Episode 3 New York: America's Busiest City

The world's most famous skyline,

a symbol of ambition, success and wealth.

Welcome to New York.

We're going to show you how this city works.

We've gained privileged access

to some of New York's most iconic places.

We're revealing the hidden systems and armies of workers that

keep everything on track.

WHISTLE BLOWS

This time, we're in Central Park.

A quarter of a million visitors are heading this way.

A green oasis surrounded by some of the world's most expensive housing.

Tonight, we investigate the sky-high price of property

in this crowded city.

Journalist Ade Adepitan goes house-hunting in Harlem.

If it's a house that needs renovation, three million.

-If it's done, it's four to five million.

-That is incredible.

Engineer Ant Anstead discovers even thin air comes at a price.

-You spent 1 billion and you didn't get any land?

-Correct.

I get the lowdown from the locals about the best...

It's the most wonderful place on earth. So good, they named it twice.

..and worst things about living here.

My rent doubled overnight.

And historian Dan Snow gets into deep water on Coney Island.

-So the ocean came in round the back?

-Yes. It flooded the entire area.

This is your access-all-areas pass to American's biggest and busiest city.

Welcome to Central Park, New York's most famous green space,

all 843 glorious acres of it.

It cuts a swathe through the map of Manhattan,

two and a half miles long and half a mile wide.

It's 7am, the sun's rising,

it's warming up and the park is heading towards its busiest hours.

We're here right through to 3pm,

when it'll reach its peak visitor numbers.

This is the city's back yard, where New Yorkers come to relax.

But keeping this place relaxing is far from a walk in the park.

More than twice the size of London's Regent's Park,

this is America's most visited urban park.

At this time of day, it looks serene, but preparing this place for

its 42 million annual visitors is an enormous and costly logistical

operation involving 375 full-time staff.

And they start early.

The first and one of the most important jobs in the park is

handled by Gary Gentilucci and his team.

-Gary, who's your team? What do you do?

-We're the turf crew.

-Yes.

-Hello, turf crew.

-How you doing?

The turf team's super-sized task is mowing all 300 acres of lawn

across the park.

In a few hours, this one, Sheep Meadow,

will be packed with close to 2,000 picnickers.

I have to say, I'm looking at your lawn

and it is beautifully maintained.

And then human beings just come and ruin it.

That's OK. That's what it's there for.

It's going to get used but we're going to take care of it, and that's what the turf crew does.

So how many times a week do you have to mow the lawns?

Something like Sheep Meadow here gets mowed twice a week.

Our goal is to mow every lawn at least once a week.

Well, let's talk about this fantastic piece of kit that you've got here.

-Is it comfortable?

-Very comfortable. See? Air-assisted seats.

Air-conditioned, state-of-the-art mower.

And what's the top speed?

-About 8-10 miles on it.

-Even though it goes eight miles an hour, you want to go

a little bit slower, you want to let the machine work for itself.

The slower you go, nice carpet comes out when you mow.

If you're going fast, you're going to leave little blades of grass,

so the slower, the better.

Well, you'd better get on with it, because you've got a lot of grass to cut. So let's...

-Off he goes.

-Get out there.

This team are a crucial part of the park's complex organisational jigsaw.

It's divided into 49 separate zones, each overseen by a manager.

The specialist teams work across all areas, looking after the lawns,

monuments, lakes and ponds, trees and sports fields.

-So this is a softball field?

-This is a softball field, that's right.

-So you have to tidy these every morning?

-Every morning.

-What do I need to do?

-All right. Let's see.

What you want to do is you want to use the back end of that rake

and take the excess clay here.

You just push it right on in there, yep.

So how many of these pitches are there in the park?

-There are 26 ball fields in Central Park.

-And they're all done by hand?

They're all done by hand and we also have

a machine that'll go around and do the bigger areas as well.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to do each field.

How many games do you reckon there will be?

-Today, we have about 170 games booked.

-There's 170 games?

-Correct.

So the guys that are playing first this morning,

when would they have booked?

They would probably have booked some time in the winter.

-So it's really prestigious to play here?

-Absolutely.

Would you want to play anywhere else?

I guess it's pretty amazing, isn't it?

Sports arena, leisure space, cultural hub.

In a few hours, this park will play many roles for its visitors.

But it wasn't part of the original plan for the city.

Manhattan's famous grid system was set out back in 1811

and is known as the Commissioners' Plan.

Laid out long before the city was fully populated,

it created a blueprint for New York's development.

But it had one major flaw - no large open spaces.

By the mid 19th century, New York's rapid development meant

living conditions in Lower Manhattan were overcrowded and unhealthy.

Cramped tenements provided the perfect breeding ground for disease

and were hotbeds of criminality and violence.

It was thought a park would solve these

social and public health issues.

In 1853, the city government set aside a rocky,

sparsely populated area in the north of the city for development.

Journalist Frederick Law Olmsted and English-born architect Calvert Vaux

won the competition to build there.

Their design, the Greensward Plan,

was influenced by the landscape paintings

of the Hudson River school of artists.

Creating spaces that mimicked the countryside but inside the city

was an innovation in park design.

Construction began in 1858.

It took a team of over 4,000 people more than 16 years

to turn Olmsted and Vaux's vision into a reality.

And their legacy is plain to see across all 843 acres.

This park is so natural, it's like it's been here for ever.

But one of the strangest things about it is that it hasn't.

It's pretty much man-made. It's manufactured wildlife, if you like.

It's like a Disneyland.

