One big apple tree

Greening the Big Apple: New York plants millionth tree ahead of schedule

Trees line a street in Greenwich Village in New York. Photograph: Ian Dagnall/Alamy

Trees line a street in Greenwich Village in New York. Photograph: Ian Dagnall/Alamy

City links: The MillionTreesNYC campaign has hit its target two years early, cash machines that dispense stories and the youngest cities in England and Wales feature in this week’s best city stories

Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2020 12.53 GMT

The best city stories we’ve spotted around the web this week celebrate the tree-planting efforts of New York City, discover how Grenoble is bringing short stories to its streets and reveal which cities in England and Wales have the youngest populations. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories: just share your thoughts in the comments below.

A million trees

As we’ve discussed before, urban trees have a number of environmental, social, health – and even economic – benefits. So it’s positive to hear, from Fast Co Exist, that the goal of New York’s MillionTreesNYC campaign, to plant a million new trees in a decade, has been achieved two years ahead of schedule.

As Adele Peters writes: “While the city planted the majority of the trees (750,000) in parks and along streets, the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) filled in the gaps on other public land – places like housing projects, libraries, airports, churches and synagogues, and hospitals. They also gave away trees to anyone with a yard who wanted one.”

Impressive stuff – though as usual looks like London is trying to go one (million) better than New York, with mayoral hopeful Sadiq Khan promising to plant 2m trees should he be elected.

Young cities

With the help of data from Centre for Cities, City Metric reveals which towns and cities in England and Wales are home to the most, and the least, people aged under 20. At the bottom of the table, with the lowest percentage of young people, are Bournemouth and Blackpool. Those places with the biggest proportion of the under-20s are Bradford and Blackburn (alliteration unplanned).

The density question

A common complaint from city dwellers is that there are too many people in their city and simply no capacity for more residents; but is there such a thing as a city that has “run out of room”? The Washington Post doesn’t think so, and takes an in-depth look at urban density around the world. “For the most part,” writes Emily Badger, “we can always make choices to make more room, to build taller and denser, to upgrade schools and rethink roads to let more people in. That we don’t isn’t a limitation of physics. It’s a matter of politics disguised as physics.”

The city of Grenoble is nestled in the Alps. Photograph: David Martyn Hughes

Street stories

Grenoble – the French city recently in the headlines for banning commercial street advertising – has now done something else surprising on its streets. As CityLab explains, the city has eight new cash machines dotted around town – but instead of dispensing money, the machines give out short stories. The idea is that the machines bring interesting literature into those kerbside moments spent waiting for a friend or a bus, thus making reading more accessible for those on the move.

Car-free Suwon

In 2013, the 4,300 residents of a neighbourhood called Haenggung-dong in the South Korean city of Suwon gave up cars for a month, in celebration of the EcoMobility World Festival. “It was impressive to see how the residents embraced the change and adapted their routines and commutes to car-free circumstances,” writes Anna Valmero in CityLab. “I also came away from the event inspired to learn how to bike.” But what about the long-term local impact of the temporary initiative? Valmaro returns to the city to take a look: “Cars have made a noticeable return, although residents say there are fewer of them and drivers go slower . Shutting the streets entirely to cars seems unlikely anytime soon. But residents have begun requesting incremental changes that nudge Haenggung-dong in that direction.”

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook to join the discussion

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The Big Apple: How NYC Got Its Name

TripSavvy / Brakethrough Media

New York, New York, the most populous city in the United States, has been given many nicknames, including The City That Never Sleeps, Empire City, and Gotham—but perhaps the most famous one of all is the Big Apple.

The nickname «The Big Apple» originated in the 1920s in reference to the prizes (or «big apples») rewarded at the many racing courses in and around New York City. However, it wasn’t officially adopted as the city’s nickname until 1971 as the result of a successful ad campaign intended to attract tourists.

Throughout its history, the term «big apple» has always come down to simply mean the best and biggest of places to be, and New York City has long lived up to its nickname. Once you visit this seven-mile-long city, you’ll truly understand why it’s called the Capital of the World and the Big Apple.

