Talk:New York City/Archive 8

This is an archive of past discussions about New York City. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 5

Archive 6

Archive 7

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Pictures

I haven't edited this article in a while. We are back to having all but one picture be of Manhattan. A little bird once told me there were other boroughs, though. –Joke 03:42, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Why are there two pictures of Central Park? One needs to go. --Aude (talk) 03:44, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

As of this writing, the image of Central Park in the Environment section doesn't appear to display on my end. (The raw Wiki code is shown instead). Anyone else have this problem? Rmannion 06:08, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I have the same problem w/ central park not showing. futurebird 06:38, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Same here - it shows in preview mode though. I tried adding underscores for the spacing, but that didn't help. -- Siobhan Hansa 15:06, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Joke, you're right that there should be more images of the outer boroughs. I've put in pics of Fordham in the Bronx and PS 1 in Queens. Even more important than photos of the outer boroughs are good quality photos. Every now and then I come back to this page and someone's put in some atrocious picture of abysmal quality. Wv235 19:42, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Joke, why don't you go take some pictures of the other boroughs? NewYork1956 10:51, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, the Unisphere is a good one for Queens. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.254.5.2 (talk)

"Similar cities"

This section is unnecessary -- all it does is add to the article's length, and doesn't provide any useful information. Additionally, it's arguably subjective ("some or all" of NYC's characteristics?). I suggest that these "similarities" can be better conveyed by adding New York City to more wiki categories. Thus, NYC will be obviously "similar" to anything with which it shares a category. -- Docether 20:28, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree. -Will Beback · † · 20:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

languages

Does the article really need the name in a few languages? And why only these? Avraham 02:43, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree, this is just plain silly. There are lots of Japanese in Los Angeles as well, but that doesn't mean that the city's article starts with ロサンゼルス. Gp 1980 made the same edit twice on December 6th, both got reverted. He wanted it to be discussed, if he doesn't convincingly explain his edit here, I think it's safe to revert again. Denvesletigeren 11:05, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Spanish makes sense for modern New York. Italian's a little odd. Calabrian is a complete head-scratcher. I would say English and probably Spanish, but not the others. IEdML 16:22, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I took them all out. The place for foreign language translations is Wiktionary. —An gr 13:04, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

As resident of New York City, particularly Queens, I noticed that the 170 languages info comes from a study of the borough of Queens only, probably there are more languages that 170. If I find the info I will let you know.

Juan

Hymietown Redirect

I noticed that the search word Hymietown redirects to the New York City article. Even though there are no articles linking specifically to Hymietown I don't believe this should still redirect here.

The word was used by Jesse Jackson during an interview in 1984. There is an appropriate paragraph describing the incident in Jackson's article.

Since the word is not a valid nickname for NYC (not even common among anti-semites) I believe the word should redirect to the specific incident in Jackson's article, so the reader can see it's usage in context.

I have tried editing the redirect myself, but Hymietown keeps sending users to NYC. If anybody has any suggestions on editing redirects, or if anybody thinks I'm just way off base here and NYC is Hymietown, please let me know! Thanks. --Bridgecross 21:46, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Transportation

Currently, it is legal for the homeless to consume alcoholic beverages while riding the subway. This measure was lobbied for by President George W. Bush, as an alternative to allowing the homeless to vote in presidential elections.[51]

51 states nothing of the sort. Can someone clean this up? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.94.154.92 (talk) 02:15, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

Trans fat ban

Something about the last sentence in the History section bothers me. Is ths tidbit about New York banning trans fat in restaurants really appropriate there? Larry V (talk | e-mail) 19:49, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

No, it's not. The page is long enough already, and in the big scheme of NYC history, the trans fat ban is not that big of a deal. Also, the change in tone from "The city was one of the sites of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the destruction of the city's tallest buildings..." to "On December 5, 2006, New York City became the first city in the United States to ban trans fat from all restaurants" is, needless to say, jarring. -- Docether 17:36, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

This page's layout

What's with the goofy layout of the infobox on the top of the page? Quadzilla99 02:42, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Goofy? you mean the Small option? -- Ned Scott 08:05, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Vauntworthy?

