Fox29 WFLX TV, West Palm Beach, FL-news
Reporter Chris Stewart deserves kudos for getting the story right vis-à-vis the recent PBSO shooting by a deputy in suburban Lake Worth. And Angela Rozier at ABC25/WPBF also deserves kudos for correcting the original version of her segment which gave the location as "Lake Worth". It was changed to "near Lake Worth".
Note that the shooting was also near Atlantis, Greenacres, Palm Springs, and other municipalities but we'll take what we can get.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Playlist of all video segments from the City Commission work session on the ITN proposals related to the Casino building
These go as far as the battery in the camera lasted, which was until about 9 o'clock. It is missing two or three of the last public comments and responses, and then the summary comments from the City Commission.
The city's video is up where you can see the end portion of the meeting.
The beginning of public comment from the ITN meeting (7/30/15)
The public comment begins and it is more interactive during this meeting than the typical City Commission meeting. Those commenting could ask questions and either the Commission or the respondents responded to most of them. In an odd comparison, Richard Stowe brought of a piece of forgotten history, at least for me, that dealt with the possible location of United Nations headquarters in Greenwich, Connecticut, rather than its ultimate location in New York City on the East River. He drew a parallel to what is proposed at our beach as an example of a community not wanting what someone else had decided for it. You can read about some of that history here.
Anderson and Carr's presentation from Thursday night (7/30/15)—Second floor restaurant, deli and ballroom management
This addresses the still vacant restaurant space on the second floor and a deli at the top of the stairs. The two would use the same kitchen. The proposal also includes management of the ballroom space.
[UPDATE] Palm Beach Post editorial board goes bananas; reader responds with Letter to Editor
[UPDATE: And another positive Letter to the Editor published about PBSO and Sheriff Bradshaw in the Post. Is Bradshaw's appeal to "be unsilent" resonating with the public? Read excerpt of letter at end of this post.]
First some background: Sheriff Bradshaw was unable to attend this year's PBA Annual Police Officer’s Ball so he uploaded a video for them. He made frank comments about what he thinks is feckless news reporting by NBC5/WPTV and The Palm Beach Post vis-à-vis the LINE OF FIRE: BULLETS, BADGES AND DEATH ON THE STREET!!! You can watch that video here.
On Wednesday (7/29) the Post published an editorial which seemed more visceral than substantive about the video. Take for example the opening two paragraphs:
First some background: Sheriff Bradshaw was unable to attend this year's PBA Annual Police Officer’s Ball so he uploaded a video for them. He made frank comments about what he thinks is feckless news reporting by NBC5/WPTV and The Palm Beach Post vis-à-vis the LINE OF FIRE: BULLETS, BADGES AND DEATH ON THE STREET!!! You can watch that video here.
On Wednesday (7/29) the Post published an editorial which seemed more visceral than substantive about the video. Take for example the opening two paragraphs:
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw seems to have found his inner Anger Translator.The next day the Post published a Letter to the Editor from Dave Matthews of Lake Worth putting everything in perspective. Mr. Matthews was a lieutenant in the disbanded Lake Worth PD at the time of the 2008 merge with PBSO.
Videotaping a greeting to a recent gala of the Police Benevolent Association, Palm Beach County’s top law-enforcement officer let fly with a venting of spleen worthy of comic team Key & Peele’s “Luther” — the hot-headed alter ego of the cool, politically restrained President Barack Obama.
Here is the letter from Mr. Matthew's titled, "Only the bad guys run from police":
Yes, we are the ones with lights and sirens, speeding at the risk of our own lives, to a shooting between rival gang members, to bring it to an end before another criminal gets murdered. (We protect criminals, too.) [emphasis added]
Yet some people think that we should wait to see what Mr. Bad Guy is pulling out of his pocket or waistband — right after we told him to “Stop moving and show me your hands!” while I’m pointing my .40-caliber Glock at him. No ordinary law-abiding citizen with any sense would make a move like that against a person who makes his or her living carrying a gun in the first place. The only people who do that are bad guys.
Bad guys are easily identified when we police officers start to approach a citizen who’s standing on a corner, doing apparently nothing, in a high-crime area; when he looks directly at us and recognizes us as the police, because of those uniforms we wear, along with that badge on our chest and that car with “Police” on it; and then runs.
That, folks, is a bad guy, and that’s why the police run after him. It’s our job to find out why he ran.
And if, in the process, he grabs for an object from his pocket or waistband when we catch up to him, you’re telling me I should wait to see what it is before I shoot, after I just told him, “Let me see your hands!”? The saying goes, “I’d rather be judged by 12 than buried by six.”
On an entirely different topic, Lawrence Mower at The Palm Beach Post had something nice to say about PBSO on Twitter recently:
Hats off to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw for standing up to critics of his agency and his deputies’ handling of deadly police encounters. Without the support of the public, the media and our elected officials, the situation turns into what we recently saw in Baltimore — police officers afraid to enforce the law — and things can deteriorate very rapidly.
[and. . .]
Bradshaw is right: It’s time for the citizens of our county to “be unsilent.”
Yes, we are the ones with lights and sirens, speeding at the risk of our own lives, to a shooting between rival gang members, to bring it to an end before another criminal gets murdered. (We protect criminals, too.) [emphasis added]
Yet some people think that we should wait to see what Mr. Bad Guy is pulling out of his pocket or waistband — right after we told him to “Stop moving and show me your hands!” while I’m pointing my .40-caliber Glock at him. No ordinary law-abiding citizen with any sense would make a move like that against a person who makes his or her living carrying a gun in the first place. The only people who do that are bad guys.
