The Shocking Pictures That Show Exactly What’s Wrong With Atlantic City, NJ
There aren't many things that leave me speechless, however, what I witnessed in Atlantic City Wednesday night left me unable to think of the right words to describe what I saw.
To put this in proper context, allow me to paint a picture before I actually show you pictures.
And let me say right at the beginning, the pictures below are of an extremely adult nature. You have been warned.
I found myself in Atlantic City Wednesday evening to catch a concert on the boardwalk. It was a really perfect night -- the sun was setting, there was a nice breeze (enough to keep the overwhelming stench of marijuana from creating a haze over the boardwalk), and the temperature was right around 80. It was a beautiful evening.
I stayed at the concert for about an hour and then decided to head to the other end of town to run into a casino to grab something for dinner.
To do that, I would leave one of the casino parking garages in the middle of the city and head up Pacific Avenue to go to the north part of town by the Absecon Lighthouse.
As I often tell people, Pacific Avenue never disappoints. And it certainly did not Wednesday evening.
It's rather well-documented that the traffic lights in Atlantic City flat-out suck. None of them are timed properly. And because none of them are timed the right way, you often have to stop at nearly every single red light block after block and you sit there for 30 to 45 seconds each time when there's no reason to.
So it's as I'm approaching the 9 zillionth red light on Pacific Avenue that I see over on the sidewalk ahead of me a person, likely a woman, in an extremely short dress.
Extremely short.
And she's bent over at greater than 90 degrees, so let's just say everything is clearly visible.
Everything.
And she's facing away from traffic so everything that is visible is pointing right at all of the cars lined up waiting for the light to change.
As I'm comprehending this, I see something right in front of her, but I wasn't able to make out what it was until I got a little closer.
In front of the clearly exposed woman was a man. He was laying down. The top half of him was in a shrub and the lower half of him was across part of the sidewalk.
And his pants were down.
The woman is hovering over the partially-naked man, shall we say, "tending to his mid-section."
The man, by the way, was out cold. Either passed out from alcohol (there was a bottle right next to him on the sidewalk) or out of his mind on drugs or something. I really don't know. Sadly, I don't think anyone cared to find out.
Regardless, the woman was either robbing the guy or "tending to his mid-section" or both. He never moved once.
Mind you, this is all playing out a little before 8:00 on a Wednesday evening in downtown Atlantic City right on a sidewalk at a busy intersection on Pacific Avenue -- the main street that links all of the oceanfront casinos in town.
This wasn't happening at midnight. This wasn't happening down some back alley. This was at a red light on Pacific Avenue in the middle of the city during the summer tourist season.
If you're saying, "Wow, that can't possibly get any worse" -- oh, yes it can.
Right across the street from Little Miss Whac-a-mole with her ass exposed to all of Pacific Avenue and the guy with his pants down was a bunch of young kids, just sitting there watching this take place.
And that, my friends, is Atlantic City.
Sad, isn't it?
For starters, I'm doing what Atlantic City needs to do and often fails at -- getting locals to come into town to enjoy an event and then spend a little bit of money.
But Atlantic City has trouble getting locals to come in (I can't imagine why). The failed baseball team, the failed hockey team, the failed arena football team, and the failed Atlantic Club Casino, which catered to locals, are all examples of this.
But why would I come to Atlantic City if this is what I'm going to see?
Keep in mind, this took place about a dozen blocks from the new $100 million "family-friendly" indoor waterpark that just opened.
What if I'm bringing my family to town to go to the waterpark... I come off of the Expressway and head up Pacific Avenue to get there and that is what I have to see in broad daylight?
Have Atlantic City's elected officials completely given up on the city?
Shouldn't some city councilperson look at this with a fresh set of eyes and at least try to clean up Pacific Avenue? At least get the people who are passed out and not moving some help. Maybe at least see if they're at least alive?
Where is the mayor on this? His administration knows this stuff is going on. I certainly do. It's right on Pacific Avenue when the sun's up. You literally can't miss it.
"It's a great day in Atlantic City," isn't it?
The State has a great deal of oversight in the city. Where is the state? If you want to make Atlantic City a destination, you can't have this.
Has everyone given up?
This activity would never fly on 9th Street coming into Ocean City. You'd never see it on Route 70 in Cherry Hill. You'd never see what I saw on Long Beach Island. You'd never see it in practically any other town in the state.
So why is what I saw OK in Atlantic City?
Guess what. It's not. And a lot of people have failed for a really long time for things to get this bad.
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