New York

1 Location and Size

2 Topography

3 Climate

4 Plants and Animals

5 Environmental Protection

6 Population

7 Ethnic Groups

8 Languages

9 Religions

10 Transportation

11 History

12 State Government

13 Political Parties

14 Local Government

15 Judicial System

16 Migration

17 Economy

18 Income

19 Industry

20 Labor

21 Agriculture

22 Domesticated Animals

23 Fishing

24 Forestry

25 Mining

26 Energy and Power

27 Commerce

28 Public Finance

29 Taxation

30 Health

31 Housing

32 Education

33 Arts

34 Libraries and Museums

35 Communications

36 Press

37 Tourism, Travel & Recreation

38 Sports

39 Famous New Yorkers

40 Bibliography

State of New York

ORIGIN OF STATE NAME: Named for the Duke of York (later King James II) in 1664.

NICKNAME : The Empire State.

CAPITAL: Albany.

ENTERED UNION: 26 July 1788 (11th).

OFFICIAL SEAL: The coat of arms surrounded by the words “The Great Seal of the State of New York.”

FLAG: Dark blue with the coat of arms in the center.

COAT OF ARMS: Liberty and Justice stand on either side of a shield showing a mountain sunrise. Above the shield is an eagle on a globe. In the foreground are a three-masted ship and a Hudson River sloop, both representing commerce. Liberty’s left foot has kicked aside a royal crown. Beneath the shield is the state motto.

MOTTO: Excelsior (Ever upward).

SONG: “I Love New York.”

FLOWER: Rose.

TREE: Sugar maple.

ANIMAL: Beaver.

BIRD: Bluebird.

FISH: Brook or speckled trout.

GEM: Garnet.

FOSSIL: Sea scorpion (Eurypterus remipes).

BEVERAGE: Milk.

FRUIT: Apple.

LEGAL HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day, 1 January; Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., 3rd Monday in January; Lincoln’s Birthday, 12 February, sometimes observed on the Friday closest to this date; Washington’s Birthday, 3rd Monday in February; Memorial Day, last Monday in May; Independence Day, 4 July; Labor Day, 1st Monday in September; Columbus Day, 2nd Monday in October; General Election Day, 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday in November; Veterans’ Day, 11 November; Thanksgiving Day, 4th Thursday in November; Christmas Day, 25 December.

TIME: 7 AM EST = noon GMT.

1 Location and Size

Located in the northeastern United States, New York State is the largest of the three Mid-Atlantic states and ranks 30th in size among the 50 states. The total area of New York is 49,108 square miles (127,190 square kilometers), of which land takes up 47,377 square miles (122,707 square kilometers) and the remaining 1,731 square miles (4,483 square kilometers) consists of inland water. New York’s width is about 320 miles (515 kilometers) from east to west, not including Long Island, which extends an additional 118 miles (190 kilometers) southwest–northeast. The state’s maximum north–south extension is about 310 miles (499 kilometers).Two large islands lie off the state’s southeast corner: Long Island and Staten Island (a borough of New York City). Including these two islands, the total boundary length of New York State is 1,430 miles (2,301 kilometers). Long Island, with an area of 1,396 sq mi (3,616 sq km), is the largest island belonging to one of the 48 contiguous states.

2 Topography

Two upland regions, the Adirondack Mountains and the Appalachian Highlands, dominate the topography of New York State. The Adirondacks cover most of the northeast and occupy about one-fourth of the state’s total area. The Appalachian Highlands, including the Catskill Mountains and Kittatinny Mountain Ridge (or Shawangunk Mountains), extend across the southern half of the state, from the Hudson River Valley to the basin of Lake Erie. Between these two upland regions, and also along the state’s northern and eastern borders, lies a network of lowlands, including the Great Lakes Plain; the Hudson, Mohawk, Lake Champlain, and St. Lawrence valleys; and the coastal areas of New York City and Long Island.

The state’s highest peaks are found in the Adirondacks: Mount March, 5,344 feet (1,629 meters), and Algonquin Peak, 5,114 feet (1,559 meters). Nestled among the Adirondacks are many scenic lakes, including Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, and Lake George. The region is also the source of the Hudson and Ausable rivers. Lesser upland regions of New York include the Hudson Highlands, projecting into the Hudson Valley;

New York Population Profile

Population by Age Group

the Taconic Range, along the state’s eastern border; and Tug Hill Plateau, set amid the lowlands just west of the Adirondacks.

Three lakes, Erie, Ontario, and Champlain, form part of the state’s borders. New York contains some 8,000 inland lakes. The largest lake wholly within the state is Oneida, with an area of 80 square miles (207 square kilometers). The 11 Finger Lakes are long and narrow, fanning southward from a line that runs roughly from Syracuse westward to Geneseo.

New York’s longest river is the Hudson, extending for a distance of 306 miles (492 kilometers). The Mohawk River flows into the Hudson north of Albany. The major rivers of central and western New York, the Black, Genesee, and Oswego, all flow into Lake Ontario. Rivers defining the state’s borders are the St. Lawrence in the north, the Poultney in the east, the Delaware in the southeast, and the Niagara in the west. Along the Niagara River, Niagara Falls forms New York’s most spectacular natural feature. The falls are both a leading tourist attraction and a major source of hydroelectric power.

3 Climate

Although New York lies entirely within the humid continental zone, there is much variation from region to region. The three main climatic regions are the southeastern lowlands, which have the warmest temperatures and the longest season between frosts; the uplands of the Catskills and Adirondacks, where winters are cold and summers cool; and the snow belt along the Great Lakes Plain, one of the snowiest areas of the United States.

In New York City, temperatures range from an average of 63°f (17°c) in the summer and an average of 47°f (8°c) in the winter. In Buffalo, the normal maximum temperature is 57°f (13°c) and the normal minimum is 40°f (4°c). The record low temperature for the state is -52°f (-47°c), recorded at Stillwater Reservoir in the Adirondacks on 9 February 1934 and at Old Forge on 18 February 1979. The record high is 108°f (42°c), registered at Troy on 22 July 1926.

Annual precipitation ranges from over 50 inches (127 centimeters) in the higher elevations to about 30 inches (76 centimeters) in the areas near Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain, and in the lower half of the Genesee River Valley. New York City has an annual mean snowfall of 28 inches (71 centimeters). Buffalo receives about 91 inches (231 centimeters) of snow per year and Syracuse receives about 114 inches (289 centimeters).Tornadoes are rare, but hurricanes and tropical storms sometimes cause heavy damage to Long Island.

4 Plants and Animals

New York has about 150 species of trees. These include laurel magnolia, sweet gum, and hop trees near the Atlantic shore; oak, hickory, and chestnut in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys and the Great Lakes Plain; and birch, beech, and commercially valuable maple on the Appalachian Plateau and in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. The bulk of the Adirondacks and Catskills are covered with balsam fir, mountain ash, and white pine, as well as maple and other species. Spruce, balsam fir, and mountain ash rise to the timberline. Apple trees and other fruit-bearing species are important in western New York and the Hudson Valley.

New York Population by Race

Census 2000 was the first national census in which the instructions to respondents said, “Mark one or more races.” This table shows the number of people who are of one, two, or three or more races. For those claiming two races, the number of people belonging to the various categories is listed. The U.S. government conducts a census of the population every ten years.

Common meadow flowers include several types of rose (the state flower), along with Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod, and black-eyed Susan. Indian pipe, bunchberry, and goldthread flourish in the forests, while cattails grow along the Hudson and rushes cover the Finger Lakes shallows. In 2006, five plant species were listed as threatened or endangered, including the sand-plain gerardia, American hart’s-tongue fern, and Leedy’s roseroot.

Some 600 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles are found in New York, of which more than 450 species are common. Mammals found in abundance include woodchuck, squirrel, muskrat, and raccoon. The deer population has been estimated at as high as 500,000, making them pests and causing millions of dollars annually in crop damage. More than 260 bird species have been observed. The most common year-round residents are the crow, hawk, and several types of woodpecker. Summer visitors include the bluebird (the state bird).

Water snakes and grass snakes are common. There are 210 known species of fish; 130 species are found in the Hudson, 120 in the Lake Ontario watershed. Freshwater fish include species of perch, bass, and trout (the state fish). Of insect varieties, the gypsy moth has been singled out as an enemy in periodic state-run pest-control programs.

