New Jersey beaches suddenly becoming tent cities (Opinion)

It used to be that if somebody had a small baby or small children that they wanted to take to the beach they would bring a modest tent-like structure. The little ones could take a nap and their delicate skin could be protected from the sun. That’s a very good idea.

Now it’s everybody and his brother and sister and brother-in-law and cousin and roommate from college living under a tent for the day at Jersey beaches. We usually don’t spend more than an hour or two on the beach and it really doesn’t bother us, but some people complain about the lack of adequate space and/or blocking the view of the ocean with all these people with tents.

I forgot to bring my book with me to the beach one weekend last summer but I was provided with a good hour and a half of entertainment watching a woman struggling to keep her tent from collapsing while her husband and son sat inside the tent on chairs.

The chairs had a canopy over them! What’s the point of the chair with a canopy over it if you’re bringing a freaking tent to the beach?!

Monmouth Beach added a ban on beach tents at the end of last year. Beach Haven decided this past April to also ban them. Ocean City is looking to possibly do the same. Some towns started adding the restrictions back in 2017 when the whole 'tent thing' started to explode. Many other towns waited, but by the end of last summer started to get enough complaints from other beachgoers to consider banning them as well. One simple solution would be to have them behind a certain point on the beach, perhaps 100 yards back from the high-water line.

Who needs whale watching or spotting the occasional porpoises swimming in unison up the coast when human activity is far more fascinating? If you want to enjoy the ocean and the salt air, go to any beach in the world but if you want to be annoyed by human behavior, go to a New Jersey beach. It’s hysterical!

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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