Margate fends off gusts from Christie

MARGATE, N.J. - From two islands away, Gov. Christie again took aim at the Jersey Shore town of Margate over its refusal to allow the state to build dunes on its beaches.

"To towns like Margate," the governor said, speaking in Sea Isle City at high tide during Friday's flooding, "you are amongst the most selfish people in the state of New Jersey."

It was the second straight day the governor had lashed out at Margate, which is more typically singled out for its Lucy the Elephant and its bars and restaurants.

But the town has been a formidable Christie opponent: It has successfully gone to federal court to stop the state from seizing city-owned easements it needs to build dunes.

On Thursday, in advance of the storm, when Hurricane Joaquin seemed a likely threat, Christie said: "Folks in Margate today who are now in the eye of the flood - I wonder if they think it was a smart move to be fighting the dunes."

Memo to the Gov: They do. They still do. Even with a hurricane nosing around the Atlantic, even with the familiar flooding from a nor'easter.

Dan Gottlieb, leader of the anti-dune movement, said Christie needs to pay a visit. (The governor got as close as the Shore Diner, just over the Margate Bridge.)

"Maybe instead of bellowing from the bully pulpit, the governor should come to Margate and see the effectiveness of our system," Gottlieb said. "I will personally take him on a tour."

Gottlieb and others in Margate say the town's bulkheads are adequate to protect the oceanfront, and they point out that most Sandy damage was on the bayside.

Gottlieb noted that the state's dunes took hits from the storm and will have to be replenished.

"There's a lot of money that went out in the ocean today," Gottlieb said. "The bulkhead did exactly what it was supposed to do, except we don't have to spend millions to fix it."

Other towns, including Bay Head, have pockets of resistance to Christie's dream of building a sand dune the length of the Jersey Shore, but from private owners. The state has yet to acquire 366 of 4,200 easements.

Margate is the only municipality that itself owns land the state needs. Longport voluntarily turned over easements following Sandy, which damaged beachfront houses. (Christie promised not to put public bathrooms or hot dogs in the easements.)

On Friday, flooding was mostly on the bayside, with beach-block streets mostly dry in all the Absecon Island towns. Video showed surging ocean lapping up but not over the bulkheads. Some beach blocks, including Kenyon Avenue, did flood. Pools of water remained on the beach hours after high tide.

Tom Flynn, a property manager and Margate resident, said he voted for dunes, but believed that most of the flooding could be solved by better drainage to let the water recede.

"When the water has no place to go, where's it going?" he said. "The dunes won't save us from anything."

Except, maybe, from the continuing wrath of Christie.

arosenberg@phillynews.com

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@amysrosenberg

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