[UPDATE] The City of Lake Worth doesn’t have an advisory board on crime.

CRIME UPDATE: News from Hannah Winston at The Palm Beach Post, article datelined Nov. 4th titled, “PBSO detectives investigating 65 cars with slashed tires in Lake Worth”, an excerpt:

     “This will not be tolerated in our neighborhood,” the the Royal Poinciana Neighborhood Association of Lake Worth said on its Facebook page. The group serves homeowners in an area bounded by Lake Avenue, Sixth Avenue South, Interstate 95 and Dixie Highway.
     Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800-458-TIPS (8477).


No City advisory board on crime? And the City doesn’t have an advisory board for Sober Homes. Or heroin. And no advisory board on literacy. And not one for the Zika Virus either. But the City is moving ahead with an advisory board to monitor the Blueway Trail on the C-51 Canal? A waterway that’s not even in the City and over which the City has no jurisdiction whatsoever? This is a real bad idea and here’s why:

In The Palm Beach Post, a “Point of View” dated November 2nd by Stuart and Brian Fischer of Boynton Beach titled, “Cities, associations should take steps against Zika”; good reasons to form an advisory committee in Lake Worth don’t you think?

“[T]oday that battle has become much more than an inconvenience. It has become a looming health crisis as the Zika virus has invaded the tri-county area. Strategies involve much more than swatting mosquitoes, burning specialized candles, and having cans of spray handy.”

And if you’ve read Pelican Pete this week, he doesn’t seem too keen on a C-51 Canal Advisory Board either.

“An advisory committee with no one to advise...just what was created...Think the State or County will listen to them? The Blueway project doesn’t need a Starr performer...and doesn’t want one.”

The City Commission decided to move forward and it was a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Andy Amoroso dissenting at the meeting last Tuesday, November 1st.

What’s the basic problem with an advisory committee such as this? It makes the City and its elected leaders seem disconnected and out-of-touch. Of the 40,000 or so residents of Lake Worth maybe at most 2,000 (5%) know what the Blueway Trail even is. But if you asked those 2,000 residents what’s a major concern for them in this City how many would say, “the Blueway Trail”?

Will this turn out to be a “really, really bad idea”? We’ll have to wait and see. And hope this doesn’t distract from so many other serious issues that need to addressed. And also hope this doesn’t become another target of opportunity for the ever-present critics in this City trying to derail all the progress going on.