Tag: History

City Government, A Primer

New York City is by far the largest city in the United States. Overseeing hundreds of square miles of territory and providing for the safety of over eight million people is no small task. The city has a budget of well over $70 billion and an army of over 300,000 municipal workers (including but not limited to police, firefighters, sanitation workers, and park workers) to help maintain the city. So how does the city work?

The mayor is elected every four years by all of his citizens of the city and is responsible for executing their laws. The mayor is the nominal head of 32 city agencies and sits as a board member on 29 cultural attractions in town. Since the 1930s, the mayor has often delegated power to deputy mayors in an effort to run the city smoothly. If the mayor is unable or unwilling to perform his duty, the public advocate, a citywide elected position which functions as an ombudsman, would take that role. All city voters also elect a comptroller who is the chief financial officer of the city.

In terms of legislation, New York City residents are represented by 51 councilmembers. Each member has a district containing over 150,000 residents. The council is divided into several committees and passes legislation for the city. The council elects a speaker to act as the body’s leader. Like in the federal House of Representatives, bills are sent to the mayor for signature to become law. The council can also override a mayoral veto.

Because New York is made up of five boroughs, both the city and state of New York have courts in each of the five boroughs. The voters of each borough elect a district attorney. Federal courts are located in Manhattan and in Brooklyn. Each borough also has an elected borough president (who in turn has an advisory committee made up of council members and community members). While these offices are ceremonial, the borough presidents can introduce legislation in the city council and work as cheerleaders for their respective borough. Each neighborhood in the city is also part of one of 59 community boards that meet periodically to discuss local issues and recommend action, but are merely advisory in nature.

This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour. See where the city government meets on our “Foundation of New York” tour.

The Brill Building

New York is the undisputed media capital of the United States. With four American terrestrial broadcasters, many cable networks, and other media companies headquartered within the city, New York is the nexus of American media. This is in addition to New York being the capital of the country’s theater industry and a major center for the American musical industry (along with Los Angeles and Nashville, among other cities). While New York has been long a center of music and musical theater, there was a literal center of music writing at the Brill Building just north of Times Square.

The Brill Building was constructed at the corner of Broadway and 49th Street in Manhattan in 1931. Victor Bark is considered the architect of the structure. Due to its location in the midst of the Theater District and the fact that mostly music-related businesses were willing to rent space in the structure during the Great Depression, the Brill Building came to be associated with music publishing and song writing. There became such a critical concentration of song writers and other businesses in the Brill Building that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, an aspiring artist could basically do everything from writing a song, getting a tune for the song composed, and pitching it to record companies all in the same building.

Many of the chart-topping hits of the 1950s came from within the Brill Building (so much so that a “Brill Building Sound” was a sub-genre of music in the late 1950s). With changing musical tastes from the mid 1960s onward, the Brill Building Sound declined and many businesses in the building either folded or went elsewhere. Boxer Jack Dempsey had an eponymous steakhouse located on the first floor for a time from during the building’s heyday until the 1970s. In 2010, the Brill Building was declared a New York City Landmark. The building is today owned by Brookfield Properties, which is a retail developer.

This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Lincoln Tunnel

Linking Midtown Manhattan with Weehawken,NJ, the Lincoln Tunnel transports over 120,000 vehicles in one of the most important transportation links in the region and the country. Constructed between 1937 and 1957, the tunnel is actually made up of three separate tubes—all over 7,000 feet long. It gained its presidential name to put in on par with the then-recently completed George Washington Bridge up the Hudson River.

A major commission of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the governing body used their in-house engineer, Ole Singstad, as the chief of construction. When the initial tube opened, it was seen as a way to alleviate pressure on the Holland Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge. Due to high demand for the tunnel, two other tubes were completed by 1957. The tunnel was at one point going to form the western end of a planned expressway through Manhattan linking the Lincoln Tunnel with the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. While some renderings of this planned expressway had it going through the Empire State Building, the project was cancelled in the early 1970s.

