What Makes New York Unique
Three Characteristics Distinguish the Big Apple from Any Other City
Oct 20, 2008
New York may be nicknamed The City So Nice They Named It Twice, but it's rightly named twice because it carries a power bigger than the state. That force is what makes New York act as the capital of both America and the world.
New York's Unique History
It is often thought that America’s roots trace back to the13 British colonies, but there is a deeper root that comes from the Dutch. It was the Dutch who originally settled on parts of collective land that would eventually become Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.
In The Island at the Center for the World, Russell Shorto sheds light on the The Netherlands’ policy of openness and tolerance that made them the “the melting pot of Europe” even in the 1600s. When they brought their culture into their colony that was centered on Manhattan, originally called New Amsterdam, it became a thriving and diverse society.
Manhattan was close to the seaport and friendly to new arrivals including Africans, Jews, Germans, Norwegians, Bohemians and Mohawks. They were all “struggling to find a way of being together, searching for a balance between chaos and order, liberty and oppression.”
When the British conquered the Dutch colony and renamed the island to New York, the Dutch negotiated the lands with a condition of tolerance. It would guarantee their people continued freedom under British rule, including freedom of religion. So it was since the beginning that New York looked like what it is today, dominating in commerce, finance, culture and acting as a progressive model for the world.
Types of People to Expect in New York
Cities and nations are shaped by the people who live in them. And through the years, the city of New York has become quite a character—contradictory, wry, demanding and overwhelming, but also fun, rewarding, charming and inspiring. E.B. White in his classic book Here is New York breaks down the demographics that make New York unique:
- The New Yorker – the one who was born in the city and “takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable.”
- The commuter – the one who comes for work and “discovers nothing much about the city except the time of arrival and departure of trains and buses, and the path to a quick lunch.”
- The quester – the one who was born somewhere else and came to the city “in quest of something.”
White observes that the natives give the city solidarity, commuters give it restlessness, but the quester gives it passion, making the city great. Immigrants have been the dynamos who sparked great art movements, ethnic neighborhoods, workaholic natures and a spirit of competition, fire and grit. But altogether, the three types have been the key ingredients to the melting pot of New York.
New York's 24-Hour Subway
New York, London and Tokyo may be the top command centers for the world, as evidenced in The Global City by Saskia Sassen, but New York is the only global city that has a subway system running 24/7. Nonstop transportation is one of the reasons why New York is called The City That Never Sleeps.
Motion is constant and activities are endless since destinations are only a subway ride away, if not a few steps away. This makes it easier for public transportation services because there isn't too much ground to cover. All places are wonderfully accessible because things can only grow skyward.
With the past and present, narrow streets and culturally diverse people intersecting on the same terrain, global New York has become, in the words of E.B. White, a city filled with “life under difficulties, growth against odds, sap-rise in the midst of concrete, and the steady reaching for the sun.”
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