the rix mix

This development must have a name. Some of them  have wonderful names like Mystic Islands, but they're pretty much the same.  It  is just below Shelter Cove on Barnegat Bay, north of the causeway to Seaside Heights.  The wholesale  rape of Barnegat Bay wetlands in the Fifties & Sixties occurred so long ago that fewer & fewer people are alive to remember the Bay & its culture from before World War Two (although there was plenty of development then also).  Now you have to go to wildlife sanctuaries to get a sense of it.

Some of these developments are now dealing with silted up lagoons, inadequate sewer lines & other problems of  hasty, cheap construction in swamps. Many, perhaps most, of  the original homes have been winterized.  They became  primary residences for retirees who had bought them as second shore houses.  But the tiny plots are so valuable that the original small houses or "cottages" are torn down & million dollar homes crammed  into the spaces.

These waterfront developments are not alone responsible for the ecological degradation of Barnegat Bay, although hardly anything could be  uglier & more disrespectful   They are less at fault than nearby uncontrolled mainland development, fifty years of sheer insanity, with its lawn fertilizers & all the environmental evils of road & parking lot runoff.  Oh yeah, they all consider themselves Jersey Shore people, even the ones  residing 15 miles inland in developments carved out of the Pine Barrens, who rarely get a sea breeze. They prefer to let  Barnegat Bay turn into a stinking cesspool than listen to dire warnings of us  North Jersey bennies. True, these bay front developments were originally for us,  but we went home in September & didn't come back until May.

Labels: jersey shore, postcard