12/84Number of bird species that have been sighted in Central Park since its opening in 1858: 259
In Minneapolis: 73%
4/84Forgeries discovered this year in the collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art: 45
7/84Grains of sand on the surface of New York’s Jones Beach: 2,230,000,000,000
In Los Angeles: 123
Number of Nehru jackets owned by Sammy Davis Jr.: 6
1/85Number of pedestrians issued summonses for jaywalking in New York City in 1983: 517
1/85Value placed on a life by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration: $3,500,000
10/85Percentage change in acres of forest in New York State since 1880: +164
12/85Portion of the New York City Ballet’s annual ticket income derived from The Nutcracker: 1/4
4/85Pairs of toe shoes the New York City Ballet orders for principal dancer Suzanne Farrell each season: 350
5/85Percentage of New York City police officers who fired their guns in the line of duty in 1984: 1.2
5/85Percentage increase in members of Manhattan’s West Side Rifle and Pistol Range since the Goetz shootings: 30
6/85Cost of a car wash at Steve’s Detailing in New York City: $145
6/85Percentage of New York City children who live below the poverty line: 40
8/85Percentage of families in New York City with annual incomes over $50,000 that are black: 7
8/85Cab fare from New York City to Los Angeles: $5,550
9/85Rejection rate of applicants for the 1985 kindergarten class at Manhattan’s Trinity Episcopal School: 85
1/86Cost of leasing one New York State sugar maple tree for one sap season: $29
10/86Purchase price of a parking space in New York City’s first condominium garage: $29,000
10/86Number of new products test-marketed in New York City in the last year: 198
5/86Lifespan of a sidewalk tree in New York City (in years): 7
6/86Number of schools that have invited Lee Iacocca to speak at their graduations: 150
Number that have invited Mario Cuomo: 160
6/86Number of people who have barreled over Niagara Falls and survived: 7
8/86Tons of cargo handled at the Port of New York and New Jersey in 1985: 15,344,000
9/86Cost of annual membership in the Breakfast Club at New York’s 21 Club: $5,000
1/87Price of a 90-minute children’s birthday party for 30 guests at Jeremy’s Place in New York City: $500
12/87Price of a pound of reindeer meat at Lobel’s Prime Meats in New York City: $14.98
2/87Price of a unit of whole blood in New York City in 1976: $29
Today: $70.75
2/87Price of a bouquet of wilted, dead, or beheaded flowers at Drop Dead Flowers in New York City: $37.50
Number of guards in New York City jails who committed suicide in 1986: 7
1/88Average number of days Mario Cuomo traveled outside New York State each year from 1984 to 1986: 16
10/88Value of the unclaimed beverage-container deposits in New York State last year: $66,000,000
2/88Cars abandoned on New York City streets last year: 116,765
2/88Tons of earth that groundhogs in New York State move each year while tunneling: 1,600,000
Federal funds spent last year to promote celibacy among teenagers: $3,000,000
8/88Number of the 23 daily newspapers in New York City that are published in English: 10
8/88Price of dyeing a dog pink at the Village Dawg Shoppe in Rockville Centre, New York (with shampoo and cut): $87
9/88Amount the Reverend Al Sharpton spends on hair care each year at PrimaDonna beauty salon in Brooklyn: $1,910
10/89Percentage of New Yorkers who say they have no opinion of Mayor Ed Koch: 1
12/89Number of pets blessed at the Feast of St. Francis at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine this fall: 1,000
2/89Amount of time it would take for all the Coca-Cola ever sold to flow over Niagara Falls, in hours: 23
2/89Total volume of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, in cubic feet: 54,000,000
3/89Amount of time it takes to ride the entire length of the New York City subway system, in hours: 30
5/89Number of artists-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation: 1
6/89Price of a bullet-resistant mink coat from Juliana Originals in New York City: $15,000
7/89Ratio in 1988 of New York State residents who bought lottery tickets to those who voted: 3:2
8/89Percentage increase, since 1986, in the number of boys under 13 arrested for rape in New York City: 333
11/90Price of a child’s bulletproof denim jacket from the Guardian Group in New York City: $500
2/90Estimated total amount convicted drug traffickers in the United States owe in criminal fines: $108,000,000
Total amount New York City drivers owe in parking fines: $461,000,000
