2 Mini Golf Courses Coming to 34th Street?

Ahoy! You’ve probably seen this picture of Kelsey Grammer floating around social media this week. Great to see celebs WALKING THE BOARDS, but please, hold your fire for the inevitable grainy images of Bradley Cooper at Bob’s or young Phillies playing wiffle ball on the beach.

We have tons of events, police data from the first weekend with new curfew rules in effect, and rumors about another mini golf course.

In the email today:

📆 Upcoming events

🚔 Police calls were up despite new ordinances

🐋 Windmill updates

🔗 News links

🧐 Is this unfair coverage of Ocean City?

🏠 Real estate update

🎅 Another new mini golf course coming to 34th Street?

🌊 New AC waterpark

🍺 Drink of the week

🍽️ Dish of the week

🌊 Weather and tides

📆 Upcoming Events in (and around) Ocean City

• June 23

  • Beachstock Pregame Big Screen Baseball and Wiffle Ball Home Run Derby (Margate)

    • When: 5:00 p.m.

    • Where: Granville Ave. Beach

    • Description: Home run derby for ages 6 and up, with 10 pitches each. Event is followed by Phillies vs. Mets on the beach at 7:05 p.m. on the big screen outside. More details and register here.

  • Beach Concert — The Tony Mart All-Stars “Everybody Loves Ernie” (Somers Point)

    • When: 7:00 p.m.

    • Where: William Morrow Beach

    • Description: Classic guitar rock tribute.

• June 24

  • Antique Auto Show

    • When: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (Boardwalk parade after 2:00 p.m.)

    • Where: Tabernacle Grounds at 6th and Asbury, and Boardwalk

    • Description: Over 300 vintage vehicles. For more information visit jerseycape.aaca.com.

  • Somers Point Farmers Market (Somers Point)

    • When: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

    • Where: Somers Mansion, 1000 Shore Rd.

    • Description: It’s a farmer’s market, folks.

  • Beachstock The Planet’s Biggest Beach Party (Margate)

    • When: 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

    • Where: Granville Ave. Beach

    • Description: Day-long event with activities, food, music, kite and surf lessons. Lots going on. More details here.

  • Concert Under The Stars — Billy Joel Tribute (Sea Isle)

    • When: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

    • Where: Excursion Park, 41st Street

    • Description: Billy Joel tribute concert by Streetlife Serenade.

• June 25

  • Kristin Chenoweth with the Ocean City POPS

    • When: 7:30 p.m.

    • Where: Music Pier

    • Description: The award-winning actress and singer’s career spans film, television and stage, and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, she received an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in “Pushing Daisies.” In 1999, she won a Tony Award for “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” and she was nominated for her original role of Glinda the Good Witch in “Wicked” in 2004. Tickets appear to be sold out, but you can check here.

• June 26

  • Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers

    • When: 7:00 p.m.

    • Where: Music Pier

    • Description: Bruce Hornsby in concert. Tickets here.

• June 27

  • The Rascals

    • When: 7:00 p.m.

    • Where: Music Pier

    • Description: The Rascals in concert. Tickets here.

  • Fun Run

    • When: 6:00 p.m.

    • Where: Carey Field Track at 6th and Atlantic

    • Description: Free races for kids of all ages.

  • Sara the Turtle Festival (Sea Isle)

    • When: 7:00 p.m.

    • Where: Excursion Park, 41st Street, Sea Isle

    • Description: The Sara the Turtle Festival will feature a hands-on Wildlife Display (with live animals), as well as Environmental Exhibits by the Wetlands Institutes, the Marine Mammal Stranding Cerner, Sea Isle City’s Environmental Commission, the Beachcomber Guides, and Sea Isle Terrapin Rescue.

  • Beach Movie — Minions: The Rise of Gru (Avalon)

    • When: Dusk (so figure 8:30-ish)

    • Where: 30th Street Beach

    • Description: Rain date is Wednesday.

• June 28

  • Farmers Market

    • When: 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

    • Where: Tabernacle Grounds at 6th and Asbury

    • Description: Ocean City Farmers Market returns!

  • Wacky Wednesday — Taffy Sculpting

    • When: 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

    • Where: Music Pier

    • Description: Use your creativity to shape and sculpt Shriver’s salt water taffy into your very own unique masterpiece. Contest is free but open to the first 250 participants. Open to all ages.

  • Crafty Wednesday (Avalon)

    • When: 10:00 a.m.

    • Where: Avalon Free Public Library

    • Description: Join Miss Paige for a fun arts and crafts project. Kids of all ages welcome.

• June 29

  • LEGO Thursday (Avalon)

    • When: 10:00 a.m.