Starting in the 1970s, the toll for using the tunnel began to be collected heading into New York City only. The tunnel is also famous for helping to transport commuter and intercity buses into the city and to Port Authority Bus Terminal with an exclusive bus lane (XBL) into the tunnel—bringing over 60,000 people into the city every weekday. This is they type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Jane Jacobs

Although never a politician or a bureaucrat, Jane Jacobs’ life shaped New York in many ways. She was instrumental in the preservation of many New York neighborhoods. A native of Scranton, PA, Jacobs moved to New York with her sister during the Great Depression. She subsequently found work as a writer. After her arrival to New York, she fell in love with the city, specifically Greenwich Village. Her idealization of this neighborhood led to Jacobs working to preserve this area and fight against infrastructure projects that were to radically change the face of the city.

As a writer and researcher, Jacobs was critical of poverty in Upper Manhattan, which she attributed to housing projects designed in the “tower in the park” style that she felt was socially alienating. Research she had conducted as a writer on the subject of urban studies and in writing articles was compiled into the book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jacobs would be instrumental in preserving Greenwich Village from high-rise development and stopping the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway (a planned highway project linking the Holland Tunnel with the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges).

While Jacobs’ writing continues to be influential in urban planning circles (especially in so-called “New Urbanism” theories), there has been some opposition to her theories, as it may not be practical to replicate her ideas in all environments. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Gramercy Park

At the foot of Lexington Avenue is Gramercy Park, formerly the site of a marsh (Gramercy is the anglicized version of a Dutch word meaning “Crooked Swamp”). Gramercy and the adjoining park has been the center of a high-end residential area since its creation in 1833. The park is notable because it is the only private park in Manhattan and one of only two in the entire city.

Gramercy Park is the result of a push by property developer Samuel Ruggles. Instrumental in the creation of Union Square and Madison Avenue, Ruggles donated a stretch of land that was his property. While the park was constructed in 1833, it would be years before neighboring houses would be completed. As the park is private, keys are limited to surrounding property owners and a few neighboring hotels and institutions. Keys cost hundreds of dollars for the dues-paying property owners and the locks to the park are changed annually to keep the park for the benefit of paying members.

As the area has been fashionable for nearly 200 years, it has attracted many famous people during its history. Famous architect Stanford White and actress Julia Roberts have called Gramercy Park home. Even today, the area is very serene compared to the bustle of the surrounding districts. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Chelsea

Between 14th and 34th Streets to the south and north and from Fifth Avenue and the Hudson River from east to west is Chelsea. Named by a British Royal Army officer after the UK’s military hospital in London, Chelsea was originally a residential area, later becoming industrial, and is now a mixed commercial and residential district.

Most of the neighborhood was previously a bucolic residency before the arrival of railroads in 1847. The proximity to the port made the area very industrial, especially with the Meatpacking District forming the western boundary of the neighborhood. Aside from industry, many landmark establishments such as the Hotel Chelsea in 1885 and the London Terrace apartment complex in 1930 were constructed. As industry left the area, commercial and residential buildings rose up. Chelsea also became known for having a diverse population, especially a large gay population, in the later part of the 1900s.

Chelsea has always been where many famous people have lived. The author of A Visit from Saint Nicholas, Clement Clarke Moore, was born in the neighborhood. Other people who have called the neighborhood home are Kelsey Grammar, Chelsea Clinton, and several writers and artists who stayed at the Chelsea Hotel such as Dylan Thomas and Jim Morrison. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam walking tour of NYC.

St. Paul’s Chapel

The oldest church in Manhattan, St. Paul’s Chapel functioned originally as a “chapel of ease” for Episcopal parishioners who were not able to get to the main church at Trinity Church—a 0.3 mile (or 7 block) walk away. The chapel was built in 1766 and is among one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.

Designed by Thomas McBean in the Georgian style, the church is famous for two main reasons in New York and American history. The first is following the American Revolution, when George Washington prayed at the chapel after he was inaugurated as the first president of the United States in 1789. The second was in 2001, when the chapel was spared destruction from the September 11th attacks—despite being mere blocks away from Ground Zero. The parishioners of the chapel and other volunteers served meals and and performed other services for workers at the site for months afterwards.

