atlantic city

Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, USA. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 40,517. It is a resort community located on Absecon Island, off the Atlantic Ocean coast of New Jersey. Other municipalities on the island are Ventnor City, Margate City, and Longport. The main route onto the island containing Atlantic City is the Atlantic City Expressway.

History

Atlantic City has always been primarily a resort town. Its location in South Jersey, hugging the Atlantic Ocean between marshlands and islands, presented itself as prime real estate for developers. The city was incorporated in 1854, the same year in which train service began, linking this remote parcel of land with the more populated, urban centers of New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Atlantic City became a popular beach destination because of its proximity to Philadelphia.

In 1870, the first boardwalk was built along a portion of the beach to help hotel owners keep sand out of their lobbies. The idea caught on, and the boardwalk was expanded and modified several times in the following years. The historic length of the Boardwalk, before the 1944 hurricane, was about 7 miles (11.2 kilometers) long and it extended from Atlantic City, through Ventnor and Margate, into Longport. Today, it is 4.12 miles (6.63 kilometers) long and 60 feet (20 meters) wide, reinforced with steel and concrete. The combined length of the Atlantic City and Ventnor Boardwalks is approximately 5.75 miles (9.25 kilometers) long. It is now the world's longest boardwalk.

During the early part of the 20th Century, Atlantic City went through a radical building boom. Modest little boarding houses that dotted the boardwalk would grow into monster sand castles by the sea. Two of the city’s most distinctive hotels were the Marlborough-Blenheim and the Traymore Hotels.

In 1903, Josiah White III bought a parcel of land near Ohio Avenue (today the site of Bally's Atlantic City) and the boardwalk and built the Queen Anne style Marlborough House. The hotel was a hit and in 1905-1906 he chose to expand the hotel and bought another parcel of land next door to his Marlborough House. In an effort to make his new hotel a source of conversation, White hired the architectural firm of Price and McLanahan to design his hotel. The architectural firm decided to make use of reinforced concrete, a new building material invented by Thomas Edison. The hotel’s Spanish and Moorish theme capped off with its signature dome and chimneys represented a step forward from other hotels that had a classically designed influence. White named the new hotel the Blenheim and merged the two hotels into the Marlborough-Blenheim.

Across the way at the corner of Illinois Avenue and the boardwalk, would grow the city’s most distinctive hotel, The Traymore. Began in 1879 as a small boarding house, the hotel grew through a series of uncoordinated expansion. By 1914, the hotel’s owner, Daniel White, taking a hint from the Marlborough-Blenheim, commissioned the firm of Price and McLanahan to build an even bigger hotel. Sixteen stories high, the tan brick and gold-capped hotel would become one of the city’s best-known landmarks. The hotel was best known for making use of ocean-facing hotel rooms by jutting its wings farther out from the main portion of the hotel along Pacific Avenue.

One by one, other large hotels sprung up along the Boardwalk. The Brighton, the Chelsea, The Shelburne. The Ambassador, The Ritz Carlton, the Breakers, best known for its snob appeal for only the highest class of person roomed there and enjoyed its roof top garden lounge. The Quaker-owned Chalfonte House and Haddon Hall opened in the 1890's, would by the twenties merge into the Chalfonte-Haddon Hall and would become the city’s largest hotel with nearly one thousand rooms. By 1930, the city’s last large hotel, the Claridge, would open. At nearly twenty-four stories it would become known as the “Skyscraper By The Sea.”

The city hosted the 1964 Democratic National Convention which nominated Lyndon Johnson for President and Hubert Humphrey as Vice President. The ticket won in a landslide that November. The convention and the press coverage it generated, however, cast a harsh light on Atlantic City, which by then was in the midst of a long period of economic decline. Many felt that the friendship between LBJ and the Governor of New Jersey at that time, Richard J. Hughes, led Atlantic City to host the Democratic Convention.

Like all major cities, Atlantic City contains distinct neighborhoods or districts. The communities are known as: The Inlet, Bungalow Park; The Marina District, Midtown, Westside, Ducktown, Chelsea, Chelsea Heights and Venice Park.

