The SideTour Blog

Today is World Environment Day and this year’s theme is “Does It Include You?” In honor of that, we’re digging into a hotly contested topic in NYC: the city’s drinking water. Some people refuse to drink it, while others claim it’s the best of the best. Let’s investigate. 

Where does NYC water come from? 

• NYC water is sourced through the NYC Watershed, the largest unfiltered water supply in the US. 
• Most is provided by rain and snow that’s collected in 19 different reservoirs. 

How much does it cost? 

• NYC tap water costs about one cent per gallon, making it 1,000 times less expensive than bottled water. 

How does it get here? 

• 95% of NYC water is delivered by gravity through a system of tunnels and aqueducts. 
• Incredibly, there have been no significant interruptions in service since 1842. 

Soo…what’s the final verdict? 

• NYC’s water is considered to be the ‘champaign’ of drinking water (not to be confused with Miller High Life, the “Champagne” of beers) meaning that it’s plain, flavorless, and often wins taste test competitions when stacked against other New York State water sources. Drink away, city dwellers, drink away! 

Source: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

The NY Times posted an article this week about 32 innovations that will change your tomorrow. A few of our faves: 

Electric clothes: Using your body heat and a special fabric to charge your electronics. Brilliant.

Subway video games: Twist and turn the handle to control the game, and get alerted when you’re at your stop. Seems mildly dangerous to have people flailing about, but we love the concept that there could be entertainment built in to our morning commute, lest we forget our iPod. Just remember your hand sanitizer. 

Challenging playgrounds: The argument goes that kids need to be pushed to greatness, instead of babied, during childhood. We like building this concept of challenging kids to rise above the status quo into playtime.

See all 32 innovations here. 

Every Friday afternoon during our weekly team meeting at SideTour, we select one cocktail to enjoy as a group. This week was the Kentucky Mule, a smooth yet spicy drink inspired by the traditional Moscow Mule (which uses vodka).

Kentucky Mule (SideTour-style)
1 1/2 oz Four Roses Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey
4 oz Reed’s Ginger Beer, Jamaican Style
1/2 oz Lime Juice
Ice

Fill glass to the top with ice. Add Bourbon, Ginger Beer, then Lime Juice. Stir and enjoy.

You’ve already been introduced to Suri and Lee, but there are a few more of us that make up SideTour. And guess what? We’re hosting a Walkabout NYC on Friday, May 18 (that’s this Friday!) so that you can meet the whole team in person. We’ll be really nice and feed you cocktails, plus Mark’s promised he won’t bite anyone. So sign up and come hang out - but don’t wait too long as there’s only a few spots left!

Lee is in charge of telling our computers what to do so that you can discover and book SideTours on your computer. He used to build robots for the military, and has never, ever, used that line to impress a date.

Where’d you grow up?

Jupiter, FL, a couple hours north of Miami. There’s a Facebook group called “I Hate It When I Say I’m From Jupiter and People Say ‘Oh Really? I’m From Mars’.” I’m a member, so just don’t.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had? 

When I was 15 I worked at a beach-style restaurant, first as a dishwasher, then a bus boy, then food prep, then I cooked seafood and smoked ribs in the (very) small second kitchen, then I was a cook on the “line,” which is restaurant-talk for the main kitchen. By the time I was 16, I wasn’t officially a manager, but I was one of three people with a key to the restaurant. I either opened or closed most days, some days I did both, and I was the only person other than the owner with a key to the safe. We paid for our food deliveries with cash, so that was one of my jobs too.

I wouldn’t say this was a terrible job, but it was hard work. Really hard work. I was pretty scrawny as a kid and drunk Florida locals are pretty hard to deal with - especially since some of them were my coworkers. This one guy I worked with thought that I was the reason his wife got fired from the restaurant. I don’t even remember how he got that idea into his head, but he made it his mission to make my life a living hell. He would intentionally take other servers’ food and then blame me for being slow delivering their orders. He gave me the stink-eye every time I saw him. Once, he even attacked me with a broom when no one was looking. After about a week of this, I quit. I still remember the guy’s name, but I won’t post it here.

