Image from KRKC's Facebook page; a local news outlet that covers Greenfield, CA.
The Other Blogger (TOB) in Lake Worth likes posting these long lists of crime in the City of Lake Worth. The lists go on and on and on. (Next time you see one of these lists notice the number of non-crimes like "beverage violation" and "child issue".) But what most people don't know, or don't care to know, is that crime dropped in Lake Worth last year.
The underlying message from some who express faux outrage about crime, like TOB and her former cohort Margaret Menge for instance, isn't so much actual crime but PBSO's "inability" to stop it. It's interesting to note that TOB's long lists and Margaret Menge's former 'Crime Blotters' rarely if ever listed arrests. They are/were only interested in the crime itself and not the entire story.
You see folks, if TOB made reference to "arrests" then that would show PBSO is doing their job. Can't let that happen.
One of TOB's heroes is former Lake Worth City Manager Susan Stanton. One of Stanton's missions was to get PBSO out of the City and reinstate the Lake Worth PD. One of the reasons PBSO was brought into the City was because the gangs had taken over many areas. Here's a Sun Sentinel article that references what was happening before PBSO took over and here is another recent one.
So, Susan Stanton is now the City Manager for Greenfield, CA. She has her own police chief and her own police department. There's crime in Greenfield and lot of really terrible things are happening out there in Monterey County.
Just like Lake Worth did back in the day when the City got rid of its police department and sought help from PBSO. How easy it is to forget.
Jennifer Sorentrue has this news about West Palm Beach:
An analysis conducted by the travel website [Hipmunk] found vacation rental bookings in West Palm Beach skyrocketed by 852 percent from summer 2014 to summer 2015. Rounding out the top five cities for the biggest vacation rental growth are: New York, NY — 488 percent Greenville, NC — 410 percent Pittsburgh, PA — 356 percent Dallas, TX — 279 percent
From the Hipmunk website: "Hipmunk is the best travel site on the web. Period." —Forbes
In the video you can watch here you see a car hit a scooter and keep on driving down the road. Lulu Ramadan at the Palm Beach Post has an article about this but she got the location wrong; it's in Palm Springs near the Lake Worth Drive In, nowhere near Lake Worth. CBS12/WPEC also got the location wrong.
Ask your neighbors and friends if they saw anything to contact FHP at 954-837-4012 or Crime Stoppers.
Thank you to the mayor, the commission and city staff for allowing the parties who submitted proposals to present them to the public at last night's meeting. I have a much greater appreciation for your dedication and service. After sitting through hours of public comment I have to question why any business would want to come to Lake Worth.
I went into the meeting with much skepticism regarding the Hudson Holding's proposal but now believe it may be the only proposal that addresses several of the problem issues at the beach complex.
Higher revenue income is needed to cover the beach complex's growing expenses. Fudging the $500,000 of yearly debt service to improve the bottom line is wrong.
Lack of sufficient parking. This is a huge problem. Simply increasing the parking rates may result in driving customers away
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not something the present commercial tenants will appreciate.
The new casino building has ongoing construction and maintenance issues which need to be addressed.
The pool area was not included in the beach complex's initial reconstruction plan and desperately needs to be upgraded. The facility is an eye sore. Stepping into the changing area is what I'd expect in the USSR or Cuba
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totally run down and depressing. The pool is nice but it is under utilized and there isn't any kiddy pool or other related amenities.
Hudson Holding's proposal addresses the beach complex problems. Anderson Carr's proposal will fill the empty commercial space but does not address the parking issue, which will only become worse if the new commercial tenant attracts more customers to the area. I think more than HH proposed 108 spaces should be considered.
The reconstruction of the pool structure is a win-win for Lake Worth and Hudson Holdings. The City will get a new building and a new pool complex with more ground floor commercial space—HH gets prime commercial space to let out for events etc. and be able to provide a beach amenity for the hotel patrons. As stated by many citizens at last nights meeting, the community has already agreed to the present use of commercial space and parking facilities at the beach. Since the proposed project reduces the foot print of the present structure perhaps with more community input regarding the final design of the pool complex, the parking complex and addressing environmental concerns many citizens' concerns will be eased.
The proposal presented is just the beginning. . .as the saying goes "the devil is in the details", construction concessions, revenue sharing, code compliance, the leasing terms for the parking garage, pool structure and existing commercial space will be very critical in establishing the final product and actual revenue Lake Worth receives from this project.
