(Photo: Lew Steiner)

The annual tradition of Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford giving the “Unofficial State of the City”address continued Thursday afternoon, Jan. 10, at Bally’s Atlantic City.

The mayor, his wife Nynell and his cabinet, along with hundreds of other guests —  including local dignitaries, community leaders, businesspersons and others — were in attendance at the Metropolitan Business & Citizens Association’s (MBCA) annual Winter Kick-Off Meeting and Luncheon.

Per usual, Langford gave a truncated version of the official State of the City address, which he will deliver during the next Atlantic City City Council meeting on Jan. 16.

During his brief speech, Langford touched upon the challenges the city faced in 2012, including Superstorm Sandy, the death of Dennis Gomes and the struggling economy.

Langford  also wished Don Marrandino, the former president of Caesars Entertainment’s eastern division who resigned last Friday, well in his future pursuits and thanked him for all he did for Atlantic City.

Langford thanked FEMA and the American Red Cross for their help with victims from Sandy, as well as pro sports figures Michael Vick and Shaquille O’Neal who also helped out local victims of the storm.

While also thanking and praising the first responders during the storm, Langford made it clear that several thousands of city residents heeded the “clarion call” and evacuated. He repeated the statement to be sure that it was clear, adding “Are you listening Guv?” which drew laughter from the large crowd assembled inside the Traymore Ballroom.

Langford also praised the city’s partnership with the CRDA (Casino Reinvestment Development Authority) in 2012, and thanked Liza Cartmell and her staff at the ACA (Atlantic City Alliance) for their efforts to market the city in new ways to draw more visitors.

With regard to the city, Langford noted that in 2013 he hopes Atlantic City will emerge from state monitoring so that elected city — and not state — officials controlled the city’s own affairs. He said that was his New Year’s resolution.

On a lighter note, Langford hinted at more festivals coming to Bader Field in 2013, in addition to redevelopment plans for the huge plot of land once thought to be the most valuable real estate of its kind as well as redevelopment plans in the works for a part of the southeast inlet.

Langford said the Atlantic City Seafood Festival would be one of the festivals held at Bader Field in 2012 to return in 2013.

“We are moving forward, in a positive direction,” the mayor said at one point.

Mayor Langford with MBCA president John Schultz. (Photo: Lew Steiner)

GreenLee Security sponsored the luncheon. To learn more about the MBCA, visit acmetbiz.com.

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or what’s happening in the region. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly.

The Internet and social media have become indispensable tools and a source of information for the majority of Americans, including the newspaper I work for. However, when that news is misleading, the web becomes an unstoppable force of misinformation.

So who started the ball rolling when it comes to the news that Hurricane Sandy destroyed the Atlantic City Boardwalk? It was none other than The Today’s Show’s longtime weatherman Al Roker. Roker is someone the nation trusts without question. As a newsman, the shots of destroyed Boardwalk made for a dramatic background when Roker did reports on the storm.

He didn’t necessarily announce that the entire Boardwalk was destroyed, but he didn’t explain that he was using a backdrop that represented a piece of the Boardwalk that was already condemned and wasn’t near the heart of the Boardwalk along casino row, which sustained little or no damage. That news would have taken the “drama” out of the dramatic footage.

The pictures told the story and turned a news story into a game of Chinese whispers. The idiomatic expression “Chinese whispers” refers to any story or piece of news that has been unreliably communicated by word of mouth among many people, leading to questionable information or a distorted account of the original story.

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Last Saturday, Nov. 3, NBC’s Saturday Night Live had a little fun with the flap between New Jersey Gov.Chris Christie and Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford in relation to evacuation orders for Atlantic City due to Hurricane Sandy last month.

The Christie bit comes at about the 2:17 time mark of video below.

Langford was mentioned in the skit.

On the (still standing) Atlantic City Boardwalk on Friday, Nov. 9, Langford, at a press event to thank first responders during the Sandy crisis in the resort, said he got a kick out of the skit and thanked SNL for putting his name in front of a national audience.

Patrick Kerkstra has an interesting article on Philly.com about the latest in the ongoing battle between New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford and how it could “decide the fate” of the resort.

In the article, he writes:

“But what does the racially charged feuding of two politicians have to do with the future of Atlantic City? Unfortunately, everything. Because unless Langford and Christie, and the interests they both represent, can find at least a shred of common ground, Atlantic City has no shot at recovery.”

The nationally syndicated radio host Tom Joyner brought his Morning Show crew to West Atlantic City early Friday morning, June 1, to broadcast live from the WTTH studio inside the Bayport One building and kick-off this weekend’s Atlantic City Multi-Cultural Heritage Festival.

Here are some photos; see a photo gallery with more photos by clicking here.

Gov. Christie speaking on the Atlantic City Boardwalk Wednesday, July 21. (Photo by Donald B. Kravitz)

A lot of ink has been spilled in recent weeks and months on the State of New Jersey’s takeover of certain elements within southern New Jersey’s long-time resort destination and cash cow for other state uses — Atlantic City.

Here’s a rundown of recent moves related to the new Tourism District in The City That’s Always Turned On, which “national republican spokesperson” Gov. Chris Christie, standing in front of Boardwalk Hall last summer, said he wanted pieces of put in place by July 2011.

That’s in about two months.

First, just today, it was announced that local union boss Bob McDevitt “urged the 10,000-plus members of Unite-HERE’s Local 54 to support the new district. He said it’s time to put politics aside and realize that Atlantic City has problems that were decades in the making.”

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As we alerted our readers last week, Atlantic City Mayor Langford was not any more convinced that his issues and concerns regarding the state’s plan for a proposed Tourism District in the resort would be heard by the state following a meeting with members of Gov. Chris Christie’s staff last Tuesday.

So, following Monday’s late vote by the state Assembly, which approved a package of bills. including online gaming and the state-run tourism district, it’s no surprise that Langford is unhappy that some of his concerns were not addressed in the bill and that, according to reports, he is still considering the option of filing a lawsuit against the state.

Click here for video from Mayor Langford’s Dec. 30 press conference, in which he made his concerns clear with regard to the state’s proposed tourism district in his city.

Many came out to the forum June 4 at the Convention Center. (Photo: Lew Steiner)

Atlantic City Weekly’s Mike Pritchard attended this morning’s forum at the Atlantic City Convention Center where Mayor Lorenzo Langford hosted an event to give details with regard to the Mayor’s Strategic Planning Committee and what they have been working on as far as project initiatives.

Click here to read the story.