My internship is with the City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation. My building is called The Arsenal, built in the 1851 it predates Central Park in which it lies and was used to house munitions by the State of New York, it is located on Fifth Ave. and 64^th Street. Everyday I wake up in Staten Island and take the Staten Island Ferry to Manhattan, there I take the R or W subway train uptown where I get off at the Fifth Ave. stop. The division I work with is Marketing and Special Events, which looks over city parks in all 5 boroughs. The Department of Parks and Recreation is responsible for over 28,000 acres, which is almost 14% of the land in New York City. As the largest urban park system in the country, Parks and Recreation’s main focus is to make sure that the parks, beaches, playgrounds, stadiums, marinas, recreation facilities, gardens, malls, squares and public spaces in New York City are clean, safe and attractive for the health and enjoyment of the people. The division that I work in is responsible for creating educational and recreational programming opportunities, as well as providing free citywide events, maintaining and revitalizing New York’s green spaces.

My responsibility to the Marketing and Special Events department is to take an incoming, which is an application to hold an event at a park, and then follow through on steps to make sure everything goes as planned and the event takes place. Right now I have about 6 incomings on my plate as well as the NYC Marathon and our annual Halloween Party. I will take you through one of the events that I am working on and explain to you what it is that I do. Senseo, who makes coffee machines, has a new coffee machine product that they want to promote. It is a 3-month, 10-city tour and one of the stops is New York City. I received their application for their event and looked it over, that is the first step. I called their contact, Korey Troyer for the event to let them know that I have received their application and asked them to fax me an outline of their event, a proposal. The information that we need in the proposal allows us to decide whether the event is appropriate for Parks and to figure out the concession site fee for the event. We at Parks need to know in the proposal what kind of event it is, the size of the event, the purpose of the event, is it going to be commercialized? If there are going to be banners, are they going to be handing out brochures? Are there going to be tents, tables, and/or a stage? We need to know the timeline for the set-up and breakdown, we need to know if there is going to be amplified sound, media coverage, vehicles and a clean up plan. Senseo had wanted to have their event at Union Square Park, but there is already an event scheduled there are few days earlier so our supervisor Betsy Smith did not think that was a good idea. We recommended Foley Square Park and Senseo said that would be fine. The next step I took was to come up with a site fee assessment, this is determined by what park you are at (for example Central Park, level B, has a higher site fee than Foley Square, level D, because of a number of factors) and how big of a set-up is going to take place. I then set up a site visit with the Foley Square Park Manager, the representative from Senseo, someone from Manhattan Special Events and myself, which at this moment is what I have to do next. At the site visit we will plan the layout of the event and Senseo has an idea of what they want to do. We at Parks will either say yes that’s fine, or no you have to change this, our main goal when having an event is at the end of the day the park looks the same as it did before the event. We do not want trees, park benches, etc. to be destroyed. After the site visit, we finalize the site fee, make a contract and send it to Legal (which is another department of Parks, they are our lawyers). Once Legal is okay with the contract, I send it to Senseo for them to sign. Senseo will then sign the contract and send it back to us with a site fee check, a bond check (which they get back if they do not harm the park), and their insurance information so just in case something happens at the event they cannot sue the City of New York. Then I will go to the event on the date to represent Parks and make sure everything runs smoothly and if something happens to make sure I get in contact with the right people. After the event, if everything ran smoothly I will return the bond thanking them for having the event and I will then put all of the information of that event into our files so we have them on record. And that’s that, for the most part.

I did not know exactly what to expect when I first came here, but since working here I would say that not much has surprised me. I enjoy working here, my co-workers are younger (25-35), they are all very nice and they keep me busy. I cannot say exactly what my supervisors’ expectations of me were, hopefully that I was competent. I have so far been treated with respect as well as treating everyone here with respect. I work hard and that’s what they expect. The atmosphere is fairly laid back, people dress causally, it’s okay to be 5-10 minutes late to work, but not a meeting. We have staff meetings once a week to discuss incoming events, events that are about to happen and events that just occurred, just to keep everyone on the same page. How I have adjusted in the 5 weeks is getting to know my colleagues so they can trust me. At first I had no idea of the process that went on here, now I understand what to do and what is expected to me, for the most part.

