For decades, well probably close to a century, we've seen population shifts just about everywhere you look. In the 1950's and 60's, and maybe earlier, we saw a movement from the big cities to the suburbs. While some may have called it "White Flight", others migrated away from tightly packed and industrial urban areas when the jobs in factories and retail dried up. I look at Newark as an example. Following the Newark riots of 1967 the city emptied out, if you will, and the towns in and around Essex County saw a boom in their populations. And for the people who didn't stay close they moved west and south below the Driscoll Bridge.
For many it was an opportunity to get away from the city, buy in a more rural area, and pick up a vacation home down the Jersey Shore. Those were the days when you could pick up a tiny, and affordable second home, that would be a place to escape to and create fond family memories. Those places would usually get passed down from generation to generation. Towns like Keansburg, Long Branch, Lavalette, LBI, Ocean City, and Cape May were places northerners, whose primary residence was from Middlesex County and north, could call their second home. For those that chose not to do the beach town thing, they moved or picked up places in western New Jersey or across the border into the Poconos. In the late 1990's we bought a place in Big Bass Lake in Gouldsboro, Pa. We lived and worked in Essex County and took the two-hour ride to escape and enjoy the outdoors.
Superstorm Sandy had a lot to do with the changing landscape of the Jersey Shore. Homes were lost or sold and the what was put in their place were bigger homes built on sticks. We went from one story, two story at best, houses to three or four story homes and condos. Gone are the days of nice views and the sound of the ocean which permeated the neighborhoods for blocks off the beaches and bays. And outdoor showers these days, forget it, unless you put a roof over it so some creeper can't look down on you while you bathe.
After 9/11 New Jersey saw a huge influx of people from New York looking to escape. Monmouth County became "Staten Island South" and a ton of those family homes along the shore got sold. People saw a chance to cash out as those escape rooms down the shore weren't getting used like they were first intended to. Family dynamics changed over the years and going to shore isn't waiting for Dad to come home every Friday and getting into the family station wagon and heading south. Now, both parents worked, kids had their own planners filled with activities that didn't include weekends down the shore, and the costs vs usage ratio's didn't match up. It was time to cash in and out.
And with the influx of migrators came big money, and people who wanted more than what was routine and expected. They wanted bigger and better and more, from houses to restaurants to access, it changed the way people used to live. So people cashed out and people moved in, and a lot of them. And the towns that exploded mostly did a poor job with planning and development, and we still see that today. We went from Maine Street to the malls and now from the malls back to Main Street. But Main Streets these days are a hot mess, and expensive, and that's just to park, if you can even find a space. And the overdevelopment that occurred and is occurring now is unsustainable. The infrastructure and services can't keep up with the development. It all has changed, and not for the better.
Around me in Mercer County it's happening as well. New Hope, Pa, and Lambertville aren't the cute towns they used to be. They've been bought up by big groups and developers who have purchased, knocked down, and changed these "cute" little towns into mini cities. The vibe changed, the landscape changed, and the people changed. The same complaints I see out here I see in Asbury Park, LBI, and Cape May. "No more development". "Stay away". "We're closed". "Go back home". "It's not like it used to be".
Asbury Park is a prime example of going bad, to better, to worse. When I was in high school in the 1980's AP was part of the loop we would do on the weekends. We'd head over the Rumson Bridge to Ocean Avenue and head south, usually with the windows down blaring Springsteen tunes. God even he has changed. But it was in Asbury where we could go and gawk at the drug dealers, prostitutes, and the mentally ill who were recently deinstitutionalized from Marlboro State Psychiatric Hospital. Those were the good old Jersey Shore days. And the old clubs, I wasn't a club-goer but what a big part they were in the Jersey Shore scene in the 1908's.
And then just at it's rock bottom the gay population came in and was a driving force in the towns revitalization. They saw potential and put their money and hard work into changing the downward spiral that had landed AP where it was. And then big money saw what was happening and it was over. Asbury is now a hot mess if you ask me. I saw recently a quote, "Please, no more gray boxes!", referring to the new developments that are popping up everywhere you turn. And in order for them to pop-up, something has to be torn down.
Gone are the days of small single family homes on small lots. It's now condos and townhouses where the homes are built more vertically then horizontally on every square inch of a property. In my opinion, these gray boxes are no different then the public housing projects of
decades past. They look all new and white and stainless steel on the inside, for now, but after 20 years of wear and tear, and weather, and a lack of maintenance they will be eyesores. Throw in a fire or two and they too will be torn down for the next type of boom building that hits the area.
