| NEW YORK The Big Apple |
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TimelineNew York Timeline In 1664 the colony changed hands, passing from Dutch to English the latter of whom promptly renamed the settlement ‘New York’ after the Duke of York (later King James II) and under their rule the colony became an important port of call in the Atlantic trade (which at the time, also meant the slave trade). By the time the British colonies in America revolted against the rule of their colonial masters New York was one of the most prosperous and important cities in the Western Hemisphere… which is why it suffered under British Occupation for most of the War. After the war ended, New York was briefly the capital of the new United States under the Articles of Confederation before it was moved a few short years later to a new city being constructed down near the Potomac. In 1840 the Great Irish Famine brought over an absolutely massive influx of Irish immigrants (some 200,000 over the next 20 years) while political disruptions in Germanic nations brought in so many Germans that by 1860 they comprised a full quarter of the city’s population. The situation between the immigrants and the existing New Yorkers (primarily poor African Americans and propertied whites) become so tense that three years later during the Draft Riots, what had first begun as a more or less political protest rapidly devolved into immigrant violence against the Establishment. The City that Never Sleeps began to grow again in the 1890s as it became a popular destination during the Great Migration of blacks leaving the south. In 1916 the Harlem Renaissance brought an economic boom that continued through most of the twenties. In 1920 New York became the most populous urban area in the world (edging out London for the honor). The Great Depression crashed the city’s prosperity (as it did the rest of the Nation’s), but the Industrial and Post War Booms of the 40’s and 50’s returned prosperity with the soldiers as they came home from around the world. Through the next fifty years brought their shares of trials. The industrial recession of the ‘70’s. The Stonewall Riots. Through it all the city endured, grew, diversified. It became an American icon, the great metropolis of the Western World, the crossroads of the planet, the place where all roads led. Which is probably why it was attacked so viciously. None who lived through them will ever forget the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, nor the awful drawn out aftermath as the shattered city attempted to rebuild. Things… were never quite the same afterwards. There’s always the sense of a heightened awareness. The knowledge that things did once go horribly wrong and could do so again. Going from a city under siege to the largest city in a nation at war hasn’t been easy for anyone, but thirteen years later New Yorkers are still proving why they’re considered some of the toughest Americans around. The most recent event of note was the completion of One Freedom Tower in 2013. Stark may personify the phoenix metaphor, so he says, but this has to be a close second. Rising above every other structure in the city to a symbolic height of 1,776 feet, One Freedom Tower isn’t just a building, it’s a symbol of everything the city is and a dramatic statement of from those who refuse to be beaten. AtmosphereI don’t ever wanna let you down. I don’t ever wanna leave this town. ‘Cause after all, this city never sleeps at night.” New York. The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. Home to near eight and a half million souls. In such an awe inspiring crush of humanity it’s easy to become lost in the crowd. Just a name. Just a face. Just a number. Just another guy on the street. Just another girl in the alley. New York is in many ways, a study in contradictions. High rise office buildings and modern luxury apartments abut century old brickwork lofts. Poverty and squalor exist within spitting distance (well okay, maybe more a respectable arms length) of the affluent and influential. Bright city lights cast deep, dark shadows. And through it all moves the ever present anonymous mass of humanity. Organized crime, sadly, thrives in New York, much as it often does in large cities, but it has nowhere near the stranglehold on business and the economy as might be found elsewhere. The NYPD may not have a Superman to help them clean up the streets, but they are a professional, well equipped force ready, willing and able to keep the peace in a city they refuse to see become the next Gotham. They’re very good at it too. NY-SRD? Well that’s another story. The SRD has a well earned reputation for callous brutality where mutants are concerned – to the point where nearly everyone in the five boroughs knows them as the ‘Mardees’ – and the issue seems to be systemic. No matter how many officers are disciplined after public incidents, the issue seems to just crop up again and again. Still, making trouble in New York is easier said than done and, vigilante or criminal, if one does not keep a low enough profile someone is going to come for you, be it the NYPD, the SRD or the ever present mailed fist that is SHIELD who has its primary headquarters in the city. This is not to say that no one does make trouble. To the contrary, between organized crime, street crime in the poorer areas and well equipped supervillians, there’s plenty of trouble to go around and that’s not even mentioning the M word. Mutants. While the city as a whole is a melting pot, New York is extremely schizophrenic when it comes to mutants. On the one hand, M-Town, with its vibrant mutant subculture, rough and tumble frontier feel and curious mix of inhabitants are often the public face mutant kind so far as the rest of the nation is concerned. On the other hand, relations between the normal and the mutants, and the militants on both sides, are often tense. At the best of times this leads to protests and rallies. Others? Violence is not unknown, both from radicals elements of the Friends of Humanity and mutants who share the ideals of (if not membership in) the Brotherhood of Mutants. Anyone involved in Mutants Rights issues or living in M-Town learns to step carefully very quickly. As for the people at large, their opinions on vigilantes and unsanctioned heroes vary wildly. Influential institutions like the Daily Bugle have ingrained a healthy suspicion of masked crusaders and the like, this in large part due to the relationship between their publisher and a certain costumed hero. Still, the people of New York are not blind and nothing if not independent. Those who have been positively impacted by heroes tend to give them a benefit of a doubt, while those who have suffered from ‘collateral damage’ tend to be less forgiving. The result is that it varies by neighborhood and even within. Hell’s Kitchen, long protected by a man with no fear, tends to be quite friendly. Just across the island though, Midtown East under the shadow of SHIELD’s fortress takes a much dimmer view. And so it goes. The lights here don’t shine as bright, nor the shadows seem as dark as in other places. But that’s what makes this place New York. Keeping it that way, keeping the creeping shadows and insidious influences out, will require the efforts of all of the City’s Champions… if they can keep from each other’s throats. Geography
Notable Residents
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