Sat 9/3
The New Jersey ocean resort town of Asbury Park has been up and down, hitting a low point in the latter years of the 20th century. While Bruce Springsteen romanticized the town and its boardwalk, it was becoming a rundown haven for homeless people. Things started to shift some 20 years ago, as old homes were rehabbed (lots of them flying rainbow flags), a luxury high-rise went up across from the boardwalk (condos starting at nearly $1 million), the old Berkeley Carteret Hotel was restored and reopened and high-end shops and eateries — crepes alongside hotdogs — sprang up on the boardwalk. Cookman Avenue leading from the oceanfront to downtown Asbury Park, once boarded up and decrepit, is packed with boutiques, gastropubs, ale houses, and antique malls — and people. The once empty beach is now packed with hundreds of beach umbrellas and charges a daily fee from Memorial Day to Labor Day. There’s still work to be done — the old casino with its carousel house awaits restoration — but overall new life has been breathed into the town.
View the PHOTOSTREAM here.
