An Ocean Grove family returns from Asbury Park on a summer evening. 2012. By Paul Goldfinger. ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association is facing a cost of over 3 million dollars to fix the Sandy mess. The denial of aid by FEMA was a shock because, even though the ocean front is privately owned, the public functions there are no different than any other town. If the OG boardwalk is not rebuilt, it will have a negative impact on the entire region including neighboring places like Bradley Beach and Asbury Park.
These communities connect to each other via the boardwalk which is used by tourists and residents as they walk or bike from town to town. Without the continuity of the Grove’s boardwalk, people may choose to wander into the Grove rather than to find some alternate route into Asbury or Bradley, especially at night, or they might ignore the area altogether.
The failure of the Asbury Park Council to support Ocean Grove’s FEMA appeal has the potential to harm all the citizens and businesses in the Grove as well as in Asbury. It also creates a divide between two communities that have so much in common as neighbors and, ideally, as friends. The Council’s decision is self defeating and impossible to understand. The right thing to do for their citizens would have been to approve the resolution unanimously.
The people of Asbury Park need to pressure their elected officials to reconsider this bizarre decision.
LET’S BRING THE MAGIC BACK TO THE SHORE AND SUPPORT OCEAN GROVE’S RENEWAL
Despite what has occurred, I have a strong suspicion that the CMA will keep their promise to create a temporary access into Asbury at the North End. But their ability to restore the entire boardwalk, from one end to the other, is another story and will depend on funding from FEMA. Too bad the Asbury Council lacks the vision to see that, because they will be impacted if the OG boardwalk remains piecemeal.
Ohhhh … maybe they want them to pay to park in AP instead. OK, what about people who live in the Grove and like to wander up the boards to shop or dine. Going around by bridge or car is much less enticing.
Let’s not forget as well all the people who park for free in OG and then walk into Asbury Park on the boardwalk – did the council think of that?
To discuss the locking of the bridges is a conversation that is really irrelevant to FEMA funding of the OG boardwalk.
But since it has been brought up, and stated in a way that is meant to be fact, I would like to clarify. I am a member of the law enforcement community who spent a significant amount of time investigating drug activity in Asbury Park.
Police investigations and interviews with victims and criminals have proven that the bridges create an easy path for drug users and dealers in both towns to purchase drugs and elude law enforcement. The bridges create a quick escape route because criminals have the ability to cross town boarders within seconds.
I have interviewed individuals who distribute narcotics in the Asbury Park area. They were primarily honest about their distribution techniques and told me that working in the area of the bridges made them feel very safe from law enforcement because they could easily escape from police.
Criminals have stated that the bridge made it very easy to burglarize homes in Ocean Grove. Criminals could target homes on the Ocean Grove side, make their hit and quickly cross back into Asbury Park. The burglars knew that the crime would be reported to NTPD, and by the time APPD were notified, the stolen property would be sold and drugs would be purchased.
To state that the locked gates are to keep people out, I suppose that is partially true for those early morning hours. But the fact of the matter is that it’s a crime prevention technique which helps to make people feel comfortable in their homes at night. It also helps to reduce drug traffic between the two towns. The gates are kept open most of the day and are only closed during a time that has been proven to be a high crime flow period.
Ocean Grove is accessible 24 hours a day. The locked bridge serves as a detour which gives law enforcement more time to react when a crime is committed.
It’s About: Does the government of Asbury Park determine its policies according to their gay community or does it represent all the people of AP? And was their decision actually based on any gay issues? These are important questions that only the AP Council can answer.
But, regardless of the answers, in my opinion, the Asbury Park Council should have supported Ocean Grove in the FEMA appeal, because that decision would be in the best interest of all the citizens in Asbury—gay or straight or otherwise. The religious views of the CMA in Ocean Grove should have nothing to do with the policies of the AP governing Council.
