JUNIOR WORLDMARK ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD CITIES - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C

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VOLUME

4

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C.

Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of

World Cities

Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of

World Cities VOLUME

4

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. Edited by Jill Copolla and Susan Bevan Gall

J U N I O R WO R L D M A R K E N C Y C L O P E D I A O F W O R L D C I T I E S

U•X•L Staff Allison McNeill, U•X•L Senior Editor Carol DeKane Nagel, U•X•L Managing Editor Thomas L. Romig, U•X•L Publisher Dorothy Maki, Manufacturing Manager Evi Seoud, Assistant Production Manager Rita Wimberley, Senior Buyer Pamela A.E. Galbreath, Art Director This publication is a creative work copyrighted by U•X•L and fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other applicable laws. The authors and editors of this work have added value to the underlying factual material herein through one or more of the following: unique and original selection, coordination, expression, arrangement, and classification of the information. All rights to this publication will be vigorously defended. Copyright © 2000 U•X•L An imprint of the Gale Group All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Printed in United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover photos (top to bottom): Paris, France: Louvre (EPD/Catherine Karnow; Woodfin Camp) Monrovia, Liberia: Redemption Day Celebration (EPD/Homer Sykes; Woodfin Camp) Tokyo, Japan: Kids with skateboards (EPD/Catherine Karnow; Woodfin Camp) Lima, Peru: Market (EPD/Robert Frerck; Woodfin Camp) Washington, DC: Lincoln Memorial (EPD/Catherine Karnow; Woodfin Camp)

Susan Bevan Gall and Jill Marie Coppola, Editors Timothy L. Gall, Executive Editor Mary Francis Sugar, Eleftherios E. Netos, Jennifer Wallace, James C. Woodring, Associate Editors Bridgette M. Nadzam, Graphics and Page Layout Gregory M. Hurst, Editorial Assistant Magellan Geographix, Cartographers

Contributors Olufemi A. Akinola, Ph.D. W.E.B. DuBois Institute, Harvard University Cynthia Andrews. Researcher/Writer, Suttons Bay, Michigan Mike Cikraji. Researcher/Writer, Bay Village, Ohio Patricia Hale. Researcher/Writer, West Hartford, Connecticut Bruce Heilman. University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Jim Henry. Researcher/Writer, Chicago, Illinois William Hodgson. Researcher/Writer, Vancouver, British Columbia Dave Hribar. Researcher/Writer, Avon Lake, Ohio Ignacio Lobos. Journalist, Honolulu, Hawaii Deryck O. Lodrick, Ph.D. Visiting Scholar, Center for South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley Lupa Ramadhani. University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Gail Rosewater. Researcher/Writer, Cleveland, Ohio Carmen Urdaneta, M.A. Researcher/Writer, Boston, Massachusetts Jeffrey Vance. Researcher/Writer, Brighton, Massachusetts Rosalie Wieder. Researcher/Writer, Cleveland, Ohio Steven Wolinetz, Ph.D. Memorial University, St. John’s Newfoundland

CONTENTS C I T Y F I N D E R TA B L E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii R E A D E R ’S G U I D E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA ................................................ 1 P H O E N I X , A R I Z O N A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 P R A G U E , C Z E C H R E P U B L I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 R I O D E J A N E I R O , B R A Z I L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 R O M E , I T A L Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 S A N F R A N C I S C O , C A L I F O R N I A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 S E A T T L E , WA S H I N G T O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 S Y D N E Y, A U S T R A L I A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 TO K Y O , J A P A N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 TO R O N T O , O N T A R I O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 VA N C O U V E R, B R I T I S H C O L U M B I A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 WA S H I N G T O N , D . C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 G L O S S A R Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 I N D E X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

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C I T Y F I N D E R TA B L E Volume number appears in brackets []

Toronto, Ontario .......................[4]151 Vancouver, British Columbia......[4]169

Africa

Mexico

Cairo, Egypt .............................[1]115 Johannesburg, South Africa ......[2]123 Lagos, Nigeria ...........................[2]139 Monrovia, Liberia........................[3]69 Nairobi, Kenya ..........................[3]115

Mexico City, Mexico....................[3]19

United States Atlanta, Georgia ...........................[1]1 Boston, Massachusetts .................[1]65 Chicago, Illinois ........................[1]145 Cleveland, Ohio ........................[1]161 Dallas, Texas .............................[1]177 Denver, Colorado.......................[1]191 Detroit, Michigan ..........................[2]1 Honolulu, Hawaii ........................[2]39 Houston, Texas ............................[2]57 Indianapolis, Indiana ..................[2]77 Los Angeles, California ..............[2]189 Miami, Florida.............................[3]37 Minneapolis, Minnesota .............[3]53 Nashville, Tennessee ..................[3]137 New Orleans, Louisiana.............[3]153 New York, New York ................[3]173 Phoenix, Arizona .........................[4]19 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania .............[4]1 San Francisco, California .............[4]85 Seattle, Washington....................[4]101 Washington, D.C..........................[4]18

Asia Bangkok, Thailand ......................[1]17 Beijing, China ..............................[1]33 Hong Kong, China.......................[2]21 Istanbul, Turkey ..........................[2]93 Jerusalem, Israel.........................[2]107 Manila, Philippines .......................[3]1 Mumbai (Bombay), India.............[3]99 Sydney, Australia .......................[4]117 Tokyo, Japan ............................[4]133

Europe Berlin, Germany...........................[1]49 Brussels, Belgium ........................[1]83 Istanbul, Turkey...........................[2]93 London, United Kingdom .........[2]169 Madrid, Spain ...........................[2]205 Paris, France ..............................[3]195 Prague, Czech Republic ...............[4]35 Rome, Italy ..................................[4]63

South America Buenos Aires, Argentina...............[1]97 Caracas, Venezuela ...................[1]131 Lima, Peru ................................[2]155 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ..................[4]49

North America Canada Montréal, Québec .......................[3]83

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R E A D E R ’S G U I D E this Reader’s Guide, all of whom offered substantive insights that were instrumental to the creation of this work. The editors are extremely grateful for the time and effort these distinguished reviewers devoted to improving the quality of this work. Sixteen researchers, many of whom live in the city they profiled, are listed on the staff page. Their well-researched profiles give users of Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities an opportunity to compare the history and contemporary life in 50 of the world’s greatest cities—from the ancient cities of Cairo, Egypt and Istanbul, Turkey, to the fast-growing modern metropolitan communities of Lagos, Nigeria; Sydney, Australia; and Seattle, Washington.

Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities presents profiles of 50 major cities from around the world, arranged alphabetically in four volumes. Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities is a new reference work organized under the Worldmark design. The Worldmark design assembles facts and data about each city in a common structure. Every profile contains a map, showing the city and its location. The challenging task of selecting the cities to be profiled in this first edition of Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities was accomplished with input from librarian advisors. From a list of over 100 candidate cities, 50 were selected to represent the continents and cultures of the world, with an emphasis on cities of the United States. Twenty-five cities from North America (including 21 U.S. cities) are profiled, 9 cities from Asia, 7 cities from Europe, 5 cities from Africa, and 4 from South America fill the four volumes. Profiles present text and graphical elements, including photographs, with the needs and interests of student researchers in mind. Recognition must be given to the many tourist bureaus, convention centers, city government press offices, and graphic agencies that contributed the data and photographs that comprise this encyclopedia. This edition also benefits from the work of the reviewers listed at the end of

Sources Due to the broad scope of this encyclopedia many sources were consulted in compiling the information and statistics presented in these volumes. Of primary importance were the official web sites posted by many of the cities’ government offices and tourist/convention bureaus on the World Wide Web. Also instrumental in the development of this publication was the web site of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, available at http://www.census.gov/. Finally, many fact sheets, booklets, and statistical abstracts were used to update

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READER’S GUIDE data not collected by federal or city governments. Profile Features The structure of the Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities entries—22 numbered headings—allows students to compare two or more cities in a variety of ways. Each city profile begins with the city name, state or province (where applicable), country, and continent. A city fact box provides information including dates founded and incorporated, city location, official city motto and flower, time zone, ethnic composition, city elevation, latitude and longitude, coastline (where applicable), climate information, annual mean temperature, seasonal average snowfall (where applicable), average annual precipitation, form of government, system of weights and measures used, monetary units, telephone area codes, and city postal codes. Where available, a picture of both the city seal and the city flag, with description, appear. With regard to the time zone, the standard time is given by time zone in relation to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The world is divided into 24 time zones, each one hour apart. The Greenwich meridian, which is 0 degrees, passes through Greenwich, England, a suburb of London. Greenwich is at the center of the initial time zone, known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). All times given are converted from noon in this zone. The time reported for the city is the official time zone. Also provided in each article is a Population Profile box comparing the city proper with its greater metropolitan

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area, including suburbs (where available), and lists facts such as population, racial breakdown, and nicknames. Profiles also include a City Fact Comparison box, comparing daily costs of visiting the city with costs for visiting representative cities elsewhere in the world (Cairo, Egypt; Rome, Italy; and Beijing, China). City maps, locator maps, and photos complement the entries. The body of each city’s profile is arranged in 22 numbered headings as follows: 1

INTRODUCTION. The city’s location

is described. City features are outlined, sometimes citing key facts from city history and major attractions. 2

GETTING THERE. Information is pro-

vided on major highways offering access into and around the city, as well as information on bus and railroad service, airports, and shipping. 3

GETTING AROUND. Information is

outlined on means of transportation within a city, including bus and commuter rail service; some entries include transportation modes that will be less familiar to many student researchers, such as the three-wheeled tuk-tuk of Bangkok, Thailand. Both commuter and sightseeing transportation methods are included. 4

PEOPLE. A population count is pro-

vided for the city proper and its metropolitan area, along with an ethnic/racial breakdown of the populace. For many cities, population growth patterns, languages, and religions are also discussed 5 NEIGHBORHOODS. Location, characteristics, and attractions of city historic

Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities

READER’S GUIDE and ethnic neighborhoods, and business and cultural districts are described. 6 HISTORY. City history is detailed from its founding to the present. 7

GOVERNMENT. Style of government

is described, and elected offices are listed, along with a description of each office and length of an elected term. 8 PUBLIC SAFETY. Police, fire, and ambulatory services are outlined, as well as any special city safety projects. Crime rate statistics are also listed. 9 ECONOMY. This section presents the key elements of the economy. Major industries and employment figures are also summarized.

Topography, climate, and flora and fauna are described, as well as any environmental concerns, programs, or clean-up efforts. 10

ENVIRONMENT.

11 SHOPPING. Popular shopping districts and venues are described, as well as any specialty items for which the city is renowned. 12 EDUCATION. Information about public education and key universities and technical institutes is detailed. 13 HEALTH CARE. Hospitals and other health services are described. Alternative or non-Western health care practices are described in some city profiles. 14

MEDIA. City newspapers, magazines,

television, and radio stations are listed. Where applicable, government influence on media is discussed.

15 SPORTS. Professional and amateur sports—from auto racing and rodeo to cricket and baseball—sports venues, and championships held are listed. Annual sporting events, major international tournaments, and popular recreational sports are also described. 16 PARKS AND RECREATION. Popular recreational activities and city pastimes, from strolling in a city park to playing polo, and the venues where they can be enjoyed, are detailed. 17 PERFORMING ARTS. Performing arts offered in the city are described, as well as the theaters and performing arts halls where they are offered. Notable annual events are listed. 18 LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS. Notable libraries and descriptions of their holdings are described. Major museums, with information about their collections, are listed. 19

TOURISM. The importance of tourism

to the city is summarized, along with factors affecting the tourism industry. Key tourist attractions are listed. 20

HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS. Annu-

ally celebrated holidays and events are listed. 21

F A M O U S C I T I Z E N S . Famous peo-

ple who were born or lived in the city are listed, along with birth and death dates and short biographical descriptions. Bibliographic listings are provided at the end of each profile as a guide for accessing further information. Included are Web sites, 22


FOR

FURTHER

STUDY.

xi

READER’S GUIDE government offices, tourist and convention bureaus, major city publications, and books about the city and its history. Because some terms used in this encyclopedia will be new to students, each volume includes a glossary. A keyword index to all four volumes appears in Volume 4. Acknowledgments The editors are indebted to the following reviewers, without whom Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities would not have been possible. The individuals listed below were consulted on the content and structure of this encyclopedia. Their insights, opinions, and suggestions led to many enhancements and improvements in the presentation of the material. Ken Cornwell, Library Media Specialist, Northeast High School, Lincoln, Nebraska

xii

Cindy Doll, Librarian, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, Ohio Marilyn Eanes, School Library Media Specialist, Hopewell Middle School, Round Rock, Texas Jane Thomas, Library Manager, McNeil High School, Austin, Texas Glenda Willnerd, School Librarian, Lincoln High School, Lincoln, Nebraska Comments and Suggestions We welcome your comments on the Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities, as well as your suggestions for cities to be included in future editions. Please write: Editors, Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cities, U•X•L, 27500 Drake Road, Farmington Hills, Michigan 48331– 3535; call toll-free: 1-800-877-4253; or send e-mail via www.galegroup.com.


Philadelphia Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, North America Founded: 1682; Incorporated: 1701 Location: Eastern Pennsylvania, between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers Flag: Outer vertical stripes of blue, with seal centered on center yellow stripe. Time Zone: 7 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Ethnic Composition: White, 57.2%; Black, 39.9%; Native American, 0.2%; and Asian/Pacific Islander, 2.7% Elevation: 12 m (40 ft) Latitude and Longitude: 39º95'N, 75º16'W Climate: Continental climate moderated by the Appalachian mountains and the Atlantic Ocean; hot, humid summers Annual Mean Temperature: 12.5 ºC (54.6ºF); January 0.6ºC (33.1ºF); August 23.7ºC (74.7ºF) Seasonal Average Snowfall: 50.8 cm (20 in) Average Annual Precipitation (rainfall and melted snow): 105.2 cm (41.4 in) Government: Mayor-council Weights and Measures: Standard U.S. Monetary Units: Standard U.S. Telephone Area Codes: 215 Postal Codes: 19101–60

1

Introduction

Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, Philadelphia is the state’s largest city and the fifth largest in the United States. Home of the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell—and the first capital of the United States—Philadelphia has one of the nation’s greatest concentrations of historic sites, which play a major role in attracting some three million visitors to the city every year. Although it has ceded its one-time position as manufacturing capital of the nation, Philadelphia today is home to a vigorous

service-oriented economy as well as the number one freshwater port in the United States. Its central location in relation to the cities of the Eastern Seaboard, and the eastern United States as a whole, combined with its population, size, and cultural and recreational resources continue to make Philadelphia one of the nation’s major cities. 2

Getting There

Philadelphia is located in southeastern Pennsylvania, where the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers meet. The city’s fairly flat terrain resembles that of surrounding areas in New Jersey

1

Philadelphia

Philadelphia Population Profile

west of the city, connecting I-76 and I276 to the north with I-95 to the south. Bus and Railroad Service

City Proper Population: 1,524,249 Area: 349.6 sq km (135 sq mi) Ethnic composition: 57.2% white; 39.9% black; 0.2% Native American; and 2.7% Asian Nicknames: City of Brotherly Love

Metropolitan Area Population: 4,398,000 Description: Philadelphia and surrounding communities Area: 9,984.5 sq km ( 3,855 sq mi) World population rank1: 52 Percentage of national population2: 1.6% Average yearly growth rate: 0.4% Ethnic composition: 76.9% white; 20% black; 2.9% Asian/Pacific Islander ——— 1. The Philadelphia metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of the United States’ total population living in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

Philadelphia is one of the main stops on the Amtrak route that traverses the Boston-Washington corridor in the northeast of the country. Trains arrive at and depart from Penn Station. Intercity bus service is available on Greyhound and Peter Pan/Trailways. Intercity service to nearby destinations is provided by New Jersey Transit. Airports Philadelphia International Airport is a hub for Midway Airlines and US Airways. It also services the other major U.S. carriers, including American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, TWA, and United. Shipping

and Delaware rather than the hilly land characteristic of much of Pennsylvania’s interior. Highways The major interstate access to Philadelphia is via I-95, running from Boston and points north all the way down to Florida. Intersecting with I-95 is I-76 (the Schuylkill Expressway), which extends westward through southern Pennsylvania. Other major routes in the area are I-276 (the Pennsylvania Turnpike), and I-676 (the Vine Street Expressway), which links I-76 to Camden, New Jersey. I-476 (the “Blue Route”) runs along the suburbs to the

2

Penn’s Landing is the largest freshwater port in the United States. Together with facilities in southern New Jersey and Delaware, it constitutes the Ports of Philadelphia, operated by the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority. The jointly operated port complex handles the East Coast’s largest volume of international shipping freight. 3

Getting Around

The streets of Philadelphia are laid out in a grid pattern, with numbered streets running north-south. Many of the east-west streets were named—by founding father William Penn (1644– 1718)—for local plants and trees,


Philadelphia

including Cherry, Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce, and Pine. The Delaware River to the east and the Schuylkill River to the west meet south of the city. Bus and Commuter Rail Service by

Public transportation is operated the Southeastern Pennsylvania


Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and includes buses, trolleys, subways, and commuter trains. Bus lines include the PHLASH Bus service, which makes a loop through many of the downtown’s major commercial and cultural sites, the Ben FrankLine, the Mid-City Loop, and the Chestnut Street Transitway. The commuter rail line, PATCO, connects

3

Philadelphia the city with Camden, New Jersey, via the Ben Franklin Bridge. Underground Rapid Transit lines intersect underneath City Hall. Sightseeing Bus tours of Philadelphia’s historic sights are offered by Gray Line Tours and American Trolley Tours, whose “trolleys” are actually double-decker buses. Candlelight walking tours of historic Philadelphia are available also, as well as tours by horse and carriage. Boat tours that offer views of the city’s skyline from the harbor are offered on the Spirit of Philadelphia and the Liberty Belle II. 4

People

In 1990, the population of Philadelphia was 1,586,000, of which 39.9 percent were black, 2.7 percent Asian, and 0.2 percent Native American. Hispanics (both white and black) accounted for 5.6 percent of the population. The population estimate for 1994 was 1,524,249. The population of the Philadelphia Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area was reported as 4,922,257 in 1990 and estimated at 4,940,653 as of 1997. The region’s racial composition was listed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1996 as 76.9 percent white; 20 percent black; and 2.9 percent Asian/Pacific Islander. The percentage of residents of Hispanic origin (an ethnic rather than a racial designation) was 4.3 percent.

4

5

Neighborhoods

The historic central city is known as Center City. At its center lies Penn Square, the site of Philadelphia’s city hall. The surrounding area can be divided into four quadrants, each arranged around a central square (or, in the case of Logan Circle, the site of a former square). In the northwest quadrant, the gracious, tree-lined Benjamin Franklin Parkway passes through Logan Circle, in a district that includes the Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences. South of this section lies Rittenhouse Square, an urban park surrounded by buildings that reflect the district’s nineteenthcentury history as an exclusive neighborhood that was home to some of the city’s wealthiest citizens. In the southeast quadrant is Washington Square, where the city’s historic colonial district (also known as Old City) begins and stretches eastward to the Delaware River. This area includes Independence National Historic Park. Colonial architecture is also on display to the south, in the area known as Society Hill, a fashionable neighborhood of restored Federal, Georgian, and colonial homes. Further south is Queen Village, an area originally settled by Swedes that boasts the oldest church in the state of Pennsylvania. South Street, which lies between Society Hill and Queen Village, became a counterculture enclave in the 1960s and is still a trendy and sophisticated venue filled with bookstores, cafes, natural food stores, restaurants, and other businesses.


Philadelphia

City Fact Comparison Philadelphia (United States)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)

Population of urban area1

4,398,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000

Date the city was founded

1682

753 BC

723 BC

$172

$129

Indicator

Daily costs to visit the

AD

969

city2

Hotel (single occupancy) Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) Incidentals (laundry, dry cleaning, etc.) Total daily costs

$118

$193

$44

$56

$59

$62

$2

$14

$15

$16

$164

$173

$246

$207

2

13

20

11

La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

Major Newspapers3 Number of newspapers serving the city Largest newspaper Circulation of largest newspaper Date largest newspaper was established

The Philadelphia Akhbar El Yom/ Inquirer Al Akhbar 428,895

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

1829

1944

1976

1948

1 United

Nations population estimates for the year 2000. maximum amount the U.S. Government reimburses its employees for business travel. The lodging portion of the allowance is based on the cost for a single room at a moderately-priced hotel. The meal portion is based on the costs of an average breakfast, lunch, and dinner including taxes, service charges, and customary tips. Incidental travel expenses include such things as laundry and dry cleaning. 3 David Maddux, ed. Editor&Publisher International Year Book. New York: The Editor&Publisher Company, 1999. 2 The

South of Center City is South Philadelphia, the oldest section of Philadelphia. Today it is a colorful and ethnically diverse neighborhood with a strong Italian influence. West of the Schuylkill River lies University City, home of the University of Pennsylvania (“Penn”), which moved to this location in the 1870s, and Drexel University. In recent years, the university has helped gentrify the area by supporting the establishment of bookstores and other businesses. Northwest of Center City lie the residential communities of Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy, and Manayunk; the


latter has become a fashionable neighborhood graced by a lively assortment of galleries, restaurants, boutiques, and cafes. Chestnut Hill, originally a planned community designed by British architects in the mid-nineteenth century, has been designated a National Historic District thanks to its distinctive buildings. Other municipalities in the metropolitan Philadelphia area include Upper Darby, Levittown, Doylestown, and New Hope (all in Pennsylvania), as well as Haddonfield, Moorestown, and Merchantsville in New Jersey. Also geographically associated with

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Philadelphia

Philadelphia skyline. (Jim McWilliams; Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau)

Philadelphia are a series of Pennsylvania communities known as the Main Line, including Merion, Wayne, Ardmore, Villanova, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr. 6

History

The Philadelphia region was first settled by Swedes in the first half of the seventeenth century. It was not until 1682 that the Englishman William Penn, having received a land grant from King Charles II, founded his settlement between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, north of the existing Swedish settlement. Penn planned a

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town with broad avenues and public squares. Settlers were attracted by the economic opportunities available in the new land, as well as by the promise of religious freedom guaranteed by Penn, a Quaker who had rejected the dictates of England’s established Anglican Church. By the eighteenth century, thanks to its fine port and good agricultural land, Philadelphia had become the foremost city in the 13 British colonies. Its considerable wealth, reflected in both its architecture and in the interior decor of its houses, also supported an impressive infrastructure and network of pub-


Philadelphia lic services and cultural institutions. The first hospital in the future United States was opened in Philadelphia in 1755 (a project in which the city’s most famous son, Benjamin Franklin, participated). Franklin was also a driving force behind the founding of the University of Pennsylvania, the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the American Philosophical Society. Although the Philadelphians were more politically moderate than their neighbors in New England, they participated actively in the debate that preceded the adoption of the Declaration of Independence (which occurred in the city’s own Independence Hall, then known as the State House) and were heavily involved in the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), during which their city was occupied by British troops under General Howe between 1777 and 1778 before Howe’s army moved on to New York. The members of the Continental Congress fled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, taking the Liberty Bell with them. After the war, Philadelphia was the site of the Constitutional Convention, at which the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, and the city served as the capital of the new country in the 1790s before the completion of Washington, D.C. The nineteenth century brought continued prosperity and cultural advancement to the city. In 1805 the first permanent bridge over the Schuylkill River connected Philadelphia with the fertile farmland of the interior. In the 1820s and 1830s, seaport and rail


The Declaration of Independence was signed in Independence Hall, then known as the State House. (Marcia Conrad; Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau)

access made the Philadelphia the manufacturing capital of the United States, as well as one of its premier financial centers. Cultural progress continued also with the establishment of public education and the creation of such institutions as the Walnut Street Theater. Although the national capital had moved to Washington, Philadelphia remained the national center for the minting of money, shipbuilding, and weapons production. As an enlightened city, Philadelphia was a hotbed of antislavery senti-

7

Philadelphia ment, although many of the city’s elite, dependent on Southern trade, opposed the war for economic reasons. War brought its own economic compensation as Philadelphia became a center for military supplies and transport equipment. However, nothing could compensate for the loss of thousands of Philadelphia’s native sons in the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) in 1863. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his body lay in state in Independence Hall before traveling to its final resting place in Illinois. Immigration to Philadelphia, already heavy before the Civil War (1861–65), continued in the last decades of the century. New arrivals from Italy and Eastern Europe joined the large number of Irish immigrants who had arrived earlier and helped maintain Philadelphia’s position as the nation’s manufacturing capital, with a varied manufacturing base that ranged from sugar refining to hat manufacturing. In 1876 Philadelphia hosted the first World’s Fair held in the United States: the Centennial Exhibition in Fairmount Park, which included a demonstration of the telephone. Philadelphia went on to become a pioneer in the establishment of modern utilities, claiming the first residential and office electric lighting and the first telephone exchange, both in place by 1878. As the new century arrived, Philadelphians were prospering, with the greatest home ownership rate of any city in the world. During World War I

8

(1914–18), the city boasted the largest shipbuilding plant in existence at the time. The city’s population continued to grow—from one million to two million between 1900 and 1930, an increase that included a large number of African Americans. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s signaled the end of Philadelphia’s predominance as a manufacturing center, even though the city’s economy rebounded with the advent of World War II (1939–45). In the post-war years, Philadelphia’s leaders have slowed migration to the surrounding suburbs with an ambitious program of urban renewal that restored Center City, preserving Philadelphia’s historic heritage while allowing for development that would draw businesses to the city. Like other urban centers in the United States, Philadelphia has seen the growth of a serviceoriented economy replace its former manufacturing base; today, manufacturing in this former industrial capital employs only about ten percent of the work force. As the twenty-first century began, the city continued to combine historic preservation with new development as the National Park Service worked on plans to transform Independence Mall, and a new National Constitution Center entered the planning stages as well. 7

Government

Both the city and the county of Philadelphia are administered by the same mayor-council government, established under a 1951 charter that


Philadelphia served as a national model for big-city government, eliminating the administrative role of council and strengthening the powers of the mayor. The mayor and the 17 council members are elected to four-year terms, with ten council members elected by district and seven elected at large. The mayor may not serve more than two consecutive terms, although there are no limits on the number of non-consecutive mayoral terms. 8

Public Safety

Philadelphia is considered one of the nation’s safest large metropolitan areas. In 1995, the city’s incidence of reported violent crimes per 100,000 population was 1,436, including 28 murders, 51 rapes, and 889 robberies. The incidence of property crimes was 5,642 and included 1,057 burglaries and 1,556 motor vehicle thefts. 9

Economy

Like other cities in the Northeast, Philadelphia—once the manufacturing capital of the nation—has seen a decline in its traditional industrial base since World War II, as heavy industry moved to areas in the South and West. Until the 1980s, the city’s port and petroleum-refining plants contributed substantially to the economy, but since that time service industries have replaced manufacturing as the dominant economic sector. Manufacturing, which used to account for 50 percent of the city’s employment, now accounts for only about ten percent.


Philadelphia’s City Hall at night. (R. Andrew Lepley; Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau)

Today’s leading economic sectors include advertising, financial services, law, and book publishing. The health care field is also a major income producer, with some 20 percent of the work force employed in health care ser-

9

Philadelphia vices or the city’s growing biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. Philadelphia has also made a concerted effort to capitalize on its historic attractions by promoting tourism, most notably through the construction of a new $525 million convention center, completed in 1993, and developing its waterfront areas. Another target of the city’s economic planning has been the promotion of Philadelphia as a venue for corporate headquarters, and new buildings as well as entire office parks have multiplied rapidly along Route 202 just west of the city. Major corporations headquartered in the Philadelphia area today include SmithKline Beecham, Aramark, Advanta, and CIGNA. 10

Environment

The physical features of the Philadelphia region have determined many aspects of its history, from the fertile river-wash soil that drew its early settlers to begin farming the area to its ports, which guaranteed an abundant supply of water, encouraged the growth of shipbuilding, and have made the city a major transport and shipping center throughout its history. The Fairmount Waterworks, constructed in 1840 and still standing in Fairmount Park, was a state-of-the-art project that pumped water from the Schuylkill River into the community for residential and commercial use.

10

11

Shopping

Philadelphia offers both traditional retail outlets in its historic neighborhoods and abundant mall and outlet shopping. For sheer size, the dominant shopping venue is the King of Prussia Court and Plaza north of the city, which is America’s second-largest shopping mall, superseded only by the Mall of America in Minnesota. The King of Prussia facility, which boasts 450 stores and 51 hectares (126 acres) of parking, offers major stores such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdale’s, and specialty retailers including Tiffany, Williams-Sonoma, and Hermes. The Franklin Mills outlet mall northeast of Center City is a singlestory mall that attracts millions of shoppers annually with over 200 discount and outlet stores, including outlets for Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, and Burlington Coat Factory, as well as a 14-screen multiplex cinema. Popular traditional urban shopping venues include Liberty Place, a downtown skyscraper that contains over 70 stores; South Street, which has evolved from a 1960s hippie district into a trendy upscale commercial and entertainment center; University City, the area surrounding the University of Pennsylvania, west of the Schuylkill river, which is home to a variety of boutiques and specialty shops; and the community of Manayunk northwest of Center City. A new shopping center near Philadelphia International Airport also draws large numbers of shoppers.


Philadelphia 12

Education

Philadelphia, home of the first public school in the United States (opened in 1698), was also a pioneer in the education of gifted children, establishing special admission schools to meet the needs of students with special abilities in a variety of areas. Today Philadelphia has the nation’s fifth-largest public school system, enrolling almost 220,000 students at all levels, from preschool through twelfth grade. In the fall of 1996, Philadelphia’s public school enrollment was 63.8 percent black, 19.8 percent white, 11.6 percent Hispanic, and 4.7 percent Asian/Pacific. The school system employed 11,144 classroom teachers and 23,216 staff personnel.

