Instead of looking outside the city for your summer plans, perhaps your best bet is to look inward—or more accurately, downtownward.
Downtown Alliance, which manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, is doing a nationwide search for an "explorer in chief" to "share the stories that show what an extraordinary place Lower Manhattan is and has always been." Between June 1st and August 30th, the explorer will be expected to promote the area through video, photos and written text on various platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. In other words, if you're already Very Online, this won't be a huge stretch.
The chosen "chief" will live rent free and get paid to "explore" Lower Manhattan for a few months.
As the Downtown Alliance puts it, "You will be responsible for an agreed-upon set of deliverables each week and month which involves taking part in various activities. Your schedule will be full-time and vary in terms of times of day. You might do an excursion late at night, or all day long, maybe even stay up for a sunrise or two. The winner should be up for adventure and excited about exploring Lower Manhattan."
They advise anyone interested treat this as a full-time job—you will be paid $2,250 for every two weeks of work performed, plus free accommodations for you and your partner downtown, as well as some free meals depending on assignments—although they note, "any outside employment or consulting must be approved by the Downtown Alliance in its sole discretion."
In case you're wondering about borders, Downtown Alliance defines Lower Manhattan as everything below Chambers Street: "For marketing and content purposes, Lower Manhattan covers from the Brooklyn Bridge south. It includes the Financial District, the Battery, South Street Seaport, Battery Park City and a small part of Tribeca."
You have until March 15th to apply for the position; to enter the running you'll need to upload a 60 second video about why you're the best person for the role. Three finalists will be chosen and brought in-person for an interview—go here for more information about the process.
