It’s Time to Re-Do AC

It’s been a while since I’ve written because it’s hard to feel inspired when life is upside down. But, it’s a new year turning on new lights. With the fiscal cliff averted, Congress shamed into acting on a Sandy aid package, the national economy languishing, the local mess, and the general state of affairs everywhere, it’s a great time to start a new year. We need one. Let’s make it the year we ReDo AC.

Plain people and Jersey residents, displaced or not, have been helping each other. We didn’t wait for the government. We couldn’t. We’ve all spent days ripping out walls, ripping up carpets, helping family and friends throw out their lives. Now, it’s time to throw out some stupid ideas and bring in new ones. Period.

With new lights on, let’s look around and see where we are in Atlantic City.

On December 3, Realtor’s and their money returned to AC for our yearly tri-state conference. It was the first major happening since Sandy stopped by, and the first time away from home and troubles for many of us since our homes and businesses were washed away.

(Realtor’s were also the first national convention to return to New Orleans after Katrina, showing up in both towns where others cancelled. We know how to pull through for communities because we’re in every community.)

12 years ago, the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York combined their real-estate conventions into 1 super tri-state convention, dubbed the Triple-Play. I was the N.J. Committee chairman. I learned a little something about booking and running conventions, and how the town runs because of them. There was talk of moving the convention, or rotating it among the states and cities. But, it was easy to sell Atlantic City as our location then, we were still happening and the luster of gambling had not worn off. Many of us were intent on DOing AC.

With New Jersey leading the way, combining our states took yearly attendance from 5,000 to over 11,000 in the good years that followed. This year our registered attendance was 7,388, pretty good given the condition of many New Jersey and New York Realtor’s dealing with the storm and great for AC since we were the only business in a ghost town that week.

I stayed in a local hotel to take advantage of the needed mental break. Like a Hollywood set, AC was the sound stage waiting for the actors and extras to arrive. Ready, set, action, and the convention began.

“I think I’m out of business, but I just don’t know it”, said my friend from the Seaside Heights area. “I’m rebuilding. I don’t know what else to do.”

It made me think of AC herself. Even as we announce many new rebuilding plans, I don’t think we are doing it right.

As a former officer of the N.J. Realtor Housing Opportunity Foundation, I helped arrange a tour bus around town to show off all the renewal and changes that were happening to our conventioneers. I loved riding with visitors for several years in a row as I bragged about ‘my’ town and expanded on our history for our visitors. We stopped running that bus a couple of years ago because there was nothing new to point out. That kind of says it all.

Now, the Atlantic Alliance will be paying bounties for new conventions. That’s great out of the box thinking. However, as someone who has sat in the chair of committees picking locations, that wouldn’t matter to me at all, and isn’t going to matter in the long run. Moreover, it’s typical of Atlantic City. Too many short hits don’t add up to a home run, or a triple-play convention.

Here’s what matters – cleanliness, safety, out of the normal attractions with broad appeal, courtesy that leaves you feeling special instead of treatment that leaves you feeling used. (The costs associated with doing anything in Atlantic City are not user friendly.)

Further, with all due respect to the CRDA (Casino Reinvestment Development Authority), The Revel hotel and casino, Harrah’s hotel and casino, the Atlantic Alliance etc., still more money being pumped into bad things or un-needed things is not going to make a difference to the town, our residents, or our visitors. It only seems to matter to them.

Let’s start with Harrah’s. AC doesn’t need more convention space until there is something more for visitors to do and more conventions waiting to get into town. Yes, Harrah’s will get larger conferences, but, that really just traps people into their property. It makes no more sense for the CRDA to finance that then it does for them to continue pumping money into the Revel area until Revel fixes itself. It’s like adding another casino when we already have too few patrons. Short term construction jobs don’t add up to long term success. They add up to more long term struggle.

We have bailed out failure after failure and continue to guide our destiny by filling in their gaps. Shame on us.

Imagine if the wasted moneys through the years were invested in the town’s residents, as it was initially mandated. People might actually want to live here, creating safe streets for visitors to want to travel. I am embarrassed when I drive visitors down Pacific and Atlantic Avenue. Listening to their commentary becomes comedy instead of tragedy.

