All that I am saying is..

I hope that he knows he isn't finished.

Later: He knows. I went there and took pictures which will be up shortly. He corrected the spacing between the "Y" and "OF" and this was taken during the change. I plucked this pic off of FaceBook.

Jumpin' J Street!

This is the other post about the interesting items we had on this month's Historic Resource Preservation Board meeting agenda (6/12). Click here for link to the city's video of the entire meeting. Above, we have two different scenes of the 800 block of Lake Avenue shown above - I think the bottom view is the older one. These are prior to the hurricane of 1928.

801 Lake Avenue - the building at the southwest corner of J Street and Lake Avenue - was on our agenda for a Certificate of Appropriateness for window replacements and a major re-do of the building. The owners were there and stayed through the entire meeting. They are interested in Lake Worth and definitely want to improve their building.

This is the eastern elevation of the building.

This is the northern elevation of the building. Its style is referred to as Mission Revival and was popular during the boom period of south Florida development in the 1920s.

This is the existing condition of the eastern facade of the building. In the course of the improvements, all the louvers will be removed and existing windows will be replaced with new impact units.

Another view of the same facade looking northwest, showing the building's prominent location in our downtown. The owners have no specific plans for the building, other than likely a retail space on the first floor and the possibility of office or residential use of the second floor. The building requires a lot of work and has been like this for a long time.

Further south down J Street, we have the Blue Orchid building - another Mission Revival structure that houses the popular entertainment venue the "Bamboo Room" on the second floor and the Poutine Dog Cafe on the first floor.

Below is the storefront of the Poutine Dog Cafe. At the same meeting, the board approved a distance waiver for beer and wine sales at this popular eatery.

And just south of the Blue Orchid building is the headquarters of all good that happens in the city, the Lake Worth CRA offices. And just beyond that is the historically intriguing Maple Leaf apartment building.

And on the east side of the street, we have Fat Sals - a real Italian deli where they are having a "create your own" sandwich contest through this month. Your submission might appear on a future version of their menu. Drop in and be greeted by this happy face behind the counter.

So, J Street seems to be the budding, happening location in the downtown area right now. Remember Propaganda will be having some special events during the summer that will be closing down the street, creating a special event environment during selected weekends.

Update to previous post...

This plant growing in my courtyard turns out to be a Dwarf Red Orchid Tree (Bauhinia Galpinii). It is native to eastern and southern Africa. It seems to do well here in south Florida and, fortunately, does not have invasive qualities. It can eventually get to be 6 to 8 feet in height! Its main growth period is during the summer, but the blooms are fairly constant throughout. It is a relative of the more common Hong Kong Orchid Tree.

Kayaks, karaoke and kickin’ back | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

The Post is rolling out its stuff on Lake Worth in honor of our city's centennial. This is a great piece by resident Leslie Streeter. Click title for link.

Prancercise: The Sequel! How John Mayer Singlehandedly Revived the Craze - The Daily Beast

If the article about the coming inundation of south Florida has you feeling depressed, step from the world of Prancercising to Romancercising. But please refrain from actually doing it if you are nursing or pregnant. Click title for link to the next weird chapter in this on-going saga. For your enjoyment, I offer this:

Best watched full screen!

Why the City of Miami Is Doomed to Drown | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Please, if you read nothing else this weekend, read this article from the July 4th issue of Rolling Stone. This is all about the wet future the 5.5 million inhabitants of south Florida will be facing through the rest of the century. Lake Worth is mentioned on page 2. If I quoted the important, relevant parts of the article, I would end up copying it all. Click title for link.

Editorial: Boynton Beach should not hesitate to kill plan for... | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

This is an editorial from the Palm Beach Post about Boynton Beach's current plan falling apart in relation to saving the Boynton Beach High School building. They are suggesting the building's demolition be put back on the table. Juan Contin, the architect that was chosen to lead the current version of the restoration project is mentioned in the article. Mr. Contin is also a member of the Historic Resource Preservation Board here in Lake Worth. Two other items of note that aren't mentioned in the article. Rick Gonzalez, architect for our "new" casino building lost out to Mr.Contin in the RFP process. The other is that our casino building is, properly, not mentioned as an example of historic preservation in Palm Beach County.Click title for link.

