'''Brooklyn''' is one of the five boroughs of [[New York City]], situated south of [[Queens]] at the western tip of [[Long Island]].
Brooklyn is coterminous with Kings County (a political subdivision of the State of New York), but before the Grand Unification in 1898, Brooklyn was an independent city.
It is sometimes referred to as "America's Fourth Largest City", including on a (now-removed) "Welcome to Brooklyn" sign at the Verazano-Narrows Bridge; if it were still a separate city, it would indeed be the fourth largest, after New York, [[Los Angeles]], and [[Chicago]].
It is the most populated borough in the city, but the borough of [[Queens]] is the largest in terms of area. The borough is connected to adjacent Queens via the infamous [[Brooklyn-Queens Expressway]].

Brooklyn is home to several famous neighborhoods such as Greenpoint, Flatbush, Coney Island, Williamsburg, and Bedford-Stuyvesant. Many famous Americans in the entertainment industry have been born in Brooklyn, such as actresses Barbara Stanwyck and [[Clara Bow]], directors Woody Allen and Spike Lee, and singer Barbara Streisand, to name just a few.

The accent of [[Bugs Bunny]] is a combination of accents from [[Brooklyn]] and the [[Bronx]].

==The Borough of Neighborhoods==

Brooklyn is sometimes known as "the borough of neighborhoods" because of its many well-defined and culturally independent neighborhoods. It would be difficult to list every single neighborhood here because there are so many of them, but some of the most notable and famous are:

*DUMBO (acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass")
*Downtown Brooklyn (New York City's third most significant financial center after Midtown [[Manhattan]] and Manhattan's Financial District)
*Brooklyn Heights
*Williamsburg (a well-known community popular with artists and bohemians)
*[[Bedford-Stuyvesant]] (pronounced STY-vess-ent, birthplace of many celebrities)
*Brighton Beach
*Coney Island

==Further reading==
* Jackson, Kenneth, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' (1995), [http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-New-York-City/dp/0300055366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240594479&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]

[[Category:New York City]]

Talk:Economics Lectures

2009-10-16T23:08:30Z

RobertZ: /* Spring course? */ new section

Empire State Building

2009-10-16T23:04:48Z

RobertZ:

[[Image:480px-Manhattan at Dusk by slonecker.jpg|right|thumb|The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1972.]]

The '''Empire State Building''' is a privately owned office building completed in 1931 during the [[Great Depression]] as the tallest building in the world, a distinction it enjoyed for decades until it was surpassed by the [[World Trade Center]] in 1972. It is the tallest building in New York City. To this day the Empire State Building is considered by a random poll of Americans to be their favorite piece of American architecture.<ref>http://www.aia.org/press2_template.cfm?pagename=release_020707_150Buildings</ref> It is also considered the most fire-proof building in America.<ref>http://vincentdunn.com/wtc.html</ref>

The Empire State Building contains steel reinforced by concrete, making it extremely fire-proof. Deputy Chief Fire Department of New York (F.D.N.Y.) Vincent Dunn (ret.) wrote:<ref>''Id.''</ref>

:"The more mass the more fire resistance. The best fire resistive building in America is a concrete structure. The structures that limit and confine fires best, and suffer fewer collapses are reinforced concrete pre-WWII buildings such as housing projects and older high rise buildings like the empire state building, The more concrete, the more fire resistance; and the more concrete the less probability of total collapse. The evolution of high- rise construction can be seen, by comparing the Empire State Building to the [[World Trade Center]]. The estimate is the ratio of concrete to steel in the empire state building is 60/40."

In 1945, a B-25 bomber crashed into the 79 floor of the Empire State Building in heavy fog, killing 14 persons and igniting a fire. But there was only $1 million in damage and the structure of the building easily survived the impact and the resultant fire. Deputy Chief Dunn noted:<ref>''Id.''</ref>

:"A plane that only weighed 10 tons struck the Empire State Building and the high-octane gasoline fire quickly flamed out after 35 minutes. When the firefighters walked up to the 79 floor most of the fire had dissipated. The Empire State Building in my opinion, and most fire chiefs in New York City, is the most fire safe building in America. I believe it would have not collapsed like the WTC towers. I believe the Empire State Building, and for that matter any other skeleton steel building in New York City, would have withstood the impact and fire of the terrorist’s jet plane better than the WTC towers."

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Buildings]]
[[Category:New York City]]
[[Category:Landmarks]]

New York City

2009-10-16T23:03:50Z

RobertZ: Starting a politics section

[[Image:Prometheus Fountain at the Rockefeller Center.jpg|thumb|240px|Prometheus Fountain at the Rockefeller Center.]]
'''New York City''', officially '''City of New York''', is a city and metropolitan area in the state of [[New York]], located on the easter coast of the [[United States of America]]. With a population of 8,140,000 as in 2005, it is the most populous city in the [[United States]]. The city is divided into five different areas, called boroughs. Manhattan, the first of the boroughs, is the financial and commercial center of the city. Brooklyn is the most populous of the boroughs, and Queens is the largest in area. The other two boroughs are Staten Island and the Bronx. The modern city was formed in 1898 through a merger of the original New York City with Brooklyn.

