Tuesday, September 19, 2006

In Honor of my Birthday...






Here are some pictures from the now distant past - this is just for fun - part of my personal history.





These two are of me at about 6 months.



















This is one with my Mother and my grandparents in front of our old farmhouse in East Lansing, Michigan. I bet I am about 3 or so in this one.



The one in the upper right is me in the sandbox at pre-school, probably around 4 years old. The color one is of me and my Dad walking down a path on Charleston Mountain in Las Vegas - we took a long vacation out west in 1964.

The one in the lower right hand corner is me after building something on the living room rug - might be about 6 or 7 here.



And here I am in second grade - I had braces three times! One of my childhood traumas.

That's all.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Procedure, Procedure, Procedure

Much like its kin "location, location, location" as an answer to what are the three most important factors in real estate, the City of Lake Worth needs to abide by the mantra "procedure, procedure, procedure", lest it create future opportunities for legal actions, legal fees and resulting delays in progress.

Case in point: The Ron Exline lawsuit. For those who are not aware of the claims here, the City is being sued for potential Sunshine Law violations in turing over negotiation authority to staff and an elected official in a series of meetings relating to the purchase price and ultimate density for a project known as Las Palmas - fomerly the First Union Bank buidling. The suit also alleges that the City Manager polled commissioners out of the "sunshine". Furthermore, it alleges that the City did not go through the proper channels (read: "procedure") in that the determination whether certain property should be considered surplus was not forwarded to the Planning and Zoning Board for its recommendation as required by Section 2.1 of the City's Code of Ordinances. The applicable section reads as follows:

(b) Declaration of surplus property. (1) When the city commission finds that any real property owned by the city is unuseable or not needed for city purposes, after receipt and review of an advisory recommendation of the planning and zoning board, the commission may declare the real property to be surplus property by a simple majority vote. A list of surplus property shall be reviewed at least once a year for public sale. A property may be withdrawn from the list at any time upon the concurrence of the majority of all the members of the city commission. The inclusion of a property on such list shall not constitute an offer to sell the property.


Now, what is so difficult about that? I am not going to weigh in on the merits of the case and do not know the details regarding its status, other than it is an going lawsuit against the City. But, one must ask that if we had followed the established procedures, would we be facing this lawsuit at all?

As of August 28, 2006, the City has accumulated a total expense of $79,525.76 in legal fees in defense of this legal action. What else have we lost? Here is a brief list: Another blow to level of trust the citizenry has of its municipal government, a delayed project which results in vacant land immediately adjacent to our downtown; continued questions regarding the legitimacy of City actions, etc.

I can assure you that as commissioner I will insist that we go "by the book" in all matters - especially as it relates to the disposition of real estate. Note to the administration - the City's Code of Ordinances is not a "pick and choose" set of guidelines - it is the law.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Digging through the City's Files - Current Lawsuits

Mayoral candidate Mary Lindsey and I spent much of the day Friday doing our own archaeological dig through the City's records related to current lawsuits against the City. The following is what we discovered:

On August 13th, during an interview on The Live Show on lakeworthtalk.com, “Reader” asked this question:

"Mary are you aware how many lawsuits the City has pending

and what the monetary exposure the City facing in these"

On August 14th, I sent a request for that information, via email, to the city information officer, Queenester Nieves.

On August 15th, I received a call from Ms. Nieves asking for clarification and following our discussion she promised to forward the request to the City Atty’s office.

On August 22nd, I stopped in the City Atty. office to inquire on the status of my request. I was told that the city does not keep a running list of pending lawsuits and to find out I would have to go through all the office files myself under supervision of a staff member. I agreed and was promised an appointment would be arranged in the next few days to view the files the following week.

By August 25th, I had still not been contacted so I sent another request for this information. In addition, I requested information on two other related questions.

On September 13th, I had still not heard anything, so I submitted the requests again, via email and asked Mr. Boyer to intervene in the matter. He did and an appointment was arranged for 10am on Friday September 15th.

On September 15th, as arranged, I met with the City Atty. staff to review the files in an attempt to answer certain questions. I was joined by Wes Blackman, chairman of the Planning and Zoning Board and candidate for district 3, who offered to help me comb through the files. I am grateful to Wes for his valuable assistance. His notes regarding today’s events follows. These are the questions we were trying to find the answers to:

  1. How many lawsuits are currently pending against the city and what is the monetary exposure?
  2. How much has been paid to outside legal firms for their services on behalf of the city since 2000?
  3. How many city employees (general employees, utility, fire and police) terminated in the last five years received settlement payments and in what amounts?

