Tag Archives: new york city

PlumValet Launch in New York

Sunday February 15th, Madison Square Garden, New York City.  The end of the NBA All-Star game weekend.  It is also the day that ParkJockey has chosen to launch PlumValet, its valet parking service, in New York.  What a challenge for a launch: 8 professional valets from our partner, Elegant Valet, 30 reserved parking spots at a Rapid Park nearby, the lowest temperatures in 20 years, and a lot of traffic!  But the team is ready.  As soon as the first car arrives everything kicks in:

– “Thanks for using PlumValet, my name is Carlos I will look after your vehicle”

– “Use our app to request your car back, please give us 15 min notice”

– “Thank you for using PlumValet.  Sign up on PlumValet.com and get your next booking free”

The launch is a success.  The users are delighted, they could stop right in front of the Arena and avoid the freezing windchill.  All cars were returned safely and there was no need to use our $2 million insurance policy.

We are really proud that all our users trusted us with their cars.  That you drop off a brand new Porsche Carrera 4S or a 2005 Toyota Camry, we understand that your car is special to you and therefore it has to be special to our team.

Let us park you next time you are in town and enjoy life more!

Follow @PlumValet on Twitter.

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The New Year in New York

2As the holiday festivities finish up and 2014 draws to a close, there is one more grand celebration that brings people into New York City for the New Year: the dropping of the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square.  Come on down This annual tradition began in 1907-1908, when New York Times’ owner, Alfred Ochs, threw a new year’s eve party of massive proportions.  It was his way of bringing people up from Brooklyn and lower Manhattan to what was then Longacre Square. The party began with a street festival that lasted all day. Once it was dark, fireworks were set off, and the ball was dropped for the first time. It was an instant success that suddenly became a New Year’s tradition. Before that, people had gathered at Trinity Wall Street Church, awaiting the bells to chime that would “Ring out the old year, and ring in the new year.” But given the drunken and raucous behavior of the celebrants, the church was glad to hand over the New Year’s celebration to the New York Times.

According to The New Yorker, the origin of using “time balls” to mark a point in time goes back to the early 1800s, when Captain Robert Wauchope thought of the idea of having naval observatories use visual signals to help ships recalibrate their chronometers. Chronometers were clocks used on ships to help approximate distance traveled over time. Although the time balls were ultimately believed impractical due to low visibility, the time ball became a more popular tradition inland. Alfred Ochs had Artkraft Strauss construct a time ball for One Times Square, which, at the time, was the tallest building in New York. But instead of dropping it every day at noon as other time balls had been used for, they just dropped it the once at midnight to celebrate the New Year.

There were only two years that the ball did not drop: 1942 and 1943. During the war, New Yorkers maintained a “dimout” procedure to prevent German submarines from seeing the shore to attack it.  In those two years, the congregated people had a moment of silence and then rang bells in the old tradition.

According to Times Square New York, there have been 7 incarnations of the time ball. The first had one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. The current incarnation has 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs, is twelve feet in diameter, weighs nearly 6 tons, and can create a kaleidoscope of colors to entrance and excite.

So come to Time’s Square and see what the time ball will look like this year given its immense possibilities, and bring in the new year right with the roughly one billion people that come to Time’s Square or tune in on their television. But make sure to book your parking ahead of time, as it will be almost impossible to find parking within Manhattan on the night of the event. ABM Parking Services is now partnering with ParkJockey to provide locations right in the heart of Midtown, just a few steps away from the Museum of Modern Art. And spaces this good will not last long. ParkJockey also has garages available all throughout the Upper East and West sides as well as lower Manhattan. So book your parking for New Year’s now! Wherever you need to go, ParkJockey has you covered!

Sign up now and use the promo code “NEWYEAR”, and new users will receive a discount on your next booking. But act quickly because once the ball drops, so does the promotion!

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The Nutcracker Ballet

Nutcracker

As New York City gears up the holiday festivities, one of the oldest and most treasured holiday traditions is the yearly performance of the The Nutcracker Ballet. Be it young children in their first dance to the music of Tchaikovsky, or professional ballet companies practicing tirelessly to bring new energy to such a familiar classic, no holiday season is complete without seeing a performance of the ballet.

Most are familiar with the story of the ballet: a girl receives a nutcracker for Christmas and gets drawn into a magical world of love and brave nutcrackers fighting the Mouse King. The story of the Nutcracker was originally based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Alexandre Dumas Père wrote an adaptation titled The Tale of the Nutcracker, and Marius Petipa simplified the adaption and choreographed it for the ballet with music set by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. According to the Moscow Ballet, the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, commissioned the ballet in 1891. In 1892, a week before Christmas, the ballet was premiered.

