'Put a shirt on': Enforcement of bathing suit ban sought in Jersey Shore town

'Put a shirt on': Enforcement of bathing suit ban sought in Jersey Shore town

A former councilwoman worries that skimpy clothing along the boardwalk in her Jersey Shore city is threatening its “classy” image, so she wants a crackdown on bathing suits.

It turns out that a decades-old ordinance bans bathing attire on Asbury Park’s boardwalk “or the public walks adjacent thereto,” the Newark Star-Ledger reports.

Local Republican chairwoman Louise Murray, 74, a city councilwoman from 1997 to 2001, told the newspaper that she recalls when women wore dresses as they strolled the boardwalk. She said she knows times have changed but still thinks enforcing the bathing suit ban is a good idea.

“Put a shirt on,” Murray said. “That’s all I’m asking. Is that so bad?”

Asbury Park, which fell into decline in the 1980s and 1990s, has recently seen a renaissance, with high-end restaurants and stores dotting the boardwalk.

Residents and city leaders point to the difficulty of enforcing the ordinance and to the fact that changing rooms once common near the beach are long gone.

I think that worrying that Jersey Shore is losing its "classy image" is a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted - you think "Jersey Shore" and "classy isn't the word that springs to mind... And you could say this is a personal freedom issue, people should be free to wear whatever you want, but equally, people should also be free to not have to choke back a little piece of sick when they see some hairy-backed 300lb guy in a speedo or some leather-skinned woman whose tits are flopping so low her bikini could double as a belt. Rule of thumb: if your boobs are bigger than your girlfriends, chances are that other people don't want to see them....

I think people should be free (up to a point) to wear whatever they like. And as in the case of the 300lbs guy wearing a speedo, it may be a case of having to take the bad with the good. (Ie...we want freedom, but we have to realize that maight mean having to see a big ol hairy manatee walking down the sidewalk in public).

But Jersey shore should be happy that they are not subject to the ramapnt nudity in much of San Francisco. I mean, seriously, who the heck wants to take the family out in the city and be confronted with this?

Dennis324 wrote:I think people should be free (up to a point) to wear whatever they like. And as in the case of the 300lbs guy wearing a speedo, it may be a case of having to take the bad with the good. (Ie...we want freedom, but we have to realize that maight mean having to see a big ol hairy manatee walking down the sidewalk in public).

But Jersey shore should be happy that they are not subject to the ramapnt nudity in much of San Francisco. I mean, seriously, who the heck wants to take the family out in the city and be confronted with this?

Haha!

I've spent a bit of time in SF and other parts of the Bay Area. Haven't seen any naked people yet!