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Is Atlantic City's historic decline beginning to repeat itself?
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History doesn't march in a straight line. It marches in a circle. Recent events prompt the question: Is Atlantic City marching into the past?
Atlantic City was and is an experiment in social planning. Conceived in the 1850s as a health spa for the wealthy, it was the first American city founded for the singular purpose of providing leisure-time activities for vacationers.
It wasn't long before the town's leaders realized that success depended upon making visitors happy - regardless of morality. As a wise old-timer once remarked, "If the people who came to town had wanted Bible readings, we'd have given 'em that. But nobody ever asked for Bible readings. They wanted booze, broads and gambling, so that's what we gave 'em."
But providing booze, broads and gambling involved more than ignoring 19th century morality. Bending the law and creating a unique political structure were critical to the town's early success. No one appreciated that more than the most accomplished person in Atlantic City's history.
Walter Edge (Atlantic Cape Community College's auditorium is named for him) was twice elected governor of New Jersey, served as U.S. senator and ambassador to France, and was considered for vice president to run with President Warren G. Harding. Edge amassed a fortune as owner of the Atlantic City Daily Press. In an editorial on December 14, 1903, he stated:
"Boss rule in most communities is regarded as an affliction, if not a curse. But it will be the salvation of Atlantic City. There will be no ... enduring progress, and … prosperity … until a practically autocratic government is created."
Edge's candor is startling. Events proved him correct, particularly during the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933. Despite a national ban on alcoholic beverages imposed by the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, booze flowed, and Atlantic City partied like no place else in America. "Bossism" made it all possible.
Louis "The Commodore" Kuehnle, followed by Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, saw to it that nothing interfered with the good times. We know now that Atlantic City's true "golden age" was from approximately 1890 until the repeal of Prohibition 43 years later. From then to the 1970s (interrupted briefly by World War II, when soldiers' dollars boosted the economy), it was a long, slow, sad period of decline.
The resort's third "boss," Frank "Hap" Farley, spent his entire career trying to prop up a crumbling economy. His successes were many but hardly remembered because of the town's decline. Unable to adapt to the modern world, the resort's economy disintegrated when vacationers found new places to go. Old Atlantic City didn't "fail" so much as it was abandoned by vacationers and most of its middle-class residents.
Atlantic City's brand of bossism was an elaborate network of residents comprising the entire social and economic spectrum. It was the glue that unified the city. For nearly 75 years, the Kuehnle-Johnson-Farley regimes were akin to a social compact, setting the town's agenda. After Farley's organization collapsed, there was no agenda and worse still - no leadership. Atlantic City was left without a rudder.
The timing of the 1976 gambling referendum was unfortunate. There was no one in charge to lead the changes required to maximize gambling's potential. For City Hall - with no tradition of two-party politics or genuinely participatory government - what followed Farley's departure has been a never-ending political free-for-all.
Re-reading the promises of the 1976 referendum campaign reveals that few of the town's shortcomings can be laid at the feet of the casinos. They were to be a catalyst for economic revitalization. The casino industry held up its end of the bargain. Sadly, "we the people," through our elected officials at every level, have not delivered on our end.
Significant progress has been made since the coming of gambling, but many observers have a queasy feeling that more - much more - could have been accomplished. While many important investments are being made in the community, entire portions of both the city's landscape and population remain untouched.
Cause for queasiness increases daily, especially when one considers that employment in the casino industry peaked in 1997 at more than 49,000 and today stands at less than 38,000. Is the experiment in jeopardy?
Atlantic City benefited from the easy money of the past 20 years. Those days are gone. Witness the status of Revel Entertainment Group and the Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. site. Add to the mix the increased competition for gambling dollars from neighboring states, and any view of the future is muddled.
Two questions arise. First, how sustainable are the gains of the past 30 years? Second, will decline - yet again - be Atlantic City's future?
Nelson Johnson is a Superior Court Judge. He is also a historian and author of "Boardwalk Empire." The views expressed here are his alone as a historian.
Posted in Commentary on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 3:05 am
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