Philadelphia’s New Gem: A Stroll On The Schuylkill

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let New York gloat about completing the High Line. Philadelphia is about to debut a linear park that might be even more impressive: the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk.

As wonderful as the High Line is, it merely allows people to wend their way through Manhattan a few stories above its bustling streets. When the latest segment of the Schuylkill Banks trail opens to the public Thursday, you’ll be able to walk on water, under the glittering gaze of the Center City skyline.

The new 15-foot-wide walkway dives into the river at Locust Street, and doesn’t crawl back onto dry land until it reaches the South Street Bridge, a joyous journey more than 2,000 feet long. Along the way, you’re borne over the water like Huck and Jim on their raft, simultaneously a part of the world and temporarily removed from it.

Big puffball canopies of trees sweep past. Trains rumble by, keeping time with your step. Cars whoosh along the expressway on the opposite bank. In the evening, as the lee shore fades to black and lights flicker on, the city can feel as distant as outer space. Cars and trains devolve into abstract streaks of color. Only the lapping river is a reminder that the solid earth remains nearby.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/home/20140928_Changing_Skyline__A_Stroll_on_the_Schuylkill.html#3zXOsHclp7lMEyYi.99

Ocean City Tops New Jersey’s Best Beaches

Kites on the Ocean City, New Jersey beach at 12th Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ocean City has reclaimed its status as New Jersey’s most popular beach in an annual online voting contest.

The Cape May County resort took top honors in the New Jersey Top Ten Beaches contest. Results were announced Thursday.

The contest is sponsored by the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium and Stockton College as a way of making people feel more connected to and protective of the state’s 127-mile coastline.

Ocean City, which calls itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort,” won the contest in 2009 as well.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20140523_Ocean_City_tops_New_Jersey_s_best_beaches.html#vUkM9YDKhPyAljsU.99

Awesome News Alert: Spruce Street Harbor Park To Pop Up On The Delaware River Waterfront This Summer With A Floating Restaurant, Hammock Lounge, Urban Beach And More

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Seriously stupendous news today, Philadelphia. This June, the Delaware River Waterfront will morph into Spruce Street Harbor Park, taking the perennial good times of summer on Penn’s Landing — outdoor concerts, movies, fireworks — to a whole new level.

From Friday, June 27 through Sunday, August 31, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation — the folks that brought us this past winter’s Waterfront Winterfest at the Blue Cross RiverRink — transforms the Penn’s Landing Marina at Columbus Boulevard and Spruce Street into a pop-up summertime village.

Penn’s Landing has long been an awesome hub of good times in the summer months, with annual programming like the PECO multicultural festival series, concerts at the RiverStage, Screenings Under the Stars and Smooth Jazz Summer Nights.

Read more: http://www.uwishunu.com/2014/04/awesome-news-alert-spruce-street-harbor-park-to-pop-up-on-the-delaware-river-waterfront-this-summer-with-a-floating-restaurant-hammock-lounge-urban-beach-and-more/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=VisitPhillyFacebook&utm_content=Social

Raging Fire Strikes At Heart Of Sandy-Hit New Jersey Town

Map of New Jersey highlighting Ocean County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SEASIDE PARK, N.J. – A raging fire spewing fist-sized embers engulfed much of an iconic Jersey shore boardwalk Thursday, destroying more than 50 businesses and undoing months of rebuilding efforts after the inundation of Superstorm Sandy.

Workers joined the fire in tearing into the boardwalk – a last-ditch effort to rob the inferno of fuel that helped preserve what was left of the economic lifeblood of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights.

The wind-whipped fire devoured eight blocks of boardwalk – four in each town – and caused millions of dollars in damage before workers halted its advance by ripping out a large section of boardwalk and piling up huge makeshift sand dunes meant to hold back fire, not water.

The blaze destroyed 32 businesses on the Seaside Park portion of the boardwalk, borough Councilwoman Nancy Koury told The Associated Press.  Michael Loundy, a real estate agent who works with Seaside Heights on tourism projects, said 20 businesses were destroyed there.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=510840

C’mon Down, The Jersey Shore’s Just Fine

Atlantic Ocean shore at Atlantic City, New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before we do anything, let’s address the giant elephant in the room – and we’re not talking about Lucy of Margate.

Nearly seven months ago, Sandy wrought devastation on the Jersey Shore like never before:  The largest Atlantic storm on record created more than $30 billion in damage up and down the state’s 127-mile coastline. More than 346,000 structures were damaged or destroyed when Sandy whipped across the state on Oct. 29.

Some of the places that held memories so dear for many of us – beaches, homes, boardwalks, piers, shops, amusements, and restaurants – got washed away.  We wondered whether we’d have the chance to enjoy our beloved Shore again.

Well, just as surely as the air and sand and sea will be delightfully warm again, there will be plenty to celebrate this summer.  There are still dozens of great destinations and plenty of fun at the Shore this year.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/travel/shoreguide/20130517_C_mon_down__the_Shore_s_just_fine.html#DPMkWhhvuP2Zxs3V.99

Prince Harry Tours Storm-Damaged New Jersey Shore

English: A view of the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, New Jersey north of Casino Pier (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. – Britain’s Prince Harry toured two New Jersey shore communities devastated six months ago by Superstorm Sandy, viewing some of the damage that remains but also walking on a rebuilt boardwalk and shaking hands with construction workers who have been racing to get the resort towns ready for the summer.

