Saturday, December 3, 2011

Today's FaceBook post from Mark Parilla:

"Recovery in the hospital going well after a minor scare. I am out of critical care, I have had all catheters and tubes. Thanks to you all who have been so supportive with words and thoughts of encouragement, your prayers and love. I will be home soon. I will post a video of my physical therapy walk later. oxoxoxo"

 Update: Check out comments, Mark is responding and adding more information. He is accepting visitors. See his comment for details. Below are yellow roses for Mark from Katie and Lynn - they are beautiful!

Why are we rehashing things and announcing that grant deadlines have passed?

From yesterday's City Manager's report:
This is almost equivalent to saying "OMB IDENTIFIES THE SKY IS BLUE, THREE MONTHS AGO."  

One  program relates to museums - isn't ours in a complete state of limbo now and the artifacts are in boxes?  Does anyone know for sure?  We (read the City Manager) spurned an advance by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County to administer our museum due to some provincial turf issues.  It would have been great to bring their management, curatorial skills and fundraising ability to Lake Worth.  This was being discussed behind-the-scenes when former Mayor Varela was in office.  Our centennial year is a little over one year away.  This grant program requires matching funds - how is the city's "cash portfolio" doing?

Another possible grant program identified  is a matching fund program for small historic preservation projects which is administered by the state.  These are for no more than $50,000 and also require a match from the applicant.  It is also a long-standing program and should not be considered a "discovered" resource.  The city has used these monies in the past for the creation of many of our historic districts - surveys and designation reports, etc. Of the three mentioned, this is probably one that we could access, but there is no guarantee since it is a competitive statewide process.

The last one identified is a brownfield grant program.  The CRA received one of these since almost all of the CRA district, if not all, is designated a brownfield.  When I was on the CRA, we were having trouble finding use for the funds and we might have not spent all that we had available.  Nothing is changed now that would make it any different - unless we can apply it to the Park of Commerce which is out of the CRA district.

Announcing these programs now, with the current deadlines over and done with, says more about trying to find justification for a bloated OMB staff than anything else.  Thanks for the information City Manager - it seems that you might be running scared for some reason.

Photos of the NEW construction on the beach as of 12/2...



I sincerely hope we are over calling this a rehabilitation project.  Honesty is the best policy.  From the City Manager's report of 12/2:
Let's put an inhaler for Ms. Margoles on the Secret Santa gift list.

Friday, December 2, 2011

A Palm Beach Story, Millions Not Required - NYTimes.com

TRAVEL
Frugal Traveler: A Palm Beach Story, Millions Not Required
Published: November 29, 2011
The author golfed, rented wheels, shopped for fine clothes and sunned on private sands in Palm Beach — all for well under $200 a day.
Click title for link to article. This is a portion that mentions Lake Worth:
My take on the "riff-raff" reference is that it is tongue-in-cheek and more of a slam at the elite-ness of Palm Beach than putting down Lake Worth.  Enter our District #4 Commissioner, world traveler and in constant defense of all things Lake Worth.  She used the opportunity to send this e-mail.  While I am not on her "select" e-mail list, I have already had it forwarded to me a couple of times by others who think the same as me.  She also uses it to push for her "Marketing Manager" position:

By her pointing this out, it makes it seem like we have more of an issue with "riff-raff" than we do.  If you look around at various definitions, the most common meaning of "riff-raff" is common people or a crowd.  In relation to Palm Beach, I would say that the Bennie's crowd consists of common people - like me and you.  Please Suzanne, use caution when approaching a keyboard.

Hype knows no era...

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Trading One Set of Challenges for Another: Story #1 from a Rust Belt Ex-Pat | Rust Wire

Click title for link to article by yours truly. It is about my experience moving from the "rust belt" and what has happened since. Enjoy!

One Woman’s Quest to Walk Every Street in Lansing | Rust Wire

This is a neat - and challenging - idea. Lansing, Michigan, where I was born, has 600 miles of streets. She is doing the walk for a number of reasons that you can read in the article. Click here for link to her blog.

Another CRA success story...

Roof project complete on 1000 Lake Avenue.  The CRA owns the building.

Click title for link to the City's Electric Long Range Plan

This will be the subject of the Finance Advisory Board meeting tonight, 6 p.m. at City Hall. This has nothing to do with our power provider or generation. It deals with distribution and other system upgrades.
They will also be talking about the fire assessment and how to fit the FAB into a formalized review process on financial related items that come before the City Commission.

FaceBook Post from Mark Parrilla, about 17 hours ago...

"Thank you all my for all of your prayers, words if strength and encouragement. I was singing this morning at 5:30am that's how good I felt. They have removed all the tubes am waiting to be taken to a regular room, I'm out of critical care. God is good all the time."

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Vintage South Florida Used Car Dealer TV Ad...

Update:

No one has responded to my e-mails related to our water restrictions.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Issued at 2:45 p.m. today from the Minister of Misinformation:

Same e-mail otherwise, with this tacked on at the beginning.

From one of our roving photographers...


Construction pictures from the casino building taken today.

American Migration [Interactive Map] - Forbes

Way cool interactive map showing in and out migration of any county in the nation. Palm Beach County continues to draw from the Midwest and Northeast, but seems to send people to California, Arizona and Georgia. Income data of the different groups is also included.  Click title for link.

