Epstein challenges social-media education; Ortiz cites field outreach
Epstein says tourists are unlikely to check DCWP social media before taking a pedicab in another city. Ortiz agrees no single tool works and says DCWP's six-person outreach team reached nearly 100,000 New Yorkers and 30,000 people in the streets over the summer.
Just to, and I'm going to, I know my colleagues have questions too, but to be honest, so
When I'm visiting another city and I'm going to do a tourist-related thing, probably the last thing I'm doing is going to DCWP's social media page and be like, what is the industry?
It's not a realistic scenario to say, I'm going to go to Prague and I'm going to get on a bus and I'm going to figure out what the city agency in a language I probably don't speak is going to say about what the rules are around.
It just, I just, it belies like.
Well, I would say that any one of those tools by itself is not going to work.
But the purpose of using all these different tools is to create an ecosystem where we're trying to get this information out.
It is a process.
I've done community fairs now 10 years of my career, and it's hard work.
You're physically in the field trying to talk to people in real-time settings.
Not to say it's always perfect, but we work at it.
Well, that's something like that physically in the field where people are, where these hubs are, is a really good way of getting to people instead of like using social media.
Like, unfortunately, it's a staffing requirement, but it might be something that might really be beneficial to have people out and about, especially in areas where we see high concentrations of this issue happening.
We do, and we ourselves conduct an immense amount of outreach.
And just this year, I'd like to say that, or I consider that our outreach team is probably the best outreach team in the city.
And just this year, with a team of six, we've been able to reach nearly 100,000 New Yorkers.
Over the summer, reach...
30,000 people in the streets about worker rights and consumer rights, particularly in the peak of the tourist season.
We have been, myself and Haley, have been on the ground at Central Park and the theater district to talk to pedicab folks, to talk to tourists in the streets.
So it is work that we are actively putting in every day.
All right.