One of the only things that has been here for more than 200 years

is this, the bedrock of the city.

It's called the Manhattan schist.

Even the seven water bodies, all 150 acres of it,

is plugged in to the New York water mains.

And some of that water is flowing into this beautiful waterfall.

And a woman with a fantastic job is horticulturalist Shanna Blanchard.

-Hello.

-Shanna, shatter the illusion. Where's the water coming from?

-Crouch down just a little bit. It's just this light pipe.

-Oh, that's it?

-That's it.

-An ordinary garden pipe.

-Exactly.

-It's clean, it's a very natural illusion.

-It's impressive.

-It is impressive.

-Very fancy water feature.

Where are we? Put us into context. Where in the park are we?

We are in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary,

which is a four-acre woodland at the south end of the park.

And if I look this way, it's like a beautiful, lovely park,

and this way, you've got Manhattan.

-Skyscrapers, exactly.

-So there's no hiding from it.

-No!

Why was this place created?

This was created as a woodland,

so something to immerse yourself in the natural world.

We've planted a lot of native species in here to create habitat

for all of our nonhuman users,

so thinking about birds, butterflies, bees, wasps et cetera.

-And what birds come into this place?

-We get tons and tons of species.

I think, at a certain point, around 230 species of birds

have been counted collectively in the park.

So we have some beautiful egrets and herons that like to make their

home here, which is fantastic.

And how many trees do you have in the park as a whole, not just in here?

In the park as a whole, about 20,000.

And then, within that 20,000, about 195 species.

-Incredible.

-Which is amazing.

And then, beyond that, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

of different species of herbaceous plants and shrubs.

What are the challenges of maintaining somewhere this beautiful

and this natural in an urban environment?

The human impact does create a lot of challenges, you know.

If you have ten people on this trail then they're, at some point,

going to step on the plants that we've been lovingly maintaining.

-So, on the one hand, it's created for public consumption...

-Which is great.

-..but we have to use it with respect.

-And that's why we're here.

It's 8am.

Early visitors are arriving in the park, enjoying the quiet.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, keep your focus here on the start line.

But two miles north, at the 102nd Street entrance,

it's a very different story.

We are inspired to see so many LGBT runners and allies

running in the name of equality.

Here, the first of today's 55 events is about to start,

another logistical challenge for the park team.

I'm here with Jamie Warren, and you oversee all the major events

that go on through the park all over the year.

First of all, tell me, what is going on here today?

So, this morning we're here with New York Road Runners

for their annual Front Runners race.

It's a five-mile race around the park with probably 5,000 participants.

These folks have been here since probably two o'clock this morning,

setting up water stations, medical stations, start line, finish line,

making sure that everything is ready to go, so that when these people

cross the start line, everything is taken care of.

So just a small undertaking, you don't have to do that much,

-you know, two o'clock in the morning...

-Piece of cake!

Is it just fun runs you do?

What other major events do you do in the park?

Throughout the year, we probably have events...

around 3,000 events a year that are permanent.

-3,000 events?

-3,000.

We have events that range from birthday parties and weddings

that might have 20 people,

all the way to things like the New York City Marathon,

which has 50,000 runners cross the finish line in Central Park,

our great lawn concerts, which can see 60,000 people,

400 film and photography shoots throughout the year.

I mean, it just goes on and on. It doesn't end here.

If you're going to see it anywhere, you're going to see it here.

It's a real important hub for the whole of the city, isn't it?

What keeps you up at night?

What do you worry about, Jamie, when it comes to an event like this?

I think the thing that keeps me up most at night

is probably the weather.

We have days where we've got thunderstorms and blizzards and...

It's something that we have no control over

but can have a serious effect on an event.

It can also have a really great effect, like this morning.

It's cool, it's sunny, there's not a cloud in the sky. This is ideal.

These 5,000 runners are only a small proportion of

today's 250,000 visitors.

Collectively, they will leave behind more than ten tonnes of rubbish.

And, like everything in Central Park,

even the rubbish collection is planned with military precision.

I'm with Nick Marotta on his daily round.

Are we doing these ones here?

-Yes, we are.

-Oh, right.

-Can I use the pincers?

-Yes, you can.

-Lovely.

How many of these bins are there around the park, do you reckon?

-Oh, there are hundreds around the park.

-Literally hundreds?

Yes, they're all over the place.

-So how big's the area that you're responsible for?

-I do 59th to 72nd Street.

-It's about a quarter of the park.

-That's a massive area.

-Yes, it is.

And how many people help you?

We have approximately 20 people in the park help us,

along with six packer drivers.

Right. So how many bags, then, will you do, I don't know, in a day?

-Roughly about 1,000 bags a day.

-1,000 a day?

-If not more.

-So where's the bag go now?

-Well, the bag is going to go...

we have right now is going to go into the cart.

-OK.

-And then we'll transport it.

Easy.

-I mean, that's a lot of rubbish.

-Yes, it is.

-So how many times will you do that bin a day?

-Five to ten times a day.

-Ten times?

-Yes.

20 people on the rubbish team patrol the pathways on golf buggies.

They collect the rubbish and take it to one of seven drop zones

on the main Park Drive.

From there, one of three trucks collects it

and ships it out of the park.

And this is just a fraction of the 2,000 tonnes of rubbish that

comes out of Central Park each year.

Perhaps the least glamorous job in the park, but one of the most vital.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

On your mark...

It's 8.30am and the runners are off.

AIR HORN SOUNDS

Happy Pride, everybody. Enjoy your run.

