John Muir

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”

An example of the PAC cross-pollination that went on in this city...

These pictures were taken on the steps of City Hall, June 14, 2007. It was the "kick off" of the We Love Lake Worth PAC that was formed to gather signatures for a referendum on the land use plan change and the zoning district at the beach, referred to as "Beach and Casino." There were four petitions related to four actions the City Commission had taken a text change to the Comprehensive Plan, a change in the Future Land Use map designation for the beach from Public Recreation and Open Space, establishment of the Beach and Casino zoning district and rezoning the beach property from Public Recreation and Open Space to Beach and Casino. The former zoning designation did not allow ANY retail or commercial space at the beach and, in retrospect, was needed for what the city ended up doing anyway - the project that we see today.

The first thing to notice is that the white T-Shirts with read lettering read "No Beach Lease!" on the front and on the back they said "Lake Worth - Public Beach Public Control." If one just saw the t-shirt alone, you would not know the purpose behind the PAC was to revert the land use and zoning designation to what it was before. These t-shirts, and the real intent of the people associated with the PAC, was the dismantling of the development agreement with Greater Bay and the city.

You will see a lot of familiar faces in these pictures taken during this "kick off."

 

These pictures come after the "kick off" of the We Love Lake Worth PAC, but are taken in front of a table and a display for the Save Our Neighborhood PAC, which was formed to overturn the Sunset property land use plan and zoning change. They seem to have a large supply of the same t-shirts and are hawking the same cause. You will see some familiar faces here too.

From the family album...

More on the way.

From the Archives: Dee McNamara's "When I get burglarized and raped" letter...

Click on image to read.

Vehicle Accident at Lakeside Castle

Bill and I stumbled upon evidence of damage at the Lakeside Castle during a bike ride this week. It appears that some sort of vehicle barreled through the stop sign at South Lakeside Drive and 5th Avenue South. Parts of the vehicle were still among the debris pile. The velocity was such that the house was not spared as window openings were boarded up and there was some evidence of building damage below the window.

Does anyone have additional details as to what happened?

Snippet from Part VII - The final portion of Cara Jennings' Deposition re Greater Bay Lawsuit - Full Version >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Q. Did you see the pool in January of 2008?

A. I don't know. When was the -- There was like a ribbon cutting or something.

Q. That would have been after the renovations, correct?

A. Yeah.

Q. Do you remember when that was?

A. No.

Q. Do you remember what year?

A. No, and I feel foolish for not remembering, but I don't.

Q. Do you know a company by the name of Straticon?

A. Yeah, I'm familiar with them.

Q. How are you familiar with Straticon?

A. They have come before the City commission when I was on the commission.

Q. Did you know them before you went on the City commission?

A. No.

Q. Have you ever met them out in public?

A. Yes.

Q. Who would be the representatives from Straticon, what individuals?

A. If you said their name, I would remember that, but I don't know that off the top of my head.

Q. Has anybody with Straticon ever contributed to either of your campaigns?

A. I don't know. I don't think they contributed to -- I had never met them during my first campaign. I believe I met them before my re-election, but I don't know if they contributed or not. 

Q. Did you ever have discussions with anybody from Straticon about the beach project?

A. Yes.

Q. Tell me about that.

A. Yeah, I met them up at the beach once.

Q. Do you remember when that was?

A. I don't .

Q. Do you remember what year it was?

A. It really all just blurs together. I don't know what year, and they had read -- You know, maybe though it was some time -- Well, they had read in the paper about the building that it was going to be demolished.

Q. The casino building?

A. Yes, and I don't remember, because, you know there was this other thing going on with the building and what was it? The head building official was talking about having to condemn the building or something, and so I don't remember what article in the paper that they had read, but they had read about the building, and so they had gone to the beach, and I guess they had eaten at the restaurant there and felt like they could help with the building, and so -- I don't know if they called me or if someone else did, but regardless, I met with them up at John G's.

John Taylor Gatto

"Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die."

Will Lake Worth follow the path of Dinkytown?

Check out these two articles on a six story building in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis-St. Paul area and see if you find any similarities. This one is from Slate and this one from the local paper.

Seems like this week's Thorazine delivery didn't make it to Lake Osborne Drive...

