Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell
Quote of the Day
"...the biggest racists in town, in this room, have walked the streets, have talked about social justice and all the other people in this room have not seen the overt racism that has gone on in our city for years. Look at the western side in this community. You talk about environmental racism--why do you think there's no streets on the west side of town or the south end of town. I have been talking about infrastructure for 15 years...
The very people who shot down the Lake Worth 2020 Plan [the general obligation bond] are the very people and the biggest racists in town."
20 comments:
It's TRUE
It's BAD POLITICS.
No roads on the west side of town? I live in the west side of town. What have I been driving on all of these years? Oh yeah, the Native American made roads that were here one hundred years ago- in a past "history of Lake Worth according to Scotty " speech, Commissioner Maxwell informed all of us that no roadwork had been done in Lake Worth for one hundred years.I think it was the Seminoles that left behind the Osborne gym in Retha Lowes neighborhood. Rumor has it they got grant money from the Cherokee Nation to finance the original structure.
Why is this guy on the Commission? Can anyone give us the full history of Maxwell? I really don't get how he ever got elected. Oh, wait....we didn't have a Tribune then.
Scott Maxwell will make a motion at the next meeting to change the venue of the meetings to Dave's an alternate ones at Igot's.
He'll feel much more secure and mellow there.
Andy Amoroso will make an alternate proposal for his back room to be the venue for the same reasons.
Which one will the Mayor vote for?
With her fanatical devotion to breaking bread Italian style, Mayor Triolo's choice of meeting venue would of course be Rotelli's.And they do have a full bar.
Imagine how much smoother the meetings would go if Maxwell had only one minute to rant. The tax payers get two minutes. Our elected servants get one . Sounds good to me.
Can anybody take the time, and it's A LOT ,to count up just how many minutes of Tuesday's Commission meeting that Maxwell"s rants sucked up? Next, how much did Pagliacci ,sorry, Mayor Triolo suck up ?
After watching the painfully long meeting on video and specifically the portion where Maxwell made his now famous comment, it seems clear that he was trying, albeit poorly, to make a case for the people in his district being left out of the largess granted those of us on the East side of town. He called it institutional racism. Withholding services and infrastructure upgrades and maintenance because the people living there are of another race.
Those who wish to keep Lake Worth poor by ignoring the need to grow and being against everything that would improve the area West of Dixie are therefore buying into the institutional racism.
Your first comment above says "it's true".
I have watched for years now how this blog has insulted every attempt to improve the poor neighborhoods West of Dixie. Sure, you have your reasons stating we don't need anymore "poor" people, but just who do you think will invest in the alphabet streets with modest homes and unkempt yards? There is a BIG difference in affordable housing and cheap, sub-standard housing. (slum) You fail to make that distinction.
No doubt, Maxwell was also agitated by the hypocracy displayed by a supporter of Maier and McVoy displaying the worst verbal racism, not the same as institutional racism, however he was trying to make that comparison.
So those who by their actions practice institutional racism don't like being called out on it. You can't have it both ways when you keep Lake Worth poor and not promote real diversity. Poor people are overwhelmingly minorities.
Again, the circus is back in town.
The only people keeping this city poor is this majority commission. Affordable housing and rentals all over the place. The only ones who are hypocrites are those on the majority commission. To go along with the unproven comment that is attributed to Dee, is defamation and can be legally challenged as it should. It is outrageous that this dais and city manager got into a fight that they can NOT legally win. Whether she said it or not isn't the issue. This was disgusting politics. Even Pam Lopez said that Dee could sit there. I was the 3rd person in the room and witnessed that.
I could care less if someone believes I am a racist. I know what I am. But they should keep their remarks at a city commission meeting to themselves. I know what THEY are as well but I don't carry on and personally attack them from the lectern.
Revolting meeting!
Anony at 9:09. I agree about the circus but it has been in effect for 2.5 years sitting on the dais. This commission hasn't done one thing for the western communities but want to tax them for potholes. If you consider the Osborne area, they get constant amenities. The commission and MaXWELL tells us that they have done so much for the city. What have they done? Name one thing other than insulting the voters and playing dirty politics.
