The Off Season of a Jersey Shore Tourist Town

The Stuff You Normally Don’t See

Seaside Park, New Jersey

After the hit reality television show “The Jersey Shore” debuted in the late 2000’s, the Seasides [Heights and Park] have become some of the most popular shore towns for tourists to visit during the May to September season.

But what happens for the remainder of the year?

A once vibrant and lively town now seems gray and empty. It’s like an abandoned ghost town. Many people often don’t think about what it’s like there in the winter. Many people don’t think about how these business owners stay afloat, or how the year long residents finally feel at peace.

Seaside Park - L Street Beach

The beaches now contain very few people. All of them in winter coats, as they walked up and down the now deserted beach. Enjoying the final weeks of quiet, before the season starts.

John and Irma, two residents who live before the bridge, talked about how much they enjoyed taking early morning walks on the beach. “We aren’t able to do stuff like this in the summer,” John began, “It gets way too crowded way to early and we aren’t able to enjoy the sound of the waves like we do now.”

John and Irma, two Toms River citizens [the town right before the island] taking their morning walk on the Seaside Park Beach on Thursday March 9 2023

Casino Pier Boardwalk - The North Side

Many of the shops and businesses are boarded up, in case of any storms that might come, minus the few clothing shops that are open, hoping they can get some business from the few locals that walk up and down the boardwalk.

The closer you got to the main part of the boardwalk, where all the rides were, the more stuff was blocked off and boarded up. The entrance to where all of the rides and majority of the games was guarded by a gate with a sign that said “Casino Pier: Is Now Closed for the Season,” Behind that gate were few construstion workers, making sure that everything would be working well, and safely for the summer.

Casino Pier Boardwalk during the offseason. Majority of the stores and businesses boarded up, but there were very few that were open, hoping to get some busineess on Thursday, Mar. 9 2023

The Balloon Pop Game, the only open game on the entire boardwalk. All of the other arcades and game booths still boarded up, knowing that they will loose money instead of gaining it. Amanda, the girl running the booth, had hope more people were going to come. Thursday Mar. 9 2023

Not to far from the gate was a stand that was open. It was the only game that was open on the entrity of the boardwalk. The booths covered in prizes, as well as there being a table filled with St. Patricks Day accessories.

Amanda, the girl who was sitting in the booth mentioned that she didn’t get much business at all that day.

“It typically gets busy during this weekend, ya know with all the bars and stuff” She further went on to say she was not to worried about business because it was still so early in the day. Many of the business owners had to have this mentality when working the off season.

A common theme with all business owners is that you give what you get, meaning you need to be positive, and then youre business will (hopefully) do well .

Employee at Three Brothers Pizza cleaning the benches and tables as a way to pass the time due to a lack of customers on Sunday Apr. 2 2023

Casino Pier Boardwalk - The South Side

The South side of the boardwalk was way more empty compared to the North side. This was leading into the side of Seaside that was residential. The Heights (the north side) was a big party town and catered towards more tourists. The very end of the boardwalk on the South had a few restaurants and a bar. The sign outside the bar listed off many different drinks, all at a low price, in hopes to get some business (pictured right).

One of the neighboring resturants had no business compared to the bar. The two men working where either standing around watching the televisions, or cleaning the already clean tables (pictured top left). When they did have somebdy to help, it would typically be somebody ordering one slice to go.

Seaside Park Marina

Heading more South into Seaside Park, is where the ghost town feeling gets stronger. The marina, one of the more busy places in town, was now just a row of boats in the middle of the road. All of which had white covers on them, making it hard to see how many of them they truly were. A large part of the area is now blocked off for constrution, now being the prime time to do that. The bay is now home to many ducks.

Seaside Park Residental

Many of the houses in the surrounding areas all had big orange and black signs. With dates and phone numbers written on them.

Although it may not seem to affective due to the lack of traffic in Seaside, there were already houses that had torn down their “Rent Now” signs. Many houses were already booked for the entire season. The North Side fills much quicker versus the South. The locals were preparing for another busy summer much to their dislike. Just like what John and Irma said “It’s much more peaceful and relaxing down here in the winter,”

House on Berkeley

Ln (top picture) that is up for rent for the 2023 Summer Season. Two houses (bottom picture) on N. Bayview Ave, one a rental (right) and the other (left) belongs to a full time resident. Many times they often keep boats in their drive ways versus in one of the marinas.

A little boy and his mother at the “baby beach” on N. Bayview Ave. After playing on the playground, the young boy had ran down to the water to look at the seashells on Sunday Apr. 2 2023

Seaside Park Bay

Down on the West side of the island was the baby beach. It was a small sectioned off area in the bay, 2here all the parents of younger children would bring them so could play on the playground, or swim in the shallow area. This way parents can relax without worrying about their child in an ocean that has harsh currents and big waves. The usually crowded area was now just a little boy running around the playground, and his mother who watched him from a distance. Areas like these on the Island often get left untouched during this time of the year. During the late fall and winter is when storms happen most frequently. Leaving the bays to flood and freeze up with ice. Making it a dangerous place to be for the common person.

Seaside Park Businesses

There were few restaurants open on the Island year round. The only ones that did well during the off season were the ones that had a bar, as it had a more lively enviorment. Going down Central Ave (the main road that runs through the island), many of the locally owned businesses, such as Surf Shops, the Bakery, and other family owned resturants had “See You In The Spring,” signs posted in the windows. Even two of the local hotels were closed down until May, as they were not able to make enough money during the winter.

If any of these businesses were to be open, it would only be on weekends when there were more people in town. And its slowly starting to become that time where all businesses were open on weekend.

The Park Bakery, on Grand Central Ave in South Seaside Park. The business opens with their full time hours at the start of June. From there, they are open all the way til the end of September, and close from October to May. Their staff is primarily highschool aged girls meaning that they are not able to open on weekends due to the child labor laws the state of New Jersey has.

Wedensday Mar. 8 2023