The longest recession since World War II began in December 2008 and the government says it lasted 18 months lasting well into 2010. Until this one, the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-5 and 1981-2, with each lasting 16 months. Jobs lost, banks folded, homes were lost and cities filed bankruptcy. It was a mess and we are still in recovery. It all affected Lake Worth in a very negative way. The city became much poorer; property values fell for years and some still fell again in 2013. Over 2,000 homes went into foreclosure. We have not recovered. Our tax base is pathetic. But we still have dreams and the city is going to spend what little money you have on those dreams, one way or another.
Last night it was said by the city manager that Mrs. Sharp was right, we should have started on the Park of Commerce 4 or 5 years ago...as "we need to create jobs" and ad-valorem. During the economic crisis that was still affecting Lake Worth back then, we got a new city manager (Susan Stanton) who worked 16 hours a day to stop the bleed. Now it seems we are going to open the wound that has never yet healed. On top of that, we're going to take over the maintenance of Boutwell Road from the County and we don't have a pot--not yet anyway--not unless the city moves more money from our Reserves or goes out on a General Obligation Bond and commits the city to long-term debt.
As one resident said to me, "When will this commission and city administration stop dreaming about what might be and take care of what is."
5 comments:
The interesting thing here is that we have a few Republicans on the dais and they all act like liberal, progressive tax and spend folks. Don't quite get that.
Seeing as everyone you know want's to keep the City LOW RISE how will we ever get A N Y W H E R E??L???
B.B. G
Dear BB--this blog was about the Park of Commerce, not keeping the downtown low-rise. The referendum was not about the entire city...just the downtown and it was voted in by 56% of the voters.
Now you may be surprised to learn that this commission voted to keep the Park of Commerce low-rise, which is really weird.
So, tell me, how will keeping our downtown lows-rise affect anything or anyone other than a developer who wants to make much more profit off of LW? We have gone through this argument before. More than half the voters "got it."
Want to see what is wrong with Lake Worth ? Go look at the corner of Lucerne and A street. One of our extreme early historic structures left to rot. Go take a picture. Look at it whenever another Lake Worth Commissioner or employee(that WE ALL PAY THE SALARY OF ) goes into flights of fancy about what could be built, etc. ,etc. This structure exists in the HERE and NOW. It is not some pipe dream. And it has been allowed TO ROT ! It's not fun to deal with the real nuts and bolts problems. It is much more fun to laugh and joke and talk like a pirate and fantasize about how to get money into the pockets of your developer ,and FUTURE DEVELOPER, friends. On behalf of the very REAL ISSUES AND RESIDENTS of the here and now, stop ignoring us. Live up to the promises you made during your campaigns.
You might have missed this blog on that property--
http://www.lynn-a.blogspot.com/2014/01/lake-worths-first-chamber-of-commerce.html
The city is buying it back and demolishing the building.
Post a Comment