By Paul Goldfinger, Editor. Blogfinger.net
It’s Wednesday, a June evening in the Cookman Avenue district of A. Park. Despite the off night, many young people are having a great time. This demographic can afford a $100.00 dinner downtown.
A. Park is developing into exactly what it wanted to be, at least in the tourist areas of fine dining, boutiques, trendy condos (built with parking), diversity and money. For all their alleged troubles, the planners of Asbury Park know who they are and where they want to go. The 4 Council members are women.
Unlike A. Park the Grove has an identity crisis.
Ocean Grove, which started out post-1980 with a grand plan as a historic cultured town and is winding up in the direction of being just another congested shore town, geared towards FMT’s (flea market tourists,) religious programming, and possessing a fine collection of old houses and high property taxes.
And there’s nothing wrong with that shore town outcome except it’s not what many of us expected when we signed on to make this our home and restore our Victorians.
So, what do you think? What are we? Currently we have a master plan which is largely ignored, an evolving demographic. (OG Underground,) no plan for the downtown, a shortage of restaurants, parking chaos, religious vs. secular dynamic, excess taxes, a disastrous North End plan, and a miss-mash of lifestyles.
We need a life-style planner for the town. We need a new organization for “we-the-people.”
LUCINDA WILLIAMS AND JIMMY WEBB.
Jack Bredin for Neptune Township Committee!
Unfortunately, probably too late for this election.
I may not always agree with him, but I believe that Jack genuinely gives a damn about Ocean Grove.
At their annual Labor Day meeting, they reported an income of over $5 million with expenses nearly identical to that number.
The CMA has ambitious plans to keep growing, including becoming more of a year-round enterprise, so those expenses will continue to increase.
Oh gimme a break. The CMA gets revenue from the tents and cottages (with little or no updates/repairs), they get revenue from the beach, they get monies bequeathed to them through their fundraising letters, the Ladies Auxiliary donates to them, they get free services from Neptune (trash pickup all summer and on Sundays, snow removal, etc.), they get money from their “basket passing” at church services, and they get their ground rents. Need I go on? They have plenty of money.
The OGCMA has always put on a smiley face publicly. During their Labor Day public meeting the Finance Chairman was pleased and optimistic.
Oldtimers tell me that the CMA is chronically stressed for money. This past year their income equalled their spending.
Neptune Township views OG as its cash cow; we pay a disproportionally high per cent of the property taxes and we use a disproportionally low per cent of the resources. What a great deal for them.
Since many homes are vacation homes, there are not enough voters to significantly impact the outcome of Neptune Township elections, so our viewpoints can pretty much be disregarded.
Now throw in the OGCMA with its own set of priorities and challenges. They’re a religious organization with a group of aging adherents in an increasingly secular society where church attendance decreases every year. Sadly, that doesn’t bode well for their continued operation. As stated elsewhere, they are very obviously under financial pressure. This summer, they only mowed the Ocean Pathway greenway every other week leaving it to get overgrown in between. It was always mowed weekly in the past.
Neptune, in an attempt to maximize property tax revenue from OG, simply disregards any zoning law, or environmental law that gets in the way of more development. So, we are, pretty much, morphing into just another shore town.
Suffering Surfer: There are many reasons why Ocean Grove could secede from Neptune Township.
It would be easy to demonstrate to the NJ State Legislature that our “Leadership”
has been violating State laws drafted to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the residents.
Just one example, from a long list of reasons, would be all the violations of environmental laws that have polluted Wesley Lake.
We have no good leadership, thus no direction.
I received something in the mail today to re-elect McMillan. He has been on the Township cCmmittee (and a few times mayor) for 15 years and wants another 3 year term. I cannot think of anything he has done for OG.
We are neglected by the elected five Democrats who hold all the seats on the Neptune Township Committee—- better known as Mayor Mike and the Misfits.
And next we have OGCMA, Ocean Grove Counting Money Association, who have no vision for the future because they are looking backwards.
And finally we have the feckless OGHOA.
When I discuss this with friends and neighbors in town, they agree that all 3 are useless.
We can’t secede from Neptune. OGCMA is like your 100 year old grandmother on life support, continuing to barely exist with no quality of life.
OGHOA is like a confused kid, unsure what to do, whom to side with.
So, most of us just bury our heads in the sand. If we remain oblivious to all the nonsense, we can live in a state of euphoria.
Lost it’s way.
I think we have a divided vision and getting more so.
I live in the north, which is drawing a lot of cars, buyers and renters who want to be in AP and we are a cheaper and quieter alternative. Houses are being fixed up (Probably by people who really wanted AP, but a good thing overall for us), late night noise and the number beer bottles on the sidewalks are going up too! We also have the Tent City who want nothing to change and support the CMA 100%, but are only here for two months in the summer. We then have year rounders and summer folk, some of who think it is just another beach town, don’t care about the culture or historic aspects, just want a beach and somewhere to sip a cocktail or two. Then there are the people who are into the whole historic village by the sea, unfortunately, we are a smaller and smaller portion of the Neptune Township population in general and OG specifically.
I don’t really see a way out, As AP gets more popular and more built up, we are going to be in their shadow, CMA doesn’t really care, the town and people are not part of ‘The Mission’ and I have heard rumors that they may be having financial issues (which could be a disaster if they ever sold out or were taken over by some other organization). Neptune certainly doesn’t care, they want more tax money and will pretty much approve anything that brings it in. I still love the town, we have been here 12 years, but every summer I love it a little less