What other risks have we taken that endanger our survival on this planet to satisfy our lust for oil and fossil fuels? How many times do we have to be reminded of our perilous addiction to this resource? The Energy Crisis of the 1970s awakened many to the need to diversify our energy resources and many of the renewable sources - such as wind, solar and Geo-thermal - got a big push from that set of circumstances. But then we got lulled into the comfort of cheap oil during the 80s and the 90s - with a few major hiccups in the form of the Exxon Valdez and other like accidents. But, for the most part, we kept paving our way to further dependence on oil and gas, and on the fossil fuel burning single passenger automobile to the detriment of other alternatives.
Notice that I used the term "paving our way." Cheap land and government/developer money for roads, along with reliable machines in the form of mass produced automobiles, made it practical to live away from city centers. One could work in a downtown location and go home to a "bedroom" community at night and weekends. A two career couple, each with their own car, could pick a place in between each other's place of employment and meet in the middle during their non-work hours. Overtime there were many other alternatives over older, already developed communities that had a newer housing stock, more space between houses, gated communities offering the illusion of more "security." Suddenly, the Lake Worths of the world were left wanting - for people, for wealth, for investment to support its already in place infrastructure. Instead of maintaining what was already built, huge subsidies were building new infrastructure easily reachable in a 20 to 30 minute drive to housing, employment and shopping.
Look at Detroit - the automobile, source of its fleeting riches, is what ended up killing the city.
The result of all that and its effect on Lake Worth is laid out in plain, hard facts in the proposed 2010-2011 Budget, just released by the City Manager. I will have more to say about what is laid out in the budget document and, in particular the City Manager's transmittal letter. In a nutshell, she states in a very matter-of-fact way, that even though we have experienced more than a 40% decline in the value of our property tax base over the past three years, we can maintain our 4.999 millage rate, not lay anyone off and not diminish our level of service. All we need to do is thus: and this is a great understatement, 1) tell the Sheriff's Department that we are going to pay you less than originally agreed upon in our initial year of your contract to provide police protection to Lake Worth - forget about any increase as agreed upon in the contract, 2) do the same with Palm Beach County fire rescue and 3) break three contracts with the city's unions.
How did we get in this position? The City Manager says it's because the city has been "submissive" in soliciting development. I'm not sure where she came up with that term, but Lake Worth has been actively hostile to the prospect of any redevelopment opportunities, save for the efforts of the CRA, but more on that later. It's like we did everything we could to hasten the fall of the city of Lake Worth - but again, more on that soon.
But getting back to the beach, the ocean and saving our environment, how do those who proclaim Lake Worth as a "progressive, environmentally aware and protective" city explain that our vaunted Micheal Singer beach plan looks like it came out of 1950?
Here is what the beach looks like today, a product of 1950s thinking:
The current plan for the beach as approved by our "progressive" City Commission:
Lots of asphalt there to park 613 fossil fuel burning, environment imperiling cars - including 10 convenient spaces for Casino building tenants' cars. Really not that much different from the current, basic auto-dominated plan when Lake Worth's Dixie Hwy was lined with mom and pop motels housing tourists from the cold north - who came to Lake Worth on US 1 in their cars.
Meanwhile, one of the new revenue sources identified by the City Manager in the budget is metered parking in the downtown. Here is where she talks about it in her transmittal letter.
The justification is that more South Florida cities that have "viable downtown areas" are using parking meters there as revenue sources. I don't know about you, but the number of vacant store fronts that we currently have in the downtown area doesn't scream "viable", let alone thriving. Aren't we still teetering upon a "possible economic recovery" - I haven't seen one yet.
The point here is that we could do something visionary that would serve as an example of how an environmentally responsible community reacts to adversity and honors its most important piece of public property - on the ocean. A place where people gather en masse to protest against drilling for oil in the ocean. We could concentrate parking in the downtown for the beach, shuttle people to it in alternative renewable fuel vehicles and return them to spend money in our downtown. We could initiate a parking validation program to encourage people to shop and get their parking paid for in the process.
In the meantime, we wait for a commercially viable alternative to gas fueled vehicles, or bike or walk, which are viable, but not for everyone in every circumstance. But, no, we will keep electing "leaders" that say that they are visionary, have massive "fluff pieces" in local newspapers showing how they are more environmentally sensitive than any mere mortal, and keep doing the same thing that we have done since 1950.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
