The Great Blackout at the 2011 New York Auto Show

I'm starting to feel like a bit of a disaster.  Wherever I am, disaster strikes:  2003.....The great blackout in NYC (and I was living in Minneapolis at the time.), 2009......the Cobo Hall Fire at NAIAS and now, 2011.....the great blackout at the Jacob Javits Center.  Wherever I go, trouble follows.  Last night, around 7:50 PM. all of the lights dimmed in the middle of the New York Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Center.  It became very dark, very quickly.  I love the resilience of New Yorkers because an event like this barely registers to them.  As someone who has officially spent more time in LA (11 years) versus NYC (9 years), I did look around to make sure this was just a faulty electrical moment instead of a true emergency.

I also love that Jalopnik and the NY Times Automotive Section were on to my tweets within seconds.  Are they trolling for auto show information by the moment?  Either way, I am impressed.  The consumers remained calm and the lights were back on within 8 minutes. The only thing that I questioned was the lack of response from show management.  We didn't hear a peep from them.  Surely there is a universal PA system to tell the public that everything is okay and that they are working on restoring power?  Does anyone have an emergency plan in place these days?  I know Cobo Hall didn't do a thing during the fire in 2009.  The other good news is that New York's famed "Gang Night" on Easter Sunday was the calmest in years, so maybe my luck is changing after all.

Lights back on and all is well at the 2011 New York Auto Show........

**The views/opinions on this page are not necessarily those of TOYOTA.

North American International Auto Show 2011

If you have been following me on Twitter, then you have seen my notes and comments on NAIAS.  Right after I finished the live internet broadcast of the Toyota Prius v in LA, I jumped on a plane to Detroit to the North American International Auto Show.  This is the fourth year we have hit Detroit with Toyota Live and I have to say, I am having a better time this year than previous years.  Yes, service is still slow and things still close down early, but the economy is looking up in this town and the automotive industry is a whole lot happier versus January 2009.  I ranted and raved last year about my visit and an electrical fire in Cobo Hall dampened one of the days, but I think Detroit and I have turned the corner and happily, we have a new understanding.  Check out a few fun photos from the first weekend of NAIAS:

Thanks to Joe Neuberger and Jalopnik for giving me the secret sign via Twitter to get my free CFL bulb from BYD Auto.

 I am one big day-glow orange pumpkin head while being interviewed for a local news story. Ah, convention center lighting!

Hanging with NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series champion and Toyota Racing team member, Todd Bodine.  

Photo 1 & 4:  Courtesy of Trackside Tina.

Photo 2 & 3:  Courtesy of Matthew Troyer.

Gone Fishing

While I take a much needed holiday break, I will leave you with a couple of posts you may have missed.  I will be back posting away next week with all of my adventures and an upcoming event in Chicago for Women's Health Magazine.

1. The legend of Disney continues into 2010 with my post showing behind the walls of Club 33.  This was posted on Disney Food Blog and every week, I find new friends thanks to Uncle Walt.

2. This next article was written in 2009, but Demi Delia is an interesting woman.  As a former adult star, she is raising two successful and smart kids.  Crackle.com chronicled her life in an online reality show, Mommy XXX.  Demi also made headlines again a few months ago as an alleged mistress of actor, David Boreanz.

3. Who knew that one iPhone photo would cause such frenzy?  Yes, I was there for the 2010 fire at Cobo Hall in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show.  See what all the fuss was about.

4. This article gave me my first hate email.  It was about Publicity and Web Series, but someone got their panties in a bunch over what I had written.  Tubefilter also referenced the article in a recent post as well.

5. The Legend of Neil fans are exactly that.....legendary.  Their continued support for our episode of The Web Files with Sandeep Parikh and Tony Janning is amazing and I always appreciate them stopping by. Here's their behind the scenes feature:  Legend of Neil.

