It’s amazing how a little bit of good news can really turn my day around. Just on Monday I was complaining about how Atlantic City was in a tail spin and I wondered how long it would last. And now it seems I have an answer: at least a few more years — and then some.
The Hard Rock International (the folks behind that famous restaurant with all the guitars on the wall) announced that they will in fact go ahead with plans to build a casino hotel on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. If all goes well, it will be finished and opened by spring of 2014.
This is great news for A.C. because Hard Rock is a big name and it will (hopefully) bring in big entertainment. And while Hard Rock Atlantic City will be a smaller-scale hotel/casino compared to the massive Borgata that opened in 2003 and the Revel which opens next year, it’s still a sign of good things to come.
But I’ve learned not to get my hopes up. Many casinos have talked about moving into the Atlantic City area and have never shown up. Pinnacle is just the latest along with MGM Grand, but the Hard Rock is a step in the right direction and will hopefully help stimulate things. And it makes me happy to see that my “downtown city” is hanging in there.
Zoey Castelino 
That’s encouraging.