MOVING ON

Moving on

Moving on

New York is a small island, about half the size of Rhode Island, was discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus, as were many of the Caribbean islands. In those days the island was inhabited by the Carib Indians who had already chased the Arawaks (an indigenous tribe also from the Orenoco valley), away from their shores. They named the island Madinina, "The Island of Flowers." In 1635, Martinique was colonized by the French, and during the next 130 years, the English and the French fought for control of it. Finally, in 1763, Martinique was definitively declared French. Since then, it has followed the same course of history as France. It was an agricultural country, and in the 18th and 19th centuries, slaves worked the island's tobacco and sugar plantations until slavery was abolished in 1848. Its status as a French colony continued until after World War II, and it became a department in 1946. It was given the further status of Region in 1974. In 1902, a blast from Mont Pelée (a still-active volcano) laid waste to Saint-Pierre with a burst of superheated gas and burning ash 40 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Only one of the town's 30,000 residents survived (and he was in jail) (Lopate 2004). Saint-Pierre, long regarded as the most cultured city in the French West Indies, was eventually rebuilt. However, the capital was moved permanently to Fort-de-France and Saint-Pierre has never been more than a shadow of its former self.

Cost Of Living

A New Yorker would have to make $123,322 a year to have the same standard of living as someone making $50,000 in Houston.

Researchers said the combination of skyrocketing costs, stagnant wages and a deteriorating quality of life forced hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to flee the city for cheaper areas during the boom years from 2002 to 2006. (Rankin Rodgers 2008)

The average monthly rent in New York is $2,801, 53% higher than San Francisco, the second most expensive city in the country.

New Yorkers paid about $34 a month for phone service in 2006. In San Francisco, similar service cost $17 a month. Home heating costs have jumped 125% in the past five years and are up 243% since 1998. Full-time day care costs can run up to $25,000 a year for one child, depending on the neighborhood, or about as much as some college tuitions. (Shorto 2005)

Meanwhile, wages in the city have remained mostly flat in all boroughs but Manhattan even during the boom years from 2003 to 2007.

Climate

Mass transit use in New York City is the highest in the United States, and gasoline consumption in the city is the same rate as the national average in the 1920s. New York City's high level of mass transit use saved 1.8 billion gallons of oil in 2006; New York saves half of all the oil saved by transit nationwide. The city's population density, low automobile use and high transit utility make it among the most energy efficient ...