Government and politics
New York City is a metropolitan municipality with a strong mayor–council form of government.[592] The city government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services.
The City Council is a unicameral body of 51 council members whose districts are defined by geographic population boundaries.[593] Each term for the mayor and council members lasts four years and has a two consecutive-term limit,[594] which is reset after a four-year break. The New York City Administrative Code, the New York City Rules, and The City Record are the code of local laws, compilation of regulations, and official journal, respectively.[595][596]
Each borough is coextensive with a judicial district of the state Unified Court System, of which the Criminal Court and the Civil Court are the local courts, while the New York Supreme Court conducts major trials and appeals. Manhattan hosts the First Department of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, while Brooklyn hosts the Second Department. There are several extrajudicial administrative courts, which are executive agencies and not part of the state Unified Court System.
New York City is divided between, and is host to the main branches of, two different U.S. district courts: the District Court for the Southern District of New York, whose main courthouse is on Foley Square in Manhattan and whose jurisdiction includes Manhattan and the Bronx;[597] and the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, whose main courthouse is in Brooklyn and whose jurisdiction includes Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.[598] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and U.S. Court of International Trade are based in New York, also on Foley Square in Manhattan.[599][600]
The city's mayor is Eric Adams, who was elected in 2021.[601] The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. As of November 2023, 67% of active registered voters in the city are Democrats and 10.2% are Republicans.[602] New York City has not been carried by a Republican presidential candidate since 1924, and no Republican candidate for statewide office has won all five boroughs since the city was incorporated in 1898. In redistricting following the 2020 census, 14 of New York's 26 congressional districts include portions of New York City.[603]
New York City is a significant geographical source of political fundraising.[604] The city has a strong imbalance of payments with the national and state governments. It receives 83 cents in services for every $1 it sends to the federal government in taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more than it receives back). City residents and businesses also sent an additional $4.1 billion in the 2009–2010 fiscal year to the state of New York than the city received in return.[605]
Primary and secondary education
The Buffalo Public Schools have about thirty-four thousand students enrolled in their primary and secondary schools.[260] The district administers about sixty public schools, including thirty-six primary schools, five middle high schools, fourteen high schools and three alternative schools, with a total of about 3,500 teachers.[261] Its board of education, authorized by the state, has nine elected members who select the superintendent and oversee the budget, curriculum, personnel, and facilities.[262][263] In 2020, the graduation rate was seventy-six percent.[264] The public City Honors School was ranked the top high school in the city and 178th nationwide by U.S. News & World Report in 2021.[265] There are twenty charter schools in Buffalo, with some oversight by the district.[266] The city has over a dozen private schools, including Bishop Timon – St. Jude High School, Canisius High School, Mount Mercy Academy, and Nardin Academy—all Roman Catholic, and Darul Uloom Al-Madania and Universal School of Buffalo (both Islamic schools); nonsectarian options include Buffalo Seminary and the Nichols School.[267]
Late 19th and early 20th century
In 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, was dedicated in New York Harbor. The statue welcomed 14 million immigrants as they came to the U.S. via Ellis Island by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the United States and American ideals of liberty and peace.[109][110]
In 1898, the City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city), the County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens.[111] The opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together.[112] Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication.[113]
In 1904, the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River, killing 1,021 people.[114] In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst industrial disaster, killed 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in factory safety standards.[115]
New York's non-White population was 36,620 in 1890.[116] New York City was a prime destination in the early 20th century for Blacks during the Great Migration from the American South, and by 1916, New York City had the largest urban African diaspora in North America.[117] The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition.[118] The larger economic boom generated construction of skyscrapers competing in height.[119]
New York City became the most populous urbanized area in the world in the early 1920s, overtaking London. The metropolitan area surpassed 10 million in the early 1930s, becoming the first megacity.[120] The Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello La Guardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.[121]
Returning World War II veterans created a post-war economic boom and the development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County, with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations headquarters was completed in 1952, solidifying New York's global geopolitical influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world.[122]
Jadwal Sholat New York, New York, Amerika Serikat
Lokasi: New York, Amerika Serikat. | Koordinat: (40.715, -74.007). | Ketinggian: 2 m. | Zona waktu: EST (UTC -05:00). | Arah kiblat: 58° dari utara.
Erie Canal, grain and commerce
The village of Buffalo was named for Buffalo Creek.[b][32] British military engineer John Montresor referred to "Buffalo Creek" in his 1764 journal, the earliest recorded appearance of the name.[33] A road to Pennsylvania from Buffalo was built in 1802 for migrants traveling to the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio.[34] Before an east–west turnpike across the state was completed, traveling from Albany to Buffalo would take a week; a trip from nearby Williamsville to Batavia could take over three days.[35][c]
British forces burned Buffalo and the northwestern village of Black Rock in 1813.[36] The battle and subsequent fire was in response to the destruction of Niagara-on-the-Lake by American forces and other skirmishes during the War of 1812.[37][38][13] Rebuilding was swift, completed in 1815.[39][38] As a remote outpost, village residents hoped that the proposed Erie Canal would bring prosperity to the area.[23] To accomplish this, Buffalo's harbor was expanded with the help of Samuel Wilkeson; it was selected as the canal's terminus over the rival Black Rock.[13] It opened in 1825, ushering in commerce, manufacturing and hydropower.[23] By the following year, the 130 sq mi (340 km2) Buffalo Creek Reservation (at the western border of the village) was transferred to Buffalo.[28] Buffalo was incorporated as a city in 1832.[40] During the 1830s, businessman Benjamin Rathbun significantly expanded its business district.[23] The city doubled in size from 1845 to 1855. Almost two-thirds of the city's population was foreign-born, largely a mix of unskilled (or educated) Irish and German Catholics.[41][42]
Fugitive slaves made their way north to Buffalo during the 1840s.[43] Buffalo was a terminus of the Underground Railroad, with many free Black people crossing the Niagara River to Fort Erie, Ontario;[44] others remained in Buffalo.[41] During this time, Buffalo's port continued to develop. Passenger and commercial traffic expanded, leading to the creation of feeder canals and the expansion of the city's harbor.[45] Unloading grain in Buffalo was a laborious job, and grain handlers working on lake freighters would make $1.50 a day (equivalent to $49 in 2023[46]) in a six-day work week.[45] Local inventor Joseph Dart and engineer Robert Dunbar created the grain elevator in 1843, adapting the steam-powered elevator. Dart's Elevator initially processed one thousand bushels per hour, speeding global distribution to consumers.[45] Buffalo was the transshipment hub of the Great Lakes, and weather, maritime and political events in other Great Lakes cities had a direct impact on the city's economy.[45] In addition to grain, Buffalo's primary imports included agricultural products from the Midwest (meat, whiskey, lumber and tobacco), and its exports included leather, ships and iron products. The mid-19th century saw the rise of new manufacturing capabilities, particularly with iron.[45]
By the 1860s, many railroads terminated in Buffalo; they included the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburgh Railroad, Buffalo and Erie Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad.[20] During this time, Buffalo controlled one-quarter of all shipping traffic on Lake Erie.[20] After the Civil War, canal traffic began to drop as railroads expanded into Buffalo.[47] Unionization began to take hold in the late 19th century, highlighted by the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and 1892 Buffalo switchmen's strike.[48]
Ethnicity and nationality
According to 2022 estimates from the American Community Survey, the largest self-reported ancestries in New York City were Dominican (8.7%), Chinese (7.5%), Puerto Rican (6.9%), Italian (5.5%), Mexican (4.4%), Irish (4.4%), Asian Indian (3.1%), German (2.9%), Jamaican (2.4%), Ecuadorian (2.3%), English (2.1%), Polish (1.9%), Russian (1.7%), Arab (1.4%), Haitian (1.4%), Guyanese (1.3%), Filipino (1.1%), and Korean (1.1%).[255][14][15]
Based on data from 2018 to 2022, approximately 36.3% of the city's population is foreign born (compared to 13.7% nationwide),[4] and 40% of all children are born to mothers who are immigrants.[257] Throughout its history, New York has been a major port of entry for immigrants into the United States.[258][259] No single country or region of origin dominates.[258] Queens has the largest Asian American and Andean populations in the United States, and is also the most ethnically and linguistically diverse urban area in the world.[260][184]
The metropolitan area has the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere; the largest Russian American,[261] Italian American, and African American populations; the largest Dominican American, Puerto Rican American, and South American[261] and second-largest overall Hispanic population in the United States, numbering 4.8 million.[262] Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Peru, and Brazil, are the top source countries from South America for immigrants to the New York City region; the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean; Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, and South Africa from Africa; and El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in Central America.[263]
New York contains the highest total Asian population of any U.S. city proper.[264] Asian Americans in New York City, according to the 2010 census, number more than 1.2 million,[4] greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles.[265] New York has the largest Chinese population of any city outside Asia,[266] Manhattan's Chinatown is the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere,[267] and Queens is home to the largest Tibetan population outside Asia.[268] Arab Americans number over 160,000 in New York City,[269] with the highest concentration in Brooklyn. New York City has the highest Palestinian population in the United States.[270] Central Asians, primarily Uzbek Americans, are a rapidly growing segment of the city's non-Hispanic White population.[271] The metropolitan area is home to 20% of the nation's Indian Americans and at least twenty Little India enclaves, and 15% of all Korean Americans and four Koreatowns.
