🎢 Ocean City is changing, like it or not | Down the Shore

It’s like the song: Everything’s up-to-date in Ocean City! They’ve gone about as far as they can go. They went and built a skyscraper seven stories high. About as high as a building oughta grow …

For the non-theater kids, that’s a slight reworking of ”Kansas City” from the 1943 classic Americana musical Oklahoma! (revived in 2019 with the great Ali Stroker as Ado Annie). Relax, no new skyscraper has been built in Ocean City — yet. This song seemed apt as it bounced into my ears during a chilly boardwalk run (my running playlist is, let’s say, a little corny).

And things are still bouncing three months after our last check-in, so here we are with an almost-winter edition of Down the Shore, like we never left. It’s a lovely, if windy, time here, and I’ve spent a lot of it running, but possibly more of it listening to fears of people who love Ocean City, people convinced the end of Gillian’s Wonderland Pier (have you heard?) and proposed new seven-story hotel on the boardwalk means the end of something essential about Ocean City.

People who are convinced the transformation of Sixth and the boardwalk is a betrayal of something fundamental expected from their Methodist-founded dry beach town. It’s an argument sometimes framed in religious terms, sometimes in Americana terms: Everything in Ocean City should never truly become up-to-date.

That was the secret of retro Wonderland Pier, with 35-year staff artist Wayne Seddon’s handcrafted fiberglass figurines scattered around the beloved park.

Seddon’s pieces were hauled off to a place called Obnoxious Antiques, while Wonderland’s rides (You too could have a Tilt-a-Whirl for $35,000.)were put up for sale.

Developer Eustace Mita has faced down angry speakers at meetings, and seems both ready to embark on his $150 million Icona in Wonderland and also to rid himself of it (for $25 million). He’s promised to save the carousel, rehab, raise, and relight the Ferris wheel, keep the kiddie Wet Boats, even throw in two Batman rides to sweeten the nostalgia pot.

Meanwhile, the bells of Wonderland’s fire engine tot ride will ring again at Storybook Land, where Seddon’s fairy tale art will find a new home. With all that, people still seem mad and skeptical of Mita’s plans, protective of their Shore enclave. But the truth is, Ocean City has already undergone a transformation, with duplexes replacing old houses, crowds of brazen teenagers on the boardwalk, skyrocketing prices for a weekly stay, private clubs where you can have wine with dinner. Maybe it’s time to move on.

📮 Will a 252-room boardwalk resort change Ocean City’s fundamental character? Are people overreacting? Let me know what you think by replying here, and I’ll include your most interesting responses in our next newsletter.

Have news tips about the Shore? Send them to me here.

⬇️ Read on for the latest Shore talk, things to do, winter memories, and a Q&A with the Shore’s epic boxing coach, Jon Simon of Boxx for Tots, now in its 21st year of collecting toys for needy families.

⛅ This time of year, the sun sets in your face while driving or walking basically south, and you can peep the sunset from the beach, almost over the Atlantic. In this 2008 piece, I pondered this beautiful and unusual time.

— Amy S. Rosenberg (Follow on X at @amysrosenberg and on Instagram at @amysrosenberg. 📧 Email me here.)

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🌿 Wait what, dude? Atlantic City now has more marijuana dispensaries (12) than casinos (9). More are coming.

🚐 Drone sightings over New Jersey, the “size of minivans,” continued, including over Shore towns.

🏖️ North Wildwood approved a deal with New Jersey that will lead to bigger beaches and an extended seawall.

🌊Hot spot coastal erosion will be studied after a bipartisan effort got funding into the Water Resources Development Act.

🇺🇸 Andy Kim was sworn in as New Jersey’s next U.S. senator, replacing George Helmy, who had a whirlwind 90 days in office.

➡️ Republican Jeff Van Drew won reelection to represent most of the Shore in Congress, and New Jersey’s presidential results showed a marked swing to the right.

🗣️ The woman who voiced “Watch the tram car, please” is suing Wildwood.

😥 A minke whale was euthanized after washing up on the beach in Cape May Point.

🐦 The Byrdcage, an LGBTQ+-friendly restaurant and club promising food, drink, vibes, and brunch, will open next month in the spot vacated by the Atlantic City outpost of the Good Dog Bar.

🎩 A Monopoly-themed Top Hat Hotel will be coming to A.C.’s Orange Loop.

