By Lucas Compan

In the 2000s, New York City was the place to be. It was the decade when rock was having a revival moment and was fueling everything. There were The Strokes, there was Interpol, there were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Walkmen – there were all these cool, really good New York bands and they were all always hanging around with each other. The year of 2000 was also the last year of the Twin Towers. And The High Line was still just an abandoned suspended train track. Let's dive a little deeper into New York City during the 2000s.

1 – The day that changed the world

Then, 9/11 happened in 2001. And after that, it seemed like a lot changed in the life of New York. There was a sense of "the world's gonna end at any minute so live it up."

Life

Death

Resilience

Rebirth

Watch a quick video on the top of the twin towers (2000)

2 – From Freights to Flowers

The High Line in May 2000 (Image above credit: New York City Department of Parks & Recreation). Repurposing of the railway into an urban park began construction in 2006, with the first phase opening in 2009 (picture below). The second phase opening in 2011. The third and final phase officially opened to the public on September 21, 2014. Explore The High Line.

Enjoy this quick live video from The High Line

3 – New Yankee in town

On February 17, 2009, the new Yankee Stadium was born. A view of new Yankee Stadium (below) next to old Yankee Stadium (second image). 

4 – Drop the knife and fork. Tony Soprano is on

In the 2000s, when the mob melodrama ''The Sopranos'' sang its seasonal swan song – inducing withdrawal agita among millions of the show's hopelessly addicted viewers – more than a few sighs of relief will be heard. Specifically, from restaurateurs and movie-house owners who have taken, um, a hit on Sunday nights during the 13-week HBO series. At that time, online streaming video providers did not exist yet.

''I'll be glad when it's over,'' said William Lee, the Sunday manager of Bill Hong, the Cantonese restaurant on East 56th Street in Manhattan. ''People seem to want to get out of here by 9, to see the show. Actually, our seating is pretty much done by 8.''

Wounded as he is overall by the Soprano Effect, Mr. Lee has nevertheless picked up a few diners for the show. He is host to what may be the most famous weekly Sopranos party in Manhattan: his restaurant was usually where Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (107th Mayor of New York City) gathers with several friends, including Judith Nathan, for a pre-show meal. ''Every Sunday, before 9, there is a mass evacuation from the restaurant,'' said Mr. Lee.

5 – Sugar factory, a landmark in Brooklyn

The Domino Sugar Refinery is a former refinery in the neighborhood of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City. It was the original refinery of the American Sugar Refining Company, which produced Domino brand sugar. The current complex dates from 1882, when it was the largest sugar refinery in the world. Dating back to 1856, the Domino Sugar Refinery was once the largest and most productive sugar refinery in the world. At its peak of productivity, it refined 4 million pounds of sugar daily. This site was the “jewel in the crown” of the Domino Sugar empire that at one point produced up to 98% of the sugar consumed in the United States.

As a result of economic, political and global changes, industrial activity in Brooklyn began to drop off dramatically beginning in the 1950s. Closing its doors in 2004, the Domino Sugar Refinery was the last major active industrial operation on Brooklyn’s once bustling East River waterfront. As of 2012 the property is slated for multi-use development. Several of the buildings in the complex were given landmark status in 2007.

The revamped Domino Sugar Refinery building, which is in the process of being transformed into a 380,000-square-foot office space. Domino Factory Park has opened to the public on June 10, 2018. Click here to learn more about this new park in Brooklyn.

Now take a look at how it looked like before the redesign

6 – The 24/7 new entertainment devices

The 2000s brought breakthroughs in technology and media. Apple changed the way we enjoy entertainment with the iPod and later, revolutionized the way we communicate and receive information with the iPhone. Now, users can connect with the rest of the world in real time and news became trending live events. With YouTube and Facebook came stronger information and personal accounts, and citizen journalism was born.

7 – Google New York

In 2000, Google New York starts in a Starbucks on 86th Street with a one-person sales "team."