Describe your perfect NYC day:

Showing my neighborhood to a friend for the first time. I like to do this by walking through Park Slope without any agenda on a nice day and finding the nearest interesting thing to stop and spend time on. Sometime it’s Prospect Park, sometimes it’s a great local brunch spot like Rose Water or Miriam. Sometimes a booth from the farmer’s market catches my eye - Dr. Pickle’s fresh olives always make me want to host a cocktail party just to share the love. Last weekend, I discovered the new Goorin Brothers hat store on 5th Ave with my friends who were in from Atlanta. Trying on fancy hats with a group of people is a surprisingly good time.

What’s your favorite part of working at SideTour?

I like seeing the impact of my work right away. SideTour tech team is all about continuous deployment - and our development tools and style all feed into this. We do a lot of testing and pair programming to make sure that we can push new features to the site with confidence. And we work closely with design and product to come up with these ideas. A couple days ago, we got feedback about needing a better way to discover experiences by date, so we mocked something up and I’ve been working on it. We’ll be pushing that live later today. It makes me proud to know that what we’re working on is actually being used and loved by real people. Not every engineering job out that can boast that as confidently as we can.

Favorite NYC hang-out?

Lately, I keep finding myself at Flaming Saddles - Hell’s Kitchen’s country western gay bar. I was initially skeptical of this place, because I saw it open to pretty ho-hum reviews and it always seemed empty when I walked by, but it seems to have found its voice - and that voice is yelling “Yeehaw!” with a pronounced, yet adorable lisp.

Ever wonder what the Internet would look like sans text? No, just us? Alrighty then. If you’re suddenly wondering what it would look like now that we mentioned it though, you don’t have to wait too long to figure it out. Just go here. Wordless Web.

And cue wasting approximately 7 minutes of your day…

With summer (hopefully!) just around the corner, we rounded up a few of our favorite spots to escape the tourists in our concrete jungle:

Elevated Acre – 55 Water Street, Financial District

Hidden between two buildings, the entrance to this sunny patch of Downtown Manhattan paradise looks as though it’s just a staircase leading to nowhere. Climb the three flights, however, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. A full acre of green space, surrounded by a seven-tiered amphitheater, overlooks the East River from the Brooklyn Bridge to Governor’s Island.

Insider Tip: A pair of peregrine falcons has nested on the 15^th floor for years. Visit in the spring and you may catch one of the baby’s first flights.

Greenacre Park – 217 E. 51^st Street, Midtown East

Featured on our walking tour of Midtown East, this hideaway is one of the few in the city that’s home to a café, a two-story waterfall and a babbling brook. A quiet urban oasis on off-times, this small slice of green space gets crowded with office workers during lunch, so plan accordingly.

Insider Tip: Leave Fido and your camera at home when you visit - dogs and photography aren’t allowed.

Ravine, Brooklyn – In Prospect Park, between Long Meadow and Nethermead

The same architect-landscaper team that masterminded Central Park also designed the only remaining forest in Brooklyn: the Ravine. Follow the path down a narrow gorge to Prospect Park’s most rugged terrain (read: not stroller friendly!) and a stream of flowing water.

Insider Tip: Guided discovery walks begin at the Audubon Center on Saturdays and Sundays at 3PM.

Wave Hill – West 249th Street, Bronx (free van service is provided off the #1 train at W. 242^nd Street)

Think bullfrogs and hummingbirds only grace places outside of the Big Apple? Think again. This 28-acre park along the Hudson in the Bronx is home to a number of different plant and animal species as well as a flower garden, conservatory, woodland forest and aquatic pool.

Insider Tip: The park is $8 for adults but is free on Saturdays from 9AM to noon (year-round) and on Tuesdays (all day from Nov – April, July, August; 9AM to noon May, June, September, October)

Harlem Meer, Central Park – Fifth Avenue from 106^th to 110^th Street

If you’re looking to drown out the sounds of the city in Central Park, forget about Sheep Meadow and head over to Harlem Meer instead. Situated around a lake, this area is home to some of the oldest trees in Manhattan. While it gets crowded with families on weekends, it’s the perfect place to unwind during early mornings and weekdays.

Insider Tip: Bring your inner Huck Finn and fishing pole – the pond is known for it’s catch-and-release policy.

