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Ranchers.net

we should look at Trumps crown jewel to see how he made such a dump like Atlantic City into a show place..

(unless you get a few blocks away from the casinos,.. then it is still a dump... )

No single figure has been more associated with Atlantic City casinos than Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential frontrunner

Reuben Kramer begins each day by checking court filings online for Trump Taj Mahal, which is bankrupt. Its employees have lost health coverage. Technically, the casino's namesake, Donald Trump, no longer owns the place.

Shortly after legal casinos first opened here in 1978, Trump, the son of a real estate developer from Queens, started buying property in the center of town, at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway, from private homeowners and investment groups. Those parcels formed what would become his first Atlnatic City casino, the Trump Plaza, which opened in 1984.

Yet within a year of its opening the Taj filed for bankruptcy. Trump had over-leveraged. He had too much debt at interest rates he couldn’t afford -- a theme that would follow Trump through his years in Atlantic City.

Trump’s downfall mirrored the city’s collapse. "I have to be honest with you," says Kramer, "when we talk about myopic deal-making and not looking ahead to the future and not being a sustainable long-term business, he’s not the only one guilty of it."

Kramer shows us the shuttered Trump Plaza, which will likely be torn down. It is one of four casinos that closed in 2014, representing a third of Atlantic City's gaming halls. Trump’s name has been removed from the Trump Plaza facade. Only the gaudy golden crest, a color reminiscent of Trump’s famous hair, remains.

Trump brought attention to Atlantic City -- attracting concerts and boxing matches and Wrestlemania. At one point Trump was one of the biggest employers in South Jersey.

Today all that remains of his brand is the Trump Taj Mahal, where what Kramer calls the "Trump totalitarian personality cult" remains. His name and his picture are everywhere at the casino, inside and out.

"If you define success as building a sustainable long-term business that benefits you and others I think he failed abjectly,"

today,..Atlantic City is in deep trouble..

Atlantic City has always been a place of contradiction. Neon artificiality, food -stamp reality, persistent urban decay, spectacular natural beauty, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual — it’s a town that gets beneath the skin, refusing to allow you to give up on it. “The locals call it getting sand in your shoes,” says Trump Plaza security guard Stanley Smith. “And once you have it, you can’t get rid of it.”

A city that reinvents itself as often as this one perseveres on the memory of the good old days left behind and the promise of better days ahead. In a seaside town, there’s always next season. Now, however, it must deal with an economic crisis.

“You want to talk ripple effects?” says Frank Formica, an elected county official and owner of a 95-year-old family bakery that supplies some of the casinos. “The ripple effects are tidal waves.”

***

Four casinos closed in nine months. A fifth threatens to close by Thanksgiving. Almost 8,000 workers got pink slips. Many of the lost positions were considered good jobs with union-negotiated benefits, and people made careers out of them. They bought houses. They raised kids. They put themselves and their kids through college

. Atlantic City has always been a place of contradiction. Neon artificiality, food -stamp reality, persistent urban decay, spectacular natural beauty, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual — it’s a town that gets beneath the skin, refusing to allow you to give up on it.

The community has already lengthened pay periods for its workers to avert a shutdown of services as it tries to stave off insolvency. Governor Chris Christie’s rejection of measures that would have diverted gambling funds to the city created a $33.5 million hole in its budget. Christie and state lawmakers have yet to agree on a plan to rescue the 39,000-resident seaside town.

According to the Press of Atlantic City, the city is expected to run out of money in a matter of weeks, and the short-term picture looks grim. Not only is a $1.8 million bond payment due today, but a $7 million payroll payment is set for Friday as well.

With the city sitting on $500 million in debt, and with budget deficits topping $100 million, default and perhaps bankruptcy looks imminent without a major bailout from the state.

without a bailout,.. it's going to be a HUUGE disaster

Donald trump Made Atlantic city,.. and every-time it needed him he bailed out and filed for bankruptcy stiffing the working class..

today,.. it is a dump again... and beyond broke again..

Trump made Atlantic City Great again.. then pulled his cash out and went to greener pastures..

how will this work when he makes America great again,.. who will clean up the mess ?
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