Day Nine - Manhattan!

This morning I took the A Train downtown to Centre St., to meet Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

BOROUGH PRESIDENT STRINGER AND ME

Mr. Stringer explained to me that he believes the foundation for much of his work is the change he’s brought to Manhattan’s community boards. Energizing these formal institutions of neighborhood democracy was a top priority of Mr. Stringer’s when he ran for office. A new merit selection process, combined with an addition of badly needed resources – such as dedicating to each board a graduate student from the city’s architecture and planning schools – has served to strengthen the voice of Manhattan’s neighborhoods in debates over city planning. Since taking office at the start of 2006, he has dedicated himself to making Manhattan more affordable, livable, and breathable. He told me that he is committed to preserving the sense of neighborhood for the 1.6 million residents of Manhattan, which is best known throughout the world as a capital of culture and commerce.

After my tour of the Manhattan Borough Hall, Mr. Stringer took me to the world-famous Bleeker St. for John’s Pizza!

I learned that NYC is famous for making two things better than any place else in the world: bagels and pizza! Everyone has their own opinion about who makes the best pizza in NYC, but Borough President Stringer told me he thinks John’s is the best.

John’s Pizza was started in 1929 by John Sasso. It is still in its original location and serves coal-fired, brick oven pizza. Mr. Stringer told me that John’s is one of the oldest pizzerias in NYC. John’s really captures the essence of NYC pizza, by serving thin-crust pizza, made to order (fast!), and using only fresh toppings. I ate FOUR slices it was so yummy!

After my very big lunch, Borough President Stringer took me to see the Empire State Building! As Borough President, Mr. Stringer is very committed to maintaining Manhattan’s tourism industry, and the Empire State Building is one of its biggest attractions.

ME AT THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

 

Our tour guide told us so many interesting things about the building, it is hard to remember all of them! Several decades ago it became the fashion to start building very tall buildings, which came to be known as skyscrapers. By 1930, it seemed as though the 1,046-foot Chrysler Building had won the skyscraper war. However, in October of that year, construction began on the Empire State Building, at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street.

The Empire State Building was finished on May 1, 1931 -- 45 days ahead of schedule and about 5 million dollars under budget! During the opening ceremonies, President Hoover pressed a button to light up the building. Unfortunately, due to the Depression, nearly half of the building remained unused, giving it the nickname the "Empty State Building."

The original plan for the Empire State Building called for the top stories to be used as a "mooring mast" to help secure blimps while passengers disembarked. Although two blimps did successfully make contact with the mast, this idea was soon abandoned. Instead, the 86th and 102nd stories became observatory decks. On a clear day, tourists on these floors can see distances as far as 80 miles away.

The Empire State Building remained the tallest building in the world until the 1970s, when the World Trade Towers were built. Soon after, even taller skyscrapers claimed the title of tallest building in the world. Although the Empire State Building is no longer the world's tallest building, it is still visited by millions of tourists each year, and has been featured in over 90 movies, the most famous of which is King Kong.

MEMORIAL DAY COLORS! 

(Americans spell colour it without the "u")

Today the Empire State Building is lit up Red, White and Blue, in honor of Memorial Day. Americans do not celebrate Victoria Day like we do. Instead, they have a holiday one week later called Memorial Day, which is just like our Remembrance Day.  Many fleets of Navy ships dock in the ports of Manhattan during the days leading up to the Memorial Day weekend, so that period of time has become known in NYC as “Fleet Week”.

Fun NYC Factoid:

The Empire State Building changes the colors of its lights to reflect holidays and other important events in New York City.

You can learn all about on the Empire State Building’s Official Website:

http://www.esbnyc.com 
This website explains not only what color the Empire State Building is today, but also why those colors have been chosen!