Still not "upscale" enough for you, Mr. Snitkin?
Before we even began the Casino "rehabilitation" a survey was conducted on what the people wanted at our Casino and beach. When it came time to rank the architects who had submitted and answered our RFQ ( firms eventually narrowed down to six), REG won out by one vote.
I have always said that Cara Jennings was a "mixed bag" for me. On many occasions she showed her brilliance and the final choice of the architect for our casino was one of those times. When it comes to politics, most elected officials put the public opinion aside and conveniently forget. It is usually about what they personally want, not the public with their attitude being, "I know best." Politicians are constantly compromised. Thanks to Jennings remembering and considering what design look that the people have always said they wanted, her vote was what won the contract for REG, a West Palm Beach firm.
Politics played heavily behind the scenes to hire Living Designs Group that wanted to design an art deco style building. Maxwell, Varela and Golden fell into the trap...Varela for "green" features and political connections (he had already flipped his politics once elected)...Golden's choice was a complete surprise because she very well knew the will of the people. Mulvehill voted for Beilinson Gomez as her first choice and Cara Jennings voted for REG.
Living Designs was located in the Eco Centre, a Romano "green" building, across from City Hall. LDG insisted that they were a local architectural firm, however, the main headquarters is located in New Mexico.
Some of the Highlights and Results by largest percentage:
- 41.3 percent of those surveyed wanted something done with our casino
- 40.1 % said that the current mix of businesses was acceptable
- 79% supported the rehab of the casino building
- 51.9% said that the history of the building was very important
- 62.2% said that the original 1922 casino building design of Mediterranean Revival was what they wanted in a design approach
- 62.5% said that architectural style was very important
- 51.9% said that the historical approach combined with green features was very important
- 90.8% wanted small restaurants
- 87.6% wanted small boutique shops
- 73.5% wanted equal restaurants and shops
Hours of operation:
- 43.8% wanted breakfast, lunch and dinner; 36.5% said breakfast, lunch, dinner and Late night
- 36.8% said dawn until late evening (no one said a closing in the morning) NO ONE.
21 comments:
Some of us are very upset that having some bar there and closing at 1 is changing our beach forever. Terrible.
Helen M.
So you are saying that the rigged voting had 3 first place votes for Living Designs and only 1 first place vote for REG?
How many people in the Survey--250 residents.
145 Respondents found LW Beach not to be their beach of choice.
Your 67% number is misleading as 40% of the 67% only ranked the tenant mix at the Casino "acceptable"
No option was offered for “Morning” closing.
National Tenants wasn’t a question on the survey.
It would seem that there was no overwhelming desire of the people other than to get rid of the eyesore.
BTW, Living Designs' HQ is on Fed Hwy. I think they moved from the Eco "Silver Standard" Building a year ago.
Also, Stanton's team took the Survey's desired renovation and Green building requirements and built 97% new construction that is almost totally devoid of Green features.
Interesting Team Leadership by Stanton with respect to the Commission direction and Survey preferences
Thanks for the history ,Lynn
You are right--there was NO option for early morning closings. NO one wanted that so no option was offered.
LDG moved? Good for them.
Still moaning about new construction are ya? You really need to change that broken record.
There were many factors to consider when rating the architects. Unfortunately, Cara outsmarted your political friends as well as outsmarted Golden who you have blasted for years for winning the election.
Johnny Longboats,Johnny Longboats,Johnny Longboats, Johnny Longboats, Johnny Longboats,Johnny Longboats,Johnny Longboats......
Just one more thing, Dale.
There was NOTHING RIGGED about the grading system for the architectural choice.
Everytime your side loses at anything mind you, not just an election, there is always a problem from fraudulent votes from dead people, complaints about suspicious things in run-off elections like more people showing up to vote than they did in the primary, etc. You all seem to make mountains out of everything possible coming up with fantastical excuses. There is ALWAYS an excuse as to why you lost. Now it's the survey, or this or that.
Living Designs lost because Jennings was extremely clever in the way she ranked each category. Her overall vote for LDG resulted with them losing by one vote.
Thank God that the people got what they wanted here. Thank God all the lobbying behind the scenes for LDG did not work out for our casino design.
Is what the "people want" always the best choice. If you say that our elected officials should always do what the most vocal of us want than I guess that you would have supported continued segregation of our schools in the south as that's what the people wanted in 1959. Let's get past what the people want and get real. We want this thing built and we don't want our tax dollars to support the tenants. Rents have to pay the bills and that means tenants need to make money or we get screwed. It's time for this commission to shit or get off the pot.
True, rents have to pay our bills on the casino operation although they are throwing in parking fee money too.