New York City has the largest European and non-Hispanic white population of any American city, numbering 2.7 million in 2012.[273] The European diaspora residing in the city is very diverse and many European ethnic groups have formed enclaves.[274][275][276] With 960,000 Jewish inhabitants as of 2023, New York City is home to the highest Jewish population of any city in the world,[277] and its metropolitan area concentrated over 2 million Jews as of 2021, the second largest Jewish population worldwide after the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in Israel.[278] In the borough of Brooklyn, an estimated one in four residents was Jewish as of 2018.[279]
New York City has been described as the gay capital of the world and the central node of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) sociopolitical ecosystem, and is home to one of the world's largest LGBT populations and the most prominent.[280] The New York metropolitan area is home to about 570,000 self-identifying gay and bisexual people, the largest in the United States.[281][282] Same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults has been legal in New York since 1980's New York v. Onofre case, which invalidated the state's sodomy law.[283] Same-sex marriage in New York was legalized on June 24, 2011, and were authorized to take place on July 23, 2011.[284]
The annual NYC Pride March proceeds southward down Fifth Avenue and ends at Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan; the parade is the largest pride parade in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June.[285][286] The annual Queens Pride Parade is held in Jackson Heights and is accompanied by the ensuing Multicultural Parade.[287]
Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was the largest international Pride celebration in history, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, with 150,000 participants and five million spectators attending in Manhattan alone.[288] New York City is home to the largest transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan and Queens; however, until the June 1969 Stonewall riots, this community had felt marginalized and neglected by the gay community.[287][132] Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender-rights demonstration in LGBT history, took place on June 14, 2020, stretching from Grand Army Plaza to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.[289][290]
Christianity is the largest religion (59% adherent) in New York City,[291] which is home to the highest number of churches of any city in the world.[17] Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination (33%), followed by Protestantism (23%), and other Christian denominations (3%). The Latin Catholic population is primarily served by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Brooklyn, while Eastern Catholics are divided into numerous jurisdictions throughout the city. Evangelical Protestantism is the largest branch of Protestantism in the city (9%), followed by Mainline Protestantism (8%), while the converse is usually true for other cities and metropolitan areas.[292]
With 960,000 Jewish inhabitants as of 2023, Judaism is the second-largest religion practiced in New York City.[277] Nearly half of the city's Jews live in Brooklyn.[293][294] Islam ranks as the third-largest religion in New York City, following Christianity and Judaism, with estimates ranging between 600,000 and 1,000,000 observers of Islam, including 10% of the city's public school children.[295] 22.3% of American Muslims live in New York City, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greater New York metropolitan area, representing the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Western Hemisphere[296]—and the most ethnically diverse Muslim population of any city in the world.[297] Powers Street Mosque in Brooklyn is one of the oldest continuously operating mosques in the U.S., and represents the first Islamic organization in both the city and the state of New York.[298][299]
Following these three largest religious groups in New York City are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and others. As of 2023, 24% of Greater New Yorkers identified with no organized religious affiliation, and 4% were self-identified atheists.[300]
New York City has the largest educational system of any city.[17] The city's educational infrastructure spans primary education, secondary education, higher education, and research. The New York City Public Schools system, managed by the New York City Department of Education, is the largest public school system in the US, serving about 1.1 million students in approximately 1,800 separate primary and secondary schools, including charter schools, as of 2017–2018.[301] There are approximately 900 additional privately run secular and religious schools.[302]
The New York Public Library (NYPL) has the largest collection of any public library system in the US.[303] Queens is served by the Queens Borough Public Library (QPL), the nation's second-largest public library system, while the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) serves Brooklyn.[303]
More than a million students, the highest number of any city in the US,[304] are enrolled in New York City's more than 120 higher education institutions, with more than half a million in the City University of New York (CUNY) system alone as of 2020[update].[305] According to Academic Ranking of World Universities, New York City has, on average, the best higher education institutions of any global city.[306]
The public CUNY system comprises 25 institutions across all five boroughs. The public State University of New York (SUNY) system's campuses in New York City include SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY Maritime College, and SUNY College of Optometry. New York City is home to such notable private universities as Barnard College, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Fordham University, New York University, New York Institute of Technology, Rockefeller University, Mercy University, Cornell Tech and Yeshiva University; several of these are ranked among the top universities in the world,[307][308] while some of the world's most prestigious institutions like Princeton University and Yale University remain in the New York metropolitan area.
