The CRA wants to bring more artists into our city—more poor people. This is its goal. Of course no one on the CRA asked the taxpayer of this city if this is what he wants. You have heard about the struggling artists that can’t make ends meet. We want them ALL to relocate here…more poor people. And now we will give them affordable NEW housing to boot, if they can afford it of course.
Candidate for District 3, Andy Amoroso, thinks this is a swell idea and so does the CRA Chair, Cary Sabol. Andy Amoroso says that he wants people walking from the Tri-Rail to feel comfortable as they walk to our downtown so affordable townhouses should be built. Great. We are going to spend the bulk of the $23 million NSP2 grant building townhouses, of which we already have a glut and that are empty or being foreclosed upon, in order to make people comfortable walking in the area.
Besides forgetting about attracting the middle class working professional to our city, the next smartest thing that anyone could do is attract the retiree who has money, who wants to spend the rest of his life in Florida, who brings with him all of his assets and savings, who pays his bills and is not a worry to anyone--people who bring all of their knowledge and success to share their ideas for the betterment of our City. We do not need to subsidize any more poor. If you keep housing the poor west of Dixie, west of Dixie will never change.
The complete irony of this are the people who blame Cara Jennings for attracting the poor immigrant to the City of Lake Worth when in fact, the very same critics are doing the exact same thing. The only difference is that the elitist businessmen on or involved with the CRA have self-serving reasons.
Let's tell it like it is. We do NOT need any more affordable housing and we definitely do not need any more townhouses to attract more people who survive on government assistance.
"As if the City didn't have an abundance of townhouses already from over-development, the CRA wants to throw government money against the wall," says former Mayor Dennis Dorsey. " Dorsey further states, "The CRA has never been able to handle money. They have been wasteful from 1993 when it was formed."
24 comments:
The BCE appointed the current CRA members. There is even a member who does not want property values to increase. McVoy, Mulvehill and Golden are all for more affordable housing. And Waterman wants to carry the torch for even more affordable rental housing!
Keep on spreading it. This Commission voted to use the CDBG money in the neighborhoods, not for affordable housing. Some on this commission appointed some of the members of the current CRA. I have no idea what Waterman believes on affordable housing and you don't either.
I spoke with her and she told me that she wants to keep Lake Worth affordable with housing for low-income people. So, yes I got the info from the horses mouth.
That's your solution? Attract a bunch of seniors on fixed incomes? The odds of Lake Worth becoming known as an artist's haven and bringing the city back to life are are whole lot better than a bunch of fixed income folks that need a trolley the city can't afford to get around spending money. Your words- "we can't afford to attract more people on government assistance." What's social security? And please I want to go look at all this "overdevelopement". Where can I see it?
Ask the residents of Soho or Williamsburg what happened when all those "poor, starving artists" moved in, Lynn. If you can find them among all the crowds in the restaurants and retail shops that followed in their wake, that is.
My solution is not more affordable housing or townhouses!! Let's attract people who can contribute to our city--it's not the poor.
Incidentally, social security is not exactly government assistance--it is an annuity that retired folks contributed into, some for 40 years or more. Let's hope that this "assistance" is around when you get ready to retire. You have been paying 7.65% of your paycheck. It is NOT food stamps. It is NOT welfare. It is NOT the government picking up the tab for illegal aliens. You have been contributing to get a return on your investment some day.
Did she say that she wanted poor people to move here in droves or that she just wanted affordable housing?? Don't we all want to move to a city that we can afford?
Like Cara, Waterman wants to keep LW affordable for very low income people. You can not have a viable city where the majority of the housing is for low income individuals.
You want to compare us to some dump in Manhattan or Brooklyn?
Anonymous at 1:14. I agree with you on this. I just have not heard Waterman say this at all. Perhaps we will learn more on Wed night at the Playhouse. Should be an interesting night.
If only Mr. Dorsey had any resemblance of a clue about the current and recent CRA then his quoted opinion would mean something. Sorry but his opinion so many years after the fact of having relevence on any current CRA issues is meaningless and laughable. Obviously its hard for some former Mayors to just let go........
Chris Fleming
That's a good one, Chris. I can tell you that I know a hell of a lot more about the city than do you.
