Results tagged “tourists”

Last year residents of a Perry Street townhouse, one that is home to Carrie Bradshaw in a fictional world, put up a chain and a sign threatening away any fans taking photos on the stoop. Since fans allegedly are ignoring the sign, they have added a new one. This time around it's attached to a money drop box, and asks if you take a photo, to donate to a charity for orphaned animals. Hear that Carrie fans? For every photo you take, and dollar you don't donate, you are killing kittens and puppies. VanishingNY spotted the new system, and calls for a new tax in the city: a Tourist & Yunnie Nuisance Tax.

Move over, Colonial Williamsburg; the tourists are now flocking to Brooklyn's 'Burg to see what all the fuss is about (what is the all fuss about again?). A tipster sends us this photo, saying, "This was a tour group that got off the subway at Driggs and North 7th. There was a person directing them and explaining where they were. The tour guide gave instructions to meet back at the subway entrance at a specific time and directed them to Bedford Avenue." Oh the things they must have seen!

Before declaring it the place to be, some Brits color Brooklyn as the "dowdy sister; solely the route to JFK Airport; the Tooting of New York—where people live by necessity, and work to escape from;" and of course a place for pimps and mobsters. But that was all before celebrities moved there. [via Animal]

JC Penney has arrived in Herald Square, leaving locals disaffected and tourists hurling towards a familiar sight. Is Penney's our TGIFriday's of retail? The NY Times reports on the department store's new digs, look and goods with, dare we say, a biting tone that's less becoming than a plethora of polysynthetics. Miss Size 2 reporter guesstimates that 96% of the inventory is made of polyester, and it's nearly impossible to find anything below a size 10. She adds, "it has the most obese mannequins I have ever seen. They probably need special insulin-based epoxy injections just to make their limbs stay on. It’s like a headless wax museum devoted entirely to the cast of Roseanne.” Hopefully there are enough airbrushed magazine covers out there to combat this, lest little girls grow up thinking it's okay to be anything more than a size 2.

While yesterday's helicopter crash claimed the lives of nine, one pouty teenager who didn't feel like taking a chopper ride may have been what prevented a double-digit death toll. Italian tourist Paola Casali was eager to share how her 13-year-old son's reluctance to take a Liberty Tours helicopter led the pair to be running just late enough to miss out on the tragedy. The 42-year-old woman visiting from Rome had reserved seats for her and her son on the tour that would be taking off soon after noon. But when the boy was dragging his feet, the two did not arrive until 12:40, just in time to see the aftermath of the accident. She suggested their tardiness was due to potential divine intervention saying, “What is so strange is that this morning Lorenzo felt so nervous and did not want to fly today. He wanted to stay behind in a Starbucks." Casali hung around and talked with other witnesses who had showed up at Liberty and learned that no more tours were being given yesterday. One tourist said that they would simply come back today, telling WABC 7, "I guess if it happens today, it won't happen tomorrow."

Five French tourists got dragged on a crazy, high-speed chase after getting into an unlicensed livery van at JFK yesterday. The unwanted excitement started around 11 a.m. after Port Authority police spotted Ian McFarland, 57, hustling the newly-arrived French visitors from the Air France terminal to an unauthorized van. According to the Post, Officer Michael Bestany recognized McFarland as a "longtime steerer" of travelers to the illegal vans, and when Bestany reached into the vehicle to grab the keys, driver Khaalis Preacher floored it, knocking Bestany to the pavement, injuring his shoulder and knee. Captive tourist Gwen Dulugat, who injured her arm while trying to jump from the moving van, describes the high-speed chase that ensued: "It went very, very fast. We're going zoom, zoom, zoom. The police were fantastic. They were behind us all the time." Preacher led cops to East New York, where he finally crashed through the mechanical gate arm of a US Postal Service facility. The Post got great photos of the police, guns drawn, chasing down the two suspects and arresting them; the other tourists escaped with no injuries and an ultimate New York story.

The city announced that an estimated 47 million people visited NYC this year. The number is a new record high (last year, there were 46 million visitors) and the city also estimates that the tourists spent $30 billion (another record--last year tourists brought in $28.9 billion). However, with the recession, the increase of tourists was only 2%, small compared to the 5% uptick between 2006 and 2007. Mayor Bloomberg was optimistic, "While we can't promise that we will hit another record next year, I do think we'll continue to see a lot of tourists on our streets." He spoke at Rockefeller Center, where CityRoom reports some students from Medford (Mass.) High School cheered him on: "Mr. Bloomberg thanked all of them for coming and said, 'We love you; go spend some money,' before he went on his way."

