In AC who gets the house: Piano prodigy or the state?
“It was an Atlantic City plot as familiar as a rerun on Turner Classic Movies: Homeowner vows to save house against the forces of eminent domain, played out in the shadow of a casino.
It has been playing for the better part of two decades in this troubled seaside resort, since Vera Coking famously stood up to Donald Trump.
But this latest version has impeccable and elegant casting. On Tuesday morning, homeowner and onetime piano prodigy turned piano tuner Charlie Birnbaum, 67, the son of Holocaust survivors, found so many ways to show just how much his three-story brick walkup building at 311 Oriental Ave., on the back side of Revel Casino Resort, means to him.
He held a news conference with anti-eminent domain lawyers from the Virginia-based Institute for Justice. He watched an afternoon court battle against the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, joined by tenants from two nearby housing developments also being condemned by the CRDA.”
Rosenberg, Amy. Philly.com 22 May 2014.