The local paper for the Upper East Side
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12-18 2018
TWEET WELCOME FROM THE FED SOCIAL MEDIA A “DearJohninNYC” campaign gives the new boss from San Francisco a crash course in New York — and proves central bankers can have a sense of humor BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is best known for formulating monetary policy, regulating depository institutions, redeeming billions in Treasury securities and serving as the banker of the U.S. government. But it isn’t all macroeconomics or post-crisis supervisory stress testing at the Florentine-style palazzo at 33 Liberty Street downtown: The Fed, it turns out, has been conducting a crash course in New York City 101. The principal pupil is Sacramento native John C. Williams, a 55-yearold economist who started his new post as 11th president of the New York Fed on June 18 after seven years as president of the San Francisco Fed. Williams had never worked on Wall Street. He’d never called the city home. So the Fed’s digital team decided to welcome him and advise him on mastering life in New York — by launching a playful new social media campaign, #DearJohninNYC. “John has never lived in New York, he’s coming from San Francisco, and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cute if we told him a little bit about New York City,’” said Christine Sommo, an officer in the digital-strategy unit. Soon, a call went out seeking volunteers at the 3,000-employee central bank, and in no time, economists, statisticians, researchers, regulators, software engineers, information technologists and staffers in
John C. Williams, the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A Sacramento native and ex-president of the San Francisco Fed, he was welcomed to the city last month by Fed staffers who launched a social-media campaign. Photo courtesy of Federal Reserve Bank of New York outreach, administration and communications had raised their hands. “The campaign gave us the opportunity to humanize the institution,” Sommo said. In a series of two dozen short video tweets, acted out by about 30 bankers and other staff around Manhattan, Williams is visually instructed in how to become a New Yorker. One woman demonstrates the proper angle at which to flag down a passing cab above a caption reading, “The taxi hail is all about the lean.” A man displays the “pizza fold” as he consumes a slice, an art form that “might take practice, but is worth it.”
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A cyclist crosses the 59th Street and Second Avenue intersection using the bus lane. The Department of Transportation plans to install a new bike lane at the dangerous crossing, near the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge. Photo: Michael Garofalo
SECOND AVENUE TO GET BIKING UPGRADES STREETS DOT plan calls for new dedicated lane, pedestrian island at Queensboro Bridge intersection BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
For Manhattan cyclists, the busy section of Second Avenue approaching the Queensboro Bridge often makes for a white-knuckle ride. “I have long since come to the conclusion that if I get killed on a bike, that is where it’s going to happen,” said
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Jeremy Posner, an Upper East Side resident who navigates the area frequently using Citi Bike. High traffic volumes and lacking bike infrastructure have long made the 10-block stretch of Second Avenue south of 68th Street one of the most treacherous places to bike in Manhattan — particularly at the complicated intersection between 60th and 59th Streets where vehicles enter and exit the Queensboro Bridge, which one recent study found was the most dangerous crossing in the entire borough. A new proposal from the city’s Department of Transportation, present-
ed the plan to Community Boards 6 and 8 earlier this month, calls for improved bike lanes on Second Avenue and an overhaul of the Queensboro Bridge intersection, improvements
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, July 13 – 8:09 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com
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