Smart City, Serendipity and the Benefits of Karaoke

Something got into to me last Sunday morning and like a man possessed, I got up, grabbed the camera, put the top down and headed downtown - all of this a little after six in the morning. Quiet time in the City. The radio was set to WLRN, the public radio station out of Miami, and wouldn't you know the program "Smart City" was on the air. Check out the link because they do have shows archived. Being interviewed was Clive Wilkinson, an architect that was involved with the designing of the new "Google" headquarters building. It really was a fascinating discussion. One of the design principles employed in the design of this new headquarters was the building in of spaces where "spontaneous" education can happen - sounded like small lounge areas where people would gather around and have discussions of new and emerging ideas related to the development of information technologies, etc. And they emphasized the importance of such areas being planned into the larger sphere, beyond an individual building - that being the City.

And at that moment, as I was headed downtown for my first LW Starbuck's experience, I thought about how great that would be to implement in Lake Worth. A couple things come to mind: We need to do much more in terms of interaction and the promotion of links between Palm Beach Community College and the City of Lake Worth. In our changing economy/society, we need to promote the access to information, training and re-training of our workforce, the learning of other languages, etc. Here we have an institution of higher education at the western edge of our City and there seems to be little acknowledgement of what that means as one of the strengths that we can actively promote. We need to do a lot more to reinforce the physical linkage between PBCC, the Lake Worth High School and our downtown along Lake Worth Road in terms of pedestrian and bicycle friendliness - and other transit links. Here we have our existing Tri-Rail station, too - which may spin-off our first transit oriented development (TOD) and is treated in our Master Plan. A lot of possibilities here.

But the biggest opportunity to promote this "spontaneous learning and communication" would be the establishment of global internet access over the air waves (wi-fi) throughout the downtown area. This is something that many cities across the nation are promoting and adding as an amenity to their resident and visiting populations. This really is an idea whose time has come and one that the City and the CRA should look into. I think the City of Boynton Beach has made some headway in this area and we need to look at what they have learned to see what the pitfalls are. Try to think of some other ways that we can promote and get some momentum behind this concept - I'd love to hear what you are thinking.

Well, back to my Sunday morning expedition - the product of which you can see in the post on Redevelopment. So, I get to our downtown Starbuck's and FYI they open at 6:30 a.m. I got there around 6:15 a.m. I thought it was interesting that during that period of time, no less than three parties tried to get in - they eventually came back. Seems to be a popular place anytime of day. I hang out a while, got my jolt of java and headed on my photo expedition, all the while listening to Smart City.

After the interview with Clive Wilkinson, the last segment was - believe it or not - on the importance of singing and studies which link singing to the pleasure centers of the brain. Apparently, it doesn't matter what you sing, as long as you sing. And, the effect is more pronounced when singing is done in a group environment! Now, those of you that know me probably know that I am a Karaoke freak (I admit that once I had a six day a week Karaoke habit). In fact, during the last campaign cycle Commissioner hopeful Barbara Aubel and new Commissioner Cara Jennings, came by with their supporters and joined in our singing marathon. I don't remember Barbara singing, but Cara did. And since then, some of Cara's supporters in the form of local Green Party people have come by to say "Hi" and sing too. We have a good time whoever shows up. Consider dropping by some Thursday night.

So, the whole thing was "over-the-top" in terms of serendipity - here I was listening to "Smart City", taking pictures related to redevelopment of neighboring cities and Lake Worth and then to hear about the benefits of singing - it was all just about too much to take.

Thought I'd share the experience with you all.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"