The Standard has always set out to be more than a collection of rooms. We are honored to take care of people from all over the world, and the diversity of our employees defines who we are. As a community that celebrates interconnection, self-expression, and the spirit of travel, we oppose any threats to these values. The Standard uses its voice, spaces, and creativity to encourage positive and productive activism that supports lasting social progress. We don't tell people how to express themselves, we provide a platform for them to do it.
It all started with
Ring Your Rep
A direct line to Congress at each of our hotels.
In our mission to be a platform that makes activism accessible to anyone, we installed phone booths with a direct line to Congress at all five of our hotels in NYC, LA, and Miami. Within each phone booth, is a script that guides guests and visitors through the call process and allows them to get vocal on the issues that matter to them most, at no cost to them whatsoever. We brought our Ring Your Rep platform from the booths to all 967 of our guest rooms where we installed a direct-dial feature on the in-room phones.
Since installing our phone booths, we've partnered with organizations from Everytown to the ACLU, as well as notable activists, to host Ring Your Rep activations in all of our cities:
In our quest to Stand Up, we've been gleaning wisdom from those fighting the good fight in their own inspiring ways, and New York's very own Saada Ahmed is one of those people. Saada created Brothers & Sisters, a monthly get-together that encourages dialogue to effect social and political change.
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Right before her Brothers & Sisters event at The Standard, East Village, where discussions were had about DACA, Saada called her representatives at our Ring Your Rep phone booth:
Trans-rights luminary Janet Mock and womenswear designer Jonathan Simkhai lit up the congressional switchboard with their joint event at The Standard, Hollywood on International Women’s Day to support Swing Left.
The Loss of 17 lives on February 14th, 2018 at MSD High School in Parkland, Florida due to yet another mass shooting, caused a conversation to erupt in our country and around the world and a youth movement to be born.
Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver, son of Change the Ref's co-founder Manuel Oliver, created WALLS OF DEMAND as a nationwide art project that triggers people to think about gun violence and the need for change.
It started in Miami where we lent our booth to WALLS OF DEMAND, and in turn, the exhibit traveled through The Standard, High, Line and The Standard, Downtown LA, where attendees could call Congress and voice their opinions on gun violence.
The exhibit began in Miami:
Then we brought the initiative to The Standard, High Line:
And finally across the country to The Standard, Downtown LA:
This year we unveiled a Ring Your Rep booth at Frieze Art Fair that connected art and activism. We sent our friend Paige Elkington to the fair to find out what the art set is thinking about politics, and which issues they care about most deeply. Watch the video below to see what we found out.
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The movement grew from dialing to dining with
Chefs Stand Up
A dinner series supporting the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and other critical civil rights work.
As hotels, we wanted to use all of our touch points, including our plates, as a platform for change. We invited a wide array of award-winning and emerging chefs to design dishes for one-of-a-kind dinners inspired by the cultures of our immigrant employees. All proceeds from the dinners went to the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, “dedicated to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of immigrants and to combating public and private discrimination against them.”
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So much more than meals, our Chefs Stand Up series also included talks with notable ACLU speakers including:
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Howard Simon (Executive Director of Florida), Nancy Abudu (Director of Legal Operations of Florida), Rachel Streitfeld (First Vice President of Florida Greater Miami Chapter), Eunice Rho (Advocacy and Policy Counsel), Danielle Silber (Director, Strategic Partnerships), Omar Jadwat (Director, Immigrants' Rights Project), David Hausman (Skadden Fellow at the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project).
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Swipe through to see more!
Then we went from our plates to the polls in creating
#StandardVotes
A campaign to bring attention to the importance of the midterms and get people to vote.
The Standard is what it is because of the diversity of our guests and employees. While we see our current administration actively threatening immigrant safety and wellbeing, we had to Stand Up, and #StandardVotes was born. Wherever and whenever we can, we use our voice to speak out on the issues that matter to us and our communities most. And with the recent midterms, our voices mattered more than ever.
We started with an email.
On November 3rd, 2018, people brought their voices to The Standard, Hollywood, The Standard, Miami Beach and The Standard, East Village as we made calls to states where the ACLU was fighting for key ballot initiatives on civil rights and civil liberties.
In turn, we helped play a part in:
- The Florida Amendment 4 ballot initiative, re-enfranchising 1.4 million people!
- The Michigan Proposition 3 ballot initiative, re-enfranchising 200k+ voters and making it easier for all other voters to cast their ballots.
- The Nevada Question 5 ballot initiative, which enacts automatic voter registration.
- The Oregon Measure 105 ballot initiative, protecting immigrants and maintaining Oregon as a sanctuary state.
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