TBW and I took a few days to hang with the fam in our traditional Ocean City, NJ beach vacation. I love getting away and yucking it up with my crazy family. My nephew Mick and his son Cole rode bicycle with me up to Atlantic City one morning. If you want to see the reality of how gambling helps a town, visit Atlantic City.

Glimmering casinos sit within blocks of portions of trashy, run down city. It’s astounding to see the boardwalk closed due to lack of money for repairs

within one block of the Revel Hotel and Casino being built by Tishman Construction.

When I came in sight of the Revel, I loved the design. Most of the casinos I’ve seen throw money at the facade with no style. The Revel just shimmers like a wave coming up on the beach.

It undulates and reminds me of the American Indian Museum on the Washington, DC Mall.

So my nephews (shown on bikes in the photo above) and I rode and talked about how little gambling seemed to be helping Atlantic City. When I came home today and started to research, I found an article explaining that the Revel project construction has been terminated. Morgan Stanley has written off $932M of its $1.2B proposed financing. The parties involved are currently negotiating how to walk away with some semblance of safety for the partially completed structure that will remain. The main sticking point seems to be the City’s insistence of installing an operational fire sprinkler system to protect the shell of the building.

How can they spend that much money and not repair the boardwalk shown in the first photo? These folks are sitting on their brains. I think we could all benefit from reading our kids or grand-kids the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes.