The sunrise as viewed from Long Branch's Pier Village. Absolutely beautiful.

From 1981 – 1988, I lived on the upper east side of Manhattan. That’s where my family lived when I was born and that’s where we stayed until my younger brother was born in December 1987, when my parents decided that it was time to move to our summer house in New Jersey because there was more room for my brothers and I to grow up and be kids. So from 1988 – 1999, I lived in Roxbury Township up in Morris County and I really don’t have anything bad to say about it. Although, I should preface that statement by saying that I don’t really remember a whole lot from those early years up there, but I do remember a lot about the mid and late 1990’s when I was in Junior High School and High School – and I really had a good time.

Then in the Fall of 1999, I moved down to West Long Branch to attend Monmouth University and – except for the summer in between my Freshman and Sophomore years of college – I’ve been living down the shore ever since. It’s not so bad down here and I don’t really have any major complaints other than that the hour and a half drive back to Roxbury is a bit of a pain sometimes just like my hour drive to and from work each day in Trenton is a bit annoying, too.

Would I move away from the shore? Sure. I’m not sure where, though. I’d be happy going back north to live in the Roxbury Township/Morris County area. I’d also be able to survive in the New Brunswick area once my company moves there in the fall (essentially eliminating my commute). But I do have a lot of friends down the shore and I also built up some business relationships that I’d have to release – causing me to lose money. Obviously, if I moved away from the shore I wouldn’t be as eager to be an adjunct professor at the local college down here (especially given the meager amount that adjuncts earn). So that would be a small drop in income. At the same time, I’d elect to cut off some of my remaining business relationships with my small web design firm. Also a very small loss of income.

And then I’d miss out on doing some of the things that I like to do down the shore. I’m not as big a fan of going to the beach as some of the folks who live down here, but I do like going there every once in a while. Also, I like going to the Monmouth Hawks basketball games – I don’t think that I would attend the games if I had to drive a long time to get there.

But I’m not looking to go anywhere right now. In fact, I just renewed my lease for another year. It’s nice down the shore and I’m happy. Hey, do you think I can call myself a “local” now?

A city minister will have until July to find a new place to call home and a new building where he can practice his ministry.

State Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson denied Broadway resident Kevin Brown a stay of the city’s use of eminent domain to take the building where he lives to make way for the Broadway redevelopment project.

Brown has also been trying to establish a place of worship in the building at 162 Broadway for more than a decade. The building is owned by The Lighthouse Mission and is located in the Broadway Corridor redevelopment zone.

This little blurb provides a decent background on the situation in Long Branch. And what an outrage it seems, right? Here is a Pastor who is trying to establish a place of worship for his congregation and attem — wait. There IS a congregation that is being displaced, right? Back to the article…

Brown has been battling the city for more than 10 years to open the Lighthouse Mission Church at the Broadway location.

So there isn’t an actual mission located at this location? There isn’t an actual place of worship that is waiting to open its doors? Hmmm… When I mix that up with other information that the Asbury Park Press has run on this story and you’re talking about a different story entirely.

Instead of a Pastor, his congregation, and his mission being ousted from their only home we have a Pastor with no congregation and no mission being removed from this building. And what of this building? A recent Asbury Park Press article talked about how this building was vacant on the first floor (the proposed location of the mission) and how the Pastor lived upstairs.

Folks, there are a conglomeration of financial institutions who WANT to infuse this area of Long Branch with money, economic advancement opportunities for residents (i.e. jobs), affordable housing options, and artistic/entertainment space. And this plan has not been able to go through because of a non-existent mission and a liquor store?! This is why it takes decades for any real change to happen in our communities.

I’m as much against eminent domain as the next guy. I think it’s vulgar that in the great American political experiment we’ve allowed a pro forma increase in tax revenues to replace existing taxpayers and homeowners. We’re not supposed to operate that way in this country. Yet, this is also a country where we try to work in the best interests of each other. When an entire area is asking for redevelopment, asking for an infusion of private, non-taxpayer money, and asking for their community to get a face-lift, then we should be for that change. In other words, just as strongly as we defend our rights to own our property without eminent domain, we should be fighting just as strongly against lone holdouts in these projects who have questionable ideas on the possibility for their future development.

The Broadway Arts Center project needs to get moving and it needs to get moving immediately. I wish Godspeed to Pastor Brown in finding a place to live in this crazy market (though $450,000 will find you a great place in a nice area of Long Branch) and I admire Pastor Brown’s use of the legal system to plead his case at any and all levels of the judiciary, but now is the time to move forward.