Culture of New York City

The people of New York City, New Yorkers, share a unique culture rooted in centuries of immigration and city life. There is considerable diversity in this local culture, varying by ethnic group, social class, and neighborhood.

To some observers, New York, with its large immigrant population, is more a quintessentially cosmopolitan, global city than something specifically “American”, but to others, the city’s very openness to newcomers makes it an archetypal city in a “nation of immigrants”. The city government maintains translators in 180 languages; the term “melting pot” was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side.

Everyday life for New Yorkers is often compared to that of urban Western Europeans. The ‘car culture’ that dominates most of the United States is displaced by New York’s overwhelming use of public transit. Many New Yorkers live in compact rental apartments. The city’s food culture, influenced by its immigrants and vast number of dining patrons, is incredibly diverse.

Jewish and Italian immigrants made New York famous for bagels and pizza. Numerous delicatessens serve authentic Eastern European and Jewish cuisine, towering corned beef and pastrami sandwiches being a local favorite. More recent arrivals have made falafels and kebabs standbys of contemporary New York street food.

There are many stereotypes about “The City That Never Sleeps.” The American idiom “in a New York minute” means “immediately.” The “sophisticated New Yorker” often defines American notions of urbanity.

Immigration and ethnicity

To some observers, New York, with its large immigrant population, seems more of an international city than something specifically “American”. But to others, the city’s very openness to newcomers makes it the archetype of a “nation of immigrants”. Among large American cities only Los Angeles receives more immigrants, but immigration to New York is considerably more diverse. It is not without reason that the city government maintains translators in 180 languages.

For illustration, although New York has a larger Jewish population than Jerusalem, still a majority of city residents are non-white. Residents are accustomed to thinking of everyone in the city as a member of a minority in some sense, but they also have a shared identity as New Yorkers. The term “melting pot” derives from the play The Melting Pot, by Israel Zangwill, who adapted Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to a setting in the Lower East Side. The phrase referred to the densely populated neighborhoods of lower Manhattan, where droves of immigrants from diverse European nations in the early 1900s learned to live together in tenements and row houses for the first time.

The cultural diversity of New York can be seen in the range of official city holidays. With the growth of New York’s South Asian community, Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, was recently added to the calendar.

As in many major cities, immigrants to New York often congregate in ethnic enclaves where they can talk and shop and work with people from their country of origin. This phenomena is more pronounced in New York than in other U.S. cities, and the five boroughs are home to many distinct communities of Irish, Italians, Chinese, Korean, Puerto Ricans, Caribbeans, Hasidic Jews and many others, though there are also more multi-ethnic or cosmopolitan neighborhoods where people of different backgrounds can coexist in ease or in tension.

Many of the largest city-wide annual events are parades celebrating the heritage of New York’s ethnic communities. Attendance at the biggest ones by city and state politicians is politically obligatory. These include the St Patrick’s Day Parade, probably the top Irish heritage parade in the Americas, the Puerto Rican Day Parade, which often draws up to 3 million spectators, the African-American Caribbean Labor Day Parade, among the largest parades in North America, and the Chinese New Year Parade. New Yorkers of all stripes gather together for these spectacles. Other significant parades include the Gay Pride Parade, Greenwich Village Halloween Parade and the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, all icons in the city’s counter-culture pantheon.

New York City has a larger Jewish population than any other city in the world. Approximately one million New Yorkers, or about 13 percent, are Jewish. [1] Percentage-wise, this is second largest percentage in the United States after Miami, Florida. As a result, New York City culture has borrowed certain elements of Jewish culture, such as bagels. New York City is also home to the Jewish Theological Seminary, the world headquarters of Orthodox Judaism, as well as the headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League. Abraham D. Beame was New York City’s first Jewish mayor, and the current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is also of Jewish descent.