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Health Care

There are more than 100 hospitals in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and six medical schools, as well as schools of nursing, dentistry, and pharmacology. There are major teaching hospitals affiliated with both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. Pennsylvania Hospital, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is the oldest hospital in the United States, established in 1751 by Dr. Thomas Bond (1712–84) and Benjamin Franklin (1706–90). This 505-bed facility was also home to the country’s first surgical amphitheater and was the first hospital in the country to treat mental illness.

The city of Philadelphia has about 20 post-secondary institutions, and its metropolitan area is home to nearly 90. The University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League college located in downtown Philadelphia, is over 250 years old. It was home to the nation’s first medical school (1765), law school (1790), and business school (1881) and pioneered the integration of a classical education with modern fields of study. Situated west of the Schuylkill River since the 1870s, the university enrolls over 20,000 students in four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools. Located nearby is Drexel University.

Temple University Hospital, affiliated with the Temple University Medical School, is a 514-bed facility that provided care to 20,000 patients and 150,000 outpatients in 1998. Its emergency department, a certified Level I regional trauma center, treats more than 37,000 patients a year. Community hospitals that belong to the Temple University Health System include Episcopal Hospital, Jeanes Hospital, Lower Bucks Hospital, Neumann Medical Center, and Northeastern Hospital. Also part of Temple’s hospital system is Temple University Children’s Medical Center.

Philadelphia is also home to the Curtis Institute, one of the nation’s top music schools.

Philadelphia is also home to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Wills Eye Hospital, both considered


11

Philadelphia among the best in the country in their respective specialties. 14

Media

Philadelphia’s major daily newspapers (with 1998 circulation figures) are the Philadelphia Inquirer, published seven mornings a week (weekdays, 428,895; Sunday, 880,918), and the Philadelphia Daily News, published Monday through Saturday evening (weekday circulation 175,448). (Both papers are now owned by the same company.) The Inquirer is better known for its national coverage, while the Daily News has more local news. City Paper and Philadelphia Weekly are free alternative weeklies with articles on local issues and entertainment listings. Monthly magazines include Philadelphia Magazine and Where Philadelphia Magazine. All major television networks have affiliates in Philadelphia, and the metropolitan region is home to more than 30 AM and FM radio stations providing news, music, and local features. The acclaimed interview program “Fresh Air,” hosted by Terry Gross, originates from WHYY, Philadelphia’s National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate, and is syndicated on NPR stations throughout the country. 15

Sports

Philadelphia—where the world’s first baseball game was played in 1860—fields teams in all major-league sports. The Philadelphia Phillies, who won the National League champion-

12

ship in 1993 and advanced to the playoffs two years later, play at Veterans Stadium, which is also the home of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. The Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association compete in the modern, $230 million First Union Center, as do the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League. As an area with one of the nation’s heaviest concentration of colleges, Greater Philadelphia has an active collegiate sports scene, many of whose games take place at Franklin Field and the Palestra in West Philadelphia. Every April, Franklin Field is the site of the Penn Relays, an intercollegiate and amateur track event. Also popular are regattas on the Schuylkill River. 16

Parks and Recreation

Fairmount Park, the largest landscaped park in the country, extends over 3,602 hectares (8,900 acres) northwest of Center City. In addition to 161 kilometers (100 miles) of hiking, bicycling, and bridle trails, the park also encompasses historic and cultural attractions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Zoo (the nation’s oldest), the historic Fairmount Waterworks, nearly 30 colonial mansions open to visitors, Japanese gardens and a teahouse, outdoor sculpture, and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s summer home, the Mann Music Center. Visitors to the park can use hike-and-bike trails; rent rowboats and canoes for use on the Schuylkill River, which runs


Philadelphia through the park, dividing it into eastern and western sections; visit the waterworks, built in 1840; tour the historic houses, which include Lemon Hill, Mt. Pleasant, Laurel Hill, Strawberry Mansion, and Chamounix Mansion; take their children to Smith Playground; take in horticultural exhibits; or visit the 40-hectare (99-acre) Laurel Hill Cemetery. The metropolitan area has over 100 golf courses, five of which are 18-hole municipal courses operated by the city of Philadelphia. Tennis courts can be found in Fairmount Park, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, and at other locations. Philadelphia has 86 municipal swimming pools, and the Blue Cross River Rink at Penn’s Landing is a popular spot for ice skating. 17

Performing Arts

Anchored by its symphony orchestra and the renowned Curtis Institute, Philadelphia has a top-notch classical music scene. The Philadelphia Orchestra, which grew to greatness under maestros including Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy, remains one of the best in the world under music director, Wolfgang Sawallisch. The orchestra presents a regular season of concerts at the Academy of Music between September and May and also plays a six-week summer season at the Mann Music Center amphitheatre in Fairmount Park. The talented faculty and student of the Curtis Institute can be heard in regular solo recitals and chamber music concerts in the school’s concert hall in


Visitors to Independence National Historic Park are transported back to the colonial period by tour guides in historic costume. (Nick Kelsh; Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau)

Rittenhouse Square. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents concerts featuring well-known soloists and ensembles performing both classical and popular music. In addition, the city has its own chamber orchestra, the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra, as well as a group that specializes in contemporary music, the Relache Ensemble. The Opera Company of Philadelphia presents four fully staged opera productions annually at the Academy of Music. Philadelphia presents varied opportunities for theater goers. In addition to traveling productions of Broadway plays, local audiences can attend productions by the resident company at

13

Philadelphia the Walnut Street Theatre, the Philadelphia Theater Company, the Arden Theatre Company, and the American Music Theater Festival, which specializes in musical theater. The Wilma Theater is a respected troupe dedicated to presenting contemporary works, which are also the focus at the Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays and the InterAct Theatre Company. The acclaimed Pennsylvania Ballet performs at the Academy of Music, the Annenberg Center, and the Merriam Theater, in a season that includes an annual performance of The Nutcracker in the original version choreographed by Balanchine. A variety of local groups make up the Philadelphia Dance Alliance. Movement Theatre International performances showcase dance and movement of all kinds, including mime and even circus acts. 18

Libraries and Museums

The Free Library of Philadelphia operates a central library downtown and 49 neighborhood branches. With a total of 7,983,088 items, the library has a circulation of over six million. Its special collections cover subject areas including fine prints and printmaking, automobiles, Judaica, choral music, jazz, Americana, British writer Beatrix Potter (1866–1943), and British illustrator Arthur Rackham (1867–1939). It also has an exceptional children’s library. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is the nation’s third-largest art museum

14

and one of its best. Its collection ranges from the middle ages to the present and features special attractions, including a medieval courtyard and fountain, a Gothic chapel, and a Hindu temple. Both older and contemporary European masters are represented, as well as a broad array of American artworks, including the decorative arts, and a variety of special exhibits. The Museum of American Art, housed in a distinguished Victorian building designed by Frank Furness and George Hewitt and extensively refurbished for the 1976 American bicentennial and further renovated in 1994, houses an outstanding collection of works by American artists from colonial times to the present. The Philadelphia Art Alliance promotes all the fine arts, displaying paintings, sculptures, and photography and also serving as a venue for readings, concerts, and dramatic performances. With its rich history dating back to colonial times, Philadelphia is home to a variety of historic sites and historical museums. The Atwater-Kent Museum illuminates the city’s history through exhibits detailing changing urban life over the past three hundred years. The Civil War Library and Museum houses a collection of research materials and artifacts from the war years, including a weapons display. Independence Seaport Museum, located at Penn’s Landing, is devoted to the maritime history of the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay. Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was drafted), together with the nearby pavilion that houses the Liberty Bell, is Philadelphia’s


Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is the third largest museum of its type in the world. (Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau)

most famous historic site. Nearby are the quarters occupied by the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court in the 1790s when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. Another major historic attraction in Philadelphia is Gloria Dei Church. Built in 1700 by early Swedish colonists in the region, it is the oldest church in Pennsylvania. The former home of poet and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) has been turned into the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, which displays artifacts illuminating Poe’s life and work.


The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is devoted to the history of the world’s cultures, while the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies focuses on Philadelphia’s history as a major immigration center. In addition, several museums in Philadelphia are devoted to the history of specific ethnic groups. These include the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Polish American Cultural Center, the American Swedish Historical Museum.

15

Philadelphia Philadelphia’s legacy as the home of statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin is reflected in the city’s distinguished science museums. Originally founded in 1824, the Franklin Institute Science Museum (also the site of the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial) was a leader in the development of hands-on science exhibits. The Academy of Natural Sciences has exhibits that include dioramas, hands-on experiments, and a gem and mineral display. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia sponsors both the C. Everett Koop Community Health Information Center and the Mütter Museum. 19

To u r i s m

An estimated three million tourists visit Philadelphia every year, drawn by the city’s historic and cultural attractions. The Philadelphia Convention Center, located in the central historic district, has boosted the city’s economy by creating new jobs in the service and retail sectors, as growing numbers of convention delegates visit Philadelphia.

Purim Festival Philadelphia Boat Show Philadelphia Flower Show

APRIL Historic Houses in Flower Penn Relays Springside School Antiques Show

APRIL–MAY Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema Philadelphia Open House Tours

MAY Chestnut Hill Garden Festival Blooms Flower & Garden Festival Devon Horse Show & Country Fair Jam Festival Jam on the River Pennsylvania Fair

MAY-SEPTEMBER Festival of Fountains

JUNE First Union U.S. Pro Championship Manayunk Arts Fest Midsommarfest Odunde African Street Festival & Marketplace Rittenhouse Square Fine Arts Annual

JUNE-JULY Welcome America

JULY Philadelphia International Film Festival

SEPTEMBER Yo Philadelphia Festival

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Holidays and Festivals

JANUARY

SEPTEMBER-MARCH Bach Festival of Philadelphia

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER

Mummers Parade

Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show

FEBRUARY

NOVEMBER

Black Writer’s Festival Chocolate Festival Junior Jazz Weekend Mardi Gras Jamboree PECO Energy Jazz Festival U.S. Hot Rod Grand Slam Monster Jam

Advanta Tennis Championships for Women

MARCH

Marian Anderson (1897–1993), singer.

Book & Cook Fair Maple Syrup Festival

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), painter.

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DECEMBER Market Street East Holiday Festival

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Famous Citizens


Philadelphia Wilt Chamberlain (1936–99), basketball player. W. C. Chamberlain (1879–1946), comic actor. Thomas Eakins (1844–1916), painter. Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), statesman and inventor. Grace Kelly (1929–82), screen actress and princess of Monaco. Margaret Mead (1901–1978), anthropologist. William Penn (1644–1718), founder of Pennsylvania.

Tourist and Convention Bureaus Philadelphia Convention Center 1101 Arch St. Philadelphia, PA 19107 (206) 447-5000 Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau 1515 Market St., Suite 2020 Philadelphia, PA 19107 (215) 636-3300

Publications Philadelphia Business Journal 400 Market St., Suite 300 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Philadelphia Daily News P.O. Box 7788 Philadelphia, PA 19101

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49), author.

Philadelphia Inquirer P.O. Box 8263 Philadelphia, PA 19101

Betsy Ross (1752–1836), flag maker.

Books

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For Further Study

Websites Philadelphia City Net. [Online] Available http:// www.city.net/countries/united_states/ pennsylvania/philadelphia (accessed December 8, 1999). Philadelphia City Pages. [Online] Available http: //philadelphia.thelinks.com/ (accessed December 8, 1999). Philadelphia Liberty Net. [Online] Available http: //www.libertynet.org (accessed December 8, 1999). Philadelphia Online. [Online] Available http: // www.phillynews.com/ (accessed December 8, 1999).

Government Offices Mayor’s Office 215 City Hall Philadelphia, PA 19107 (206) 686-2181 Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia, PA 19107 (215) 686-1776


Adams, Carolyn. Philadelphia: Neighborhoods, Division, and Conflict in a Post-industrial City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. Cotter, John L., Daniel G. Roberts, and Michael Parrington. The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. Davis, Allen F., and Mark H. Haller, eds. The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-class Life, 1790–1940. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Ellison, Elaine Krasnow, and Elaine Mark Jaffe. Voices from Marshall Street: Jewish Life in a Philadelphia Neighborhood, 1920–1960. Philadelphia: Camino Books, 1994. Gephart, Elizabeth S. Philadelphia with Children: A Guide to the Delaware Valley Including Lancaster and Hershey. Illustrated by Candace Stringer. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Camino Books, 1996. Hulin-Salkin, Belinda. Greater Philadelphia: Into the Future, a Contemporary Portrait. 1st ed. Chatsworth, CA: Windsor Publications, 1991. Hutchins, Catherine E. Shaping a National Culture: The Philadelphia Experience, 1750–1800. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Morrone, Francis. An Architectural Guidebook to

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Philadelphia Philadelphia. Photography by James Iska. 1st ed. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith, 1999. Rockland, Michael Aaron. Snowshoeing Through Sewers: Adventures in New York City, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. Seitz, Ruth Hoover. Philadelphia & Its Countryside.

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Photography by Blair Seitz ; foreword by James A. Michener. Harrisburg, PA: RB Books, 1994. Stevick, Philip. Imagining Philadelphia: Travelers' Views of the City from 1800 to the Present. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.


Phoenix Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America, North America Founded: 1864; Incorporated: 1881 Location: The Salt River Valley, south-central Arizona, United States, North America Motto: Ditat Deus (“God enriches,” state motto). Flag: Design adopted in 1990 features stylized symbol of the mythical bird, the phoenix, on a dark purple field. Flower: Blossom of the saguaro cactus (state flower) Time Zone: 5 AM Mountain Standard Time (MST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Ethnic Composition: White, 91.2%; Black, 5.2%; American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, 1.9%; Asian and Pacific Islander,1.7%; Hispanic origin (may be of any race), 20%. Elevation: 332 m (1,090 ft) above sea level. Phoenix is located on flat desert land. Latitude and Longitude: 33º44'N, 112º07'W Climate: Desert climate with warm temperatures and low rainfall and humidity; very little wind except for storms in July and August. Hot summers and mild winters, with an average of 211 days of sunshine annually, one of the nation’s sunniest cities. Annual Mean Temperature: 22ºC (72ºF); January 11ºC (51ºF); August 32ºC (89ºF) Seasonal Average Snowfall: None Average Annual Precipitation: 19.5 cm (7.66 in) Government: Council-manager government Weights and Measures: Standard U.S. Monetary Units: Standard U.S. Telephone area codes: 602 Postal codes: 85001-85086

1

Introduction

When Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, was founded, its first settlers named it after a mythical beast that rises from the ashes, reflecting their hopes for the city that they rescued from decay by rebuilding a network of abandoned irrigation canals. People have always been drawn to the city by its year-round warm weather, sunny climate, and natural beauty, and in the twentieth century the development of air conditioning and the construction of major irrigation projects added to Phoenix’s appeal. Long regarded as a

magnet for retirees, Phoenix now attracts new residents of all ages and has been a major beneficiary of the wave of migration to the Sun Belt in recent decades. Its population today is 1.2 million and growing. It has become a leading commercial center of the Southwest, with a city government recognized as one of the nation’s most effective. 2

Getting There

Phoenix, the city between southern Texas and California, is located in the Salt River Valley in south-central Ari-

19

Phoenix Bus and Railroad Service

Phoenix Population Profile City Proper Population: 1,246,712 Area: 1,225 sq km (473 sq mi) Ethnic composition: 20% Hispanic, 5.2% Black, 1.9%; American Indian, 1.7% Asian (minorities represented) Nicknames: Valley of the Sun

Metropolitan Area Population: 2,607,000 Description: Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona Area: 37,747 sq km (14,574 sq mi) World population rank1: 119 Percentage of national population2: 0.94% Average yearly growth rate: 2.1% Ethnic composition: 91.4% white; 4% black; 2.2% Asian; approximately 20% Hispanic (may be of any race) ——— 1. The Phoenix metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of the United States’ total population living in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

zona. The Superstition Mountains and a series of lakes form the city’s eastern boundary, and the Phoenix Mountain Preserve encircles the city. Highways The major interstate highways running through Phoenix are I-10 (the Papago Freeway) and I-17 (the Black Canyon Freeway), which intersect in the city to form the Maricopa Freeway. (South of the city it becomes the Pima Freeway). State Route 89 (the Grand Avenue Expressway) enters the city from the northwest.

20

Two Amtrak trains are available daily, and bus service is provided at the Greyhound/Trailways bus station on East Buckeye Road. Airports Phoenix has three airports, of which the major one is Sky Harbor International Airport, located five kilometers (three miles) southeast of downtown. The airport’s ongoing series of art exhibits, arranged by the Phoenix Art Commission, has been copied by other airports around the country. More than 23 airlines operate flights into and out of the city. Nearly 28 million people annually arrive at and depart from Phoenix by air. Shipping Phoenix benefits from its central location in relation to markets in Colorado, Utah, Texas, southern California, and Mexico, to which it is connected by a network of interstate highways. The city is served by more than 50 trucking companies, which provide commercial freight service to these and other locations. Two transcontinental rail lines provide rail freight service, and two airlines—American and American West— provide wide-body air cargo service. 3

Getting Around

The streets in the central part of the city are laid out in a grid plan, with numbered streets and avenues running north-south, and east-west streets named after presidents of the United


Phoenix


21

Phoenix

City Fact Comparison Phoenix (United States)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)


2,607,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000


1864

753 BC

723 BC

$172

$129

Indicator


AD

969

city2

Hotel (single occupancy)

$82

Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

$40

$56

$59

$62

$2

$14

$15

$16

$124

$173

$246

$207

Incidentals (laundry, dry cleaning, etc.) Total daily costs

$193

Major Newspapers3 Number of newspapers serving the city Largest newspaper

1

13

20

11

The Arizona Republic

Akhbar El Yom/ Al Akhbar

La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

435,330

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

1890

1944

1976

1948

Circulation of largest newspaper Date largest newspaper was established 1 United


States (including Washington, Adams, and Jefferson). The core of the downtown area can be found between Glendale Avenue and Maricopa Freeway. The Squaw Peak Freeway, a 16-kilometer (ten-mile) artery that connects downtown Phoenix with its northern suburbs, is lined with giant sculpted versions of Indian utensils in a public arts project that has drawn mixed reactions from Phoenix residents.

days only in Tempe and Mesa. The base fare is $1.25, and the average daily ridership is 112,400. The Reserve-a-Ride transportation program has served 196,000 elderly and disabled residents. Sightseeing In addition to the major attractions in the city itself, sightseers can take day trips by bus or charter plane to the Grand Canyon and other regional attractions.

Bus and Commuter Rail Service The Phoenix Transit System operates a fleet of 380 buses six days a week in the metropolitan area, and on week-

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4

People

In the decades following World War II (1939–45), Phoenix, together


Phoenix with other areas of the Southwest, enjoyed a dramatic population increase as residents of northern cities moved westward. Phoenix itself has a population of 1,246,712, up from 983,403 (487,589 males and 495,814 females) in 1990; its rank has risen from ninth- to sixth-largest city in the nation. The population of the Phoenix-Mesa Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was 2,238,498 in 1990, and an estimated 2,839,539 in 1997—an increase of over 25 percent—making it the fifteenthlargest MSA in the United States. In 1990, minorities represented in Phoenix’s population were Hispanics (20 percent), blacks (5.2 percent), American Indians (1.9 percent), and Asians (1.7 percent). As of 1996, the PhoenixMesa MSA was 91.4 percent white, four percent black, and 2.2 percent Asian. Hispanics (an ethnic category that crosses racial lines) make up about 20 percent of Phoenix’s population. Because of its large Hispanic presence, Phoenix has traditionally been a heavily Catholic city. Catholics still make up between one-fourth and onethird of the population, although this percentage has been declining. The next largest denominations are the Church of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons (Phoenix has the nation’s thirdhighest Mormon population), Southern Baptists, and United Methodists. 5

Neighborhoods

Phoenix and its suburbs form a 2,072-square-kilometer (800-squaremile) grid of north-south and east-west


streets and avenues, surrounded by mountains and desert. Downtown Phoenix, the historic center of the city, is home to Arizona’s capitol building, the Phoenix Civic Center, Heritage Square, and other important sites. A newer neighborhood, called “midtown” serves as an extension of the downtown, housing the city’s main library, its art museum, and other museums, as well as office buildings. Phoenix is the hub of a rapidly growing metropolitan area that includes 23 satellite towns, all located along the Salt River Valley. Relatively low housing costs contribute to the popularity of Phoenix. In 1990 the average value of a single home was $77,100, well below the national average. In addition, Phoenix’s property taxes have been rated the ninth lowest in the nation by Money magazine. A number of government and private groups oversee urban redevelopment, including the Central Phoenix Redevelopment Agency, Phoenix Community and Economic Development Administration, and Metro Phoenix Economic Development Consortium. Since the late 1980s, the city has carried out a $1.1 billion redevelopment program that has included construction of the Arizona Center and Mercado shopping complexes and the 18,000-seat America West Arena, home of the Phoenix Suns. The city has 7,364 federally assisted housing units.

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Phoenix

The city of Phoenix. (Jessen Associates, Inc. Greater Phoenix Convention & Vistors Bureau)

6

History

Native Americans occupied the site of present-day Phoenix hundreds of years ago, building a thriving community between 700 and 1400, establishing an agriculture-based civilization in the dry land of the region by developing an irrigation system that included over 161 kilometers (100 miles) of canals. By the middle of the fifteenth century, this civilization had vanished, possibly decimated by an extended period of drought. Their Native American successors called them the Hohokam (“the people who have gone”).

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By the sixteenth century, Hispanic conquistadors had arrived in Arizona, introducing new agricultural techniques, as well as horses and cows. Over the following centuries, Europeans began settling in the region, drawn by mining and trading opportunities. The modern city of Phoenix had its beginnings in the late 1860s when a small group of settlers formed a colony in the area and began building canals on the site of the former Hohokam irrigation system. Because the new settlement was rising from the ashes of a former civilization, the name “Phoenix” was chosen for it in 1868. In 1881, its local govern-


Phoenix ment was changed from a village trustee system to one consisting of a mayor and a city council, and the city was incorporated. Its population was 2,500 at the time. Phoenix progressed rapidly. Within a decade it had a horsedrawn streetcar line and one of the earliest electric plants in the West, and the Southern Pacific railroad had arrived, promoting the economy of the growing city. The completion of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam in 1911 was a milestone in Phoenix’s history. The largest masonry dam in the world, it was also the first dam constructed to supply both water and electricity. The following year, Arizona became a state, and Phoenix became its capital. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the city’s population grew from approximately 5,000 to 29,000 as Phoenix began to make the transition to a modern city. In addition to the railroad and the Roosevelt Dam, a third technological advance—the development of air conditioning—played an important role in the city’s continued growth. World War II (1939–45) brought large numbers of men to military bases in the area and contributed to the growth of industry, which rapidly replaced agriculture as the most important sector in the city’s economy. In the postwar decades, Phoenix prospered, growing more rapidly than ever. Since 1950, the city’s population has risen from 106,000 to 1.2 million, the seventh largest in the nation, and Phoenix has become the leading southwestern center for business and indus-


try. In the 1990s, it experienced yet another in a series of population booms, as a number of Californians moved to the area. Although Phoenix has inevitably experienced some of the disadvantages of rapid growth, including urban sprawl and air pollution, its city government has been recognized as one of the most effective in the nation and is committed to maintaining the quality of life for its residents as the city’s growth continues into the twenty-first century. 7

Government

Phoenix government is structured as a council-manager system, with eight council members who are elected to four-year terms. The mayor is also elected to a four-year term. Phoenix’s municipal government has been widely recognized for its effective city management. In 1993 the city shared the Carl Bertelsmann Prize, an international prize for well-run local government, with Christchurch, New Zealand. 8

Public Safety

Phoenix has 2,320 sworn police officers and 1,138 sworn firefighters. The city is divided into six police precincts. In 1997 a total of 124,884 crimes were reported to police, down from 131,628 the previous year. Violent crimes accounted for 11,386 calls, and property crimes 103,306. Numbers for individual types of crime included arson, 116; homicide, 229; sexual assault, 825; robbery, 3,806; and burglary, 39,905.

25

Phoenix Most recently, the high-technology and service sectors have also moved to the forefront—retail trade and services account for close to half of all employment in the city. More than 40 companies have corporate headquarters in Phoenix. Service-sector companies with headquarters in the city include Ramada, Best Western, Greyhound, and U-Haul. Financial services companies with a corporate presence in the city include Wells Fargo Bank, Chase Bank, American Express, Discover Card Services, and Bank of America. 10

Shoppers at one of Phoenix’s many malls. (Jessen Associates, Inc.; Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau)

9

Economy

With continuous population growth and an abundance of land and water, Phoenix has a thriving economy. In the decades since World War II, agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism have all played a major role in Phoenix’s economy, creating jobs to keep pace with the city’s growing population. Industries include agricultural chemicals, aircraft parts, electronic equipment, radios, air-conditioning equipment, leather goods, and Native American crafts.

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Environment

Phoenix has experienced some of the problems associated with urban growth, including air pollution. In 1995 Phoenix was among the cities failing to meet national ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide and ozone for at least a few days of the year. The city of Phoenix collects 514,382 metric tons (567,000 tons) of solid waste annually and handles 395,887 metric tons (436,383 tons) as part of recycling programs in which 100,000 households participate. The city operates five water treatment plants, treating 270 billion liters (71.3 billion gallons) of wastewater annually. 11

Shopping

In addition to the standard department stores and specialty shops, Phoenix offers stores specializing in regional items, including Western-style clothing, copper products, Native American crafts, and leather crafts. The Arizona


Phoenix Center in downtown Phoenix has some 500 shops and restaurants on two levels, as well as a one-hectare (three-acre) garden area; live entertainment also performs in the evenings. Also downtown, the Town and Country Shopping Center (Arizona’s first open-air mall) has about 70 shops, eateries, and service providers spread throughout an attractive setting with fountains and red brick sidewalks. The exclusive Biltmore Fashion Park features such nationwide chains as Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, and Ann Taylor, as well as a variety of smaller clothing, jewelry, and specialty shops. Other downtown shopping centers include the Tower Plaza Mall and the award-winning Colonade Mall. A unique shopping experience is provided by the Mercado, a two-blocklong complex of commercial buildings adjacent to the Phoenix Civic Plaza that is modeled on a traditional Mexican village. The colorful buildings and courtyards of this Mexican-theme mall and cultural center house shops featuring Mexican arts, crafts, and clothing, as well as Mexican restaurants. A variety of specialty items can be found at the gift shops of the Phoenix Art Museum and the Desert Botanical Garden. Once a week farmers from the region come to sell their produce at the farmers’ market in the courtyard of Heritage Square, and American Park ‘N Swap—the largest outdoor flea market in the Southwest— is open for business all weekend and two days a week.


12

Education

Phoenix has over 20 public school districts, with individual superintendents and school boards; altogether they operate more than 400 schools. The city’s largest school district, the Phoenix Union High School District, had 15 schools in the 1995–96 school year, with a total enrollment of 21,083 students. The Phoenix-Mesa metropolitan statistical area had a public school enrollment of 443,053 in 1994–95, up 12.6 percent from 1991–92. The region has a large magnet school program that offers intensive study in a variety of fields. There are 63 Head Start classroom sites in Phoenix, with 126 classrooms. Institutions of higher education in Phoenix include Grand Canyon University, a campus of Arizona State University, Phoenix College, DeVry Institute of Technology, Maricopa Community Colleges, Phoenix Institute of Technology, and South Mountain College. Maricopa Community Colleges is the country’s second-largest community college system. 13

Health Care

Health care plays an important part in Phoenix’s economy, employing over 33,000 people in the greater metropolitan region. The Phoenix-Mesa metropolitan statistical area had 3,927 officebased physicians in 1995. Phoenix’s largest hospital is St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, with 629 beds. Other facilities include the worldrenowned Barrow Neurological Insti-

27

Phoenix vision station, and several cable outlets, as well as 27 AM and FM radio stations, some of which broadcast in Spanish. 15

Tourists escape the city to hike the Grand Canyon, only a short distance from Phoenix. (Jessen Associates, Inc.; Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau)

tute, Arizona State Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Maricopa Medical Center, Phoenix Indian Medical Center, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center.3 14

Media

Phoenix has two major daily newspapers: The Arizona Republic (morning) and The Phoenix Gazette (evening), as well as about 50 other daily and weekly publications. Also published in Phoenix are the Phoenix Magazine and Arizona Highways. The city has eight commercial television stations, one public tele-

28

Sports

Phoenix is home to the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns, who play at the America West Arena; the National Football League’s Phoenix Cardinals; the National Hockey League’s Phoenix Coyotes; and the International Hockey Leagues’ Phoenix Roadrunners, as well as baseball’s TripleA Firebirds. An expansion baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, was launched in 1998. In addition, Arizona State University fields Sun Devils teams in baseball, basketball, and football. Other spectator sports include auto racing at the Phoenix International Raceway and the Manzanita Speedway, horse racing at Turf Paradise, and greyhound racing at Phoenix Greyhound Park. Phoenix is also the site of the following annual sporting events: five golf tournaments, including the Phoenix Open and the LPGA Turquoise Classic; the Formula One Grand Prix auto race; and the Phoenix Jaycees’ Rodeo of Rodeos. Almost ten major league baseball teams hold spring training in Phoenix and play exhibition games in March and early April.