    This is what we were able to determine:

  1. We were shown the files of eight different cases; one regarding Sunshine Law, three regarding code enforcement, one regarding eminent domain, one regarding asbestos, one regarding a vendor dispute over uniform rentals and one regarding the Sunset Drive property. There is also an ethics violation charge but it was unclear if that is open or closed. Total – 8

    Monetary exposure is impossible to figure pending the outcome or resolution of the different cases.

  1. Information regarding outside legal firms is incomplete at this time. We were only able to get data on those firms we were aware of. As more firms came to light from reviewing the pending files, we requested information about them also. We did not see cases that have already been resolved and unless I ask specifically for the info by the name of the firm, there is no way to get the information.
  2. This last request regarding employee termination settlements may take some time. We were told that the city does not have a list of employees termination settlement cases and the only way to get the information is to go through the employee file. The files are not arranged by year, only by employee last name. If we knew the names of the employees we wanted to know about, that information (those files) could be made available. If we knew the names, we would also know how many there were, so that wasn’t much help.

    The only way to get the information is to go through all the employee files (past and present) There could be thousands. To make those files available, the staff has to redact all the personal information in those files, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers etc. That represents a huge undertaking by staff and one that I’m not sure I’m willing to inflict on them. I will contact Mr. Boyer on Monday and ask if there is any other way to get the information.

    I arrived on time at 10am as arranged by the city Atty office. Wes arrived shortly after. We worked on the files until we had reviewed everything they gave us. We must have looked at thousands and thousands of documents. The information officer, Queenester Nieves and Joni (Sorry, I don’t recall her last name) from the City Atty. office were nothing but helpful and professional. They followed their protocol precisely. They carried files a foot thick at a time from the City Atty. office on the first floor to the City Clerk’s office, downstairs in the back for us to review and then carried them back when we were finished. They must have made ten trips or more. We were not allowed to help them even though we offered. We worked until 3:30pm. All this to find out there are 8 pending cases.

    Summary: That’s the timeline and outcome of the events. But what does it mean? I won’t comment on whether any of the lawsuits are frivolous, unnecessary or valid. I have an opinion about some of them, but I’ve learned that legal matters are based as much on procedure as they are on content; perhaps more so, and I am not qualified to evaluate the legal process. I will comment that in my opinion, it shouldn’t have to take this long, or be this burdensome on the support staff or the public to get a simple answer to a simple question. How many lawsuits are currently pending against the city (not including foreclosures)? If Wes and I were shown all the files related to this question and the answer is eight, not eighty, why is our City Attorney unable or unwilling to simple recite which cases they are? Half of these cases are being handled by Mr. Karns and the other half are being defended by outside counsel. I would have expected an answer something like this:

    Dear Ms. Lindsey, Thank you for your interest and your inquiry. The City Atty office is currently defending four active cases and I believe there are several others being handled by outside firms. I will get back to you by _______ with the exact number. If you require more in depth information, please contact my office to arrange an appointment. As for your other inquires, we do not have that information readily available and it will take considerable time for staff to prepare the files in accordance with the Public Records Act to redact personal personnel information. Please call my office to discuss this matter further so that we can accommodate your request in a timely manner. If I may suggest an option, contact one of your Commissioners who receive monthly updates from this office on the status of all activities in the City Atty. office as was suggested when my contract was renewed last Spring.

    That would have been a responsive, accountable and polite answer to a reasonable question posed by the public. Such a reply would demonstrate respect and professionalism. The Attorney General has written numerous opinions on the Sunshine Law and the Public Records Act. Overwhelmingly, he has supported compliance by public agencies not only to the letter of the law, but also to the spirit of the law. I look forward to a new spirit of accountability to and cooperation with the public under the direction of the City Atty.

    Mary Lindsey

    September 15, 2006

    “Political advertisement paid for and approved by Mary Lindsey for Mayor”

    Thanks Mary. I volunteered to help since I am no stranger to pouring over and poking through municipal files – it’s part of what I do for a living. The thing that struck me is that the information that we were looking for was very basic. I kept thinking, as we watched the hard working staff people from the Clerk’s office retrieve files, wouldn’t it make sense to have a simple spreadsheet available that would identify the current status of lawsuits against the City? Just a brief summary of the matter and who the City selected to represent them is the most basic information and something that the citizens should have ready access to. If that was kept current, it wouldn’t take precious time away from other staff tasks. By the City not having the information readily available and making it cumbersome, it comes across as if the City has something it is trying to hide.

    What we found is that the City has nothing to hide (especially in light of the open records laws). The eight current lawsuits are really reflective of a moderate amount of lawsuits – part of doing business as a municipality. But the perception generated through the difficulty retrieving the information leads the public to believe and think the worst – that we have hundreds of lawsuits, or more.

