I also would like to offer congratulations and best wishes to the newly elected Asbury Park Board of Education. Having grown up best friends with Dr. Charles Scott, the Superintendent of schools in Ocean Twp. when OTHS 1st opened, I was lucky enough to have many long and beyond interesting discussions with this man who's family has been educators for many generations. Dr. Scott was opposed to Bds of Ed for many reasons and I have always shared that sentiment. The idea being to leave education to educators, however, if ever a BOE was a flat out necessity, AP's school system is the mother lode of needing honest, anti-corrupt, and most of all, diligent board members to off set the blatant and disgusting thievery that has ruined a once glorious school system. If this board can somehow rid the school system of the crooks as city hall seems to have done maybe the school system can get on the right track that it feels like the city is on. Which brings me to my reason for posting. Certainly we can all agree that nothing is perfect. The long and incessant diatribes against the city and the men and woman who are working so hard to get things done in Asbury is disheartening to say the least. I love the comparisons to other cities, I love the anguish against the lighting and the tree planting and, most of all, I love the architectural criticisms laid on every project built in the city. To paraphrase a lousy movie, SHOW ME THE EFFING MONEY. You don't like the lights, you don't like the colors, you don't like the design, build it yourself. You go out on the line with your money, with your time, with your lives. It is so easy, and so shallow, to drive around and seek out things to criticize. It is so easy to unanimously call city hall and complain and then watch the damage those complaints bring. A while back there was constant harping at the steinbach building progress. Do any of you nay-sayers have any idea how difficult that project was to build? I walked through Steinbach's the other night, I build projects 1/10th the size of that and it is an impossible task. Combine that with having had to work with a building department that had their own agendas and it's a miracle that the building is so close to occupancy. Go ahead Werner, buy an older property in AP and rehab it...oh, you own one already, hmmmm. I bet your glad that's not a glass house. To get deeper into it, re: your diatribe... Thats right arrogant and tired.. > > Tired of.. > > - studying the history of this City for 25 years > - puting my own life on hold for this City > - volunteering for committees > - creating the historical society > - attending every conceivable meeting > - taking preservation seminars > - attending out of state conferences > - reading City plans and documents > - trying to save historic sites > - watching the essence of Asbury Park disappear > - receiving no thanks or respect > - being shunned in my own community > ........ > All for no benefit to myself. > > Yes I've become arrogant. > If you would like to step up to the plate be my guest." who asked you? How can you complain about doing exactly what you want to, no one forced you. And you last statement says it all, it's time you stepped to the plate and took care of your property instead of sticking your nose in every one else's property. This weeks TCN has a full page article on the Crispin Glover event that will be at The Baronet in a couple of weeks. Instead of focusing on the event, the eclectic nature of it, the way off center nature, in typical and getting older by the second fashion, the writer uses the forum to bash the city, bash the new owners of the theatre, and of course, because the TCN does not report news, it reports personal opinions, no one contacted me, or the new owners, or the people who booked this show to find out what is really happening with the Baronet. Quite frankly, unless I have been lied to, the new owners of the theatre have been not only great to work with, but they have been accommodating and helpful, easing not only a financial burden from my shoulders, but helping us with booking and most all marketing. Will the Baronet survive? It is up to ticket buying public. If the theatre can support itself, if enough local promoters jump in and put on shows, it will indeed survive. I got that from the horses mouth and I believe it. It's easy to sit in front of a computer and figure out the world, it's a whole different thing to get up off your arse and do something about it. The new BOE will surely testify to that in the coming year.
The Asbury Baronet Theatre 205 4th Ave Asbury Park, NJ 07712 732-807-3317 www.asburybaronet.com