I think Hudson Holdings proposed beach complex improvements and their interest in investing in our community are great! Let's not scare them away.
A full to overflowing crowd packed the Commission Chambers, the adjacent conference and the hallway last night to hear presentations by two respondents from the City's Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) process last night. I got there just past 4:30 p.m. to secure a spot and other people were already there who had the same idea. It may be a good idea to check the lunar calendar when scheduling meetings like this one. Having it on the eve of a full moon may not have been the best idea. Emotions ran high throughout and there was little indication of the Commission's willingness to go forward with either of the options proposed.
Here's a note on the status of the video I took. I was able to capture most of the meeting until the battery ran out at around 9 p.m. When I get back from meetings where I take video am usually able to start uploading them right to YouTube and they're ready to publish in the morning. Things are working now but there were a few bugs that prevented most of the upload from happening last night, so those will come later in the day. Here is a short one that did upload:
You can see the short video I took above prior to the meeting and the crowd that was assembled. You can see bosom buddies JoAnn Golden and Dennis Dorsey cutting it up against the wall. Those two have such a good time when they get together.
Things started out a little rocky with a discussion regarding how public comment was to be accommodated during the meeting. First of all, this was a work session and the City Commission usually doesn't allow public comment in that sort of format. So, it was a gift that public comment was going to be allowed at all. The Mayor suggested that comments from the public be limited to questions that would be answered in real time, right after asking the question, by the respondents.
Limiting comment in this way generated some "push back" from some commissioners, so the normal two minute limit would apply and people were able to pretty much say whatever they wanted about the proposals without being limited to questions only. However, most people did take the Mayor's suggestion and were able to ask questions and the respondents to the ITN were able to answer. There were some instances when the questions became rhetorical and some had a sarcastic tone, which is never really helpful.
More later as the videos are ready. There were some high points of the meeting along with some cringe-worthy ones. While it was a good thing to engage the residents in this way, the venue needed to be larger. Some day, I would like to see the current city hall building revert back to its original use as an auditorium that could provide seating for a larger crowd. Hopefully, we'll be able to see that in our lifetimes.
The Bamboo Room’s coming out party continues on Friday [today] as the club will now be open on Fridays and Saturdays for live music. The line-up for Friday is the jazz/blues group Lena & The Blue Collective (7-9 p.m.) and High Tolerance Top 40(9:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.). On Saturday, Maurice Franks & The Palm Beach Quartet hit the stage for a two-hour set starting at 7 p.m., to be followed by Dawn Patrol from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Mr. Thompson is the beat reporter for Lake Worth and Greenacres. Noticeably absent of late is any news from Greenacres. True, on the entertainment scale Lake Worth ranks much higher than Greenacres but it's not fair for El Dub to take all the attention away from their fine community out west.
So, if you're a resident of Greenacres and you have good news for Mr. Thompson here is his contact information:
Email: kthompson@pbpost.com
561-820-4573
Twitter: @kevindthompson1
A frequent reader pointed out two comments that referred to him under a post on this blog. At his request, I have removed them from the comments. They appear below as a screen grab he sent me. I do not want to further identify the person here since his first name and only the first initial of his last name are used in the actual comment. But it is clear if you read the comments associated with the post, they refer back to earlier comments where both his first and last name are mentioned.
These comments got by me and I do err on the side of posting most comments regardless of content, and sometimes I make mistakes. This was one of them and I apologize to the person referenced here and wish him the best going forward.
Here are some statistics from the article in CityLab demonstrating the safety of compact cities versus sprawling ones:
Tokyo, a city of more than 13 million, has 1.3 such deaths [traffic fatalities] per 100,000 residents. London, home to more than 8.6 million people, reports just 1.6 traffic deaths per 100,000. In Hong Kong, population 7.2 million, the figure is just 1.8 per 100,000.
Sprawl does the opposite, with deadly effects. Consider Atlanta, a notoriously sprawling city. At 9.7 deaths per 100,000 people, its traffic-fatality rate is three times that of far denser New York City (3.2 per 100,000).
