Geography FA 2 

By ankitha ganesan MYP 4B 

 
New york city:  
 
History: 
Source: ​https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/new-york-city 

 
The first people in new york city where Lenape,people who hunted, fished and
farmed in the area between the Delaware and Hudson rivers. Europeans
began to explore the region at the beginning of the 16th century but none
settled there until 1624. That year, the Dutch West India Company sent some
families to live and work in a tiny settlement on “Nutten Island” (today’s
Governors Island) that they it called New Amsterdam. In 1626, the
settlement’s governor general, Peter Minuit, purchased the much larger
Manhattan Island from the natives. Fewer than 300 people lived in New
Amsterdam when the settlement moved to Manhattan. But it grew quickly, and
in 1760 the city (now called New York City; population 18,000) surpassed
Boston to become the second-largest city in the American colonies. Fifty
years later, with a population of 202,589, it became the largest city in the
Western hemisphere. Today, more than 8 million people live in the city’s five
boroughs.
From 30 dutch families new york city grew to 8 million people.

During the 1760’s when british had control of the US, new york was a center
for anti-british actitivity. It soon served as the british military base till 1783

By 1810 it was one of the nation’s most important ports. It played a particularly
significant role in the cotton economy: Southern planters sent their crop to the
East River docks, where it was shipped to the mills of Manchester and other
English industrial cities. Then, textile manufacturers shipped their finished
goods back to New York.

But there was no easy way to carry goods back and forth from the growing
agricultural hinterlands to the north and west until 1817, when work began on
a 363-mile canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The Erie Canal was
completed in 1825. At last, New York City was the trading capital of the
nation.

As the city grew, it made other infrastructural improvements. In 1811, the

“Commissioner’s Plan”​ established an
orderly grid of streets and avenues for the
undeveloped parts of Manhattan north of
Houston Street. In 1837, construction
began on the Croton Aqueduct, which
provided clean water for the city’s
growing population. Eight years after that,
the city established its first municipal agency: the New York City Police
Department.

Meanwhile, increasing numbers of immigrants, first from Germany and Ireland

during the 1840s and 50s and then from Southern and Eastern Europe,
changed the face of the city.

At the turn of the 20th century, New York City became the city we know
today. In 1895, residents of Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and
Brooklyn–all independent cities at that time–voted to “consolidate” with
Manhattan to form a five-borough “Greater New York.” As a result, on
December 31, 1897, New York City had an area of 60 square miles and a
population of a little more than 2 million people; on January 1, 1898, when the
consolidation plan took effect, New York City had an area of 360 square miles
and a population of about 3,350,000 people.
Change over time 

The new york city has grown over the years. It is a popular destination for immigrants amy 
many people have migrated due to the opportunities for trade. Currently new york city, holds 
8 million people and growing. From a british colony it has become one of the most famous 
and most visited places in the world. Most of New York is filled with immigrants, who speak 
different languages. Administrations in the 19th century created street grids, regulated 
immigration ports, provided water sewers and authorized transportation lines. The city was 
not properly organized, and the first step to organize it was the tenement house law which 
required all houses to have bathrooms and fire escapes. Progressivism’s greatest 
accomplishment was the city zoning ordinance of 1916, the first attempt by any city to control 
density, regulate land use, and guarantee light and air to the streets by reshaping structures. 
By that time, Manhattan was already famed for its skyscrapers, and their height had escalated 
from the “idiotic” 11 floors of the Tower Building (1889) to the 20 of the Flatiron (1902) and 
finally to the unprecedented 792-foot (241-metre) Woolworth Building, the “cathedral of 
commerce” (1913). The new zoning code mandated building setbacks to permit daylight to 
reach the streets and altered the shape of future construction, and under its restrictions the 
Chrysler (1930) and Empire State (1931) buildings were completed. Those structures still have 
two of the most famous silhouettes on earth. After World War II, a “crystal corridor” of 
buildings was constructed along Park Avenue that has been called the architectural heart of 
the 20th century. In 1961 the zoning code was altered to encourage developers to add public 
amenities to their building plans in return for variances. The revision proved less than 
successful, and in 1990 the City Planning Commission established new building districts in an 
attempt to decrease the flood of new building in Manhattan.  

