KEANSBURG – On a recent late afternoon in Keansburg, Forest Park was filled with young people enjoying a picturesque fall day. A steady stream of cars passed the park, up and down adjacent to Forest Avenue, a busy road that runs through the borough from Keansburg High School to within a few blocks of the waterfront.

The vast majority of cars came to a complete stop at stop signs at both ends of the park. These stop signs were installed this fall to address long-standing safety concerns on Forest Avenue, where a motorcyclist was killed in February and an 11-year-old child was struck by a car and died after playing at baseball in the park in 2014.

As they watched the safer scene unfold that day, Antonietta Carbone, Braden Salas and Cristina Onciu felt a sense of satisfaction that they had made a difference. The trio, who formed a neighborhood defense group called the Keansburg ABChas made traffic and pedestrian safety a top priority.

“Before that, this road was primarily used to get around the Main Street lights,” said Carbone, who has lived in Keansburg for eight years. “There were no traffic stops. »

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Onciu, who moved here in 2012, said pre-existing speed lanes on the road were ineffective.

“I talked about it when I first moved in, the speed issues around this park,” she said. “We requested a traffic study. Monmouth County and the (Keansburg) Police Department worked together.

Stop signs are an example of successful community organizing, but a half-block in front of each one is a reminder of the work that still needs to be done. Signs warning motorists of approaching stop signs — commonly used when new stop signs are installed — feature an arrow pointing toward the ground instead of the standard upward direction.

“The warnings are backwards,” Carbone said.

“It’s nice to see positive changes, but it’s important to be realistic, it’s up to the citizens of the city to put pressure on,” Salas said. “If only one person raises something, they are less likely to be heard or followed up on. That’s why we decided to start this.

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Promote small businesses

At first, Carbone, Salas and Onciu tried to make a change the old-fashioned way: by joining the city council. After their campaign for three vacant seats failed in the May election, they formed the Keansburg ABCs (Advocacy Beyond Campaigns) with a web page and social media channels.

One of their first initiatives was to use the platform to highlight local businesses. Every few weeks, a different Keansburg business is featured – and ABC has taken it a step further by 3D printing and distributing personalized QR codes for businesses, so customers can scan the code and be directed to their websites and Yelp sites.

The latter is of crucial importance.

“We’re trying to encourage businesses in town to claim their Yelp page because it’s a free service that can help them greatly,” Salas said. “The idea is that if you can’t support them with a purchase this week, you can support them by writing a review about your past purchase. This helps them get noticed.

Salas studied cyberspace and determined that the search engine optimization of many Keansburg businesses was poor – they were behind in Google searches and so on. A robust Yelp page is one way to improve this.

“Unfortunately, in our area, if you search for a location (on the internet), it seems like stores in every other city are populated first because they have greater SEO value,” Salas said.

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The owners of the businesses featured by the Keansburg ABCs are grateful for their help.

“They’re awesome, man; a lot of people are informed about what’s going on in town because of that,” said Sean Ragab, who runs Pizza Keansburg on Carr Avenue. “I wish they could run this city. That’s how much we need it.

Bryan Morales-McGrath, the owner of Carr High Cafe on Carr Avenue, has the QR code on his register.

“They shine a light on small businesses,” he said. “It’s a nice touch and it’s useful.”

Morales-McGrath said he looked forward to the completion of Baypoint, a redevelopment project along Carr Avenue expected to bring 700 luxury apartments, 45,000 square feet of dining, entertainment and retail space, as well as 1,000 parking spaces.. Work began in October 2021, but work continues.

“We can’t count on an amusement park (Keansburg Amusement Park) not being open half the year,” he said. “You need other things in town that entice people to come.”

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Parking meter confusion

Keansburg has beaches, of course, and the parking meters that line Beachway Avenue are another focus for Carbone, Salas and Onciu. There are different types of meters: classic coin changers, more modern ones which print a receipt to display on the dashboard and more recent ones which carry out transactions via an application.

However, on some counters, there are contradictory educational signs. Across the street from the Half Moon restaurant, the cash register says “pay by plate – no receipt given,” but a sign directly above instructs drivers to “get the ticket from the machine” and “post it on the ticket board.” edge “.

At pay stations further down Beachway, paper signs are posted with application instructions that have been torn in half by the elements.

“It’s very confusing for the public,” Salas said.

These initiatives may seem small, but in total they could have an impact on the daily life of a small town. A safer Forest Avenue is a notable start.

“The fact that they’re doing all of this as volunteers is amazing,” said Ragab, the owner of Keansburg Pizza. “Personally, I wouldn’t do as much work if they didn’t pay me.”

He added: “But these are the people who will make the change. »

For more information about Keansburg ABC, visit www.the-keansburg-abcs.com.

Jerry Carino is a community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at [email protected].

This article was originally published on the Asbury Park Press: Keansburg ABCs seek to improve city life through the little things