Two Australian tourists got very up-close-and-personal with Central Park nature yesterday when a tree fell and its branches knocked them down. WCBS 880 reports that Melanie Ciancio and Brooke Spagnolo, who were getting their portraits drawn, "weren't seriously hurt"; one told NY1, "Suddenly we hear this crackling noise and then we were just on the floor and hit to the ground and the branches were on top of us and we crawled out and it was really surreal and weird, just really shook us up." They were in town for Ciancio's 30th birthday and "were impressed at how quickly passers by and EMS officials arrived to help." The park's department thinks wet soil contributed to the tree's fall.

Maybe one blogger can make a difference? Beer enthusiast Aaron Goldfarb has had it with tourists who dare invade our fair city with their money and slow walking. So he's sending a misanthropic message to the world with his NYC tourist blog that these shabbily dressed visitors must be stopped. Or at least mocked. Goldfarb spends his days documenting every Midtown tourist step, profiling them by their tapered jeans or cowboy hats, and snidely imagining their insipid chatter. Also on notice is anyone who eats pancakes or looks at department store holiday windows! His tagline: "Give me your tired, your poor, your disgustingly fat retarded sloths that get in my fucking way every time I try to negotiate midtown." But could it be Goldfarb (pictured here looking touristy with our 43rd president) doth protest too much, and secretly loathes the tourist within?

Re: restroom stalls, “There is a space between the door and the wall, and someone can see you from the outside. In Germany you would never have that.” - That final point is something that NYC residents also hate, though! And one woman from Seattle found many New Yorkers to be "as rude as they can be." She also bought pillows at Macy's because the ones at her hotel were too thin (woo to spending money in the city!).

Continue reading "Tourists on NYC (and its Bathrooms)"

Two elevators inside the Empire State Building stopped working last night when construction workers accidentally cut power lines. Over five hundred tourists were stranded on the observation deck while more than a dozen were stuck in an elevator near the 80th floor for over an hour. Two women were injured when, witnesses said, they had to jump off the stuck lifts about a foot to the floor. Both were taken to the hospital.

Last night, two 15-year-olds were arrested after allegedly attacking and robbing a tourist couple in Central Park on West Drive near West 85th. The incident occurred around 9:15 p.m., according to WABC 7, with two boys punching "33-year-old man in the face, while a 15-year-old girl tried to swipe a 26-year-old woman's purse." Though the girl didn't get the purse, she and her cohorts ran away with the victims chasing them. The police managed to get the boys (though one fractured his wrist as the suspects apparently fought back) but the police are still searching for the girl.

New York City has a buoy helping it resist the receding economic tide: Tourists. In particular, foreign tourists who are relatively flush with currency that has strengthened against the American dollar. The city's marketing agency NYC & Company says tourism increased by one million visitors during the first quarter of 2008 versus the same period in 2007, and that 20% of those visitors arrived from abroad. And last year a record 46 million visited the city!

A plan is afoot to have horse drawn carriages around Central Park replaced by environmentally friendly classic cars, like the Ford Model T. The carriage horse business has come under increasing scrutiny recently as an outdated and cruel practice. Several incidents where horses were killed or injured after bolting in city traffic have galvanized opponents and some politicians to ban the use of horses in New York City. Technology remains a barrier, according to the Post.

One option would be the classic replicas that run on propane and hydrogen currently shuttling tourists around San Francisco. But Nislick said the coalition would prefer electric cars with zero emissions - technology that may not be available until 2010.

Councilman Tony Avella is interested in the possible substitution of cars for horses. He's already proposed a bill to ban horse drawn carriages in the city. Carriage owners insist that their animals are well cared for and think that a car ride won't have the same appeal as a carriage ride. Spokeswoman for the Horse and Carriage Association, Carolyn Daly, told the Post "No one wants to replace clip-clop, clip-clop with chitty chitty bang bang."

Hey, tourists, NYC may want you to spend lots of money when you visit the Big Apple, but just don't get really sick or else the Administration for Children's Services will take your kids in! Because that's what happened to one British family last month!

Zagat's updated Best of Brooklyn 2008 guide was released yesterday, filled to the brim with all that the city's largest borough has to offer, including 216 restaurants, 141 nightspots, 355 shops, 25 tourist attractions and more. Like all Zagat guides, this one is a complilation of surveys from the public and each entry is rated on a scale of 1-30. The guide is broken up into five sections: Dining, Nightlife, Shopping, Gourmet Shopping & Entertaining,...