in the Prohibition era that saw dueling skyscrapers in the skyline. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London, which had reigned for a century.^[27]

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers, which would eventually lead to great improvements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.^[28]

Lower Manhattan in 1942

Manhattan skyline with the Twin Towers.

The period between the World Wars saw the election of reformist mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.^[29] As the city's demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and affluence to the working class. The city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia. 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.

Returning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom and led to the development of huge housing developments, targeted at returning veterans, including Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town, which opened in 1947.^[30] In 1951, the United Nations relocated from its first headquarters in Queens to the East Side of Manhattan.^[31]

Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots and population and industrial decline in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation as a graffiti-covered, crime-ridden relic of history.^[32] In 1975, the city government faced imminent bankruptcy, and its appeals for assistance were initially rejected, summarized by the classic October 30, 1975 New York Daily News headline as "Ford to City: Drop Dead".^[33] The fate was avoided through a federal loan and debt restructuring, and the city was forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by New York State.^[34]

The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. The 1980s also saw Manhattan at the heart of the AIDS crisis, with Greenwich Village at its epicenter. Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) were founded to advocate on behalf of those stricken with the disease.

Starting 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 New York City can offer.

Government

Manhattan Municipal Building

New York City Hall

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan has been governed by the New York City Charter, which has provided for a "strong" mayor-council system since its revision in 1989.^[35] The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Manhattan.

The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.^[36]

Since 1990, the largely-powerless Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Manhattan has ten City Council members, the third largest contingent among the five boroughs. It also has 12 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents. As the host of the United Nations, the borough is home to the world's largest international consular corps, comprising 105 consulates, consulates general, and honorary consulates.^[37] It is also the home of New York City Hall, the seat of New York City government housing the Mayor of New York City and the New York City Council. The mayor's staff and thirteen municipal agencies are located in the nearby Manhattan Municipal Building, completed in 1916, which was then known as one of the largest governmental buildings in the world.^[38]

Crime

Policeman leads upper class people through the Five Points in an 1885 sketch

Starting in the mid-19th century, the United States became a magnet for immigrants seeking to escape poverty in their home countries. After arriving in New York, many new arrivals ended up living in squalor in the slums of the Five Points neighborhood, an area between Broadway and the Bowery, northeast of New York City Hall. By the 1820s, the area was home to many gambling dens and "houses of ill repute" (better known as brothels) and was known as a dangerous place to go to. In 1842, Charles Dickens visited the area and was appalled at the horrendous living conditions he had seen.^[39] The area was so notorious at the time that it even caught the attention of Abraham Lincoln, who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address in 1860.^[40] The predominantly Irish Five Points Gang was one of the country's first major organized crime entities.

As Italian immigration grew in the early 1900s, many joined the Irish gangs. Al Capone got his start in crime with the Five Points Gang,^[41] as did Lucky Luciano.^[42] The Mafia (also known as Cosa Nostra) first developed in the mid-19th century in Sicily and spread to the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century, following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration. Lucky Luciano established La Cosa Nostra in Manhattan, forming alliances with other criminal enterprises, including the Jewish mob, led by Meyer Lansky, the leading Jewish gangster of that period.^[43] from 1920–1933, Prohibition helped create a thriving black market in liquor, which the Mafia was quick to capitalize on.^[43]

New York City experienced a sharp increase in crime during the 1960s and 1970s, with a near fivefold jump in the violent crime rate, from 21.09 per thousand in 1960 to a peak of 102.66 in 1981. Homicides continued to increase in the city as a whole for another decade, with murders recorded by the New York City Police Department, jumping from 390 in 1960 to 1,117 in 1970, 1,812 in 1980, and reaching its peak of 2,262 in 1990. Starting circa 1990, New York City saw record declines in homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, violent crime, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and property crime, a trend that has continued to today.^[44]

Economy

Skyscrapers along Sixth Avenue.

Manhattan is the economic engine of New York City, with its 2.3 million workers drawn from the entire New York metropolitan area, accounting for almost ⅔ of all jobs in New York City.^[45] Its most important economic sector is the finance industry, whose 280,000 workers earned more than half of all the wages paid in the borough. Wall Street is frequently used to represent the entire financial industry. New York City is home to the most corporate headquarters of any city in the nation, the overwhelming majority based in Manhattan.^[46] Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the United States.^[47] Lower Manhattan is home to both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ and is the nation's third-largest central business district (after Chicago's Loop).^[48]

Seven of the world's top eight global advertising agency networks are headquartered in Manhattan.^[49] "Madison Avenue" is often used metonymously to refer to the entire advertising field, after Madison Avenue became identified with the advertising industry after the explosive growth in the area in the 1920s.

Historically, this corporate presence has been complemented by many independent retailers, though a recent influx of national chain stores has caused many to lament the creeping homogenization of Manhattan.^[50]

Housing

In the early days of Manhattan, wood construction and poor access to water supplies left the city vulnerable to fires. In 1776, shortly after the Continental Army evacuated Manhattan and left it to the British, a massive fire broke out, destroying one-third of the city and some 500 houses.^[51]

The rise of immigration near the turn of the century left major portions of Manhattan, especially the Lower East Side, densely packed with recent arrivals, crammed into unhealthy and unsanitary housing. Tenements were usually five-stories high, constructed on the then-typical 25x100 lots, with "cockroach landlords" exploiting the new immigrants.^[52]^[53] By 1929, stricter fire codes and the increased use of elevators in residential buildings were the impetus behind a new housing code that effectively ended the tenement as a form of new construction, though many tenement buildings survive today on the East Side of the borough.^[53]

