The other side of Ocean Grove. Asbury Avenue. Paul Goldfinger. 2021
An open letter to the OG Camp Meeting Association:
April 29, 1993.
So, the beach fee is $55.00. For what? What will that $55.00 bring me? Me, a year round resident. A resident who supports local businesses, pays taxes, is a part of a community on a neighborhood level, on a town level.
Throughout the year I have to deal with prostitutes of both sexes, drug dealers, drug buyers, the bane of Ocean Grove; the legions of the de-institutionalized, the homeless, as well as a rather seedy though viable commercial district.
Then I get the seasonal arrogant OGCMA who starts to tell me what they expect from me. You have-no-idea-what-goes-on-in-this-town! NONE.
We have rampant crime on Ocean Pathway. A boardwalk which was always lacking (I am not even considering the devastating storms.)
What of the once glorious Queen Hotel, purchased by “investors?” It is an eyesore. A dangerous eyesore.
These are just a few of the many problems which plague this tiny town.
Get with your community! Lead your community! Listen to your community!
It is a viable year round community whose strengths are the many creative, caring people who live here throughout the year. These are persons of ALL religions, all sexes, all colors who want, who expect, who are beginning to demand respect, communication, leadership and perhaps farsightedness in the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
I will not pay $55. I would rather go to Asbury, to Belmar. But most likely I will be walking onto the beach. The beach which I love. The beach that I walk year round. The beach , the ocean which brings succor and strength to me. The beach which I treasure.
Watch for me OGCMA for I will be leaping over the fences! Diving past the badge monitors. Watch for me! I’m the year round resident, who is part of a year round community, which keeps itself ready for the seasonal OGCMA.
Then, then I am treated with contempt, just like another “Bennie.”
DONALD ROBERTS,
Ocean Grove.
Editor’s note: Here we find, nearly 30 years ago, an eloquent plea which asks the CMA to recognize we the people—-we who are year-round residents and who, even until now, 2022, can look forward to continually be ignored by the CMA, the Neptune Committee, the Home Groaners, and the Chamber of Commercials. It doesn’t make one feel optimistic for the sake of the Ocean Grove residential community—the silent majority. April 9, 2022.
Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor, Blogfinger.net
VINCE GIORDANO AND THE NIGHTHAWKS “Don’t Be That Way.”
There is no question that the early 1990s were very troubled in OG. Residents threatened a drastic action in 1993.
“The organized residents have threatened to demonstrate in front of the two main gates leading into Ocean Grove with signs reading “You Are Entering An Unsafe Area.” The announcement came after several residents spoke of numerous police calls and witnessing crack vials, needles, liquor bottles, prostitution solicitation and “a whole lot more.”…Specifically, they charge that four establishments along Ocean Pathway are responsible. The Sea Mist, Stokes Hall, the former Dardanelle Hotel now called the Ocean Grove Hotel and the Shelburne Hotel were named.”—OGT 6 May 1993
The last-mentioned hotel had an incident with a woman brandishing a steak knife and a claw hammer that year. In 1992, a resident of the Whitfield was arrested for “lewdness on Olin St.” Fortunately, the disappearance of the hotels has largely eliminated these problems.
It does cost money to maintain a beach with lifeguards, sand grooming, etc. The writer’s complaint seems a bit unreasonable in that regard.