Tag: History

Your City and New York: Cincinnati

Being my hometown, Cincinnati will always have a special place in my heart.  It shares many things with New York.  Some of the landmarks that make New York recognizable had their dry run in Cincinnati.

Although it may seem hard to believe now, Cincinnati was once the fifth largest city in the U.S.  The city was founded along the Ohio River near the confluence of this river and the Licking (you could say it would be similar to New York in that there are three rivers in the city if Mill Creek or one of the Miami Rivers were counted).  In its industrial heyday, the city was the destination for many Germans, people from the Appalachian Mountains, and African Americans from the South.  Before deindustrialization in the 1960s and 1970s, the West End neighborhood was the most densely populated section of an American city outside of New York.  To most people, Cincinnati is famous for being the home of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, as well as having the most touristed museum in Ohio (the Cincinnati Museum Center), and being the setting for WKRP in Cincinnati and a stand-in for Monticello on most of The Edge of Night’s run.

In terms of the connections between New York and Cincinnati, two of the most recognizable landmarks of the city, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building, have their prototypes in Cincinnati: the Roebling Bridge (1867) and the Carew Tower (built between 1927 and 1931).  The Roebling Bridge has only two lanes, but demonstrated that the suspension bridge technology was feasible, and was the longest bridge in the world when first constructed—like the Brooklyn Bridge.  The Carew Tower was originally envisioned to anchor a Rockefeller-Center-like complex,  but the Great Depression put a stop to this plan.  Although it was not designed by the same architectural firm as the Empire State Building, the Art-Deco Carew Tower (believed to be the largest French Art Deco building in the world) was believed to be the design inspiration for the Empire State Building.  The Carew Tower was anchored by a department store and is still the site of one of the grandest hotels in the country, the Netherland Hotel.

With respect to other similarities, Cincinnati, like New York, is a treasure trove of Art Deco architecture: containing an Art Deco train station (Union Terminal), airport terminal (at Lunken Field, built around the same time as LaGuardia), and other buildings scattered throughout the area.  The designer of the Woolworth Building, Cass Gilbert, was also responsible for designing the PNC Tower (formerly the Central Trust Bank Building) in 1913.  In terms of more recent arrivals to the city, hipsters have begun to stage a Williamsburg-like transformation of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood just outside of Downtown Cincinnati.  The cities also share an equal passion for baseball—with the Cincinnati Reds having met the New York Yankees in the World Series three times (1939, 1961, and 1976).

There are many other similarities between these two great cities.  If you are from the Cincinnati region and would like to see sights in New York that have a connection to the Queen City, you may be able to arrange this through a customized tour with Sights by Sam.

The Yiddish Rialto

Today the beginning of Second Avenue in the East Village is a commercial strip and an up and coming residential area.  In the early part of the 20th Century, this area, then in the center of the Jewish Lower East Side, was the location of a thriving live theater district.  Colloquially, this area was called the Yiddish Rialto after the language the vast majority of the immigrants spoke and the area in Venice, Italy.  This theater district experienced its heyday from the turn of the 20th century and the 1950s.

In the late 1800s to early 1900s, around two million Eastern European Jews arrived in New York, fleeing religious persecution in their former homelands.  They mainly settled in the Lower Eat Side of New York and often worked in menial jobs in sweatshops or hawking items from pushcarts.  The main source of entertainment for many of these immigrants was Yiddish theater.  The first one was in the Lower East Side on Grand Street, but the district soon spread to Second Avenue, with over a dozen Yiddish language theaters lining the street.  In the beginning, Yiddish theater used Shakespearean plays or borrowed themes from other theater productions, but soon came into its own, with original productions being produced.  Actors such as Jacob Adler and Fyvush Finkel both got their starts in Yiddish theater productions.  Songwriters Ira and George Gershwin also were great fans of Yiddish theater in their youth.  At one point, there were over 20 Yiddish language theaters in the district, rivaling Times Square as the second largest theater district in the city.  The rise of Yiddish theaters also promoted a rise in new businesses such as restaurants and clubs around where the theaters were located, such as the Second Avenue Deli (which opened at the time that the district started to decline).

