New Jersey's best beach? Really?
By Charles Layton
I was hoping this would go away, but no, it’s back: the annual Top 10 Beaches contest.
This thing is organized by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium. Each year, in an online survey, the Consortium invites people to vote for their favorite New Jersey beach. Then they publicize the result, as if they think it bears some relationship to reality.
It does not.
If you go to their meretricious (look it up) little website — here — you will be able to vote for the best overall beach plus three subcategories: best family vacation beach, best day trip beach and best ecotourism beach. Also, you can vote for the best beach in each of four counties.
People, this is a sham. The beaches that pull the most votes tend to be those with high populations, not the little boutique beaches such as ours. We may have the beauty and charm, but we don’t have the voting clout. In last year’s polling, the top three beaches turned out to be The Wildwoods, Ocean City and Sea Isle City.
Imagine.
In the subcategories, the best “family vacation” beach was: The Wildwoods.
Best “day trip” beach was: The Wildwoods.
Best “ecotourism” beach was (this is truly hilarious): The Wildwoods.
Here’s the cruelest cut. According to last year’s survey, the best beach in Monmouth County was judged to be: Asbury P P P — I can’t bring myself to type it.
One final note: the contest has been fixed to favor The Wildwoods. Here’s how: In past years the contest had separate listings for Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood. That made sense, because those are three separate cities. But under that system Wildwood was being edged out in the contest by Ocean City. So they combined those three into a single beach, The Wildwoods, and now it (they, whatever) takes top honors in all categories.
The 2012 results will be announced on May 24, just before the Memorial Day weekend. Wanna bet on the winner?