More symptoms of a poorly designed site plan at the Lake Worth Casino complex. . .

These pictures were taken yesterday (8/6) during about a 20 minute span of time, beginning around 11:45 a.m. Occasionally, I take a few minutes after my pool routine and have lunch at Mama Mia's. The bus shown above was from the VA Hospital, I think. It sat idling for all the time that I was there in the outdoor seating area. I did not see anyone get on or off this bus while it was there, but it was a bus full of people. I hadn't seen anyone looking like that demographic in the pool area so I am not sure what the destination had been. Maybe Benny's?

Anyway, it was stopped in the "No Parking Any Time" area. Which was put there since one of the goals of redeveloping the beach was to rid it of idling Palm Tran buses that sat in front of the former Casino building, belching diesel fumes and generally blocking the view of the Atlantic Ocean.

At the tail end of my lunch the bus left but only to be replaced by a semi-trailer, seen in these three pictures. It was the Mulligan's Thursday beer delivery.

Notice the NO PARKING ANY TIME sign immediately next to the truck's tailgate.

From this vantage point about half of one's view of the Atlantic Ocean is blocked by this semi-trailer. People eating outside at Mulligan's where not just being treated to having their view blocked, but also introduced to some vulgar words coming out of the mouths of the truck driver and his assistant. Many of these words rhymed with "truck." The truck was there for at least 30 minutes as they used a dolly to move kegs from the back of the truck all the way around to the west (back) side of the building. This is not the appropriate parking for a truck of this size but there is nowhere to park on the west side. If they did park on the west side it would block traffic on the north side of the building more than it does in this location. It made me wonder how many other delivery trucks use the same method for deliveries to Mulligan's or any of the retail shops in the Casino building? How often?

And when there is an event in the ballroom all sorts of vehicles use this space to drop off catering items, flowers, sound equipment for bands, etc. They are usually there for a while too. So, the prospect is that you could be in a situation where after having to park your vehicle and walk quite a distance to your destination, planning to sit outside to eat and enjoy the view only to have your view blocked by vehicles loading and unloading.

Further south, you have the same situation with Benny's deliveries, only there larger vehicles end up blocking beach patrons cars from backing out. Some of these are handicapped spaces. The delivery vehicle also ends up blocking the traffic lane so cars going north or south have to go around them using the other lane, counter to traffic flow. Throw in some bikes and a couple pedestrians with beach chairs and coolers, and you have a mess on your hands.

It could all have been done better by the previous commission who approved this plan, but it would have taken huge design changes to fix and that money doesn't come easily. That is, unless we want to steal more money from the water utility fund and not pay it back. Or just pay it back in 2035 or 2050, whichever is more convenient.