The tour guides

In 2002, Mark and Matt Levy (56 and 27, respectively) founded a walking-tour company and called it Vintage New York Tours. Now the business is called Levy’s Unique New York and there are nine people on staff, including Mark’s other sons Gideon, 26 and Jonah, 21. This is their story.

How did you get started?
Matt: My father was a government bureaucrat until he retired early, got his pension and decided to start up a niche walking-tour business. I’d just graduated Emerson College and I didn’t know what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Mark: I said, “Hey, why don’t you move back to New York and help me out with this thing? You never know, it might take off.” Gideon: The family business started up in 2002–3, when I was a senior in college—I went to UMass Amherst, and that was the longest time I’ve spent outside the city. I’ve always been sort of anchored to New York. The jobs that town provides are just a little bit more than zero. So my dad called me up and said, “How would you like to make 25 bucks an hour walking through New York telling stories?” It was a godsend. I was chopping vegetables in the back of kitchen for seven bucks an hour before my dad called me. I had one of those miraculous scenes where I got to turn around to everyone I was working with and go, “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you—I’m out.”

What do you like about working together?
Matt: The camaraderie of it. The knowledge that we all speak the exact same language…Sometimes, but very rarely, I think to myself, I wonder what it’s like to be an office drone? And then I thank God I’m not one of those.Gideon: Well, I’m never going to get fired! I mean, I’d have to do something so damaging, which would never happen. If I were to start not showing up for tours, or start swearing in front of groups—that’s where he’d say, “You can’t work for the business anymore!”Mark: We have written agreements about certain behaviors: showing up on time, things like that. We have a system…a LUNY-vention. It is an agreement between Matt, Gideon and myself where if two of us agree that the behavior of a third is damaging to the business, we’ll sit the other down and say, “This is serious, this is an intervention.” If the two of them say, “Dad, your behavior is really damaging to the business,” I have to listen to them—that’s the ultimate arbiter.

If you ever quit the business, how would that affect your relationship with your dad?
Matt: I haven’t thought about it. I plan on taking over when he retires! But I would hope that he would understand—he’s an understanding kind of dad.Gideon: I want to become a teacher, but the thing is I’m never going to leave the business 100 percent. Being a teacher, you have spring and summer breaks, so I will be tour guiding on the side because New York’s a pretty damn expensive place to live.

Mark, do you think that their working in the family business has prevented them from pursuing other things?
Mark: No. If they were working at Barnes & Noble or Starbucks for 40 or 50 hours a week, they wouldn’t have any time to pursue any of their creative projects. In that respect, working with the family business gives them a lot more freedom. I’ve always supported their creative projects, and I will continue to do so.
—Shakthi Jothianandan