New York, New York (On the Town) New York, New York (On the Town) "New York, New York" is a song from the 1944 musical "On the Town" and the 1949 MGM musical film of the same name. The music was written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. A well known line of this song is, "New York, New York, a helluva town. The Bronx is up but the Battery's down." For the film version, the word "helluva" was changed to "wonderful" to appease the Production Code offices. In 2004 the film version finished at #41 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs
Boroughs of New York City 1898. Under the 1898 City Charter adopted by the New York State Legislature, a "borough" is a municipal corporation that is created when a county is merged with populated areas within it. The limited powers of the borough governments are inferior to the authority of the Government of New York City, contrasting significantly with other borough administrations of government used in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, where a borough is an independent level of government, as well as borough forms used in other states and in Greater London. New York City is often referred to collectively as the five boroughs;