A Change of Environment

 

Heard some sad news from my mother the other day, the Casino building in Asbury Park has been closed down to foot traffic.  It's a whole complex of buildings, attached to each other, and the Casino itself is long gone.  Once upon a time there was a section with amusements and such built on the beach.  That has been gone since before I had the Studio, which started about 15 years ago.  The big hallway, which covered the boardwalk itself, was still there, and passing through this got you from Ocean Grove's boardwalk to Asbury Park's boardwalk.  The doors that had been at each end were gone, but the wooden framework above, complete with panes of glass, were still there.  However, those have been gradually removed (perhaps a safety issue), and now it's just a roof.  On the other side of this hallway, plywood had been nailed up, and murals sometimes were attached to this, providing some art to the space.  And there were occasional puddles on the floor, so you had to watch where you walked, but it was possible to pass through safely.  Further to the west, was the round carousel house, which in past days contained a carousel.  That is also long gone, but in my days the space was cleaned out and has been used as a roller rink, a home to arts and crafts shows, and hosted a few flea markets.  That space is best known for the metal sunburst shapes that appear at the top of each door of curved front of the building.  I used to know a model who had it tattooed on her upper arm, as can be seen below (click on the photo to enlarge it):

I also used this building as the inspiration for my postcard image that was sent to my assigned partner first, and eventually to a show in Estonia. 

 Actually I don't know if my image ever made it there, as the only photo of the chosen cards I've ever seen in the one here, and all I can see is the other card we worked on.  (front stack, at the top) As these are collaborative prints, I still had work in the show.

Anyway, I walked through this breezeway many times, a common way of getting to the Asbury boardwalk, especially when walking from my Studio, and not from the paid parking in Asbury.  I had considered participating in a walk organized by the agency that I am attached to now (which will start from Convention Hall, much further up the boardwalk), but now I am not sure about the length of the walk.  

What remains to be seen is what happens to the building now.  If memory serves, once upon a time there had been a plan to rebuild the Casino (the area it had been on the beach is still fenced off), but I don't know if that is still in the works.  I don't even know if the covered walkway/hall will stay.  An inspection showed a lot of corrosion in the metal supports that hold up the roof, which is why the passage is closed now, but the developers who control the space now have done nothing over the last decade to fix this or stop this, so I have little faith they will do it now.  For now, pedestrians are being rerouted to the bridges over the lake that separates the two towns, but that's a walk I'm not sure about, and at the time of day those bridges are closed, one would have to walk all the way down to Main, a very long way.  Will this be fixed before the summer season begins, in about three weeks?  There's more to this story I'm sure.