So, that's the Top 5 at the halfway point of 2010.  Let me know what your favorite article has been this year.  Leave a comment and tell me what you think.  Have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

An Open Letter to the City of Detroit

Dear Detroit,

I travel to your fair city for 14-16 days each January over the last 3 years for NAIAS. I come in with the masses for press, industry, and preview week and then stay to greet the public with the latest and greatest in the automotive industry. Your city has had a tough time over the last 20 years and I know the current economy has not helped either. But I have to say, for a city that is broke and needs a renaissance, you sure don't want my money. I don't get it. Don't you want me to spend $4 on a small hot chocolate? I was happy to pay for it, but your Starbucks at the Ren Cen had a line close to 45 minutes long. I tried to get soup and a panini in the lobby at Presto Deli by Andiamo at 6:30 PM. You told me...."Closed". That's odd...industry night went until 9 PM. I would figure that there is money to be made in the last 3 hours of the show. My hotel closed their coffee bar at 5 PM, their restaurants at 9 PM, the one place that does serve good food late won't do take out. I'm tired, I worked all day, why can't I take the food to my room? I am happy to tip the server. I know, I know, you want me to pay $18 for a small salad delivered by room service, but you didn't even offer bread with my expensive greens.

So, here's what I don't understand. NAIAS funnels millions of dollars into your city for two weeks, why aren't you trying to accommodate your visitors? Tell your staff they are going to work longer hours, extra days, make more money, and cater to the visitors to your city. Did you ever see Field of Dreams? Remember, "If you build it, he will come?" Trust me, it would work. I will happily give you my dollars. I don't mind spending a couple of extra bucks for conveniences like shorter lines at Starbucks or grabbing a soup at 9:30 PM when I get off of work. Sometimes I feel like at lot of you just quit trying to make this city shine.

While you are at it, please tell your cab drivers to stop trying to rip me off. I know how much it is from Cobo to my hotel. Don't tell me it is $5 more. I am going to only pay you what the meter says. Oh wait, you forgot to run the meter? I am still only paying the metered rate. Cab drivers are the ambassadors to any city. Just ask the Big Apple. Regulate your cabs and visitors will walk away happier and less disgruntled.

I will be back next year, and I hope to see more businesses open, your city flourishing, and a maybe a few more smiles for the guests who just want a hot meal after 12 hours at work. Come on, Detroit, I know you have it in you!

Now, not all of my experiences were bad. Here are a few gems in the Motor City that deserve my money and your money the next time you visit. They were open extra hours, or they had great customer service, or they just added something special to my trip.

Slow's.....Best St. Louis ribs not in St. Louis:

Zoom Cafe for staying open on the weekends so we had a place to eat lunch:

To The Whitney for being the most fabulous place to eat if you are a "Lady Who Lunches":

And to the pastry chef at Iridescence for making my tummy happy with my lantern dessert and to my server who offered up some great suggestions with enthusiasm and a genuine smile.

Thanks for letting me vent, Detroit. See you in 2011!

xo kb

"The Great Detroit Auto Show Fire of 2010"

You never know who reads your blog, who picks up on your Twitter feed, or where you are going to be quoted. My good friend, Joe Neuberger, kindly informed me via Twitter (again!) that I was quote in a post over at Gawker Media's Jalopnik. If you aren't familiar with Jalopnik, it is a compelling auto news site that I check out frequently during the auto show season.

Head on over to Jalopnik to check out the article and the um, interesting comments that follow or read the article in its entirety below. Thanks, Jalopnik!

Were You At The Great Detroit Auto Show Fire Of 2010?

Reports from those on hand at the Great Detroit Auto Show Fire indicate no fire alarms went off, information was poorly shared, and Cobo Hall was altogether ill-prepared for the incident. Were you there? Have pictures of the aftermath?

The consensus is the fire occurred due to an electric issue with an adapter above the Audi stage that quickly ignited the roof above Audi and spread flames and black smoke around the hall. The response, according to The Booth Babe on DYCWTC, wasn't great:

What's the opposite of urgent? Lackadaisical? Because that's the kind of announcement that was made to evacuate the hall, and it was not backed up by anyone from their crack security team ushering people out. In fact, people were still milling around inside the hall poking around in vehicles a good half hour after the initial announcement. Instead of being led to nearest exits, people were told to go back to the lobby, which meant everyone marched straight towards the fire and smoke.

This reported is backed up by Kristyn Burtt, who writes RedCarpetCloset and is also a product specialist:

Honestly, I am not sure the show should have reopened. We came into a hall that had a strong stench of burnt plastic and all of the fire doors open to the outside. So, the temperature had dropped below 50 degrees in order to blow out the smoke and odor. It was not the healthiest environment to work in, but we plowed through the rest of the shift with headaches and stinging, burning throats.

