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Day One Hundred and Sixty-Five: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: “The Bergen 250-From Revolution to Renewal-Exploring Historic Bergen County, NJ” April 27th, 2020

I had the most interesting semester for Spring Term at the college where I work. Everything started off fine. We had classes in the afternoon, good discussions on Marketing and had a very successful Team Project marketing the Lyndhurst Snack Shop, the new Bulldog Cafe, for business (See Day One Hundred and Fifty-Nine in MywalkinManhattan.com):

https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/12969

The Bulldog Cafe on the Third Floor of the Bergen Community College Campus

https://www.facebook.com/gdsbulldogcafe/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46586-d20210133-Reviews-Bulldog_Cafe-Lyndhurst_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The Project I gave the students:

BCC-Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Snack Shop Project 2020

I had just handed out the next Team Project, “From Revolution to Renewal: Exploring the Historic Bergen County”, a major tourism project I wanted to the students to work on for the remainder of the semester the week before the break. I had the students to break up into groups and get to know one another and get their game plans in order before the Midterm. We had only one class to introduce the project and they set their group chats up and introduced themselves. The next week I gave the Midterm and then left for the Spring Break.

The Easton Tower in 2024

Our Logo:

Easton Tower: From Revolution to Renewal — Easton Tower is located in Paramus, NJ right next to the Garden State Plaza. It was the theme for our project “From Revolution to Renewal: Exploring Historic Bergen County”.

Here’s the project I gave the students:

BCC-Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. 2020 Project III Lyndhurst Team

This project had been inspired by a couple of things. One was the fact that many of these students did not know their own County. They knew nothing of its history let alone had ever really explored it. It amazed me how many of them did not know the history of the towns they lived in and if there was a well-known cultural site in the town they lived in they never visited it. A few students said to me when I asked had they visited this or that in their town the answer always seemed to be “well I passed it but never really noticed it.”

Another thing that inspired the project was the Northwest Bergen Historical Coalition. Every year this historical group runs a “History Day” for the historical sites of northwest Bergen County. When I asked a friend who worked for the County why they did not have a weekend with all the sights in Bergen County, she said that it would be too difficult to put together. That was what I needed to hear to put this project together. To prove that it could be done.

Northwest Bergen History Coalition “History Day”:

http://www.nwbergenhistory.org/

The Northwest Bergen History Coalition video

It wasn’t just that. Many of the these sites were never visited and some were only open once or twice a year to visitors because their volunteers were getting too old. Many people were not taking these sites seriously in the role they played in not just the formation of the County but the United States. When you really read the history of the people who lived there or what the site meant, it was interesting to see what role it played in the history of Bergen County.

As I said in my previous blog on my Introduction to Business class creating the Ambassador Program, it was a harder go with my Essentials in Marketing class. They were a younger group who did not know much about the history of Bergen County let alone their own towns. I had poised the question many times in class about where they had visited in the County and mentioned many historical sites in towns which they lived in. Only a few had ever visited them or if they had had been way back in elementary school when it was considered part of a school field trip.

This is when I created “From Revolution to Renewal: A Historical Weekend in Bergen County, NJ”. This would be a two day weekend with an opening private cocktail party of the Arts Community and VIP’s followed by a two day tour of all of Bergen County’s historical sites with side trips to our wonderful historical restaurants and a scavenger hunt to wrap it all up.

I had started to arrange a series of field trips that we were going to take over the last week of school and the first week of Spring Break. I had planned a trip to Downtown Hackensack, NJ to see the Courthouse, visit two Dutch Reformed Churches and the cemeteries and then visit White Mana, a very well-known hamburger place that has been around since the 1940’s.

The Bergen County Courthouse, The Green and the Dutch Reformed Church in Downtown Hackensack, NJ

The General Poor statue in the Hackensack Green

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_County_Court_House

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/visitingamuseum.com/926

Our second field trip was going to be to The Pascack Historical Society, the Dutch Reformed Church, the Wortendyke Barn and then a tasting at Demarest Farms, a well known farm stand in Hillsdale, NJ.

The Pascack Historical Society in Oakland, NJ

The inside of the Pascack Valley Historical Society

https://pascackhistoricalsociety.org/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46713-d12610386-Reviews-Pascack_Historical_Society_Museum-Park_Ridge_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/visitingamuseum.com/1147

Another field trip that I started to look into was the Aviation Hall of Fame in Teterboro, NJ and then a tasting at Spindler’s Bakery and Lovey’s Pizzeria in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ and then on to Mills Bakery in Wood Ridge, NJ.

Mills Bakery in Wood Ridge, NJ

Home

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46937-d4735011-Reviews-Mills_Bakery-Wood_Ridge_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

My review on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com:

https://wordpress.com/post/diningonashoestringinnyc.wordpress.com/463

I was doing this while running in and out of New York City for the Restaurant Show and a Michigan State University Alumni Night for the Big Ten Championship game against Ohio State University. I was just getting everything organized and then planning a quick trip to visit my mother when all hell broke loose and the government started to shut everything down. From a Wednesday Membership Night at the Met Breuer to a Thursday morning shut down of New York City and all air travel to Europe, the world changed.

Our Spring Break was extended a week to see what the State of New Jersey was going to do with the educational system and with that at the end of the week we were informed that we would not be returning to school. Not only did that mean no field trips it meant no more live class and I would not be seeing my students again. I was not sure how like my other class we were going to pull this project off.

None of my students had visited practically any of these sites or been to any of the restaurants on the project. Almost everything was closed. You could see some of the sites like the churches and memorials from the street but everything inside was closed. Everything would have to be done online.

The one thing I did have was belief in the class that they could do the work. I had been so impressed by their work on the Snack Shop project that I knew they could do the work. It was the intense research that would have to be done online. A crisis is when you see the best in people. I did.

While my other class had a better head start of the Student Ambassador Project, my Historic Bergen County Team had a lot of ingenuity. The one thing they didn’t know was the history of Bergen County, NJ. I could have asked them to visit some of the sites around the County which would not have been hard as the Reformed Dutch churches could be seen from the sidewalks as well as the cemeteries that surrounded them.

Places like the Camp Merrill Memorial and the Baylor Massacre site were open to the public in obscure areas and not in big parks that would have been closed during the pandemic so it would have been no problem visiting them. I did not want to put anyone at risk of anything at this time so I nixed them leaving their homes. I just did not want to be responsible for anyone getting sick.

The Baylor Massacre site in Rivervale, NJ

The graveyard at the Baylor Massacre Site

https://www.rivervalenj.org/233/Baylor-Massacre

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g46777-d12277914-Reviews-Baylor_Massacre_Burial_Site-River_Vale_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/visitingamuseum.com/30

Once we realized that we were not returning, I started to contact the President and Senior Vice-President of Operations who I chose for the project and started to get underway. Just like my other class, the students all had their own situations. Some students got sick, some just did not communicate with me, some had changes in their family situations and some had communications problems with me. On top of all of this, the Teams of Student Consultants regrouped and really worked their butts off to make it work.

The Talent Team who was responsible for setting up the salaries and benefits for the three-month Division formation had already started doing their work. They had found the location for the office before the break and had a lot of ideas they were contemplating during the break. Since the two Teams of students from Paramus and Lyndhurst would not be meeting up as I had originally planned, I had the Lyndhurst Team develop their own unique plan for their Division of the company.

The Talent Division set up their office design, created a Wrap Up party for the Division, created a set of ‘perks’ for the Division staff and developed a very fair package of benefits for the staff (see their website below).

The Marketing Division I created for the Team Project had the bulk of the work. I broke the Division down into three sections:

The Historical Museums/Parks/Homes & Zoo Division was responsible doing the research on every historic tourist site in the County. This included the historical homes, churches, parks, cemeteries, monuments and the zoo. They had to do the research on each and then for the website put together a small bio on them so that tourists could find them when using the website on their smartphones. This also included a Scavenger Hunt in the buildings that they had never been inside of before.