In 2006, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed 20 animal species as threatened or endangered, including the Indiana bat, Karner blue butterfly, piping plover, bald eagle, shortnose sturgeon, three species of whale, and five species of turtle.

5 Environmental Protection

All state environmental programs are run by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), established in 1970. The department oversees pollution control programs, monitors environmental quality, manages the forest preserves, and administers fish and wildlife laws.

The chief air quality problem areas are Buffalo, where levels of particles (especially from the use of coke in steelmaking) are high, and New York City, where little progress has been made in cutting carbon monoxide emissions from motor vehicles. Despite air quality efforts, acid rain has been blamed for killing fish and trees in the Adirondacks, Catskills, and other areas. Water problems include continued dumping of sewage and industrial wastes into New York Bay and Long Island Sound, sewage over-flows into the Lower Hudson, industrial dumping in the Hudson Valley, nuclear wastes in West Valley in Cattaraugus County, and contamination of fish in Lake Erie. Toxic pollutants, such as organic chemicals and heavy metals, appear in surface and groundwater to an extent not yet fully assessed.

In 2003, New York had 485 hazardous waste sites listed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s database, 86 of which were on the National Priorities List in 2006.

A 1982 law requires a deposit on beer and soft drink containers sold in the state, to encourage the return and recycling of bottles and cans.

Wetlands covered 2.5 million acres of the state as of 2000. About one-half of the 160 species identified as endangered or threatened by the Department of Environmental Conservation are wetlands-dependent.

6 Population

In 2006, New York ranked third in population in the United States with an estimated total of 19,306,183 residents. The population is projected to reach 19.5 million by 2015. In 2004, the state’s population density was 407.2 persons per square mile (157.2 persons per square kilometer). Also in 2004, the median age was 37.3 years. In 2005, about 13% of all residents were 65 years old or older while 24% were 18 or younger.

In 2005, New York City was the largest city in both the state and the country with an estimated total of 8,143,197 residents. Other leading cities, with their 2005 populations were Buffalo, 279,745; Rochester, 211,091; Yonkers, 196,425; and Syracuse, 141,683. Albany, the state capital, had an estimated population of 93,523 in 2005.

7 Ethnic Groups

The ethnic diversity of the state is reflected in such Manhattan neighborhoods as Harlem, Chinatown, Little Italy, and “Spanish,” or East, Harlem, with its large Puerto Rican concentration. New immigrants still tend to form ethnic communities, often in the outer boroughs, such as Asians and South Americans in certain parts of Queens and Russian Jews in south Brooklyn. Outside New York City there are also important ethnic enclaves in the Buffalo metropolitan area, with its large populations of Polish and Italian origin.

As of the 2000 census, New York had the largest black American population among the 50 states and second-largest Asian population. The state also had the second-highest percentage of foreign-born residents.

Also in 2000, New York had 82,461 Native American residents, primarily from seven tribes: the Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations; the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe; and the Tonawanda Band of Senecas.

The black American population of New York State was 3,014,385 as of 2000, which was about 16% of the state’s population. The population of Hispanics and Latinos was 2,867,583 people, or about 16% of the state population. Of the Hispanics, about 1,050,293 were Puerto Ricans. Cubans, Dominicans, Colombians, Central Americans, and Mexicans were also present in growing numbers, including a large but undetermined number of illegal immigrants.

In 2000, the Asian population of the state was estimated at 1,044,976 people, including 424,774 Chinese, 251,724 Asian Indians, 119,846 Koreans, 81,681 Filipinos, 37,279 Japanese, and 23,818 Vietnamese. New York City has the second-largest Chinatown in the United States. Pacific Islanders numbered 8,818.

In 2000, there were 3,868,133 foreign-born New Yorkers, which was about 20.4% of the total state population. Among persons who reported at least one specific ancestry group, 2,122,620 were German, 2,737,146 were Italian, 2,454,469 were Irish, 1,140,036 were English, 986,141 were Polish, and 460,261 were Russian. A large numbers of European Jewish immigrants have chosen not to identify their country of origin.

As of 2006, estimates indicate the 15.3% of residents were black Americans, 16.2% were Hispanic or Latino, and 6.7% were Asian.

8 Languages

Although the speech of metropolitan New York has its own characteristics, in the state as a whole the Northern dialect predominates. Regional variations distinguish the speech of such areas as the Hudson Valley, the eastern part of the state, and the Niagara peninsula. In the New York City area, many speakers pronounce bird almost as if it were /boyd/ and do not sound the /r/ after a vowel. New Yorkers stand on line (instead of in line) while waiting to buy a huge sandwich they call a hero, and may even pronounce Long Island with an inserted /g/ as /Long Giland/.

From the high proportion of New York Yiddish speakers have come such terms as schlock, schmaltz, and chutzpah. Place names such as Manhattan, Adirondack, and Chautauqua were borrowed from the Iroquois.

Serious communication problems have arisen in New York City, especially in the schools, because of the major influx since World War II of Spanish speakers from the Caribbean region and, more recently, of Asians. These are in addition to the ever present large numbers of speakers of other languages. As a result, schools in some areas have emphasized teaching English as a second language.

According to the 2000 census, 72% of all New Yorkers five years of age or older spoke only English at home. Other principal languages and the number of speakers were Spanish, 2,416,126; Chinese, 374,627; Italian, 294,271; Russian, 218,765; French, 180,809; French Creole,

114,747; Yiddish, 113,514; Polish, 111,730; and Korean, 102,105.

9 Religions

Before the 1800s, Protestant sects dominated the religious life of New York. The first Jews were permitted to settle in New Amsterdam in 1654. Full religious freedom was not permitted until the constitution of 1777. There was no Roman Catholic church in upstate New York until 1797. Many Protestant churches took part enthusiastically in the abolitionist movement, and the blacks who fled northward out of slavery formed their own Protestant churches and church organizations.

As of 2004, New York had 7,761,801 Roman Catholics. In 2000, there were 1,653,870 adherents of Jewish congregations. Leading Protestant denominations included United Methodists, with 403,362 adherents; Episcopalians, 201,797; Presbyterians (USA), 162,227; and Evangelical Lutherans, 169,329. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reported a statewide membership of about 69,682 in 2006. There were about 223,968 members of Muslim congregations in 2000. That year, there were also about 121 Buddhist congregations and 83 Hindu congregations statewide. A wide variety of religious-nationalist sects and cults exist, including the World Community of Islam in the West (also called the Nation of Islam or Black Muslims), the Hare Krishna group, and the Unification Church of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. About 39.6% of the population was not counted as members of any religious organization.

10 Transportation

In 2003, New York had 4,879 miles (7,855 kilometer) of track. In the same year, there were 2 Class I lines, 2 Canadian lines, 4 regional, 20 local, and 7 switching and terminal railroads. Today, much of New York’s rail network is operated by Conrail, a federally assisted private corporation that also provides commuter service up the Hudson and to New Jersey and Connecticut. Conrail is now owned by CSX Transportation and Norfolk & Southern Railroad. Amtrak owns and operates lines along the eastern corridor from Boston through New York City to Washington, DC, stopping at 25 stations. New York City’s Penn Station is the busiest station in the entire Amtrak system.

The Long Island Railroad, an important commuter carrier, is run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which also operates the New York City subways. Construction of the New York City subway system began in 1900 and service started on 27 October 1904. The route network is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) long, of which 137 miles (220 kilometers) are underground.

The only other mass transit rail line in the state is Buffalo’s 6.4 miles (10.3 kilometers) of light rail system, of which 5.2 miles (8.4 kilometers) are underground. In 1984, regular trolley service resumed in Buffalo for the first time since 1950, running through the downtown shipping district. Cities served by municipal, county, or metropolitan area bus systems are Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Elmira, and Syracuse.

In 2004, about 11 million motor vehicles were registered in New York State, including 8.4 million automobiles, 25,000 buses, and 2.3 million trucks. In addition 169,000 motorcycles were registered. As of 2004, the state had 113,341 miles (182,479 kilometers) of public roads and highways. The major toll road, and the nation’s longest toll superhighway, is the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, operated by the New York State Thruway Authority, which extends 559 miles (900 kilometers) from just outside New York City to Buffalo and the Pennsylvania border in southwestern New York. Toll free expressways include the Adirondack Northway (I-87) and the North–South Expressway (I-81).

