So, today the Current Occupant of the Trenton Mayor’s Office hosted the second in his series of open press conferences/citizen Q&A this morning at City Hall. This afternoon, The Times posted an article describing what the CO said; the paper also posted video of the entire session.
The news article, by Erin Duffy, takes as its lede, the CO’s announcement that “The business administrator is in the process of finding a marketing firm, marketing consultant or person to help us market the city in a way to attract investors.”
In the opinion of this citizen, the article does the CO a great service, by interpreting what he said as actually containing some coherent newsworthy content, as a plan with defined and reasonable objectives. I saw none of that on the video, nothing that made sense.
The CO’s announcement was followed up in a comment by a citizen present at the meeting, Patricia Stewart, who thought that the City needed marketing, needed advertising.
This comment was turned into a question by one of the journalists present (I don’t know who he was). From here, let me use the actual words spoken, beginning 35 seconds into this clip, the third that The Times posted:
Mr. Mayor, who would something like that be targeted at? Would it be targeted at, you know, at people like the banks you were talking about that you wanted to come down to the Delaware? Homeowners who might be coming in to buy homes? Who do you see a campaign like that going for?
You know, that’s a reasonable question. In fact, it’s a very, very important question for the future of Trenton’s development. We have no resources within the City to rebuild. Those resources must come from those who are willing to invest in Trenton. Who will those people be? Individual home buyers and families looking to move here? Or business people willing to invest here, to start or expand companies, hire Trenton workers, and make products or sell services.
It’s a question that one would expect the Current Occupant to have given some thought to over two years, and to have been the subject of many conversations and planning sessions with his colleagues in the Administration, City Council, the County and State, business owners in the City and outside it. He went to NASDAQ nine months ago, after all, with the intention of promoting the wonderful Opportunity that this town offers.
So, you’d guess, that the CO would be prepared for this kind of a question. He would be ready with a prepared response and argument in favor of this town. He would know Exactly Who we should be marketing to, and Exactly What we want to promote in Trenton. Right? Right?
Sigh!
From the reply to this softball question, it is painfully apparent that The Current Occupant had no reply ready. He doesn’t know who to pitch this City to, and he’d have nothing to sell them even if he had his audience in from of him. The man has absolutely nothing to offer.
You think I am being harsh on the guy? You be the judge. The link to the clip is above; listen to his answer to the question above. Hear how halting, how hesitant it is. He is improvising phrase to phrase, because he has no ideas or thoughts on the matter.
Better yet, to get the full impact of this man’s reply, read his reply, as transcribed by me.
I mean, I think to really get it going, we gotta find employers, people that are willing to come and set up shop, um, in the City, to just get the City going again, you know, from an economic and employment standpoint. The people, just, they need jobs.
It hurts me to my heart to see that the number of factories we got vacant. I mean these are prime areas in the, uh, Capital City of the State of New Jersey that are vacant. So, we would tap into employers.
I imagine there will be a, uh, you know, a variety of areas that they would target, whether it’s… whatever our needs are. You know there’s a. housing, uh, market here that’s untapped, so I imagine we’ll reach out to people who will consider relocating here, and find some incentives to offer, to do so. And then, tap into, um, you know, all those areas.
And one of the other things we’re looking at – and it’s been in the works for quite some time – is the marketing of our train station, applying for grants to kind of help us move that whole project along.
Um, you know, those kinds of things.
Yeah. You know. All those areas. Those kinds of things.
Even if this guy avoids indictment, trial and conviction; even if the US Attorney announces in a few weeks that it was all just some big misunderstanding and takes the the guy out for dinner; even if all this happens, Tony F. Mack will still be too stupid and too clueless for his job.
There is just so much to unpack from those few paragraphs, I can’t do it justice. But let me just suggest that this kind of reply dooms Trenton and its poor people for at least two more years to stagnation or worse. I mean, really! His solution for development? “Find some employers that are willing to come and set up shop, to get the City going again, you know, from an economic and employment standpoint.”
He doesn’t give any reasons why a single employer should be willing to set up shop here. At other times in the session, he talks about Trenton’s location relative to New York and Philadelphia as being attractive, but it’s an afterthought and surely not sufficient in themselves.
It hurts him to see all of Trenton’s “vacant” factories. They aren’t vacant; they are abandoned. They are decrepit. They are obsolete. They will never be factories again. Tell me again, why should anyone be interested in them?
And he is looking for “grants” to “move that whole project along,” referring to development around the Trenton Train Station. Grants? The Transit-Oriented Development Plan for the area is already in place, and has been since 1984. It’s been revised and updated regularly in the nearly three decades since.
The Train Station itself completed its renovation a few years ago. Development planning for the area is all laid out, and ready set to go. However, it doesn’t need “grants” to go forward. It needs private investors willing to build the office buildings and residential complexes the plan envisions. From the guy’s words this morning, I have no clue about how he intends to attract them. I doubt even he does.
The CO’s main case for marketing this city, for advertising it, boils down to its needs. “The people, just, they need jobs” is the truest thing he said today. But our need is, sadly, not sufficient to attract businesses or homeowners.
Trenton must satisfy their needs.
This guy doesn’t even begin to suggest how we do that.
I could go on, but I think you get the point by now.
From the tenor of Ms. Duffy’s Times article, a reader would get the impression that the CO actually said something worthwhile this morning. If you watch the videos, you will very quickly realize nothing, NOTHING could be farther from the truth.
I came away with the same thought, I invested all that time into those four videos just to hear someone have to beg to have trees removed and street lights that work and have Mack and Pat Stewart say “you do it.”