I'll be out there with you today.

The fastest will take just 24 minutes

to get around the park's perimeter road.

Now, as these runners make their way around the park, they're going to be

running past some of the most expensive property in the world.

And just to give you an idea of HOW expensive,

if you want an apartment round here, be prepared to fork out

anything up to 5,000 per square foot, which is around 3,500 quid.

It's similar to what you'd pay to live in some of the poshest

parts of London.

And because of that,

this area has always attracted the rich and famous.

John Lennon had an apartment in the Dakota building,

Sting and Denzel Washington still live around this area.

Oh, and a certain Donald Trump has got a small, not very

spectacular place, just a little two-up-two-down number around here.

New York's property prices are as high as its skyline.

A penthouse apartment in this block, just south of Central Park,

sold in 2013 for 95 million.

If you can't afford that,

you still need deep pockets to buy in Manhattan.

The average sale price for an apartment is over 2 million

and for a luxury townhouse it's a minimum of ten.

This supercharged market has spawned specialist high-end estate agents.

Paula Del Nunzio is one of an elite group who sell houses

to some of the wealthiest people on earth.

This particular house was designed by a woman named Penny Bradley,

who was actually British.

This six-storey townhouse on the Upper East Side

bordering Central Park is on the market for 22.5 million.

You can see the attention to detail she brought to bear.

Then she got a faux-painter to come in and disguise the plugs, which

she's put quite a few places, but you can't see them unless you look.

Paula specialises in luxury townhouses and

has sold 1.2 billion worth of them in the last ten years.

In the rear, we have a very large living room with its own fireplace

and three tall windows.

She holds the current record for selling the city's most

expensive house, the Harkness Mansion,

21,000 square feet of opulence

located on the Upper East Side, which went for 53 million.

Paula knows exactly what

her demanding clients expect in their homes.

This is the very important elevator. And then this is the dining room.

Beautiful view of Japanese plum trees.

63% of the UK's housing stock is owner-occupied

but here it's a different story.

Just 25% own their own place.

There are only 200,000 privately owned homes in Manhattan,

which creates a supply problem at the very top of the market.

If you have a constant influx of people coming into Manhattan

from different countries, as the wealth moves around in the world,

there'll always be a somewhat limited supply.

And that will always keep the market fairly strong,

no matter what the kerfuffles are along the way.

In this global market, asking prices are up 17% on last year

and can sound more like telephone numbers than real figures.

This one is the opportunity to acquire this building right here

for 49.5 million.

This is 35 million.

This one's only 29.9 but it requires renovation.

At the moment, I have 11 houses and about six apartments

for a total of 359 million.

This does not include, however, other properties that I can

make available to a very qualified customer.

These are things that are not officially being marketed

but the seller has come to me

and said, "If you can get me 90 million, I'll show it."

These prices are beyond the reach of everyone

but the top 0.1% of earners in the world.

My particular clients have been people that run hedge funds

who are exceedingly demanding, they are able usually to finance what

they want, but they have little time and little attention to devote to it.

And Paula's clients are always on the lookout

for the next big status symbol.

Like the apartments in this 43-floor block

on the banks of the East River.

So now we're in 50 United Nations Plaza.

This three-bedroom,

3,000-square-foot home is a relative bargain at 8 million.

Typically the kind of person who buys here is going to buy it all cash.

Nearly half of those who invest in new developments are foreign buyers

and purchasing in cash isn't unusual.

Views like this can easily bump up prices by 20%.

The better the view, the higher the premium.

At the moment we are about here, at a cost of approximately 7-10 million.

If we travel up the building to the top

we can have a penthouse at 70 million.

The 88 apartments that make up this building are nearly all sold.

And in this global marketplace, for the super-rich it's a good bet

that New York's real-estate values will continue to rise.

The cost of some of those properties is absolutely staggering,

but I've got another figure for you, even more impressive.

We asked an estate agent to put a price tag on Central Park.

Not that it can be sold, but it would go for 1.2 trillion.

That's a thousand billion, or 12 zeros. Get your head around that one.

You can understand why.

It's in the centre of Manhattan and it's a lovely place to be.

But in the '70s it was a very different story.

-NEWSREEL:

-Central Park, right in the middle of Manhattan.

An ideal place to retreat from the way the city assaults the senses.

The only problem is, it's not safe.

In 1974 more than 700 crimes were committed here.

This included robbery and murder.

That's the kid we got this morning.

He robbed that minibike, I think. That's the one we seen this morning.

As the city teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, there was

no money to spend on policing or managing the park.

It was covered in graffiti, lights and benches were broken

and the lakes and ponds were badly polluted.

It's hard to believe we're in the same place, isn't it?

Well, I'm joined by one of the men who was instrumental in

turning it into this gorgeous haven that we see now, and that is the CEO

and president of the Central Park Conservancy, Doug Blonsky.

-Doug, just how bad was it in the '70s and '80s?

-Oh, it was pretty scary.

I came here in 1980 on a school trip

and I can remember vividly walking into the park.

There were more rats than there were people and the bridges and arches

were covered with graffiti, the Great Lawn was

a dust bowl and it actually was called the Great Dust Bowl.

And the thing that really caught us the most was the Belvedere Castle,

which is the visitor centre now, was basically covered with graffiti,

locked up, boarded up and had razor wire around it.

It was dreadful.

Even growing up in the UK, we knew, oh, you can't walk

from one side of Central Park to the other without getting mugged.

But I think that's what saved the park, actually.

