Eminent Domain and Mantoloking: A personal take on a borough issue
“When I worked in my first business, a booming fashion design and manufacturing firm based out of NYC and NJ, I would do poetry and short story readings and send my work out to be published. This was the price I paid – writing part time – in order to satisfy another one of my creative and financial goals. But it was worth it – really worth it – since my writing was published (stress free) and I also got to live out one of my dreams – in Mantoloking.
During that time, all the hard work and endless hours of stress resulted in a decade of prosperity for myself, my former husband, my partners and my family. As many other businesses and marriages, none of this lasted forever. But during our time “on top”, I decided to buy my dream house, on the ocean, in Mantoloking.
It was beyond my wildest dreams – to live on the ocean all summer, most weekends, and during vacations, and to be on my own beach, writing and working. My house was stunning: built over two lots, it was a combination of a vintage beach house mixed seamlessly with a modern, contemporary style, complete with soaring high ceilings, a gigantic wooden deck, and bedrooms built outwards towards the sea, like giant hulls of a wodden ship. And, for most of these years, it was a very bustling, happy home.”
Lilli, Diane. The Jersey Tomato Press 24 April 2013.