NJ beach town mayor sez 'Fuhgeddaboudit!' to blog

And to blondes everywhere, whether they know how to take out the trash or not, the blog-writing mayor is really remorseful.

The comments in his blog for summer renters in this legendary party town on the Jersey shore were meant, Pringle says, as tongue-in-cheek jabs at visitors behaving badly--which Belmar surely has each summer.

But they struck a nerve far beyond what was intended, offending Italian-American groups, New Yorkers, and yes, blondes. And, following an exchange of insults, they even earned the mayor an invitation from a Staten Island tourism group to visit and find out what it's really like.

So Pringle is shutting down the blog, the Belmar Summer Rental News, with an apology and a bit of regret that the furor his comments created has overshadowed very real concerns about tourists and their effect on the quality of life here.

"People had such a visceral reaction to what they thought I said that it's impossible to have a reasonable discussion about what I actually said," Pringle said in an interview Friday as he struggled to finish the final newsletter amid constantly ringing phones, mostly calls from reporters. "It was meant to communicate with our tenants in a fun way."

Asked if he would apologize, he said, "I'll be doing several of those."

In an edition of the newsletter later posted to the borough's Web site, Pringle offered his apologies "absolutely ungrudgingly" to all those he had offended.

Pringle started the blog--which he also printed up and distributed to the 300 or so group rentals in this beach town about 10 minutes south of Asbury Park--last summer as a way of communicating with renters about what is and isn't allowed in Belmar.

It included schedules for recycling and trash pickups, noise ordinances and general how-to-get-along advice.