The gates were put up to keep people out. Read the Asbury Park Press articles from that time – this was clearly stated as the reason. Also, when the gates first went up they were in effect from 10PM -5AM
Have members of the AP Council and the CMA ever sat down together to discuss mutual issues and shared responses? This is not about the residents of OG it’s about policies and attitudes of the CMA which are preceived to be alive and well as recently as the summer of 2012 the Cameron issue.
Regardless of the size of gay population in OG, CMA is affiliated with a religion that does not endorse homosexuality as an accepted life style.
Well the gates did cut down crime.
What I don’t understand is if there is no boardwalk to A.P. it will affect business there, so why would A.P. shoot themselves in the foot?
Nee Two: So you think that these reasons are good enough to warrant the Asbury Council’s rejection of help for Ocean Grove? Nonsense!
And, by the way, the locked gates are primarily to prevent criminals from finding a quick exit out of town; it is not to prevent Asbury citizens from visiting beautiful Ocean Grove between midnight and 5 am.
The decision by the Asbury Park Council makes no sense. Why in the world would they vote against anything that might, in any way, restrict access to the boardwalk area and hinder commerce?
Right now they are facing a crisis that has nothing to do with Sandy recovery. Convention Hall may have to close for lack of fire supression sprinklers. Even though it is a privately owned structure, it does have Historic designation. How would they feel if Neptune voted to hamper or block it’s applications for funding or grants if they are available.
You need to put this in perspective.
1) It was Ocean Grove that placed locked gates on the bridges connecting the Grove and Asbury to keep Asbury residents out.
2) More recently, after the condos and apartments were built in Asbury near Wesly Lake, it was Ocean Grove that stalled, and wouldn’t take down the old pool structure Leaving the Asbury residents to stare at a a blighted eyesore. It took a fire to resolve that issue.
In terms of “dividing the communities”, Ocean Grove did that years ago and has done little since then to change that.
Asbury residents haven’t forgotten that.
Curious: My point is that even though the boardwalk will be incomplete this summer, the ultimate goal in Ocean Grove is to complete it. There are many beach towns that have no boardwalk, but in the Grove and surrounding towns, the boardwalk is a place where you not only walk, but it is where you find much of the life of a shore town and where you enter the beach and where you watch the mysteries of the ocean. People look forward to walking along our boards. It is a delight for children and everyone else. Its importance should not be underestimated as a trigger for joy and an antidote for depression.
Old timers who used to stay in the towns south of here have told me how they would walk from Belmar, Avon and Bradley. Their goal would be Asbury, but they would walk through the Grove and look in amazement at the homes and the Great Auditorium.They would experience a calm place before entering the vibrant happy honky tonk of Asbury.
Finishing the boardwalk is no trivial matter. It will be expensive, and anyone who in any way inhibits that recovery (such as the AP Council) cannot be viewed with equanimity. Without the money, the boardwalk may stay incomplete for some time. With the money, the job will be completed after Labor Day.
There is a reason why the CMA has worked so hard to get the support of surrounding towns. It is because FEMA may look more kindly on our appeal if they know that our friends and neighbors are behind us. You ask “what effect does their (AP) decision even have?” Well, you never know. If you love the boardwalk, wouldn’t you want their support just in case it may help us? Certainly there is no benign reason why you or anyone else would want Asbury Park not to be supportive. And yes, some of these northbound walkers will abort their trip into AP if the boardwalk stays incomplete, especially at night, and they will wander into the Grove, and that will be good for us and bad for them. —-Paul
What effect does their decision even have?
It’s not like you can ride your bike on the boardwalk most of the time, anyway. People will walk along the sidewalk, the beach, or the western sidewalk of Ocean Ave. If the Casino is closed, that is what will keep people from going to and from Asbury.
“Without the continuity of the Grove’s boardwalk, people may choose to wander into the Grove rather than to find some alternate route into Asbury or Bradley, especially at night, or they might ignore the area altogether.”
If they are wandering into the Grove, maybe they’ll come across some businesses that they may be interested in, or just appreciate the unique homes.