💬 Margatians react: They’ve ‘ruined our town’ | Down the Shore

The Margate third-floor-deck drama I wrote about in last week’s newsletter, and in this story, brought a lot of responses. Which goes to show, a lot of important things happen at the planning and zoning board levels of municipalities. Pay attention!

What’s happening in Margate, with taller three-story new construction replacing smaller, older one- and two-story beach ranchers and bungalows, is happening all over the Jersey Shore. Many people expressed genuine dismay over the changes in beach towns they’ve lived in or visited for decades.

Here’s a sampling. And if you missed it, here’s the story on Margate’s overbuilding controversy.

🍂 Crowds are thinning, air is cooling, water’s warming. Feeling like, shhhhhh, the loveliest time of year down here: September.

— Amy S. Rosenberg (🐦 Tweet me at @amysrosenberg. 📷 Follow me on Insta at @amyrosenberg. 📧 Email me with your thoughts at downtheshore@inquirer.com)

🐦 Exotic bird watch. Frank Kummer writes about the Shore bird that has been showing up at the breathtaking rookery on the Ninth Street Bridge into Ocean City, by the Welcome Center. Find out how to see these snowy bodied-Ibises with orange bills and legs.

🏌️‍♂️Sad news from Tony’s Baltimore Grill as Rich McSweeney, a chef there for 22 years, died. If you’ve gone there, you’ve seen Rich on the line, slinging pies. R.I.P. to a legend, who also loved golf, rowing, and growing up on Absecon Island. A local’s local.

🚫 Police were warning of sink holes on some beaches in Monmouth County.

🌬️Storm season? If you’re wondering what happened to that predicted hurricane season, my colleague Tony Wood reports there’s still time.

🍼 Donate unused food and baby supplies. Let’s face it. Vacation season is coming to an end, and there’s a lot of food and stuff left in your summer home. Donate nonperishable goods, baby products, and other essentials to Jewish Family Services at 607 N. Jerome Ave. in Margate. More info here.

🇧🇩 Bangladesh Festival. Don’t miss this lively event that runs from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, at the old Surf Stadium at Bader Field in Atlantic City.

🍎 Fall farmers markets Yes, I said fall. The C.R.O.P.S. market starts this Saturday, Aug. 20, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at O’Donnell Park at 3501 Atlantic Ave. in Atlantic City’s Chelsea neighborhood, and continues through Oct. 29. On Oct. 1, the 3rd Annual Best Empanada Challenge winner will be crowned.

✈️ Air show! Atlantic City can absorb a lot of people. The city’s annual airshow is Wed., Aug. 24, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with practice days Aug. 22 and Aug. 23, which pack a punch themselves. The VIP Flightline Club watch areas are sold out, but the beach will do fine.

Shoobie (noun). The word continues to cause controversy even at The Inquirer, where internal debate simmers on over when and whether to use the term — which, as you must already know, refers to summer visitors, day trippers, people who used to come by train with lunch in a shoe box, occasionally to those who wear shoes on the beach.

Anyone, that is, but the true locals.

As my colleague Chris Brennan, of the must-read Clout newsletter wisely observed: As a Philly person who lived Memorial Day to Labor Day in Wildwood as a kid, shoobie was a term best reserved for locals to adjudicate.

Speaking of shoobie, Robert LaBelle was first with the answer to which Nickelodeon show used the word shoobie. Many were tempted by the SpongeBob logic, but it was Rocket Power, which so memorably captured the Invasion of shoobies!

This week, another basketball question, if only because I spent the weekend with a 5-year-old who knows everything about the 1990s NBA.

Name this former NBA player and coach who grew up in Atlantic City and is known for making the first counted NBA three-point shot on Oct. 12, 1979. More recently, this Holy Spirit and Villanova graduate could be found cheering in the stands of Atlantic City High School at girls basketball games when his son was the coach. He also has a historical marker in his honor in the city’s Ducktown neighborhood.

📮 If you think you know the answer, email me here.

⛱️ From TikTok, we get a very cogent answer to the question: What is the best way to avoid the beach badge checker?

Hint: especially this time of year, they’re unlikely to wake you up. Click here to see video of beach badge checker evasion technique.

Any final summer etiquette questions to sort out? Ask me here!

👗 Shawnea Byrd, 34, a bartender at Caesars, opened the super cute Nay’s Closet clothing boutique at 2724 Atlantic Ave. in Atlantic City, a dream that dates to her teen years of inviting friends to shop the walls of her Sharon Hill bedroom, where she’d display her latest fashion finds.

Here’s some of my conversation with her, and read the full Inquirer story on Nay’s Closet and Byrd’s ambitions in Atlantic City.

Yours is a rare independently owned boutique in Atlantic City. There should definitely be much more of that in Atlantic City. I feel like I’m making history being the only Black-owned boutique. I hope it will start some chain of events, with others having the courage to do the same thing.

Are locals finding you? A lot of locals come here and shop with me. They love the shop. They actually said, this is something that they needed.

And tourists? I definitely want Nay’s Closet to be at the top of their list.

What is your vision for this stretch of Atlantic Avenue? After I got here and I saw someone open a wedding dress shop, I thought, ‘What if a lot of people open up shops in this area, and it turns into a street, like South Street in Philadelphia? You can come to Atlantic Avenue and go shopping.

A snippet from Lenore M McQuait:

My parents, my brother and I (many times bringing friends) would rent rooms in a house on Ocean Ave [in A.C.]. We rented 3 rooms but at times there were strangers that also rented rooms in that same house. And we all shared 1 bath! My children and grandchildren are in disbelief and amazement that we would share a bath with strangers!! In those days we didn’t give it a second thought!! Sitting on that front porch with an awning, talking, and eating ice cream is a fond memory. We would people watch going to the Boardwalk in those evening hours. This was a great short block running from Pacific Ave to the Boardwalk where Woolworths was on that Boardwalk corner. Very convenient.

📮 Send me your Shore memory for a chance to be featured here or tweet me @amysrosenberg.

🌅 See you next week … is anyone still coming down?