Even before its official opening, The Chelsea admitted guests.  July 4, our family was enjoying Hilton Casino’s free Beach Boys concert on the beach.  We met the first guest to obtain a room at The Chelsea.  She was ecstatic!

   She shared that many areas in the hotel were not finished.  Despite it being unfinished, she was already thoroughly impressed with the quality of the rooms and staff.  Her picture will be featured in the hotel. 

   Starting with a greeting from Sam, or any of the other bell boys, The Chelsea’s experience blows standard Atlantic City hotels and casino hotels out of the water.  Industry insiders say that only The Water Club will be able to compare to The Chelsea, for those looking for the five-star hotel treatment.

   Hospitality Net writes about The Chelsea:

This summer, the Chelsea ushers in a new era of Atlantic City chic, re-imagining the fabled heyday of “America’s Playground” for the savvy modern traveler. The first non-gaming hotel to grace the Boardwalk since the 1960s, the Chelsea captures imaginations by conjuring the long-lost glamour and sophistication of this seaside resort town as a magical retreat where leisure and luxury come together in a perfect blend of great service, true comfort, and alluring spaces.

Curtis Bashaw, lead developer of The Chelsea, told attendees of the Metropolitan Business and Civic Association’s annual luncheon - held earlier this year - that his hotel will feature long living room-esque areas, reminiscent of the glorious hotels from Atlantic City’s past.   The bars and lounges will immediately make a play for Atlantic City’s nightlife crowd. 

   The Chelsea marks a new era in Atlantic City.  Its success will determine how far the boutique hotel model will go in Atlantic City.

   The Star Ledger featured a fantastic story on Frank Formica earlier this month.  In case you missed the story, do check out “Atlantic City bakery perseveres amid changing times,” by Judy DeHaven.  Ms. DeHaven said, in part:

Frank Formica is a bread baker, down to the core.

Sure, he had his moments. After high school, he toyed with the idea of moving to L.A. to become a rock star, although he didn’t get much further than the carnies in Cape May. And he did leave baking — once — for a stint at Resorts International.

But he always returned to Ducktown, once the “Little Italy” of Atlantic City, to a quaint bakery on Arctic Avenue across the street from the legendary White House Sub Shop.

There, the Formica Bros. Bakery still uses the recipe his grandparents created nearly a century ago to churn out 45,000 pieces of bread a day, along with tomato pies, biscotti and cannolis.

“Flour is in my blood,” he said.

If you have never tried Formica Bakery and Cafe’s products, shame on you.  Their food is delicious.

When Frank Formica returned to Ducktown in 1987, the bakery had hardly changed.

The coal-burning stove his grandfather had installed in 1927 was still operating. But since it did not comply with new environmental rules, it had to go.

As Frank put it: “I had to try to take this stone and bearskin and turn it into a mnemonic memory circuit.”

And the neighborhood was different.

“There were crackhouses, gun-trafficking,” Frank recalled. “But this was my neighborhood. So I stood to build the business up.”

He installed a brick-lined gas oven and doubled the size of the production area. Using his casino contacts, he expanded and turned it into a 24-hour bakery.

Atlantic City is blessed to have Frank Formica’s dedication to the Ducktown neighborhood.

   There is no one reason for the declining casino revenues.  WBGO-FM Newark reported:

While some might not call it a slump, there have been definite downward trends for Atlantic City casinos this summer. Joe Weinert is the Senior Vice President of the casino consulting firm, Spectrum Gaming Group, and he says fewer gamblers are willing to risk filling up their tanks for slot machines and games of chance. Weinert says some casinos are adding more rooms or resort amenities like spas and shows to attract visitors in the future � but he says there’s little they can do to fix the problem in the interim. Weinert says gamblers in the metropolitan area would rather spend their money closer to home at other casinos where they have less strict smoking rules and electric game tables

Nearly everyone, except Atlantic City’s City Council, see that a smoking ban leads to decreased casino revenues.  The citizens of Atlantic City and South Jersey absolutely depend on the stability of casino revenues for our current level of prosperity.  City Council is intent on hindering the casinos ability to do business.  The City Councilmen and Mayor should be as aware of the threat of foreclosures and the nation-wide economic slowdown as citizens are.  Atlantic City government’s best move to help every person’s economic outlook is to stand-up to UAW labor union and give casinos the ability to permit smoking in their establishments. 

