Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park (/æzbɛri/) is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area.[24][25] As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 15,188,[14][15] a decrease of 928 (−5.8%) from the 2010 census count of 16,116,[26][27] which in turn reflected a decline of 814 (−4.8%) from the 16,930 counted in the 2000 census.[28]
"Asbury Park" redirects here. For other uses, see Asbury Park (disambiguation).
Asbury Park, New Jersey
March 26, 1874 (as borough)
February 28, 1893 (as city)
City Council
Lillian L. Nazzaro[9]
Lisa Esposito[10]
1.61 sq mi (4.17 km2)
1.43 sq mi (3.70 km2)
0.18 sq mi (0.47 km2) 11.18%
439th of 565 in state
36th of 53 in county[4]
16 ft (5 m)
15,188
15,146
173rd of 565 in state
14th of 53 in county[17]
10,628.4/sq mi (4,103.6/km2)
36th of 565 in state
2nd of 53 in county[17]
In 2022, Asbury Park's beach was named one of the best in the world by Money and one of the best in the country by Travel + Leisure.[29][30][31]
Asbury Park was originally incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 26, 1874, from portions of Ocean Township. The borough was reincorporated on February 28, 1893. Asbury Park was incorporated as a city, its current type of government, as of March 25, 1897.[32]
Geography[edit]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 1.61 square miles (4.17 km2), including 1.43 square miles (3.70 km2) of land and 0.18 square miles (0.47 km2) of water (11.18%).[4][5]
Unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the city include North Asbury and Whitesville (located along the city's border with Neptune Township).[64]
The city borders the Monmouth County communities of Interlaken, Loch Arbour, Neptune Township, and Ocean Township.[65][66][67]
Deal Lake covers 158 acres (64 ha) and is overseen by the Deal Lake Commission, which was established in 1974. Seven municipalities border the lake, accounting for 27 miles (43 km) of shoreline, also including Allenhurst, Deal, Interlaken, Loch Arbour, Neptune Township and Ocean Township.[68][69]
Sunset Lake, situated in the southwestern part of the city, stretches over 16 acres (6.5 ha). It is a popular destination for both residents and visitors, offering a serene setting and a variety of recreational activities.[70]
Economy[edit]
Urban Enterprise Zone[edit]
Portions of the city are part of a joint Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) with Long Branch, one of 32 zones covering 37 municipalities statewide. The city was selected in 1994 as one of a group of 10 zones added to participate in the program.[81] In addition to other benefits to encourage employment and investment within the UEZ, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the 6+5⁄8% rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants.[82] Established in September 1994, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in September 2025.[83]
Local media includes:
Surfing and other sports[edit]
Every winter, when the surf grows colder and rougher than in the summer, the city is home to the Cold War, an annual cold water surfing battle.
In 1943, the New York Yankees held spring training in Asbury Park to comply with restrictions on rail travel during World War II.[182]
Asbury Park is the nominal home to Asbury Park FC, described as "Asbury Park's most storied sports franchise and New Jersey's second-best football club." The project is a parody of a modern pro soccer team born out of a joke between social media professional and soccer tastemaker Shawn Francis and his friend Ian Perkins, guitarist with The Gaslight Anthem. Despite never playing games the club has an extensive merchandise line available online, including new and retro replica jerseys.[183]
There are several parks and recreational activities throughout Asbury Park. Several of the parks in the city host various community events throughout the year, including many pop-up events, farmer's markets, musical performances, etc.[184]
The most prominent historical recreational spot is the Asbury Park Boardwalk and the beach. The boardwalk has changed a lot over the years, and today hosts various restaurants and shops, along with the 3,600 seat Asbury Park Convention Hall and 1,600 seat Paramount Theater, which are both connected via an arcade. Other activities on the boardwalk include the Silverball Retro Arcade & Museum, the Asbury Splash Park, an 18 hole mini-golf, volleyball nets on the beach, a playground, and a dog park.
