Asbury Park – A Walk in the Midst of Death

Muh wife and I decided to take a long walk while we spent a few days at the beach. We walked the “boards” whether they were made of wood, concrete, asphalt, or pavers, in 4 towns. I think all in all, we walked about 2-3 miles worth of coastline.

We have done this in years past and have always stopped at the border of Asbury Park. The towns immediately south of Asbury Park are very nice and have suffered a bit from their ill reputed gangland of a neighbor.

I never wanted to even walk up to the edge of the town because of all the crap we would hear about on the radio, television, and newspapers.

We would walk up to the edge of town and the boardwalk in Asbury Park was essentially blocked off anyway. If you wanted to enter the town, you had to go through a lot just to do so.

HOWEVER, we have been hearing of all the redevelopment work and improvements that they have been doing to the town, so we weren’t completely surprised when we walked up to the edge and saw that the “wall” was knocked down and that there were lots of people walking the boards in Asbury Park.

We were one of the people that walked onto the boards… or should I say… we didn’t make it all the way into the town, but we walked through the entrance warehouse that provided a rich history of the town from the turn of the 20th Century to the 1960s. Without the history of the 70s to present, it is safe to safe that that was the down turn period of Asbury Park.

We were pleasantly surprised by the increased work being done by the developers in Asbury Park and hope that in future years, we will be able to walk all the way through without any fear or trepidation.