The Almanac of New York City

The Almanac of New York City is a roll call of New York's most important facts and statistics. When mastered, it will provide every candidate who possesses it with an advantage in any election. It will also make you king of the hill when it comes to New York City's relevant data. Only a historian with the credentials of Kenneth T. Jackson and his colleague, Fred Kameny, former executive editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City, could have selected this essential information. You'll be carrying this book with you and answering any questions about New York before your computer can. -- Ed Koch, former New York City mayor Anyone fascinated by the hidden algebra of urban life will find this volume indispensable. Swarming beneath the city's multitudinous millions is another sea of numbers, and this book has them: statistical summaries, records, census data, employment figures, and revenue totals, along with a stunning host of firsts, longests, and mosts spanning every conceivable kind of activity in the city--all together a remarkable statistical and demographic summary of New York across the years. -- Ric Burns, documentary filmmaker

The Almanac of New York City is an innovative companion for urban enthusiasts. Nowhere else will you find the name of the city's first comptroller (Selah Strong) and Staten Island's most recently designated historic district (Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto) next to the city's best-attended cultural institution (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with five million visitors annually) and its lowest recorded temperature (15 degrees below zero in February 1934). The Almanac identifies the borough with the most residents who relocate to Palm Beach (Queens) and the borough with the highest number of Panamanian immigrants (Brooklyn). It lists where New York currently ranks in the cost of apartment rentals, the rate of obesity in each borough, the details of executions dating back to 1639, per capita income by borough, the longest-running Broadway shows, the winners of the Wanamaker Mile, and the location of celebrated grave sites. Compiled by two longtime historians of the city, The Almanac treats readers to a real New York story, a tale that will delight anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Big Apple's complex core.