A number of famous bridges and tunnels connect the five boroughs of New York City with each other and with New Jersey. The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge, opened to traffic in 1964, spans New York Harbor between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Equally famous, and especially renowned for their beauty, are the Brooklyn Bridge (1883), which was the city’s first suspension bridge, and the George Washington Bridge (1931). The Holland (1927) and Lincoln (1937–57) tunnels under the Hudson River link Manhattan with New Jersey. Important links among the five boroughs include the Triborough Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, Queensboro Bridge, Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The Staten Island Ferry conveys passengers and autos between the borough and lower Manhattan.

Off the Hudson River, one of the country’s major arteries, are the main elements of the New York Barge Canal System: the Erie Canal, linking the Atlantic with Lake Erie, and New York City with Buffalo; the Oswego Canal, connecting the Erie Canal with Lake Ontario; the Cayuga and Seneca Canal, connecting the Erie Canal with Cayuga and Seneca lakes; and the Champlain Canal, extending the state’s navigable waterways from the Hudson to Lake Champlain. Buffalo, on Lake Erie, is the most important inland port. Albany is the major port on the Hudson River and Port Jefferson serves the Long Island Sound.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the historic and economic importance of New York Harbor—haven for explorers, point of entry for millions of refugees and immigrants, and the nation’s greatest seaport until recent years, when it was surpassed by Greater New Orleans and Houston in terms of cargo tonnage. The entire port is under the jurisdiction of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

In 2005, New York State had 582 airfields, including 397 airports, 167 heliports, and 18 seaplane bases. By far the busiest airports in the state are John F. Kennedy International and La Guardia both in New York City. The Greater Buffalo International Airport is the largest in the state outside New York City.

11 History

In 1570, after European explorers had discovered New York but before the establishment of any permanent European settlements, the main Iroquois tribes—the Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, and Mohawk—established the League of the Five Nations. For the next 200 years, members of the League generally kept peace among themselves but made war on other tribes, using not only traditional weapons but also the guns they were able to get from the French, Dutch, and English. In 1715, a sixth nation joined the League—the Tuscarora, who had fled the British in North Carolina. For much of the 18th century, the Iroquois skillfully balanced competing French and British interests.

The first European known to have entered New York Harbor was the Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano, on 17 April 1524. The Frenchman Samuel de Champlain began exploring the St. Lawrence River in 1603. Six years later, English mariner Henry Hudson, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, entered New York Bay and sailed up the river that would later bear his name. The first permanent Dutch settlement was established in 1624, and New Amsterdam was founded in 1626, when Peter Minuit bought Manhattan (from the Native American word manahatin, “hill island”) from the Native Americans for goods worth—as tradition has it—about $24.

Though small and weak, the Dutch colony—named New Netherland—was an annoyance to the English, interfering with their trade monopoly and forming a political barrier between New England and two other English colonies, Maryland and Virginia. In 1664, King Charles II claimed “all the land from the west side of the Connecticutte River to the East Side of De La Ware Bay” for his brother, the Duke of York and Albany (the future King James II), and the English took control after a peaceful surrender by the Dutch. New Netherland became New York, and remained an English colony for the next 112 years, except for a period in 1673 when Dutch rule was briefly restored.

British Control The first decades under the English were stormy. Leadership of the colony changed hands several times, reflecting political instability in England itself, as James became king and was then deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The succeeding decades were marked by conflict between the English and French and by the rising power of the provincial assembly in relations with the British crown. In 1756, the English were determined to drive the French out of the region once and for all, defeating them decisively in 1760. The Treaty of Paris (1763), ending the French and Indian War, ceded almost all territory east of the Mississippi to England.

The signing of the Treaty of Paris was followed by English attempts to tighten control over the colonies, in New York as elsewhere. In 1774, after Paul Revere brought news of the Boston Tea Party to New York City, British tea was also dumped into that city’s harbor. Nearly one-third of all battles during the Revolutionary War took place on New York soil. The action there began when troops under Ethan Allen captured Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. The following year, George Washington’s forces were driven from Long Island and Manhattan by the British, and New York City remained in British hands for the rest of the war. British General John Burgoyne was defeated in October 1777 at Saratoga, in a battle that is often considered the turning point of the war. Washington marched into New York City on 25 November 1785, the day the British evacuated their forces.

Statehood On 6 February 1778, New York had become the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. After much debate, in which Federalist Alexander Hamilton played a leading role, the state ratified the US Constitution (with amendments) on 26 July 1788. New York City served as the seat of the US government from 11 January 1785 to 12 August 1790, and the first US president, George Washington, was inaugurated in the city on 30 April 1789.

The end of the War of 1812 signaled an era of major economic expansion for the state, which was receiving large numbers of migrants from New England. New York was the site of the early 19th century’s most ambitious engineering project: construction of the Erie Canal. Ground was broken for the canal in 1817, and the first vessels passed through the completed canal in 1825. The textile industry had established itself by the mid-1820s, and the dairy industry was thriving.

Commercial progress during this period was matched by social and cultural advancement. New York City became a center of literary activity during the 1820s. Slavery was abolished as of 4 July 1827, and New Yorkers soon took the lead in the growing antislavery movement. The first women’s rights convention in the United States was held in Seneca Falls in 1848. Also during the 1840s, the state saw the first of several great waves of European immigration.

1860 to 1930 The majority of New Yorkers voted for Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860, and New Yorkers were among the readiest recruits to the Union side in the Civil War. Enthusiasm for the conflict waned during the next two years, leading to civil unrest when the military draft reached New York City on 11 July 1863. But New York was not a wartime battleground, and overall the war and Reconstruction were very good for business.

The decades after the Civil War ushered in an era of extraordinary commercial growth, accompanied by political corruption. This was the Gilded Age, during which entrepreneurs became multimillionaires and New York was transformed from an agricultural state to an industrial giant. The key to this transformation was the development of the railroads. The boom period for railroad construction reached its high point after 1867, when “Commodore” Cornelius Vanderbilt took over the New York Central. During the century’s last two decades, corporate names that today are household words began to emerge: Westinghouse Electric in 1886; General Electric (as Edison Electric) in 1889; Eastman Kodak in 1892. In 1882, another native New Yorker, John D. Rockefeller, formed the Standard Oil Trust. Although the trust would eventually be broken up, the Rockefeller family would help shape New York politics for many decades to come.

The period immediately following the Civil War also marked a new high in political influence for the Tammany Society (or “Tammany Hall”), headed by Democrat William March “Boss” Tweed, who effectively dominated New York City by buying votes and bribing legislators from 1857 until his exposure by the press in 1871. However, New York also produced outstanding and upright political leaders—many of whom went on to national prominence—during the nation’s second century. Grover Cleveland, though born in New Jersey, became mayor of Buffalo, then governor of New York, and finally the 22nd US president in 1885.

Theodore Roosevelt was governor of New York, became US vice president, and finally president of the United States in 1901. In 1910, Charles Evans Hughes resigned the governorship to become an associate justice of the US Supreme Court. He also served as secretary of state, and in 1930 was appointed chief justice of the United States. Alfred E. Smith was four times elected governor and in 1928 became the first Roman Catholic candidate to be nominated by a major party for the presidency of the United States. That year saw the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) as governor of New York.

1930s to 1990s The 1930s, a period of depression, ushered in a new wave of progressive government. From 1933 until 1945, FDR was in the White House. Roosevelt’s successor as governor was Herbert H. Lehman, whose Little New Deal established the basic pattern of present state social welfare policies. The mayor of New York City at this time was the colorful and popular Fiorello H. La Guardia.

The decades since World War II saw extraordinary expansion of New York social services, including construction of the state university system, but also a decline in the state’s industry. The greatly increased scale of government in the 1970s brought on a financial crisis unheard of in its scope and implications. The city’s short-term debt grew from nearly zero to about $6 billion between 1970 and 1975. Eventually a package totaling $4.5 billion in aid was needed to avoid bankruptcy.

From the late 1970s through the late 1980s, New York enjoyed an economic boom, especially in finance, insurance, real estate, and construction. Prosperity did not reach all sectors of the economy or the population, however. Manufacturing jobs declined by 30%. By 1984, 25% of the residents of New York City lived below the poverty level. The collapse of the stock market in October of 1987, in which the market plunged 36% in two months, signaled the end of the boom and the beginning of a recession. Unemployment peaked in 1992, but by 1994 a recovery was underway.

