An example of limited thinking and vision...

The above appeared in the City Manager's report of 11/23/11.  It is the first and only notification of the charrette for the "new" - why are we so challenged by understanding what is "new" and what is "old"? see Casino building - Lake Worth Community Center.  In this notice, we find that the building is now "formerly known as the Shuffleboard Courts Building."  It seems like someone said to herself, Gee, I don't like history and I have already decided that we cannot, simply cannot have a public shuffleboard facility in Lake Worth.  Decision made, period, end of story.

No, we will slap something together, to satisfy the grumbling public, that I will call a charrette, even though it is really not one of those, but it sounds good to say it.  It sounds like I am a planner when I say stuff like that.  We never can utter the word "shuffleboard" - NO!  We also cannot acknowledge that this property takes up a city block in the middle of the downtown, right next to a railroad track and that it is strategic and pivotal to what sorts of city facilities we will have in the future.  We cannot have our Planning and Zoning Board decide what the best use of this property is and make a recommendation to the Commission - that would be too consistent with the City Charter and Code of Ordinances.  It has to be MY WAY when all is said and done, but we can pretend to care about what the public thinks.  No, we cannot have any extensive discussions of the sort, irrespective of what anyone else thinks.  No, we will have a discussion led by our recreation staff who will unequipped to talk about anything else but whether or not we will have Bridge on Tuesday afternoons, or is it better to have Canasta then before or after a Sit-and-be-fit class?  And we can never acknowledge that the day labor center that was most recently in this building turned out to be a colossal waste of money and effort, even though it helped propel the agendas of some of my favorite people - the ones that brought me here in the first place.

Here is the "promotional flyer" - make sure to re-print and distribute widely!