Pier Village far from 'luxurious' for WLB resident
Your Turn
MARILYN CONTE Guest Column

I take regular fitness walks along the Long Branch boardwalk at various times of the day and week. I wish to raise consciousness on situations I observe each time I walk through Pier Village and the Promenade.

 

In a recent newspaper promotion for "beach living" at the Jersey Shore, Pier Village is described as the ultimate beachfront community, has 30 of the best shops and restaurants in New Jersey, is an amazing dining experience, and offers year-round luxury living. I have to scoff each time I see such an ad, because when I walk through this "luxurious" living and vacation destination, all I can think of is that Pier Village falls short on the luxury offering.

The boardwalk between West End and the beginning of Pier Village is usually clean. Once one enters the Pier Village boardwalk region, it doesn't take long before one notices the unsightly filth and scum condition of the actual boardwalk between some of the restaurants. I understand there is the problem of receiving deliveries and removing trash, since the rear of those restaurants is not accessible for such activities. This boardwalk section is discolored and smells positively awful (especially during hot weather). The condition is caused from removing, no, make that dragging, leaking trash bags. It is also marred from leaking food-supply deliveries.

The other problem is that the hired help use the service doorway at restaurants as a smoking area. They drop their ashes onto the boardwalk and stamp out the butts onto the boardwalk or else right on the building! It would be nothing for those restaurants to power-wash the boardwalk in front of their establishments on a daily basis. They should also enact a prohibition against employees smoking outside the service doorway and insist they walk a few feet to the parking lot to smoke, or at the very least, install a cigarette butt container somewhere in that area. I cannot tell you how sickening it is to walk through this area. So much for an amazing dining experience. This area looks and smells like garbage, far from being a luxurious location.

As I travel a little farther north, I come to another eyesore. The Ocean Place Hotel creates a similar problem at their end. When food is brought from the hotel down to the beach for beach parties, it is wheeled out on carts from the hotel, across the Promenade, and down onto the beach. The food sometimes spills onto the Promenade, creating a line of oily food drippings. The days that follow, I will notice the food drippings still remain. The hotel could invest in a power-washer as well.

I observe stuck-on chewing gum on the Promenade on a regular basis also. I just don't understand how Long Branch can advertise this area as an ultimate, luxurious, exclusive living experience when I see black marks of chewing gum all over the Promenade. If you were to go by the appearance of the Pier Village boardwalk and the Promenade, you wouldn't exactly feel like you were hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Maybe it is not attracting the type of clientele it thought it would.

When the building plans were being drawn up and endlessly negotiated, didn't anyone have the sense to negotiate for a better trash removal and delivery system for the restaurants, or hold these establishments accountable for their own sanitation? Cranmer's and Chelsea's Beach clubs both had tunnels underneath Ocean Avenue so their guests could patronize the beach; therefore, we know it would have been possible to build tunnels from the restaurants to the parking garage or some other benign across-the-street location for removing trash and accepting deliveries. The public should not have to be exposed to their "behind-the-scenes" service areas.

As far as the best shops in New Jersey, I want to point out that the stores, at least in part, are serving beach patrons. Where at Pier Village would a beachgoer be able to purchase an affordable beach chair, an umbrella, or sand toys for their children?

For another thing, I would never purchase a dress, or jeans or an accessory at the exorbitant prices those shops are charging. Who goes to the beach with that kind of money in their pockets? I might add, my peers and I are all upper-middleclass families. Our teenagers would never go there to socialize with their friends. There is nothing for them to do there. If Pier Village doesn't want my business, they sure as heck do not want the business of folks even slightly less fortunate than me either. They have intentionally and very obviously selected businesses that exclude the population I represent.

I feel the city fathers do not like bicyclists, either. If a cyclist wants to take a leisurely ride through Pier Village, they must ride through the parking lot with the cars and SUVs because we're not allowed to ride on the boardwalk. There are no sidewalks or bike paths to speak of. … The only place it is safe to ride a bike along the ocean is the closed stretch of Ocean Avenue and the blacktop area adjacent to the Promenade. I am aware that in the not-too-distant past, the city wanted to reopen the closed part of Ocean Avenue, and thank goodness they failed in that attempt. How many parents and their small children, dog walkers, walkers, joggers, skate boarders and cyclists would have been put out by that decision?

These examples of dissatisfaction with Pier Village fortify the overall sentiment of people like me and the victims of eminent domain that Pier Village is there for one reason and one reason only: for opportunists to scoop up as much money as possible from whoever is stupid enough to spend it there, at the expense of average folks who are looking for a humble place to enjoy the ocean, get a little exercise, live in the home of their choice, treat their family to an affordable meal, an enjoyable shopping experience, quality family time, and a place to entertain the teenagers.

This ultimate beachfront resort is not a beachfront resort at all. When I think of a beachfront resort, I think of Point Pleasant, Belmar, Spring Lake and farther south. Families with small children and teenagers can be seen having fun going on the rides, playing games, buying souvenirs, eating pizza and hot dogs, walking, jogging and cycling. The areas are clean. They are apparently raking in the bucks. It is a relaxing, casual and family oriented atmosphere. That is what the beach culture is all about. The Pier Village planners apparently knew nothing about the beach culture.

The beach culture does not exist in Long Branch anymore. Pier Village does not offer family fun. Anyone who remembers the beach culture of Long Branch is certainly longing for that experience, and they are not getting it at Pier Village.

Marilyn Conte is a resident of West Long Branch