Atlantic City Initiatives Project Town Hall – 1st and 2nd Wards

The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) encourages people who live and work in the First and Second wards to attend an Atlantic City Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, September 24 to contribute their thoughts and ideas about the city’s ongoing revitalization and how to move the city forward.

The meeting will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Uptown School Complex, 323 Madison Avenue in Atlantic City. Light snacks will be served for people attending the town hall.

The upcoming town hall meeting follows a city-wide town hall that was held in January at Boardwalk Hall and a Spanish-language town hall that was held in June at Our Lady Star of the Sea Memorial Hall.

“Town hall meetings are a great way to hear from people who have a stake in the city and want to contribute to its vibrancy,” said Acting Governor Sheila Y. Oliver, who serves as DCA Commissioner. “By making the next few town hall meetings smaller, more intimate events, we are hoping to reach even more people, including those who may have been overwhelmed by the size of the last two city-wide meetings. Everyone’s opinion matters and we want people to feel comfortable providing their input.”

Town hall meetings for the Third and Fourth wards and for the Fifth and Sixth wards will be scheduled at a later date.

Next week’s meeting is being hosted by DCA’s Atlantic City Initiatives Project Office in collaboration with the City of Atlantic City, First Ward Civic Association, and Bungalow Park Civic Association. The meeting will kick off with brief introductory remarks, including some from the Governor’s Special Counsel Jim Johnson, who is helping lead Atlantic City renewal efforts and helped author the Atlantic City Transition Report.

After the brief remarks, people will break out into dialogue groups focused on topics important to Atlantic City such as government accountability, land use development, economic development, workforce development, public health and wellness, public safety, youth opportunities, and civic and cultural development. For each dialogue group, there will be a facilitator to encourage constructive conversation and a recorder to write down what was discussed.

At the conclusion of the dialogue groups, town hall attendees will reconvene to review the input each group provided and to learn about how their ideas will be utilized to improve Atlantic City’s future.

For more information about the work underway in Atlantic City, visit Atlantic City: Building A Foundation for A Shared Prosperity on the DCA website. People can also check out the Atlantic City Initiatives Project Office social media pages at facebook.com/ACinitiatives, twitter.com/ACinitiatives, and instagram.com/acinitiatives/.