They also had to set up a cocktail party opening event at The Gallery Bergen, our on campus art gallery at Bergen Community College. The cocktail party was being created for Museum Curators, Historians, members of the Arts Community, Artists and VIP’s from the County.

The second Division was the Historical Restaurant Division whose job it was to find restaurants all over the County that predated 1980. We were looking showcase well-known restaurants with years of longevity in the County that were well-known not just in the community but around the country with foodies. Places like White Mana in Hackensack, NJ and Hiram’s Hot Dogs in Fort Lee, NJ.

White Manna at 358 River Street in Hackensack, NJ

https://www.whitemanna.com/

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46480-d458302-Reviews-White_Manna-Hackensack_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

The Third Division of the Marketing Team was the History Division whose job it was to research Bergen County’s History from the Lenape Settlements with the Dutch to the Revolutionary War to World War II. Bergen County played such a huge role in all the wars from setting up and training troops to munitions being developed here to battle grounds between the wars.

They were also responsible for researching a list of the ‘first family’s’ of Bergen County. People like the Zabriskie’s, the Demerest’s, the Terhune’s and the Haring’s played a big part not just in the development of Bergen County but in the formation of the United States especially during the Revolutionary War.

The Marketing Division itself was responsible for creating the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. websites for the client that were eventually merged into one. The Marketing Team would be gathering information from the three Teams that made up the Division and create the site for tourists and residents who were going to attend the three-day History Event.

They were also responsible for filming two commercials. One commercial would be on the role of Bergen County in the United States foundation from the Revolutionary War to World War II.

The Team’s commercial on the ‘History of Bergen County’ for “From Revolution to Renewal-A Historical Weekend in Bergen County, NJ”

The second would be inviting people to come to visit Bergen County and all it has to offer:

The Team’s commercial on “Welcoming people to Bergen County, NJ” in many languages for “From Revolution to Renewal-A Historical Weekend in Bergen County, NJ”

This was a very extensive project, and I could not wait to come back to school after the break and start the project. When I took my students ‘out into the field’ (i.e. field trips) to the location, these projects made more sense to the class. The field trips to Paterson, NJ and to the Snack Shop on the Bergen Community College Lyndhurst, NJ campus resulted in extremely creative work and the students being able to see first hand what it was they were marketing. This would be put to the test when we did not return to the college.

I have to say of all my classes, I have never seen a collective of students regroup and get the job done. The Talent Team was very diligent and got their work done on a timely basis. My senior executives for that division lead their Team and created a game plan to get their job accomplished.

It was much harder in our Historical Division in that there was a lot of research to do with each site, restaurant and family that had to be carefully explored and researched in detail. It was not so easy with no access to certain books as all libraries were shut down and not everything was on an eBook.

Almost all the restaurants on the list were not open at the time of the project (a lot of them have since opened for take-out only) and since this was a younger group of students, they did not know a lot of the restaurants that had been opened for years. Here I was able to assist as a CEO and be able to add to the project. With the help of my aunt, who had lived in Bergen County since the 1950’s, we were able to create a list of about thirty five restaurants, candy and ice cream stores and bakeries all over Bergen County that tourists and residents alike would enjoy when they were touring on the Historical Weekend.

Still we were able to create an interesting commercial on the restaurants that were open since before the 1970’s. Here is the commercial for “Historic Restaurants of Bergen County” that the students put together:

This commercial really highlights the older restaurants of Bergen County, NJ.

Since all the cemeteries and churches were off limits for the duration of the project (they have now started to open), everything had to be done online by the help of Google. All the wonderful historic cemeteries that we were going to tour in Ridgewood, Hackensack, Dumont and Bergenfield were closed to us and I would not be able to show the significance of the families and how they intertwined with marriage.

The Dutch Reformed Church and cemetery on the Green in Hackensack, NJ

The Dutch Reformed of Hackensack NJ

My review on VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/visitingamuseum.com/1891

It was a rough first two weeks as communication was limited to just campus email but as things like Zoom and WebEx video conferencing started to be introduced then we were raring to go. My students were already group chatting and video conferencing with each other before my training was over and then it was ‘Zooming’ in meetings for the rest of the semester.

Some of my students needed to learn how to time prioritize and some of them needed to take their work much more seriously but when I read their final papers on the project, I realized that was not always so easy.

Some students were taking care of loved ones who were sick or had been sick themselves, some had multiple classes and not much access to computers and had professor’s like myself emailing them all the time so they got over-whelmed. It was a real challenge but I knew this Team of Student Consultants was up for the sense of self-accomplishment.

For the next three weeks before the Monday, April 27th presentation, I have never emailed so many people so many times answering questions, trying to find information and trying to guide people to doing their best work.

One of the attributes I let the students use was my blog site, VisitingaMuseum.com:

https://visitingamuseum.com/

This way it would save them time in their research. I had found when I was putting the site together that many of these smaller historical sites in Bergen County did not even have their own websites. We also discovered as a Team that there was no site in the County or in the State that showed off all of Bergen County attributes.

To add to the historical sites and the historical restaurants, I had all the students in both classes do research on every town in Bergen County to add to the website. This way it would tie everything you needed to know about the County with the families, where they lived, who they were, how they played a role in the development of the County, the towns that they lived in and by the way when you are visiting all the great long service restaurants to dine at for the weekend.

All of this was a major challenge as the Team had never put a website together and the one that the mythical client, the New Jersey Historical Guild of Bergen County, had wanted had an interactive map. This all had to be created from scratch.

I am not sure what went on behind the scenes as I was not privy to the Group Chat but I could tell there was a lot of conversation back and forth on everything. I was lucky that I created an Executive Team who saw this as a challenge themselves. Nothing like this had ever been attempted by the County or the State of New Jersey Tourism that I knew of in past history.

On Monday, April 27th at 11:00am, the students presented me their Power Point Presentation and their commercials. If ever there was a Professor that was prouder of his students, it was me. The Team took all the proposed ideas that I came up with plus adding the history of every town in Bergen County (all 70 of them) and came up with a very creative website not just for the Historical Sites, History of the Country and Historic Restaurants but the Talent Division created their own website as well.

The Power Point presentation was attended not just by myself but with other members of the Historical Community of Bergen County and that made the presentation really special that the students would get that feedback.

I have to say that I was totally blown away by not just the Power Point Presentation but by the commercials and the websites that they created. The one thing I knew is that the global pandemic did not stop this Team of students from accomplishing the task.

Both of my classes exceeded and impressed me with all of their ideas. Hats off to all the students involved in both projects. You should be proud of yourselves!

Here is the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Historical Website of Bergen County, NJ:

https://bergecooparc.wixsite.com/bergen

Here is the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Lyndhurst Talent Team website:

https://bergenconsulting2.wixsite.com/bergeccoparc

Here is the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. website that contains the Power Point for the Project and all the commercials:

Home

Again, congratulations to everyone who made this possible. You did an excellent job!

Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder

Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Four: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: “Go Bulldogs Go-A Student Ambassador Program”-Introduction to Business Project-Bergen Community College April 24th, 2020

May 30, 2020Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Projects, Dedication to Warren Watrel, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring Paramus NJ, My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, MywalkinManhattan-Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., UncategorizedAddthistoyourgrocerylist@Wordpress.com, Author Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., Bergen Community College, Bergen Community College Bulldogs, BergenCountyCaregiver, BergenCountyCaregiver.com, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring Paramus, Exploring Paramus NJ, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Go Bulldogs Go-Student Ambassador Program, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, Justin Watrel CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, Professor Justin Watrel, Professor Justin Watrel CEO & Co-Founder, Visiting Paramus NJ, VisitingaMuseum.com, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watrel, Welcome Week 2019 BCCjwatrel

I had the strangest semester this quarter at Bergen Community College where I work. The semester started off normal and was the typical night class. I would get in about an hour and a half early and prepare for class. Then it was lecture, class participation and then quizzes and exams. I had just given my midterm exam and then we left for Spring Break. I knew the outside issues that were surrounding us but the problems of the COVID-19 seemed so far away.