Challenges and opportunities 

It was very hard to get approval for the various urbanization plans of the city, in 1969 city 
planners offered a major plan for the city but it failed to get approval because of the public 
opinion. The other challenge was the growing amount of population, immigrants which made 
houses pop up in a completely disorganized way. At present the main goal of new york is to 
make it a sustainable city. They created a new office called sustainability and long term 
planning containing 15 city agencies.  

Sustainability Plan 

1. Growing population 

This growth could bring incredible benefits: Billions of dollars in new economic
activity will be generated by new jobs, residents, and visitors. But growth also
presents challenges: It can undermine neighborhood quality of life, which is why over
the past five years we’ve rezoned more than 4,000 city blocks in dozens of
neighborhoods, to allow for growth where there’s capacity, and preserve community
character when appropriate. Growth can also bid up housing prices 

2. Ageing infrastructure  

The subway system and highway networks are extensive, and heavily-used, yet nearly
3,000 miles of our roads, bridges, and tunnels, and the majority of our subway stations are
in need of repair. And even though they have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to
improve our sewer infrastructure over the past 15 years, at the current pace a full upgrade
will take another 500 years.By 2030, virtually every major infrastructure system in our city
will be more than a century old, and pushed to its limits. It doesn’t have to come to that if
we act. Once, infrastructure solutions were pioneered in New York. Now, it's time for us to
rise to the challenge again, with a new commitment to upgrading and maintaining New
York’s infrastructure. Achieving sustainability for new york growing city means protecting
its foundation our infrastructure. And to do that, we’ve set these three goals:

Developing critical back-up systems for our water network, so every New Yorker is 
assured of a dependable source of water even into the next century. 
 Reaching a full state of good repair for New York City’s roads, subways, and rails for the 
first time in history. 

And providing cleaner, more reliable power for every New Yorker by upgrading our 
energy infrastructure. 

3. Strain on environment 

“But the demands of our growing population require us to do far more to protect our 
environment. Despite the gains we have made over the past two decades our aging sewer 
network still discharges two billion gallons of sewage into our waterways every year. 
Even though we have cleaned hundreds of acres of brownfields across the city, there is 
still much more contaminated land waiting to be reclaimed for new jobs, housing, and 
parks. 

Our air is cleaner now than it was for much of the 20th Century, yet we have one of the 
highest asthma hospitalization rates in the country, and its effects are most severe for 
young children in neighborhoods with high poverty rates. Meanwhile, we've all noticed 
that the weather seems to be getting more unpredictable, and summers seem to be 
getting hotter. And longer. Well, that’s not just a perception; it’s a reality. 

It’s called global warming but the impact can be local. We’re a coastal city, and the 
increase of greenhouse gases in our air is not only lifting temperatures, it may also be 
contributing to our rising sea level. That means that when major storms hit in the future, 
the resulting flooding could be worse than anything we’ve seen. 

We know the cost of failing to prepare. It can devastate a great city in just hours, which is 
why we have created a comprehensive Coastal Storm Plan. But to reduce the threat of 
dangerous storms, it’s also essential that we do our part to dramatically cut greenhouse 
gases. To ensure the health of future generations, and to establish New York as a leader 
in meeting some of the greatest challenges of our time, we must do more to green our 
city. 

Encroachment  
New York is experiencing a construction boom, with new buildings going up all over the 
city. But, as construction heats up, so does the possibility of disputes between adjoining 
landowners. One common real estate dispute arises when a new structure encroaches  

Onto another owner's land. When this happens, the owner of the adjoining property has 
several remedies available under New York law. 

In some cases, the ​property dispute​ may result from a disagreement over who actually 
owns the land in question. If this is the case, the party claiming encroachment can bring 
a quiet title action. The plaintiff commences the action by filing a complaint and serving 
it on all parties known to claim an interest in the property. The other parties have the 
opportunity to come forward and present evidence in support of their own claims. The 
court then issues a judgment that establishes who has valid title to the property. 

If clear title is established, the plaintiff can bring an ejectment action and seek an 
injunction compelling the encroaching neighbor to remove the structure. Under New 
York law, the court has the option of awarding monetary damages in lieu of an 
injunction. 

In many cases it makes sense to try and negotiate a solution to the dispute with the 
other property owner. Real estate litigation can be expensive, and a negotiated solution 
can save the property owner some money in attorney fees and litigation costs. But, to 
negotiate effectively a property owner should be able to present a convincing argument 
that they would be successful if they went to court. 

Source: ​Findlaw.com, "​What Can You Do About an Encroachment?​"