The boom economy of the late 1990s boosted the stock market. In 1998 New York had the fourth-highest per capita income in the nation ($31,679) but it also had more people living below the poverty level than 45 other states, again indicating prosperity had not reached into all sectors. In November 1999 Governor Pataki signed the Jobs 2000 bill, committing up to $566 million to development of high-technology industries.

The 1990s witnessed a revitalization of New York City as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led efforts to empty the streets of blight. Continuing a trend begun under Mayor David Dinkins, the city’s murder rate for 1998 was the lowest in 35 years.

The 1990s witnessed the settlement of lawsuits surrounding Love Canal in Buffalo, where leaking chemical wastes in the 1970s and early 1980s had prompted the state and federal governments to pay families to move from the area. The Occidental Petroleum Corporation agreed to pay $98 million in damages for dumping hazardous wastes at Love Canal, ending 16 years of lawsuits.

In March 2000 the state sold two nuclear plants for a total of $967 million. It was the largest privatization of state assets in New York history.

Transportation in and around New York City was the focus of the statehouse and legislature in 2000. Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, a fellow Republican, cleared the way for the construction of a $200-million cargo hub for the world’s largest ocean carrier (Maersk Sealand) and reopened the possibility that the World Trade Center, which the Port Authority still controlled, could be turned over to a private developer.

The possibility of privatizing the World Trade Center was eliminated on 11 September 2001, when terrorists took control of two commercial airplanes and flew them into the two towers, destroying both buildings and killing more than 2,750 people. New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani was praised for his effective handling of the crisis. Republican Michael Bloomberg was elected mayor in 2001, and reelected in 2005.

In 2003, Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind’s design for rebuilding “Ground Zero” (the site of the demolished World Trade Center) was accepted.

Following a decline of the stock market on Wall Street and the US recession in the early 2000s, New York was plagued with economic woes. In 2003, the state faced a budget deficit of $10 billion. Although the economy began to improve in 2004 and 2005, the state still faced a budget gap of $4.2 billion in 2005–06.

12 State Government

New York has had four constitutions, adopted in 1777, 1822, 1846, and 1895. The 1895 constitution was extensively revised in 1938 and the document had been amended 216 times as of January 2005.

The legislature consists of a 62-member senate and 150-member assembly. Senators and assembly members serve two-year terms and are elected in even-numbered years. Either senators or assembly members may introduce or amend a bill. To pass, a bill requires a majority vote in both houses. A two-thirds majority is required to override the governor’s veto. The state’s only

New York Governors: 1775–2007

elected executives are the governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller, and attorney general. Each serves a four-year term.

A bill becomes law when passed by both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor. While the legislature is in session, a bill may also become law if the governor fails to act on it within ten days of its receipt. The governor may veto a bill or, if the legislature has adjourned, may kill a bill simply by taking no action on it for 30 days.

In 2004, the legislative salary was $79,500 and the governor’s salary was $179,000.

13 Political Parties

In 2004, there were 11,837,000 registered voters. In 1998, 47% of registered voters were Democrats, 29% were Republicans, and 24% were unaffiliated or with other parties.

The Democratic power base was—and has remained—the big cities, especially New York City. The Republican Party’s support comes

New York Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2004

from the state’s rural counties, the smaller cities and towns, and the New York City suburbs (although not so much as in earlier decades). Minor parties have sometimes meant the difference between victory and defeat for major party candidates in state and national elections. James Buckley, of New York’s Conservative Party, was elected to the US Senate in 1970.

In the November 1980 presidential elections, Republican nominee Ronald Reagan (with Conservative Party backing) won the state’s 41 electoral votes. Reagan carried the state again in 1984, despite the presence on the Democratic ticket of US Representative Geraldine Ferraro of Queens as the running mate of Walter Mondale. New Yorkers chose Democratic nominees Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore in 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000, respectively. In 2000, Al Gore captured 60% of the vote while the challenger, Republican George W. Bush, won 35% of the vote. In 2004, the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, won 57.8% of the vote to the incumbent George, W. Bush’s 40.5%.

Democrat Mario M. Cuomo was defeated in his run for a fourth term as governor in November 1994 by Republican George Pataki. Pataki was elected to a third term in 2002. In 2006, Democrat Eliot Spitzer was elected governor. In 2006, New York’s US senators were Democrats Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Following the 2006 midterm elections, New York’s delegation to the US House of Representatives included 23 Democrats and 6 Republicans. Republicans held 34 seats in the state senate while Democrats held 27; there was 1 Independent. In the state assembly there were 105 Democrats and 45 Republicans. Forty-seven women were elected to the state legislature in 2006, or 22.2%.

In November 1993, New York City Mayor David Dinkins, a Democrat and New York’s first black mayor (in office since 1990), was defeated by a Republican, Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani was legally barred from seeking a third term and billionaire media tycoon Michael Bloomberg won the mayoral contest in 2001. Bloomberg was reelected in 2005.

14 Local Government

The state constitution, endorsing the principle of home rule, recognizes many different levels of local government. In 2005, New York had 62 counties, 616 municipal governments, 1,135 special districts, and 703 public school districts. In 2002, there were 929 townships. With the exception of some counties within New York City, each county has a county attorney and a district attorney, a sheriff, a treasurer, and other officers.

Cities are contained within counties, with one outstanding exception: New York City is made up of five counties, one for each of its five boroughs. Traditionally, counties are run by an elected board of supervisors or county legislature; however, a growing number of counties have vested increased powers in a single elected county executive.

Towns are run by a town board. The most important board member is the town supervisor, who is the board’s presiding officer and acts as town treasurer. A group of people within a town or towns may also incorporate themselves into a village, with their own elected mayor and elected board of trustees. Some villages have administrators or managers. The constitution grants the state legislature the power to decide which taxes the local governments may levy and how much debt they may incur.

New York City is governed by a mayor and city council, but much practical power resides in the Board of Estimate. On this board sit the city’s three top elected officials—the mayor, comptroller, and City Council president. The board also includes the five borough presidents. New York City government is further complicated by the fact that certain essential services are provided not by the city itself but by independent “authorities.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, along with the Metropolitan Transit Authority are administered by the state government rather than the city.

15 Judicial System

New York’s highest court is the court of appeals, in Albany, with appeals jurisdiction only, consisting of a chief judge and six associate judges. Below the court of appeals is the supreme court, which consists of 570 justices in 12 judicial districts. The supreme court of New York State does not sit as one body; instead, most supreme court justices are assigned original jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, while 56 justices are assigned to one of the court’s appeals divisions.

The New York court of claims, which sits in Albany, consists of judges appointed by the governor to nine-year terms, along with judges sitting as acting supreme court justices in felony trials. This special trial court hears civil cases involving claims by or against the state.

Outside New York City, each county has its own county court to handle criminal cases, although some are delegated to be handled by lower courts. Many counties have a surrogate’s court to handle such matters as wills and estate, and each county has its own family court. A county’s district attorney has authority in criminal matters. Most cities (including New York City) have their own court systems. Village police justices and town justices of the peace handle minor violations and other routine matters.

The state’s violent crime rate in 2004 was 441.6 per 100,000 persons. Crimes against property were reported at a rate of about 2,198.6 per 100,000 people. In December 2004, 63,751 inmates were in state and federal facilities. New York abolished the death penalty in 1965 and reestablished it in 1995. However, on 24 June 2004, New York’s death penalty statute was declared unconstitutional. The last execution in the state took place in 1963. As of 1 January 2006, only one inmate remained on death row.

16 Migration

Since the early 1800s, New York has been the primary port of entry for Europeans coming to the United States. The Statue of Liberty, dedicated in 1886 and beckoning “your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” to the shores of America, was often an immigrant’s first glimpse of America. The first stop for some 20 million immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was Ellis Island, where they were processed, often given Americanized names, and sent onward to an uncertain future.

The first great wave of European immigrants arrived in the 1840s, impelled by the potato famine in Ireland. The next two great waves of European immigration—Eastern European Jews and Italians—overlapped. Vast numbers of Jews began arriving from Eastern Europe during the 1880s. The flood of Italians began during the 1800s as well.

