Exploited Hopes and Dreams

Banyan tree in Cocoanut Grove

Does every city government want to be like Cocoanut Grove?  Do they really believe that becoming an artist destination people will move to their cities, buy properties, open businesses and contribute to the tax base?  Do they really believe that there will be people coming in droves to buy this stuff? They must.

Boynton Beach artist Rolando Chang Barrero is working diligently to promote his city as a Palm Beach Art District.  West Palm Beach is now considering a downtown arts area, after all it has the "biggest, most well-known, most impactful cultural institutions in the country clustered in the downtown area," so says DDA executive Director, Raphael Clemente.

In the meantime, Lake Worth is handing over several of its public buildings to the Arts. Its CRA even gave $700,000 back in 2009 to bring in the Palm Beach Cultural Council to Lake Avenue that is housed in a building that was given to them. The CRA can't even buy a twig to replace the fallen tree at our Cultural Plaza. The decision to give the Cultural Council all of that money was based on nothing quantitative in respect to what the PB County Cultural Council could really do for Lake Worth only what they told us they could do-- just hopes, dreams and wishes and we could capitalize on their well-known reputation.

As an art lover, which I am, you can't help but notice that everywhere you look, there are artists in Lake Worth with all those hopes and dreams. Surrounding cities with more money than we are jumping on the bandwagon. What happens when the government runs out of money for all of these grants?  How much can a poor city like Lake Worth absorb for the dream?