Although a small city, it had been plagued with many large city problems, especially poverty and crime. The neighborhood known as the "inlet" was particularly impoverished. In an effort at revitalizing the city, New Jersey voters in 1976 approved casino gambling for the city of Atlantic City. Resorts International became the first legal casino in the eastern United States when it opened on May 26, 1978. Other casinos were soon added along the boardwalk and later in the marina district for a total of twelve today. The introduction of gambling did not, however, quickly eliminate many of the urban problems that plagued Atlantic City. Many have argued that it only served to magnify those problems, as evidenced in the stark contrast between tourism-intensive areas and the adjacent impoverished working-class neighborhoods. Drug-infested tenements in poor condition stand directly beside multi-billion dollar casino hotels along the ocean in some locations. In addition, Atlantic City has played second-fiddle to Las Vegas, Nevada, as a gambling mecca in the United States, although in the late 1970s and 1980s, when Las Vegas was experiencing a massive drop in tourism due to crime, particularly the Mafia's role, and other economic factors, Atlantic City was favored over Las Vegas. On July 3, 2003, Atlantic City's newest casino, The Borgata, opened with much success. Another major attraction is the oldest remaining Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium in the world. It is also Ripley's most famous odditorium.

Atlantic City is home to New Jersey's first wind farm. The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm consists of five 1.5 MW turbine towers, each almost 400 feet (120 meters) high.

Gambling was stopped for the first time since 1978 at 8:00 a.m. on July 5, 2006, during the 2006 New Jersey State Government Shutdown mandated by Governor Jon Corzine. The casinos reopened at 7:00 p.m. on July 8, 2006.

Geography

Atlantic City is located at 39°21′54″N, 74°26′21″W (39.364966, -74.439034)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 44.9 km² (17.4 mi²). 29.4 km² (11.4 mi²) of it is land and 15.5 km² (6.0 mi²) of it (34.58%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 40,517 people, 15,848 households, and 8,700 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,378.3/km² (3,569.8/mi²). There were 20,219 housing units at an average density of 687.8/km² (1,781.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 26.68% White, 44.16% Black or African American, 0.48% Native American, 10.40% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 13.76% from other races, and 4.47% from two or more races. 24.95% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 15,848 households out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 24.8% were married couples living together, 23.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 37.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.26.

In the city the population was spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 96.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $26,969, and the median income for a family was $31,997. Males had a median income of $25,471 versus $23,863 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,402. About 19.1% of families and 23.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.1% of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Local government

Atlantic City is governed under the Faulkner Act (Mayor-Council) system of municipal government. The current Mayor of Atlantic City is Bob Levy.

Members of the Atlantic City Council are:

• Ward 1: G. Bruce Ward (appointed to replace Gibb Jones, who resigned for health reasons)^[1]
• Ward 2: Marty Small
• Ward 3: Joyce Mollineaux (appointed to replace Craig Callaway, who resigned on August 30, 2006)^[2]
• Ward 4: William "Speedy" Marsh, Council President
• Ward 5: Dennis Mason
• Ward 6: Timothy Mancuso
• At Large: John Shultz
• At Large: Eugene Robinson
• At Large: Ramón "Tito" Rosario

Federal, state and county representation

Atlantic City is in the Second Congressional District and is part of New Jersey's 2nd Legislative District^[3].

New Jersey's Second Congressional District, covering all of Atlantic County, Cape May County, Cumberland County and Salem County and portions of Burlington County, Camden County and Gloucester County, is represented by Frank LoBiondo (R, Vineland). New Jersey is represented in the Senate by Frank Lautenberg (D, Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D, Hoboken).

The 2nd legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by William Gormley (R) and in the Assembly by Francis J. Blee (R, Absecon) and Jim Whelan (D, Atlantic City). The Governor of New Jersey is Jon Corzine (D, Hoboken).

Atlantic County's County Executive is Dennis Levinson. The executive, along with the Board of Chosen Freeholders, administers all county business. Atlantic County's Freeholders are Francis Sutton, James Curcio, Frank Finnerty (Freeholder Vice Chairman), Alisa Cooper, Joe Kelly, Rev. Lawton Nelson, Thomas Russo, Sue Schilling and Joseph F. Silipena (Freeholder Chairman).