2/90Number of one-year-olds on the waiting list for the French for Tots program in New York City: 152
4/90Estimated average distance that a hospital nurse in New York City walks at work each year, in miles: 1,272
4/90Percentage of men living in Bangladesh who live past the age of 65: 55
5/90Total amount two New York lawyers were fined for having a fistfight during a deposition last year: $11,000
6/90Pages of guidelines the New York City Transit Authority sent to a Boy Scout who wanted to clean a subway station: 6
7/90Amount of trash left in New York City’s Central Park by people attending Earth Day festivities, in tons: 100
8/90Ratio of the average office rent in Moscow’s business district to the rent in midtown Manhattan, per square foot: 2:1
9/90Estimated portion of the street price of crack in New York City that goes to growers, processors, and importers: 1/7
9/90Gallons of poison the New York State Conservation Department will use this fall to kill fish that displace trout: 271
9/90Number of people in New York City who jump subway turnstiles, per minute: 105
1/91Combined value of the mortgages given by East Harlem bank branches to local residents in 1989: $2,413,000
Combined value of the deposits in East Harlem bank branches in 1989: $221,000,000
1/91Total contributions by individuals in 1989 to New York City’s Bide-a-Wee Home Association for pets: $1,700,000
Total contributions by individuals in 1989 to New York City’s Coalition for the Homeless: $622,000
10/91Amount Woodstock, New York, plans to earn by selling one-square-inch plots of the town for $10 apiece: $8,400,000
10/91Cost of a two-square-foot “personal meadow” from Zezé Flowers in Manhattan: $75
11/91Number of cellular phones checked in the cloakroom by patrons each week at Le Cirque, the Manhattan restaurant: 3
11/91Estimated number of “Schwarzkopf filets” served since March at Gallagher’s, the Manhattan steakhouse: 15,000
3/91Estimated average number of seconds it takes a New York City thief to break into a locked car: 27
4/91Number of bees that invaded a Bayport, New York, house while the owners were on vacation last spring: 20,000
7/91Chances that an electronic scanner in a New York City supermarket will overcharge on a sale item: 1 in 2
8/91Gallons of suntan lotion sold each summer at Empire Haven Nudist Park and Resort in Moravia, New York: 9
10/92Average annual salary Zabar’s delicatessen in New York City pays lox slicers with at least ten years’ experience: $60,000
10/92Breasts bared on a Canadian border bridge last July to celebrate New York State’s legalization of topless sunbathing: 40
5/93Square feet of new federal office space that will be built in Manhattan this year: 921,000
5/93Square feet of office space in Manhattan that is currently vacant: 66,000,000
7/93Estimated number of body parts suitable for piercing, according to Gauntlet, a New York City jewelry store: 30
7/93Number of women scalped by hay balers in New York State since 1976: 4
8/93Enrollment at Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls, in New York City: 100
1/94Rank of Ecuadorans, Italians, and Poles, among the largest illegal immigrant groups in New York State: 1,2,3
1/94Ratio of the number of New York City cabbies killed last year to the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Somalia: 6:5
10/94Number of stories a New York City cat fell last June without sustaining serious injury: 46
Average number of stories a cat must fall before reaching its maximum falling velocity of 60 miles per hour: 5
2/94Price of a one-page “Florid to Torrid” love letter, from New York City’s Do the Write Thing: $25
7/94Number of Coney Island rides that have been designated New York City historical landmarks: 3
10/95Number of years ago the executive news producer of NBC’s New York City station was producing Howard Stern’s TV show: 3
10/95Number of microwave ovens blown up at a New York State prison this year by inmates trying to light cigarettes: 15
11/95Price of a man’s solid gold Nelson Mandela Commemorative Timepiece, from Hope Industries of New York: $5,000
11/95Number of “Snapple enthusiasts” who attended the first Snapple Convention, held last summer in a New York suburb: 3,800
4/95Rank of New York among states with the highest incidence of wrongful execution between 1900 and 1965: 1
Year in which Kalawao, Hawaii, the county with the largest income gap, ceased functioning as a leper colony: 1969