There are some people who would recommend that the article not boast about New York being the birthplace of the vile phenomena that are named rap and hip hop.72.73.199.46 20:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)J'AnthoneeFlax

"Vile" is a matter of opinion. If NYC is where rap/hip-hop came from, then it should be mentioned. Larry V (talk | e-mail) 21:19, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I will place a tag on the assertion in the article. Who could say exactly when and where the base phenomena began? Was the origin documented in any way? Who were the witnesses? If it is a known fact, then who was the very first person to make rap noises or wear hip-hop thigh-belted jeans and a long tee shirt? Could a case be made that the phenomena originated in Newark or Detroit, instead of NYC? 72.73.199.46 21:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)J'AnthoneeFlax

It's impossible to know who the first person to "rap" was, or where, but it is not impossible to pinpoint the location where the phenomenon first burst into the mainstream. I will remove your tags, because references to the claims are given in the article already. Larry V (talk | e-mail) 21:53, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Where in NYC did the phenomenon first "burst into the mainstream?" Who personified the phenomenon? What if I said that the phenomenon first burst into the mainstream in New Orleans, Louisiana or Camden, New Jersey? There are no standards here for verification. It is all one person's word against another's. In other words, it is nothing but wind.72.73.218.67 00:33, 31 January 2007 (UTC)J'AnthoneeFlax

Show an example of rap and hip-hop bursting into the mainstream for the first time in NYC. What do you consider to be the mainstream?J'AnthoneeFlax

I'll refer you to the appropriate Wikipedia article to begin with. Otherwise, we can reasonably supply in-article citations for this section by referring to two relatively exhaustive histories of hip hop, James Chang's "Can't Stop Won't Stop" and Jim Fricke's "Yes Yes Y'All" (compiled oral histories of the first ten years of hip hop). I'll look through my copy of the latter and provide cites in the article, if someone would like to do the same with the former. In the meantime, I beg restraint on editing this section. Best, -- Docether 14:44, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

City of New York

I believe it should be made aware to the user in the opening paragraph that the official name is the City of New York and not New York City. I know it is in the infobox, but I believe it is necessary to have this information in the opening paragraph in order to have a more thorough and informative article. --Zimbabweed 09:18, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Change the Title of New York City's Article

New York City is a United States city in the state of New York, so I believe the article like all the other articles for the other cities here on Wikipedia should be renamed to "New York City, New York" or "New York, New York", whichever because with all the other articles have their state preceding the name of the city followed by the state in which the city is located in. Such as Los Angeles, California or Miami, Florida and etc. Just to keep the articles consistent with the others here on Wikipedia. Does anyone else agree to this proposal?

Vlad788 19:06, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

There was already a discussion on this topic in the archives, and the result was to keep the title of the article as is. My own opinion is "New York City, New York" sounds a bit awkward, and while I like "New York, New York", I think "New York City" is still the better title, as I believe the city is most widely recognized by that name. But that's just my opinion. Irish♣Pearl 19:20, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

It really bothers me that you have already discussed this and came to the conclusion that this article should keep this title. What gives the city of New York, New York the right to be titled differently from, for example, Puebla, Puebla or Kansas City, Kansas? New York City isn't even the name of the city; it's more like a nickname for the city to distinguish it from the state of New York. If you think New York City makes a better title for whatever reason, I'm sure Martin Scorsese would beg to differ.

Cleveland Rock 13:58, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

To answer Cleveland Rock, my best guess is probably that there IS no other place in the world known as "New York City". There ARE other "Puebla"s and "Kansas City"s. Famartin 20:10, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Page layout

I've adjusted the order of sections to more closely resemble the WikiProject Cities suggested article structure. The recent "Cityscape" section has been redistributed under other headings, such as Geography. This makes the page layout cleaner and consistent, where appropriate, with other city articles.Momos 22:12, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Sister Cities

On the section of New York's 10 sister cities, Jerusalem is listed as being part of Israel, and is represented by the Israeli Flag. This goes against Wikipedia's NPOV policy. I am removing the text "Israel" and the flag.

