Asbury Park has gone from a favorite vacation spot full of amusements and tourists to a ghetto ghost town overrun with abandon lots boarded houses to slowly regaining the glory of it's early years, transforming itself into a mecca of art, live music, and food. Now in it's 8th year of being "up-and-coming" it has finally found a comfortable niche complete with loft-style apartments, high-end waterfront dining, and dark hip lounges.
Like Passyunk Ave. in Philadelphia, Asbury has been able to use pre-existing store-fronts to revitalize it's downtown area. Independent apparel shops that once specialized in ladies undergarments or children's clothes have become showplaces for local artisans and start-ups for boutique entrepreneurs. Bodega-style take-out restaurants and pizza joints have been replaced with firehouses refashioned as sports bars and test kitchens for little-known chefs. The half-populated town offers a reminder of how the town once was while allowing for a vision on what a once-forgotten and abandoned town can become.
Asbury was there... just waiting for someone with a knowing eye to clear away the cobwebs and see it's true potential. The old house down the block once thought haunted and now turned into a shabby-chic showroom that is the envy of all it's neighbors.
Maybe it's the recession or the popularity of DIY shows that has caused this revitalization. Maybe New Yorkers were running out of affordable areas along the Jersey shore and saw Asbury's post-apocalyptic landscape as a perfect blanc canvas, already primed and ready to be pained. Maybe our country's new found interest in going green, recycling, reusing, revitalizing and staying local. Whatever the reason, it makes my heart flutter to see it in action.
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