Latest / Go News To Go: More Good News / Dawn Tolson, Executive Director, Citywide Event Coordination and Management & Street Activity Permit Office

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Dawn Tolson, Executive Director, Citywide Event Coordination and Management & Street Activity Permit Office · Go News To Go: More Good News

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: All right, Hi, Paul Slacket's good News broadcast Pause the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: World for Peace, and we're very excited to get to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: talk to Don Toulsen. Hi, Don, how are you?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I'm good? How are you?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm good. Dawn is executive director of s pos APO
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Street Activity Permit Office since twenty fourteen. And let me
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: say this about it. And this is in New York City.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: If you guys, ever anybody out there, ever heard of it.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: It's a big city and it's so many things happening
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: in this city. It's mind boggling. You probably need a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: thousand people to do what she has to do because
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: she handles a lot of street activity and street activity
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: from the New Year's Eve to big events in Times Square,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: so on and so forth.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So Thanksgiving fourth to July, all the big ones.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: How do you do it doing? I mean, come on,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: this is the Seritia city and there's a lot of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: people and everybody wants to do things here. How do
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: you handle this job?
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Okay? Well, I do want to say a little bit
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: of a correction. So I started in twenty fourteen, in
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: December as the director of SAPO at that point in time,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and then, believe it or not, in twenty eighteen, I
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: think you noticed I was gone for a little bit.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I went over and I was overseeing Gracie Mansion. So
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I was the executive director over there for the Mayor's home.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And then I was able to come back in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty two and now I oversee CETHM, which is city
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Wide Events, which does the big things that are not
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: just on the street but even in parks or you know,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: like Global Citizens and things like that, as well as
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: the Street Activity Permit Office, which is my first home
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: and my love, where we issue permits for everything on
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: pedestrian plaza, city street, sidewalks, herblanes, all of those things.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And if you're looking to host an event and activity
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: city wide in New York, you come to our office
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  Speaker 2: from a CECM perspective and you can pitch your ideas
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: to us and we'll help guide you through all the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: permitting process, not just with the Street Activity Permit Office,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: but with even Parks Department or any of the other
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: supporting organizations permits that you might need to put on
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: your event. But if you're applying for a safer application,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: you would go to our website you to create an
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: e apply account and then you would log in and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: apply for one of the types of events that we permit.
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  Speaker 2: We permit everything from Plaza partner and Plaza events all
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the way down to your local block party. So you
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: decide what it is that you want to do, and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: our team will help work you through that process and
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: make sure that you get the right things in place
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  Speaker 2: to host a safe event in New York City.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And it's a very simple website. You have it organized
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: as eloquently as you just spoke, and it's all good news.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So I love it because I love New York.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: City, and we work with you, and some of your events.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Fall and you do work with us in some of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: our events. We just did the Big Earth Day constantly April,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and I personally you might not know, but I go
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: way back to nineteen eighty nine when I did Woodstock
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and it was given Central Park on way back with
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Richie Havens, but we couldn't raise the money, and then
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: we loved the Great Lawn. I live on the Great Lawn.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I was just out there at the Delacort Theater waiting
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: for some tickets.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: But it's a very protected space. It's a loved and
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: protected space in New York City, very.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Protected Day, so I gave another time. I gave it
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to the Global Citizen because I couldn't raise the money
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: again and I had PBS. But I'm still going to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: do a Peace Day concert. We did our Peace Day
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: concerts in the Banshell area since two thousand and two,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and now we've been doing our Peace Day concerts since
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. I guess in the Times Square and Father
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Duffy Park and sometimes with SAPO, and we love it
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: because we love Times Square because it is the mecca.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: It's at the Post Park, the crossroads of the world.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: And I used to have a studio on forty second
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  Speaker 1: and the seventh where Reuters is a big studio and
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: seeing the changes, What do you think about all these
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: changes we have? I mean to me now be frank
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: with you. Times Square is like Disneyland.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: It is definitely quite an interesting space if you want
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to if you want to see a little bit of everything,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: you go to Times Square. Everything from the Naked cow
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Girl back down to you know, religious concerts. We've got
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: everything in Times Square going on. At any time in
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: the day or a protest, I might just decide to
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: walk on through. So you just never know what you're gonn.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Yet when you go down to Times Square, it's like
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: you know, rushing a lot or throwing the dice is
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: to figure out what you're going to walk into when
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: you get there. But we try to do our bestment
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  Speaker 2: fun and safe activities in those spaces where people do
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: come to us to get purpose and they.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Have a beautiful relationship with the Times Square Alliance.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, they're great people.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: All those things, is there, Damien.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And then they're the ones that a lot of people
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: don't realize this that the Time Square Alliance are the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: ones that put on New Year's Eat. A lot of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: people think it's the city. It's not, it's it's the
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  Speaker 2: Times Square Alliance. They're the ones that are applied for
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  Speaker 2: the permit and then work with our office to produce
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that event. And so kudos to them every year making
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: sure that the world, not just New York City, gets
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: to enjoy that ball drop.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: There you go. Well, we're also looked towards the world
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to watch our events in Times Square into the world.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: We produce some like my former CBS PBS Days and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we're we're you know, we love that location because if
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: you close your eyes and walk through Times Square, you're
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: like you've walked through the United Nations. Here, so many
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: different languages, and it's you know people are they just
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: dressed to the nines and and and they really it's
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's a show of unto itself.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, for for you'll even see people in water
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: dresses there because sometimes they do marriage. They actually do.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Marriage is in Times Square every February, right for that holiday.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: So I just married some very fourteen two days three
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: days ago in the Olive Garden. I was walking down.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I'm a reverend at her faithful Dame minister also all faiths,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: and I saw this person. I was talking to her
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and she said, I'm here for my birthday. I'm here
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: for my birthday. I said where you're from? She says, Pennsylvania,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: that it's her name, and she said, and my husband
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and I were here. He came in and we had
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: this nice conversation overall, and then I said, well, would
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: you like me to renew your vows? And oh yes,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: and I renewed him right.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Well there you go. That's amazing.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, it's such a fun city. We were so
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: blessed to live here. Now you grew up, well, you
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: went to Howard and University. And you've talk about Disney.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: You've worked with Disney, you worked with University. I worked
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: with Sony. I mean, you know the business. And you
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: did a beautiful thing of talking about the environment, right.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: You worked with the organization that care environment. What was
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: that all about?