    • Where: Avalon Free Public Library

    • Description: Calling all LEGO fans! The library will supply the LEGOS, you supply the imagination. All ages.

Also note the Ocean City Library has many events for adults and kids alike on their calendar, which can be viewed here.

You can see the full list of events in all nearby Shore towns with the following links: Ocean City | Sea Isle | Margate | Avalon | Stone Harbor | Somers Point

Other events to look forward to: Ocean City POPS Free Outdoor Concert (July 3), Fourth of July! (July 4)

🤳 News Bits

Police Calls Were Up Despite New Ordinances 🚔

When City Council called an emergency meeting after a raucous Memorial Day Weekend in Ocean City, they said it was essential to get new ordinances related to juvenile curfews and backpacks in effect before Father’s Day Weekend, which would be “the next weekend during which the city will receive a large influx of juveniles similar to the crowds seen during Memorial Day Weekend.”

The new ordinances were unanimously approved and their first weekend in effect was in fact Father’s Day Weekend.

So how did it go?

Anecdotally, things seemed to be much better on the Boardwalk and adjoining beaches. There were no reports of large teen gatherings or the mass chaos that the city experienced over Memorial Day Weekend.

I asked Chief of Police Jay Prettyman for some detail. And while things were indeed better on the Boards, the clampdown bred another potential issue— a wider net of incidents.

There were a total of 1,446 service calls to police, up from 806 the same weekend last year. That’s a nearly 80% increase.

Curbside warnings and stationhouse adjustments, which are measures exclusive to juveniles (basically they get two warnings and then get picked up and their parents are called), were down, as these are often related to gatherings on the beach.

Here’s what the raw data looks like for the three-day (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) period:

We weren’t provided explicit detail on the nature of the calls, which aren’t exclusive to juvenile infractions, so it’s hard to say what exactly led to the increase.

But clearly the clampdown and concentration on Boardwalk and nearby-beach misbehavior has led to a squeeze toy problem: teens were pushed off the Boardwalk onto the beaches, and then restricted from going on the beaches, but all of that juvenile energy had to disperse somewhere, so it fanned out across town.

City officials and Prettyman have been publicly frustrated and feel handcuffed by state laws related to adequately policing underage offenses.

The next two weeks might be better indicators of the success or lack thereof of the new ordinances as New Jersey schools are done for the summer and the city expects more teens in town.

Windmill Updates 🐋

The Inquirer, whose Shore area reporters seem to have contempt for Ocean City and its residents (as you’ll see in the next section), tackled an issue we told you about in previous newsletters about how windmill manufacturers are demanding more federal tax credits from New Jersey, lest they move jobs overseas or, gasp, to New York.

The article is behind a paywall because The Inquirer has an antiquated business strategy, but here’s the gist:

• offshore windmill manufacturers are threatening the state because it has thus-far not passed along all Federal Tax Credits to them

• the state has already invested over $1 billion in offshore wind projects

• windmill manufacturers entered into agreements before the pandemic, and now want the additional subsidies to offset increased costs of goods from inflation

• New Jersey already passed a law saying that these tax credits would be passed along to utility customers

So quite literally, the windmill industry is asking the state give them the extra funds rather than the public, otherwise they’ll move manufacturing and jobs elsewhere. The chutzpah that takes.

Related: A state court said Ocean City must issue a permit to Orsted to put a transmission line from its offshore windmills under 35th Street. Ocean City had previously denied the permit. However, the state court did say that work can’t begin until after September 11.

You can livestream a windmill information session put on by Cape May County this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Can’t think of anything better to do on a sunny summer afternoon…….

News Links 🔗

• Cape May Brewing calls off its merger with Flying Fish, but then launches canned cocktails— vodka crush and vodka punch🍹

🧐 Unfair Coverage?

Speaking of the Inquirer, here’s a headline in their Shore section, written by Amy Rosenberg, on Thursday:

Quite the connotation there given that the article relied solely on the account of one person who said they weren’t given a seat fast enough at a “very popular pizza establishment.”

And no, Brigantine isn’t the new Miami Beach.

💦 Waterpark

Here’s a pic from the preview of Atlantic City’s new Island Waterpark set to open June 30:

Yeah, but does it have a Quincy’s Original Lobster Rolls right in front of it?

🏠 Real Estate Update

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34th Street Will See Some Major Changes 🎅

Why yes, Virginia, 34th Street is about to look much different.

We already brought you exclusive details about the new mini golf course coming to the site of the old Blitz’s Market courtesy of the O’Hara Family (Uncle Bill’s, Nauti Donuts).

Now word on the street is that Mark Benevento, the man behind Congo Falls Golf, Pirate Island Golf, and Haunted Golf (THE GOLF KING™, some say), plans to bring his special over-the-top version of mini golf to the site of the former bank across from the ACME.

