The Uncertain Eighties

Asbury Park Without a Rudder

That building in the distance is now the Asbury Hotel. 1984. 

What's a beach town to do? After World War II, America built a new world based on suburbs, interstate highways, and jet airplanes. A town built in the railroad age faced the problem of irrelevance. A number of its competitive advantages, including proximity to New York City and Philadelphia, now looked like liabilities. 

Think about that: All of a sudden, proximity became a liability.

With the advent of jet travel, people who wanted to go to the beach for a week could now go to Florida, or the Caribbean. Or the south of France, if they had the money. 

All those options, and there was Asbury Park - nearby, familiar, comfortable, but perhaps lacking in the romance associated with fast cars, faster airplanes, and more exotic destinations.

The town was predicated on hotels. The day trippers might still come, but the loss of hotel business was a terrible blow to the business plan the city had been following since 1871.

And there didn't seem to be anything to replace it. 

With the loss of hotel jobs, the people who had worked in the hotels - many of them black - faced an economic crisis that affected them individually and also the city as a whole. 

At the same time, the growth was in the suburbs, and it was massive. The city risked becoming a place left behind, occupied by people left behind. And many of those people were black. 

While court decisions and new laws were suggesting that segregation might become a thing of the past, the development of suburbs and interstate highways indicated that our built environment was moving in the opposite direction.

Walter Greason, in his Suburban Erasure: How the Suburbs Ended the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey (2013), provides a vivid description of how suburbanization cemented a modern form of segregation in Monmouth County. 

In the 1960s, economic and racial issues, and the Vietnam War with its voracious appetite for young, male draftees, combined to produce a series of riots in America's cities. Asbury Park's turn came in 1970; it has often been portrayed as a unique event that came out of nowhere and ruined the town overnight. Actually, the riot was more a symptom than a cause.  

And the national trend toward poor black cities surrounded by prosperous white suburbs continued.

1978.

Asbury Park did not collapse immediately after the civil unrest. Instead, changes that had been going on at least since World War II continued. It was a long, bumpy road downhill.

The decline and fall persisted through the seventies. I started coming to Asbury Park in the late seventies. I'd married a Jersey girl whose parents lived outside Asbury Park, and we could combine family visits with time at the beach.

I had worked for the New York City Planning Commission during the fiscal crisis of the mid-seventies, and I got fired twice (the second time stuck). So I don't think I was naive about the potential for a city, large or small, to collapse. In the late seventies, I thought Asbury Park had the potential to pull through. By the eighties, though, I found it hard to tell what was going to happen next. Which is why I call them the uncertain eighties. 

Around the middle of the decade, my wife's parents moved to Florida, and we no longer had much reason to go to Asbury Park. In time there were funerals, and then visits to cemeteries. On these occasions we would usually take the time to ride around town a bit. Things just kept getting ghostlier, but we were basically disconnected. One of my main motives for writing this story was to get a better sense of what happened to Asbury Park, and when.

The Tick-Tock

What follows is a timeline for Asbury Park as it declines, collapses, and rises like a Phoenix from the ashes.

1946: Desegregation comes to Asbury Park.  The following is from Joseph L. Bustard, "The New Jersey Story: The Development of Racially Integrated Public Schools," The Journal of Negro Education (Summer 1952), pp. 275-285. It is available on JSTOR if you have access.

"[I]n the City of Asbury Park, the Board of Education, as the result of protests from Negro parents and not court action, decided that in September of 1946 a large elementary school which up to that time had been divided completely in half with two principals, two sets of teachers, and two sets of classes for different races, would be completely integrated the following term. This was done and the Negro principal, again because of seniority, was placed in charge of the building with an integrated faculty. Here an honest report cannot overlook the fact that when the school opened in September a number of pupils were withdrawn and sent to a nearby parochial school. It was unfortunate that at this time a drive was also on to get many of the so-called Italian-American parents in the neighborhood to use the parochial school. Therefore, it was impossible to determine to what extent integration was the cause of some of the withdrawals. It can be reported, however, that there were no unpleasant incidents either at the time or since."

Daniel Wolff, in his Fourth of July, Asbury Park (2005, 2022), notes this incident on pp. 92-93, quoting a black graduate of the school. In 1946, "They had 300 white folks," recalls the graduate, "and every one of them went over to Ocean Township." 

Ocean Township, 1979.

The school in question was the Bangs Avenue Elementary School, now known as the Barack Obama Elementary School. It is located near the western border of Asbury Park.