The Big Reward: From Racing to Jazz

The first mention of New York City as «The Big Apple» was in the 1909 book «The Wayfarer in New York.» In the introduction, Edward Martin writes about the dynamic between NYC and the Midwest, using the apple as an extended metaphor:

«New York is merely one of the fruits of that great tree whose roots go down in the Mississippi Valley, and whose branches spread from one ocean to the other, but the tree has no great degree of affection for its fruit. It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap. It is disturbed by the enormous drawing power of a metropolis which constantly attracts to itself wealth and its possessors from all the lesser centers of the land. Every city, every State pays an annual tribute of men and of business to New York, and no State or city likes particularly to do it.»

The term only started gaining traction when sports writer John J. Fitz Gerald began writing about the city’s horse races for the New York Morning Telegraph. In his column, he wrote that these were «the big apples» of competitive racing in the United States.

Fitz Gerald got the term from African American stable hands in New Orleans; jockeys and trainers who aspired to race on New York City tracks referred to the money prizes as the «Big Apple. He once explained the term in an article for the Morning Telegraph:

«The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York.»

Although the audience for Fitz Gerald’s articles was markedly smaller than most, the concept of «big apple» representing the best of the best—or most-sought-after of rewards or accomplishments—began to popularize across the country.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the nickname started to become well known outside of the northeast, as New York City’s jazz musicians began referring to New York City as the «Big Apple» in their songs. An old saying in show business was «There are many apples on the tree, but only one Big Apple.» New York City was (and is) the premier place for jazz musicians to perform, which made it more common to refer to New York City as the Big Apple.

A Bad Reputation for the Big Apple

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York City was quickly earning a national reputation as a dark and dangerous city. To increase tourism to New York City in 1971, the city launched an ad campaign with Charles Gillett, president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, at the helm. A fan of jazz, he wanted to restore the city to its former glory by adopting the Big Apple as an officially recognized reference to New York City.

The campaign featured red apples in an effort to lure visitors to New York City. The red apples, intended to serve as a bright and cheery image of the city, would stand in contrast to the common belief that New York City was riddled with crime and poverty. T-shirts, pins, and stickers promoting the «Big Apple» quickly became popular, thanks in part to the help of celebrities like New York Knicks legend Dave DeBusschere—and the city welcomed tourists to «take a bite out of the Big Apple.»

Since the conclusion of the campaign—and subsequent «rebranding» of the city—New York City has officially been nicknamed The Big Apple. In recognition of Fitz Gerald, the corner of 54th and Broadway (where Fitz Gerald lived for 30 years) was renamed «Big Apple Corner» in 1997.

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Greening the Big Apple: New York plants millionth tree ahead of schedule

Trees line a street in Greenwich Village in New York. Photograph: Ian Dagnall/Alamy

Trees line a street in Greenwich Village in New York. Photograph: Ian Dagnall/Alamy

City links: The MillionTreesNYC campaign has hit its target two years early, cash machines that dispense stories and the youngest cities in England and Wales feature in this week’s best city stories

Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2020 12.53 GMT

The best city stories we’ve spotted around the web this week celebrate the tree-planting efforts of New York City, discover how Grenoble is bringing short stories to its streets and reveal which cities in England and Wales have the youngest populations. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories: just share your thoughts in the comments below.

A million trees

As we’ve discussed before, urban trees have a number of environmental, social, health – and even economic – benefits. So it’s positive to hear, from Fast Co Exist, that the goal of New York’s MillionTreesNYC campaign, to plant a million new trees in a decade, has been achieved two years ahead of schedule.

As Adele Peters writes: “While the city planted the majority of the trees (750,000) in parks and along streets, the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) filled in the gaps on other public land – places like housing projects, libraries, airports, churches and synagogues, and hospitals. They also gave away trees to anyone with a yard who wanted one.”

Impressive stuff – though as usual looks like London is trying to go one (million) better than New York, with mayoral hopeful Sadiq Khan promising to plant 2m trees should he be elected.

Young cities

With the help of data from Centre for Cities, City Metric reveals which towns and cities in England and Wales are home to the most, and the least, people aged under 20. At the bottom of the table, with the lowest percentage of young people, are Bournemouth and Blackpool. Those places with the biggest proportion of the under-20s are Bradford and Blackburn (alliteration unplanned).