Building heights, land use among items to be discussed in Lake Worth

Willie's report on the meeting cancellation, click title for link. This is from the article:

William Waters, director of the Department for Community Sustainability, said the city commission needs to begin discussions about building heights, building design parameters, current and future land uses and other development-related issues addressed in the city's comprehensive plan.

 More like "to conclude discussions after seven long years."

Palm Beach County inspector general vows to keep watch on cities even if they don't pay

This is a bill that Lake Worth paid, according to my understanding. Click title for link.

This just in from Rachel Waterman, Minister of Misinformation:

Part of a blast e-mail sent out at 11:07p.m. last night.  I guess she should read the blogs more so that she is up on the latest information.  As we all already know, both of these meetings were cancelled yesterday.  And she apparently was at a different meeting than I was last Monday - she still thinks that height was discussed.  I am starting to understand why she has trouble affording ice cream.

I didn't know the effects of typtophan were so strong.

Lake Worth cancels meeting about shuffleboard building's future

I guess Ms. Stanton, you could say, got the willies. Click title for link to PBP article.

Every word...

Most Palm Beach, Broward County bus stops lack benches, shelter

Click title for link. What is your Commission doing to address this issue?

Monday, November 28, 2011

Public art will grace platforms of SunRail stops

Click title for link - art in public places, funded by the state, and mass transit combined.

Tampa police prepare for anarchist attacks at 2012 Republican National Convention | Florida politics blog: The Buzz | Tampa Bay Times

Worth a read. Click title for link. I am sure our local contingent is familiar with the techniques mentioned in the article. Try negotiating with someone when you are having urine sprayed on you.  Here is the full article.

Uh oh...someone must have thought we were moving too fast...

Tri-Work Session cancelled for Wednesday, November 30th.  The next possible time will be late in January.  Really, what is a couple of months when you have been at this for seven plus years?  This meeting has been on the books for two and a half months, at least.   The back-up was ready last Wednesday.  No decisions would have been made at this meeting.

I hear that the charette on the building former known as the Shuffleboard Court building is also cancelled.

Any resemblance to our U.S. Congress is completely coincidental.  Click here for what was to be used as back-up material for the meeting.  You will have plenty of time to study it.

E-mail blast from our missing-in-action Commissioner Mulvehill:

Dear Neighbors,

There will be an important meeting on Wednesday, November 30 beginning at 5:30pm to discuss the city's policies regarding height, density, intensity, and other future land use regulations. The meeting will be held at the Lake Worth Municipal Golf Course, located at One 7th Avenue North, Lake Worth, on the intracoastal waterway. This meeting is a tri-meeting between the city commission, the planning and zoning board and the historical preservation board. Please review the backup material online.

As your commissioner, I have worked hard to make your vision of a low rise community that values historic preservation a priority through our land use regulations and our comprehensive plan. It is my hope that the commission will continue in this direction. Please join us for this meeting and/or email your commissioners and Mayor to let them know your vision for our city.

Sincerely,
Suzanne

Suzanne Mulvehill

Eisenhower WRC-TV 1958 (oldest known colour videotaping) - author unknown

This is sample footage of the earliest surviving colour videotape recording which is the Dwight Eisenhower inaugural address to WRC-TV on 22nd May 1958. The first 15 minutes of this event was shot in B&W which you see the president arriving to the building and the news reporter giving details of the event, then about nearly 15 minutes in Robert Sarnoff hits the colour switch and on comes the colour. For the remaining 15 minutes Robert Sarnoff, Dwight Eisenhower and David Sarnoff speak about the station and the colour television technology while being recorded in living colour!!! The whole program is available for download in DVD quality from a user on Veoh right herehttp://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/news/watch/v191020606nr3MbJG . In the sample I've included the B&W portion where the president arrives and the colour portion which Robert Sarnoff and Dwight Eisenhower speak.

USA started broadcasting colour in late 1953 and colour TV sets were available to the public in 1954 at an expensive price. Colour videotaping began in USA in 1958 and this footage is the earliest known to exist and it has been successfully transferred to digital for preservation. It is totally awesome to know that some colour programs from the late 1950s have survived on colour videotape as they show to us younger generations how good colour television really was back in its earliest days!!! Those RCA TK-41 cameras gave brilliant pictures back in the day!!!

Since it has been so long since we have seen Commissioner Mulvehill, this deserves a re-play...

Charles Caleb Colton

‎"Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm."

Lake Worth still hopes to cut budget instead of levying fire, streetlight assessments

Click title for link to PBP article about budget amendments.  Make sure to read the comments after the article.  This is from the article itself:

Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill said she does not favor eliminating positions such as the marketing coordinator and the sustainability manager, which she said will help the city move forward.


"It's becoming clear that it is not possible to eliminate the fire assessment without jeopardizing the future of the city," Mulvehill said. "I hope, as we move forward, we can agree on a vision for the city."

I don't know how anything can be "clear" to her, since we haven't seen her in three weeks. To miss the swearing-in ceremony, regardless of the reason, was bad form.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

To be fair...

Here is our City of Lake Worth website homepage.  In the lower right hand corner of the homepage, there is a graphic that is labeled "Water Restrictions" with a drop of water descending into a blue pool.  Nothing indicates that it is something to click on, other than the change of your cursor indicating so.  You click on it and it does take you to that March 2011 press release.  Most monitor screens now are in the 16:9 HD format which effectively hides anything nestled at the bottom of page.  The point:  No one knows it's there.  The word is not getting out.  The public is uninformed about one of our major resources upon which our lives are based.