Beach Weather in October
|
It’s hot outside. I don’t know how hot exactly. The internet says 79°F. But there are people on the beach, in Atlantic City, in October! Here are two of them, Bob and Debby Harris of Bushkill, Pa.
School Vouchers, Pot and Pocket Fluff – Wednesday’s Roundup
|
Atlantic City residents will be voting November 8 on a school voucher referendum that would, theoretically, give parents $10,000 to send their kids to the school of their (the parents’) choice. The referendum was proposed by Councilman Jesse Kurtz (who was home-schooled and home-schools his kids) and passed the city council unanimously. The teacher’s union opposes it, rather strenuously. And vouchers are currently illegal in New Jersey. But with the sky falling down the way it has been, proponents see an opportunity. Read Diane D’Amico’s story.
More about: Roundup
Ice Cream ‘Smackdown’ and a Casino Architect Wonders if it was all Worth it – Monday’s Roundup
|
It’s 40 years since the referendum was passed to legalize casino gambling in Atlantic City, and the town has been completely saved and rejuvenated by the sainted industry. Right? Anyway, the Press of Atlantic City has a neat interview with Steve Perskie, ‘father of casino gaming’, looking back on those 40 years. Probably a good time to remind everyone that Perskie was found to have committed serious ethics violations as a judge and to have lied to a senate panel a few years ago. Also, for those with time on their hands, we have a neat document that shows how the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has spent all that tax money.
More about: Roundup
Foreclosure Relief! Legal Pot! And our Terrible, Terrible Trains in Today’s Roundup
|
Chase Utley can still play baseball. So can Carlos Ruiz. Just a few of the things not covered in today’s roundup. Because why would you come to Route 40 to read about the Phillies? For exemplary journalism from around the state, see below, for a list of what we’re reading.
More about: Roundup
Lights out at the Taj Mahal
|
The Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort is officially closed, but the slot machines are still blinking inside. They spin and whir insolently, kind of the way my laptop takes its sweet time powering down after I’ve slammed the lid shut. I don’t know what you call this stage in the life cycle of a defunct megaresort–a liminal phase maybe–but this is the way a casino dies, apparently, in the small hours of an unseasonably cold Monday morning in early October. The Taj, the alleged Eighth Wonder of the World, and one of the many saviors of Atlantic City foretold by the prophets, passed into oblivion at age 26. It had been in poor health for some time.
More about: Atlantic City, Business
Buena to Vote on Opioid Resolution
|
The Buena Vista Township council is set to vote Monday on a resolution to support a bill in the state legislature that would prohibit doctors from prescribing more than seven-days’ worth of opioid painkillers the first time they prescribe the drug to a patient. Senate bill S-2035, introduced in April, is sponsored by Shirley Turner, Robert Gordon and Jennifer Beck. It requires that a medical practitioner “shall not issue an initial prescription for an opioid drug…in a quantity exceeding a seven-day supply.” Crazy to think, but being prescribed a month’s worth of dangerous narcotics is not an uncommon problem! You can track the bill in Trenton here.
More about: Opium Wars, abuse, buena vista township, medical society of new jersey, new jersey state society of physician assistants, opioids, painkillers, prevent opiate abuse
Weather Masochism
|
Some people wake up on a day like this–wind howling in turret and tree–and immediately call in sick, resolving to spend the day drinking chamomile tea and watching I, Claudius reruns with the cat in their lap. Better to hunker down and avoid reality than risk getting hit in the face with a flying fish trying to make it to the office in a nor’easter. Some other people call in sick and think: I’m going to the beach! I met an example of this latter type this a.m. when I was walking down the boardwalk around ten o’clock and noticed a young man in a blue wetsuit struggling with a large black sail of some kind. A kiteboarding rig, it turned out.
More about: Sport, Weather, kiteboarding, kitesurfing, Ventnor, weather
Sandcastles
|
Construction has begun in earnest on the Atlantic City Gateway project–the much anticipated site of a satellite campus for Stockton University and future headquarters for South Jersey Gas, as well as parking. Because what would an Atlantic City development project be without a parking lot? Backhoes or diggers or somethings had made a little perfunctory scratch on the big vacant lot at the foot of Albany Avenue and the boardwalk earlier this summer, but then they went back into hibernation. Now they’re awake again and building sandcastles.
The Atlantic County Improvement Authority earlier this week was set to issue $128 million in municipal bonds to finance the project, which is eventually supposed to house a couple of hundred students in the most ethnically diverse census district in the state (and the birthplace of yours truly). In the meantime, new construction in Atlantic City.
More about: Atlantic City
A House Grows In The Inlet?
|
Update: An early version of this story said the hearing was October 5.
The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority has before it an application for a duplex in Atlantic City. A variance – for a duplex! Sexy! I know. But wait, there’s more.