Yankees from New England made up the first great wave of domestic migration. Most of the migrants who came to New York between 1790 and 1840 were Yankees. There was a slow, steady migration of African Americans from slave states to New York before the Civil War, but massive black migration to New York, and especially to New York City, began during World War I and continued well into the 1960s. The third great wave of domestic migration came after World War II, from Puerto Rico. Many other Caribbean natives—especially Dominicans, Jamaicans, and Haitians—followed.

The fourth and most recent domestic migratory trend is unique in New York history—the net outward migration from New York to other states.

In 1998, 96,559 foreign immigrants entered New York, the second-highest total of any state (surpassed only by California). In the period 1995–2000, some 726,477 people moved into the state and 1,600,725 moved out, for a net loss of 874,248. Of those who left the state, about 308,230 went to Florida, 206,979 went to New Jersey, 112,214 went to Pennsylvania, 100,727 went to North Carolina, and 95,952 went to California. The largest immigration came from New Jersey, with 97,584 people moving to New York.

For the period 2000–05, net international migration was 667,007 and net internal migration was -1,001,100 for a net loss of 334,093 people.

17 Economy

New York State cannot be economically healthy if New York City does not remain so. The city’s manufacturing industries and its skilled laborers, however, have been emigrating to the suburbs and to other states since World War II. Between 1969 and 1976, the city lost 600,000 jobs. In 1975, short-term aid from Congress, the state government, and the labor union pension funds were needed to save the city from default.

The early 1980s saw New York’s fortunes on the rise. A shift in dependence from manufacturing to services, and particularly to finance, helped the state and New York City weather the 1981–82 recession. In 1983, the state’s three largest industrial and commercial employers (excluding public utilities) were all banks based in New York City. Financial services led the city’s economic expansion during the 1980s, adding 100,000 jobs from 1980 to 1987. The expanding economy moved New York from 10th place in per capita (per person) income in 1980 to 5th place in 1990, when the state’s per capita income reached $21,073.

New York’s economy not only grew during the 1980s but also underwent a restructuring. Manufacturing witnessed a decline in its share of total employment from 20% in 1980 to 14% in 1990. Business-related, healthcare, education, and social services, however, grew 52% during the decade.

Employment rose steadily during the 1990s and economic growth was robust moving into the 21st century. Even with the effects of the 2001 national recession and the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the state economy grew by a rate of 3.5%. Employment growth in the state lagged behind the nation as a whole during 2001–02, but was close to the national average by the end of 2002. New York City’s rate of job losses, however, continued to exceed the state and the nation. The state’s manufacturing sector, which had been declining for decades, fell from 10.8% of the gross state product in 1997 to 9.4% in 2001. In 2002, the highest percentages of manufacturing job losses were in the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.

In 2004, an estimated 62,854 new businesses were established while 64,013 businesses closed.

18 Income

In 2005, New York had a gross state product (GSP) of $963 billion, ranking third among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2001, New York ranked sixth among the 50 states and the District of Columbia with a per capita (per person) income of $38,264; the national average was $33,050. The average median household income for 2002–04 was $44,228 compared to the national average of $44,473. For the same period, 14.4% of the population lived below the federal poverty level, compared to the national average of 12.4%.

19 Industry

Until the 1970s, New York was the nation’s foremost industrial state, ranking first in practically every general category. By 1982, however, it ranked third in value of shipments and new spending. In 1995, New York ranked sixth in value of shipments, at $162.9 billion. Important industries are instruments and related products, industrial machinery and equipment, electronic and electric equipment, printing and publishing, and textiles.

The Buffalo region, with its excellent transport facilities and abundant power supply, is the main center for heavy industry in the state. Light industry is distributed throughout the state. Rochester is especially well known for its photographic (Kodak), optical equipment, and office machines. The state’s leadership in electronic equipment is in large part attributable to the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), a leading US industrial corporation. The presence of two large General Electric plants has long made Schenectady a leader in the manufacture of electric machinery.

New York City excels not only in the apparel and publishing trades but also in food processing, meatpacking, chemicals, leather goods, metal products, and many other manufacturers. In addition, the city serves as headquarters for many large industrial corporations whose manufacturing activities often take place entirely outside New York. Large US industrial corporations and many of the world’s banking conglomerates have headquarters in New York City.

In 2004, the shipment value of products manufactured in the state amounted to over $146 billion.

20 Labor

At the beginning of the 20th century, working conditions in New York were among the worst in the country. The flood of immigrants into the labor market and the absence of labor laws to protect them led to the development in New York City of cramped, ill-lit, poorly ventilated, unhealthy factories, the sweatshops for which the garment industry became notorious. Since that time working conditions in the garment factories have improved, primarily through the efforts of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and, later, its sister organization, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textiles Workers Union.

In April 2006, the labor force in New York numbered 9,516,800, with approximately 467,000 workers unemployed, yielding an unemployment rate of 4.9%, compared to the national average of 4.7%. In 2006, 3.8% of the labor force was employed in construction; 6.5% in manufacturing; 17.5% in trade, transportation, and public utilities; 8.4% in financial activities; 12.7% in professional and business services; 18.2% in education and health services; 7.8% in leisure and hospitality services, and 17.3% in government.

In 2005, some 2,090,000 of New York’s 8,008,000 employed wage and salary workers were members of unions, representing 26.1% of those so employed. The national average was 12%.

21 Agriculture

New York ranked 28th in farm income in 2005, with cash receipts from farming at over $3.5 billion. About 62% came from livestock products, mostly dairy goods. In 2004, the state ranked second in apples; third in the production of corn for silage, third in production of cauliflower, fourth in tart cherries and snap beans, and ninth in oats.

New York remains an important dairy state, but urbanization has reduced its overall agricultural potential. In 2004, there were only 36,000 farms, with 7.6 million acres (3.1 million hectares). The west-central part of the state is the most intensively farmed. Chautauqua County, in the extreme southwest, leads the state in grape production, while Wayne County along Lake Ontario leads in apples and cherries. The dairy industry is concentrated in the St. Lawrence Valley; grain growing dominates the plains between Syracuse and Buffalo. Potatoes are grown mostly in Suffolk County, on eastern Long Island.

Leading field crops in 2004 included hay, corn, oats, and wheat. Farms in 2004 also produced 941,010 tons of vegetables. Leading vegetable crops were cabbage, onions, sweet corn, and snap beans. State vineyards produced 145,000 tons of grapes for wine and juice in 2004, while the apple crop totaled 1.1 billion pounds (498.9 million kilograms).

22 Domesticated Animals

The St. Lawrence Valley is the state’s leading cattle region, followed by the Mohawk Valley and Wyoming County in western New York. The poultry industry is more widely dispersed. In 2005, an estimated 1.41 million cattle and calves were worth around $1.73 billion. There were an estimated 84,000 hogs and pigs, worth $8.4 million in 2004. During 2003, around 14.6 million pounds (6.6 million kilograms) of chickens were produced, worth $5.1 million, and 13.3 million pounds (6 million kilograms) of turkey, worth $4.8 million.

New York is a leading dairy state. In 2003, New York was third in the United States in milk production with 11.9 million pounds (5.4 million kilograms) of milk from 671,000 milk cows.

Also during 2003, New York farmers produced around 3 million pounds (1.4 million kilograms) of sheep and lambs, which brought in around $2.7 million in gross income. The state produced around 1.05 billion eggs, valued at $56.3 million in 2003. Duck raising is an industry of local importance on Long Island.

23 Fishing

Fishing, though an attraction for tourists and sport fishers, plays only a marginal role in the economic life of the state. In 2004, the Atlantic commercial catch in New York was 33.7 million pounds (15.3 million kilograms), valued at $46.4 million. The Great Lakes commercial catch the same year was 10,000 pounds (4,500 kilograms) valued at $11,000. Important species for commercial use are clams and oysters. In 2004, the state ranked second in the nation (after New Jersey) in volume of surf clams (6.8 million pounds/3.1 million kilograms). Soft clams amounted to 234,000 pounds (106,000 kilograms). Virtually all of New York’s commercial fishing takes place in the Atlantic waters off Long Island. Montauk, on the eastern end of Long Island, is the state’s leading fishing port. In 2003, there were 6 processing and 271 wholesale plants in the state with about 2,154 employees.

Pollution and poor wildlife management have seriously endangered the state’s commercial and sport fishing in the ocean, rivers, and lakes. Commercial fishing in the rivers for five species—black crappie, brown bullhead, carp, gold-fish, and pumpkinseed—was banned in 1985. Also banned in 1985 was commercial fishing for striped bass in New York Harbor and along both shores of western Long Island.

