What do you think of when you think of Atlantic City?

[Hoffi Gwlithlys]

You ask anybody in New Jersey what they think of Atlantic City and you'll get as many answers as there are planks in their long boardwalk. Most people think of glittering casinos in a partially blighted city that has seen it's fortunes ebb and flow almost as much as the daily tides in the AC inlet. Last year the city took in over $3 billion in gaming revenue for the first time in eight years, even though it has fewer casinos than then. Lots of visitors to AC don't know how much more the city has to offer in restaurants, history, scenery, breweries, distilleries, water sports and more.

Most people drive into a casino parking garage, go into a casino or the beach or boardwalk and then head back out, thinking the rest of the city is a dangerous urban landscape. Some of it is for sure, but most of it is not and worth exploring. Atlantic City is like that relative that you visit once or twice a year out of habit, but it's still part of your life in some way. We asked people what they think of when you hear the words Atlantic City, here's what we got.

• THE BOARDWALK LADY...Her name was Tina Tate and she had no joints in her body. She played the organ with her tongue on a gurney on the boardwalk for years.
• GOOD TIMES AND A QUICK GETAWAY
• GREAT HOTEL ROOM BARGAINS...If you go during the week and especially around Christmas, you can stay in luxury for cheap.
• CHEF VOLA'S...It's a family style, limited menu legend that only takes reservations from people who've been recommended by previous customers. It's in an old shore style house near the beach.
• JETTY FISHING FOR STRIPED BASS...The one- time East Coast Record striper was caught here in 1982 at 78 pounds. The record stood for about 40 years. Great fishing on the north end of town.
• RUNNING THE BOARDWALK...The city has done a great job putting on many annual running events on the famed boardwalk.
• THE STEEL PIER...It's legendary and iconic with real helicopter rides, a wedding venue at the end of the pier and a new towering observation wheel with 40 climate controlled gondolas.
• THE FREE BEACH...One of only a handful of free beaches in the state, but with several beach bars, concerts and lots of activity.
• REAL ESTATE BARGAINS...If you look around, you'll find amazing property values in some really nice parts of town.

   In fact, It will take much more work and better leadership to get AC any where near a truly viable top 10 tourist and vacation spot and with the filth of the AC Mayor Gilliam forced to leave office after stealing $87,000.00 from kids in the very city he’d taken an oath to serve. His sympathy ploy — he said having to leave office left him with a "heavy heart” — was memorably self-serving, but his sorry little narrative is unlikely to become the stuff of Boardwalk Empire-style nostalgia. The story of a guy who took contributions meant for the nonprofit youth basketball program he cofounded, in order to buy himself what federal court documents described as “luxury designer suits,” is hardly entertaining.

What should interest the public is the fact that Gilliam is the fourth Atlantic City mayor since the 1980s to run afoul of the law. Likewise three mayors of Camden, a similarly impoverished city getting special attention from Trenton. Is being under state oversight a coincidence in the more recent cases? That’s impossible to know but worth debating. Of course, not only urban politicians are vulnerable to corruption: The federal “Bid Rig” probe of 2009 led to 44 arrests of Garden State officials, clergy, and local politicians, among them two suburban mayors.

Those tempted to speculate whether some corruption-causing substance permeates New Jersey’s water supply would be wise to remember that such a toxin evidently is abundant in Philadelphia, too. Former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and onetime Pennsylvania former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo are just two city pols who found the availability of easy money too hard to resist — and share with Gilliam connections to nonprofit entities that either were established for or diverted to fraudulent uses. Clearly, there’s a need for more effective monitoring and tighter requirements for elected officials involved in such enterprises.

Popular culture — The Sopranos and its New Jersey milieu come to mind — has long enshrined some mobsters as lovable anti-heroes, and some criminals, politicians among them, as admirable rogues. Like Nucky Johnson, (Jersey again!), they’re portrayed as an authentic American brand. This mythology is at work in our transactional politics and especially in the triumph of profoundly transactional politicians like President Trump. Big money and bigger egos have helped create a rarefied and insular world within which the rules most of us mere mortals try to live by are superseded or suspended by the pursuit of a purported greater good.

Neither ego nor money nor New Jersey are likely to be eliminated from politics. But Brigid Harrison, professor of political science and law at Montclair State University, suggests that ethics training for newly elected officeholders might be a deterrent. Organizations such as the League of Municipalities, in partnership with the state, could enumerate the legal and financial costs in a manner convincing enough to penetrate the armor men and women require or acquire in order to get elected. Ethical standards can trickle-down from the top; Gov. Phil Murphy has an opportunity to take a strong leadership role — like he’s done to rein in the runaway tax incentives program he inherited.

Ultimately, voters must stop enabling politicians to get away with corruption. If we don’t, shame on us.