Today, Manhattan offers a wide array of public and private housing options. There were 798,144 housing units in Manhattan as of the 2000 Census, at an average density of 34,756.7/mi² (13,421.8/km²).^[1] Only 20.3% of Manhattan residents lived in owner-occupied housing, the second-lowest rate of all counties in the nation, behind The Bronx.^[54]

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 New York—Place and County Subdivision, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 1, 2007.
↑ District Profile: New York City, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Accessed September 4, 2006.
↑ Full Text of Robert Juet's Journal: From the collections of the New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841 log book, Newsday. Accessed May 16, 2007.
↑ Holloway, Marguerite. "URBAN TACTICS; I'll Take Mannahatta", The New York Times, May 16, 2004, accessed April 30, 2007. "He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant island of many hills.'
↑ Sullivan, Dr. James. "The History of New York State: Book I, Chapter III", USGenNet, accessed May 1, 2007. "There is satisfactory evidence that Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into the outer harbor of New York in 1524.
↑ Rankin, Rebecca B., Cleveland Rodgers (1948). New York: the World's Capital City, Its Development and Contributions to Progress. Harper.
↑ "Henry Hudson and His Exploration" Scientific American, September 25, 1909, accessed May 1, 2007. "This was a vain hope, however, and the conviction must finally have come to the heart of the intrepid adventurer that once again he was foiled in his repeated quest for the northwest passage … On the following day the “Half Moon” let go her anchor inside of Sandy Hook. The week was spent in exploring the bay with a shallop, or small boat, and “they found a good entrance between two headlands” (the Narrows) “and thus entered on the 11th of September into as fine a river as can be found.”"
↑ Dutch Colonies, National Park Service. Accessed May 19, 2007. "Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan."
↑ Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park. Accessed May 12, 2007. See Legislative Resolutions Senate No. 5476 and Assembly No. 2708.
↑ City Seal and Flag, New York City, accessed May 13, 2007. "Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch the date 1625, being the year of the establishment of New Amsterdam."
↑ Letter of 1626 stating that Manhattan Island had been purchased for the value of 60 guilders, The College of New Jersey. Accessed April 26, 2007. The 60 guilders have been traditionally converted to about $24. If the money had been invested at anything above a 6.25% return (essentially a bond's current yield), it would be worth over $250 billion today, which exceeds Manhattan's estimated value of $200 billion. Historical Inflation Data (PDF), Oregon State University. It is virtually impossible to make a reasonable comparison of societies, values and price structures dated back to 1626, and 2006. The source warns that data of 1913 and earlier are highly approximative. Besides, the data, which had been tabulated, based on John J. McCusker's article How much is that in real money (Processing American Antiquarian Society 2001 ISBN 1-929545-01-0) started from 1665—40 years after the time, when the trade was settled. However, these numbers give the feeling of the price paid for Manhattan.
↑ Williams, Jasmin K. "New York - The Empire States", The New York Post, November 22, 2006. Accessed May 19, 2007. "In 1647, Dutch leader Peter Stuyvesant arrived with an iron fist to put an end to the colony's rampant crime and restore order."
↑ About the Council, New York City Council. Accessed May 18, 2007.
↑ The Origins of New York State's County Names, New York Department of State, accessed April 27, 2007. "New York: in honor of the Duke of York.
↑ Griffis, William Elliot. "The Story of New Netherland" Chapter XV: The Fall of New Netherland, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909. "In religious matters, Article VIII of the capitulation read, “The Dutch shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in Divine worship and in Church government.”"
↑ Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park, accessed April 26, 2007.
↑ Fort Washington Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed May 18, 2007.
↑ "Happy Evacuation Day", New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, November 23, 2005. Accessed May 18, 2007.
↑ The Nine Capitals of the United States. United States Senate Historical Office. Accessed June 9, 2005. Based on Fortenbaugh, Robert, The Nine Capitals of the United States, York, PA: Maple Press, 1948.
↑ Blair, Cynthia. "1858: Central Park Opens", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Between 1853 and 1856, city commissioners purchased more than 700 acres from 59th Street to 106th Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues to create Central Park, the nation’s first public park as well as its first landscaped park."
↑ Rybczynski , Witold. "Olmsted's Triumph", Smithsonian (magazine), July 2003. Accessed May 29, 2007. "By 1876, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux had transformed the swampy, treeless 50 blocks between Harlem and midtown Manhattan into the first landscaped park in the United States."
↑ Ward, Geoffrey C. "Gangs of New York", a review of Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, The New York Times, October 6, 2002. Accessed May 29, 2007. "The New York draft riots remain the worst civil disturbance in American history: according to the historian Adrian Cook, 119 people are known to have been killed, mostly rioters or onlookers who got too close when federal troops, brought back from the battlefield to restore order, started shooting."
↑ Statue of Liberty, National Park Service. Accessed May 17, 2007.
↑ "New Jerseyans' Claim To Liberty I. Rejected", The New York Times, October 6, 1987. Accessed May 19, 2007. "The Supreme Court today refused to strip the Statue of Liberty of its status as a New Yorker. The Court, without comment, turned away a move by a two New Jerseyans to claim jurisdiction over the landmark for their state."
↑ Macy Jr., Harry. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form "Greater New York", New York Genealogical and Biographical Society from The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1998, accessed April 29, 2007. "In 1683, when the Province of New York was first divided into counties, the City of New York also became New York County... In 1874, to accommodate this growth, New York City and County annexed from Westchester County what is now the western Bronx... In 1895 New York City annexed the eastern Bronx."
↑ Hermalyn, Gary and Ultan, Lloyd. Bronx History: A General Survey, New York Public Library, accessed April 26, 2007.
↑ Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline", University of California, Riverside Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London, is thus not included because we are studying constant regions."
↑ Rosenberg, Jennifer. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, About.com. Accessed May 17, 2007.
↑ Allen, Oliver E. (1993). "Chapter 9: The Decline", The Tiger – The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Retrieved 2007-05-25.
↑ "Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," The New York Times, August 1, 1947. p. 19
↑ Behrens, David. "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."
↑ Haberman, Clyde. "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)", The New York Times, January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007.
↑ Zeitz, Joshua. "New York City on the Brink", American Heritage (magazine), November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007.
↑ Firestone, David. "This Time, New York City Is All Alone", The New York Times, May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.
↑ "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission" (PDF), Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council."
↑ Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, Cornell Law School. Accessed June 12, 2006.
↑ Society of Foreign Consuls: About us. Accessed July 19, 2006.
↑ The Municipal Building, New York City. Accessed April 25, 2007. "But did you know that the Municipal Building is one of the largest government buildings in the world? Or that more than 28,000 New Yorkers are married here each year?"
↑ Christiano, Gregory. "The Five Points", Urbanography. Accessed May 16, 2007.
↑ Walsh, John, "The Five Points", Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area, September 1994. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The Five Points slum was so notorious that it attracted the attention of candidate Abraham Lincoln, who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address."
↑ Al Capone, Chicago History Museum. Accessed May 16, 2007. "Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York.... He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender."
↑ A Gangster is Born, Court TV. Accessed May 16, 2007. "By 1916, Luciano was a leading member of the notorious Five Points Gang and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders."
↑ ^43.0 ^43.1 Jaffe, Eric. "Talking to the Feds: The chief of the FBI's organized crime unit on the history of La Cosa Nostra", Smithsonian (magazine), April 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.
↑ Langan, Patrick A. and Durose, Matthew R. "The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City" (PDF). United States Department of Justice, October 21, 2004. Accessed May 16, 2007.
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named BLSManhattanLabor
↑ Fortune Magazine: New York State and City Home to Most Fortune 500 Companies, Empire State Development Corporation, press release dated April 8, 2005, accessed April 26, 2007. "New York City is also still home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other city in the country."
↑ Noonan, Patrica. Testimony on Moynihan Station Draft EIS, Partnership for New York City, testimony dated May 31, 2006, accessed April 26, 2007. "Combined with the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Far West Side promises to become the logical extension of the largest central business district in the country."
↑ Lower Manhattan Recovery Office, Federal Transit Administration, accessed April 26, 2007. "Lower Manhattan is the third largest business district in the nation. Prior to September 11th, more than 385,000 people were employed there, and 85% of those employees used public transportation to commute to work."
↑ Top 10 Consolidated Agency Networs: Ranked by 2006 Worldwide Network Revenue, Advertising Age Agency Report 2007 Index, published April 25, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007.
↑ Stasi, Linda. NY, OH: It's Cleaner, Whiter, Brighter, The Village Voice, September 24, 1997. Accessed June 20, 2007.
↑ Great Fire of 1776, City University of New York. Accessed April 30, 2007. "Some of Washington's advisors suggested burning New York City so that the British would gain little from its capture. This idea was abandoned, and Washington withdrew his forces from the city on September 12, 1776. Three days later, the British occupied the city, and on September 21st, a fire broke out in the Fighting Cocks Tavern. Without the city's firemen present and on duty, the fire quickly spread. A third of the city burnt and 493 houses destroyed."
↑ Building the Lower East Side Ghetto, accessed April 30, 2007.
↑ ^53.0 ^53.1 Peterson, Iver. "Tenements of 1880's Adapt to 1980's", The New York Times, January 3, 1988, accessed April 30, 2007. "Usually five stories tall and built on a 25-foot lot, their exteriors are hung with fire escapes and the interiors are laid out long and narrow—in fact, the apartments were dubbed railroad flats."
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named OwnerOccupied