Phoenix

A hoop dancer performs at the Heard Museum. (Jessen Associates, Inc.; Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau)

16


Phoenix’s parks, including Mountains Preserve, are comprised of 12,319


hectares (30,441 acres). Reportedly the nation’s largest city park at 6,475 hectares (16,000 acres), South Mountain Park provides a scenic view of the city and offers hiking trails and horseback

29

Phoenix riding. There is a boat lagoon at Encanto Park, which is located at 15th Avenue and Encanto Boulevard. The Margaret T. Hance Deck Park, part of the ongoing improvements to the downtown area, is a 12-hectare (29acre) strip of land between Third Street and Third Avenue with fountains, wooded areas, and a Japanese garden (a gesture toward Phoenix’s sister city of Hemeji, Japan). Other parks in the Phoenix area include Papago Park, Squaw Peak Recreation Area, Estrella Mountain Regional Park, and White Tank Mountain Regional Park. Phoenix has 663 kilometers (412 miles) of bicycle paths, 141 municipal tennis courts, 27 municipal swimming pools, and five municipal golf courses. Together, Phoenix and the surrounding Salt River Valley area have over 140 golf courses and more than 1,000 tennis and racquetball courts. Water sports are played at a variety of natural and artificial lakes in the region. Other outdoor activities enjoyed year round in the Phoenix area include hiking, mountain climbing, camping, and horseback riding. The Phoenix Zoo, situated on a hilly site covering 51 hectares (125 acres), houses over 1,300 animals, representing 300 different species both from the region and throughout the world, and including 150 animals classified as endangered. The animals are maintained in open settings that are as close as possible to their natural habitats, including facsimiles of mountains, rain forests, grasslands, and deserts. There is also a petting zoo for children.

30

The Desert Botanical Garden displays over 2,000 species of desert plants, situated along a 2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) trail. 17

Performing Arts

The performing arts are well represented in Phoenix and enhanced by the completion in 1989 of the downtown Herberger Theater Center, next door to the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center. The complex houses the 820seat Center Stage and the 330-seat Stage West. The Phoenix Symphony performs both classical and pops concerts at Symphony Hall, which seats 1,400. The Phoenix Little Theatre, the city’s oldest theater company, was founded in 1920 and has operated continuously since that time. Theater groups that perform in the new theaters of the Herberger complex include the Arizona Theatre Company, Black Theater Troupe, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Aurora Mime Theatre, and Musical Theater of Arizona. Phoenix is also home to the Centre Dance Ensemble and Opera Musical Theatre. The Arizona Opera also performs regularly in Phoenix, and a variety of touring artists appear at the Phoenix Desert Sky Pavilion, Celebrity Theatre, and Grammage Auditorium. The newly restored 1929 Spanish baroque-revival Orpheum Theatre is a showcase for the performing arts as well as civic events.


Phoenix 18


Phoenix’s first library, housed in two rooms of a building, was launched at the turn of the century, thanks to the efforts of the Phoenix Library Association, formed in 1899. Today the Phoenix Public Library has a collection totaling 1.8 million book volumes, as well as publications and other media. It has a main building downtown, and 11 neighborhood branches throughout the city. Altogether, Phoenix has more than 50 libraries of all types, including university libraries and research centers. The Phoenix Art Museum displays artworks by American, European, and Asian artists. Its permanent collection consists of some 18,000 objects, and it is noted particularly for its collections of Asian and Latin American art, and eighteenth-century French painting. The museum of the Arizona Historical Society offers interactive exhibits focusing on the history of central Arizona and includes life-size re-creations of stores and other buildings from the city’s early days. The Heard Museum of Anthropology and Primitive Art features an outstanding collection focusing on regional Native American cultures. Displayed are artifacts ranging from prehistory to the present, including tools, clothing, weapons, and Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni crafts. The Phoenix Hall of Flame is a firefighting museum with one of the world’s most extensive collections of fire-fighting gear, gathered from all over the world and ranging from horse-


drawn equipment to state-of-the-art computerized dispatch systems. Other museums in the Phoenix area include the Phoenix Museum of History; the Arizona Museum of Science and Technology, an interactive museum geared primarily toward children; Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum; Cave Creek Museum; Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum; Arizona Military Museum; the Pueblo Grande Museum and Cultural Park, which focuses on archaeology and the history of the Hohokam Indians, the first known inhabitants of present-day Phoenix; and the Plotkin Judaica Museum. The Arizona Hall of Fame, located in downtown Phoenix, honors individuals who have made a significant contribution to the state. Historic artifacts are on view in four turn-of-the-century homes located in Heritage Square: the Arizona Doll and Toy Museum, the Silva House, the Stevens-Haustgen House (home of the Pueblo Grande Museum described above), and the Rosson House, which features an exceptional collection of period furniture. 19

To u r i s m

Visitors from many areas have long been drawn to Phoenix’s dry, sunny climate and its year-round warm weather, making tourism one of the city’s top sources of income and the state’s second-largest source of employment. Phoenix receives almost ten million visitors a year from the United States and Canada. Visits by Japanese tourists were

31

Phoenix (340,00-square-foot) Civic Plaza and Convention Center is Phoenix’s major convention facility. Other convention venues include Veterans Memorial Coliseum at Arizona State University.

20


JANUARY Arizona Stock Show & Rodeo Copper World Classic Auto Racing Fiesta Bowl Phoenix Open Golf Tournament

FEBRUARY ARR Desert Classic Marathon Fountain Hills Festival of Arts & Crafts Fountain Hills Great Fair Lost Dutchman Days

MARCH Arizona’s Cactus League Spring Training Chandler Ostrich Festival Indy Racing League Phoenix 200 Scottsdale Arts Festival Phoenix hosts the Arizona Stock Show and Rodeo every January. (Jessen Associates, Inc.; Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau)

boosted with the introduction of direct flights to and from Tokyo in 1991, and European tourism was increased when direct flights to and from London were started in 1996. The city has 83 hotels and resorts, with a total of 21,272 rooms. Phoenix has become an increasingly popular convention site in the past two decades, with convention attendees accounting for almost 40 percent of all visitors to the city. With a total seating capacity of more than 29,000, the 31,586-square-meter

32

APRIL Easter Pageant Maricopa County Fair Music by Moonlight Concert Series Southwest Salsa Challenge

MAY Cinco de Mayo Festival Peach Festival Queen Creek Potato Festival

JULY July Fourth Festivities

OCTOBER Coors Light World Finals Drag Boat Racing Cowboy Artists of America Exhibition

NOVEMBER French Week in Arizona Holiday Out West Arts & Crafts Festival Hot Air Balloon Race & Thunderbird Balloon Classic


Phoenix DECEMBER

Government Offices

Electro Magic Pueblo Grande Indian Market Tumbleweed Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Mayor’s Office 200 W. Washington St., 11th Floor Phoenix, AZ 85003 602-262-7111

21

Famous Citizens

Joan Ganz Cooney (b. 1929), television producer. Barry Goldwater (1909–98), U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate. Stevie (Stephanie) Nicks (b. 1948), musician, member of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Mare Winningham (b. 1959), singer and actress. 22

For Further Study

Websites DigitalCity WebGuide Phoenix. [Online] Available http://www.webguide.digitalcity.com/ phoenix. (accessed October 14, 1999). The Links.com. “Phoenix.” [Online] Available http://www.phoenix.thelinks.com (accessed October 14, 1999). Phoenix City Hall. [Online] Available http:// www.ci.phoenix.az.us. (accessed October 14, 1999). Phoenix City Net. [Online] Available http:// www.city.net/countries/united_states/ arizona/phoenix. (accessed October 14, 1999). Phoenix Guide. [Online] Available http:// www.phoenixaz.com. (accessed October 14, 1999). Phoenix Online. [Online] Available http://www. phoenixonline.com. (accessed October 14, 1999). Phoenix & Valley of the Sun Convention & Visitors Bureau. [Online] Available http:// www.arizonaguide.com-phxcvb. (accessed October 14, 1999).


Phoenix City Hall 200 W. Washington St. Phoenix, AZ 85003 602-262-6659 Phoenix Community & Economic Development Department 200 W. Washington St., 11th Floor Phoenix, AZ 85003 602-262-5040

Tourist and Convention Bureaus Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center 225 E. Adams St. Phoenix, AZ 85004 602-262-7272 Phoenix and Valley of the Sun Convention & Visitors Bureau 400 E. Van Buren 1 Arizona Center, Suite 600 Phoenix, AZ 85004 602-254-6500

Publications Arizona Business Guide P.O. Box 194 Phoenix, AZ 85001 Arizona Republic P.O. Box 1950 Phoenix, AZ 85001 Phoenix Magazine 5555 N. 7th Ave., Suite B200 Phoenix, AZ 85013

Books Arizona Atlas and Gazetteer. Freeport, ME: De Lorme Mapping, 1993. Atchison, Sterwart, and Bruce Grubbs. The Hiker’s Guide to Arizona. Helena, MT: Falcon Press Publishing, 1991. Dolainski, Stephen. Hidden Arizona. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 1997. Freeman, Roger, and Ethel Freeman. Day Hikes and Trail Rides In and Around Phoenix. Phoenix, AZ: 1991.

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Phoenix Johnson, G. Wesley. Phoenix, Valley of the Sun. Tulsa, OK: Continental Heritage Press, 1982. Johnson, G. Wesley, ed. Phoenix in the Twentieth Century: Essays in Community History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. Luckingham, Bradford. Phoenix: The History of a Southwestern Metropolis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989. Trimble, Marshall. Roadside History of Arizona.

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Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Co., 1996.

Videorecordings A Tour of Phoenix and the State of Arizona. [videorecording] Memphis, TN: City Productions Home Video, 1996.


Prague Prague, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic, Europe Founded: 870 Location: North-central Czech Republic on both sides of the Vltava River, Central Bohemia, Europe Time Zone: 1 PM = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Ethnic Composition: Czech, Moravian, Slovak, German, Polish, Gypsy, and Hungarian Elevation: 300 m (1000 ft) above sea level Coastline: Vltava River Climate: Winters are cold, cloudy, and humid, with little snow and ice; summers are warm and sunny. Annual Mean Temperature: January, high of 0°C (32°F) and a low of 6°C (22°F); July, high of 24°C (76°F) and low of 56°F Government: Mayor and a city council Weights and measures: Metric Monetary Units: The koruna (Kc) equals 100 haleru. Telephone Area Codes: Country code 420; area code 02 (It is sometimes necessary to dial several times before making a connection because the system is old.)

1

Introduction

Often called the “City of a Hundred Spires,” Prague is an ancient European city, situated between hill and valley on the banks of the Vltava River. Renowned for its beauty, visitors travel from around the world to see the city’s medley of Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, and art nouveau architecture, its bridges, domes, palaces, and especially its spires. However, a great deal of construction in recent years has transformed Prague into a modern city as well, with state-of-the art public buildings, an underground railway, and a newly designed highway system. The capital and the largest city of the Czech Republic, Prague is the nation’s leading

center of commerce and industry, an economic, social, and cultural hub. 2

Getting There

Although the roadblocks of communism have only recently been lifted, Prague is not hard to access these days. Numerous flights, trains, and buses connect with the city every day, and the roads are getting better as the city strives to forge closer ties with the West. Highways Prague has been undergoing a major reconstruction project, including a redesigned highway system that will connect this "Eastern" country with

35

Prague

Prague Population Profile Population: 1,225,000 Ethnic composition: Czech, Moravian, Slovak, German, Polish, Gypsy, and Hungarian World population rank1: 298 Percentage of national population2: 12.9% Average yearly growth rate: 0.1% Nicknames: Golden Prague, City of a Hundred Spires, The Only Medieval City Still Standing in the World, A Town Built of Stone and Mortar ——— 1. The Prague metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of the Czech Republic’s total population living in the Prague metropolitan area.

the West. The speed limits have been raised to other European standards, 121 kilometers (75 miles) per hour on fourlane freeways, 88 kilometers (55 miles) per hour on open roads, and 48 kilometers (30 miles) per hour in built-up regions. Seatbelts are compulsory on all roads in Prague, a transportation system that covers over 55,557 kilometers (34,524 miles). Bus and Railroad Service The city of Prague is connected to most major European centers by rail and bus, especially to locations in the Czech Republic, including Plzen, Kutná Hera, and Brno. Most trains arrive at Praha Hlavmi Nadrczi (Main Station), or Praha Holesovice, Praha Sovichori or Praha Marsarykovo Nadrezi stations. The major bus companies, CAD and the express coach of the CEBUS firm and

36

Czech National Express, have buses running from Prague to Brno and other destinations. Airports The airport serving Prague and the general vicinity is Ruzyne Airport, located about 15 kilometers (9 miles) northwest of the city center. Transportation to and from the airport is provided by Cedaz shuttle bus 119, taxis, and Belinda, a private shuttle company. Air France, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Czech Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa, Sabena, Swissair, and other airlines operate at this airport. 3

Getting Around

The easiest way to get around Prague is by car, but it is relatively simple to see the city by foot and public transportation. Most guidebooks describe walking tours that allow plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. Bus and Commuter Rail Service There are three metro lines, trams, and buses that traverse Prague. Tickets can be purchased from automats, ticket booth attendants, or local Trafika shops that offer tickets good for three, seven, and 15 days. Transportation information centers are located at Karlovo Namesti, Muzeum, Mustek, and Nadrazi Holecovice metro stops. The underground operates from 5:00 AM until midnight.


Prague


37

Prague Taxis Prices are not regulated for Prague taxis; therefore, rider and driver usually agree on a price before entering the car. It is necessary to call the taxi company in advance; AAA Taxi and ProfiTaxi are recommended companies. Sightseeing Parks, public gardens, and a zoo adorn the city of Prague, and weekend excursions to castles and historical cities are popular. The city’s many museums are accessible by bus and rail, especially close to the metro stations, and are sometimes located directly inside metro passageways. By train, one may also visit the famous Marianske Lazne spa town, a three-hour journey west from Hlavni Nadrazi train station. The Bohemian Express tour guide company organizes customized itineraries in Prague and the rest of the Czech Republic. 4

People

The population of Prague stands somewhere around 1,225,000, a number that has been declining since the 1980s. Despite a sizable number of immigrants and foreign workers, the city (like most advanced European societies) has an extremely low birthrate. Most Czech citizens are Roman Catholic (43 percent) while the minority are Protestant (15 percent), and a total of 82 percent are Christian. Most of the population consists of Czech nationals, Moravians, Slovaks, Germans, Poles, Hungarians, and an unknown number

38

of itinerant Gypsies. The official language is Czech, but many know Russian as well, and many more would have known German if, after World War II (1939–45), around 2.5 million ethnic Germans had not been expelled from the Sudenten region in retaliation for wartime atrocities. 5

Neighborhoods

Prague is divided into sections that are formed directionally and according to the position of historical monuments. To the east lies Zizkov, an old quarter with little tourism and few attractions, but the Letecke Meuseum (Aviation Museum) and Zizkov TV Tower, with a restaurant 63 meters (207 feet) above ground, are worth visiting. In western Prague, the city suburbs take visitors into more rural areas, where the Grand Hvezda (Star) hunting lodge and Brevnov Monastery lie in pastoral solitude. To the north lie Troja Chateau, which is used as lecture, concert, and theater hall, as well as an exhibition space by the Gallery of the Municipality of Prague, and the zoo, known especially for its exhibition of the rare Przewalski horse. The south hosts the famous Velka Chuchle Horse Racing Course. The Old Town, at the very center of Prague, is the showpiece of the city, including Mala Strana (Little Quarter or Lesser Town) with a marketplace in front of the church of St. Nicholas below Castle Hill. This part of town used to hold the Jewish Ghetto, but today the only vestiges are the synagogues and Old Town Hall. Hradcany, Prague Castle, was built in the ninth


Prague

City Fact Comparison Prague (Czech Republic)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)


1,233,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000


870

753 BC

723 BC

Indicator


AD

969

city2


$177

$193

$172

$129


$61

$56

$59

$62

Incidentals (laundry, dry cleaning, etc.)

$15

$14

$15

$16

$253

$173

$246

$207

15

13

20

11

Blesk


La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

420,000

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

n.a.

1944

1976

1948

Total daily costs Major Newspapers3 Number of newspapers serving the city Largest newspaper Circulation of largest newspaper Date largest newspaper was established 1 United


century, on one of the hills surrounding the community. Its rustic environs invite tourists to visit the ramparts and learn about Prague’s history. In contrast, the New Town is the commercial center, or “Golden Cross,” consisting of Wenceslas Square and the nearby roads, where in 1989, with the Soviet Union about to crumble, students gathered and demanded free elections in what came to be known as the "Velvet Revolution." Wenceslas Square is crossed by Narodni and Naprikope streets, making it the busiest shopping area with many markets.


6

History

The erection of Prague Castle by Premyslid Prince Borivoj in 870 marks the first permanent settlement in Prague. Hradcany, or Prague Castle, then becomes the first seat of the Premyslid (Premyslovci) princes who rule the Kingdom of Bohemia after 894 (with the aid of the western Germans against the eastern Hungarian Maygars). During the next three centuries, the city is populated by many Germans and built up around the Vltava River, with Vysehrad Castle, the Gothic Cathedral of St. Vitus, and Judith’s stone bridge. The Bohemian Premsylid dynasty ends in

39

Prague

A view of Prague from Berlin Hill. (Catherine Karnow; Woodfin Camp)

1305 when Vaclav II (r. 1280–1305) dies from consumption and excess, and his son is murdered, leaving no heirs. Czech nobles give the throne to John of Luxembourg and his son Charles IV (1346–1378), who also becomes Holy Roman Emperor. He brings a great time of prosperity to Prague, second only to Rome, by founding Charles University, the first one in Central Europe. This “Golden Age” is followed by a period of unrest as the Hussite Revolution, started by the burning of Jan Hus, brings a reaction against domination of the Germans and the Catholic Church.

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Ferdinand of Hapsburg is elected to the Crown of St. Wenceslas. As a result, the next three centuries are marked by the rule of the House of Catholic Hapsburgs, which experiences the opposition of a predominantly Protestant citizenry. There is a fire in 1541 at Prague Castle, Hradcany, and the Lesser Town, and many Bohemians lose property during anti-Hapsburg uprisings. However, this period also is known for its development of the arts under Emperor Rudolph II (1576–1612). In 1618, two Protestant churches are closed, precipitating the “Defenestration of Prague,” when Protestants throw two Imperial Governors out of


Prague the windows of Prague Castle. This action, and the execution of 27 Protestant nobles, leads to the Thirty Years War (1618–48), pitting Catholics against Protestants, ending with the Peace of Westphalia and German-Catholic rule. Industrialization brings growth to the city, and in 1784 Emperor Joseph II (1741–90) merges the four towns: Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town, and Hradcany, into the contemporary Capital City of Prague. In 1848, riots in Prague bring about a Pan-Slavic Congress, which emancipates the Czech nation from the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, under Bohemian historian Francis Palacky. Thomas Masaryk (1850–1937) becomes the first Czechoslovakian President from 1918 to 1937, ruling Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia, but in 1939 Hitler occupies the Sudetenland, ending independent rule. By 1945, the Communist Party had grown considerably in the Czech nation under Russian influence, allying the government with the Soviet Union until the 1968 Prague Spring and revolution. Under President General Ludwik Svoboda (1895–1979), the country begins to liberalize, but the U.S.S.R. and the Warsaw Pact allies quell this rebellion by occupying Czechoslovakia with 650,000 troops. By 1989, the Soviet Union is ready to crumble. In what is known as the "Velvet Revolution," students gather on Wenceslas Square and demand free elections. In 1990, Vaclav Havel becomes president of Czechoslovakia and later of


The St. Vitus Cathedral was built during the Bohemian Premsylid dynasty, which was part of the first permanent settlement of Prague. (Catherine Karnow; Woodfin Camp)

the Czech Republic. In 1993, Czechoslovakia splits into the more affluent, western, democratic Czech Republic and the eastern, left-leaning Slovakia, making way for Prague, as part of the Czech Republic, to enter the European Union. 7

Government

Prague’s city government is administered by a mayor and city council. The

41

Prague

Although not too intimidating during the day, at night Old Town in Mala Strana is home to petty thieves and pickpockets. (Bernard Boutrit; Woodfin Camp)

mayor and city council members are popularly elected to four-year terms. For administrative purposes, the city is divided into ten districts that possess separate offices. Some major concerns of contemporary politicians include the housing shortage caused by communist neglect, pollution, and a recent rise in crime. Prague is one of eight regions of the Czech Republic, all governed by President Vaclav Havel (b. 1936) and Prime Minister Milos Zeman (b. 1944). 8

Public Safety

The rise in crime in Prague during 1999 is largely a result of the financial

42

collapse of Russia, with Russian gangsters operating in most major central and eastern European cities. This kind of crime will not affect most travelers, but pickpockets and petty thieves abound in Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, and near Prague Castle. In case of emergency, citizens and visitors can dial 158 for the police, 155 for an ambulance, and 150 in the event of a fire. Na Homolce Hospital has a foreigner’s clinic. 9

Economy

The monetary denomination of the Czech Republic is the Koruna (Kc),


Prague which has an exchange rate of about 30.5 Kc to one U.S. dollar, remaining fairly stable since its inception. The city of Prague has a well-diversified, highly industrial economy. Main products are metals and machinery, aircraft engines, automobiles (Volkswagen AG), diesel engines, machine tools, refined oil products, electronics, beer, chemicals, and food. During the communist era, Prague and the surrounding countryside produced approximately 80% of the products it consumed, but recently there has been a boom in the newly privatized service sector as the country strives for free-market, democratic practice. Unemployment holds steady at about three percent, and inflation continues to level out through excellent economic planning, but the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is still below most other industrialized countries, at a purchasing power parity of about $10,000. The collapse of the Russian economy negatively affected the banking system and caused a short recession in 1999, driving away investors. However, eventual entrance to the European Union is expected to balance out the effects. The city still depends on Russia for its oil and gas, but officials are looking for alternatives, such as solar power, nuclear plants, and new sources of oil and gas. 10

Environment

Due to rapid industrialization during the twentieth century, there are serious levels of air, water, and soil pollution in Prague and its surrounding environment. The levels of air pollution


are exacerbated during the winter months by the burning of soft coal to provide heat. For this reason, lung cancer is prevalent in the city, and in 1992 the country was measured as having the world’s highest industrial carbon dioxide emissions levels. The air is also contaminated by sulfur dioxide emissions, mainly from ore of lignite, also a popular heating fuel, which contributes heavily to the occurrence of acid rain throughout Europe. Acid rain floating over from Poland and Germany has also destroyed a large portion of forest in the northern part of the country. Western nations offered $1 billion to the Czech Republic for environmental reforms in the early 1990s, but economic growth was more important to the government at the time. Rich in natural resources, there are more than 15,000 lakes and ponds in the Czech Republic and 2,000 medicinal mineral springs in 30 spa towns, but unfortunately most of these are polluted. Clay, tin-tungsten, lead, zinc, and uranium mining adds to the agricultural deforestation and soil erosion of the land, and a nuclear power plant at Dukovany adds the danger of radioactive poisoning in the event of a nuclear meltdown. Prague also acts as the country’s transportation hub, making pollution from aircraft, trains, and boats prevalent. 11

Shopping

Most stores in Prague are open during the week from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM (some until 9:00 PM) with lunch breaks, closed from noon until 4:00 PM on Saturday and closed all day Sunday. Prague

43

Prague is well known for its beautiful glass works, most notably from Moser glassworks in Karlovy Vary, from Bohemia Podebrady, Crystalex Novy Bor, Lustry Kqmenicky Senov, Zelezny Brod, and Svetla nad Sazavou. Crystal, porcelain, and red garnet stones are also popular items that can be purchased in many tourist shops and city stores, especially near the center of town. The biggest shopping area is located at Wenceslas Square and the surrounding streets, with a number of daily markets. At restaurants, it is normal to tip around ten percent of the total bill, and it is better to tell the waiter how much you are tipping before he takes the payment. 12

Education

In Prague, children generally attend school from ages six to 11; they then have eight years of secondary schooling in the academic and technical tracks and for teaching careers. Twenty-three universities operate in the Czech Republic, and students must pay only one-quarter of the fees. Charles University, founded in 1348, is one of the oldest and best-known institutions of higher learning in Europe. The Czech Academy of Sciences and a large technical university also reside in Prague. For centuries, education in Prague has been heavily influenced, first by the Hapsburgs, who forced the German language on Czech natives, and then by the Communists, who forced socialist principals and the Russian language and banned religion. Now, education in Prague is notably free of religious and political persuasion. The International

44

School of Prague, founded in 1948 for foreign students, teaches pre-kindergarten through eleventh grade, and the French Cultural Center teaches in French to nursery and kindergartenaged children. With 100 percent literacy levels since the early twentieth century, Prague’s educational system is more successful than those of many countries. 13

Health Care

Health care in Prague under communist control was under strict state administration. Standards were not high, and equipment was outdated in clinics and hospitals. Since 1990, privatization has improved services under the guidance of the Ministry of Health through the National Health Service. Factories and offices often still have onsite facilities for employees, but the government is encouraging private medical practices. Life expectancy is between 69 and 77 years, which is rising due to new medicines and inoculations, while the birthrate is falling. One interesting facet of Prague health care is that insurance companies are required by law to pay doctors within five days of treatment. Citizens and visitors can dial 155 for emergency medical service. 14

Media

The Prague Post puts out a weekly paper for English speakers; Prague Guide comes out monthly; and What, Where, When is also published monthly. Czech publications from Prague include Lidove Noviny, Mlada Fronta, Rude Pravo, Svo-


Prague bodne Slovo, Prace Revolutionary Trade Union Movement, and ZN Noviny. Radio Prague broadcasts daily in five languages. Nova TV is the most popular television station but is also known for its low-brow programming. 15

Sports

Skiing and ice skating are popular winter sports in Prague, and most skiing hills are close enough for a one-day outing. Indoor and outdoor skating rinks are open to the public. Prague inhabitants also enjoy their natural surroundings by hunting, hiking, fishing, and camping, while water sports are enjoyed on the many lakes. There are three golf courses, Marianske Lazne, Lisnice, and Karlovy Vary. Tennis has become very popular because of Czech greats Martina Navratilova, Ivan Lendl, and Jana Novotna. Soccer, hockey, volleyball, and basketball are also played in Prague. 16


Some of the most relaxing places to go in and near Prague are the spas and mineral springs whose waters boast medicinal properties. The well-known ones are Karlovy Vary spa, which is said to help disorders of the digestive system and which hosts the International Film Festival; Janske Lazne, which treats nervous diseases; and Luhacovice which offers unspecified treatment for the whole body. At Marianske Lazne, one can stroll through gardens, drink from the hot springs, walk in the nearby


Most of Prague, including this old Jewish cemetery, survived World War II. (Catherine Karnow; Woodfin Camp)

woods with waterfalls, and view the gorgeous architecture. Other places to go are the Prague Zoo, Botanical Gardens (among the finest in Europe), Prague Castle, and the famous steeplechase at Pardubice. Walking through the city to see the historical sites and municipal parks is a recreational activity as well. There are 147 castles and mansions and 41 protected urban reservations in the Czech Republic. Most of Prague survived World War II relatively intact, so

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Prague its palaces and churches from the Renaissance (1450–1600) and Baroque (1600–1750) periods still stand as they have for centuries. 17

Performing Arts

The National Theater company, also producer of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (c. 1896), offers three types of ensemble: opera, ballet, and drama. These companies alternate performances at the National Theater, Theater of the Estates (Stavovske divadlo, which premiered Mozart’s Don Giovanni and the Clemency of Titus), and Kolowrat Theater, performing both classical and contemporary pieces. The Theater of the Estates is one of the only eighteenth-century theaters still in existence in Bohemia. The State Opera (c. 1783) has boasted such famous conductors as Maria von Weber, Gustav Mahler, and Carl Muck. The Spring International Music Festival holds a world-class competition in May. Smaller but still well-known theaters include Archa, Celetna Theater, Cerne Divaldo Jiriho Srnce, Labyrinth, Laterna Magika, Original Music Theater Prague, Theater Ta Fantastika, and Theater Image. Many perform in English and often provide experimental “Black Theater,” combining dance, music, and pantomime to tell a story. There are also marionette shows for children. 18


The Prague National Library is one of the largest and best libraries in the

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world. Established in 1958, it is an amalgamation of six Prague libraries and holds a collection of Mozart’s papers and manuscripts. The National Museum of Prague holds permanent exhibitions on the prehistory of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Minerology and Petrology, Paleontology, Zoology, and Anthropology. Lubkowitz’s Palace, located at Prague Castle, is open to the public for a nominal fee. Naprstek’s Museum contains pieces from Australian and Oceanic Cultures, Indian Cultures of North and South America, and Asian Cultures. At Tyrs’s Museum of Physical Culture and Sport, the history of the Sokol physical education movement (1862–1992) is documented. There is also a Museum of Czech History and literature, as well as the fascinating Prague Wax Museum, featuring Prague’s celebrities through history. Many galleries and castles are closed on Mondays, and the National Museum is closed the first Tuesday of each month. 19

To u r i s m

There are many housing options for the holiday traveler visiting Prague, including hotels which are more expensive near the center of town, but which are closer to the major sights. Bed-andbreakfast inns offer a glimpse into the private lives of Czech citizens, as do private homes that rent rooms, but apartments near the city center afford more privacy. For the more adventurous, Youth Hostels are available in Prague, but there are very few. Camping sites are very cheap, and "Botels" float on the Vltava River not far from the city cen-


Prague ter. As for the food, Czech cuisine is a bit fattening, consisting mostly of meat and potatoes. The most popular dishes are roast pork, sauerkraut and dumplings, and goulash, usually accompanied by a hearty Czech beer, like Pilsner Urquell or Budweiser Budvar. If visitors are lucky enough to be invited into a Prague native’s home for a meal, the hospitality should be overwhelming and the food more than ample. 20


APRIL Paleni Crodejnic (the Burning of the Witches)

MAY The Spring International Music Festival Labor Day

JULY

The Astrological Clock is found in Old Town square, the center of Prague. (Bernard Boutrit; Woodfin Camp)

Celebration of the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius (Byzantine priests who brought Christianity to Prague) Anniversary of Jan Hus’s death

OCTOBER Czech Independence Day

NOVEMBER Commemoration of the Velvet Revolution

DECEMBER St. Nicholas Day St. Stephen’s Day

Vaclav Havel (b. 1936), dramatist, statesman, and president. Jaroslav Heyrovsky (1890–1967), chemist and Nobel Prize laureate for polarography. Jan Hus (c. 1369–1415), religious reformer. Franz Kafka (1883–1924), writer.

