Hey, James Brown died early this morning. One of the truly great musical
legends of our times, James Brown's message of pride and power would be
welcome to all of us who toil within the one square mile that is Asbury.
Say it loud....
I had to suddenly fly to south FL this past Friday and I found an
interesting controversy that for some reason reminded me of our
struggles here in AP. Donald Trump, that litigious scavenger, had bought
the largest property in Palm Beach called Mar-a-Lago. I imagine that
Mar-a-Lago is worth more dollar for dollar than all of AP, but that
isn't he story. It seems that Trump, citing his patriotic fervor,
erected a flagpole and flew an American flag atop it without getting the
approvals of the Palm Beach officials, namely the zoning board. Town
officials said the real estate mogul has violated zoning codes by
putting up a flagpole taller than 42 feet, for not obtaining a building
permit, and for failing to get permission from the landmarks board. This
reminded me of the insurgency of removing a crumbling retaining wall
on 4th ave and replacing it with a landscape wall that meets and exceeds
the city wall ordinances. Only the pseudo city engineer and zoning
officer didn't like the wall and 100 thousand dollars and 6 months of
stop work orders later, the wall still stands and nice families are
moving into the building that at one time was one of the worst places in
Asbury Park. Of course Trump is suing Palm Beach, same as he is suing
Rosie O' Donnell, and who knows how many others.
What made me compare Palm Beach to AP is the old school mentality of
those long time Palm Beachers who are fighting the new additions to
their community tooth and nail. Do I hear echoes of city officials
calling newbies carpet baggers in Palm Beach, as I hear in AP from time
to time. To think that Palm Beach denied an application for a Starbucks,
citing that they didn't want those kinds of "suburbanites" in their
town. I wonder if they would allow Ross to open an America's Cup there?
I am sure they would once they tasted what is truly the best cup of
coffee they ever drank! Paul Simon added a verse to The Boxer that
said that after change upon change things are more or less the same.
Isn't that true of not only things, but people as well? America is one
transient society, most of us do live where we grew up, many relocate
thousands of miles away and hardly ever visit their home towns. Here in
Oceanport, where I have lived since 1979, the entire make up of the town
has changed since Clint Sommers, the mayor for 30 years when I moved
here, finally left his fiefdom. Towns still here.
I imagine that in Palm Beach, a haven for the rich and richer, they are
mighty proud of their long time legacy, but here in AP, I often wonder
why the long time townsfolk protect their legacy with such vigor. Other
than Asbury's glorious PAST, especially these past 30 years, there just
doesn't seem to be a whole lot to be proud of. The pride we ALL should
have is that we have moved the town past the bottomless pit of decay and
the rebuilding and the revitalization is indeed underway. Stay the
course and one day we can also have trivial, inconsequential lawsuits
over flags and poles and who is zooming who.
Merry Christmas to everyone, today is Christmas and there s nothing
wrong with wishing EVERYONE a merry day....IMHO.
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