Plans are in the works for the Columbus Hotel to possibly become Atlantic City's first GLBT resort.
The Columbus today
Out and About – Inside the Columbus Hotel
Location – St. James Place and Pacific Avenue, Atlantic City
Dateline: Today
“These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Thomas Paine became forever part of America’s founding revolution and creation when these few words started a story that made common sense and reached inside hearts and minds across our land. In a world of no social media or TV, where the average person was exposed to less information in a lifetime than we are currently exposed to in a week, a larger percentage of the fledgling U.S. population read or had those words read to them than the percentage of people who yearly watch the Super Bowl.
Once again, the nation, and Atlantic City, is at a crisis crossroads. Congress has a disapproval rating over 80 percent and more than half of us believe our children will not live a better life socially or economically.
Americans are beaten up in a global community that is outperforming us, and we face an election where there are some bold differences in theory, but few in reality. Our politicians are so busy squandering trillions and pointing fingers at each other they are resoundingly useless. And, we have to hear what we should think 24/7 from every direction and media outlet there is.
The new world order is destroying our hard-won lifestyle, values, patience, resiliency and survival. And, it’s ripping America apart because we’re letting it.
Further, we keep supporting things that aren’t working. Therefore, it’s necessary to support things that are new and vibrant and needed.
This columnist and developer is under letter of intent to buy the Columbus Hotel on the corner of St. James and Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City. Additionally, our plan is to develop the first new GLBT resort hotel in Atlantic City with the focus on serving our GLBT community and needs.
Part of the plan calls for the entire renovation to be a reality TV show from creative process to the grand opening, streaming live over the Internet from Atlantic City. Once open, we broadcast live entertainment, showcasing our creative genius and youth.
Watch this clip from inside the Columbus and see what we have in mind.
Currently, the financing is not secured. It is hard to finance an acquisition and then finance the subsequent renovation of a hotel in a town where numbers continue to go down, and millions more pumped into supporting the same thing (gambling) haven’t helped. This is magnified in the troubled national economy.
President Obama has called for economic patriotism. This same man has backed gay marriage. We can turn both of those to our advantage regardless of politics or party.
The GLBT community has the opportunity right now to turn the eyes of the world on us for and take a leadership position in rebuilding the economy and the nation, starting here in Atlantic City.
Here’s the proposal – Encourage any and all who want to be involved in the renaissance of an Atlantic City landmark into a gay boutique hotel to become involved. We create a gay investment syndicate, and start with the acquisition and rebuild of the Columbus as outlined below.
C.O.R.P. (Cooperating Organization of Resources and People)
Gay Corp – a new investment module supported by gays starting with The Columbus Gateway.
We hire unemployed veterans and unemployed locals to build it. As a united entity the GLBT, veterans, and locals point direction to our town and nation on how to rebuild the middle class and grow our economy. As one straight veteran Joe Astick said, “This will show the world we fought for everyone equally. Gay weddings alone will keep it full.”
Once open the St. James Columbus continues to showcase and broadcast gay talents and ideas across America and spawning more understanding, love and acceptance of our own — and inclusion for others.
WE ask unions and colleges to get involved in training towards new livelihoods of construction and production/broadcast technology. Foundations and charities can invest to create their own income stream freeing them from dependence on taxes.
Additionally, this economic investment module can be transported community to community as we lead the charge in conjunction with those local interests into the reinvention of every American community putting our highly developed creative talents to work.
One can track statistically the social and economic improvement that follows a gay investment in a community. Economist Richard Florida has written two books illustrating it: Whose City are You? and The Creative Class.
If fits perfectly into the Clinton Global Initiative and Obama's thrust and fills far more interests than the just announced construction of still more subsidized housing in A.C., as outlined this week.
WE want involvement across the political aisles. This is about fixing the economy, not politics.
WE proactively move all our rights forward visibly and physically, putting our money where our mouth is, and become the platform for further investment.