21

Famous Citizens

Eduard Benes (1884–1948), statesman. Karel Capek (1890–1938), author. John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), educational reformer and theologian. Antonin Dvorak (1841–1904), composer.


Ivan Klima (b. 1931), author. Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), artist and writer. Milan Kundera (b. 1929), writer. Thomas Garrique Masar yk (1850– 1937), founder-president of Czechoslovakia.

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Prague 22

For Further Study

Websites Office of the Government of the Czech Republic. [Online] Available http:// www.vlada.cz.index.eng.htm (accessed January 7, 2000). Official site of the Czech Republic. [Online] Available http://www.czech.cz (accessed January 7, 2000). Prague cybercafe. [Online] Available http:// www.cyberteria.cz (accessed January 7, 2000). Prague Post. [Online] Available http:// www.praguepost.cz (accessed January 7, 2000).

Government Offices Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Consular Department 125 10 Prague 1 tel.: (12) 2418 2125 fax: (12) 2431 0018 U.S. Embassy Trziste 15 Mala Strana tel.: (12) 2451-0847)

Tourist and Convention Bureaus CKM: Zitna (Student Travelers) Tel.: (12) 2491-5767 Fax: (12) 2435-1297

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Prague Informtion Service (in Czech only) Staromestske nam 22, Napikoke 20er Betlemske nanesti 2 Tel.: (12) 264022 e-mail: [email protected]. Ticketpro Salvatorska 10 110 000 Praha 1 Tel.: (12) 2481-4020 Fax: (12) 2481-4021 e-mail: [email protected].

Publications The Prague Post Tel.: (2487-5016) Fax: (2487-5050) e-mail: [email protected]. What, Where, When Tel.: (691-0905) Fax: (691-1497)

Books The Czech Republic and Economic Transition in Eastern Europe. San Diego, Calif.: University Press. Holy, Ladislav. The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation: National Identity and the PostCommunist Transformation of Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. King, John and Richard Nebesky. Lonely Planet Prague. Hawthorne, Aus.: Lonely Planet, 1999. Skalnik, Carol. The Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic: Nation vs. State. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997.


Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America Founded: Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón is credited with being the first known European to sight Brazil when he landed near present-day Recife on January 26, 1500. The Portuguese Estácio de Sá founded the city in 1565 after expelling the French. Location: On a flat and narrow coastal plain, between the foothills of the Brazilian Highlands and the Atlantic Ocean, on the shore of Guanabara Bay, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the tropical zone in South America. Time Zone: 3 PM = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Ethnic Composition: African, White, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian Latitude and Longitude: 22º54'S, 43º10'W Coastline: 78 km (50 mi) Climate: Rio is in a tropical zone, and the weather is typically hot and humid. Cool ocean breezes temper the temperatures in the area. Temperature: Summer months of December to March are very hot, with temperatures sometimes exceeding 35 to 39ºC (95 to 100ºF). During the rest of the year, temperatures range between 20 to 30ºC (68 and 86ºF). The annual average temperature is 23ºC (73ºF). Average Annual Precipitation: 1,080 mm (43 in), but some of the higher elevations get more than 60 inches. Government: Mayor and municipal council Weights and Measures: Standard metric Monetary Units: the Real (about 1.78 per one US dollar) Telephone Area Codes: Country code: 55; city code: 21

1

Introduction

Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil, is often called Cidade Maravilhosa, the Marvelous City. Squeezed by the Atlantic Ocean and the verdant hills of Brazil, Rio’s dramatic natural setting has impressed visitors for decades. The energy of its residents is legendary. No one dances more exquisitely or parties longer than the cariocas (residents of Rio). Even within

Brazil, cariocas are known as fun, sensual, and easygoing. Their main playgrounds are the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, names that easily roll off the tongue. Yet, Rio is a great city of extremes, often cruel in its indifference to the poor. Next to five-star hotels, the poorest cariocas live in cardboard houses. The great favelas, shantytowns, reach high into the hills, where many residents are lost to poverty, drug abuse, and a life of crime. In the early 1990s,

49

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro Population Profile City Proper Population: 5,600,000 Area: 1,255 sq km (485 sq mi) Ethnic composition: African, White, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian Nicknames: Rio de Janeiro is Portuguese for “river of January.” They thought the large entrance of what is now known as Guanabara Bay was the mouth of a river. In Brazil, Rio is known as the Cidade Maravilhosa, the Marvelous City. Its residents are called cariocas. The word is of Tupi Indian origin (kari'oka, white house or house of white man).

Metropolitan Area Population: 10,556,000 Description: City of Rio and 16 other municipalities Area: Over 5,384 sq km (over 2,079 sq mi) World population rank1: 19 Percentage of national population2: 6.2% Average yearly growth rate: 0.7% Ethnic composition: African, White, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian ——— 1. The Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of Brazil’s total population living in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area.

cariocas were shaken from their complacency to social problems when the media reported that corrupt police officers—paid by business owners— were murdering homeless children. The city lost its luster, as well as many of its tourists. In one of the most famous incidents, roaming bands of youths from the favelas descended on Copacabana Beach, robbing tourists and cariocas alike. Cidade Maravilhosa (marvelous city)? Perhaps only in geography. Yet, cariocas no longer appear complacent about their problems. The city is slowly

50

trying to regain its streets from criminals and years of decay. Many favelas now have basic city services. Its social problems are daunting, but cariocas have an uncharacteristic optimism. 2

Getting There

Between the mountains and the sea, Rio is located on the western shore of Guanabara Bay. On a flat and narrow coastal plain adjacent to the foothills of the Brazilian Highlands, Rio is one of the most important transportation hubs in the country. Most international visitors arrive in Rio, one of the bestknown international cities in the world. Highways Rio’s imposing natural setting has its drawbacks. The city snakes along the coast and the mountains, and so do its streets. Cariocas are well known for aggressive driving, and navigating the city's roads is difficult for drivers unfamiliar with the terrain. Rio is connected by highway to major Brazilian cities. Bus and Railroad Service There is rail service to São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. Many bus companies offer international travel to the neighboring countries of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. Airports Two airports serve the city: Galeão for domestic and international services and Santos Dumont for domestic airlines.


Rio de Janeiro

3

Getting Around

Bus and Commuter Rail Service Rio opened the first of two underground metro lines in 1979 and plans to continue expanding the system to alleviate traffic congestion. Two lines connect some parts of the city. An extensive bus system accounts for about 70 percent of all passenger trips. There


are many taxis and thousands of private automobiles. Rail connects Rio to its suburbs and satellite cities. Motorboats, ferries, and hydrofoils serve communities across Guanabara Bay. Sightseeing Many visitors go to Rio strictly to enjoy the world-renowned beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. Others go to

51

Rio de Janeiro take part in the internationally famous Carnival and Carnival parade, celebrated for five days preceding Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), attracting thousands of visitors. However, there are many other sights to see in the Marvelous City. One of the most visited sites in Rio is Mount Corcovado, with its Christ the Redeemer statue. Another is Sugar Loaf, offering an impressive view of the city below. Many people go to the Quinta da Boa Vista, the park that is home to the National Museum, and the Zoological Garden. Also popular are the Botanical Gardens and Tijuca National Park, located in the Forest of Tijuca; the National Museum of Fine Arts; the Museum of Modern Art; and the Indian Museum. 4

People

During most of the twentieth century, Rio de Janeiro grew rapidly, mostly with Brazilian migrants from the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo. Growth began to level off in 1960 when Rio lost its status as the nation's capital. About two-thirds of Rio's residents are of African descent, a reflection of the nation's early history when millions of African slaves were brought to the New World to work on plantations. By the mid-1800s, there were two-and-a-half million slaves in Brazil. Like the nation, Rio is ethnically diverse, with widespread racial mixing. Many of the city's residents are of Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish roots.

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While the country prides itself on its racial harmony and tolerance, racial issues are much more complicated. In Rio, and Brazilian society in general, whites are better off economically and enjoy more privilege. In something as simple as television programming and advertising, blacks and native Brazilians are greatly outnumbered. In Rio, mostly whites live in the wealthier enclaves of Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon, while mostly blacks live in the favelas that surround the city. Although separated by class and race, Brazilians have many things in common. The dominant language is Portuguese. Most are Catholic, although many follow Afro-Brazilian religions like Umbanda and Condomble. All races dance to the same beat of the samba and other Afro-Brazilian sounds. The beach, especially in Rio, is the great equalizer. Here, where just about everybody wears skimpy swimsuits, it is difficult to pinpoint the elite from the poor masses. 5

Neighborhoods

Geography and class define Rio's neighborhoods. The rich live close to the water. The great masses of poor people have been pushed high into the hills. There, the poor have built favelas, shantytowns that lack basic necessities like water, electricity, and paved roads. Cariocas have also redefined their space periodically. As the city grew over difficult terrain, they leveled hills or bored tunnels through them. They reclaimed


Rio de Janeiro

City Fact Comparison Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)


10,556,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000


1565

753 BC

723 BC

Indicator


AD

969

city2


$142

$193

$172

$129


$62

$56

$59

$62


$15

$14

$15

$16

$219

$173

$246

$207

16

13

20

11

Largest newspaper

O Globo


La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

Circulation of largest newspaper

266,546

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

1925

1944

1976

1948

Total daily costs Major Newspapers3 Number of newspapers serving the city

Date largest newspaper was established 1 United


parts of Guanabara Bay to make room for the growing city. Today, Rio is divided into three distinct zones. The traditional historical center is sandwiched by the eastern base of the Serra de Carioca and Guanabara Bay. The Serra is a small coastal mountain range that runs east-west and cuts the city in half. West and north of the historic center is the northern zone, a large urban area of mostly lowincome housing, and factories. The southern zone, with the fashionable Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, and Gávea neighborhoods, is home to middle-class and wealthy cariocas. As the


favelas inched closer down the slopes, many wealthy people abandoned the southern-zone neighborhoods. Copacabana, Leblon, and Ipanema experienced slight population decreases in the last decade of the twentieth century. Many wealthier residents have moved to Barra da Tijuca, further west along the coast. It is considered one of the city's most fashionable neighborhoods. Many of the favelas have become established neighborhoods with basic city services. From 1991 to 1996, the number of households in the city increased from 1.6 million to 1.7 mil-

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Rio de Janeiro

Situated between the Brazilian Highlands and the Atlantic Ocean, Rio attracts travelers from all over the world. (Stephanie Maze; Woodfin Camp)

lion. The occupancy rate went down, from 3.4 people per household to 3.3. 6

History

Long before Europeans arrived in what is now Brazil, the area was populated by many different groups of native people, including the Arawak and Carib. The Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (c.1460–c.1524) is credited with being the first known European to sight Brazil when he landed near present-day Recife on January 26, 1500.

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The Spaniards didn’t make a claim to the territory as it was assigned to Portugal under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). Under papal authority, the agreement divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. In theory, the other European countries were not allowed to colonize the New World. In April 1500, apparently blown off course, Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvarez Cabral (c.1467–c.1520) reached Brazil and formally claimed the area for Portugal. Explorers sighted what is now Rio in 1502, but the Portuguese didn’t build any permanent settlements. By


Rio de Janeiro 1530, with other European nations eager to establish a foothold in the New World, the Portuguese monarchy strengthened its hold on Brazil, dividing the territory into 15 captaincies (administrative districts), each under the jurisdiction of powerful members of the court. If it hadn’t been for French interlopers, Rio may have never developed as a city. Salvador and Sao Paulo were founded several years before the Portuguese took any interest in the Rio area. While the Portuguese frantically built forts to keep other countries at bay, the French began to test Brazil’s defenses. French traders were after the valuable brazil wood, for which the country is now named. By the mid-1550s, they founded a settlement on one of the islands of Guanabara Bay and called it La France Antarctique (Antarctic France). Portugal’s monarchy sent Estácio de Sá, a nephew of Governor Mem de Sá of Brazil, to get rid of the French in 1565. For the next two years, the Portuguese and French waged bloody battles in what is now Rio de Janeiro. De Sá was killed during one of the skirmishes, but the French were finally ousted from the area in 1567. By 1568, Rio had begun to take formal shape with the construction of a citadel. As in many other early colonies, Rio survived by farming, especially sugarcane. By 1660, Rio had attained some degree of importance and was named the seat of government for the southern captaincies. About 8,000 people—mostly Indian and black slaves who were forced to


work in the plantations—lived in the city. The discovery of gold, diamonds, silver, and other precious minerals in what is now the state of Minas Gerais (general mines), northwest of Rio, boosted the city’s fortunes during the 1700s. The Portuguese moved their capital city from Salvador to Rio in 1763, a symbol of its growing importance. Rio grew rapidly, with thousands of European immigrants attracted by diamonds and gold. By the late 1700s, Rio expanded beyond its protective walls. Rio’s growth faltered a bit by the 1790s. Dependent on an export economy, the city was facing formidable competition for its sugar from other colonies in the Americas, and the mines were showing signs of declining production. In just a few years, the value of exports shipped through Rio’s port was cut in half. Yet, Rio would not stay down for too long. During the Napoleonic wars (1799– 1815), Portugal remained faithful to England, earning France's scorn. Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops invaded Portugal. Maria I (r. 1777–1816) and her son, the future João VI, escaped to Brazil and established a government in exile in Rio de Janeiro in 1808. Outside the city, coffee production had replaced sugar as a main crop, and Rio was again on its way to economic recovery. With the monarchs in town, Rio reinvented itself, growing in population and in beauty. Older buildings were restored; hundreds of new mansions and smaller living quarters were built; streets were

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Rio de Janeiro paved and lighted. More land was reclaimed. The monarchs established the Royal Press, the Royal Library, and the Botanical Gardens, among many others. In 1808, the city's first newspaper was published. With the death of Maria I, who had been insane for the last 24 years of her life, her son João VI (r. 1816–1826) became king. João was initially popular in Rio and the rest of Brazil. Some Cariocas, perhaps sensing his importance to the city, did not want him to return to Portugal, where liberals demanded an end to the monarchy. Under growing political pressure, João accepted greatly diminished powers and returned to rule Portugal in 1821. His son, Pedro I (1798–1834; r. 1822–31), stayed in Brazil. Portugal attempted to reassert its authority over Brazil. But with British aid, Pedro declared Brazil’s independence and became emperor in 1822. By now, Rio had grown to more than 100,000 people. Pedro ruled until 1831 when he abdicated in favor of Pedro II (1825–1891), the five-year-old heirapparent. By 1840, Pedro II was old enough to rule and was named emperor. Under his leadership, Brazil continued to thrive with coffee, sugar, cotton, and rubber exports. Pedro II's administration oversaw the continued modernization of Rio. Rail, gas lighting, telephone, and steamboat service to other cities were all in place by the 1870s. However, Pedro would not last. He was against slavery and abolished it in 1888. The move cost him. He was overthrown in 1889, and a republic replaced the monarchy. Rio, which

56

already had more than 500,000 residents, was named the capital of the republic. During the early years of the republic, Rio de Janeiro changed dramatically. The federal government set out to modernize the city, first bringing tropical diseases like yellow fever under control. By 1920, the city was becoming an important industrial center with a population that exceeded one million people. The city grew by reclaiming land from Guanabara Bay and leveling hills. By 1940, Rio had grown to nearly two million people with no signs of slowing down. By then, the government could no longer control growth. Skyscrapers and large apartment buildings replaced homes and small buildings. Poorer residents were pushed further into the fringes of the city. Rio was now under siege from national interests. Many of Brazil’s politicians wanted to develop the vast interior of the country. In 1957, Brazilians began to build the city of Brazilia, which replaced Rio as the national capital in 1960. Yet Rio remained an important center of politics, culture, and business. By the 1960s, the beachside residential areas of Copacabana and Ipanema were among the most desirable addresses in the world. Its importance would in time turn against the city. Because it offered so many more opportunities than other cities and towns, Rio continued to grow as Brazilians without jobs or education continued to move into the city. They built massive favelas (shantytowns) and contributed to massive social problems that continue to affect the city. Rio is


Rio de Janeiro no longer growing through massive immigration, but serious urban problems, like crime, overcrowding, and pollution, continue to plague the city. 7

Government

The city is governed by a prefeito (mayor). The government is divided into several departments, each administered by a secretary who answers to the mayor, who is elected to a four-year term. The Municipal Chamber, whose members are elected proportionally from Rio's 24 administrative regions, dictates legislation. The city is divided into five planning areas and 158 neighborhoods. 8

Public Safety

In February 2000, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso called for immediate action to curb crime after his wife's car was stolen. His presidential car had been stolen three months earlier. Compared to the atrocious public safety situation in Brazil, the theft of these cars was minor but symbolic of how crime touches all people throughout the country. In the 1990s, crime gangs controlled entire Rio neighborhoods. Corrupt police officers, hired by business owners, murdered homeless children and engaged in other criminal activity. By 1994, Rio had one of the highest murder rates in the world, at 61 per 100,000 people. While most crimes were directed at cariocas, tourists also suffered. The city saw a steady decline in the number of international visitors


Tourism plays a large role in Rio’s economy. Celebrations and parades bring millions of tourists annually. (Stephanie Maze; Woodfin Camp)

in the 1980s and early 1990s, deterred by highly publicized crimes against tourists. Rio authorities created a special police force to protect tourists and have tried to underplay the crime situation. Whether Cardoso’s call for action will bring any changes remains to be seen. One of Brazil’s largest problems is the unrelenting poverty of its people, which is only augmented in cities like Rio, where shantytowns are built next to wealthy enclaves.

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Rio de Janeiro 9

Economy

Only São Paulo is more economically important than Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. With a major port and international airport, Rio is an important industrial, financial, and commercial center. The city has a large tourism industry that appears to be bouncing back after years of decline. Rio remains the economic engine for a large regional area that extends for several hundred kilometers (miles). Rio’s factories produce processed foods, textiles, furniture, chemicals, petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, and metal products. The manufacture of electronics and computers has begun to play a major role in the economy. The city is a leading financial and banking center. The country’s most active stock market, the Bolsa da Valores do Brasil, is located in Rio. 10

Environment

Guanabara Bay is highly polluted. Throughout the year, many of Rio's beaches, including the internationally known beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, are off limits to swimmers because of high levels of fecal coliform bacteria. Poor sanitation in the favelas lead to the proliferation of many diseases. 11

Shopping

Rio is an important retail center. It has major shopping centers and countless small shops that specialize in different products. There are many street

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vendors. In Copacabana and Ipanema, street vendors sell men’s and women’s swim suits, towels, sunglasses, and just about anything needed on the beach. Some small boutiques specialize in native art from throughout Brazil. 12

Education

Brazil was expected to enter the twenty-first century with an illiteracy rate of 16 percent despite massive efforts to educate the population. About 25 percent of the poorest children do not attend school. In Rio, those numbers are better, with literacy rates at about 90 percent for people over ten years of age. Yet, many children in the favelas do not go to school, and thousands of homeless children lack any opportunity to better their lives. In Rio, there are 1,033 primary schools with 25,594 teachers and 667,788 students (1995). There are 370 secondary schools with 9,699 teachers and 227,892 students. There are 53 college preparatory schools with 14,864 teachers and 154,447 students. The city has six major universities and 47 private schools of higher learning. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, which offer graduate courses, and the State University of Rio de Janeiro are located in the city. 13

Health Care

The city has made major improvements in health, dramatically reducing high infant mortality rates in a short number of years, from 75.3 to 36 deaths


Rio de Janeiro per 1,000 births between 1980 and 1987. The overall life expectancy has also increased, from 45 to 63 years between 1940 and 1980. Mortality rates have decreased by improving sanitary conditions throughout the city. Yet, some of those gains have been offset by increases in violence and accidents. There are more than 300 hospitals with 25,872 beds in metropolitan Rio. 14

Media

Rio remains one of the most important publishing centers in Brazil. The country’s first newspaper, Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, was published in Rio on September 10, 1808. Two of the country's leading newspapers today, O Globo and Jornal do Brazil, are published in Rio. Several daily and weekly newspapers, including the business daily Jornal do Commercio, are also published in the city. There are seven television stations and numerous AM and FM radio stations. 15

Sports

Capable of holding 200,000 people, Maracanã stadium is a symbol of Rio’s passion for sports. There are more than 130 sports associations in the city, several professional teams, and thousands of cariocas playing soccer, volleyball, and many other sports on any given day. Rio is host to several international events each year in surfing, beach volleyball, car, motorcycle, and horse racing. On weekends, the sprawling Copacabana beach is crowded with teams


playing soccer on the sand. Brazilians are passionate about volleyball. The women’s national team won the gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics in 1988. Cariocas have even managed to combine their passion for soccer and volleyball into one game—futevolei. It is played on the sand with players kicking the ball over the net instead of using their hands. 16


With more than 78 kilometers (48 miles) of coastline and 72 beaches, playing in the sand and water are among the most important recreational activities in Rio. The city has 33 parks and three natural reserves. It has 20 areas classified under environmental protection, ten permanent preservation areas, and three areas of ecological interest. Samba schools are a popular source of recreation, especially in the favelas. The schools act as neighborhood clubs where residents come to meet each other, learn how to dance, and work together. 17

Performing Arts

Rio is an important center for the arts. The city is home to the Companhia de Balé Clássico do Teatro Municipal, the ballet company, and the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, the symphony orchestra. The nationally renowned School of Music is part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The Municipal Theater hosts ballet and operas. There are

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Rio de Janeiro

Christ the Redeemer stands atop Mount Corcovado, the most visited site in Rio de Janeiro. (Stephanie Maze; Woodfin Camp)

many theater groups in the city and dozens of cultural centers. Rio hosts many musical events, including jazz, dance, and cinema festivals. Rio has more than 60 art galleries, 75 bookstores and libraries, and dozens of cinemas, clubs and dance halls. 18


The city’s National Library was founded in 1810 to house the remains of the Royal Library of Ajuda, brought to Brazil from Portugal after the 1755

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earthquake in Lisbon. There are many other libraries in the city. Despite losing its title as capital city, Rio remained a center of culture after 1960. The Brazilian Academy of Letters and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences are in the city. The National Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1818 and houses important twentiethcentury works by leading Brazilian artists. The National Museum has a large collection of pre-Columbian ceramics, dinosaur fossils, and stuffed wildlife. Rio also hosts the National Historical


Rio de Janeiro Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Indian Museum. 19

To u r i s m

International arrivals increased from 8.3 million passengers in 1994 to 10.3 million in 1998 at Rio’s international airport. Domestic arrivals rose from 34.7 million to 63.7 million. Visitors come to the Cidade Maravilhosa for its beaches, restaurants, music, exhilarating city life, and the annual Carnival, one of the world's most famous festivals.

ited site is Sugar Loaf, which reaches a height of 395 meters (1,296 feet). At the entrance of Guanabara Bay, Sugar Loaf is only reachable by cable car. It offers impressive views of the city below. Many people go to the Quinta da Boa Vista, a park that is home to the National Museum, and the Zoological Garden. The historic Botanical Gardens (1808) and the Tijuca National Park are located in the Forest of Tijuca. 20


JANUARY

Celebrated for five days preceding Ash Wednesday, Carnival attracts thousands of visitors. While it is a national holiday, Carnival is often associated with Rio, which is consistently more exuberant than its neighbors. It is there that the major Carnival parade is held. Samba schools from the favelas and other Rio neighborhoods practice for months to prepare for the festival. On the night of December 31, Copacabana hosts hundreds of thousands of people who come to celebrate the New Year. According to tradition, people dress in white for good luck and offer a white flower to Yemanjá, the goddess of the seas. Residents party well into the morning hours. One of the most visited sites in Rio is Mount Corcovado, 704 meters (2,310 feet) high. On top, is Christ the Redeemer, a massive 907-metric-ton (1,000-ton), 30-meter (98-foot) statue standing with welcoming outstretched arms over Rio. Another frequently vis-


Epiphany

FEBRUARY-MARCH Carnival (five days before Ash Wednesday)

APRIL Tiradentes Day

MAY May Day

JUNE Corpus Christi

SEPTEMBER Independence Day

OCTOBER Our Lady of Aparecida Day

NOVEMBER

All Soul’s Day Proclamation Day

21

Famous Citizens

Olavo Bilac (1865–1918), Brazilian poet. Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello (b. 1949), became Brazil’s youngest president in 1990, with his promise to cut inflation and reform the economy, but was impeached in

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Rio de Janeiro 1992 by the Chamber of Deputies on charges of corruption. Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881–1922), novelist and journalist. Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927–94), composer, guitarist, and pianist, who pioneered the musical style known as bossa nova (new wave). Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839–1908), great master of Brazilian literature.

Government Offices Embassy of Brazil 3006 Massachusetts Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20008 Government of Rio de Janeiro. [Online] Available http://www.rio.rj.gov.br (accessed February 5, 2000).

Tourist and Convention Bureaus Ministry of Sport and Tourism. [Online] Available http://www.embratur.gov.br (accessed February 5, 2000).

Publications O

Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho (b. 1907), one of Brazil's most important modern architects, known for the fluid lines of his buildings. Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959), important twentieth-century composer, self-trained and influenced by the music of Native American people, credited with revolutionizing musical training in public schools. 22

For Further Study

Websites Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. [Online] Available http://www.ibge.gov.br (accessed February 5, 2000). Rio de Janeiro Modern Museum of Art. [Online] Available http://www.mamrio.com.br (accessed February 5, 2000). University of Texas Latin American Network Information Center. [Online] Available http:// www.lanic.utexas.edu (accessed February 5, 2000).

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Globo. [Online] Available http:// www.oglobo.com.br (accessed February 5, 2000). Jornal do Brazil. [Online] Available http:// www.jb.com.br (accessed February 5, 2000). Jornal do Commercio. [Online] Available http:// www.jornaldocommercio.com.br (accessed February 5, 2000).

Books Burns, E. Bradford. A History of Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Fausto, Boris. A Concise History of Brazil. London: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Gay, Robert. Popular Organization and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro: A Tale of Two Favelas. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994. Levine, Robert M., and John C. Crocitti. The Brazil Reader. Raleigh: Duke University Press, 1999. McGowan, Chris, and Ricardo Pessanha. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. Rojas-Lombardi, Felipe. The Traveler’s Guide to Latin American Customs and Manners. New York: St. Martins Press, 1991. Skidmore, Thomas E. Brazil: Five Centuries of Change. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.


Rome Rome, Italy, Europe Founded: 753 B.C.; Unified: 1870 Location: Lazio region in Italy, Europe, on a peninsula extending from southern Europe into the Mediterranean Sea, bordering France to the northwest, Switzerland and Austria to the north, Slovenia to the northeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south Time Zone: 11 AM = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Flag: Vertical bands of orange (left) and yellow. Ethnic Composition: Italian; German, French, Slovenes, Albanian-Italians, GreekItalians Elevation: 4,336 m (14,453 ft) above sea level Latitude and Longitude: 41°54’N, 12°30’E Climate: Temperate, mild winters and long, dry, hot summers Annual Mean Temperature: 7.4°C (45.3°F) in January; 25.7°C (78.3°F) in July Average Annual Rainfall: 890 mm (35 in) Government: Multi-party republic, headed by a president and prime minister, legislative power held by bicameral Parliament: Senate and Chamber of Deputies Weights and Measures: Metric Monetary Units: The euro (EUR). As of January 1, 1999, the lira became a subdivision of the Euro (conversion rate: 1,936.27 lira to one Euro; one Euro equals 100 cents.) Telephone Area Codes: Italy country code 39; Rome city code 6

1

Introduction

Near the banks of the Tiber River, 2,700 years ago on seven hills, the foundation of Rome was laid. It is one of the most ancient cities in Europe. Since then, it has been continuously inhabited and has grown into a city of almost three million people, covering 1,502 square kilometers (580 square miles). Rome is in southern Italy, in southern Europe, and has a parallel latitude with New York state.