Urban lifestyle

The everyday lifestyle of New Yorkers differs substantially from that of other Americans, and has in some ways been compared to that of urban Western Europeans. Despite the best efforts of Robert Moses, residents are less attuned than other Americans to the ‘car culture’ that dominates most of the country. The well-designed New York City Subway and the threat of congestion keep six in ten residents, including many middle class professionals, out of cars and off of the highways. Even the city’s billionaire mayor is known to take the train to City Hall each morning. This pattern is strongest for Manhattanites, who live in an area with better subway service and worse traffic, but more moderated for residents of the outer boroughs, especially in more peripheral areas, though many here too commute by train to Manhattan. Also in Manhattan, between subway stops and destinations, is built up the “walking city”, a real pedestrian culture unrivaled in the U.S.

Unlike most Americans, although less atypically for city dwellers, the great majority of New Yorkers rent their housing in what is usually seen as a very overpriced and difficult market at all ends. In this crowded city few can afford the closet space they feel they really need, and self-storage is a strong local industry. Again, the pattern is strongest in Manhattan and moderated but still present in the outer boroughs, which do have a number of suburban-style homes. Growing up in an ultra-cosmopolitan city like New York can sometimes foster an impressive cultural awareness.

One outcome of the city’s extensive mass transit use is a robust local newspaper industry. The readership of many New York dailies is comprised in large part by transit riders who read during their commutes. The three-day transit strike in December 2005 briefly depressed circulation figures, underscoring the relationship between the city’s commuting culture and newspaper readership.

With nearly 8 million people riding the transit network each day, the system is also a major venue for commerce, entertainment and political activism. Campaigning at subway stations is a staple of New York elections akin to candidate appearances at small town diners during presidential campaigns in the rest of the country. Each week, more than 100 musicians and ensembles - ranging in genre from classical to Cajun, bluegrass, African, South American and jazz - give over 150 performances sanctioned by New York City Transit at 25 locations throughout the subway system.

The subways of New York have been venues for beauty pageants and guerrilla theater. The MTA’s annual Miss Subways contest ran from 1941 to 1976 and again in 2004 (under the revised name “Ms Subways”). Past Ms Subways winners include Eleanor Nash, an FBI clerk described by her poster that hung in subway cars in 1960 as “young, beautiful and expert with a rifle.” The 2004 Ms Subways winner, Caroline Sanchez-Bernat, was an actress who played a role in Sunday Brunch 4. The 35-minute piece of performance art was a full enactment of a Sunday brunch - including crisp white tablecloth, spinach salad appetizer and attentive waiter in black tuxedo - performed aboard a southbound A Train in 2000. With subway riders looking on, the actors chatted amiably about Christmas, exchanged gifts and signed for a package delivered by a UPS man who entered the scene at the West 34th Street stop.

Hard-boiledness

The common stereotype is of the “hard-boiled New Yorker.” Denizens of the fast-paced big city are seen as self-centered, rude, mercantile, and brusque, with no time to spare for anyone else. These characters will not hold the door for anyone, will not obey the “NO WALK” pedestrian signal, and will scoff the genial tourist who does both of these. They are urban cynics who openly mock and may even deliberately misguide naive tourists unfamiliar with the wiles of city life. And supposedly, New Yorkers are so jaded that things that others would consider drawbacks to life in The City (crime, prostitution, pollution, noise, street harassment, etc.) are instead marks of pride, the very lures that keep them from ever leaving.

Some of this caricature is based on fact, some on misunderstanding, and much on ignorance. A visitor from a small town can have trouble understanding the situation of someone who daily walks through what is an essentially infinite social universe. When New Yorkers encounter so many random people a day, it should not be surprising if they exchange greetings with them less often than in places where strangers can be something of a novelty.

Though crime has declined in recent years, the standard underground defense mechanism remains the “subway stare”, a studiedly unfocused expression designed not to be reacted to. But life in New York, though a bit neurotic, is essentially normal, filled with feeling, caring people whose reality is hardly reflected in old myths about urbanism that go back to stories of Babylon.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the old stereotype, for a time at least, was turned around as Americans felt increased sympathy with New Yorkers. In the city itself, attitudes have also changed in some ways, but stayed the same in others. For example, pride in the city and their way of life have increased for many, though others show signs of paranoia. Cabbies still drive recklessly, though some civilian drivers are more polite than previously.