Much of the scientific research in the city is done in medicine and the life sciences. In 2019, the New York metropolitan area ranked first by share of published articles in life sciences.[309] New York City has the most postgraduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the US, and in 2012, 43,523 licensed physicians were practicing in New York City.[310] There are 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions as of 2004[update].[311]
New York City is a center for healthcare and medical training, with employment of over 750,000 in the city's health care sector.[313][314] Private hospitals in New York City include the Hospital for Special Surgery, Lenox Hill Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and NYU Langone Health.[315] Medical schools include SUNY Downstate College of Medicine in Brooklyn, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, and CUNY School of Medicine, Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Weill Cornell Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and New York University School of Medicine in Manhattan.[316]
NYC Health + Hospitals (HHC) is a public-benefit corporation established in 1969 which operates the city's public hospitals and a network of outpatient clinics.[317][318] As of 2021[update], HHC is the largest municipal healthcare system in the United States with $10.9 billion in annual revenues.[319] HHC serves 1.4 million patients, including more than 475,000 uninsured city residents.[320] HHC operates eleven acute-care hospitals, four skilled nursing facilities, six diagnostic and treatment centers, and more than 70 community-based primary care sites, serving primarily the city's poor and working-class residents.[321][322] HHC's MetroPlus Health Plan is one of New York City's largest providers of government-sponsored health insurance, enrolling 670,000 city residents as of June 2022.[323]
HHC's facilities annually provides service to millions of New Yorkers, interpreted in more than 190 languages.[324] The best-known hospital in the HHC system is Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the US, established in 1736.[325] Bellevue is the designated hospital for treatment of the president of the United States and other world leaders should they require care while in New York City.[326]
The city banned smoking in most parts of restaurants in 1995 and prohibited smoking in bars, restaurants and places of public employment in 2003.[327] Pharmacies are banned from selling smoked and vaped products in New York State.[328]
New York City enforces a right-to-shelter law guaranteeing shelter to anyone who needs it, regardless of their immigration, socioeconomic, or housing status, which entails providing adequate shelter and food.[329] As a result, while New York has the highest total homeless population of U.S. cities, only 5% were unsheltered by the city, representing a significantly lower percentage of outdoor homelessness than in other cities.[330] As of 2023, there were 92,824 homeless people sleeping nightly in New York City's shelter system.[331]
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest police force in the US, with more than 36,000 sworn officers.[332] Members of the NYPD are frequently referred to by politicians, the media, and their own police cars by the nickname, New York's Finest.[333]
The city saw a spike in crime in the 1970s through 1990s.[334] Crime overall has trended downward in New York City since the 1990s;[335] violent crime decreased more than 75% from 1993 to 2005, and continued decreasing during periods when the nation as a whole saw increases.[336] The NYPD's stop-and-frisk program was declared unconstitutional in 2013 as a "policy of indirect racial profiling" of Black and Hispanic residents,[337] although claims of disparate impact continued in subsequent years.[338] The stop-and-frisk program had been widely credited as being behind the decline in crime, though rates continued dropping in the years after the program ended.[339][340]
The city set a record high of 2,245 murders in 1990 and hit a near-70-year record low of 289 in 2018.[341] The number of murders and the rate of 3.3 per 100,000 residents in 2017 was the lowest since 1951.[342] New York City recorded 386 murders in 2023, a decline of 12% from the previous year.[343][344] New York City had one of the lowest homicide rates among the ten largest U.S. cities at 5.5 per 100,000 residents in 2021, behind San Jose, California, at 3.1 per 100,000.[345]
New York City has stricter gun laws than most other cities in the U.S.—a license to own any firearm is required in New York City, and the NY SAFE Act of 2013 banned assault weapons—and New York State had the fifth-lowest gun death rate of the states in 2020.[346]
Organized crime has long been associated with New York City, beginning with the Forty Thieves and the Roach Guards in the Five Points neighborhood in the 1820s, followed by the Tongs in the same neighborhood, which ultimately evolved into Chinatown, Manhattan. The 20th century saw a rise in the Mafia, dominated by the Five Families, as well as in gangs, including the Black Spades.[347] The Mafia and gang presence has declined in the city in the 21st century.[348][349]
The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) provides fire protection, technical rescue, primary response to biological, chemical, and radioactive hazards, and emergency medical services. FDNY faces multifaceted firefighting challenges in many ways unique to New York. In addition to responding to building types that range from wood-frame single family homes to high-rise structures, the FDNY responds to fires that occur in the New York City Subway.[350] Secluded bridges and tunnels, as well as large parks and wooded areas that can give rise to brush fires, also present challenges. The FDNY is headquartered at 9 MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn,[351] and the FDNY Fire Academy is on Randalls Island.[352]
New York City is a global hub of business and commerce, sometimes called the "Capital of the World".[354] Greater New York is the world's largest metropolitan economy, with a gross metropolitan product estimated at US$2.16 trillion in 2022.[8][9] New York is a center for worldwide banking and finance, health care, and life sciences,[355] medical technology and research, retailing, world trade, transportation, tourism, real estate, new media, traditional media, advertising, legal services, accountancy, insurance, and the arts in the United States; while Silicon Alley, metonymous for New York's broad-spectrum high technology sphere, continues to expand. The Port of New York and New Jersey is a major economic engine, benefitting post-Panamax from the expansion of the Panama Canal.[356][357][358]
Many Fortune 500 corporations are headquartered in New York City,[359] as are a large number of multinational corporations. New York City has been ranked first among cities across the globe in attracting capital, business, and tourists.[360][361] New York City's role as the top global center for the advertising industry is metonymously reflected as Madison Avenue.[362] The city's fashion industry provides approximately 180,000 employees with $11 billion in annual wages.[363]
Significant other economic sectors include universities and non-profit institutions. Manufacturing declined over the 20th century but still accounts for significant employment. The city's apparel and garment industry, historically centered on the Garment District in Manhattan, peaked in 1950, when more than 323,000 workers were employed in the industry in New York. In 2015, fewer than 23,000 New York City residents were employed in the industry, although revival efforts were underway,[364] and the American fashion industry continues to be metonymized as Seventh Avenue.[365] In 2017, the city had 205,592 employer firms, of which 22.0% were owned by women, 31.3% were minority-owned and 2.7% were owned by veterans.[4]
In 2022, the gross domestic product of New York City was US$1.053 trillion, of which $781 billion (74%) was produced by Manhattan.[8] Like other large cities, New York City has a degree of income disparity, as indicated by its Gini coefficient of 0.55 as of 2022.[366][367] In November 2023, the city had total employment of over 4.75 million of which more than a quarter were in education and health services.[368] Manhattan, which accounted for more than half of the city's jobs, had an average weekly wage of $2,590 in the second quarter of 2023, ranking fourth-highest among the nation's 360 largest counties.[369] New York City is one of the relatively few American cities levying an income tax (about 3%) on its residents;[370][371][372] despite this tax levy, New York City in 2024 was home by a significant margin to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, with a total of 110.[34]
New York City's most important economic sector lies in its role as the headquarters for the U.S. financial industry, metonymously known as Wall Street. Lower Manhattan is home to the New York Stock Exchange, at 11 Wall Street, and the Nasdaq, at 165 Broadway, representing the world's largest and second largest stock exchanges, respectively, when measured both by overall average daily trading volume and by total market capitalization of their listed companies in 2013.[373][374] In fiscal year 2013–14, Wall Street's securities industry generated 19% of New York State's tax revenue.[375]
New York City remains the largest global center for trading in public equity and debt capital markets, driven in part by the size and financial development of the U.S. economy.[376]: 31–32 [377] New York also leads in hedge fund management; private equity; and the monetary volume of mergers and acquisitions. Several investment banks and investment managers headquartered in Manhattan are important participants in other global financial centers.[376]: 34–35 New York is the principal commercial banking center of the United States.[378]
Manhattan contained over 500 million square feet (46.5 million m2) of office space in 2018,[379] making New York City the largest office market in the world,[380][381] while Midtown Manhattan, with 400 million square feet (37.2 million m2) in 2018,[379] is the largest central business district in the world.[382]
New York is a top-tier global technology hub.[12][383] Silicon Alley, once a metonym for the sphere encompassing the metropolitan region's high technology industries,[384] is no longer a relevant moniker as the city's tech environment has expanded dramatically both in location and in scope since at least 2003, when tech business appeared in more places in Manhattan and in other boroughs, and not much silicon was involved.[384][385] New York City's current tech sphere encompasses the array of applications involving universal applications of artificial intelligence (AI),[386][387] broadband internet,[388] new media, financial technology (fintech) and cryptocurrency, biotechnology, game design, and other fields within information technology that are supported by its entrepreneurship ecosystem and venture capital investments. Technology-driven startup companies and entrepreneurial employment are growing in New York City and the region. The technology sector has been claiming a greater share of New York City's economy since 2010.[389] Tech:NYC, founded in 2016, is a non-profit organization which represents New York City's technology industry with government, civic institutions, in business, and in the media, and whose primary goals are to further augment New York's substantial tech talent base and to advocate for policies that will nurture tech companies to grow in the city.[390]
New York City's AI sector raised US$483.6 million in venture capital investment in 2022.[391] In 2023, New York unveiled the first comprehensive initiative to create both a framework of rules and a chatbot to regulate the use of AI within the sphere of city government.[392]
The biotechnology sector is growing in New York City, based on the city's strength in academic scientific research and public and commercial financial support. On December 19, 2011, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced his choice of Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to build a $2 billion graduate school of applied sciences called Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island with the goal of transforming New York City into the world's premier technology capital.[393][394]
New York City real estate is a safe haven for global investors.[30] The total value of all New York City property was assessed at US$1.479 trillion for the 2017 fiscal year, an increase of 6.1% from the previous year. Of the total market value, single family homes accounted for $765 billion (51.7%); condominiums, co-ops, and apartment buildings totaled $351 billion (23.7%); and commercial properties were valued at $317 billion (21.4%).[395][396] Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commands the highest retail rents in the world, at $2,000 per square foot ($22,000/m2) in 2023.[397]
New York City has one of the highest costs of living in the world, which is exacerbated by the city's housing shortage.[398][399] In 2023, one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan rented at a median monthly price of US$4,443.[400] The median house price city-wide is over $1 million as of 2023.[401] With 33,000 units available in 2023 among the city's 2.3 million rentable apartments, the vacancy rate was 1.4%, the lowest level since 1968 and a rate that is indicative of a shortage of available units, especially among those with rents below a monthly rental of $1,650, where less than 1% of units were available.[402] Perennially high demand from younger adults has pushed median monthly one-bedroom apartment rents in New York City over US$4,000 and two-bedroom rents over $5,000, by a significant margin the highest in the U.S.[32]
