You’re in Manhattan and you’re 14… Drive a cab! No wait, you seem to speak English, so never mind.
Real answer: Any family or family friends in the trades? I’ve “hired” some teenagers before for certain jobs (check local regulations for age limits and liabilities), and have helped some of them to choose a field in which to train (like VoTech). Sometimes the work may be hard, but the rewards can be large. And, you never know what you might like or have a gift for until you try.
When I was in High School there was this guy who was a DJ at a local rock radio station. Q107 in Ishpeming, Michigan. He was 14, and somehow got a driver’s permit that allowed him to goto work. He was a bit of a cocky asshole, and I guess that came across over the radio well.
So my answer is DJ
Assuming this hasn’t changed since I was 15, in New York state, you can’t get legal employment until age 15 except as a farmworker. I’m guessing that farmwork positions are hard to come by in the middle of Manhattan.
So, your choices are limited to under-the-table casual-type employment. When I was 14, I worked a little as a babysitter, though I hated it and gave it up as soon as I could get other employment, and as a reader for a blind retired English lit professor. She mainly had me read Time, Newsweek, the New York Times and non-fiction books. Did wonders for my vocabulary and world knowledge, and she paid the (at the time) great rate of $3 an hour - better than I could get babysitting my mom’s friends’ kids, since my mom’s friends were all kinda cheap.
She had to move to a nursing home around the same time I turned 15 and could get working papers, so we went our separate ways.
I’d suggest putting up fliers at the library to read to the blind, or to tutor younger kids in whatever are your best subjects.
I also second what NoClueBoy suggested about family businesses - in New York there are exceptions to the age-15 limit for working if you are working for family. Look into this because I believe you are restricted from certain types of jobs, and you are definitely restricted in how many hours you can work. You may also be limited to working for your parents. Try to find a state of new york labor department web site.
rofl… I used to listen to Q107. What time period was this?
Keweenaw, that kind of thinking is so peninsular. 
You might need a work permit from your school principal along with your parents consent in order to work. Burger King stopped hiring 14-15 year olds for some years because 14-15 year olds must follow the child labor laws and it was too difficult for the managers to keep track of all the children’s ages and their work hours. The penalties ($1,000 per infraction) were too severe to trust the managers to comply with the child labor laws, so all the 14-15 year olds were fired.
The child labor laws limit the types of occupations a child can work, the number of hours worked in a day, the number of days per week and the number of hours in a week, all depending whether the dates worked are between Memorial Day and Labor Day or the reverse.
Can you deliver papers? Being a paper carrrier, that’s always my first suggestion…
(I should change my username to Papergirl, shouldn’t I?)
Forget pet sitting… try dog walking! I hear in NYC that could be fairly lucrative. Put up a flyer in a couple apartment buildings. In many cases, you could probably walk several dogs at once. Be sure to invest in a good long handled pooper scooper though…
(I’d hire you to clean my house if you lived in my town.)
I worked (legally) at 14 when I lived in NY state. I needed permission from my parents and the school, and the hours were limited, but it was no problem to do. That was in 1989.
http://www.labor.state.ny.us/business_ny/employer_responsibilities/workprot/wphmpg.htm
This site has all the information you need to know in order to start looking. Good luck!
Athena said
This was 1984-85
Apologies to Sympatha for the minor hijack
Then it looks like things have changed. I was 14 in 1984. Or I suppose it may vary by county or township.
Been there! I detassled for a few summers when I Was 13 and 14. That was BY FAR the hardest work I have ever done in my life. Go to work at 4:30am, get off at 2pm or so. You walk up and down miles of corn rows pulling the tops off of every single stalk so they can’t pollenate them selves. My hands hurt SO bad and my back hurt SO SO bad the first few days. Once you are out in the field there is no turning back either so you see alot of kids crying or sitting on the bus all day waiting to go home.
Tough. Tough work.
Get a paper route. That will get you a little cash. Or mow lawns.
BTW, when I say crying I don’t meean whining. I mean broke down in tears crying for mommy. It was that bad out there. I remember one field we had to do after a huge rain storm. It was over a mile and a half long and had about 500-600 rows I think and there were only 50 of us or so. After the rain there was mud 7-9" deep all the way thru the fields, the stalks were wet and slipped from your hands easily, and mosquitoes like no other.
Worst day of work I ever experienced.