While working on last week's Cape Cuisine column on the new Wildwood Boardwalk restaurants, I noticed the building where Red Sky Cafe was located for the past two years was vacant. Here it was Friday of Memorial Day weekend and a major restaurant is closed? Red Sky's original location on Route 9 in Seaville is open daily year-round. So what happened? I called chef/owner Jeff Schwartz, who had signed a two-year lease in 2006 to expand into Wildwood. He was buying into the movement toward more upscale restaurants and businesses now that all these luxury homes and condos had popped up all over the island. Another upscale restaurant was JP Prime, and the buzzword around the island was upscale, upscale, upscale. And for some, like Sand Jamm and Sam's Pizza,their investments into upgrading their exterior and interiors has paid off handsomely. Stewart's and Boyd's BBQ followed suit on the Boardwalk this year.

John Paxton (JP Prime, Juan Pablo's, JP's Cafe) said during a restaurant tour last week that he thinks he's six or seven years ahead of the curve, meaning the island and its visitors aren't quite ready for such upscale places. And that's exactly why Schwartz didn't re-up when his lease expired.

"It was not worth the aggravation," he told me.

He went on to detail some nightmarish experiences in his Wildwood restaurant, things that have never happened in 10 years in Seaville. Once, he was even punched in the gut by a lady--using extreme flexibility with the word lady--who was asked to leave his restaurant. This "lady" walked into Wildwood Red Sky on a Taco Bar Night that Schwartz ran for his bar patrons. Have a couple drinks and make yourself a taco during happy hour. Only this woman killed the happy in happy hour by showing up with seven children. They park themselves in the bar area, she orders one soda, and they start chowing down on tacos like seagulls on a bucket of Curley's Fries.

Schwartz politely says to the woman that the children are not allowed in the bar area, and that if they want dinner, they're more than welcome to sit in the dining room and order from the menu. She calls him a racist, he tells her she should leave the restaurant, and she hauls off and belts Schwartz in the stomach. If you know Jeff Schwartz, you don't need to worry if he was hurt because Jeff is a big dude. Police were called and the woman was charged, but that's not the point. Would this happen in Stone Harbor or Cape May? We know Wildwood isn't interested in being Stone Harbor or Cape May, but no one, regardless of whether it's Wildwood, North Wildwood or Wildwood Crest, wants this happening in their town or in their place of business.

"They're all trying to say things have changed down there," Schwartz said, "but clearly they haven't."

That's probably an overstatement from a frustrated guy who had a bad business experience. Others on the island would say -- rightfully so -- that they've never had such problems in The Wildwoods. But it just goes to show you can't snap your fingers and things change. It takes time, and a lot of help and commitment from an entire community. Police need to rid the area of gang activity. Boardwalk merchants need to band together to police some of the offensive junk being sold in stores up there. If you have a 14-year-old boy or girl, would you let them walk the Boardwalk with friends at night? Maybe you would. But some parents still will not the way they do in Ocean City. You might not like to hear it, but it's true.

Things are getting better because there are people who have the made the investment both in money and energy to improve things. But let's not kid ourselves. All we have to do is watch the next couple of weeks as the Senior Week kids take over some motels and turn them into dens of drunken debauchery. As long as we continue to turn our heads for the sake of some short-term money, things will not change for the better.