Tourism is a vital industry for New York City, and NYC Tourism + Conventions represents the city's official bureau of tourism.[403] New York has witnessed a growing combined volume of international and domestic tourists, with as many as 66.6 million visitors to the city per year, including as many as 13.5 million visitors from outside the United States, with the highest numbers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, and China.[404] Multiple sources have called New York the most photographed city in the world.[405][406][407] I Love New York (stylized I ❤ NY) is both a logo and a song that are the basis of an advertising campaign and have been used since 1977 to promote tourism in New York City,[408] and later to promote New York State as well. The trademarked logo is owned by New York State Empire State Development.[409]
Many districts and monuments in New York City are major landmarks, including three of the world's ten-most-visited tourist attractions in 2023.[410] A record 66.6 million tourists visited New York City in 2019, bringing in $47.4 billion in tourism revenue. Visitor numbers dropped by two-thirds in 2020 during the pandemic, rebounding to 63.3 million in 2023.[404][411] Major landmarks in New York City include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Central Park.[412] Times Square is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District,[413] and a major center of the world's entertainment industry,[414] attracting 50 million visitors annually to one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections.[218] According to The Broadway League, shows on Broadway sold approximately US$1.54 billion worth of tickets in both the 2022–2023 and the 2023–2024 seasons. Both seasons featured theater attendance of approximately 12.3 million each.[415]
New York City has been described as the entertainment[17][416][417] and digital media capital of the world.[418] It is a center for the advertising, music, newspaper, digital media, and publishing industries and is the largest media market in North America.[419] Many of the world's largest media conglomerates are based in the city, including Warner Bros. Discovery, the Thomson Reuters Corporation, the Associated Press, Bloomberg L.P., the News Corp, The New York Times Company, NBCUniversal, the Hearst Corporation, AOL, Fox Corporation, and Paramount Global. Seven of the world's top eight global advertising agency networks have their headquarters in New York.[420]
More than 200 newspapers and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the city,[421] and the publishing industry employs about 11,500 people, with an economic impact of $9.2 billion.[422] The two national daily newspapers with the largest daily circulations in the United States are published in New York: The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times broadsheets.[423] With 132 awards through 2022, The Times has won the most Pulitzer Prizes for journalism[424] and is considered the U.S. media's newspaper of record.[425] Tabloid newspapers in the city include the New York Daily News, which was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson,[426] and the New York Post, founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton.[427][428]
As of 2019[update], New York City was the second-largest center for filmmaking and television production in the United States, producing about 200 feature films annually. The industry employed more than 100,000 people in 2019, generating $12.2 billion in wages and a total economic impact of $64.1 billion.[429] By volume, New York is the world leader in independent film production—one-third of all American independent films are produced there.[430][421]
New York is a major center for non-commercial educational media. NYC Media is the official public radio, television, and online media network and broadcasting service of New York City,[431] and has produced several original Emmy Award-winning shows covering music and culture in city neighborhoods and city government. The oldest public-access television channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, founded in 1971.[432] WNET is the city's major public television station and produces a third of national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television programming.[433] WNYC, a public radio station owned by the city until 1997,[434] has the largest public radio audience in the United States.[435]
New York City is frequently the setting for novels, movies, and television programs and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.[436][437][438][439] The city is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art;[440][441] abstract expressionism (known as the New York School) in painting; and hip-hop,[190][442] punk,[443] hardcore,[444] salsa, freestyle, Tin Pan Alley, certain forms of jazz,[445] and (along with Philadelphia) disco in music. New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world.[446][447]
One of the most common traits attributed to New York City is its fast pace,[448][449][450] which spawned the term New York minute.[451] New York City's residents are prominently known for their resilience historically, and more recently related to their management of the impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic.[452][453][454] New York was voted the world's most resilient city in 2021 and 2022, per Time Out's global poll of urban residents.[453]
The central hub of the American theater scene is Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway.[455] Many movie and television stars have gotten their big break working in New York productions.[456]
Broadway theatre is one of the premier forms of English-language theatre in the world, named after Broadway, the major thoroughfare that crosses Times Square,[457] sometimes referred to as "The Great White Way".[458][459][460]
Forty-one venues mostly in Midtown Manhattan's Theatre District, each with at least 500 seats, are classified as Broadway theatres.[461] The 2018–19 Broadway theatre season set records with total attendance of 14.8 million and gross revenue of $1.83 billion[462] Recovering from closures forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022–23 revenues rebounded to $1.58 billion with total attendance of 12.3 million.[463][464] The Tony Awards recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre and are presented at an annual ceremony in Manhattan.[465]
The New York area is home to a distinctive regional accent and speech pattern called the New York dialect, alternatively known as Brooklynese or New Yorkese. It has been considered one of the most recognizable accents within American English.[466] The traditional New York area speech pattern is known for its rapid delivery, and its accent is characterized as non-rhotic so that the sound [ɹ] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant, therefore the pronunciation of the city name as "New Yawk".[467] The classic version of the New York City dialect is centered on middle- and working-class New Yorkers. The influx of non-European immigrants in recent decades has led to changes in this distinctive dialect,[467] and the traditional form of this speech pattern is no longer as prevalent.[467]
New York has architecturally noteworthy buildings in a wide range of styles and from distinct time periods, from the Dutch Colonial Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, the oldest section of which dates to 1656, to the modern One World Trade Center, the skyscraper at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and the most expensive office tower in the world by construction cost.[468]
Manhattan's skyline, with its many skyscrapers, has been recognized as an iconic symbol of the city,[469][470][471] and the city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. As of 2019[update], New York City had 6,455 high-rise buildings, the third most in the world after Hong Kong and Seoul.[472]
The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses and townhouses and shabby tenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930.[473] Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.[474]
In contrast, New York City also has neighborhoods that are less densely populated and feature free-standing dwellings. In neighborhoods such as Riverdale (in the Bronx), Ditmas Park (in Brooklyn), and Douglaston (in Queens), large single-family homes are common in various architectural styles such as Tudor Revival and Victorian.[475][476][477]
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, anchoring Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is home to numerous influential arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet, as well as the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall. The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute is in Union Square, and Tisch School of the Arts is based at New York University, while Central Park SummerStage presents free music concerts in Central Park.[478]
New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries.[479] The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.[479] The city is also home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites. Museum Mile is the name for a section of Fifth Avenue running from 82nd to 105th streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,[480] in the upper portion of Carnegie Hill.[481]
Nine museums occupy the length of this section of Fifth Avenue, making it one of the densest displays of high culture in the world.[482] Its art museums include the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neue Galerie New York, and The Africa Center. In addition to other programming, the museums collaborate for the annual Museum Mile Festival, held each year in June, to promote the museums and increase visitation.[483] Many of the world's most lucrative art auctions are held in New York City.[484][485]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the Americas. In 2022, it welcomed 3.2 million visitors, ranking it the third-most visited U.S. museum, and eighth on the list of most-visited art museums in the world.[486] Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments,[487] and includes works of art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt; paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters; and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, and Islamic art.[488]
New York City's food culture includes an array of international cuisines influenced by the city's long immigrant history. Central and Eastern European immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants from those regions, brought New York-style bagels, cheesecake, hot dogs, knishes, and delicatessens (delis) to the city. Italian immigrants brought New York-style pizza and Italian cuisine into the city, while Jewish immigrants and Irish immigrants brought pastrami[489] and corned beef,[490] respectively. Chinese and other Asian restaurants, sandwich joints, trattorias, diners, and coffeehouses are ubiquitous throughout the city. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafel and kebabs[491] examples of modern New York street food. The city is home to "nearly one thousand of the finest and most diverse haute cuisine restaurants in the world", according to Michelin.[492] The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene assigns letter grades to the city's restaurants based on inspection results.[493] As of 2019, there were 27,043 restaurants in the city, up from 24,865 in 2017.[494] The Queens Night Market in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park attracts more than ten thousand people nightly to sample food from more than 85 countries.[286]
New York City is a global fashion capital, and the fashion industry employs 4.6% of the city's private workforce.[495] New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is a high-profile semiannual event featuring models displaying the latest wardrobes created by prominent fashion designers worldwide in advance of these fashions proceeding to the retail marketplace.[496]
NYFW sets the tone for the global fashion industry.[497] New York's fashion district encompasses roughly 30 city blocks in Midtown Manhattan,[498] clustered around a stretch of Seventh Avenue nicknamed Fashion Avenue.[499] New York's fashion calendar also includes Couture Fashion Week to showcase haute couture styles.[500] The Met Gala is often described as "Fashion's biggest night".[501]
New York City is well known for its street parades, the majority held in Manhattan. The primary orientation of the annual street parades is typically from north to south, marching along major avenues. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the world's largest parade,[502] beginning alongside Central Park and proceeding southward to the flagship Macy's Herald Square store;[503] the parade is viewed on telecasts worldwide and draws millions of spectators in person.[502] Other notable parades including the annual New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade in March, the NYC LGBT Pride March in June, the LGBT-inspired Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in October, and numerous parades commemorating the independence days of many nations. Ticker-tape parades celebrating championships won by sports teams as well as other accomplishments march northward along the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway from Bowling Green to City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan.