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to::

Manhattan

Manhattan local government and services

Maps, streets, and neighborhoods

Aerial view of all bridges in Manhattan
Maps of Building Heights and Land Value, plus theoretical and zoning-based maps of underdevelopment, all from www.radicalcartography.net
Gentrification in Manhattan (Harlem, Lower East Side and Washington Heights neighborhoods are profiled. Contains photos, links and an interactive map
Manhattan's Mobile Internet for cell phone users

Historical references

[NYCensusRankings-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 New York—Place and County Subdivision, United States Census Bureau, accessed May 1, 2007.

[2] District Profile: New York City, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Accessed September 4, 2006.

[3] Full Text of Robert Juet's Journal: From the collections of the New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841 log book, Newsday. Accessed May 16, 2007.

[Mannahatta-4] Holloway, Marguerite. "URBAN TACTICS; I'll Take Mannahatta", The New York Times, May 16, 2004, accessed April 30, 2007. "He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant island of many hills.'

[5] Sullivan, Dr. James. "The History of New York State: Book I, Chapter III", USGenNet, accessed May 1, 2007. "There is satisfactory evidence that Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed into the outer harbor of New York in 1524.

[6] Rankin, Rebecca B., Cleveland Rodgers (1948). New York: the World's Capital City, Its Development and Contributions to Progress. Harper.

[SciAm-7] "Henry Hudson and His Exploration" Scientific American, September 25, 1909, accessed May 1, 2007. "This was a vain hope, however, and the conviction must finally have come to the heart of the intrepid adventurer that once again he was foiled in his repeated quest for the northwest passage … On the following day the “Half Moon” let go her anchor inside of Sandy Hook. The week was spent in exploring the bay with a shallop, or small boat, and “they found a good entrance between two headlands” (the Narrows) “and thus entered on the 11th of September into as fine a river as can be found.”"

