percentage of americans that americans think...

... live in new york city: 30%

actual percentage of americans who...

... live in new york city: 2%

new york is right next to what used to be one of three largest oyster beds on the east coast of the u.s. until residents literally ate them all.

in new york state, you don't have to be a lawyer to become a judge.

10 times more people are bitten by other people each year in new york city than are bitten by sharks in the entire world.

humans in new york bite 10 times as many people as sharks do in the entire world.

more than half of the cigarettes sold in new york city are illegally imported from other states. this is because new york's cigarette tax is so high.

one particular ant species is only found between 63rd and 76th street in new york city.

more than 500 wild parrots live in new york city. they and their ancestors were accidentally released at jfk airport in the 1960's.

in the summer of 1962, nycpd officers dressed in drag to catch would-be muggers and rapists.

hart island in new york is the largest government sponsored mass grave on earth. it contains more than 1 million unclaimed bodies.

a permit to sell hot dogs in central park costs us$289,000. per year.

90% of people stopped by police in new york city between 2002 and 2011 were black or latino.

officer adrian schoolcraft of the nypd recorded precinct roll call meetings each day. his fellow officers and superiors said that he did it because he was paranoid, and had schoolcraft involuntarily committed to a mental institution. the doctor that admitted him said that schoolcraft spoke about cover-ups and conspiracies at the precinct and that schoolcraft said that he was 'collecting evidence'.

when schoolcraft made the tapes public, it was learned that the nypd taught officers to arrest innocent pedestrians to hit quotas, and to change reports of crimes such as 'robbery at gunpoint' to 'lost property' in order to make crime in the city sound less bad than it was.

1 in 21 new yorkers is a millionaire.

in 1922 new york, there was an 8-day-long riot over whether or not it was socially acceptable to wear a straw hat after labor day. gangs of teenagers roved the streets and beat any man they saw wearing a straw hat with sticks that had nails sticking out of them.

nyc got rid of 1300 subway cars by dropping them in the ocean. out of sight, out of mind.

1 out of every 36 people in the u.s. live in new york city.

800 different languages are spoken in new york city.

in new york, if you sell property, you are legally required to tell prospective buyers if the property is believed to be haunted.

obviously, new york home inspectors are part of the same union as their counterparts in norway, who check to see if a given property has trolls.

in 1906, the bronx zoo in new york opened a new exhibit that attracted up to 40,000 visitors per day - a pygmy from the belgian congo named ota benga.