New York City is home to the headquarters of the National Football League,[504] Major League Baseball,[505] the National Basketball Association,[506] the National Hockey League,[507] and Major League Soccer.[508]
New York City hosted the 1984 Summer Paralympics[509] and the 1998 Goodwill Games.[510] New York City's bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics was one of five finalists, but lost out to London.[511]
The city has played host to more than 40 major professional teams in the five sports and their respective competing leagues. Four of the ten most expensive stadiums ever built worldwide (MetLife Stadium, the new Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Citi Field) are in the New York metropolitan area.[512]
The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Giants and the New York Jets, although both teams play their home games at MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford, New Jersey,[513] which hosted Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.[514]
The city's two Major League Baseball teams are the New York Mets, who play at 41,800-seat Citi Field in Queens and the New York Yankees, who play at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, which has 47,400 seats.[515] The two rivals compete in four games of interleague play every regular season that has come to be called the Subway Series.[516] The Yankees have won an MLB-record 27 championships,[517] while the Mets have won the World Series twice.[518] The city was once home to the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers), who won the World Series once,[519] and the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants), who won the World Series five times. Both teams moved to California in 1958.[520] There is one Minor League Baseball team in the city, the Mets-affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones,[521] and the city gained a club in the independent Atlantic League when the Staten Island FerryHawks began play in 2022.[522]
The city's National Basketball Association teams are the New York Knicks, who play at Madison Square Garden, and the Brooklyn Nets, who play at the Barclays Center. The New York Liberty is the city's Women's National Basketball Association team. The first national college-level basketball championship, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city.[523]
The metropolitan area is home to three National Hockey League teams. The New York Rangers, one of the league's Original Six, play at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. The New York Islanders, traditionally representing Long Island, play in UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, but played in Brooklyn's Barclays Center from 2015 to 2020. The New Jersey Devils play at Prudential Center in nearby Newark, New Jersey.
In soccer, New York City is represented by New York City FC of Major League Soccer, who play their home games at Yankee Stadium[524] and the New York Red Bulls, who play their home games at Sports Illustrated Stadium in nearby Harrison, New Jersey.[525] NJ/NY Gotham FC plays their home games in Sports Illustrated Arena, representing the metropolitan area in the National Women's Soccer League. Brooklyn FC is a professional soccer club based in that borough, fielding a women's team in the first-division USL Super League starting in 2024 and a men's team in the second-division USL Championship in 2025.[526] New York was a host city for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, with matches being played at Giants Stadium in neighboring East Rutherford, New Jersey.[527] New York City will be one of eleven U.S. host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the final set to be played at MetLife Stadium, which will be called "New York New Jersey Stadium" during the tournament.[528][529]
The annual United States Open Tennis Championships is one of the world's four Grand Slam tennis tournaments and is held at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens.[530] The New York City Marathon, which courses through all five boroughs, is the world's largest running marathon, with 51,402 finishers in 2023, who came from all 50 states and 148 nations.[531] The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet held at the Fort Washington Avenue Armory, whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile.[532] Boxing is a prominent part of the city's sporting scene, with events like the New York Golden Gloves held at Madison Square Garden each year.[533]
Mass transit in New York City, most of which runs 24 hours a day, accounts for one in every three users of mass transit in the United States, and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in the New York City metropolitan area.[536][537]
New York City's public bus fleet runs 24/7 and is the largest in North America.[538] The New York City bus system serves the most passengers of any city in the nation: In 2022, MTA New York City Transit's buses served 483.5 million trips, while MTA Regional Bus Operations handled 100.3 million trips.[539]
The Port Authority Bus Terminal is the city's main intercity bus terminal and the world's busiest bus station, serving 250,000 passengers on 7,000 buses each workday in a building opened in 1950 that was designed to accommodate 60,000 daily passengers. A 2021 plan announced by the Port Authority would spend $10 billion to expand capacity and modernize the facility.[535][540][534] In 2024, the Port Authority announced plans for a new terminal that would feature a glass atrium at a new main entrance on 41st Street.[541][542]
The New York City Subway system is the largest rapid transit system in the world when measured by stations in operation, with 472, and by length of routes. Nearly all of New York's subway system is open 24 hours a day, in contrast to the overnight shutdown common to subway systems in most cities.[543] The New York City Subway is the busiest metropolitan rail transit system in the Western Hemisphere,[544] with 1.70 billion passenger rides in 2019.[545]
Public transport is widely used in New York City. 54.6% of New Yorkers commuted to work in 2005 using mass transit.[546] This is in contrast to the rest of the United States, where 91% of commuters travel in automobiles to their workplace.[547] According to the New York City Comptroller, workers in the New York City area spend an average of 6 hours and 18 minutes getting to work each week, the longest commute time in the nation among large cities.[548] New York is the only U.S. city in which a majority (52%) of households do not have a car; only 22% of Manhattanites own a car.[549] Due to their high usage of mass transit, New Yorkers spend less of their household income on transportation than the national average, saving $19 billion annually on transportation compared to other urban Americans.[550]
New York City's commuter rail network is the largest in North America.[536] The rail network, connecting New York City to its suburbs, consists of the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and New Jersey Transit. The combined systems converge at Grand Central Terminal and New York Penn Station and contain more than 250 stations and 20 rail lines.[536] The elevated AirTrain JFK in Queens connects JFK International Airport to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road.[551] For inter-city rail, New York City is served by Amtrak, whose busiest station by a significant margin is Penn Station on the West Side of Manhattan, from which Amtrak provides connections to Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. along the Northeast Corridor, and long-distance train service to other North American cities.[552]
The Staten Island Railway rapid transit system solely serves Staten Island, operating 24 hours a day, with access to Manhattan from the St. George Terminal via the Staten Island Ferry.[553] The PATH train links Midtown and Lower Manhattan with Hoboken Terminal and Newark Penn Station in New Jersey, and then those stations with the World Trade Center Oculus across the Hudson River.[554] Like the New York City Subway, the PATH operates 24 hours a day, meaning three of the five rapid transit systems in the United States which operate on 24-hour schedules are wholly or partly in New York.[555] Grand Central Terminal is the world's largest train station by number of rail platforms and by number of acres occupied.[556]
Multibillion-dollar heavy rail transit projects under construction in New York City include the Second Avenue Subway.[557]
New York's airspace is the busiest in the United States and one of the world's busiest air transportation corridors. The three busiest airports in the New York metropolitan area are John F. Kennedy International Airport (with 55.3 million passengers), Newark Liberty International Airport (43.6 million) and LaGuardia Airport (29.0 million); 127.9 million travelers used these three airports in 2022.[558] JFK and Newark Liberty were the busiest and fourth-busiest U.S. gateways for international air passengers, respectively, in 2023.[559] As of 2011[update], JFK was the busiest airport for international passengers in North America.[560]
Described in 2014 by then-Vice President Joe Biden as the kind of airport a travelers would see in "some third world country", LaGuardia Airport has undergone an $8 billion project with federal and state support that has replaced its aging facilities with modern terminals and roadways.[561][562][563][564] Plans have advanced to expand passenger volume at a fourth airport, Stewart International Airport, near Newburgh, New York, by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.[565] Other commercial airports in or serving the New York metropolitan area include Long Island MacArthur Airport, Trenton–Mercer Airport and Westchester County Airport. The primary general aviation airport serving the area is Teterboro Airport.