The Gateways were corrupt and the list goes on.
My advice is always to follow the money. Look at who gives the money during political campaigns and who it is that gets the money. This will tell the tale.
Dennis
Chris, if people are so out of touch because they don't believe in government waste, then how come this city looks like crap particularly west of Dixie? What has the CRA done to eliminate blight. Not one darn thing and now it wants to build townhouses the very thing that has brought blight to our city for being empty. The CRA has been all about giving favors to friends. Think Pugh. Ugh. How successfully has our tax money been spent toward relieving blight, crime and how much of an improvement to the quality of life has it made? We still have no performance reports on how effectively our money is being spent. That's because it is not being spent effectively.
You know the old saying about opinions, everybody has one, etc etc. I stand by mine. The issue I have is your relevance as a long ago "former mayor". I would rather Lynn just state her opinion than quote you as any type of authority on the matter. That's all. No personal disrespect intended. By the way it is fun following the money, isn't it?
Chris
Most all artists struggle to pay their bills. Very few ever make a good living. Unless LW can produce someone famous who actually can make a living off of his art, more of the same is not something we should be encouraging here. I don't mind artists and even an artist colony is ok but it will be concentrated in the poor part of town and a section that we really want to revitalize. You will have more poor, more people living off of welfare and more blight. All this project will do is give construction jobs to friends.
Sorry to jump back in here but I wasn't quoting Dennis as an authority per se any more than I am one or you are one. He is my brother-in-law and stays very much engaged whether he is retired now or was an elected official in the year of the flood. It is just his opinion and one that I respect just like I respect Ron Exline's opinion. We "old" people haven't exactly lost our marbles.
I dont have enough info on the proposed artist project to render an opinion about it. In general I would prefer to see existing structures utilized. I will not get into the debate on whether the CRA has met your expectations. I will say there has been missteps and there has been good projects. Pugh was handled poorly by the CRA but could have been a good project. The fact is a CRA is a significant tool to be utilized to assist with needed redevelopment projects and focus money in areas in need. As Mr Dorsey stated the CRA has been in existance in Lake Worth for almost 20 yrs. His conspiracy theorys aside, it has done much good, but can always do better. The biggest mistake has been the elected officials apathy with the CRA until its election time. The elected officials owe it to their constituants to guide the CRA ship, yet there has always been a disconnect there, right from the beginning. Pretty typical of Lake Worth commissioners and mayors past and present.
Btw Lynn would never imply such a thing ;)
Chris
You keep drawing me back into this argument. The CRA is a separate entity and its rules are under the State Charter I believe. It doesn't have to do anything the Commission says, not really. The Commission can "guide" as you suggest, but the CRA does not have to follow. Right now it doesn't even want to sign an ethics policy and it doesn't have to.
Right and all those apointments to the CRA board are non-political.........you may be over simplifying things Lynn
Chris
Elected officials don't always turn out how you hoped--neither do board appointees.
"You want to compare us to some dump in Manhattan or Brooklyn?"
See how much it costs to rent an apartment in either of those "dumps."
The principle remains: Artists are the cutting edge of urban revival, in those "dumps" or anywhere else.
PS: Why are so many comments posted anonymously? Cowardice?
Lots of cities have little artist colonies. It doesn't mean that the entire city is populated with nothing else. These are usually small segments scattered here and there. I'm from that neck of the woods and there is a lot of crime in Brooklyn.
I saw those Trirail signs the other day when I rode, I thought they were great. They say "Would you like to be able to live a mile from the ocean? Lake Worth has government funding to provide rehabbed housing. I thought they were nice, maybe they will attract a lot of professionals that live down south and still want to work there, but live here. I think it is a good thing, our city is getting better and better and things are improving, this can only be good too, we are a diverse city in so many ways, this is a good thing promoting our city and what we can offer to others, we need to attract more home ownership, this is one other way, I do not see it as negative. I hope this is successful and we see more improvements on the west downtown corridors. We need sidewalks between Lake and Lucerne from B Street to F Street, the poor people who live in this area have to walk in the road a lot and it is dangerous for pedestrians. More needs to be done and this is a start.
Steve, Anything that Lisa maxwell wants I would take an opposite stand. Why would I do that? Because I don't believe one thing she says.
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