In the 1950s, with the arrival of television and changing settlement patterns—where Jews were leaving the neighborhood, the Rialto fell into decline and vanished.  An additional factor in the district’s decline was that many Jewish immigrants did not teach their children Yiddish in order to help them assimilate into American society.  Today there is only one Yiddish theater company in the East Village.  There is also the Yiddish Theater Walk of Fame where the Second Avenue Deli used to be at the corner of 10th Street and Second Avenue.  You can see the former Yiddish Rialto on the Sights by Sam tour, “Lost in the Lower East Side.”

Manhattan Civic Center

New York has been the largest city in our country since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.  The city covers over 300 miles and has over eight million people within its borders.  Governing this city is no easy task.

In addition to an elected mayor, comptroller, and public advocate (who acts as a watchdog/ombudsman for the citizens of the city), a 51-member city council governs the city.  The council meets in a stately building located at the heart of the Manhattan Civic Center.  Built in 1811, the building was designed by Joseph-Francois Mangin and John McComb Jr..  City Hall was built at the then Northern edge of the city.  It was originally clad in marble on three sides–the northern side used another type of stone as some in the city government felt the city would never expand far enough north where people would notice (the building was restored in Alabama limestone in the 1950s).  The building is done up in a French Renaissance style on the outside.  The interior has a more English Georgian style.  The building also has a portrait collection worth millions of dollars.  The governor’s room, originally for use when the governor of New York was in the city, now houses a desk used by George Washington and a desk used by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (if you take my tours, you will know he is my favorite mayor).  The building is the meeting place for the City Council and used to have a second chamber for the Board of Estimate, which was declared unconstitutional in the 1980s.  The Board’s chambers are now used by the Mayor of New York.

Across City Hall Park from the City Hall is the Municipal Building.  This hulking edifice containing 1 million square feet of office space and housing a couple thousand workers was built to consolidate numerous city departments.  The building, opened in 1916 and designed by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, is 580’ tall, has a subway station built into it, and arches made out of Guastavino tiling on the outside.  The building also has a statue at the top, the gold-covered Civic Fame, sculpted by Adolph Weinman, which symbolizes the union of the five boroughs in 1898.  The five pointed crown is evident of this.

The Municipal Building also contains one of the most unique gift shops in the city–the CityStore, which being run by the city, has gifts such as park signage, taxi medallions, and municipal books that are difficult to obtain elsewhere.

There are numerous court buildings in the area, but that will be the subject of another entry at another time.  You can learn about these on a Sights by Sam tour of Lower Manhattan.

Real Estate in the City

One of the great foundation myths/stories of New York is that Dutch governor Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island, a narrow, rocky island at the edge of the known world in 1625, for the equivalent of $26 of glass beads and clocks given to the Leni-Lenape tribe.  Some say the Native Americans won out on the deal as they had no concept of ownership or that the land was that of another tribe and happily walked away with their new goods.  Either way, it cemented the notion that real estate in New York is one of the most important parts of the city’s history and economy.  While this entry attempts to explain some of the history and trends with real estate in the city, it is by no means authoritative.

As the supply of land is finite and New York has been the preeminent city and entrepôt for the U.S. since the 1800s, having enough room to house people who want to and have to live in the city has been one of the most pressing issues in the city’s history.  Because of these factors, the price of housing in New York is among the highest in the country.  It is estimated that there are nearly 3.4 million units of housing in the city (ranging from single room apartments to mansions).  A 2016 survey conducted by the city showed that Queens had a vacancy rate in housing of around two percent while Manhattan had a four percent housing vacancy (the Bronx and Brooklyn fell between these two while Staten Island’s was not reported).  The supply of housing is controlled by various factors such as land use regulations and if a property may be in a historic area (as landmarked properties cannot be redeveloped).  The increasing gentrification of certain neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens has also created pressure on housing in the city as lower income individuals have a harder time finding housing.  Additionally, the arrival of many super tall residential structures in Midtown Manhattan where many units are occupied only part time by their owners has created controversy as well.

In terms of commercial real estate, the prices of commercial real estate has mirrored greater economic trends.  The firm of Prudential has shown that real estate prices (for commercial structures)  in New York have followed greater economic trends over time (rising in boom times and falling during recessions or depressions) but have continued to inch upward.  In terms of commercial real estate, the city also has to compete with other American and global cities to provide the best amenities for businesses, resulting in the building and renovating of many commercial buildings.  Although debated hotly in academic circles, some social scientists feel that a boom of commercial skyscraper construction is the sign of an impending recession or depression.

