“MilaGROWTEENS: The Future” showcases artwork by local kids and teens ages 12 through 18 at the Milagro Center, a nonprofit organization in Delray Beach that offers arts-integrated educational and cultural programs. The young artists worked with Milagro staff members, as well as local art teacher Christine Lyons, professional art educator at the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
IF YOU GO:
Where: Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth When: Saturday through Oct. 3 Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday Admission: Free Info: 561-471-2901 or www.palmbeachculture.com
Palm Beach Police today announced the launch of their new app, My Police Department or MyPD for short. The free MyPD app allows citizens to download an app for their Android or iPhone and easily connect with the police department right from their device. The app has over 40 features the department can turn them on and off depending on what they want to display at certain times. The MyPD app design is easy to use and features a sleek user interface. “Everyone using the MyPD app can get important updates from us, such as push notifications, right on their cell phones,” said Captain Curtis Krauel. “We can send the notifications through twitter or our dashboard and the user doesn’t need an account or worry about missing an important tweet or message. We encourage users to opt in to messages if they want to be informed quickly of new updates or alerts.” Crime and safety issues are also important for citizens to know about. The app includes resources and links on a number of topics; such as, FEMA, National Terrorism Advisory System, Missing Children, Weather services, PBSO booking blotter, press releases, and many more. There are also four background screens to swipe through and can be updated with pictures or wanted persons, missing people, or announcements. Sending in tips about crimes or other quality of life issues is another way citizens can use the Palm Beach Police MyPD app. It allows the user to either attach their contact information or send it anonymously. Photos and GPS locations of incidents can also be attached from either the phone’s gallery or live camera. “The MyPD app is tools for citizens to keep on their phones” Captain Krauel explained, “so when they need a phone number, want to send a crime tip, or want to find out about upcoming events and police activity, they have it readily available in an easy to use app.” While the app links to or integrates with some social media, police say it is not another social network. There are also no ads on the app and no account is necessary to use MyPD. While the app is not a social media platform, it does have some social aspects to it and has a feature where users can “unlock” badges the more they use the app and interact with the police department. “Basically the app user can climb in rank and unlock new badges,” said Captain Krauel. “It’s a way to reward users who stay active in their communications with not only our Police Department, but with others around the country.” Users can choose not only the Palm Beach Police with the MyPD app but they also have the option to view other police departments by choosing a different city or state. The app defaults to the last agency viewed upon opening, this makes it easy for access just to the Palm Beach Police Department. “We understand a large majority of our community resides outside of the state. The MyPD app can still be utilized to find other law enforcement agencies in their community on the MyPD platform.” MyPD is free for residents, contains no advertising, and users do not need to share personal information or set up an account to use the app. Any information sharing is optional. Citizens looking to connect with the Palm Beach Police should search for “MyPD” in their app store. Once the app is downloaded and the agency is chosen, it will always open to the Palm Beach Police Department and its resources. For more information, please call the Community Relations Unit at 561-838-5467, or visit us at www.palmbeachpolice.com.
[Proceed to the 2:00 mark in the video below for Bornstein's wise words.]
Watch and listen to this short video from the meeting on the ITN/Casino complex proposals. I hope this can serve as a wake-up call:
"Somehow just asking the question is taboo and I think that's what I keep hearing from people. Don't ask the question what is possible in this city. Don't ask the question about what is possible, be it the beach, be it the road infrastructure. . ."—City Manager Michael Bornstein
[An strange thing occurred at pastor Olive's Common Ground (no 's') church on Sunday. He's now taken a stance against bigotry and intolerance; a welcome change if it's sincere. See end of post for a question that remains unanswered.]
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Here is the definition of 'effeminate': 1. (of a man or boy) displaying characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; not manly 2. lacking firmness or vigour: an effeminate piece of writing.
Below is the Common Ground (no 's') church's Redneck version of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:
Interestingly the Redneck version has no problem with lesbians, just "men who practice homosexuality". Makes one wonder, doesn't it?
Is there a redneck Old Testament too?
QUESTION—In light of the Common Ground (no 's') church's amazing, miracle-esque transformation from bigotry and intolerance and their past references to 'Dr. Michael Brown', a question remains: "Can you be Gay and Christian?" An absurd question for most reasonable people of faith but deserves an answer from pastor Mike Olive.
Then-Commissioner Mulvehill (seated, center) with gathered friends and supporters at her last commission meeting in October 2012. Former Commissioner Cara Jennings was there (back row, left side with Annabeth Karson and JoAnn Golden) and present Commissioner Chris McVoy (beaming man in white shirt).
This is a classic photoshop of Suzanne Mulvehill by Tom McGow in May, 2010. Back then she was a strident environmentalist and proponent of community gardens in Lake Worth.
It's hard to believe that former Lake Worth Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill, the champion of resiliency, sustainability, anti-development, etc. while a city commissioner in Lake Worth is now Chair of the Forced to Farm PAC that is organized to sell off land in the Ag Reserve. It's news like this that makes my head hurt.
Drew Martin and the Sierra Club, from the looks of it thus far, are one of the big losers in this battle. (Wayne Washington at the Post has this article on the subject.)
Here is the Forced to Farm website. When you go through the site you learn there are many misconceptions about the Ag Reserve, like this one:
You might remember Suzanne Mulvehill from when she worked to "save" the Lake Worth Casino building which was 94% demolished.
Click title for link to a Sun-Sentinel article about the addition of a 14 bike train car to the Tri-Rail fleet. While there is just one car now, more are expected and eventually will expand to when every fourth car in a train will be a designated bike car. There will be passenger seating in the cars as well. This is very exciting as it greatly improves bike accessibility. Combining biking and Tri-Rail trips is already popular.
Check out this part of the article:
Until now, passengers bringing bikes on board have had access to only two bicycle straps per car. But at times there have been as many as 41 bikes on a single train, making it difficult for passengers to manuever at rush hour. "Bike racks have become a necessary amenity," said Tri-Rail spokeswoman Bonnie Arnold. Some passengers use the bikes at either the start or final leg of their commute, while others are leisure riders using the combination of the train and bike to explore South Florida. Bikes are especially popular with students who ride Tri-Rail to Boca Raton, then bike a short distance across Interstate 95 to Florida Atlantic University.
And in other bike-related news, I saw a West Palm Beach SkyBike at the Lake Worth Beach yesterday. So, those bikes are getting around and it is not even tourist season. Something to think about.
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.
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 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.
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: 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:
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw seems to have found his inner Anger Translator. 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.
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.
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.”
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.
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. 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.
Check out this video from the 8 80 Cities group:
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.
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.
![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)
