Downtown Alliance Honors Lower Manhattan Exceptional Service Leaders
The Alliance for Downtown New York today presented its 11th annual Exceptional Service Awards to seven community service leaders who exhibited exemplary service to the community and improved the lives of those who live, work or visit Lower Manhattan.
“Thanks in part to the hard work of today’s honorees, Lower Manhattan has hit its stride as a top global destination for living, working, playing and visiting — with almost 310,000 workers, 56,000 residents, and nine million tourists a year,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Downtown Alliance. “On behalf of the Downtown Alliance, I want to say thank you to our seven award recipients for their role in creating the lively, remarkable —livable —work in progress that is Lower Manhattan.”
Today’s event was held at Les Halles Downtown in Lower Manhattan and images from the event can be accessed at the Downtown Alliance’s Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/downtownny/sets/72157627937831890/.
This year’s award recipients were:
• Uday Durg, Program Executive, Lower Manhattan Project New York City MTA Capital Construction
Mr. Durg has been instrumental in making the Re:Con/MTA architectural netting project work. The architectural netting is a rendering of the restored Corbin building on Broadway and it has transformed the Fulton Transit Center site for those who are living and working through this intense construction period.
• Emil Lissauer, Director of Citywide Event and Coordination Management New York City Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit
Mr. Lissauer has been crucial in easing the congestion on Lower Manhattan streets by curtailing the number of weekday street fairs from roughly 15 a year to 2. During this post 9/11 period of intense construction, along with Lower Manhattan’s already narrow sidewalks, this has been an important victory in the quality of life for Lower Manhattan workers, residents and visitors.
• Steven Galgano, Executive Director of Traffic Operations New York City Department of Transportation
Mr. Galgano has been championing the installation of the ADNY-Style light poles for all of Lower Manhattan for several years and because of his perseverance, we are getting closer to the reality of a unified and coordinated unique streetscape for Lower Manhattan as envisioned by the Cooper Robertson design team and approved as the Lower Manhattan Standard by the Design Commission in 2000. A bid will be issued at the end of this year to manufacturers to make and install the ADNY-Style light poles in 2013 and 2014.
• Grace Han, Urban Planner New York City Department of City Planning
Ms. Han has been an important partner to realizing the Downtown Alliance and Department of City Planning efforts of activating Water Street. She believes creating additional opportunities for movable seating on Water Street is a first step to creating a work/live/play Water Street boulevard and a destination for Class A real estate.
• Inspector Salvatore DiPace, Lower Manhattan Security Initiative New York City Police Department Counterterrorism Bureau
Inspector DiPace has been an unrivaled leader in protecting the safety of Lower Manhattan workers, residents and visitors. Through his command of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, Lower Manhattan has never been better protected.
• Michael Levine, Director of Land Use and Planning New York City Community Board 1
Mr. Levine has been a wonderful Community Board partner to the Downtown Alliance and has actively supported a wide range of initiatives ranging from unlawful street vending to our vision for Water Street and Greenwich South. We applaud Mr. Levine’s efforts in advancing sophisticated urban planning tools to achieve a greater quality of life in Lower Manhattan for workers, residents and visitors.
• Kate Domaingue, Marketing and Communications Harry’s/Financier Patisserie
Ms. Domaingue has been an amazing asset to the community and extremely helpful in her collaborations with the Downtown Alliance. With her work in restaurant marketing and publicity, she has helped to make downtown eateries destinations for visitors to the city and favorites among those who live and work here.