Blogfinger

Will the future of OG come into focus?  Paul Goldfinger photo near Heroes Park.   OG.  September, 2019.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net.  Repost from September 2019.

The giant “fall” flea market is over.  Soon to occur:  another craft show, dog parade, trolley tours, Cabaret on Main, Harvest Festival–close down Main Avenue on October 5,  Victorian house tours, and then Commercial Christmas will reappear, done large.

The Chamber of Commercials  is currently driving the bus, promoting down-town businesses.  They don’t care about residential OG.  CMA is taking a break, but not for long. The Home Groaners don’t wonder about these things, but they don’t wonder much about anything having to do with lifestyles in the Grove, although that is supposed to be one of their mandates.

And the Neptune elected officials don’t care.

So what will define Ocean Grove in the future?  Will it be behaving like a historic residential village in small town America?

It looks like it will appear as a sort of junior Disneyland where bored outsiders can come and do this or that, and investors can exploit the burgeoning  real estate market with rentals and condos.

The events and crowds keep multiplying,  and, in addition,  we are becoming a bedroom community, an appendage,  for Asbury Park where they know who they are.   And the CMA infrastructure will continue to enlarge its mostly religious calendar.

The beach scene is welcome and expected and is a given–not part of this conversation.

Next summer the CMA-sponsored classical music will be great again—with tiny audiences.  The music scene will remain narrowly focused.   And the town will be swelling with religious events and tourists.

Maybe the CMA will get its wish to restore the old predominant religious focus here, even though the town’s residents are largely secular. The CMA continues to misuse the name Ocean Grove and they still hope to turn the Grove into a Seaside Christian resort. heading towards year round activities.

The residents, owners and renters don’t exactly know who they are in a communal sense.    Are they a community with a vibrant master plan or just people who live here and  assume that overgrown  tourism is how it must be?  I grew up in a small New Jersey town, and it was much different.

At the end of this month, Red Bank will have an Oyster Festival on one day, September  29, from 12 to 6 .  Otherwise they have no large events. And what they do have through the summer are for the residents, such as  live  jazz and movies in the park.  They have a large downtown which  is classy, but they keep the home- town spirit of the place for the sake of their residents.

And Neptune is soon having a concert at the Shark River for the River area residents. When did Neptune Township offer a musical program for Grover residents?  They notice us when they need to exploit our town for one reason or another, mostly for our  tax obligations.

And although Asbury is growing as a music, bar scene, restaurant, shopping  and tourist destination,  it is deeply concerned with its residents, the arts,  housing for rich and poor, diversity, and its history.  Its focus is complicated, but unlike the Grove, it has a focus and a master plan for its residents.   Maybe the latter is blurry at AP, but their master plan is steadily coming into focus.

So, again, what is the point of this constant barrage of tourists in Ocean Grove–a town with an identity challenge ?

GUY LOMBARDO AND HIS ROYAL CANADIANS   From the soundtrack of Woody’s movie Zelig.