In recent decades, the Department of Environmental Conservation has taken an active role in restocking New York’s inland waters. The US Fish and Wildlife Service distributes large numbers of Atlantic salmon fingerlings as well as lake, rainbow, and brook trout fry throughout the state. There are 12 state hatcheries producing over 1 million pounds (over 453,000 kilograms) of fish per year, including brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, lake trout, steelhead, chinook salmon, coho salmon, landlocked salmon, walleye, muskellunge, and tiger muskellunge.

In 2004, the state issued 983,812 sport fishing licenses.

24 Forestry

About 61% of New York’s surface area is forestland. The most densely forested counties are Hamilton, Essex, and Warren in the Adirondacks, and Delaware, Greene, and Ulster in the Catskills. The total forested area was about 18,432,000 acres (7,459,000 hectares) in 2004, of which 15,389,000 acres (6,228,000 hectares) were classified as commercial forest, meaning they were available for the harvest of wood products such as sawn logs, veneer, and pulpwood or firewood. In 2004, lumber production totaled 480 million board feet.

Finger Lakes National Forest, the only national forest within the state, covered 16,211 acres (6,560 hectares) in 2005. The state Department of Environmental Conservation manages about 3,000,000 acres (1,200,000 hectares) in the Catskills and Adirondacks as forest preserves and an additional 800,000 acres in state forests and Wildlife Management Areas (where timber harvesting is allowed as part of the management plan).

25 Mining

The value of nonfuel mineral production in New York in 2003 was estimated to be $978 million. About 98% of the total value came from industrial minerals and mineral products, primarily crushed stone, salt, construction sand and gravel, Portland cement, and wollastonite. According to preliminary figures, the value of crushed stone in 2003 was $358 million; salt, $190 million; construction sand and gravel, $171 million; and common clays, $7.9 million.

Other commodities produced included gypsum and peat. Major uses of wollastonite (a type of calcium silicate) are as a filler in ceramic tile, marine wallboard, paint, plastics, and refractory liners in steel mills.

26 Energy and Power

Electrical output in 2003 totaled nearly 137.6 billion kilowatt hours. Electric bills for New York City are the highest in the nation and customers in Buffalo and Rochester also pay above the national median. Sales of public and private electric power totaled 144 billion kilowatt hours in 2003. About 29.6% of all electrical power produced came from nuclear power generation, 20.5% came from natural gas generation, and 17.6% came from hydroelectric plants. Coal and petroleum fueled plants accounted for the rest.

In 2006, there were four operating nuclear power stations in the state: the James A. Fitzpatrick and the Nile Mile Point plants, both near Oswego; the Indian Point plant in Westchester County; and the Robert E. Ginna plant near Rochester. As of 2004, output of crude oil averaged 464 barrels per day. The same year, marketed gas production totaled 36.1 billion cubic feet (1.02 billion cubic meters).

The largest hydroelectric plant in the state is the Niagara Power Project, which had a capacity of 2.4 million kilowatts in 2006. The New York side of the St. Lawrence River Power Project had a capacity of over 900,000 kilowatts in the same year.

27 Commerce

In 2002, New York had wholesale sales that totaled $343.6 billion; retail sales were $178 billion. The state’s long border with Canada, its important ports on lakes Erie and Ontario, and its vast harbor on New York Bay ensure it a major role in US foreign trade. About one-fourth of the country’s waterborne imports and exports pass through the New York Customs District (which includes New York City, Albany, and Newark and Perth Amboy, N.J.). Exports of goods originating within the state totaled $50.4 billion in 2005, third among the states.

28 Public Finance

New York State has the second-largest budget (behind California) of all the states. The New York State budget is prepared by the Division of the Budget and submitted annually by the governor to the legislature for amendment and approval. The fiscal year runs from 1 April to 31 March.

The state revenues for 2004 were $136.5 billion and expenditures were $132.8 billion. The largest general expenditures were for public welfare ($41.1 billion), education ($31.3 billion) and health ($5.2 billion). The total state debt in New York was $95.7 billion, or $4,963.94 per capita (per person).

29 Taxation

In 2003, New York ranked 11th among the states in terms of per capita tax burden at about $2,607 per person, compared to the national average of $2,192 per person. Personal income tax is the state’s largest source of revenue. The five-bracket personal income tax schedule ranges from 4% to 6.85%. The basic corporate tax is 7.5%. The general sales tax rate was 4.25%. Local governments impose additional sales taxes ranging from 0 to 4.5%. The state also imposes a full array of excise taxes covering motor fuels, tobacco products, and other selected items. Property taxes are collected by cities and counties, but not by the state government.

The state collected about $50.1 billion in taxes in 2005, of which 56% came from individual income taxes, 21.9% came from the general sales tax, 10.3% from selective sales taxes, 5.5% from corporate income taxes, and 6.3% from other taxes.

30 Health

The state has some of the finest hospital and medical education facilities in the United States, but it also has large numbers of the needy with serious health problems. In 2005, the infant death rate stood at 5.8 per 1,000 live births. The overall death rate in 2003 was 8.1 deaths per 1,000 residents. As of 2002, the death rates for major causes of death (per 100,000 resident population) included heart disease, 295.8; cancer, 191.4; cerebrovascular diseases, 39.8; chronic lower respiratory diseases, 36.4; and diabetes, 20.5. The death rate for human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) was reported at 10.3 per 100,000, representing the third-highest rate in the country (following the District of Columbia and Maryland). In 2004, the reported acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases rate was at about 39.7 per 100,000, the second-highest rate in the country (following the District of Columbia). About 19.9% of the population were smokers in 2004.

New York’s 207 community hospitals had 64,700 beds in 2003. There were 401 physicians per 100,000 residents in 2004 and 854 nurses per 100,000 in 2005. In 2004, there were a total of 14,498 dentists in the state. The average expense for hospital care was $1,402 per inpatient day in 2003. In 2004, at least 15% of New York’s residents were uninsured.

31 Housing

In 2004, the state had an estimated 7,819,359 housing units, of which 7,087,566 were occupied. The state ranked fourth in the nation for the highest number of housing units (following California, Texas, and Florida). An estimated 3,259,092 units, or 41.6%, were located in New York City. The housing stock in New York is relatively old. About 33.7% of all units in the state were built before or during 1939; about 49.7% were built between 1940 and 1979. In New York City, 83% of all housing units were built before 1960; in Buffalo, 73% of all units were built before 1939.

Statewide in 2004, 42.3% of all units were single-family, detached homes. In New York City, however, only 9% were single, detached units. About 46.9% of New York City housing units are located in buildings of 20 units or more. New York State had the second lowest percentage of owner-occupied housing in the country, at 55.6% in 2004 (only the District of Columbia was lower). It was estimated that 140,133 units in New York City lacked telephone service, 19,137 lacked complete plumbing facilities, and 20,630 lacked complete kitchen facilities. Statewide, about 247,421 units lacked telephone service, 32,130 lacked complete plumbing facilities, and 211,862 lacked complete kitchen facilities.

In 2004, 53,500 new privately owned housing units were authorized for construction. The median home value for the state was $220,981. The median home value in New York City was $373,176. The statewide median monthly cost for mortgage owners statewide was $1,525; renters paid a median of $796 per month. In New York City, the median monthly cost for mortgage owners was $1,920; renters paid a median of $856 per month.

32 Education

In 2004, 85.4% of New Yorkers age 25 and older were high school graduates. About 30.6% had obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Total public school enrollment was estimated at 2,888,000 in fall 2002. Expenditures for public education in 2003/04 were estimated at $42.5 billion, the second-highest among the 50 states. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2003 was 458,079 students.

As of fall 2002, there were 1,107,270 students enrolled in institutions of higher education. In 2005, New York had 309 degree-granting institutions, including 45 public four-year schools, 35 public two-year schools, and 163 nonprofit, private four-year schools.

There are two massive public university systems: the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY). Established in 1948, SUNY is one of the largest university systems in the country. University centers include Buffalo, Albany, and Binghamton. The City University of New York was created in 1961. Under an open enrollment policy adopted in 1970, every New York City resident with a high school diploma is guaranteed the chance to earn a college degree within the CUNY system (which CUNY campus the student attends is determined by grade point average).

