New York

E-REFERAT

SCHULE: HBLA Ausbildungsschwerpunkt Kulturtouristik

SSCHULSTUFE: 2. Klasse

NEW YORK

Symbolically, if not geographically, New York City is the center of the US. It is the single place that most encompasses all the shades of the American experience. N.Y. is situated where New York Bay and the Hudson, Harlem, and East extends via the Erie Canal at Albany to the Great Lakes.

The city is divided into five districts called boroughs. Each of these boroughs was a separate county until 1898, when the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens were incorporated with Manhattan to form N.Y. City. Manhattan with its skyline stands out in the minds of New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers. The city is by far the largest in the US.

CITYSCAPE

At every level N.Y. teems with activity. On 9.700 kilometers of city streets, more than 11.000 taxicabs circulate. There are more than 22 world´s tallest buildings. World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building.

Manhatten is the famoust borough. It is an island encompassing within its 4- by 20 kilometer bounds manufacturing plants and warehouses, corporate headquarters, boutiques and major stores, some of the most prestigious addresses in the US. There are also art galleries, major universities, cultural institutions and international organizations (the best known being the United Nations). Manhattan is also divided into very different kinds of "ghettos" or districts. Lower Manhattan is now the home of the financial district. The famoust street there is called Wallstreet. In Midtown are the theater´s and Fifth Ave. There are also elegant boutiques, stately hotels, the monumental N.Y Public Library, Rockefeller Center. In winter there is a outdoor skating rink. A quarter of a million people pass through the center each day. At the northern edge of Midtown´s commercial streets begins Central park - larger than the country of Monaco. North of Central park the landscape of Manhattan changes dramatically. On the eat side above 96^th is East, or Spanish, Harlem. North of Canal Street are Soho, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side. Little Italy, just east of Soho, is well known for small apartment buildings, restaurants and cafes.

The Lower East Side is renowned as a haven for Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In the years before World War I, some 500 synagogues and religious schools were built in the area from Little Italy to the East River.

PEOPLE

The first stop for immigrants to the US was at Ellis Island, not far from the statue´s island pedestal. 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island druing ist yeasrs of operation from 1898 to 1954. NY has the largest Jewish community in teh world. The Jewish population of NY and its surroundings constitutes about a third of the US Jewish population, and it surpasses by half that of Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem combined. NY also has been ranked at various ti8mes as the world´s largest Italian city outside Italy, the largest Irish city, and the second largest Greek city.

By 1980 NYC had become 25 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic.

New York has the lowest rate of owner-occupied housing in the US and the second lowest in the world.

15 percent of all families live below the poverty level- the highest such percentage in the US

ECONOMY

New York is headquarters from five of the six largest US banks. Also in New York are the countries two major stock exchanges,. New York has as many as 20.000 establishments (14.000 in Manhattan alone) that employ 220.000 people and handle sales of nearly 120 billion dollars a year.

CULTURE, EDUCATION AND RECREATION

New Yorkers make it a point to have the best selection of films, concerts, plays, exhibits, lectures and sports events. On Broadway are more than 20 playhouses and generally offers shows that appeals to a narrower audience. NY is also the home of the American literary establishment , the place where such writers as Washington Irving, Walt Whitman, John dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, among many others came and made names for themselves. The city is also the home of two of the US celebrated daily newspapers. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal

There are more than 90 institutions of higher education. Among the most prominent are Columbia University in Upper Manhattan, New York University in Greenwich village, .. and many others.

New has professional sports teams in virtually every league, including the football Giants and Jets, the basketball Knicks, the baseball Mets and Yankees, and the ice hockey Rangers . The city also hosts the annual United States Open tennis championship in Flushing Meadow in Queens and other sports in Madison Square Garden. New York´s parks provide facilities for tennis, squash, basketball, and ice skating. The parks and playground number about 1.200.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Each borough has an independent government headed by a president. Many services are provided through these local governments. Above the boroughs are the full city council, which passes all municipal legislation, and the Board of Estimate, which approves the city´s annual budget.

SIGHTS

Statue of Liberty

The giant statue titled "Liberty Enlightening the World" has become a symbol of freedom to oppressed people everywhere. It stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The statue was a gift from the people of France tot the people of the US commemorating the alliance of the two nations during the American Revolution.

Chrisler Building

It was built in 1930. For the normal people itts only possible to go into the lobby.

Empire State Building

It´s one of the most popular buildings after the pyramids. It´s possible to go to the 86^th floor or the 102^nd. It costs for adults about 6 dollars.

ARRIVAL

New York has 3 airports

JFK International Airport

La Guardia Airoport

Newark International Airport

To go from JFK to the City (Manhattan-Midtown) costs about 30 dollars. 

WHERE TO GO FOR LUNCH OR DINNER?

There are many different kinds of coffee shops, fast food restaurants, bars,