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Copyright © 2006 Bob Shindel, All Rights Reserved
Asbury Park and Ocean Grove have been contrasting neighbors on the New Jersey Shore. Church-going Ocean Grove, next to party-going Asbury Park.
Since the 1960's Asbury Park's fortunes have waned in relation to Ocean Grove's. Problems of unemployment, poverty and crime have plagued Asbury Park, and the city has gone into a steep decline. Neighboring Ocean Grove thought that these bridges were being used by criminals for easy acess to and from Ocean Grove. In 1995 Ocean Grove erected these gates on their side of the two pedestrian bridges that cross Lake Wesley connecting the two towns. Many of the Asbury Park residents felt that this action was motivated more by race rather than by crime. The gates are locked at midnight and then are supposed to be opened again the next morning. The gates, on this the eastern bridge, were locked when I took this panorama. They appear to have been locked every time I've passed. (The gates on the western bridge have been open.)
With new construction projects appearing on the Asbury Park side of Lake Wesley, Asbury Park is going through a renaissance. Let's hope, that this time the renaissance sticks; and the gates will be permanently opened. Better yet, the gates are taken down and the border between these two towns will always be open.
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