Fresh Food Biz, Hard Rock – Wednesday’s Roundup

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If you wanted to get a box of South Jersey farm-fresh fruit and veg but weren’t quite sure you could eat enough to justify a regular CSA subscription, a Hammonton local has another option for you. Anne Pape, whose family owns Pleasantdale Farms, has launched a service called Farm Fresh Fix, which packages up fruit and vegetables from local farms into boxes and sells them online and at pickup locations (currently at the Atlantic Cape Community College campus in Atlantic City and Mays Landing).

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Hard Rock & Harrah’s Want Money – Tuesday’s Roundup

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The Casino Reinvestment and Development Authority will consider projects from Harrah’s and the not-yet-rebuilt Hard Rock Casino at a board meeting on Tuesday afternoon. Could the Harrah’s project, dubbed “Harrah’s Atlantic City Project” be tied to the mysterious announcement made at the start of the month by Governor Chris Christie and executives from MGM (which operates the Borgata) and Harrah’s owner, Caesar’s Entertainment?

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Bike Absecon, Recount, Buzby’s – Monday’s Roundup

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Bike Absecon
Cycling to and from Margate and Atlantic City could get easier in the near future, after several different grants were made to bike-related projects on the island. Ventnor and Margate have been awarded $275,000 from the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization to install 50 bike racks across the two towns. Atlantic County has issued a request for proposals for professional services related to the project on Friday and the document contemplates installing racks on public property. Under the current proposal, that would add racks to all beach blocks in Margate as well as sporadic locations throughout the city, and racks in Ventnor would be clustered around City Hall, the recreational fields and three different business districts. The racks could be installed within four to six months.

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Atlantic City Women, Underground Railroad – Friday’s Roundup

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Read this great piece by the Inquirer’s Amy Rosenberg on the women-led effort to force a referendum if the state tries to sell or lease Atlantic City’s water authority. We’ve written about this before and it might seem like just an Atlantic City issue, but as more municipalities in South Jersey (remember Buena?) struggle to pay their bills, more public assets are going to be put up for sale and more public services will be cut. And taxpayers should be able to have a say in that process.

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Looking At The Casinos, Stockton – Thursday’s Roundup

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One casino-industry figure that is not immediately obvious in all the press releases, but which surfaced in the city’s debt issuance last month, is casino employment. Employment across all the casinos fell 7 percent last year to 22,000 people (10 years ago, the casinos employed just over 40,000). Last year, the Taj Mahal’s closure contributed to job losses. But even in May this year (admittedly still the ‘off’ season), there were 61 fewer casino jobs in Atlantic City than there were in December. So that rising gaming revenue does not yet seem to be translating into jobs.

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Schools, Straub – Wednesday’s Roundup

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The Asbury Park Press takes a look at what percentage of your property tax bill goes to schools. In Atlantic County, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that school-less (and close to child-less) Longport has the lowest percent of its property tax bill going to schools. Atlantic County in general is not as bad as you might think. You might be more surprised by Cape May County districts though. Upper Township schools eat up about 75 percent of the municipality’s property tax bill.

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Pinelands Pipes II, Small Recount – Tuesday’s Roundup

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Just in case you were thinking that all the furore around the Pinelands pipeline proposed by South Jersey Gas (and others), would put anyone else off of proposing a large pipeline through the Pinelands, think again. The Pinelands Commission could vote this summer on a new proposal by New Jersey Natural Gas dubbed the “Southern Reliability Link”. The Asbury Park Press has the details.

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Blatstein’s PierAC, Norcross & CRDA, Opioid Antidote – Monday’s Roundup

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In another revealing look at how the state uses casino taxes (and debt financing backed by those taxes), Amy Rosenberg reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer on an insurance contract that the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority awarded to George Norcross’ Conner Strong & Buckelew, in spite of paperwork irregularities. CRDA, which has seen a chunk of its funding diverted to shore up Atlantic City’s budget, supported its selection of the Norcross firm. For more, read our reporting on CRDA’s decision to award thousands in back pay to board members, the Authority’s pay raises to a third of its staff after it cut more than a dozen jobs, and the impending state audit that has taken longer-than-expected.

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Rebel Rebel, AC Guide – Friday’s Roundup

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Rebel Rebel
I know the Revel is now Ten, but I still come over all Bowie when I start writing about it. Anyway, in no big news to anyone, Glen Straub won’t be opening the former casino anytime soon, The Press of Atlantic City reports. Other investors are still interested in buying the property, the article says. Read Route 40’s Bill Sprouse on the last time Revel wasn’t opening in June (2016). AC Guide
Looking for the definitive non-casino guide to Atlantic City?

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Looking For Something To Do This Weekend?

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It’s going to be a beautiful weekend (sunny, 80-83 F) and there’s a lot going on. In Atlantic City you can kick off with a full moonrise climb at the Absecon Lighthouse tonight before heading over to Gardner’s Basin to support the AC Arts Foundation with a strawberry-moon cruise, then tomorrow morning watch the round-the-island paddle race (it kicks off at 8 am on Saturday from the marina outside Golden Nugget), watch or take part in the double dutch skipping event at Brown’s park in Atlantic City on Saturday,

Downbeach, Ventnor is hosting a food truck festival on ski beach all weekend, then Porchfest will kick off from 1 pm on Sunday, followed up by Funk Daddy playing the beach concert on Newport Ave. In Linwood, there will be music at the farmer’s market on Saturday and over in the Pines, there’s a Blueberry-themed art contest at Whitesbog (kids enter free) all weekend and on Sunday (also at Whitesbog) you can enjoy a lunchtime music jam. Over in Hammonton on Saturday there is another food truck festival from 4.30 pm. All that and more on our Route 40 Events page. Want to send us an event?

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