Arts

New York is an important global hub for music, film, theater, dance and visual art. Important cultural movements have long been part of the city’s history. The Harlem Renaissance established the African-American literary cannon in the United States. The New York School of painters, which developed abstract expressionism in the post-World War II period, became the first truly original school of painting in America. Bob Dylan came to national prominence in the folk music scene of Greenwich Village in the 1960s. The earliest sounds of “punk rock” and “new wave” styles of music were first heard in Lower Manhattan clubs in the 1970s. Hip-hop first emerged in the Bronx in the 1980s.

The city has more than 2,000 arts and cultural non-profits, over 500 art galleries, internationally-acclaimed educational institutions, and premier art museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.[4] The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a vast assemblage of historic art, while the Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim and Whitney Museum of American Art boast important collections of 20th century art in the United States.

The American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium focus on the sciences. There are also many smaller specialty museums, from El Museo del Barrio with a focus on Latin American cultures to the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design to the International Center of Photography and The Museum of Television and Radio. There is even a Museum of the City of New York. A number of the city’s museums are located along the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue.

New York is also one of only five cities in the United States with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines: the New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, and the Public Theater. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, actually a complex of buildings housing 12 separate companies, is the largest arts institution in the world. It is also home to the internationally-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center. Other notable performance halls include Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Literature and visual arts

The city’s vibrant visual art scene gave birth to such giants as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Roy Lichtenstein, who defined the American pop art movement. Abstract expressionism, which developed in New York in the post-World War II period, became the first truly original school of painting in America. The New York artists who defined this style, including Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, were known as the New York School.

New York has also been the setting for countless works of literature, many of them produced by the city’s famously large population of writers, including Jonathan Franzen, Don DeLillo, Jhumpa Lahiri, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jonathan Lethem, Thomas Pynchon, Susan Sontag, Arthur Miller, and many others. Jewish American literature has also flourished in New York City due to the extremely high concentration of Jews in the area.

Film and theater

New York City boasts a highly active and influential theater district, which is centered around Times Square in Manhattan. It serves both as the center of American theater and is a major attraction for visitors from around the world. The dozens of theaters in this district are responsible for tens of thousands of jobs, and help contribute billions of dollars every year to the city’s economy. Along with those of London’s West End theater district, Broadway theaters are considered to be of the highest quality in the world.

Despite the name, many “Broadway” theaters do not lie on Broadway the street, and the distinction with Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway (which tend more toward experimental theater) is simply a reference to the seating capacity of the theater.

Because of its sheer size and cultural influence, New York City has been the subject of many different, and often contradictory, portrayals in mass media. From the sophisticated and worldly metropolis seen in many Woody Allen films, to the chaotic urban jungle depicted in such movies as Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, New York has served as the unwitting backdrop for virtually every conceivable viewpoint on big city life. New York’s portrayal on television is similarly varied, with a disproportionate number of crime dramas taking place in the city despite the fact that it is one of the safest cities in the United States.

As the capital of independent American cinema, New York is home to a number of important film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Music
Main article: Music of New York City
With its connection to media and communications and its mix of cultures and immigrants, New York City has had a long history of association with American music. The city has served as an important center for many different genres of music ranging from Big Band Era and jazz, from Punk Rock to Any types Heavy Metal, Goth and Hip-hop (the latter of which is generally acknowledged as having originated in the Bronx around 1973).

The East Village and Lower East Side continue to shine as the city’s premier destination for music (rock, blues, jazz, dance), art (mixed media) and indie theater (experimental, off-broadway.) From CBGB’s to LaMama Theater to the Amato Opera House, this area is famous for having a “venue on every block.” New York was also home to the controversial talk show host Howard Stern.

Public art

New York City has a law that requires no less than 1% of the first twenty million dollars of a building project, plus no less than one half of 1% of the amount exceeding twenty million dollars be allocated for art work in any public building that is owned by the city. The maximum allocation for any site is $400,000.