66.42.54.89 01:03, 27 February 2007 (UTC) Marcus

I replaced it with the Jerusalem's flag...yet forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is the NPOV problem? I understand there has been quite a bit of controversy over the city itself (though I'm a bit rusty on the actual history behind it) but on the Jerusalem's wikipedia page, within the first few sentences it states that the city is the capital of Israel. Irish♣Pearl 01:29, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Jerusalem is disputed territory. See East Jerusalem. Today it is controlled by Israel. The sister-city deal is likely with the Israel-backed city government, so I think that showing the Israeli flag is appropriate. Of course this should be backed-up by a reference. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 02:05, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the clear up. Anyway, I just looked up NYC on [[1]] and it says Jerusalem, Israel, so I'm going to put the Israeli flag back in and reference it. Irish♣Pearl 02:10, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Montigny-lès-Metz? never heard of it.

Someone might want to remove the "Pegswood" sister-city reference -- there's no evidence for it, the place is not a city, and it is most likely a hoax. I'm a newby and don't want to mess anything up...

Done. You can always use the sandbox for experimenting with the editing process before you do any work on "real" pages. Best, -- Docether 16:23, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Error editing article

I'm trying to reword the introduction to address some of the criticisms in the latest Featured Article voting (in particular the awkwardness of the phrase "major global cities"). I keep getting a Wikimedia Error though! Is this article just too big to edit? -- Hongooi 11:08, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

English flag or british flag!!!!

is London the capital of england as the sister city or London the capital of Great Britain —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Eyas Hajeh (talk • contribs) 22:39, 4 March 2007 (UTC).

It's the de-facto capital of the United Kingdom and the traditional/historic capital of England (which doesn't really exist as a state any more). So both really. G-Man * 23:07, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

Umm...wrong. England does exist, iun the sense that England and Scotland, though both part of the UK, have completely different legal systems, courts systems, currencies, etc. Further, the Houses of Parliament are in Westminster, not the City of London.HarvardOxon 21:49, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Er, no, England shares a common legal system with Wales (see England and Wales), it has exactly the same curency as Scotland. And Westminster is part of London (I'm not sure what relevence this has). But apart from that..... G-Man * 21:55, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Do you have some trouble with English? I said Scotland and England have different legal systems, which is why there are thre epossible verdicts in Scotland and two in England, Scotland does not guarantee traial by jury, etc. England operates under Common Law, Scotland under principles of Civil Law. Westminster and London are two separate cities, which is why its referred to as "the parliament in Westminster" (go look it up), and technically they ahve different currencies, which is why Scotland has three banks issuing Banknotes and England has only one. Read your own damn citation: At London's (i.e. "Greater London District" or "London County") core is the small, ancient City of London which is commonly known as "The City" or "Square Mile... both the City of London and the City of Westminster have City status...HarvardOxon 21:58, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

No Scotland uses Pound sterling as it's currency. The Bank of Scotland issues its own banknotes, but that's all. Secondly 'London' in modern usage refers to Greater London, Westmister is merely a London borough with city status. Either way England has no independent existence outside of the United Kingdom. G-Man * 22:23, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

No, three banks issue baknotes, http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/design.htm, the "pound sterling"; Bankof England banknotes are not legal tender in Scotland, third the City of London has its own mayor and police force, hence "London" does not always mean Greater London, and as I point out again, nobody has said England is independent of the UK, we have pointed out that England and Scotland are, in fact, two separate jusridictions within the UK and so "England" does in fact have a real existence, somethiung you denied at first.HarvardOxon 22:35, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Guys, let me clear this up for you. I live in the United Kingdom. The whole of the United Kingdom (4 countries, england, scotland, wales and northern ireland) all use the Pound Sterling currency. There are banks in each of the 4 countries who can produce their own design of the bank notes. These bank notes are allowed to be used in each of the 4 countries, however, sometimes a shop keeper may not recognise a bank note from one of the other countries and refuse it.