Even so in the back of my mind I knew this was going to be a problem experiencing what I did at the New York Restaurant Show and at the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown in the same time frame. Even Groundhog’s Day and the Big Ten Championship seemed subdued. I guess I just waited for someone to finally pull the plug and did they EVER IN A BIG WAY!

Two weeks before we left for Break, I reopened the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. concept for my Introduction to Business class and gave out the Team Project and went over the guidelines of the project. I have to say that the students seemed pretty excited about the prospect of running a company. My President and Senior Vice-President were raring to go and the next two classes, the last one being the night of the Midterm, we were able to meet and it gave the students time to meet up and get to know one another. I knew it would be a successful project.

The Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. logo

I had thought about this semester’s Team Project for the class while we were presenting the Paterson Project last semester and thought about what many students had told me about their experiences at the College. Most seemed alienated from the other students. Others who had attended bigger four year colleges in the past felt their was no cohesiveness to the school, no connection because it was a commuter school. Others told me that they did not know anyone at the school until they did their group project. The one thing was true was there was no school spirit.

This gave me the idea this semester to do something to focus on the students and their experience at the college. While my Marketing class created a project for tourism in Historical Bergen County, I had my Introduction to Business class create a Student Ambassador Program that would welcome students to the college starting with the student getting accepted in high school and then take them on the whole experience of welcoming them once they got to Bergen Community College.

I decided to expand the “Welcome Week” project I did two years ago (see ‘Day One Hundred and Twenty Seven’ in MywalkinManhattan.com) that welcomed students and alumni back to the college and create an ambassador program as another part of welcoming students to campus. The Welcome Week project gave the students an opportunity to be involved with the campus when they graduated but I wanted to see something when they first got the letter of acceptance. So I created a Team Project that would combine the whole experience.

The Welcome Week Project-“Follow the Yellow Brick Road back to Bergen Community College-Welcome Week 2019”:

https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/8022

The Welcome Week Logo of 2018

My questions was ‘How do we engage students when they are accepted to the college and then when they get here?’ ‘How are we sure that they do not get lost in the crowd?’ Since it is a commuter campus, how do we keep them engaged once they start classes? This was the challenge for the students to tackle with this Team project. We used the last two classes of the semester to meet and get everyone acquainted and have the Teams start the project. It started very smoothly.

Here was the inspiration for the Ambassador Program:

Here was the welcome to the college from the “Welcome Week” Team!

While on Spring Break, I got a memo from the college while attending the Restaurant Show that the college was going to extend the Spring Break a week to see what the State of New Jersey was going to do to handle the COVID-19 situation.

So I just continued on with the first week of break, attending the Restaurant Show, going to Blondie’s on the West Side to the Alumni Night for the Big Ten Championships, attending a 90’s Tech retrospect at the Anthology Archives and going to the Members night at the Met Breuer. All of this while I felt that everyone I was with at these events with were looking over their shoulders wondering what would happen next (See Day One Hundred and Sixty-“On Leave from “MywalkinManhattan.com” in MywalkinManhattan.com).

https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/12972

I was planning on visiting my mother on Thursday of first week of break so after the Restaurant Show closed I got my car serviced, my haircut, my dry cleaning and banking done and finished my housework in anticipation of my upcoming trip. Still everything loomed in the distance. The next morning all hell broke loose and the borders were shut in the United States and the stock market went wild! The market was dropping like crazy.

So in between talking to my mother, my broker and other family members everything was cancelled and I stayed home and by March 13th, the whole country started the lock down. I could not go into the City and continue my walk of the Theater District or work in the Soup Kitchen as everything in the City immediately shut down. I just wondered how this would play out with the College. Even before the break many of my students had been asking questions about this that I could not answer.

While we were on break a lot of my students kept in touch with one another and we were working on the project during the second week of the break. I was only allowed to email students if they emailed me (they were still on their break) but I would CC everyone on my emails to keep the lines of communication open. It was only at the end of the second week that we knew we would not be going back to school and all the classes would go virtual. It was then I was emailing my students and going over what we needed to do to proceed with the project. This is when the project got interesting.

Some of the students had kept in touch over the break and had gotten the framework done for their sections and had some ideas of what they wanted to do. So we were better prepared than the other class I had who had one afternoon to get their game plan together. When we realized we would not be going back to class and everything would have to be virtual, it made the class even more interesting and a big challenge. Most of the students had a good handle on the work and many parts of the project had been started.

The Ambassador Project:

BCC-Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. 2020 III (Revised)

The project was broken down into sections. Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. (an acronym for Bergen Community College-Paramus Campus) is a hierarchy in company form. I set up my Executives and broke them down into different divisions. My President and Senior Vice-President ran the show. They would report to me and let me know how the project was progressing. They were in charge of putting the Power Point presentation together and finding our headquarters.

The slogan that the Team came up with for the project.

My Talent Division was in charge of setting up salaries, the benefits package and the office space design for a three month period that we would be working on the proposal for the client. Once the President and Senior Vice-President of Operations found the location for the offices, it would be the Talent Team’s responsibility to design and furnish the office. They would also set up a series of ‘perks’ for the office, things like snacks for the office, team building projects and employee relation items like Daycare and transportation reimbursement.

My Marketing Team was responsible for setting up the Corporate Website (based on the one that had been set up for the Paterson Project) and expand it to include all Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. projects from the past, shoot commercials welcoming students to campus and what it is like to attend Bergen Community College and set up the logos along with the Spirit Division and then find ways to ‘market the college’ to the incoming students. They were also in charge of designing the new “Ambassador” uniforms for the Student Ambassadors to wear when attending events.

My Spirit/Special Events Team was responsible for all the ‘spirit’ related projects. They were responsible for setting up our Spirit Welcome’s to incoming high school students and once they got to campus, organizing a series of events to get the students involved in the campus. They were also assigned to set up the special events to welcome parents and students to campus.

On the High School Level, the Spirit/Special Events Division was to create a “Spirit High School Welcome” that entailed the Student Ambassadors visiting each high school in the are where students had been accepted to Bergen Community College along with some students athletes and hold a “Meet & Greet” over a pizza lunch with the incoming students to welcome them to campus.

Here is the commercial that welcome’s new students to campus!

On the College Level, the Spirit/Special Events Division was to create a series of events for when the incoming students arrived as well as events that current students could attend called it the “College “Bulldog” Spirit Welcome” and this included:

*A formal Campus Tour that each student was to take when they arrived on campus. This way each student knew where things were located on campus and become acquainted with what services were available to them.

*A Parent’s of Athletes Reception and Pep Rally which was to be an evening exclusively catering to student athletes coming to Bergen Community College and their parents which included a light dinner and pep rally that included the cheerleaders, the dance team and other student athletes that was to be held the night of our rival Men’s Basketball game with Passaic Community College.

*A Parent/Student Barbecue which was to be held the weekend of the first home Men’s Soccer game that invited all incoming students and their parents plus the members of the Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams and their parents. The barbecue was to have an extensive menu of all sorts of fall favorites.

*A First Night at the College that was to be held the First Friday after the College resumed that included a night in the gym getting to know the clubs and organizations on campus. This also included snacks provided for the evening and then the evening ended with a concert for all the students.