And then there's the people. Too many causing too much traffic. That's at the WaWa counter, in vehicles on the road, in the parking lots, on the beaches, and at the local restaurants. It's high volume and high stress wherever you go, and it's hard to escape it. I see that in Cape May these days. If you want be alone you have to wake up real early or forgo the weekends at your favorite watering hole. Cape May County has been bought up and changed, and none of it for the better. Again, the towns, the infrastructure, the services, and the locals, can't handle, or stand it.
And that brings me to the next chapter in our lives. On the top is a recent article that was in The New York Times. It talked about Jasper County, where we've moving to, and the population explosion that is happening there now. It's labeled as "America's Fastest Growing County", and boy the locals aren't happy.
There have been northerners who have always moved or bought places down in the south. They either moved full-time or do the Sunbird thing, winter down south and summer back home. But after Covid, and with the societal changes we've seen people are migrating away from the northeast for "better" living in the south. But what's really happening is all those folks, like us, from NY, NJ, and Pa, are moving and changing what the south was offering. They are changing the fabric, culture, and vibe of what places in South Carolina were. When people move, they do it for change, but they don't change, they don't blend (Think of Ocean County these days). They want the same things they came from, and for the people in the tri-state area it's "What I want, how I want it, and now". They call it the "Slowcountry" down there for a reason, well that's about to change.
They're doing the same thing in South Carolina as we did in New Jersey. Clear cutting swaths of Lowcountry land to cram in as many people as you can. The towns, and the infrastructure, can't handle the volume and demands of us "domestic migrants", a term I found on the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce website. South Carolina always had Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Hilton Head as major population hubs, well throw in Greenville as well. But with that all just about developed the push is now west. Everything is being bought up, and quick. We even see that in the bubble that is Sun City. We were interested in three houses, ones we lost to other buyers, before we found and put a contract on one we liked. Fingers crossed on that.
And that brings me to the below little slice of who-I-am heaven in a town called Ridgeland. Once a town of farmers and shrimpers it's now, "About to explode". This corner lot sits on a street two blocks from Town Hall and four blocks from Main Street. It's a mix of lots and old shacks and tiny old houses. There's even a set up steps and a chimney standing that's connected to nothing, a sign that on one night the neighborhood was aglow from fire. But this plot hasn't harmed anyone and served its previous owners well. A place for storage. A place to tinker. A place to hang.
If I were to make a move on it I would use it as it has been, and as it's listed as far as zoning laws are concerned. But after talking to the Zoning Officer in Ridgeland this property isn't sitting unnoticed. While there was a time when "Nobody cared" about what you did with or how you used a property that has all changed. Like everywhere else in New Jersey, the town planners are behind the eight ball. They allowed things to continue, or progress forward, without the bigger picture or future in mind. So, things like the 274 feet of 6 foot fence, well that's in violation. Never was an issue, but it is now.
Why? Well this little hidden side street is seeing it's own boom of development, following in the footsteps of South Carolina, Jasper County, and the Town of Ridgeland. Basically the neighborhoods been all bought up and it's changing for the better. If you look above you can see what's coming across the street and has already been built on the corner. Just check out what my view would look like if I were to purchase this old shrimper's shack.
Talk about an investment? This is one of those "strike while the iron is hot" moments. These are what's going up in the neighborhood. Now a mixed use neighborhood is just that. Similar to new construction in Brooklyn with an existing auto body shop between a new three story building and a refurbished brownstone. The lot I'm looking at is Zoned "Rural/Commercial", while across the street is just "Residential". I'd buy it now, use it as intended, sell it when the Town flips the neighborhood to all residential zoning, sell it for a profit. Seems like a no brainer, and a corner lot at that, please.
So the idea of moving south and starting anew and blending into a new way of life, well, it doesn't sound like that's happening. Too hot, too humid, too many bugs, too many gators, food sucks, can't get a reservation, too much traffic, too many tourists (I wonder what they call Bennies down there), to many folks from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, beaches are loaded up, to much religion, politics that lean red but may go blue with the influx of "Liberal northerners", people not blending in (kinda like Lakewood), and living in a place where people's date of birth is closer to my parents then mine.
Sounds great, right? They say we either run away from or to something in life. The question with this big move is, are we just running away from New Jersey down into New Jersey? Maybe I should pick up a copy of Kate Dyer's book and read it before we move.
