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Mayor Bloomberg Had a Meeting, Allowed No Questions
By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Feb 24, 2012
Modified Feb 24, 2012
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By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Feb 24, 2012
Modified Feb 24, 2012
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Mayor talking to visitors at City Hall (Jake Dobkin / Gothamist)
Yesterday we stopped by City Hall for a 2 p.m. photo opportunity with Mayor Bloomberg. According to his public schedule, he was meeting with Cornell University President David Skorton and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology President Peretz Lavie. Our best guess is that those are the two men sitting around the conference table with him in the upstairs bullpen. This identification could have been compromised, however, since no questions were allowed, and in the twenty seconds we were allowed to take pictures, we had to duck underneath reporters from the Daily News and NY1 to get the shot.
If the men in question were the university presidents, in all probability the Mayor was discussing the upcoming NYC Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island, which, according to an email the Mayor's press office provided later in the day, will house academic spaces, "incubators and accelerators", a "tech sector partner R&D space," housing for faculty and students, and create up to 30,000 permanent jobs, along with 20,000 construction jobs, and 8,000 campus operation jobs. The development timeline currently calls for more than 300,000 square feet of space to be developed by 2017, with over 2,000,000 sqft of space by 2037. By then Bloomberg will be 96, but in person he appeared very fit, so our bet is he'll still be around—possibly in his 10th term in office.
An interesting moment at the photo op came when a reporter from the Associated Press attempted to get the Mayor to answer a few questions about the recent NYPD Islamic espionage scandal. After waiting for an hour (the photo op had been delayed from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.), and told she wouldn't be allowed to ask any questions, the Mayor's staff relented and allowed her to tag along with the photographers. While we shot, the reporter gamely rattled off a few questions at the Mayor—about three feet from his ear. Bloomberg ignored her, but finally turned around and said, "You have got to be kidding me." But then, seeing that the reporter had two bandaged fingers (she had accidentally put her hand through a window while attempting to open it), he asked her how she got her injuries. The exchange was cut short as the Mayor's press staff hustled us out of the bullpen. In the hall, one of the Mayor's people apologized to the reporter, saying, "Hey, we're all just doing our jobs."
N.B.: You may be wondering why Gothamist is covering the Mayor's staged photo op at City Hall. The answer is that this modest post meets the exact press pass qualifications of the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, in that it features a public press event staged by the City of New York. As part of a compromise worked out with the NYPD, Jake has agreed to post two similar clips to replace four that were rejected by the NYPD during his appeal hearing last month. If you're interested in learning about why posts about the World Trade Center Memorial don't qualify, but a post about a street light does qualify, stay tuned for part two of "Gothamist's Absurd Struggle to Get an NYPD Press Pass", which we'll publish next week.
Tagged
City hall
Cornell
mayor bloomberg
nypd press credentials
science campus
technion
Jacob Dobkin
Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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