Audacious and ambitious, New York City is a metro that knows no bounds, whether it be stretching the limits of a skyline or shortening the length of a minute.
It’s where one goes to make a mark in culture or commerce, a whirlwind of humanity always pushing itself to the point of collapse or combustion, a place to seize one’s dreams in the center of the most dynamic nation in history.
“I wanted to come to New York from when I was a child. I wanted to be that big-city girl, I guess,” says Anne W. Burrell, executive chef of Centro Vinoteca restaurant, located in the West Village. “I wanted to be where the action was—where life was happening.”
An Upstate New York girl who aspired to attend college in Manhattan, but whose father made sure she wasn’t immediately gobbled up by the big city by sending her away to school, Burrell finally hit town for good at the age of 27, and has since made her mark on the culinary scene in kitchens and as the co-host of the Food Network’s Iron Chef. Look for her to star in her own food show on the network soon.
Even though she’s made it there, she’s still overwhelmed by what she sees.
“There’s everything here,” Burrell enthuses. “You can search out things or not search out things, be a part of things or be by yourself in a city of a billion people—everything is here. There’s just so many parts of the city. Even after being here for 11 years, I haven’t taken advantage nearly as well as I could.”
The true multifaceted cacophony of Manhattan can be lost on groups, however, which typically land in Midtown and stick to immersing themselves in the density of stellar attractions decorating New York’s drawing room.
“Everybody goes to Midtown, but there’s so many other cool parts of the city,” Burrell laments. “Tourist places are tourist places for a reason—there are things you have to see and do. Take a spin through East or West Village. There’s still a little grunge there, the streets are twisty and turny, there’s the brownstones—you just really feel a sense of history here and I love that.”
To Burrell, who plies her trade by adding a creative interpretation to traditional Italian cuisine, New York’s food scene may be the perfect metaphor to describe America itself.
“I feel like this is the greatest food city in the world, just because there’s everything here,” she says. “When you go to Europe, when you go to Paris or anywhere in Italy, the food is French or Italian. Here you can eat out with a different nationality for months if you want. Americans have the freedom to mix and match and create, and they don’t feel as bound by tradition and culture, which certainly lets me be able to do what I do.”
While the sights are superlative and the food is about the best one can get, Manhattan also serves up room and occupancy rates that are scratching the stratosphere. NYC & Company, the city’s tourism marketing arm, has been working to promote the less-expensive outer boroughs to the meetings industry.
“Most people are the most familiar with Midtown Manhattan or Manhattan in general,” says Tiffany Townsend, director of communications for NYC & Co. “On a very broad level, we’re always really trying to get people to look at the other four boroughs. You almost have five cities in one, and they have a very distinct feel and offer very different things.”
Townsend points to Brooklyn’s New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge and the new Hampton Inn & Suites Staten Island, which is near to the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Staten Island, as increasing in popularity with groups.
But back on Manhattan, things are proceeding as usual—at a rapid clip.
Townsend says major happenings include new stadiums for both the New York Yankees and New York Mets, due for a 2009 christening and sure to offer the group event space that modern baseball franchises take to the bank. Other facilities coming online soon include a 175,000-square-foot Midtown trade show and special events facility at Pier 94 that can hold 10,000 for a reception, and The Sports Museum of America (www.thesportsmuseum.com), which is scheduled to open in May and serve as a shrine to all sports by acting in partnership with 50 major sports halls of fame. Located in Lower Manhattan at 26 Broadway, the museum will offer 90,000 square feet of space.
On the art front, giant manmade waterfalls created by artist Olafur Eliasson and ranging in height from 90 to 120 feet will shimmer from 7 a.m. till 10 p.m., seven days a week, in four locations-- the Brooklyn Bridge, between Piers 4 and 5, Pier 35, and Governors Island—as part of The New York City Waterfalls (www.nycwaterfalls.org) installation.
Like falling water, New York is always on the move, and drenched with an energy experienced nowhere else in the world.
