Atlantic City, New Jersey, was established in 1800s as a resort town. One of its first residents was a physician, Dr. Jonathan Pitney, who saw the great potential of the Jersey Shore. After 1850s newly-built railroad and seaport allowed him and other locals to develop infrastructure which brought tourists to luxurious hotels and cottages. Along with private residences, the first commercial hotel Belloy House, was built in 1853. In the early part of the 20th century, Atlantic City went through a radical building boom.
Many of the modest boarding houses that dotted the Boardwalk were replaced with large hotels. Entertainers from Hollywood and all parts of the country graced the stages of the piers. Glamorous hotels like Haddon Hall or The Traymore, drew guests from all over the world. Atlantic City's future seemed bright, until World War II anyways. After the war, the public seemed to stop its love affair with the city. Possibly because of the access to new national air travel, the shift of the population westward and the general deterioration of the city, or the shift in the public's taste for more sophisticated entertainment. Atlantic City lost much of its shine and most of its tourists navigate to this website. In an effort to revitalize the city, New Jersey voters passed a referendum in 1976, approving casino gambling for the city. Atlantic City was less popular than Las Vegas as a gambling destination, but Donald Trump helped bring big name boxing bouts to the city that attracted many new customers to his casinos. Mike Tyson had most of his fights in Atlantic City in the 1980s, which helped Atlantic City achieve nationwide attention as a gambling resort. Resorts International and Atlantic City are perfect combination. Unfortunately, with the redevelopment of Las Vegas and the opening of two casinos in Connecticut in the early 1990s, along with newly built casinos in nearby Philadelphia metro area in the 2000s, Atlantic City's tourism began to decline due to its failure to diversify from gaming. Atlantic City was totally unprepared for competition. Its casinos lost their East Coast gambling monopoly and the city has never developed alternate sources of jobs or revenue. Local casino owners didn’t reinvent in their businesses the way their Las Vegas counterparts did. And few bothered to notice until it was too late. In the past 10 years, most Boardwalk properties have grown increasingly worn and dated. Overall casino revenue has fallen from $5.2bn in 2006 to $2.9bn in 2014, despite a steady growth of non-gambling businesses. As a result, four out of 12 casinos closures took place in 2014. One of them was Trump Plaza, which originally opened in 1984, and was the poorest performing casino in the city. Trump Plaza's revenues took a sharp decline in 1990 due to competition from its newly opened sister property, the Trump Taj Mahal, which also closed in 2016. Bob McDevitt, president of the Casino Workers Union, Local 54, quoted that "Trump basically sucked the life and money. and fortune out of this property. He didn’t invest. He took the money and went elsewhere.” One of the biggest failures of AC casino projects was the Revel Casino Hotel. In the summer of 2008 the project was officially scaled back including just one hotel tower with 1,900 rooms due to lack of financing. In March 2009, construction was stopped because of difficulties in raising additional financing necessary to complete the project. Revel resumed construction in February 2011 after new financing was secured, and opened with just 1399 rooms. Revel Casino Hotel was heralded as a sign of a revitalized boardwalk when it was built in 2012. The State of New Jersey even footed $260 mill of its $2.4 bn budget. But the casino was declared bankrupt twice, finally closing in September. Some called this project "the poster child for casino failure" Still today, there are long stretches of boardwalk with nothing to eat except in overpriced casinos, there are few restrooms or changing facilities, the parking is expensive and distant. Atlantic City took its greatest attraction and made it inaccessible. Many articles about AC point out that during 7-8 months of the year the city is essentially vacant. No attractions to offer besides dark halls of gambling machines when Vegas has 12 months of sunshine and attractions for entire family. In Las Vegas you can stir up and down the Strip for days. In Atlantic City you can do it at best for hour with little to see, little to do, and even concerned for your general safety. By 2000, more than two-thirds of Atlantic City’s working population was employed in the casino industry. As of 2014, the greater Atlantic City area has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at about 13.8%, out of labor force is almost around 141,000. The chances of becoming a victim of violent crime in Atlantic City is 1 in 64, and a chance of becoming the victim of a property crime is 1 in 15. According to neighborhoodscout.com AC was ranked number 8 in the most dangerous cities of the US in 2015. The overall crime rate in Atlantic City is 181% higher than the national average. There are nearly 18 murders per 100k people, compared to national average of only 4. The rape court in AC at 2012 was 88 per 100k residents, while national average was 26. Despite all of this, I look at Atlantic City as a beautiful, wonderful place to visit. I think it’s because of my own personal childhood memories of a time when the boardwalk was vibrant with people, things to eat, things to see and things to do. I cherish my memories there and I hope that someday Atlantic City will return to its former glory.
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