Many building that have more than 6 stories have water tanks on the roofs. This is the way how the water is getting into the apartments. That’s quite bizzare but apparently they don’t have a single water tower that pressurize water to buildings. Instead they would pump the water to water tank and from there it would got to taps.
Underground Steam - In some parts of Manhattan, mainly close to the Time Square you will see a steam getting out from the underground. That view reminded me the one from Beppu (JPN) but as far as I know NYC is not located on an active volcanic areas. They use steam to heat some parts of the city. Steaming water is transported through the pipes and used for variety of things. But since the pipes are old they start cracking and steam is bursting from them.
Mandatory Tipping - restaurants, pubs, taxis, museums, boats, almost anywhere. It feels like you need to pay for people to be nice. In one of Chinese restaurants they told us that we gave to little. In restaurants the tip rate is about 15-20% or sometimes even higher. Something that explains it though, is that waiters and bartenders have very small minimum hourly wage, which is ~ $2. Not much to be honest, and the only way they can earn more is from tips.
Breakfast pizza - Pizza is the food of New York, usually sold by slices and small shops are almost everywhere. So it shouldn’t have surprised me that they also have pizza with scramble eggs for breakfast, but it did.
City bikes - Hands down the best way to travel around Manhattan. There are many bike lanes, and looks like drives got used to cyclists. Although you should still watch out for pedestrians who get on the road all the time.
Guns - It’s illegal to carry a gun in NYC.
Another interesting fact is that there are waiting periods when you purchase a gun in most of the states. It’s usually 15 days from the time you’ve purchased until you physically get the gun. There are few reasons. First they need time for background checks. And also if someone is in bad mental state, it works as a cooling off period, so whatever people need a gun for, it might be not needed anymore after 15 days. More info here
Under the new law passed earlier this year, New York City’s minimum wage for most businesses will hit $15-an-hour by the end of 2018 and by the end of 2019 for companies with 10 or fewer employees. Nationwide it’s $7.25, but it might differ by state.