TODAY: Monthly meeting of the College Park Neighborhood Association (CPNA) in City of Lake Worth.

This month’s special guest speaker is Lake Worth Vice Mayor Andy Amoroso. Below are more details about this meeting: location, time, and the agenda.

Note the fundraising efforts to raise more neighborhood banners is going extremely well. Special thanks to these local businesses:

• Mama Gizzi’s Gourmet Pasta located at 2212 N. Dixie Hwy. in the City of Lake Worth; 561-642-9996.
  
• C & J Auto Techs, 1301 N. Dixie Hwy. in the City of Lake Worth; 561-225-6272.
• Aioli in West Palm Beach, the popular restaurant located in South End West Palm Beach, 7434 S. Dixie Hwy; 561-366-7741. FYI: The owners of Aioli are Lake Worth residents.
• Dairy Queen, “Fan Food. Not Fast Food” also in South End WPB, 7900 S. Dixie Hwy; 561-429-4530.

Please go visit and say “Thank You” to these local businesses supporting the CPNA.

About tomorrow’s meeting. . .

The monthly CPNA meeting will begin at 6:30 at The Beach Club Lake Worth. The Beach Club is located at the City’s municipal golf course, #1 7th Ave. South,

“[I]n the beautiful Old Florida Charm of the Lake Worth Golf Course. . . . We are open to the public. No membership is required to enjoy one of Lake Worth’s hidden jewels!”

The Beach Club will have their full menu and bar available to everyone at the meeting tomorrow.

For the CPNA website click on this link and there is also a Facebook page.

Some of the items on the agenda will be an update from the CPNA board, information about the neighborhood Block Party last month, and please bring your questions for Vice Mayor Amoroso who is a big supporter of the business community is this City and the owner of the City’s newsstand at 205 N. Federal Hwy. called appropriately “Studio 2015”.

What exactly are the borders of the College Park neighborhood within the greater Neighborhood Assoc. Presidents’ Council?

Good question!

This historic neighborhood in the City extends from Dixie Hwy. east to the Lake Worth Lagoon and north from Wellesley Drive (north side of street) to the C-51 Canal which includes the City’s Spillway Park. The C-51 Canal, by the way, is the historical border between the City of Lake Worth and our neighbor to the north, West Palm Beach, which does not have a beach.

Click on image to enlarge:

“The College Park subdivision was created by plats filed between December 1924 and May 1925. Edgewood Realty Co. of West Palm Beach opened the College Park development.”

College Park within the six-square-mile City of
Lake Worth is, “Between the Dixie and the Lake,
South of the Palm Beach Canal”:

The “Dixie” is now a major thoroughfare (U.S. 1; Dixie Hwy.), the freshwater “Lake” is now the Intracoastal and “the Palm Beach Canal” is now the C-51 Canal managed by the South Florida Water Management District.

The C-51 Canal will be undergoing major changes in the near future on both sides of the canal — in the City of Lake Worth and in the City of West Palm Beach too — in addition to the future Blueway Trail project bypassing the S-155 Spillway structure, creating more access for the public between the Inland Chain of Lakes and the Intracoastal (Lake Worth Lagoon).

Back to the CPNA. . .

Our goal is to protect and improve the neighborhood by building strong relationships among neighbors, our neighborhood merchants, our City government, local law enforcement [PBSO] and other neighborhood associations throughout the City of Lake Worth.

Why is this neighborhood called College Park?

Unique to College Park is the naming of each street after prominent American colleges and universities. From Wellesley to Maryland; from Holy Cross to Vanderbilt, and from Carolina to Notre Dame.

About one of the College Park neighborhood’s biggest challenges. . .

A vacant eyesore which could be a nice addition to the neighborhood when it finally catches the eye of a developer some day. That empty lot on one of our major thoroughfares entering the City — actually made up of three lots on the east side of Dixie which include 2302, 2314, and 2318 N. Dixie Hwy. — was once a thriving part of this region in coastal Central Palm Beach County:

The former Patio Coffee Shop.

Across the street from the Patio (at 2401 N. Dixie Hwy.) is where the former Park Avenue BBQ once stood.

Where the Park Avenue BBQ was is now a parking lot for World Thrift, a very nice parking lot, it’s nicely landscaped and kept clean and tidy. Unlike the unkempt lots on the east side of Dixie Hwy.

Those empty lots which make up the frontage of an entire block are in the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) district. It was once a popular destination for residents and visitors just like World Thrift is today here in this City.

Having a parking lot on the west side of Dixie isn’t my dream for that location but World Thrift is a very good neighbor. They keep their parking lot clean and well lit up at night in addition to the new signage. A very big improvement.

Who would have thought when World Thrift opened it would attract so many customers from the Town of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach too?

And hopefully some day soon that vacant block on the east side of Dixie Hwy., on one of our major thoroughfares entering this City, will once again become a destination.

And maybe even a place where the CPNA can hold meetings in the future — a prominent place, maybe even a trendy new restaurant — that is actually located in the College Park neighborhood.

You see. . .

The CPNA holds their monthly meetings at The Beach Club which is located in the Parrot Cove neighborhood.

For the map of all NAPC neighborhoods in the City of Lake Worth click on this link.