Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/author/elinor-comlay/page/18/)
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, a perennial on the merry-go-round that is Atlantic City real estate, last week acquired the mortgage to the Chelsea hotel, less than three months after selling the Taj Mahal casino.
I grew up not far from the original Ventnor. It’s also on an island. Unlike Absecon Island, the Isle of Wight has gravely beaches and cliffs and winding roads. The weather isn’t reliable. It’s a 22-minute catamaran ride to Portsmouth on the mainland. It was the punchline to a lot of jokes where I lived.
Bill’s Gyros, a Boardwalk fixture in Atlantic City, has been closed a lot this winter. There was a sign on the door that said go to My Friend Diner, another block north along the boardwalk. Sometimes, even My Friend Diner was closed. The blue-fronted gyro spot claimed it “never closed”. But people were asking about it, worried about Bill.
The State Auditor’s office is in the final stages of a probe of finances and performance at Atlantic City’s Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, after a longer-than-expected investigation. Auditors from the office began looking into CRDA’s books and records last year for the first time in the Authority’s history. “It’s taking a little bit more time than we initially thought,” said John Termyna, assistant state auditor, in an interview last month. “It became more comprehensive,” he said, adding the extended investigation was “because of some of the things that we got into.” Termyna said he would not go into details about the findings of the audit before it is published.
A lot of shore towns have beach concerts, movies on the beach and bonfires. Street fairs are pretty common too. What’s more unusual? Finding dozens of homeowners willing to host parties, all on one day and on their porch. And making it happen.
Atlantic County is looking for a law firm to challenge a law that shrunk Atlantic City casinos’ tax payments and increased the property tax burden on homeowners and businesses. The county wants a law firm to “challenge the constitutionality of the Casino Property Tax Stabilization Act,” according to the request for proposals published on Thursday. The lawyers could be asked to seek an injunction “against the further implementation of the act.” Sealed bids are due on May 23 and any successful bidder would be awarded a 12-month contract. The law was agreed almost a year ago but did not come into effect until New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs declared Atlantic City in need of “stabilization” in November.
A plan to open a beer garden on Atlantic City’s boardwalk is one step closer to launch after a public hearing last month. The planning officer for the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which oversees the boardwalk and tourism district, last week recommended the beer garden project to CRDA’s board for approval. The board’s next meeting is on Tuesday. Some of the existing construction on the site was being demolished this Tuesday, presumably to make way for the beer garden. The company behind the project, Dectrinity, already runs the Bungalow beach bar and the Boardwalk bar next door to the proposed beer garden site at the corner with California Avenue.
More immigrant children are attending New Jersey schools and they increasingly live in the state’s urban areas, according to school-enrollment data.
There was a time a little over a decade ago when Claudia Velasquez was in the seventh grade and she didn’t speak any English. She is now attaching paper on a flip-board, preparing to give a class in English, in the same red-brick Pleasantville school on Washington Avenue where she learned the language.
