The state is noted for its superb transportation systems – air, rail, road and sea. It has more than 500 airports, including New York City’s JFK International Airport. The Port of New York/New Jersey is one of the world’s leading ports and there are sea passages via the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway. New Yorkers enjoy good telecommunications and a wide range of housing options in a variety of towns and cities in a varied landscape. Healthcare is superb and includes well-known hospitals and medical research centres. Overall, the state is culturally diverse.
New York offers a wide range of entertainment options that include Long Island, miles of beaches and nautical amenities, historic landmarks and excellent resort areas in the Catskill and Hudson Valley areas. The Albany-Saratoga region, the state’s capital, is well known for the Saratoga Race Course and its spa. The Adirondacks mountain region has 46 high peaks and more than 3000 lakes. The Thousand Island-Seaway region is known for breathtaking scenery and good fishing. The Central-Leatherstocking region has the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Finger Lakes and Niagara Falls regions offer breathtaking scenery.
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CITY OF THE FUTURE: BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Boston has come a long way since rebel colonists threw British tea into its harbour. In 2004, of the state of Massachusetts’ $287.8bn GDP, $67.4bn was attributable to Boston. Indicating Boston’s strength, last year several new companies relocated there, among them Merck, Satcon and Immunetics.
Employees are well paid and well educated with 36% of citizens holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. Boston offers 21 university-level institutions running bachelor’s degrees or higher courses. The Boston metro has 74 university-level schools, including six of the top 60 national universities, according to US News & World Report. The city is also home to innovative school programmes like Boston Latin and the O’Bryant School of Math and Science.
Boston is the major transport hub for the region. Logan International Airport served more than 26 million passengers in 2004. South Station is the terminus for Amtrak’s most prominent route, the Acela Express. There were about 792,600 one-way passenger trips taken daily on Boston’s mass transit and commuter rail service in FY04. The city has also made vast improvements to its highway traffic problems with the completion of the Big Dig, an award-winning bridge and tunnel project. About 68% of households own a cell phone, and 2004 figures for Massachusetts as a whole showed 32.2% of its households carrying broadband.
Boston’s median sale price for single family homes was $333,000 in 2003. The median advertised rent in 2003 was $1500 per month for one, two and three bedroom apartments. The city is a leading medical and biotech centre, nationally and globally, and outranks all other US cities in National Institute of Health (NIH) grant awards ($1.2bn in FY01).
Boston is especially known as an intellectual and historical capital and a new city of champions. Two of its four regional sports teams won their league titles in 2004. World-renowned museums and cultural venues, like the Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, are among the many recreational facilities available.
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