Friday, September 12, 2014

It's after midnight. Atlantic City changing back to a pumpkin


It was a fun ride while it lasted, but not nearly as long as promised. And thanks to massively venal and incompetent politicians, the bulk of the city did not benefit from all the money that flowed through their hands.
Gambling revenue in the city nosedived in recent years, declining to $2.9 billion last year, down from a peak of $5.2 billion in 2006. Seeing the writing on the wall, casino owners brought down the curtain.

The Atlantic Club was the first to go, closing in January. Then Showboat, a fixture on the boardwalk for 27 years, shuttered at the end of August, followed closely by Revel, which opened only two years ago to demonstrate the strength of gaming in Atlantic City. Trump Plaza will be the next to go, and now Trump Taj Mahal announced it is considering calling it quits by November.

To add insult to injury, Trump Taj Mahal management asked employees to go without benefits and pensions to keep the property open longer, union officials said, a proposition the workers declined.

In all, an estimated 7,000 workers in a city of 39,000, will lose their jobs by year’s end...

“We were told they would be good jobs and it was good for the economy and it was, but they never revitalized the city,” Davis said. “They made a box and put everything inside the box that you would possibly need, and said, ‘Stay in the box. Everything you need is in there. Don’t go out in the slums.’”

Indeed, most everyone in Atlantic City has an opinion on how it all went so wrong, laying the blame on mismanagement both by state and local leaders as well as casino management.

“For 35 years the people who make decisions about Atlantic City have made wrong decisions at every turn,” said Bob McDevitt, president of Local 54. "It was poor, poor planning and now everyone is affected by it."

State legislators dragged their feet in approving sports betting, finally green-lighting the enterprise earlier this week, McDevitt said. City officials did not use the additional tax revenue from the casinos to improve roads, crack down on crime, or beautify neighborhoods. Casino managers decided to build additional towers and expand when they should have anticipated the increased competition and could have worked to add amenities to attract non-gambling customers.

These are particularly disheartening times for Atlantic City workers not just because of the scale of the layoffs but because, unlike hospitality and service jobs in other parts of the country, union involvement in Atlantic City had kept wages high and benefits good.
Now the golden goose is dead and the city is left with the same old slums and soon to be impressive ruins along the Boardwalk.

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