Education

The Atlantic City School District serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth garde. Schools in the district are eight elementary schools — Chelsea Heights School, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School Complex, New Jersey Avenue School, New York Avenue School, Richmond Avenue School, Sovereign Avenue School, Texas Avenue School and Uptown School Complex — Atlantic City High School [1] for grades 9-12, along with Venice Park School and Viking Academy.

Students from Brigantine, Longport, Margate City and Ventnor City attend Atlantic City High School as part of sending/receiving relationships with the respective school districts.

Casino resorts

¹ Harrah's Entertainment announced that it will rebrand Bally's sometime in the future to either the Horseshoe or Rio brands.

² Claridge Tower (Formerly The Claridge Casino/Hotel) is now part of Bally's Atlantic City and is no longer listed separately.

³ The Sands will officially close its doors on November 11, 2006, The casino will shut down at 6am and the hotel will close around 12:00pm following the last guest checkout. New owner Pinnacle Entertainment will tear down the building to make way for a new mega resort.

Planned casino/resorts

• CityCenter East – In March 2006, MGM Mirage announced that it has begun predevelopment and design work for a new casino/resort, tentatively called "CityCenter East", patterned after the company's CityCenter project in Las Vegas. If built, CityCenter East would be located on 55 acres of land situated between The Borgata and Harrah's Atlantic City^[4].

• Morgan Stanley has also bought 20 acres directly north of the Showboat Hotel and Casino and plans to build another 1 Billion Dollar-Plus Resort Casino^[5].

• A company headed by Former Caesars CEO Wallace Barr and Former New Jersey Casino Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Curtis Bashaw recently purchased land south of the Atlantic City Hilton, owned by its parent Colony Capital, LLC of Los Angeles, CA. The tract includes the site of the former Atlantic City High School and the planned, but failed Dunes casino. Only the former Dunes site is currently zoned for casino space.

• The recent closure of Bader Field, the city's original airport, has prompted speculation that gaming mogul Steve Wynn may be interested in returning to Atlantic City to develop all or part of the former Bader Fileds 143 acres as a casino similar to his Las vegas and Macau properties.

• The parent company of Tropicana Casino and resoort is looking for a parner to develop a boutique casino and/or condominium complext on a square city block of boardwalk property north of the Ritz Carlton Condominium Building.

• A parcel of land behind behind the aging Trump Marina Casino bordered by Brigantine Bay and the Trump Marina parking garage is rumored to be owned by Mirage resorts. Local residents and casino experts have been quoted in the press as being unsatisfied with the aging casino and have urged its demolition, combining the land with the bayfront parcel for a larger more modern casino.

Former, closed and never opened casino/resorts

Sports

The 2008 Rugby League World Cup qualifying series involving USA, West Indies, Japan and South Africa is being held at Bernie Robbins Stadium in October 2006.

Media outlets

Media outlets without a link do not currently have a website.

Newspapers

• The Press of Atlantic City
• Atlantic City Weekly
• The Courier-Post
• Philadelphia Daily News
• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• Star-Ledger
• The Trenton Times
• The Trentonian
• Hammonton Gazette

Radio stations

Atlantic City's radio market is ranked #135 in the nation.

Television stations

See also: Television stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• WQAV-TV Channel 13 Atlantic City (Independent) - Wikipedia article / Official Website
• WMGM-TV Channel 40 Atlantic City (NBC)
• WMCN-TV Channel 53 Atlantic City (Independent)
• W60CX-TV Channel 60 Atlantic City (TBN) - Wikipedia article / Official website
• WWSI-TV Channel 62 Atlantic City (Telemundo)

Transportation

Rail and Bus

Atlantic City is connected to other cities in several ways. New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line runs from Philadelphia and several smaller South Jersey communities directly to the Atlantic City Rail Terminal at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

On June 20, 2006, the board of New Jersey Transit approved a three-year trial of express train service between New York Penn Station and the Atlantic City Rail Terminal. The estimated travel time will be 2½ hours with a few stops along the way and is part of the Casinos' multi-million dollar investments in Atlantic City. Most of the funding for the new transit line will be provided by Harrah's Entertainment (owners of both Harrah's Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City) and the Borgata. The line is expected to be in service by the end of 2007, but details on the line's operation are scant^[6].