The Spirit/Special Events Team was also responsible for designing a new School Mascot, Spirit Shirts for the the Men and Women’s Basketball Teams and create a School Fight Song. I know it would be a lot of work but it is fun to see the creativity of the students when put under pressure.

Here is the commercial that promotes the college when students come to campus!

It was even more pressure when we did not return to campus and the whole project had to be done by email and then Zoom meetings. I would not see my students again for the rest of the semester and because of school policy I could not speak to them over the phone. Until I learned what Zoom was and was allowed to have video conferences with them toward the end of the semester, I have never written so many emails before in my life. I swear I was on the computer everyday all day especially on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I never left my home office the whole day.

It got even more confusing when a few of my students disappeared at the beginning of the semester, a few students got sick and then it was the disagreements and misunderstandings you have when emailing people. I had never worked so hard pulling a project off before. Communication was limited until the use of Zoom videoconferencing came into play. Even then that was toward the end of the project so everything was being done through long lengthy emails.

Then for about two weeks I heard nothing from the team as members of the Executive Team had not been in contact with me. We were at the height of the COVID-19 crisis and I was worried about my students. Some just stopped answering emails and I would find out later that some of them or their family members were sick. It was a trying time in the trenches.

Then I sent out an email about two and a half weeks before the presentation and everyone started to contact me. What floored me was how far the students had come along with the project with little assistance from me. Some of them took me ideas and just ran with them.

Some of them came up with their own version of my ideas which I liked. They created home and away shirts for the basketball games, set up spirit sections, came up with new ideas for food venues like having Boston Market take out meals for the ‘Parent’s of Athletes Reception’ and the Team’s creative ideas on a new school fight song. The Team even developed a new school mascot, “The Bulldog”.

The new Bulldog Mascot Costume

We ended up having both a WebEx meeting and a Zoom Meeting before the presentation on Friday, April 24th at 8:00pm. It was so nice to see everyone again. I had not seen my students since the Midterm exam and it was good to see that everyone was doing okay. Their lives like my own were turned upside down but we all had to make the best of it.

On the night of presentation was interesting. It was not the most pleasant weather and I was afraid that the computer would go down. We lucked out that everything went by smoothly and the presentation went by fine. What was nice was our Head of Athletics and our Head of Public Relations for the college were able to join us for the presentation.

Here is the new Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc Website:

The Bergen Community College Student Ambassador Program

Here you can see the full Power Point Presentation and the Commercials.

I could not have been prouder of a group of students who under all the pressure of not being in class, people suffering from the illness. family situations at home, job issues and personal stress made the project work.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Education/Bergecco-Parc-Consulting-Inc-110359220628892/

https://www.instagram.com/bergeccoparcconsulting/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading&hl=bg

Tweets by bergeccoparc

The students at Bergen Community College’s Business/Hotel Management School proved to me that they can compete with the best. I was happy to give a lot of “A’s” this semester!

Professor Justin Watrel, CEO & Co-Founder

Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc.

Exploring Stone Street in Lower Manhattan 2018

April 22, 2020Dedication to Warren Watrel, Dining on a Shoe String Restaurants in New York City, Exploring Lower Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring Midtown East in Manhattan, Exploring New York City, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Historic New York City neighborhoods, My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), UncategorizedAddthistoyourgrocerylist@Wordpress.com, Author Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, BergenCountyCaregiver.com, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Historic Stone Street neighborhood, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, Justin Watrel CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, VisitingaMuseum.com, Walk Manhattan, Walking around Manhattan, Walking in Manhattan, Walking Manhattan, Walking Manhattan Block by Block, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

Don’t miss Historic Stone Street in warmer weather. When New York City opens back up don’t miss dinner and drinks here.

The architecture of Stone Street in the Spring 2024.

Stone Street in the Spring of 2024.

The back part of Stone Street.

Stone Street restaurants.

The historic marker for Stone Street.

The old India House on the edge of Stone Street.

History of the area:

Stone Street is a short street in Manhattan’s Financial District. It originally ran from Broad Street to Hanover Square but was divided into two sections by the construction of the Goldman Sachs building at 85 Broad Street in the 1980’s. Today the cluster of historic buildings along Stone, South William, Pearl Streets and Coenties Alley form the Stone Street Historic District.

The area burned during the Fire of 1835

Stone Street is one of New York’s oldest streets. It was originally known by its Dutch name, Hoogh Staet (High Street). In 1632, the Dutch West India Company built the first commercial brewery in North America there. Around 1656, Hoogh Straet was shifted about twenty to twenty-five feet to align it with Brouwer Street, the extension of Hoogh Straet west of the Gracht and which in 1658 became the first paved street in Nieuw Amsterdam. Following the British conquest of the colony, the name Hoogh Straet was translated to High Street. It was then called Duke Street for the Duke of York during most of the 18th century. Leveled in 1771 and 1790, it was renamed Stone Street in 1794 because of it’s cobblestone paving as New Yorkers abandoned reminders of British Rule.

The Fire of 1835

The street’s stores and loft were built for dry-goods merchants and importers, shortly after the Great Fire of 1835, which destroyed many remnants of New Amsterdam.

Most buildings were used as storage. The building at 57 Stone Street was rebuilt in 1903 by C.P.H, Gilbert in Dutch Colonial Revival architecture at the behest of the owner, Amos F. Eno as son of Amos R. Eno. The buildings to the back on South William 13-23 also were reconstructed in the Dutch revival style, evoking New Amsterdam.

Stone Street at night

Following many decades of neglect, a joint partnership between the Landmarks Preservation Commission and other city agencies, the Alliance for Downtown New York and Stone Street owners has transformed Stone Street from a derelict back alley into one of Downtown’s liveliest scenes. Restored buildings, granite paving, bluestone sidewalks and period lights set the stage for the half dozen restaurants and cafes, whose outdoor tables are very popular on warm summer nights.

Stone Street at night.

The eastern portion of the street and the surrounding buildings have been protected since 1996 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as the Stone Street Historic District and is pedestrian only. The historic district is now populated by several restaurants and bars and has a outdoor dining when the weather permits. The India House historic landmark is located at the Hanover Square end of the street.

The Stone Street entrance the morning of The Great Saunter 2024.

(This information was taken directly from Wikipedia and I give them full credit)

Visiting a Museum: The Unique, Unusual, Obscure and Historical

Visiting Stone Street in Lower Manhattan:

As part of my tour of Historic Bars and Pubs on Day One Hundred and Thirteen with the Cornell Club on May 9th, 2018, we toured the famous ‘Stone Street’ one of the original paved streets of Manhattan. You will not find architecture or pavings like this left in New York City. Here and there are streets or buildings that represent these times during the early to mid-1800’s but they are few and scattered in remote spots all over the island. Here the street still represents a different era of Manhattan.

Stone Street IV

The stores in the 90’s had been either boarded up or were used but in horrible shape. During the business hours not too many people inhabited this area of Lower Manhattan and it was ignored. The neighboring South Street Seaport was being transformed in the mid 80’s into a type of historic theme…

View original post 648 more words

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Three: Manhattan on Lock Down and Closed for Business April 2nd, 2020

I was watching this video on YouTube that someone took of Midtown Manhattan on the day before the Mayor put the City on a lock down. It is almost shocking how quiet the City was that afternoon. Even in the early morning hours, I had never seen it like this.

The Theater District just before the lockdown. What a difference a week makes!

This was one week after I was at the International Restaurant Show and at The Met!

It looked like the last day on earth!

Here is a copy of the video:

The ironic part was that my next walk was in the Theater District. It is strange how two weeks make such a difference.

I credit this video to YouTuber IURETA and them full credit for this video.