Located inland about 27 kilometers (17 miles) from the Tyrrhenian Sea, Rome is the capital city of Italy. Within Rome’s enclave is Vatican City. The seat of the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church, Vatican City has been recognized as an independent state by the Italian government since 1929. The majestic dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City dominates the Roman skyline. Once the center of the Roman Empire, Rome has been the capital of united Italy since 1871. The economy remains strong—essentially based on

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Rome

Rome Population Profile Population: 2,688,000 Area: 1502 sq km (580 sq mi) World population rank1: 115 Percentage of national population2: 4.7% Average yearly growth rate: 0.0% ——— 1. The Rome metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of Italy’s total population living in the Rome metropolitan area.

tourism and government operations. After World War II (1939–45), the city developed a wide base of industries; thus, the Rome of today hosts the headquarters of many multinational corporations and agencies. Divided into two regions, the sprawling outer city is changing with suburban growth. The historical center is a small area, located on the eastern bank of the Tiber River and contains many monuments of Rome’s past greatness. The city is an unparalleled repository of monuments from all periods in European history. The legacy of the Roman Empire is extensive, witnessed from the preservation of the Pantheon, considered one of the finest surviving temples of antiquity, to the impressive Colosseum, an amphitheater that hosted gladiatorial combat and other spectacles. Ancient city walls, triumphal arches, public meeting places, churches, and palaces are scattered throughout Rome. With an extraordi-

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nary wealth of artwork, Rome is a major world center for creative study and performing arts. 2

Getting There

Italy is bound to the north by Switzerland and Austria, to the east by Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea, to the south by the Mediterranean, Tyrrhenian, and Ligurian seas, and to the west by France. It covers 301,308 square kilometers (116,335 square miles), and Rome is located about halfway down Italy’s western coast. Highways Driving to and around Rome can be challenging. The main road linking Rome to the north and south of Italy is the Autostrade del sole, which connects with the ring road circling the city. The 13-kilometer (8-mile) Mount Frejus highway tunnel, integrating France and Italy through the Alps, opened in l980. The legal age for an auto rental is 21 years of age. There are several rental car agencies at both airports and a few at Termini Stazione. Bus and Railroad Service Train is by far the most efficient means of transportation for any land journey within Italy, to or from Rome. The Italian State Railways have several levels of service, from local trains that stop at every station, to the Pendolino, a fast, luxurious first-class-only train. From the airport, the Stazione Termini direct train runs hourly. The Stazione Termini, Rome’s main train station, is


Rome


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Rome the hub of the urban transportation system. Beneath it is the only interchange between the city’s two Metro lines, and directly outside, on Piazza dei Cinquecento, is the central bus terminal, a stunning twentieth-century building. Buses run from 6:00 AM to midnight, with some services running throughout the night. The city’s Metro service has two lines, and both go through Termini. A bus ticket is also valid for the city’s subway and train services. Airports Rome is serviced by two international airports. Leonardo da Vinci, commonly known as Fiumicino, handles most scheduled flights and is about 29 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of the city. Ciampino is about 14 kilometer (nine miles) southeast and is used for charter flights. The national airline carrier Alitalia is 89.3 percent owned by the state. 3

Getting Around

Navigating the streets of Rome can be tricky. Often it is easiest to take advantage of the city’s public transportation. Tickets for city metros, buses, and trams must be purchased before boarding. Bus and Commuter Rail Service The Metro system is useful and simple to master. There are two lines, A and B, which cross at Termini. Metro trains run approximately every ten minutes, from 5:30 AM until 11:30 PM,

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12:30 AM on Saturday. Tickets for metros are valid for one single journey only. Daily and weekly travel passes are also available. For sightseers, favorite metro stops include the Spanish Steps, Spagna, Vatican Museums, Ottaviano, Colosseo, Circus Maximus, Bath of Caracalls, Circo Massimo, the Catacombs, and Colli Albani. The main bus terminal is outside Termini Stazione. Most day buses have only a driver while night buses usually have a conductor who issues tickets. Tickets are not sold on day buses, and passengers board from the rear. There are several bus lines that run from 5:30 AM until midnight. Night buses run from 1:00 AM until 5:30 AM. Tickets are time stamped and are valid for 90 minutes of travel. Rome’s public orange buses and handful of trams cover much of the city, but they do not travel through the narrow streets of the historic center. Several routes, however, are within a short distance of most main attractions. Communal stops include the Vatican, Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain. Official taxis in Rome are yellow and must bear the taxi sign on the roof. An expensive venture, taxis also charge extra for baggage, late night trips, Sunday travel, or public holiday travel. The fare may begin from the telephone request, not from the point of origin. Sightseeing The center of Rome is compact, and wandering the ruins on foot is a great way to see the city. Street life is


Rome

City Fact Comparison Rome (Italy)

Cairo (Egypt)

New York (United States)

Beijing (China)


2,688,000

10,772,000

16,626,000

12,033,000


753 BC

1613

723 BC

Indicator


AD

969

city2


$172

$193

$198

$129


$59

$56

$44

$62


$15

$14

$26

$16

$246

$173

$244

$207

Total daily costs Major Newspapers3 Number of newspapers serving the city Largest newspaper Circulation of largest newspaper Date largest newspaper was established

20

13

10

11

La Repubblica


The Wall Street Journal

Renmin Ribao

754,930

1,159,339

1,740,450

3,000,000

1976

1944

1889

1948

1 United


vibrant and constant. The architectural design is consuming, and close proximity of ancient sights make for a comfortable and convenient walk. For instance, the Colosseum is approximately oneand-a-half miles from the Spanish steps. One route travels by the Forum, Piazza Venezia, and several churches, passing through charming neighborhoods. A longer, more scenic route weaves from the Colosseum to the Vatican. Most major monuments are west of the train station. The Pantheon and Trevi Fountain are a short detour away. The Palatine Hill and the Forum are the center of ancient Rome. Via del Corso runs north from the Forum to Piazza del Popola, and Trevi Fountain is to the


east. The Vatican is northwest of the Forum, across the Tiber River. Small patches of central Rome have sidewalks and streets closed to cars for use by cyclists and scooters. Bike tours from the north to the south of the city are actually a popular way to see the sights of Villa Borghese, Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Venezia, and the Spanish Steps. Conversely, the narrow streets combined with steep hills can make cycling a bit of a challenge. Mopeds and scooters, called Vespa or wasps in Italy because of the buzzing noise they make, are an efficient way to get around the narrow streets. Bikes and

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Rome

The dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica dominates the skyline of Rome. (Mike Yamashita; Woodfin Camp)

mopeds can be rented from Roma Rent and Scoot-a-Long, among others. For a gentler tour of the historic center, sightseers can hire a horsedrawn carriage. Trips can be taken for a half-hour, an hour, half-day, or a day, for up to five people. Prices for longer rides are negotiable and can be hired from Piazza di Spagna, the Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s, Via Veneto, Villa Borghese, Piazza Venezia, and Piazza Navona. 4

People

Due to improved economic and social conditions in southern regions,

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and the influence of the media, differences between northern and southern Italians are diminishing. However, Italians still refer to one another by their city of origin (Milanese, Roman, Florentine), and some regional attitudes remain. Adopting practices of their German and Austrian neighbors, people in the industrialized north traditionally value punctuality, reliability, organization, and economic success. They view time as a precious resource not to be wasted. Communities take pride in maintaining a low tolerance for public corruption and escalating crime. Southerners tend to be gracious and known for their warm character


Rome and friendliness. Neighborhoods and citizens of Rome value leisurely days and take their time conducting business. Family values prevail in the south and are often revered over economic success. Regional economic differences have contributed to tensions within the country. Northern Italians feel they are too heavily taxed for subsidized projects in the south. Southerners resent the higher income and better employment opportunities offered only in the north. Political movements that call for regional autonomy in a federal system have gained momentum in the north, but most Romans oppose any political separation. Social life and interaction is important to Romans. Citizens enjoy public events, parties, and celebrations. Humor, reliability, and success in business and social lives are all regarded more favorably than individual assertiveness. The dominant language in Rome and throughout the country is Italian. However, German and Ladin, a dialect of the Rhaeto-Romanic, are spoken in the Alto Adige region on the Austrian border; French is spoken in the Valle d’Aosta region bordering France and Switzerland; and Greek and Albanian are spoken in southern Italy. English is a common second language. 5

Neighborhoods

According to tradition, Rome was founded in 753 B.C. on one of the Seven


Hills, a term coined to describe the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, Aventine, and Palatine hills surrounding the old community. Archaeological evidence indicates, however, that human settlement dates from at least 1000 B.C. Capitoline Hill was long the seat of Rome’s government, and Palantine Hill was the site of the epic Palace of the Flavins, built by the Roman emperor Domitian. As a result of construction throughout the centuries, today most of the Seven Hills are hardly distinguishable from the adjacent plain. Rome is easily divided into two regions: the inner city, within the Aurealian Wall, built in the late third century to enclose the area around the Seven Hills; and the sprawling outer city, with its suburbs. The historical center is a small area, located almost entirely on the eastern bank of the Tiber River. Monuments of Rome’s past eminence are located mostly within the historical center and are a stark contrast to the modern districts. The street pattern of the city reflects its long and complex history. The Via del Corso traverses most of the historic center from Piazza Venezia, the geographic center of Rome, to the Piazza del Popolo at the foot of Pincio Hills. Its use dates from the Middle Ages when it was a horse-racing course. 6

History

Of all of Italy’s historic cities, Rome summons the most compelling fascination. There is more to experience in

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Rome

Rome’s streets are often narrow and busy, offering a vibrant city life. Here, a couple dodges the traffic on a moped, an efficient way of getting around town. (Ignacio Lobos; EPD Photos)

Rome than almost any other city in the world, with relics of more than 2,700 years of continuous occupation packed into a sprawling urban area. As a contemporary European capital, Rome has a unique sense of leadership. The city features are classical, the Colosseum, the Forum, and Palantine Hill, while relics from the early Christian period decorate ancient basilicas. The Baroque and Romanesque fountains and churches are only part of the picture. First headquarters of the Roman Empire, and then of the Catholic Church, Rome has had an immense impact on social customs throughout the world. Several European languages

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are based on Latin; many political and legal systems follow the ancient roman model of civil service, and buildings all over the world demonstrate styles and techniques perfected in Rome. The ancient city spaces are filled with layers of buildings spanning two millennia. Rome began as an Iron Age hut village founded in the mid-eighth century B.C. In 616 B.C., the Romans’ neighbors, the Etruscans, seized power but were ousted in 509 B.C. when Rome became a Republic. By the time Rome entered into the first of the three Punic wars in 264 B.C., its power in Italy spanned the whole peninsula as far north as Arimi-


Rome num. The driving motivation behind all three Punic wars was for Rome to defeat the African city of Carthage and gain Mediterranean dominance. In 241 B.C. the Romans won Sicily. In the Second Punic War (218–201 B.C.), they defeated General Hannibal of Carthage (247–182 B.C.), and in the Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.) they seized the city of Carthage itself. Rome then went on to conquer Syria and Macedonia to gain dominance over the western Hellenistic world. The expansion of the empire provided opportunity for individuals to gain power and rule. However, leaders became abusive of their power, and the clashing of egos led to the crashing of democracy. Julius Caesar (c. 100–44 B.C.) ruled for a time as dictator, but the Roman Republic came to an end when he was assassinated in 44 B.C. Taking his place was the famous triumvirate: Mark Antony (c. 80–30 B.C.), Aemilius Lepidus (d. 13 B.C.), and Octavian Caesar (63 B.C.–A.D. 14). Octavian defeated Lepidus in 39 B.C. and Antony in 31 B.C. to become emperor of the Roman world. He then gave all his power to the Senate in an effort to create a “restored republic.” The Senate placed him in control of nearly all Rome’s military strength, and he was given the title Augustus. Upon Octavian’s death in A.D. 14, his chosen heir, Tiberius (42 B.C.–A.D. 37), took the throne. It was during the reign of Tiberius that Jesus Christ was crucified. Within a few years, the followers of Christ became legendary in Rome, but their teachings were perceived as a threat to public order,


and many Christians were executed. Even so, the new religion spread through all levels of Roman society. By the time the apostles Peter and Paul had arrived in Rome, a small Christian community had been established, and in spite of persecution by the state, Christianity flourished. Having little success with the Senate, Tiberius withdrew himself from office and was succeeded by a medley of emperors, including Caligula (12–41), Claudius (10 B.C.–A.D. 54), and Nero (37–68). Nero’s suicide in A.D. 68 ended the Augustus reign of emperors, and Rome entered into a state of constant civil war. Sulpicius Galba (3 B.C.–A.D. 69), governor of Spain, seized control, but the throne changed hands four more times. It wasn’t until Diocletian (A.D. 245–313), a traditional militaristic Roman, took control in A.D. 284 that Rome was restored to order. He divided the empire in half and appointed two rulers for both east and west Rome. In A.D. 302, Diocletian banned Christians from the Roman Army, brought religion into the office of emperor, and made the position a “divine monarchy.” In A.D. 313, the Emperor Constantine (c. 274–337; r. 306–337), proclaimed ruler by Britiain, issued an edict granting Christians freedom of worship, and he founded the city of Constantinople as the new capital. Even after securing Rome’s position as the center of Christianity, its political importance waned in the fifth century, and the city fell to Goths and other invaders. For a while, Rome was reduced to a few thousand residents

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Rome and little power. But the next couple centuries uncovered a newfound strength. The growing importance of the papacy revived the city and rejuvenated its power. Conversely, ongoing conflict between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor undermined the papacy. The tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries were among the bleakest in Roman history: violent conflict with invaders left Rome poverty stricken, and constant warring tore apart the city. In 1309, the papacy moved to Avignon, leaving Rome to slide further into squalor and strife. The city recovered spectacularly in the mid-fifteenth century. Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455; r. 1447–1455) came to power and groomed Rome to be a city worthy of the papacy and the center of Renaissance culture. Successors followed his lead, and the city’s appearance was transformed. The Classical ideals of the Italian Renaissance (1450– 1600) inspired artists, architects, and craftsmen, such as Michelangelo, Bramante, and Raphael. A newly confident Rome was nurturing a massive papal patronage of the arts. By the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church had accumulated extensive wealth and was therefore criticized by other reformed religions. Displays of grandeur and extravagance by the papal court contrasted vividly with the poverty of the people. Galileo (1564–1642), a physicist/astronomer, was condemned to death for heresy (beliefs opposed to the traditionally accepted beliefs of the church). Rome was also

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discovering a new style of its own in Baroque (1600–1750). Under Napoleon, Italy tasted unity but by 1815 was again divided into many small states, and papal rule was restored in Rome. The next 50 years experienced patriots struggling to create an independent, unified Italy, and Rome was briefly declared a Republic, but forces were driven out by French troops. The French continued to protect the Pope while the rest of Italy united as a kingdom under Vittorio Emanuel of Savor. In 1870, troops stormed the city, and Rome became the capital of the newly unified Italy. Twentieth-century Rome endured the dictator Benito Mussolini (1883– 1945; r. 1922–1945) and his dreams of recreating the immense order and power of the Roman Empire. In 1922, the fascist leader was appointed prime minister. In 1929, the Lateran Treaty brought over a century of tension between Church and State to an end by creating a separate Vatican State. During the World War II (1939–45), British forces captured much of Italy’s colonial empire. From 1947 to the early 1990s, Italy had no less than 57 governments, and the first non-Italian pope since the sixteenth century, Pope John Paul II (b. 1920), was appointed in 1978. Rome is in many ways the ideal capital of Italy. Each era in history added its own layer of culture to create a city unparalleled by any other in the world.


Rome

Vatican City, the seat of the papacy, has been recognized as an independent state by the Italian government since 1929. (Robert Frerck; Woodfin Camp)

7

Government

The Italian Republic is divided into 20 regions, five of which (Sicily, Sardinia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Valle d’Aosta) enjoy a special status; there is a large degree of regional autonomy. Each locale has a council elected every five years by universal suffrage, and a Giunta regionale


is responsible to the regional council. The regional council is a legislative assembly while the Giunta holds executive power. The regions are subdivided into a total of 95 provinces. Officers of the government include the president, who is chief of state, and the prime minister, who is head of government. The prime minister is gener-

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Rome ally head of a majority party or a majority coalition of parties but can also be appointed from other parties. A proposed prime minister must be approved by a parliamentary vote of confidence and can be removed from office at any time if parliament passes a vote of no confidence. 8

Public Safety

In Rome, speed limits are fixed at 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour in urban areas, 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour on main roads outside urban areas, 90 kilometers (56 miles) per hour on secondary and local roads, and 130 kilometers (81 miles) per hour on motorways. The new highway code recently introduced in Italy also stipulates that one must not drive at a speed which is so slow as to hinder the flow of traffic. There are speed limits of 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour on all roads outside urban areas and 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour on motorways for cars towing trailers or caravans. Drivers and passengers are required by law to wear seat belts in front and rear seats. Also, while driving, the use of portable telephones is prohibited if they require intervention by hand to function. Helmets are required by law for drivers on two-wheeled vehicles. Emergency breakdown services in Italy are run by ACI (Automobile Club d'Italia). The service operates 24 hours a day throughout the road network. On the motorways, breakdown services can be summoned using the yellow emergency posts located approximately

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every two kilometers (one mile). Information about breakdown service is provided by the 18 ACI representatives at the frontier posts for entry to Italy. 9

Economy

Since World War II, Italy has evolved from an economy based on agriculture into an economy of industrial ranking, with approximately the same total and per capita output as France and the United Kingdom. Yet, the country remains partially divided by the private companies developing in the industrial north and the public enterprise that governs the agricultural south. Rome is headquarters to many multinational corporations, including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and several World Food programs. Service accounts for 48 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), industry for 35 percent, public administration for 13 percent, and agriculture for four percent. Most raw materials needed by Italian industry are imported, including over 75 percent of energy requirements. In the early 1990s, Rome was unsettled at the prospect of not qualifying to participate in plans for European economic and monetary union; thus, the city’s financial imbalance was addressed, and subsequently the government adopted stringent budgets, abandoned an inflationary wage index system, and scaled back social welfare


Rome programs, including pension and health care. Monetary officials were forced to withdraw the lira in September 1993 when it came under extreme pressure in currency markets; it was not re-engaged until in November 1996. On January 1, 1999, the euro (EUR) became the legal currency in Italy, and the lira became a subdivision of it, the irrevocable conversion rate being 1,936.27 lira to one euro. The euro, which consists of 100 (U.S.) cents, will not be in circulation until January 2002. With the start of the new millennium, Rome’s economy is strong, but familiar issues remain a concern: high unemployment figures, government deficit, tottering communications systems, and environmental concerns for the ongoing expansion and industrial integration of the European Union. 10

Environment

Italy has limited mineral resources but has consistently increased its production of mineral imports, like petroleum, lignite, iron ore, sulfur, mercury, and marble. The country is rich with deposits of natural gas; however, reserves are dwindling. Demanding energy requirements keep Italy dependent on oil. Cultivated hydroelectricity does generate some power, and there are several nuclear stations in the country. Roman industrial groups and environmental organizations have made a joint declaration to reduce the environmental impact of energy use, signed in December 1998. The declaration aims


to reduce emission of carbon dioxide, improve electrical sector efficiency, diversify energy sources, reduce energy consumption in both urban and transport, and double production of renewable energy. 11

Shopping

Rome is a city full of treasures. The prime shopping area for fashion is along Via dei Condotti and Via Frattina, from Via del Corso to Piazza di Spagna, and all of the avenues in between. Shop windows are dressed with jewelry, footwear, and of course, Italian designer clothes. Moderately priced fashions coupled with quality workmanship make the area popular. The elegant Ludovisi District is lined with famous cafes, divine restaurants, and exclusive shops. Radiating out from one of the world’s most famous streets, Via Veneto, the surrounding area has a wealth and style all its own. Between Via Del Tritone and Via Nazionale, the scaled-down boutiques are competitive and of classic quality. The Trevi Fountain area shops are plentiful and quite shoe savvy. Antique shopping can be found between Via Margutta, Via Ripetta, Via dei Coronari, and Via Del Babuino. Across the Tiber River is the Via cola di Rienzo and the Via Ottaviano, and both avenues are lined with clever shops. The department stores in Rome range from the Coin and Rinascente to Upim and Standa. The Coin is in Piaz-

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Rome

Street markets add to the multitude of shopping opportunities in Rome. (Mike Yamashita; Woodfin Camp)

zale Appio at Porta San Giovanni, and La Rinascente is in Piazza Colonna and in Via del Corso. Both Upim and Standa are more accessible at various locations throughout the city. Stores close on Sundays and for a half day during the week (Thursday afternoon for food stores, Monday morning for most others); however, some tourist area shops will remain open on Sundays. During the summer, the half-day closing schedule is on Saturday afternoon. Some shops and most department stores have opted for nonstop operating hours.

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The markets are another facet of shopping in Rome, especially the flea markets. One of the most famous in Italy is the Porta Portese market, held every Sunday morning. Merchant wares that contain everything from antiques to the unlikely cover a three-kilometer (two-mile) stretch of streets, from the Porta Portese to the underpass that leads into Piazza della Radio. 12

Education

School attendance is compulsory from ages six to 14 in Italy. Classes may be held six days a week, and education is a serious matter. There are many uni-


Rome versities, educational centers, and degrees available in higher education. Italy’s largest institution, the University of Rome, has an enrollment of 190,000 students. Founded in 1303, the university confers many degrees in international relations and communications. Due to an extraordinary wealth of art, Rome is a major center for studies in creative dance, dramatic arts, music, and art restoration. The oldest university in Europe was founded in Bologna in the twelfth century. Present-day academic institutions and educational centers near Rome include Istituto Guglielmo Tagliacarne, Istituto Quasar Design school, John Cabot University, Pontifical Athanaeum Regina Apostolorum, Pontifical University of Saint Bonaventure, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Universita degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Universita Popolare di Roma, Universita degli Studi Roma Tre, Libera Universita degli Studi Maria SS Assunta, Libera Universita, Internazionale Studi Sociali Guido Carli, Libero Istituto Universitario Campus Bio medico, Pontifico Ateneo della Santa Croce, Pontifica Universita Gregoriana, Pontifica Universita Lateranense, Libero Istituto Universitario San Pio V, and the Osservatorio Astronomico. 13

Health Care

The problems that plague Italy’s health care system are complex and deeply rooted in the nation’s political


history and economy. The withdrawal of the lira from the monetary system signaled the beginning of a period of economic austerity. In an attempt to control spending by Rome, social benefits, including health care, were cut back. Despite Italy being the world’s fifth-largest economy, governmental intervention policy has strangled productive growth. Generally, health care services are coordinated through government agencies, and 95 percent of Italians rely on the public system for health care. The system provisions offer cradle-to-grave medical and surgical care at public facilities throughout the nation. Of those 95 percent relying on public health care, about five percent have private insurance, which debuted about three years ago, and they tend to live in the northern region of Italy. About one percent of the population pays privately for health services, and a small number of private hospitals and clinics exist to serve their needs. Italy spends about seven-and-a-half percent of its GDP on health care or, in terms of U.S. dollars, about $1500 per person. Large public hospitals are the prominent features of the Italian health care landscape. Managed by the government, medical universities, or the Roman Catholic Church, the number of services available and the quality of service at public facilities correlates with each hospital’s geographic location. Private urban hospitals that tout the best

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Rome equipment are rivaled by large public facilities in big cities. There are three types of hospitals in Italy: general care facilities, specialist centers, and psychiatric care hospitals. Facilities are further defined by the number of patients they intend to serve. Local or zone hospitals serve 25,000 to 30,000 people and are the most common facilities. Provincial hospitals serve about 400,000 people, and regional facilities, located in large urban areas, serve about one million and offer the most services. The Italian Ministry of Health’s National Health Service, known as the SSN, oversees the operation of all government facilities, but each hospital is governed directly by an administrative council whose members are locally elected. Overall, health care tends to be unevenly distributed in Italy; the north is equipped with a greater number of facilities and more professionals than the neighboring south. 14

Media

Rome’s two main newspapers are La Republica and Il Messaggero. British and American newspapers are readily available, and the International Herald Tribune is sold on the day of issue. British Broadcast Communications (BBC) world service can be heard on radio 15.070 MHz (shortwave) in the morning and 648KHz (medium wave) at night. Listeners can tune in to Vatican Radio on 93.3 MHz, and 105 MHz broadcasts news in English.

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The state television channels include RAI, Uno, Due, and Tre; all are politically aligned. Satellite dishes and cable TV allow for reception of various European channels, as well as channels for sports and news in English. 15

Sports

Romans are sports enthusiasts and play with passion. A peaceful afternoon may suddenly explode with the sounds of victory—cheers from excited crowds and honking car horns. Football, commonly known as soccer in North America, is the national sport. Playing for Rome in the Campionato Italiano (Italian championship league) are two teams, Roma and Lazio, and they take turns playing in Stadio Olimpico on Sundays at 3:00 PM. Spring in Rome is synonymous with tennis. For tennis players, there are an abundance of clubs from which to choose. For tennis fans, the International Tennis Championship meets for two weeks every May at Foro Italico. The event draws the world’s top tennis players to smash it out on clay courts. Spring also brings out golf enthusiasts. Golfers in Rome can play at several golf associations in and around the city. Some will accept a touring golfer with a home membership. Golf fans can also watch the National Championships in and around the city. The tournament play runs in October, and the Rome Masters is held in April. Rome also hosts a plethora of racing venues. For horseracing fans, the trotters run at the Ippodromo di Tor di


Rome Valle. Steeple chase or flat races are run at Ippodromo delle Capannelle. Autoracing enthusiasts head to Valle Lunga, where Formula-1 and Formula-3 cars vie for the lead position on Sundays. Dogs race at the Cinodromo Track, where greyhounds run Wednesday and Thursday evenings, as well as Sunday mornings. Finally, for the fans of rowing, a British Oxbridge team challenges the historic Aniene team to race, alternately on the Thames and the Tiber rivers, in mid June. 16


Rome’s perfect climate and stunning scenery beckon many people into the plentiful city parks. People don’t have to travel far to experience park settings and exquisite monuments. The Trevi Fountain, begun by Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) in 1640, is a perfect example. The Roman Forum’s archaeological area is a public garden in itself that is open from morning until sunset. The largest park in Rome, Villa Doria Pamphilj, is located just south of the Vatacian. The park was designed in the mid-seventeenth century for Prince Camillo Pamphilj. A beautiful place to stroll, there is plenty of open space, a network of paths to explore, and three different tracks for walking dogs or jogging. On a hillside above Piazza del Popolo is another lush and inviting park, Pincio Gardens. The streets are skillfully terraced with umbrella pines,


palm trees, and evergreen oaks to hide the zig-zag road that climbs up to the gardens. Villa Borghese, designed in 1605 for Cardinal Borghese, was the first park of its kind in Rome, with 400 planted pine trees and dramatic waterworks. The garden layout was often imitated by prominent Roman families. Honoring the eighteenth-century renovation, the intersections of paths and avenues are now marked by fountains and statues. Long avenues of trees are dotted with picturesque villas that double as museums and galleries. The woods, lakes, and grass cover a vast area. This park also offers a running track. A beautiful villa and garden, Villa Torionia was once the Mussolini family residence. Its well-maintained commons area contains a variety of exotic plants and ample trees. Another small, serene park villa with a scenic view of the city is Rome’s Villa Aldobrandini. The supreme Villa Celimontana is located between the Colosseum and the baths of Caracalla. Open dawn until sunset, only a part of another comely city park, Villa Ada, is open to the public. If exercise is on the agenda, bicycles are available for rent from many places, including Porta Pinciana in Villa Borghese, Collalti, and Via del Corso. Organized bike tours are advertised in various publications. For the indoor enthusiast, there are sport centers that offer swimming pools, gym facilities, and dance classes.

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Rome Some health clubs do require membership. 17

Performing Arts

Italy is considered by many to be a birthplace of the arts. Today Romans still enjoy cultural events and are proud of their country’s artistic heritage. Throughout the year there are numerous musical and artistic venues to experience, both indoors and outdoors. For classical music, the city’s churches host a range of choral, chamber, and organ recitals, many free of charge. For jazz and blues afficionados, the gardens at Villa Celimontana host premiere musicians for an evening of music under the stars. Throughout the year, the local Accademia di Santa Cecilia stages concerts, with either national artists or visiting orchestras, at Via dei Greci 18, and in the summer concerts are held at the Piazza del Campidoglio. Rome’s opera scene concentrates on the Teatro dell’ Opera. Winter season is conducted on the Via Firenze; for summer season, the ensemble moves outdoors to Villa Borghese park. Finally, for a colorful open-air theater, Janiculum Hill plays host to Teatro di Pulcinella Puppets on late afternoons and weekend mornings. Reflecting diverse styles, the magnificence of Rome is preserved through arts and culture. The city is host to hundreds of theaters throughout the streets, in open spaces, and among ancient ruins.

