How is Atlantic City these days?

4 out of 100

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/nj/atlantic-city/crime


I have also been going to AC for years. And I also love it! But lets call a Spade a Spade, its not all lollypops and candy canes. There really is no "good" side of AC. Its just less dangerous in some areas than others.

Speaking for Chicago, as I pointed out already, if you break down the crime by zip code, 75% of all violent crime is committed on the South side. "The South Side has a population of 752,496, of which over 93% are African American.[43] Some census tracts (4904 in Roseland, 7106 in Auburn Gresham) are 99% black.[44]"

2.7MIL people in Chicago, 2MIL of them are squeezed into the "good" parts of downtown and the North side, even though the South side itself takes up more than 50% of Chicago actual land

You have to remember, with the other places you pointed out, they all have very rich low crime areas, and very poor crime ridden ones. With many "good" places in between. All of AC is 17 SQ miles. All that danger is packed in where visitors are staying. Chicago, as an example, is nearly 250 SQ Miles. And the crime is pushed pretty far out from the tourist areas, unlike little AC.

In other words, you really cant avoid it. Does it bother me? Nope, Ive been there and done that. I know where I can and cant go. I've gone through the "hood" just to see, and it is pretty rough for a white boy like me to be wandering around, even the day, alone.

 

@Grid, just like Chicago has nice parts that have less crime, so does AC. The south part near Ventnor, also around the inlet area and Gardner’s Basin, there are some nice homes. Like anywhere there is money and tourists, it draws a criminal element.

I’m always approached by a panhandler in Chicago when walking from the train station to my hotel, the rolling bag gives me away. Sometimes I will walk up to Rush St. in the evenings and I’m asked for a handout.

 

Yup, I pointed out Ventnor already, but thats way down the path from the tourist areas, and the big resorts, on the Boardwalk. The immediate area, where the action, and the crime is, cant be ignored.

If you are doing AC tourist stuff, you are doing it in the path of problem areas. If you have a car, and want to drive to V or GB, you will still have to drive through the rough and tumble.

Downtown Chicago has no blight. Its all fancy and expensive. That's all I was saying. Chicago, where the tourist go, there is no sign of the cities dirty under belly. That's all miles away. In AC, its steps away. But folks like us like to live dangerously!

Not denying you looking like a tourist would lead to someone asking you for change in Chicago. But walk 5 minutes past the ocean, stand on the corner of Atlantic and Martin Luther King, and being asked for spare change will be the least of your problems. And that is just steps away from their tourist area.

Its just too close to the action. I still go, and work around it. I like to jog the Boardwalk, but it is covered in homeless in the mornings when I go for a run. Grant Park in Chicago, not so much.

 

@Grid first a lot of the references in my post were a response to a poster saying a lack of wawas and lawyers inherently make it dangerous. It also misidentified it as the county seat. I don't disagree with you about Atlantic City not being the safest place, but the reality is every true city has it's problem locations. Most cities just do a better job of trying to keep them hidden. I'm not sure what time you are running the boardwalk, but I love a nice morning walk around 6am and have not seen more than maybe a handful of homeless people. I usually walk from Caesars to Hard Rock and back so a limited sample size.

The purpose of my original response was to make it clear that AC should not just be written off as being inherently bad, you seem to agree with that by explaining that you love AC as well.

As to your comparison between Chicago and AC, what you're failing to make not of is the size difference. It's easy to have all the dangerous stuff miles away when you have miles. I do think saying it's steps away is an exaggeration, but this point holds for every tourist destination, if you venture away from the tourist areas the risk for crime or problems increase. Depending on the size of the tourist area and the size of the city as a whole that may be closer for some and further for others. 2 blocks of the Vegas strip in either direction and crime rates pick up and the population is different. 2 blocks of broadway in Nashville and the homeless population seems to triple, but in manhattan you probably need to go 20 to 30 blocks from times square to find some of the more dangerous area.

The feeling of safety is all relative. I live in a neighborhood where we literally don't need to lock our doors and we are more likely to have a bear try and break in than a person. To someone unfamiliar with the outdoors that may make them feel unsafe while to me I know what to expect. I also feel safer in AC than a lot of other cities.

As an aside, the statistics you site are alarmingly skewed because they only factor in stagnant population and not tourist volume. There are roughly 12,000 casino based hotel rooms in AC (this excludes showboat, claridge and any non-casino property) On a typical summer weekend that should generate around 30,000 tourists (more if you consider the number of people not staying). But, let's say that the hotels operate at an average occupancy of 70% (the last article I found was from 2012 and said 83% so 70% is very conservative) Assuming 2 people 2 a room that means an extra 16,000 people in AC every single day.

That now takes the 38,000 population and makes it 55,000. That drastically impacts all of those statistics, especially the violent crime rates.

Also the website includes the boardwalk and casinos as the most dangerous areas to be in, mostly because it fails to effectively divide them out.

I guess my point in all of this and we seem very much to agree here is that Atlantic City can be great, but can certainly be not so good as well. The key is, if you have never been, to stick to the tourist areas just like any other tourist destination.

