Family-friendly A.C.? Christie's plan no sure bet

August 01, 2010|By Suzette Parmley, Inquirer Staff Writer
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  • After a failed family experiment, Las Vegas remains an adult playground, and unabashedly so.
After a failed family experiment, Las Vegas remains an adult playground, and unabashedly…
  • After a failed family experiment, Las Vegas remains an adult playground, and unabashedly so.
  • The sun sets behind the Boardwalk and casinos in Atlantic City Jul. 21, 2010, in the evening after Gov. Christie called for dramatic changes in government oversight of the city's troubled gaming and tourism industries. ( Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer ) EDITORS NOTE: (Tom Gralish )
  • Gov. Christie speaking outside Boardwalk Hall. Behind him is Jon Hanson, chairman of a commission that created the plan.
  • ( Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer ) Wed. 7/21/2010 - An advisory commission formed by Gov. Christie on Wednesday recommended sweeping changes to the state's gaming and entertainment industries. (Tom Gralish )
  • New Jersey Gov. Christie (the one in the suit) heads towards a news conference to announce moves to reverse Atlantic City's fortunes.
  • Gov. Christie outside Boardwalk Hall, where he announced a plan to take over the Atlantic City casino district, update gaming regulations, and end casino and state subsidies of the horse-racing industry. "Atlantic City is dying," he said.
  • Revel Entertainment Group's unfinished $2.5 billion casino resort project. The property is one of the initiatives the state hopes to tackle immediately. Gov. Christie has already signed legislation that would potentially supply more than $300 million in future state sales taxes to be infused in the infrastructure around the site. (Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer) (Tom Gralish )

ATLANTIC CITY - During a weeklong family vacation in Ocean City last summer, John Wisniewski suggested an evening buffet at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa.

Under one condition:

"With blinders on," the father of two sons, then 4 and 1, said, half-joking. "We literally went in and left right after we ate.

"There was concern over my boys seeing behavior appropriate for a casino, but not appropriate for a child," said the 34-year old broker from Yardley. "A casino is an adult place."

The Wisniewskis' willingness to spend their vacation dollars in nearby Shore towns, but reluctance to take their children to Atlantic City casinos and stay overnight, underscores a tension that could make Gov. Christie's plan to overhaul this gaming town into a family-friendly resort particularly challenging.

Story continues below.

Outside Boardwalk Hall on July 21, the governor made no bones about whom he wanted to see more of on the beach, pacing the Boardwalk, sampling the restaurants. "We need to make Atlantic City into a destination resort and make it a family resort," he said.

But his plan for a transformation that seems to call for somehow melding the sexy glitter of a Las Vegas with a socially and economically revitalized New Brunswick faces an uphill fight.

The Atlantic City of today does not have the look or feel of a family-style oceanside resort such as Ocean City, Md., or the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Visitors to Atlantic City rarely bring children. The only place to stay overnight here now is at a casino hotel or seedy motel, raising several questions:

Can a decaying city dogged by a reputation for being unclean and unsafe, with an outdated transportation system, inadequate airport, and potholed streets, make such a transition?

After more than three decades in the driver's seat, what role can the city's foundering casino industry possibly play in a new Atlantic City, and will that future entail having fewer casinos?

And what, besides gambling, can support Atlantic City for the nine months between summer crowds?

Historically, casinos and families don't mix.

Las Vegas had family attractions as early as the 1950s, with places like the Last Frontier Village, modeled after an old Western town.

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