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18


Italy has more than 2,400 public libraries and 3,442 museums that store and specialize in information. Some institutions circulate only materials that cover a particular field of study— archaeology, ancient art, bio-medics, to name a few. With a history as rich as Rome’s, it takes numerous institutions to house and display all the ancient treasures. The following is only a partial list of the many libraries: Accademia Dei Lincei, Accademia di Danimarca, Accademia di Ungheria, Accademia Spagnola di Storia, Biblioteca A. Sarti, Angelica, Casanatense, Comunale Rispoli, Belle Donne, Di Storia Moderna E Contemporaena, Raccolta Teatrale Del Burcardo, Nazionale Centrale, Universitaria Alessandrina, Vallicelliana, Vaticana, British Council, Centro Studi Americani, Fondazione Lelio Basso, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Goethe Institut, Istituto Austriaco Di Cultura, Istituto di Norvegia a Roma, and Istituto Svizzero Di Roma. Rome also hosts more than 50 different visual art museums and galleries. Not all are inside structures; some museums operate within the very structure they represent, like the Catacombs. The oldest art collection in Rome, housed in the Capitoline Museum, was established in 1471 and contains exceptional antiquities. Other Roman museums are the National Museum of the Villa Giulia, which has an outstanding collection of Etruscan and Roman art, and is located in the mid-sixteenth-cen-


Rome

The Pantheon, a temple, survives from the era of the Roman Empire. (Robert Frerck; Woodfin Camp)

tury country house of Pope Julius II (1443–1513). The Borghese Gallery, a museum of paintings and sculpture is housed in an early seventeenth-century palace. The National Roman Museum, designed by Michelangelo (1475–1564), features exhibits of Greek and Roman sculpture, including the Ludovisi collection of antiquities. Important collections of art and decorative pieces can also be seen in the city’s other palaces. Among these are the Farnese Palace, built between 1514 and 1589; the midfifteenth-century Venetian Palace, with a noted collection of small renaissance bronzes; and the Palazzo Barberini, a


seventeenth-century Baroque palace with a remarkable picture gallery. The Vatican Museum, Viale Vaticano, is open from March through October and offers student pricing. Archaeological museums tend to be closed on Mondays. Several within the city include Antiquarium Comunale, Museo Barracco Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Capitoline Museums Piazza del Campidoglio, Museo Della Civilta’ Romana Piazza Giovanni Angel, Museo Nazionale Romano, and Museo Preistorico ed Etnografico L. Pigorini. For inspirational art, visitors should see Museo Gregoriano Profano,

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Rome Museo Pio Clementino, Museo Chiaramonti, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Museo Storico, Castel Sant’Angelo Museum, National Roman Museum of the Thermae, Museum of Roman Civilization, Natural History Museum, Napoleonic Museum, Palazzo delle Esposizioni Via Nazionale, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Galleria dell; Accademia, Galleria Colonna Via della Pilotta, and Galleria Doria Pamphili. Museums and monuments to the deceased are also popular places to visit in Rome. One rather unusual place is an eclectic museum devoted to the dead souls trapped in purgatory who leave messages for the living. Admission is free at Museo delle Anime dei Defunti. Near the Pantheon on Piazza della Minerva is Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Here lies the body of St. Catherine. After her death in 1380, her body was severed from her head, which remained in Siena, the town of her birth. The Saint Maria della Concezione’s Cappuccini monk cemetery is elaborately decorated with the bones of 4,000 monks and a Barberini princess. Located on Via Vittorio Veneto, it is a place of startling spirituality. 19

To u r i s m

A great number of tourists are attracted to Rome by its Alpine and Mediterranean scenery, sunny climate, archaeological remains, medieval and Baroque churches, Renaissance towns and palaces, painting, sculpture, and

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famous opera houses. Each province of Italy has a Board of Tourism; in addition, there are more than 300 supplemental listings for further information in Rome. The latest figures indicate that close to 60 million people visit Italy every year. Tourist dollars spent in 1996 amounted to more than 46 million lira. City authorities estimate more than 40 million pilgrims traveled to Rome during the year 2000. 20


JANUARY Epiphany

FEBRUARY Lenten season

MARCH Ides of March

APRIL Easter (The Pope says mass on Holy Friday at the Colosseum.) Natale di Roma (Rome’s birthday is celebrated with fireworks.) Liberation Day International Horse Show Rome Masters Golf Tournament

MAY Labour Day Foro Italico (Roman International Tennis Championship) Spanish Steps Azaleas Display

JUNE Derby Horse Racing Anniversary of the Republic St. Peter’s Square papal benediction (Sundays) Crew race between teams Oxbridge and Aniene

JULY Expo Tevere (artisan fair)

AUGUST Assumption of the Virgin Mary


Rome OCTOBER

Enrico Caruso (1873–1921), tenor.

National Golf Championship

NOVEMBER All Saints Day National Unity Day Premio Roma horse race

DECEMBER Birth of the Virgin Mary Feast of St. Stephen

Saint Clare of Assisi (1198–1253), revered female of the early Franciscan Order. Dante (1265–1321), poet and founder of modern Italian literature with his The Divine Comedy. Federico Fellini (1920–93), film director.

21

Famous Citizens

Francisco Accorso Accursius (c. 1182–c. 1260), jurist and professor, compiled Glossa Magna on Roman law.

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1223), religious figure, founder of the Franciscan Order (1209).

Saint Ambrose (340–397), patron saint.

Augustus William Hare (1792–1824), author of guidebooks and travelogues of Italy and the Mediterranean.

Fra Angelico (1387–1455), renaissance painter.

Pope John Paul I (Albino Luciani, 1912– 1978), Catholic Pope.

Saint Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), Franciscan preacher, who holds the record for being canonized in the shortest period of time after his death, less than one year.

Julius Caesar (c. 100–44 B.C.), assassinated a month after being named imperial Roman dictator for life.

Alfieri (1749–1803), poet.

Saint Augustine (354–430), bishop whom scholars call the greatest thinker in the Latin language. Augustus Caesar (63 B.C.–A.D. 14), the first and perhaps greatest Roman emperor. Dario Bellezza (1944–95), poet and novelist. Saint Benedict (c. 480–c. 547), founder of the Benedictine monastic order, patron saint of engineers. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446), architect and sculptor.


Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), author. Angelo Mariani (1821–73), music director, collaborator of Verdi. Saint Mark (d. 68), patron saint of Venice. Giulietta Masina (1920–94), actress, wife of Federico Fellini. Marcello Mastroianni (1924–96), actor, discovered by Fellini. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), painter, sculptor and architect, who rejected the restrictions of classical design theory and generated an

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Rome imaginative approach to architectural composition.

22

For Further Study

Websites Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), composer. Niccolo Paganini (d. 1840), violin virtuoso. Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Montini, 1897– 1978), Catholic pope. Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924), composer. Raphael (1483–1520), artist. Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), composer. Tintoretto (1518–1594), Venetian painter. Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957), conductor. Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901), composer. Gianni Versace (1946–97), fashion designer. Virgil (70–19 B .C .), Rome’s champion epic poet, wrote literary masterpiece the Aeneid.

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Enjoy Rome. [Online] Available http:// www.enjoyrome.com (accessed February 7, 2000). Northern Italy. [Online] Available http:// www.northernitaly.com (accessed February 7, 2000). Theodora. [Online] Available http:// www.theodora.com (accessed February 7, 2000).

Government Offices Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura Piazza dell’ Indipendendza 6, 00185 Rome Francesco Paolo Fulci Ambassador to United Nations Unione Italiana delle Camere di Commercio Piazza Sallustio 21, 00187 Rome Tel: (6) 47041 U. S. Embassy Via Veneto 119A/121 Tel.: 467 41

Tourist and Convention Bureaus Dipartimento del Turismo: Via della Ferratella in Laterano 51, 00184 Rome Ente Nazionale Italiano per il Turisom (ENIT) Via Marghera 2, 00185 Rome

Books Absalom, R. Italy since 1880: A Nation in the Balance. Harlow, 1995. Smith, D.M. Modern Italy: A Political History. Yale University Press, 1997.


San Francisco San Francisco, California, United States of America, North America Founded: 1776; Incorporated: 1850 Location: The Pacific coast of northern California, United States, North America Motto: “Gold in Peace and Iron in War” Flower: Dahlia Time Zone: 4 AM Pacific Standard Time (PST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Ethnic Composition: White, 67%; Black, 11%; American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, 0.5%; Asian and Pacific Islander, 29%; Hispanic origin (may be of any race), 14% Elevation: 47 m (155 ft) Latitude and Longitude: 37º77'N, 122º41'W Coastline: 40–50 km (25–30 mi) Climate: Mediterranean-type climate with consistent, moderate temperatures. The year is divided into distinct dry and wet seasons, with most precipitation occurring between November and March. A distinguishing climate feature is the fog that rolls in from the Pacific Ocean. Annual Mean Temperature: 15ºC (59ºF); January 12ºC (53ºF); August 18ºC (65ºF) Average Annual Precipitation (rainfall and melted snow): 49 cm (19.33 in) Government: Mayor-council Weights and Measures: Standard U.S. Monetary Units: Standard U.S. Telephone Area Codes: 415 Postal Codes: 94101-88

1

Introduction

Situated on a peninsula separating San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco is a uniquely picturesque city, whose scenic attractions include the largest cultivated urban park in the country, Golden Gate Park. Its notoriously steep streets, traversed by the famous cable cars, are home to a remarkably diverse ethnic population, and the city’s reputation for tolerance and diversity is also evident in its history as a mecca for the gay community. Known for sophisticated cultural innovation and experimentation, San Fran-

cisco was the gathering place of the “beat” generation in the 1950s and a focal point of the 1960s counterculture, a hotbed of political protest and the birthplace of the “San Francisco Sound.” Still known for its cultural attractions, today the Bay Area is also famous for its concentration of cuttingedge high-technology firms, which have drawn even more new residents to this populous region. 2

Getting There

The city of San Francisco is situated at the tip of a peninsula surrounded by

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San Francisco Bus and Railroad Service

San Francisco Population Profile City Proper Population: 724,000 Area: 122 sq km (47 sq mi) Ethnic composition: 59.5% white; 29.1% Asian or Pacific Islander; 10.9% black; and 0.5% Native American Nicknames: The Golden Gate City, Baghdad in the Bay

Metropolitan Area Population: 4,051,000 Description: San Francisco and surrounding communities World population rank1: 59 Percentage of national population2: 1.5% Average yearly growth rate: 1.0% Ethnic composition: 67% white; 25% Asian or Pacific Islander; 7% black; 1% other ——— 1. The San Francisco metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of the United States’ total population living in the San Francisco metropolitan area.

the Pacific Ocean on the west, the San Francisco Bay on the east, and the Golden Gate, a narrow marine passageway between San Francisco and Marin County to the north. Highways Several interstate highways provide easy access to the city, including U.S.101 and State Route 1 (the Pacific Coastal Highway). I-5, the north-south highway that runs from Canada to Mexico, reaches San Francisco through Loops 580 and 680. U.S.-50 also passes through the city.

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Amtrak provides service to San Francisco on the California Zephyr, which runs through Salt Lake City, Denver, and eastward to Chicago, and the Coast Starlight, which runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Trains with regional routes through California include the Capitols and the San Joaquins. Airports San Francisco International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest, handles most domestic and international flights to and from the city. It services flights from about 50 major carriers. Shipping With 40 deep-water piers, San Francisco is one of the leading port cities on the Pacific coast, handling about onethird of the country’s West Coast trade, amounting to more than 200,000 tons of cargo annually. It has been designated a U.S. Port of Entry and a free trade zone. Freight is also carried to and from the region by a number of major rail carriers and trucking companies, and all major air freight carriers land at San Francisco International Airport. 3

Getting Around

Situated on 40 hills of varying heights—among the highest are Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill— San Francisco is known for its steep streets, many of which ascend and descend hillsides, the result of insis-


San Francisco

tence by early planners on imposing a strict grid pattern on the city rather than following the natural contours of


the land. The two hills of Twin Peaks mark the geographic center of the city, which is divided into a number of dis-

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San Francisco Sightseeing

San Francisco’s historic cable cars cover a 16 kilometer (10-mile) route. (Carol Simowitz; San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau)

tinct neighborhoods, many of whose streets are laid out in grid patterns. Bisecting much of the city from southwest to northeast is Market Street, whose southwestern-most portion is called Portola Drive. The Golden Gate Bridge runs northward across the Golden Gate straight; the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge runs northeastward across San Francisco Bay. Bus and Commuter Rail Service The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) provides commuter rail service between the city and 26 stations in the East Bay area. The Municipal Railway System (Muni) operates San Francisco’s famed cable cars—popular with both commuters and tourists—and a system of aboveand underground light-rail vehicles. There is also ferry service between San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley.

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Many of the sights in downtown San Francisco can be covered on walking tours. Areas for which tours are available include Chinatown and Pacific Heights. Among the tours focusing on specific areas of interest are Victorian homes tour and a Dashiell Hammett tour that covers sites linked to his detective, Sam Spade. The city’s restored cable cars—which have been declared a historical landmark—carry visitors over a 16-kilometer (ten-mile) route. Bus tours of San Francisco and the Bay Area are also available, as are scenic cruises of San Francisco Bay, which offer views of the San Francisco skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz prison. 4

People

Known for its ethnic diversity, San Francisco has one of the country’s highest concentrations of new immigrants. The 1990 census recorded a population of approximately 724,000 in the city of San Francisco, of which 59.5 percent were white, 29.1 percent Asian or Pacific Islander, 10.9 percent black, and 0.5 percent Native American. The surrounding area, designated by the Census Bureau as San Francisco’s Primary Statistical Metropolitan Area (PMSA), had a 1990 population of 1.6 million. In 1996 its population was still under 1.7 million, and its racial composition was 67 percent white; 25 percent Asian or Pacific Islander; and seven percent black.


San Francisco

City Fact Comparison San Francisco (United States)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)


4,051,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000


1776

753 BC

723 BC

$172

$129

Indicator


AD

969

city2


$139

$193

$44

$56

$59

$62

$2

$14

$15

$16

$185

$173

$246

$207


2

13

20

11

San Francisco Chronicle


La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

475,324

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

1865

1944

1976

1948

1 United


5

Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods in the northern part of San Francisco include the wealthy Pacific Heights district, whose mansions provide dramatic views of the Bay; Nob Hill, site of the “crookedest street in the world” (Lombard Street); North Beach and Chinatown, home to the largest single concentration of Chinese outside of China; the financial district, dominated by the TransAmerica Pyramid and the Bank of America building; and the Western Addition, with its gracious restored Victorian homes. Districts close to the center of the city include Haight-Ashbury, cradle


of the 1960s counterculture; the Mission District, site of the historic Mission Dolores and home to the city’s largest Hispanic population; the Central area, home of the Castro, for decades a gay and lesbian mecca; and the South of Market district, a heavily commercial area that has attracted many high-technology start-up firms. To the south lie South Bayshore, which combines residential and commercial properties and is also home to the city’s produce markets; the largely working-class South Central area; and the pricier Ingleside, near San Francisco State University and San Francisco City College.

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San Francisco

A view of San Francisco from across the San Francisco Bay. (Glen McLeod; San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau)

6

History

The fog that rolls in off the Pacific Ocean hid the present-day site of San Francisco from Spanish conquistadors for two centuries after they first discovered California. A small party of explorers traveling overland from Mexico toward Canada and led by Sergeant José Ortega first stumbled on the area in 1769, and settlement began in 1776. A small town, called Yerba Buena, was established, but for over half a century it attracted little attention and was populated mostly by missionaries. The United States claimed it in 1846, during the Mexican War, and its population

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nearly doubled with the arrival of over 200 Mormon settlers. The town’s situation changed dramatically with the discovery of gold in 1848 at Sutters Mill, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) away, and the onset of the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush brought wealth and expansion to the city as it grew to accommodate the thousands of prospectors arriving to seek their fortunes, many of whom later settled permanently in the area. However, the Gold Rush also created a wave of lawlessness as saloons, gambling joints, and brothels were opened to serve thousands of temporary settlers who considered themselves outside the


San Francisco law. San Francisco was incorporated in 1850, and the city’s permanent residents began forming vigilante groups in the 1850s to clean up the town, eventually restoring order. San Francisco continued to grow in the latter half of the nineteenth century, receiving a major boost from the completion of the transcontinental railway in 1869, as well as a silver boom in Nevada. By the turn of the century, it was home to about a third-of-a-million people. The new century, however, soon brought disaster in the form of the great earthquake of April 18, 1906, in which over 500 people perished. Ten square kilometers (four square miles) of the city were destroyed as fires raged out of control for three days. However, the people of San Francisco forged ahead in the face of tragedy and rebuilt their city, with the help of donations that poured in from many quarters following the disaster. By 1915 the city triumphantly hosted its first world’s fair, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in honor of the completion of the Panama Canal. The first half of the twentieth century was a period of continued growth spearheaded by the completion of major buildings and infrastructure projects, including the damming of the Tuoloumne River at the Hetch Hetchy Canyon and the construction of two great bridges completed within a year of each other: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (1936) and the Golden Gate Bridge (1937). With the growth of industry came the development of an active labor movement, which became


one of the dominant powers in the city. The longshoremen’s strike in 1930 was the largest in U.S. history. World War II (1939–45) further boosted industrial production in the city, although the period was marred by the forced relocation of thousands of Bay Area Japanese Americans and their detention in internment camps for the duration of the war. The postwar period has seen continued economic growth and civic expansion, but the city has also had to confront problems typical of major urban areas, including flight to the surrounding suburbs, and the blight and decay of downtown areas. Urban renewal began in the 1960s and 1970s; the downtown area was redeveloped, and the Rapid Transit System was introduced to make the central city more accessible to those on the periphery. During this period, the Bay Area became a focal point of the youth counterculture that was sweeping the nation, and a center for student protest against the Vietnam War (1945–1973) and other types of activism, including the struggle for gay rights. The 1970s ended on a somber note with the 1979 assassination of Mayor George Moscone and the city’s first openly gay city supervisor, Harvey Milk. That same year San Francisco elected its first woman mayor, Dianne Feinstein. In 1989 San Francisco experienced another major earthquake. However, the city moved forward in the following decade. Its city hall was refurbished, and important new facilities were built,

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San Francisco

Because of its location on a natural harbor, shipping has played an important part in the history of San Francisco’s economy. Today, the Fisherman’s Wharf is a popular tourist attraction. (Mark Gibson; San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau)

including a museum of modern art, a new main library, and an arts center. 7

Government

San Francisco, which is both a city and a county, has a mayor-council form of government. The mayor, who serves as the chief executive, is elected to a four-year term, as are the 11 members of the city council. The city administrator and controller are appointed by the mayor. Elected officials include the city assessor, public defender, district attorney, sheriff, and attorney. In 1995 San

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Francisco’s municipal government employed 26,000 persons. 8

Public Safety

In 1995 San Francisco had a total crime index figure of 8,190 crimes reported to police per 100,000 residents. A total of 1,737 reports were violent crimes (murder, 17; rape, 69; robbery, 653; and aggravated assault, 998), and 6,713 were property crimes (burglary, 965; larceny, 4,625; and motor vehicle theft, 1,123).


San Francisco In May 1999, the city of San Francisco, together with three other California municipalities and two counties, sued gun manufacturers for promoting the illegal sale of guns that are ultimately used to commit crimes. Three industry trade associations and 28 gun makers were named in the suit, which charged them with creating an illegal secondary market for guns and deliberately producing enough guns to perpetuate it; designing guns to make them attractive to criminals; falsely advertising the safety of their products; evading state and federal gun control laws; and selling defective and unsafe weapons. The gun-industry suit follows the precedent set in 1996 when San Francisco became the first city in the United States to sue the tobacco industry, also under California’s unfair business practices law. Under the terms of the 1998 settlement of that suit, California became the only state in which cities were to receive direct compensation from the tobacco industry. 9

Economy

San Francisco’s coastal location and natural harbor have made it an important shipping center throughout its history, and it is still one of the major port cities on the West Coast, although today most shipping activity actually occurs in nearby Oakland. Since the nineteenth century, San Francisco has been known as a financial center. Today it is home to leading banks (Wells Fargo) and insurance companies (TransAmerica, Fireman’s Fund)


and the site of the Pacific Stock Exchange, as well as branches of the Federal Reserve and United States Mint. Some 500 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the city, including Charles Schwab & Co., Bechtel Engineering, Chevron Oil, and Levi Strauss & Co. San Francisco’s newest growth areas are computers and electronics, and biotechnology. The city’s history of involvement in defense-related industries and its location near such hightech centers as Stanford University and the famed Silicon Valley have created a boom in computers, scientific instrument, and other electronics fields. Home of the pioneering Genentech firm, founded in the 1970s, San Francisco is also on the cutting edge of the biotechnology industry, with some 500 companies in the area specializing in pharmaceuticals, medical electronics, bionics, and related areas. The cost of living in the Bay Area is substantially higher than the national average. In 1996 the median sale price for a single-family home was $319,985, well above the national average, and apartments rent from $550 per month for a one-room studio to $1,500 for two- and three-bedroom apartments or houses. However, the income of the area’s residents is also above average— their wages and salaries are among the highest in the nation, partly as a result of their relatively high level of education and the concentration of jobs in well-paid areas, including high-technology fields and the professions.

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San Francisco 10

Environment

San Francisco is situated on a peninsula that forms the western boundary of the 1,285-square-kilometer (496square-mile) San Francisco Bay. Its hilly terrain is part of the Coast Ranges, which extend from Oregon southward to Santa Barbara County. Among the highest peaks in the region are Mount Tamalpais (784 meters/2,571 feet) and Mount Diablo (1,173 meters/3,849 feet). Other than its harbor, the outstanding natural feature of the Bay Area—and the one with the greatest potential to affect the lives of its residents—is the region’s location on top of a network of fault lines, which has led to two major earthquakes in this century, in 1906 and 1989. The San Andreas is the best known of these tectonic faults, where portions of the earth’s crust slide past each other. Normally these motions amount to an imperceptible five centimeters (two inches) per year; occasionally, however, excess pressure builds up against these plates, and when it is released, an earthquake occurs. In 1994 the city inaugurated a 50year plan to dispose of the millions of tons of sediment that wash into San Francisco Bay annually, threatening shipping and other activities. 11

Shopping

San Francisco offers a varied and eclectic shopping experience. Union Square, in the northeastern part of the

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city, is the major shopping district and home to most of the city’s department stores, including Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Gump’s, and Nordstrom, which anchors the huge San Francisco Shopping Centre, site of over 100 stores and restaurants. The Embarcadero Center, located in the financial district, is a four-hectare (ten-acre) commercial complex of shops and restaurants. Also located in the financial district is the exclusive Crocker Galleria, featuring designer clothing and specialty shops. The Jackson Square Historic District offers over 20 antique stores. In addition to souvenir shops and specialty museums, Fisherman’s Wharf offers four major retail complexes: Ghirardelli Square, anchored by a chocolate factory, the Cannery (a converted canning factory), Pier 39, and the Anchorage. For the budget-minded, the South of Market neighborhood offers a variety of bargain outlets and secondhand shops. San Francisco’s ethnic neighborhoods provide a colorful shopping experience: goods from throughout Latin America can be found in the heavily Hispanic Mission District, and Chinatown offers all types of Asian goods, some in open-air markets. San Francisco is also widely known as a bookstore lover’s paradise. 12

Education

The San Francisco Unified School District has approximately 105 public schools covering kindergarten through grade 12, with an average daily attendance of 63,900. The city’s private and


San Francisco

Visitors pass under the gate to Chinatown, one of San Francisco’s many ethnic neighborhoods. (Kerrick James; San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau)

parochial schools, numbering about 140, enroll an additional 23,600 students. Altogether, there are more than 35 colleges and universities located in the Bay Area, including the University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the University of San Francisco, Golden Gate University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Specialized educational facilities include the Hastings College of Law, the California School of Professional Psychology, the San Francisco Art Institute,


and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 13

Health Care

San Francisco offers state-of-the-art health-care facilities. The San Francisco metropolitan statistical area had 5,209 office-based physicians in 1995 when its 23 community hospitals had 4,999 beds. San Francisco’s largest hospital is San Francisco General Medical Center, with 550 beds and a highly respected emergency and trauma center. The hospital was also the site of the first specialized AIDS unit in the country. In 1996–

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San Francisco 97, it had 23,764 admissions, 391,661 outpatient visits, and employed 3,239 people. Other health-care facilities include the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center, St. Francis Memorial Hospital, and Seton Medical Center. 14

Media

San Francisco has two major daily newspapers: the San Francisco Chronicle (morning) and the San Francisco Examiner (evening); both papers jointly publish the Sunday paper, the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle. Neighborhood publications include the Richmond Review, San Francisco Downtown, the Haight Ashbury Free Press, and the New Mission News. San Francisco Business magazine is published by the city’s chamber of commerce, while San Francisco Focus is a regional-interest magazine. San Francisco is also the book publishing capital of the West Coast. The major commercial networks, public television, and foreign-language stations are all represented among the city’s nine television stations, and there are 33 AM and FM radio stations. 15

Sports

The Bay Area is home to major league teams in all the major spectator sports. In baseball, there are the National League’s San Francisco Giants and the American League’s Oakland Athletics (“Oakland A’s”). Teams from both San Francisco and Oakland also play in the National Football League (NFL): the San Francisco 49ers and the

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Oakland Raiders. In basketball, Oakland’s Golden State Warriors play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). All the San Francisco teams play in 3Com Park (formerly Candlestick Park); the Oakland teams play at the Oakland Coliseum. Also in the Bay Area are the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks. San Francisco is also home to the nation’s third-largest marathon, the San Francisco Marathon, held annually in July. Other spectator sports include horse racing at Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows and auto racing at Baylands Raceway Park and other venues. 16


Golden Gate Park, stretching five kilometers (three miles) inland from Ocean Beach toward the heart of the city, is the nation’s largest cultivated urban park. Covering a total area of over 405 hectares (1,000 acres), it has 43 kilometers (27 miles) of footpaths and 12 kilometers (seven-and-a-half miles) of equestrian trails. Its varied landscape includes gardens and woods, as well as man-made lakes and waterfalls. San Franciscans use the park for everything from quiet strolls and picnics to outdoor sports. Located within its boundaries are an arboretum, a glass flower conservatory housing over 20,000 species of rare plants, a Japanese tea garden, an eight-hectare (20-acre) rhododendron garden, and a children’s playground.


San Francisco Situated on both sides of the Golden Gate waterway between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, and connected by the Golden Gate Bridge, is the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the world’s largest urban park. Covering a total of 28,329 hectares (70,000 acres), it offers hiking trails, beaches, campgrounds, nature preserves, and scenic lookouts over both the ocean and the bay. Outdoor activities available in San Francisco year round include hiking, camping, bicycling, horseback riding, hang gliding, and golf. Popular water sports include swimming, fishing, boating, water skiing, and surfing. 17

Performing Arts

San Francisco is known for its rich and varied cultural scene, which embraces both European (Western) and non-Western traditions in the performing arts. Its flagship musical institution is the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1911. Appointed in 1995, music director Michael Tilson Thomas has expanded the group’s repertoire to include a greater number of twentieth-century works, as well as the standard classical and Romantic offerings. Other well-known musical ensembles founded in San Francisco include the Kronos Quartet and the male choir Chanticleer. The San Francisco Opera, widely considered the leading opera company in the western United States, was founded in 1923, making it one of the nation’s oldest opera companies. Jazz has flourished in the Bay Area since


The Palace of Fine Arts provides a naturally beautiful setting for all sorts of recreational activities. (Glen McLeod; San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau)

the 1940s and 1950s, the heyday of area native Dave Brubeck (b. 1920). The 1960s made San Francisco one of the nation’s rock capitals, birthplace of the “San Francisco Sound,” exemplified by the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin’s band, Big Brother and the Holding Company. The San Francisco Ballet, the country’s oldest resident ballet company, has a wide repertoire of works by both classical and twentieth-century choreographers, and the Oakland Ballet has also made a name for itself in the region. San Francisco’s modern dance troupes include Contraband.

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San Francisco San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre is considered one of the country’s leading regional theaters and also runs a highly regarded drama school. The San Francisco Mime Troupe, founded 40 years ago, is still popular with local audiences and tours widely. 18


The San Francisco Public Library, founded in 1878, serves a population of nearly 800,000 from a main building and 26 branches. With almost two-anda-half million book volumes, it has an annual circulation of close to five-anda-half million. The library has special collections in the areas of Chinese language, calligraphy, gay and lesbian history, science fiction, and humor. San Francisco’s premier art museum is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, located in a striking modern building designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta (b. 1943), opposite the Yerba Buena Gardens, after moving from its longtime site in the Civic Center. The museum, which houses more than 17,000 pieces of art, is known locally as “Sf-MOMA.” Other major art collections are found at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, which features European paintings; it is located in Golden Gate Park, where it shares a building with the Asian Art Museum. San Francisco is also home to an eclectic array of specialty museums, including the American Carousel Museum, the National Maritime

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Museum, the San Francisco International Toy Museum, the Old Mint, the Telephone Museum, the San Francisco Fire Department Museum, the Chinese Culture Center Museum, and the San Francisco Crafts and Folk Art Museum. 19

To u r i s m

San Francisco’s natural beauty, mild weather, and cultural attractions have made tourism one of the city’s leading industries, and there are some 30,000 hotel rooms available for visitors. In addition to vacationers and sightseers, about one-and-a-half million visitors to the city attend conventions and trade shows in the city every year. They are served by an outstanding array of meeting facilities, including the Civic Auditorium, which seats nearly 8,000 people; the Brooks Exhibit Hall, which provides 8,361 square meters (90,000 square feet) of exhibition space; and the 55,740-square-meter (600,000-squarefoot) Moscone Center, undergoing an expansion slated for completion in 2000. In 1995 San Francisco attracted two-and-a-half million foreign visitors, the fourth-highest number of any city in the United States. 20


JANUARY Chinese New Year celebration Sports & Boat Show

FEBRUARY Arts of the Pacific Asian Show Pacific Orchid Exposition


San Francisco MARCH Bouquets to Art Contemporary Crafts Market International Asian Film Festival Tulipmania St. Patrick’s Day Parade San Francisco Garden Show

San Francisco Fringe Theater Festival San Francisco Blues Festival

OCTOBER Fleet Week Great Halloween and Pumpkin Festival Viva Mexico

MARCH-APRIL

LATE OCTOBER-EARLY NOVEMBER

Easter Parade and Hat Promenade

San Francisco Jazz Festival

APRIL

NOVEMBER

Cherry Blossom Festival Macy’s Flower Show

Polka Festival Weekend (Thanksgiving Weekend) and Polka Hall of Fame Induction

LATE APRIL-EARLY MAY San Francisco International Film Festival

MAY Carnaval Cinco de Mayo Celebrations Traditional Music and Dance Festival Spring Festival Arts & Crafts Fair San Francisco Examiner Bay to Breakers Race Norway Day Festival

JUNE Ethnic Dance Festival Union Street Festival Street Performers Festival North Beach Festival

MID-JUNE TO MID-AUGUST Stern Grove Midsummer Music Festival

LATE JUNE-JULY San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

JULY Fillmore Street Festival Fourth of July Waterfront Festival Jazz and All That Art Jazz and Wine at Embarcadero Center San Francisco Marathon

JULY-EARLY OCTOBER San Francisco Shakespeare Festival

21

Famous Citizens

Ansel Adams (1902–84), photographer. The “Beat” writers who were based in San Francisco in the 1950s, including Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1920), Jack Kerouac (1922–69), and Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926). Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914), satirist. Herb Caen (1916–97), columnist. Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1906–71), inventor of the first all-electronic television. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (b. 1933). Jerry Garcia (1942–95), leader of the rock group the Grateful Dead. Bill Graham (b. 1931), rock and roll promoter. Bret Harte (1836–1902), local-color author.

