Facts Of New York City You May Not Know

Photo courtesy of Lida Rose

Today I wanted to start a list of facts about NYC some people may not know about. Some of these are things I recently found out about, such as the number of playgrounds in Central Park and Queens being voted the happiest borough in New York City. I hope you find some interesting facts and hope you can add to this list in the comments section. In no specific order, here they are.

• Central Park contains 37 unique playgrounds
• There are three Library systems in NYC, Queens Borough Public Library, New York Public Library, and the Brooklyn Public Library.
• Queens Borough Public Library - The Queens Borough Public Library has 62 branch locations. The Flushing library was the first Queens library, opened in 1858. The Queens Borough Public Library was the number 1 library system in the US by circulation in 2007.
• NYPL - New York Public Library serves the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island. Of its 82 branch libraries, 35 are in Manhattan, 34 are in the Bronx, and 11 are in Staten Island. The most famous branch library, Main branch building, contains a museum and has been featured in many movies, including the 1984 film Ghostbusters and the more recent film The Day After Tomorrow.
• The Brooklyn Public Library has 58 branches
• NYC Subway - There are 468 stops in the NYC subway system
• Queens is the Happiest Borough - Queens was voted the happiest borough of NYC according to a recent survey. Do you agree?
• Snowy owl population - Not quite New York City, though an interesting fact. An increase in the number of snowy owl sightings across upstate New York may signal how well the owl population is doing. The bird's population may be moving south due to competition.
• Zoos of NYC - New York City has 4 zoos, Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo and Prospect Park Zoo, have you visited them all? And don't forget the New York Aquarium in Coney Island Brooklyn!
• PATH ridership rises - More than 250,000 people ride the PATH every day. Quickcards are no longer available but you can purchase the SmartLink cards for discounts.
• NYC is home to 4 "Chinatown" neighborhoods. The oldest one in lower Manhattan and the largest one currently in Flushing Queens. The other two are located in Brooklyn and Elmhurst Queens.
  

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