What do you do when you are cash poor? You buy on credit until that dries up or you stop buying. In Lake Worth, they just keep buying as we have been operating in the red for the past two budget years. The "free lunch" is alive and better than ever. It is the hope of the city and the commission that their "grab the cash" plan will work at the polls tomorrow. They have done everything under the sun to convince you.
The commission is trashing your mailbox with junk trying to sell everyone on rebuilding our infrastructure in our tired and 100 year-old city...fixing the potholes and paving over the few streets that are still gravel. They appeal to you that kids need sidewalks to keep them safe. Potholes are much more "right in your face" and a "selling point" to convince you to buy into their Roads Improvement 2020 plan that will obligate every property owner in this city for 30 years or more and then they will have to turn right around and fix the roads again.
Can you even imagine what you will be paying as property values rise? This is to attract development, not just the poor to whom they have been catering over the past several years by literally spending $23 million to build 138 houses dotting every poor section of our city with the hopes that those surrounded by this new housing will also improve their homes...the trickle up theory. Didn't work; never does. Now in order to raise tax revenue, they are engaging in affordable rentals..BIG TIME. They like to tell you that the one on Boutwell is NOT affordable rentals but it is according to HUD standards and definition.
But the main reason this is on the ballot is to attract developers and to change our quaint city forever. Realtors are ready and some people are hurrying out to get their license so that they can cash in when the time is right. They are not happy with no growth and property values falling to a ridiculous low. After all, real estate commissions are based on value. They want to give developers a big break by YOU paying for the infrastructure at the Park of Commerce so that they might develop there. How long will it take for the city to recapture your $11 million minimum investment in that land? Another 50 or 100 years? The government has done everything possible to ruin our city by building affordable rentals which will cause more slum, blight, the homeless, and crime. They even went so far as to not to honor the vote on heights in our downtown...a new low for any elected official.
No one is addressing this false sense of recovery that we are all experiencing at the moment. The housing recovery seems to be just another stage of the foreclosure crisis with the same city players who regenerate whenever there is a boom. We have a lot of investors who are buying again with banks playing games. The bubble is back.
We very well might end up as we did before as this could be a false recovery. Even your property has been assessed on this "recovery." 8.9% increase in value based on what? Institutional buyers are snapping up cheap properties. Banks, once again, are giving cheap mortgages. People are buying. We are still poor and slum and blight has no where to go. If the bubble bursts, we will have more folks in foreclosure than we did before who won't be able to pay their ad-valorem.
This commission does not listen to you. Make them listen tomorrow when you walk into that election booth and cast your vote AGAINST.
At the risk of getting one of your sarcastic put downs I will say that I am a yes voter. I wish the poc was not part of the plan but it is. In life you rarely get everything you want. But, the city is in dire need of improvements. Your belittling of yes voters being suckers is just so stupid. In our group we have very successful people who know how to analyze problems. The image of this city has to change and this bond is the first step in us garnering some much needed respect in So. Fla. as a go to city. Our leaders have failed us in the past. We finally have some with some sense and a backbone.
ReplyDeleteway to go Lynn, calling concerned citizens suckers. Is your goal in all this to be remembered as the most polarizing figure in the cities rebirth?
ReplyDeleteYou only get my sarcasm when you issue personal attacks.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you in saying that our leaders have failed us in the past. Some in past administrations have squandered the money and we don't know where it all went. In most cases, commissions don't have any clue and they take the city manager's word when budgets are created and line items are shifted around or when a city attorney wants to settle with a flim flam man. It would take a forensic auditor to figure it all out. The past in this instance is 100 years. Backbone is good but asking people to tax themselves for over three decades is not good "sense." An example of NOT GOOD SENSE is what this commission did the other night by approving over $2 million in expenses WITHOUT any discussion. This is exactly how money has gone missing throughout the years and has put our city in jeopardy.
So, let's REALLY get some backbone and some sense. We all would appreciate that a lot. Listen to the people not just your core.
In our group we have very successful people as well and can analyze this plan. So, you want the image to change, then that starts with you by totally being transparent and truthful. Pros and cons should have been told.
Thanks for this blog, Lynn. You have done such a great service to the residents here by never giving up and a blog full of great ideas and information. I have seen the Facebook comments from the YES people and they are downright disgusting. They are going to lose. People like that can't win and need to understand what lie really means. Forward.
ReplyDelete9:08 you got it azz backwards. What will go down in history is Maxwell,Triolo, Amorosa and Szerdi being the most polarizing non elected commission in 100 years. What a claim to fame.
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed by the attack dogs on the yes side. There are many people in that group that I admire and appreciate, but the underhanded, disinformation attacks has really upset me.
ReplyDeleteI've already voted, did early voting on Sat. and I voted No on the bond. I did so for a few reasons, first as someone who pays City of LW taxes and will be on the hook for the bond repayment, I think the repayment proposal is unfair and inappropriate. The City can't or shouldn't keep asking the same people to open their check books. The folks the City wants to attract, affluent, new businesses, young professionals will, of course, be turned off by the highest tax rate in the County. And while I agree that we need to invest in our infrastructure, the proposal is too big and benefits private business, the park of Commerce, in a disproportionate manner. Finally, I have a complete lack of trust of the City, this administration, the past administration, any administration, it doesn't matter I don't trust them so I don't trust them to do what they say they plan to do and I don't trust them to manage this kind of project or this kind of money.
"They are not happy with no growth and property values falling to a ridiculous low".
ReplyDeleteARE YOU?
"They even went so far as to not to honor the vote on heights in our downtown" THIS IS THE REAL REASON YOU ARE SO AGAINST THE ONLY DEENT COMMISSION WE'VE HAD THE PAST 8 YEARS. ADMIT IT AND MOVE ON.
YOU KNOW THIS IS A STATE LAW THAT PASSED AND THE CITY HAS TO HONOR. WHY DO YOU KEEP REPEATIN THE SAME LIE? DO YOU WANT THE CITY TO GET INVOLVED IN YET ANTHOER LAWSUIT?
At the presentation at the Playhouse on Friday night the city attorney stated all the "junk" they are sending out has to be vetted and true. Can you say the same?
Don't use conjecture with me as to why I am against this bond. I am against this commission...period...and every reason is stated on the right side of this blog. I do not fall into the trap of their political intimidation.
ReplyDeleteThe city has to put out accurate information. There has been a few mistakes. However, it is not in what they have said but rather in what they have not.
Why would I go to a presentation at the Playhouse when I have heard the propaganda 50 times before?
No one is happy with property values falling so low. Tell your best commission ever to clean up the slum, blight and the crime and take a few years for the economy to turn-around, then we can talk again.
Thanks.
P.S. Respectful Planning Pac AND ALL the voters won at the polls to keep LW low-rise. The only way that can be turned around is in the courts. If the city gets involved in another law suit, could it be from their conniving and making?
P.S. your last statement doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteRespectful Planning Pac tried to go to court to sue the city. Remember?
What happened? Oh I forgot you were the top dog in that Pac yet you claim to not know why Laurie dropped her lawsuit.
I was NOT a member of the PAC. Can't you get it? The PAC did go to court; they didn't try to go to court. Laurel Decker has never made a public statement on this but I would suppose that this suit can be brought back. And please, I am not going to rehash this stuff over and over again. I need to get signs out that you guys keep stealing.
ReplyDelete