The days of the Crown Vic Yellow Cab are coming to end. Last year Nissan won the Taxi of Tomorrow contest, giving it a 10-year contract worth around $1 billion to provide NYC with a new fleet of taxis.  Now, New Yorkers are going to have their first opportunity to see the taxi of the future, today.

At the New York Auto Show the taxi will be on display.  With its distinctive look (which some New Yorkers, including the Mayor, are already calling ‘Suburban’), new yellow color, totally redesigned interior, and glass ceiling, New Yorkers will have an entirely new taxi experience come end of 2013 when the first cars get delivered.

NYC’s taxi fleet has a history of being innovative.  The first taxis began service in 1897 and before the turn-of-the-century the city had 1,000 electric taxis in service.  Imagine all the gas savings had we stayed on that path!

In the years since we’ve seen the Checker Taxi, hybrids, some SUV’s and of course the ubiquitous Crown Victoria.

According to the , NYC taxis take almost as much a beating as cars on the roads of developing nations.  That’s not saying much for the state of our infrastructure.  But give the city credit, by overhauling the fleet, NYC is modernizing a very important mode of transportation.  Now if only the same could be said for our subways and buses.

What do you think of the new taxi design?

Please join Rubicon Property on the evening of March 22nd at our new store for a very special evening dedicated to solving the global clean water crisis. While our renovations are not yet done, we’ve decided to open our doors anyway.

World Water Day is too important, plus we’ve come up with ways to make the renovation part of the experience.  Before entering the store our guests will walk with Jerry Cans – the same ones used by women in the developing world to carry water for miles.  The very brief walk ends when our guests “Cross the Rubicon” and enter our store.  Inside we’ve got a cocktail reception waiting.  Since the walls aren’t done, we are asking all those who “Cross the Rubicon” to sign the sheet rock in our store!  For every person who partakes in our clean water catwalk, we’ll be donating $1 to our latest .

Also on display will be the three best photos taken during our “Get Dirty” for clean water campaign.  You can see the current submissions here:

As NYC’s only social entrepreneurial real estate firm, we believe this evening will fuse our passion for real estate (with an event at our store), with our core belief in helping to make the world a better place.

We are asking our guests to RSVP to: .

Our “Get Dirty” for World Water Day campaign has been up and running for 1 week.  We’ve had photos sent to us from Mexico, Italy and here in the US.  Thanks so much to everyone for helping to kick-off this effort.  We’ve got 17 days to go until World Water Day. Plenty of time to take more “Get Dirty” photos. Please continue to spread word about this campaign.  It can only be a success with your help!!!

You can see all the images collected so far on our Pinterest Board.

Download and share our official campaign poster here!

Here’s our campaign poster!  Please share, download and circulate it.  “Get Dirty” is off to a great start with submissions coming in from around the world.  Keep submitting your images!

Today, Rubicon Property is announcing our “Get Dirty” social media campaign to kick off our involvement in World Water Day.  Since 1993, the UN has established this date as a day of action and information on the global clean water crisis.

Everyday we come into contact with clean water.  When the faucet turns on, it runs.  When needed for purchase, it’s available.  We even use it to clean our streets. No wonder we take it for granted.  But what if, instead of seeing a clean bottle of water on a desk, or clean glass on a dinning room table – what if we saw something else.

What if we saw dirty water?

Our firm believes that would change perceptions on clean water.  We think, if people stopped taking it for granted they would have a greater sense for the global clean water crisis.

So we’ve got a plan, but to pull this off we’re going to need your help.  Here’s the deal.

Step 1: Take a Picture.  We are asking everyone to take a picture of dirty water in a place you would not expect to see it.  Think about locations you typically find clean water (which is everywhere), but now substitute in a dirty glass of water.  The locations for photos are limitless.  Just to spark some ideas: your bathroom, your doctors office, on a plane, in a museum, on a beach, in a park, at a sporting event.  Be creative, as there are thousands of other examples that can work really well.  Feel free to pose in the picture or have friends or pets join you.  For every picture you upload (and properly tag) Rubicon Property will donate $1 to our . We’ll be doing this for the first 5,000 images that are uploaded.

Step 2: Share it on social media. We have created a few tools to make this really easy.  We want a global audience to experience your photograph. We’ll be using multiple platforms for you to upload images, but all images will be posted to our Pinterest “Get Dirty” board.  The most popular pictures will be displayed on World Water Day (March 22nd) at the opening of our new store in NYC, at 451 Columbus Avenue! Here are the social media sharing instructions:

Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram/flickr: Upload the image using the hashtag #RubiconWWD

Facebook: Upload the image to Rubicon Property Facebook page.

For those who want to do it the old fashioned way, you can email your photograph to: .

Step 3: Become part of the conversation.  Check out what your fellow participants have created.  All images will appear on our “Get Dirty” Pinterest Board.

Get Dirty Tips: Since we are fortunate enough live in a part of the world that has an abundance of clean water, you’ve got to dirty the water yourself.  There are several ingredients you can add, including: dirt, coffee, tea, splash of soda, root beer, and sand.

Let’s go Get Dirty!

As was reported in Crain’s two weeks ago, we are opening our first store at 451 Columbus Avenue, which is between 81st and 82nd street. This is a major milestone for our company and we are very excited to bring our brand to the Upper West Side community.

Everyone keeps asking us the same question: when will you open? In short, its a work in progress. We expect to have a soft-opening in March and then a Grand Opening in late April or early May.

The space itself is going to be unlike any other real estate office. There will be events: exhibits, lectures, art shows, fashion shows, walking tours, and other happenings based out of our store. We are already working with one local public elementary school to curate an event with their students.

And of course, the store will be a welcoming environment for our clients to come talk with us about their real estate needs.

As for the design, well at the moment we are treating that like a State secret. But as we get closer to our launch, I’m sure we’ll release some images of the space. Stay tuned.