New York best players.

What number of new york chess players are considered GMs status

Very difficult to know- only a current New York grandmaster can tell you something like that. 

I think New York GMs include: Lev Alburt, Maurice Ashley, Evgeny Bareev, Joel Benjamin, Pal Benko, Arthur Bisguier, Robert Byrne, Max Dlugy, Roman Dzindichashvili, Jaan Ehlvest, John Fedorowitcz, Alexander Goldin, Boris Gulko,  Ilya Gurevich,  Robert Hess, Giorgi Kacheishvili, Gata Kamsky, Larry Kaufman, , Anatoy Lein, Alexander Lenderman, Bill Lombardy,  Hikaru Nakamura, Michael Rohde , Andy Soltis,  Yuri Shulman, Michael Wilder, Patrick Wolff, Alex Yermolinsky, and Leonid Yudasin

dont forget  nakamura

Man! that's some list! I'm guessing the most for a "Western" city but probably fewer than say Moscow or Kiev.