New York - Geographical Location
International relations
In 2006, the sister city program[606] was restructured and renamed New York City Global Partners. New York's historic sister cities are denoted below by the year they joined New York City's partnership network.[607]
Core cities are metropolitan core cities of at least a million people. The other areas are urban areas of cities that have an urban area of 150,000+ or of a metropolitan area of at least 250,000+. Satellite cities are in italics.
Colleges and universities
Founded by Millard Fillmore, the University at Buffalo (UB) is one of the State University of New York's two flagship universities and the state's largest public university. A Research I university,[268] over 32,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students attend its thirteen schools and colleges.[269][270] Two of UB's three campuses (the South and Downtown Campuses) are in the city, but most university functions take place at the large North Campus in Amherst.[271] In 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked UB the 34th-best public university and 88th in national universities.[272] Buffalo State College, founded as a normal school, is one of SUNY's thirteen comprehensive colleges.[273] The city's four-year private institutions include Canisius University, D'Youville University, Medaille University, Trocaire College, and Villa Maria College. SUNY Erie, the county's two-year public higher-education institution, and the for-profit Bryant & Stratton College have small downtown campuses.[274]
Established in 1835, Buffalo's main library is the Central Library of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library system. Rebuilt in 1964, it contains an auditorium, the original manuscript of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (donated by Mark Twain), and a collection of about two million books.[275] Its Grosvenor Room maintains a special-collections listing of nearly five hundred thousand resources for researchers.[276] A pocket park funded by Southwest Airlines opened in 2020, and brought landscaping improvements and seating to Lafayette Square.[277] The system's free library cards are valid at the city's eight branch libraries and at member libraries throughout Erie County.[278]
Nine hospitals are operated in the city: Oishei Children's Hospital and Buffalo General Medical Center by Kaleida Health, Mercy Hospital and Sisters of Charity Hospital (Catholic Health), Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the county-run Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), Buffalo VA Medical Center, BryLin (Psychiatric) Hospital and the state-operated Buffalo Psychiatric Center.[279] John R. Oishei Children's Hospital, built in 2017, is adjacent to Buffalo General Medical Center on the 120-acre (49 ha) Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus north of downtown;[280] its Gates Vascular Institute specializes in acute stroke recovery.[281] The medical campus includes the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, ranked the 14th-best cancer-treatment center in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.[282]
Growth and changing transportation needs altered Buffalo's grid plan, which was developed by Joseph Ellicott in 1804. His plan laid out streets like the spokes of a wheel, naming them after Dutch landowners and Native American tribes.[283] City streets expanded outward, denser in the west and spreading out east of Main Street.[284] Buffalo is a port of entry with Canada; the Peace Bridge crosses the Niagara River and links the Niagara Thruway (I-190) and Queen Elizabeth Way.[285] I-190, NY 5 and NY 33 are the primary expressways serving the city, carrying a total of over 245,000 vehicles daily.[j][286] NY 5 carries traffic to the Southtowns, and NY 33 carries traffic to the eastern suburbs and the Buffalo Airport.[287] The east-west Scajacquada Expressway (NY 198) bisects Delaware Park, connecting I-190 with the Kensington Expressway (NY 33) on the city's East Side to form a partial beltway around the city center.[288] The Scajacquada and Kensington Expressways and the Buffalo Skyway (NY 5) have been targeted for redesign or removal.[289] Other major highways include US 62 on the city's East Side;[290] NY 354 and a portion of NY 130, both east–west routes;[291] and NY 265, NY 266 and NY 384, all north–south routes on the city's West Side.[292] Buffalo has a higher-than-average percentage of households without a car: 30 percent in 2015, decreasing to 28.2 percent in 2016; the 2016 national average was 8.7 percent. Buffalo averaged 1.03 cars per household in 2016, compared to the national average of 1.8.[293]
The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) operates the region's public transit, including its airport, light-rail system, buses, and harbors. The NFTA operates 323 buses on 61 lines throughout Western New York.[294] Buffalo Metro Rail is a 6.4 mi-long (10.3 km) line which runs from Canalside to the University Heights district. The line's downtown section, south of the Fountain Plaza station, runs at grade and is free of charge.[295] The Buffalo area ranks twenty-third nationwide in transit ridership, with thirty trips per capita per year.[296] Expansions have been proposed since Buffalo Metro Rail's inception in the 1980s, with the latest plan (in the late 2010s) reaching the town of Amherst.[297] Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga has daily scheduled flights by domestic, charter and regional carriers.[298] The airport handled nearly five million passengers in 2019.[299] It received a J.D. Power award in 2018 for customer satisfaction at a mid-sized airport,[300] and underwent a $50 million expansion in 2020–21.[301] The airport, light rail, small-boat harbor and buses are monitored by the NFTA's transit police.[302]
Buffalo has an Amtrak intercity train station, Buffalo–Exchange Street station, which was rebuilt in 2020.[303] The city's eastern suburbs are served by Amtrak's Buffalo–Depew station in Depew, which was built in 1979. Buffalo was a major stop on through routes between Chicago and New York City through the lower Ontario Peninsula; trains stopped at Buffalo Central Terminal, which operated from 1929 to 1979.[304] Intercity buses depart and arrive from the NFTA's Metropolitan Transportation Center on Ellicott Street.[305]
Since Buffalo adopted a complete streets policy in 2008, efforts have been made to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians into new infrastructure projects. Improved corridors have bike lanes,[306] and Niagara Street received separate bike lanes in 2020.[307] Walk Score gave Buffalo a "somewhat walkable" rating of 68 out of 100, with Allentown and downtown considered more walkable than other areas of the city.[308]
Buffalo's water system is operated by Veolia Water, and water treatment begins at the Colonel Francis G. Ward Pumping Station.[309] When it opened in 1915, the station's capacity was second only to Paris.[310] Wastewater is treated by the Buffalo Sewer Authority, its coverage extending to the eastern suburbs.[311] National Grid and New York State Electric & Gas (NYSEG) provide electricity, and National Fuel Gas provides natural gas.[312] The city's primary telecommunications provider is Spectrum;[312] Verizon Fios serves the North Park neighborhood. A 2018 report by Ookla noted that Buffalo was one of the bottom five U.S. cities in average download speeds at 66 megabits per second.[313]
The city's Department of Public Works manages Buffalo's snow and trash removal and street cleaning.[314] Snow removal generally operates from November 15 to April 1. A snow emergency is declared by the National Weather Service after a snowstorm, and the city's roads, major sidewalks and bridges are cleared by over seventy snowplows within 24 hours.[315] Rock salt is the principal agent for preventing snow accumulation and melting ice. Snow removal may coincide with driving bans and parking restrictions.[316][317] The area along the Outer Harbor is the most dangerous driving area during a snowstorm;[315] when weather conditions dictate, the Buffalo Skyway is closed by the city's police department.[318]
To prevent ice jams which may impact hydroelectric plants in Niagara Falls, the New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation began installing an ice boom annually in 1964. The boom's installation date is temperature-dependent,[319] and it is removed on April 1 unless there is more than 650 km2 (250 sq mi) of ice remaining on eastern Lake Erie.[320] It stretches 2,680 m (8,790 ft) from the outer breakwall at the Buffalo Outer Harbor to the Canadian shore near Fort Erie.[321] Originally made of wood, the boom now consists of steel pontoons.[322]
Buffalo has eighteen sister cities:[323]
Articles relating to Buffalo, New York
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Steel, challenges, and the modern era