Sports culture

Although in much of the rest of the country American football has surpassed baseball as the most popular professional sport, in New York baseball arguably still stirs the most passion and interest. A World Series championship by the New York Yankees is considered to be worthy of the highest celebration, including a ticker-tape parade for the victorious team. This is also perhaps because the city’s baseball teams have had better winning records than the city’s other teams, especially the football teams. New Yorkers, however, tend to rally around any of the local teams who win (such as the 1994 Stanley Cup champions New York Rangers) For most baseball fans, the most intense rivalry is between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

New York has an intense rivalry with the city of Boston, Massachusetts. This is perhaps the most infamous city rivalry in the United States.

Current issues

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, pride in the city and the New York way of life increased for many. A period of economic uncertainty after the attacks has subsided. Recent polls show record satisfaction with life in the city.

There are several significant concerns New Yorkers face. Gentrification has reached nearly every neighborhood in the city, even in long-depressed areas such as the South Bronx. This has driven a historic rise in property values and reinvigorated many communities, but has also pushed housing costs ever higher. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made making the city’s public school system “second to none” the signature issue of his tenure. Although many national education experts regard New York as national pioneer in reform, the quality of the city’s school system remains an important political issue in the city.

Tourism
Some 39 million foreign and American tourists visit New York each year. According to some estimates, as many as one in four Americans can trace their roots to Brooklyn. Many visitors investigate their genealogy at historic immigration sites such as Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Other tourist destinations include the Empire State Building, for 40 years the world’s tallest building after its construction in 1931, Radio City Music Hall, home of The Rockettes, a variety of Broadway shows, the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, housed on a World War II aircraft carrier, shopping districts like Fifth Avenue, and city landmarks such as Central Park, which is one of the finest examples of landscape architecture in the world. Other major parks in the city include Riverside Park, Battery Park, Bryant Park, Prospect Park, Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, Washington Square Park, and Forest Park.

Maritime attractions include the South Street Seaport, site of a historic port, and the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, housed in a World War II aircraft carrier docked on the Hudson River.

Shopping is popular with many visitors, with Fifth Avenue being a famous shopping corridor for luxury items. Macy’s, the nation’s largest department store, and the surrounding area of Herald Square are a major destination for more moderately-priced goods. In recent years 23rd Street has become a major location for “big-box” retailers. In southern Manhattan, Greenwich Village is home to hundreds of independent music and book stores, while the East Village continues to prevail as purveyors of all things “strange” and unusual which you can’t find anywhere else. The diamond district around 47th Streetbetween Fifth and Sixth Avenue is one of the three primary centers of the global diamond industry (along with Antwerp, Belgium and South Africa), as well as the premiere center for jewelry shopping in the cityis the city’s main location for jewelry shopping. SoHo, formerly the center of the New York art scene, is now famous for high-priced clothing boutiques, and the art galleries are now concentrated in Chelsea. There are also large shopping districts found in Downtown Brooklyn and along Queens Boulevard in Queens.

The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in New York on November 27, 1924. Since then this has been an annual event drawing tens of thousands of spectators and in later years millions of television viewers. Annually on New Year’s Eve, hundreds of thousands of people congregate in Times Square to watch the ball drop as millions watch on television.

The World Trade Center was an important tourist destination before the September 11, 2001 attacks, which devastated the city and its tourist industry. The city was nearly devoid of tourists for months, and it took two years for the numbers to fully rebound with fewer international, but more domestic visitors. Now the World Trade Center site has itself become an important place for visitors to see.

Many tourists only think of New York in terms of Manhattan, but there are four other boroughs which, if they can’t compete in skyscrapers, still offer other kinds of attractions. Brooklyn’s old Coney Island is still a center of seaside recreation, with its beach, boardwalk, and amusement parks. Many enjoy the spectacular views available from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry. The Bronx Zoo is world-famous, and the Bronx Bombers don’t play in Manhattan. Flushing, Queens is home to the legacy of the 1964 New York World’s Fair (including the Unisphere), the U.S. Open in tennis and Shea Stadium.