Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/2016/11/page/4/)
It’s cold today but it’s going to warm up tomorrow and rain on Wednesday, according to the latest forecast, before cooling down again for the weekend. If you fancy an in-the-weeds read, check out our story on the entities funding the campaigns for and against casino expansion in New Jersey. Here’s the rest of what we’re reading today:
The campaign to oppose the expansion of casino gaming in the north of New Jersey was entirely funded by New York-based people and organizations, data analyzed by Route 40 shows. Even though a small chunk of the campaign’s funding came from an individual and company with ties to Atlantic City’s Resorts, the data suggests that it was New York interests that felt most threatened by the possible arrival of casinos to the north of New Jersey. You can download – for a small fee – here our full electronic database of expenses and contributions for both sides of the Public Question #1 campaigns. The Trenton’s Bad Bet campaign – which raised about $14.5 million in total – received $9 million from Genting Group, a Malaysian company that operates the Resorts World Casino NYC. A further $3.5 million came from Yonkers Racing, which operates the Empire City Casino, and Empire Resorts which operates the Monticello Raceway, according to data obtained from filings made to date with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).
It was a bizarre week weather-wise that went from warm to chilly enough to make you wear a coat over a Halloween costume to so hot there were sunbathers on the beach and then back to cold again. Meanwhile, in South Jersey news, we started out with the rejection of Atlantic City’s recovery plan, the resubmission of Atlantic City’s recovery plan and – 0h – Bridgegate, the verdict. And if you’re asking what that all means for Christie, read this. If you’re asking what it means for Christie’s plans for Atlantic City – we wish we knew too. The rest of the noise around here this week has been about the election – and referendum questions.
John Exadaktilos, proprietor of the Ducktown Tavern on Atlantic and Georgia Avenues in Atlantic City, is considering a bid for city council. Who looks at the Atlantic City council and says, “I want to be part of that party?” we wondered. Johnny Ex had a quick answer. “It’s not a party. It’s a debacle.”
But not one he’s happy to ignore.
The Business of Drugs
There was a major drugs bust rounding up heroin and cocaine suppliers who operated throughout the area yesterday. Police and other law enforcement officials made 15 arrests in Camden and Philadelphia – the culmination of seven months of investigations by agencies that ranged from the New York City Police Department and New Jersey State Police to the U.S. Postal Service. Yes. If you ever needed proof that the illicit drugs trade is in fact a highly-organized logistics business, you should read a bit about what this group – allegedly with ties to Mexican cartels – were up to. Their business involved mailing, shipping and trucking drugs from Chicago to here.
The value of the Trump Taj Mahal almost halved after closing, according to the latest financial statement from its owner Icahn Enterprises. The casino, which was opened to big fanfare in 1990 by Donald Trump, finally closed its doors to a trickle of customers in October, capping the end of a lengthy labor dispute with Local 54 UniteHere. The holding company of billionaire businessman Carl Icahn recorded a charge of $92 million for closing the Taj Mahal, according to the company’s Thursday third-quarter report. The same statement shows that Trump Entertainment, the unit that owns the Trump Taj Mahal and the similarly shuttered Trump Plaza casino, is now valued at $118 million, down from $208 million at the end of the second quarter. The future of the two sites is not clear.
Casino Expansion Unlikely, Polls Show
Seventy percent of registered voters say they oppose an amendment to expand casino gambling to North Jersey, according to the latest poll from Fairleigh Dickinson – NJ Spotlight has the goods. Atlantic City casino workers want the referendum not just to lose but to lose badly, to avoid having this fight again in a few years. No North Jersey Casino Campaign Spends Big
To further that cause, the No North Jersey Casinos campaign has been spending a lot – $14 million according to ELEC. Hudson County View, a colleague of ours in the New Jersey News Commons project, reports that the campaign dropped $3,500 just for permission to film inside the Bayonne high school: the school and other Bayonne landmarks appeared in three separate TV commercials paid for by Trenton’s Bad Bet – the anti-North Jersey casino group. Trenton’s Bad Bet has continued an aggressive, multi-million dollar marketing campaign, despite their pro-casino counterparts, Our Turn NJ, suspending their paid media campaign in late September. AC Badlands
Changing topic and returning to Atlantic City, check out Bill Sprouse’s latest piece on how someone – bless them – is trying to change the zoning in the inlet and build a house there.
This is an update of a story from a few weeks ago about developers seeking a variance to build a duplex–exciting!–on a vacant stretch of Atlantic City’s South Inlet that looks like it could have been airlifted from South Dakota and dropped onto the Jersey Shore. When last we tuned in, that story’s protagonist–the developer Bruce Pender–was petitioning the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority for permission to not build a casino at 206 Vermont Avenue (the lot pictured above) because the land is zoned for “resort commercial development” and Pender does not wish to build a resort on this property. He only wants a two-family dwelling. To achieve this dream, Pender requires permission from CRDA because CRDA, for reasons that seem frankly a little less-than-democratic, has zoning authority over the South Inlet.
The state of New Jersey just yesterday initiated takeover proceedings against Atlantic City, but note for a second this informative photograph of the CRDA Board of Directors, which by my count shows the faces of fourteen white males and one white female. Yet it has zoning authority over large swaths of a city that’s 38% African-American, 30% Latino and 15% Asian. And probably made up of around 50% female persons (I’m just guessing).
Remember the days when Atlantic City didn’t have casinos? Only one of us was born at that point but it’s amazing to look back at these old pictures, via Newsworks, and listen to their piece discussing what’s happened to this crazy town. So many promises were made, so few fulfilled. And there are so many vacant lots! It’s been 40 years (or more) of constant redevelopment.
Atlantic City’s patchwork of tax agreements that lets casinos and outlet stores pay lower rates is unconstitutional and should be overturned, according to a Tea-Party-affiliated group that is seeking to bring a lawsuit to challenge the system known as Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). The Somers Point-based group is working to persuade Atlantic County officials and suburban mayors to join a lawsuit against the PILOT, since it strips the whole county of tax revenue, said the organization’s executive director Seth Grossman. “The plan is to try to persuade the county government and the suburban mayors to join our lawsuit to put an end to this tax abatement and to win allies around the state to support this,” he said, in an interview at his office on Monday. “This problem is affecting every city and state government.” The PILOT program, which Grossman likes to call Peanuts In Lieu of Taxes, was originally designed to spur development.