Nocturnal coming and going at the OG side of the Asbury Casino. What will the future bring in the Grove? Paul Goldfinger photo. © Click to enlarge.
Re-post from 2021:
Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net
Is it too much to expect the Coaster to verify the facts before posting everything that comes their way?
In the September 9, 2021 issue they published a quote regarding a very important topic for our town by someone who has no facts to back up his statement.
The article is entitled “Starving Artist Says Business is Still a Challenge” by Ed Salvas. It consists of an interview with Arnold Teixeira, the restaurant’s manager, who is eminently qualified to offer his opinions about his business.
But he had something provocative to say about Ocean Grove: “He also knows the community is changing. Once a year-round community, he’s seen a drop in the number of year-round residents and weekenders.”
Ocean Grove is a fascinating town with changes occurring over time in many areas such as demographics.
But Mr. Teixeira decided that he was qualified to draw conclusions about important demographic “changes” in the Grove.
Demographics need to be quantified with precision, because such “changes” would be important to know and could impact other areas such as the real estate market, the census, the rental market, and the cultural and business life of the town.
Texieira’s opinion, as reported by the Coastericans, is nothing but speculation. There are no facts.
However his comment does raise some important issues. Reporter Ed Salvas should have sought out facts, but he did not—typical of the Coaster. Maybe they should stick to less controversial topics such as “bartender of the week.” Their motto should be, “No questions asked.”
I hope we will hear from some local experts such as real estate agents regarding these topics.
From the 1933 movie 42nd Street:
Gentrification and COVID—the latter changed everything. PG
I suggest someone walk about the town in October and note how many houses are dark in the evening. I did this once some years ago and was surprised by the change from summer. Here in NYC, the grand apartments on Fifth and Park avenues. are often dark. The wealthy stay only occasionally. OG has gone through a period of gentrification.
This is very interesting. We have no data and we are hearing examples from individuals such as Michael and Kevin.
On our street at the North End, quite a few year-rounders left for a variety of reasons, and some of their homes are now occupied by different year-rounders: New Yorkers and others escaping violence, high taxes and COVID. Or coming to the Grove for a unique living experience.
But there are only two or three over two blocks whose year-round owners have vacated to cash in on rentals. But this phenomenon might be temporary.
Many of our new residents are second homers, but they also are year-rounders, even if they rent sometimes, so don’t let the census numbers throw you off.
As Kevin said, these changes may not be so bad. I like the arrival of a smattering of sophisticated city folk. They bring us some fine conversations and talents as well as fashionable girls in their summer clothes.
When I landed in Ocean Grove in October 1999. my second beach block street had only one house that was not occupied year around.
When I left in September, 2015, the exact opposite was true. During my tenure, hotels were reconstructed into condominiums. In the large one across the street, only two of the more than twenty apartments were occupied all year.
The vacant street sent me back to populated Manhattan!
Kevin: Please clarify.
You say that people are buying multifamily homes to convert them to single family.
But now we are in the midst of a feeding frenzy involving high price rental units in OG multi-family homes.
If I had a multi-family I would do rentals and not conversion to single family. Please clarify, and do you have any data?
Before the gates were opened on Sunday, the majority of the homes were empty in the winter except for the homes closest to parking in Asbury Park and the south end parking lot.
Once the gates were opened. (1980) there was a flood of year-round residents.
I have seen a clear drop in the number of year-round residents lately as wealthier residents are buying and converting multi-family homes into single family homes.
It’s neither good or bad, just a change.
The claim was that there has been a drop in year round residents, not total population. That assertion was made without documentation.
Your charts don’t prove the point either because a year round resident could be a renter or an owner, and some of those don’t get counted in the census.
You did show a chart comparing renters to owners, but this census compilation does not prove that year round residents are declining.
Don’t forget, many houses in the Grove are occupied by owners, but they are second homers and don’t get counted in the census.
Also, the assertion was made that there has been a drop in the number of “weekenders.” Where is the evidence for that useless claim?
Here are stats showing the year round population over the past 10 years. When compared to 2010 there is a 10% drop in Year round population. Thus the Coaster and the individuals in the article were correct.
Here’s a link with 8 sources
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/ocean-grove-nj-population