It was so bad, it was so scary that something had to be done.

So how did you go about changing that?

-What was the first thing that happened?

-You know what happened?

In the mid '70s, early to mid '70s, a few groups started popping up,

you know, citizens' groups,

private individuals that said, "We can't deal with this,"

and then there were two really dominant groups,

the Central Park Community Fund and the Central Park Task Force,

that were just two volunteer organisations

coming in and doing work.

And in 1979 the parks commissioner said, "You know something?

"We've got to get together."

So that's what really began the creation of the Central Park Conservancy in 1980

and it was really an organisation that said,

"Go out and raise money, because we're not giving you any."

The city wasn't. "And start taking the park back."

Always with the premise that the park belonged to the public.

It's the city's park.

Today, Central Park is one of the safest places in New York.

Last year 86 crimes were reported -

an 88% decrease on its figures in the '70s.

Policing the park is another essential behind-the-scenes operation.

And they don't use your standard cop car.

New York Parks has got its own specialist mounted division.

It helps keep the park a low-crime area.

The person in charge is Sgt Desree Fazalari.

She should be getting ready to go out on patrol.

-Hi, Sarge.

-Hi, how are you?

-Good.

-So who's this guy?

-This is Atlas. He's about nine years old.

-God, he's massive, isn't he?

-Yes, he is.

-And he's a little bit feisty today.

-Just a little bit.

'Atlas and his colleague Justice live in this purpose-built stable

'at the south end of the park.

'They're about to head out on their 11am patrol.'

Have you two worked together long?

Atlas and I have worked together for about three years.

-So you're pretty good friends?

-We're pretty good friends.

We know each other very well.

-And has he got you out of a few scrapes?

-He has.

He has indeed got me out of a few issues and problems

that we've had here in the park.

So what's the idea of patrolling Central Park on horseback?

One of the ideas is the horses give us an advantage to be able to

see throughout the park that maybe an officer on the ground or in a vehicle

couldn't necessarily see themselves because they're lower to the ground.

And it also gives us the advantage of going places where they

might not be able to go.

So what are the main problems the park's got?

Some of the main problems inside of Central Park are littering,

drinking in public, which here in America is illegal.

We also deal with issues where people need aid.

As first responders we are generally the first people on scene.

We are trained in CPR and first aid as well as we're able to

call an ambulance if absolutely necessary.

How long do you reckon you and Atlas could get round the park on a patrol?

On a short patrol we could probably get throughout the entire park in an hour and a half.

Through a thorough patrol we could probably do four to five hours.

-Right. Well, I'd better let you get on with it.

-All right.

-See you, Atlas.

-Have a good day.

As they begin today's patrol,

the park is full of people,

all blissfully unaware of the morning's careful preparations

for their arrival.

Games are in full swing on the ball fields I helped to prepare earlier.

And thousands of people are picnicking and playing on

the lawn Gary's turf crew mowed first thing this morning.

You can see everyone's so chilled out and it really feels like

this is a place that New Yorkers see as their back garden.

Now, if Central Park is where New Yorkers come to relax,

then Coney Island is where they've always gone to let their hair down.

Dan went over there to trace its roller-coaster ride through history.

13 miles south of the park,

Coney Island has been New York's playground for almost 200 years.

-How are you doing?

-Hello. Welcome to Nathan's.

-Thank you.

-Can I get two original?

-There you go.

-Thank you very much.

-And where's the ketchup and stuff?

-Right behind you.

-Ketchup and mustard.

-Thanks very much.

If there's one place that shows the city's ability

to weather the storms of recent history,

it's here.

Like the rest of New York City,

the early 20th century was boom time for Coney Island.

On a lovely hot summer's day when the sun was out

100,000 people would flock to this beach.

-NEWSREEL:

-Coney Island, the world's greatest fun frolic,

with its beach, miles long, all peppered with people.

It cost just five cents to get here on the subway from Manhattan -

affordable for everyone.

Folks who are just like all of us, all refugees from the city heat,

here where the beach meets the cool Atlantic.

Family-friendly amusements rub shoulders with more dubious

forms of entertainment.

Hurry, hurry, step this way.

Freaks from the four corners of the world.

But Coney Island's greatest eating invention is the frankfurter.

For it was here that the hot dog was born.

There we go. Mustard for you.

One man who remembers those days is local legend Jimmy Prince,

a butcher here for 60 years.

What was it like here on the boardwalk?

Oh, it was absolutely fantastic.

I mean, it was just so energised.

There was so many people, so much going on.

But the glory days didn't last.

Like the rest of the city, the '70s and '80s were a dark time here.

The neighbourhood itself started to get a little shabby,

a lot of crime and prostitution and drinking and it just...

You just didn't want to see this happen.

Coney Islanders like Dennis Vourderis and his family

refused to give in.

-You in first.

-OK, thank you.

-OK.

Whoa! That was fun.

My family has been in Coney Island since 1966.

My mom and dad started as food vendors on the boardwalk many

years ago and, you know, we always thought Coney Island had a huge

potential and we invested heavily into Coney Island.

Not only our time and our labour and our sweat but our own money as well.

When everyone else was getting out,

Dennis's dad sank his cash into this amusement park,

getting the run-down but much-loved Wonder Wheel as part of the deal.

When the Wonder Wheel became available for sale

my dad jumped on it right away and bought it in 1983.

It was in pretty bad shape so he thought it was an excellent

opportunity to get in.

We began working on it right away and restoring it,

repainting it and rebuilding it.

It was declared officially a New York City landmark in 1989.

Coney Island's gradual renaissance was supported by

140 million of city investment,

but its rebirth came to an abrupt end.

MUSIC: BBC News Theme

America's East Coast prepares for Hurricane Sandy -

nine states declare an emergency.

Sandy was a nightmare. It's something we want to forget.

That night was very ugly.

The Atlantic Ocean came up from behind,

around the bend, and came up from the Coney Island Creek.

So, the ocean came in, but round the back?

Yes, and flooded the entire area.

So, after the tough years that this place has endured,

that was another bitter blow.

It was, but it gave many of us a new start.

Coney Island rebuilt, again, at a cost of a further 2 billion.

It's now attracting a record number of visitors.

I have a huge respect for the resilience this place has shown.

There is a powerful sense here that the best days lie ahead,

and it's that optimism, that energy, that makes this one of the

most exciting places in the world.

ANITA: It's lunchtime.

The two restaurants, four snack bars and dozens of pushcarts

are doing a roaring trade.

This year, they'll contribute 3 million towards

the running of the park.

It's a vital contribution and today some of that money is funding

the restoration of a very famous feature.

Maintaining the 56 monuments within the park is a mammoth task.

The lady in charge is Marie.

-Hi. How are you?

-Hi. Good.

So, there's a lot of activity going on. What are the guys doing?

So, we're performing annual maintenance on

the Alice In Wonderland sculpture,

and what this team of five interns is doing is applying

a hot wax treatment to the bronze.

What the wax will do is protect the bronze from the elements.

-So they're using a flame-thrower?

-Yeah.

So, they need to heat up the surface of the bronze in order

so they can apply the wax and it can really impregnate the surface.

So, how long will that protection last?

Well, lasts about a year.

We do this every year to all of the monuments,

and this monument in particular gets a kind of special attention,

in part because it is considered a play sculpture.

So, it's a monument that children can actually climb on

and are encouraged to climb on.

Right, so, the shiny bits, where members of the public are

-climbing all over the monument.

-Yeah.

-Wow.

-Yeah.

-You allow that to happen?

Just on this monument and a couple of others.

Right. You don't let them touch any of the others.

-You can't climb Shakespeare.

-Fair enough.

And this monument specifically, what's the history of this?

This one was installed in 1959, and it was initiated by

-a philanthropist named George Delacorte...

-OK.

..who wanted to create a memorial to his wife.

And his wife loved children, and so he thought to commission

a monument to this great story of Alice In Wonderland,

and so it shows Alice and her entourage.

So, how long is it going to take them to do this?

It takes about four hours.

You know, we want to kind of close it for as little time as possible

so that we can open it back up and the public can enjoy it.

The overall budget for running this place is 65 million a year.

Three quarters of that money comes from donations,

often in the form of large sums like bench sponsorship,

which costs 10,000, but more usually in smaller amounts.

Last year, around 60,000 people made donations,

but some people prefer to contribute in a different way.

This is the green team, and these people are part of

the 3,000 volunteers that give up their time to look after the park.

-Hello, Rita.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

-So, tell me what you're doing here.

-Well, I'm getting rid of clover,

but I want to get the roots so that I can make sure it doesn't come back.

But it will come back. I know how these plants work.

-It's constant work, yeah?

-Constant work, yes.

And then how long have you been doing this for?

-About 27 years.

-27 years?

And over those 27 years, you must have seen an amazing transformation.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

We first began, my husband and I,

just picking up trash and there was a good deal.

People would throw cigarettes and their dirty things around

and we would pick that up.

We rarely find trash of that nature any more.

The park's beautiful, basically, now.

When you keep it clean, it stays that way,

and it really makes a difference.

And that's mainly because of you guys.

Well, only because of me. I'm the only one!

No, not really.

How does it make you feel to be a part of this community

and be working in this park?

It's the best thing in my life, really.

I have friends that I would never have had -

they're much younger, most of them -

and they're wonderful and we have parties and we celebrate,

but mainly the park is the draw and it's really my own back yard.

Thank you, Rita, and keep up the good work.

Thank you. I shall. Thank you.

And be sure you put everything in the trash.

-Yes.

-OK.

-Yes, yes. Yes, ma'am.

OK. Yeah, sure.

Thanks to the efforts of people like Rita,

the park is a protected and unchanging part of

the geography of the city,

but, beyond its borders, New York is a permanent construction site.

There are more than 4,500 buildings going up right now.

Historically, this place solved its space problems by building up,

but this vertical city is now, to all intents and purposes, full,

which is why a huge new development is being built on top of

a working rail depot.

This is the only land left to build on.

I can't resist having a nose around this 25 billion project.

The man in charge is Jay Cross.

-Jay.

-Indeed.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

In nine years' time, Hudson Yards will be home to 4,000 flats,

100 shops and more than 10 million square feet of office space.

It'll even have its own power station.

It's the largest private real-estate development

in the history of the USA.

So, let me get this right.

You bought the space, the air, above a train yard?

-That's right.

-What did that cost?

It cost about 1 billion.

-You spent 1 billion and you didn't get any land?

-Correct.

So what happened is the railroad was very insistent that they had to

keep running a rail yard here, so they own the ground,

and they basically sold us -

or leased us, actually, for 99 years -

all of the air rights above the tracks.

-You spent 1 billion on a 99-year lease...

-Yeah.

-..above a working train yard...

-Correct.

-..to build that?

That and a lot more over there, and so that's the opportunity.

