the future is whose? my exp @ the marty small inaugural fundraising gala

over the weekend, i attended the marty small inaugural fundraising gala at the hard rock hotel's seminole ballroom. the theme was "faith. resilience. redemption: the future is ours." i spent most of the walk home thinking on that last word. ours.

but first, the good, because there was real good.

i was invited by zack katzen of create 48, and our table was genuinely the move. artists, visionaries, people who give a damn about leaving the world a little more beautiful than how they found it. you know the type. there's something that just hits different about gala-vanting with that crowd, people who have chosen this city and are building something real in it. zack's work with create 48 is the kind of thing atlantic city needs, and the senior mural project alone is worth more to this city than a dozen luxury condo ribbon cuttings. part of the proceeds go directly to create 48. that part felt good.

the gala raised around $600k of its $750k goal for local nonprofits, ac pal, atlantic city elite football, seniors, omega by the sea, american legion post 61, among others. real money for real organizations. keeping that in mind. sure, a tax write off, but whatever. i'm trying to be less crabby.

okay. now the trite.

some people paid $300 for this thing (and some even more) and i'm genuinely still not sure what that got them. an awkward red carpet snap? mediocre cocktails? charcuterie that tasted like the plastic bin it came in? i came to this gala hungry, expecting a meal. i didn't eat allllll day fully ready to pig out. what arrived was a plate of chicken and salmon that was just.... yeah. i didn't know chicken could be that way. it's kind of what i imagine a 1950s housewife on barbituates and gin would've proudly presented to her husband, who she kinda hates, and his friends, who she defo hates. the president of hard rock hotel was in the room, presumably eating the same food. it was perplexing. maybe it was a prank? an elaborate setup? intentional so people would rely on cocktails that tasted of the finger cheese that lives beneath the strings of a 16 year old's yamaha? i don't know, but i needed wonder bar chicken tendies after that real bad.

the vibes were odd in a way that's hard to fully put into words. across all of marty's speeches, the subject was more or less himself. it was giving donald trump. when he gave whoopi goldberg, the night's celebrity guest, her very own official atlantic city holiday, he somehow made that about him too. okay! also what is the point? nothing happens for jersey shore day. all these meaningless holidays and we aren't even gonna celebrate? idk. just odd. 

he also had words about his acquittal. found not guilty in december after a nearly two-year criminal case, he told the crowd the jury "saw the bullshit and called it for what it was." fair enough, whatever, i can't unpack that right now. then he announced, to applause, that he'd be dropping a malicious prosecution lawsuit on atlantic county next week, he said. at a charity gala. (insert kim there's people that are dying meme)

i tried to talk to him during and after. he said he'd be in touch. i've emailed. zilch. oh well! it's been an unusually busy week and i'm sure he has his hands full with the cop shooting, so i'll follow up next week and update accordingly.

upon entry, guests were greeted by a group of bagpipers, and look, it was actually kind of sick. marie's wedding , good drums, funky as hell, genuinely not what you expect walking into a casino ballroom. a moment! the reason for the bagpipers, though, is where it gets interesting.

daniel gallagher was one of the night's headline donors, and presumably the reason we got the pipes, as he's a proud irishman. gallagher, who lives in a shiny new build on the boardwalk (pool included), is the driving force behind the bader field development. officially called "renaissance at bader field," it's a $3.4 billion proposal for 4,000 luxury condos and a private 2.44-mile formula one racetrack, for residents and club members only, not the public. it has been "moving forward" since 2022 and has not broken ground.

some context on why that matter: this isn't gallagher's first attempt at bader field. back in 2008 he represented penn national gaming in an $800 million bid to take the same land for private casino development. that failed. so he waited, regrouped, and came back over a decade later, this time as an equity partner in deem enterprises, still chasing the same 143 acres of publicly owned waterfront. that's not civic dedication, that's a long game, aka land speculation, and a perfect case study for why we need a land value tax in atlantic city (and the country.... but for the love of god we need it so bad here).

bader field sits on land that is partially protected under new jersey's green acres program, meaning the city can't legally hand it to a private developer without finding replacement open space elsewhere to give back to the public. atlantic city is a barrier island. there isn't a lot of spare land lying around. that's one reason this keeps stalling. another is that deem's own principals have admitted the project probably can't happen without substantial state economic development grants. so: public land, requiring public approvals, dependent on public money, for a private racetrack that membership is projected to cost up to $4 million to join.

gallagher himself acknowledged at one point that most of the units would be second or third homes, so he didn't anticipate adding many students to the school system. good to know! and when the city eventually gets its promised $115 million payout from the land sale, that money won't go to schools or community programs either. under state oversight, it goes directly toward retiring atlantic city's municipal debt. the entire public benefit is a $15 million recreation center. that's the ceiling on what the people who actually live here get from handing over the last major piece of undeveloped waterfront on the jersey shore.

i actually ran into gallagher's wife recently at the verizon store, for the record, my husband and the store worker were both there for this, and she told me, unprompted, that gallagher is basically the mayor of atlantic city, and that they don't pay for anything in this city. word for word. at the verizon store. after yelling at her pool guy on speaker phone. and then just kept going, name dropping, bragging about everything, taking credit for bringing back the st. patrick's day parade, really putting on a show for three 20 and 30 somethings trying to figure out their phone bill on a warm may weekday. tht is the only reason i know about their new build & the pool lol.

also for the record, in case you two are reading this, as a poor person, it is my pleasure to pay for things around the city, stimulate the local economy, make sure my friends, neighbors, servers, bartenders, craps dealer, business owners are all taken care of. while the occasional free drink or appetizer is nice and appreciated, at the end of the day, i want to spend my money in places that i want to thrive. if that keeps me poor, fine. i'd rather be poor with the richness in my heart knowing i'm not an evil villain. also for the record, i really don't give a fuck who you know or how much money you have... what matters to me is how you treat other people, and what you are or are not willing to sell working class people and your own damn city out for.

because bader field is 143 acres of the most significant undeveloped land on the jersey shore, it belongs to the public. and the plan for it is a private racetrack for wealthy second-home owners who won't send their kids to atlantic city schools, backed by a man who has been trying to get this specific piece of land for nearly two decades, whose wife casually mentions at the verizon store that they don't pay for anything here. the project keeps not happening but stays just alive enough to keep other proposals off the table. so deem, daniel, investors get the payout while us plebs just have to sit here and yearn for the good old days. fuck that! we can still have nice things.

so there he was. headline donor. name on the banner. bagpipes at the door.

so again, the future is ours. ours who? the create 48 table, full of people who have actually chosen this city and are building something real in it? or the table where decisions get made about land that belongs to everyone but somehow always ends up in the same hands?

i'm irish too, danny boy, except i'm the revolutionary, take no shit from evil empire kind.

peep the robo literally blowing smoke lol