Where shopping is a pleasure

The Chamber was packed last night with passionate citizens believing in a rumor that the Commission was going to turn down Publix from locating to our downtown. Mostly people from College Park were there who spoke on the subject even wearing green ribbons indicating support.

Why anyone got the impression that the commission was going to reject Publix on the Second Reading when it passed 5 to 0 on the First, is a mystery. It seems that Susan Stanton received a lot of hate e-mails over the weekend on the subject as did some of the Commissioners. According to the Commission, all this would have been cleared up with a phone call to one of them.

As the rumor grew like a cancer, there was even a respected citizen who wrote to Publix. Another resident from College Park, Christy Janssen, said that "we need the tax base." She even went so far as to deride Laurence McNamara by saying, “Mr. McNamara is always saying what the people want, bla, bla, bla.” McNamara has always been a big supporter of Publix coming in to the downtown. It made me realize that there is a lot of misinformation and/or assumptions made by both factions in this city and Bill Coakley is right--we will always be dysfunctional if this persists.

As Katie McGiveron said to me, "if they close the store on Lake Worth Road, then we will be losing that tax base and have handed over $500,000 for the privilege of a new store." All this tax goes to the CRA, not to the City of Lake Worth general fund. It will do us NO good and the money will be destined towards the Cultural Redevelopment.

Even candidate Rene Varela was there saying, "It is unfortunate that so many people have to defend having a grocery store. Thanks CRA. All we are talking about is a zoning change. Respect the will of the people." He must have believed the rumor too.

Originally they had talked about a 28,000 square foot building but it was stated last night that this new art deco Publix will be 33,000 square feet offering 113 jobs. 2nd Avenue North will be changed to a two way street. Now we just have to wait for the zoning, the permits, etc. before they break ground sometime next year.