Most of the housing stock we have is affordable. It is more like 70% of the inventory city-wide. To encourage more of it does not help our tax base and makes no sense. We need to pull the downtown out of the CRA. Let's start making some decisions that will benefit the people, not Scott's POC and taxes, his excuse for building these low-cost rentals.
Dear Anon at 9:09, you raise a good question, why has the west side been neglected and who is responsible for that neglect, is it me one of the property owners that pays taxes (only a third of us do) who lives east of Federal. Or is it the City leaders or City staff who decide how money is spent and how resources are allocated and have been making those decisions over many years. I'd argue that since I have no control over where my tax dollars are spent and since I've not asked that they be spent on my street or in my neighborhood then I'm not the one practicing institutional racism and perhaps Mr. Maxwell and others should explore how money is allocated in this City and address whether or not it is fair or not (I have no idea).
Said another way, the only entities practicing institutional racism is the institution, meaning the City of LW which acts through its elected officials, its City Manager and its staff. Blaming me for the lack of expenditures by the City in the west side and then calling me a racist is unacceptable.
You are almost making my point anon @11:12. THIS commission put into place a plan that needed voter approval. So YOU would have had the opportunity to decide if streets get fixed, lighting added and sidewalks put in.
The contention was that if you voted against to 20/20 bond, you didn't want to pay to improve "those people" 's streets or the slummy streets. I don't agree with that point of view and there were many reasons to vote against it. I voted against it and am not a racist. Since I'm not, I wasn't offended as much as those sitting there in the room. "Imagine that, a fat white conservative small town commissioner calling ME, an anarchist, progressive democrat, a RACIST?" The nerve.
The gasps and uncontrolled outbursts were comical to hear off camera. You'd think he called you all the derogatory racial slur that started this whole thing. You do remember who started this whole thing don't you? Wasn't it a Maier supporter?
So, everyone get attacked on this blog except the one who started it. It's the Heralds fault, it's the city manager's fault, it's the city employee who was offended by the comment's fault, it's a "he said she said" fault .... everybody but her. Now it's Maxwell's fault. What ever happened to personal responsibility? Admit it and apologize. Denying it is calling the offended one a liar. What possible reason did an employee have to make up such a charge? She informed her that she was offended at the time and reported it at the time it happened.
Yes, the circus is back in town and the Palm Beach Post can't wait to sic Cerabino on all the silly antics we witnessed last Tuesday.
Look, I almost didn't post your comment. I do NOT want anyone referring to people as "fat," "drunks," whatever.
Next, the person who started this is yet to be determined but I will say that someone from city hall notified the LWHerald publisher, Mark Easton, (the only people who were notified were the city manager and city attorney by the employee, so take your pick) who went with an article that is libelous because IT CAN'T BE PROVED.
That's the bottom line so....
we can blame whoever leaked this slanderous he said she said to Easton who was wrong in publishing it.
Clearly the racists are all the City leadership folks who for years and years BEFORE LW2020 neglected this area of town, not the voters who voted against the plan for, as you note, a variety of reasons.
The City had money over many years that wasn't spent in this area, why was that? Investigate that, figure out who the real racists are. Don't blame the voters who are simply protecting their personal pocketbook.
It has nothing to do with "racists." God.
Go back to the days when Ann Costello was the Finance Director and the city manager even before Paul Boyer.
"The gasps and uncontrolled outbursts were comical to hear off camera. You'd think he called you all the derogatory racial slur that started this whole thing."
Anon at 2:54- there is NOTHING comical about calling someone a RACIST ! The VAST majority of Maxwell's OWN DISTRICT voted against the 20/20 bond. Maxwell INSULTS us instead of REPRESENTING us. He needs to be kicked out of office. AFTER he is publicly censured and made to apologize! Katie Mcgiveron
Have you seen the video of Lynn and Kate at the council meeting going from left to right asking questions and pointing fingers at the commissioner's during a break? They look like monkeys at the zoo going back and forth, so angry and frustrated.
Yeah? Our candidates won, anonymous at 8:47. It's difficult to tolerate stupidity.
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