Hispanic Fest - 2007

Great time this afternoon and it's still going on. Maybe the rain will either stay light or diminish as we go into the evening. Things were picking up when I left around 3 p.m. from volunteering. Guess where? The beer tent! Great food there too if you want to go there and pick up something for dinner.

More Beach Pictures - "The Nocturne Series"

With the coming of the Halloween season, I thought that taking some nighttime pictures at the beach and posting them here would be appropriate. It turns out that they spookier than expected. While there are no mysterious "orbs" in the pictures, it wouldn't surprise me if future visits with the camera at night would reveal some. There are more examples here of the structure's numerous wrinkles and cracks. A history of repairs that makes one think that there may be more glue than structure left to this building.

These pictures were taken at 9 p.m. on a Thursday night. There were no families clamoring to get a choice parking space by the beach. There were no more than a half a dozen people there - some skateboarders (is that allowed?) No one seemed to mind. That is no one. It just came to me - what a missed opportunity to enjoy the beach environment when the sun isn't out. We do have a 24 hour clock and shouldn't we be using this gem of the City to the fullest extent - through all hours of the day and night (we can shut things down after 2 a.m ., of course). And, when the pier is finished, there will be more traffic than represented here, to be sure.

Now, think about a nice restaurant that serves an evening meal. Think about someone having their Quinceanera in the ballroom. There is room for that here, at this time of night, that would not interfere with the regular day traffic.

And anything that is built there would have to abide by turtle lighting standards enforced through the State of Florida, what is wrong with this picture. Why not have John G's stay open and serve dinner in the new casino building?

No storefronts open at 9 p.m. - not even NYPD Pizza.

Granted. This is an unflattering view of the building, but it was hard to find a flattering one.

Hmmm. And the City comes down hard on electrical inspections?

A repair made years ago to one of the columns supporting the second floor above the public walkway.

What can you say? This will be sure to be included in the new report the City is having prepared on the condition of the building.

Darkness - Lord Byron

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed,
And men were gathered round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour
They fell and faded--and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd,
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
And twined themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again;--a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought--and that was death,
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails--men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devoured,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answered not with a caress--he died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they raked up,
And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died--
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful--was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless--
A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirred within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd
They slept on the abyss without a surge--
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon their mistress had expir'd before;
The winds were withered in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them--She was the Universe.

Lake Worth Beach in the darkness.

A ghostly looking scaffold - home to our lifeguards during the day.

I wonder what Mr. Lockhart's spirit thinks about all this?

Rusty tears from a tired building.

For a more inspiring set of nocturnal pictures, visit the gallery of nighttime pictures by clicking here.

Look who dropped by...

None other than the "Daytime" Citizen Observer Patrol and capable volunteers Walter Baker and Mary Lindsey. Jim Stafford and I will be going out tomorrow night for a while. Nice to see you guys and thanks for dropping off my key!

We Love Lake Worth PAC Used Paid Petitioners

See the We Love Lake Worth PAC 3rd quarter report which shows out-of-town paid petitioners were used in their signature gathering efforts. Sarasota?? See third page - click to see larger image.


Remember, this PAC was formed for the purpose of overturning the future land use and zoning change at the beach. The City has sued for a declaratory judgment to determine whether or not putting the items on the ballot would violate State law. No word on the status of that lawsuit, or the other one filed by McNamara and McCauley related to the length of the lease to Greater Bay.

Victory Fund Friend

You might remember that I went to Houston last year for a Victory Fund campaign training session. When we split into groups, one of the people that I was fortunate to get to know a little better was Lynn Schulman. She was kind enough to send me a copy of an invitation to her fund raiser coming up in early November. I'll share it with you here. There are a couple of interesting items on it that we really should consider including in our disclosure forms, as it turns out.

She's running for a seat on the New York City Council:



Note the disclaimer on the return receipt: "I understand that state law requires that a contribution be in my name and be from my own funds. I hereby affirm that this contribution is being made from my personal funds, is not being reimbursed in any manner, and is not being made as a loan."

