Citizens groups are not going away after the election

Wonderland was not the only issue on voters’ minds. The public conversation reflected growing concerns about the overall direction of Ocean City: overdevelopment, parking, congestion and the city’s rising debt burden.

Originally published in Ocean City Sentinel
by Bill Merritt

To the Editor:

The Ocean City election is now behind us, and there has already been a great deal of analysis about what the results mean. Here is another perspective.

For the better part of two years, our town has been deeply divided, largely over the proposed high-rise hotel at the former Wonderland site. That issue dominated this election and the results speak volumes about how residents feel.

People are exhausted by the endless “big hotel versus no hotel” battle that has consumed this town — especially because it never needed to become so divisive. It became so solely because local government failed to pursue a serious compromise and the developer failed to do the same.

It did not become divisive because citizens pushed back. They had every right to do so given the failures of government.

What makes this especially frustrating is that the compromise has always been obvious: Protect and strengthen the boardwalk entertainment frontage while allowing a smaller, more appropriately scaled hotel component toward the rear of the property. Residents appear broadly aligned behind that approach.

So is the market. A more modest hotel would be consistent with the hotels that have been successfully developed along the New Jersey coast. It would also avoid far more difficult regulatory hurdles and could likely be built on a shorter timeline.

In other words, a smaller hotel paired with a larger public entertainment component is the clear answer.

Instead, the government’s developer bias, financial entanglements, and refusal to listen to constituents drove the discussion in the wrong direction. That approach created chaos, resentment, and fatigue. People are tired of it.

How do we know? Pete Madden — the candidate who supported the large hotel proposal — lost decisively. Meanwhile, Sean Barnes and Jim Kelly — the two at-large council candidates most clearly advocating compromise — finished first and second, significantly outpacing candidates who did not embrace some form of middle-ground solution.

The electorate has spoken clearly. Government must now listen.

But Wonderland was not the only issue on voters’ minds. The public conversation — particularly on social media, which has effectively become the city’s primary communication channel — reflected growing concerns about the overall direction of Ocean City: overdevelopment, parking, congestion and the city’s rising debt burden.

Those concerns were reflected in the fact that nearly 60 percent of voters chose someone other than Mayor Jay Gillian. Residents clearly want a new direction; they simply could not unite behind a single alternative candidate in this election cycle. That reality should not be ignored either.

Finally, something else changed in this election: New civic voices emerged. Citizen groups organized to push back against the developer-dominated politics that have defined this city for decades, and they successfully helped advance candidates they supported.

Why? Because many residents have grown tired of hearing only one voice.

And those groups are not going away.

Our elected officials should not ignore that message. The people want fact-driven leadership, fresh ideas, thoughtful compromise, and a government that listens rather than dismisses concerns.

The current leadership can embrace that challenge — or risk being moved aside in the next election if it does not.

Bill Merritt
Ocean City 2050