This must have loads of challenges.

It's very complicated. It's like open-heart surgery, really.

They're building 13 skyscrapers here.

To create their foundations,

two-metre-wide cylinders called caissons are drilled

between the train lines

and down 50 metres into the bedrock of Manhattan.

Steel is connected to these cylinders to form

the skeletons of the buildings.

But, for engineer Geoff Butler, building this way has created

a series of problems.

As you look around, this is quite obviously

-a hugely fabricated steel shell, isn't it?

-Yes.

We have a lot of heavy steel landing on just

a few supports over the rail yard.

'There are fewer steel columns meeting the ground than would

'typically be used in this type of build,

'so the steel here has to support a colossal weight.'

These columns are very heavy.

Instead of being hollow,

it's solid steel with plates stacked together.

-So that's solid?

-It's solid steel.

And because they're so heavy, they're only in four-metre sections

that all have to be connected in the field.

And it can take a couple of welders at least a week

to work on one connection.

So, how many storeys in this building?

92.

So you've got to weld every four metres for 92 storeys.

Yes.

-That's a lot of welding.

-That's a lot of welding.

'Currently there are more than 100 welders employed on this site -

'more or less every available qualified welder

'in the whole of New York State.'

You'd think with a four-metre column section on top of each other

that the area of the weld would be a weak point, but it's not.

The four-metre column is dropped in with a V in it,

and it's this V here that's filled up individually

with layers and layers of weld,

until it comes to the outside, which is the ninth layer.

The heat that penetrates each part joins the two together

and it's that that gives it the strength.

This is a strong point.

Get this bit wrong and the whole lot will fall down.

MUSIC: Conversation 16 by The National

One of the skyscrapers is already topped out

and almost ready for people to move in.

Urban planner Michael Samuelian is taking me to the top.

People are moving into the bottom part and the top part.

We're still finishing up the structure and the mechanical stages.

Right.

-It's pretty high, then.

-Yeah.

43.

Lovely.

'Up here, I'm able to get a feel of what it would be like

'to live and work so high up.'

-What a great space!

-It's amazing, isn't it?

Do you know what? I could definitely see this as someone's office.

Yes, it's going to be a pretty fantastic office space.

It's floor-to-ceiling windows,

which gives you really great views of the entire city.

Even on a day like this, the views are amazing.

You can see the Empire State Building right over there,

and all of midtown Manhattan just in front of us.

So, this would be someone's corner office, glass partitions here,

-big door, massive desk, big chair...

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah, master of their universe.

So, if you imagine the place in the future when it's all occupied,

how many people are going to be housed within this area?

When we're fully built out in 2025, 125,000 people will live in,

work in or visit where we are today.

I mean, that's a small city in America -

actually, a mid-sized city in America.

And I guess if somebody wants to replicate what you've done

anywhere else in the city,

they're going to have to knock down entire blocks.

Yeah, this is six city blocks, so you would have to demolish

a lot of buildings in order to replicate

what we're doing right here.

-In fact, it's just not viable.

-It's absolutely impossible.

OK, so I'm sold.

What's it going to cost me to live in Hudson Yards?

Well, it will probably cost you anywhere from 2 million for

a starter apartment up to 50 million for probably the biggest

apartment at the top of the building.

50 million?

-Five-oh, yes.

-Five-oh, 50 million, OK.

I'm going to stay in Hertfordshire.

But isn't it a great view?

It's a great view!

For me, this development typifies the ambition of New York.

The spiritual home of the skyscraper is reinventing land use.

That was amazing, Anita, and you know what it makes me think,

is that this is the city of the skyscraper

and every inch of land is important.

But it's not just land now, it's about aerial real estate.

You're paying for the air above you.

I know. It's mental, isn't it? But incredible.

But it just goes to show that Manhattan is a place for the rich.

It's a paradise for them.

The only people who can afford to buy property here

are the uber-wealthy or foreign investors,

and what that does is it pushes out the traditional communities

to other areas,

and in so doing they then change the face of other communities as well.

Anita, that story is happening all over the world.

I grew up in east London.

I left, not because of gentrification,

but I can't go back now because it's so expensive.

And what it's done is it's changed the make-up of the community.

-I'm part of that gentrification.

-It's your fault!

I've moved into east London, and you're right, it might be more

homogenised but it's safer, and it's a really nice place to live.

So, you're an Asian wonderwoman that's come down from Yorkshire

to save east London.

Listen, the battle for gentrification is going on

in this city, and the front line is over there.

At the northern end of the park is Harlem...

JAZZ PLAYS

..a heartland of black culture and politics,

famous for the flowering of the Jazz Age in the 1920s,

that became infamous for drugs and crime.

SIREN WAILS

MUSIC: Born To Die by Lana Del Ray

By the '80s, entire blocks had been abandoned,

but today it has transformed into one of New York's

most desirable places to live.

Harlem is gentrifying.

'Willie Suggs moved here in 1985 and set up as a local estate agent.'

-I'm Ade.

-I'm Willie, and welcome to my beautiful block.

Thank you.

This area seems so peaceful and tranquil -

I can't imagine there being any trouble here.

Oh, no, it was very interesting the first year I was in the house.

I remember walking out the front door and I saw a man run by,

followed by another man with a gun, and he was shooting at him.

-Seriously?

-Oh, yeah.

-Shooting at him?

Yes, in 1990 we had 55 murders in this police precinct.

Last year there were two.

In 1994, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani implemented

a citywide zero-tolerance policy on crime.

