When will the CMA and the Neptunites realize that “the times they are a changin'”.    Cartoon by Sue Gioulis for Blogfinger.

Block party. Mt. Hermon Way. Paul Goldfinger photo.  Diversity is welcomed in contemporary Ocean Grove. Change is inevitable. There is no “discrimination” here.   The CMA has lost its grip.  Paul Goldfinger photo.

OG youth movement. They attended a Ronald Naldi secular concert in the Tabernacle. Summer 2022. Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net. Ocean Grove, NJ

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net.  1/29/23.  Ocean Grove, NJ

If I were a betting man I would wager that the Neptune Committee will reject the pilot parking plan because it is too complicated, too much trouble, too controversial, too annoying, and of no use to the people of Neptune Township (Oh, we are not really part of Neptune Township except  for our role as tax payers.)

In addition it will upset the apple cart which is the long-standing cozy relationship of the CMA to the Neptuners.  And it will create a Neptune-wide controversy when for years the people of Neptune-minus-us didn’t have to give OG a second thought.*

And Ocean Grove can be counted on to vote Democrat regardless of the parking vote. One party rule does us no good.

And  if the Committee agrees to the parking trial, they can anticipate nothing but trouble from the smart-alecks in the Grove and they will eventually find a reason to throw the whole thing into the catch- basin at Wesley Lake with the road filth that currently flows there unabated and then into the Ocean.

The Mayor seems to care  little about our problems because yesterday he wouldn’t even speculate as to when his people might take a vote.

However  regardless how the gang-of-five at the Mother Ship rules, this parking squabble has allowed a serious and overriding issue to peak through the non-transparent curtain of  Neptune governance and that has to do with the future of Ocean Grove and the wishes of the residential community here.

At the meeting, a  few courageous Grovers disclosed that they are not liking our wonderful town as much as they used to, and this parking issue is part of  a larger problem for the Grove regarding the desirability of our town. Real estate mavens should watch the demographics and notice the long and irritable line commenting at yesterday’s meeting.

Yesterday also revealed that there is considerable ambivalence regarding the Camp Meeting Association and how it conducts itself as it pretends to be a heartfelt purveyor of good will, and we saw some  resistance to the Township and the CMA regarding what kind of town we will become as we change, as do most places over time.  This outspokenness is new.

The  CMA’s position about parking shows that they really don’t care about the largest faction in town:  the residents. (renters and owners.)  The CMA not only won’t recognize the obvious and inevitable changes here but they seem to want to put their ship into reverse and return to when they governed the Grove. And why won’t they accept that they are no longer the Sherrif in this unique and changing town?

Blogfinger has reported on this phenomenon—we see it in their Coaster and APP ads and interviews and in their signs and symbols around town, along with their failure to recognize that this residential community is changing especially in demographics.  

And if the people of OG vociferously demand changes, the CMA and the Neptune governance can be forced to respond.  Yesterday was a beginning, and we expect to hear from the Neptune United which loudly blew into town a few months ago.

We see more sophisticated New Yorkers and North Jerseyans as well as gays who are not impressed by how the CMA behaves in the Grove.   And there are now more young people here—we call them “The Ocean Grove Underground” and they bring life style changes that the CMA would rather ignore.  And we have more young couples with kids, dogs or both. And we are being discovered by new renters and buyers who may blink twice at our situations.

The CMA turns a blind eye to these inevitable changes, and their attitude to the parking situation shows that they are becoming more belligerent and less neighborly. When we moved here over 20 years ago we appreciated the spirituality which the CMA brought to  bear and they were more like an integral part of our town’s personality.  But now it’s different.

A couple of years ago one of Badgers predecessors threatened to sue Neptune if they so much as discussed the possibility of resident sticker parking.  And, of course, we now see the aggressive expansion of the CMA’s programming and the increase in volume of religious tourism thus pushing the parking limits even more.   And lately we have “yogagate” and “pier gate.”

And now the CMA accuses all of us of discrimination.  That shows how out-of-touch and desperate  the CMA has become.

So, the parking meeting suggests that there will be more push-back by OG citizens and that even the Home Owners may be willing to tackle these themes. They can start by abandoning their long-standing support of the North End plan and opposing the outrageous zoning abuses that make parking and crowding worse and  threaten our history. (Remember the Aurora?)   And they can push to eliminate  mega-events which shut down our streets, prevent our cars from moving, and push we-the-people around and back onto our porches.

I recall when Belmar had one mega event, a seafood festival on the boards, which attracted about 100,000 people.    They shut down the town to block any more cars, and then they banned the event for the future.  The Belmar mayor was interviewed and he said, “My top priority are the residents who live in my town!”  A similar victory for citizens happened a couple of years ago in Bradley Beach.  Power to the people!   (I am from the sixties give or take 10 years in either direction).

The people of OG need to figure out what sort of town we desire,  and then, as people said yesterday, “It’s time for action.”

BOB DYLAN:

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’