Portland, Oregon. From the film “Pig.” Paul Goldfinger 12/5/212. Click to enlarge. Streaming on HULU.

AWOL NATION:  “I’m on Fire”by Bruce Spingsteen.  This version is from the movie 50 Shades of Gray

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Asbury Park and Ocean Grove Historical Society meet at Firemen’s Park for a holiday trip into New York City.   Blogfinger.net photo  12/5/21 ©

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net   12/5/21

Today, Sunday morning December 5, 2021, two tour buses were parked along the edge of Firemen’s Park.  They were gathering for an all day Christmas trip into New York City sponsored by the Historical Societies of Asbury Park and Ocean Grove.

I went over to see what was going on and I was told that the Asbury Park Historical Society were the sponsors, but later I was informed that the OG group were also sponsors. The web site of the Historical Society of Ocean Grove does not mention this activity and we did not receive any email ads for it.

Two full tour buses accommodate about 150 people, and  we suspect that most  of this group are from A. Park and that a decision was made to park all day in the Grove because of our wonderful  custom of free parking for Asburians, and it is ironic that our problems with A. parkers usually occur in this same neighborhood

Yesterday, Saturday Dec 4, we had some parking issues due to Christmas events by the CMA  and another street closing fair by the Chamber of Commercials trying to attract customers into the Grove.

You know why these historians chose to meet here,  but this was a little different from individual tourists riding around looking for free spaces to go into A.Park.

This is an organized event for a large group of people, and probably most of them were from A. Park and were parking here. Their ads said, “Board buses in Ocean Grove.”

These people will not be enjoying the Grove today;  they will be using our free parking to hold their cars over all day until they return tonight.

Is this neighborly to have an organized parking space heist in the Grove?

Even if half of the group were from OG, it still is presumptuous that they would meet and park here because all who drove would park in this one particular neighborhood.

LENA HORNE  “Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home.”  by Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) from a 1940’s Broadway show called St. Louis Woman.

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Changing demographics in OG raise questions about religious equality in this American town.

Ocean Grove boards: private or public?  Tax exemption here. Paul Goldfinger photo © c 2020.

By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net   December 4, 2021.

In our post of Dec. 3, 2021 regarding the Ten Commandments,  we touched on some issues that specifically relate to Ocean Grove.

We reported that religious  displays were fine if implemented on private property, but not if on public spaces. This is based on prior court cases around the country, up to and including the Supreme Court.

In Ocean Grove, even though the Camp Meeting owns the land, the CMA argued after Sandy  (2012)  that the Boardwalk was a “public thoroughfare”  in order to obtain federal FEMA funds to repair the damage.   FEMA eventually agreed with that, although they did not want to pay for the fishing pier.  The CMA also gets tax credits for green acres designations for their lands.

This caused us to question such displays in public spaces such as the beach  (big cross) , the parks. and the ocean (baptisms)   There is a creche at Firemen’s Park and at Boswell Park. And there are a variety of displays on the Boardwalk.

One could debate whether the CMA owns the beach, but the beach is another public thoroughfare. The CMA certainly own the parks and the boardwalk.

All of those places are public thoroughfares, so the question remains if prior court rulings about public religious displays apply to the CMA parks, beach and boardwalk in Ocean Grove which could be considered public spaces  (per usage) despite being privately owned.

Today we received a comment from Ocean Grove historian David Fox. He reports that as early as 1907, the CMA received a tax exemption for the beach and the boardwalk on the grounds that those spaces are  “public highways.”  His comment is below:

December 4, 2021:   Methodism came out of the Church of England in the 1700s when it was very “low church.” Crosses were deemed to smack of popery and avoided. This changed very considerably as the 19th century moved on, but US Methodists generally did not use crosses until around 1920. The Auditorium has the memorial cross from the end of WWII, but the interior cross is of more recent origin and was supposedly installed upon the complaint of a Methodist bishop.

The beach is legally a more complicated situation mentioned in the NYT of 4 June 1907:

“By decision of the Monmouth County Board of Taxation handed down today, Ocean Grove’s $3,000,000 beachfront, the property of the Camp Meeting Association, is to escape taxation. It was shown to the board by the association’s legal representative, Samuel A. Patterson, the valuable strip of land, with its boardwalk, had been dedicated years ago by the association as a public highway, and was not therefore subject to taxation.”   (BF bold print.)

David H. Fox

Editor’s note: We now have documented that the CMA itself has sought benefits (federal funds and property tax relief) because some of its owned lands are to be treated as public.  But if they are to be recognized as public, then wouldn’t the rulings about religious displays on public lands apply in the Grove?  This is the sort of question that would have to be settled in court, but who would sue over this? Do OG citizens care about this?

At stake is the creche in Firemen’s Park, the religious setup in Boswell Park, the religious sentiments on the boardwalk, and the big cross and religious services on the beach.

Here is a Blogfinger link that is about some of these issues.  June, 2021

Public or private—which is it?

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Live Nativity. Great Auditorium of Ocean Grove. Paul Goldfinger portrait. 12/4/21 © Click to enlarge.

It’s almost showtime at the Great Auditorium Live Nativity. Paul Goldfinger photo 12/4/21    Click to enlarge.

GLEE CAST:

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Live Nativity. Ocean Grove Great Auditorium. Paul Goldfinger photo. 12/4/21

THE DRIFTERS

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Paul Goldfinger still photo. 2021.    From the movie “The Artist” set in 1927-1932, in Hollywood.   Filmed in black and white.

DEAN JONES AND THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST OF COMPANY. By Stephen Sondheim  (words and music.)   Listen carefully to the lyrics.  Bobby’s married friends try to convince him to get married, but he’s not so sure.

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Paul Goldfinger photo. 12/3/21 ©  Click to enlarge.

STUART MATTHEWMAN   “Amapola” from the film Twin Falls Idaho.

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