“It’s a great day here in the city of Atlantic City,” has been Marty Small’s mantra since becoming mayor.
During his State of the City address Thursday night, he laid out an ambitious plan he says will make the future even greater.
Construction, job training, recreation for kids and adults, increasing ratables and decreasing taxes were part of the two-hour presentation inside the Atlantic City Convention Center and livestreamed via Zoom and Facebook.
“We’re coming into 2021 like never before,” he said. “And we’re coming back with a vengeance.”
Small noted that Atlantic City’s obituary has been written many times over the years: in 2012 with Sandy; five casinos closing in 2014; the possibility of bankruptcy in 2016, and now COVID-19.
Plans include transitional housing for residents, and continuing construction.
“Our goal is to have more cranes in the sky,” he said. “It’s the only way to continue to improve our finances.”
“Atlantic City is a developer’s dream,” said Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, who stressed the state’s partnership with the city.
“We want to be a partner with you. We want to be collaborator with you,” she added. “We want to begin to help Atlantic City access available resources that were never tapped into by this community.”
That includes grants and training.
Small announced some of those endeavors, including a Small Business Academy, job opportunities for seniors and a partnership with Atlantic Cape Community College that will get those returning from incarceration certified for employment.
Training extends to city workers as well, including procedural justice training for police that Small said “is designed to take the bad energy away.”
The department also is more diverse, he noted, and will soon have improved body cameras and tablets that show where they have been during their shifts.
While only some officers have tasers at the moment, soon all will, Small said.
“It gives you one less option to use deadly force,” he noted.
Small also pointed out how sports betting has taken off in the state, but now Atlantic City must fight for its piece.
September saw sports gaming take in $748 million in September, and nearly $1 billion the next month.
“How much of that did Atlantic City get?” Small asked those gathered for his speech.
When they indicated nothing, he replied: “We need to change that.”
The mayor even touched on marijuana sales, noting that two-thirds of the state’s voters approved of it.
“I’m morally against it,” he said of marijuana. “I never smoked a day in my life, and never will. But if we can get business opportunity, more revenue stream and taxes, I’m for it.”
Other plans include long-promised cameras and police substations for troubled neighborhoods like Stanley Holmes, Back Maryland and Carver Hall.
And a move for more diversity includes a new Vietnamese Community Center, Black History Museum and the hiring of an LGBTQ+ community coordinator for the Multicultural Office.
“Atlantic City is an iconic city,” the lieutenant governor said. “I think what Mayor Small is bringing to Atlantic City the self-confidence it needs so to know that it is an iconic city. There is so much potential in this town we are going to survive the pandemic.”