    Can we please come to a time when we anticipate the public’s need for information and prepare it in a digestible form? That would be the difference between an inwardly looking bureaucracy (the bunker mentality that currently exists) or one that is outward looking (one that understands the needs of its citizens for timely and accurate information). It also begs for, at a minimum, a twice a year report about all the current legal actions against the City at a City Commission meeting.

    Is that too much to ask for? It is something that I would demand as a Commissioner. This is all part of the need for transparency in all City of Lake Worth matters. It’s the only way we can begin to build trust in our City government.

    Wes Blackman

    September 15, 2006

“Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner, District 3”

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Johnny and June Carter Cash

After about three lessons the voice teacher said, "Don't take voice lessons. Do it your way."
Johnny Cash

How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man.
Johnny Cash

I grew up in the '40s and I heard all these great speeches, like Winston Churchill. His most famous, or infamous commencement exercise speech was one that consisted of seven words. He stood before this graduating class and said: "Never, never, never, never give up."
Johnny Cash

If you can hold your listener, hold their attention, and you're sure you know what you're doing, and know that you're communicating - You know, performance is communicating. You've got to communicate. You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut.
Johnny Cash

The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars.
Johnny Cash

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.
Johnny Cash

After you've listened to it, you'll feel like you know us a little bit better.
June Carter Cash

He's just like my father that way-my father just adored my mother and let her do whatever she wanted. John's like that. He's a very rare man, a very good man, and I've had a good life with him. I'm proud to be walking in the wake of Johnny's fame.
June Carter Cash

I was never looking back in regret. I never thought, Oh, why didn't I become an actress? or Why did I just go paddling along after John? I've always walked along right by his side, and he's always supported everything I do.
June Carter Cash

We always had Packards, until the war, when they stopped making them; then we had a Cadillac.
June Carter Cash

We never actually slept in the Packard, but we'd stay at these places called tourist homes. Then they got these wonderful things called motels.
June Carter Cash

Monday, September 11, 2006

Check Out Last Night's Interview...

With Jim Stafford on the Live Show (click here for the direct link). As always, there were some great questions asked by the posters on LakeWorthTalk.com (including all the "guests'). I just want to thank Jim for his time and efforts in providing a worthwhile service to citizens interested in the goings-on of our City of Lake Worth.

Check out the interview - if you have any follow-up questions, feel free to post them here!

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Signs of Change

Hi everybody! Welcome to this new (sort of) website/blog. As many of you know, I announced my candidacy last Tuesday, September 5th for the District #3 Commission seat. This is early, according to tradition, and there is much work to be done in the meantime - without the distractions of people actively running for office. But, here we are and here we go! Let us hope that March brings the City vigorous new leadership that can move the City forward in a positive and enlightened way.

I plan on having a separate campaign website/blog. That will come eventually and you will be the first to know when it becomes active. For now, I will continue with this site as there has been a tremendous demand for it as I go around our City. I had shut it down for a while in order to put the: "Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3" - liberally sprinkled throughout the site. I might add that up until the very last minute (ask those friends that were around me at the time) I wasn't sure if and what I was going to run for and when. That's all figured out now and I look forward to your support in March as we go forward through the campaign season.

I started this blog in order to get my observations and experiences out there so that others would have a way to find what is going on with the Board on which I serve and other City issues. One of the great challenges that we face in the City of Lake Worth is quality communication with accurate depictions of reality - read "facts". For some reason, we seem to have trouble sticking to the facts and therefore end up dealing with a reality that doesn't exist. Reality is where it is at if we want to progress as a community - together. One of the main thrusts of my campaign will be the establishment of new ways of facilitating communication amongst all of us in the City of Lake Worth. Your ideas on how to make this happen are greatly appreciated.

So, enjoy reviewing this site from time to time and I will keep throwing out ideas and observations. I hope through this you are able to get to know me better, what I am about and how I will serve the City of Lake Worth as Commissioner - District #3.


"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Monday, September 4, 2006

Special Announcement

Tuesday, September 5, 2006, 1 p.m. east side of City Hall, 7 N. Dixie Hwy., L.W., Florida

Don't forget to vote!


"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Sunday, September 3, 2006

Great News!

We have made another step into the 21st Century. The September 6, 2006 PZHRPB agenda and related staff reports are available now on the City's website. Click here for the direct link to the 2006 Planning and Zoning Board agendas. The packet is a series of .pdf documents. I was able to download the agenda page itself and all the related attachments were downloaded at the same time. So, you don't need to be online in order to review the packet. I'd be interested in knowing if you are successful in your attempt to download and view the packet. I have Adobe Acrobat Professional - if you have the regular version, try it and let me know if it works for you.

This has been a long time in coming and I want to thank our busy staff for taking the time in setting this up. It is important to have as much information as we can have regarding the work of our Board readily accessible to the public.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Monday, August 21, 2006

The Constitution of the United States of America


Bill of Rights

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Sunday, August 20, 2006

On Politics...

Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour


Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. ~Author Unknown


All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. ~Albert Einstein


Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. ~Plato


Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. ~H.L. Mencken, 1956


Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev


George Washington is the only president who didn't blame the previous administration for his troubles. ~Author Unknown


Truth is not determined by majority vote. ~Doug Gwyn


An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. ~T.S. Eliot


Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. ~Ernest Benn


We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. ~Stewart Udall


Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~John Quinton


A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead. ~Leo Rosten


The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. ~Adlai E. Stevenson


I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952


Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. ~Charles Krauthammer


Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~Doug Larson

Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right? ~Robert Orben


Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. ~Author Unknown


Conservatism is the policy of make no change and consult your grandmother when in doubt. ~Woodrow Wilson


I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. ~Charles de Gaulle


Politicians say they're beefing up our economy. Most don't know beef from pork. ~Harold Lowman


He didn't say that. He was reading what was given to him in a speech. ~Richard Darman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, explaining why President Bush wasn't following up on his campaign pledge that there would be no loss of wetlands


Mankind will never see an end of trouble until... lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power... become lovers of wisdom. ~Plato, The Republic


If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. ~Jay Leno


Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party. ~Winston Churchill


If God had been a Liberal there wouldn't have been Ten Commandments, there would have been Ten Suggestions. ~Malcolm Bradbury, After Dinner Game, 1982


History is gossip but scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. ~Oscar Wilde


The politicians were talking themselves red, white and blue in the face. ~Clare Boothe Luce


Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan


Politics, n: [Poly "many" + tics "blood-sucking parasites"] ~Larry Hardiman


If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal. ~Emma Goldman


How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America? ~Author Unknown


We have plenty of Confidence in this country, but we are a little short of good men to place our Confidence in. ~Will Rogers


American youth attributes much more importance to arriving at driver's-license age than at voting age. ~Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964


Politics - I don't know why, but they seem to have a tendency to separate us, to keep us from one another, while nature is always and ever making efforts to bring us together. ~Sean O'Casey


A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected. ~Carl Sandburg


One ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark, its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time, one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase - some jackboot, Achilles' heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno or other lump of verbal refuse - into the dustbin where it belongs. ~George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," Shooting an Elephant, 1950


Before you can begin to think about politics at all, you have to abandon the notion that there is a war between good men and bad men. ~Walter Lippmann


The qualities that get a man into power are not those that lead him, once established, to use power wisely. ~Lyman Bryson


During a campaign the air is full of speeches - and vice versa. ~Author Unknown


Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote. ~George Jean Nathan


Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least. ~Robert Byrne


Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of cerebration man can normally muster. ~James Harvey Robinson, The Human Comedy, 1937


A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation. ~James Freeman Clarke, Sermon


Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times. ~Winston Churchill


In golf, you keep your head down and follow through. In the vice presidency, you keep your head up and follow through. It's a big difference. ~Dan Quayle


Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed. ~Mao Zedong



"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"


Notes from Philadelphia - Policy Link Conference - Advancing Regional Equity

Just happened to be consolidating files on my computer and I found this summary of the sessions I attended in Philadelphia last year. This was a trip sponsered by the CRA - about 9 of us went from Lake Worth. I thought it would be a good idea to post these notes here. Of particular interest now are the items concerning inclusionary zoning. This is one of the keystones in the recommendations that we will soon be reviewing as offered by the Affordable Housing Task Force.

Some of these are fairly short hand and may not make much sense, but here goes:


May 23, 2005

Land Use, Power and Policy Session:

Spatial Mismatch – Brooking Institution – Racial divide, work somewhere where you don’t live, long commuting times – examples – many – Milwaukee and D.C.

Don Chen – Smart Growth America

  • Example of sprawl school in South Carolina, in the middle of now where, no connection to housing, transit, etc. Seeds of sprawl.
  • Need to rehab urban schools.
  • Denver – FasTracks – coalition of urban and suburban municipalities in providing transit solutions
  • Something wrong in the Philadelphia area – population increase of 3% and new sewers increase 22%. Spawns sprawl, money going to new suburban locations while urban and other existing infrastructure suffer.
  • Higher Density – in clusters, much more environmentally friendly, better watershed protection, less land consumption.

Myron Orfield

  • Twin City Regional Government Fair Housing Law – still a problem with the disenfranchised
  • Black and Latino suburbanization – 25% of U.S. population in distressed suburbs
  • Housing discrimination
    • Steering – present and increasing
    • Discrimination in sales and rentals, mortgage lending – increasing
    • Values drop in areas, residents, instead of gaining equity receive debt – not building wealth
    • Poor move in, schools lose
  • Formerly integrated areas maintain value better
  • Racial inequalities not being addressed – a big issue
  • Cities and older suburbs need to get together and work jointly to solve the problem

David Rusk

  • Portland Metropolitan Regional Government as compared with Camden, N.J.
  • Portland is substantially more integrated economically and less segregated
    • Has Urban Growth policy – now under attack by property rights movement – must redefine the issue in “smart growth” terms – now in the terms of the “land speculator”
    • Housing policy – new single family developments required to supply 10% to 50% multi-family housing, depending on location
  • Camden N.J.
    • $150,000 tax base per poor family, 3,000,000 tax base per others
  • Detroit
    • Most segregated metro area in the country
    • Black families’ homes 40% less value than white family with same income.
    • 6% of total 5 county metro region tax base
    • We are now going through a period of the greatest transfer of wealth from white heirs ever – blacks are not benefiting – they are receiving a legacy of debt instead – Blacks excluded from transfer

Laurie Weakee

  • Sacred Alliance for Grass Roots Equality – Albuquerque -Pueblo Indians
  • Petroglyph National Monument – fight against incursion of roads into area.
  • “Framing and Messaging”
  • “Power will always adjust”

General discussion –

  • State Courts are where the fight is being fought now and there have been some successes especially with school equality in funding.
  • 1968 Fair Housing Act is not being enforced, but it is still a good law

Transit Oriented Development – Monday p.m.

  • Transit growth outpacing other modes of transportation
  • District that should be considered is greater than just the area around the station, must consider ½ mile area
  • Demographics show continued increasing demand

Mary Bethel – Bethel New Life – Pulaski Transit Village

  • www.bethelnewlife.org
  • High School Mosaic Appliqué
  • Day Care Center
  • Employment Center
  • Six commercial storefronts
  • Green Building

Bruce Watts – Portland Transit Authority

  • Not a TOD expert
  • Role of transit agency in a TOD alignment
  • Important to “land bank” – construction staging areas an opportunity
  • Zoning framework important
  • Station location

General discussion

  • Mixed income important to TOD concept
  • Challenge is how to make and keep housing affordable
  • Property tax variables??

Tuesday a.m.

Double Bottom Line Session

Robert Milborne – Columbus, Ohio

  • Double bottom line – good economically and good for community
  • Business leadership very important, especially with recent elections
  • Business leadership important for policy change
  • Where is business leadership?
    • More diverse and democratic form of business leadership
    • More going on in non-profit sector
    • Non-profits much more competitive now, looking more like private enterprise
    • Need for business leadership advancing quickly
  • Lessons:
    • Ways to accomplish business leadership – emphasize regional issues – business responsive to these, not as much local
      • Transit – how people get to work
      • School Reform – education reform
      • Arts community needs
      • Downtown redevelopment
    • Getting to leaders is a one-by-one process, need a champion to lead the way – makes job easier
  • Contributions from larger employers in creating community wealth and self sufficiency
  • Business leaders are engaged in community development – part of their job description now, trend is there and getting better at it

Bob Harris – Pacific Gas and Electric

  • Utilities heavily invested in community health already, that’s where their infrastructure is – urgent sense here
  • Infrastructure costly to build
  • Use facilities that are already established – discourages sprawl
  • Double bottom line for them is that utilities need customers
  • In order to do well, must have a positive image with customers
  • Goodwill is created by giving back to community – good corporate citizen
  • Utilities understand the interplay between social equity, businesses and government
  • Incentive comes to the utility in the form of the need to provide service to everyone
  • In California, there is a constitutional reason – empowers municipalities to provide their own utility service I not satisfied with service – there is competition for service

General discussion

  • Three “E’s”
    • Economy
    • Environment
    • Social Equity – transit times to employment
  • Investors are looking at corporate responsibility
    • Especially minority business inclusion, workforce development and diversity
  • Inclusion means investing in low wealth communities
  • Unfortunately, many community “inner sanctums” (i.e., the ruling elite) are attempting to manage diversity without becoming diverse – must gauge how serious these people are to the goal.
  • By nurturing leadership, they think that creates competition for themselves, not their perceived interests
  • More and more, customers are driving these changes in corporate responsibility
  • Proportional representation on Boards of Directors is not as important (important to some, however) as creating more impact by community involvement
  • Inner-City neighborhoods represent a large market and companies are beginning to understand
  • We can never under estimate our influence on what goes on in the world
  • Corporations understand the bottom line
  • There are two definitions of equity
    • Justice and impartiality
    • Value of property or interests over those claims against it
  • Does one have to err on the side of social equity, no – equity is equity – represents an investment in community
  • www.bayalliance.org (family of funds that invest in neighborhoods, communities – not charity – an investment)
  • Investment is a partnership with shared rewards and shared risks – each “side” must put something up of value
    • The question is open whether one should expect a return – it depends on the nature of the issue you are attempting to address
  • Race in America is something that needs to be addressed and not swept under the rug
  • How do we share the first (corporate) bottom line?
    • Whose responsibility is that? Look in the mirror first – what can you do to help the situation?
    • What help do you need? Who can you call on?
      • Enlightened business leaders are a needed component – need a champion to take initiative
      • Hard to find, difficult to replace
  • Community foundations have leadership potential
  • Framework of “Social Investment Policy” – ordinance?
  • “Place matters, race matters.”
  • Institute for Race and Poverty (www.irpumn.org/website)

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) as a Tool

Dataplace website

The Providence, R.I. Plan

  • Independent of government, but gathers information from all government sources
  • Focus is parcel based information – on over 42,000 parcels of property within the City of Providence
  • Tells who lives there (all of their qualities) in pictures and maps
  • Big Brother warning
  • Integrity of data important – powerful and influential tool
  • Relevant at low level of geography – at the parcel level
  • Three keys
    • Safety
    • Jobs
    • Education
      • If you don’t have all three, you have nothing, cannot build a community without these
  • Work closely with Police Department, monitoring day-to-day capacity
    • Where the hotspots are and how to address them
    • Enables efficient scheduling of officers and patrols
    • Data security and integrity important at all levels – user and provider
  • Possible to add community collected data, on website, for other studies and statistical efforts
  • Difference between asset and deficit data.
    • Asset – community strengths
    • Deficit – community weaknesses
      • There is a slant towards asset data
  • Center for American Progress (Google)

Inclusionary Zoning Session

  • Definition – Percentage of affordable housing in a given project, required through land development regulations
  • 1st successful attempt – Montgomery County, Maryland

Josh Williams – Washington, D.C. Union Leader

  • Residential boom within the District of Columbia
    • Would generally think this would be a positive as it provides more tax revenues and helps maintain and increase salaries of public workers
  • However, housing costs are increasing so quickly that middle and low income persons are priced out of the market
  • Relocation almost always results in increased commute times
  • Many times, if they do leave, they lose their jobs – residency requirement for municipal employees
  • Housing costs are increasing 4 times faster than income, 3 times more for rental units

Julie Miles – New York City

  • Affordable housing crisis
    • Those that rent are paying more than 50% of their income
  • Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to rezone large swaths of former industrial properties along the east river to high density residential (complete with views of Manhattan) prompted their campaign
    • No provision for worker/lower income households
  • Policy change after election resulted in “inclusionary” provision within rezoning ordinance
  • Enabled a collation of all affected persons and groups to make change happen
  • Recent success in that two large scale rezonings gained a 25% and 33% inclusion factor
  • Now, working towards a City-wide policy
    • Voluntary program through density bonus provisions
    • Units are permanently affordable
  • Lessons learned:
    • Trouble with parochial nature of New York politics
    • Faith community a key asset
    • “Protests” – generated much media attention, but did not have to be relied upon too much

Doug Shoemaker – Bay Area Region (CA)

  • Central city genesis, now seeing progress in outlying areas
    • Work behind the scenes, providing support for a group of affordable housing providers and builders
    • Regional Advocacy coalitions in 9 counties
  • 60% of the bay area’s growth spread over 40 jurisdictions
  • Inclusionary zoning is most effective in large projects. Having 20% affordable units in a two unit complex doesn’t mean much
  • They estimate that throughout the region a range of 6 to 12,000 units over the next five years

Nicholas Brunick

  • Four Catch phrases for Inclusionary zoning
    • “There ought to be a law” an “Yes, in your backyard”
    • “Place Matters” and “All politics is local”
    • “Implementation is the name of the game”
      • Once the ordinance has passed, the game has just begun
    • “Need for on-going constituency” – gains made can be overturned or lost

General Discussion

  • Inclusionary zoning generally benefits the upper end of those in need of affordable housing – it generally does not serve the medium, low and very low income communities
  • There is a need for flexibility in affordable standards – to reflect changes in income and housing types over time

Wednesday a.m.

