Monday, January 19, 2015

Lake Worth city roads need fixing, water lines clogging, street lights missing...

...but intrepid reporter/editor and journalist extraordinaire Margaret Menge wants to spend millions of dollars for a dock? For ONE ship? This was the lead story, way "above the fold" of her first edition.

The article is titled: Gallery Owner Pitches 'Art Ship' for Lake Worth's Waterfront

The article by Ms. Menge is 27 paragraphs (one of which is 170 words), however, 44 of those words stand out: 
[Lake Worth] City Manager Michael Bornstein says the idea of the art ship "fits in" with Lake Worth, but that logistics are a problem. "It becomes very, very difficult, if not impossible," he says of trying to find a place for the ship to dock. [emphasis added]
If Ms. Menge began her story with City Manager Bornstein's quote that could have eliminated 10 paragraphs. Hundreds of thousands of dollars would be necessary just for the permits from the Coast Guard, the State of Florida, the DEP, Palm Beach County and tens of other county, state and federal agencies before any work is even started. For one ship. And we haven't even gotten to EarthFirst!, the Loxahatchee Sierra Club, the Thousand Friends of Florida, and the Marshall Foundation. Wait until they find out the lagoon habitat is going to be destroyed so a ship can dock at low tide. What about the poor turtles and manatees? The sea grass? 

If you go to page 4 of Menge's story you get to some interesting information about a Lake Worth gallery owner/artist, Robert Pardo. On his site is this: Please visit us at 805 Lake Ave. in beautiful Lake Worth Florida. We buy & sell Old Masters, 20th Century Modern & Contemporary Art. Art makes us feel better about ourselves and the world around us. That is a fact.

Here is the information for Mr. Pardo's gallery: hours, phone, etc. 

Tomorrow at 1:11 p.m. will be low tide in the Lake Worth Lagoon. Imagine how far out a dock would need to be to fit a 120-foot ship, without getting in the way of channel traffic.  Is this Ms. Menge's "Ship of Dreams?"