Tourism dilemma: Irene’s gone but summer’s not

SPRING LAKE, N.J. — If you fix it, they will come. That’s the mantra — and the des­per­ate hope — of tourism-dependent towns along the East Coast as they deal with the after­math of Hur­ri­cane Irene, which hit just eight days before Labor Day. Places that lost board­walks, restau­rants, roads and other fix­tures in the storm are ter­ri­fied the tourists will sim­ply call it a sea­son and stay away until next summer.