This couple enjoyed the dancers . Paul Goldfinger © 5/18/19.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
I’m not much of an old car buff, but a lively crowd turned out for this event, and many folks seemed to be enjoying it. I was photographing the street show, but my interest was in the visitors not the cars. It was clear that most of the crowd were tourists. I only saw 2 people that I knew.
Visitors pose for pictures on Main Avenue. Vintage Car Show in OG. 5/18/19.
The music was loud heavy metal, and there was dancing in the street. Those stores that sold food were doing quite well.
So can someone explain to Blogfinger why we need car shows in the Grove? The British car show will occur later in the season. Is it the job of our little town to provide this sort of entertainment to tourists on a Saturday in May?
Why not hold the car show in a parking lot outside of town, or a field, or a State Fair grounds? What’s next, the roar of hundreds of motorcycles?
And by the way, a much better, happier and livelier Grovarian show was happening in Tent Village where families were setting up for the season. Grovers don’t need throngs of tourists and a bunch of old cars to make our town a joyful place on a sunny Saturday. Don’t we have enough parked cars in the Grove?
When do the people of this town get to say what they are about?
DON PIPPIN AND GEORGE HEARN: “I Am What I Am.” From La Cage Aux Folles.
Even though the CMA no longer provides governance in the Grove, the NJ Supreme Court ruled that we should not have a central religious core, and even though the CMA no longer governs and writes ordinances, it has profound influence over the Neptuners and it continues to dominate this town with endless religious programming and in-your-face symbolism like the beach cross.
Doesn’t that defy the spirit of the court ruling regarding separation of religion and state, even if the CMA no longer has a police force, a court, and a governing body?
In many towns in America, even though governance is by representatives of the populace, they still argue about religious symbols in their towns like creches. That’s the norm, and it is important in most places other than OG.
What goes on here is so much more, even if the CMA owns the land. It is a quality of life matter not a matter of law–except look at the court ruling in 1980. There should be no religious domination in a free and open town like Ocean Grove.
Chris C: The fact that “it was a minimal disruption” is only one variable. It is the incessant stream of very public events in this town including a huge number in the summer by the CMA and a large number by the CC at the edges which define our town.
No other shore town has anything comparable, except for the way that Asbury is going., but even they are not as intrusive to those who live in their town compared to the impact in the Grove.
OG is supposed to be a residential, historic small town. Check the Master Plan. The people who live here and pay taxes here deserve to have their town without all the hoopla except for a few weekends each season. OG needs a theme defined by its citizens not by who owns the land or those who govern from the haughty dais in Neptune.
Tell the business owners they don’t need a day like this. It was a minimal disruption.
Belmar was a gridlocked DISASTER today with the seafood festival. I was just trying to get home and it took me almost an hour from Neptune!
Ocean Grove does not need these tourist festivals!
At least one OG resident entered a vehicle in the show…me!