Pagan shared this on social Tuesday and everybody seemed to have a response. It’s a woman named Ashley talking about how nothing in Avalon is recognizable in 2024:

@ashleytravels715 Heres the real deal aboit Avalon, NJ #avalonnj #shoobies #philadelphia #jerseyshore #avalonnewjersey #avalon #beachtown #coolerbyamile #newjersey ♬ original sound – Ashley S

I don’t know enough about Avalon to say whether or not this is accurate, but I feel like there’s a general aesthetic malaise that has been transforming all of the shore towns for 15-20 years now. Condos everywhere. Linear and stale designs. Everywhere you look, it’s all the same – three story multi-units with no grass, no trees, and the same layouts.

It’s one thing for classic shore spots to go away, but the issue to me feels like a larger one of personality. The shore used to have a lot of character and soul, defined by  those small single or double floor houses with different heights, different paint colors, and varying designs. We were a Sea Isle City family, and a good example of the bland monoculture nonsense is right along the Central Avenue corridor between 38th and 47th. You go around any corner and you’ll see these cookie cutter behemoths:

They put these things up everywhere and the landscaping is a joke. You’ve got 5 pitiful bushes, a sapling, and yards full of gray and white stone. Driveaway aprons so big that there’s no street parking. Nice inside, sure, but there’s no exterior aesthetic outside of whatever college flags the renters or owners decide to hang from the top level balcony. Usually it’s Penn State and then one or two Philly-area schools. But catercorner from this exact spot, you see a couple of houses that were built years ago:

See, now this is a vibe. There’s a recessed driveway of pavers, a small arch with a gate, two landscaped and nicely-edged grass plots, and a white picket fence surrounding what looks to be a living room addition. The house on the right is a typical setback Cape Cod joint with some greenery that pops. Then the building on the left is one of those classic two-level houses with the wrap-around porch and gabled roof. There’s a narrow strip of flowers running the length of the 1st floor and a small outdoor space around the back as well.


If you go to the main drag in Sea Isle, they’ve done some nice things with it. Refurbished a lot of the facades on Landis and built up that strip going from the basketball courts to the playground and pickleball spot up near “Fish Alley.” It’s less of a complaint about that and more about the fact that these monster 6 bed or 7 bed units are everywhere, they look the same, and they’re all going for $1.5 million minimum. Again, this has been going on for 15-20 years at least, so not breaking news, but it’s jarring if you’re someone who has seen the gradual change over the course of the last two decades. People will say “yeah well things change, what do you expect?” Fact check: true. Nothing looks the same forever. Neighborhoods change. You saw it in the city when every new house north of Spring Garden Street from 2010 to 2020  featured the horrific “Millennial Gray” paint job, with similar exterior designs. But the city is the city. It seems to pop more at the shore because when the scenery is more pleasant in general, tackiness stands out. There exists a greater clash, if you will.

This was kind of a shitty blog, but I think I got the point across. Would you not agree that we need to Make the Shore Aesthetically Pleasing Again? MSAPA.