The Overgrown Tree

For someone who never wanted to move away, I was always moving back to Lake Worth. It was always an outside factor that forced me to move from the little city I loved—jobs, marriage. On one of those occasions when I was lucky enough to return home, I will always remember the strong impression I got. I honestly thought and said out loud that we should raze everything in Lake Worth and start from scratch. I had just moved back from California where everything was pristine. I was shocked at what had happened to “my” city.

The city was attracting the poorest of the poor, the illegal immigrant, the gangs. Churches got in the act and encouraged the migration. More and more houses were looking like hell. The yards, well, you don't even want to go there. Poor and hell don’t have to go hand in hand but it just seemed to have turned out that way. I certainly wasn’t rich and I had rented. I didn’t live in a dump but on Lake Osborne across the lake from where I now live. The landlords lived on the property and they took care of it. It was a time when people had pride. They paid their bills too. Things have changed now.

Flint, Michigan is one of the poorest U.S. cities and they are going through a transformation.

Dan Kildee, Treasurer of Genesee County says, “The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."

Read what they are doing there. CLICK HERE

Here in Lake Worth we have seen some excellent development but unfortunately, and in most cases, a developer has built a wonderful house right next door to a dump where 20 people have been allowed to live. He has little choice. The city is full of dumps. We are in an intolerable state. We are built out here and the only thing left is to raze entire city blocks and start anew. I have never understood why someone can't get out with a lawn mower and have some pride. People don't care here. They don't care about their neighbors either. The citizens who do live here and the working class folks are paying dearly for this neglect.

We have a City Commission and a City Manager that has allowed this blight to get worse with property values down 24%. We have a CRA with past and present priorities that make no sense. Granted, Ms. Stanton has inherited the problem but it is she who has eliminated Code Enforcement. Why would anyone want that to happen? Their solution? Raise taxes and make sure that the citizens here pay a lot more to live next to a dump.

It is time to prune that tree and allow for some sensible growth.