Bad guys are easily identified when we police officers start to approach a citizen who’s standing on a corner, doing apparently nothing, in a high-crime area; when he looks directly at us and recognizes us as the police, because of those uniforms we wear, along with that badge on our chest and that car with “Police” on it; and then runs.
That, folks, is a bad guy, and that’s why the police run after him. It’s our job to find out why he ran.
And if, in the process, he grabs for an object from his pocket or waistband when we catch up to him, you’re telling me I should wait to see what it is before I shoot, after I just told him, “Let me see your hands!”? The saying goes, “I’d rather be judged by 12 than buried by six.”
On an entirely different topic, Lawrence Mower at The Palm Beach Post had something nice to say about PBSO on Twitter recently:
Since I don't want to only tweet bad stories, here's a nice one of @PBCountySheriff helping a mom stuck on the road: https://t.co/YWQPJ6scQp
— Lawrence Mower (@lmower3) July 30, 2015
UPDATE: Here is Priscilla Dodge's letter that appeared in the Post on 8/1:Hats off to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw for standing up to critics of his agency and his deputies’ handling of deadly police encounters. Without the support of the public, the media and our elected officials, the situation turns into what we recently saw in Baltimore — police officers afraid to enforce the law — and things can deteriorate very rapidly.
[and. . .]
Bradshaw is right: It’s time for the citizens of our county to “be unsilent.”
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Continuation of Hudson Holdings presentation from Thursday night's City Commission work session
Representatives from Hudson Holdings went first and then Anderson and Carr made their presentation. That is in a separate video coming soon.
West Palm officials picked for Denmark livable cities program
Click title for link to an article by Tony Doris of the Palm Beach Post about a significant honor given to the city of West Palm Beach. Mayor Jeri Muoio and Downtown Development Authority Director Raphael Clemente have been invited to the 8 80 Cities program in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference will take place in September. The group is paying their airfare and expenses for those invited to attend. This is recognition that West Palm Beach is doing things right in making a walkable and bikeable community.
8-80 Cities is a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada. They are dedicated to contributing to the transformation of cities into places where people can walk, bike, access public transit and visit vibrant parks and public places. Their approach is to engage people and communities across multiple sectors to inspire the creation of cities that are easily accessible, safe and enjoyable for all.
Here is a snippet from the article:
West Palm Beach and the other cities were chosen based on what they’ve already been doing to encourage walking and biking and to improve parks and other public spaces, said de la Pena, who was among five people on the selection committee.Check out this video from the 8 80 Cities group:
Clemente, who did the city’s five-minute presentation, had to convince the panel that the city and its officials could build on what they’d done. The city has been implementing a series of road changes to encourage walking and biking, recently started a bike-sharing program and redesigned its waterfront several years ago.
Other cities chosen for the trip are: Miami; Tallahassee; Macon and Columbus, Ga.; Gulfport, Miss.; Charlotte, N.C.; Detroit; Akron, Ohio; Lexington, Ky.; Grand Forks, N.D.; and San Jose and Long Beach, Calif.
8-80 Cities is a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada. They are dedicated to contributing to the transformation of cities into places where people can walk, bike, access public transit and visit vibrant parks and public places. Their approach is to engage people and communities across multiple sectors to inspire the creation of cities that are easily accessible, safe and enjoyable for all.
Introductory portion of City Commission work session on Casino Complex Invitation to Negotiate—Presentations by respondents
This is when the format of the meeting was discussed. As a work session, public comment is usually not allowed. However, the Commission allowed comment due to the number of people present. There was an initial question about whether comments would be limited to questions to the respondents only. This was the first public meeting where the presenters could actually present their proposal in a public way. No action would be taken at this meeting since it was advertised as a "work session."
The focus of the meeting was to get information from the respondents. The City Commission themselves never had such a presentation. Unfortunately, this part of the meeting permitted the opportunity for some rancorous discussion among the members of the Commission. Most of this part of the meeting consisted of that discussion, an introduction and review of the process by the City Manager Bornstein and a review of the ITN selection committee recommendations by the City Attorney. Commissioner McVoy, and to a degree Commissioner Maier, took this opportunity to grandstand about how the process was wrong to begin with. Remember, McVoy voted for the ITN process. He was reminded that this was a unanimous decision to go forward with the ITN process to address financial and operational flaws at the beach property and with the Casino building.
Hudson Holdings begins their presentation at the 22 minute mark. Their PowerPoint presentation is to be made available on the City's website soon.
Having your own PD doesn't stop crime (and it doesn't save money either): from the office of Susan Stanton
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| From the office of Greenfield CA City Manager Susan Stanton. |
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| 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.
West Palm Beach tops entire nation in vacation rental growth
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.From the Hipmunk website: "Hipmunk is the best travel site on the web. Period." —Forbes
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
Friday, July 31, 2015
Were you in Palm Springs on Tuesday night and see an accident on Lake Worth Road?
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.
Ask your neighbors and friends if they saw anything to contact FHP at 954-837-4012 or Crime Stoppers.
The little City of Lake Worth entering the social media age
Below is what you see when you visit the City of Lake Worth website:
The City is using Twitter and you can sign up for 'City Updates' now.
Message to the Mayor and Commissioners from an attendee of last night's meeting:
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.
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.
/s/ Judith Ann Just
Judith Ann Just, Attorney, P.A.
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—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—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.
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.
/s/ Judith Ann Just
Judith Ann Just, Attorney, P.A.
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