Yesterday afternoon, the news broke that Mayor Tony F. Mack was to ring the ceremonial Opening Bell at the NASDAQ Exchange this morning, February 2, 2012, at its headquarters in New York City’s Times Square. The news broke via a press release distributed by NASDAQ. As of this morning, there was no mention of the event on the City’s own website, which is kind of unusual. The Administration is pretty thorough when it comes to playing up ceremonial appearances by the Mayor locally, as well as any media appearances or other national exposure. So it was rather surprising to me that the Administration was playing this appearance so close to the vest.
As it happens, I work in New York City, pretty close to NASDAQ, and these ceremonial Market Opens and Closes are open to the public. So I figured to head on over to Times Square and see the event. I wrote the Exchange’s press contact yesterday. She told me that although the morning was booked to capacity, she would get me on a wait list.
This morning, I headed on over to NASDAQ and checked in with security. I signed in, and waited to see what I could see. As it happens, I didn’t see the press contact I had corresponded with, but I did run into the Mayor and his Communications Director Lauren Ira, and had a brief conversation with them.
As it happens, I didn’t get in to the Opening Ceremony. A group of students visiting from China were luckier than I was. I stuck around for a few minutes after the Open to see if I could catch up with Mr. Mack and Ms. Ira as they left the building, but no such luck before I had to leave to get to the office.
The actual video of the Opening, in which the Vice Chairman of NASDAQ recites the great history of our Capital City, and the great Accomplishments of our mayor; and Mr. Mack invites one and all to visit and invest in our great town; can be found here.
I shot some video, too, and saw how for a brief, shining moment, the City of Trenton and our own Tony F. Mack took their place in Times Square, along with the likes of Dustin Hoffman, The Lion King, and Mob Wives.
Enjoy!
They couldn’t have shot pix of him with the Naked Cowboy?
He still needs a step stool…At least you know that just the simple fact that you were there…. bugged the living $hit out of your ‘acting’ mayor and his idiot ASSistant.
LOL, made my day.
Of course the DOW was DOWN today. Thanks Tony. He looked like Gary Coleman on a episode of Diff’rent Strokes. I assume the mayor and his sidekick made it back to Trenton to work on the city’s many ills. What the he’ll would he show someone who took him up on his offer to visit. How embarrassing. Why are we paying for such useless pointless field trips for this goof. Can’t wait to get outta this hellhole.
Jim Cramer made a comment on CNBC today Trenton makes, then he stopped.
I guess no one on the stock exchange did any research on the fact the Trenton has unfortunately become a broke wild west. Great job Mayor Mack, maybe next year you’ll be given the Noble Peace Prize like other unworthy recipients.
He picked Groundhog Day. Is there a message here? What record do we have that he did indeed promote our city? Is there a promotional DVD lurking in NASDAQ somewhere? I can’t believe that they said YOU could not come in. If our esteemed mayor really had a feel for correctness, he should have encouraged your coverage. How come no one knew he was going on this jaunt before Thursday? Typical of his thought process and efforts to hide stuff.
Why was Tony ignoring you like that? It would have been a perfect opportunity to explain briefly the back story of how he ended up there.
Instead, he stood there looking kind of awkward and uncomfortable. You could see the wheels turning in his head thinking to himself, “please don’t let him come over here…..please make him go away.”
I’m pretty sure that the “honor” of ringing the bell is actually available to anyone who’s willing to pay for the “honor.” Questions I’d like to see answered: 1. If you CAN buy this honor, how much does it cost? 2. Who paid for this trip, and if Mack wasn’t meeting the press, why was his spokesperson needed? 3. If this was to “sell” the city of Trenton to investors, who were these investors that he met, and how did it go? 4. If he met with investors to extol the virtues of Trenton, wasn’t there ANY press there to document the meeting? I think these are very reasonable questions. Did council approve of this expenditure? What were the goals? If we’re paying for the trip, we have a right to know. This doesn’t seem like something that should be so secret. If this was part of the Mayor’s vision, why not share it???
Joe, I think you asked all good questions, starting with why this was such a secretive effort on his part.
The Trenton city website has long blasted out news about a ceremonial ribbon cutting here, a dedication there: this afternoon there’s a new announcement of the dedication on Feb 15 of the Ike Williams Recreation Center: Tony’s name is far bigger than anything else on that release!
So the fact that Tony did this essentially on the down low is indeed suspect. You saw that he didn’t even acknowledge my question to him as to how the event happened. And I highly doubt he met any “investors:” unlike, say, the New York Exchange, NASDAQ is an electronic market. No traders there. The “Opening Bell” was rung in a TV studio, and everyone on camera waved only to the studio crew there. No adoring hordes, no crowds of traders.
The introduction given him by the Exchange’s Vice Chair was all about Tony. Tony’s comments themselves were all about him and his imaginary accomplishments. “Live Where You Work?” Give me a break. All the photos of him on the monitors and Jumbotrons in Times Square were for his benefit alone: no one passing through Times Square ever looks at those things, or gives a rat’s ass. The whole thing was just masturbation.
Someone did him a favor, or was paying one back. Tony F. Mack and Lauren J. Ira are not smart enough or connected enough to have pulled that off. It might be interesting to find out who got this done.
In the grand scheme of things in Trenton, this was in all reality just fluff, not that important. But it is a big, visible example of everything that is wrong with this guy.
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