Mayor, Skip the Coaster interviews, take off your mask, and tell us what you really think! Paul Goldfinger photo. Florence, Italy. Silver gelatin darkroom print ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@ BLOGFINGER.net
BRIDGEGATE OPINION POLL (below): We closed the poll on July 15, 2019 after 247 voters chose either YES or NO.
224 said YES; 23 said NO.
91% of those who offered an opinion were in favor of keeping the gates locked.
The Mayor is meeting with the Asburians over this, but, according to the Qoastericans, the two sides cannot agree on anything. Committeeman Brantley of Neptune says that “no firm decision has been made.”
But Mayor, why are you allowing yourself to be manipulated by the Qoaster and by Asbury rabble rousers? Is it possible that you are giving serious credence to the Asburian Councilwoman Chapman who asserts that this issue “divides the communities?”
Do you believe those who say that Bridgegate is more about parking than safety?
Will you agree with the disingenuous Asburians who want keys to the gates on the pretense of a possible emergency? Surely Mayor you have heard of the Neptune Township Police Department?
And Mayor, how is this different from a gated community where an entryway is closed for safety?
So Mayor, is this just a headline-grabbing exercise in political grandstanding?
When does your Committee begin to take a firm stand on behalf of Grover citizens? You can take sides in a dispute, even one which is not yet settled. Where is the courage?
Please stop playing games with these Northerners. Quit the talks and get back to parking permits and potholes at the Mother Ship. Don’t let them drag you down over this manufactured issue.
As for those Asburians who are proclaiming nonsense about this “controversy,” they are wasting their time and ours, because no one has yet provided a coherent reason to change the current policy of gate closures on the OG side.
Try to understand their theories, and it all amounts to “gibberish and gobbledygook.”
Theme song for the Bridgegate talks:
KEK LANG with Nani Nani
The George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River, closes its sidewalks between 12 midnight and 6 am. Most Bridges do. For safety reasons. Just a point of interest.
If I lived near Wesley Lake Bridge, I would sleep better knowing gates were locked.
Thank you
Jean Bredin
With all the complaints coming from the Asburian side, have any of them made a coherent case as to what are the damages incurred by those Asburian whiners as a result of the Ocean Grove nocturnal gate closures?
Is it that their feelings have been hurt? If there is no good case, then why is our Mayor wasting her time engaging in these talks?
And why has the Qoaster made this a front page story for 3 weeks running when there is no there there. Their roll seems to be that of provocateur and enabler of the Asbury mischief-makers rather than that of journalist.
I researched the KKK angle some years ago. Once the Klan had a rally in the Great Auditorium. The Klan was very big in New Jersey then, but their emphasis was on religion and patriotism rather than race.
APP 1925: “Big Klan Gathering In Honor of Mother’s Day,” was the headline on the front page of the Asbury Park Press on May 11, 1925.
The article beneath it went on to report that 8,000 people from all over the state had turned out at the Ocean Grove Auditorium for a KKK-led service that was both religious and patriotic in nature. They talked about motherhood, “pure womanhood,” and Christian homes.
But the Klan was all over NJ including Pt. Pleasant, Lakewood, Toms River, Sea Girt, Shark River Hills, and Lake Como as far as the Shore is concerned, and Ocean Grove provided a venue for that one event, but the history of the Grove shows no direct ties between the CMA and the Klan.
Since there were about 7,000 Klan members in NJ, the GA was probably one of the few places that could have the event. Many politicians then courted the Klan for their support;
And, in 1921, the first Klan chapter (Klavern) in New Jersey was discovered in ASBURY PARK! The news papers covered that story.
Somebody please pass this on to those “holier than thou” do-gooders who are offended that we want our bridges to stay locked through the night.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @ Blogfinger.net
Having spent every summer of my youth in OG during the 60s and 70s I think I’ve seen the change in OG. My parents retired here and we still own
In the 80s Neptune Police were at the gate every night. I came home late, more than a few times, from the Pony and was greeted. Maybe it was profiling but we felt safe in OG.
Oh yes, when you have no facts, pull out the “race card” to get what you want.
Per Don Stine of The Coaster, at the 7/10/19 meeting with Neptune, the misguided Asbury Park Councilwoman said that if residents of Ocean Grove are being disturbed, it is not from people crossing the bridge, because the bridge gates are locked.
Wrong again. Right before 12 AM, there is a surge of intoxicated people coming from Asbury to beat the gate closing. There are also a lot of people climbing around the gates after they are locked.
I suggest the Neptune Township Police camp out at the gates and follow the revelers to their cars and arrest them for drunk driving in the name of public safety. How do you like that proposal, Councilwoman?
What is the Councilwoman doing to prevent a recurrence of the shooting on the Asbury Park boardwalk on July 4? Probably nothing, as unlocking the gates is her big concern.
Pulling the race card has no place in this situation. The two bridges unite or separate (when locked) the 99% white eastside of Asbury Park from 99% white Ocean Grove.
To link OGCMA and the KKK implies that the residents of Ocean Grove are racists. The vast majority of people in Ocean Grove are not even connected with OGCMA. And while OGCMA briefly permitted KKK speakers about 100 years ago it has no relevance today.
Just to clarify Jack’s comment, A group of people from A. Park showed up at the Committee meeting on June 24 to complain about the bridge closures. They spoke at the Public Portion, and one woman who spoke likened the OGCMA to the KKK.
Below is a link to our article about that meeting. Also, the minutes of that meeting are not yet available, but they will eventually be at the NT web site—Paul Goldfinger, editor
BF article about June 24 Township meeting
Regardless of your position to lock or unlock the gates, the “Take the Gates Down Committee*” included someone who, on the “public record,” during the public portion of a Neptune Township Committee Meeting, linked the OGCMA to the Ku Klux Klan as the reason the gates are locked.
The “record” needs to be corrected.
We are not a bunch of racists in Ocean Grove with the collective power to close a public sidewalk. We cannot even get a parking space.
The reason the gates are locked at night by the Neptune Township Police Department is because the gates are on a Township sidewalk, not an OGCMA sidewalk.
And it is the first responsibility of a municipality and their police department to protect the “health, safety and general welfare of the residents,” as stated by the Township Attorney Gene Anthony.
An apology from the “gate closing group” to OG residents and the CMA is in order.
Yea, lock the gate tight. Lock it.
Because from midnight to 6 a.m., nothing crosses that way but trouble. If some misplaced fool on the Wesley Lake Commission wants to to be kept up at night, see what she can do about stemming the pollution tide under the Lake, rather than craving to see pollution flow over the lake’s bridges: drunk kids, mischief-makers, and thieves.
The Wesley Lake Commission are tasked with proper land-use and a healthy and safe environment for residents and visitors. Leave the criminals and drunk kids to the police. If a gate helps law enforcement, which it does without argument, then a gate it is.
And by they way, theft of OG’s parking spaces to support some ghostly “freedom fighters” is ludicrous beyond imagination.
I’m with “retired.”
Liberalism/IIdealism about diversity is fine for campaign topics and in storybooks. What say you Mayor Rizzo? Want to take a walk back into OG from Asbury with no gates up and maybe get hit with a stray bullet?
2 shot by an Asbury Park teenager on the boardwalk after the fireworks on July 4. And they have so much security. Wonder what the Bridgegate Councilwoman will do about that?