The Wal-Mart Affect

Frontline (ABC) Video on Wal-Mart organization

Moderator

  • Wal-Mart is the model for other retailers – a “way of thinking”
    • Prices low, labor costs low
    • No unions – now perceived as a threat
  • Fear of the demise of local retail – it’s happening
  • City of Los Angeles and other communities now require economic impact stucy
  • Wal-Mart aniticipates community subsidies – TIF, tax exemptions, etc.
  • Other communities have crafted “Community Benefit Agreements”

Greg LeRoy (Good Jobs First)

  • Wal-Mart has extensive saturated traditional retail markets
  • Now going after Urban markets – “poverty markets”
    • Last place left to expand
  • The entire nation is over-built – grossly over-built – in retail space
  • 12% of regional malls are in “gray field” status – plenty of “ghost boxes” – big box retail that is empty due to corporate obsolescence
  • Minority areas are under-retailed
  • Wal-Mart is locked into a rural footprint – gigantic parking field
  • Wal-Mart is going to be there – so, how do we shape and change the brand?
  • Proliferation of stores – created by vas government subsidies, direct and in-direct
    • $1,000,000,000 worth of subsidies nationwide
    • Hidden safety net costs – for poverty level ($9/hour) wages
    • Average store has 200 employees
      • They depend on $420,000 in various forms of federal social assistance
  • Wal-Mart’s goal is 300 new stores a year
  • Much of the local government subsidy comes from the “collective civic self-image” – sense of worthlessness
    • Sets communities up for giving away the store
    • The Prize is a Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart’s prize is access ot the market
  • Communities must drive a hard bargain!

Leslie Moody – Union Representative – Denver Area

  • Her example: 60 acre urban in-fill site, urban renewal zone
    • Brownfield, rezoned for transit oriented development
    • Original agreement banned big-box retailers
  • Area – Alemeda Square – a depressed area
    • Community pushing hard for retail
    • Turned out they were talking to Wal-Mart, even inlight of agreement
    • Loan of $25 million over 25 years to be paid back to City
      • Most Wal-Marts don’t last 15 years
    • Blighted area in 192, owner still asking $70/foot, existing Asian business community threatened to be pushed out
    • Access to grocery important
  • Asked the City – What are they doing to make the best deal?
  • Learned about the “Power of the Paper” – Freedom of Information Act request
    • Proved that it was a bad deal for Denver
  • Site Fights
    • How cities put together development deals
    • New Mayor – Changed tune
    • By July 2004, the deal died
      • Major convincing issues – quality of life, cities looking like suburbs
    • Must frame community benefits/impacts

Rev. Joseph Kyles – Westside Chicago

  • Reputation for now business as usual in area
  • Retailers traditionally move-in and move-out, taking from community
  • Alderman (strong force in Chicago) wanted to bring Wal-Mart in
    • Didn’t have potential loss of small business, there weren’t any
  • Locked out of construction jobs through union
    • Already a polarized community
  • People came out of the woodwork when Wal-mart showed up
    • A good thing
  • 300 new jobs? – attitude of “who cares” – more important as a framework for how to deal with other developers
  • “Community Promise” - part of deal with Wal-Mart
    • Capacity building for the future
      • Small contractors, leveraging monies from Wal-mart with other sectors
      • Hired minority female general contractor for demo, etc. – had a clear understanding of community
    • Knew about history of using subsidies, didn’t require all the money for anew community center, just that it had to be a major supporter of it
  • Store not built – deal not done yet

General Discussion

  • www.mainstreet.org National Trust for Historic Preservation
  • www.newrules.org

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Friday, August 18, 2006

Update from 8/16 PZHRPB Meeting

I'd like to take the opportunity to share what happened at our last Wednesday night's meeting. It was a fairly light agenda, but some important items came from it. So, here are the highlights of what happened (this is not meant to be an official report):

  • We made some minor adjustments in the way that auto repair shops are regulating in our HIC-1 and HIC-2 zoning districts.
  • We recommended that the City Commission (actually re-affirmed our previous recommendation) increase the maximum density allowed in the Gateway zoning districts (along 6th Ave. S. and 10th Ave. N.) to 30 units to an acre. When the Commission heard this on second reading in December of last year, the Chairman of the CRA made a plea to the Commission that the maximum density be lowered to 20 units to an acre. Subsequently, the CRA realized that in order to create incentives for the redevelopment off both corridors a maximum density of 30 units to an acre would be a good idea. This word came to us in a letter from the CRA. So, on Wednesday we re-affirmed our original decision and sent to the Commission for their consideration. The CRA also requested that we look at establishing more opportunities for retail uses (beyond the restrictive list that is part of the ordinance now) - that will take more study and we will wait for staff to come up with some alternatives. We'll let you know when that discussion will take place.
  • We approved the site plan and community appearance request for Lago Valare - the project on the southwest corner of Palmway and Lake. This was after many rounds with staff, board and public comment. I have highlighted the progression of design related to this project in previous posts. This is how it finally came out - the vote was unanimous, with the public in attendance at the meeting giving appreciative comments. The big changes are the use of cast stone along much of the base of the building, reduction in tower height, elimination of the individual gables above the balconies and an entrance feature on the northern facade. It will make a nice addition to our downtown . Now we just have to find someway to deal with the properties immediately around this site - but perhaps this will inspire them.


