Originally written as an essaypost for a human I appreciate deeply.
Starting with the Playground Pier in AC. It is a giant dead mall that is on a pier sticking out into the ocean. It actually used to be decorated like a ship.
Image via hhs@flickr.
It got remodeled into a more upscale not-a-ship -- and did okay for a while. Then it started slowly dying for years because they built an entire shopping plaza in the city directly inland from the mall. Then the Playground Pier got absolutely gutted by COVID and nothing is there anymore, there are about three stores remaining. It is full of long, empty hallways, complete with a strange wide-open three story concourse area lined with glass railings and huge windows overlooking the ocean. Beautiful and dead. In winter it is especially good to wander around -- there is no one and nothing.
Image via WikiMedia commons. More good pictures here, and an excellent silent video tour here.
Atlantic City is full of a lot of spaces like this. The casino floor very late at night is never empty-empty, there are always at least a few people yoinking the slot arms, but similar vibes. Flashing lights and too-sweet air, with so many empty chairs and the occasional abandoned drink cup.
There are many tucked away little dead zone spaces everywhere. Especially hallways leading outside -- like the casino is screaming at you "no, no, don't go outside, turn around, come back, give us your money, please!" via design and decoration. But there are also hallways that connect between certain casinos, and those are very, very empty and full of straight lines and a stuck/movement feeling.
Image via /r/liminalspaces. Bally’s Casino. Wild West themed. It is an indoor “wild west village” so there are all of these fake storefronts and very long, often very empty hallways.
It is this wild juxtaposition of frothy desperation from the casinos to be upscale, rich, and touristy -- right alongside streets full of opioid zombies stumbling around.
The whole place is strange like that. There are dead empty neighborhoods, entire massive portions of the northern end of the island that are just giant and vacant parcels of land. Some real estate developers own the space but won't build there until the area "revitalizes." Also, some semi-recent areas of brand-new cookie-cutter development houses have gone up in the past decade – which seems overly optimistic, because…
All of it is underlaid with the feeling of rising water steadily inundating all the low-lying backbay neighborhoods even just during mild rain or slightly elevated tides. Nature laughing in the face of the arrogance of building a city on a barrier island. "Ocean at your door" vibes, very much.
The general history is a deeply liminal vibe as well -- there are lots of beautiful old buildings that were torn apart or abandoned or otherwise destroyed. All to make way for empty-dead-inside casinos and more touristy monstrosities. One of a few exceptions of remaining old pretty buildings is the Claridge -- and the leftover pieces of a ~1920s hotel that got turned into part of Ballys.
A new building. Image via Booksi.com
Claridge, an old building. More here.
And some “Up” vibes – Vera Coking house. An old woman spends almost 50 years fighting casino developers trying to buy her house, and wins against three major casino owners including Donald Trump (a separate essay could be written here, but others have said it better than I could). The house is finally bought in 2014 and torn down. Of course -- Trump Plaza, the surrounding casino, closes the same year.
And the future! If the water doesn't get it, it is all being steadily cannibalized by casinos in other states. Starting with Foxwoods, but now there are casinos everywhere else in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York. Refusal to diversify or change or make better, fighting tooth-and-nail to keep gambling illegal in the rest of New Jersey -- as if that's going to help.
"Liminal" is a good word for the entire area -- a transition area straight to the bottom of the ocean. In my head, it's a canary in the coal mine for everything and everywhere – a full century of growth-rot cycling at this point. 1920s - boom; 1940s - first death from airplanes allowing people to travel cheaply elsewhere; 1970s - casino revitalization (or corruption, depending on your perspective); 2000s - second death from legalized gambling elsewhere.