The density question

A common complaint from city dwellers is that there are too many people in their city and simply no capacity for more residents; but is there such a thing as a city that has “run out of room”? The Washington Post doesn’t think so, and takes an in-depth look at urban density around the world. “For the most part,” writes Emily Badger, “we can always make choices to make more room, to build taller and denser, to upgrade schools and rethink roads to let more people in. That we don’t isn’t a limitation of physics. It’s a matter of politics disguised as physics.”

The city of Grenoble is nestled in the Alps. Photograph: David Martyn Hughes

Street stories

Grenoble – the French city recently in the headlines for banning commercial street advertising – has now done something else surprising on its streets. As CityLab explains, the city has eight new cash machines dotted around town – but instead of dispensing money, the machines give out short stories. The idea is that the machines bring interesting literature into those kerbside moments spent waiting for a friend or a bus, thus making reading more accessible for those on the move.

Car-free Suwon

In 2013, the 4,300 residents of a neighbourhood called Haenggung-dong in the South Korean city of Suwon gave up cars for a month, in celebration of the EcoMobility World Festival. “It was impressive to see how the residents embraced the change and adapted their routines and commutes to car-free circumstances,” writes Anna Valmero in CityLab. “I also came away from the event inspired to learn how to bike.” But what about the long-term local impact of the temporary initiative? Valmaro returns to the city to take a look: “Cars have made a noticeable return, although residents say there are fewer of them and drivers go slower . Shutting the streets entirely to cars seems unlikely anytime soon. But residents have begun requesting incremental changes that nudge Haenggung-dong in that direction.”

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook to join the discussion

Источник

“The Big Apple” – история одного яблока Услышав термин «The Big Apple» все сразу понимают, что речь идет о Нью-Йорке. «Большое яблоко» — его самое известное прозвище.

В старых материалах изображения недоступны. Приносим извинения за неудобства

Услышав термин «The Big Apple» все сразу понимают, что речь идет о Нью-Йорке. «Большое яблоко» — его самое известное прозвище.

Официально, существует несколько версий возникновения такого названия.

Первая версия гласит, что термин возник в 1920-х годах. В прессе его впервые употребил Джон Фитцджеральд, спортивный обозреватель газеты «New York Morning Telegraph», в номере от 3 мая 1921 года. 18 февраля 1924 года в колонке под названием «Вокруг Большого яблока» он объяснил, что услышал это выражение в Нью-Орлеане. Лошади любят яблоки, а скачки в Нью-Йорке, по словам жокеев, — это «большое яблоко».

По другой версии, выражение возникло в среде джазовых музыкантов, у которых была пословица: «На древе успеха много яблок, но если тебе удалось завоевать Нью-Йорк, тебе досталось самое большое яблоко». В 1930-х годах существовали песня и танец под названием «Большое яблоко». Если кто-то говорил, что «he had a gig at «Big Apple»», это значило, что он выступал с концертом в самом центре Нью Йорка, на Манхеттене, где была самая жаждущая, наибольшая и самая признательная публика в стране. Интересно то, что это название вскоре забылось

В начале 1970-х бюро Нью-Йорка по туризму думало над вопросом, как привлечь побольше туристов в Нью Йорк. К этому времени город приобрел сомнительную репутацию благодаря постоянным забастовкам, уличным преступлениям и беспорядкам. Про «Яблоко» вспомнили снова и провели одну из самых успешных рекламных компаний, рисуя перед каждым американцем вид сочного краснобокого яблока — ну как же не поехать и не посетить этот замечательный город после этого! Кампания прошла успешно.

В 1997 года угол Западной 54-й улицы и Бродвея, где Джон Фитцджеральд жил в 1934—1963 годах, официальным указом мэра Рудольфа Джулиани был назван Углом Большого яблока.

Нью-Йоркские экскурсоводы с Брайтон Бич говорят, что связь «яблока» с Нью-Йорком появилась в силу того, что первое дерево, посаженное первыми переселенцами, которое дало плоды было яблоко. Поэтому «яблоко» стало символом Нью-Йорка. В центе Манхеттена есть магазин фирмы Apple, вход в который представляет собой большой стеклянный куб с хрустальным яблоком.

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