[8] Dutch Colonies, National Park Service. Accessed May 19, 2007. "Sponsored by the West India Company, 30 families arrived in North America in 1624, establishing a settlement on present-day Manhattan."

[Tolerance-9] Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park. Accessed May 12, 2007. See Legislative Resolutions Senate No. 5476 and Assembly No. 2708.

[10] City Seal and Flag, New York City, accessed May 13, 2007. "Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch the date 1625, being the year of the establishment of New Amsterdam."

[11] Letter of 1626 stating that Manhattan Island had been purchased for the value of 60 guilders, The College of New Jersey. Accessed April 26, 2007. The 60 guilders have been traditionally converted to about $24. If the money had been invested at anything above a 6.25% return (essentially a bond's current yield), it would be worth over $250 billion today, which exceeds Manhattan's estimated value of $200 billion. Historical Inflation Data (PDF), Oregon State University. It is virtually impossible to make a reasonable comparison of societies, values and price structures dated back to 1626, and 2006. The source warns that data of 1913 and earlier are highly approximative. Besides, the data, which had been tabulated, based on John J. McCusker's article How much is that in real money (Processing American Antiquarian Society 2001 ISBN 1-929545-01-0) started from 1665—40 years after the time, when the trade was settled. However, these numbers give the feeling of the price paid for Manhattan.

[12] Williams, Jasmin K. "New York - The Empire States", The New York Post, November 22, 2006. Accessed May 19, 2007. "In 1647, Dutch leader Peter Stuyvesant arrived with an iron fist to put an end to the colony's rampant crime and restore order."

[13] About the Council, New York City Council. Accessed May 18, 2007.

[14] The Origins of New York State's County Names, New York Department of State, accessed April 27, 2007. "New York: in honor of the Duke of York.

[15] Griffis, William Elliot. "The Story of New Netherland" Chapter XV: The Fall of New Netherland, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909. "In religious matters, Article VIII of the capitulation read, “The Dutch shall enjoy the liberty of their consciences in Divine worship and in Church government.”"

[16] Tolerance Park Historic New Amsterdam on Governors Island, Tolerance Park, accessed April 26, 2007.

[17] Fort Washington Park, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Accessed May 18, 2007.

[18] "Happy Evacuation Day", New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, November 23, 2005. Accessed May 18, 2007.

[19] The Nine Capitals of the United States. United States Senate Historical Office. Accessed June 9, 2005. Based on Fortenbaugh, Robert, The Nine Capitals of the United States, York, PA: Maple Press, 1948.

[20] Blair, Cynthia. "1858: Central Park Opens", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "Between 1853 and 1856, city commissioners purchased more than 700 acres from 59th Street to 106th Street between Fifth and Eighth Avenues to create Central Park, the nation’s first public park as well as its first landscaped park."

[21] Rybczynski , Witold. "Olmsted's Triumph", Smithsonian (magazine), July 2003. Accessed May 29, 2007. "By 1876, landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and architect Calvert Vaux had transformed the swampy, treeless 50 blocks between Harlem and midtown Manhattan into the first landscaped park in the United States."

[22] Ward, Geoffrey C. "Gangs of New York", a review of Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, The New York Times, October 6, 2002. Accessed May 29, 2007. "The New York draft riots remain the worst civil disturbance in American history: according to the historian Adrian Cook, 119 people are known to have been killed, mostly rioters or onlookers who got too close when federal troops, brought back from the battlefield to restore order, started shooting."

[23] Statue of Liberty, National Park Service. Accessed May 17, 2007.

[24] "New Jerseyans' Claim To Liberty I. Rejected", The New York Times, October 6, 1987. Accessed May 19, 2007. "The Supreme Court today refused to strip the Statue of Liberty of its status as a New Yorker. The Court, without comment, turned away a move by a two New Jerseyans to claim jurisdiction over the landmark for their state."

[25] Macy Jr., Harry. Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form "Greater New York", New York Genealogical and Biographical Society from The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1998, accessed April 29, 2007. "In 1683, when the Province of New York was first divided into counties, the City of New York also became New York County... In 1874, to accommodate this growth, New York City and County annexed from Westchester County what is now the western Bronx... In 1895 New York City annexed the eastern Bronx."

[26] Hermalyn, Gary and Ultan, Lloyd. Bronx History: A General Survey, New York Public Library, accessed April 26, 2007.

[27] Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline", University of California, Riverside Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London, is thus not included because we are studying constant regions."

[28] Rosenberg, Jennifer. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, About.com. Accessed May 17, 2007.

[29] Allen, Oliver E. (1993). "Chapter 9: The Decline", The Tiger – The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Retrieved 2007-05-25.

[30] "Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," The New York Times, August 1, 1947. p. 19

[31] Behrens, David. "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations", Newsday. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."

[32] Haberman, Clyde. "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)", The New York Times, January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007.

[33] Zeitz, Joshua. "New York City on the Brink", American Heritage (magazine), November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007.

[34] Firestone, David. "This Time, New York City Is All Alone", The New York Times, May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.

[35] "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission" (PDF), Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council."

[36] Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, Cornell Law School. Accessed June 12, 2006.

[37] Society of Foreign Consuls: About us. Accessed July 19, 2006.

[38] The Municipal Building, New York City. Accessed April 25, 2007. "But did you know that the Municipal Building is one of the largest government buildings in the world? Or that more than 28,000 New Yorkers are married here each year?"

