Bloomberg volop in de rook
Burgemeester Bloomberg van New York bezocht onlangs een feestje waarin rondom hem heen uitgebreid werd gerookt. Het feestje werd gehouden in een hotel, volgens Bloomberg’s eigen wet een rookvrije werkplek.
Toch zei hij er niets van toen rondom hem heen tientallen sigaren werden opgestoken die waren rondgedeeld door de organiserende Kappa Beta Phi Society, een onderonsje van steenrijke financiële hot shots..
Bij de gewone New Yorker valt dit slecht:
Nearby, at Enzo’s Café, bartender Anna Gjegji called the mayor’s inaction “very hypocritical.”
“What a role model!” she grumbled.
At the Four Seasons in Manhattan, co-owner Julian Niccoli said, “It’s the same old story – we cannot smoke, but they can. Different rules apply to different people.”
It’s hard to imagine – butt-banning Mayor Bloomberg sitting passively at his table during a black-tie dinner while all around him smokers puff away on stogies.
But that’s exactly what happened one recent evening in Manhattan when Hizzoner attended the annual gathering of Wall Street’s exclusive Kappa Beta Phi society at the St. Regis Hotel.
The private event was held in the hotel’s top-floor ballroom, which quickly became smoke-filled after cigars were passed out among the assembled titans of finance.
Of the 130 who attended the Jan. 15 gathering, dozens lit up – possibly as many as 50, one party-goer told The Post.
And Bloomberg – whose smoke police have cited Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and others for simply harboring empty ashtrays, and who boasts he regularly calls 311 to report potholes and litter-strewn lots – didn’t raise a finger in protest.
“He condoned it,” said a source who saw Bloomberg while the cigars were being smoked.
At the event, once described as “closer to La Cage aux Folles than a bankers convention,” newly inducted members – including Bloomberg’s companion, state banking superintendent Diane Taylor – performed raucous skits, making fun of themselves and the investment industry icons in the room.
Many spoofed disgraced former New York Stock Exchange head Richard Grasso, who was on hand laughing it up.
A City Hall aide acknowledged that Bloomberg was aware of the cigar-fest around him and didn’t take any action, noting, “The mayor has seen violations before and doesn’t take it upon himself to report them.”
The aide said, “It’s the Health Department’s responsibility to issue tickets based on complaints and random inspections.”
The mayor’s apparent indifference to the mass violation of the city’s tough anti-smoking law – which he considers one of his crowning accomplishments – drew outrage around the city. At the Drini Café on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx, customer Jerry Ahmetaj fumed, “It makes me mad to know he’s partying with smokers while the rest of us have to stand outside and freeze just to smoke a cigarette.”
Nearby, at Enzo’s Café, bartender Anna Gjegji called the mayor’s inaction “very hypocritical.”
“What a role model!” she grumbled.
At the Four Seasons in Manhattan, co-owner Julian Niccoli said, “It’s the same old story – we cannot smoke, but they can. Different rules apply to different people.”
City Health Department spokeswoman Sandra Mullin said the St. Regis “can expect an inspector in the near future.”
Asked about the Kappa Beta Phi event, St. Regis spokeswoman Teresa Delaney said hotel officials had “no knowledge of smoking going on” at the dinner.
Bron: New York Post