In some corners of our city, hysteria abounds. Let's explore reality a little and what it means to "test" a set of zoning regulations.

In February of this year, a study was done with the assistance of the University of Miami architecture department to show "what if" analyses of the built environment if we had a provision in the Lake Worth land development regulations that allowed for buildings to go up to 65 feet in height which also had a minimum number of hotel rooms (50) or a mixed use building with the same minimum number of hotel rooms. Properties that were deemed to have the potential to redevelop, about 7 lots were examined in total, were "tested" by designing a hypothetical building that could be built under such a code.

There was another set of images, shown below, that were promulgated by those who were for the 45 ft. height limitation. These 65 foot high boxes were created with no basis in reality, code, market factors or anything resembling real world conditions in our downtown. They were created for one purpose - to scare and frighten the citizenry of Lake Worth. Organizers of the petition drive surely wanted to provide motivation so that people would vote "yes" when the charter limitation appeared on the ballot.  Let's just call this set of drawings the "ugly gray box" edition.

It has come to my attention that today, the "other" blogger, has used the following example from the study done legitimately by the University of Miami architecture department as an example of what would be possible under the code as written. She probably thinks its an example of another Lucerne. The subject property is currently vacant and sits at southeast corner of South Palmway and Lake Avenue.

When this presentation was made, I had a problem with one of the assumptions related to this particular building. If you read the fine print at the bottom of the slide above, it says that in order to have a building of this size, parking would have to be provided "off site" since the "site is probably too narrow for a structured parking garage." The key words here is "if this is permissible, a max-out of FAR on-sight might look like this."

First of all, this exercise was devoid of any market analysis. To have this building in downtown Lake Worth, along with the other buildings shown in the study, it would have to be a super-heated real estate market with per square foot prices for land far above what they are now. This was an academic "what if" exercise which tested the physical limits of the code - period. The off-site parking lot referred to here might be in the form of a public parking garage, which would take another set of extraordinary steps to achieve. 

So, had I performed the study, I would not have used the assumption that parking would be provided off-site and that it would be incorporated into the building in some manner - which would reduce the amount of leaseable square footage and change the economics of doing this size of building entirely. Again, this was a test of the extremes of the code and if you are talking about a bell curve of the distribution of how likely this sort of project would be in the downtown, I would put it on the far end of the likelihood scale.

But there are those people who continue to desire the fomenting of fear and anger and for them we should offer prayers of peace and healing.

Florida's beaches first in world to be mapped by Google | firstcoastnews.com

Another reason to be careful what you wear to the beach and stock up on that cellulite cream. Click title for link.

Orlando Makes No. 2 on 'Most Sinful Cities in America' List | Sunshine State News

Strange that the number or percentage of high-rise buildings (those over four stories) was not a criteria. Living here, you would liken buildings over 45 feet in height as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. Click title for link to article.

With Lake Okeechobee level rising, Army Corps moves from...

Concern about a breach of the levee rises with rising lake levels. Tons of fresh water are being released in preparation for tropical weather systems and general rainy season storms. Click title for link.

Glenn Heran - Episode II - Vero Beach Struggles with FMPA 07/26 by High Noon in Lake Worth | Blog Talk Radio

Join your host Wes Blackman as he again welcomes Glenn Heran to the High Noon in Lake Worth studios.  Mr. Heran is a customer of the Vero Beach municipally owned electric utility, but lives outside the city of Vero Beach himself.  He put together a study of the rate differential between municipally owned utilities which are unregulated by the Public Service Commission.  If you don't live within the city, well that is just one of the problems.  Click here for the latest obstacles with FMPA in getting Vero Beach part of the FPL system. He has been at the forefront of the Vero Beach utility situation and can teach us a lot about what to expect as we examine alternatives here in Lake Worth, including the possible sale of the utility to FPL.

Click title for link to live show between 12 and 1 p.m. tomorrow (7/26) or for archived show after the show airs. Leave questions as comments below.

For those that question searching for the truth, listen to (read) what this 12 year old Egyptian boy says...

Dorian - worth watching...

Forecasters are saying that the Bermuda High will point the storm north, doing a right turn before we are affected by it. Hmmmmm.