Day One Hundred and Sixty-Two: “I Love New York” from the 1970’s, 80’s and Today! March 30th, 2020

March 30, 2020"A Local Journey: Exploring the outskirts of New York City, Chinese Restaurants for the budget minded, Dining on a Shoe String Restaurants in New York City, Exploring Central Park South in Manhattan, Exploring Chinatown in Manhattan, Exploring Greenwich Village, Exploring Harlem in Manhattan, Exploring Lower Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring Midtown East in Manhattan, Exploring Midtown Manhattan, Exploring Midtown South, Exploring Midtown West, Exploring NYC Parks, Exploring the Bronx, Exploring the Entire Length of the Island of Manhattan/Broadway Walk, Exploring the Rim of the Island of Manhattan, Gourmet restaurants for the budget minded, Historic New York City neighborhoods, Little Shop on Main Street in New York City (LittleShoponMainStreet), My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, MywalkinManhattan.com at Chinese New Year, Pizzeria's and Italian Restaurants for the budget-minded, Sandwich and Deli's for the budget minded, Uncategorized, Visiting a Museum in New York City"I love NY", "I Love NYC", Author Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., BergenCountyCaregiver.com, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Brooklyn, Exploring Chinatown, Exploring Harlem, Exploring Inwood, Exploring Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring NYC Parks, Exploring the Bronx, Exploring the Hudson River Valley, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Exploring the NYC Restaurant Show, Exploring the Restaurant Show, Exploring the Upper East Side, Exploring the Upper West Side, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, Professor Justin Watral, Professor Justin Watrel, Professor Warren Watrel, VisitingaMuseum.com, Walk Around Manhattan, Walk Manhattan, Walking in Manhattan, Walking Manhattan, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

I was just watching ’60 Minutes’ tonight and it has never been scarier to be in New York City. The hospitals are being over-whelmed by patients that are low on supplies and the medical staffs are tired, burnt out and still stepping up to the plate to help get people better. The streets are empty with people as the last of the tourists left two weeks ago and the crowded streets of Manhattan that only in December were packed with so many people that you could not walk seems like a distant memory.

https://www.internationalrestaurantny.com/

What should have been a great night for everyone. Michigan State WON 80-69!

As you have read from my last two blog entries, I was in Manhattan from March 7th until March 10th walking the International Restaurant Show, watching the Michigan State-Ohio State Basketball game at Blondies Bar on the Upper West Side for who would be the Big Ten Champion (MSU won Go Green Go White) that Sunday night, at the Anthology Film Archives watching Sandra Bullock in “The Net” for a series the movie theater had on 1990’s Internet films on Monday night and then my last night in the City on Tuesday, March 10th for the Gerhard Richter Exhibition at the Met Breuer for a Private Members Night. All this while everything was going on around us.

The Met Breuer at 945 Madison Avenue

https://www.metmuseum.org/visit/plan-your-visit/met-breuer

The Anthology Film Archives at 32 Second Avenue

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/

The night I went to the Anthology Film Archives, I stopped in Chinatown first to go to Wonton Noodle Garden on Mott Street (see review on TripAdvisor) for dinner. What shocked me was how empty the place was that evening. This is a restaurant that is packed all the time and it is open until 2:00am. The only people who were there were myself and two tables of NYU students.

Wonton Noodle Garden at 56 Mott Street

http://www.wontonnoodlegarden.com/

When I asked the waiter where everyone was, he threw up his shoulders and said “Everything going on in the world”. I knew it did not look good that night as the rest of Chinatown was empty. The East Village was hopping with college students and the neighborhood around me was busy but you could feel the mood shifting.

Wonton Noodle Garden’s Cantonese Wonton Soup with Egg Noodles and Roast Pork can cure all ills.

‘The Net’ Trailer

Sandra Bullock can cheer anyone up!

I felt this at the Restaurant Show where you could walk down the aisles of the show and never bump into anyone. The Tuesday afternoon that I went in to see the show one last time by 3:30pm most people had packed up and gone. The show did not close until 4:30pm. They were ready to go by early that morning. So, my last five days in Manhattan I felt the mood changing as people were not sure what to do.

That last night at the Met Breuer as I walked the crowded floors of the museum enjoying the Gerard Richter Show before the opening to the public, I could hear in the corner’s members saying “I am really surprised they did not cancel this.” and “Could you believe this crowd with what’s going on?” It was like all of us knew this was the last night of “ballyhoo”.

Artist Gerhard Richter in front of his works

https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/

All over the world people are banding together to contribute what they can and keep the human spirit alive by volunteering where they can and helping one another out. I know that between my work at the College and the Fire Department everyone has me running around and my spirit of volunteerism is never lacking.

So, to all my readers especially the ones who are displaced New Yorkers remember that New York City has seen it darker days in the past and has risen to overcome them. There is a real spirit in the City that is not replicated anywhere else in the world and we saw that in the 1970’s, 80’s 90’s and on 9/11 to current days.

That was until 1977 when we rediscovered that spirit and said “I LOVE New York!”

To cheer everyone up, I pulled the old campaign from YouTube from the dark days of the 1970’s and 80’s to show how the human spirit can overcome anything if we pull together. So, this special entry of “MywalkinManhattan” is dedicated to all of you who will never let that spirit die both here and where you live now. We will get through this!

After all “WE LOVE NEW YORK!”

The song that started it all:

The original campaign videos:

New York City after 9/11:

The Original Campaign videos from the 1980’s 1-5:

How the “I LOVE NEW YORK” campaign came about:

This excellent documentary was done by a New York High School student in 2006.

Songs that represent the true spirit of New York City:

Native New Yorker by Odyssey:

The Great Liza Minnelli singing the best version of “New York New York”

We will get through this everyone and God Speed!

Day One Hundred and Sixty-One: The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association: Celebrating our “Men” of the Year Chief Angelo Roccamo of the HHFD and HHMA Member Kyle Kasper February 29th, 2020

March 29, 2020"A Local Journey: Exploring the outskirts of New York City, Brothers of Engine One HHFD, Exploring Hasbrouck Heights NJ, Exploring Lodi, New Jersey, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Fire Fighting in Bergen County NJ, Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department, Hasbrouck Heights Men's Association, Historic New Jersey Towns and Neighborhoods, My life as a Fireman: FF Justin Watrel, My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, UncategorizedAngelo Roccamo, Author Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, BergenCountyCaregiver.com, Chief Angelo Roccamo, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Hasbrouck Heights Men's Assocation, HHMA, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, Kyle Kasper, LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, Man of the Year in Hasbrouck Heights NJ, MywalkinManhattan.com, VisitingaMuseum.com, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

This article was released around the time of the local shut-downs. I thought this might cheer people up with the celebration of The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ their “Men” of the Year, ‘Man of the Year’ Chief Angelo Roccamo of the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department and Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association ‘Member of the Year’ Kyle Kasper.

We want to thank these members of the Hasbrouck Heights Community for their dedication to the Borough of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.

My recent article:

The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association honors Retired Chief Angelo Roccamo as “Man of the Year” for his 39 years of service to the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department and to ‘Member of the Year’, Kyle Kasper for his years of service to the HHMA

By Justin Watrel

On the evening of Saturday, February 29^th at their Annual Members Dinner, the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ honored Retired and Outgoing Chief of the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department Angelo Roccamo as their “Man of the Year”.

The Executive Board of the Men’s Association voted unanimously for Chief Roccamo and the way he has served his town and the Fire Department over his 39 years of service.

The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Executive Board with Chief Angelo Roccamo, the HHMA “Man of the Year”

Under the direction of the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association President Steve Palladino, the Executive Board presented Chief Roccamo with the award in front of members of the organization and Chief Roccamo’s extended family. He said he was honored to receive the award and had enjoyed his many years on the Department. He was joined by his wife, Vivian in the presentation of the award.