AUGUST A la Carte A la Park Nihonmachi Street Fair

SEPTEMBER Festival of the Culinary Arts Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival


William Randoph Hearst (1863–1951), founder of a newspaper empire. Jack London (1876–1916), adventure writer.

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San Francisco John Muir (1838–1914), naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club. Frank Norris (1870–1902), naturalist. Randy Shilts (1951–1994), journalist, author, and AIDS activist. Leland Stanford (1824–93), businessman and philanthropist. Amy Tan (b. 1952), author. 22

For Further Study

Websites Cityguide Online. [Online] Available http:// www.ctguide.com/. (accessed October 14, 1999). Convention and Visitors Bureau. [Online] Available http://www.sfvisitor.org. (accessed October 14, 1999). San Francisco Guide. [Online] Available http:// www.sfguide.com/. (accessed October 14, 1999). San Francisco home page. [Online] Available http://www.wco.com/chldress/sfhome/ (accessed October 14, 1999).

Government Offices City Hall 401 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 554-4000 Mayor’s Office 401 Van Ness Avenue, Rm. 336 San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 554-6141 San Francisco Planning Commission 1660 Mission St. 5th Floor San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 558-6414

Publications Golden State R.H.L./Golden State Inc. 555 Nineteenth St. San Francisco, CA 94107 San Francisco Business Times Magazine 275 Battery St., Suite 940 San Francisco, CA 94111 San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103-2988 San Francisco Examiner 110 Fifth St. San Francisco, CA 94103

Books Barrett, Liz. Frommer's Irreverent Guide to San Francisco. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Travel, 1998. Benton, Lisa M. The Presidio: From Army Post to National Park. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1998. Caen, Herb. Baghdad by the Bay. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949. Chester, Carole. San Francisco. New York: Longmeadow Press, 1994. Doss, Margot Patterson. The New San Francisco at Your Feet: Best Walks in a Walker's City. 3rd ed. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991. Fong-Torres, Shirley. San Francisco Chinatown: A Walking Tour. San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals, 1991. Gold, Herbert. Bohemia: Where Art, Angst, Love, and Strong Coffee Meet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. O’Reilly, James, Larry Habegger, and Sean O'Reilly. Travelers' Tales San Francisco. 1st ed. San Francisco: Travelers' Tales, Inc., 1996. Twain, Mark. Mark Twain’s San Francisco. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963.

Videorecordings Tourist and Convention Bureaus San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau Convention Plaza 201 Third Street, Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 974-6900

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Jaffe Productions in association with Hearst Entertainment Television. Golden Gate Bridge. [videorecording]. New York, NY: A&E Home Video, 1995. 50-min videocassette. Going Places. San Francisco. James Avery, host. MPI Home Video, 1998.


Seattle Seattle, Washington, United States of America, North America Founded: 1851; Incorporated: 1869 Location: Washington State, on the eastern shore of Puget Sound Motto: Alki (“By and by,” state motto) Flower: Western rhododendron (state flower) Time Zone: 4 AM Pacific Standard Time (PST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Ethnic Composition: White, 75.3%; Black, 10.1%; Native American, 1.4%; Asian 11.2% Elevation: sea level to 137 m (450 ft) Latitude and Longitude: 47º60'N, 122º33'W Climate: Mild winters and cool summers, with a pronounced rainy season Annual Mean Temperature: 10.7ºC (51.3ºF); January 3.9ºC (39.1ºF); August 33.6ºC (65.6ºF) Seasonal Average Snowfall: 38 cm (15 in) Average Annual Precipitation (total of rainfall and melted snow): 91.8 cm (36.2 in) Government: Mayor-council Weights and Measures: Standard U.S. Monetary Units: Standard U.S. Telephone Area Codes: 206 Postal Codes: 98060; 98101–09; 98111–99

1

Introduction

Located on the eastern shore of Puget Sound, Seattle is the largest city in the state of Washington. Formerly a staid, conservative town built on the lumber, shipping, and aircraft industries and little known outside its immediate region, today Seattle has become one of the hottest locations in the country, a mecca for the computer software industry and a cultural trendsetter that originated the grunge rock of the early 1990s and the coffee craze that has swept across the United States. Its newfound business and cultural attrac-

tions, combined with a picturesque setting and mild climate, have created a population boom and made Seattle the commercial and cultural hub of the Pacific Northwest, as well as one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. 2

Getting There

Seattle is a city surrounded by both water and mountains. It is situated on a narrow but hilly isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington. To the west lie the Olympic Mountains; Mount Rainier rises in the south; and

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Seattle

Seattle Population Profile

Route 520 also reaches Seattle from the east. Bus and Railroad Service

City Proper Population: 536,000 Area: 217 sq km (84 sq mi) Ethnic composition: 75.3% white; 10.1% black; 1.4% Native American; 11.2% Asian Nicknames: The Emerald City

Amtrak provides passenger service between Seattle and major destinations in the United States, and a variety of buslines connect Seattle with major cities in the United States and Canada.

Metropolitan Area Population: 2,084,000 Description: Seattle-Bellevue-Everett Area: 11,461 sq km (4,425 sq mi) World population rank1: 150 Percentage of national population2: 0.8% Average yearly growth rate: 1.5% Ethnic composition: 85.7% white; 4.6% black; 8.5% Asian/Pacific Islander ——— 1. The Seattle metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of the United States’ total population living in the Seattle metropolitan area.

the Cascade mountain range is found to the east. In addition to the water that surrounds it, Lake Union and the Lake Washington Ship Canal run through the city.

Highways I-5, leading north to Portland and south toward Mexico, is the major north-south route that passes through Seattle; I-405 also runs north-south, but passes just east of Seattle, through Bellevue. From the east, I-90 is the major route offering access to the city. State

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Airport Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, located 21 kilometers (13 miles) from downtown Seattle’s business center, is the closest airport to Asia in the continental United States. In 1997, 24.7 million passengers passed through Seattle-Tacoma (also known as Sea-Tac), which is served by 41 airlines. Shipping Seattle boasts the fifth-largest container port in the United States. Encompassing over 182 hectares (450 acres) of handling space, it is served by 27 steamship lines and annually serves as a conduit for goods worth $37 billion. Fishmen’s Terminal is the home port for the U.S. North Pacific fishing fleet. Transcontinental rail service is provided by the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads, which operate three inter-modal shipyards in Seattle. 3

Getting Around

The streets of the downtown area— which extends roughly north-south from Denny Way to Yesler Way, and east-west from Broadway to Elliott


Seattle

Bay—are arranged in a grid pattern. Running parallel to the shoreline (beyond the first two streets, Alaskan Way and Western Avenue) are numbered avenues; named streets run perpendicular to the avenues.


Bus and Commuter Rail Service A county-wide bus system serves the Seattle area, providing free service downtown. A transit plan, when implemented, will integrate public transpor-

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Seattle tation in the metropolitan area using light rail and commuter rail service. Sightseeing Bus tours of Seattle are offered by Gray Line tours. A variety of boat tours are available, including an all-day cruise of Puget Sound, as well as walking tours and a rail tour. 4

People

In 1990, the population of Seattle was 516,259, of which 75.3 percent were white, 11.2 percent Asian, 10.1 percent black, and 1.4 percent Native American. Hispanics (both white and black) accounted for 3.6 percent of the population. The population estimate for 1997 was 536,600, and the estimate for 2010 was 580,591. The population of the Seattle Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area was reported as 2,033,128 in 1990 and estimated at 2,268,126 for 1997. The region’s racial composition was listed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1996 as 85.7 percent white; 8.5 percent Asian/ Pacific Islander; and 4.6 percent black. The percentage of residents of Hispanic origin (an ethnic rather than a racial designation) was 3.7 percent. Seattle has the second-highest percentage of baby boomers of any major U.S. city—31.5 percent (surpassed only by Denver, which has 32.8 percent). 5

Neighborhoods

Seattle’s main downtown retail area, situated atop a series of steep hills,

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runs roughly north-south from Pike Place Market to Pioneer Square and east-west from Seventh to First avenues. It combines historic buildings with steep skyscrapers and boasts a sophisticated array of retail establishments. At the southern edge of the downtown area is Pioneer Square, the historic heart of the city, where restored nineteenthcentury buildings house a colorful array of shops, galleries, and restaurants. Immediately to the southeast, the International District is home to the majority of the city’s substantial Asian population. In addition to a market brimming with fresh local produce and fish, the Pike Place Market area northwest of the main business district is also home to a variety of arts and crafts stores and restaurants, and a favorite haunt of street performers. Further north is Belltown, a “gentrified” former warehouse neighborhood whose lively assortment of restaurants and clubs makes it one of the prime centers of nightlife in the city. Still further from downtown, and just north of the Seattle Center, is the prestigious Queen Anne neighborhood. Yet further north, beyond the Lake Washington Ship Canal, lie Fremont, an interesting district known for its artists’ studios, ethnic restaurants, and offbeat shops, and Ballard, a former Scandinavian enclave that today is a popular entertainment venue. East of Fremont, the University District surrounding the University of Washington (or the U District, as it is known to locals) has the typical features of a college neighborhood. Nearby is Walling-


Seattle

City Fact Comparison Seattle (United States)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)


2,084,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000


1851

753 BC

723 BC

$172

$129

Indicator


AD

969

city2


$104

$193

$44

$56

$59

$62

$2

$14

$15

$16

$150

$173

$246

$207


3

13

20

11

The Seattle Times


La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

227,715

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

1896

1944

1976

1948

1 United


ford, an increasingly fashionable area known for its shops and restaurants. The Capitol Hill district northeast of downtown is a bastion of the area’s youth culture and also the center of its gay community. The upscale Madison Park neighborhood, located on the western shore of Lake Washington, is home to the University of Washington Arboretum. 6

History

Exploration of the Seattle region began in 1792, with the British captain George Vancouver (whose name today


graces cities in both Washington state and British Columbia). However, the first permanent European settlers didn’t arrive until 1851, when a party of farmers from Illinois formed a community at the present-day site of Alki Point, west of the city. By the following year, they moved to the current site of downtown Seattle, east of Elliott Bay and gave it its present name in honor of Chief Sealth of the Suquamish Indians who were indigenous to the region. Although the first settlers were farmers, it soon became apparent that the region’s primary natural resource was lumber. Sawmills were built, and the city’s fledging timber industry

105

Seattle

Mount Rainier provides a backdrop for the skyline of Seattle. (Nick Gunderson; Seattle-King County News Bureau)

found a ready market for its logs in San Francisco, which was enjoying a building boom following the 1849 gold rush. Seattle was incorporated in 1869. By 1889, it had a population of over 25,000 and was one of the major cities of the northwestern United States. However, that year disaster struck when the city’s entire business district—a total of 25 city blocks—burned down in a fire. The rebuilding of the city proved to be not only a reconstruction effort but also a major improvement, as a large-scale regrading of the city’s hills was done to resolve drainage and waste disposal problems, and the new streets

106

were built on higher land. One of Seattle’s original seven hills—Denny Hill— was leveled altogether; today its name graces the neighborhood where it once stood. An important chapter in Seattle’s history opened with the discovery of gold in Alaska’s Yukon Valley (1898). The resulting Klondike gold rush brought new prosperity to Seattle, as prospectors stopped in the city to stock up on their way north and returned to spend much of their newfound wealth on their way back home. Seattle’s population grew to 80,600 by 1900 and tripled within the next decade. Seattle’s


Seattle aerospace industry, which dominated the city’s economy for much of the century, had its beginnings in 1916, with the launch of the first airplane produced by William Boeing, an event that laid the foundation for the eventual establishment of the Boeing Company, which is still Seattle’s single-largest employer. The world wars brought new bursts of economic activity to Seattle. The city’s lumber resources were in demand during World War I (1914–18); during World War II (1939–45) Boeing won defense contracts for the B-17 and B-29 bombers and other weapons. Seattle’s population grew rapidly as new residents arrived from other parts of the country, attracted by jobs in the aerospace and shipbuilding industries. By the end of World War II the city’s population had reached almost half a million. In the post-war years, the growth of commercial aviation—Boeing once again at the forefront with the 707— provided an additional boost to Seattle’s economy. A landmark in Seattle’s twentieth-century history was the 1962 World’s Fair, which drew almost ten million visitors and left the city with its dominant landmark, the Space Needle (as well as the Monorail). The drawbacks of heavy dependence on a single economic sector were brought home in the 1970s, when reduced defense spending resulted in employment cutbacks at Boeing, leaving some 60,000 Seattle workers jobless and depressing the local economy for years. An increase in defense contracts


A futuristic icon that gave Seattle a taste of the big league in the World’s Fair of 1962, the Space Needle has become a city symbol. (Nick Gunderson; Seattle-King County News Bureau)

and a booming Asian market for aircraft triggered a rebound in the 1980s. By then a new high-tech field—computers—had also entered the picture. In the last decades of the twentieth century, Microsoft, located in nearby Redmond, and a multitude of other software and computer-related firms that sprang up in the area added a major new feature to Seattle’s image and economy. As a new century dawned, Seattle found itself in the midst of a period of prosperity, growth, and development, as

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Seattle new technology helped it fulfill the futuristic promise plotted out years earlier. 7

Government

Seattle is governed by a mayor and a nine-member city council, all elected for four-year terms in nonpartisan elections held every odd-numbered year. Both the city’s revenues and its appropriations for fiscal year 1998 totaled $1.9 billion. 8

Public Safety

The Seattle Police Department is divided into north, south, east, and west precincts. The rapid population growth of the 1990s has brought with it a rising crime rate. In 1995, Seattle’s incidence of reported violent crimes per 100,000 population was 926, including eight murders, 49 rapes, and 418 robberies. The incidence of property crimes was 9,556 and included 1,452 burglaries, 6,793 cases of larceny/theft, and 1,311 motor vehicle thefts. 9

Economy

The Greater Seattle area is a leader in high-technology fields including computer software, electronics, environmental engineering, and biotechnology. Among its advantages as a business center are a well-educated and skilled work force, high-quality transportation and infrastructure resources, and strong manufacturing capabilities. The 469,802 full-time equivalent positions recorded for Seattle in the 1990 census are expected to grow to 521,878

108

High technology companies have sprung up all around Seattle’s scenic Puget Sound. (Nick Gunderson; Seattle-King County News Bureau)

by 2000 and 597,836 by 2010. Seattle has a strong service-sector economy. Services account for 29 percent of Seattle’s jobs, wholesale and retail trade for 24 percent, and government for 16 percent, the same percentage as manufacturing. Top industrial fields are wood products, transportation equipment, food products, fish processing, and apparel design. Seattle is home to Microsoft, the world’s largest personal computer software company, and the region is also home to over 2,000 other software development companies. Also headquartered in Seattle is Boeing, the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturer. Other major companies located in Seat-


Seattle tle include Costco, Weyerhaeuser, Paccar, Safeco, Nordstrom, Airborne Freight, and Starbucks. Seattle’s biotechnology enterprises generate revenue of over $2 billion a year, a figure that is expected to more than double by 2005.

More than 90 percent of Seattle’s residents participate in the city’s model curbside recycling program, which has reduced the volume of household-generated landfill waste by 40 percent.

The median family income for metropolitan Seattle in 1998 was $59,000.

11

10

Environment

Environmental issues have a strong impact on Seattle, which was built on resource-based industries such as lumber and fishing. Even with the current dominance of the aerospace and hightech fields, these older industries continue to play an important role in the region’s economy. In recent years, logging practices—most notably clear-cutting—have come under fire from environmentalists, who have also raised the ire of those involved in the timber industry with their campaign to protect the forest habitat of the spotted owl. To save the old-growth forestland that serves as the birds’ habitat, logging on federal lands in the region has been restricted since the late 1980s. Salmon fishing has also raised environmental issues, including the debate over what to do about sea lions that feed on fish slowly making their way through the fish ladders built to facilitate their progress through the locks of area canals. When conservative efforts to discourage the sea lions failed, heated controversy arose over plans to have them killed.


Shopping

With its mix of major department stores and smaller retailers, Seattle provides abundant shopping opportunities. Seattle’s premier shopping attraction is the Pike Place Market, which features dozens of stalls selling every kind of locally available produce and food item, as well as a wing devoted mostly to crafts by local artisans and a lower-level area featuring an eclectic variety of small specialty shops. The market neighborhood is also a center for household furnishings and furniture retailers. Seattle is the home of the nationwide Nordstrom chain, and Nordstrom’s flagship store at Pine Street and Fifth Avenue is one of two department stores that anchor the downtown shopping area—the other is Bon Marche. There is also a Nordstrom outlet for close-outs and returned merchandise called Nordstrom Rack. Also found in the downtown area is the main store of another Seattle-based retailer that has gone national—Eddie Bauer. Pioneer Square is home to a variety of small art galleries and independent shops, including antique stores, Oriental rug dealers, and the region’s premier bookstore, Elliott Bay Book Company.

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Seattle As of fall 1997, Seattle had a total enrollment of 47,457 in its public schools, with a racial and ethnic composition that was 40.6 percent white, 24.8 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 23 percent black, 8.5 percent Hispanic, and 3.1 percent Native American. The public school district operated 116 schools and employed 2,450 classroom teachers and 4,636 support staff. There are over 300 private and parochial schools in the city. Seattle’s major universities (with their fall 1997 enrollments) are the University of Washington (34,368), Seattle University (5,091), and Seattle Pacific University (3,293). Community college enrollment on the three Seattle campuses totaled 25,545. Major research centers in the Seattle area include the Battelle Memorial Institute and the Washington Technology Center. Shopping opportunities are abundant in Seattle. Unique gift shops and art galleries can be found at Pioneer Square. (Nick Gunderson; Seattle-King County News Bureau)

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Education

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Seattle ranks well above the national average in terms of the educational level of its population. Of persons age 25 or over, 86.4 percent have graduated from high school, and 37.9 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher (compared with national averages of 82 percent and 23 percent, respectively).

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Health Care

With 26 acute-care hospitals and four specialized facilities, the Seattle metropolitan area is the leading health care center for the Pacific Northwest region. Altogether, the city has 4,500 hospital beds and some 3,000 physicians in clinical practice. The premier teaching hospital is the University of Washington Hospital. In 1997 the hospital, with 348 staffed beds, admitted 15,117 patients and logged 314,580 outpatient visits. Other well-known health care institutions are Children’s Hospital and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Seattle is also the


Seattle home to a large number of free clinics and the Bailey-Boushay House, which has pioneered an inexpensive treatment setting for patients with AIDS. 14

Media

Seattle’s major daily newspapers (with 1998 circulation figures) are the Seattle Times (weekdays, 227,715; Sunday, 504,259) and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (weekdays, 196,2271; Sunday, 504,259). The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce, published Monday through Saturday covers the business community (1998 circulation 5,047). The Seattle Weekly and The Stranger are both alternative weekly newspapers with entertainment listing and local features. Papers serving Seattle’s ethnic communities include La Voz (15,000), the Korea Times (10,000), the Seattle Chinese Post (10,000), the Northwest Asian Weekly (10,000), and the Korea Central Daily (7,000). All major television networks have affiliates in Seattle, which has a total of eight commercial television stations, as well as cable channels offered by Viacom and TCI. Broadcasts by about 40 AM and FM radio stations provide news, music, and local features to the Seattle area. KUOW radio broadcasts programming by National Public Radio (NPR) and the BBC World Service. 15

Sports

Seattle fields teams in all majorleague sports. The American League’s Seattle Mariners played in the Kingdome from 1990 to 1998, when they


moved to the new Safeco Field. The Kingdome, which was imploded on March 26, 2000, was also the home of the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks. A new stadium for footbal and soccer is scheduled to open in 2002. The Seattle Super Sonics of the National Basketball Association compete in the Seattle Center Auditorium. Seattle also has a women’s basketball team, the Reign. The Seattle Thunderbirds Hockey Club also plays at the Seattle Center. Also popular with Seattle sports fans are the University of Washington Huskies football team, which plays at Husky Stadium, and the university’s women’s basketball team. 16


Seattle’s public park system extends over more than 2,024 hectares (5,000 acres). Landscape architects John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Olmsted Jr. (sons of famed planner Frederick Law Olmsted, 1822–1903) designed many of the city’s parks, which today number around 400. Among the most popular parks are Waterfall Gardens (which boasts a seven-meter/22-foot waterfall in the heart of downtown); Volunteer Park (a graceful park that includes lily ponds and a conservatory); Green Lake (whose paved five-kilometer/3.2-mile path is popular with joggers and in-line skaters); Discovery Park (a 208-hectare/ 513-acre wilderness park that encompasses broad meadows, dense forests, and steep sea cliffs); and Gas Works

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Seattle Park (created on the former property of a gas-processing plant). Alki Beach on the shore of Puget Sound is a popular summertime site for swimming, picknicking, and volleyball. Seattle also abounds in outstanding garden centers, including Bloedel Reserve, the Herbfarm, Kubota Gardens, Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection, Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, the University of Washington Medicinal Herb Garden, Woodland Park Rose Garden, and the Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Gardens. The Seattle Tilth Demonstration Gardens offer instruction to gardeners at all levels. Popular outdoor pursuits in the Seattle area include bicycling, golf (with more than a dozen public courses), and hiking in the surrounding region, which includes three national parks. The city’s maritime location makes an excellent location for such water sports as fishing, kayaking and canoeing, sailboarding, and sailing. 17

Performing Arts

Seattle has a lively theater scene, with flourishing mainstream and experimental troupes. The city’s best-known theater company is the Intiman Theatre, which staged the area premiere of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Angels in America. A Contemporary Theatre, housed in Queen Anne Hall, an elegant historic facility with three contrasting performance spaces, displays the talents of local actors and, occasionally, big-name guest stars. Seattle Repertory Theatre, the city’s oldest,

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is known for its lavish, high-quality productions. Alternative theater groups include the Empty Space Theatre, Printer’s Devil Theatre, and A Theatre Under the Influence. Seattle is also known for its annual three-week Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival. Improvisation can be seen regularly at Theatre-Sports, and the Comedy Underground is the city’s major comedy club. The Seattle Symphony, which performs at Benaroya Concert Hall, has distinguished itself under the direction of Gerard Schwartz, who has been its musical director since 1984. Seattle also supports the only chamber orchestra in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Orchestra, which performs works for small ensembles written between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The Seattle Opera stages full-scale productions of five operas every year, including a summertime performance of the Ring cycle by Richard Wagner. The Pacific Northwest Ballet, which performs at Seattle’s Opera House, is the region’s premier ballet troupe. Seattle is also home to the Allegro Dance Festival, a dance ensemble that focuses on ethnic dance and new works by area choreographers. The home of the “grunge rock” of the early 1990s, Seattle has a lively popular music scene that encompasses jazz, rock, and “world beat” as well as Latin, Celtic, and other types of ethnic music, reflecting the growing diversity and cultural sophistication of its population. Popular music is performed at numerous venues throughout Seattle, including the area’s many cafes and pubs.


Seattle

Seattle’s prime location on the waterfront offers residents and guests alike a variety of outdoor recreational activities such as sailing, fishing and kayaking. Visitors can tour the waterways in a more relaxed fashion on many of Seattle’s guided tour cruises. (Nick Gunderson; Seattle-King County News Bureau)

In addition to the standard complement of modern multiplex movie theaters, Seattle has a good selection of art houses that show foreign films and revivals, and the Seattle International Film Festival entertains movie buffs annually for three weeks in late May and June. 18


Founded in 1891, the Seattle Public Library operates a central library downtown and 23 neighborhood branches.


With a total of 865,732 book titles and 1,776,672 volumes, the library serves a population of more than half a million and employs a staff of 421. Its special collections cover subject areas including aviation history, genealogy, and Seattle history. Annual circulation totals nearly five million items. Located in the center of downtown, the Seattle Art Museum is housed in a striking building designed by architect Robert Venturi (b. 1925) and completed in 1991. The museum is known especially for its Asian, African, and

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Seattle modern art collections. The facility includes a large gallery for locally mounted special exhibitions and traveling exhibits, a 300-seat auditorium, and a Japanese gallery with an authentic teahouse. (Currently, the museum’s outstanding Asian collection is actually housed in its original building, which has been renamed the Seattle Asian Art Museum.) The Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum, remodeled and expanded in 1997, houses the nineteenth-century painting collection of its founders, as well as a variety of other nineteenthand twentieth-century paintings and presents an eclectic schedule of musical performances, poetry readings, and other activities, as well as temporary exhibits. The Bellevue Art Museum specializes in works by regional artists, and the newly expanded Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington features an excellent permanent photography collection, as well as exhibits highlighting a variety of new media, including video. The Museum of Flight (often referred to as the Boeing Museum of Flight) honors Seattle’s history as a capital of aviation. The museum’s exhibits retell the history of flight and include replicas of the early glider flown by the Wright brothers, the Apollo and Mercury space capsules, and Air Force One. The Seattle Center is home to the Pacific Science Center and the Children’s Museum, both of which feature hands-on exhibits for children and adults.

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19

To u r i s m

Seattle’s relatively recent transformation into a trend-setting, high-profile city has brought an increase in tourism and tourist facilities. In addition to the city’s mild climate and picturesque location amid water, forestland, and mountains, visitors are drawn by its bustling cultural and commercial life, the recreational opportunities that are available, and Seattle’s growing reputation as a mecca for contemporary youth culture. Today the metropolitan area boasts 17,500 hotel and motel rooms. The Seattle Center, the city’s main conference and convention facility, offers 3,995 square meters (43,000 square feet) of exhibition space, eight large conference rooms, and banquet seating for 1,500 people. Seattle is also the site of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, conveniently located on I-5, the major artery that passes through the city. The Battelle Conference Center on the University of Washington campus is often used to host meetings, and the Kingdome sports stadium is a popular venue for trade shows. 20


JANUARY Seattle International Boat Show

FEBRUARY Festival Sundiata Northwest Flower & Garden Show

MARCH Seattle Fringe Festival


Seattle APRIL Cherry Blossom & Japanese Cultural Festival Imagination Celebration

MAY Cinco de Mayo Celebration Northwest Folklife Festival University District Street Fair

MAY-JUNE Seattle International Film Festival

JUNE-AUGUST AT&T Summer Nights at the Pier

JULY-AUGUST Seafair Summer Festival

JULY Bite of Seattle Family Fourth at Lake Union Indian Pow Wow Fourth of Jul-Ivars at the Waterfront Pioneer Square Fire Festival

AUGUST Bubble Festival Eatonville Arts Festival

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER Bumbershoot Festival

SEPTEMBER Fiesta Patrias

OCTOBER Salmon Days Festival

NOVEMBER Hmong New Year’s Celebration Seattle Marathon

DECEMBER Holiday Parade of Boats Cruise Winterfest

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Famous Citizens

Novelist and essayist Mary McCarthy (1912–89). Rock star Kurt Cobain (1967–94). Microsoft founder Bill Gates (b. 1955).


Founder of Boeing Aircraft, William Boeing (1881–1956). Singer/songwriter Judy Collins (b. 1939). Guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1942–70). Novelist and satirist Tom Robbins (b. 1936). Entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee (1914–70). 22

For Further Study

Websites Greater Seattle InfoGuide [Online] Available http: //www.seattleinfoguide.com/ (accessed December 8, 1999). Seattle City Net. [Online] Available http: // city.net/countries/united_states/ washington/seattle/ (accessed December 8, 1999). Seattle Home Page. [Online] Available http: // www.seattle.net/SeattleHome.html (accessed December 8, 1999).

Government Offices Seattle City Hall 600 4th Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 386-1234 Mayor’s Office 600 4th Ave., 12th Fl. Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 684-4000 King County 516 3rd Ave., Rm. 400 Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 296-4040

Tourist and Convention Bureaus Seattle-King County Convention & Visitors Bureau 520 Pike St., Suite 1300 Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 461-5840

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Seattle Washington State Convention & Trade Center 800 Convention P. Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 447-5000

Publications Puget Sound Business Journal 720 3rd Ave. Suite 800 Seattle, WA 98104 Seattle Post-Intelligencer 101 Elliott Ave. W Seattle, WA 98119 Seattle Times P.O. Box 70 Seattle, WA 98111

Books Beebe, Morton. Cascadia: A Tale of Two Cities, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Photographs by Morton Beebe; essays by J. Kingston Pierce. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. Crowley, Walt. Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1995. Egan, Timothy. The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest. New York: Knopf, 1990.

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Morgan, Murray. Skid Road. New York: Viking Press, 1960. Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1994. Reed, Wilson Edward. The Politics of Community Policing: The Case of Seattle. New York: Garland, 1999. Roe, Jo Ann. Seattle Uncovered. Plano, Texas: Seaside Press, 1995. Smith, Giselle. Seattle Best Places. Seattle, Washington: Sasquatch Books, 1999. Taylor, Quintard. The Forging of a Black Community. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. Tisdale, Sallie. Stepping Westward: The Long Search for Home in the Pacific Northwest. New York: Henry Holt, 1991.

