Businesses in Margate fight for recovery

Written by SHAUN SMITH Tuesday, November 13, 2012 05:36 pm

Jamaican Me Crazy on Ventnor Avenue tries to ward off Hurricane Sandy with plywood and sandbags before the storm.

MARGATE – The business community here has taken a hit but its not lying down.

“We’re fighting back, like everybody else we’re fighting back,” said Margate Business Association President Ed Berger Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Berger and the MBA are posting which businesses in town have re-opened their doors as they open on www.marvelousmargate.com. As of this writing, there are 30 businesses that are open with the list updated nearly daily and there is a scrolling ticker at the top of the webpage.

“Everyone got whacked pretty hard. It is all varying degrees of destruction,” Berger said. “There are some truly remarkable efforts made by business owners to get their businesses open.”

A few businesses opened after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the Jersey shore and New York, then a few more, then a few more, said Berger.

He said businesses help make up the fabric of the community.

“The flag battered but its still flying,” Berger said.

He complimented the city for providing sandbags to business owners before the storm and for passing a resolution Thursday, Nov. 8 to waive permit frees for flood damaged properties.

Berger said the MBA has always received tremendous support from the city.

“It really is a part of the fabric as part of the community of Margate,” Berger said.

He said the community has pulled together with people helping each other to recover from the wake of the storm.

“A lot of people are helping people out here. It renews your faith a little bit, it really does,” Berger said. “It’s refreshing. It’s just a shame that an incident like this one was the impetuous for it. Nonetheless our guys are working hard and helping.”