NEWSREADER: On a wet night in south Brooklyn,

officers of the 67th Precinct prepare for the graveyard shift.

Their task, to keep the streets of their neighbourhoods safe.

He put 12,000 more police on patrol and implemented

a crackdown on antisocial behaviour,

and as crime fell here in Harlem, house prices went up.

'Willie bought her first home for 50,000.'

And how much are these houses worth now?

If it's a house that needs renovation, 3 million.

If it's done, it's 4 million to 5 million.

That is incredible.

-Yes, I'm very happy.

-4 to 5...

-Yeah, I'm sure you'd be very happy!

-WILLIE LAUGHS

'Soaring house prices are good news for people like Willie,

'who own their own homes, but not for renters.'

SIREN WAILS

'As Harlem gets even more desirable,

'landlords are hiking up rental prices.

'Since 2002, they have gone up as much as 90%.'

-Hey, my name's Ade. Nice to meet you.

-Mike. How are you?

-Yeah, cool. You?

-Pleasure. Pleasure.

'At this Baptist church in central Harlem,

'Pastor Mike Walrond is worried that long-term residents

'can no longer afford to live here.'

We help so many people who are losing their apartments,

about to lose their apartments,

people who are literally trying to fight

to stay in this community, but it's becoming harder and harder every day.

So, I don't know how this is going to play out,

but I do think you'll see more New Yorkers who are not as

financially well off leaving the state.

The demographic of Harlem is changing.

The once 98% black community now makes up

less than half its residents.

And has the change caused any tensions?

It has created some tensions racially

because there are people who'll say, you know,

the whites, white people are taking over Harlem,

and that's not necessarily the case.

But it is easy to do that, to make that claim,

when you see such a change in the landscape.

So, what do you think about the word or the term "gentrification"?

Well, in certain quarters, if you raise that word, it could...

-That could be a fighting word in certain places.

-Seriously?

Because I think it has become a taboo word, a bad word, in certain circles.

For many people it's a terrifying word,

and it causes a lot of fear and it spawns a lot of emotions.

But I tell people all the time, these landlords, these developers

are not chasing white dollars - they are chasing green dollars.

Some people say that what's happening in Harlem

is simply part of living in a free-market economy,

but Pastor Mike feels the financial boom is coming at too high a price.

I mean, isn't this just progress?

Here's the one potential problem,

that when the landscape begins to change,

when the demographics begin to shift, the population changes,

something will be lost.

What makes Harlem Harlem is not the buildings,

it is not the businesses, it is the people.

It's not just happening in Harlem.

Gentrification and the displacement of long-term residents is

one of the city's thorniest issues.

Take Brooklyn - once Manhattan's poor cousin,

with strong Irish, Italian and Jewish communities,

today a byword for hipster culture.

This change came about under Mayor Bloomberg's tenure

in the early 2000s,

when property developers were encouraged to invest and build here.

It now has the least affordable housing market in the whole country.

The average salary here is 45,000 -

the average rent 33,000.

Everyone knows someone who is living this nightmare.

'Donna Mossman has rented in the Crown Heights district

'for 38 years.'

Tell me about your experience with change in this neighbourhood.

All the mom-and-pop shops are gone,

and even the stores that have stayed, the shops that have stayed,

raised their prices,

redid their stores,

because now we have people in the community

who can afford these prices.

And that's the issue that we have, that tenants have,

that the community have, is that you're beautifying the neighbourhood

and yet you're pushing us out at the same time.

'But Donna won't be pushed.'

Who can afford 2,500-a-month rent? I know that I cannot, so we fight.

Don't raise the rent.

People need some relief, and landlords are making money.

Let's be real clear.

In 2013, Donna and her neighbours set up

the Crown Heights Tenant Union, part of a citywide grass-roots movement

trying to resist gentrification.

We believe a tenant is a tenant.

It doesn't matter if you're a long-standing tenant, right?

Or you're a new tenant.

But join us because you too are being overcharged,

you too are being harassed, you too are being taken advantage of.

It's everyone's story as long as you're a tenant.

'As real estate becomes ever more valuable in this crowded city,

'the odds are stacked against tenants,

'but Donna and her strength-in-numbers strategy

'is a force to be reckoned with.'

So, Donna, with all the changes that are going on

in this neighbourhood,

do you see yourself still living here in ten years' time?

Absolutely. I'm not going anywhere.

There's a fight to be fought

and I'm going to continue to fight that fight.

ANITA: It's 3pm, the park's busiest time of day.

With no entry fee, it's open to everyone -

truly a park for the people.

This democratic vision was at the heart of

Olmsted and Vaux's original plan,

and it's ever more important in this unequal city, which is why the

authorities are spending 350 million on New York's parks this year.

I'm in the North Woods,

which is one of the most secluded areas in the park,

and I'm joined by the Commissioner for all of New York's 1,700 parks,

the head honcho, Mitchell Silver.

What's the value of a park in a city?

Well, this one is for public health.

We believe in having healthy communities

and there's no better place to get healthy than in a park.

People may sleep in their apartments but you live in your open spaces,

and that's why Central Park, and all the other parks in the city,

are so important to the livability of our city.

You have physical recreation but it's also for mental health.

I watch people come off the street, walk into the park

and, all of a sudden, you see their eyes gazing at the beauty.

It does something to you,

so it is vital to the public health of our citizens

and vital to the public health of our city.

People of all ages and races have access to the same park.

1,700 parks, that's quite a lot that you have to look after.

How do you prioritise where the money goes?