To many around the world, New York represents not only freedom, but also a safe haven—as shown in the amount of real estate holdings by individuals or corporations based outside of the city and the country.  It has been calculated that the average price per square foot in Manhattan is around $1400—with some areas of the island reaching double that amount.  Both real estate and associated construction are also an important economic generator for the city and thousands of workers.  This is the type of information that you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Law and Order in the City

The New York Police Department (NYPD) works to uphold the law in all 300+ square miles of the city.  The NYPD has 49,500 officers (additionally there are 120 equine officers and 34 canine officers) working out of 77 precincts, 12 transit divisions, and 9 public housing division districts.  The NYPD has been portrayed in countless books, movies, and television shows.  While the department has come under fire from time to time, “New York’s Finest” help to protect the city for native and visitor alike.  Eleven other city agencies and several state and federal law enforcement agencies also have a presence in the city (including the Port Authority Police officers you will see at airports, and around Port Authority property such as the World Trade Center complex and the bus station).

In the 1600s, the Dutch organized a night watch to patrol the city.  Judgment was often fierce and brutal–with banishment a particularly favored penalty.  Law enforcement remained a very informal affair until the 1840s, when the city organized a municipal police force.  For a time, there were two police forces: the municipal force and a New York State-dominated Metropolitan police force in the 1850s.  As a result of a massive riot between the two police forces and street gangs in 1857, the municipal police were disbanded and law enforcement reformed into the NYPD.  There have been ups and downs in the department’s history: Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner in the late 1800s.  Endemic corruption n the department was an issue of concern in the early 1930s and in the 1970s.  Starting in the 1990s, the NYPD has been lauded in its role in helping to make New York one of the safest large cities in the country.

The NYPD maintained a small but fascinating museum in Lower Manhattan that documented the history of the department and hosted several events—including an auto show consisting of old police cars and the NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit (SWAT team) vehicles.  This museum was sadly damaged during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and is looking to reopen in the near future.  This is the type of information you will learn on a Sights by Sam tour.

Federal Hall

Ninety miles down the New Jersey Turnpike from New York lies Philadelphia, the former capital of the United States and the site of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated upon and agreed.  Many visitors to Philadelphia may not realize that the first government of the United States (after the American Revolution) was based out of New York City.  The seat of the government was Federal Hall.

Federal Hall stands at the confluence of Wall Street and Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, within very very easy walking distance of the New York Stock Exchange and the House of Morgan.  The structure that stands here now was built as a Custom House in 1842.  This building was designed by John Frazee in a neoclassical style.  It later became a subtreasury annex before being declared a National Historic Site in the 1930s.  Today, it contains exhibits about the National Park System in New York City and memorabilia associated with George Washington being inaugurated as president, including the Bible he used during the inauguration ceremony.

The original building for Federal Hall, however, was built in 1700 and served as the City Hall for New York.  It housed the council and the courts.  It was here that the Zenger trial of 1735 took place, which helped to establish the precedence of Freedom of the Press.  After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the United States under the Articles of Confederation met here, where they voted to approve the Northwestern Ordinance of 1787—annexing several new territories west of the Appalachian Mountains into the U.S. to become states eventually.  When the Constitution was ratified, Congress met here for only one year in 1789, where they approved the Bill of Rights and the Judiciary Act.  When Congress moved to Philadelphia the next year (in preparation to move to Washington, D.C.), the building became the City Hall of New York again.  The original structure was demolished in 1812 when the current City Hall was completed.

While not as high in the minds of many visitors as Independence Hall, Federal Hall is a place of important historic pilgrimage as many of the rights that all Americans enjoy today were secured in this important building.  You can see the statue of President George Washington and the imposing facade of Federal Hall on a Sights by Sam “Foundation of New York” tour.

