lettuce and everything. you used to come here as a kid? >> johnny: yes, my father, he would order like a pastrami sandwich. >> anthony: yeah. >> johnny: and i'd eat, like, a third of it and he'd he eat the rest of it. then my brother would eat eggs and bacon, so we had to order what he liked. he was a real trencherman, he could really eat. >> anthony: asbury park, like its close cousin atlantic city, with whom it had so much in common, suffered from much of the same problems. 14 years ago last time i came it was a shell of itself. dying, the beach is empty, a sad and forlorn place. unlike atlantic city though, asbury park fought to fix itself to become again the kind of place that anybody would want to live in. they didn't look for a magic bullet like casino gambling, and to a great extent they've succeeded by keeping alive what made asbury park special, they hung on to what was important. like this place where any overgrown child still wants to like this place where any overgrown child still wants to play.