Flying The Flag of Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (behind New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester), and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976 (according to the 2010 Census). It is an inner suburb of New York City, directly to the north of the Bronx and approximately two miles (3 km) north of the northernmost point in Manhattan.
Yonkers' downtown is centered on a plaza known as Getty Square, where the municipal government is located.
The area also houses significant local businesses and non-profits, and serves as a major retail hub for Yonkers and the northwest Bronx.
The city is home to several attractions, including the Hudson River Museum; Saw Mill River Daylighting, wherein a parking lot was removed to uncover a river; Science Barge; Sherwood House; and Yonkers Raceway, a harness racing track that has renovated its grounds and clubhouse and added legalized video slot machine gambling in 2006 in a racino called Empire City.
Major shopping areas can be found in Getty Square, on South Broadway, at the Cross County Shopping Center and Westchester's Ridge Hill, and along Central Park Avenue, informally called Central Ave by area residents, a name it takes officially a few miles north in White Plains.
The land on which the city is built was once part of a 24,000-acre (97-square-kilometer) land grant called Colen Donck that ran from the current Manhattan-Bronx border at Marble Hill northwards for 12 miles (19 km), and from the Hudson River eastwards to the Bronx River.
This grant was purchased in July 1645 by Adriaen van der Donck, the first lawyer in North America. Van der Donck was known locally as the Jonkheer or Jonker (etymologically, young gentleman, derivation of old Dutch jong (young) and heer (lord); in effect, Esquire), a word from which the name Yonkers is directly derived.
Van der Donck built a saw mill near where the Nepperhan Creek met the Hudson; the Nepperhan is now also known as the Saw Mill River. Van der Donck was killed in the Peach War.
His wife, Mary Doughty, was taken captive and ransomed later.
Near the site of van der Donck's mill is Philipse Manor Hall, a Colonial-era manor house which today serves as a museum and archive, offering many glimpses into life before the American Revolution. The original structure (later enlarged) was built around 1682 by Frederick Philipse and his wife Margaret Hardenbroeck.
Frederick was a wealthy Dutchman who by the time of his death had amassed an enormous estate, which encompassed the entire modern City of Yonkers, as well as several other Hudson River towns.
Philipse's great-grandson, Frederick Philipse III, was a prominent Loyalist during the American Revolution, who, because of his political leanings, was forced to flee to England.
All the lands that belonged to the Philipse family were confiscated and sold.
For its first two hundred years, Yonkers was a small farming town with an active industrial waterfront. Yonkers's later growth rested largely on developing industry. In 1853, Elisha Otis invented the first safety elevator and the Otis Elevator Company, opened the first elevator factory in the world on the banks of the Hudson near what is now Vark Street. It relocated to larger quarters (now the Yonkers Public Library) in the 1880s. Around the same time, the Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Company (in the Saw Mill River Valley) expanded to 45 buildings, 800 looms, and over 4,000 workers and was known as one of the premier carpet producing centers in the world.
The community was incorporated as a village in the northern part of the Town of Yonkers in 1854 and as a city in 1872. In 1874 the southern part of Yonkers, including Kingsbridge and Riverdale, was annexed by New York City as The Bronx.
In 1898, Yonkers (along with Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island) voted on a referendum to determine if they wanted to become part of New York City.
While the results were positive elsewhere, the returns were so negative in Yonkers and neighboring Mount Vernon that those two areas were not included in the consolidated city, and remained independent.
Still, some residents call the city the Sixth Borough referring to its location on the New York City border, its urban character, and the failed merger vote.
The New York City and Northern Railway Company (later the New York Central Railroad) connected Yonkers to Manhattan and points north from 1888. A three-mile spur to Getty Square existed until 1943
Aside from being a manufacturing center, Yonkers also played a key role in the development of entertainment in the United States. In 1888, Scottish-born John Reid founded the first golf course in the United States, St. Andrew's Golf Club, in Yonkers.
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (behind New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester), and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976 (according to the 2010 Census). An inner suburb of New York City, Yonkers directly borders the Bronx and is located two miles (3 km) north of Manhattan at the municipalities' closest points.
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2016 blizzard Yonkers nyc
YONKERS VIDEO VAULT: Liberty Lines Lunatic In Getty Square
Roundup Video; There Never A Dull Moment In Downtown Yonkers When You have Dangerous Acrobats Like This
Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, centered on the eponymous public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and transit hub of the City of Yonkers.
The square is named after prominent 19th-century merchant Robert Getty.
The Saw Mill River, which flows through Getty Square, powered manufacturing grist mills beginning in the 1600s.
The New York Central Railroad operated out of the still-in-use Yonkers train station.
Like many downtowns in the northeastern United States, Getty Square suffered gradual and severe de-industrialization and non-automobile infrastructure disinvestment beginning after World War II.
The Otis Elevator Company factory, with vast buildings covering much of the Getty Square neighborhood north of what is now Van der Donck Park, closed in 1983. Rail-based transportation also diminished.
The closing and quick demolition of the Yonkers Branch of the New York and Putnam Railroad.
The Saw Mill River, once the economic engine of Getty Square, was buried in flumes underground in the 1920s; the pavement above was used mostly for car parking lots at Chicken Island, Mill Street Courtyard, and Larkin Plaza.
New York State widened Nepperhan Avenue to create an arterial highway along the eastern side of the neighborhood, demolishing a Carnegie library in the process
The reconstituting of the vacant Otis Elevator Factory campus into the iPark corporate business center spurred an influx of advanced industrial initiatives.
Capitalizing on the iPark location connected to the existing rail network, Kawasaki Heavy Industries brought its railcar assembly plant to Getty Square.
In 2011, iPark installed the largest solar-panel array in Westchester on its roof to provide low-cost electricity to its manufacturing tenants.
In 2007, the Science Barge, an solar- and wind-powered demonstration farm, using hydroponics and aquaculture, docked at its permanent home next to the train station at the mouth of the Saw Mill River.
The Saw Mill River, the catalyst for Yonkers' initial economic growth in the 17th century, is again being used as an economic engine.
Long buried underground in Getty Square, in 2012, the City of Yonkers and Groundwork]completed the daylighting of the Saw Mill River and construction of Van der Donck Park around it just east of the Yonkers train station.
The park, featuring public amenities and wildlife elements, has become an international showpiece.
Getty Square is a bustling, multi-ethnic shopping district with very high numbers of shoppers compared with other Westchester downtowns.
Getty Square's heavy pedestrian foot traffic is bolstered by its role as a key transit hub of Yonkers and Westchester.
Bee-Line buses, MTA express buses, Metro-North Railroad, and Amtrak converge in Getty Square, and connections are often little more than a few blocks.
The combination of walkability and a transit hub has spurred transit-oriented development, with zoning changes to promote less car travel and more walking, cycling, and transit use.
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Brian Harrod Roundup Newswires Editor
Yonkers Newswire
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Here's where New York City's sewage really goes
New York City is home to 8.4 million waste-producing people; that's a lot of toilets, drains, and sewers. It takes 14 wastewater treatment facilities scattered throughout the five boroughs to clean up all of our dirty water.
We visited the largest facility, the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to see how the water is treated. It's a dirty job that surprisingly smells great.
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New York (state) | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
New York (state)
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.85 million residents in 2017, it is the fourth most populous state. To distinguish the state from the city in the state with the same name, it is sometimes called New York State.
The state's most populous city, New York City, makes up over 40% of the state's population. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York metropolitan area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. The state and city were both named for the 17th century Duke of York, the future King James II of England. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous in the world. New York City is a global city, home to the United Nations Headquarters and has been described as the cultural, financial and media capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city. The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany.