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: American Council and Renewable Energy. I work with them for
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: eight years. They are an amazing group that work with
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  Speaker 2: all the nonprofits and we see, you know, every agency
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: associated with renewable energy and every organization and then subsets
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: legal organizations and entities that work on legal breechings, et
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: cetera to advance renewable energy in the United States of
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: America and internationally. We actually hosted are the very first
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: international Rurable Energy Conference in Washington, d C. Back in
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: what was at two thousand and I want to say
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, and it was a massive activity
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: where we had a ministerial where we want ministers from
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: all different countries to come in and talk about the
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: renewable energy issues. And the President even came and spoke
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: at that time. So we are for the organizations for
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: advancing renewable energy and making it accessible throughout you know,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the United States as a whole and pufshing it to
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: the forefront because again, climate change, we believe it's real
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: and so therefore we did everything we could to find
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: a balanced solution, not just oil but other renewals in
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: order to power the United States of America.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: There you go. We love that well. Our show clean energy, yeah,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and we're you know, really really focused on clean energy.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And I'm still in contact with those guys. I did
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: all of their marketing, their promotions, and I headed up
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: all of their conferences and events, so I was there,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I think VP of it and marketing, so it was
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: well off.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about them because we love them to be
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: part of us because we're is international Peace, which one
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: hundred and ninety three countries in the United Nations agree
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: till we've been doing that for twenty three years. And
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: also there's a New York City Climate Week event happening
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: as well here.
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  Speaker 2: And we're speaking King of Fintment. We actually do have
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: initiatives that we're working in and finding ways to bring
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: that renewable energy back to the work that I do.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: We are working with Sanitation and others to put forward
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: initiative and challenge to organizations and entities that activate in
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: New York City in order to make them more sustainable
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and more green, and so we are working on initiatives
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: to do that. We've had focus groups with some of
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the large scale organizers on ways and forming checklists and
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: other things to help guide them to become more clean
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: and green. And so look out, it's coming up soon
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: that we'll be announcing those initiatives and what they entail.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: But I can't give you the name of the information
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: more details, but just know that in the background, we
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: are working on finding ways to make events in New
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: York City more sustainable and holding them to a higher standard,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: so to ensure that New York as a whole becomes
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: more greener and more sustainable.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's wonderful. We actually had Lewis from Molina,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the Commissioner of dCas, speak and show some of the
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: good things that he's doing with the schools and so
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: on and so forth, and Driez with the Department and Transportation. Yes,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Donald to the city and what the city is doing here.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: There's even that office for Environmental Productions. So it's all good.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I can say, you're on top of it all, and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: that's great news for us. So, what is the website
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  Speaker 1: and that people should go to if they would like
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to do an event here in New York.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: It is uh c CC dot org so NYC dot com.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Sorry, uh huh okay, all right, anything else done you
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: want to share with us?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: No, just the fact that you know, our office continues
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: to produce really fun and entertaining events and activities with
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: an eye for sustainability, hoping to becoming more sustainable. We
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: have the Rise of Concert series right now that we're
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: doing it for the Mayor himself, you know that he
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: sponsors and put out there for fun activities fors and
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: then all the things and fun things that are coming
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty six, like we're going to have the
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America next year. We're
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: also going to have the World Cup coming to New
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: York City next year at International Naval Reviews and Aerial Reviews.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: So just stay tuned. Our office is going to is
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: very busy working to bring you tons of activities for
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: next year's major America's major anniversary of Tendre and fifty.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Years fantastic, all right, Danelle, thank you for doing that,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: because New York is a great place to live and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to learn more about life, and a lot of great
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: nice people. I love it. Thanks Dan, thank you, the.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Doctor, the doctor, the p