Here is a sobering paragraph from the article:
Traffic deaths—especially in and around cities—are emerging as one of the critical public health problems of the 21st century. Already, 1.24 million people around the world die in motor vehicle crashes every year. Among people age 15 to 29, who should have many years of health and productivity ahead of them, traffic crashes are the leading cause of death. [emphasis added] For children age 5 to 14, crashes are the second-leading cause. Pedestrians and cyclists account for more than a quarter of those killed on roads. And as urban populations boom and motor vehicles proliferate, researchers project that by 2030, crashes will be the fifth-leading cause of death for the general population.
EnviroNews has this news which will be welcome for many in south Florida. The title of the article is "Meet The New GMO Mosquito — Millions Carrying the ‘Kill Switch Gene’ Already Released". Here is an excerpt:
Mosquitos can be one helluva a nuisance — and with those pesky little critters comes myriad illnesses, but two in particular have been present in South Florida in recent years — Chikungunya and Dengue Fever. Both are vector-borne diseases, and both are transmitted by Aedes aegypti — the scientific name for a bothersome little bug, also known as the “yellow fever mosquito,” that 99.99% of the population despises. There was an outbreak of dengue in Florida in 2009, but since then it’s been pretty quite [sic]. So, does the problem really warrant releasing millions of man-altered, genetically modified mosquitos into the wild, with a cunning war-like plot of wiping the little bugger out (or at least beating the population back to sheer vestiges of what it is now)? That’s exactly what Oxitec, a British biotech company, and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD), want to do with the OX513A Aedes aegypti mosquito — let the GMO genie out of the bottle.
The Palm Beach Police Department announces the 2015 National Night Out Against Crime event, sponsored by Palm Beach Crime Watch, Inc. The event takes place on Tuesday, August 4th, from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. at St. Edward’s Catholic Church Parish Hall. Stop by to meet your Public Safety Police Officers, Fire-Rescue and civilian teams. Outside displays will include the police boat, police car, motorcycle, bicycle, and all-terrain vehicle, as well as a rescue truck from Palm Beach Fire Rescue. Inside the hall, popular features returning this year include digital fingerprinting, blood pressure screening, Special Operations Unit’s equipment and confiscated weapons. Police and Fire-Rescue staff will have demonstrations of specialized equipment, and there will be the opportunity to meet and speak with representatives from the Code & Parking Enforcement Unit, Juvenile Officers, members of the Crisis Intervention Team, and the 9-1-1 Communications staff. Chief Assistant State Attorney Brian L. Fernandes will be at the event and can answer questions you may have regarding identity theft and tax fraud scams in Palm Beach County. Face painting artists and a fun Photo Booth will be on hand to entertain the children. We will have complimentary servings of PDQ chicken, Amici’s Pizza and Italian ice. Come on by and take a picture with McGruff the Crime Dog. For more information, please call the Community Relations Unit at 561-838-5467, or visit us at www.palmbeachpolice.com. Sponsored by Palm Beach Crime Watch, Inc.
There is a City Commission work session meeting tonight that was brought about by the recommendation of an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) process. It starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall. It is the product of a process started almost a year ago now. It was designed to bring new ideas on how to handle an untenable situation at the Casino complex, or as some call THE BEACH!. The Casino property, parking, pool and buildings there are not paying for themselves, contrary to the forecasts and predictions of the previous administration and Commission that went forward with the improvements there.
An invitation went out to the entire world from the City on ways to make the beach property pay for itself which began in September of last year. Three entities responded to the request. Meetings were held between respondents to the ITN throughout the late part of 2014 and the early part of 2015. This, of course, happening during the last election cycle. There were claims of secret meetings (untrue) and deals being cut to give away the city's beach (which can't happen). Finally, at the end of April, the ITN selection committee made its recommendations.
You can view that meeting here:
We still have a vacant second floor 'restaurant' space. Thought too valuable with such a commanding view, certainly high-end restaurateurs would be lining up for this irreproducible space along the Florida's east coast. Or, at least that's how the hyperbole went at the time. Guess what folks! That space is still empty. Design and construction issues related to the building have prevented consideration of that space for a serious tenant. The "breathtaking" view is being used for staff space to run the ballroom functions and for the storage of tables/chairs for the ballroom. It seems that no one thought of that during the planning process.
