The NYC Seats of Power

One of the most interesting parts of traveling to any city, especially capital cities, is to see the various government buildings it contains -- specifically the seats of power like city or town halls, legislative buildings, palaces or executive mansions, etc. to get a literal look at the places where these cities, states, and countries are ruled or governed from. 

Think of the White House and US Capitol in Washington DC, think of Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament in London, think of Versailles (near) Paris or the Forbidden City in Beijing, think of the Vatican in Rome, think of the Kremlin in Moscow!

These great, grand structures are built to say "Here the power resides, ready to strike. Don't question it."

New York City doesn't rule a country or even a state but, as the largest municipality in the country, it certainly has its own important seats of power. City Hall where the council meets and the mayor works is the best known along with Gracie Mansion where the mayor lives and entertains VIPs. 

But there are other seats of power scattered around the city as well, other points from where the city is governed: the offices of the borough presidents.

Five boroughs means five borough presidents and five borough president offices. What's interesting is that borough president offices exist in different kinds of buildings, each tethered to the history of their particular boroughs. 

In Manhattan, the BP works out of the huge Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan on Centre Street along with the NYC Public Advocate, Comptroller and various city agencies like Finance, Landmarks, Veterans Services, Technology, Environmental Protection, and others. An enormous building, it's the very heart of the original, post-1898 consolidation of NYC power of which the BP was, and is, just another part. 

In Staten Island, the BP is located in Staten Island Borough Hall right across from the St. George ferry terminal; it also contains city agencies like Buildings and Transportation and is right next to the county courthouse. Similarly, in Queens, the BP works out of Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens which also houses the county courthouse as does the Bronx County Courthouse where that BP works from too. What separates these three borough presidents' borough halls from Manhattan is that, prior to consolidation, these boroughs were something else entirely -- Queens and Staten Island where simply counties without a central authority or any links to the city, and the Bronx was part of New York County i.e. Manhattan before becoming a separate county -- and finally a borough of NYC. 

Which is what makes Brooklyn Borough Hall so unique. Located in Downtown Brooklyn, it's the only borough hall that used to be a city hall -- for the City of Brooklyn until 1898. It's really the only borough hall that's only that -- it doesn't share space with any other government agencies nor is it part of a courthouse. It's the only legacy left of the former City of Brooklyn, a concession to the past.

So those are the NYC seats of power, the places where a city of nearly 9 million have their futures decided.