Posts Tagged ‘Downtown Alliance’

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The adventures of a tourist information officer

Monday, July 26th, 2010
Mary Clifford at her World Trade Center kiosk

Mary Clifford at the World Trade Center kiosk

As I prepared to retire from IBM in 2005, someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I wanted to be a tour guide. Happily, my wish was essentially granted.

I found a job with the Downtown Alliance as a tourist information officer at the visitor kiosk adjacent to the World Trade Center site, one of three kiosks the organization runs. I also work at the Downtown Alliance’s World Financial Center kiosk.

I meet and help people from all over the world, and I have been privileged to watch the rebirth of the World Trade Center site.

When tourists come to a kiosk, they need information about the site—as well as data about the city’s subways, buses, museums, restaurants and more.

The most interesting questions often deal with an attraction or restaurant that someone visited on a prior trip to New York. The visitor might want to return but can’t remember the name or exact location. That’s when I get to play detective.

I’ve also helped bring some urgent dilemmas to heartwarming conclusions. One Sunday afternoon, an elderly English gentleman approached the kiosk at the World Financial Center. He said he’d been with a cruise ship tour group but had been separated, and didn’t know where the ship was docked. It was set to sail in a matter of hours.

We contacted the harbormaster and discovered that the ship was docked on the Hudson River near Midtown. But the man didn’t have enough money to get there, so we escorted him to South End Avenue and loaned him $20 for a cab. We made sure the driver knew to drop him off as close to the ship as possible, and I gave the visitor my address so he could return the money. The following week, a letter came in the mail. It contained $20 and a thank-you note.

Another time, I saw a disabled youngster standing alone by our kiosk. I struck up a conversation and discovered he’d been separated from his family while they were visiting Battery Park. He said he was waiting for his father.

We made a flurry of calls. The Port Authority police hadn’t received any missing-persons reports that fit the youngster’s description. But a call to the 1st Precinct brought results. His family had just filed a report. The NYPD drove the parent over to our kiosk so father and son could be reunited.

The job brings new adventures daily, and I still love my work just as much as when I stepped into my first kiosk five years ago.

I think I’ve found my dream job.

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All Over the Sidewalk, Little Tidbits of Information

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
New York's 204th ticker-tape parade: NY Yankees in 2009

NY Yankees in 2009: New York's 204th ticker-tape parade

One of my favorite things to do in Lower Manhattan is to walk down the street and listen to what visitors say about our area. Awhile ago, I saw a couple checking out the turntables on Broad Street and react with complete awe.

This one is in a different direction. Walking down Broadway recently, I overheard someone say, “What are these little tidbits of info all over the sidewalk?”

What are these little tidbits of info all over the sidewalk?

What a great question. It’s funny, because we at the Downtown Alliance, think of them as the Canyon of Heroes markers, plaques in the sidewalk from the bottom of Broadway all the way up to City Hall, that commemorate every single ticker-tape parade New York City has held.

But the idea that the markers are “little tidbits of information” actually makes sense. Let me see if I can provide some background so you can enjoy these little tidbits yourself.

In case you aren’t old enough to remember, ticker tape was a one-inch-wide ribbon of paper on which the “ticker” machine recorded telegraphed stock quotes. Employees working in skyscrapers along Broadway realized that ticker tape sent swirling into the air created a dramatic effect.

The ticker-tape tradition started on October 28, 1886, with the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The New York Times reported that the festivities of the day inspired so many employees to throw ticker tape out the windows that in a moment “the air was white with curling streamers.”

Almost 125 years later, we have held more than 200 ticker-tape parades, celebrating everything from the centennial of George Washington’s inauguration to foreign leaders and Olympic athletes, the first woman to swim the English Channel, soldiers returning from war and, most recently, New York sports teams winning championships.

From 1919 to the present day, the mayor of New York City has decided who will receive a parade. Before then, they were rather spontaneous celebrations. Because Downtown’s financial companies don’t use ticker-tape machines any more, New Yorkers now use shredded recycled paper.

