Skimpy suit-wearers will not be arrested, city manager says
Ordinance prohibiting bathing attire to be re-visited
Lovers of teeny bikinis need not worry about the city’s long-forgotten ordinance prohibiting bathing attire on the boardwalk.
Despite recent media attention on the subject, the city will not be locking up Speedo-wearers any time soon, city manager Terence Reidy said today.
“For the time being, no one is going to get arrested for wearing a bathing suit on the boardwalk,” Reidy said, adding the ordinance “clearly needs to be re-visited.”
The law has been on the books since 1958, according to a Facebook post on the triCityNews page from city clerk Steve Kay. It was long forgotten until city resident and Republican committee chair Louise Murray brought it to the council’s attention during the public comment session of a recent council meeting. The Asbury Park Sun covered the story here, and several regional news outlets picked it up.
The city has already been in the process of re-codifying its ordinances for the past few years, Reidy said, and would have likely re-visited this rule anyway. Now that the law has been brought to the city’s attention, the governing body will re-examine it.
This issue contrasts with one brought up several years ago, when a local business owner asked the city to look at bringing a topless beach to town. The city ultimately decided not to go in that direction.
That both discussions could take place within a few years of each other “shows that Asbury Park has the most diverse beach front in the state,” Reidy said. “We are amazingly diverse, which I think is absolutely part of our charm. Some people sit on the boardwalk and watch people walk all day. It’s entertainment.”
Reidy was also quick to point out Murray, a former councilwoman, has a right to express her opinion.
“She comes to a public forum and expresses it,” Reidy said. “That’s exactly what our society and form of government is designed to do.”