To get back to the point, and to answer the original question, the sister city of New York is London the de-facto capital of the UK, not London the traditional capital of England alone. The UK flag (which incorporates the English St George Cross) is the correct one. JackofOz 05:13, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

New York City water supply system

I recently came across New York City water supply system on a temp page of an article deleted for copyvio. I moved it to the article namespace. Does anyone know anything about the subject? Squids'and'Chips 19:07, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, New York City gets its water supply from various upstate reservoirs in the Catskills. The NYC DEP has a good description of the NYC water supply system here:

http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dep/html/history.html Mimopes 02:14, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Wide Image?

Why not show the full panorama in the article?

Panoramic image looking south from the upper deck of the 'Top of the Rock' observation deck on top of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center.

--Root Beers 02:57, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

I thought the same thing when I saw the link to the panoramic photo at the beginning of the "Economy" section. --Padraic 14:02, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

I believe this came up some time ago (6+months), and it was pointed out that such images are big files and limiting for those with poorer connections. As such we should make the article as readable as possible by making readers click through to see the full thing. In fact putting it here on this talk page makes it more difficult for editors with poorer connections to participate in this discussion and the building of the article. It is a beautiful image though. -- Siobhan Hansa 03:31, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Weird parody of this article as it would appear on Conservapedia

A (Conservative) People's History of New York City - from New York magazine.--Pharos 04:58, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Nicknames

What's with some of these nicknames? I mean, sure, I've heard of "Big Apple", "Gotham", "NYC", and "City That Never Sleeps," but "Concrete Jungle"? "The City So Nice They Named It Twice"??? I think someone's been adding their own nicknames here... let me see... well, here's one: [2]. Anyway, am I the only one who has never heard of "the city so nice they named it twice"? Can I take the nicknames out? -- BlastOButter42 ^See Hear _Speak 03:09, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Get rid of them. The standard for inclusion is not just "have I heard of them?" but are they widely used. "Big Apple" and "Gotham" meet this criteria; the rest do not. Momos 23:04, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree that the ones you have listed should remain, except I believe that "The City That Never Sleeps" should be added. This nickname is used frequently when referring to the city by people and organizations. Indoles 15:25, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Devils and Nets

I don't understand these two things:

If the Islanders, Jets, and Giants "represent" NYC, then how do the Devils and Nets not?
If the Devils and Nets do not "represent" NYC, then how do the Islanders, Jets, and Giants?

There needs to either be an inclusion of all of these non-NYC teams or an elimination of all of them. I think the section needs to be shaped up to talk about teams representing the "NYC metro area" instead of just NYC. In that case, the Devils, Nets, Islanders, Jets, and Giants definitely need to be included. It also needs to be specifically stated that these teams do not play in New York City. I would have done this already myself, but I prefer hearing the opinions of others to decide which one of these two things is advisable. JHMM13 03:56, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

It's better not to start listing every single team in the NY metro area. This clutters the article with sports detail that general readers aren't interested in. That sort of detailed coverage should take place in the Sports in New York City daughter article. Momos 23:07, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
Then we should remove the Jets and Giants. JHMM13 06:13, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

The article implies that the Islanders are a New York City team, when they play in suburban Uniondale. The simple and accurate solution is to remove the reference to the team. Any objections? Frondelet 02:42, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

How is pop density derived?

It's listed as 26,720/sq mi (10,316/km²) but by my arithmetic (8,143,198 people / 468.9 square miles) it should be 17,367/sq mi.

