I am a born and raised New Yorker. Actually, a Manhattanite. I grew up on the top floor of a walk-up adjacent to the East River, and from my bedroom balcony I would watch the planes on approach into LaGuardia and identify them by their livery and logo. Names like Pan Am, Eastern and Braniff. My parents would take me to the West Side and while I was just a kid, I can remember taking pier-side tours of the SS United States, France and Queen Mary before they sailed away in a parade of confetti, streamers and balloons.
When I graduated from NYU, my friends and I went to the same piers the next day, bought a student ticket and crossed the Atlantic on the QE2. Berthed on the lowest deck in two bunk beds with a porthole that had the fine view of any washing machine, I would return to New York after 11 weeks in Europe and with less than a dollar in my pocket. It was one of the best trips of my life…it was the beginning of a grand adventure and quest for knowledge via experience that has never ended. Who knew I’d end up running one of the top public relations travel practices in the world? But just imagine, if as a kid your love of planes, trains, ships and the adventures never ended…that the toys just got a little bigger, and the games a little more complex. That your passion was your “job.” And that you were surrounded by colleagues that are some of the most eclectic, brightest and just plain nicest people in the business? And your clients said, “how do you think we should launch the world’s largest ship? Or plane? Or position a city, destination or country full of possibilities?
This year was very special on so many levels. But the moment I remember most fondly was this: on behalf of New Orleans, a city that is part of the American experience and soul, we convinced them that the icon that was the true venerable survivor was their little ole and very authentic 1920 streetcar…that somehow did survive Katrina and the flood. We arranged through hoops and permits, logistics and all sorts of odds, to load the actual streetcar named “DESIRE” onto a flatbed truck and drive it straight in to the heart of New York – Times Square – where she would become a media darling and help ignite the national story that New Orleans was still there, open for business and never giving up. The evening before the event, as I crossed the George Washington Bridge on the way home, I asked the driver to take the Upper Level…and there she was…this beautiful, historic and aged spirit of tourism and transportation sitting on the flatbed truck waiting to cross the bridge into Manhattan. It just made me smile. I first learned of the streetcars as a kid, going through my grandmothers scrapbook, where she had a post card of one and I remember her telling me, “If you ever get the chance, ride the little green streetcars and make sure you ring the bell.” Who knew? The journey continues…
Rene
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