Maximum average speed in miles per hour that Manhattan’s traffic commissioner believes is achievable: 9
7/95Estimated property damage caused in a New York suburb last spring by a man firing a slingshot from his Lincoln: $7,000
9/95Rank of New York City, among habitats with the largest number of peregrine falcons per square mile, worldwide: 1
2/96Price a New York City company charges for removal, cleaning, storage, and reinstallation of an air conditioner: $239
7/96Seating capacity of the Ménage à Trois Chair, from Kinky Joe’s Erotic Furniture of New York City: 5
8/96Minimum price of a line of Al Kracht’s custom poetry, from Limerick Lane Poetryworks of Chappaqua, New York: $7
9/96Hours of study required to lose a Long Island accent, according to Long Island’s Professional Voice Care Center: 52
1/97Percentage of people who go to the bathroom in New York’s Penn Station who do not wash their hands: 40
10/97Price of a pair of fangs from New York City’s Sabretooth boutique: $65
11/97Years it took a prisoner injured at the 1975 Attica prison riots to win a judgment against New York State last June: 26
Number of other Attica prisoners’ cases pending: 1,280
2/97Hours of training required to become a licensed hair braider in New York City: 900
Hours of training required to become a New York City emergency medical technician: 117
7/97Lines of Walt Whitman poetry entered as evidence last year in New York’s dispute with New Jersey over Ellis Island: 37
12/98Price that New York City’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum charges for an evening in a turn-of-the-century kitchen: $750
12/98Estimated number of Japanese who have taken a “ gospel and rhythm ” class this year at Harlem’s Memorial Baptist Church: 300
2/98Ratio of NBC’s budget for the next season of ER to the annual budget of New York’s Bellevue Hospital: 1:1
3/98Percentage change in murder, rape, and robbery cases in New York City since the election of Rudolph Giuliani: -44
7/98Chance that a New Yorker cut from state welfare rolls in 1997’s first quarter was employed within 3 months: 1 in 3
7/98Minimum amount per 3-month period a former New York welfare recipient may earn and be considered “employed”: $100
7/98Number of city and state agencies suing New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over his withholding of public records: 4
1/99Price that Manhattan’s new NBA boutique charges for a Waterford crystal vase engraved with an image of Larry Bird: $8,000
12/99Number of objects in the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection that are made with human dung: 4
12/99Number of toxic spills reported within one mile of the Clintons ‘ new house in Chappaqua, New York: 43
12/99Estimated revenue that the U.N. generates each year for New York City: $3,300,000,000
2/99Number of products licensed last year by the New York entrepreneur who trademarked the sequence 01-01-00: 1,000
4/99Miles per hour at which a New York TV station clocked a police van driving Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to lunch last year: 75
6/99Amount New York’s Department of Corrections spent last year on estrogen for 61 inmates who want a sex change: $9,000
8/99Days it took Eleanor Roosevelt that year to decline an invitation to run for U.S. senator from New York: 5
9/99Number of years since an elected New York City mayor went on to win higher office: 131
1/00Chance that a New York State resident in 1776 was a slave: 1 in 7
1/00Chance that an African American who is a New York State resident today lives below the poverty level: 1 in 4
1/00Number of New York City children issued Civil Defense dog tags by 1952 to identify them after a nuclear attack: 2,500,000
10/00Percentage by which 11 million unexplained lobster deaths reduced Long Island Sound’s lobster harvest last fall: 90
12/00Factor by which Texas’s incarceration rate has increased since 1990 for every 1 percent drop in its crime rate: 4
Factor by which New York’s incarceration rate has increased since then for every 1 percent drop in its crime rate: 0.7
2/00Percentage of New Yorkers who say they have already decided which Senate candidate to vote for in November: 92
2/00Rank of self-inflicted wounds among the top injuries for which teenage girls were hospitalized in New York State in 1998: 1
Rank of assault among the top causes of injuries for which teenage boys were hospitalized that year: 1
2/00Estimated profit earned by New York State last year on collect calls made by prisoners: $21,000,000