   Competition is developing in the surrounding areas.  Regional competition is skimming Atlantic City’s patron base.  Smart government would bring additional tools to our casinos, for them to successfully compete for patrons.  The current City Council unanimously tied the casinos hands with the support of Mayor Scott Evans.

   AOL sports’ MLB Fanhouse details Saturday night’s boxing action at Bernie Robbins Stadium:

Vai Sikahema didn’t save the world on Saturday night, but he got the ball rolling, and that’s pretty good for an average guy. And he did so by quickly destroying Jose Canseco in a “celebrity” boxing “match” that didn’t last too particularly long and ended the same way it started, according to the New York Daily News: with a crowd of roughly 1,300 people booing, cursing and mocking the former baseball player for his steroid use.

 Will Brinson continues:

Usually I think happy endings are relatively sappy. But in this case, I’m willing to make an exception. Despite playing a role in the unveiling of MLB’s steroid culture, over the past few months, Canseco has been nothing short of a promiscuous media figure and a scourge for every decent minded C-list celebrity trying to keep up a respectful image.

   Yahoo Finance reports:

Atlantic City’s City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to allow negotiations on financing for road improvements for a new casino.

Revel Entertainment Group wants the city to issue $56 million in bonds to provide money for the company to redesign and widen access roads to the project.

The company’s attorney said Revel would be responsible for paying interest on the bonds, whose term and interest rate have not yet been determined.

Another vote to decide terms is scheduled in two weeks.

City government will now assume the role of partner in the Revel casino project.  City Council is two weeks away from further blurring the line between government and private interests.  So-called public/private partnerships are an abuse of the function of government.  If Atlantic City issues bonds on behalf of Revel Entertainment, the city sets a dangerous precedent that future developers will point to in their quest to get taxpayers to underwrite their projects.

   The Atlantic City City Council bonding proposal is an improper function of city government.  Public assistance grows in Atlantic City, while private and corporate responsibility diminishes.  A unanimous and united City Council is intent on growing government and intruding in what should be the business of a private business.  Revel Entertainment ought to be responsible for obtaining capital from private sources, not the credit of Atlantic City taxpayers.

   Just a few years ago, it would be unlikely for us to be talking about boutique hotels in Atlantic City.  Now, two are open and the third is on its way. DiGeorge Atlantic is building Prasada.  AndrewC writes:

Blah blah blah…nothing new here right? Oh no, Prasada will have a night club, wine tasting room, multi-lingual staff, movie screening room, a 5-story atrium over an indoor pool with cabanas, cigar lounge, mezzanine bar, and a library with fireplace. Oh yea, and it’ll be green-certified too. Woohoo!!

Atlantic City is well in to the era of boutique hotels.

   I take on the fascination with Craig Callaway in my July Casino Connection column.  There is still a great deal of respect for Mr. Callaway’s ability to amass political power.  My column looks at Atlantic City’s political power landscape.  There were some lessons learned from June’s primary election.

 Craig Callaway did not run for elected office last month. Yet Craig Callaway has been discussed as often as any candidate who vied in June’s mayoral primary. Why is Callaway—sitting in federal prison, hundreds of miles away—such a focal point for Atlantic City political discourse?

Read the rest of my column, by clicking here.

   Yesterday’s Press of Atlantic City illustrates yet another reason why civil service needs the axe.  Civil service is an artificial government intervention.  Artificial, because the mechanism does not accurately portrey reality.  Civil service ensures that workers do not receive pay commensurate to the work they perform. 

   Michael Clark begins his article: 

A City Council aide and sister to the Democratic nominee for mayor is suing the city after her salary was cut in half by her brother’s political rival.

Cheryl Banks, former Mayor Lorenzo Langford’s sister, recently filed a lawsuit against the city after Mayor Scott Evans’ administration reduced her $67,600 salary, which was twice the average salary of her colleagues.

The Press of Atlantic City reported in February that Banks was given a $31,650 raise when she was demoted back to an aide after serving as City Council President William Marsh’s chief of staff during his brief tenure as acting mayor. Before her short stint in the mayor’s office, Banks earned $33,350.