Chris 17:49, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi Cchris - Your calculation is correct in theory but leads to an incorrect result. Pop density is derived by dividing pop by area, as you suggest. The difficult is in identifying a correct denominator. The figure you used of 468.9 is incorrect: that is the total area of the city, including bodies of water such as New York harbor. After correcting for bodies of water, the city's land area is actually 321 sq miles. This number gets us closer to calculating density correctly. However, the 321 sq miles includes the city's 28,000 acres of parkland and many thousands of acres belonging to JFK and La Guardia airports, where people cannot live. I don't know whether the Census Bureau makes exemptions and uses only "livable" land area, or whether it simply uses total land mass. The point is that this seemingly simple calculation is not so straightforward upon closer examination. Momos 23:23, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Whew! I had no idea it was so complicated, thanks for your reply.

Chris 16:04, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

History

The last night i saw the movie bands of new york, i would like to know if the fight where many new york peoples dies really happens. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.240.229.3 (talk) 12:37, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

Eh...do you mean Gangs of New York? JHMM13 16:09, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Random text/vandalism?

This is the introductory paragraph as of early April 24th, 2007:

New York City (officially the City of New York) is a city in the state of New York and is the most populous city in the United States of America. Its business, finance, trading, law, and media organizations are influential around the globe.[1] The city is one of the world's most important cultural centers,Karli der der das Brot schneidet with hundreds of world-class museums, galleries, and performance venues. Home of the United Nations, the city is also one of the world's major venues for international diplomacy.Haris Lleshi

I think I am seeing some German there and someone's name. This was submitted by a newly registered user, named Armin Achmet[[3]]. I have reverted the page to its previous state. Would someone please warn the guy or something? Preferably an administrator.--Surfaced 07:32, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Statue of Liberty

It strikes me as odd that there's no mention of the Statue of Liberty at all on this page. Is there a reason for that? --Oreo Priest 18:31, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

The Statue of Liberty is on Liberty Island which is owned by the federal government and under the territorial jurisdiction of the State of New York. Other than geographical proximity it is not legally or technically associated with the City of New York. Kraikk 11:34, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Couldn't the same be said of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia? I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to say it is a symbol of NYC, and it is a huge tourist destination. -Oreo Priest 01:29, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

I must agree with Oreo Priest. Indoles 10:16, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Liberty Island is very much part of New York City (specifically, the Borough of Manhattan), though it is of course administered by the federal government. The reason it's been neglected in the article is probably that the statue has less relative prominence for New Yorkers than for outsiders (because, you know, its way out in the middle of the harbor, many native New Yorkers have never even visited it). That said, of course it deserves some discussion in the article.--Pharos 18:28, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Possible vandalism

Can someone check this edit please? Thanks. · AndonicO ^Talk 16:27, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

It's supported by the reference. Squids'and'Chips 21:27, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

More vandalism?

"The city is comprised of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. With 785.1 million residents within an area of 1 square miles (830 km²), New York City has the lowest population density of any major city in North America.[2][3]"

I'm fairly certain there are not 785 million people in New York.

Spencer 11:30, May 7 2007 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 155.97.16.2 (talk) 17:30, 7 May 2007 (UTC).

Mayor Bloomberg Website

I question that a link to Mayor Mike Bloomberg's website is necessary. Many suspect that this website may be preluding to a Presidential campaign, if which a link would not be required in this article. Other city articles, such as the one for Los Angeles, do not include such links. I have let the link be (except for editting the formatting of it) until further review from others. Indoles 20:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Birthplace of Rap -Puh-leez!

Of all the things to attribute to the Bronx, why limit it to the wonderful world of Rap and hip-hop? Certainly the 1000s of successful Jews that came out of the Bronx in the mid 20th century did more for humanity than this 'art form' 67.87.92.56 01:34, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I believe this article to be too long to add anymore significant things, in terms on length. But I wouldn't mind if someone added a sentence or so on what you have specified. These sentences should simply be a very small overview, and then one should expand on this information on The Bronx page. Indoles 10:55, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

--I'm not a huge fan of rap/hip-hop, but it is a fact that rap/hiphop has had a huge influence on the music scene of the last 20 years or so, so including this section makes sense.

