Just a little history. New York City is in New York State, of which the capital is Albany. NYC is seen as one of the most important global cities and plays a big part in trade, finance, art, fashion, theatre, music, media and education. A lot of buildings in NYC are a symbol of the United States, think of “Lady Liberty”, the Empire State Building and, up to 2001, the Twin Towers. And ofcourse everybody knows Wall Street, which represents the financial world. New York City is divided into 5 boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and The Bronx. More than 8 million people live in those 5 boroughs. NYC is governed by a Mayor, a Public Advocate, a Controller and then each of the boroughs has its own representative.
The flag of New York City, chosen in 1915, has blue, white and orange stripes, representing the Dutch flag from way back when the Dutch settled in New York City, in 1625. The Dutch founded it as New-Amsterdam as a tradepost.
In 1664 the British took over and New York became capital of the United States during the period 1783 to 1790. Many of the Afro-Americans that had left the Southern part of the country during the big migration, moved to New York City. Early 1920’s NYC was the most urbanised area in the world. The return of the veterans, after WWII and the arrival of European immigrants caused a post-war economic growth. Which lasted until 1960 and then things started to go bad. Recession, increasing crime rates and tensions between the different races did not bring anything good to the city. In the eighties the financial sector grew and things went upwards. Crime rates dropped and a lot of immigrants arrived from Asia and Latin America. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 destroyed the World Trade Center and killed almost 3000 people. The towers of the WTC have been replaced by the Dreamtower and a monument has been build.
There are different stories about where the name “The Big Apple” comes from. Many say that the name was made famous by journalist John Fitzgerald. He wrote a lot of articles about horseraces and would have gotten the name from jockeys and trainers from New Orleans. They referred to Manhattan as the “Big Apple”, an attractive place, because Manhattan had good pricemoney and offered many possibilities. John published a story in the New York Morning Telegraph titled “Around the Big Apple”. Late in the 90’s, the place where John Fitzgerald lived for some 30 years, the corner of 54th street and Broadway, was named “Big Apple Corner”. That name was later taken over by the American Jazzscene who used it to attract a crowd. In the sixties the image of NYC turned bad and people associated the city with danger and agression. In order to turn this around, a promotional advertisingcampagne was started with the I ? NY theme and a picture of a shiny healthy apple. A rarely popular campagne which is ongoing. “The City that never sleeps” refers to the 24/7 economy and lifestyle.