Chief Angelo Roccamo, “Man of the Year” with his family at the HHMA Dinner

The Men’s Association read off many of the Chief’s accomplishments including serving the Department for a second time around over the last three years.

Chief Angelo Roccamo with his wife, Vivian

The Executive Board also chose their ‘Member of the Year’ and it was with much praise that we awarded it to Kyle Kasper for his outstanding work in every project that he tackles for the organization. Mr. Kasper has lent his many talents to increasing business for our Annual Christmas Tree Sales.

The Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association Executive Board with “Member of the Year” Kyle Kasper

The Executive Board and Membership of the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association recognizes all its members for all their efforts in making Hasbrouck Heights a better community.

HHMA Dinner 2020 — The members of the Hasbrouck Heights Men’s Association of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.

Day One Hundred and Fifty Nine: Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. presents: The new “Bulldog Cafe” at the Lyndhurst Campus-Bergen Community College Marketing 201 February 17th, 2020

March 24, 2020"A Local Journey: Exploring the outskirts of New York City, Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Projects, Dedication to Warren Watrel, Dining on a Shoe String Restaurants in New Jersey, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, MywalkinManhattan-Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., UncategorizedAddthistoyourgrocerylist@Wordpress.com, Author Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., Bergen Community College, Bergen Community College Lyndhurst Campus, BergenCountyCaregiver.com, Bulldog Cafe, Bulldog Cafe Bergen Community College, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Lyndhurst NJ, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring Paramus NJ, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, Justin Watrel CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, Visiting Lyndhurst NJ, VisitingaMuseum.com, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

The Bulldog Cafe

Third Floor Lyndhurst Campus

Bergen Community College

1280 Wall Street

Lyndhurst, NJ 07071

Monday-Thursday 7:30am-2:30pm/Friday 7:30am-1:30pm

My review on TripAdvisor:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g46586-d20210133-Reviews-Bulldog_Cafe-Lyndhurst_New_Jersey.html?m=19905

Every semester I like to challenge my students to top what the other group has done in full team projects and it is a chance for the students to get to know one another better. In a commuter college like ours it is very difficult as students go to class and then go home or to work right after it is over.

This semester I challenged my two hundred level Marketing students to market the Lyndhurst campus Snack Shop on the third floor of the building. The Snack Shop is run by an outside company who lease the space from Bergen Community College and run the kitchen aspect of the business. The vending machines and the cafeteria sitting area are still run by the college.

Several years ago when I worked in the Lyndhurst campus to teach a Customer Service course, I challenged the students to redesign the snack shop for business. Walking around the Lyndhurst campus for the first time in four years, I noticed that things had not changed much and it was the same lackluster snack shop.

I started to talk to the managers that worked their and as I got to know them I heard their frustrations about running a business in an off main campus site that had very little traffic due to the amount of students in the building. One of the biggest frustrations was the lack of advertising they were allowed in the building.

Since I had always enjoyed the food and service there and the managers I got to know at the beginning of the semester were really nice I thought this could be an interesting project to see how to look at the business through the students eyes. What would they want to see? How could it be made more desirable for them? If they were given the opportunity to change things, how would they do it differently?

Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. logo

So I arranged my first field trip with the students and on the third week of class, I took them out of the classroom and gave them their first real life marketing assignment. I treated my students to a pizza lunch and sat them down while they ate and told them about their first research paper. They would be writing their first paper on what would they do differently. I wanted to see the individual ideas that they could come up with on their own. I thought the pizza was pretty good that afternoon and would be a good start.

So I opened Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., my fictional consulting company for my business classes, again for business and made them all Marketing Consultants in the company. This was their first corporate gig with the company.

BCC-Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc. Snack Shop Project 2020

In the next class, I brought the manager, Deborah, in to discuss some of the issues she had running the business and the successes that she had with creating a menu within the guidelines of the company she worked for and the students that she catered to in the building. The students, many of them whom have worked or are working in the food service industry understood what she was saying. It was a very engaging question and answer session.

I gave the students a week and a half to write their papers and submit them to me. I have to say that I was very impressed with the ideas that the students had to promote the Snack Shop, ideas on new signage, ideas to expand the menu with more international foods (I hate the word ‘ethnic’), creating a new design for the facility with a nicer paint job and rounded tables for better conversation and more social media promoting.

The student consultants came up with interesting menus, dynamic graphics for logos and interesting concepts in social media marketing that included Facebook, Instagram and Snap Chat. I had not even though about these things and the students really enlightened me even after all my years of marketing.

Most of my students got ‘A”s on their papers and since they all did such a good job and I was impressed with their input, I broke the students into teams of three and had them work together to present their ideas as a group, pooling their papers together and creating new ideas as a group to present the project to myself and the Management team of the Snack Shop that included the head of Bergen Community College’s Campus Foodservice.

On the afternoon of February 17th, we spent class time with all the student groups giving their presentations to myself, the manager of the Snack Shop and the head of Campus Foodservice. I have to say that all three of us were impressed with what we saw. Each student group came up with a Power Point presentation of their work, pooled their ideas, created multiple logos and new concepts of marketing.

Many came up with new ideas for menu changes and new food items to be served. Their ideas of signage with new catchy names for the Snack Shop and new menu design had the three of us shaking our heads in amazement. I have to say that I was very proud of what students could accomplish in a two week period and the cause and affect of the business.

Needless to say within a two week period of the presentation, the Management Team of the Snack Shop renamed it the “Bulldog Cafe”, revised their menu, added things like freshly baked cookies and some ‘International Items’, got a table on the first floor entrance to post their menus, started posting signs in the elevator, got the cafe mentioned on the “Bergen Daily” email posting every week (our online campus newspaper) and even opened a Facebook and Instagram accounts to promote the new “Bulldog Cafe”. They even started a bonus program that if you bought a certain item multiple times, you would get a free item. It was very impressive what from the project was able to be incorporated into the business.

The new “Bulldog Cafe” concept

Traffic in the cafe seemed to be on the uptick right before we left for the Spring Break. Then came the extension of the Spring Break due to the Coronaviris outbreak and then the closure of the College for the rest of the semester. So we will never really know what the end result would have been by the end of the Spring Semester but I know that as a businessman and a restaurateur that we would have seen big changes in the business in the new “Bulldog Cafe” concept.

Congratulations members of the Bergecco-Parc Consulting Team for your hard work.

Good Luck to the Lyndhurst Team as they promote next “Historical Bergen County: From Revolution to Revelation”, our big team project.

Some of the Logos the Students came up with:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0?ui=2&ik=7efd505d2b&attid=0.1&permmsgid=msg-f:1657722343356444938&th=170169b033fd310a&view=att&disp=safe

Some Team members were very creative:

They were insightful:

They even did menu’s:

The Team Slide Show Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MWzTjn9oJ_gRkDCb1teiPlN72j-LD7PPZhbb8TRtNcQ/edit?usp=drive_web

The Team Video Presentation:

Day One Hundred and Sixty: On Leave from “MywalkinManhattan.com” March 13th, 2020

March 18, 2020Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, UncategorizedAuthor Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., BergenCountyCaregiver.com, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Downtown Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Exploring the Upper East Side, Exploring the Upper West Side, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, Justin Watrel CEO Bergecco-Parc Consulting Inc., LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, New York Restaurant Show, VisitingaMuseum.com, Walk Manhattan, Walking around Manhattan, Walking in Manhattan, Walking Manhattan, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

To all of my readers,

I wanted to thank you for following my blog, “MywalkinManhattan”. I hope you enjoy walking along side of me as I explore Manhattan block by block.

I will be on leave from the project of walking around the Island of Manhattan for right now. With the Coronavirus Disease situation hitting our country and the shutting down of services and cultural sites in New York City, there is no unnecessary travel into Manhattan at this time. So I will be stopping my walk for now until things get better.

