John T. Chiarella

Huntington, NY

It's hokey, but ..."The Sphere" in Battery Park, which now has an eternal flame....Honorable mention: The stern lamp from The General Slocum...

It's analogous to the damage done to New York City without pointing out the details of the planes, and the firemen, police officers, victims, reconstruction, etc..

Alan Jacobs

Greenwich Village

Graffiti'ed subway car.

Subway cars covered with graffiti symbolize the terrible decline of New York in the 1970s, when our infrastructure fell beneath the spray cans of vandals and it seemed like there would be no recovery. Yet, the creativity that marred our subways was also an indicator of the restless and provocative creative and regenerative spirit of our city, which emerged stronger than ever from beneath the spray paint.

Alan Jacobs

Greenwich Village

Peter Stuyvesant's pegleg.

He was our last Dutch governor, built the wall at Wall St., and is most fondly remembered for his pegleg. Depicted in a statue at Stuyvesant Square.

Sarat James

Hell's Kitchen

Donald Trump's Hair.

I have no idea...

Elizabeth S. Titus

Upper West Side/CPW

The New York Times
(issue day after 9-11 attacks)

The newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851, The New York Times is nicknamed "The Old Gray Lady."

It has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization. And even with the changing media environment, there are some who still consider The New York Times as the "national newspaper of record."

M.T.Fenster

Manhattan

The Parked Bicycle.

The most perfect transportation: The Bicycle. That is when it is functional and unmolested. I have gone through 9 or 10 during my 30 years in NYC and I have three in the basement as backups and to share with friends and company. The object lesson I chose is the dark side of bike ownership, the bike savaged & scavenged an activity far too prevalent. That said one of the premiere events in NYC is the 5 Borough Bike Ride which I do annually. It will be interesting to see how the NY Bike program will manage. Great idea. Tough town. Cheers.

Elizabeth S. Titus

Upper West Side/CPW

Original cover of New Yorker magazine

The magazine that started as a weekly in 1925 has come to symbolize the cultural life of NYC. Its influence extends far beyond our city, read all over the world.

Elizabeth S. Titus

Upper West Side/CPW

Occupy Wall Street poster created by the Canadian activist group Adbusters, announcing the first event in NYC on Sept. 17, 2011 in Zucotti Park

The protest of the 99% majority against the 1% minority that rules the world began in NYC and spread all over the world. It started in our city, where else?

elizabeth S. Titus

upper West Side/CPW

A replica of Riverside Church

The Riverside Church is an interdenominational church, famous for its Neo-Gothic architecture; it is the tallest church in America. It has come to symbolize activism and political debate, with many famous speeches delivered there (e.g., Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" ).

The church received New York City Landmark status in 2000.

Nick Caverly

Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Subway Rat (dead, alive, or replicated is your call)

Rare is the day when I do not see a rat or two scampering along under the subway tracks. Be it on the C platform at Kingston-Throop, the 4/5/6 at Union Square, or somewhere else entirely, these creatures are endemic to our underground. For the most part rats are able to fade into the background, only causing a stir when one finds its way out of the tracks and onto the platform or into an open subway car door.
Notwithstanding our many notable differences, we human New Yorkers share much in common with the rodents living beneath our streets. We all must be resilient and fight everyday to justify our existence in the city we love and, sometimes, love to hate.

Jeffrey Elliot

Armonk, NY

A ticker-tape machine

It symbolizes the Wall Street financial engine that has caused so many New Yorkers to make and loose fortunes.

william gillen

New York City

The pink rubber ball we call the "spaldeen."

Every kid can carry one in his/her backpack for a game after school. It was an essential part of playing stickball in the streets for earlier generations.

(New) Jersey Ken

New Jersey

Golden Boy. Please erase. Please do not post my submission of yesterday.

I would be very grateful if you would erase my submission of yesterday where I suggested the famous Golden Boy be returned to New York City. It was very late at night and I was half asleep when I entered the text. I now realize a large part was in very bad taste. I will be pleased to repeat my suggestion but just as a straight proposal without personal names, etc.

Jeff Elliot

Armonk, NY

The elevator in the Woolworth Building

I believe that it was the first modern elevator in NYC. I was built using a circular shaft and was built a few years before Mr. Otis designed his elevator. Mr. Woolworth had the shaft(s) put in his building with the expectation that a safe elevator would be built soon.

JASON D HOROWITZ

Bronx, NY

1. NY Yankee Pennant
2. Hot Dog Cart
3. Statue of Liberty
4.Crystal Ball for New Year's Eve
5. Salt water bagel
6. Yellow Cab..with pop-up seats in back
7. Subway car
8. Ed Sullivan Theatre Marquee
9. Brooklyn Dodgers Pennant
10. Pickle Barrel

Each is an integral part of NYC's cultural history.

elizabeth S. Titus

upper West Side/CPW

Matchbook from Max's Kansas City

Max's Kansas City was the exact spot where Pop Art and Pop Life came together in the sixties--teenyboppers and sculptors, rock stars And poets from St. Mark's Place, Hollywood actors, checking out what the underground actors were all about, boutique owners and models, modern dancers and go-go dancers--everybody went to Max's and everything got homogenized there.
Andy Warhol

M.T.Fenster

Manhattan

Crime Scene Tape.

It symbolizes not only the woeful unfortunate reality of big city life; the lead story on local evening news and lately it seems that such tape should be strung around 1 Police Plaza and the commissioners office. Buh-zing!

Richard Francisco

LES

The Dumpster.

The dumpster is an equal opportunity employer, that is, one can find usable items therein or discard items deemed trash or obsolete. They are found in all neighborhood's regardless of status. They are used surreptitiously by unscrupulous small scale contractors, local residents and, of course, by the original contractor. They hog parking spaces. The truly explosive noise they make when being delivered early morning provides one with an earlier start to the day than planned.

Ken from New Jersey

New Jersey

Moon Lander Module from Long Island Grumman. (probably none availaable)

I would also like to see a Big Boy articulated locomotive install on track along the Hudson, perhaps on the Jersey side.

Ken from New Jersey

New Jersey

Golden Boy

In 1916, an exuberant AT&T endowed lower Manhattan with a larger than life nude golden male fully endowed statue to be called the Spirit of Communications. Instead he became known as Golden Boy for his gilded exterior and presided over downtown New York from the top of AT&T’s handsome headquarters at 195 Broadway for over three quarters of a century. There seem to have been no complaints from New Yorkers about his quite magnificent parts and the evident authority of the sculptress, Evelyn Beatrice Longman. This changed in 1984 when he was removed to the lobby of ATT’s new Headquarters at 550 Madison Avenue. To demonstrate its sensitivity the top AT&T management had the male member removed. Since then, Golden Boy has been parked in several sites in beautiful industrial New Jersey and most recently has been taken by its new owner, SBC Communications to beautiful downtown Dallas.
Leading female authorities on everything (I have Madonna, Gail Collins and Maureen Dowd in mind) should be invited to submit a one page, at the most, explanation of why they are qualified to supervise the delicate task of restoring a twenty five foot high gilded gelded male and re-installing him at some suitable spot in our great city. A respected Japanese geisha could be invited to enhance our team of female experts.
See in his glory days:
http://goo.gl/3EYMo