Route 40 (https://rtforty.com/tag/tourism-district/)
The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority board will discuss issues related to public safety in the Atlantic City Tourism District in a closed session following its public meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Atlantic City’s tourism district is home to New Jersey’s biggest needle exchange. The Oasis Drop In Center on Tennessee Avenue gives out thousands more needles than are returned each week.
Glenn Straub, the developer who owns the Atlantic City property formerly known as the Revel casino, and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), are hoping to finish the approval process to reopen the site by the end of September, according to documents filed with CRDA on Wednesday. Straub has been complaining to local media about the drawn-out approval process, while CRDA, which governs planning in Atlantic City’s Tourism District, rejected the earlier application because of concerns about access to the site, since Straub wanted to locate a ropes course in the building’s former main entrance. A successful relaunch for the property is key for cash-strapped Atlantic City and, more widely, for Atlantic County. The Revel property is a top taxpayer and the $2.6 billion site has been a looming empty eyesore on the boardwalk since closing in September 2014. The application that Straub made on appeal includes concessions and suggested changes to the vehicle access to the property.
Atlantic City’s trees, which already contend with hurricanes, salt water, pollution, icy winters and scorching concrete, are now also showing wear and tear as a result of the city’s financial crisis and its haphazard patchwork of planning rules. Since the Public Works department’s budget was slashed amid city-wide cuts, there are fewer people on hand to prune, water and care for the city’s greenery. Now, damaged trees are causing hazards and few replacement trees are being planted. City trees matter because, as every elementary school kid knows, they give us oxygen. But they can also help increase property values, make a city more attractive and do useful things like provide shade and suck up storm-water runoff. The importance of having a so-called urban forest is part of state and city law.