 

@alexm

All good stuff! And yes, Chicago and many cities have miles worth of land to space out their "bad" areas. That was my point, when looking at crime statistics as a whole. That while Chicago has a shit index too, its mostly all pushed off to the far side of town, where tourist will never be. AC, being small, you know that index creeps up pretty much most places you will go.

Vegas doesnt get bad off Strip until you get all the way down to Sahara BLVD. Then you enter the Naked City. Which most people will never do. Anywhere else, from Mandalay Bay all the way down to the Convention area, you can wander for miles in either direction, and its still safe and not seedy.

I have done it walking all the way down to Chinatown, way behind Treasure island. the old Pinball HOF, and just generally looking for cool stuff in town to write about for my site. Point being, where the average tourist is in Vegas, they wont see the "bad" even if they escape the tourist area of the Strip. Unless they really go looking for it that is. Unlike AC, where you HAVE to drive through it to get to the Boardwalk, and you know to really walk around it, when getting to the shops and such. I wont take the Jitney ever again, too many seedy people and nasty looks from the locals on "their" bus.

And yes, you have people pouring into all those hotel rooms that swell the cities population on any given weekend. but I think we can both agree, the crime is not really coming from the tourists. They are not booking a room, then looking for people in town to mug or stores to shoplift. Its the city that preys on these people, not the other way around.

But 100% Yes! I am an AC fan. I just think its import to not undersell the city itself as "Its not that bad". the city is rough. the city is dangerous. When you come to Chicago and stay downtown, we don't tell people to "just stick to the lakefront, don't wander off" or "Make sure you are back in the Waldorf Astoria before sundown". AC, to me, is super fun, because I know where I should and shouldn't be. I just wish it didn't have to be like that, and the city got their shit together to address the core issues that lead to the blight.

And yup, I'm out running around 6AM as well. And I'm sure I see the same number of bums as you. Maybe 6 or 8 along my run, sleeping on benches or such. Still not a good look, but the city doesn't have the money to patrol all the time, so it just happens.

We agree more than we disagree Big Al! I just dont want to over sell AC to those chicken tourists that dont "get it"

 

@Grid no doubt about that! Always great discussing these things with you! And we love Chicago, it was our first Eataly experience!

 

Thinking back, AC was likely the first place I ever went to a Casino... likely mid 70s. And possibly a few more times in the 80s- all via a Bus from N.E. Pa., with my In Laws.My only prior Casino experience was watching Bond play Baccarat at Place du Casino (Bucket List! )

So, I found them fascinating. What I didn’t find fascinating at all, execrable really, was walking ONE block to a shitehole Liquor Store, all enclosed with a $ teller, you slipped your Bills through and spoke via microphone, behind bullet proof glass!

Holy shite, Batman! Did I morph into the 3rd. world 200 yards from the Beach?

THEN, I went to Vegas for the first time.
I’ve been to scores now in North America.
AC... never, ever again!

Even today, as I age towards the 7th. decade here on earth, I am beginning to make more choices like my wife.

As in, NEVER take me to the Fremont St. Starbucks, where the crack addict scratches her scabs and there is an unearthly homeless shrieker a block away. Rather, let’s go to Wynn or see the flowers at the Bellagio.

This weekend, I am heading to Seneca Casino Niagara courtesy of my sister. Niagara Falls, N.Y., surrounding Seneca, is a shitehole. Not AC bad, but NO comparison to the beauty & vibrancy across the bridge in Niagara Falls, ON. Still, I go 4-5 x per year, because it’s close. But, I await my yearly Vegas trip with anticipation.

No comparison.

 

I have a second home in brigantine whish is just across the bridge near harrahs-----I am in ac at least once or twice a week usually going to the diamond club at caesars and playing their 25c 9/6 job game with a progressive-------i valet park-----

I talk to locals in brigantine about ac
my advices----
there are relatively no problems with the 3 casinos in the inlet area----self-park is ok as well as walking between those casinos---harrahs,borgata ,and the golden nugget

the beach ,the boardwalk and the casinos on the boardwalk are relatively safe and well patrolled by casino security,ac police and beach patrol

you should also be ok on pacific ave which is the 1st street from the beach----it has heavy traffic including jitneys that run 24hrs as well as decent police presence---

would not walk past pacific ave taking the side streets going west to atlantic ave-----it was on one of these streets that a brigantine resident who works as a cook in one of the casinos was mugged on his way to work

there are several nice restaurants on atlantic ave------would only go to those who have valet parking

the outlet area at the end of the ac expy is relatively safe----the problem is if you go more than one block north or south you are in peril------would either use their self-park parking facility for a charge or head east towards the casinos on the boardwalk

there is one other area that is ok for visitors-----that is the area on the north end inlet area across from the coast guard station where you will find an aquarium ,a few restaurants and bars,and 1/2 day fishing boats as well as a sightseeing boat----ample self-parking but be sure to hide valuables and lock your car as there has been some recent break-ins

the rest of the city------avoid

 

@dukeofdarby this makes perfect sense and is a great post with great advice!

 

I'm not posting this to bash AC, but I follow Scan AC on Facebook, just to see the whacky shit that goes on there! Check on the fight video, from the All White affair at the Claridge the other day.

https://www.facebook.com/AtlanticCity911/