Things to do / Travel Guide
New York City (NYC) is home to pretty much the most diverse population in the world. The city boasts the rich and famous as its inhabitants, as well as businesspeople, students, and immigrants from all over the world. It has been the chosen destination for waves of Dutch, British, African American, Irish, German, Italian, Jewish, Eastern European, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, Korean, African, and Arab migrants over the past couple of centuries. It is a multicultural city, a multiethnic city, a multilingual city, and a multi-religious city. City Hall employs translators for 180 languages.
New York City as the “Melting Pot”
Israel Zangwill created the phrase “Melting Pot” as a description of New York, in his play of the same name about the early 1900s in the city. This period witnessed a wave of immigration from Europe that flooded the city. The “poor and downtrodden” spent their first years in the United States living together in densely-packed tenements and row houses. While working their way out of the slums, they left their indelible mark on NYC, making it the cultural mecca it is today. Thus, New York City served as a canvass of a great and colorful urban landscape.
New York City's Subways
Another integral aspect of New York City's uniqueness is that its residents are not part of the U.S. “car culture.” There are a good amount of New Yorkers who go through their entire lives without ever owning a driver's license. Everyone takes the subway; even billionaire business magnate Michael Bloomberg. The walk to and from the subway station has created a genuine pedestrian culture - one mark of which is the “New York stare.” Many New Yorkers walk the streets with their faces bearing a distant, unfocused expression, which tourists often mistake for cold-heartedness. New Yorkers are actually just as caring as most other people, and can oftentimes be most helpful and friendly.
The New York City subway system is the center of a sprawling cultural organism. Subway stations often act as venues for excellent street performances, political tirades, and people selling all kinds of trinkets. For instance, every week, the New York City Transit Authority authorizes more than 150 musical concerts at 25 locations throughout the subway system. The subway station is a mandatory campaign stop for all aspiring NYC politicians. Best of all, the subway is an excellent place to people-watch. Just make sure you bring your best New York City stare with you!
New York City's Immigrants
New York City (NYC) has always been a city of immigrants. The ethnic makeup is incomprehensibly diverse. About 45% of New Yorkers are Caucasian, 27% are African American, and another 27% are Latin American. An astounding 36% of NYC residents are foreign-born.
Many ethnicities are so largely represented that entire full-blown communities, like Chinatown, Little Italy, and Spanish Harlem, have sprung up in their main areas of residence. The immigrant culture of being driven to succeed despite hardship, so prevalent in New York City, has contributed to the city to make it the megapolis it is today. Of the five boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens are the most diverse, and Staten Island is the most homogenous.
With all of the various populations and ethnicities, and despite the babble of languages, there is one thing all these different people have in common: They are all New Yorkers. He may be the 15th generation descendant of New York socialites, or she the daughter of poor immigrants from Korea; the New York Hassid, the Harlem mechanic, the yuppie businessperson; they all make up the human stew known as New York City. Way back when, you had to travel the world in order to be a world-traveler; nowadays the world-traveler is the New Yorker, who as a matter of course can pick up food in either an eatery in Chinatown or a Michelin three-star restaurant, works on the 33rd floor of a Manhattan skyscraper, kvetches about the high rent of the neighborhood in Brooklyn, and can't decide between Hell's Kitchen or the Cyclone for the next evening off.
Despite the massive amount of tourism in the city, native New Yorkers seem to cope with the onslaught of out-of-towners with ease. This adds to the city's personality. While, on the one hand, New Yorkers have perfected the art of the mindless stare, on the other hand, when approached and asked for directions, you will usually get a courteous response. Despite opinions to the contrary, New York is one of the safest major cities to visit for all types of tourists.
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