the rix mix

Condos may replace rides at Funtown Pier
This is tough one. In the larger sense, all Funtown has had going for it for decades is that it looks old - particularly the huge carousel building - so is beloved by summer visitors for whom a week in town is an annual tradition. It's the boardwalk bookend to Casino Pier & tries to compete. But Casino has the historic carousel, a waterpark (run by the Jenkinsons of Point Pleasant Beach), & is promoted as a complete package, self-contained amusement park. If Funtown is not economically viable it's because current ownership has neither the vision nor the resources to rethink the operation as a boardwalk amusement enterprise. The Gillian family from Ocean City or Wildwood's many-tentacled Morey Clan might have some ideas if they owned it. It's not going to be enough for old-timers & boardwalk afficionados to say Funtown Pier is a "landmark" or "historically important." It won't become a museum. In a way, it already is.