"So, how fast do you think you'll be able to fix all this up again, once you get in office?," a friend asked me, taking in the post-nuclear-war vista.

I handed her my umbrella. "Could you hold this for me?" I asked.

"Sure. Where you going? Ladies' room?"

"No. Puerto Rico. I'll be back in about four years."

Much to my surprise, only two months later, the council signed a preliminary beachfront redevelopment agreement that broke a legal stalemate going back to the 1980s. (It's amazing what a $5 million budget deficit and a crumbling city infrastructure can do for your motivation.)

And, last week, internationally known architect and planner Andres Duany led a marathon series of information-sharing and negotiating sessions to help city residents, elected officials and Oceanfront Acquisitions (our redevelopment partners) refine a plan that would not only reinvent Asbury Park's beachfront but would work financially for both the developers and long-suffering city residents.

Hopefully, you followed last week's exhaustive planning sessions, either through the media or (infinitely better) by attending one or more public meetings. So where do we go from here?

Over the next two weeks, Duany and Oceanfront Acquisitions planner John Clarke will put our detailed design agreements in a joint document, which the council will forward to the city planning board for review and comment - a process that will also include opportunities for additional public input.

At the same time, we'll be hammering out an accompanying redeveloper's agreement that will put teeth into these design guidelines by specifying (for example) who is responsible for what costs, the order that work will be done, the approval process for individual buildings, relocation plans for displaced residents, and more.

The resulting design plans and redeveloper's agreement will then be approved by the city council, hopefully by the end of March, and will become the basis for how we operate over the next 10 to 15 years of projected beachfront redevelopment. (No pressure there!)

But oceanfront redevelopment is only the beginning of Asbury Park's rebirth - albeit a critical one, since (as Duany more poetically described it) it will provide the necessary tax base for improvements throughout our financially starved city.

And there, too, planning is now beginning.

As you hopefully know, the city has reactivated the West Side STARS redevelopment program, and appraisals are now proceeding on properties in the Phase 1 redevelopment zone south of Springwood Avenue. Three dozen new, single-family homes will be built on Adams, Atkins, Borden and Avenue A, and the city is currently filing for Urban Home Ownership Recovery Program (UHORP) subsidies to make these homes more affordable for city residents.

On a more global level, the city has also received a $90,000 Smart Growth Planning Grant from the state, thanks to the efforts of consultant Gail O'Reilly and Mayor Kevin Sanders. Funds from this grant will help us develop a comprehensive and integrated development plan for the overall city, including the Springwood Avenue corridor, Main Street, downtown, and the Transportation Center area, to insure that rational redevelopment reaches all corners of Asbury Park.

The council hopes to re-engage Duany's firm to develop this plan, which will involve coordinating numerous stakeholders with dozens of individual visions.

Comprehensive city planning of this sort will also let us set long-term priorities on major capital investments, ranging from road repairs to recreation facilities to a new firehouse. Some projects may not be realized until beachfront tax revenues hit our city coffers, or until state, county or federal funds become available. Other objectives can be implemented immediately.

One immediate goal, for example, is to establish architectural and design guidelines for Main Street, which forms most people's first impression of Asbury Park.

"Right now, we don't have the controls you should have for a traditional Main Street like Asbury Park's," points out City Manager Terry Weldon. "A guy can build whatever he wants" - including, as we all know, warehouses with cemented-over windows, buildings that don't front on Main Street, large expanses of ugly parking lot, and worse.

And, although Cookman Avenue is enjoying an unprecedented influx of investment dollars, Weldon notes, "Major issues are coming to the table in the downtown, like residential density, parking, and guidelines for mixed-use buildings."

To strengthen the downtown revival, the council recently authorized the city planning board to assess whether we should proclaim the downtown as a separate redevelopment zone. Doing so will give the city the power to declare neglected buildings as blighted, and to force speculators to either repair their properties or sell them at fair market value. And the council recently hired consultant James W. Higgins to help the zoning board settle immediate questions that can't wait for longer-term solutions.

Of course, planning alone is no guarantee that all our dreams will materialize, and it will take constant monitoring, updating and "trolling for cash" to reach our goals. But it's a step we can't neglect.

As a favorite author of mine writes, "People get what they expect. The trick is to expect what you want."

We in Asbury Park have been conditioned to expect the worst for far too long, and we've consistently managed to get it. It's time we expect the best - and not give up until we make it happen.