Spring Lake's New Deal

by: tabbycat31

Wed Aug 31, 2011 at 05:31:25 PM EDT

promoted by Rosi

As most of you know just by looking around, New Jersey was damaged during Hurricane Irene this weekend. Some communities were hit harder than others. In my neck of the woods, no municipality was hit harder than Spring Lake-- a wealthy resort community. When Mother Nature strikes, she does not know the difference between rich and poor. The boardwalk was destroyed during Irene and unlike many shore towns, Spring Lake cannot rebuild in time for the influx of tourists this weekend.

While surveying the damage yesterday, I noticed that the now destroyed boardwalk was a New Deal public works project in 1937 designed to improve the community and put people back to work. Yes the boardwalk was more modern than 1937 (with wooden boards being replaced with Trex) but the government did a good job building infrastructure that lasted for 74 years. Based on their federal, state, and county level voting patterns, Spring Lake is a municipality that would probably ideologically oppose spending government money on public works projects. However, many people do until the problem actually hits home. Securing funding to rebuild the boardwalk should not be a partisan issue, but it will probably be turned into one after next week when the tourist season ends.

Unlike FDR, President Obama did not go as far when it came to getting New Deal type legislation when he had a Democratic congress. Infrastructure projects (including in New Jersey) are being worked on as a part of the stimulus, but the Democrats did not do a good job of selling the bill and its benefits to the American people. That was then, this is now. A traditionally Republican town is hurting. Without the boardwalk being rebuilt, Spring Lake will not attract the tourists that the local businesses need to stay afloat (in a shore town, the bulk of all business is done between Memorial Day and Labor Day.)

Hurricane Irene’s destruction of Spring Lake’s boardwalk gives Democrats a chance to sell themselves in a town that does not traditionally vote for them (Spring Lake will vote for Democrats on the local level, but overwhelmingly votes Republican at the county, state, and federal level). However, the representatives that they vote for are ideologically opposed to using government money to rebuild (and maintain) the boardwalk. This is a win-win for the Democrats if they successfully put the unemployed back to work rebuilding the boardwalk. This has been done once before and it is time for history to repeat itself.