2 weeks Ago
ATLANTIC CITY — A state agency will spend $200,000 to study how to improve conditions at the Renaissance Plaza shopping center, which has been plagued by anti-social behavior by drug and alcohol abusers who beg for money there. City Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz, whose ward includes the plaza, said Friday it is one of the most frustrating problems he has worked on in his career, but he is confident the study by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will lead to meaningful action. "That liquor store must go," Shabazz said about the Pay Less Liquor store at the center, which is at Atlantic and New York avenues.
"It attracts people who are doing negative social activity which impacts the whole of center city," he said, adding other liquor stores in town operate without allowing people to hang out and create a problem. But a manager for the liquor store, who declined to allow his name to be published, said it's not his business' fault. "It’s not us, it's the people.
We only try to make a living," the manager said when called at the store. "The people have no place else to go. .
.. They shut down Brown's Park.
What do you expect?" Parents have reported that children walking to and from the Gateway Head Start Early Education Center across from the plaza on New York Avenue have witnessed drug use, defecation, sexual acts and more. Residents have also said they do not like to shop at the Save A Lot food store there, the city's largest grocery, because they do not feel safe. The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority approved $200,000 and a preliminary determination of project eligibility for the revitalization of Renaissance Plaza in Atlantic City on Tuesday.
The CRDA board voted Tuesday to spend $200,000 on the study. The CRDA owns the property and leases space to tenants. Many who now hang out at Renaissance Plaza used to do so at Brown's Park at Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Bacharach boulevards, the manager said. Security at Brown's Park was beefed up after a violent incident in 2015 in which a woman was punched in the face so hard she was knocked unconscious.
A video of the incident went viral. "All around the plaza it’s a drug haven," the manager said. He also said he has never been approached to work with the CRDA on improvements, but has had a meeting with Shabazz.
The CRDA has provided little detail about the study. "As the property owner of Renaissance Plaza, CRDA is looking to conduct a current needs assessment of Renaissance Plaza to aid CRDA in identifying the shopping center's needs," authority Chairman Mo Butler said Tuesday after the board vote. Butler said the study would cover "concept designs and investigating work.
" Keeping the Atlantic City Boardwalk safe and clean is a 24/7 job, and now city workers have a Boardwalk Improvement Group behind them whose work is in full swing, Mayor Marty Small Sr. said during a Monday news conference. The CRDA did not immediately respond to questions about when the liquor store lease will come up for renewal.
Police Chief James Sarkos, who could not be reached for comment Friday, has said police are restricted in how much they can do to move vagrants along when they are on private property, such as on the sidewalk in front of the liquor store and Save A Lot. “It’s not illegal to loiter,” Sarkos has said. But it is illegal to loiter with intent to engage in drug selling or prostitution, or to block city sidewalks.
Normally, Shabazz would be skeptical of another study, he said, but not this time. "I know behind this study there is a lot of movement for positive action," Shabazz said. "I don't think it will be a long-term thing.
" There is little time left to fix the safety and cleanliness issues in the city, he said, given that New York City casinos will open soon. Shabazz runs a biweekly group of residents, business owners, lawmakers, public officials and utility representatives who come together to work on making the city clean and safe. The group has made great strides in getting street lights fixed and the city lit as it should be, and has worked with law enforcement to lessen property crimes and shoplifting.
"We don’t have long," he said. "By this (coming) summer, unless we have made significant strides in safety and cleanness, the city is going to be in bad shape." After a complaint came in about homeless people breaking into the vacant Madison Hotel on th.
.. Shabazz said casino representatives and other stakeholders have made it clear in-person visitation is down.
"Even though the casinos are making money, it is from the internet piece," Shabazz said. "The number of people coming in and repeat visitors is not up, which is bad for all of us." REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post 609-841-2895 mpost@pressofac.
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