1946-1957: The Garden State Parkway is built.     

1954: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, says that segregated schools violate the Constitution. 

1958: The Boeing 707 jet airliner enters regular service. 

1960: Monmouth Mall opens in Eatontown, about six miles from Asbury Park. 

1964-1975: The Vietnam War causes immeasurable damage to the social fabric of the United States.

1965: Ocean Township High School opens, draining students and teachers from Asbury Park High. 

1966-1976: In their 2021 book, Gentrification Down the Shore, Molly Vollman Makris and Mary Gatta report on page 31 that "in Asbury Park, there were 10,000 hotel and motel rooms in 1966. By 1976, there were fewer than 1,500." 

1982.

July 4-11, 1970: "At the time of the riots, Springsteen was living in a surfboard factory out on the edge of town. When he heard about the riots, he climbed a nearby water tower. As Springsteen remembers it, he wasn't surprised that the West Side was burning; after all, this kind of thing had been happening all over the country. Not surprised, but stunned by the sheer magnitude of the event. From the top of the tower, looking out across Route 35 toward the ocean, Springsteen felt as if he were watching his whole city go up in flames." (Wolff, Fourth of July, Asbury Park, p. 115.)

1973-1983: In what we may call the Drinking Age Rollercoaster, in 1973 the state of New Jersey lowered the legal drinking age from 21 to 18. It then raised it to 19 in 1980, and back to 21 in 1983. These legal changes probably contributed to the popularity of The Circuit, a loop on Ocean and Kingsley, just inland from the beach, where young men and women cruised in their cars during the evening hours, ogling one another and perhaps introducing themselves. The people I ask about The Circuit generally smile at me and apparently have happy memories that they're not prepared to share. I think this evening paseo, as the Spanish might call it, probably made Asbury Park look healthier than it actually was during this decade. (For a little more on The Circuit, see Layers at the Beach Front.) 

Boardwalk, 1982.

1974: The Great Adventure theme park opens on 1,500 acres in Jackson, New Jersey. (See Judith A. Adams, The American Amusement Park Industry, 1991, pp. 120-121.) Asbury Park simply cannot play in this league, and shouldn't try. 

1977: The Steinbach department store chain opens a store in Seaview Square Mall, just west of Asbury Park. 

1979: Steinbach closes its downtown Asbury Park location, on Cookman Avenue. 

1980s: In a movement known as deinstitutionalization, New Jersey and other states moved large numbers of patients out of psychiatric hospitals and into the community, where promised support systems were severely underfunded.  In his Fourth of July, Asbury Park, Wolff reports that, at one point in the 1980s, "Asbury Park had seven hundred state-licensed beds for ex-patients and an uncounted number of unlicensed ones." (P. 132.) 

The deinstitutionalization movement began in 1955, when the introduction of Thorazine, the first effective antipsychotic drug, created the possibility of treating large numbers of patients in a community setting. The movement took off in the mid-sixties, when the creation of Medicare and Medicaid offered new sources of funding. (For a 2021 story in The Atlantic, click here. For a recent editorial in the New York Times, click here.) 

The patient population of Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital in Monmouth County peaked at more than 3,000 in 1955 and then declined steadily until the 1970s, when it leveled off below 1,000. The hospital closed in 1998. 

Boardwalk, 1984. 

1984-1995: According to the Concert Archives website, there were no concerts in Convention Hall between 1984 and 1995. In 1967, there were 17 concerts; in 1983 there were three concerts. 

1985: The Asbury Park Press moves its news and business departments to neighboring Neptune. The manufacturing facilities had preceded them, moving in 1980.

1988: "The state of New Jersey has fined Asbury Park more than $1 million for causing the ocean pollution that closed a popular stretch of Monmouth County beaches for 19 days this summer." - Jesus Rangel in the New York Times, October 16, 1988. To see the full story, click here. 

Businessman Henry Vaccaro has been publishing his reminiscences serially in the Coaster, and on June 9, 2022,  he recalled the 1988 problem with the sewer plant: "That was the ruination of the summer of 1988. It not only killed the beach revenue for the city but destroyed the hotel bookings that summer and the summers to come." 

Vaccaro also noted the damage to Convention Hall's business that year: "We then got a double whammy as the trade shows now started to leave Convention Hall which is directly on the ocean and across the street from the hotel. One by one 13 major shows cancelled and left the hall, starting with the Boat Show, the Hunting and Fishing Show, the RV and Camper show, the Home Remodeling show and the Physical Fitness show." 

