January 20-26, 2005

cityspace

Personnel Development

by Bryant Simon

Atlantic City is often compared to Lazarus because, like the biblical figure, it has died and risen. Unlike Lazarus, Atlantic City keeps coming back for return acts. These days, journalists are talking about Atlantic City once again rising up from the ashes — this time to compete with Las Vegas. The signs of rebirth are everywhere.

Last year, the Borgata opened, the first new casino built in the city in years. The shimmering, copper-colored, 40-story tower is New Jersey's tallest building, housing a Susanna Foo eatery and a half-dozen other high-end restaurants along with a "retail piazza." The Borgata pool is as big as most people's houses.

At the end of the Atlantic City Expressway sits the recently finished Walk, a string of outlet stores designed by the Baltimore-based Cordish Company.

Last month marked the opening of the Quarter, a retail space at the Tropicana Casino. According to its PR department, "Before Las Vegas, before Atlantic City, there was Havana — a place where traditions from the old world blended perfectly with pulsating Latin rhythms. Havana was a place where you could have it all — indulgence and illusion, elegance and irreverence." Now, the Trop boasts that the Quarter will bring the "same unique experience" to Atlantic City. Jeffrey Chodorow's Red Square is a massive restaurant there that offers "a pseudo-Soviet atmosphere highlighted by a 60-foot bar made of real ice." After being greeted by Lenin's portrait, customers can choose from more than 100 rare vodkas and store their unfinished bottles in personalized liquor lockers set at 30 degrees below zero.

New towers, shopping areas and parking decks are going up everywhere. The most buoyant boosters say the city is more "like Las Vegas" all the time, that it's finally becoming a destination resort.

While all of the new stores and showcase eateries point to crucial developments in the city's history, they are not the most important recent "developments" along the boardwalk. That key development came in November when the city's most powerful union, Local 54, went on strike and signed a new contract. The union, which didn't get everything it asked for, secured an agreement that maintained its members' relatively high wages and excellent benefits. The larger lesson? As we think about rebuilding our cities, look beyond new buildings, designer shops and outrageous restaurants to see the people who work and live there.

Simon is a member of the Design Advocacy Group.