Perhaps a restaurant with a different business model could make it instead of a store wanting early morning hours for a bar. It happened for how many years with John G's? In fact, I am rather sure that any successful restaurant that has great food, a fair price with great service will make money at our Casino.
So, what do you want at our beach?
The statment, "You are right--there was NO option for early morning closings. NO one wanted that so no option was offered." is ridiculous!
How can you have a fair survey without providing all the options. That is surely "stacking the deck".
1 am is fine. You make it sound like the place will be awash with vomit and drunks! Is this the case downtown?
Well, you think it's ridiculous. Ask all the people who took the survey and ONLY WANTED a restaurant there closing like John G's. Everyone is ridiculous when they don't agree with you. I get it.
The option was not considered--AGAIN--because NO ONE ever considered a bar at our beach family-friendly park. OK?
Look, Susan, we all know that you will win this argument even if people don't want to change our beach to a bar business.
It was still only in the 30 percentile that wanted the casino opened into the night. Does that mean anything?
At least 63% of the people said they did not want the casino opened well into the night. You can't get much more explicit than that. A commission needs to direct the city manager properly. They should also remember what the vision was for our beach. What they have done is ignore the people, something that we have been complaining about for years. This is a family beach. The casino is not being built for a bar business. That is really offensive to me. I'm not sure that I will even be able to afford Longboats. Bringing my kids into a bar is not something I want to do either. There are some restaurants with bars but usually they are not the main attraction or designed in a separate room. Why doesn't Johnny Long re-design this and only put in a restaurant?
Carol J.
This is a family town. Why do we want drunks in the town and now at our multi-million dollar beach? You will degrade it very quickly.
Helen Marino
If the restaurant opens at 7am that means that the employees etc will have to arrive by 6am. They now want 1am closing time you say so that means they won't be off the beach until 2 am or even later. So essentially they will be there almost around the clock. Nuts to that. Who pays for all that extra electricity around our beach. Why should anyone be on our beach that long. That is a serious quest. You allow this to happen there will be all sorts of problems down the road.
I read these comments and I'm thinking what is wrong with you people. I go to Flanagan's all the time and see entire families. I tend to think drunks go to dives and responsible drinkers go to bars with Food. Who is it your worried about? As to the noise, have you tried to hold a conversations with the surf pounding? As to the turtles and the lights, head down to Ft. Lauderdale and see how they managed. The one thing I would hate to see at this beach is the big two storied t-shirt shops full of crap. Have not checked out J Longboat from everything I hear we are lucky they want in, so let them make a living as well as their wait staff.
To anony at 6:07. Not only did they not want the beach/casino opened late at night, they also wanted small family types of restaurants. A bar doesn't cut the image here.
Well fine, anonymous at 9:56. Let them in but not on their terms and not taking the down and upstairs. Close at a normal time and that means out of there completely by 11pm.
Also, make sure that you do your D&D on this group. Has staff even contacted Catalfumo? What is there credit history. Don't take the broker's word as it seems he is working for Longboats. Get 5 years of financials and their tax returns. They are, afterall, wanting to be the major tenant in our $6 mil building.
And, if you don't think there are problems with bars opened late in to the night, then call PBSO, they will tell you differently.
As far as Ft. Lauderdale is concerned, at around the end of the 80's, after plenty of problems on the beach, they reversed course. From an article on the subject--
Some years back, when city officials thought Spring Break was far too out of control – a wall was built along A1A and the sand, which was designed to limit entry points to the beach. The theory was to provide places where police could keep an eye on people as they entered and exited the beach but the master plan was to chase away the students altogether. It worked, as Breakers worked their way north to Daytona and now hit places as far away as Jamaica and Mexico. Nightclubs and bars closed at 3am. Johnny Longboats is now asking for 2 hours less than that.
Ft. Lauderdale is full of highrises, bars, babes and lounges.
Our beach is for family. We never wanted Ft. Lauderdale up here and now this city staff is getting anyway, starting through the back-end with a late night bar.
All of the stores in the casino were to be ancillary to the beach experience. That has been the approved concept from day one and what we have had there since 1922. So, souvenir t-shirts, sun-screen, sun glasses, bathing wear, etc is appropriate. It's not crap. Also, a family styled restaurant is appropriate.
D.
You have a poll on your blog about lights. I blame it all on the commission. They should have informed the cm. Even the present commission is not in touch with what the community wanted there.
We have too many bars.
Agreed. We have too many bars in this city. I seldom go to the downtown because that is what you find, bars all over the place and loud music at the Cottage. Get some decent stores. What about a department store?
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