By
LINDA MOSS and
HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITERS
They came because the sun was shining, finally. They came because they’ve been coming for years, some since they were children. They came to see Superstorm Sandy’s wreckage, and what’s been fixed. And they came for the sausage and peppers.
After two cold and rainy days, the Jersey Shore got a break Sunday, as a brilliantly sunny day – albeit a bit brisk – beckoned Memorial Day visitors to battered boardwalk towns such as Seaside Heights, Belmar, Point Pleasant Beach and Asbury Park.
By 1 p.m., traffic was slow-going traveling south on Route 35, from Point Pleasant Beach to Seaside
Heights. By 3 p.m., there were throngs of visitors of all ages walking the new boardwalk in Seaside, many of them stopping to take photos of what little is left of Casino Pier, which once held the Jetstar Coaster, which landed in the ocean.
Despite the holiday weekend's slow, soggy kickoff, shore business owners Sunday expressed optimism about the summer
season. Thanks to Sandy, seaside entrepreneurs are being aggressive and resourceful to prevent a fall-off in their revenue this year.
On the boardwalk in Belmar, for example, some businesses opened up shop Sunday morning in temporary trailers, which replaced stores destroyed by the storm.
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The restaurant, on the boardwalk at Asbury Park, was gutted by the storm, is open and running. A surf shop they own a few doors down is expected to open in a couple of weeks, and a Mexican food outlet she owns on the boardwalk likely won’t open until July 4. Another restaurant she owns in Normandy Beach, Labrador Lounge, was also damaged in the storm and opened two weeks ago. But it’s is on a reduced schedule and is doing about half the business it used to.
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Bill Mullen kicked the sand pile that used to be his house, then looked toward the chain-link fence that blocks him from what used to be a beach.
“I just live day by day now,” he said. He has no choice.
Here, on Coolidge Avenue, in the heart of this tiny barrier island beach community that local officials described as “Ground Zero” for Superstorm Sandy’s wrath, this is where you find the forgotten and pain-filled side of Governor Christie’s campaign to “Restore the Shore.”
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The script called for a grand reopening of the beaches and seaside attractions devastated last October by Superstorm Sandy, and for the return of hundreds of thousands of beachgoers and vacationers.
But on Saturday, Mother Nature again reminded us who controls things at the Jersey Shore. Driving rain and 50-degree temperatures kept most visitors inland.
Wind whipped sand across newly repaired boardwalks, where small clutches of people in rain gear strolled near quiet arcades. Lonely lifeguards watched over empty beaches. Some visitors sought refuge in aquariums and indoor bars.
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