1988: Palace Amusements, which had opened for business in 1888, closes. 

I think 1988 was the nadir, or low point, and I think the nineties were the worst decade.

1992: The Casino's carousel, located in the carousel house, moves to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 

2001: A minor-league baseball team called the BlueClaws arrives in Lakewood. I'd like to see Asbury Park get a minor-league baseball team, but I think the niche is taken. 

2002: "Three days after resigning as mayor of Ocean Township, Terrance D. Weldon pleaded guilty today in federal court to extorting nearly $70,000 in bribes from developers in exchange for successfully shepherding their projects through the approval process.

"Mr. Weldon, 53, a popular figure who had served as mayor or councilman since 1989, resigned his elected post as mayor on Monday. He also stepped down from his appointed position as city manager of the adjacent community of Asbury Park, where he had served as a firefighter for 26 years before retiring in 2000 as chief of the department.

"Residents were surprised by his decision to retire and shocked when he added that he was doing so because he had broken the law and would appear in federal court later in the week to answer for his 'reprehensible' conduct." - Ronald Smothers in the New York Times, October 11, 2002. To see the full story, click here. 

2003: "Local officials say redevelopment is really coming to Asbury Park this time, after a new City Council, elected in July 2001, appointed a new city manager, settled lawsuits with the bankrupt developer of the 11-story skeleton and approved a new redevelopment plan on June 25, 2003." - Jerry Cheslow in the New York Times, July 27, 2003. To see the full story, click here. 

Ocean Avenue, 1987.

Reconnecting

It was in the mid or late 2000s when my wife and I started to come to Asbury Park more regularly - still going to the cemeteries but also just day-tripping to the beach. One afternoon, on the way back home, we were driving up Cookman Avenue through the commercial district and noticed that there were no open parking spaces - not one. My wife said she wished her parents could come back for just one day to see that. 

I agreed. One thing led to another, and we wound up buying a small apartment not too far from the beach.

I love the idea that neither one of us can place the year we saw that wonderful parking congestion on Cookman Avenue. Real-world history has holes in it, and I like it that way.

1987. 

The Perils of Planning

As the Scottish poet Robert Burns noted, "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley." This is true when things go horribly wrong. It's also true when they go well. Asbury Park is on a roll right now, and I expect it to continue. But I would like to note that Asbury's redevelopment plans seem to have focused on building a densely populated residential community near the beach. I expect that this will come to pass. However, I think there are two important ways in which life has deviated from the plan. 

First, I think the backbone of Asbury's residential boom was actually further inland, and it was driven by incoming gays and creatives, along with some very happy realtors. Check the dates. In 2003 the Times is talking about individuals coming to town and finding gems at bargain prices. 

The big money came along later, and I for one am very happy to see it. But it didn't come until the pioneers had made the place attractive.

Second, the redevelopment plans seem to have missed the idea that Asbury is not viable if it doesn't attract visitors. With amusements. The carousels are gone, but I think we're going for several demographics here, and we should be looking at what specifically attracts them. So there's the beach, and we seem to be doing very well with the day-trippers. And there's the music. Again, we seem to be doing well here. And then there's food and drink, and we seem to be doing well with both.

There are of course the young hammerheads who come to Asbury to consume mass quantities of beer, and then pour themselves onto a train and possibly even sober up before they get to the station where they left their car. Others presumably get home by Uber or a designated driver. At least, I hope that's what happens.

There's another demographic that I think people may be missing. It is the massive number of people who are now living in the interior of Monmouth County. They're not necessarily young, and they live in subdivisions populated by prosperous citizens. And, in my opinion, they're often bored of an evening. And they are willing to come to Asbury for a nice meal that doesn't feel mass produced, and then maybe go for a walk on the boardwalk. 

The big money seems to be interested in attracting wealthy film stars from Manhattan and getting them to buy a million-dollar pied a terre at the beach.

I think that's nice, but I'm more interested in getting repeat business from folks in Monmouth County, who have a very short drive to get to the beach. And other parts of the suburban state of New Jersey, where people have money and are bored in the evening, and can get to Asbury without a very long drive.

And I think you could get that demographic to come twelve months a year - and not just for dinner but also for brunch and lunch on the weekends. Having stable year-round employment at restaurants and a few hotels and possibly some other attractions would, in my opinion, be an unalloyed positive.

Sunset Avenue, 1982.

See also Layers at the Beach Front, The Wreck of the New Era, City of Lights.