A cry for Help - Susan Stanton

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Dear Ms. Stanton:

I hope all is well. I wanted to write to share with you my extreme disappointment that you were not able to meet with us today as scheduled. I had scheduled a meeting with your assistant a week ago and myself and others from the Tropical Ridge Neighborhood Association (TRNA) really wanted to meet with you today and walk around so you could see the conditions and issues we face daily here.

I feel that we are not valued and today being stood up by you is just another example that we are not a priority in this area of the city, I really feel disrespected as a homeowner and citizen of Lake Worth. I know Vince our TRNA President and Sylvia another homeowner that were all here waiting to meet with you too this afternoon were disappointed as well. You need to realize that we deal with so much on a daily basis here in this area of the city, things like: shootings, stabbings, gangs, litter, blight, graffiti, illegals out-of-control, drunks, drug dealers, prostitutes, lack of code enforcement, overcrowding, lawlessness, high rental, lack of pride and respect in our neighborhood by our illegal/immigrant population, etc.

The quality of life is poor to say the least. We are ignored constantly by our city leaders. The current mayor says that there is little crime and that I fabricate about the amount of crime, yet we have a lot, often in the news, and the city is ranked 17th in the state of Florida with the highest crime rates.

The commissioner in our district is a champion for the illegals, yet overlooks codes and laws for them creating a lawless environment for all of us, like: bikes on sidewalks, no lights on bikes at night, drunks, whore houses for the illegals, overcrowding, public urination in our streets, litter all over the place, on and on, and there is such a double standard for the illegals instead of maintaining high standards for them in our country, the mentality of the city and county leaders is to overlook any codes or laws for the illegals/immigrants, keeping them in a lower and more impoverished conditions here. It almost seems as if the city and county are using a form of ethnic cleansing of all Americans in our neighborhood to get rid of us Americans, and that is why you all in the city never do anything for this area west of Dixie. You want us Americans to move out of here. The conditions are deplorable and blighted, infested with too much crime, drugs, and prostitution, along with tons of slumlords that do not fix up their properties.

I recall one day, your old assist. manager Hannah told me that you all in the city do not want to enforce laws and codes for the slumlords as then the illegals will suffer-- as you all from the city are worried-- if you do, then the slumlords will raise the rents of the illegals and create more cost for them. So you overlook overcrowding and other codes and allow 10-20 guys to live in a 2-bed home, many laws and codes over here are overlooked, creating horrid living conditions for all of us.

Many of my neighbors over the years have up and sold and moved out of here, so many I lost count. Many now want to sell and cannot. With the recent shootings and stabbing again, we do not feel good about our area west of Dixie.

Your continued ignoring of all these problems over here only creates more animosity between the illegals/immigrants and the Americans. We are fed up with living in such slums and lawlessness here. You need more education programs for the immigrants and maintain high standards for them too. They want it as they feel unsafe here as well.I speak Spanish fluently and many are my friends and tell me this. I am not racist and love all the people who live here, I just want laws and codes respected and enforced here for all of us the same. I have lived in this city for 13 years. My spouse is Colombia and I have lived in Mexico and Colombia for several years prior, I have traveled extensively throughout Latin America and know the issues. I am not xenophobic or racist. I just want our laws respected and enforced and the city to clean up the blight and crime here, while bringing more equality to the poor on this side of the city and having high standards for all
of us.

The entire block between Lucerne and 2nd Ave. North and D and E Streets is a disaster. I had Capt. Silva walk around shortly after he took office, I still see many of the same problems here. Can't you do a model block and improve this place? Concentrate on one block, clean it up and then go from there. Or look at all the graffiti and code violations on 1211 and 1213 Lake Avenue, that building at 1213 has been burned down and partially boarded up and painted with graffiti for years and overlooked and the city does nothing. It can't be to code. Can you report it for us please? There are countless examples that I know Vince our TRNA President and others would love to share with you. I am concerned about the sidewalks that are missing in the downtown area between Lake and Lucerne from B to F Streets too. I want you to see these things and walk it and see the safety issues that exist along with the inequality for the poor western areas. There is just too many overgrown and blighted properties around here and the city looks horrible and we need our leaders and you to help us, to work with us, to improve these conditions once and for all.

We look forward to our new meeting time with you on Sept. 11 at 4pm. We hope you will not stand us up this time. Vince also wanted you to attend our TRNA meeting at 7pm on Sept. 14 at the church here. We really need you more involved with our concerns, safety and quality of life issues. We do hope you can be more involved in our area and help us to get it in better shape. We have not had much help with our current mayor or dist. commissioner to get things cleaned up here in this area of the city, these are not priorities for them. They don't want it clean and I think would prefer we move and not bother them, their actions as it relates to our area are weak and there is little to show in terms of progress here by their poor leadership concerning our neighborhood.

Thanks so much for your attention. Again, I am sorry you didn't make it today. We look forward to seeing you on Sept. 11 then at 4pm for an hour or two. I will copy some of the others mentioned in this e-mail or that may be able to help us too. God bless.

Peace,
Joseph Furner, Ph.D.
202 North D Street
Tel. 561-585-1168