Aside from George Washington, many other important people such as senators, mayors of New York, and several British Revolutionary War generals have worshipped in its pews. In addition to being shown on the “Foundation of New York” tour, this is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Union Square

One of the most important intersections in the city, Union Square—located at the confluence of Chelsea, the East Village, and the Flatiron District—is a witness to the history of the city. Although mistakenly assumed to be named for the Union Army or for trade union activism, Union Square is so named because it sits where 4th Avenue, 5th Avenue, 14th Street, and Broadway all meet.

The square was the result of the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811, which formed the street grid of Manhattan. It first was an upscale residential district when it was finally laid out by the 1830s. Samuel Ruggles, the developer of Gramercy Park and Madison Avenue, was instrumental in making this a desirable area. As the population of the island began to move north, Union Square would become more commercial after the Civil War and also be the location of Manhattan’s theater district. Then as theaters began to move up to Times Square at the turn of the 20th Century, Union Square became part of a vast vice district known as the Tenderloin (which also encompassed some adjoining neighborhoods). The square cleaned up its act in the later part of the 1900s and is now surrounded by commercial areas and hotels.

Today, Union Square is known among New Yorkers for its farmer’s market, which occurs every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, as it has since the 1970s. If there is a protest of national importance, it is likely to take place in New York at Union Square. The square also sits atop a massive subway station where the Lexington Avenue IRT, Canarsie BMT, and Broadway BMT lines all converge in a massive junction—the third busiest in the NYC subway. Union Square is decorated with several statues including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the Marquis de Lafayette. This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Brooklyn Heights

Billed as America’s first suburb, Brooklyn Heights is right across the East River from Manhattan. The area is steeped in important moments in American History and is a charming area to visit today.

Although there were scattered settlers in the area since the arrival of Europeans to what is now New York City, the area now known as Brooklyn Heights was the scene of General George Washington’s retreat to Manhattan during the American Revolution in 1776. On the run from a numerically superior British force, Washington organized a retreat of the Continental Army to Manhattan by deceiving the British that the Americans had camped in Brooklyn Heights for the night while they were actually moving across the East River to New York. The area was settled as a suburb of New York after the American Revolution and was marketed as a place where well-to-do businessmen could be close enough to go to work in the city (by regular ferry service) and live in a more bucolic location. In the lead up to the Civil War in the 1850s and in 1860, abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher held court at the Plymouth Church, where he expounded upon the evils of slavery and urged his congregants to do the same. By 1900, the area was full of wood or brick row houses.

This neighborhood became more middle class after the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, but it has since become a more upscale area as property values in the city have edged ever upward. You are able to see Brooklyn Heights on the “Borough of Brooklyn” tour conducted by Sights by Sam, as well as the type of information you will learn on any Sights by Sam tour.

Brownstones

When most people think of housing in New York, they think of gleaming apartment buildings or walk-up tenements populating some of the historic neighborhoods of Manhattan. One of the most famous and most popular styles of dwelling in New York is the brownstone. Functioning as one-family residences or apartment buildings, the brownstone is an instantly recognizable landmark of the city.

Brownstone refers to a type of sandstone that has a dark red to brownish hue. Quarried in New England or the Mid-Atlantic states, this stone was very popular in the late 1800s and very early 1900s. It is most associated with row houses built in Upper Manhattan and Brooklyn during this time period. The name of the stone soon became known as a type of row house that was clad in said material. In addition to their color, brownstones are often also famous for containing rooms intended to be libraries (as this was the main form of entertainment before radio and television), tall doors, and also raised stoops that allowed residents the ability to step off of the grime and dirt of the city streets.

Although supplanted today by newer apartment buildings and detached housing in some areas of the city, brownstones are still seen as desirable—with some costing into the millions of dollars. They are highly sought after by many New Yorkers as a place to live. Brownstones are visible on the Sights by Sam tours of Brooklyn and of Harlem (our “Borough of Brooklyn” and “Upper Manhattan” tours, respectively). This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour of New York.