I had just finished my walk around the International Restaurant Show last Tuesday, March 10th and then had a private members night at the Met Breuer that evening (Please see my VisitingaMuseum.com site) while I was on Spring Break from Bergen Community College where I work.

My updated blog on the International Restaurant Show at the Javis Center:

https://wordpress.com/post/mywalkinmanhattan.com/12766

I was about to enter the Theater District on Wednesday when things started to shut down in New York City. I felt it was just safer to stay home at this time. By Friday, March 13th they did not want people coming into the City unless it became vital.

I was at the Met Breuer on March 10th, the last night before hell broke loose. We had a Private Members night for the opening of the Gerard Richter Show. Here is my write up of the museum on VistingaMuseum.com:

https://wordpress.com/post/visitingamuseum.com/4308

Artist Gerard Richter in front of his work

So I have been home updated the older blog entries of my walks and added more pictures and attachments to cultural site and restaurants. So please enjoy Days One through One Hundred and Fifty Nine of my walk around the Island of Manhattan while we wait for things to get better.

To all my readers, my best to all of you and your families at this tough time in our country and please stay safe.

Please Wash Your Hands ALOT!

Better days are coming!

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Three: Walking the New York Restaurant Show March 3rd-5th, 2019 (and revisited March 8th and 10th, 2020, March 6th-8th, 2022 and March 6-7th, 2023)

March 14, 2020Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring the Chelsea Neighborhood in Manhattan, My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, UncategorizedAuthor Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, BergenCountyCaregiver.com, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, Exploring Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, New York Restaurant Show, VisitingaMuseum.com, Walk Around Manhattan, Walking around Manhattan, Walking in Manhattan, Walking Manhattan, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

Another year goes by and another Restaurant Show with new developments in the industry. The show closed just as everything in New York City shut down for business.

mywalkinmanhattan

The Restaurant Show 2019:

I took time out of my walking project to take a detour to the Javis Center to the Annual New York Restaurant Show. I try to keep up with the latest trends in what kitchen equipment is new and innovative, how computers and apps are changing the way we order and have food delivered and new food stuffs that will be gracing the tables of banquet halls and restaurants not just in New York City but all over the country. What scares me the most of the Hospitality industry is how some people in the industry are trying to take the hospitality out of it by computerizing everything to the point where you don’t see people anymore.

By walking the entire show, I saw more things that will improve the industry and more money saving items will make cooking easier and better in design and sanitation. One…

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Day One Hundred and Three: ‘Xin Nian Hao’ ‘Gong Hei Fat Choi’ or “Happy Chinese New Year”! February 2018 (Revisited February 2020 and 2021)

February 10, 2020Bakeries for the budget minded, Chinese Restaurants for the budget minded, Dining on a Shoe String Restaurants in New York City, Exploring Chinatown in Manhattan, Exploring Little Italy/NoLiTa in Manhattan, Exploring Lower Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Historic New York State neighborhoods, Little Shop on Main Street in New York City (LittleShoponMainStreet), My walk in Manhattan (MywalkinManhattan.com), MywalkinManhattan Experiences, MywalkinManhattan.com at Chinese New Year, Sandwich and Deli's for the budget minded, Uncategorized, Visiting a Museum in New York CityAuthor Justin Watral, Author Justin Watrel, BergenCountyCaregiver.com, Chi Dumpling House, Chinatown, Chinatown New Year Parade, Chinese New Year, DiningonaShoeString@Wordpress.com, diningonashoestringinnyc, Exploring Chinatown, Exploring Chinatown NYC, Exploring Little Italy, Exploring Little Italy/NoLita, Exploring Manhattan, Exploring Manhattan Block by Block, Exploring Mott Street, Exploring Mulberry Street, Exploring New York City by foot, Exploring NoLiTa, Exploring the Island of Manhattan, Fried Dumpling, Justin Watral, Justin Watrel, Little Moony, LittleShoponMainStreet, LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, MywalkinManhattan.com, NYC Chinese New Year, Sweets Bakery, Tao Hong Bakery, Visiting Chinatown, Visiting Manhattan, VisitingaMuseum.com, Walk Around Manhattan, Walk Manhattan, Walking around Manhattan, Walking Chinatown, Walking in Manhattan, Walking Manhattan, Warren George Watrel, Warren Watreljwatrel

Happy New Year everyone! I visited Chinatown for the Annual Lunar New Year Parade again in 2020 and it was a great day!

The underlining affects of the Coronavirus since Chinese New Year has changed Chinatown business now.

Please watch this video:

https://youtu.be/f5ZeB2zSbX0

This was at the beginning of the Pandemic in March of 2020

Chinese New Year in 2021:

I returned to Chinatown for Chinese New Year 2021 and what a change to the neighborhood in just a year. I have never seen so many “For Rent” signs in the core of Chinatown. This pandemic has destroyed so many well-known businesses. Not just restaurants and snack shops that could not adjust to the take out business that many places have had to adopt to now. It was well known gift shops, hair and nail salons, body massage businesses and several well-known bakeries.

When I saw a sign on the Lung Moon Bakery 83 Mulberry Street (visit my reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor) that the bakery closed its doors after 53 years in business that is telling you there are problems here. Sun Sai Gai at 220 Canal Street (visit my reviews as well on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor as well), which has been there for over 30 years has been closed as well and I am not sure if it is going to be reopened. This is heart breaking because these were my go-to places for years.

The weird part was it was not just on Mott Street, the heart of Chinatown, but on the side streets off Mott and outer parts of the neighborhood reaching out to East Broadway and into parts of the Lower East Side like Hester and Henry Streets. It is not just in Chinatown because at the end of the evening I walked up to Little Moony at 230 Mulberry Street (visit my review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor) to see if that store was still open and walked through the heart of Little Italy Mulberry Street.

Three well known restaurants had closed for business including Angelo’s and Luna which has been mainstays of the neighborhood for over 40 years. A lot store fronts were dark here as well and slowly but surely NoLiTa (North of Little Italy) is creeping further and further into Little Italy. Even the two well known Chinese restaurants on Mulberry Street are now closed for business.

My journey on this gloomy Saturday morning started when I took the C train down to Canal Street and started to walk around Lower Manhattan to see what was open and not. The City had lifted its ban on indoor dining, I think too little to late, for Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. Still even with the 25% indoor dining allowed, people choose to eat outside or else some of the restaurants were not ready to open indoor dining. On a 30 degree day I could not believe that people wanted to eat outside. Even bundling under heat lamps does not make pleasant dining. The mood was festive but people were cold.

It was the second day of Chinese New Year and there were not that many people out in the streets as I thought there would be. In the early morning, there were small groups of people walking around but not the throngs of people on parade day. Last year, the Chinese New Year Parade was very subdued and there were not that many people around the route. The parade was cancelled this year and even though there were lights and decorations all over Mott Street there was not a lot of people walking around.

Chinese New Year 2021-Mott Street

When I visited the provision and grocery stores in the neighborhood, they were mobbed with people doing their grocery shopping telling me that people were opting to stay home and have small intimate dinners with their families. This is where I saw no social distancing.

My project today was to see not just what was happening for the New Year but to visit many of the stores and restaurants I had mentioned on my blogs to see if they were still open. Thankfully many of the establishments that were already take-out were surviving the storm. Plus I came with an appetite.

My first stop was Fried Dumpling on 106 Moscoe Street, a little hole in the wall for fried pork and chive dumplings. The owner/chef is a real hoot. I am figuring she changed her prices and serving sizes to increase sales because I ordered 17 dumplings for $5.00 which I thought was too much to eat but ended up devouring all the them in record time while sitting next to the bathrooms in Columbus Park just off Mott Street. In the summer months this park is packed with people but with the two feet snow piles and over flowing garbage cans, it was not the best place to eat. Even with the cold weather, these delicious little pan-fried pork and chive dumplings can warm any heart in the New Year.

