Asbury Park embraces the ocean, its salty scent mixed with eau de sunscreen on summer days. The city’s mile-long beach is carpeted by bright towels and canopied by a pageant of umbrellas. Along the wooden boardwalk is a cavalcade of bare limbs, baby strollers, a blue booth promising fortunes told by “Madam Marie” and stalls hawking flip-flops, fruity drinks, cold-brew coffee, Korean-style tacos and just about everything else under the sun.

Convention Hall, a brick whale of a building at the north end, completed in 1930, has been reinvigorated by contemporary stores and food stands. The complex, which includes the Paramount Theater, features a regular lineup of entertainment.

Not so long ago — say, the early 2000s — this Jersey Shore resort 60 miles south of Manhattan was a gritty ghost town.