‘New York Pass or Fail Survey’ Puzzles New Yorkers

Forty-one percent of New Yorkers thought that Top of the Rock is on top of the Empire State Building.
‘New York Pass or Fail Survey’ Puzzles New Yorkers
EXPLORE THE CITY: Cristyne Nicholas, former president and CEO of New York City and Company, holds a New York Pass booklet containing a money-saving New York Pass card. (Bill O'Reilly)
12/30/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
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EXPLORE THE CITY: Cristyne Nicholas, former president and CEO of New York City and Company, holds a New York Pass booklet containing a money-saving New York Pass card.  (Bill O'Reilly)

NEW YORK—Where is the top of the rock? What do the seven points on Lady Liberty’s crown represent? Don’t bother asking a New Yorker, many of them don’t know.

According to the semiannual survey by The Polling Company Inc., 41 percent of residents from all five boroughs thought that top of the rock is on top of the Empire State Building and only 16 percent answered correctly that the observation deck is located atop the General Electric Building, the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center.

Although many New Yorkers (39 percent) recommended the Statue of Liberty as a destination for tourists, only 18 percent of New Yorkers knew that the seven points on Lady Liberty’s crown represent the Seven Seas and Seven Continents.

“New Yorkers can tell you ten ways to get to The Guggenheim, but truth be told, many of us have never actually been there,” said Ken Barrows, vice president of New York Pass, the city’s leading attraction discount card company and sponsor of the survey.

“In many cases, our tourists seem to know more about our city than we do. The New York Pass or Fail Survey is meant to remind New Yorkers about the wonders we pass hurriedly by every day without ever exploring,” he said in a press release.

The survey also revealed that just over a quarter of New Yorkers were aware that the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History sit directly across from each other, separated by Central Park, only 17 percent knew that the Bronx is home to the last remaining section of original forest in New York (at the New York Botanical Gardens), and fewer than half (44 percent) knew the Transit Museum is in Brooklyn.

Nevertheless, New Yorkers have something to be proud of. Almost everybody—80 percent of all New Yorkers and 100 percent of respondents between 55 and 64—knew that Santa Claus worked at Macy’s.

The New York Pass or Fail Survey was conducted in December with 300 New York City adult residents. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.7 percent.