In Atlantic City, Kick a Lifeguard, Win a Prize

By |

Socialism for billionaires, free-enterprise for the average Joe

My old friend the fat-cat retired Atlantic City lifeguard pension profiteer is in the news again in this season of “shared sacrifice” here in our fabled Queen of Resorts, this time in the pages of the New York Times, where he’s presented as a symbol, I perceive, of the outrageous greed and excess at the heart of our dilapidated republic. Novice economists might suppose this greed and excess was  concentrated within our citadels of high finance, or among the titans of industry—in this case the casino gambling industry—who so enriched themselves while leaving a string of empty eyesores atop our most important natural resource (the beach and boardwalk). This would be incorrect. Our problems here in Atlantic City—generations in the making—are not the result of a concentration of political power in the hands of financiers or gambling moguls, but rather to the unrestrained avarice of our municipal working class. John Steinbeck, that great chronicler of the American everyman, once wrote that socialism never took root in our native soils because the American proletariat does not identify as an exploited working class.

More about: Atlantic City, Homepage Featured, opinion, Atlantic City, Bernie Sanders, billionaires, Donald Trump, lifeguard

Weatherman: A local rides out the storm

By |

Sometime before 4 p.m. on January 23, 2016, the day the worst nor’easter in recent memory destroyed his house, Sven Peltonen, an Atlantic City fireman and amateur Facebook weatherman, addressed his home audience via video camera with a bandage above his lip. The dog had bitten him. Sven was speaking, at this point, in Australian-accented English, I want to say (he’s since taken down the video), with occasional outburst of pirate speak. At different times during the preceding 20-plus hours, he’d delivered his regular weather reports in a variety of dialects and accents, including, by my count, Standard Pirate, Eastern European Pirate, Southern Bumpkin, Stoked Aussie and a kind of classic Surfer Speak reminiscent of Fast Times at Ridgemont High’s Jeff Spicoli. Meanwhile the dog—a fuzzy little animal named Cha-Cha (I think), which may have been a little high-strung to begin with—had been visibly unimpressed with its owners at their decision to stay put and ride out the storm from the comfort of their bayside bungalow, rather than retreat to the relative safety of the mainland.

More about: Homepage Featured, Weather, Atlantic City, Brigantine, flooding, Jonas, storm

Checkmate Atlantic City and more on the Hillcrest Tavern in today’s Roundup

By |

A.C. Takeover: Checkmate? Governor Christie vetoed the PILOT* (“Payment in Lieu of Taxes”) bill designed to stabilize Atlantic City’s municipal budget, precipitating an acute crisis for the city, whose many problems the state proposes to address through a more aggressive takeover of local government. This is a metaphor, the Howler can’t help thinking. The indefatigable Amy Rosenberg of Philly.com has many details on the implications. Christie’s move comes a day after leaders from around the city and the state gathered at St.

More about: Homepage Featured, Roundup, Atlantic City, Chris Christie, Don Guardian, Hillcrest Tavern, Steve Sweeney