Importance of Quality Beachfronts to Tourism and the Economy...(re-post from2008)

I just happened to come across this information on the Florida Atlantic University Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions website. You can click here to access their January 2008 newsletter. As I was wandering around their site, I stumbled on these pages from a study done in 2005 related to the economic impact beaches have on our state economy.

In these increasingly trying economic times and with the dwindling of local government resources (refer to last Tuesday's election results and the passage of Amendment #1), we have to keep in mind what a rare economic asset we have in our 19 acre beachfront property. To not do so is to manifest the conditions that we see at the beach today. Looking at the conditions at the beach today many people say (I've heard them), "It looks like Lake Worth doesn't care about its beach anymore." Then they wonder what else Lake Worth doesn't care about anymore. Tourists don't want to see a run down set of beach facilities. They will be choosing the ones that are most attractive and ones perceived to be more safe over beaches that don't have those traits.

It's very easy to sit back and say a beach shouldn't be used in an economic calculation such as this. But it is reality folks. It is not a choice to be economically viable and environmentally sensitive - the two can co-exist. We will need to blend the two soon and make sure it betters the City of Lake Worth's strategic position as a municipality in Palm Beach County. If we don't, then our fate will be cast by others rather than through our own actions. It's not that far-fetched to say that the very future of the City hangs in the balance.

Let's change our frames of mind from "can't do" to "can do".