By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger. 2019 re-post:
From 1869 until 1980, Ocean Grove was its own town. Of course it was not like other small towns in America; it was a theocracy run by the Camp Meeting Association and it was able to enforce its own religious-based ordinances, commonly known as “blue laws,” by restricting non-Methodists from living in town. At some point they allowed new residents who were a diverse group to move in, but the town never crystallized into a place where residents could feel part of a coherent small-town community.
The best hope for that was in 1980 when governance was transferred to Neptune Township, but the ‘Tuners’ were not much better than the CMA when it came to the historic small-town of Ocean Grove.
After 1980, even with Neptune in charge, the Grove was just an appendage and did not gain true representative government nor did it gain the spirit of a newborn American community.
Instead it became a mish-mash of self-interested organizations, OGCMA, developers, realtors, tourists and neighborhoods under the umbrella of Neptune Township. A community of residents existed, but did not coalesce.
Neptune called the Grove their “Historic District,” but it did not care about the Grove’s historic preservation nor did it recognize its community of residents. When it came to the Grove, Neptune was only interested in taxes and the best interests of the CMA. In fact it ignored the Master Plan which was all about the Grove’s historical requirements, such as single family housing.
Neptune failed to nurture the residential community in the Grove. An exception to the fate of OG citizens was during the rarefied atmosphere of the Herb Herbst/HOA era—1990’s, when OG was in a state of decline and then was saved by aggressive Grovers who were fed up with crappy rooming houses and the mentally ill wandering the streets. They did something about those, but after achieving success, they failed to follow up, and the vacuum in OG was later filled by a mixed bag of realtors, developers, home investors interested in rentals, and ineffective organizations like the modern-day HOA. The community of residents became invisible and never came together as one.
The fatal flaw, as time went by, was that there was no interest by the ‘Tuners’ or the CMA in fostering a sense of community for their “Historic District.” The town never became like other typical small towns in America. In fact, where else can one find another town with the same peculiar and fragmented characteristics of OG?
From the beginning, the Township worked hand in hand with the CMA, such as their efforts to keep the Sunday closure alive in 1980. And later there were condominium approvals in defiance of State RSIS parking laws.
In 2007 Neptune concocted the North End Redevelopment plan, working with the CMA and WAVE developers. They ignored the Master Plan and what was best for the town’s people.
So in 2019, Ocean Grove continues to be a sort of peculiar Neptune appendage, and it never evolved much of a relationship with Neptune, except for the incestuous CMA/Township Committee partnerships, usually related to land use and exploitation of OG. For resident Grovers in 2019, we continue to be an afterthought to the Neptuners.
The CMA has pursued its own religious “mission,” using the town as a kind of personal stage-set while largely ignoring the diverse and secular residential community which has been growing.
Neptune has continued collecting taxes while providing a set of impersonal services and ordinances for the Grove. Lately there has been growing disrespect by Groverian serfs for their Neptunite “lords,” and many believe that Neptune treats them as a “cash cow.”
In most small towns, the locals run the governance while doing what is best for its citizens. All the elected officials are townspeople, so everyone pulls together for the common good. But not in the town of Ocean Grove.
Neptune built a new marina after Sandy as well as a new park near the Shark River for that part of town. And they entered into a secret deal with the CMA to exploit the North End. But for us, they could not even help the cleanup near the ocean after Sandy and they show no interest in the condition of Wesley Lake. They act as if we are separate and not equal, and we are left with a bizarre situation where the CMA owns all the land. Neptune governs us with indifference and forces us to pay rent for the land while also paying property taxes for that land.
And there continues to be no recognition by Neptune that the “community of OG residents” actually exists and deserves attention and respect. In fact, the Neptune Committee has been nothing but disdainful towards the Grove except to exploit it by approving all sorts of destructive land use abuses such as allowing congestion-causing condominiums all over town without off street parking, as required by the State; and that continues to be a problem. They play favorites in town with a multi-generational network of developers and enablers, and they show no interest in the best interests of the residents who live here.
As a result, the Grove has not evolved into a town-like community and is totally lacking in the normal dynamics of life in a small town where the governance’s focus would be on those who actually live here and pay taxes.
Coupled with the apathy of residents, the situation currently seems to be chaotic with no clear plan for the future.
In the future, the socioeconomic profiles of new homeowners will continue to rise, the Grove will be an afterthought compared to Asbury and will be more and more a quiet enclave for the rich.
Very few residents will care about the religious missions in town, and OG residents will more and more become second homers and airbnb hosts and guests with their eyes on the beach and the increasingly flamboyant A. Park, easily reached by parking in the Grove and walking our boards to get somewhere else.
The recent hope towards a cultured, historic, diverse–even Bohemian/artsy, neighborhood-driven small-town will evaporate, and many will move, such as retirees, and will look elsewhere.
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