The idea, said Business Development Board President Kelly Smallridge, was to showcase a corner of the county that needs all the economic development it can get. Unemployment in the Glades tops 30 percent.
While residents of coastal Palm Beach County think of the Glades as far from civilization, site consultants who visited the farming community had a different take.
“I don’t see it as a remote area,” said Juan Gallardo, principal at Hickey & Associates in Miami. “You’re surrounded by a huge population and great infrastructure.”
Underwater in Palm Beach CountyOh, and Dan Liftman is interviewed for this article and happens to be underwater with his condominium. He also happens to be the staff person at Congressman Alcee Hastings' office. He also dabbles in local politics and swims with what is sometimes referred to as the "other side." He and AnnaBeth Karson are on a first name basis, among others. The question is why would the Post seek him out to be quoted for the article and then not mention his affiliation? He talks about a federal bill that expired which was designed to help people in that situation. My advice to the Palm Beach Post and to Kimberly Miller would be that there are other people to talk to other than Dan Liftman and their other favorite, Drew Martin.
Percent of homeowners with a mortgage who owe more on the loan than their home’s value by ZIP Code
33415 Greenacres, 46
33461 Palm Springs, 44
33407 West Palm Beach, 41
33409 West Palm Beach, 41
33417 Century Village, 40
33404 Riviera Beach, 39
33463 Greenacres, 38
33435 Boynton Beach, 36
33460 Lake Worth, 36
George Cloutier, 240 N. Ocean Blvd., whose assessment would be nearly $196,000 under the town’s plan, noted that his was among the highest on the list. “The bulk of the assessments on here fall on four or five property owners,” he said. “Keep in mind these are large sums of money.”
He questioned the necessity of the repairs, given that there’s no imminent danger of failure and that, according to the town, sand from the upcoming nourishment will cover most of the wall. Brazil replied that the sand fill will provide some protection but won’t prevent further deterioration.
Harvey Kinzelberg, 260 N. Ocean Blvd., is facing a nearly $308,000 assessment, the highest on the list. He questioned the distribution of the cost. Four properties representing 30 percent of the lineal footage of the wall would pay about $850,000, or more than half of the total cost, he said.
He suggested the cost be divided on a per-lineal-foot basis instead of by parcel.
Brazil said that approach also would be valid, “but our way is most logical to us.”
Sen. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, wrote to DEP Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard on Monday requesting that the department suspend approved oil exploration permits in the Everglades to allow the House and Senate to review the risks and effects.
The letter followed a report Saturday in the Orlando Sentinel saying that the search for oil on the western edge of the Everglades is raising hopes and fears of an emerging oil boom.
"In addition, please clarify whether any of these permits relate to fracking or other similar methods," Soto wrote. "These permits were issued without meaningful dialogue with your legislative partners and represent a major change in policy without our approval."
In response, Vinyard wrote that there are 162 oil and gas wells operating in six counties. But he said no exploration or drilling permits have been issued for The Everglades.
"While there are challenges to restoration efforts in The Everglades, oil and gas exploration is not one of them," Vinyard said.
Just how much more crime can we expect? Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's warming projections, Ranson calculated that from 2010 to 2099, climate change will "cause" an additional "22,000 murders, 180,000 cases of rape, 1.2 million aggravated assaults, 2.3 million simple assaults, 260,000 robberies, 1.3 million burglaries, 2.2 million cases of larceny, and 580,000 cases of vehicle theft" in the United States.
Ranson acknowledges that those results represent a relatively small jump in the overall level of crime—a 2.2 percent increase in murder and a 3.1 percent increase in rape, for instance. Still, says John Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center, those numbers add up to "a lot of victims" over the course of the century.
Those frequent storms, the Corps says, are one reason renourishment is important: Right now, storm surge from any direct hit by a hurricane, even a category 1 storm, could wash over State Road A1A. Sand acts as a buffer.
Right now, the road, the sole north-south hurricane evacuation for people living on much of the barrier island, is ailing, threatened by erosion.
Communities and the state have tried to push back the sea with revetments, sea walls and breakwaters, some of them funded by the Florida Department of Transportation, which spends about $1.5 million per year maintaining a shrinking 9,000-foot-long granite revetment between Seventh Street South and 23rd Street South in Flagler Beach, according to the Army Corps report.
The 4.6 million smart meters and other cutting-edge technologies that FPL has installed are crucial to its modernization program, which provides customers with several key benefits:
Reliable service. FPL can predict and prevent many outages.