The other item, that was not on our agenda, but was in our packet, was the group of recommendations from the Affordable Housing Task Force (AHTF). Vice Chairman Spinelli had asked for that to be included in our materials for discussion for this past meeting. I had missed the discussion at the previous meeting due to a scheduling conflict, so I wasn't entirely sure how to handle the review of the recommendations. We started at the end of our regular meeting in somewhat of a workshop format. Many, but not all, of the members of the AHTF were there in the audience but they really were not prepared (no fault of their own) to make a presentation. The atmosphere started to get very adversarial in tone with comments coming from Lisa Maxwell and Phil Spinelli of the PZHRPB. At that point, I suggested that we discuss the recommendations in more of a "roundtable" format and give the AHTF an opportunity to make a presentation which would show the basis for many of their recommendations. Hopefully, we will be able to do this in a constructive, non-adversarial way so that we are able to focus on what is best for the City. I will make that clear when we convene again.

The workshop meeting of the PZHRPB will be Wednesday the 23rd, 6 p.m. at the Suffleboard Court building. Hope to see you there.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Monday, August 14, 2006

Reality and the Beach

Hysteria - "behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess"

FACTS:

18 acres of City owned beach property (I have heard up to 19 acres, but this is a conservative figure).

43,560 square feet to each acre.

18 acres X 43,560 square feet = 784,080 square feet of land area

Size of new building to contain ballroom and retail/restaurant space: 40,000 square feet (two stories)

Approximate size of that building's footprint: 20,000 square feet

Percentage ground coverage of that building to the overall site: 20,000/ 784,080 = 2.5 percent of total site area

Property to be leased (City retains ownership) for a period of 20 years.

"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Highlights from Harvard Executive Education Course - Urban Housing and Mixed Use Development

*************WORK IN PROGRESS**************

I thought that this would be a good place to share some of the i
nformation brought back from the class I attended about two weeks ago. Haven't had the time until now to summarze my notes from session. The "teacher" was Johannes Van Tilburg, an architect/developer that is based in Santa Monica, CA and has a lot of Southern California experience in the design and development of urban/mixed use projects.

Now, I am not sure how best to the his as I have 24 pages of notes from the two day class - and the last of the second day was only regarding the presentation of our imaginary redevelopment project. I think what I will do is hit the highlights and give some description of the items I scanned that were part of the class materials. (If you could read my handwriting, I would just scan my notes and post them here) Add to that the fact that Mr. Van Tilburg jumped around a lot during the presentation of the material and you have somewhat of a jumble. And I will be inserting applicable Lake Worth materials as a comparison. Anyway, here it goes:
  • Transportation in Los Angeles is almost 60% single passenger vehicle. (According to the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Palm Beach County, about 84% of South Floridians travel alone in their work commute)
  • Los Angeles has something called "slug lanes" which are essentially a form of structured hitch hiking - people who want rides line up for rides with those who have room in their car - they are either dropped off by someone else or leave their car in a park and ride lot.
  • The new transit system in Los Angeles is justification for development approvals - without access to transit or, at a minimum a transit plan - a project will not received approval from thee locality (usually with state over-sight)
  • Air rights over transit station are more and more common - transit oriented development (TOD)
  • Sprawl (see picture below of the Continental US at night - remember to click to enlarge - if you are interested in seeing even more detail, you can go to National Geographic's website)
  • 76% of Los Angeles' residential development pattern is single family at an average density of 6 units an acre (Lake Worth's single family zoning district is designed to be a maximum of 7 units an acre, but is built out at less than that), 19% is multifamily and 5 % are rural estate. The Los Angeles range for density is 6 to 130 units to the acre. Given a density of 6 units to an acre, the need for land doubles every 40 years - amounting to 1.2 million acres a year (nationally). The current aveage L.A. commute time of 1.5 hours a day round trip to work amounts to 7 1/2 working weeks in the automobile (390 hours a year!).
  • According to the Lake Worth Comprehesive Plan (see existing land use chart) - 78% of the total resdential acreage within the City is single family - the remainder is made up of multifamily and hotel uses.
  • Mr. Van Tilburg then went into examples of how increasing the density can be accomodated in the existing urban lot configuration. He has promised electronic copies of these and I will let you know when I receive them.
  • University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research - Florida Population Projections - report
  • Wood frame construction (with some steel framing) is required in construction of buildings up to five stories - earthquake/seismic considerations.
  • City of Pasadena uses an "architectural approach" to project approval - adopted a mediterrean revival standard - red tile roofs, modelled after City Hall.
  • Concept of "Boulevard Buildings" - Paris and Amsterdam examples

WORK IN PROGRESS




"Political advertisement paid for and approved by Wes Blackman for Commissioner – District #3"