At my internship I have been able to blend my two concentrations, Business and Geography in the work that I have done. Though this is a government agency, it has a lot of business aspects to it. We are dealing with other businesses setting up events. I personally work with people from companies who deal with their events and we work together. There are two different kinds of events, an event that an outside company or organization wants to hold (like Senseo) or an event that is Parks produced (like the Halloween Party). When having a Parks produced event we need to reach out to possible sponsors to donate money so we can fund the event, this is marketing. For the Halloween Party we reached out to Starbucks, who has worked with us before and asked them if them wanted to help sponsor the event. After some negotiations it was decided that they would give Parks $85,000.00 for their sponsorship, so now the event is called the Starbucks Halloween Party. We then reach out to places where we can advertise to the people of New York City, so they know about the event, advertising. We are going to have ads in the New York Post, but have decided not to put our ad in any other newspaper because we have a long relationship with the Post and they would not be happy if we went to other newspapers to advertise. We are going to have advertisements on the radio (Power 105 and WKTU), Viacom will put our ads of Buscard Postings. We are advertising on our website at www.nycgovparks.org and The Weather Channel website. On each ad we must put "Starbucks Halloween Party" with the Starbucks logo displayed. That’s business for you, I do something for you, you do something for me, with money exchanging hands. Once this event is planned, which involves Urban Planning we go to the event and supervise, which is management.

I feel my Geography concentration is broad and I interpret my geographic experience in a number of different ways. When I took Urban Geography, we learned about a few cities, but I wanted to learn the urban geography of New York City, I want this city layout to be locked in my head forever. Everyday is a geography class, I get up on my island (Staten) and go island hopping on a ferry to another island (Manhattan) for work. When at work I have to be well schooled, which I have been, in the geography of New York City. Right next to my desk is a map of New York City, which I look at everyday, mentally placing all of the parks in my head to know where they are. I also enjoy learning all of the different neighborhoods in the city and city streets. For the Citywide Bocce Tournament I had to make directions from one park in each borough to South Beach Park in Staten Island so the players and their families could get to Staten Island. I have found it interesting that most of the people in my department do not know the geography of New York City, they only know the neighborhood that they live in and Manhattan. When we go on site visits to other boroughs I sometimes have to tell native New Yorkers where to turn or what exit to take when going to a park, that really amazes me. When setting up an event I have to know the location of that park, not only for my reference, but for the client as well. I do not want to set up a big event at a small park. For promotional events, like Senseo, we had recommended 2 smaller parks in the Soho district of Manhattan. The client wanted a bigger, more well known park, (so when they advertise, just the name of the park is enough to draw some folks) also in an area that had more foot traffic. I had to look at the map of New York City and decide what park would be suitable, even though I do not make the final decision on the park, I am able to recommend a park to my supervisor. Taking Physical Geography I learned a lot about our natural habitat and to keep it clean. At Parks that is what we do, make sure the landscape of the city is maintained. We work with public property and we do not want New Yorkers to spend their free time in a littered dump. We take pride in our work and the parks of our city, this is a good organization we got going on here. Raekwon from the Wu-Tang Clan calls NYC a "concrete jungle" and besides our beautiful parks that is true. You always have to keep your head up and know where you are going because people are not going to hold your hand here. I have found the myth that New Yorkers are a**holes not be true. They may seem nasty, but sometimes they just speak the truth, which some people might not always want to hear. For the most part traveling the city I have seen and been a part of acts of kindness from one random person to another just as long as you know how to carry yourself, be independent. It’s a big city, everything happens on every different level, it’s all here all the time.

My internship is going very well and I am enjoying what I do. I am ready for any challenge they give me because I am ready to succeed in life. There is no time in New York to slow down and become a slacker, New York will not stop moving forward and neither will I.