As a sign of how often Citi has been in trouble, it doesn’t get much better than The Dunham Studios train exhibit. The exhibit in the Citigroup Center lobby has been given the chop in 1991-1996, 2000 (when over 20,000 complaints at least warranted an attenuated show) and again now in 2008.
Citigroup Inc., the bank that’s eliminating 52,000 jobs after getting a $45 billion government bailout, canceled its sponsorship of a New York holiday toy-train exhibit visited by more than 125,000 people a year.
Dunham Studios, the Pottersville, New York-based operator of the 750-square-foot model railroad, was notified of Citigroup’s decision last month, co-owner Clarke Dunham said in an interview. That means the free show that first went on display in 1987 at the Citigroup Center lobby may reach the end of the line on Jan. 2 unless another sponsor steps up or the bank reconsiders, he said. It also means Citigroup will save about $240,000.
“The difficult decision to discontinue this sponsorship was part of Citi’s ongoing expense-reduction efforts,” Citigroup said in an e-mailed statement.
Far be it from us to tell Citi how to hit its $2 billion per/quarter cost savings mark, but we might suggest that an immensely popular, $240,000 exhibit isn’t the ideal place to be cutting this holiday season when your public image is already shockingly low.
Well, if all it takes is about 20,000 complaints to get the exhibit a pardon, lets get to work. Shall we?
Citi Derails Holiday Toy-Train Exhibit as Credit Crunch Deepens [Bloomberg]
Steve , Kudlow and Gasparino are yelling at each other!!!
Jeez, charge a $2 buck admission. For God’s sake, if I can figure that out why can’t a fucking bank? I get fee’d to death anyway, what’s another 2 bucks? Dipshits.
Gasbag…..get over there now and do a report on this travesty! Eliminating the toy train exhibit is so very fucked up. Has Citi already smoked the $45 Billion?
Pottersville – the world without George Bailey
The situation is very fluid.
I applaud them. $240k is 2-4 jobs and that’s what counts.
To the tune of “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?” by Peter Sarstedt (1969)
You talk just like Jamie Dimon
And you dress like Mack The Knife
Your clothes are all made by Armani
And you wear glasses and tan on your face, yes you do
You live in a fancy apartment
That you bought when you sold The Old Lane
Where you keep your toy train collection
You’re a friend of men like John Thain, yes you do
But where do you go to when money
Has all been finally spent
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do
I’ve seen all your qualifications
That you were a Columbia don
And the painting you bought from Picasso
Your brilliance goes on and on, yes it does
When you go on your summer vacation
You go to the Hamptons, New York
With your carefully designed awkward swimsuit
You get an even suntan on your back and on your neck
And when the snow falls you’re found in Saint Moritz
With the others of the jet-set
And you sip your Napoleon brandy
But you always get your shirt wet, yes you do
So where do you go to when money
Has all been finally spent
Won’t you tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do
Your name, it is heard in high places
You shook hands with Obama the Man
He sent you an e-mail for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, a-ha-ha-ha
They say that your net-worth is outrageous
They say you’re a zillionaire
But they don’t realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn
But where do you go to when money
Has all been finally spent
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do
I remember the streets of Calcutta
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly-born tags, so they try
So look into my face Vikram Pandit
And remember just who you are
‘Cause you’re coming back here forever
No wonder you still bear the scar, deep inside, yes you do
I know where you go to when money
Has all been finally spent
I know the thoughts that surround you
It’s not hard to look inside your head.
maybe they are worried about another citi train wreck
If they went through with it, people would complain that they are blowing (bailout) money, just when they need it most. If they cancel it, people will complain that they are ruining the Christmas spirit and being cheapskates. Damned if you do…
@7 didn’t read…too long
@7: too much time on your hands?
I worked at Citicorp Center from 2002-2004. That train exhibit was a PITA. Scads of kids, crowds of people, it was like Times Square, but indoors and with less room to maneuver.
And $250K to run a bunch of trains? They should save that money and put it to saving a couple of jobs.
Next, TAKE DOWN YOUR SPONSORSHIP of “CITI FIELD”. If you can’t afford toy trains going around in a circle, than damn straight you can’t afford $400 mil to have your name up on a stadium. Tick tock.
smooth move 4, beat me to the punch.
Kung Fu Pandit- cost chopper. no trains bitches
on another note obviously if Citi could get out of the Citi field debacle at cost it would…I am sure they are looking at any options to unload it.
Is the tot hating situation fluid EP? Citi can’t hate tots forever. Trains, ok, but not the tots. Not the goddamn tots!
Say it ain’t so HAM05. Say it ain’t so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU7LZts87Zg
SPODE
$240,000? To save 4 jobs? Maybe in the Philippines…
@7
very nice GAnalYst, you show a lot of EQ
@7- “To the tune of “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?” by Peter Sarstedt (1969)”
Stopped reading right there..
Just listened to “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?” by Peter Sarstedt
That’s the worst song I’ve ever heard in my life. Horrible.
The little engine that could…go bankrupt!
The little engine that could…go bankrupt!
If Vikram Pandit can’t have his bonus, he will spoil Christmas for everybody.
i want the 3.5 seconds of my life back where i considered reading that post…i also want the 26 seconds back where i actually decided to listen to this crap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRpw4tYMM-c
fucking atrocious. in a much better note, Right Said Fred did a cover of the song. I did not know that, therefore, I learned something today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKgZFBD7-DA
Top that bitches.
# 7 is hands down the gayest post of the year.. actually, it makes me sad.
Making fun of #7 is the new killing it.
16 7 is not me – no way. Not that I’m farting and talking about the Jets all day like the rest of you, but I’m otherwise kind of butch, even though as a matter of pride I never hide my orientation. Now back to work. GAnalYst
@18 yes, that is the worse f*cking song ever. Though “never gonna give you up by Rick Astley” is pretty close…
Not that any of you care, but I work in industry in treasury. We recently got word that all of Citigroup Treasury Services Group in Dublin is shutting down March 31, 2009. As in, the same country that lowered its tax rate to 12% and had a massive influx of business for doing so…
27 I’m sure C will find a way to keep allocating profits to that low tax jurisdiction, even as they cut staff. In fact, the staff cut will even help a bit in that regard.
@7 takes the prize for the worst post of the year. I hope wideclops craps in your mouth.
Post #7 – abso-fuckin’-lutley the gayest and worst and most self-absorbed pathetic post I have seen to date. 7 should be shot. 7 needs to be sent to Guantanamo for this crime against humanity. Look inside your head 7, and give it a big punch you numbnut!
@23
#7 is really me.
and you two #30.
You bitches are gelus. Gelus of of my strength and power. And my next post will be evens better. And youls still be gelus. Dont hate the player hate the game.
SPODE
This is somehow different than Chevron saying they could not afford to sponsor the Metropolitan Opera in spite of $17 billion in after-tax profits? So who steps up? Toll Brothers. And they sure can’t afford it.
jerk off to quality porn on http://www.mpegmovieheaven.com
@31
spode if #7 really was you you suck more ass than a ballet dancer in prison.
@31
I will whip you.
Not only is #7 pathetic and self-absorbed, but that is such a vile, classist post as well. “Children in rags in Calcutta”? So every Indian essentially grew up clad in rags and begging on the streets of (insert random name of Indian city)?
Do you realize that Vikram Pandit’s father was actually the director of a fairly large corporation in India? That he had a fairly privileged existence growing up? He’s as far from being an upstart and parvenu as you can imagine.
And even if he did grew up poor (which he didn’t) so fucking what? If anything folks like Lloyd Blankfein are worthy of more praise than Pandit because they didn’t grow up with privilege.