Downtown Alliance Rings Closing Bell At New York Stock Exchange
In a celebratory commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Alliance for Downtown New York’s inception, Alliance President Jessica Lappin today rang the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The Downtown Alliance’s Chairman, Bob Douglass, and two of the Alliance’s founding board members, Bill Rudin and Richard Kennedy, joined Lappin at the bell ringing. Alliance staff members Renee Braunstein, Eddie Hudson, Joe Timpone and Maria Tirado-Quinoes, among the organization’s first hires, were also present.
This month marks the twentieth anniversary of the Downtown Alliance’s inception and founding, an unprecedented collaborative effort between the government and private sector. Over the past twenty years, in addition to providing supplemental core services, which include providing more than a hundred public safety and sanitation officers, running a free bus service, managing streetscape improvements and doing outreach to the homeless, the Alliance has supplied research, marketed the area and undertaken economic development initiatives. These efforts have helped Lower Manhattan attract new businesses, boost tourism and hospitality, support commercial tenancy, encourage diversification, stoke a retail revolution and keep the neighborhood safe, clean and welcoming for all.