Good morning Route 40 readers!
Happy Solstice to all those who celebrate. Today is the day my people believe the dragon stops eating the sun and pauses to digest briefly before beginning the long process of regurgitation, which culminates on the 4th of July.
Please plan to attend our Xmas party if you haven’t already done so. I will be wearing my traditional robes.
Machine & Gilliam, Machine vs. Gilliam, etc.
In realer news, Amy Rosenberg takes a long look at the various outside influences–from real estate developers to the Norcross/Sweeney cabal–that helped raise $500,000 to elect Frank Gilliam mayor, on the theory that Phil Murphy would end the takeover and they’d get a nice return on their investment.
Here’s a pattern. See if it rings a bell: Outside influence, futzing around in Atlantic City, precedes revelations of corruption, precedes new calls to futz around in Atlantic City. Wash, rinse, repeat. What if the calls to clean the “trash” out of Atlantic City that I hear every day are actually coming from inside the house?
SuperMarket
The state assembly passed a bunch of bills yesterday to address the nutritional needs of New Jerseyans including one that gives “incentives to supermarkets and grocery stores to locate in so-called ‘food deserts,’ typically urban areas where people do not have easy access to a grocery store selling fresh produce nearby,” the Spotlight reports, which kind of makes you think (if you already hadn’t) that the decision to drop a supermarket on Baltic Avenue was probably written in the stars way before $157,000 was given to a supermarket nonprofit to study dropping a supermarket in a local food desert, e.g. Baltic Avenue.
Imagine what could Boom Market, for instance, could have done with $157,000? It’s infuriating.
Mercantile Licenses for Short-Term Rentals
Ventnor’s considering requiring mercantile licenses for property owners who want to rent their houses on a short-term basis, on AirBnB for instance, Nanette LoBiondo reports.
“We don’t want to discourage short-term rentals, but we do want to track them,” Commissioner Lance Landgraf said.
The Herpes of the Arts and Crafts World
The New York Times has a fun history of glitter (!), a lot of which is made in New Jersey, where it also may have been invented (h/t to S.P. Sullivan).
If you’re triggered by the prose in the Style section (“Humans, even humans who don’t like glitter, like glitter.”) proceed with caution.
The Roundup will probably be taking next week off, but you never know. You might hear from us. Probably best to check your email anyway.
For more feats of journalism…
Tilton theater to receive upgrade from familiar developer–While construction continues on the Ventnor Square Theatre, the same developers continue to expand their growing network now that they have taken on another South Jersey theater. www.pressofatlanticcity.com
Rainstorm to shut down roads in low-lying areas–The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch for the Jersey Shore. Heavy rain and gusty winds are expected to continue into Friday evening, and minor to moderate coastal flooding will cause flooding in low-lying areas through Friday morning’s high tide, which will occur at approximately 7 a.m. www.downbeach.com
Why undocumented immigrants face long wait for driver’s licenses in Democratic NJ–Carlos Castaneda sat outside the New Jersey Statehouse in a wheelchair, too weak to walk, as he watched his hunger strike come to an end after the dramatic act failed to convince the Legislature to approve driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. www.app.com