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‘Where Am I?’ Tourists Turn to Kiosk
for Help
By Anne Kadet
The new City Hall Park Visitor Information
Kiosk will immediately become a critical resource for our city, assisting
all the visitors returning to Downtown while helping pump millions of
dollars of visitor spending into the neighborhoods that need it most.
— Cristyne Nicholas, president and CEO of the city’s tourist
bureau
That’s a tall order for a little kiosk.
Lower Manhattan’s new "critical resource" appeared this
summer on Broadway just west of City Hall Park. About the size of a token
booth, its shelves are stuffed with the tools of the trade: maps, a phone
book, a cross-street finder and a binder with directions to frequently
sought destinations, including six places to go to the bathroom and eight
local stores in which to spend lots of money. Inside, a staff of city
workers, interns and volunteers stands ready to take on Downtown’s
curious visitors.
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By mid-morning, the crowds start to converge
on the booth to snatch up maps ("They’re free! Free as the
wind!" crows intern Cedric Godnig), ask about walking to such
destinations as Rockefeller Center, and find out where to shop (Godnig
ignores the binder’s suggestions and recommends the Seaport).
About a third want directions to the subway. A surprising number simply
march up to the kiosk and bark, "Where am I?" But the hottest
destination, of course, is Ground Zero.
Many ask for "the" Ground Zero, as if to avoid winding up
at some other, lesser disaster site in the city: "How do I get
to The Ground Zero? Can you walk up to it and everything?"
Shara Cohen, an economist who volunteers at the kiosk on Saturday
mornings, gives a pat answer: "Five blocks down, take a right
on Liberty." |
"I have mixed feelings," she says. "I
worked at the World Trade Center and left just a few weeks before. I had
a lot of friends in the building and I don’t want it to turn into a
freak show."
But when tourists ask about other sites, Cohen launches into full guide
mode. "Stop at Trinity Church!" she commands a white-haired couple
inquiring about a cab to Battery Park. "It’s a gooorgeous church!
And it’s such a beautiful day, you should walk!"
"You’ll see a hideous building being reconstructed! That’s
the Staten Island Ferry!" she tells another.
When a father asks about the restaurant Jekyll and Hyde, she’s prepared:
"It’s creepy-eepy! And the food’s okay."
"My friends told me this is the perfect job for me," she confides,
"because I’m a big know-it-all."
By noon, the foot traffic dies down. "No one has any questions,"
Godnig complains. "They’re all knowledgeable and everything."
But soon he’s back in action.
Kyle Wilson, from Philadelphia, needs directions to John Street. "I
think I parked my car there," he explains.
A tourist from West Africa wants to get to Essex Street, where he’s
heard he can buy a device that will make his stereo work with overseas voltages.
The shadows in City Hall Park grow longer, and by day’s end, about
800 visitors have stopped by. Godnig is pleased.
"New York, New York," he says, gesturing in all directions. "Nothing
free except information-booth maps." |
