Atlantic City, New Jersey
For the last three years since we moved to New York, I've been promising my mom I would take her to Atlantic City for her birthday. We moved to New York at the same(ish) time and were roommates for two years before I decamped to Brooklyn and she stayed in Harlem. This year I finally made good on my promise, and thanks to some well-timed Jewish Holidays (I work at a Jewish organization, much the chagrin of my friends that don't) we were able to go to Atlantic City on a Monday/Tuesday in early October.
The last time we were both in Atlantic Shitty was 2008—my parents weren't yet divorced, and we took what would be our last family vacation to the land of hermit crabs and boob mugs. We stayed at Trump Plaza, which has since been abandoned (much like Trump's Presidential ambitions by the end of tonight, hopefully), and our most recent trip included a whirl around the now-shuttered Taj Mahal during its last week in business.
I'd been warned before we went that Atlantic City was in dire straits, but that was part of the appeal. My mom likes to gamble and I love kitsch and ruin, so it was the perfect mother-daughter getaway. The state of the city and the boardwalk in general wasn't actually as bad as I had expected, and even on an off-season weekday the casinos that are still open (particularly Resorts World and Bally's) were bustling. We actually preferred the post-apocalyptic calm of the Taj Mahal—until a machine malfunctioned and ate my $30 credit slip.
In between visiting Lucy the Elephant and the Clara Glen Pet Cemetery, we ate burgers at Johnny Rockets, won and lost at machines I picked exclusively for their names/animal mascots (Corgi Cash, Kitty Glitter), shopped for souvenirs, snacked on peanut chews and salt water taffy, and strolled the boardwalk. My mom parked herself at a hot machine as I explored more of the boardwalk, including Ripley's Believe it or Not—it's not as impressive when you're now an adult who seeks out real oddities (like at the Mütter Museum), but it was still a worthwhile stop.
After the closing of the Taj Mahal, the north end of the boardwalk is now completely abandoned—with Taj neighbors Showboat and Revel also sitting empty. Revel opened in 2012 only to close two years later, although it's scheduled to reopen again in 2017 under a new name. I don't think more casinos are the best way to save Atlantic City, especially with gambling far more widespread than it used to be, but I'm not sure what it will take to bring AC back to its glory days.
