On predicting what the voters will decide next year. . .

Should the City of Lake Worth become the “City of Lake Worth Beach”?

Or is the better question, “Are the voters in this City of Lake Worth ready to rename this City”?

We’ll find out the answer to that question on March 12th, 2019 when the voters march to the polls. That would be one hundred and three days from today.

In the meantime everyone will have plenty of time to make their case. Today this news finally made The Palm Beach Post print edition. That means in a day or two Frank Cerabino will chime in with something snarky about “Lake Worth Beach” and Harry’s Banana Farm will put up a new sign. And then a couple days after that the editorial board will most likely chime in. The worst thing that could happen is the editor(s) like the idea of “Lake Worth Beach”. That would be the kiss of death.

When it comes to referendums remember in 2017 the public mood seemed to be a toss-up when it came to increasing terms for elected leaders from two to three years. But that referendum passed by a very comfortable margin. Most people thought the 2016 Neighborhood Road Bond would pass but be a squeaker. Wrong. It passed by a landslide.

Five years ago this City by referendum moved our municipal elections from November back to March. The conspiracy theorists went nuts. But it passed anyway.

The point is predictions about what will happen on March 12th, 2019 are moot. The public debate has barely begun.

The interesting thing is everyone on both sides of the issue seem very comfortable letting this question go to ballot in March of next year. Expect a very lively, informative and interesting debate.

However, when it comes to the press and news media, please note it was reporter Andrew Lofholm at WPTV/NBC5 who first broke this story about the Lake Worth City Commission considering renaming this City. Lofholm reported this news last Monday.

The news from Lofholm was very fair and accurate. And today in the print edition (Thursday, Nov. 29th) the beat reporter from The Palm Beach Post has finally gotten around to reporting this major story which actually became a story on October 30th, nearly a month ago.

But unlike the news on WPTV the Post relied on Facebook for public opinion.

Yes, it’s true, Facebook:

[M]ore than 300 voted against the name change [to “Lake Worth Beach”] and over 100 people were in favor of it.

Since when is a ‘vote’ on Facebook a reliable indicator of public opinion?

As you will learn later in this blog post, a poll taken by a professional firm showed a statistical tie at 50% against renaming this City, 45% for the name change with 5% undecided. And how many people on Facebook ‘voted’ multiple times?


To learn more about this topic for yourself,
instead of relying on Facebook. . .

At last Tuesday’s City Commission Work Session on the topic of renaming this City to “Lake Worth Beach” Mr. Steven Vancore of Vancore Jones Communications had some very interesting observations. That YouTube video is at the end of this blog post.

Also on the agenda last Tuesday was the discussion about the proposed ballot items to allow the sale of public property at 501 Lake Ave. by referendum on March 12th, 2019 and the proposed referendum to sell a 12-acre parcel of public property in the northwestern area of the City.

The next public meeting to discuss these topics will be at the regularly scheduled City Commission meeting next Tuesday, Dec. 4th, at 6:00 for First Reading. Then on Dec. 13th will be a Special Commission meeting (Second Reading) to decide whether or not to send these questions to the Supervisor of Elections to be placed on the ballot next year.

What needs to happen in the meantime.

For the ballot question about renaming this City to pass the younger generations and the Millennials need to get involved. Why? There are still way too many older voters in this City that are fond of a “Lake Worth” that existed 40–50 years ago and that is borne out from the polling results.

No doubt the polling results would be much different in 2028 and beyond.

The political support to put this question on the ballot is very strong. But it remains to be seen if that political support will translate into public support, especially so among the younger voters.

Next week a lot of young people need to show up at the City Commission. And a lot of young people and Millennials need to contact the elected leaders on the City Commission and tell them you support renaming this City to “Lake Worth Beach” and pledge your support to help get this ballot question passed by a wide margin to send a strong message.

The older generations apparently are not disturbed by things like this, ‘news’ published in The Palm Beach Post about our City.

But the younger voters and the Millennials can send a very strong message as well:

“Enough is enough: We are not the old Lake Worth”.

Mr. Vancore is introduced at the eleven minute
and thirty second mark in this video: