Mr. Tan himself is a chronicle of shrugging opportunity. An ethnic Chinese living in Malaysia during politically restive times in 1969, he walked into the local American library one day and, thumbing through a directory of American colleges, saw the name Antioch, applied to the engineering school, and was accepted. Even the name Terry was a mere suggestion that stuck.

“Somebody just mentioned ‘Call yourself Terry,’” he said. “O.K., I’m Terry.”

The name Golden Cicada was the translation of the Chinese name of his first wife, she in turn named after a character in the epic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.”

In 2005, the city government brought an eminent domain suit against Mr. Tan, seeking to acquire his property in a zone of development that is now booming. Mr. Tan fought back.

“In New Jersey nobody wins eminent domain,” he said. “When the government wants it, they take it.”

During the litigation, Mr. Tan’s wife died of cancer.

“That was the catalyst,” he said. “When your dog is in the corner, you fight for your life.”

When Mr. Tan learned that the city’s intention in seizing his property was to allow the Catholic school next door to expand its football field, he challenged it on First Amendment grounds, putting up a banner outside the bar reading “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”

With the help of the Rutgers University Law Clinic and the A.C.L.U. of New Jersey, Mr. Tan defended himself in court and won.

As the neighborhood changes fast, the Cicada clings on stubbornly, and Mr. Tan spends his spare time on pet projects, chiefly building an electric car engine that he claims will “disrupt Tesla” after he installs it into the rusty chassis of an old Volkswagen Beetle he keeps in the lot out back. He swears he’ll drive it to Atlantic City and back on one charge.