[39] Christiano, Gregory. "The Five Points", Urbanography. Accessed May 16, 2007.

[40] Walsh, John, "The Five Points", Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area, September 1994. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The Five Points slum was so notorious that it attracted the attention of candidate Abraham Lincoln, who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address."

[41] Al Capone, Chicago History Museum. Accessed May 16, 2007. "Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York.... He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender."

[42] A Gangster is Born, Court TV. Accessed May 16, 2007. "By 1916, Luciano was a leading member of the notorious Five Points Gang and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders."

[Smithsonian-43] 43.0 ^43.1 Jaffe, Eric. "Talking to the Feds: The chief of the FBI's organized crime unit on the history of La Cosa Nostra", Smithsonian (magazine), April 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.

[44] Langan, Patrick A. and Durose, Matthew R. "The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City" (PDF). United States Department of Justice, October 21, 2004. Accessed May 16, 2007.

[BLSManhattanLabor-45] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named BLSManhattanLabor

[46] Fortune Magazine: New York State and City Home to Most Fortune 500 Companies, Empire State Development Corporation, press release dated April 8, 2005, accessed April 26, 2007. "New York City is also still home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other city in the country."

[47] Noonan, Patrica. Testimony on Moynihan Station Draft EIS, Partnership for New York City, testimony dated May 31, 2006, accessed April 26, 2007. "Combined with the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Far West Side promises to become the logical extension of the largest central business district in the country."

[48] Lower Manhattan Recovery Office, Federal Transit Administration, accessed April 26, 2007. "Lower Manhattan is the third largest business district in the nation. Prior to September 11th, more than 385,000 people were employed there, and 85% of those employees used public transportation to commute to work."

[49] Top 10 Consolidated Agency Networs: Ranked by 2006 Worldwide Network Revenue, Advertising Age Agency Report 2007 Index, published April 25, 2007. Accessed June 8, 2007.

[50] Stasi, Linda. NY, OH: It's Cleaner, Whiter, Brighter, The Village Voice, September 24, 1997. Accessed June 20, 2007.

[51] Great Fire of 1776, City University of New York. Accessed April 30, 2007. "Some of Washington's advisors suggested burning New York City so that the British would gain little from its capture. This idea was abandoned, and Washington withdrew his forces from the city on September 12, 1776. Three days later, the British occupied the city, and on September 21st, a fire broke out in the Fighting Cocks Tavern. Without the city's firemen present and on duty, the fire quickly spread. A third of the city burnt and 493 houses destroyed."

[52] Building the Lower East Side Ghetto, accessed April 30, 2007.

[NYTTenements-53] 53.0 ^53.1 Peterson, Iver. "Tenements of 1880's Adapt to 1980's", The New York Times, January 3, 1988, accessed April 30, 2007. "Usually five stories tall and built on a 25-foot lot, their exteriors are hung with fire escapes and the interiors are laid out long and narrow—in fact, the apartments were dubbed railroad flats."

[OwnerOccupied-54] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named OwnerOccupied