We can’t confirm this directly, yet. Stay tuned. We’ll see what we can find out.

Separately, the owner of the lot which includes the 34th Street Farm and Garden Center, bike rental place, and ice cream shop, is selling.

Currently listed at $4.15 million for both the 100 × 100 commercial area and the 30 × 100 single-family lot, we expect it may get separated into two listings (commercial and residential).

There is no long-term lease on the businesses, so the expectation is the new owner will develop this land into some combination of first floor commercial and second and third floor residential, as per code in that area.

We’ll have a deeper look at this interesting lot in our next Shore Cribs newsletter.

Oh yeah, and just in case that wasn’t enough change— Seaspray Condos continues to be in flux after being condemned and then uncondemned. And then there’s all the controversy regarding the buried transmission line just a block away.

NBC 10 Covers Ocean City Real Estate Market 🔟

Here’s a short news story from Ted Greenberg about buyer hysteria slowing down just a bit in Ocean City.

Of course, if you’ve been reading our newsletters, you already knew that.

Real Estate News Bits 🐚

• Modern affordable housing is coming to Ocean City 🏘️

🍺 Drink of the Week: Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon

Arrrrrrgh AY spend every dark and stormy night at the Shore walking around me house talking like a pirate arrrrggggh.*

*I actually do this.

On Wednesday night, I trudged down to the beach at around 9:00 p.m. to check out the surge and scream for me buried treasure into the Northeasterly wind. My wife was not amused.

Anyway, nothing captures that mood more than Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon.

You see, bourbon ages as its barrel expands and contracts with the seasons over the years. So Jefferson’s founder Trey Zoeller had the idea to take medium-aged bourbon and add some years to it by putting the barrels on OCEARCH ships as they made their way across the globe, through warm and cold climates— all while the bourbon swished around inside the barrel, adding even more flavor. The result is a briny, caramel-y bourbon that is perfect for nights where you want to talk like a pirate.

🍽️ Dish of the Week: Arnie’s Butcher

I went to Arnie’s on 12th and Asbury on Father’s Day based on a couple of recommendations, as inexplicably I had never been there before.

Me, to the guy on the phone behind the counter: “I heard you have the best meat on the island!”

The guy, putting down the phone: “This lady called three times about the seafood stew! We probably don’t have the best seafood stew on the island, but yes, we have the best meats. What can I get you?”

My kind of guy.

I got six beautiful filets for the family and a dry-aged Porterhouse for dad. [Incredibly, I paid for these! This isn’t a sponsored post, despite me sending this plug to 6,000 people. If anyone wants to send me free meats, I’ll tell the whole town how great your meat is, otherwise I might go broke this summer at Arnie’s.]

Everyone was floored at the first bite. Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth good. Flavor. Juicy. Meaty. Outstanding.

Related: While we’re on the topic of meats, let’s take it down market to deli meats. I heard good things about Chelsea Pizza on 9th and Asbury. While I can’t speak for their pizza, their sandwiches were a big hit here last week— including the cheesesteak and the buffalo chicken wrap I got (though I could have used more buffalo sauce on the side). Very good takeout place.

👨‍💼 We’re Hiring!

Love Ocean City? Love the Shore? Good a social media? Have a passion for real estate?

We’re hiring for two roles:

1) Writer

Looking for someone with professional experience in digital media, journalism, or anything where you have to hold the attention of an audience.

You will write about news and events in Ocean City. Bonus points if you have a working knowledge of the entire Jersey Shore or real estate.

2) Social Media Manager

Looking for someone to plan and run our social media accounts— Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter.

You must be able to show awesome examples of your work.

Both of these roles can be full- or part-time, or freelance, depending on the person.

If you are interested, either respond to this email or email me at [email protected].

🌊 Weather and Tides

As always, we recommend getting up-to-date forecasts from THE GOAT of South Jersey weather, NorEaster Nick, directly on his Facebook page.

Tides (9th Street):

• Friday (6/23)

  • Low: 6:30 AM

  • High: 12:25 PM

  • Low: 6:13 PM

• Saturday (6/24)

  • High: 12:22 AM

  • Low: 7:10 AM

  • High: 1:12 PM

  • Low: 7:02 PM

• Sunday (6/25)

  • High: 1:06 AM

  • Low: 7:49 AM

  • High: 2:00 PM

  • Low: 7:57 PM

• Monday (6/26)

  • High: 1:53 AM

  • Low: 8:30 AM

  • High: 2:50 PM

  • Low: 8:57 PM

• Tuesday (6/27)

  • High: 2:44 AM

  • Low: 9:14 AM

  • High: 3:41 PM

  • Low: 9:57 PM

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