The oldest private university in the state is Columbia University, founded in New York City as Kings College in 1754. Also part of Columbia are Barnard College (all women) and Columbia University Teachers College. Other major private institutions are Cornell University in Ithaca, Fordham University in Manhattan and the Bronx, New York University in Manhattan, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, St. John’s University in Queens, Syracuse University, and the University of Rochester. Among the state’s many smaller but highly distinguished institutions are Hamilton College, the Juilliard School, the New School for Social Research, Rockefeller University, Sarah Lawrence College, Vassar College, and Yeshiva University. The US Military Academy is located in West Point.

33 Arts

New York City is the cultural capital of the state and leads the nation in both the creative and the performing arts. The state’s foremost arts center is Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, in Manhattan. Facilities at Lincoln Center include Avery Fisher Hall, which is the home of the New York Philharmonic; the Metropolitan Opera House, where the Metropolitan Opera Company performs; and the New York State Theater, which presents both the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet. Also at Lincoln Center are the Julliard School and the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts.

The best known arts center outside New York City is the Saratoga Performing Arts Center at Saratoga Springs. During the summer, the Saratoga Center presents performances by

the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Artpark, a state park at Lewiston, has a 2,324-seat theater for operas and musicals and offers art exhibits during the summer. Classical music, opera, and plays are performed at the Chautauqua Festival, which has been held every summer since 1874.

In addition to its many museums, New York City has more than 350 galleries devoted to the visual and plastic arts. The city’s most famous arts district is Greenwich Village, which still holds an annual outdoor art show. After the 1950s many artists moved to SoHo (Manhattan on the West Side between Canal and Houston Streets), NoHo (immediately north of Houston Street), the East Village, and Tribeca. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, abstract painters including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning helped make the city a center of the avant garde.

New York has enjoyed a vigorous poetic tradition throughout its history, most notably with the works of Walt Whitman and through Hart Crane’s mythic vision of the city in his long poem The Bridge. The emergence of New York City as the center of the US publishing and communications industries fostered the growth of a literary marketplace, attracting writers from across the country and the world. Early New York novelists included Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe,

and Herman Melville. Among the many who made their home in the city in the 20th century were Thomas Wolfe and Norman Mailer. The growth of the Broadway stage made New York City a vital forum for playwriting, songwriting, and theatrical production.

There are more than 35 Broadway theaters in midtown Manhattan presenting full-scale, sometimes lavish productions with top notch performers. “Off Broadway” productions are often of high professional quality, though typically in smaller theaters outside the midtown district..

New York’s leading symphony orchestra is the New York Philharmonic, whose history dates back to the founding of the Philharmonic Society of New York in 1842. Among the principal conductors of the orchestra have been Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein. Leading US and foreign orchestras and soloists appear at both Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall. Important orchestras outside New York City include the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Eastman Philharmonia, the orchestra of the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester).

New York City is one of the world centers of ballet. Of special renown is the New York City Ballet. Many other ballet companies, including the American Ballet Theatre and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, make regular appearances in New York. Rochester, Syracuse, Cooperstown, Chautauqua, and Binghamton have opera companies and Lake George has an opera festival. Jazz and popular artists perform at more than 60 nightspots in New York City.

The New York State Council on the Arts supports numerous arts programs through state and federal funding, as does the New York Council for the Humanities. In 2005, New York arts organizations received 440 grants totaling over $16.2 million from the National Endowment for the Arts. The same year, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded 124 grants totaling $13.4 million for state programs.

34 Libraries and Museums

In 2001, the state of New York had 750 public library systems, with a total of 1,089 libraries. In that same year, the state’s public library system had 78,546,000 volumes of books and serial publications and a total circulation of 126,796,000. The leading public library systems were the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Queens Borough Public Library, and the Buffalo and Erie County system.

Chartered in 1895, the New York Public Library (NYPL) is the most complete municipal library system in the world. The library’s main building, at 5th Avenue and 42nd St., is one of the city’s best known landmarks. The NYPL is a repository for every book published in the United States. The NYPL also operates the Library and Museum of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry, and Business Library that opened in May 1996. The libraries at Columbia University and Cornell University rank among the world’s major libraries.

There are about 671 museums in New York State. In addition, there are about 579 sites of historic importance maintained by local historical societies. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has more than one million art objects and paintings from virtually every period and culture. The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (the latter designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in a distinctive spiral pattern) are also in New York City. The Jewish Museum, the Museum of the American Indian, and the museum and reference library of the Hispanic Society of America specialize in cultural history.

The sciences are represented by the American Museum of Natural History, famed for its dioramas of humans and animals in natural settings and for its massive dinosaur skeletons. The Museum of the City of New York, the New York Aquarium, the Hayden Planetarium, the New York Botanical Garden, and New York Zoological Society Park (Bronx Zoo), are also of interest. The New York State Museum in Albany contains natural history collections and historical artifacts. Buffalo has several museums of note, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (for contemporary art), the Buffalo Museum of Science, and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society museum.

Among the state’s many other fine museums, the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse), the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (Cooperstown), and the Corning Museum of Glass deserve special mention. Buffalo, New Rochelle, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica have zoos.

35 Communications

As of 2004, 94.5% of New York’s occupied housing units had telephones. The same year, there were about 9.9 million mobile phone subscribers. In 2003, about 60% of all households had a personal computer and 53.3% had access to the Internet. A total of 589,963 Internet domain names were registered in the state in the year 2000; the second highest number of all states.

In 2005, New York State had 58 major AM stations and 181 major FM stations. New York City operates its own radio stations, WNYCAM and FM, devoted largely to classical music and educational programming.

There were 46 major television stations in the state in 2005. The city is the headquarters for most of the major US television networks, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC, now part of Walt Disney), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System, owned by Viacom Westinghouse Corp.), National Broadcasting Company (NBC, part of General

Electric), and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

As of 2000, the New York metropolitan area had 6,874,990 television households, 74% of which received cable. The Buffalo region had 621,460 television homes, with a 77% cable subscription rate.

36 Press

New York is the center of the US newspaper, magazine, and book publishing industries. All of New York City’s major newspapers have claims to fame. The New York Times, the nation’s “newspaper of record,” is highly influential in political and cultural circles and widely circulated to US libraries. The New York Post, founded in 1801, is the oldest US newspaper published continuously without changing its name. The Wall Street Journal, published Monday through Friday, is a major nationwide news source, presenting mostly business news in four regional editions.

In 2005, the Times Sunday edition was the number one Sunday newspaper in the nation, based on circulation figures. The same year, the Wall Street Journal, the Times, the New York Daily News, the Long Island Newsday, and the Post were among the top thirteen largest daily newspapers in the nation. In 2005, New York had 37 morning newspapers, 23 evening papers, and 38 Sunday editions. Leading papers in New York City, with their average daily circulations in 2005 included the Wall Street Journal (1,780,605), New York Times (1,121,057), the Daily News (715,052), the New York Post (481,860), and Newsday (481,816). Leading papers outside New York City include the Buffalo News (196,429), the Albany Times–Union (100,628), and the Syracuse Post–Standard (118,926).

There are two Spanish dailies published in New York City: El Diario la Prensa, with a circulation of 50,019 daily and 34,636 Sundays; and Hoy, with a circulation of 49,681 daily and 25,465 Sundays.

The leading newspaper chain is the Gannett Company (headquarters in Virginia). Other groups include Ogden Newspapers, Inc.(West Virginia), Hearst Newspapers (New York), and Johnson Newspaper Corp. (New York). All the major news agencies have offices in New York City, and the Associated Press has its headquarters there.

Many leading US magazines are published in New York City, including the news magazines Time and Newsweek, and business journals Fortune, Forbes, and Business Week. Reader’s Digest is published in Pleasantville. The New Yorker carries up-to-date listings of cultural events and exhibitions in New York City, and its journalism, criticism, fiction, and cartoons have long made it a literary standard-bearer for the entire nation. New York magazine was the model for a new type of state and local magazine. Another weekly, the Village Voice became the model for a host of alternative or “underground” newspapers.

New York City is also the center of the nation’s book publishing industry and home to such publishers as McGraw–Hill, Simon & Schuster (part of Viacom), Random House (part of Bertelsmann), and HarperCollins (part of News Corp.).

