March 22, Asbury Park. APP photo in the March 23 edition.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger

“Today’s effort was the first to promote the unification of the west side and the east side of the city,” said Maureen Nevin in today’s Asbury Park Press*  who lives on the north side of the city by Deal Lake. “The west side was never considered part of Asbury Park during previous redevelopment proposals.”   The marchers complained that the two sides, east and west, were in need of being “unified.”    Their key word for the march was “resilience” which means to recover or spring back in shape.

 Does this mean that Asbury Park is officially recognizing that it is a tale of two cities?  Does this parade really mean what it says—that Asbury needs to be united?     Perhaps this is the first shot across the bow that acknowledges the defacto separation of the city by race, geography, and economics.  

The actual meaning of the parade and its message seems murky as described by the APP.  The specific concerns evidently are that redevelopment money has been spent on the east side of town but not on the west. However, private developers and investors want to rebuild the area by the ocean.  Is that a surprise?  Their job is not to rebuild the inner city on the west side.

The Sandy hurricane was mentioned as an issue, but was the west side hit as hard as the oceanfront?    Perhaps the west side of town did not see much of that post-Sandy financial windfall, but there weren’t any details presented to suggest inappropriate withholding  of Sandy recovery money.    There was also talk about a planned redesign of the city, but no details were given about that with respect to planning for the west side as well as the east .

In this APP article on Sunday,  there was no mention of racial conflicts, poverty, inner city problems, socioeconomics, lack of jobs, crime, or educational failures. If there is a divide in AP, how can anyone discuss this situation without addressing those issues?  

This parade seems like a feel-good exercise in good will.  Perhaps time will bring some clarity and truth telling.

* Asbury Park Press, March 23, 2014.    Link here:    AP Link

WOODIE GUTHRIE