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@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ! colspan="2" bgcolor="#efefef" align="center"| Location
 |-
-!colspan="2" align="center" | [[Image:Manhattan Highlight New York City Map Julius Schorzman.png|250px|]]
+!colspan="2" align="center" | [[Image:Manhattan.gif|175px|]]
 |-
 |colspan="2" align="center" | <small>The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River.</small>
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 !colspan="2" bgcolor="#efefef"|Government
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
-|[[County]]:||New York
+|County:||New York
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
-|[[Borough president]]:||[[Scott Stringer]]
+|Borough president:||Scott Stringer
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
 !colspan="2" bgcolor="#efefef"|Demographics
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
-|[[Population]]:||1,537,195
+|Population:||1,537,195
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
-|[[Population density]]:||66,940/mi² (25,846/km²)
+|Population density:||66,940/mi² (25,846/km²)
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
 !colspan="2" bgcolor="#efefef"|Geography<ref name=NYCensusRankings/>
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
-|[[Area]]:||33.77 mi² (87.46 km²)
+|Area:||33.77 mi² (87.46 km²)
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
-|[[Land]]:||22.96 mi² (59.47 km²)
+|Land:||22.96 mi² (59.47 km²)
 |- style="vertical-align: top;"
 |[[Water]]:||10.81 mi² (28.00 km²)
@@ Line 69: / Line 69: @@
 ===The 20th Century===
-The construction of the [[New York City Subway]], first opened in 1904, helped bind the new city together. Starting in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African Americans as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] from the [[U.S. Southern states|American South]], and  the [[Harlem Renaissance]], part of a larger boom time in the [[Prohibition]] era that saw dueling skyscrapers in the skyline. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking [[London]], which had reigned for a century.<ref>Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. [http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/ccr02/ccr02.htm "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline"], [[University of California, Riverside]] Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London, is thus not included because we are studying constant regions."</ref>
+The construction of the New York City Subway, first opened in 1904, helped bind the new city together. Starting in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African Americans as part of the Great Migration from the U.S. Southern states, and  the Harlem Renaissance, part of a larger boom time in the [[Prohibition]] era that saw dueling skyscrapers in the skyline. New York City became the most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking [[London]], which had reigned for a century.<ref>Chase-Dunn, Christopher and Manning, Susan. [http://www.irows.ucr.edu/research/citemp/ccr02/ccr02.htm "City systems and world-systems: Four millennia of city growth and decline"], [[University of California, Riverside]] Institute for Research on World-Systems. Accessed May 17, 2007. "New York, which became the largest city in the world by 1925, beating out London, is thus not included because we are studying constant regions."</ref>
-On March 25, 1911, the [[Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire]] in [[Greenwich Village]] took the lives of 146 garment workers, which would eventually lead to great improvements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.<ref>Rosenberg, Jennifer. [http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/p/trianglefire.htm Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire], [[About.com]]. Accessed May 17, 2007.</ref>
+On March 25, 1911, the [[Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire]] in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers, which would eventually lead to great improvements in the city's fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.<ref>Rosenberg, Jennifer. [http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/p/trianglefire.htm Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire], [[About.com]]. Accessed May 17, 2007.</ref>
-[[Image:Manhattan1942.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Lower Manhattan]] in 1942]]
+[[Image:Manhattan1942.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Lower Manhattan in 1942]]
 [[Image:Skyline Twin Towers photo by Sander Lamme.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Manhattan skyline with the [[World Trade Center|Twin Towers]].]]
-The period between the World Wars saw the election of reformist mayor [[Fiorello LaGuardia]] and the fall of [[Tammany Hall]] after eighty years of political dominance.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Tiger – The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall|first=Oliver E.|last=Allen|publisher=[[Addison-Wesley]] Publishing Company|url=http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100781540|accessdate=2007-05-25|chapter=Chapter 9: The Decline|date=1993}}</ref> As the city's demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and affluence to the working class, the city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia. 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.
+The period between the World Wars saw the election of reformist mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the fall of [[Tammany Hall]] after eighty years of political dominance.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Tiger – The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall|first=Oliver E.|last=Allen|publisher=[[Addison-Wesley]] Publishing Company|url=http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100781540|accessdate=2007-05-25|chapter=Chapter 9: The Decline|date=1993}}</ref> As the city's demographics stabilized, labor unionization brought new protections and affluence to the working class.  The city's government and infrastructure underwent a dramatic overhaul under LaGuardia. 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.
-Returning [[World War II]] veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom and led to the development of huge housing developments, targeted at returning veterans, including [[Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town]] which opened in 1947.<ref>"Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 1, 1947. p. 19</ref> In 1951, the [[United Nations]] relocated from its first headquarters in [[Queens]], to the East Side of Manhattan.<ref>Behrens, David. [http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs741a,0,7354306.story "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations"], ''[[Newsday]]''. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."</ref>
+Returning [[World War II]] veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom and led to the development of huge housing developments, targeted at returning veterans, including Peter Cooper Village—Stuyvesant Town, which opened in 1947.<ref>"Stuyvesant Town to Get Its First Tenants Today," ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 1, 1947. p. 19</ref> In 1951, the [[United Nations]] relocated from its first headquarters in Queens to the East Side of Manhattan.<ref>Behrens, David. [http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs741a,0,7354306.story "The World Came to Long Island: The small Village of Lake Success played a big role in the launch of the United Nations"], ''[[Newsday]]''. Accessed May 29, 2007. "In the spring of 1951, the UN moved to its current home along Manhattan's East River."</ref>
-Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots and population and industrial decline in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation as a graffiti-covered, crime-ridden relic of history.<ref>[[Clyde Haberman|Haberman, Clyde]]. [http://www.nytimes.com/specials/nyc100/nyc100-8-haberman.html "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007.</ref> In 1975, the city government faced imminent bankruptcy, and its appeals for assistance were initially rejected, summarized by the classic October 30, 1975 ''[[New York Daily News]]'' headline as "Ford to City: Drop Dead".<ref>Zeitz, Joshua. [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051126-new-york-city-gerald-ford-labor-unions-municipal-assistance-corporation-emergency-financial-control-board.shtml "New York City on the Brink"], ''[[American Heritage (magazine)]]'', November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007.</ref> The fate was avoided through a federal loan and debt restructuring, and the city was forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by [[New York State]].<ref>Firestone, David. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDF1F3AF93BA25756C0A963958260 "This Time, New York City Is All Alone"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.</ref>
+Like many major U.S. cities, New York suffered race riots and population and industrial decline in the 1960s. By the 1970s, the city had gained a reputation as a graffiti-covered, crime-ridden relic of history.<ref>[[Clyde Haberman|Haberman, Clyde]]. [http://www.nytimes.com/specials/nyc100/nyc100-8-haberman.html "Surviving Fiscal Crisis (and Disco)"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 25, 1998. Accessed May 29, 2007.</ref> In 1975, the city government faced imminent bankruptcy, and its appeals for assistance were initially rejected, summarized by the classic October 30, 1975 ''[[New York Daily News]]'' headline as "Ford to City: Drop Dead".<ref>Zeitz, Joshua. [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051126-new-york-city-gerald-ford-labor-unions-municipal-assistance-corporation-emergency-financial-control-board.shtml "New York City on the Brink"], ''[[American Heritage (magazine)]]'', November 26, 2005. Accessed May 29, 2007.</ref> The fate was avoided through a federal loan and debt restructuring, and the city was forced to accept increased financial scrutiny by New York State.<ref>Firestone, David. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEEDF1F3AF93BA25756C0A963958260 "This Time, New York City Is All Alone"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', May 18, 1995. Accessed May 29, 2007.</ref>
-The 1980s saw a rebirth of [[Wall Street]], and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. The 1980s also saw Manhattan at the heart of the [[AIDS]] crisis, with [[Greenwich Village, Manhattan|Greenwich Village]] at its epicenter. [[Gay Men's Health Crisis]] (GMHC) and [[AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power]] (ACT UP) were founded to advocate on behalf of those stricken with the disease.
-Starting 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 New York City can offer.
+The 1980s saw a rebirth of Wall Street, and the city reclaimed its role at the center of the world-wide financial industry. The 1980s also saw Manhattan at the heart of the AIDS crisis, with Greenwich Village at its epicenter. Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) were founded to advocate on behalf of those stricken with the disease.
+Starting 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 New York City can offer.
 ==Government==
 {{main|Government of New York City}}
 [[Image:Manhattan Municipal Building by David Shankbone edited-1.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Manhattan Municipal Building]]
-Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan has been governed by the New York City Charter, which has provided for a "strong" [[Mayor-council government|mayor-council system]] since its revision in 1989.<ref>[http://www.abcny.org/pdf/Report%20on%20Ballot%20Proposals.pdf "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission"] (PDF), [[Association of the Bar of the City of New York]]. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council."</ref> The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Manhattan.
+[[Image:New York City Hall.jpg|thumb|right|175px|New York City Hall]]
+Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Manhattan has been governed by the New York City Charter, which has provided for a "strong" mayor-council system since its revision in 1989.<ref>[http://www.abcny.org/pdf/Report%20on%20Ballot%20Proposals.pdf "Report on Ballot Proposals of the 2003 New York City Charter Revision Commission"] (PDF), [[Association of the Bar of the City of New York]]. Accessed May 11, 2007. "Unlike most cities that employ nonpartisan election systems, New York City has a very strong mayor system and, following the 1989 Charter Amendments, an increasingly powerful City Council."</ref> The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Manhattan.
-The office of [[Borough President]] was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the [[New York City Board of Estimate]], which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment's]] [[Equal Protection Clause]] pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0489_0688_ZS.html Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris], [[Cornell Law School]]. Accessed June 12, 2006.</ref>
+The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989, the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0489_0688_ZS.html Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris], [[Cornell Law School]]. Accessed June 12, 2006.</ref>
 Since 1990, the largely-powerless Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations.  Manhattan has ten City Council members, the third largest contingent among the five boroughs. It also has 12 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents.
-As the host of the [[United Nations]], the borough is home to the world's largest international [[Consul (representative)|consular corps]], comprising 105 consulates, consulates general and honorary consulates.<ref>[http://www.consulsnewyork.com/about.htm Society of Foreign Consuls: About us]. Accessed July 19, 2006.</ref> It is also the home of [[New York City Hall]], the seat of New York City government housing the [[Mayor of New York City]] and the [[New York City Council]]. The mayor's staff and thirteen municipal agencies are located in the nearby [[Manhattan Municipal Building]], completed in 1916, one of the largest governmental buildings in the world.<ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/agencyinfo/municipal_building.shtml The Municipal Building], [[New York City]]. Accessed April 25, 2007. "But did you know that the Municipal Building is one of the largest government buildings in the world? Or that more than 28,000 New Yorkers are married here each year?"</ref>
+As the host of the [[United Nations]], the borough is home to the world's largest international consular corps, comprising 105 consulates, consulates general, and honorary consulates.<ref>[http://www.consulsnewyork.com/about.htm Society of Foreign Consuls: About us]. Accessed July 19, 2006.</ref> It is also the home of New York City Hall, the seat of New York City government housing the Mayor of New York City and the New York City Council. The mayor's staff and thirteen municipal agencies are located in the nearby Manhattan Municipal Building, completed in 1916, which was then known as one of the largest governmental buildings in the world.<ref>[http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/agencyinfo/municipal_building.shtml The Municipal Building], [[New York City]]. Accessed April 25, 2007. "But did you know that the Municipal Building is one of the largest government buildings in the world? Or that more than 28,000 New Yorkers are married here each year?"</ref>
@@ Line 102: / Line 101: @@
 {{main|Crime in New York City}}
 [[Image:Leslie five points new york 1885 3c22660v.jpg|thumb|250px|Policeman leads upper class people through the Five Points in an 1885 sketch]]
