Too Many People...

 (If you heard the McCartney song playing in your head when you saw the title of this post; kudos to you and if we aren't already friends we probably should be!)

I am officially an old lady.  I'll even go a step farther, I have become a crotchety old lady.  (How the heck did that happen?)

What was my benchmark to determine this status?  I went to the NJ shore this weekend and there were just too many people.  To top it off, there were really too many disrespectful people.

Now I realize that is the height of summer.  There are going to be a LOT of people no matter where you go on the Jersey Shore.  I get that.  I spent most of the summers of my youth (and I know that was a LONG time ago) at the NJ shore, so I KNOW that it's a busy place from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  I expect it.  And for the life of the area, I know it can be good for the area.  However, I think it's gone a bit too far.

I can't speak for all of the NJ shore, what I know (and used to love) is that small strip of land from Point Pleasant Beach down to the tip of Island Beach State Park.  (Not to be confused with Long Beach Island which is further south.)  It was devastated by SuperStorm Sandy in 2012 and I knew it would never be the same.  Nearly 10 years later it isn't.  But what really surprises me is how overdeveloped it has become.  How this small slip of land has more and more homes and building popping up each time I visit.

Now I am NOT against owning a shore home.  It was once one of my dreams too.  (However, seeing how irresponsibly overdeveloped the area I loved has become, that has been squashed.)  I would have LOVED to have had a large (giant?  Mega-mansion?) home on the ocean or bay.  But now there are so many and squeezed so tightly together.  Let me be blunt, while I am NOT a scientist, I really feel that when the next storm comes (and it WILL come...hopefully not for another 50+ years), the island will wash away/sink under it's weight.

For example, there was a plot of land between highway 35 S and 35 N that once housed a church (largest for the area), a rectory and two large parking lots.  (Because it was THE place to worship during the summer months...and it was also a good place to park if you were going to the beach and all the spots on the ocean block were taken.)  It was seriously damaged by the the storm.  

The building was demolished and the property sold.  Now on this same plot of land 20+ homes are being built.  I thought it was impossible to squeeze so many on to the area.  I was wrong.  I thought they'd never sell.  I was wrong.  (I think mostly because of the pandemic and everyone wanted to get out the city.)  They are not all complete yet, but they are close.  (The photo below is an example of one of the first that was built...imagine 20 or so of these clumped together.)

More houses mean more vehicles (not just cars) and more people.  Again, I do not begrudge anyone a home at the shore, but it seems to me (the crotchety old lady) that there's just too many people (and buildings and cars) being squeezed onto this tiny island.

Worse (and again this is where the crotchety old lady comes in), many are disrespectful of the land (the beach is NOT your garbage can) and neighbors.  The photo at the top with the empty chairs were placed at the beach around 9 AM on a Saturday morning.  They were strategically spaced out and then left there.  No one was there for over 2 hours when one person showed up.  I get that you want a good spot on the beach because the beach is extremely narrow this year, but don't just leave your chairs and go home. (Use it or lose it baby, is this lady's motto.)

So for me, the NJ shore (or at least what I considered "my" piece of it) is no more.  I'll still find joy there, but it will only be off season.  It's time for me to find a new "happy" place where my serenity is not interrupted by noise, traffic and trash  It's out there somewhere...