⚓ Anchor Rock Club has a Goth Night Market on Dec. 13 and Low Cut Connie on Dec. 14.

🍸 A.C. is Tinseltown with an intriguing Cocktail/Mocktail Trail.

🐻‍❄️ Polar bear plunge on New Year’s Day, pretty much everywhere.

🎨 Take in the Jersey Gents art show at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey in Newtonville. The closing reception is Dec. 29 from 2 to 5 p.m.

🎥 Go see A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan-approved biopic filmed partially in Cape May.

🏁 Run in Wildwood’s Dec. 14 “Pinch the GrYnch” Boardwalk 5K.

🎡 Buy half-price tickets until Jan. 1 to Ocean City’s only amusement pier: Playland’s Castaway Cove.

🍻 Visit a pub going all out for the holidays, including A.C.’s King’s Pub and the Irish Pub, North Wildwood’s Keenan’s, and the Jingle Bar at Cape May’s Montreal Beach Resort.

⛸️ Ice skate (and drink wine) at Renault Winery’s Vintner Wonderland.

🎄 A pop-up cafe and holiday market will be Dec. 14 and 15 at Atlantic City’s Arts Garage.

😱 Read Absecon’s Carol Plum-Ucci’s new horror-supernatural thriller, Insane Possibilities.

🎸 Listen to Linwood’s own superstar Mk.gee, the guitarist, producer, and vocalist making best of 2024 lists.

The Gillian family had rides on Ocean City’s boardwalk for 95 years, but Wonderland Pier itself dates only to 1965. What was the name of Wonderland’s precursor?

A. Fun City

B. Wonder City

C. The Deck

D. Fun Deck

If you think you know the answer, email us or click on this story to find out.

Jon Simon has a devoted following for his Shore boxing classes and personal training but for two decades, he’s also been collecting toys for Boxx for Tots. A Schenectady, N.Y., native who was strength and conditioning coach for Hall of Fame boxer Virgil Hill, Simon says it started when he noticed the Toys for Tots bin at Island Gym in Ventnor was empty.

He told his boxing class to bring a toy instead of paying for the next class (still a bargain at $10), and a holiday tradition was born. Simon says he’s collected 60,000 toys and $100,000 in donations (Boxx for Tots is now a registered nonprofit). He brings DJs to three special Boxx for Tots classes; this year’s are at Island Gym at Dec. 17 and 19 at 6 p.m. and 21 at 10:30 a.m. Or just drop off a toy there or at the Margate Municipal Building.

Favorite beach: I don’t go to the beach. [Summer’s] my busy season.

Favorite summer breakfast: Hannah G’s [in Ventnor].

Order: Power pancakes baby.

Perfect beach day: Any time I have off.

Perfect night: On the porch smoking cigars with my wife and dogs.

Best Shore sandwich: Used to be the chicken hummus wrap at Lisa’s Market, but it’s no longer there.

When summer approaches, I feel: My money season.

It wouldn’t be the Jersey Shore without: Robert’s.

Pet peeve: So many of them that pop up. People not using sidewalks.

Best thing for kids: My boxing class. (Editor’s note: It’s true, Simon’s clients run from 6 to 82.)

Surfing or fishing: Surfing.

Sunrise or sunset: Sunset.

Jab or hook: Hook.

The Shore could be improved if: Hard to improve it. I like it the way it is.

Do you consider yourself a local? I do, l yes. I love it. I consider it home now.

Best thing about winter at the Shore: Less crowded.

Saunders Robinson: I love going to shore in the winter to go birding and because there are so few people at the beach, so you can actually see how beautiful it is.

Carol Prewitt Jones: I return all year to a section of the Inlet across from Brigantine to view the ocean and meditate in memory of my son. I watch a group of ducks that appear all winter but strangely not during the summer. It gives me peace and tranquillity.

Debbie Dooling of Beach Haven Terrace says a cottage built in 1952 on land her dad purchased while stationed on LBI is her draw: That little cottage gets me to the shore consistently in the winter — to keep an eye on the cottage and view the never changing ocean. The Beach Haven Fire Company has a fund raising Turkey dinner in February that is well attended by other homeowners coming to enjoy a delicious meal after checking on their homes.

Send us your Shore memories in 200 words, tell us how the Shore taps into an emotional place, and we will publish them in this space.

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