Behind the Scenes of AC’s Tennessee Avenue Redevelopment

By |

We took a tour of the work being done on the beach block of Tennessee Avenue in Atlantic City last week, to check out progress on buildings that will house three new businesses and a non-profit. The so-called Tennessee Avenue Renaissance Project consists of a dozen properties on the Inlet side of the street. The developers will be opening a coffee shop, a beer hall, a non-profit yoga studio and a chocolate bar in the first phase of the project this fall. The beer hall, named ‘The Ten’, is the largest space on the block, next to two vacant lots that will be transformed into an outdoor beer garden. A back room at the beer hall will feature pinball, pool tables and other games.

More about: Atlantic City, Business, Atlantic City, beer garden, beer hall, chocolate bar, coffee shop, redevelopment

Prescription Probe Pleas, Trump’s Opioid Commitment – Friday’s Roundup

By |

We are back! Sorry for all the downtime, folks. We had a storage issue that took longer than we would have hoped to fix, but we learned a whole lot along the way about how to manage our site, so hopefully in the long-run it will mean a better user experience as we figure out how to fix everything.

More about: Roundup, Atlantic City, atlantic county, Donald Trump, humansofatlanticcity, prescription probe

Meet Mario

By |

Meet Mario. He lives on Bellevue and is one of the community gardeners who cares for the plot between Bellevue and Texas on Pacific. The residents have been gardening in the area for a while – although the garden has moved recently from across the street. Now it is sheltered on three sides from the wind and is a refreshing slice of greenery along Pacific. Everyone gardens their own corner.

More about: Voices, 48 Blocks, Atlantic City, community garden, humansofatlanticcity, mural, street art

The Persistence of Donald

By |

The great Trump Taj Mahal liquidation sale opened to the public at 10:00 a.m. on July 6, about eight months after the casino closed and 167 days after Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the president of the United States. History was very much the subtext of the Taj Mahal fire sale, which offered customers a chance at a piece of the Donald, recently assured of his own place in history. But since mid-February, the surname of the president has been scrubbed from the property under the terms of a deal between Donald and his friend and economic adviser, Carl Icahn, who until recently controlled the property. There were no TRUMP-branded artifacts for sale at the Taj.

More about: Atlantic City, Atlantic City, casinos, Donald Trump, Hard Rock Casino, Jersey Shore Tours, Levi Fox, Opioid Crisis

Mazzeo Calls for Talks on Combining Atlantic County Utilities Authority With AC’s Water Authority

By |

Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo hopes there will be new discussion about combining Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) with the Atlantic City water authority, according to a letter he sent on Wednesday. “The time is now to ensure that Atlantic City’s prestigious water company stays in public hands,” wrote Mazzeo in the letter addressed to the two top executives at the authorities and lawyer Jeff Chiesa, who is charged with overseeing the state takeover of Atlantic City. The ACUA and the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority (ACMUA) last year held talks about working together to help the city water authority generate more income, which would help bolster the city’s own financial position. “I’m writing today in the hopes that this letter will help renew the conversation in an effort to bring together two well-run utilities authorities for the sake of the public good,” Mazzeo wrote. The fate of Atlantic City’s water authority has been uncertain since the precarious position of the city’s finances put pressure on officials to sell or lease it.

More about: Government, ACMUA, acua, Atlantic City, atlantic county, public utilities, water

Atlantic County Shops For Lawyers To Fight PILOT, Mulls Injunction

By |

Atlantic County is looking for a law firm to challenge a law that shrunk Atlantic City casinos’ tax payments and increased the property tax burden on homeowners and businesses. The county wants a law firm to “challenge the constitutionality of the Casino Property Tax Stabilization Act,” according to the request for proposals published on Thursday. The lawyers could be asked to seek an injunction “against the further implementation of the act.” Sealed bids are due on May 23 and any successful bidder would be awarded a 12-month contract. The law was agreed almost a year ago but did not come into effect until New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs declared Atlantic City in need of “stabilization” in November.

More about: Government, Atlantic City, atlantic county, casinos, dennis levinson, pilot, taxes

The Optimist

By |

William K. Cheatham attends most of the meetings of the City Council of Atlantic City. He attends the board meetings of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. He is president of the Board of Trustees of the Atlantic City Free Public Library, a member of the Shade Tree Committee and an alternate on the board of the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority. He was active in the First Ward Civic Association and was a regular at the meetings of the city Taxpayers Association (which reviewed the municipal budget) but those organizations no longer assemble on a regular basis. He’s a former member of the county construction board.

More about: Government, Voices, Atlantic City, CRDA, disenfranchisement, government, segregation, William Cheatham

New Jersey Schools Under Pressure as Demand Increases for Bilingual, ESL Classes

By |

There was a time a little over a decade ago when Claudia Velasquez was in the seventh grade and she didn’t speak any English. She is now attaching paper on a flip-board, preparing to give a class in English, in the same red-brick Pleasantville school on Washington Avenue where she learned the language.

More about: Education, ACLU, Atlantic City, bilingual teaching, ESL, LEP, limited English, New Jersey school funding

Atlantic City Awards Bike Loop Construction Contract

By |

Atlantic City’s purchasing department on Wednesday awarded Egg Harbor City’s Command Company a contract to build out the chunk of a planned bike loop that will connect the beach to Gardner’s Basin via specially-adapted city streets in the inlet.

More about: Atlantic City, Exploring South Jersey, Government, absecon island, Atlantic City, Bike Loop, Bike route, bikeway grant