 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
The Greater Atlantic City Chamber would like to thank the following sponsors:
Chairman's Message
"Happy New Year" has taken on a whole new meaning this year. How exactly are we able to define the term "Happy" in the context of this economy? I guess it is somewhere between not losing your job and not needing your 401K for a couple of years.
There was a front page of The Press of Atlantic City in mid December that announced interest rates had fallen to zero, that train service to and from New York would start on February, and that regional air service to Boston would return to AC International. It seemed like an April Fool’s edition of the newspaper after months of such bad news on every front. Just last summer, we were watching Revel rise out of the ground (still rising), watching the Sands being carted away for the Pinnacle and hopeful that maybe this time MGM was coming to town. Of course, just last summer we were watching gas prices near $4 a gallon, revenues and room occupancy spiral downward, and traffic at the Pleasantville tolls drop precipitously. And in September, the bottom fell out completely.
Maybe "Happy" is inherent in the whole idea of "New" Year. We celebrate old lang syne (whatever that is) as we watch a crystal ball descend out of the cold darkness of a winter night. We look back at the past year and move on. It is an end to an arbitrary chapter in our lives affording us a blank page upon which each of us can write our own new story.
So what will our story be in 2009? It will be set against a backdrop of a new President, and a new agenda in Washington; with a Governor running for re-election in the face of an economic crisis unlike any those of us still working have ever seen; with local governments struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising costs and falling revenues. The landscape is full of threats at every turn, and each affords someone, maybe you, an opportunity.
So, on behalf of the Greater Atlantic City Chamber, let me wish you, your family and your business a Happy New Year. Let’s turn the page and write a new story. It’s not like Atlantic City has never done that before.
Paul Gallagher, Chairman
Greater Atlantic City Chamber
Photo by Donna Connor
 |
 |