In Seaside Heights, where the MTV reality show “Jersey Shore” was taped, he walked down the rebuilt boardwalk with Gov. Chris Christie and both took part in a game of chance, throwing perforated plastic balls into holes for stuffed animal prizes, which they handed over to children.

The two came within sight of a roller coaster that the storm sent plunging into the Atlantic Ocean and which became a defining image of the storm that struck in late October.  A crane was in place to begin demolition of the amusement ride.

In both Seaside Heights and Mantoloking 10 miles north, his first stop, the prince shook hands with police, fire and other emergency personnel.  Harry also greeted construction workers who have been working on rebuilding Seaside Heights’ famous boardwalk, now about two-thirds complete.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation_world/20130514_ap_princeharrytoursstormdamagednewjerseyshore.html

Jersey Shore Rentals Up, Down Due To Sandy

NEW YORK — Superstorm Sandy shifted the sands of the New Jersey shore‘s summer rental landscape, where some resort towns are suffering lasting effects of the barrage and others are, as they say, cleaning up.

Summer rentals are a backbone of the tourist season along the 127-mile stretch of coastline and barrier islands, where vacationers flock to the beaches and boardwalks that are convenient to New York and Philadelphia and more affordable than the celebrity-studded Hamptons on New York’s Long Island.

Some 59 million people visited the Jersey Shore last year, according to state figures.

In Ocean County alone, which is one of the four shore counties and boasts of 44 miles of coastline, the population typically doubles in the summer months to 1.2 million.  In some of its small towns, the population grows ten-fold in the summer, according to county statistics.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/mc-jersey-shore-sandy-summer-rentals-20130419,0,2941227.story

South End Residents Call For Ocean City, NJ Beach Rebuilding

Map of New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OCEAN CITY, N.J. – At the north end of town, a 309-foot dredge operated by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Ill., has been operating 24 hours a day for several days, in a project that will pump 1.8 million cubic yards of sand from the ocean floor onto the beaches.

There’s no such whoosh of beach-rebuilding at the south end, leaving homeowners there puzzled and upset, especially since Sandy left their shoreline in even worse shape.

City officials said that the north-end project was in the works even before the storm struck and that they are unsure what federal aid might be forthcoming to do more right away.

That’s not a good enough explanation for south-end homeowners, many of whom also depend on vacation-rental income.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20130221_South_end_residents_call_for_Ocean_City_beach_rebuilding.html

Parts Of Atlantic City Boardwalk Collapse, Water Rushes In

Atlantic City (NJ) – The boardwalk in a rainy day (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hours before a strenthening Hurricane Sandy was set to strike, Atlantic City was already getting battered so badly that chunks of the boardwalk were being ripped away by the strong surge.

Some residents who had not evacuated or sought out a shelter were beginning to panic.  Major streets were flooded.  Early on, a section of boardwalk already in disrepair gave way.  But other sections followed.

An 80 foot section of the Boardwalk at Atlantic Avenue and New Hampshire Avenue in Atlantic City was destroyed by the pounding surf.  All that remained was a pile of wood and rubble, according to an Atlantic City Public Works employee.

Most of the damage early on was toward the inlet. By 11 a.m., waves were seen crashing over the boardwalk, with big sections gone missing.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20121029_Part_of_famed_A_C__Boardwalk_on_verge_of_collapse.html

‘Jersey Shore’ Ending After This Season

August 30, 2012 (TheWrap.com) – MTV is ending the fist-pumping cultural phenomenon “Jersey Shore,” the network says.

The decision comes amid skyrocketing salaries for the cast of former unknowns that have made MTV’s most successful series increasingly expensive to produce. MTV said “Jersey Shore” will end after its sixth season, which premieres Oct. 4.

MTV will commemorate the end of the show with farewell programming beginning next Thursday, with a one-hour retrospective called “Gym, Tan, Look Back” that will air before MTV’s Video Music Awards.

The series, which has followed a group of self-proclaimed “guidos” and “guidettes” from the Jersey Shore to Italy, has popularized such phrases as “grenade” (an unattractive person), “smush” (have sex with) and “GTL” (gym, tan, laundry).

Read more: http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/tv/sns-rt-ending-jersey-shoremt1thewrap54106-20120830,0,4120365.story

New Ocean City, NJ Bridge Is A Massive Marvel Of Concrete

Kites on the Ocean City, New Jersey beach at 12th Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Along with the usual water ice, greasy pizza, and tubes of sunscreen, the unofficial first weekend of summer was marked by a new arrival this year at the Jersey Shore: 175,000 cubic yards of concrete.

It didn’t arrive all at once, of course, but the concrete — the Route 52 causeway bridge — is now a finished product and represents a major feat of engineering. The bridge stretches more than two miles from Somers Point on the mainland to the barrier island of Ocean City, able to accommodate 40,000 cars a day.

The construction techniques to erect such a structure have long been standard in the industry, one of them tracing its roots to a historic 1950 overpass in Philadelphia. But the sheer scope of this new bridge, a $400 million project overseen by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, was unusual.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20120528_Ocean_City_NJ_bridge_is_a_massive_marvel_of_concrete.html#ixzz1wBREo46S
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