More Than Just Killing Views. Dune Spending Provides Limited Benefit to Margate and Ventnor.


Podcast notes: Take a look at the Absecon Island Dune Project thru the prism of no pain…no gain. Risk & reward. Cost vs benefit. Atlantic City needed some work, but Margate and Ventnor did not.

We all know that to achieve greatness, you need to sacrifice. Give stuff up. Be patient. Invest. Hold back. Delayed gratification. Go thru hell and back to achieve an outcome……worth that hell.

Sometimes, bad medicine can produce a great outcomes. Good things come to those who wait.

  • As a kid looking to get rid of buck teeth & and horrible overbite, Wearing braces, enduring years of being called tinsel teeth. But then you can finally smile big and bright with straight teeth.
  • For the mom & dads Sleepless nights changing diapers mopping up spills guiding a child thru those formative years
  • Fighting bloody wars to protect land, freedom. A way of life
  • Well over 10 years of study and hard work to become a doctor

We all know these types of stories. It helps us understand and cope with getting thru tuff times….to get us thru to the good times. The light at the end of the tunnel.

So lets apply this to the dune building and beach widening along Margate & Ventnor’s shores.

This dune project isn’t just a a dose of bad medicine that will soon be over, resulting in something that will ultimately be a great value to the local community.

This project isn’t one of those…lets grin and bear it. The noise and disruption and beach closures…and smell and bacteria…and no swimming will be over soon…even tho it’s in the middle of the summer…..hurting business, real estate and the generally happy vibe along the shore. …once it’s over by the Fall…..everything will be cool. But it won’t .

This dune and beach is a project where the actually work and sacrifice sucks really bad…..but the final product is much worse. And is potentially long lasting.

Will it lower flood insurance rates?

Will it save lives? High winds & flying debris are my greatest fears. injury. Or worse.

A few years back, wind knocked down power lines that started a fire and burned down a Longport church.

High winds broke windows and ripped off roof tops.

Will dunes save lives? Not likely. Hiring more police, installing more street lights and security cameras, lowering speed limits in Ventor…. would be better suited for the goal of saving lives.

Towering dunes. Muddy draining areas, beaches literally cut in half. Views and breezes gone.

All because of just one person’s greed. Pompousness and misguided righteous. One elected leader that will go down in history as a governor with such great potential & promise… but end up with record breaking approval ratings, a failed presidential bid, a gov who would throw his own team under the bus for a stupid bridge closing scam..and for his final indignity….Pushing a one size fits all approach to the chronic problem of flooding along the jersey shore.

Some of the highest points in Margate…that had the lowest flood insurance rates….are forced to get dunes. And those in flood prone areas, adjacent to back channels bays and other waterways are once again ignored. Even Wildwood…with crazy wide beaches….and too much sand…are being forced to deal with the state wanting to do unneeded work in that town…al in the name of protecting properties & lives. But no, it’s all for the sake of figuring out how to spend that money on stuff that wont last very long…and you will need to do it again every three years.

Its too easy not to just spend that large chunk of hurricane relief money …on a few contractors…to do the same thing over and over…..whether the town needs it or not.

Like most, we found ourselves watching in disbelief as beaches were invaded with heavy equipment and 24/7 work. To building stuff that is suppose to protect lives & property.

We received neither.

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