By TONY MARQUIS | Business Trends
Almost a year ago, a group of residents started SINY to boost the borough’s appearance to tourists and locals.
They were tired of watching the hundreds of tourists get right back on the ferry after landing at the St. George Terminal.
They imagined a Staten Island with culture – filled with diverse events for the young and old.
Though SINY is less than a year old, the organization’s executive director, Larry Ambrosino, can see some progress.
“I think we’re getting there. It’s going to take time, though,” he said. “We’ve been the forgotten borough for a long time.”
With one of the Island’s biggest events coming up – the SINY Film Festival on June 4-7 – the “forgotten borough” will have a chance to do what it rarely gets to do: show off. It’s the fourth year of the film festival – an event that’s drawn thousands of people to Staten Island in past years.
This year, organizers added a band to play ’60s music and teamed with another film festival at the Jewish Community Center. The Downtown Staten Island Council will also hold its Downtown Drive-In Movies on Front Street in Stapleton during the weekend.
The Staten Island Economic Development Corp. founded the film festival – now one of the borough’s few major cultural events.
“It was a way to kind of enhance the culture on Staten Island, as well as reach out to audiences that maybe would have never thought of coming,” said Jeannine Marotta, the festival’s director.
SINY has joined with the SIEDC for this year’s festival and has plans for a SINY Cultural Fair in November.
“It’s a tough struggle in these economic times – getting funding for things we want to do – money’s very tight,” Ambrosino said.
The organization discontinued its “Discover Staten Island Tour” but started a successful pizza tour – which gives tourists a sampling of the Island’s pies in between stops at the Staten Island Zoo, South Beach boardwalk and the Rosebank grotto. The tour picks people up from the St. George Ferry Terminal, where Ambrosino hopes to turn around a few tourists. There’s already a 62-inch television that plays a Staten Island tourism video in the Whitehall Terminal.
“We really need to educate people about Staten Island,” Ambrosino said. “But also to educate people within Staten Island about all the great things we have in the borough and make them proud of it.”
For now, with the sluggish economy, SINY is thinking small. They’re raffling Staten Island Yankees tickets to tourists and have plans to open a kiosk in the Whitehall Terminal.
They’ve even got T-shirts with “SINY: Proud of it” to inspire residents and maybe eventually change Staten Island’s status as the forgotten borough.
“I think we’re doing it,” Ambrosino said. “But changing the image is not going to happen overnight.”