In the News - September 2026
German Public Radio Rides Along with Big Apple Greeter
In August, longtime Greeter Rob Coppersmith took Kerstin, Frank, Jordi, and Jill—a family visiting from Hamburg, Germany—on a three-hour tour of his Lower East Side neighborhood. They started at the country's oldest bialy bakery; ducked into a pickle shop where the staff broke into the German pop song, "Du bist gut genug," when they heard the family's accents; and swung by Rob's local soccer bar, still decorated with World Cup stickers from a night so packed “We got there half an hour before the game and couldn't get a seat.”
Along the way, Rob shared the kind of stories you won't find in a guidebook, like the jazz saxophonist who used to practice on a nearby bridge at 2 a.m. because he could play as loudly as he wanted, and who later performed at the Mayor's inauguration. The walk wound past murals, a $4-for-10-dumplings lunch spot with lines out the door, and into Chinatown and Little Italy.
Big Apple Greeter had already impressed ARD, German public radio, enough that the station sent a reporter, Martina Butler, to cover the Greet firsthand.
Her verdict: this is "a different New York," the one only locals and their Greeters know.
Frank's favorite part? That the whole thing was free!
Listen to the original radio segment (in German) or read the transcript.
Air New Zealand
The August issue of Air New Zealand’s in-flight magazine, Kia Ora, celebrated New York City.
As part of writer Sharon Stephenson’s exploration of Manhattan, Dan Morrison, a Big Apple Greeter volunteer who lives on the Upper West Side (UWS), led her on a walk up Broadway, beginning in the Theater District.
Heading north, they admired the stunning variety of architecture along Broadway and stopped by iconic UWS spots, including Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, the American Museum of Natural History, and Central Park.
Read the full article, Take Manhattan, and be inspired for your next visit to the Big Apple. As Sharon Stephenson says, “There’s always a next time with NYC.”
