Happy New Year Route 40 Roundup Readers!
We hope you had a good break. For Christmas I got a Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer winter midlayer jacket with 800-octane duckfeathers in it or something that weighs less than 8oz and has a suggested retail price of $279 but was purchased for $67 at The Walk. I take back everything I ever said about their 9,000-year tax abatement.
In realer news:
Force Report II
There are a lot of interesting nuggets in Joe Atmonavage’s story on the Atlantic City Police Dept., whose use-of-force rate is nearly four times the state average, but this one jumped out at me: the ACPD’s total uses of force dropped steadily since 2013–when there was the incident with the K9 outside the Tropicana that resulted in a $3 million settlement–but the force rate stayed pretty much the same (because the number of arrests dropped). I’m no math wizard, but doesn’t that seem odd?
Also, from 2007 to 2014, 570 excessive force complaints were filed and only two were sustained (0.35%). The average for departments the size of Atlantic City is 12%.
Tax Credits
The Wall Street Journal has a story on New Jersey’s tax-credit programs, two of which are set to expire in June. These generous programs have given out $8 billion since 2010 but, “failed to lure Amazon to Newark,” the Journal reports.
What else have they failed to do? Atlantic City has a 35%+ poverty rate and people still talk about New Jersey like it’s a bad place to do business. Last I checked the neighborhood that did lure Amazon wants to give it back.
Trump Plaza
Carl Icahn recently paid $3 million to tidy up the deed on the Trump Plaza, a sign he might be prepping to sell the old property, Elinor reported yesterday.
Remember that time Icahn was named special advisor to the Trump Administration on regulatory matters and then used that position to manipulate the price of some refinery company he owns a stake in? People still think there aren’t enough billionaires in Congress.
For more feats of journalism…
‘They don’t feel they owe us an explanation.’ 11 kids dead, three months later, parents still seek answers–They were among the most vulnerable and voiceless. There was 4-year-old Dorcase Dolcin, who had never spoken a word in her short life, but was always happy and smiling. Dondre Mills Jr. had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He was just 2. Amaya Bryant had serious medical issues, but her mother hoped to take her home. www.nj.com
Downbeach’s most read stories of 2018–Downbeach.com started publishing stories in June, but in six short months readers have demonstrated that hyperlocal news content is what they prefer. www.downbeach.com
New promise and old problems due in 2019 for Atlantic City–The new year holds promise and peril for Atlantic City, with new benefits facing off against old problems. The East Coast gambling resort is on something of a roll, having regained its balance as a smaller market following years of casino closings and job losses. www.nj.com
Firefighters credited with saving A.C. rooming house–It wasn’t the way Rick Tillman expected to ring in the new year. Alarms started going off inside the Atlantic City rooming house where he lives at about 6:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve, so he grabbed his coat and ran. breakingac.com
TOP REPORTS: NEW JERSEY IS MORE VULNERABLE THAN MOST STATES TO CLIMATE CHANGE–As a coastal state with an extensive shoreline, few places are more vulnerable to climate change than New Jersey. www.njspotlight.com