“DO AC – Why, it’s a toilet?” I heard one say, in regard to the city’s new marketing slogan. Even on a sunny day, very visible parts of our town look gloomy and seedy as we approach our 35 year anniversary. (Europe looked better 35 years after WWII.) AC could have spent money painting existing buildings on our streets from one end to the other and made it look cleaner and safer then they did building the ‘Art in the Park.’

Mind you, I’m a huge fan of the arts. But, the park designed looks like a mound of lawn from the Boardwalk, and the fence around it sure doesn’t say welcome. Additionally, the money didn’t go to local artists, it went to more folks brought in from out of town to tell us what our town needs.

In February, 2005, Central Park opened it’s temporary Gates exhibit by New York City residents Christo and Jean-Claude. I was there with thousands of others, and was followed in the next two weeks by hundreds of thousands more. The Gates project was financed by the artists themselves and accepted no public money. It brought huge $$$ into NYC. No visitor I’ve met yet has mentioned our arts project. In fact, short of the public entities paid to do so and local publications, I’ve not heard much about it. And, now, we hear all over the news the Pinnacle site is sold. Seems like more wasted money to me, and to many who live in town.

Just imagine if we had taken that money and pumped it into Atlantic Avenue businesses and the main street program. We’d look clean and safe and have quality housing above. Moreover, we’d have employed local residents who are already struggling to find work. Every dollar spent locally is spent many more times as it cycles through the local economy. Atlantic City doesn’t have a crime problem, it has an unemployment problem.

So here it is in a nutshell – I love Atlantic City. I truly do. I am working on my own $30 million dollar dream to turn the Columbus Hotel into a gay resort, so, I’ve put large amounts of my time and my money where my mouth is to make a difference in our town. Every one else seems to be getting paid to put their time and large amounts of other people’s money where their mouth is. And those people get fired as quickly as they get hired.

Moreover, the existing relationships in AC seem to grow stronger and more incestuous as the town’s economy and her residents grow weaker. It’s time to spread the money on the streets and let it grow.

Atlantic City is a great town, where gambling, conventions and arts must combine to play a huge role in the town’s economy and future. But, more importantly comes the nature of the town itself. First we must build the legs and the table before we can place the serving trays on top.

For Atlantic City to become the party we want to attend, we better make sure all the chandeliers in the room are ones we want to swing from. We can be the World’s Playground people want to ‘DO’ if we make sure the playground looks fun and inviting. Otherwise, they won’t come, and they are proving that. New marketing is a piece of the puzzle. As with all puzzles, it’s best to start on the edges.

Andy Borowitz tweeted:

Praising congress for the fiscal cliff deal is like giving an arsonist an award for putting out his own fire

That’s kind of how I feel about applauding the things that have been done to date in AC even as I readily applaud the new bright lights in AC, including the new Margaritaville and renovations at Resorts, the planned future paving of Pacific Avenue, more great events at Bader Field, the Rodeo and other special events at Boardwalk Hall, the family friendly water park hotel announced in the Marina district, etc etc…..

Thing is, these should have been built long before we fell off the cliff. There was never any secret that gambling was going into other states, and it would affect our bottom line. And, there was never any secret, the town itself needed re-building, it’s why we passed the casino referendum in 1976 to begin with.

The new saviors did all they could to keep people in their casinos and close the streets around them. Visitors were told the streets were unsafe. Funny thing is, they weren’t unsafe then. They were functioning and money was flowing.

Anything the casinos didn’t buy and knock down, land speculators bought to sell to casinos. These included the gay district surrounding New York Avenue, and the Kentucky Avenue strip. We killed the geese that were laying eggs, then killed the big goose laying the golden egg.

In the words of Martin Luther King, whose birthday we just recently celebrated:

The time is always right to do what is right.

It’s time right now. We can’t keep looking through a microscope at one specific property or another. We must look through the telescope at all the stars that make the town shine.

A final note: our state and national legislators earned my respect in standing up across party lines to congress. Now, I hope they can earn my respect by getting along with our local officials. Like it or not, these local politicians represent the people who elected them. Locals have been frustrated for years. They’re the low end employee that’s hired, and the first laid off. It’s time to put everyone at the same table and listen to the people, and act on our suggestions instead of giving us floor time so you can do what you want. New Jersey’s record is clear. They have run Camden and Trenton…… ‘nough said.

Here’s to 2013 – let’s make our stars shine.