3/00Percentage of “born again” New Yorkers who have said they will vote for Hillary Clinton for senator: 44
4/00Number of former welfare recipients New York City trained since last April to work as phone psychics: 15
7/00Rank of Manhattan among New York State counties using the largest amount of pesticide in 1997: 1
7/00Average annual number of civilians killed by New York City police under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani: 23
9/00Average number of new homes built each day in New York’s East Hampton last year: 0.93
10/01Number of staff members fired from New York’s nonprofit WBAI-FM since December and banned from its premises: 12
Number of surveillance cameras installed at WBAI’s studios in May to monitor remaining employees: 8
10/01Number of George W. Bush Halloween masks sold nationwide last year by a New York distributor: 15,811
11/01Ratio of New York bird deaths last summer attributed to West Nile virus to those attributed to pollution: 2:3
11/01Percentage of Manhattan’s population killed during the cholera epidemic of 1832: 50
2/01Percentage change in the annual number of Roman Catholic priests ordained in Brooklyn and Queens since 1980: -92
4/01Declared value of the jewelry stolen from rapper Prodigy last December after he left a music-video shoot in Queens: $343,000
4/01Pounds of paper used to produce 400 hard copies of New York City’s report on the Fresh Kills landfill’s closing: 14,800
5/01Estimated number of “crush films” involving live rodents and high-heeled women seized from a New York man in 1999: 70
1/02Percentage of Navy recruits from the New York City area last year who were green-card holders: 40
12/02Organizers’ estimated attendance at this fall’s largest peace rallies in London and New York, respectively: 400,000, 25,000
Estimated attendance according to police in each city: 150,000, 12,000
Number of estimates cited in each rally’s coverage in the London Times and the New York Times, respectively: 2, 0
12/02Minutes that service on two New York subway lines was halted this fall after a Sikh worker was seen emerging from a hatch: 92
2/02Total annualized percentage return on New York City’s stock markets on perfectly sunny days between 1982 and 1997: +25
2/02Minimum percentage of votes in each New York City election since 1988 not counted due to mechanical or human error: 3
Number of May Day demonstrators the city prosecuted last June for “masquerading in public”: 12
5/02Number of Manhattan’s 123 Starbucks outlets that are within two blocks of another one: 68
6/02Date on which the first CD of the Brooklyn rock band I Am the World Trade Center was released: 5/8/01
2/03Number of years the New York Police Department’s new Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence worked for the CIA: 35
8/04Chance that a member of New York’s Army National Guard was in Iraq in June: 1 in 4
8/04Maximum voltage New York City’s main post office will deliver to pigeons during the Republican convention: 8,000
9/04Percentage of New York City residents it would take to fill every inch of pavement in midtown Manhattan: 6
1/05Hours after Kerry conceded that a New Yorker posted a personal ad seeking a Bush supporter for a “fair, physical fight”: 5
Number who asked to watch: 9
9/05Average percentage of students in New York State’s majority-white school districts who graduate in four years: 79
1/06Tons of waste produced by New York City each year: 8,500,000
3/06Portion of New York Senate districts that would not meet the minimum population level without their inmates: 1/9
5/07Number of suits filed against Rudy Giuliani between 1994 and 2001 by the New York Civil Liberties Union: 34
8/07Number of U.N. staffers in New York who still have full-time jobs monitoring Iraq for weapons of mass destruction: 34
Date on which the U.S. first proposed a Security Council resolution to disband the monitoring team: 6/8/07
1/08Estimated number of tons of CO2 released on New Year’s Eve from all the champagne bottles uncorked by Americans: 8
Number of minutes it takes all 13,000 New York City cabs to release this much: 7
4/08Minimum number of homicides committed in the last full seasons of the three Law & Order TV shows: 83
4/08Estimated number of wild New York City pigeons illegally caught and sold to shooting clubs each year: 144,000
2/09Pounds of ice, sculpted into the word economy, that artists used last fall to create a “literal meltdown” in Manhattan: 1,500
2/09Standard hourly rate at Manhattan’s Liberty Inn, whose slogan is “Your Rendezvous for Romance”: $30