Keeping the City Clean

With over eight million people in New York, keeping the city clean is a herculean task.  Every day, 10,500 tons of trash and 1760 tons of recyclables are collected for disposal or reprocessing by the city.   An additional 13,000 tons is collected from businesses or commercial buildings by private waste haulers.  The refuse is mostly exported to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia, among other states.  With garbage disposal becoming the single largest line-item expense on the municipal budget and legislators in destination states looking to tighten the importation of refuse into their states, the city is seeking to create no landfill waste by 2030.  The results of this initiative remain to be seen.

Like many large cities around the world, New York’s problem with waste has been a constant problem through its entire history.  In the colonial era, citizens allowed pigs to roam free on the streets to help keep refuse at bay.  This did not work well as disease epidemics were rampant during the colonial era as a result of uncollected refuse and unclean conditions.  While commercial and wealthier areas hired private companies to cart garbage away, most of the streets of the city were covered in assorted filth.  Citizens of the city had been resigned to this nasty circumstance as a fact of life—especially in poorer areas like the Lower East Side.  Unified garbage collection was started when the city formed a Department of Sanitation (DSNY, founded as the Department of Street Cleaning) in the 1880s.  In 1894, George Waring was appointed commissioner.  During his tenure, the city really cleaned up as the department was reorganized along military lines and the city given a good cleaning.

The DSNY works around the clock to keep the city clean with 2230 sanitation vehicles, 450 mechanical brooms used to sweep the streets, and 7,200 workers who keep the city clean.  A deposit law in New York State also encourages people to turn in recyclables (and led to an army of “canners” collecting discarded beverage containers all over the city).  Since no neighborhood wants to exclusively host trash facilities, DSNY garages and transfer stations are interspersed throughout the city, even in more upmarket areas such as the Upper East Side and Chelsea.  As mentioned earlier, there are no landfills in the city, although ones existed at Fresh Kills in Staten Island and Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn (two of the more apt names for landfill locations, even though “kill” is Dutch for creek).  While you will probably only see a garbage truck or two or a sanitation team on a Sights by Sam  tour, it is important to remember where your waste goes while in the city.

Lower East Side

Long considered by many “where America begins,” the Lower East Side has seen successive waves of immigrants live in its teeming buildings.  Irish, German, Italian, Jewish, Puerto Rican, African-American, and Chinese arrivals have contributed to what the Lower East Side is today.

In the early 1800s, New York expanded northward and the land was settled.  Industry located at the former Collect Pond (near Foley Square and the court complex) was relocated, the pond drained, and the land filled in.  New housing was built, but began to sag under the wet land—making the area undesirable.  Immigrants working at the nearby wharfs and docks on the East River made this district their home, including many Irish and Germans.  As more immigrants came to this area, they crowded into apartments and tenements that were built to house the masses.  Beginning in the late 1800s and lasting into the 1920s, Jews and other Eastern European immigrants fleeing persecution and war in Europe fled to America and to the Lower East Side.  Being one of the most densely populated areas in the country (and some would say the world) during this wave of immigration, many families worked from home sewing clothes in piecemeal fashion or in sweatshops.  Other enterprising residents of the neighborhood sold food and nearly every other household necessity out of pushcarts that crowded up and down the streets of the district.  Between the 1920s and 1960s, when there was a limit on foreign immigration, African Americans from the South and Puerto Ricans came to settle in the neighborhood.  The neighborhood entered a downward spiral between the 1960s and the 1980s due to less civic investment (the parcel where the Essex Crossing property development is being built was leveled in the early 1960s and left empty for nearly 50 years), neighborhood residents leaving for more spacious quarters in the Outer Boroughs and beyond, and rising crime rates (which have since fallen dramatically).

Starting in the 1990s and continuing to today, wealthier arrivals to the neighborhood have changed the character of the Lower East Side.  The area has attracted higher end businesses to the neighborhood, and new civic amenities such as the New Museum.  Longtime residents and businesses have been displaced.  This has created challenges, but is attracting another wave of new arrivals to the neighborhood—as has happened throughout its history.  With that said, there are still remnants of the old neighborhood in some of the old businesses along Houston Street, the Essex Street Market (which was built as a civic improvement project to take pushcart vendors off the streets), and grand religious structures such as the Bialystoker Synagogue.  Currently on Sundays, Orchard Street is closed so that shoppers can go down the street to the many clothing shops that still line it—as some of their ancestors may have done more than a century ago.

Throughout its history, the Lower East Side has been a beacon to newcomers to the city and to the country.  Any visitor should see this dynamic neighborhood, especially on a Sights by Sam -led tour, such as “Lost in the Lower East Side.

Coney Island

Synonymous with summer and sun worship, Coney Island in Brooklyn is an integral part of the culture and history of the city.  The area is actually no longer an island (due to public works projects after World War II), but it still feels like a getaway from the bustle of Manhattan.

The etymology of Coney Island is shrouded in historical uncertainty, but it is believed to be a corruption of the Dutch name, which translates into “island of rabbits.”  Resorts started appearing in the mid-1800s.  Efforts to preserve the area as wilderness in the 1800s failed as the area became saturated with hotels, restaurants, and other establishments near the beaches.  In the 1880s, amusement parks were established, with Luna Park, Astroland, and Steeplechase Park among the more recognizable.  Due to changing consumer patterns and people leaving New York City after World War II, the area fell into decline.  Amusement parks closed and there was a protracted battle to redevelop the area.  Other development efforts in the region have included a new baseball stadium (built), casinos, and proposals for new amusement parks.

While the amusement parks of the past have receded into history, there are still many attractions worth making a trip out for.  Coney Island has the closest beach to the city, making it very popular on summer days with nice weather.  If amusement attractions are more your thing, there are rides including bumper cars and merry-go-rounds.  Two of the most famous are Deno’s Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone rollercoaster (in service since the 1920s—and possibly the only landmarked rollercoaster in a major city).  Many bars and restaurants abound as well.  For those who like baseball, the New York Mets’ single-A level affiliate Brooklyn Cyclones play ball at a ballpark facing the Atlantic Ocean.  From the outfield of the park (and through most of Coney Island), the former Parachute Jump ride is visible.  This attraction first premiered at the 1939 World’s Fair.  Although it no longer offers rides, it is periodically lit up at night by thousands of LEDs and often displays psychedelic patterns.

Coney Island may no longer have rabbits, but it is a welcome trip on any hot summer day.  For the area at its best (and a real sight in New York), it may be worth seeing the Mermaid Day Parade in late June, where revelers dress up as sea creatures.  Consider taking a tour of Brooklyn with Sights by Sam.

The Apollo Theater—A Harlem Legend

Sitting near the intersection of 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard is the world-famous Apollo Theater.  Known for its Amateur Nights every Wednesday and being the destination of emerging acts and some of the most famous of all time alike, the Apollo Theater is one of the cornerstones of Harlem and of African American culture in the city and the country.  Through its Amateur Night and former show Showtime at the Apollo, which was beamed nationwide from 1987 to 2004, most Americans should have at least a familiarity with this famed venue.

The 1500+ seat venue was designed by George Keister in a neoclassical architectural style.  The theater began life in 1913 as a burlesque theater open to whites only that was called Hurtig and Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater (named after its owners).  When Fiorello LaGuardia became mayor in 1933, he sought to end vice and burlesque in the city, including Hurtig and Seamon’s theater.  Theater owner Sidney Cohen bought the theater and integrated it, making it one of the most popular venues in the city—and giving it the current name.  Between the 1930s and the 1990s, the theater would change hands several times, including being owned by former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton.  In 1991, the nonprofit Apollo Theater Foundation began to manage the theater.  The theater and famous marquee were restored in the 2000s, helping the Apollo Theater to go confidently into the next 80 years.

In terms of performers at the Apollo, the list of people who have premiered there or played sold out shows is a veritable who’s who of some of the greatest talents in America.  Artists such as Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey made their debuts at the Apollo.  Other great singers and performers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and Billie Holliday were all performing when the theater first opened.  Others such as Tito Puente, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Aretha Franklin would be major performers in the 1960s and 1970s.  In the 2000s, the theater has become a place of pilgrimage after famous performers such as Michael Jackson, James Brown, and Prince passed away.  A walk of fame under the Apollo Theater shows some of the greatest performers to ever take the stage of the theater.

The Apollo Theater forms an important place in African American culture in New York and in the musical history of our country.  You can see the Apollo Theater and the Walk of Fame on a Sights by Sam tour of Upper Manhattan.