New York is the cultural capital of the United States; it has global importance in [[fashion]], finance, news, diplomacy, education, medicine and arts. The city is an important tourist destination. It contains many landmarks, including the [[Statue of Liberty]], [[Wall Street]], in [[Lower Manhattan]], and many others. The city (along with its #2 rival Chicago) invented the skyscraper, and still has some of the tallest buildings in the world, like [[Empire State Building]]; the [[World Trade Center]] towers, which were destroyed by terrorists in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

==Boroughs==

Each of New York City's boroughs is coterminous a county in the State of New York. The five boroughs are:
* [[Manhattan]] (New York County)
* [[Brooklyn]] (Kings County)
* [[Queens]] (Queens County)
* [[The Bronx]] (Bronx County)
* [[Staten Island]] (Richmond County)

All of the non-Manhattan boroughs are sometimes referred to collectively as "the outer boroughs" as they are arranged in a sort of semicircle around Manhattan; also, they are often perceived as less politically and culturally significant than Manhattan, which is among the United States' top cultural and economic centers. The four non-Manhattan boroughs were also added to New York City after Manhattan.

Many places have been proposed as "Sixth Boroughs," which can carry a different meaning depending on who is asked. Some areas often cited as "Sixth Boroughs" include:
* [[Hudson County]], [[New Jersey]]
* [[Nassau County]], [[Long Island]], [[New York]]
* [[Westchester County]], [[New York]]
* [[Newark]], [[New Jersey]]
* [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]

== History ==

New York City was formerly named [[New Amsterdam]], in recognition of the original Dutch settlement of the area. It was not the largest city in the colonies ([[Boston]], then [[Philadelphia]], held those honors). But after the completion of the [[Erie Canal]], New York City became a trading center connecting the [[Atlantic Ocean]] to the [[Great Lakes]] and [[Midwest]].

The use of [[Ellis Island]] as the checkpoint for millions of European immigrants in the late 1800s caused New York City's population to swell, as many settled in nearby areas.

[[Image:800px-Times Square Panorama1.jpg|thumb|800px|center|A panoramic view of New York's Time Square.]]

== Politics ==

New York City is historically considered a liberal city, with the majority of the population voting Democratic. However, the mayor has recently been [[Republican]] (Rudy Giuliani) or independent (Micheal Bloomberg).

== Culture ==
[[Image:Duke Ellington Statue.jpg|thumb|Duke Ellington Statue.]]
New York City is home to top-notch museums in [[art]], [[architecture]], photography, natural history, television, radio and technology, like: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Frick Collection, the National Design Museum, the Museum of Natural History,
and the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts. <ref>[http://www.ny.com/museums/mile.html Museums in New York City] </ref>

Featured cultural sites are:

•Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

•Carnegie Hall

•Radio City Music Hall

•Hayden Planetarium

•New York Aquarium

•The Morgan Library

•New York Public Library

•Rose Center for Earth and Space

•International Center of Photography

•Empire State Building Lobby Gallery

•SculptureCenter

•Museum of Biblical Art

•Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences

•Center for Architecture

•Studio Museum in Harlem

== See also ==

[[Image:NYC.jpg|thumb|400px|Historic Manhattan]]
*[[Fiorello La Guardia]]
*[[Art cities]]
*[[Washington, D.C.]]
*[[New York Yankees]]

== External links ==

*[http://www.ny.com/museums/museum.of.american.financial.history.html Museum of American Financial History.]
*[http://www.metmuseum.org/ The Met.]
*[http://www.nyc-arts.org/ NYC ARTS.]
*[http://www.nycwalk.com/rock.html A Walking Tour of Rockefeller Center's Public Art.]
==Further reading==
* Jackson, Kenneth, ed. ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' (1995), the best reference book; 1350pp; [http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-New-York-City/dp/0300055366/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240594479&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Jackson, Kenneth and Sam Roberts, eds. ''The Almanac of New York City'' (2008)
==References==
*[http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763098.html Information Please - Top 50 Cities in the U.S.]
<references/>

[[Category:New York Cities and Towns]]
[[Category:New York City]]

User:RobertZ

2009-10-16T23:00:11Z

RobertZ: Created page with 'Hello - I am a loyal conservative living in a very liberal city (New York!). I have learned much from Conservapedia recently and now hope to contribute.'

Hello - I am a loyal conservative living in a very liberal city (New York!).
I have learned much from Conservapedia recently and now hope to contribute.