More than 600,000 people vacationed in Asbury Park annually in the city’s early years. The city flourished all the way into the 60s. However, as the Garden State Parkway was created, as well as massive amusement parks such as Six Flags Great Adventure, tourists, businesses and shoppers were lead away from Asbury Park. From the 70s until the early 2000s, Asbury Park had some hard times. Despite this decline, over the years Asbury Park has been visited by millions of tourists. The Asbury Park Historical society has done a good job rejuvinating the boardwalk and residential area, and returning it to its glory. 

North and South End Beach experienced intense damage to their sand dunes during Hurricane Sandy. Before the extreme weather event, the beaches had large sand dunes with grass and fencing. The dunes were mostly destroyed during the storm. The rest of the town’s beach front does not have dunes. 

As part of the waterfront redevelopment plan vision, the north end of the boardwalk was enhanced with new sand dunes, beach grasses, a storm water filtration system, greater beach access and a new boardwalk. All exisitng pedestrian beach access points were redesigned. The project was completed in the summer of 2020 for $8 million. 2 acres of new landscaping included 115 native trees, 50,000 grassses, 2,000 shrubs, and 1,250 flowers. The result was beautiful and well accepted by the community.

According to Asbury Park Sun Article by Molly Mulshine, “Bongiovanni, who’s worked at the beach front for 45 years, says that ‘The width of Asbury Park’s beaches aren’t conducive to dunes as they would reduce sitting areas.’” However, I still question this response, specifically because of the abundance of business and people who occupy and use the space. Although there is a need for seating space, it is even more necessary to protect the shoreline here. Is there a way to design the shorline protetion in a way that would better suit this beach specifically?