The Atlantic City Bus Terminal is the home to local, intra-state and interstate bus companies including New Jersey Transit and Greyhound bus lines.

Highways and taxicabs

Access to Atlantic City by car is available via the 44 mile (70 km) Atlantic City Expressway, US 30 (commonly known as the White Horse Pike), and US 40/322 (commonly known as the Black Horse Pike). Atlantic City has an abundance of taxi cabs and a local Jitney service providing continuous service to and from the casinos and the rest of the city.

Airline service

Commercial airlines serve Atlantic City via Atlantic City International Airport, located 9 miles (14 km) northwest of the city in Egg Harbor Township. Many travellers also choose to fly into Philadelphia International Airport or Newark Liberty International Airport, where there are wider selections of carriers from which to choose. The historic downtown Bader Field airport, now used only by private pilots, is scheduled to be closed later in 2006.

Atlantic City in popular culture

Atlantic City has been a rather frequent subject in popular culture. The eccentric 1972 Bob Rafelson film The King of Marvin Gardens with Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, and Ellen Burstyn was shot on location there and strongly conveys a feel for the pre-casino/post-glory-days limbo the city was mired in at the time. The powerful Oscar-nominated 1981 movie, Atlantic City, by French director Louis Malle, starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, reflects the city at the dawn of its casino-driven "rebirth". Atlantic City is cited as the Sundance Kid's birthplace in the 1969 classic western film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A popular Bruce Springsteen song, "Atlantic City", depicting a young couple's escape to the city, appears on Springsteen's 1982 album Nebraska[2].

More recently, several episodes of Donald Trump's television show The Apprentice have been based and filmed in Atlantic City.

Atlantic City is often mentioned on the sitcom Friends.

In Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow, the family escapes to Atlantic City in the midst of the Colehouse Walker debacle. It is a song feature in Ragtime: The Musical.

It was the home of the Miss America pageant from 1921 to 2005. In August 2005, it was announced that the pageant would no longer be held in Atlantic City. On January 21, 2006, the first pageant to occur outside Atlantic City took place in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Aladdin Casino and Resort.

The streets of Atlantic City are used in the American version of the boardgame Monopoly.

The sticky confection salt water taffy is closely associated with the Boardwalk.

Episode 5.3 of Sex and the City was set primarily in the Taj Mahal casino.

A Disney Vacation Club (DVC) resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Disney's BoardWalk Villas, is based on Atlantic City in the 1930s.

The Simpsons visited Atlantic City, with Homer making a derogatory remark towards the New Jersey state flag by pointing out that it has a fat man kissing a woman on it. In reality it does not. In another episode, after Homer's plan to build a casino run by South Pacific island natives goes awry, he remarks to the islanders, "I gave you a glittering Vegas, and you turned it into a skanky Atlantic City." Banners on the boardwalk in the show read "Atlantic City: Where New York comes to smoke".

References

External links

• Atlantic City Board of Education
• Atlantic City School District's 2004-2005 School Report Card from the New Jersey Department of Education
• National Center for Education Statistics data for the Atlantic City School District
• Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority
• Atlantic City Convention Center
• Atlantic City Free Public Library
• Atlantic City Housing Authority
• Atlantic City International Airport
• Atlantic City Jitney Association
• Atlantic City Police Department
• Atlantic City Race Course Official Website
• Atlantic City Regional Chamber of Commerce
• Atlantic City Surf (Minor League Baseball Team)
• The independent guide to Atlantic City Casinos and Hotels - AtlanticCitysBest
• Atlantic City Travel & Information Guide
• Boardwalk Hall (Formerly the Atlantic City Convention Center)
• California, Here They Come (Link with article concerning move of the former Boardwalk Bullies' hockey team to Stockton, California)
• Bruce Springsteen's performance of his song "Atlantic City"
• Movie of Atlantic City floral parade, circa 1904
• New Jersey Casino Control Commission
• New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority
• New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement
• South Jersey Transportation Authority
• Atlantic City Events
• Driving Directions to Atlantic City
• Atlantic City Accommodations, Places to stay
• History of Atlantic City
• History of the Atlantic City Boardwalk
• Religious Services in Atlantic City
• Atlantic City Daily Poker Tournament Schedule

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 39.364966° -74.439034°
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