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^ Good info - the dude who relayed these stories explained it was a sort of "club" deal and it was thousands a year. Perhaps that isn't at all normal, though he said the beaches that were cheap were garbage.
^ Good info - the dude who relayed these stories explained it was a sort of "club" deal and it was thousands a year. Perhaps that isn't at all normal, though he said the beaches that were cheap were garbage.
I'm not really familiar with the beaches North of Atlantic City, so that could be the case in places like Belmar and others that have mostly year round residents and are not really resort towns.
The ocean is overrated if you ask me.
Having hurricanes hit the coastal areas doesn't just cause quite a bit of destruction. It leads to higher insurance rates for everyone else that lives along coastal areas.
The Ocean is not overrated (and hurricanes are not a bad trade for tornadoes, earthquakes, desertification or any other natural disaster), but the Great Lakes are underrated by folks who don't know them.
I grew up near the ocean but I have a great appreciation for Superior having spent a summer in the UP and canoeing and camping around Isle Royale. Lake Michigan is great too. I have only been there from the Chicago side, but I have seen pictures of Michigan's west coast and, man, that seems like a well kept secret from the provincial coastal population.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SyraBrian
I don't know why anybody would move to Syracuse.
Well, I may move back to NY from New Mexico to be closer to family. They all live downstate, Dutchess, Rockland, and Westchester counties, but I can't afford to live there so I have been looking at Syracuse and other CNY cities as possible locations. Compared to places like Utica, Tri-cities, and the Capitol, Syracuse (area) looks pretty good.
Last edited by ABQConvict; 11-12-2014 at 11:20 AM..
The Ocean is not overrated (and hurricanes are not a bad trade for tornadoes, earthquakes, desertification or any other natural disaster), but the Great Lakes are underrated by folks who don't know them.
I grew up near the ocean but I have a great appreciation for Superior having spent a summer in the UP and conoeing and camping around Isle Royale. Lake Michigan is great too. I have only been there from the Chicago side, but I have seen pictures of Michigan's west coast and, man, that seems like a well kept secret from the provincial coastal population.
Well, I may move back to NY from New Mexico to be closer to family. They all live downstate, Dutchess, Rockland, and Westchester counties, but I can't afford to live there so I have been looking at Syracuse and other CNY cities as possible locations. Compared to places like Utica, Tri-cities, and the Capitol, Syracuse (area) looks pretty good.
Yummy post....as a Chicago kid who summered on the Lake and wintered in Florida....by the age of 7 I had an understanding of the differences between the two.
I recall being at times overwhelmed by the Lakes waves and at times underwhelmed by Florida's waves. But swimming in the Great Lakes is so much more enjoyable.....heavy freshwater just like a swimming pool...you can open your eyes...swallow a bit of the water. By age 10, when winter vacation time came around...both my Sister and I, having had the summer Lake Michigan experience...more or less told our parents...Skiing. Colorado replaced the Ocean....
I have to agree that the ocean is pretty overrated. Unless you literally live on the coast, most people simply pay more to live "nearby" something they almost never use regularly anyway. I can get the same pleasure from going to a public/private pool than I can from going to the beach, and I'll pay a lot less in the process vs. the overpriced parking, food, etc.
The beaches around the Great Lakes are maintained via city/county/state taxes and are open for anyone, from within the state or outside the state. There is a minor state park fee in Wisconsin (I forget - $20 annual?) for state-owned parks. And sure, there are taxes supporting the parks, but it isn't exclusive/restricted (like NJ) and is open to all. Nor is $20 (or free, or a small % of your taxes) an exorbitant fee like the private ones in NJ.
The fees you pay aren't so much for "maintenance" as they are restricting poor people from access to population-stressed shorelines. I was frankly shocked as a youngster on business trips upon learning about NJ beach protocols. Hung out with a NJ dude for a week in SoCal and we traded beach stories (he, and NJ folks in general, definitely love their beaches). The amount of money his family spent on a house, how packed in everyone was, how long it took to go anywhere, how expensive it was to belong to a good beach (a necessity for his family, as it was their favorite thing), etc. And I knew how much he made, and it was less than I was making, and he had a good-sized family. I just jump in the car and go where I feel like swimming. For free. Always have. It's far preferable.
... Exactly. The beaches where you live are maintained by money from taxes. Someone (everyone? the majority? those in individual municipalities on the lakes?) is still paying for the beach. It's not really "free." NJ, believe it or not, like it or not, has both very clean beaches and very clean water. In 2013 (I believe it was 2013) our water was ranked second cleanest behind only New Hampshire, of all the states that are coastal and I think the Great Lakes counted as well. Most beaches are raked by what I've always called a "beach zamboni" every night or at least on a regular basis. This isn't free, and I don't believe it's fair for local taxes to cover it when so many out of towners visit the beaches in the summer - not just out of towners, but out of staters. For shore towns, their whole economy is the summer.
Also, not all beaches are that expensive. Many are $5 for the day - if you can't afford $5 to get on a beach, you probably shouldn't have wasted the gas to drive to the beach anyway. Some beaches charge by the carload - so like $10 for the whole car, to park and access the beach. If you have 7 people in a Suburban, that's cheap. Some season passes are only $20 a person - from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It's not a big deal. We are used to it here. Everyone else seems to take issue with the fact that we often charge for beach access, as if we're the only state that does - well again, if the beach is maintained, the money is coming from somewhere. It may be taxes, maybe an extra hotel tax or more tax on food sold at/near the beach, or just a regular municipality or state tax. No beach anywhere is truly free. Someone's paying somewhere if it's maintained, and here in New Jersey we have very clean beaches. We also have quite an obvious fee that makes it LOOK like we're the only ones in the whole country who pay for beach access, but we're not. We've had great conversations about this on the NJ and even US forums. Anyone from NJ is ready to defend this misconception that all beaches but many of ours are free. It's simply not true.
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