The office feels a bit empty here at SideTour HQ with half the team either working from home or getting ready for a weekend trip. The remaining crew decided to hijack the blog today to wish you all a happy Star Wars Day by sharing our favorite Star Wars videos.

Minesh picks the classic Conan O’Brien Triumph the Insult Comic Dog sketch where he visits the line-up for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones at the Ziegfeld Theatre on 54th St.

Suri picks the Star Wars Lego reenactment of an Eddie Izzard standup routine about the cafeteria on the Death Star.

Lee picks an adorable 3 year old’s summary of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope that has the accuracy and analytical clarity of a Barron’s Booknotes.

Mark doesn’t really know what Star Wars is, so he picked this.

Suri basically gets to hang out with the most awesome people in New York. When she’s not meeting you on a SideTour or shooting you an email, she’s making obscure references to comic books or enjoying a well-crafted cocktail. 

Where’d you grow up?

Vienna, Austria. Specifically, at this giant park near my home where I spent 100% of my time that wasn’t at school or sleeping.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

Any of my unpaid internships, which were really jobs, but it’s too easy to exploit college kids.

Describe your perfect NYC day:

I think the perfect NYC day is when something totally unexpected happens, but as far as planning it ahead… definitely a summer Saturday reading in bed, followed by a run along the Hudson so I feel less bad about pigging out at a food fair like Smorgasburg later, then ending the day either drinking on a roof top with a few good friends or seeing a band like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform live.

What’s your favorite part of working at SideTour?

Finding, meeting and getting to know the endless supply of fascinating people in New York City (SideTour hosts, guests and employees alike). Also the endless supply of peppermint gum.

Favorite NYC hang-out?

Other than SideTour HQ? ;) I’m into variety, but historically I suppose it would have to be the fountain in Washington Square Park during the day (that’s my NYU showing) and at night the Wren, because the cocktails and company there are basically perfect.

True story. Everyone can relate. On a sidebar, this is our new favorite Tumblr of the moment. We can’t get enough!

wheninnewyorkcity:

When you successfully fix your cable without having to spend 25 minutes on hold with Time Warner Cable.

“But even more interesting to me is Pennebaker’s research on power dynamics — he thinks it’s possible to tell who has a higher social status or holds the power in any situation based on who uses the word “I” more often. You’d think it would be the person who thinks he’s more important, but it turns out it’s actually the person who feels more insecure.”

Interesting study about the connection between the use of pronouns in speech and relationships, both platonic and romantic.

It’s been a big week here at SideTour HQ! On Monday, we launched our shiny, new product, and today we’re thrilled to finally be able to tell you that Time Inc. has named us one of the 10 NYC startups to watch in 2012. 

We’re honored to be alongside some great companies including Fab.com, adaptly, and Codecademy - our hats certainly go off to everyone that made the list for all their hard work. If their offices are anything like ours, we know they’ve been losing countless hours of sleep, overindulging in celebratory cocktails, and appreciating all of their supporters and early adopters.

Which brings us to you: thanks so much for everything! We couldn’t do it without you.

Love,

The SideTour Team

Suri stumbled on this old NY Times article today about lost (and preserved) languages in New York. It’s amazing to know that NYC, which is home to over 800 languages, is the capital of language density in the world. 

After months of development and many lost hours of sleep, our team is excited to be launching a completely new version of SideTour today. Everything that is part of this new site is based on requests we’ve heard from our community over the last six months, and it’s been humbling to see the help and feedback all of you have lent us since we first launched last August. We appreciate all the support.

Here’s a quick recap of the new features we’ve added.

User Messaging
Every SideTour gets together a small group of people who usually haven’t met before. We’ve heard from users that getting to know each other is a huge part of the SideTour experience, so now users will be able to send messages to and be contacted by other people they met on a SideTour.

My Experiences
In the My Experiences section, users will be able to see the other people who booked spots on the SideTour they attended. Before the experience happens, the other users are “locked” and you can’t find out who they are. As soon as the experience begins, those other profiles are “unlocked” allowing you to connect with people through the SideTour platform once you’ve met them in real life.

