It's 11PM, do you know where your kids are??

[Poohlove]

Ahead of the holiday weekend several Jersey shore towns instituted new restrictions and put curfews in place in an attempt to get a handle on issues caused by out of control teens. Ocean City is the latest but unfortunately it is due to the chaos that took place over the weekend. I can see the no backpack rule and the bathrooms closing at a certain time (although that could lead to other issues), but sadly one of the new rules is that the beach closes to ALL at 8PM. At 8PM it isn't even fully dark yet!! I find it troubling that town council has had to intervene and take on a parental role. What are your thoughts?

https://www.nj.com/cape-may-county/...es-after-wild-weekend-with-drunken-teens.html

 

[sam_gordon]

Ahead of the holiday weekend several Jersey shore towns instituted new restrictions and put curfews in place in an attempt to get a handle on issues caused by out of control teens. Ocean City is the latest but unfortunately it is due to the chaos that took place over the weekend. I can see the no backpack rule and the bathrooms closing at a certain time (although that could lead to other issues), but sadly one of the new rules is that the beach closes to ALL at 8PM. At 8PM it isn't even fully dark yet!! I find it troubling that town council has had to intervene and take on a parental role. What are your thoughts?

https://www.nj.com/cape-may-county/...es-after-wild-weekend-with-drunken-teens.html

"This is why we can't have nice things"? It's a shame a few (relatively) people have to ruin it for others, but I'm assuming the towns are not taking these steps lightly. It's going to put a dark mark over the towns and people could decide not to visit there.

 

[RedAngie]

I have no problem with the new rules.

Some of my company’s stores in Jersey shore towns also have or had problems with large groups of teens/young adults hanging out there.

 

[HopperFan]

Ahead of the holiday weekend several Jersey shore towns instituted new restrictions and put curfews in place in an attempt to get a handle on issues caused by out of control teens. Ocean City is the latest but unfortunately it is due to the chaos that took place over the weekend. I can see the no backpack rule and the bathrooms closing at a certain time (although that could lead to other issues), but sadly one of the new rules is that the beach closes to ALL at 8PM. At 8PM it isn't even fully dark yet!! I find it troubling that town council has had to intervene and take on a parental role. What are your thoughts?

https://www.nj.com/cape-may-county/...es-after-wild-weekend-with-drunken-teens.html

WOW, as a person who was raised on Ocean City beaches & boardwalk and it holds a HUGE part of my heart & memories this makes me so incredibly sad.

Thoughts? The old saying "this is why we can't have nice things" because it is being ruined by disrespectful, ill mannered and possibly criminal persons. I guess when we were doing our OC days we were off the beach by dinner to eat then head to boardwalk so ... 8 pm is more than enough time for me. I assume the life guards are also gone by then so less eyes on behaviors. But I do understand the sadness for those enjoy the evening walks on the beach.

We have my "OC" dream of a home at the beach - it's just not OC or NJ as we live in the south. We very much enjoy our walks on the beach in the evening when it has cooled. I would hate that to be taken away from us. BUT if we had this kind of activity on the beach I would understand why and hope that things get under control and we get our beach back.

 

[HopperFan]

"This is why we can't have nice things"? It's a shame a few (relatively) people have to ruin it for others, but I'm assuming the towns are not taking these steps lightly.

Jinx!

 

[RedAngie]

Ocean City is a dry town with a liquor store right before each bridge approach to the island.

 

[fla4fun]

Ahead of the holiday weekend several Jersey shore towns instituted new restrictions and put curfews in place in an attempt to get a handle on issues caused by out of control teens. Ocean City is the latest but unfortunately it is due to the chaos that took place over the weekend. I can see the no backpack rule and the bathrooms closing at a certain time (although that could lead to other issues), but sadly one of the new rules is that the beach closes to ALL at 8PM. At 8PM it isn't even fully dark yet!! I find it troubling that town council has had to intervene and take on a parental role. What are your thoughts?

https://www.nj.com/cape-may-county/...es-after-wild-weekend-with-drunken-teens.html

I am sad that it got so bad that the town felt there was no other option. Unfortunately, when groups of rowdy teens get out of control, the parents don’t always address the issue, and so private businesses or town councils have to step in. I like to walk on the beach in the evening, and 8:00 does seem early to close it in the summer. It might have made more sense to require a parent or legal guardian be present with any teen after a certain time, but they probably wanted to cut the activity immediately to give themselves time to come up with a more permanent solution.

I feel bad for any businesses impacted by the change in hours. In downtown Orlando, they recently enacted policies that change the hours alcohol can be served at night unless you request a special permit, as they are trying to gain control of the crowd issues in that area here. The businesses, and the majority of patrons, weren’t the real problem, but they are the ones suffering from the actions of a few bad apples.

I am surprised that they didn’t just go to a clear backpack policy like most stadiums have. I assume the no backpack deal is to keep anyone from bringing contraband to the beach, but if they are allowing other beach bags, then the policy doesn’t make sense. I would think it would be better to require bags where you can see what is inside of all of them, than banning one type of bag specifically.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Eh it's common in our area to have curfews. During the summer time they are more restrictive and add in specific ones for certain locations. This is largely on the other side of the state line they've had to do that because specific areas have been heavily prone to issues by means of youths. The Plaza for instance has seen mobs (think 50-75 youths) jump people, vandalize cars, higher theft and long loitering. The Plaza heavily suffered from this image and almost everyone I know avoids going there at night especially during the summer and retailers started closing earlier and earlier and have left that area entirely. The Plaza used to be known for a high end shopping and dining area.

Usually the curfew in my metro is pinpointed to specific "entertainment areas" to run from Memorial Day through last Sunday in September if speaking about the other side of the state line for the largest city there. For this time period it's 9pm if you're 17 and younger for 5 specific locations and citywide 11pm for 16 and 17 year olds. For 15 and under citywide it's 10pm. What they try to do is funnel the youth into specific places sponsored events, athletics endeavors, libraries and summer camps. There is a monetary fine that can be assessed to the parents if their teen is caught out past curfew ($125-$500).

It sucks that the beaches in Ocean City close for everyone but it is similar to the curfew rule I see in my area. The beaches would seem the most common location to congregate and would be very hard to police/patrol for age-specific rules, the easiest though more punitive for all would be to remove access after a certain time for all. That would become easier to catch the persons (be adult or not) on the beach when it's supposed to be closed. I think it's interesting that a curfew was 1am for juveniles that's very late IMO and even the new curfew is much more lenient than parts of my metro.

 

[snikki]

The lifeguards stay until about 530-6pm. About 5 minutes before they leave they have everyone get out of the water. Once they leave people do get back in but there’s not many people left. Most leave for dinner and boardwalk activities.

The people who really want to be on the beach after 8 pm for leisure time or for bad reasons will find another beach in the area.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I don't have a problem with it, coming from someone who grew up spending the Summer in Wildwood. They've just instituted a no alcohol policy on the beach and boardwalk. Teenagers were always trying to sneak alcohol onto the boardwalk, and they probably still will. Adults should know better, but they probably won't. I think if you need to drink that badly that you're sneaking it in a thermos or a water bottle, you should probably just go to a bar.

 

[maxaroni]

Once again, this is why you can’t have nice things. I actually was surprised that it was Ocean City, when I heard it on the news. We were born and raised in North Jersey, so went to the northern end of the shore towns. When we moved to South Jersey, everyone we asked said you have to go to Ocean City. We loved it as it was a dry town, therefore, not a teen hangout. Usually prom weekend, the kids would flock to OC with parents supplying the booze for the house. They have now moved to Wildwood but here that is now going alcohol free for beach and boardwalk. However, other than that, no problems with crowds of teens. It is more of a family town, at least it was. Perhaps the older teens are bored and this is how they pass their time?

 

[tvguy]

Wouldn't be an issue for me. After a day at the beach I probably would be in bed by 8 pm, and if not, I sure would be out on the beach that late. Move the party indoors.

 

[Micca]

Ocean City is a dry town

And yet "Ocean" is right there in the name

 

[RedAngie]

As a kid, I thought it was called Ocean City because at high tide the ocean came right under the main part of the Boardwalk at 9th Street.

It’s the reason we didn’t go there for the beach, just for the Boardwalk in the evenings.

 

[ronandannette]

It’s one thing to make laws/by-laws, and another to enforce them. I’m one who tends to feel like our communities need to take a sharp turn back towards law-and-order so that everyone can be safe and sometimes that even results in saving the perpetrators of civil disorder from themselves, especially young people. There are so many deeper difficulties with policing and the justice system though, it’s hard to know in advance whether such restrictions can be enacted properly to yield an actual benefit. I hope it helps your city and if so, serves as a model for other places with similar situations.