Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/2018/)
Good morning Route 40 readers! Happy Solstice to all those who celebrate. Today is the day my people believe the dragon stops eating the sun and pauses to digest briefly before beginning the long process of regurgitation, which culminates on the 4th of July. Please plan to attend our Xmas party if you haven’t already done so. I will be wearing my traditional robes.
A day after the BPU rejected their proposal for a wind farm off Atlantic City, EDF Renewables announced it was partnering with Shell (a much bigger company) to build a much bigger wind farm offshore.
Is it possible when EDF said “offshore” the regulators thought they wanted to put their windmills in Northfield instead of eight miles off the coast?
I’ll show myself out.
How much confidence do Atlantic City City Council members have in Mayor Frank Gilliam?
Last week, a group of councilmen proposed restricting the mayor’s authority over city mercantile licenses, hinting they thought Gilliam had acted improperly.
Atlantic City’s getting a new supermarket, probably it will be a ShopRite-affiliated supermarket, probably it will be back on Baltic Avenue near Ohio, where CRDA owns one of its many parking lots. If it seems like only two months ago that CRDA approved a consulting contract to explore the issue, bear in mind the consultants seem to have worked even faster than that. Sentence first, verdict after! As they say. The state BPU has rejected, for a third time, a planned 25-megawatt windfarm off the coast of Atlantic City.
The State Department of Health awarded medical marijuana licenses to MPX New Jersey to open a grow facility in Galloway and a dispensary in Atlantic City. Columbia Care New Jersey got a license for a grow facility and dispensary in Vineland.
The data team at NJ.com has another story from their use-of-force database, this one focused on racial disparities, which found that, statewide, based on population, “a black person is 229 percent more likely to have any type of force used on them compared to someone who is white.”
Minority Officers
Joe Atmontavage reports on the lawsuit the Atlantic City Police union, PBA Local 24, filed to halt promotions of officers, which seems on the surface like an odd thing for a union to do, but the union is arguing the promotions would violate the Municipal Stabilization and Recovery Act (aka the state takeover) and don’t follow the Civil Service Act (if I read that right). In May, when eight Caucasian officers were promoted as captains and deputy chiefs, the union did not object to the process and wrote a letter affirming the “stance of the PBA is to remain neutral and not become involved in a matter which will ultimately pit member against member.” This time around there are 14 minority officers up for promotions. Also, apart from Chief Henry White, there are no minority officers above the rank of lieutenant. One of the minority candidates (if I’m reading this right) filed a motion saying the union’s turnaround is discriminatory.
$900 Million
The City of Atlantic City City Council met for the first time since the mayor’s house was raided by the FBI, and Amy Rosenberg reports, on twitter, that the Council President Marty Small (who lost a bet and had to wear a Cowboys blanket) met with developers on a $900 million non-casino project. https://twitter.com/amysrosenberg/status/1072993789957074945
Who remembers Glenn Straub’s Phoenix Project ($500 million) when he was going to bring “extreme sports,” super yachts, equestrian entertainment and a bunch of other weird sh*t to the Southeast Inlet or Bader Field? Something tells me the current dudes are more credible. Supermarket
In possibly related news, the City Council President Small said the governmental and administrative affairs committee, which he chairs, met with CRDA Monday to discuss a possible 2019 groundbreaking on a major supermarket! (Video here: 17:30 mark)
Close readers of this space will recall that Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, in an interview with ROI-NJ last week, said Atlantic City residents are “yearning” for a suburban-style super-center supermarket or something, since we lack the “diversity” of produce available in Somers Point or Absecon or something.
New Jersey’s the fourth-worst state in the nation for drivers, behind Hawaii, Connecticut and California, according to the Spotlight, which also has another one of those interactive maps, this one showing internet access across the state.
Atlantic City, Ventnor and Margate are petitioning the New Jersey Department of Transportation to elevate West End Avenue/Wellington Avenue and improve the intersection with Route 40, which is under water too much for anyone’s liking.