Happy Rosh Hashana to everyone out there celebrating. Hope you enjoy wind and rain. I kind of do, but then, we don’t have central air in the Route 40 newsroom/house, so I’m just glad the heatwave has broken. Controversial, I realize.
This weekend’s storms put a tiny damper on the A.C. Seafood Festival, prompting Jon Henderson, the guy behind the event, to take to Facebook. “My knee jerk reaction is to say it was a horrible weekend. But In actually it was far from that. This weekend was a confirmation that there are some amazing humans out there.”
Way to find the silver lining, Mr. Henderson. I know I enjoyed myself at the seafood fest. We went with our kiddlies, who are surprisingly into octopus. A surreal moment came when a baby sea turtle emerged from the sand castle being carved in the middle of the event. A momma turtle must have deposited her eggs in the raw material–a reminder that Nature is omnipresent. #AccidentalPartridge
By Sunday night, though, many Absecon Island residents were dealing with flooded streets and bridge and road closures. Scenes were pretty grim in some parts of the city – and residents were once again asking questions on social media about Atlantic City’s bulkheads and recently-refurbished pump system. Meanwhile, on Friday there was news that the state’s blue acres program to buy out flooded homes is to expand to Atlantic County, starting in Pleasantville. For some residents who have been applying for years, it can’t reach Absecon Island soon enough.
Elsewhere, our friend Levi Fox has a piece on the history of Stockton in Atlantic City, complete with an excellent aerial photo of the Mayflower Hotel, on Tennessee and the Boardwalk, where they first opened in 1971, when the main campus in Galloway was still under construction. “The location of the Gateway Campus itself is historic, on the site of the High School Vera King Farris once attended, and across from the Knife and Fork Inn,” Levi notes.
In more future-oriented news, the price of “health insurance on the individual market” is set to drop more than 9% next year due in part to changes in state law designed to stabilize the market, the valuable Spotlight reports. Thoughts and prayers to all the insurance execs out there.
For more feats of journalism, see below:
NJ’S MISSING APPRENTICES: STATE URGED TO DO MORE TO INCREASE THEIR NUMBER–A leading social-justice organization is calling on the state to create more apprenticeship opportunities for New Jersey students and adults, arguing such programs would address wide income disparities faced by women and minorities while also boosting the overall state economy. www.njspotlight.com
Flash flooding overtakes streets in South Jersey–EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (WPVI) -- Rain continues to fall after flooded roadways caused issues around the Jersey Shore area overnight. 6abc.com
Miss America 2019: Miss New York wins first swimsuit-free pageant–Miss New York, Nia Imani Franklin, has been crowned Miss America 2019 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. She is the fourth Miss New York to win the pageant in six years. www.nj.com