Boardwalk umpire

With five casinos closed or closing, it's hard to have much hope for Atlantic City. But the town has been counted out before and survived.

The former bootleggers' paradise survived the repeal of Prohibition, the Depression, numerous recessions, hurricanes, nor'easters, corrupt governments, and cheap air fares that lured Shore tourists to Florida instead.

But for Atlantic City to survive again, Gov. Christie needs to change his approach. His ongoing summit on the future of South Jersey's economic hub has excluded some local officials and townspeople who are seeing thousands of their friends and neighbors lose casino-related jobs. Asked why they were left out, Christie said he was elected to represent their interests.

He may not have meant that answer to sound arrogant, but it does. It also ignores how much has changed since Christie first took in office in 2010 and called for a five-year plan to fix Atlantic City. That original plan had some good elements, but its slow implementation has done little to stop the inevitable effects of a saturated gambling market.

One lesson that should have been learned from that experience is that broad community input is exactly what is needed to diversify the area economy. Some impractical proposals might be suggested, but that could also be the case with the small group of politicians and business leaders invited to the summit. They don't have a monopoly on good ideas.

Leaders from the region, state, community, unions, businesses, and other institutions should brainstorm, suggests Jennifer Bradley, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program with the Brookings Institutions. As stakeholders in Atlantic City, they should all try to answer the same question: "What is it we do better than anybody else?"

They must look more closely at Las Vegas, which long ago realized it needed to offer more than gambling to remain viable. Why should Atlantic City cede its rich share of gangster stories to Las Vegas' successful Mob Museum? Given the popularity of the HBO series "Boardwalk Empire," shouldn't Atlantic City have a similar attraction that tells its own organized-crime story.

Perhaps more than anything else, Atlantic City needs to recapture some of the ambience of the Shore that brought thousands of visitors to town before there were casinos. Having the Miss America pageant return to Atlantic City was a strong step. The legendary Steel Pier is making a comeback as an amusement park. Boat races and surfing contests might help, too. But offsetting the huge loss of jobs occurring now will take a lot more.

As many as 10,000 jobs are being sucked out of the local economy. Overcoming that calamity requires the input of everyone impacted. For Christie to suggest he can represent the views of people he hardly sees when he isn't campaigning is unrealistic. Let the people speak, all of the people, and carefully consider what they have to say.