Local News

Belmar, N.J. Mayor's Newsletter Rattles Tourists

Ken Pringle Shocks Potential Visitors With Talk Of "Guidos," "Staten Island Girls" And "Blondes"

BELMAR, N.J. (CBS) ― There is a shore town scandal brewing in New Jersey. The mayor of Belmar is stirring up some controversy.

In a newsletter aimed at the town's summer renters, he referred to a certain group of young people with a name some Italian-Americans find offensive.

Belmar is lovely and tranquil, an escape from humidity and New York City.

Mayor Ken Pringle says he wants to keep it that way, but he may have used the wrong language to make his point. In his weekly newsletter to summer renters, the mayor, borrowing a reference he thought was fairly commonly used in his town, and lifting an incident from "njguido.com," described a certain type that descends on Belmar: 

"Guidos as kind of a rare bird and are "as welcome as, oh, Canada geese."

Pringle switched to full damage control mode on Wednesday.

"In a very positive way, the 20-somethings who consider themselves to be "guidos," it's not an epithet," Pringle said. "In my own town, I will tell you that there are people who don't like it; but it's like a generational divide on this issue."

Alison Lupinacci and her friends say even though their parents hate it, they are on that generational side of Italians who think the term is OK and defines it the term as:

"They mean … pump their hair, spiked hair, chains … you know, big muscles," Lupinacci said.

But others in the mayor's town disagree.

"It doesn't sound nice to me," Lucy Bonamo said.

"He shouldn't judge a book by its cover," Leonarda Pepitone added. "We're all different."

The mayor also took a swipe at Staten Islanders and Staten Island women in particular, saying a Staten Island woman throwing a punch is about as newsworthy as "dog bites man."

"It wasn't meant to cast aspersions on everyone from Staten Island," Pringle said.

As for the "dog bites man" reference, Pringle admitted that might have been a bit much.

"Well, that … that … maybe it got a bit over the top on that," he said.

A story about two women who couldn't figure out how to take out their garbage appeared under the headline "Let us guess . . . they're blonde."

In fact, the mayor said he had second thoughts about a lot of what he wrote because so many people were upset. Still, he is very popular here in Belmar.

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