At the start of the 20th century, Buffalo was the world's leading grain port and a national flour-milling hub.[49] Local mills were among the first to benefit from hydroelectricity generated by the Niagara River. Buffalo hosted the 1901 Pan-American Exposition after the Spanish–American War, showcasing the nation's advances in art, architecture, and electricity. Its centerpiece was the Electric Tower, with over two million light bulbs, but some exhibits were jingoistic and racially charged.[50][51][52] At the exposition, President William McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.[53] When McKinley died, Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in at the Wilcox Mansion in Buffalo.[54]
Attorney John Milburn and local industrialists convinced the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company to relocate from Scranton, Pennsylvania to the town of West Seneca in 1904. Employment was competitive, with many Eastern Europeans and Scrantonians vying for jobs.[47] From the late 19th century to the 1920s, mergers and acquisitions led to distant ownership of local companies; this had a negative effect on the city's economy.[55][56] Examples include the acquisition of Lackawanna Steel by Bethlehem Steel and, later, the relocation of Curtiss-Wright in the 1940s.[57] The Great Depression saw severe unemployment, especially among the working class. New Deal relief programs operated in full force, and the city became a stronghold of labor unions and the Democratic Party.[58]
During World War II, Buffalo regained its manufacturing strength as military contracts enabled the city to manufacture steel, chemicals, aircraft, trucks and ammunition.[57] The 15th-most-populous US city in 1950, Buffalo's economy relied almost entirely on manufacturing; eighty percent of area jobs were in the sector.[57] The city also had over a dozen railway terminals, as railroads remained a significant industry.[56]
The St. Lawrence Seaway was proposed in the 19th century as a faster shipping route to Europe, and later as part of a bi-national hydroelectric project with Canada.[57] Its combination with an expanded Welland Canal led to a grim outlook for Buffalo's economy. After its 1959 opening, the city's port and barge canal became largely irrelevant. Shipbuilding in Buffalo wound down in the 1960s due to reduced waterfront activity, ending an industry which had been part of the city's economy since 1812.[59] Downsizing of the steel mills was attributed to the threat of higher wages and unionization efforts.[57] Racial tensions culminated in riots in 1967.[57] Suburbanization led to the selection of the town of Amherst for the new University at Buffalo campus by 1970.[57] Unwilling to modernize its plant, Bethlehem Steel began cutting thousands of jobs in Lackawanna during the mid-1970s before closing it in 1983.[55] The region lost at least 70,000 jobs between 1970 and 1984.[55] Like much of the Rust Belt, Buffalo has focused on recovering from the effects of late-20th-century deindustrialization.[60]
Panorama of downtown Buffalo and its waterfront in 1880
Buffalo is on the eastern end of Lake Erie opposite Fort Erie, Ontario. It is at the head of the Niagara River, which flows north over Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario.
The Buffalo metropolitan area is on the Erie/Ontario Lake Plain of the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands, a narrow plain extending east to Utica, New York.[61][62] The city is generally flat, except for elevation changes in the University Heights and Fruit Belt neighborhoods.[63] The Southtowns are hillier, leading to the Cattaraugus Hills in the Appalachian Upland.[61][62] Several types of shale, limestone and lagerstätten are prevalent in Buffalo and its surrounding area, lining their stream beds.[64]
According to Fox Weather, Buffalo is one of the top five snowiest large cities in the country, receiving, on average, 95 inches of snow annually.
Although the city has not experienced any recent or significant earthquakes, Buffalo is in the Southern Great Lakes Seismic Zone (part of the Great Lakes tectonic zone).[65][66] Buffalo has four channels within its boundaries: the Niagara River, Buffalo River (and Creek), Scajaquada Creek, and the Black Rock Canal, adjacent to the Niagara River.[67] The city's Bureau of Forestry maintains a database of over seventy thousand trees.[68]
According to the United States Census Bureau, Buffalo has an area of 52.5 sq mi (136 km2); 40.38 sq mi (104.6 km2) is land, and the rest is water.[69] The city's total area is 22.66 percent water. In 2010, its population density was 6,470.6 per square mile.[69]
Buffalo's architecture is diverse, with a collection of 19th- and 20th-century buildings.[70] Downtown Buffalo landmarks include Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building, an early skyscraper;[71][72] the Ellicott Square Building, once one of the largest of its kind in the world;[73] the Art Deco Buffalo City Hall and the McKinley Monument, and the Electric Tower. Beyond downtown, the Buffalo Central Terminal was built in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood in 1929; the Richardson Olmsted Complex, built in 1881, was an insane asylum[74] until its closure in the 1970s.[75] Urban renewal from the 1950s to the 1970s spawned the Brutalist-style Buffalo City Court Building and Seneca One Tower, the city's tallest building.[76] In the city's Parkside neighborhood, the Darwin D. Martin House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in his Prairie School style.[77] Since 2016, Washington DC real estate developer Douglas Jemal has been acquiring, and redeveloping, iconic properties throughout the city.[78]
Skyline of Buffalo, looking east from Lake Erie
According to Mark Goldman, the city has a "tradition of separate and independent settlements".[79] The boundaries of Buffalo's neighborhoods have changed over time. The city is divided into five districts, each containing several neighborhoods, for a total of thirty-five neighborhoods.[80] Main Street divides Buffalo's east and west sides, and the west side was fully developed earlier.[79] This division is seen in architectural styles, street names, neighborhood and district boundaries, demographics, and socioeconomic conditions; Buffalo's West Side is generally more affluent than its East Side.[81][82]
Several neighborhoods in Buffalo have had increased investment since the 1990s, beginning with the Elmwood Village.[83] The 2002 redevelopment of the Larkin Terminal Warehouse led to the creation of Larkinville, home to several mixed-use projects and anchored by corporate offices.[84] Downtown Buffalo and its central business district (CBD) had a 10.6-percent increase in residents from 2010 to 2017, as over 1,061 housing units became available;[85] the Seneca One Tower was redeveloped in 2020.[86] Other revitalized areas include Chandler Street, in the Grant-Amherst neighborhood, and Hertel Avenue in Parkside.[83][87]
The Buffalo Common Council adopted its Green Code in 2017, replacing zoning regulations which were over sixty years old. Its emphasis on regulations promoting pedestrian safety and mixed land use received an award at the 2019 Congress for the New Urbanism conference.[88]
Buffalo has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa),[89][90] and temperatures have been warming with the rest of the US.[91] Lake-effect snow is characteristic of Buffalo winters, with snow bands (producing intense snowfall in the city and surrounding area) depending on wind direction off Lake Erie.[92] However, Buffalo is rarely the snowiest city in the state.[93][94] The Blizzard of 1977 resulted from a combination of high winds and snow which accumulated on land and on the frozen Lake Erie.[95] Although snow does not typically impair the city's operation, it can cause significant damage in autumn (as the October 2006 storm did).[96] In November 2014 (called "Snowvember"), the region had a record-breaking storm which produced over 5+1⁄2 ft (66 in; 170 cm) of snow.[97] Buffalo's lowest recorded temperature was −20 °F (−29 °C), which occurred twice: on February 9, 1934, and February 2, 1961.[98]
Although the city's summers are drier and sunnier than other cities in the northeastern United States, its vegetation receives enough precipitation to remain hydrated.[90] Buffalo summers are characterized by abundant sunshine, with moderate humidity and temperatures;[90] the city benefits from cool, southwestern Lake Erie summer breezes which temper warmer temperatures.[90][62] Temperatures rise above 90 °F (32.2 °C) an average of three times a year.[90] No official recording of 100 °F (37.8 °C) or more has occurred to date, with a maximum temperature of 99 °F (37 °C) reached on August 27, 1948.[98] Rainfall is moderate, typically falling at night, and cooler lake temperatures hinder storm development in July.[90][99] August is usually rainier and muggier, as the warmer lake loses its temperature-controlling ability.[90]
Several hundred Seneca, Tuscarora and other Iroquois tribal peoples were the primary residents of the Buffalo area before 1800, concentrated along Buffalo Creek.[107] After the Revolutionary War, settlers from New England and eastern New York began to move into the area.
