Text size:

Battle royale: Staten Island vs. Jersey

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

7:32 PM EDT, July 17, 2008

The mayor of a Jersey Shore party town said he'll visit Staten Island in an effort to patch things up after dissing the borough's blondes, "Guidos" and cat-fighting women.

"I don't need to go to Staten Island. None of the comments had anything to do with Staten Island....I wouldn't want there to be hard feelings. I'm perfectly willing to come up and visit," said apologetic Belmar Mayor Ken Pringle.

The battle between the shore and the "rock," erupted when Pringle spewed disparaging remarks in a four-page July 4 newsletter designed to improve relations among renters and year-round residents.

Writing about some bad behavior by summer renters under the headline "SI Girl Behaving Badly," Pringle noted that the bar brawling Islander was fighting with a drink in her hand.

"We're not sure if the glass was stuck to her hand 'cause of all the hairspray or if this is a technique Staten Island girls learn in Brownies," he wrote.

The mayor called the Islanders "Guidos," who are "always tanned to the color of coconut shells, and easily identified by their plumage: satin shirts and skirts or the females; Armani Exchange T-shirts on the males."

John Englebert, president of the Staten Island Good Neighborhood Association, said, "We're tired of being dumped on all the time. I don't know if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed after watching the Sopranos, or he has something against my people, but his mother really should have washed his mouth out with soap."

Englebert's group, which he says has 500 members, will run ads in local papers and on radio urging Islanders to boycott Belmar unless the mayor agrees to an all-expenses-paid one night stay on Staten Island in order to see the sights and sample the local cuisine.

The group also is pledging to donate funds to whoever challenges the five-term mayor when he is up for re-election.

"When he tries the pizza in Staten Island, when he tries the people in Staten Island, he'll fall in love with Staten Island," Englebert said.

Pringle's SI counterpart, borough president Jim Molinaro, said he supported the boycott.

"This is a small little dirt water town. What do they got, 5,000 people?" he said. "You would think this guy's talking about the Hamptons."

Molinaro said he had no intention of meeting with Pringle if he comes to the Island.

Since 1988 when a big-haired Melanie Griffith portrayed a Staten Island woman in "Working Girl," Islanders have been trying to rehabilitate the image of "the rock" as home to the world's largest landfill and Brooklyn dumping ground.

"I get very tired of the whole Staten Island-goombah thing," said Larry Ambrosino, executive director of SINY, a local booster club. "I've been on the job three weeks and this guy throws me a fastball right down the middle. We are trying to get everybody to feel good about Staten Island."

Belmar, a little more than an hour's drive from Manhattan, has been called " Fort Lauderdale North" for its reputation as a raucous party spot. Its population swells ten fold during the summer and locals are anxious to keep the peace among out-of-towners.

"We want tourists in this town," said the bartender at Jack's Tavern, who would only give his name as Mike. "We want to welcome everyone in this town. Everyone is pretty upset by this."