NEW YORK.
New York attracts people from all over. Get on a subway in New York and
look at the newspapers that people around you are reading. One person is
reading a newspaper in Spanish, another in Chinese, yet others in Arabic,
Russian, Italian, Yiddish, and French. New York was always a city of
immigrants. It still is.
The are 5 boroughs in New York - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx,
and Staten Island. Brooklyn alone has so many people that if it were a
separate city, it would be the fourth largest in the United States.
Manhattan Geography.
Manhattan is an island just 13 miles long and 2 miles wide. It is the
center of American finance, advertising, art theatre, publishing, fashion -
and much more. The borough of Manhattan is what most people think of New
York, one of the most exciting cities in the world.
Manhattan is divided into the East Side and the West Side. The
dividing line is Fifth Avenue. So, for example, East 47th Street begins at
Fifth Avenue, as does West 47th Street.
Manhattan is also divided, with less exactnes, into Lower (Downtown),
Midtown and Upper (Up-town) Manhattan. As you go North, or uptown, the
street numbers get higher. Lower Manhatta refers to street numbers below
14th Street and Central Park, and Upper Manhattan to the renaming,
northern, part of the island.
The Financial District.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle Manhattan. To protect
themselves from attacs, they built a sturdy wooden wall. Although it`s now
long gone, this wall gave it`s name to a street in Lower Manhattan and the
street, in turn, became synonymous with American capitalism. The street, of
course, is Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stokc
Exchange are both in the Wall Street area. So are many stokc brokers,
investment blanks and others bank, and headquarters of many large
corporations.
To escape the commotion of Wall Street you can visit the nearby South
Street Seaport, an open area of low buildings on the East River. In
addition to many shops and restaraunts, the seaport has a museum.
Two good ways to get the larger picture of New York are to circle it
in a bout and to hover over it in helicopter. In the financial district,
thogh, there`s anouther way to see New York. The twin towers of the World
Trade Centre rise 1,350 feet above the city. There`s an observation deck on
the 107th floor of one of the towers.
Appropriately, the very first business deal in Manhattan was made in
what became the financial district. As every American schoolchild knows,
the Dutch bought Manhattan from the Indians, for the rediculously low price
of 24 dollars worth of beads and trinkets. There is, however, another, less
known side of this: evidently, the Indians who had sold Manhattan don’t
themselves live there or in any sense own it. The Dutch and the Indians
alike walked away pleased.
The Lower East Side.
The Lower East Side was originali an ellegant neighborhood. When New
York was the capital of the United States, Presedent George Washington
lived on the Lower East Side.
By the mid-1880s the Lower East Side had changed greatly. It was
chracterized by crime and the poverty and hopes of it`s residents. By the
mid-1800s the Lower East Side had become an area in which immigrants
settled. First there were many Irish, then came many Jews from Easten
Europe.
Near the Lower East Side there are two other neighborhoods that also
attracted immigrants and that are famous for their food. The Italian
restaurants of Little Italy remain popular to tourists and Italians alike.
Today Chinatown is the only immigrant community that`s still growing.
Chinatown has seven newspaper of it`s own. It also nearly 200 restaurants.
Greenwich Village and the East Village.
Greenwich Village and the East Village have always been at the centre
of New York`s excitement. Both have been places for people with different
and creative ideas. Both have an active nightlife with plenty of bars,
restaraurants and clubs.
In the early 1900s the charm Greenwich Village attracted bohemians -
writers and artists. By the 1920s, the streets of the Village were filled
with other peole, curious to see how these odd Villagers lived. The artists
and writers began moving out, some to the East Village. Today, the Village
has many elements: students attending New York University; an active jazz
scene; and in Washington Square - it`s centre - street performers, police.
Drug dealers, joggers, roller skates, and just about everyone else.
When bohemiams moved to the East Village 1920s, they found an area
similar to the Lower East Side. There were many immigrants, much dirt and
grime. The East Village has changed very little. Over the years it has been
a centre for many movements - for the beat poets of the 1950s, the hippies
of the 1960s, and, more recently, for New York`s punk scene.
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