Marketing Begins At Home

David in the City

I’m sitting in the middle of New York’s Bryant Park - a green oasis in Mid-Town Manhattan. My Dad used to work right around the corner from here - on Fifth and 43rd - and back in those days this park was one of those places that sensible people (at least people not looking for a fix or to be mugged) Did Not Go In There. Now it’s an urban garden on steroids, modeled after Paris’s Jardin des Tuileries, complete with chairs and WiFi.

Fortunately though, the mall-ification of New York begun under the Guiliani regime hasn’t really altered the landscape between Times and Herald Squares. Mid-Town West is still the place where most of the World’s tschotkes pass through before they end up in gift and souvenier stores. The fashion district is still the fashion district and the names of the coffee shops and delis may have changed but the quality of the coffee hasn’t. And even if we’re all working on-line, here cash and a handshake are still king.

It’s kind of reasuring, all things considered.