Parks within the city include:
Asbury Park is also home to numerous historical houses and buildings that can still be seen today, as well as containing nearly 50 registered historic sites with Monmouth County. Of these, four are also designated national historical landmarks. These include the tourable Stephen Crane House, residence of author Stephen Crane and home to the Asbury Park Historical Society; the George Wurts home, the Trinity Episcopal Church, the Asbury Park Convention Hall, the Palace Merry-Go-Round, the Steinbach Brothers Store, and the Winsor Building.[193]
Operational area
New Jersey
Asbury Park
800 Main Street
1887
~7,647 (2018)
~54
BLS Transport
L384
1
3 (including spare)
2 (including spare)
1
3 (including spare)
1
Government[edit]
Local government[edit]
The City of Asbury Park is governed within the Faulkner Act, formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law, under the Council-Manager form of government. The city is one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide governed under this form.[194][195] The city was previously governed under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law form of municipal government until voters approved the Council-Manager form in 2013.[196] The government is comprised of a five-member City Council with a directly elected mayor and four council positions all elected at-large in non-partisan elections, to serve four-year terms of office on a staggered basis in elections held in even years as part of the November general election.[7][196]
The form of government was chosen based on the final report issued in August 2013 by a Charter Study Commission that had narrowed its options to the weak Mayor Council-Manager form or the strong Mayor Faulkner Act form, ultimately choosing to recommend the Council-Manager form as it would retain desired aspects of the 1923 Municipal Manager Law (non-partisan voting for an at-large council with a professional manager) while allowing a directly elected mayor, elections in November and grants voters the right to use initiative and referendum.[197] The four winning council candidates in the November 2014 general election drew straws, with two being chosen to serve full four-year terms and two serving for two years. Thereafter, two council seats will be up for election every two years.[198]
As of 2024, the mayor of Asbury Park is John Moor, whose term of office ends December 31, 2026. Members of the Asbury Park City Council are Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn (2024), Angela Ahbez-Anderson (2026), Eileen Chapman (2024) and Barbara "Yvonne" Clayton (2024).[6][7][199][200][201]
In May 2016, the City Council appointed Eileen Chapman to fill the vacant council seat expiring in December 2016 that had been held by Joe Woerner until he resigned from office.[202]
Myra Campbell, the last mayor under the old form of government, was the first African-American woman to be chosen as mayor when she took office in July 2013.[203]
Education[edit]
Public schools[edit]
The Asbury Park Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.[248] The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide that were established pursuant to the decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke,[249] which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority.[250][251]
Students from Allenhurst attend the district's schools as part of a sending/receiving relationship.[252] In July 2014, the New Jersey Department of Education approved a request by Interlaken under which it would end its sending relationship with the Asbury Park district and begin sending its students to the West Long Branch Public Schools through eighth grade and then onto Shore Regional High School.[253] Students from Deal had attended the district's high school as part of a sending/receiving relationship that was terminated and replaced with an agreement with Shore Regional.[254]
As of the 2020–21 school year, the district, comprised of four schools, had an enrollment of 1,771 students and 175.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 10.1:1.[255] Schools in the district (with 2020–21 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics[256]) are
Bradley Elementary School[257] with 301 students in grades PreK-5,
Thurgood Marshall Elementary School[258] with 247 students in grades PreK-5,
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Upper Elementary School[259] with 370 students in grades 6-8 and
Asbury Park High School[260] with 682 students in grades 9-12.[261][262][263][264][265]
In March 2011, the state monitor overseeing the district's finances ordered that Barack Obama Elementary School be closed after the end of the 2010–2011 school year, citing a 35% decline in enrollment in the district during the prior 10 years. Students currently attending the school would be reallocated to the district's two other elementary schools, with those going into fifth grade assigned to attend middle school.[266] During the summer of 2012, the school board approved funding for development plans to house the Board of Education in the vacant Barack Obama Elementary School. The school board awarded $894,000 to an architect firm to handle the renovation design and subsequent project bids. The estimated cost of the renovation was $1.6 million.[267]
