My experience as host on the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival Shuttle...

I volunteered and was assigned for the 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. time slot yesterday, (Saturday). There were two shuttles. Both dropped festival attendees off at City Hall. One went in a loop from Tri-Rail to downtown and the other went from Palm Beach State College to the downtown. Both were well utilized throughout the day. The one stopping at Tri-Rail was a larger shuttle-type bus; the one to the college was smaller and more the size of an airport rental car bus. Yes, you can say we rode the "short" bus, which is how many referred to it in a good-natured way.

Since I happened to be there during that part of the day, there were more people leaving than coming. I introduced myself and the driver and thanked them for coming to the festival. There was a genuine positive response from the group when I asked them if they had a good time. Interestingly, when I asked if the brief rain in the afternoon bothered them, they said that it didn't. Many said it was an opportunity to go in to the shops and they then held up packages of things they had purchased in our downtown! Good news here.

I took questions after giving a brief overview of the city. Every group of passengers coming from the festival, we did probably 15 rounds during the two hours, asked if this shuttle bus ran every day. I responded to that with a hearty "I wish!" We have always talked about the potential transit link between the downtown and the college, perhaps even to the beach. So, I thought that was interesting that others recognized the opportunity that represented. And it really does need to be a priority to better link to our existing, thriving college on the western flank of the city.

I used the opportunity to talk about the Lake Worth Cottages group. It turns out that for most of the people on the shuttle, it was their first Lake Worth visit. This was so even though most lived in western Palm Beach or northern Broward County. That should tell us all something—like we remain outside the
collective consciousness of our region. I took advantage of the ample supply of Cottage brochures, which have car, biking and walking routes and pointed out that most of the cottages are immediately north and south of the downtown—where the festival was. So I encouraged them to come back when a festival was not taking place and check out one of the more unique and attractive parts of the community. NEARLY EVERYONE TOOK A BROCHURE!

And it was surprising how few people knew about Tri-Rail, especially from people who have lived in south Florida for a while. There were some surprised looks from those who didn't know you could hop on the train to Miami and most didn't know about the $5 per day fare to go anywhere, as long as the trains run, on the weekends.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the festival and street paintings—all ages, races, types and many families with small children. I'm glad that people took advantage of storing their car somewhere else, other than our crowded downtown streets. I left feeling good about the city and its future.