Looking For Some Holiday Reading?
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Maybe you’re stuck in traffic. Maybe you’re stuck with relatives. Either way, Route 40 has some long reads to keep you entertained and informed. Check them out here.
NJ/PA Tax U-Turn, Playground Problems and the Burning Pinelands – Wednesday’s Roundup
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Governor Chris Christie has decided not to up taxes for those who live in New Jersey and commute to work in Pennsylvania, presumably after his floated plan to do just that went down like a lead balloon in South Jersey. The Asbury Park Press reports that Christie scrapped his plans to tear up his state’s tax treaty with Pennsylvania because he has found the money he needed somewhere else…. wait for it… from cutting workers’ health benefits. Meanwhile, Philly.com says that Philadelphia developer Bart Blatstein – one of the latest crop of investors hoping to save Atlantic City from itself – has decided to lease The Playground…
More about: Homepage Featured
There’s Something Happening On Pauline’s Prairie
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Something is happening down in Atlantic City’s Inlet neighborhood. A machine has appeared and some serious fencing has gone up around two vacant blocks. It’s not quite on the scale of the Gateway Project yet, but it looks like Boraie Development’s plan to build 250 rental units in one of Atlantic City’s most persistently development-starved neighborhoods is getting underway. Better known to some as Pauline’s Prairie or the mother ship of Atlantic City’s vacant lots, the site has been empty for 50 years. The project – dubbed The Beach at South Inlet – is set to include a gym, lounge, pool, parking, restaurants, shops and – yes – a grocery store alongside the housing units, but it has been slow to advance from initial plans laid out in 2013.
More about: Atlantic City, Homepage Featured, Atlantic City, boraie development, CRDA, Inlet, Pauline's Prairie, The Beach at South Inlet
Pinelands Blazes and Shopping Local Rebates – Tuesday’s Roundup
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There are several forest fires burning in Atlantic County’s Pinelands and more than 200 acres of Wharton State Forest have already been wiped out as 30-mph wind gusts are hindering efforts to contain the blaze. No roads or buildings are threatened but the windy conditions are challenging firefighters’ efforts to control the flames. The Press of Atlantic City reports that firefighters believe they should have the fires under control later today. Would you spend more in local stores if you could get money off your property tax bill in return? Haddonfield is the latest South Jersey town to try such a program, but as our NJ News Commons colleague Matt Skoufalos reports at NJ Pen, it is not as straight-forward as it first sounds and high upfront costs for business owners have hamstrung a wider rollout of the ‘Shop Local’ program.
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Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant Problems and Thanksgiving Weather – Monday’s Roundup
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The Oyster Creek nuclear plant shut down temporarily again this weekend. Newsworks reports that the nation’s oldest nuclear plant had a problem with its turbine control system. It’s maybe a good time to revisit this letter from NJ’s Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel which said the frequent incidents at the plant show it should close before its scheduled 2020 shutdown. Everyone is gearing up for or winding down to the Thanksgiving holiday, which is shaping up to be warmer than today, at least, although there’s a chance of a few showers. Dan Skeldon has the forecast.
More about: Homepage Featured, Roundup
Kellie
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Kellie is a mother, homeowner and casino worker. She’s also lost two young family members to gun violence. One of them was her 13-year-old son, who was murdered in 2012. Her nephew, 17, was killed this year. She has another child, 9, that she worries about.
More about: Homepage Featured, Voices
South Jersey Storm Surges and Which Towns Flipped to Trump – Friday’s Roundup
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We know the northern end of the state fared worse during Superstorm Sandy than the southern end – but the U.S. Geological Survey and FEMA have a new report out that looks specifically at how storm tides caused flooding during Sandy. It’s complicated and wonkish but the bottom line seems to be that South Jersey’s future flood risks may be underestimated right now, since Sandy down here did not cause storm surges that would have been classified as having a one-in-100 years chance of happening. That one-in-100 chance is the federal flood insurance program’s latest “base flood”. NJ Spotlight has the details on the report. It’s been over a week but polling results are still trickling in.
More about: Roundup
Maximizing Returns From The Ocean and No More Star Academy – Thursday’s Roundup
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Talkshow host Harry Hurley this morning had Atlantic City’s new boss from the state, Jeff Chiesa, in to talk all things takeover related. Among Chiesa’s crazy new plans for turning the cash-strapped casino town around: An effort to make more of the city’s “great things” including the ocean. He also said that fixing the city’s finances is a “significant challenge” and he’ll be working with all parties involved. There’s no story up yet, but here’s Harry Hurley’s site and here’s Christian Hetrick’s Twitter feed, with all the details. About 1,000 students at the Star Academy learned this week – some via a casual text message – that their school in Egg Harbor Township was closing.
More about: Roundup
Advice On Difficult Decisions and PennEast Pipeline Problems – Wednesday’s Roundup
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“If we make the difficult decisions now and do the difficult things, there is no limit to Atlantic City’s future,” Governor Chris Christie told radio host Harry Hurley yesterday, when discussing his appointment of Jeff Chiesa as Atlantic City’s new man in charge amid the state takeover. It remains to be seen what difficult things the state will actually do. One nice tidbit from this Press of Atlantic City piece on Chiesa is that he and his staff now have an office in City Hall – and they are squeezed in with their government colleague, the state monitor of the city. Which goes some way to illustrating how big a change this iteration of Atlantic City’s state takeover really is. The $1 billion gas pipeline project that investors – including South Jersey Gas – say will bring cheaper gas to South Jersey has been slammed by a state official.
More about: Roundup
CRDA Sits On Inlet Development
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The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority’s highly representative-of-the-community board of directors voted to give themselves more time to think about it before they approved a request for a variance to build a duplex—a duplex—at 206 Vermont Avenue in Atlantic City’s South Inlet. The lot is currently zoned for resort commercial development, a legacy of the casino boom years when people thought someone might build a megaresort or big high-rise on Vermont Avenue (though “Of course we now recognize that won’t happen”). CRDA has zoning authority because the land is in the tourism district. 206 Vermont is currently a little vegetable patch, on an amazingly barren and desolate stretch of land in the shadow of the (formerly $2.4 billion) former Revel casino. Approving a modest, two-family house on such valuable real estate would set a new precedent, board members remarked, after noting they’d all seen presentations from big developers (presumably) for the football-fields worth of vacant lots.