In 2006, Asbury Park's Board of Education was affected by the city's decision to redevelop waterfront property with eminent domain. In the case Asbury Park Board of Education v. City of Asbury Park and Asbury Partners, LLC, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division affirmed a ruling in favor of eminent domain of the Board of Education building on Lake Avenue.[268] The Board of Education moved to the third and fourth floors of 603 Mattison Avenue, the former Asbury Park Press building, where it paid $189,327 in rent per year.[267]
In February 2007, the offices of the Asbury Park Board of Education were raided by investigators from the State Attorney General's office, prompted by allegations of corruption and misuse of funds.[269]
Per-student expenditures in Asbury Park have generated statewide controversy for several years. In 2006, The New York Times reported that Asbury Park "spends more than $18,000 per student each year, the highest amount in the state."[270] In both 2010 and 2011, the Asbury Park K–12 school district had the highest per-student expenditure in the state.[271] As of the 2010 school reports, the high school has not met goals mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act and has been classified as "In Need of Improvement" for six years.[272]
Charter schools[edit]
The Hope Academy Charter School, founded in 2001, is an alternative public school choice that serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Admission is based on a lottery of submitted applications, with priority given to Asbury Park residents and siblings of existing students.[273]
Students from Asbury Park in ninth through twelfth grades may also attend Academy Charter High School, located in Lake Como, which also serves residents of Allenhurst, Avon-by-the-Sea, Belmar, Bradley Beach, Deal, Interlaken and Lake Como, and accepts students on a lottery basis.[274]
Public health[edit]
Nearby hospitals include Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Monmouth Medical Center.
From before 1990 to 2015, there were 904 reported cases of HIV/AIDS in Asbury Park. Additionally, there were 418 AIDS-related deaths and 73 deaths of people who had HIV (without AIDS diagnosis.) In 2014, there were nine new cases and 2015, eight.[298] To help people living with AIDS and their caregivers, a not-for-profit foundation called The Center provides assistance with meals, housing, and transportation.[299]
In 2012, Asbury Park reported 6 cases of syphilis, 59 cases of gonorrhea, and 139 cases of chlamydia.[300]
Ecology[edit]
According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Asbury Park would have a dominant vegetation type of Appalachian Oak (104) with a dominant vegetation form of Eastern Hardwood Forest (25).[314]
In popular culture[edit]
Palace Amusements and the Tillie mural have featured in numerous works of popular culture. Additional works reference Asbury Park, specifically.
In the song "At Long Last Love" (1938), originally written by Cole Porter for the musical You Never Know (1938), Frank Sinatra sings "Is it Granada I see, or only Asbury Park?"[362]
Bruce Springsteen named his first album "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J." in 1973 and described his early life there. The artist has also dedicated many songs to Asbury Park such as "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" and "My City of Ruins" on his 2002 album, The Rising'.[363]
The group mewithoutYou references Asbury Park several times on their album Ten Stories (2012). The song "Bear's Vision of St. Agnes" mentions "that tattered rag shop back in Asbury Park", and the song "Fox's Dream of the Log Flume" mentions the pier and sand dunes.
Asbury Park was used for the location filming of the crime drama City by the Sea (2002), starring Robert De Niro, James Franco and Frances McDormand, which was nominally set in Long Beach, New York, where no filming actually took place, according to a disclaimer that was included as part of the closing credits. The film features scenes set on a shabby, dilapidated boardwalk and in a ruined/abandoned casino/arcade building. Residents of both places objected to the way their cities were depicted.[364] Asbury Park appears at the start of the 1999 film Dogma.
The 2006 horror film Dark Ride is set in Asbury Park.[365]
The Season 2 finale of The Sopranos, "Funhouse", originally aired in April 2000, includes several discrete dream sequences dreamed by Tony that take place on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, including Madame Marie's as well as Tony and Pauly playing cards at a table in the empty hall of the Convention Center. The episode's title alludes to the Palace, which is also shown.[366]
In a 1955 episode of The Honeymooners ("Better Living Though TV"), Alice Kramden ridicules husband Ralph Kramden's seemingly never-ending parade of failed get-rich-quick schemes, including his investment in "the uranium field in Asbury Park".[367]
Asbury Park is the setting of the Nickelodeon series Erin & Aaron.
Routine Maintenance, a concept album and the second from the musical act Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, features the titular character working as a painter in Asbury Park.[368]