From the vantage of the hotel we birth the national CORP, a living entity that becomes an investment syndicate to fund gay and veteran owned businesses across the nation.
Recently making mainstream media: Chick-Fil-A has spent millions of company dollars campaigning against gay marriage. Their CEO and founder’s son Dan Cathy has publicly proclaimed gay marriage wrong. Now, Social media is forcing the story to the forefront ...
“Even now, I get picked on with stupid things. My aunt wants to send me to a camp where they ‘pray the gay away.’ “
And, thank God we joined you as one, and not apart. Think of how dull this world would be without our creative energy. It would be the light bulb hanging on a wire from the ceiling, without the decorative fixture — or the lamp without the lamp shade.
“I’m very much looking forward to visiting Atlantic City,” says de Medici, who will also be in attendance during Saturday night’s post party at the Pro Bar at Resorts.
'Everything we do as a society is based on love. I want to welcome everyone. Our arms are open to all aspects of our culture.'
The openly gay comic takes the reigns of the city's newest tradition, Miss'd America, which takes place at Boardwalk Hall Sunday, Jan. 16.
The show was created in the early 1990s by former Atlantic City Councilman John Schultz and his partner, Gary Hill, and held at their old Studio Six nightclub, once considered the epicenter for gay life in Atlantic City.
“To me, I live in such a gay world. And the way that I communicate and the way I talk about myself and the way that I am is very gay. And everything around me is gay. So I don’t know what it’s like to be in a world where that’s somehow a bad thing.”
Sometimes, recessions can present unexpected opportunities. For members of the Atlantic City region's gay and lesbian community, what might be called a civil rights struggle, an attempt to form a real community or even just an effort to create some kind of gay social life in the area, also has one other good thing going for it.
� In case you missed it, last week a New Jersey Appeals Court upheld by a 2-1 margin a trial court's ruling against marriages between members of the same sex. "Pro-family" (a.k.a. anti-gay) activists lauded the decision, while those in favor of gay marriage just saw it as a necessary hurdle on the road to a state Supreme Court case. The notice of appeal will soon be filed with the high court by Lambda Legal, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case (seven homosexual couples). The case will likely be heard by the state Supreme Court within a year. The plaintiffs claim that the New Jersey Constitution requires the extension of the institution of marriage to all couples, whether the couple is comprised of two men, two women or a man and a woman. Strong support for that argument can be found in Article 1, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution, which states: "All persons are by nature free and independent, and have certain natural and unalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness." In January 2004, Governor James McGreevey signed New Jersey's...
When you write a newspaper column, you tend to get feedback from readers who either agree or disagree with you. That goes with the territory. The more opinionated you are in the column, the more polarized the reactions will be. My recent columns in favor of Atlantic City's stalled needle exchange program and the rights of gays to marry certainly stirred up some controversy. While most of the feedback I received on the gay marriage piece was in accord with my views (see page 12), I did get one letter in opposition. My exchange with that letter writer follows: Mr. Epifanio, For the second week in a row I have been in completely disturbed by your "Editor's Letter." I have no idea when this became a soap box for your outrageous liberal views, but I for one want no part of it. Most people I know are not for gay marriage or for needle exchange ... it makes one wonder what cause you will take up next week! Maybe a disclaimer is in order, such as "the advertisers do not necessarily agree with my liberal editorials," or maybe just don't write a political editorial at all. At the very least, have...
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1. Anonymous said... on Oct 4, 2012 at 02:37PM
“this may be more than a (crack) pipe dream....”
2. Robyn Hall said... on Oct 6, 2012 at 08:27AM
“It never ceases to amaze me, the cowards that hide behind the name "anonymous." Thank you for your input, it will only make those involved try harder to prove you wrong.
-Robyn Hall”
3. Michael Woulfe said... on Oct 30, 2012 at 06:06PM
“Good luck with the Colombus GLBT hotel project. It would be wonderful to see the old place come alive again. My great uncle John Woulfe ran the hotel into the 1950's. Mike Woulfe in Fla.”