Gary, Indiana may be cut in HALF to save it from destitution | Mail Online

I remember riding in the car as we drove to Chicago from Michigan. We always knew we were going by Gary due to the foul smell of the air. Notable too in that the Jacksons of the Jackson 5 hail from there. They are facing similar problems as Detroit is, as well as other industrial cities of the Midwest. I wonder sometimes if the vision some have for our city is for it to return at least half of it back to nature. Click title for link.

Scientific Proof That Cities Are Like Nothing Else in Nature - Emily Badger - The Atlantic Cities

A little bit on the planner/geek end of the scale, but this is an illuminating article on the function and commonalities all cities share. And these functions and qualities all vary with size. The article also talks about density and its role in sustainability.  Click title for link. From the article:

“We tend to look at things by the way they look, by form,” he says. And this is why most of our existing metaphors fail. “All the successful theories of science are not about form at all – they’re about function. They’re about how things develop, how things change. They’re about process.”
If we take that point seriously, he says, we have to ask what cities do, not what they look like, or even how they grow. At their most fundamental, cities are not really agglomerations of people; they’re agglomerations of connections between people. All of their other properties – the roads we build to reach each other, the density required to do that, the economic products and ideas we create together – derive from this fact.

The "he" refers to the author of a thorough study on the topic which is the basis for the article. The study itself is not required reading and there will be no pop quiz. 

Pics from last night's fundraiser at the Lakeside Castle for Commissioner Amoroso's Re-Election Campaign

Commissioner Andy Amoroso addresses the crowd. Ms. Hoover, the owner of the Lakeside Castle, said that this was the largest crowd she has seen for an event like this. And there have been several over the years.

Search for graves of Lake Worth’s early settlers yields no... | www.mypalmbeachpost.com

The PBP story on Wednesday morning's scanning of the grave sites of Samuel and Fannie James. Gotta love Bornstein's quote about it being a "grave disappointment." Click title for link.

Happy Summer!

A friend gave us this plant last year and it really has taken off. It's planted in our courtyard. Very delicate, deep green leaves and seems to float in the air. Today it greeted us with these blooms. Can anyone identify it? Thanks. In the meantime, enjoy the day!

Man who stole semi-trailer carrying $500k worth of WINE is caught after GPS tracker inside vehicle leads police right to him | Mail Online

Just found this. Common sense was missing here. Click title for link.

To follow up on a previous post, what exactly is a West Orange?

We should make all attempts necessary to eliminate "confustion."

Yesterday morning (6/19) on South L Street...a Centennial Moment

I thought you would enjoy seeing the video of what went on yesterday morning as it relates to the search for the grave sites of Samuel and Fannie James. The Jameses were freed slaves that laid claim to much of the area that became the city of Lake Worth and operated the Jewel post office prior to the city's incarnation. They sold their holdings to the Palm Beach Farms (Bryant and Greenwood) in 1911 in anticipation of creation of the city. You can click the link above for a brief sketch of the city's early history.

The grave sites for our founding family was always thought to be 315 South L Street. There are memories of some gate surrounding this a portion of the front yard area that is highlighted in the video. The former, long-time owner of the property was uncooperative in assisting with any investigation regarding the possibility of the grave site's existence. But the new owners are very interested! They were just before us at last Wednesday's HRPB meeting for changes related to their ambitious restoration of the structure, originally built around 1925 and added on to in the late 1940s. So this is the other item that I wanted to bring to your attention from that meeting. There is one more coming soon which I hope to have up sometime tomorrow.

The video shows a crew using specialized equipment that is generally used to find utilities underground. The city has used them in the past and they contributed this work and the use of equipment for free for this exercise. Here is a picture of their truck, the name of the company and their phone number if you want to call to thank them for helping us out.

If you turn up the volume on the video, you can get an idea of what was being found and what was not being found. In essence, their equipment detected that there had been a disturbance in the area where the graves were thought to have been. This disturbance did not extend all the way to the house, so it is thought that it was not utility related. It also extended into the street about where the bike land exists today. And there were two distinct areas that were disturbed. There was no evidence of actual burial remains. It is my guess that the graves were relocated when the house was built in the mid-1920s, but that is just a guess.

The fact that there is some evidence that something was there and the long held notion that this was the location of the James' resting place might be enough to make the property eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places as an individual structure within an already established historic district. This is more honorific than anything, but it would put in on par with the Gulfstream Hotel, the former City Hall (Annex) and the Osborne School as an important building in the city's history.

Here are some other pictures of the crowd that assembled at 8 a.m. yesterday morning. It drew the attention of many neighbors!