New York, the 27th largest U.S. state in land area, has a diverse geography. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the northwest. The southern part of the state is in the Atlantic Coastal Plain and includes Long Island and several smaller associated islands, as well as New York City and the lower Hudson River Valley. The large Upstate New York region comprises several ranges of the wider Appalachian Mountains, and the Adirondack Mountains in the Northeastern lobe of the state. Two major river valleys – the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley – bisect these more mountainous regions. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and borders Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, a popular vacation and tourist destination.
New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. French colonists and Jesuit missionaries arrived southward from Montreal for trade and proselytizing. In 1609, the region was visited by Henry Hudson sailing for the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built Fort Nassau in 1614 at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, where the present-day capital of Albany later developed. The Dutch soon also settled New Amsterdam and parts of the Hudson Valley, establishing the multicultural colony of New Netherland, a center of trade and immigration. England seized the colony from the Dutch in 1664. During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), a group of colonists of the Province of New York attempted to take control of the British colony and eventually succeeded in establishing independence. In the 19th century, New York's development of access to the interior beginning with the Erie Canal, gave it incomparable advantages over other regions of the U.S. east-coast and built its political and cultural ascendancy.Many landmarks in New York are well known, including four of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, Niagara Falls (shared with Ontario), and Grand Central Terminal. New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entr ...
New York (state) | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
New York (state)
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
=======
New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.85 million residents in 2017, it is the fourth most populous state. To distinguish the state from the city in the state with the same name, it is sometimes called New York State.
The state's most populous city, New York City, makes up over 40% of the state's population. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York metropolitan area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. The state and city were both named for the 17th century Duke of York, the future King James II of England. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous in the world. New York City is a global city, home to the United Nations Headquarters and has been described as the cultural, financial and media capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city. The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany.
New York, the 27th largest U.S. state in land area, has a diverse geography. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the northwest. The southern part of the state is in the Atlantic Coastal Plain and includes Long Island and several smaller associated islands, as well as New York City and the lower Hudson River Valley. The large Upstate New York region comprises several ranges of the wider Appalachian Mountains, and the Adirondack Mountains in the Northeastern lobe of the state. Two major river valleys – the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley – bisect these more mountainous regions. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and borders Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, a popular vacation and tourist destination.
New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. French colonists and Jesuit missionaries arrived southward from Montreal for trade and proselytizing. In 1609, the region was visited by Henry Hudson sailing for the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built Fort Nassau in 1614 at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, where the present-day capital of Albany later developed. The Dutch soon also settled New Amsterdam and parts of the Hudson Valley, establishing the multicultural colony of New Netherland, a center of trade and immigration. England seized the colony from the Dutch in 1664. During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), a group of colonists of the Province of New York attempted to take control of the British colony and eventually succeeded in establishing independence. In the 19th century, New York's development of access to the interior beginning with the Erie Canal, gave it incomparable advantages over other regions of the U.S. east-coast and built its political and cultural ascendancy.Many landmarks in New York are well known, including four of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions in 2013: Times Square, Central Park, Niagara Falls (shared with Ontario), and Grand Central Terminal. New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a global node of creativity and entr ...
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in- and is the county seat of- New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476; according to the 2010 Census it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the principal city of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that includes New Hanover and Pender counties in southeastern North Carolina, which has a population of 263,429 as of the 2012 Census Estimate.
Wilmington was settled by European Americans along the Cape Fear River. Its historic downtown has a one-mile-long Riverwalk, developed as a tourist attraction. It is minutes away from nearby beaches. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Wilmington, North Carolina, as one of its 2008 Dozen Distinctive Destinations. City residents live between the river and the ocean, with four nearby beach communities: Fort Fisher, Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, and Kure Beach, all within half-hour drives from downtown Wilmington.
This video is targeted to blind users.
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Article text available under CC-BY-SA
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Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Transportation - 01/29/15
Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Transportation - 01/29/15