Sustainability and Economic Opportunity

RE-POST: This was part of the subject at the CRA meeting tonight - 11/19/08. More on this later along with link to complete report.

This goes back to the Treasure Coast Transit Oriented Development Charrette and the information provided concerning the city of Lake Worth retail market. It is also a look at the city's ability to attract outside money in the form of tourist dollars in relation to that brought in to the total Palm Beach County economy. This information was put together by Robert Gibbs - one of the premier experts in retail markets - especially traditional downtown locations.

I also had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Gibbs during the week that the team was here and I will share some of that conversation as well.

The first thing that impressed him were the number of strengths and positive attributes that we possess as a community.The list above is the list of attributes and amenities that Lake Worth has based upon its geographic, market and socio-economic factors. Anyone of which a regular, garden variety community would covet. We have ten of them. Like me, Mr. Gibbs comes from the Michigan "Rust Belt" and traditionally we have been part of the "Sun Belt" growth economy. While we may be in a slow down now, our prospects for long term future growth are greater in comparison to other regional markets around the United States.

Of course, one of the greatest assets that we have as a community is our unique, historic, small town walkable character. We most definitely are not a "cookie cutter" community. I like to term this - our best quality - as "authenticity." And, as we were made aware of during the charrette, we are situated between two railroad tracks - one that is currently a transit route and one that is planned to become one in the future. Plus, we have two interstate exits - which did not destroy our downtown and beach access, since they are located north and south of Lake and Lucerne Avenues. This was a big factor in the city being able to hold on to its charm and authentic, historic nature.

Need we say more that we have beach front access consisting of our own beach. Regardless of its current condition and the long struggle it represents, it is a tremendous asset in any condition. It could be so much more - click on the "Beach" topic for more information.

Mr. Gibbs also identified the 27,000 student commuter campus at the western edge of the city as another top amenity sought by retailers and investors. We also have the potential for a major employment center within the city in the form of the Lake Worth Park of Commerce.

We have a relatively affordable housing stock in relation to what surrounds the city in the rest of Palm Beach County. We have the potential to tap the wealth of neighboring communities - some of very high wealth - to support more of a retail market within the city. Palm Beach County itself is known as a desirable retail location nationally and internationally. Lake Worth happens to be in the center of it.

Why we have all these strengths that other communities have but have little to show for it in comparison could fill volumes. Maybe that's why there are so many entries in this blog. We could be so much more and have a higher quality of life - not just from an economic point of view - than we have now.

For example, this is how Lake Worth performs in attracting money from general Palm Beach County tourism in comparison to other key locations:


And this is how the city (downtown Lake Worth) compares with other sorts of normal tourist activities:


Imagine the impact that we would feel as a city on an economic basis if we just increased our share for 4 or 5 percentage points. Think of the "new" dollars that we would be bringing into our city economy and the spin-off effect that would have on employment, crime and tax base. How and why have we succeeded in walling ourselves off from the rest of the world? Is that our intent, really? If so, we are suffering the consequences right now.

This is probably the most alarming result from a lack of viable retail choices within the city of Lake Worth. Due to the fact that stores do not exist to meet our needs within the city, we have to get in our fossil fuel burning vehicles and drive for basic necessities. The following is a map Mr. Gibbs prepared showing a 5 mile radius around the city of Lake Worth charrette study area. Only the Boynton Beach mall and Cityplace really entered that radius, but not by a whole lot. Think about the number of trips and the gallons of gas that we would save if we had more retail opportunities available to us within the city.

Now, don't think I am talking about a new mall here or something so out of scale it wouldn't be Lake Worth-y (yuck yuck) Here are the sorts of stores that we could support, according to Mr. Gibbs, that we do not have now:
Here are some of Mr. Gibbs conclusions, based upon his analysis:

Let's review these. The downtown is not a functioning "shopping district" due to the lack of a significant concentration of retail stores - and no significant "anchor." We are under-served for our core goods and services which in turn causes excess travel and the exporting of wealth outside of our city limits. In fact, 90 to 95 percent of our spending is outside the city - how is that sustainable? We live in a very economic prosperous area and still have quite a number of tourists coming to the county, but we capture only 1.3% of spending in Palm Beach County.

So, does our non-friendly reputation for business and our hostile building department cripple our future prosperity and contribute to global warming? Me thinks they do. This information is just from the preliminary report given at the end of charrette week - we will be getting a final report presented to the CRA, Planning and Zoning Board and the City Commission in a few more weeks. In the meantime, consider this food for thought.