37 Tourism, Travel & Recreation

New York State is a popular destination for both domestic and foreign travelers, with New York City as the primary destination. In 2001, there were 35.2 million visitors to New York City, including 5.7 million international visitors.

A typical visit to New York City might include a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty; visits to the Empire State Building, the United Nations headquarters, Rockefeller Center, and the New York Stock Exchange; walking tours of the Bronx Zoo, Chinatown, and the theater district; and a sampling of the city’s many museums, restaurants, shops, and shows.

Second to New York City as a magnet for tourists comes Long Island, with its beaches, racetracks, and other recreational facilities. Attractions of the Hudson Valley include the US Military Academy (West Point), the Franklin D. Roosevelt home at Hyde Park, and Bear Mountain State Park. North of Hudson Valley is Albany, with its massive government center, often called the Empire State Plaza; Saratoga Springs, home of an arts center, racetrack, and spa; and the Adirondack region, with its forest preserve, summer and winter resorts, and abundant hunting and fishing.

Scenic sites in central New York include the resorts of the Catskills and the scenic marvels of the Finger Lakes region. Farther west lie the Genesee Valley and Letchworth State Park; and Buffalo and Niagara Falls. South of the Niagara Frontier is the Southwest Gateway, among whose dominant features are Chautauqua Lake and Allegany State Park, the state’s largest.

38 Sports

New York has 11 major league professional sports teams: the New York Yankees and the New York Mets of Major League Baseball; the New York Giants, the New York Jets (although both the Giants and Jets play at stadiums in New Jersey), and the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League; the New York Knickerbockers (usually called the Knicks) of the National Basketball Association; the New York Islanders, the New York Rangers, and the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League; the New York Liberty of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the Red Bull New York of the Major League Soccer.

The state also has 13 minor league baseball teams and 6 minor league hockey teams.

Horse racing is important to New York State, both as a sports attraction and because of the tax revenues that betting generates. The main thoroughbred racetracks are Aqueduct in Queens, Belmont in Nassau County, and the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs. Belmont is the home of the Belmont Stakes, one of the three jewels in the Triple Crown of US racing. Saratoga Springs also has a longer harness racing season at its Saratoga Equine Sports Center facility. The top track for harness racing is Monticello Raceway (in the Catskills)

New York City hosts several major professional tennis tournaments every year, including the US Open in Flushing Meadows, the Last Minute Travel.com Masters (men) in Central Park, and the Chase Championships of the WTA Tour (women) at Madison Square Garden.

Among other professional sports facilities, the Watkins Glen automobile racetrack was once the site of a Grand Prix race every October. It now hosts a NASCAR Nextel Cup race in August. Lake Placid, an important winter sports region, hosted the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics and continues to host amateur winter sports competitions, such as bobsled racing and ski jumping. New York City’s Madison Square Garden is a leading venue for professional boxing and hosts many other sporting events.

In collegiate sports, basketball is perhaps most popular. Historically, the City College of New York produced many nationally ranked teams. St. John’s University and Syracuse University have also produced nationally prominent teams.

The US Military Academy at West Point (Army) has won college football national championships. Hockey and lacrosse are popular sports at the collegiate level and have been well represented by New York colleges and universities.

In 1978, New York became the first state to sponsor a statewide amateur athletic event, the Empire State Games. More than 50,000 athletes now compete for a place in the finals, held each summer. The Winter Games, held each February in Lake Placid, hosts more than 1,000 athletes.

The New York City marathon, which is held in late October or early November, has become one of the largest, most prestigious marathons in the world. Other annual sporting events include the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival in Glens Falls in September and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City in February. The Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown.

39 Famous New Yorkers

New York State has been the home of five US presidents, eight US vice presidents (three of whom also became president), many statesmen of national and international repute, and a large number of writers and entertainers. Martin Van Buren (1782–1862), the eighth US president, became governor of New York in 1828. He was elected to the vice presidency as a Democrat under Andrew Jackson in 1832, and succeeded Jackson in the election of 1836. The 13th US president, Millard Fillmore (1800–1874), was elected vice president under Zachary Taylor in 1848. He became president in 1850 when Taylor died.

New York’s other US presidents had more distinguished careers. Grover Cleveland (1837–1908) served as mayor of Buffalo and as governor of New York before his election to his first presidential term in 1884. He was again elected president in 1892. Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), a Republican, was elected governor in 1898. He won election as vice president under William McKinley in 1900, and became the nation’s 26th president after McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo in 1901. Reelected in 1904, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for helping to settle a war between Russia and Japan.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, 1882–1945), a fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, was elected governor of New York in 1928 and served until 1932, when US voters chose him as their 32nd president. Reelected in 1936, 1940, and 1944, FDR is the only president ever to have served more than two full terms in office. Roosevelt guided the United States through the Great Depression and World War II, and his

New Deal programs greatly enlarged the federal government’s role in social welfare.

Two well known US vice presidents, though not born in New York, were New Yorkers by the time they reached the White House: Aaron Burr (1756–1836) and Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908–1979). Two native New Yorkers have become chief justices of the United States: John Jay (1745–1829) and Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948). Ruth Bader Ginsberg (b.1933) was President Bill Clinton’s first appointment to the Supreme Court.

Governors who made important contributions to the history of the state include Alfred E. Smith (1873–1944); Herbert H. Lehman (1878–1963); W. Averell Harriman (1891–1986), who also held many US diplomatic posts; and Thomas E. Dewey (1902–1971). One of the best known and best loved mayors in New York City history was Fiorello H. La Guardia (1882–1947), a reformer who held the office from 1934 to 1945.

Native New Yorkers have won Nobel prizes in every category. Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize besides Theodore Roosevelt were Elihu Root in 1912 and Frank B. Kellogg in 1929. Te lone winner of the Nobel Prize for literature was playwright Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953) in 1936. The chemistry prize was awarded to William Howard Stein (1911–1980) in 1972. Melvin Schwartz (b.New York City, 1932) was a co-recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in physics. New Yorkers awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology/medicine include Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (b.1921) in 1977, and Hamilton O. Smith (b.1931) in 1978. The Nobel Prize for economic science was won by Milton Friedman (1912–2006) in 1976.

New York is also the birthplace of national labor leader George Meany (1894–1980) and economist Walter Heller (1915–1987). Other distinguished state residents were Mormon leader Brigham Young (b.Vermont, 1801–1877), botanist Asa Gray (1810–1888), inventor-entrepreneur George Westinghouse (1846–1914), and Jonas E. Salk (1914–1995), developer of the poliomyelitis vaccine.

Writers born in New York include the storyteller and satirist Washington Irving (1783–1859); poets Walt Whitman (1819–1892) and Ogden Nash (1902–1971); and playwrights Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953), Arthur Miller (1915–2005), and Neil Simon (b.1927). Two of America’s greatest novelists were New Yorkers: Herman Melville (1819–1891) and Henry James (1843–1916).

Broadway is the showcase of American drama and the birthplace of the American musical theater, whose pioneers include Jerome Kern (1885–1945), Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), Richard Rodgers (1902–1979), Alan Jay Lerner (1918–1986), and Stephen Sondheim (b.1930). Porgy and Bess, by George Gershwin (1898–1937), raised the musical to its highest artistic form. Other important US composers who were New Yorkers include Irving Berlin (b.Russia, 1888–1989), Aaron Copland (1900–1990), Elliott Carter (b.1908), and William Schuman (1910–1992).

Among many prominent sports figures born in New York are first baseman Lou Gehrig (1903–1941), football coach Vince Lombardi (1913–1970), pitchers Sanford “Sandy” Koufax (b.1935) and Orel Leonard Hershiser IV (b.1958), and basketball stars Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor, b.1947) and Julius Erving (b.1950).

40 Bibliography

BOOKS

Bristow, M. J. State Songs of America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Heinrichs, Ann. New York. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2003.

Kids’ New York. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000.

McAuliffe, Emily. New York Facts and Symbols. Rev. ed. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2003. Mezzanotte, Jim. New York. Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens, 2006.

Murray, Julie. New York. Edina, MN: Abdo Publishing, 2006.

Schomp, Virginia. New York. 2nd ed. New York: Benchmark Books, 2006.

WEB SITES

New York State Government. New York State. www.state.ny.us (accessed March 1, 2007).

New York State Tourism. I Love NY: The Official New York State Tourism Website. www.iloveny.state.ny.us (accessed March 1, 2007).