Lake Worth residents share ideas for renovating casino building

Click title for link to Palm Beach Post article. I am glad that a lot of people attended - if this is the only public outreach, I'm not sure if 80 people plus the 350 some people who filled out the survey qualifies as adequate public input. It's interesting that the Post used the rendering by Beilinson/Gomez as the largest graphic in the on-line article. This was the design that I thought most went in the pure historic preservation direction.

I think the Mayor's worry that some people are against this project and will try to stop it is misplaced. By talking that way, you make it more probable that someone may get that idea - but history with the property is a tough precedent to break from. Realize that anything that I am writing here is done in the spirit giving reasonable warning and advice. This advice comes from someone who has actually supervised construction on a beach in Palm Beach County and just happened to employ the architect the city has chosen to work on the project.

That's what we lose when we don't allow for honest debate in the city. This is also what we lose when we refuse to listen to whom we don't agree with or with whom we are supposed to disagree. Constructive criticism and the asking of pertinent questions is not to be confused with being against this project. Being open to those sorts of inquiries, like what perhaps happened today, is a positive and can bring us together as a city.

The Commission should be able to defend their position publicly and I am sure the lack of objective analysis will play a role in the coming election.

I hope the Mayor, the Commission and the administration get that.