Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.
So once again our small town was overtaken by huge numbers of tourists for the Harvest Festival. The streets were closed and the band was loud. Hot dogs were hot, and useless stuff was being sold.
No other shore town has as many mega-large tacky tourist events. Some like Spring Lake, Bradley, and Belmar have none or one maybe. Not even Seaside Heights has such useless events. As Groucho once said, “I love my cigar, but sometimes I take it out of my mouth!” When will the residents of OG look at what this town has become and then decide that “there’ll be some changes made.”
Does Neptune ever promote such a thing in Shark River Hills, Mid-town or anywhere else? No–they come to the Grove because everyone wants to come here to enjoy our charm, our proximity to the ocean, our friendly people and our architecture.
And regarding the latter, we taxpayers have spent fortunes to bring back our Victorians. The Township capitalizes on that with the help of their allies–the CMA and the Chamber of Commercials.
These tourists swarm over our town and deprive us residents of the chance to have open access to enjoy our 1/2 square mile.
There is a great deal of money made with events such as today’s, so why isn’t some of it put towards our property taxes? Without us, no one would come here. I was here once in the 1970’s by chance—it was the dreariest ugliest shore town I had ever seen.
It seems to me that we are being exploited, and a class-action suit agains the exploiters might get us some return for allowing out homes to be used like a sort of temporary Disneyland.
And by the way the biggest exploiter at the Mother Ship is running again. Michael Brantley is the same guy who was photographed in 2016 trying to push the North End project along by giving a tour to two developer suits who were shopping around.
His job was not to sell the NERP to developers. That was for the CMA to do. Will you reelect him again?
From HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Grammy winner Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks.
My employer is sponsoring an on-site flu shot clinic the day after I get home! We are also a mandatory covid vaccine workplace.
Dear Pfully Pfizered: You have reason to be concerned. Many people have gotten too comfortable with the vaccines. They will have to worry about the loss of protective potency over time and the possibility of breakthroughs.
We will soon find a turnabout in public fear factors resulting in going back to more careful times plus boosters as soon as possible.
Have you noticed that the washing hands frenzy has collapsed, but it will come back.
The Oregon rules seem sensible.
And don’t forget to get the influenza vaccine; now’s the time.——Paul Blogfinger.net
I am visiting from Oregon, where our current law is mandatory masks indoors and masks outdoors if 6′ spacing can’t be maintained, regardless of vaccine status.
I am Pfully Pfizered, and went to the fair. I wore my mask, especially after your story about breakthrough infections. I got a lot of looks,, as if being responsible is a bad thing.
There were some fun booths, and I did some holiday shopping, but didn’t really feel comfortable, and left after about 40 minutes. I was surprised at the number of folks my age (62) and older who were seemingly carefree.
Hi Tom. Sure many people enjoy the mega-events in the Grove which often clog our town on prime weekends with tourists.
But enjoyment is not the issue.
This is a civic matter for those who live here: What is this town now and what will it become? When do we get a Master Plan that actually contains some truth that will make the residents happy.
No other shore town has so many invasive events that smother the life styles of those who actually live here and pay taxes. OG has become a place to stage tourist-click events. The town has no character–it is a mish mash.
We used to live in Chester, a quiet small town in Morris County. They had a local “down-home” flea market, small scale, every Sunday morning in an empty lot with parking across the street in a mall. We loved to go there and buy socks, coffee, pastries and bagels. There were small numbers of tourists, no parking issues, and our residential streets were unaffected. And also, and this is important, it was run by the Lions Club and it was a fund raiser for the blind. Where are the fund raisers in OG?
The Mayor of Belmar was once quoted in the APP that his top priority was the people who live in his town. Neptune has no interest in OG other than collecting as much taxes as possible. They will really clean up with the North End, and they will continue to make money by encouraging these many tacky tourist events in the Grove.
Pegi and I attended and had a wonderful time. We arrived near end of day, around 3ish. The mood was festive, the weather – perfect.
I enjoy walking down the center of the street, taking in the sights and listening to the talented blues band performing. Pegi scurried from booth checking out the wares for sale, calling me over for opinions as needed. She purchased a beautiful but inexpensive pair of earrings (red amber). We also picked up a few Christmas presents for friends on our list. I hand selected a set of four tile coasters featuring scenes from Asbury Park. Pegi purchased 2 hand made scarfs and we bought a small bracelet for our daughter with her name on it which is often hard to find. The prices were reasonable.
We also enjoyed a tasty fruit smoothy. We probably stayed about 1 hour or so. It was a nice break for us on a busy day.