Boat basin

NPR recently did a piece on the 57th Street Boat Basin; I was wondering if the existance of this thing was notable enough to document in the encyclopedia somewhere. -- Beland 17:51, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

External links

I just trimmed the links section, trying to staying away from overly commercial, heavy advertising websites. Such sites are sometimes okay if the amount and quality of content is so great to outweigh the negatives of advertising. I didn't see such sites listed here. The Michael Bloomberg link could be suitable on the Government of New York City subpage. I left the Open Directory link [4] which should be the place to direct users for more extensive choice of links. If you disagree with any links cut, please say so and maybe it could be re-added. --Aude (talk) 03:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Swapped photo

Hope its okay with everyone, that I swapped out the older WTC photo with a new one. [5] --Aude (talk) 04:41, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

That looks great. Indoles 13:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Longest subway system

The article states that "The New York City Subway is the largest rapid transit system in the world when measured by track mileage", yet I have never been able to find a source to support the claim, nor a measurement by which the NYCS would be largest. Nor does the MTA make teh claim anywhere. Anyone have access to a reliable source to support the claim? Alansohn 03:52, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

It depends on how one measures "track mileage". I think 656 miles (1056 km) of track for NYCS includes express tracks, which the London Underground does not have. The wording was changed yesterday to simply say "one of the largest rapid transit systems", to account for these issues. --Aude (talk) 17:10, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

If you have further concerns with the article, you could have brought them up on the FAC page. You make strong accusations on SandyGeorgia's talk page. Rather than doing that, please use this talk page so we can work with you on any outstanding issues you have. --Aude (talk) 17:10, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The FAC went so quickly, I barely had enough time to go through the article, make corrections, provide sources, and identify those outstanding issues. I have no problem with how "largest" is defined, but an extensive search has never identified any measure by which NYCS is the largest. The MTA uses 660 miles as a trackage total, but they don't claim largest by any measure. Alansohn 20:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Sourcing and other issues

"New York City has the highest population density of any major North American city." Neither source says anything about density, let alone "highest". Union City, New Jersey across the Hudson is denser, but I agree it's not a "major" city. A source needs to be identified to support this fact, even if it is almost certainly true.
"He [Hudson] discovered Manhattan Island on September 11, 1609, and continued up the river that bears his name, the Hudson River, until he arrived at the site where New York State's capital city, Albany, now stands. His aim to find a route to China had failed but what he had discovered was something even better, the largest natural harbor in the New World on the island of Manhattan and the third largest in the entire world." - sources are available in Manhattan article.
"In 1664, the British conquered the city, and there by uniting their colonies in Massachusetts and Virginia and renamed the city, "New York" after the English Duke of York, the heir to the throne." I assume "thereby" is intended, but the sentence needs to be restructured to make grammatical sense.
The 1754-1790 paragraph is unsourced, with the exception of a reference for Washington's first inaugural speech.
"The Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which created a rational street grid to encompass most of Manhattan, helped guide expansion of the city." By what sense is "rational" meant?
Sources needed for Central Park and Tammany Hall.
That "Eleven black men were lynched over a five day period" in the draft riots is indeed noteworthy, but reliable sources claim over 100 more deaths. (see Ward, Geoffrey C. "Gangs of New York", a review of Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker, The New York Times, October 6, 2002.)
Sources should be provided re 1898 consolidation and the event probably deserves a bit more detail.
"most populous city in the world in 1925, overtaking London" needs a source. I have been unable to find one that matches the date and description in the article.
The period from 1960-2000 is unsourced.
The second paragraph cites "an area of 322 square miles (830 km²)" while geography says "The city's land area is 321 mi² (831.4 km²)."
The lead sentence in the Environment section, "Environmental concerns in the city involve managing its extraordinary population density." requires elaboration.
"Surrounded mostly by water, New York's residential density and high real estate values in commercial districts saw the city amass the largest collection of individual, free-standing office and residential towers in the world." is not supported by the Emporis source provided.
"Wealthy industrialists in the 19th century built a network of major cultural institutions, such as the famed Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Museum of Art, that would become internationally established." What does "internationally established" mean?
Detail re history of Broadway and the Broadway musical needs to be sourced.
"The city is also home to many of the finest haute cuisine restaurants in the United States." is not supported by the source provided.
All four major sports headquarters are in NYC, but only two are mentioned.
Jets and Giants are in New Jersey now, but fact that they previously played in New York City should be mentioned.
Islanders would seem to have no connection to New York City.
Stickball article cites "Italian, Jewish and Irish youths" as source, this article says "youths in working class Puerto Rican, Italian, and Irish neighborhoods". Neither has any source.
"Three of the "Big Four" record labels are also based in the city." is unsourced. The World music market article linked from "Big Four"cites Universal Music Group (France based), Sony BMG Music Entertainment, inc. (Japan/Germany based), Warner Music Group (USA based) and EMI Group (UK based), which would seem 1 of 4.
No source provided for "Public access television originated in the city in 1968." See comparable statement in Manhattan article for a source.
"High-tech industries like bioscience, software development, game design, and Internet services are also growing due to its position at the terminus of the transatlantic fiber optic trunk line in New York City." has a dead link. It's not clear why the growth of all of these industries would be caused by the presence of this terminus".
"The city has an extremely high population density of 26,403 people per square mile (10,194/km²), about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest American city, San Francisco." The source provided shows SF as fifth densest. And a definition needs to be selected that excludes Union City, New Jersey, which is a more densely-populated city.
Members of the are New York City Council are described as both "councillors" and "councilors", neither of which seems to be in use here.
"The city's public school system, managed by the New York City Department of Education, is the largest in the United States." requires a source, as does "Public postsecondary education is provided by the City University of New York, the nation's third-largest public university system"

