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Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

This letter is in response to the July 18th Asbury Park Sun article, “IStar removes surfboards at Bradley Cove site,” [July 18] which includes the text of a full written statement from waterfront redeveloper iStar Financial in regard their removal of a surfboard that signified a commitment to development at the site.

First and foremost, if you notice in the photo, the sign was posted near the surfboard, not on the surfboard. No person has vandalized iStar’s property at the Bradley Cove site. The free-standing signs were removed within a day. Two days later, some good, community minded people replaced those with new signs, only to have them removed again. Some of iStar’s surfboards may have been vandalized, but, not the one that has been removed. The signs posted contained informative facts about the need to preserve the site from a townhouse development. There was no vulgar language or name calling, only facts. We believe an apology from iStar is due to the preservation committed community.

The community attended a recent freeholders’ meeting held in Asbury Park City Council chambers to ask for the county’s help to buy the development rights to the land back from iStar in order to create a park for the Asbury Park community. When one of the freeholders inquired as to whether a representative from iStar was in the audience to answer the many questions asked about Bradley Cove, no one responded, leading the crowd to believe no representative had attended the meeting.

The community wishes to have something at the North Beach site that is good for the community and the environment. Townhouses are not the answer because they are only greed-driven and will be extremely costly for Asbury Park in the long run. By the way, it is the ONLY open beach space left in the county and can be developed for the community with an environmentally developed park. The spirit of Asbury Park is beaches, open space, fishing, surfing children, community and the arts. That’s what’s good for the community — and that’s what the community hopes to keep.

We have more to say about iStar’s arrogance and irresponsible, disrespectful actions to Asbury Park and surrounding communities, however, we will just keep to addressing their statement published in the article. No one vandalized the property. Some of the problem is the fault of the previous Asbury Park City Council for a ludicrous redevelopment deal they made with iStar in the first place, which was made without consent of the community they were elected to represent. Stop speaking out of both sides of your mouth iStar and start doing the right thing for this community.

Respectfully,

Michele Rachelson and Lynn Wilson

Citizens for Oceanfront Preservation

Asbury Park

[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here.]

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