Group Buying (By Request)
If you have your own group that would like to book a SideTour, you can request a specific date and time from the host. If that time works, the user is then sent a private URL which they can then share with their friends, letting everyone book as a private group while each paying for their own individual spots.

Watchlist
Many of our users wanted to keep an eye on new dates for certain experiences, especially when that experience is frequently sold out. Now users can add any SideTour to a watchlist and get notifications when new dates are added (we’ve been testing this with manual emails and seen great results - every time we let people know a date has been added for “Dine with a Banker-turned-Monk,” it sells out in about 3 minutes).

So go take a look at the new site and let us know what you think. And make sure to get your very own SideTour account (there will be perks for early users down the road).

And thanks again for the love we’ve gotten from everyone. We love you guys too :)

1. Think about tailoring. If something’s a steal but just a little off, having it tailored could still save you big in the end.
2. Take your time. You won’t find the good stuff by doing a quick sweep of the store. Most times the killer finds are shoved between the polyester jumpsuit and the plaid grandma sweater.
3. Try things on. Even if you don’t think the shape is quite right or your arms might look weird. Just try it on.
4. Don’t forget about accessories. A belt can make a world of difference. Trust.

Happy thrifting!

That’s how long it took me to mentally recover enough from South by Southwest to write this update. (There may even still be some BBQ stuffed between my brain cells.)

For those that don’t know about SXSW, here’s the best way sum it up: Once a year, a huge portion of the technology and startup community descends on the city of Austin, TX to introduce new products, discuss the state of the industry, and connect with one another. To give you an idea of scale, it was estimated about 35,000 people attended this year (up from 20,000 last year).

Standing Out By Not Trying To
When our team was brainstorming how we should represent SideTour for the first time at SXSW, we worked through a lot of different ideas (one even involved a commercial airliner). But one piece of advice we got from a SXSW pro was “don’t compete with SXSW, but instead make it a better experience for everyone.”

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The Brooklyn Rooted: Enjoy an Artisanal Dinner Party experience was one of the first we featured on our site, and it’s been selling out ever since. Check out the video above to see the thought and effort Elise puts into hosting every one of her SideTours.

Wine is just as “trendy” as any other thing, even as the ideologue in me dreads that idea (wine being trendy and not wine being awesome), so I will succumb to the Top Ten-ing of everything and contribute with my own top five list (I gotta be a non-conformist somehow!), which I hope you will learn from and maybe even give you a laugh.

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Courtney Boyd Myers is the Features Editor of The Next Web. Based in New York City and sometimes London. She began her career writing about robots. She loves magnets + reading on a Kindle.

On a chilly Friday evening, I rushed to Chambers Street Wines (one of New York City’s finest wine shops) to begin my second SideTour experience. The SideTour was hosted by Lyle Fass, who is a celebrity name in the wine business. When Fass isn’t leading SideTours, he’s watching Lars Von Trier films and buying wines for rich people. So, Fass set out to teach a small group of us plebeians a thing or two about buying and choosing wine. Here’s what I learned:

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We’re accustomed to thinking “real” art only exists within the confines of institutions like the Met and MoMA, but there are some New Yorkers whose passion it is to seek out compelling art all over the city — whether it’s hanging in clandestine galleries or illegally pasted on the walls of abandon warehouses.

Those New Yorkers, fortunately, happen to host SideTours.

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Last Sunday, I decided I personally had to do something about reducing the vast abundance of dumplings downtown by going on the Chinatown Street Food Tour With Author Jennifer 8 Lee. The food was amazing and as a long-time New Yorker (15 years!), I always enjoy when people can show me a side of the City I’ve never seen before. This SideTour attracted a great group of people and we all had a fun day together.

But there was one conversation I had with a fellow guest that I’ve been thinking about all week.

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As we looked for funding partners, it was important to our team that we found people who not only viewed our business as an attractive investment opportunity, but who also shared our sense of passion, enthusiasm and purpose for what we are building.

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If you’re reading this blog post, it means we’ve launched the site!

This is just a small first step towards building our vision for SideTour. We have big plans, so expect to see new experiences and huge changes during the coming weeks. I’ll keep it brief for now, as we still have a lot of work to do.

If you want to stay updated on our progress, be sure to follow us on Twitter.