-Starting in the mid-19th century, the United States became a magnet for immigrants seeking to escape poverty in their home countries. After arriving in New York, many new arrivals ended up living in squalor in the slums of the [[Five Points, Manhattan|Five Points]] neighborhood, an area between [[Broadway (New York City)|Broadway]] and the [[Bowery, Manhattan|Bowery]], northeast of [[New York City Hall]]. By the 1820s, the area was home to many gambling dens and [[Brothel|"houses of ill repute"]], and was known as a dangerous place to go to. In 1842, [[Charles Dickens]] visited the area and was appalled at the horrendous living conditions he had seen.<ref>Christiano, Gregory. [http://urbanography.com/5_points/ "The Five Points"], Urbanography. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref> The area was so notorious at the time that it even caught the attention of [[Abraham Lincoln]], who visited the area before his [[Cooper Union Address]] in 1860.<ref>Walsh, John, [http://www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/five_points.htm "The Five Points"], Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area, September 1994. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The Five Points slum was so notorious that it attracted the attention of candidate Abraham Lincoln who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address."</ref> The predominantly Irish [[Five Points Gang]] was one of the country's first major [[organized crime]] entities.
+Starting in the mid-19th century, the United States became a magnet for immigrants seeking to escape poverty in their home countries. After arriving in New York, many new arrivals ended up living in squalor in the slums of the Five Points neighborhood, an area between Broadway and the Bowery, northeast of New York City Hall. By the 1820s, the area was home to many gambling dens and "houses of ill repute" (better known as brothels) and was known as a dangerous place to go to. In 1842, [[Charles Dickens]] visited the area and was appalled at the horrendous living conditions he had seen.<ref>Christiano, Gregory. [http://urbanography.com/5_points/ "The Five Points"], Urbanography. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref> The area was so notorious at the time that it even caught the attention of [[Abraham Lincoln]], who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address in 1860.<ref>Walsh, John, [http://www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/five_points.htm "The Five Points"], Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area, September 1994. Accessed May 16, 2007. "The Five Points slum was so notorious that it attracted the attention of candidate Abraham Lincoln, who visited the area before his Cooper Union Address."</ref> The predominantly Irish Five Points Gang was one of the country's first major [[organized crime]] entities.
-As Italian immigration grew in the early 1900s, many joined the Irish gangs. [[Al Capone]] got his start in crime with the Five Points Gang,<ref>[http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html Al Capone], [[Chicago History Museum]]. Accessed May 16, 2007. "Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York.... He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender."</ref> as did [[Lucky Luciano]].<ref>[http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/luciano/born_2.html A Gangster is Born], [[Court TV]]. Accessed May 16, 2007. "By 1916, Luciano was a leading member of the notorious Five Points Gang and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders."</ref> The [[Mafia]] (also known as ''Cosa Nostra'') first developed in the mid-19th century in [[Sicily]] and spread to the [[East Coast of the United States]] during the late 19th century following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian [[emigration]]. Lucky Luciano established La Cosa Nostra in Manhattan, forming alliances with other criminal enterprises, including the Jewish mob, led by [[Meyer Lansky]], the leading Jewish gangster of that period.<ref name=Smithsonian>Jaffe, Eric. [http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2007/april/mob.php "Talking to the Feds: The chief of the FBI's organized crime unit on the history of La Cosa Nostra"], ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)]]'', April 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref> from 1920–1933, [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] helped create a thriving [[black market]] in liquor, which the Mafia was quick to capitalize on.<ref name=Smithsonian/>
+As Italian immigration grew in the early 1900s, many joined the Irish gangs. [[Al Capone]] got his start in crime with the Five Points Gang,<ref>[http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html Al Capone], [[Chicago History Museum]]. Accessed May 16, 2007. "Capone was born on January 17, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York.... He became part of the notorious Five Points gang in Manhattan and worked in gangster Frankie Yale's Brooklyn dive, the Harvard Inn, as a bouncer and bartender."</ref> as did Lucky Luciano.<ref>[http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/luciano/born_2.html A Gangster is Born], [[Court TV]]. Accessed May 16, 2007. "By 1916, Luciano was a leading member of the notorious Five Points Gang and named by police as the prime suspect in a number of murders."</ref> The [[Mafia]] (also known as ''Cosa Nostra'') first developed in the mid-19th century in [[Sicily]] and spread to the East Coast of the United States during the late 19th century, following waves of Sicilian and Southern Italian emigration. Lucky Luciano established '''La Cosa Nostra''' in Manhattan, forming alliances with other criminal enterprises, including the Jewish mob, led by Meyer Lansky, the leading Jewish gangster of that period.<ref name=Smithsonian>Jaffe, Eric. [http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2007/april/mob.php "Talking to the Feds: The chief of the FBI's organized crime unit on the history of La Cosa Nostra"], ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)]]'', April 2007. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref> from 1920–1933, [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] helped create a thriving [[black market]] in liquor, which the Mafia was quick to capitalize on.<ref name=Smithsonian/>
-New York City experienced a sharp increase in crime during the 1960s and 1970s, with a near fivefold jump in the violent crime rate, from 21.09 per thousand in 1960 to a peak of 102.66 in 1981. Homicides continued to increase in the city as a whole for another decade, with murders recorded by the [[New York City Police Department|NYPD]] jumping from 390 in 1960, to 1,117 in 1970, 1,812 in 1980 and reaching its peak of 2,262 in 1990. Starting circa 1990, New York City saw record declines in homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, violent crime, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and property crime, a trend that has continued to today.<ref>Langan, Patrick A. and Durose, Matthew R. [http://samoa.istat.it/Eventi/sicurezza/relazioni/Langan_rel.pdf "The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City"] (PDF). [[United States Department of Justice]], October 21, 2004. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref>
+New York City experienced a sharp increase in crime during the 1960s and 1970s, with a near fivefold jump in the violent crime rate, from 21.09 per thousand in 1960 to a peak of 102.66 in 1981. Homicides continued to increase in the city as a whole for another decade, with murders recorded by the New York City Police Department, jumping from 390 in 1960 to 1,117 in 1970, 1,812 in 1980, and reaching its peak of 2,262 in 1990. Starting circa 1990, New York City saw record declines in homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, violent crime, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and property crime, a trend that has continued to today.<ref>Langan, Patrick A. and Durose, Matthew R. [http://samoa.istat.it/Eventi/sicurezza/relazioni/Langan_rel.pdf "The Remarkable Drop in Crime in New York City"] (PDF). [[United States Department of Justice]], October 21, 2004. Accessed May 16, 2007.</ref>
 ==Economy==
@@ Line 124: / Line 123: @@
 == See also ==
-* [[Midtown (Manhattan)|Midtown]]
+* Midtown (Manhattan)
-* [[Lower Manhattan]]
+* Lower Manhattan
-* [[Sawing off of Manhattan Island]]
+* Sawing off of Manhattan Island
 ==Notes==
@@ Line 146: / Line 145: @@
 * [http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/00000006.htm Map of Mannados or Manhattan in 1661 (PD)]
 * [http://bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Map/NY.1729.html 1729 map of Manhattan]
-{{New York City}}
-{{Manhattan}}
-{{New York City Islands}}
-{{coor title dms|40|43|42|N|73|59|39|W|Type:City}}
-{{Credit|141079400}}
-[[Category:Geography]]