New York 87-2000

I cannot write about the US without highlighting New York. From its establishment as a Dutch trading post to its global preeminence today. To many foreigners it represents America, to many Americans it represents all that is foreign! The city was founded in the early seventeenth century by the Dutch. Unlike puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia, New York was founded not as a religious establishment but as a business colony. The first colonist, all employees of the Dutch West India Company came to New York to collect beaver skins and to make money. The first church on the island of Manhattan was built only after 8 years!
The southern tip of the island was named New Amsterdam The colonists bought the island from the ”wild men” or local Indians living on the island. Today New York is still a city rich of superlatives. New York has contained over time, the world’s largest population, the tallest buildings, the longest bridges, the busiest subways and port. Its mixtures of people and cultures are the most diverse in the world. It has more newspapers, magazines, publishers, theaters, art galleries and restaurants than anywhere else. More than a third of the entire world’s monetary transactions pass electronically through New York everyday of the year. New York has also been since the middle of the nineteenth century home to the greatest number of urban poor. From the very early start of the city a profound relationship has been established between commerce and diversity. Melding cultures, classes, races, ideologies and lifestyles from around the world, New York emerged by the turn of the twentieth century as the most complex and intensely interactive environment in history.

With such a complex environment one can imagine what it takes to govern a city of such complexity, during our “New York” years we have experienced 3 mayors. The first one was Democrat Ed “how am I doing” Koch, always present, very outspoken and dressed in shirts with rolled up sleeves. Koch served the maximum of 2 terms. After Mayor Koch came Democrat David Dinkins. Dinkins served one term of 4 years and did not leave a great legacy. People will always remember him present on TV at the US Open on Flushing Meadows. After 2 Democrats the controversial Republican Rudi Giuliani was elected. Giuliani was a district attorney who was credited for the fall of the ”Gambini” crime family, a criminal / mafia corporation. Giuliani succeeded in cleaning up the streets in New York, reduced the crime rate and was able to attract new business. Giuliani served 2 terms and will have a legacy around his instrumental work of improving New York City and his actions during the aftermath of the bombings at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Woody Allen’s own neurotic personality and in particular his movies Annie Hall and Manhattan are great personifications of New York. The sitcom Seinfeld reflected very well living in New York during the nineties.
Ed Koch had an interesting quote, New Yorkers walk faster, talk faster and think faster. You don’t have to be born here to be a New Yorker. But after six months here, you’ll be walking faster, talking faster and thinking faster. At that point you will have become a New Yorker. I could certainly identify with Mayor Koch.