South Jersey Images of the Week, Nov. 12

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It was a big week in national and local news, with a general election and a state takeover of Atlantic City. While there was a lot of relief that the campaign period ended, we wrote about some of the interesting ballot questions and the results from referenda that include everything from changing the way of choosing a school board (Linwood) to introducing liquor licenses (Ventnor). The following day the state decided to take over Atlantic City and we wrote about the – still up-in-the-air – consequences of that decision. The weather, meanwhile, was mostly fantastic and there were some great photos taken of fall foliage and wintry sunsets. Maybe next week we’ll have some amazing shots of the super moon.

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State Takeover Means Higher Taxes & Who Knows What Else?

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We were in Trenton today to follow what went down at the meeting of state officials tasked with deciding whether or not to take over Atlantic City. Two things were decided in quick succession – so quick, in fact, that most people in the room missed them – and that may or may not have been deliberate, you decide:
1. The state approved Atlantic City’s 2016 budget with one change
2. The change was to raise property taxes in the city (which as we know is already gasping after the tax rate has doubled in five years)

The state’s local finance board then voted unanimously to execute the state’s power to take the reins in Atlantic City, but took the option of bankruptcy off the table, meaning that the state has to turn the city around without filing for court protection from its creditors. When pressed by the press, the bureaucrat now in charge of Atlantic City, Tim Cunningham, said that he wasn’t sure exactly what new powers he has or what he will do.

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South Jersey 2016 Election Results Live Blog

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We will be live blogging and covering election results in South Jersey as they come in – with a particular focus on Atlantic County and our local ballot questions. (function() {
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Stockton University Island Campus Progress Report

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Maybe you’ve lived through more than one of Atlantic City’s many revival phases. Maybe you’ve seen the big buildings come down as well as go up.  Maybe you’re a foreigner and a bit of a cynic like me. But put aside your reservations for a minute and take a look at the Stockton University Island Campus. Skipping over the mess surrounding the project’s origins, it’s hard not to be at least a little bit lifted up by these massive machines at work.

More about: Atlantic City, Stockton University Island Campus

Weather Masochism

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Some people wake up on a day like this–wind howling in turret and tree–and immediately call in sick, resolving to spend the day drinking chamomile tea and watching I, Claudius reruns with the cat in their lap. Better to hunker down and avoid reality than risk getting hit in the face with a flying fish trying to make it to the office in a nor’easter. Some other people call in sick and think: I’m going to the beach! I met an example of this latter type this a.m. when I was walking down the boardwalk around ten o’clock and noticed a young man in a blue wetsuit struggling with a large black sail of some kind. A kiteboarding rig, it turned out.

More about: Sport, Weather, kiteboarding, kitesurfing, Ventnor, weather

In Atlantic City, Kick a Lifeguard, Win a Prize

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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

Atlantic City investment agency fails to publish annual report on time

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The New Jersey agency charged with investing proceeds from Atlantic City’s casino business to create jobs and otherwise benefit the South Jersey region has failed to publish its annual report by its May 1 due date. A spokeswoman for the agency, known as the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), said its board had not yet approved the annual report. “They are meeting again on 5/17, I’m not sure if it will be on the agenda for that meeting,” spokeswoman Karen Martin added in an email. As a government agency, the CRDA has to publish audited annual financial statements. These help taxpayers see how the agency is being run and how it is spending its money.

More about: Business, Watchdog Journalism, Atlantic City, CRDA