Pinnacle wasn’t moving on a few properties. They were after two square blocks. One went from Atlantic Ave. to Pacific Ave., from Indiana to MLK Blvd. (where Quang Ha’s gold shop is) and Pacific Ave. to the Boardwalk between MLK Blvd. and Kentucky Ave. It traced out a huge L shaped parcel.

It got almost no local coverage until things started heating up in June ’08. Then the local paper played up the property owners as some kind of malcontents standing in the way of progress. The last coverage was around September when Mr. Ha’s business was still being threatened. The city has since backed off, not willing to go to court over the issue. But that was never reported in the local paper.

What did make the paper was a story about the Atlantic City News Agency on Pacific Ave. in late September. The story first ran on Sunday, front page, below the fold. In it, Mr. Lee and Ms. Townsend had some very unkind words for Mr. Stuart Weiss, the store’s owner. The story ran later that week, front page of the Region section. It ran again before week’s end, just not front page. I guess the PressofAtlanticCity was short on news that week.

And what’s most interesting is the stories have disappeared from the paper’s site and the web. For real.

Pinnacle has more than enough land to build a huge casino/hotel, if that is their intention. There was no reason to stir up the eminent domain hornet’s nest as they did.

The way I see it, this guy is paying his taxes and providing some kind of economic life for the city. More importantly, it’s his store. The wonderful thing about America is that if he doesn’t want to sell it, he doesn’t have to.

If I wanted his land badly enough I’d either pay his price or offer him a contract for a favorable lease on a retail space in the casino, once it opens. I’d offer to pay his way around the world so he travel a bit while they’re building the casino. In the end, it would be a lot cheaper than the attorneys’ fees for the legal process. Those guys don’t work for free.

The problem is that AC isn’t Las Vegas–you can’t just build on empty desert land. The casinos should try to incorporate the good aspects of the city around them, or at least make an effort to work with locals. I really like what Harrah’s has done with their “Taste of the Shore” food court–it’s nice to know that I can send out-of-towners there to get a Sacko’s cheesesteak, and it makes me feel like the casino is showing some local personality.

What struck me was the hypocrisy–forcing a guy to sell his business, which is paying taxes and presumably employing people, for a casino project that the company CEO now says is a 50/50 proposition. It’s not even an essential part of the project, from what I see.

It’s funny that the Pinnacle folks are accusing him of holding out for above market value–in essence, speculating on his own land. In the end, there’s a 50% chance that Pinnacle won’t develop their land at all, and will sell it to another developer at a profit–more speculation. I think that the government’s role should be to enforce contracts and protect property rights, not to benefit particular property owners, whether they be rich or poor.