What makes New York City so great? The experts agree: it’s our things. Those things are a multifarious lot comprising attractions, institutions, people, quotations, architecture, works of art and food (lots of food). But they’re all linked together by their New York-ness. They’re the reasons New York City is New York City. Below, we’ve enumerated and illustrated some of our favorites. Take a gander, and then let us know about yours.
1. The Cyclone
2. The Village Voice
3. Saturday Night Live
4. Chelsea Hotel
5. Jacob DeGrom
6. Egg creams
7. Perpetually lamenting the Brooklyn Dodgers’ departure
8. Lou Reed
9. Peter Luger Steak House
10. Guastavino tiles (like Grand Central Terminal’s)
11. “Stand clear of the closing doors please”
12. Subway announcements too quiet to hear
13. Subway announcements too loud to understand
14. Second Avenue Subway construction
15. Pastrami on rye
16. “[Insert neighborhood here] was so much cooler when I first moved in”
17. “New York, New York” after Yankee games
18. Unannounced concerts by Michael Stipe, Justin Timberlake, Billie Joe Armstrong, U2, two-thirds of Nirvana…
19. Greek takeaway coffee cups
20. Regular coffee
21. Grand Prospect Hall commercials
22. The Phantom of the Opera
23. Brooklyn Bridge
24. The Village Halloween Parade
25. The Mermaid Parade
26. The Thanksgiving Day Parade
27. Acronymic neighborhoods
28. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches (aka "BEC")
29. Rent
30. Lady Gaga
31. Stickball
32. (Everything) bagels
33. Judging people who toast bagels
34. Pizza
35. “New Yawk” accents
36. “Downtown”
37. Basquiat
38. Carrying heels in your bag
39. Wu-Tang Clan
40. Staten Island Ferry
41. Central Park
42. Seinfeld
43. Sex and the City
44. Magnolia Bakery ; - )
45. Black-and-white cookies
46. Jay Z
47. Double Dutch
48. “I'm walkin’ here!”
49. Giving directions to strangers
50. Keith Haring’s Crack Is Wack mural
51. Shakespeare in the Park
52. Patti Smith
53. The Ramones
54. Rockaway Beach
55. The Rockettes
56. Steam heat
57. Yellow cabs
58. Spike Lee
59. The skyline
60. New Year's Eve in Times Square
61. Practice, practice, practice
62. Amateur Night at the Apollo
63. Hanging out on a stoop
64. Yonah Schimmel knishes
65. Porzingis fever
66. Wall Street
67. Nathan’s hot dog eating contest
68. Arguing over what qualifies as a New York thing
69. Arguing over neighborhood boundaries
70. Arguing
71. Wearing all-black everything
72. Hip-hop
73. The fact that West 4th Street intersects with West 10th Street
74. ...and with West 11th, 12th and 13th Streets
75. City Island
76. Surprise Louis C.K. sets
77. "Do you like comedy?"
78. "Do you like hip-hop?"
79. The Washington Square Arch
80. Goodbye to All That, by Joan Didion
81. Hot 97
82. WFUV
83. A night at the opera
84. Guy Fieri’s American Grill
85. New York Times restaurant reviews
86. Rucker Park basketball court
87. Alternate-side parking
88. Law and Order shoots
89. NY1
90. Three different Chinatowns
90. On the 6
91. St. Mark
92. Knowing what CBGB OMFUG stands for
93. Legs McNeil
94. Lester Bangs
95. Tiny apartments
96. Celebrities riding the subway
97. Pigeons riding the subway
98. John Zorn
99. Truman Capote
100. The changing colors of the Empire State Building
101. Warhol’s Factory
102. The Unisphere
103. #bonnetcore
104. Bodegas
105. Bodega cats
106. Jazz
107. MetroCards
108. Daily News op-eds
109. New York Post headlines
110. The salmon-colored pages of the New York Observer
111. Red pandas at the Bronx Zoo
112. The Manhattan
113. WPA art and architecture
114. nycgo.com, the Official Guide to New York City. Sign up for our mailing list. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Use the hashtag #newyorkthings. Thank you.
Pictures: Emily Lessard (Creative Director), Caitlin Clingman, Sara Duell, Louis Lee, Alexander Quinn, Jose Quinteros, Noah Venezia
Words: Jonathan Durbin, Adam Kuban, Christina Parrella, Alyson Penn, Andrew Rosenberg, Brian Sloan, Jonathan Zeller