Curiously, the new management company in charge of Cobo made a big deal this year about preparing for just such an occurrence in an Automotive News story before the show. Gary Brown, the chief construction officer for the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, said they'd fixed a glitch in Cobo's fire system and worked on emergency equipment.

There are emergency battery lights that were dead, and we've replaced those batteries on the emergency system. We've also done a fire protection investigation and inspection that was routine anyway, but we've done it in advance of the auto show."

Since the building didn't burn down it doesn't yet appear there was a major failure of any fire-suppression systems, but it does make us wonder how much of the $3 million was spent on technology or operational training for staff to alert and direct visitors in the event of an emergency and if any was spent, where the money actually went.

We're glad no one was hurt (and for our sake, that the fire didn't happen during media days), but if you were there for the fire, or are there now, drop us a note with photos of the event or aftermath.

Article written by Matt Hardigree

Fire at Cobo Hall at NAIAS

If you were following my tweets or the news today, you might have heard about the fire at Cobo Hall at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. At about 1:20 PM today, a muffled voice commanded over the PA system to evacuate the building and file out in an orderly fashion out the front doors. The PA system sounded like it had not been used since the 1955 Detroit Auto Show so, there was a bit of confusion as to what was happening and what the actual message was telling us. Once we received confirmation from the Cobo Hall security guards, we grabbed our bags and jackets and headed out of the display. I decided to grab a few snapshots on my iPhone on the way out of the building. As we walked towards the Ferrari display, we smelled the burning plastic and saw the smoke........

As we approached the front doors, the smoke got thicker and the smell clearly indicated an electrical fire. Thankfully, the crowd moved in an orderly fashion. No one pushed, everyone was calm, and we moved to front doors in a matter of minutes. The only thing that really struck me as odd was the fact that people waited to get their hand stamped on the way out, creating a huge line of people trying to exit. Um, there is a fire and acrid smoke in the building, please move along. We moved to the right towards Audi where the fire occurred and headed out to an open exit. By the way, we never heard a fire alarm.....

Security let everyone stay in the lobby for quite a while even as the fire trucks pulled up and the firemen assessed the damage. Information on what was happening and if the show would reopen was sparse and often wrong. One security guard would say the building was closed for the day and another would tell us to return in an hour. Many of the auto show teams decided to gather across the street at Zoom Cafe and wait out the evacuation. Once it was determined that the show would be closed for more than an hour, a group of us ventured to one of Detroit's hidden gems....
Yes, that would be Slow's. If you must wait out a fire emergency, do it at the best BBQ place in the MidWest. I happily gorged on St. Louis Ribs, Mac and Cheese, and Green Beans to pass the time. We even managed to top it off with Ryba's chocolate fudge. Yep, a high caloric day!

While we returned to the convention center at 4:45 PM in time for the supposed 5 PM open, Cobo Hall was not ready for the public. The teams were allowed into their displays, but we did not see the public until close to 6:15 PM. Honestly, I am not sure the show should have reopened. We came into a hall that had a strong stench of burnt plastic and all of the fire doors open to the outside. So, the temperature had dropped below 50 degrees in order to blow out the smoke and odor. It was not the healthiest environment to work in, but we plowed through the rest of the shift with headaches and stinging, burning throats. I am not the only one who questioned the reopening of the show, check out The Booth Babe and her take on today's emergency: The Booth Babe. The good news to end this drama was that no one was hurt and everyone exited the building safely. The show reopened and the crowds poured back into to see 2010's offerings.

Before I wrap up here, I want to call out the Detroit Free Press for pulling my photo off of Twitter and not crediting me. I took all of those photos on my iPhone on the way out the door. I don't mind that they used it, but responsible journalism goes a long way--especially when you are a legitimate media outlet.

**UPDATE** A big thanks to Jalopnik and Auto Blog for crediting the photos back to me. I also want to thank the readers of Jalopnik for thinking of creative spoofs for my name. I got a good laugh out of it and the comment section is worth a read.

**SECOND UPDATE** My photo continues to be linked to other publications even to international automotive media: iCarros.

**THIRD UPDATE** Another international view of the day's activities from Brazil: Notícias Automotivas.

**FOURTH UPDATE** Roman Mica of TFLcar.com kindly linked to my article and photo. Be sure to check them out too: TFLcar