What a difference a couple of years can make
Sept 7, 2009: For decades, the city of Asbury Park has been struggling to breathe under layers upon layers of poverty and abandonment. At the frontline of this struggle were opposing ideas for the best form of revitalization.
Some saw an opportunity to build expensive housing on a beach close enough to NYC for commuting. Others wanted to rebuild the glory of a long-dead resort town filled with midway attractions and family fun. Both fought for years as the town they so desperately wanted to save fell further into ruin.
Off the beach, neighborhoods around Cookman Ave began to see a resurgence in art and food. Ebbing and flowing for ten years or so, it began to steady a couple of years ago. April 2008 was the last time I was here. The boardwalk then was still a ghost town, but with the racket of new construction in the air.
At the time, a local business owner told me that the beach and boardwalk would soon be unrecognizable. He was concerned yet hopeful as were a lot of people in Asbury Park who were tired of the infighting and wanted things to change. Fast forward to labor Day weekend 2009 and the change is, in fact, uncanny.
While the plans for change were laid out and fought over for the past decade or so, from the time the first hammer hit nail or the first paint was spread to what we have now was remarkably short. About a year and a half or so. Now there’s so much more and so much of it is kinda swanky. My only hope is that they know when to stop. I come from an area where I’ve seen first hand how out of control upwardly-mobile development can get.
There was a time where Times Square for example was a cesspool, a wasteland of drugs and porn. When I was about nineteen, I had to walk across town everyday for school. Finding the safest trajectory was often a moot battle. So, when the reconstruction began, I was glad to see some of the cleanup. However, that cleanup never ended and we went from one extreme of a Death Wish movie to the other extreme of a Disney theme park.
Oh sure, gone were the vermin, but gone too were the edge, the culture and the life. The city and it’s surrounding areas have become too expensive to live. When making what was once a decent salary is no longer enough to be secure. Those of lower income brackets are pushed further and further away and under. The same happened in Atlantic City.
The question remains, can Asbury Park learn from this? Can they be one of the few towns in America to truly get the need for a fully diverse society? Will they know when to stop? Only time will tell. For now, we are at that point in history where this town is once again a cool place for couples, families and weekenders to crash and have a bit of summer fun. Clean, safe and lots to do.
See Also:
Photo Gallery
Food & Drink on Asbury Park’s Boardwalk
The Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel
