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Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

As usual with Asbury Park elections, controversy reigns supreme. So while the Mayor runs unopposed and a hard working community female is running against an incumbent, what has changed? Nothing has changed.

Incumbents tell us to vote no on ballot questions that would keep the status quo in power. The same newspaper editors continue publish vile, profanity laced articles denouncing anyone who dares to exercise the constitutional rights that allows them to publicly defame people while sending out coded warnings to their readers that those people are coming. Small groups hold Meet the Candidates forums but only invite certain candidates.

People ask how has America reached this sick state of hatred and prejudice? Just look around this 1.42 square mile community named Asbury Park. A group of concerned citizens are requesting that the city set up a ward system. Allow a person who lives in a neighborhood to represent that neighborhood on the City Council. The problems in the southwest quadrant is different from those in the beachfront area. Allow someone who lives in an area of the city to sit at the table and speak for their area.

What we have now are tickets that strive to put together acceptable people who don’t shake things up too much. If Joe X expresses my viewpoint but doesn’t look like me he’ll pass. Then we can say we have diversity. No. You have a manufactured clone meant to deceive people while garnering votes. Many times those who know the truth are outnumbered or just tired of being hoodwinked. So electoral defeat is imminent.

Can a qualified person from a poor district garner enough financial support to mount an aggressive campaign? Will your signs be tossed away by city workers because you are not an incumbent? Mine were. Can a qualified person from a poorer district garner enough support to have a seat on an influential board in the city? Highly doubtful. Look at the composition of our boards. Do they reflect true diversity? The selection process lies on the council, which is flawed.

Some say we are too small to have wards. But we are big enough to host the Zombie Walk, Gay  Pride Celebration, build mega hotels, and expand the boardwalk. Still we have one of the highest crime rates in Monmouth County and ignore poverty on one side of a city that brags about it’s prosperity. Most folks from the east side won’t dare venture any further west than Springwood Park; our new line of demarcation.  

Our triumphs are in one area; our deficiencies in another. This is why we need real diverse representation on the City Council. That can only be accomplished by having people from those diverse areas represent their neighborhood. Vote Yes For Wards.  

Dan Harris

Ridge Avenue

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Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

Regarding the City Council race between Coach Jesse Kendle and Felicia Simmons, I have known Coach Kendle for just over seven years now. In my fifteen years as a resident here, I have yet to meet someone in our City, who is more committed to our youth. That is extremely important to me and should be to everyone in our community. The youth in our City are the most valuable assets we have.

While I do respect Felicia Simmons and her commitment to our City, I have no clue where she stands on any issues this City faces today. I would love to speak to her or her campaign team but have yet to get that knock on my door, or those campaign materials in my mailbox.

Regarding the ballot questions…

Short Term Rentals – I urge everyone to vote No on this one. When my wife and I moved to the City over a fifteen years ago, we were enamored at the sense of community here. We could not walk our dogs more than ten feet without hearing a ‘Good Morning, how are you;’ that will be lost with a Yes vote. Roughly a decade ago, our home was broken into, and that intruder was caught while still in our home, due to our next-door neighbor. That neighbor called the police and stayed on the phone with them while watching the intruder in our home. The following week, that same intruder broke into our home again, and this time, another neighbor did the same thing and the intruder was caught again. This would not have happened if these homes were short term rentals. Vote No.

Partisan Elections – The very people who are driving this initiative will be pushed out of politics in this City forever if this does pass. The money behind the local GOP and DNC will never let anyone but ‘their’ candidates run in any election, and we will essentially lose our City to big politics and big money. We have never seen the political infighting that comes with partisan politics, and there is no reason to start now. Vote No.

City Wards – Forgive me for sounding snarky, but I would personally love to speak to the ‘genius’ who thought this would be a clever idea. Absolutely no one with any sense of logic could think this would be good for our City. Wards have caused nothing but division in the cities where they exist. I urge you all to look at the Charter Study the City commissioned some years back on this, which clearly lays out why this is a horrible idea. Further, no one from the City will be involved in the “line drawing” of these potential wards. Vote No.

Please remember while at the voting machines this year, there is nothing more important than your local politics, as they have a direct effect on your everyday life. Please vote this coming Tuesday and vote responsibly.

Brian Watkins

Fifth  Avenue

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Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

Old timers will remember these words from a song: ‘You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don’t  mess with mister in between.’

I avoid social media because it often appears folks talk about each other rather than talk to each other. Would that in ‘small city’ Asbury Park, we could ‘talk to’ rather than ‘talk about’ our fellow citizens.

I have noticed that in Asbury Park, elections tend to bring out the worst in us, rather than the best that is in all of us. Let us leave the negative and less than truthful ‘tweeting’ to our President.

I offer some quotations that might help us during these last few days before the election, to celebrate democracy rather than dirty it:

‘There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it doesn’t behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us.’

‘If you can keep your head while others all around you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you, you’ll be an [adult] my sister or brother. You’ll be an adult.”

‘When they go low, you go high.’ [Michelle Obama]

‘Why is it that they are so angry all the time? They won the last election.’ [President Obama to a group of hecklers]

An adage that describes why ‘good teams’ are successful, substitute players.

Seventy years ago, I played junior varsity basketball at Central High School in Galveston, Texas. I could not make the varsity team because I was a very good shooter but could not dribble. In one game our team was on the verge of losing and our coach took out a great team player and sent me in; hoping that in the last few seconds I would score the winning basket. I did. The player I replaced was the first one to congratulate me. He was willing to be replaced by me because he, like all of us – those of us on the bench and those in the game, wanted our team to keep on winning.

Our Asbury Park City Council is Our team. Some of us think that sending in a ‘new’ player would benefit not only the team, but All of the City. That person, just like the person being replaced, must be a ‘team member.’ This is too fragile a time in the life of our city for us to engage in verbal attacks and counter attacks.

Asbury Park, we are too racially, economically and sexual orientation diverse to keep some people in, while shutting other people out.

Now at the age of 85, I feel that for Asbury Park I am ‘Grandpa Gil’ rather than ‘Rev. Gil.’ [Anybody remember the ‘old artist’ Grandma Moses? Her ‘primitive’ paintings were popular.]

My prayer is that my primitive ‘musings’ will not be popular, but meaningful as Asbury Park seeks to be better and better, each day.

‘Grandpa’ Gil Caldwell

Ocean Avenue

[These letters 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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