Videorecordings Alki, Birthplace of Seattle. Produced, directed and written by B.J. Bullert; a presentation of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society and KCTS Television. Seattle, Washington: Distributed by Wehman Video, 1997. 1 videocassette (28 min.): sd., col.; 1/2 in.


Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Founded: 1788; Incorporated: 1842 Location: Southeastern Australia Flower: Banksia Ericifolia Time Zone: 10 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Elevation: 42 m (138 ft) above sea level Latitude and Longitude: 33º55'S, 151º10'E Coastline: 60 km (37 mi) Climate: Temperate with mild winters and warm to hot summers Annual Mean Temperature: 12ºC (54ºF); January 9ºC (48ºF); July 23ºC (73ºF) Average Annual Precipitation (total rainfall): 1,140 mm (45 in) Government: Local councils Weights and Measures: Metric system Monetary Units: Australian dollars Telephone Area Codes: 2 (Sydney area code); 61 (country code for Australia) Postal Codes: 2000–2060

1

Introduction

In the space of two centuries, Sydney has transformed itself from a British penal colony to a thriving cosmopolitan metropolis, a financial capital of the Asia-Pacific region, and an international tourist center with a population of close to four million. Located near the southern end of Australia’s eastern coast, it is the largest city on the Australian continent, the capital of New South Wales, and one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. The city’s dominant feature has always been its stunning physical location on one of the world’s most beautiful harbors.

In the second half of the twentieth century, Sydney grew from a primarily Anglo-Saxon enclave to a multiethnic city whose cultural sophistication is symbolized by the unique outlines of its famous harbor-front opera house. The twenty-first century was ushered in dramatically with the 2000 Olympic Games, which spurred the city to reinvent itself yet again for a new millennium. 2

Getting There

Centered around the Port Jackson harbor on Australia’s east coast, Sydney is 870 kilometers (540 miles) north of Melbourne and nearly 1,000 kilometers

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Sydney

Sydney Population Profile Population: 3,665,000 Area: 1,735 sq km (670 sq mi) World population rank1: 71 Percentage of national population2: 19.5% Average yearly growth rate: 0.4% Nicknames: CBD (central city), Sidneysiders (residents), Oz (Australia) ——— 1. The Sydney metropolitan area’s rank among the world’s urban areas. 2. The percent of Australia’s total population living in the Sydney metropolitan area.

(621 miles) south of Brisbane. The greater metropolitan area encompasses Botany Bay to the south, reaches to the foothills of the Blue Mountains in the west, and extends into an area of national parks to the north. Highways Four main highways provide access to Sydney: the Pacific Highway/Sydney Newcastle Freeway (Route 1 north of the city) leads northward to Newcastle and Brisbane; the Western Motorway (Route 44) leads westward to Strathfield and the Great Western Highway; Princes Highway (Route 1 south of the city) leads to Wollongong and the south coast; and the Hume Highway leads southwest out of the city to Mittagong and eventually Melbourne. Bus and Railroad Service vice

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Greyhound Pioneer provides serbetween Sydney and points

throughout Australia. The smaller McCafferty’s and Kirkland’s lines also service Sydney but do not run nationwide. Both interstate and regional train service is available. The State Rail Authority of New South Wales provides passenger rail services throughout Greater Sydney and other population centers in the state. Its Countrylink service provides long-distance service throughout New South Wales, and also interstate service to Canberra, Melbourne, and Brisbane on an updated fleet of high-speed XPT and Explorer trains, transporting more than 2.6 million people annually. Airports The Kingsford Smith Airport, located about ten kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Sydney’s central business district, is Australia’s busiest airport. It is served by some 45 international passenger and cargo carriers. Shipping Sydney is served by Port Jackson, one of Australia’s busiest ports, as well as a newer port in Botany Bay devoted exclusively to petroleum products. 3

Getting Around

Sydney is built around a vast harbor with many coves, bays, and inlets. The harbor runs through the city, dividing it into northern and southern sections, which are connected by the Harbour Tunnel and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The central business district and heart of the city is contained


Sydney


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Sydney within the 13 square kilometers (five square miles) of a narrow peninsula in the southern half. Bus and Commuter Rail Service Sydney Buses operates buses throughout the city. Bus service is divided into seven zones, with the main terminals located at Circular Quay, Wynyard, Town Hall, and Central Station. Buses serve some areas, including the suburbs of Watsons, Rose Bay, and Vaucluse, which are not on rail lines. CityRail, operated by the State Rail Authority, provides suburban and intercity rail service over a 3,218-kilometer (2,000-mile) network throughout New South Wales. With 301 stations and over 2,000 trips per day, CityRail carried 266.5 million passengers in 1997–98. Sydney also has a light rail line providing tram service from Central Station to stops in the central city and a monorail that loops through the central business district. Ferries Sydney’s popular ferry service, operated by the Sydney Transportation Authority, provides a picturesque and inexpensive mode of local transportation. Ferries cross Sydney’s harbor between Circular Quay and the north bank, also traveling to points eastward and westward. Sightseeing A variety of organized tours of Sydney are offered. Popular tour lines include Australian Pacific, AAT King’s,

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Newmans, Murrays, Great Sights, and Clipper Gray Line tours. Tours are offered to a variety of sites outside the city. These include tours focusing on Aboriginal culture and Australian wildlife. In addition, Sydney’s ferries afford a unique sightseeing experience. Harbor cruises take visitors to the area’s parks, beaches, coves, suburbs, and other sites. Cruises with commentary are offered regularly on the city-operated ferries on both weekdays and weekends. Harbor cruises are also offered by commercial lines. 4

People

With its population of 3,738,500, Sydney is at the center of the largest concentration of population in the sparsely populated country of Australia. It is home to more than two-thirds of the population of New South Wales, and about a quarter of the country’s total inhabitants live within 150 kilometers (93 miles) of the city. Since World War II (1939–45), the city, formerly inhabited mostly by descendants of white settlers from the British Isles, has become increasingly diverse ethnically and racially. Following the war, there was an influx of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, especially Italy and Greece, as well as Turkey and Yugoslavia. The period since the 1960s has seen a rise in Asian immigration from countries including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Today, about 30 percent of the population is foreignborn. Sydney’s inner-city district of


Sydney

The City Rail is an easy way to get around the city. (Mike Yamashita; Woodfin Camp)

Redfern is an Aboriginal enclave, populated by a group known as Koories. 5

Neighborhoods

Thanks to the spread of new suburbs along the estuaries of the Georges and Parramatta rivers during the twentieth century, the greater Sydney area encompasses some 600 suburbs between the Pacific Ocean, the Blue Mountains, and the national parks that border it on the north and south, covering a total area of nearly 1,813 square kilometers (700 square miles). This makes it one of the world’s largest urban areas, surpassed only by Los Angeles and a few others. Traditionally, well-to-do Australians moved outward to the suburbs, leaving the inner core to


immigrant populations from Europe and Asia. Today, however, many are returning to the historic districts first established by their forebears, sparking a wave of urban renovation and gentrification. Sydney’s major urban center is the Central Business District, located on the south bank of the Parramatta River at Port Jackson. In addition to government buildings, office towers, and shops, it is also the site of the city’s major tourist attractions, including its opera house and major museums, and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Urban neighborhoods close to this central core include King’s Cross, a district of hotels, restaurants, and hostels that has historically had a reputation as the city’s “vice capital”; the historic Woolloomooloo

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Sydney district, restored since the 1970s; trendy Darlinghurst, home to numerous sidewalk cafes and Sydney’s “Little Italy”; the multicultural, gentrified Surry Hills area; and the residential suburb of Paddington. Further south is the workingclass suburb of Redfern, which has a large and sometimes vocal Aboriginal community. To the east are a series of upscale suburbs including Darling Point, Edgecliff, Double Bay, and Vaucluse, the most exclusive one. The innermost suburbs to the west include the fashionable Balmain district, formerly a working-class and bohemian neighborhood; the traditionally Italian and now diverse neighborhood of Leichhardt; Glebe, located near the University of Sydney; and the hip university district of Newtown. Across the Parramatta River, the Lower North Shore, north of the Harbour Bridge, encompasses a business district and harbor-front suburbs, including Kirribilli, Milson’s Point, and McMahons Point. 6

History

Sydney’s first European settlers arrived in 1788, when English navigator Captain Arthur Phillip’s First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay to the south. Finding the bay too exposed, Phillips and his men traveled northward to Port Jackson, proclaiming the colony of New South Wales and establishing a settlement on a cove they named for Britain’s Home Secretary, Lord Thomas Townshend, First Viscount Sydney (1733– 1800). Of the more than 1,000 people

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aboard the fleet’s ships, most were British convicts transported to the new land to relieve prison overcrowding now that the British colonies in North America had won their independence and could no longer be used for this purpose. The first free settlers arrived in 1793. Under the leadership of Governor Lachlan Macquarie (1761–1824; governor, 1810–1821), the new settlement prospered. Many convicts, pardoned and given parcels of land, became useful members of society. Free settlers continued to pour in, lured by promises of free land and convict labor and by Sydney’s growing reputation as a thriving port city. Between 1831 and 1850, some 200,000 immigrants arrived from Britain, fleeing the social ills of the Industrial Revolution. Exploration of the interior led to the discovery of a route over the Blue Mountains, providing access to the rich pastureland beyond. Sydney was incorporated in 1842. The discovery of gold west of Sydney, at Bathurst, in 1851 spurred a decade-long gold rush that helped bring the city’s population to 300,000. Rail service from Sydney to Parramatta was launched in 1855. As Sydney became a bustling commercial center, its original central district acquired some of the same problems that settlers had fled Britain to escape—overcrowding, poverty, crime, and unsanitary conditions. In the second half of the century, overcrowding spurred the growth of densely populated suburbs around the city, creating the greatest population explosion


Sydney

Sydney skyline. (G. Clifford; Woodfin Camp)

to date—from 60,000 to 400,000. Shortly after the end of World War I (1914–18), Sydney, now part of the Commonwealth of Australia, recorded a population of one million. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Project, begun after World War II (1939–45), brought important changes to Sydney. Most notably, the resulting demand for manpower sparked immigration policy changes that led to growth in immigration from southern Europe, permanently changing the ethnic makeup of the city. Further changes came with the rise in immigration from Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s.


During this period, Sydney, along with the rest of Australia, grew increasingly cosmopolitan, becoming a financial center for the Asia/Pacific region. Sydney’s most famous landmark, the harbor-front Sydney Opera House, was completed in 1973. In 1988 the city staged a spectacular celebration of Australia’s bicentennial. Landmark events of the 1990s included the 1993 announcement that the city would be the site of the 2000 Olympic Games and the opening of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel in 1994. Preparations for the Games spurred further municipal development and civic pride

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Sydney

City Fact Comparison Indicator

Sydney (Australia)

Cairo (Egypt)

Rome (Italy)

Beijing (China)


3,665,000

10,772,000

2,688,000

12,033,000


1788

753 BC

723 BC


AD

969

city2


$114

$193

$172

$129


$74

$56

$59

$62


$18

$14

$15

$16

$206

$173

$246

$207

Total daily costs Major Newspapers3 Number of newspapers serving the city

11

13

20

11

Largest newspaper

Sunday Telegraph


La Repubblica

Renmin Ribao

Circulation of largest newspaper

1,800,000

1,159,339

754,930

3,000,000

1939

1944

1976

1948

Date largest newspaper was established 1 United


throughout the decade as Sydney prepared for the most extensive display of pageantry and celebration in its history. 7

Government

As capital of New South Wales, Sydney is the seat of its government and parliament. More than 40 city councils throughout Sydney handle local matters although the state government retains authority in some areas, including transportation and public safety. In addition, some of Sydney’s land is under control of Australia’s federal government. The City Council of Sydney has jurisdiction over a 13-square-kilometer (five-square-mile) core area that

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includes the Central Business District and some inner suburbs. The Sydney Statistical Division, established in 1976 and covering 12,407 square kilometers (4,790 square miles), corresponds to territory that was expected to undergo urban development over the next two decades. It was created from a combination of developed and rural land. 8

Public Safety

For a major city, Sydney has a low crime rate. Few people own firearms, which are strictly regulated, and it is even illegal to carry a knife in a public


Sydney place without a special reason. Occasional muggings have occurred in the Central Business District, and drug activity has been reported in the Kings Cross and Cabramatta areas. Sydney is served by the New South Wales Police Service, Australia’s oldest law-enforcement organization. With more than 13,300 sworn police officers and 500 police stations, it is also one of the largest in the English-speaking world. In addition to its regular duties, the New South Wales Police force was assigned the task of coordinating security for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The City of Sydney has adopted the Safe City Strategy to improve security even further through urban design: improved lighting, closed circuit television cameras, emergency video phones, a city safety task force, and community safety education. 9

Economy

Sydney is Australia’s financial, commercial, shipping, and industrial capital. About 75 percent of the manufacturing jobs in New South Wales are in Sydney although manufacturing accounts for between one-third and one-half of the city’s total employment. Sydney primarily has a service economy, fueled by government, commerce, retailing, transport, entertainment, finance, and tourism. Oil refining is another major industry in the region. About half of Sydney’s work force is employed in manufacturing.


10

Environment

Water pollution from refuse and industrial effluents has been a problem in Sydney’s harbor, especially from the overflow caused by heavy rain. The city has installed pollution traps and litter booms to deal with the problem. Residents who live near the Kingsford Smith Airport have been affected by aircraft noise, a problem that authorities have attempted to respond to by rearranging aircraft flight paths. Awareness of air pollution is promoted by the publication of pollution levels daily in the newspaper as part of the weather report. Increased use of public transportation has helped reduce emission levels. In 1995 the City of Sydney announced its goal of reducing waste 60 percent by 2000 through the Waste Minimization and Management Act. The government encourages citizens to avoid waste wherever possible, reuse items, and recycle. Commercial waste services provided to the city’s businesses include seven-day-a-week collection, glass and paper recycling, bulk waste removal, and varied container sizes. Preparation for the 2000 Olympic Games included several environmental measures, including a cleanup of the city’s beaches and waterways. In addition, all power to the Olympic Village was provided by solar energy.

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Sydney 11

Shopping

The major shopping area in the central city is located between Park and King streets, on George, Castlereagh, and Pitt streets. The heart of this district is the Pitt Street Mall between Market and King streets, a pedestrian mall with chain stores and several arcades. The historic and beautiful Queen Victoria Building on George Street offers four levels of shops, including designer outlets, duty-free shops, and craft and souvenir stores, as well as cafes and restaurants. Shopping in an elegant historic venue is also available at the Strand Arcade, a lovingly restored 1892 structure with shops on three levels. Also located in this district are the Royal, Imperial, and Centrepoint arcades. Located on Castlereagh Street are the Skygarden, which features both stores and art galleries on seven levels; the upscale Chifley Plaza; Piccadilly; the exclusive MLC Centre; and Sydney’s premier department store, David Jones’. The two other main shopping areas in central area are the Rocks, a historic harbor-front district to the north, where the largest retail complex is the Argyle Centre, and at the western end of the city, the Darling Harbour Area where the Harbourside complex offers some 200 shops. Also located in this area is Chinatown, whose retailers stock clothing, housewares, and ethnic foods. In North Sydney the largest shopping complex is Greenwood Plaza. Additional shopping is available at Sydney’s colorful markets. Some of the best flea markets are located in the east-

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ern suburbs of Paddington, Woollahra, and Surry Hills. The most famous and eclectic is the Paddington Bazaar, which actually operates at two locations. The Balmain Market also provides great variety, together with the local color of this historic district. Aboriginal art, although largely produced in other parts of Australia, is available in several of Sydney’s shops and galleries. 12

Education

Public education in Sydney, as elsewhere in Australia, is managed and mostly funded at the state level, with the federal government also providing some funding. Primary and secondary education is compulsory, with students required to attend school between the ages of six and 15. Students may attend either public or private (mostly Roman Catholic) schools. The Sydney metropolitan area is home to three universities: the University of Sydney (founded in 1850), Australia’s oldest university and an internationally respected teaching and research institution; the University of New South Wales, which enrolls over 32,000 students in its 75 schools; and Macquarie University. 13

Health Care

Like other parts of Australia, Sydney has excellent medical care and facilities, and universal health care for all its residents. Sydney’s public hospitals are New Children’s Hospital, Prince


Sydney Henry Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Royal North Shore Hospital, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney Hospital & Sydney Eye Hospital, and Sydney Children’s Hospital. There are also six teaching hospitals connected with the medical program at the University of New South Wales. 14

Media

Sydney’s oldest and most respected newspaper is the Sydney Morning Herald, which is regarded as one the top newspapers in the country. Established in 1831, it is published six times a week; in 1998 the Herald had a circulation of 266,000 on weekdays and 400,000 on Saturday. The Herald publishes detailed entertainment guides every Friday and Saturday. Sydney’s other daily newspaper is the Daily Telegraph Mirror, a tabloid publication also published six days a week, with 1998 circulation figures of 442,980 weekdays and 331,666 Saturdays. The Australian Financial Review (circulation 78,000), published daily five days a week, is a national newspaper and Australia’s most authoritative source for business news. Also published in Sydney is the national conservative daily, the Australian. Sydney also has another business newspaper, the Daily Commercial News. A number of weekly newspapers serve Sydney’s varied ethnic communities, and the free weekly On the Street offers popular music listings. The national news magazine the Bulletin is also published in Sydney.


Sydney has five television channels, two of which are noncommercial and government funded. Among Sydney’s more than 20 radio stations are regular and youth-oriented public broadcasting stations, a classical music station, an Aboriginal station, and a multilingual station. 15

Sports

The most popular spectator sport in Sydney is one of the four types of rugby: rugby league. Major matches, including the Optus Cup championship games, are held at the Sydney Football Stadium. Also played in Sydney is the unique football game known as Australian (“Aussie”) Rules, for which the city fields the Sydney Swans, the only team in New South Wales. Another favorite is the summertime sport of cricket, played at the Sydney Cricket Ground at Moore Park. Other spectator sports include tennis, for which the major tournament is the New South Wales Open, professional golf, horse racing, greyhound racing, and boat races in the harbor. In 1999, Sydney prepared to host the biggest sporting and cultural event in its history—the XXVII Olympiad. The Olympic Games placed Sydney in the spotlight before some 3.5 billion television viewers worldwide, plus as many as half a million guests from elsewhere in Australia and around the world. The Olympiad was followed on October 18 by the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities.

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Sydney 16


The steel and concrete of Sydney’s urban landscape are relieved by a number of city parks. Three contiguous parks are located in the eastern part of the Central Business District: the Royal Botanic Gardens, established in 1816 and covering 30 hectares (74 acres), mark the site of Sydney’s first farm. They include a rose garden, a lake, tropical greenhouses with an extensive collection of plants from the South Pacific, a bat colony, and a cactus garden. To the south lies a large park known as the Domain, which serves as a popular setting for picnics, lunch breaks, public speakers of all kinds, and a variety of free events. Further south, and bisected by Park Street, is Hyde Park, which includes formal gardens, fountains, and walkways, and is also a popular lunchtime spot for urban workers. Smaller parks in the central city include Wynyard Park, Lang Park, First Fleet Park, and Observatory Park. South and east of the Central Business District, Centennial Park in Paddington is Sydney’s largest park, at 220 hectares (544 acres). In addition to picnicking and swimming in its lake, visitors can take advantage of both bicycling and bridle paths or rent inline skates. Adjacent Moore Park, bordering Surry Hills, has walking and bicycling trails, a golf course, and playing fields. It is also the location of the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Football Stadium. The most recent addition to Moore Park is Fox Studios’ Bent Street

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entertainment complex, which gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at movie and television production, including movie props and other memorabilia, special effects, and animation. Sydney Olympic Park was in the suburb of Homebush Bay, located 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) west of the central city, built for the 2000 Olympic Games. The park encompassed Sydney International Athletic Centre, Sydney International Aquatic Centre, as well as the Leisure Garden featuring a variety of natural habitats. In addition to its own urban and suburban parks, Sydney is ringed by national parks. The KuRing-Gai Chase National Park is located to the north, and the Royal National Park is situated to the south. To the west is the Blue Mountain National Park, and even more parks ring the region further away. Sydney’s waterfront location makes it a paradise for water sports. Residents and visitors can enjoy canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing, sailing, scuba diving, surfing, and swimming at any of more than 30 beaches. Other popular outdoor activities include bicycling, golf, horseback riding, walking and jogging, rock climbing, squash, and tennis. A unique recreational sport launched in 1998 is climbing the 503-meter-long (1,650-foot-long) arch of the Harbour Bridge. Climbers sign a release form and undergo an orientation session before beginning the two-hour trek. The summit of the bridge affords a panoramic view of the harbor.


Sydney 17

Performing Arts

The Sydney Opera House, an architectural landmark completed in 1973 after 14 years of construction, is the city’s performing arts headquarters, encompassing an opera theater, concert hall, and playhouse. The complex consists of three interconnected sections that cover 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) and can seat more than 5,100 people altogether. It provides a performance venue for the Australian Opera, the Australian Ballet, the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre, the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, Musica Viva Australia, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra gives more than 140 concerts a year (many at Town Hall on George Street). In addition to concerts by the Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva, and the Philharmonia Choir, classical music can also be heard regularly at the Conservatorium of Music and at Sydney’s universities.

The concrete setting is broken up by the multitude of parks that are scattered throughout Sydney. Luna Park offers fun for everyone. (Robert Frerck; Woodfin Camp)

The Australian Ballet, which has an international reputation, presents four concerts a year at the Sydney Opera House and tours throughout Australia. The Sydney Dance Company (SDC) is Australia’s premier modern dance troupe, performing at both Pier Four and the Opera House. The Sydney Theatre Company performs both plays from the standard repertory and works by Australian authors. Beside the Opera House, Sydney’s other major theater venues are Her Majesty’s Theatre, the Seymour Theatre Centre,


Theatre Royal MLC Centre, and Wharf Theatre Pier 4. Smaller theaters around town offer experimental theater. Aboriginal dance is performed by Bangarra Dance Company, the Aboriginal Dance Theatre, the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, Gavala, and other groups. Sydney also has a thriving jazz scene, based at clubs such as Kinselas, the Basement, and the Harbourside Brasserie.

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Sydney

The Sydney Opera House is an architectural landmark housing the Australian Opera, the Australian Ballet, the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre, the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, Musica Viva Australia, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. (Mike Yamashita; Woodfin Camp)

18


The City of Sydney Library, founded in 1826, has three branches: the newly renovated Town Hall branch, Haymarket, and Ultimo. A total of over 250,000 items are found in the library’s catalogue. The three branches are used by an average of 3,000 people a day, and between 50,000 and 60,000 items are borrowed every month. The Jessie Street National Women’s Library focuses on promoting awareness of the cultural heritage of Australian women

130

by collecting and preserving documents relating to the lives and experience of women from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, highlighting their contribution to Australian history, and providing information on current resources for women. The Australian Museum houses the country’s largest natural history collection. It includes a gallery devoted to Aboriginal history. The Art Gallery of New South Wales, at the edge of the Domain park in the central city, has permanent European, Japanese, and


Sydney Australian collections and temporary exhibits. The Museum of Contemporary Art, fronting the Circular Quay, is noted for its collection of modern art, and the Museum of Sydney, near Macquarie Place, focuses on all aspects of the city’s early history. Sydney’s other museums and galleries include the Justice & Police Museum, Artspace, the Australian Centre for Photography, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, The Cartoon Gallery, and Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery.

JUNE Sydney Film Festival Sydney Biennale

JULY Yulefest

AUGUST City to Surf Run

SEPTEMBER Royal Botanic Gardens Spring Festival Festival of the Winds Taylor Square Art Festival Rugby League Grand Final

OCTOBER

To u r i s m

19

As the principal arrival point for visitors to Australia, Sydney has become a major tourist center, with numerous hotels, motels, and restaurants. During the Australian bicentennial in 1988, an estimated one million visitors joined the city’s harbor-front festivities. 20


JANUARY Sydney Festival & Carnivale Great Ferry Boat Race Survival Festival

JANUARY-FEBRUARY Chinese New Year

FEBRUARY-MARCH

Manly Jazz Festival

NOVEMBER Kings Cross Carnival

DECEMBER Christmas Party Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race New Years Eve Fireworks

21

Famous Citizens

Lachlan Macquarie (1762–1824), governor. Convict-turned-designer Francis Greenaway (1777–1837), Sydney’s first architect. Authors Thomas Keneally (b. 1935), Peter Carey (b. 1943), and Patrick White (1912–90).

Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Hunter Vintage Walkabout

Playwright David Williamson (b. 1942).

MARCH

Artists Sidney Nolan (b. 1917), Arthur Boyd (b. 1920), and Brett Whiteley (1939–92).

Golden Slipper

MARCH-APRIL Royal Easter Show

APRIL Sydney Cup


Film director Peter Weir (b. 1944). Novelist Colleen McCullough (b. 1937).

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Sydney 22

For Further Study

The Sydney Morning Herald Level 19 Darling Park

Websites City of Sydney. [Online] Available http:// www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au (accessed December 27, 1999). Excite Travel. [Online] Available http:// www.excite.com.../australia/ new_south_wales/sydney/ (accessed December 27, 1999). Official Site of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. [Online] Available http://www.olym.../ sydney/virtual_sydney/sydney.html (accessed December 27, 1999).

Government Offices Governor, New South Wales Level 3, Chief Secretary’s Building 121 Macquarie Street Sydney, NSW 2000

Tourist and Convention Bureaus Australian Tourist Commission Level 4, 80 William St. Woolloomooloo, Sydney NSW 2011 NSW Travel Centre 19 Castlereagh Street Sydney, Australia Sydney Visitors Information Centre 106 George St. Sydney, Australia

201 Sussex S, 2001

Books Clark, Manning. A Short History of Australia. New York: NAL Penguin, 1987. Drew, Philip. Sydney Opera House: Jorn Utzon. London: Phaidon Press, 1995. Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore. New York: Knopf, 1986. Kirkpatrick, Peter. The Sea Coast of Bohemia: Literary Life in Sydney's Roaring Twenties. St. Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland, 1992. Lindsay, Jack. The Roaring Twenties: Literary Life in Sydney, New South Wales in the Years 1921– 6. London: Bodley Head, 1960. Matthews, Anne. Sydney and New South Wales. Passport Books. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group, 1993. McHugh, Evan. Sydney. The National Geographic Traveler. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1999. Morris, Jan. Sydney. New York: Random House, 1995. Polin, Zena L., and Stephen G. Gatward. The Other Side of Sydney: An Independent Traveler's Guide to Wonderful Australia's Largest City. Saint Paul, MN: Marlor Press, 1996. Spindler, Graham. Uncovering Sydney: Walks into Sydney's Unexpected and Endangered Places. Kenthurst, Australia: Kangaroo Press, 1991.

Publications The Australian Level 19 Darling Park 201 Sussex S, 2001 Daily Telegraph Mirror 2 Holt St. Surry Hills, 2010

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Videorecordings Sydney [videorecording]. Hosted by Al Roker. Thirteen/WNET production by Engel Brothers Media Inc. MPI Home Video, 1997. Copyright held by Educational Broadcasting Corporation. 1 videocassette (ca. 58 min.): sd., col.; 1/2 in.


To k y o Tokyo, Japan, Asia Founded: c. 1150 Location: Eastern central Honshu, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan Motto: Changes with each governor; currently, “My Town Tokyo.” Flag: White symbol on purple field. Flower: Somei-Yoshino (a kind of cherry blossom) Time Zone: 9 PM = noon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT); Daylight Saving Time is not observed. Ethnic Composition: 98% Japanese; 2% Other (including American, Brazilian, British, Chinese, Korean, Peruvian, and Southeast Asian) Latitude and Longitude: 35°40´N, 139°45´E Climate: Temperate; winter is dry and mild, while summer is warm and humid. A rainy season occurs from mid-June to about mid-July, and September through November is the typhoon season. Average Temperatures: Winter 29–52ºF (–2 to 11ºC); Summer 70–83ºF (21–28ºC). Seasonal Average Snowfall: Snowfall is very rare—a single snowfall per year with virtually no accumulation. Average Annual Precipitation: 1334mm (1996 est.) Government: Tokyo Metropolis is comprised of 23 wards, 26 cities, seven towns, and eight villages. Incorporated cities all have mayors. Legislative authority in the metropolis belongs to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, numbering 127 members elected for terms of four years. The prefectural governor is the principal elected official, presiding over several administrative commissions and their commissioners. Each ward elects a council and a ward head who deal with certain local matters. Weights and Measures: Metric system Monetary Units: The yen of 100 sen is issued in coins of 1,5,10,50,100, and 500 yen, and notes of 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 yen. Telephone Area Codes: 03–23 special ward area (ku-bu); 0426, 0425, 0422, 0428, 0423, 0424, 0427, 0428 city area (Shi-bu); 04992, 04996, 04998 island area (Tou-bu)

1

Introduction

Greater Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolitan area and is the center of Japanese culture, finance, and government. A bustling cosmopolitan city, Tokyo is also a major transporta-

tion hub and a world economic and industrial center. The city boasts a large number of world-class institutions of higher education, the highest concentration of universities in Japan. Tokyo was known as Edo until 1868, when the Japanese imperial family was moved

133

Tokyo

Tokyo Population Profile

of the four main islands comprising Japan. Airports

City Proper Population: 11,781,000 Area: 2,820 sq km (1,090 sq mi) Ethnic composition: 98% Japanese; Others

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