Look at this story in the following manner: 

   Ms. Anyone is employed to perform job “a” in city government.  City government pays anyone $33,350 annually for performing job “a”.  Ms. Anyone changes her job.  She now works job “b” that pays $67,600 annually.  The change in job responsibilities is what merits the pay increase.  It is not one’s connections, skin color, or other extraneous factor that merits the pay increase between jobs “a” and “b”.  Quality work and effort is what deserves payment through a salary and benefits.  Factors other than quality work and effort constantly qualifies city government employees for salaries and benefits that they do not deserve.

   When Ms. Anyone no longer is performing job “b” she does not deserve job “b’s” salary, pure and simple.  There is no way around the fact that Mr. Anyone, Cheryl Banks in this case, does not deserve job “b’s” salary when she is not working job “b”.   

   Now, why is civil service responsible for Ms. Anyone’s exploitation of the taxpayers?  Civil service makes it in theory difficult and in practice near-impossible to fire or demote a city government employee.  Government is public and visible.  Whether it is liked, or not, city government sets an example for the community.  It is daily more and more apparent that city government employees receive salaries and benefits that do not relate to their job responsibilities and performance.

   The average citizen is not inspired to work harder and be more productive, when he sees his neighbor in city government not working hard.  Civil service ensures that a city government employee can work for a few years, earn civil service protection, and then relax their work effort to the slow monotony of government bureaucracy.  The people need to force state government to axe civil service protection.

   Steven Lemongello of the Atlantic City Press writes:

Vowing that “we are going to shut this town down,” local AFL-CIO leader Roy Foster told a crowd of thousands at Saturday’s union rally that they weren’t going to march down the Boardwalk, as was previously announced. Instead, they were going to march straight down the center of Atlantic City along Pacific Avenue - a street the organizers did not have a permit to use. 

Roy Foster led thousands of union people, from around the country, down Pacific Avenue on a Saturday, shutting down Pacific Avenue.  Our local economy lost money thanks to labor union members from around the country, Governor Jon Corzine, Senator Bob Menendez, Mayor Scott Evans, and Roy Foster. 

   Mr. Lenongello continues:

Police Sgt. Monica McMenamin said that while the organizers’ permit was for a march down the Boardwalk, not Pacific, the police don’t anticipate any charges being filed. Backup plans were in place in case the route made such a detour, she said, and the march turned out to be a peaceful one without any arrests or disturbances.

Peaceful or not, the union members broke the law.  Roy Foster broke the law.  Even Al Sharpton was arrested for blocking traffic on the Atlantic City Expressway without a permit.  Maybe Reverend Sharpton should have joined UAW and he would not have been arrested.  Atlantic City Police Department needs to enforce the city’s laws equally to all.  Labor unions should never be exempted from the law, regardless of how much money they donate to Mayor Scott Evans’s campaign.

   You know, I have always wanted to have a birthday party in the middle of Pacific Avenue.  I might have to join the UAW, Local 54, or another labor union so I can hold a party in the middle of Pacific Avenue as well. 

   Atlantic City sets-out to set another record.  This time, Atlantic City is making a move in the field of alternative energy.   Atlantic City’s Convention Center will be home to the largest single-rooftop solar panel project. 

   Energy is a complex field.  Local, County, State, and Federal governments and subsidiary agencies need to collaborate to ensure an atmosphere that is able to meet our energy needs.  Government has a lot to do with setting energy policies, but government rarely creates needed solutions to any problems.  Energy is no exception.  Government action often has the characteristic of being short-sighted.  Well-intentioned government intervention in any field always has unintended, undesirable consequences.  My case and point is ethanol subsidies, which have caused food prices to sky-rocket, the Amazon to be depleted, and most-likely will lead to a summer rationing of corn.  

   Atlantic City was the first town in New Jersey to build windmills.  It is good to diversify ones energy portfolio.  Yet there seems to be one element missing in the energy equation: savings.  With all of the credits currently generated by windmills and sold back to the power grid, there is not a commensurate savings passed on to the consumer.  The profits that government agencies makes from selling credits back to the grid get re-invested in government activity.   Hence, they are truly wind-fall profits. 

   The one factor Atlantic City residents should remind their government is that we want savings.  The solar panel project and windmills both create profits.  Pass the profits back to taxpayers, not to politicians’ pockets.