Fried Dumpling at 106 Moscoe Street

After this snack that warmed me up I walked all over the neighborhood, walking the side streets and the Bowery which is the northern border of the traditional neighborhood. Again many of the well known restaurants and stores were either empty or closed for the New Year celebrations.

I walked up and down the side streets of Chinatown that border with Mott Street along Bayard, Pell, Henry, Division and East Broadway to look at the status of restaurants that I enjoy and have written about and to see what is still open there as well. It has not been pretty.

Dumplings at 25B Henry Street, one of the few places left in Chinatown where you can get five dumplings for $1.00 is closed except for takeout (visit my reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor). That was always the fun of this place was squeezing in and having their delicious pork and chive dumplings. I was always sharing soy sauce with the kids from the local school that would come here for a snack and I would listen in on their very adult sounding conversations.

Dumplings at 25B Henry Street

Walking up the side streets until I got to the Manhattan Bridge was just as upsetting, There were so many closed businesses on all of these streets that I wondered where the locals were eating and shopping. What really surprised me was how many art galleries had opened in the places where provision stores and small restaurants had once been. When I started to see white twenty year olds walking out of the tenements in the neighborhood, I knew that it would not be long until this whole area started to gentrify.

The walk took me further into the Lower East Side then I had ever been. I walked down the length of Catherine Street to the river and then turned around and walked down Market to the park under the Manhattan Bridge to watch the skate boarders. Those kids were really talented. They were performing some amazing tricks.

I stopped at this little deli, the K & K Food Deli at 57 Market Street just to take a peek inside. The cook was so friendly to me that I felt I should get something. Even after the 17 dumplings I was still hungry and I ordered a Bacon, Egg and Cheese on a roll ($3.25). It was mind-blowingly good. The roll was fresh chewy and soft and the perfect combination of scrambled eggs with the cheese melted just perfect and crisp bacon. On this cool now afternoon it really warmed me up and I devoured it while I walked along Cherry Street.

K & K Food Deli at 57 Market Street

This area of the City is all housing projects and even in the small park in between them all it was really quiet. The one thing I find when I visit the areas around the projects is the assortment of restaurants are so creative with their menus and they are so reasonable. I just popped in and out and looked at their menus.

I walked around Little Flower Park at Madison and Jefferson Street, which lines all the housing complexes and was watching as kids were using the swings in snow drifts. I thought that was dedication of wanting to get outside as the weather grew colder that day.

I walked back down Madison Street and around Monroe Street and back up Market Street to get to the foot of the Manhattan Bridge entrance and then walked around that to Chrystie Street. Then I made the turn to see if my favorite group of restaurants were still open Chi Dumpling House at 77 Chrystie Street , Wah Fung Number One at 79 Chrystie Street and Tao Hong Bakery at 81 Chrystie Street. I called this stretch of Chrystie Street the ‘triple threat’ as these three restaurants are mind blowing and the best part reasonable (visit my reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor).

Chi Dumpling House at 77 Chrystie Street

Even after 17 dumplings and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich I was still hungry so I stopped in at Chi Dumpling House for steamed dumplings and scallion pancakes. This little hole in the wall has the most amazing food and for $5.00 I got an order of steamed dumplings ($3.00) and an order of scallion pancakes ($2.00). Both were just excellent.

Because there was no indoor dining in the restaurant yet, I had to eat them in the park across the street. In between the snow piles and the pigeons, I found a place to sit down. The dumplings and the scallion pancake let off so much steam you could see it in the air. The scallion pancake was loaded with freshly chopped scallions and was pan-fried to be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The dumplings were plump and bursting with juice when I topped them with soy and hot chili sauce. They warmed me up at the day grew colder.

I walked back through Mott Street and saw many people twisting poppers and letting streamers into the air. About a dozen people got into it and were having a good time blocking traffic. It was nice to see a little celebrating that day.

Sweets Bakery at 135 Walker Street

My last stop on the agenda was Sweets bakery, one of my favorites in Chinatown at 135 Walker Street, which is right across the street from Sun Sai Gai. The pastries here are just excellent and I have never had a bad baked item from here. I treated myself to an Egg Custard tart ($1.50) and a Pineapple Bun ($1.25). Both had just been baked and were still warm. I started eating them as soon as I left the store to explore Little Italy.

The Egg Custard Tarts at Sweets Bakery are amazing

I devoured them before I crossed the street. The egg custard had a rich creamy texture and was still warm when I made each bite. The taste of the butter in the tart and the eggs was so good. The Pineapple Bun was made of a rich dough and topped with a sweet crumb topping that crackled when I bit into it. It was a nice way to end this ongoing meal.

Walking through Little Italy was just as bad as Chinatown. The main thoroughfare, Mulberry Street was like looking at Mott Street. Some of the most famous restaurants closed like Luna and Angelo’s. I could not believe how many empty store fronts were open. Even for a Saturday night it was really quiet. There were a few people eating inside.

What I did notice just like in Chinatown was that NoLiTa (North of Little Italy) was creeping further and further down Mulberry Street and the surrounding blocks. All of a sudden all these little trendy stores and restaurants started opening up where the Italian restaurants once lined the streets.

I reached my destination, Little Moony at 230 Mulberry Street (visit my review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com), one of the nicest children’s stores in Manhattan and one of the most creative. I was so happy to see that they were still open. I felt a little over-whelmed because the owner was showering attention on me as I was here only customer. She looked determined to sell me something. I guess I looked like a high spender. I was polite and looked around. As a store it is so visually appealing with the greatest window displays.

Little Moony at 230 Mulberry Street

The owner showed me all the new clothing that had come in, the artisan toys she was carrying and some new books carried. If I had someone to buy something for I would have bought something. The merchandise is that nice. I was just afraid that she had closed.

I walked back down Mulberry Street again surprised by the number of people in the restaurants and the number of new buildings opening up on the lower part of Mulberry Street. I do not even give it five years before the entire core of Little Italy is just a block if that.

I walked back to the A train up Canal Street and looked at the buildings in various stages of renovations. I have to say one thing that the City is still progressing as COVID still goes on. It is like walking through NoMAD (North of Madison Square Park), the neighborhood just keeps getting sandblasted and going through another stage of its life.

Maybe this is what the New Year is about, new beginnings and new life to something. Even though there was no formal parade, there was still the feeling that the New Year was here and let’s hope it is a better New Year!

Happy New Year in 2021! Gong Hei Fat Choi!

https://youtu.be/EtLmuWft8K0

Chinese New Year 2021-Very Subdued

https://youtu.be/R5uiBSqPQoA

Helping Chinatown during the New Year 2021

https://youtu.be/GvxUgKAjsrc

Chinatown restaurants need help-Chinese New Year 2021

mywalkinmanhattan

Xin Nian Hao Everyone!

Happy Chinese New Year! (2018) & Happy New Year Again (2020)

After a long day in the Soup Kitchen (I have to stop doubling up events on days), instead of finishing the walk of the Upper East Side, I decided to head downtown to Chinatown for the first day of Chinese New Year. What a madhouse!

First off, it was a gloomy day. The clouds kept threatening rain which finally came around 4:00 pm but it did not damper everyone’s spirits. The city closed off the main streets of Chinatown, so people were able to walk around Mott, Mulberry, Bayard, Elizabeth Streets and all the side streets around the core of Chinatown.

It was a very festive afternoon of Lion Dances in front of businesses and a non-stop of silly string and firecrackers going off all over the neighborhood. It was fun watching all the kids…

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