There are some unanswered questions. If you know the answers, please share with your OG neighbors:
a. What happened to the Camp Meeting Association’s expensive parking study? That report was supposed to be available after the summer, but don’t you think that the summer is over? Why hasn’t the CMA released that report which they said was being bought as a public service. Maybe the CMA didn’t get the answers that they were looking for.
b. What is the status of the North End/OGNED plan to turn that part of town into Asbury Park South? The last we heard, it was tied up in Trenton where the DEP was holding up the CAFRA approval pending a period of public opinion. We never did find out who, besides two lawyers from OGNED, actually commented.
Blogfinger sent them two of our environmentally- oriented posts, but we never heard back. Surely that public portion is over by now, so we contacted our friends at the DEP, and this is what they said, “Paul: The application remains pending. The ongoing 90-day review period for this application ends Feb. 16, 2021.”
Boy, they’ve had this tempest in their Trenton teapot for a long time, and now we learn that there is a 90 day review period going on. How long does it take to figure out that this project poses an environmental risk to our town?
c. Eileen Goldfinger gets banned from a Facebook page in Florida. Take my word for it—she did absolutely nothing wrong, but some Yahoos/Visigoths on the Board of a Homeowners Ass. down here didn’t like her mild opinion about something. So they blocked her access, disrespecting her Ocean Grove beach badge on her hat and her “LOVE” sweater.
Eileen in Florida where they violated her free speech rights. Photo by Paul Goldfinger.
This current phenomenon of depriving citizens of their freedom of speech/expression extends beyond mega-tech worlds like Twitter and has already filtered down to ordinary AARP-ladies in Fla-La-Land. I contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, but, believe it or not, they are too busy to listen to my complaint.
But, like Paul Revere, I am sounding alarms for a free society. A lawyer down here told me that certain small local groups, like homeowners associations, tend to be so full of self importance that they are known to be secretive, oppressive, unjust, opaque and ignorant of human rights. But these mid-westerners haven’t met too many Jersey boys.
I started a blog here just for a few months to provide a venue (it’s like Paul Revere’s horse) for free expression of opinions.
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
― Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
BEACH BOYS: There is a flip side to the tropical paradises way down in Kokomo.
—-Paul Goldfinger, Editor at Blogfinger.net
If any of you want to see my posts in Florida dealing with abuses by the Co-Op board there, go to tropicanaforum.com We have been getting a nice start in the visits department, but comments have been sparse. The reason may be cultural, but we are not sure. —Paul
Thanks Ronnie; At the local level, such as issues in a community setting like ours in Florida, it’s hard to tell, but I am concerned that the cancel culture is beginning to filter down to a place where it would cause someone to think it’s OK to block Eileen’s freedom of expression. Now, we can’t take those freedoms for granted.
Speech is free only if from the left. Sadly this is the beginning of the end for the America we knew. Glad I have cancelled all social media including Facebook.