Asbury was near bankruptcy, the waterfront was tied up in the courts and no one else wanted the deal. Bull!
Had Weldon not sold this lunacy to council the state would have stepped in and taken over. Know what happens then? New Jersey isn't going to continue to tolerate a Connecticut court screwing around in its backyard, and rather than give away the last best buildable site on the Atlantic for pennies on the dollar they alone could have dealt with the horrible imbalance of tax burden and ratables. They'd have done this to insure that a rational offering of parcels to bonafide developers would result in building not flipping, and as bonus we'd not be fretting over the likes of The Fishman raping historic buildings. As to "Is Asbury Park a better place to live now than it was 4 years ago?", consider the proposition that if you've not had rain in 40 years, suddenly it rains; who do you credit, some guy doing a rain dance? --- In [email protected], "asburycouple" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I totally agree, and definitely see both sides here. For me, I look > at what this board inherited - an absolutely horrible situation by > anyone's standards. The city was on the verge of bankrupcy - > literally within days when the redevelopment deal was signed. There > were legal issues surrounding the waterfront area that had been > ongoing for years and had stalled any progress what-so-ever. The > town had for the most part a horrible reputation throughout the > state. Cookman was a ghost town. > > Rather than play armchair quarterback at this point and point out > everywhere the redevelopment agreement sucks, I look back and see > that there were very limited options for the board at that point. > The most likely scenario other than the current redevelopment > agreement was bankrupcy for the city. I feel much better about > where we are than I would have had we declared bankrupcy. And > looking objectively at the situation at the time Asbury Partners > assumed a tremendous risk as well. This was no sure thing for them > either. There were no guarantees in Asbury Park, and history > demonstrated that things here often did not work out for anyone in > this town including those who invested in redevelopment with the > belief they could make it work. > > Do I think I could have negotiated a better deal for redevelopment, > facing the same challenges that faced the board 4 years ago? The > answer is I don't know. Because no one really knows whether another > deal was possible that would have been markedly better as the city > faced looming bankrupcy and too many challengs to even begin to > articulate. It's too easy to second guess every individual aspect > of this deal without looking at the big picture of the deal and the > reality of just how challenging things were for everyone involved > when the deal was signed. > > Perhaps the current board is made up of the most accomplished > business executives who now reside in this town. But for me > personally it comes down to this one question: > > Is Asbury Park a better place to live now than it was 4 years ago? > > I'm not sure how anyone could answer that question other than a > resounding "Yes". Things here are far from perfect - but every > aspect of the city is making some sort of progress. Our reputation > is has gone from one of the worst cities in NJ to one of rebirth and > optimism. We've gone from the brink of bankrupcy to being a credit- > worthy community. Our infrastructure is being rebuilt. > Redevelopment is happening. Even the war on drugs is now being > fought rather than just tolerated. Think about how much progress > that is in just four years. > > I think the board needs to get credit for the progress that has been > made. It happened on their watch. They did so much to facilitate > it. And they would have been the ones taking the heat had it all > fallen apart. > > Again I do understand both perspectives. But for me atleast, so > much positive has happened on their watch. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