Today, more than 4,000 Googlers work in our New York office, a former Port Authority building at 111 Eighth Avenue.

The web search titan dropped $1.9 billion to acquire one of the largest and most historic buildings in all of the Big Apple. At nearly 3 million square feet, 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority building, sits like a beached, red-brick cruise ship overlooking New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. The building is so big, in fact, that it has elevators large enough to accommodate 18-wheel semi-trucks.

8 – The next level of street art

Jonathan Levine Gallery sponsored event 10 Years of Wooster Collective: 2003-2013, a group exhibition featuring over 50 local and international street artists. The temporary space located in the Chelsea district was curated by Marc and Sara Schiller, and featured works highlighting the ephemeral art scene ever-present in the five boroughs of New York.Wooster Collective was founded in 2001 with a genuine desire to share images of the city being transformed by street art with the rest of the world. The website woostercollective.com followed in 2003, and has seen a rise in popularity by organizing such monumental events such as 11 Spring Street, an art exhibition in an abandoned building with The New York Times named as one of the top art exhibits of the year.

In the aftermath of September 11, Marc Schiller walked around taking photographs of the art he found along the streets of his Soho neighborhood. In 2003, Schiller and his wife, Sara, created Wooster Collective, one of the first online celebrations of street art.

The blog blossomed, and other websites devoted to promoting and cataloging street art around the world sprang up. Today, amateur and professional photographers alike post their street art finds to Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest, and elsewhere, just about every artist worth his or her Sharpie has a website, and mainstream media like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal regularly cover street art, largely due to the influence of Wooster Collective. 

9 – The first female senator from New York City

The United States Senate election in New York in 2000 was held on November 7, 2000. Hillary Rodham Clinton, former First Lady of the United States and the first First Lady to run for political office, defeated Congressman Rick Lazio. HillaryClinton was elected in 2000 as the first female senator from New York. She is originally from Chicago, Illinois.

10 – The Mayor and the subway

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg reads one of his newspapers during his subway ride to City Hall in this file photo taken in 2002. He is public transportation’s loudest cheerleader, boasting that he takes the subway “virtually every day.” He has told residents who complain about overcrowded trains to “get real” and he constantly encourages New Yorkers to follow his environmentally friendly example. Bloomberg has said that he is energized by the city's tough fiscal times and in fact that he probably wouldn't even want to govern a prosperous city.

Michael Rubens "Mike" Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, author, politician, and philanthropist. His net worth is estimated at US$43.3 billion, as of October 2016, ranking him as the 6th richest person in the United States and the 8th richest person in the world. Bloomberg served as the 108th Mayor of New York City, holding office for three consecutive terms, beginning with his first election in 2001.

11 – New York City garage rock resurgence

In the early days of the new millennium, a movement that had been percolating for a while started to take form and burst onto the scene in New York City. In a broad sense, you could call it the NYC rock revival, or resurgence, or early-’2000s rock boom. At the time, garage-rock revival, retro-rock revival, post-punk revival, and dance-punk were all monikers used liberally, and all were things that fell under the larger umbrella of the movement. The Strokes, The Walkmen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol are just a few examples of this youthful, stylish brand of rock music of the New York City garage rock scene at that time.

12 – People first

New York is the top #1 city in the United States with car-free households. Also, it is the top #1 city in the country hosting tourists, 63+ million in 2017 alone. 

In May 2009, Pedestrian Malls were created at Times Square and Herald Square on Broadway. Beginning on May 22, 2009, New York City’s Broadway was closed to vehicle traffic for five blocks at Times Square, turning part of the "Crossroads of the World" into a pedestrian mall with cafe tables and benches.

A second promenade was created at Herald Square where Macy's, the world’s largest store, dominates the intersection. The plan is part of an experiment to create open spaces for tourists and make the city even more pedestrian friendly. The first section of the High Line, from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street, opened June 9. The unique public park, built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side, offers spectacular views.

Top hits from the 2000s

Related stories

Share