Faster restoration. FPL can detect outages faster and restore service more quickly.
More customer control. Customers have unprecedented control over their energy use and costs. Many customers use FPL’s online “energy dashboard” to save on their electric bills.
The news of Arizona going all Alabama Circa 1963 is resonating nationwide, including in Wilton Manors, where Mayor Gary Resnick has written and sent a letter to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.The good news here is that Governor Brewer did veto the legislation. But there are other similar efforts bubbling up in other states.
In the letter, Resnick asks Brewer to veto SB 1062 and encourages her to lead the way in sending a message that discrimination of any kind is wrong.
The bill, which has been slathered with the most 'Murica name ever, "The Religious Freedom Bill," would straight up give business owners the right to refuse service to gays and lesbians.
Sentinel Barriers manufactures the TrapBag barrier system. Based in Fort Myers, Fla., Frank Donato, the city’s emergency management director, said the company contacted city officials about a month ago.
“The company was looking for some areas on the East Coast to install some demonstration projects,” Donato said. “They had been in our area, meeting with the Atlantic County engineer. They contacted us and asked if we had a stretch of beach that might need protection.”
On the night of February 22nd, we poured a mixture of sand and water into the fuel tanks of two tractors used in the construction of a new Atlanta streetcar. The streetcar is one of many major development projects the city has initiated in the past few years as a part of a general plan to revitalize downtown. We know that this plan only means more police and unaffordable housing.
“Today, a salesperson can’t tell a buyer if the lot they want will be available next week,” McDade [Jim McDade, Florida east coast division president for Toll Brothers] said. “Homes are selling that fast.”
From modest communities of 1970’s-era ranch homes to the exclusive Frenchman’s Harbor where multi-million-dollar mansions have their own deep-water docks, home values and sales in northern Palm Beach County rocketed through 2013 and are expected to climb another 8 percent in some areas this year.
Countywide, values are expected to gain 5.8 percent in 2014.
While West [Allen West, Tea Party, lost to Representative Patrick Murphy last year] was a prolific money-raiser in his campaigns, his endorsement didn’t boost Andel’s fundraising. She collected only $45,532 through Dec. 31 and began 2014 with $5,537 in her campaign account.
Murphy [Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter] has raised $2.1 million and began the year with nearly $1.8 million cash on hand.
"Patrick Moore is one of the early members of Greenpeace. He left in the 1980s after he felt the organization had lost its way. In the last few years, he has come out in favor of GMOs and changed his stance on such issues as nuclear power.
As proof the environmental movement is more like a cult rather than an unemotional, rational thinking movement, his former ideological comrades and their fellow travelers take every opportunity to try and discredit him and his reformed views. He left the fold and started thinking independently, which is heresy to the cult." - The Progressive Contrarian
O’Boyle, who moved to Gulf Stream from New Jersey where he made millions in real estate development, became known as “Banner Man” when he hired a plane to fly over the Palm Beach County Courthouse trailing signs blasting then-State Attorney Michael McAuliffe. He was angry McAuliffe prosecuted his daughter for drunk driving. He assisted - and then hindered - Dave Aronberg in his successful campaign to became state attorney. He also got into a very public battle with Gulf Stream by painting cartoons on his house, mocking city officials. He has buried Aronberg’s office and other local governments with public records requests.
The calendar says late February, but summer-like conditions began popping up around the southern peninsula over the weekend. Not only did we get a few late-afternoon showers as daytime heating collided with a cooler sea breeze, but 90-degree temperatures spread into the interior.
“We don’t want to create any false expectations. We’re only in the exploratory stages,’’ said City Commissioner Scott Maxwell. “Pardon the baseball pun, but we’re just trying to figure out who’s on first and what’s on second.’’It is noteworthy that the story on the possible spring training facility appeared on the front page of the Palm Beach Post's print edition today, slightly above the fold. The story about the EarthFirst! protesters at FPL's Juno Beach headquarters had a picture of them on page B1, with the story on B6.
Still, city officials say they are cautiously optimistic about the prospect of the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals sharing a spring training complex on 80-some acres in the 728-acre park just south of Lake Worth Road and west of Lake Osborne.
Paul Foglia, 48, a visitor from Denali National Park in Alaska, argued with several of those toting signs reading “Defend the Panther.”
“The world needs electric power. Yes, we need to look at alternatives. But protesting like this is no way to gain credibility,” said Foglia, nodding toward the five protesters sitting on the ground.
![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)