We prioritise in terms of equity. That's very important to us.

We want to make sure, as we plan our park system,

that each neighbourhood throughout the city

has their fair share of resources so they can have an outstanding park.

One example is the High Bridge.

Now, here is a bridge that has been abandoned that connected

two boroughs, Manhattan and the Bronx.

It had been closed for about 40 years.

We've invested close to 100 million to restore this beautiful bridge.

The bridge connects the Bronx to a 119-acre park

across the water in Manhattan,

providing vital green space and exercise facilities

for one of the poorest communities in the city.

So, that is one that really connects a community in need that's done.

Another one, we're experimenting with

just changing these former monumental parks

to, really, neighbourhood assets, is Washington Square Park.

Here's one that's been transformed. The plaza has been changed.

We now have this nice mounded area where kids can now play -

we're calling it "creative play".

And it's now become this incredible asset,

not just for tourists but the neighbours around them.

And what about the future?

We have changing demographics.

We have to look at the elderly, where there's adult playgrounds.

Adult playgrounds, did you say?

Adult playgrounds. We now have adult fitness.

We have ways where seniors, as they age -

well, they can enjoy the parks as well.

The 19th-century vision of this park,

as a force for social cohesion,

has proved extraordinarily forward-thinking,

as successful now as it was when the place opened 150 years ago.

But beyond the park, how is the city shaping up for the future?

The glitz and apparent wealth of New York disguises its problems.

An increasing gap between rich and poor,

decaying transport infrastructure

and a growing and ageing population are all hot topics.

'I want to find out what the biggest concern is for New Yorkers.'

So, I'm in Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, and this is really a place to visit.

It's kind of known as hipster-ville -

it's full of cool bars and coffee shops and lovely boutiques -

so I'm quite intrigued to find out what it's really like to live here.

'It's immediately clear there's one thing they all agree on.'

Do you live in this area?

I used to live here. I lived here for seven years,

and I've been in the city for the last five or six years.

So, why did you leave here?

My rent doubled overnight.

Like any city, like any major city, it's mad expensive.

If everyone here is paying 3,000 for an apartment,

and the people that deliver the food are only making 11 an hour,

this is not going to work.

In this wealthy city,

45% of New Yorkers are classified as living in or near poverty,

which is why the current administration has dreamt up

the One NYC scheme.

This is a real blueprint for change in this city.

This is going to be a game-changer in this city.

It's a wide-ranging package of measures designed to make

the city a better and easier place to live in,

and promises to lift 800,000 people out of poverty.

Helping so many of our fellow New Yorkers

finally be able to make ends meet,

and finally be able to know they can keep living

in their own neighbourhood.

One way to fulfil these ambitious promises

is to build more social housing.

This development in Brooklyn aims to address

the problem of gentrification.

This, a really nice-looking building, actually,

is specifically designed to preserve the local community -

only low-income families can come and live here.

'Functional and basic,

'200,000 affordable apartments like this

'are planned for the next ten years.

'52,000 are already welcoming tenants.'

This is it. It's a studio apartment.

It's got an air conditioner, a radiator,

a little bathroom, a kitchenette,

and the average market rate for a place like this

would be about 1,500, which is just under £900.

But here, because it's only for the local community and only for

low-income families, some people are paying about 100 per month.

It's based totally on what you can afford.

Also included in Mayor De Blasio's blueprint for change is job creation,

improving public transport

and future-proofing against another Hurricane Sandy.

'But it won't be straightforward.

'Urban planner Professor Ron Shiffman is worried this spending could have

'a seismic impact on the character of the city.'

We need to begin to look at the money we're spending now to protect

ourselves against climate change.

We need to look at the money that is being generated by Wall Street

and other places in a way that benefits all of New York City

and keeps its diversity in place,

because if we don't keep the diversity in place,

then New York City is going to become boring,

it'll become hyper-segregated,

and it will not be a place that you will want to visit.

I mean, this is a city that has gone through depression,

time and time again, and risen from the ashes like a phoenix,

and, well, quite literally risen.

What's the future of New York?

I think it's going to be a roller-coaster but I am...

I am confident that the people of the city of New York

will come together and will be able to preserve the values

that have built this city.

The residents don't doubt it.

What's so good about living in New York?

Oh, my God. You can be whoever you want to be.

I just feel like there's never a dull moment in New York.

Like, I wouldn't have, like, this if I didn't love it.

This is dedication to a city. I love that.

It's the most wonderful place on earth - so good they named it twice.

In the last 40 years alone, New York has come close to bankruptcy,

suffered the world's most visible terror attack

and weathered the USA's second-worst storm.

Optimism is built into its DNA.

There is no doubt about it - this city is amazing.

It's ambitious, it's resilient, it's beautiful...

-Yes, it's got its problems, but, then, what city hasn't?

-Yeah.

A highlight for me has got to be filming up in the community gardens

in the Bronx, to see how the locals are adapting to not having

any fresh fruit or vegetables in the area and growing their own.

It was lovely. It's brilliant.

I've loved meeting the people of Harlem.

Pastor Mike and Willie - both trying to keep their community

together in different ways, but, you know,

if they are able to succeed,

what a powerful message that sends to other cities

struggling with gentrification around the world.

Oh, I love how the city's constantly developing.

In a place where space is at such a premium,

they've got to look at genius ways of building,

and Hudson Yards - I mean, they've created skyscrapers out of thin air.

It's just amazing.

Thank you for watching,

and, from all of us here in New York, it's bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.