4 Things That Won’t Solve the New Jersey Boardwalk Problems
It was an interesting weekend on some of New Jersey's Boardwalks, to say the least.
Violence, fights, and more - mostly by teenagers - ruined a nice weekend for a lot of people.
Ocean City Mayor talks about boardwalk problems
Kudos to Jay Gilliam, Mayor of Ocean City, for speaking out about the situation immediately. "I understand the impact that this behavior has on all of our residents, guests, and business owners, and I want to assure everybody that Ocean City will not tolerate it."
How do we solve these problems?
It's going to take a lot of people working together to find ways to ensure our boardwalks are safe for all.
Not only do out local leaders need to be involved, so do our legislators and state leaders. This is a big problem, and it needs to be handled.
Have some deterrents been taken away from our local police? Are there things they need to do their jobs better and control teenage crowds before they go sideways?
What doesn't help the situation
Social media was alive over the weekend, full of ideas on how to ensure that this kind of violence and behavior doesn't happen again.
While many of the ideas come from well-meaning people, some of the ideas are just plain bad. Here are some examples of bad ideas:
1. Have more organized activities for teenagers. Give them things to do, places to go,
"When I was a teenager, we......."
Kids causing these problems are not the kids who would gladly take part in "Kids Olympics", "Swimming Races", or book clubs. The teens that are doing the terrorizing defy authority and party planning committees.
2. Blame the democrats/republicans/other-political-party.
In the history of the world, no problem has ever been solved simply by assigning blame. That's not constructive.
3. Implement a new earlier curfew.
In theory, great idea. In practice - not so much. What if you want to take your family to enjoy a night on the Boardwalk - like you did as a kid. Well, that wouldn't be allowed after 7pm. Police can't ask every kid if they're with an adult. They'd have to just make a blanket curfew for ALL kids.
4. Hold the parents responsible for what their children do.
It doesn't seem to work the rest of the year, why do you think this threat would work in summer on New Jersey Boardwalks?
Again, nice thoughts, but not real practical solutions.
We'll be following our leaders to see what THEY come up with.
We do love our boardwalks, don't we?
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Gallery Credit: Matt Ryan