The site is also plagued with functional problems due to the insistence by the City Commission at the time. The mantra was that the city must save the building. In the end, the city didn't save the building, it just rebuilt a 96% new building in its place. This didn't take into account the location of the new parking lots to serve the building. And, no one really thought how the pool was going to fit into the whole equation and even closed it beginning in 2010, only to be opened again by the new Commission which was elected in 2011. The pool is a "drain" (get it?) on the financial operation of the beach but it serves some in our community who take the time to use it. The City is also bound by an agreement with the County that it must provide the same number of spaces to the general public, not just Lake Worth residents, as it did before the project. This leaves just 50 spaces, now split between the north and south of the beach property, for the more that 1,700 city resident permit holders. General accessibility to the Casino building and the loading/unloading requirements are another flaw of the current design.
So, you would think that there would be universal agreement that there are problems at the beach that require addressing. But how to do it if the city has no money to do it?
Finally, after almost a year of buzz about what is going to happen residents and the City Commission as a whole, will get a chance to hear what some think are solutions to the city's problem. Now I am hearing that people are saying that this isn't the right time to do it, during the summer, since no one is here. Well, I am here and the people that are complaining are here and there are many people here that want to hear, finally, what some of the options are. These are just options: the City has made no commitment to anyone, other than letting them present in a public way what they are proposing.
I am getting reports that a flier has gone out, issued by one of the respondents, inviting people to the meeting tonight so they can hear what is being proposed. A friend took a picture of what she received:
Now, I am getting reports that these are being snapped up by people around town, trying to prevent word from getting out before the meeting. These were the same people screaming about lack of "transparency" in the process to begin with. Why are we to close our ears and shut our eyes to what is actually being proposed? What is it that we aren't supposed to hear? Could it be that the myths that went before could be shattered in the process? Could people be caught in the "big lie?"
Anyway, the meeting is tonight at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Get there early to secure a seat.
Angela Rozier at Channel 25/WPBF and Thomas Forrester at CBS12/WPEC both got it wrong. The shooting occurred outside the City in suburban Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach Post's Mike Denison reported the incident location correctly.
First, no one will be putting their hands on THE BEACH! Second, no vote is being taken. And third, this is a meeting about IDEAS to fix the failed business model at the Casino complex. Why are some so frightened of ideas?
"Keep our Lake Worth BEACH PUBLIC!"
"They're stealing our Public BEACH!"
"Greedy Developers!"
Some have cleverly manipulated the public into believing something false. Like this SHOCKING! page in a now-defunct tabloid published days before the last election:
Here is an excerpt about the up-coming meeting from a Kevin Thompson article in The Palm Beach Post that doesn't do much to help the situation:
Since the site was restored three years ago and had its Roaring Twenties opening in March 2013, the city has said it’s having a hard time paying back the $6 million it borrowed to fix the building, mainly because the site doesn’t have enough tenants. This past year, the city officially began soliciting inquiries from companies interested in developing the space, but many residents have said they’re concerned because the city is having discussions with developers before determining if the ideas being posed make sense.
The building wasn't restored or "fixed"; it was over 90% demolished. As a result of the lack of oversight on the city's part it really does need fixing now. Nowhere in the article is the second floor of the Casino mentioned (the biggest mistake in the original business plan), just that the building "doesn't have enough tenants". The city borrowed from its utility fund and is not paying the money back as promised due to a flawed business plan.
The city issued an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) in order to evaluate "fixes" to that plan (by a previous city commission) which include renting what was planned to be a second floor up-scale restaurant tenant. The ITN was also an open-ended, frank 'invitation' to look at improving other facilities at the Casino complex such as the operation of the pool (in the red for $100,000+ last year).
It was at the urging of Annabeth Karson and Laurence McNamara, echoed by Commissioners McVoy and Mulvehill, that we need not go with a two story restaurant (Johnny Longboats wanted the space for a two-story restaurant) as the space was so "unique" and the views "fantastic." Nearly three years later that restaurant has yet to materialize and that 'wonderful' space remains empty.
So, please, go into this meeting with an open mind with the expectation that new information may be provided that helps fix the financial and operational issues at the Casino complex. The past emotional appeals to pity and bandwagon mentality do nothing but contribute to the problem. Educate yourself.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL75cv6zJQFjX15ojOIIz9AjnbqH4asHJTYSDhnGnYr7rJZRha1NcNTirj2xPcId158vkz5Hw-wXgOfrlztj8Zr8jLFFCfuEN6PyV44ZlpMRmJ68xbtFL9vzxNiG7xDs_HJvm/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