From the 1830s to the 1850s, they were joined by Irish and German immigrants from Europe, both peasants and working class, who settled in enclaves on the city's south and east sides.[41] At the turn of the 20th century, Polish immigrants replaced Germans on the East Side, who moved to newer housing; Italian immigrant families settled throughout the city, primarily on the lower West Side.[79]
During the 1830s, Buffalo residents were generally intolerant of the small groups of Black Americans who began settling on the city's East Side.[41][g] In the 20th century, wartime and manufacturing jobs attracted Black Americans from the South during the First and Second Great Migrations. In the World War II and postwar years from 1940 to 1970, the city's Black population rose by 433 percent. They replaced most of the Polish community on the East Side, who were moving out to suburbs.[108][109] However, the effects of redlining, steering,[110] social inequality, blockbusting, white flight[110] and other racial policies resulted in the city (and region) becoming one of the most segregated in the U.S.[109][111][112]
During the 1940s and 1950s, Puerto Rican migrants arrived en masse, also seeking industrial jobs, settling on the East Side and moving westward.[113] In the 21st century, Buffalo is classified as a majority minority city, with a plurality of residents who are Black and Latino.
Buffalo has experienced effects of urban decay since the 1970s, and also saw population loss to the suburbs and Sun Belt states, and experienced job losses from deindustrialization.[114] The city's population peaked at 580,132 in 1950, when Buffalo was the 15th-largest city in the United States – down from the eighth-largest city in 1900, after its growth rate slowed during the 1920s.[49] Buffalo finally saw a population gain of 6.5% in the 2020 census, reversing a decades long trend of population decline. The city has 278,349 residents as of the 2020 census, making it the 76th-largest city in the United States.[10] Its metropolitan area had 1.1 million residents in 2020, the country's 49th-largest.[6]
Compared to other major US metropolitan areas, the number of foreign-born immigrants to Buffalo is low. New immigrants are primarily resettled refugees (especially from war- or disaster-affected nations) and refugees who had previously settled in other U.S. cities.[115] During the early 2000s, most immigrants came from Canada and Yemen; this shifted in the 2010s to Burmese (Karen) refugees and Bangladeshi immigrants.[115] Between 2008 and 2016, Burmese, Somali, Bhutanese, and Iraqi Americans were the four largest ethnic immigrant groups in Erie County.[115]
A 2008 report noted that although food deserts were seen in larger cities and not in Buffalo, the city's neighborhoods of color have access only to smaller grocery stores and lack the supermarkets more typical of newer, white neighborhoods.[116] A 2018 report noted that over fifty city blocks on Buffalo's East Side lacked adequate access to a supermarket.[109]
Health disparities exist compared to the rest of the state: Erie County's average 2019 lifespan was three years lower (78.4 years); its 17-percent smoking and 30-percent obesity rates were slightly higher than the state average.[117] According to the Partnership for the Public Good, educational achievement in the city is lower than in the surrounding area; city residents are almost twice as likely as adults in the metropolitan area to lack a high-school diploma.[118]
During the early 19th century, Presbyterian missionaries tried to convert the Seneca people on the Buffalo Creek Reservation to Christianity. Initially resistant, some tribal members set aside their traditions and practices to form their own sect.[119][107] Later, European immigrants added other faiths. Christianity is the predominant religion in Buffalo and Western New York. Catholicism (primarily the Latin Church) has a significant presence in the region, with 161 parishes and over 570,000 adherents in the Diocese of Buffalo.[120] Major Protestant denominations in the area include Lutheran, Baptist, and Methodist. Pentecostals are also significant, and approximately 20,000 persons are non-denominational adherents.[needs update][121]
A Jewish community began developing in the city with immigrants from the mid-1800s; about one thousand German and Lithuanian Jews settled in Buffalo before 1880. Buffalo's first synagogue, Temple Beth El, was established in 1847.[122] The city's Temple Beth Zion is the region's largest synagogue.[123]
With changing demographics and an increased number of refugees from other areas on the city's East Side,[124] Islam and Buddhism have expanded their presence. In this area, new residents have converted empty churches into mosques and Buddhist temples.[125] Hinduism maintains a small, active presence in the area, including the town of Amherst.[126]
A 2016 American Bible Society survey reported that Buffalo is the fifth-least "Bible-minded" city in the United States; 13 percent of its residents associate with the Bible.[127]
The Erie Canal was the impetus for Buffalo's economic growth as a transshipment hub for grain and other agricultural products headed east from the Midwest. Later, manufacturing of steel and automotive parts became central to the city's economy.[129] When these industries downsized in the region, Buffalo's economy became service-based. Its primary sectors include health care, business services (banking, accounting, and insurance), retail, tourism and logistics, especially with Canada.[129] Despite the loss of large-scale manufacturing, some manufacturing of metals, chemicals, machinery, food products, and electronics remains in the region.[130] Advanced manufacturing has increased, with an emphasis on research and development (R&D) and automation.[130] In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis valued the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls MSA at $53 billion (~$62.3 billion in 2023).[131]
The civic sector is a major source of employment in the Buffalo area, and includes public, non-profit, healthcare and educational institutions.[132] New York State, with over 19,000 employees, is the region's largest employer.[133] In the private sector, top employers include the Kaleida Health and Catholic Health hospital networks and M&T Bank, the sole Fortune 500 company headquartered in the city.[134] Most have been the top employers in the region for several decades.[135] Buffalo is home to the headquarters of Rich Products, Delaware North and New Era Cap Company; the aerospace manufacturer Moog Inc. and toy maker Fisher-Price are based in nearby East Aurora. National Fuel Gas and Life Storage are headquartered in Williamsville, New York.
Buffalo weathered the Great Recession of 2006–09 well in comparison with other U.S. cities, exemplified by increased home prices during this time.[136] The region's economy began to improve in the early 2010s, adding over 25,000 jobs from 2009 to 2017.[130] With state aid, Tesla, Inc.'s Giga New York plant opened in South Buffalo in 2017.[137] The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, however, increased the local unemployment rate to 7.5 percent by December 2020.[138] The local unemployment rate had been 4.2 percent in 2019,[139] higher than the national average of 3.5 percent.[140]
