the rix mix

Over a decade ago, the city of Long Branch on the north Jersey shore set about redeveloping its beachfront. Admittedly, it needed improvement. As the city went about improving itself, it decided that "blighted" would henceforth mean "unfit for rich people" & used the legal means of eminent domain to drive out residents owning small single family homes near the beachfront. Many of these homes were modest converted bungalows, some having passed through several generations of families. Only about a dozen remain in the targeted section, & those residents fought back fiercely. It appears they finally won. The economy crapped out. Two weeks ago the Supreme Court of NJ sent a lawsuit back to Superior Court, where the burden of proof would again fall upon the city. So the city is apparently throwing in the beach towel. Maybe. But it got 75% of what developers wanted; townhouses priced from a million to two million, the so-called "Riviera of the Jersey Coast." The remaining homeowners will likely sell out individually over time, but at least they'll do it on their own terms. This was a shameful example of eminent domain, a local government screwing its own people on behalf of private developers. In 2002, a homeowner was forced to take $140,000 for a 110-year-old, 17 room house a block from the beach, less than its 1987 tax-assessed value.

You might like Long Branch beachfront now if you prefer the sort of place that wins the "Community of the Year" Sales and Marketing award from New Jersey Builders Association, an industry lobby that considers the remaining Jersey Pine Barrens a huge, vacant lot, & the Brigantine Wildlife Sanctuary a malarial swamp, & the Seaside Heights boardwalk a slum shopping district.

Labels: in the news, jersey shore