Press - Turnstile Tours

EF: A taste of everything New York City has to offer

EF Explore America partners with Turnstile Tours to take students on a food cart tour and introduce them to working street vendors, discover new perspectives, and (literally) try something new. For Cindy VandenBosch, Founder & President of Turnstile Tours, the goal is to use food as common ground where people can connect.

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Street Vending

The Bowery Boys: The Brooklyn Navy Yard and Vinegar Hill

In this episode, Greg is joined by the amazing Andrew Gustafson from Turnstile Tours who unfurls the surprising history of the Navy Yard — through war and peace, through new technologies and aging infrastructure, through the lives of the men and women who built the yard’s reputation. And the story extends to the tiny neighborhood of Vinegar Hill, famed for its early 19th-century architecture and the mysterious mansion known as the Commandant’s House.

Brooklyn Navy Yard
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Insight Vacations: Mixing Business and Pleasure

On Best of Eastern Canada & USA, join a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience and immerse yourself in market life. Run by Cindy and Andrew of Turnstile Tours & Studio, meet vendors, enjoy a live cooking demonstration and learn how this nonprofit run market contributes to countless programs aimed to provide quality, affordable food to the community.

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Public Markets

PRESS RELEASE: Turnstile Tours Launches New Street Food Tour of Jackson Heights, Queens

For more than a decade, New York City-based social enterprise Turnstile Tours has been sharing the stories and flavors of Manhattan’s street food, and now they are coming to Queens.

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NSMBL: Planning a trip to New York? Then this Food Cart Tour in Queens is highly recommended

About three weeks ago we visited the city that never sleeps; New York City. There is plenty to do, almost too much. Not in a negative sense, because it’s all fun.

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Street Vending

De Telegraaf: Up To Date in New York

We will have lunch this time on the street. Walking, during a real Food Cart Tour in Midtown (bookable via turnstiletours.com). New York has a long history when it comes to street vending, and although everyone knows pretzels and hot dogs, there are carts selling dishes from around the world. Street food is one of the best kept secrets. It’s not for nothing that a prestigious prize was handed out every year to the street vendor with the tastiest dishes. …

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Street Vending

CUNY TV: Brooklyn Navy Yard | DiverseCITY

On this edition, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and its big investment in small business. Ensuring no neighbor is left out of the windfall from the coastal complex’s growth. The yard’s deep historical connection to World War II that many might not know. What the city’s largest Spanish speaking television station sacrificed to survive. Then CUNY’s effort to assist Hollywood with its diversity push.

Brooklyn Navy Yard
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WCBS 880: NYC tour company grows revenue with new profitable services

Cindy VandenBosch and Andrew Gustafson are the husband and wife duo at the helm of Turnstile Tours. Both of them have decades of experience in history, museums and tourism. Over the past 10 years, they’ve built a diverse portfolio of programs with unique New York stories at historic sites such as the South Street Seaport, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

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Crain’s: Brooklyn tour company has found new life online

When the Covid-19 pandemic threatened to shut down their Brooklyn tour-guide business—Turnstile Tours—husband-and-wife team Cindy VandenBosch and Andrew Gustafson reinvented their nine-year-old company on the fly. Founded in 2012, Turnstile Tours’ unofficial motto is “We share stories of how New York City works.” By taking customers behind the scenes of different aspects of city life, especially in Brooklyn, the company aims to highlight the work of ordinary New Yorkers.

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New York City Sightseeing is Slowly Returning With Creative Tours

Turnstile Tours, a Brooklyn-based company, normally offers custom-made walking tours of locations like the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Essex Market, in partnership with local businesses and organizations. Today, the same ethos of community and access which animates Turnstile’s walking tours is available through its Virtual Programs.

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PRESS RELEASE: 100 Days, 100 Virtual Tours: How a Small NYC Tour Company Keeps Going During the Pandemic

On Wednesday, June 17, Turnstile Tours will broadcast their 100th “virtual tour” since the New York City lockdown began, a trivia night looking back at the highlights of the last …

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Virtual Programs

Crain’s: Mom-and-pop shops faced red tape—or silence—from PPP lenders

For small-business owner Cindy VandenBosch, who runs Turnstile Tours from her office in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the lack of communication from JPMorgan Chase on the status of her Paycheck Protection Program loan prompted her to take desperate measures. When she couldn’t get a single Chase representative on the phone for days, VandenBosch said she rented a Citi bike, donned a mask and gloves, and rode to a branch in Sunset Park for answers.

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Podcast: Unifying Connections During COVID-19

Since the WHO has categorized COVID-19 as a pandemic, the global economy has suffered, and millions of people are filing for unemployment. There are several webinars that are designed to help brands and companies stay relevant, but several lack the fundamental issue for most small business owners (i.e. restaurants, cafes, etc.), which is, how do I get money into my business now.

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Brownstoner: Virtual Prospect Park Launches to Help Brooklynites Adhere to Social Distancing

While you can still appreciate the beauty of the park for brief respites of fresh air with appropriate social distancing, the Prospect Park Alliance is encouraging visitors to head online to explore the green space with a new resource. Virtual Prospect Park includes resources from educators, historians, gardeners and others to allow a look into Brooklyn’s backyard while following the directive to stay indoors as much as possible during the crisis.

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Prospect Park

NY Japan: Social Studies Tours for Adults

On a public tour, you can learn how the facility works to transform old things into modern, and to help small businesses that will support New York in the future. Part of that is gathering start-up companies, and providing space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard for shared offices. For a long time, Brooklyn has been a major base for the food manufacturing industry, and beer and whiskey are still being produced in one corner of the site, and the long-established Russ & Daughters has also moved their factory to the Navy Yard this year, inside a renovated historic building that is now open to the public as a new attraction.

Brooklyn Navy Yard
Inside Industry
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The Telegraph: The 20 Greatest Ways to See New York

Turnstile Tours has built a reputation for offering quirky tours, from historic sites such as Brooklyn’s Army Terminal to street markets, and donates at least 5 per cent of all ticket sales to neighbourhood projects. New for this year are two-hour walking tours of Prospect Park – Central Park’s more compact sister in Brooklyn – exploring the meadows and woodlands, art and architecture and waterways. There’s also a tour of the Gowanus waffle production space for the trendy Wafels & Dinges chain. As well as meeting the chefs and learning how the business works, visitors get to make (and eat) their own waffles.

Inside Industry
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Prospect Park
Street Vending

Brooklyn Paper: Tour de four: Prospect Park launches a new walk for each week

These tours make history a walk in the park. Four new walking tours will reveal Prospect Park’s rich history and uncover its hidden gems. Prospect Park Walking Tours, starting on April 28, will offer a different guided trip through the green space each Sunday, letting audiences focus on the marvels of Brooklyn’s Back Yard they find most interesting.

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Prospect Park

Traveller Australia: World’s 50 Best Day Tours to Take

Hundreds of food carts patrol New York’s streets every day offering cheap, filling feeds with this two-hour tour visiting some of the best. Sample six dishes including Korean short ribs, Mexican quesadillas and Belgian waffles. You’ll get to meet the vendors and understand the challenges of selling food curb-side in the Big Apple.

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Street Vending

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Workers walk alongside a large stone dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard with two white tugboats below and a red and white crane on the right.

Category: Press

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