According to the National Post, although Czar Alexander III thoroughly enjoying the ballet, the critics and audience found the choreography confusing. Despite the negative reviews, everyone loved the music, so the ballet toured the world using different choreographies. It first reached the United States in 1944, landing in San Fransisco.

It wasn’t until George Balanchine choreographed the ballet for the New York City Ballet in 1954 that the Christmas Ballet as we know it began to unfold. From that point on, everyone followed Balanchine’s choreography and the ballet became a mainstay of Christmas and of New York City.

Whether you are seeing your child’s first performance of the ballet at their school, or taking a trip to the Lincoln Center to see the New York City Ballet bring Balanchine’s and Tchaikovsky’s brilliance to life, remove the stress of parking and book with ParkJockey. We have locations throughout the Upper West Side, Midtown, and all throughout New York City. Wherever your travels take you, ParkJockey’s got you covered!

Sign up now and use the promo code “BALLETS”, and new users will receive a $5 credit towards your next booking. But act quickly, just as Christmas will end, so will this promotion!

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Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Macy's Parade 02

This Thanksgiving marks the 88th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It is the second oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in the United States (just 4 years younger than the Dunkin’ Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia). According to the book Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade by Robert M. Grippo and Christopher Hoskins, the “Parade started out as a Christmas pageant [led by] a company of immigrants who were thankful for the opportunities that America and New York City gave them.” Incorporating traditions of their native land, Macy’s created an event that newspapers described as having an “Americanized modern slant.”

As the parade increased in popularity, more employees got involved, reaching over 300 in 1926. The following year, in 1927, the Parade took a leap forward with the inauguration of their first ever giant character balloon, Felix the Cat.  But things didn’t really start to heat u until 1947, when the parade became a nationally televised event.  It has, since 1979, been awarded an 12 Emmy awards for outstanding Achievement.  By 1996, even the Giant Balloon Inflation became a must-see event, bringing thousands to the Upper West Side to see the inflatable giants take shape.

The parade kicks off at 77th and Central Park West at 9:00am on Thanksgiving Day, with the character balloons being blown up at that location the night before. The parade moves south on Central Park West, following the Park east until 6th Avenue. The Parade makes its final destination the Macy’s at Herald Square. According to the Parade website, some of the character balloons to be seen at this year’s event include Hello Kitty, Spongebob Squarepants, and Spiderman.

With over 3.5 million people lining the streets, parking will be almost entirely impossible. That is, of course, unless you book early with ParkJockey and get your spot reserved for the fantastic day.  With locations on the Upper West Side and in Herald Square, we have your parking covered.  After all, the holiday season is about enjoying yourself, not stressing out over parking.

Book now using the promo code “TURKEYDAY” and get 10% off your booking cost!

Macy's Parade 01(2)

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Attention Tennis Fans: Save 10% on NYC Parking for the U.S. Open

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Parking and the U.S. Open: Save 10% on Parking with the Promo Code: USOPEN

It’s that time of year again….the best time of year. And I’m not talking about Christmas, although there is something magical in the air when the U.S. Open starts in New York City.

On the heels of the U.S. Open Series and the Connecticut Open in New Haven, the best tennis players in the world, along with thousands of fans, flood the streets of New York for two weeks of great tennis.

So, if you, like thousands of others, are coming into town for Labor Day weekend for a day at the Open in Flushing Meadows, then you might want to start thinking about where you are going to park.

ParkJockey can aid you in finding your parking in New York City, whether you are staying in the Financial District, around Madison Square Garden, Herald Square, or near Park Avenue. We’ve got locations all around the city. In fact, if you book with ParkJockey, you can save 10% off normal price of parking in NYC. To get the savings, just enter the promo code: USOPEN

Some of PJ’s best deals are located in the Upper West Side and Upper East Side. In fact, the 90th Street location in the Upper East Side is only $20 per 24 hours on the weekends ($25 per 24 hours during the week), or you can park your car there for the price of $10 for up to 12 hours. Beat that. Seriously, I challenge you.

Now, please don’t be confused: this offer is not for parking at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, as that parking is operated by the USTA.  Instead, this offer enables you to book your parking nearly anywhere in Manhattan with ParkJockey, reserving your spot, thus making sure your spot is safe and secure whist enjoying the savings of 10% off and whilst being in town to enjoy the US Open.  FYI, for a limited time, for every 10 bookings through ParkJockey in NYC, you can enjoy the 11th one for free.

In any case, enjoy the Open, my friends. Book ahead and leave your parking worries at home so that you can enjoy a day in the sun at Flushing Meadows.  Oh, and come on Sloane Stephens!  Gotta go…the matches are about to start!!

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