An official trip to the Shore, By NANCY SHIELDS _http://tinyurl.com/5nykg9_ (http://tinyurl.com/5nykg9) , July 22, 2008,
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU "See how nice our beaches are?" city Commerce Director Thomas Gilmour asked New Jersey's Secretary of State. "Spotless, absolutely spotless," Nina Wells answered. Take her at her word. Wells said she came to the city Monday because it had been a few years since she was in Asbury Park and wanted to see for herself what people are talking about. Gilmour took Wells and Nancy Byrne, executive director of the New Jersey Office of Travel and Tourism, on a tour of Madison Marquette's renovated Convention Hall, Paramount Theatre, boardwalk shops and restaurants, the city's boardwalk and and its beach, as well as the downtown Cookman Avenue restaurants and stores, The Griffin condominium and office building, and Market in the Middle, where they ate lunch. "The changes are just breathtaking," said Wells, a lawyer who lives in Livingston and is responsible for promoting and preserving the history, arts and culture of the state. "A lot of people don't know how great it is." "It's like being in a New York City neighborhood but on the ocean," said Byrne, who lives in Red Bank and is about to move to Oceanport. Wells said she is promoting tourism at the shore "and Asbury Park, in particular, because the transformation is incredible." Travel and tourism bring $38 billion into the state, she said. One out of nine jobs is travel- and tourism-related. "I'm encouraging our residents to stay in New Jersey," Wells said. "You don't need to go anywhere else when you have all this." On a visit to Posh Den, which is showing Timothy White's celebrity photographs until the store's artifacts and home furnishings arrive, store partner Ray Werts said he has been in Asbury Park for eight years. He is one of the many members of the gay community who came to Asbury to invest in the city and help to rebuild it. The past weekend featured a large gay and lesbian presence with the seventh annual Road Trip parties, he said, but at the same time, he saw a strong family presence on the boardwalk, which gave him great satisfaction. "Seeing the families come down — that's a sign the gay community did what it was supposed to do," Werts said. "We tried to create buzz the last five years, but this is our summer," Gilmour told Wells. "It's one of the most special boardwalks, I think, in all of New Jersey," Wells said. Downtown, Marianne Schell, a real estate agent with the John C. Conover Agency, gave the state visitors a tour of the the Griffin building, which has 21 residences on Cookman starting at $449,000. The building, owned by RDR Properties, also will house the first new bank in the city in decades. Rumson-Fair Haven Bank and Trust Co. soon will move in new furniture for Community Bank of Asbury Park. "It's great to have someone with such a wide perspective get so excited about Asbury Park," Schell said of Wells' visit. "I think she was totally genuine." _An official trip to the Shore | APP.com | Asbury Park Press_ (http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080722/NEWS01/807220368/1004) =================================================== Mario _http://factcheck.barackobama.com/_ (http://factcheck.barackobama.com/) **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020)
