i do remember your name from all those years ago bjc223. now that i think about it! i think the "play ground by the sea" when it comes to asbury park was lost years ago. decades. it lingered on, but i think those were mosty memories sparked by what your eyes saw. what they saw that was left. i dont think any developer would have come in to return it to the exact same way it was before. now that a lot of the big projects have been started, and MM is on board. i think theres a chance that something will happen that might take it back to something most remember. i hope your not implying its unique sence was lost by the new lights and street lights! before it had the most standard highway lights of all!
when the new casino was built, did anyone question why it didnt resemble the old one? or at least build off from it? the new, current one, looked entirely different. were there no historians back then? or didnt anyone care. is today's historic attributions based more on nostalgics? Chuck, No - it's not just the light's and the streetscaping, and yes, I do understand that much was lost years ago but, the things that have been lost slowly over the past ten years and we all seem to accept as progress are the things that concern me. Yes, I may be a bit of a nostalgic, and no, they probably did not try and recreate the exact same Casino when it was rebuilt, but I can say that there have been few buildings constructed in the last 30-40 years that can even come close to the quality of the structures built prior to that. I am sure that when the Casino was rebuilt, it was the only structure like it and it was truely unique... the fact that AP was built to step back as you move in from the ocean, so that everyone could appreciate the breeze was unique.... the fact that symbols such as lanterns and waves and shells as well as quotes of wisdom were inscribed on our buildings for future generations to appreciate and these symbols were representative of our respect for the land and acknowledgement that a manmade structure would never rival what occurs naturally on earth was unique... I am thankful for the opportunity to have seen the remains of AP prior to the demolition and redevelopment and I am grateful to have seen how solid a structure the part of the casino that was taken down was, and to have been able to appreciate the copper bay window that overlooked the sea - I am not sure how things will look in years to come, but, I hope that someday we can start constructing things in this country to last 100 years again and not just to benefit the bottom line. Look at how our libraries, churches, firehouses, post offices, schools and courthouses used to be constructed and compare them to what is built now - then, we all must ask ourselves "Where did we go wrong?" I am sure that the construction costs were high then too and we probably were not all taxed to death with real property taxes. I know there is alot of knowledge out there on this board, and I know we can all take something more than an increase in rateables and the satisfaction of watching the transformation of a city (while hearing everyones opinions about what they would like to see happen) that was one of the first family resorts in our nation where decades of people came to be healed by the magic of the sea. <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.
