Where The American Dreamers Work

You’d be hard pressed to say it was a thriving Main Street, but the barbershop, Mexican restaurant, pizza place, tobacco store, mini-mart and even the closed-looking gift store are all open on the short span of Atlantic City’s Ventnor Ave, between Harrisburg and Trenton. In an age of dying malls and online shopping, something is working here.

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Breathe, It’s After School

Laurie Egrie is walking down the hallway of Sovereign Avenue School carrying a cardboard box filled with odd little balls and popsicle sticks with notelets stuck to them, and she’s wedged an easel-sized writing pad under one arm. The corridor is half dark. School let out 15 minutes ago.

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Talking To Trees

“We’re gonna talk to them!” says Robert Preston, Atlantic City’s interim planning director, when I ask him how the city is going to make sure 45 young trees survive planting in Uptown Park. One of the side effects of being a city that is constantly in the cross hairs of some or other developer is that the city is a sort of mausoleum to dying and dead landscaping. The buildings go up, the trees go in, the ribbon is cut, and then everyone forgets about watering the plants. There’s probably a metaphor there somewhere.

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Celeste Fernandez Is Trying To Talk About The Economy

Celeste Fernandez, candidate for freeholder at-large in Atlantic County, said she made her decision to run for office on November 9, 2016, which makes it easy to count her among the millions of women moved to action by the ascension of a reality TV star who boasted of sexual assault to the office of President of the United States.

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A Weekday Night At Mr Steak

The girl in the white hijab wants to be a software engineer.

She holds a microphone and stands before a group at Mr Steak on Atlantic and Indiana Avenues. She raises her voice to be heard above the air conditioning and the chattering kids and parents packed around every table in the restaurant.

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