I will do my best to address as many of these issues as I can. Alansohn 20:27, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

population density comparison in intro

The statement saying New York City has the highest population density outside California is misleading. The sentence starts out by stating the population and area of New York City proper then cites a source that compares population density rankings of urban areas. We shuld decide which statistical unit to use for population density comparisons and clarify that. For city proper, it is true that New York City has the highest population density for "major" cities. (There are many smaller places that have a higher density). --Polaron | Talk 13:34, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Please provide a source that ranks cities by population density. Or we can omit it entirely from the intro, which is plenty long enough. --Aude (talk) 13:55, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The raw census numbers for incorporated places are insufficient? All I'm saying is that if you want to use urban area rankings, make it clear that you are talking about urban areas and not the city proper by using the urban area population and surface area instead of the city proper data. If you want to use city proper rankings, this is a possible source. --Polaron | Talk 14:05, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Here's what I found from the Census Bureau... The comparison table United States -- Places and (in selected states) County Subdivisions with 50,000 or More Population; and for Puerto Rico lists all places with more than 50,000 people, in descending order by population (not density). This includes cities, but also many other places (including Townships and CDPs), as well as all five boroughs of New York City. Ignoring the boroughs, New York City's denisty of 26,402.9 per square mile ranks second on this list to Union City, New Jersey's density of 52,977.8 for its 67,088 residents. As long as we use this source, we can reliably and verifiably say "New York City has the highest population density of all municipalities in the United States with more than 100,000 people." To find this data set, go to American Fact Finder at the Census Bureau web site and:

Select Data Sets from the left navigation menu on the AFF main page.
Select Decennial Census.
Choose a Census 2000 Summary File.
Choose the table format--Geographic Comparison Tables
Select United States--Places and (in selected states) County Subdivisions with 50,000 or more population and Puerto Rico.
Select a GCT table from the list.
Click Show Result.

This bypasses the whole issue of city vs. metro area, and creates a category where New York City does rank higher than Union City. For that matter, any cutoff above 100,000 would accomplish the same goal. Alansohn 14:24, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The American Fact Finder link works. It would be a more reliable source than Demographia. --Aude (talk) 14:34, 12 June 2007 (UTC)