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10 Unbelievable Facts about New York

New York is not for the light-hearted, as it is believed that if you can make it in this city, you can make it anywhere. Underneath all the glamour and beauty that make New York City feel like an aviator of hopes, dreams and success, there lies a reach of history of unbelievable fact that are not very common to many people.

Below is a list of 10 unbelievable facts about New York;

1. A win for New York Women

Topless Woman back – Flickr

For centuries, women have been imposed rules on how to dress modestly and cover up their bodies, a rule that does not apply to men. However, New York women do not have to adhere to such chauvinistic views, as women have been legally allowed to go topless in public in New York City since 1992.

To celebrate such a rare fundamental right, there was a 鈥淕o Topless Day Parade鈥� where women walked around topless in the city in 2018.

The law that made going topless illegal began on June 21, 1986, when a group of women had a topless picnic in protest of New York state penal law section 245.01, which prohibits women going topless. The women challenged their convictions in court by arguing that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment made it unconstitutional for lawmakers to ban women 鈥� but not men 鈥� from going topless. The court threw out the women’s convictions but pointed to a previous decision in 1973 that said that section 245.01 of the penal code, should not be applied to “the noncommercial, perhaps accidental, and certainly not lewd, exposure alleged.”

2. Please do not gross out the congregants

No farting sign – Flickr

Farting is a normal body reaction, but viewed as offensive and vulgar in many societies. This can be attributed to its bad odor or simply its point of origin. New York churches must really hate farts, as it is a misdemeanor to fart in church with the intention of causing a disturbance.

This is due to a law stating a person is guilty of disruption or disturbance of a religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service 鈥渨hen he or she makes unreasonable noise or disturbance while at a lawfully assembled religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service.鈥�

3. Free flight ticket

Passport and ticket – Flickr

Air is considered to be the costliest and most modern means of transport. Plane tickets are costly, and passing the airport security is just another headache that many of us try to avoid. However, homeless people in New York City are being given one-way tickets if they can prove they have a relative ready to take them in and agree to stay away.

The Bloomberg administration has been funding the $500,000-a-year program to buy one-way plane tickets for indigent individuals. The administration argues it the cheaper alternative, as it costs New York鈥檚 taxpayers $36,00 to put up a homeless family in a night shelter for a year.

4. Why aren鈥檛 you added to the National Register of Historical Places?

Madison Square Garden – Flicker

Madison Square Garden opened on February 11, 1968, and is the oldest major sporting facility in the New York metropolitan area. It is used for professional ice hockey and basketball, as well as boxing, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports and entertainment.

MSG has a deal for a 20-year deal for a 428,000-square-foot headquarters at Penn 2 as local lawmakers consider relocating its eponymous entertainment complex to make way for a redeveloped Penn Station. The Penn 2 redevelopment will include a remodeled entrance to Madison Square Garden when completed in 2023.

5. 鈥榠ck鈥� what did I just drink?

Copepod – Wikipedia

Water is life, and there is no greater feeling in the world like drinking a cool glass of water during a hot summer afternoon. New York City鈥檚 water (including drinking water) is unfiltered, thus for every gulp of New York tap water you swallow an invisible shrimp like crustacean called copepod.

The microscopic crustaceans are not actually harmful at all, and are instead used to clear the water of mosquito larvae. Although they may lead to cleaner and even better tasting water, the presence of copepods mean that NYC鈥檚 drinking water is technically not kosher. Kosher is a term to describe any food that complies with a strict set of dietary rules in Judaism.

6. Whose eyeballs are those?

Albert Einstein – Flickr

The eyes are the window to the soul and who would not want to look into the soul of one of the greatest man who ever lived Albert Einstein, famous for devising his theory of relativity, which revolutionized our understanding of space, time, gravity, and the universe. Albert Einstine鈥檚 eyeballs are store in a safe deposit box in New York City.

During the autopsy of Albert Einstein, the pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed Einstein’s brain and eyeballs for preservation without the permission of his family. Thomas gifted the eyeballs to Einstein鈥檚 eye doctor, Henry Abrams, who has kept them in a safe deposit box in New York City to this day.

7. What are you hiding?

New York Skyline – Unsplash

Society is full of ideas pertaining to what is visually pleasing and can satisfy all the other senses, that is why for centuries humans have been obsessing with beauty. For the sake of beauty, New York City will build fake houses to create a beautiful fa莽ade instead of letting the ugly infrastructures show.

Many train passages and electrical substations, the grids that transport electricity from plant to consumer, are housed in these fake buildings made to blend into the urban landscape. After all, who wants to see a bunch of townhouses interrupted by power plants and ventilation shafts?

8. Home away from home

Jewish Museum – Wikipedia

The Jewish population in New York City is the largest in the world outside of Israel, comprising approximately 13 percent of the city’s population. The large Jewish population has led to a significant impact on the culture of New York City. Today within the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, there are many parks that are either named after Jews, or containing monuments relating to their culture and history.

The first recorded Jewish settler in New York was Jacob Barsimson, who arrived in August 1654 on a passport from the Dutch West India Company.

9. Where do you live?

New York busy streets – Unsplash

New York City is known as the city of dreams for a reason. The city is also the nation’s most important center for mass media, journalism, and publishing. Whatever your career aspirations may be, you can accomplish them in this city as finance, high technology, real estate, insurance, and health care are also critical to New York City’s economy.

The vast career opportunities within the city have contributed to about I in every 38 people living in the United States of America residing in New York City.

10. A city of invention

Joseph C. Gayetty – Wikipedia

Joseph C. Gayetty was living in New York City when he invented the commercial toilet paper. It was the first and remained only one of the few commercial toilet papers from 1857 to 1890 remaining in common use until the invention of splinter-free toilet paper in 1935 by the Northern Tissue Company.

 Joseph C. Gayetty first marketed toilet paper on December 8, 1857. Each sheet of pure Manila hemp paper was watermarked “J C Gayetty N Y”. The original product contained aloe as a lubricant and was marketed as an anti-hemorrhoid medical product.