Once celebrated as the Las Vegas of the East Coast, with its glittering casinos and four-mile boardwalk, Atlantic City now risks becoming a modern-day Atlantis. 

A 2024 Nature study named Atlantic City as one of the country’s “disappearing cities,” projecting that rising sea levels combined with sinking land will put large parts of the city at risk of severe flooding by 2050. Researchers warn that sinking land intensifies sea levels but is often overlooked in coastal planning.

Scientists are sounding the alarm, and area activists are advocating for the New Jersey Climate Superfund Act to make fossil fuel companies pay for protective infrastructure — but does the city’s Desi community care or know about the city’s growing climate risks?

The short answer:

“No, they don’t care,” said Rana Sajid, who has owned the local Nashville Market for 16 years. The store sits on the border of Ventnor City and Atlantic City, wedged between the bay and the ocean.

Sajid is among the thousands of South Asians who call Atlantic City home. He said the city has been a reliable safety net since he arrived there in the early ’90s. Back then, the Bengalis drove taxis, Indians took graveyard shifts at blackjack tables, and Pakistanis sold halal chicken and lamb platters — opportunities that, Sajid said, did not require a college degree (or proper bank accounts).

He has seen the Southern Jersey coastline’s highs and lows, from the bustling pier to the silence left by the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino after it closed in 2014, resulting in the loss of more than 1,100 jobs and a decline in tourist numbers.

“I’ve never met anyone from Pakistan, India, or Bangladesh here who cared or talked about what the city could do to avoid sinking. But what we do talk about is the present, and how much we need the tourists back, how much we need money and business for our families. That’s the reality of the Desis in Atlantic City,” Sajid said.

Naeem Ahmad Khan, a Pakistani Republican who ran for mayor in 2025 on a pledge to transform Atlantic City into a “Dubai-like” destination and lost to Democrat Marty Small Sr., expressed a similar reaction to reports that the city is sinking.

“If one day God decided that the whole world should be flooded, there’s nothing man can do. We need these tourists to buy real estate because that’s just good business. That’s what supports our community right now,” Khan said.

Khan also said Desi residents are primarily concerned about flooding caused by poorly maintained bulkheads and drainage systems near the bays, which he said require maintenance at least every six months. Beyond that, he argued, climate change remains a politically divisive topic in the community.

“Everything is political and debatable in our community when it comes to climate change,” Khan said. “We focus on the present instead of the future. People are more concerned with their jobs and putting food on the table than worrying about possible flooding. What happens, happens. The rest is up to Mother Nature.”

But other Atlantic County Desis reject what they view as a cynical sentiment. Recent floods in Pakistan’s Punjab region, rising sea levels and farmland loss in Bangladesh, and extreme heat in India are making it harder for some in the South Asian community to ignore the climate crises affecting their homelands and life in the U.S.

“Back home, we survive these disasters and climate crises through charity,” said Abida Ihtisham, co-owner of Pacific Food Market, about a 10-minute drive from the boardwalk. “Our countries run on help from neighbors, not government policy. That’s what makes it harder for Desis to comprehend a future where they won’t have a hand reaching out to their aid.”

When flash floods hit Pakistan in 2025, affecting mountainous regions in the country’s southwest and east, Ihtisham — like many Pakistani Americans — sent money home to help families pay for hot meals, clothing, children’s school fees, and medical supplies. She said her focus was not on what caused the disaster, but on how quickly victims could be brought to safety.

“In 2005, Kashmir went through an earthquake so severe that entire villages disappeared,” she said. “We didn’t have the time or energy to study seismic waves or building codes. We just helped. We donated. We prayed. That’s what the victims wanted. That’s what they asked for.”

She said the instinct to help is deeply ingrained within the Desi culture.

“If another disaster happens in the future, God forbid, we will do the same,” Ihtisham said. “We see it as our responsibility. It’s how we survive — back home and in America.” 

Yet while Desis in Atlantic City wait for the worst to arrive and welcome the tourist season with open arms, the window to act is narrowing, and the water continues to rise. The lack of community action goes beyond the area’s South Asians.

“This survival mode is in the Hispanic community too,” said Alex Vargas, a senior at Stockton University and a lifelong resident of Atlantic City who was speaking of his own community. “I feel like my future in the city is jeopardized, and everyone around me is trying to make money to leave before the flooding gets even worse. We can’t afford to think about anything other than ourselves because we know we’re the ones who will face the consequences. Not the tourists or the politicians.”

There are solutions already on the table: elevating residential buildings and roadways, reinforcing bulkheads, making pumping station infrastructure improvements, and passing the Climate Superfund Act. But without the collective urgency, advocacy, and climate literacy of the city’s most vulnerable populations, these plans become difficult to execute.

“Poor immigrants and people of color make up Atlantic City, and we need to feel like we’re cared about before we can fully invest ourselves in making it a better place,” Vargas said. “We need to see the city as a home again, not as a plan B.”

Hara Shahid is a Pakistani-American writer residing in South Jersey. She served as curriculum and content managing editor at Jahaan Magazine, an independent kids’ publication modeled after Scholastic that was created to reach students in marginalized communities across Pakistani cities. She has also written for Bookstr on horror, film, and literary trends.

March 14 – The Great Big Book Swap
11 AM - 2 PM
Liquid Church
299 Webro Rd
Parsippany, NJ
Bring your gently loved books and discover new ones to take home. There will be bookish vendors, workshops, author meet-and-greets, and treats. Admission is $5. More information can be found here.

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