To honor the Canyon of Heroes, the Downtown Alliance created a granite marker embedded in the sidewalk for each ticker-tape parade up Broadway—the “little tidbits” the person I overheard was mentioning. Each marker gives the date of the parade and the honoree. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough space to include a description of each parade, but you can check out our Canyon of Heroes web page for more information and use our handy brochure for a full listing if you want.

I have been at the Downtown Alliance for almost eight years, and I have had the privilege of working on many different projects, including a pilot program to track the condition of each and every one of these markers. I’ve started at the Battery and walked all the way up Broadway, making sure the plaque that was in the sidewalk matched exactly what we have in our records and checking to make sure it wasn’t damaged or defaced. If a marker gets damaged, we replace it as quickly as we can.

To this day, I cannot step on any of the markers, sometimes doing a little two-step to avoid it if necessary, even though they obviously were built strong enough to be stepped on by millions of people every single year. They are wonderful little tidbits and I don’t want to cause them any damage or make them harder for the next person to read and enjoy.

I hope you’ll take some time to enjoy these little tidbits, maybe during your lunch, or on your way home from work one day. Please comment below or let me know what your favorite tidbit is. Maybe we can help someone else enjoy these little tidbits as well.

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How to Make Water Street a More Vital & Exciting Center of Life

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Water Street

Using what works to rescale a great boulevard: A new Water Street might someday look like this.

By Liz Berger

Water Street wasn’t always Lower Manhattan’s premier commercial corridor.  For 350 years, it was maritime central:  a port and shipyard, with a fish market, warehouses, noisy, late-night restaurants and hotels of questionable repute.  But its fortunes faded, and when the Pearl Street el came down in the 1950s, the roadbed was widened, the City’s Zoning Resolution was amended and Water Street was transformed.

Today, Water Street is home to 70,000 jobs, more than 19 million square feet of office space and some of the region’s most prestigious companies.  There’s the Police Museum, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Elevated Acre, one of New York’s best-kept secrets (and home of the Downtown Alliance’s free summer Movie Nights).  And there are new residential buildings and hotels, like the Andaz, which is about to launch a chef-sponsored farmer’s market.  Like the rest of Lower Manhattan, Water Street has something (including the world’s largest digital clock) for everyone.

But these attractions can be hard to find on a street with arcades and plazas designed for pedestrian circulation but all too often empty and austere. The problem is amplified by a street that is too wide for the amount of traffic it serves.

Tens of thousands of workers, residents and visitors make their way to Water Street every day, but they rarely dawdle.  The street life gives few clues to what’s happening in the buildings above, and here’s the irony:  With all the public spaces, there are not enough places to linger on Water Street and too few places to stop. The current transformation of the rest of Lower Manhattan into an intense mix of street-level uses and activities can seem distant here.

There’s lots that’s right about Water Street:  premium real estate, fantastic views, easy access to subways, buses and ferries, and a great place to catch a cab.  But that’s not enough to stay competitive.  Think Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, the Ginza in Tokyo or Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay. Water Street should be on that list.

So last year, the Downtown Alliance convened a committee of property owners, residents, real estate brokers, business owners, marketers, preservationists, restaurateurs, Community Board 1 members and other Lower Manhattan stakeholders, who chose a team led by local landscape architects Starr Whitehouse to figure out how. After 18 months of research, analysis, workshops and renderings, I am excited to share the results.

Water Street: A New Approach —Transforming Lower Manhattan’s Modern Commercial Boulevard is a blueprint for change that can— and must—happen now.  It’s about four simple ideas that will take Water Street from 0 to 60, preserving what works and reinventing what doesn’t:

Rescale Water Street as a pedestrian-friendly boulevard, with a median, dramatic plantings and monumental public art — Lower Manhattan’s Park Avenue.

Connect Water Street to the waterfront and to the historic Financial District with signage, easy crossings and two new public gathering spaces.

Rethink decades-old zoning to encourage more street-level retail activity and restaurants.

Add more culture, entertainment and events during the day, in the evenings and on weekends.

New York City owes a massive debt to Holly Whyte, the author who famously chronicled the patterns of activity that make New York New York. He spent a lifetime observing and thinking about place-making, and wrote: “The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.”  This is Water Street’s past, and we propose that it be its future.

—Liz  Berger is President of the Downtown Alliance.

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