In the south, Manhattan becomes narrower and the floor plan is somewhat more irregular. At the southern tip, the Battery Park points to the fort that the Dutch built as city founders to protect their trading post in New Amsterdam in 1626. Today there is the financial district, the so-called Downtown, with numerous skyscrapers. The focus is on the Wall Street stock exchange. Without a doubt, it is the most important place in the world economy – nowhere else are such high financial sums turned over on a daily basis.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Manhattan and thus New York City as a whole went through a phase of economic weakness, which among other things led to the departure of institutions and companies – for example “across the river” to Jersey City – and vacancies in Office space and other signs of deterioration. The suburbanization of residential and service facilities was not to be overlooked; in 1993 a quarter of the office space was still empty.
The decline was halted by revitalization programs in public-private partnership until the mid-1990s. The decisive factor, however, was the economic boom that began at the beginning of the 1990s and is still ongoing – albeit weakened by the 2007 financial crisis. This upswing, which is closely related to economic globalization, the digitization of communication and production, as well as the liberalization and networking of the global financial markets, particularly benefited New York, which was run down and desolate in the 1970s and 1980s, and there in particular Manhattan. As the most important global metropolis, New York is a clear winner from the ongoing globalization process. Today, many large corporations are based in New York.
Harlem, north of Central Park, was one of the finest areas in New York until the 1920s, with expensive mansions and townhouses. Unscrupulous homeowners then rented even the smallest of rooms to immigrants with many children and let the houses deteriorate. As a result, Harlem developed into a residential area for the Afro-American population with high crime rates and, in some cases, slum-like living conditions. Like many New York neighborhoods and districts, Harlem has experienced a renaissance since the early 1990s, which is due on the one hand to the economic boom and on the other hand to the reduction in the high crime rate through drastic, sometimes controversial measures by the city administration and police. For more information about the continent of North America, please check pharmacylib.com.