Hmmmm. Sounds like a good idea to me! It's also apparent they have some sort of public money being leveraged by private donations.

Something you might enjoy...

This is something that Google has come out with recently. It's a player that allows you to witness all of the various images, in somewhat real time, that are being uploaded from around the world on blogs like this. It's fun to visit there and just watch the large variety of images go by. How long you sit and watch is your decision. In someways I think of it as collective world consciousness as it represents what is on a large number of minds at any one time.

Nothing mandatory by any means, but something that might amuse at the least. You might even see some of my images go by. I wonder what other people think of Lake Worth City Commission agendas and such flickering on their screens?

Click here to see. You can adjust the speed of the images (I find it too fast to absorb when I first open it up) and click on the "More Info" link and that will show you more information regarding the individual blogs.

Visits from Around the World 9/1 to 10/13

Just an update on the geographic coverage of this website. This is from my Google tracking software which, for some reason, has been under-counting recently as compared to another tracking device I have installed. But, it is able to create this nifty map. In the actual version (the above is a screen shot), you can "mouse over" the dots for the name of the city and the number of visits from each.

Thanks for visiting!

Lest We Forget...

...about the contrasts between the built environment of Lake Worth and that of other urban areas in Palm Beach County, I thought it would be helpful to post these pictures here. Many times we lose the frame of reference and can get carried away with distorted notions of what real estate development is and how cities are created and defined.

So, the next time you hear about over-development in Lake Worth, refer back to these pictures:

West Palm Beach

Singer Island

Lake Worth

This is looking east, from the walkway under the bridge. You can see the crane used for pier repairs at the beach on the right side of the picture.

This is looking west, south of the bridge, with the southern edge of the bridge just out of
the picture to the right.

This is the view west from "Ye Olde Bridge Park", the north edge of the bridge is
just out of the picture to the left.

Taken at the West Edge of Old Bridge Park Today

This is the back of a sign at the northwestern end of Old Bridge Park. People have been telling me about it for a while and I happened to have my camera with me today as I was going by. Any idea who this "Larry" is and why would he be living here?

Other side of sign.

Last Night's Planning and Zoning Board Workshop

The P&Z Board held a workshop in the City Hall conference room last night regarding revisions to the Comprehensive Plan, based upon our Master Plan exercise. Those in attendance got to hear Kim Delaney of Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council talk about transit oriented developments (TODs) and how to make our Comprehensive Plan more attractive for the establishment of a transit station at the FEC (eastern) railroad tracks.

Below is an image from the South Florida East Coast Corridor study related to station suitability. For a link to the site for more information (and there is a lot of it!) click here.
Soon I will be able to post portions of Kim's Powerpoint presentation. It was interesting hearing someone at the regional planning council and talk about how density is used as an issue to create conflict in communities, but that it really comes down to the individual design of a project. There are some lower density projects that are much less attractive than more dense residential properties. This was needed information for some of those in attendance at the meeting and it was great to hear it said with authority.

More on this later.

Definition of Obscure

Main Entry: ¹ob·scure
Pronunciation: äb-'skyur, &b-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French oscur, obscur, from Latin obscurus
1 a : DARK, DIM b : shrouded in or hidden by darkness c : not clearly seen or easily distinguished : FAINT <obscure markings>
2 : not readily understood or clearly expressed; also : MYSTERIOUS
3 : relatively unknown: as a : REMOTE, SECLUDED obscure village> b : not prominent or famous obscure poet>
4 : constituting the unstressed vowel \&\ or having unstressed \&\ as its value
- ob·scure·ly adverb
- ob·scure·ness noun
synonyms OBSCURE, DARK, VAGUE, ENIGMATIC, CRYPTIC, AMBIGUOUS, EQUIVOCAL mean not clearly understandable. OBSCURE implies a hiding or veiling of meaning through some inadequacy of expression or withholding of full knowledge <obscure poems>. DARK implies an imperfect or clouded revelation often with ominous or sinister suggestion dark hints of revenge>. VAGUE implies a lack of clear formulation due to inadequate conception or consideration vague sense of obligation>. ENIGMATIC stresses a puzzling, mystifying quality <enigmatic occult writings>. CRYPTIC implies a purposely concealed meaning <cryptic hints of hidden treasure>. AMBIGUOUS applies to language capable of more than one interpretation ambiguous directive>. EQUIVOCAL applies to language left open to differing interpretations with the intention of deceiving or evading equivocal phrasing>.

Blog Action Day - October 15, 2007

Click banner for more information or click on You Tube video promoting the day. Look here next Monday for my post in honor of the day.

Reminder: Truth Matters

Truth Matters will air LIVE tomorrow, Tuesday the 9th, from 8 to 9 p.m. You can click here for the link, courtesy of Lake Worth Talk.com. Lots to cover - we'll go over some of the recent posts made here and other items of interest in the City. Greg Vannier and I look forward to chatting with you. I will be posting a link for questions from the Lake Worth Talk discussion board tomorrow. You can also post questions and comments here by clicking on "Comments" below this post.

Thanks for listening!

In Recognition of Columbus Day...

For more information about the voyage and Columbus' life click here.

Ethics Workshop 11/9

“FINDING THE ETHICAL PATH:
CHALLENGES FOR LAND USE and PLANNING PROFESSIONALS”

A WORKSHOP FOR LAND USE and PLANNING PROFESSIONALS

PRESENTED and SPONSORED BY:

DEPARTMENT OF URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING and the SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

PALM BEACH COUNTY PLANNING CONGRESS

TREASURE COAST SECTION, FLORIDA CHAPTER, AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION

DATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2007

TIME: 8:30 AM TO 12:30 PM

PLACE: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, BOCA RATON CAMPUS (Details to Follow)

According to some news media reports, Southeast Florida’s governmental institutions and the professionals who staff, attend and serve them are embedded in a “Culture of Corruption”. In one recent national survey, Florida is ranked the ninth most corrupt state in the nation. During the last year, there have numerous examples in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties of public officials who have been forced to resign, arrested, and in some cases, gone to jail for unethical behavior. For some, the consequences have been disastrous – the loss of reputation, loss of liberty, loss of income, and loss of self-esteem.

What should land use and planning professionals –planners, attorneys, landscape architects, civil engineers and others -- learn from this experience? This seminar will explore the ethical challenges and resources available to help prevent and resist a "culture of corruption”. Following a brief description of the culture, its attractions and pitfalls, we will explore the laws and rules of professional conduct and identify resources – formal and informal -- that may help you avoid “cultural contamination” and keep you on the “straight and narrow path”. Confirmed speakers include representatives of the news media, the Florida Bar, public and private sector planning professionals, and academics.

Further information, including a registration form, will be forthcoming later this week. See the end of this email for registration deadlines and fees.

When you register, we will invite you to assist us in keeping the discussion relevant by identifying ethical issues that you have experienced or would like to see explored. All suggestions will be kept strictly confidential.

For more information, please contact Frank Palen, AICP, at 561-655-0620 or palen@caldwellpacetti.com.

SPACE IS LIMITED – ADVANCE REGISTRATION and PAYMENT ARE REQUIRED TO GUARANTEE A SEAT

REGISTRATION FEE (Includes Continental Breakfast, Coffee Break, Printed Materials):

ADVANCE (By October 26, 2007)......$25.00*

REGULAR (By November 7, 2007)......$35.00*

LATE (November 8 – 9, 2007)........$45.00*

*Payment must be postmarked or received on Pay Pal by the above dates.

*Checks should be made out to the Palm Beach County Planning Congress and mailed to PO Box 1371, West Palm Beach, FL 33402.

*Electronic payments by cash, check or credit card can be made via the Pay Pal Link on the PBC Planning Congress website at www.pbcplanningcongress.org (this link will be active by October 10, 2007).