Great Neck Plaza Mayor Ted Rosen: A Life Full of 46 Years of Public Service

The contribution of the current Mayor of Great Neck Plaza, Ted Rosen, to this community dates back well before the elections held in 2020. In fact, this connection began years before his appointment as a Board Member in 1985. In 1984, Rosen became part of a group of Great Neck Plaza citizens who came together to establish a unit of the Nassau County Auxiliary Police Force. This auxiliary police unit oversaw the Great Neck Plaza, Russell Gardens, and Thomaston communities. When the then-mayor Alan Gussack asked Rosen to take over the unit because the original chief was busy with fire department affairs, Rosen took on the role and served as the chief of the Great Neck Central Auxiliary Police Force for about twenty years.

Rosen had always harbored a deep interest in politics and public service. In 1984, long before becoming a Board Member, he stated that he ran for the New York State Senate and, although he was not successful in that race, he learned a lot from the process. The lessons he drew from this experience cemented his desire to stay in government and local administration. In 1985, upon the passing of one of the board members, the mayor at the time appointed him to this vacant seat. Rosen served as an elected Board Member from 1985 to 2000, and subsequently assumed the role of deputy mayor between 2000 and 2025 under former Mayor Jean Celender.

His previous active duty in the Auxiliary Police Force instilled in Rosen a thorough understanding of the importance of ensuring public safety in the Great Neck Plaza community. This was a particularly critical issue because Great Neck Plaza did not have its own independent police department. As mayor, he states that maintaining public safety is one of the most important things that can be done at the government level and that they take this matter extremely seriously. Looking at his professional life, Rosen is still an actively practicing attorney today. He graduated from New York University School of Law in 1971 and entered the profession at a major law firm in 1973.

Throughout his legal career, Rosen initially worked as a litigation attorney at a large firm and later moved to a smaller firm where he focused heavily on commercial and business-related cases. Following these years, he established his own private law practice and continued to work independently. In addition, he added a different dimension to his professional life by serving as an arbitrator for the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers in the early 1980s. During his tenure as a board member and mayor, the local issues he focused on the most were maintaining the vibrancy of Great Neck Plaza's downtown and renewing and modernizing the sidewalks in the area.

Regarding the sidewalks, he explained that years ago the individuals who developed the area laid curvilinear sidewalks, but they realized these were incompatible with large trees that have outward-growing roots. He noted that over time, they learned the solution to this problem was planting 'sidewalk-friendly' trees whose roots grow downward and do not damage the sidewalks. Additionally, concerts and walking events organized during the summer months are a crucial part of Rosen's efforts to keep the downtown vibrant. The concerts held every Tuesday evening at Firefighters Park and the promenades that encourage businesses to stay open late on Wednesdays to offer outdoor dining enrich the socio-cultural life of the area. For Rosen, who has been living in Great Neck Plaza with his wife Nancy since 1974 and has two adult children and one grandchild, the fact that the area is home to people from diverse backgrounds and this rich diversity is his greatest source of pride.