Three major casinos have or will close in Atlantic city over a one month period: The Showboat, the Revel, and the Trump Plaza. They follow the closing earlier in the year of the Atlantic Club. This reflects a third of the Atlantic City gambling industry and thousands of job losses.
(See “Showboat Casino Closes Amid Tears and Questions About Atlantic City’s Direction”)
Yet, this may well be a good thing for the resort. With so much competition coming from recently licensed casinos in surrounding states, the casino industry in Atlantic city was over built. Not enough business to go around weakened the financial underpinnings for all of the casinos as well as undermined the tax ratables as assessments plunged.
With eight casinos still in operation, there will be no lack of places to gamble and recreate at the shore resort. The remaining eight will now have an opportunity to prosper. Meanwhile, there is talk of the Revel being converted to exclusive residential condominiums to be sold to international clients.
The lesson for Lancaster? Just as was the case with casinos, reckless expansion of shopping centers will ultimately undermine Park City. If and when that occurs, the mall will become an eyesore if not an endangerment. Essential tax revenue for the City will dry up while police expense will soar.
The County Planning Board would do well to crusade against unwarranted commercial expansion. Unfortunately, it serves only in anadvisory capacity and is often ignored.
What is required is a re-evaluation and alteration of zoning codes and subdivision ordinances by the various municipalities.
But before this can happen, the Lancaster Newspapers will need to begin to write about the danger and county and municipal officials to disscuss it.
We won’t hold our breadth.
As long as LNP/PSP continues to feed at the public trough gaining unreported profits, at the expense of county/city taxpayers who are somehow being forced to guarantee those unreported profits; LNP could care less about what’s transpiring beyond their ivory white tower in downtown Lancaster.
What this county needs is a truly objective newspaper….unfortunately this will never ever happen with the current family ownership/management/editorial staff.