Iannucci a Panelist on Asbury Park Redevelopment Podcast

Specialist Librarian Lisa Iannucci, MFA, was a panelist on a recent podcast episode hosted by LettersToYou.net, a website that covers Bruce Springsteen and related topics. Iannucci is a founding contributor to the website, where she covers the Jersey Shore music scene. The conversation was moderated by LettersToYou.net's editor/publisher Shawn Poole.

The episode, "Asbury Park's New Buildings, New Plans…Same Old Played Out Scenes?," centered on a series of articles by journalists Charles Daye and Mike Davis of the Asbury Park Press, which were published in a special section, "A Tale of Two Asburys." The panel included the journalists as well as poet and author Daniel Wolff, author of "Fourth of July, Asbury Park: A History of the Promised Land," the seminal work that documents the city's first 150 years, which established the East versus West side division and the economic and political segregation that continue to plague Asbury Park.

The ongoing Press series, which covers the city's more recent past, was prompted by a series of demonstrations by local historic preservation activists, who were alarmed by the appearance earlier this year of an "unsafe structure" sticker in the window of the historic Casino building indicating possible pending demolition. Iannucci argues that the story of Asbury Park's failed redevelopment, affordable housing shortages, and economic hardship continues to play out against the backdrop of a real estate boom that has revitalized the waterfront but left the historic West Side behind.

Listen to the podcast episode below.