They came in their wheel chairs, their motorized scooters, their canes and their pride. They were all senior citizens, some in their 90's, one with Multiple Sclerosis. One lady was on oxygen with one lung remaining. They were all there to protest about a city decision to end their garbage pick-up in front of their homes. City Manager Bornstein said they fell through the cracks as the Zoning was changed there in 2009 and garbage pick-up should have changed at that time. Not so, says the park residents...the city changed the zoning in 2012 but it was only recently that they received a letter from the city telling them that curbside service would end.
If you recall, about ten days ago the president of the homeowner's association at Palm Beach Mobile Home Park located off Boutwell Road in the Park of Commerce sent me a letter with all of their concerns...I posted it on my blog. The residents were upset that where they live has been rezoned to commercial from residential and now they say that the city wants to end their garbage pick-up in front of their house wanting them to deposit it in a central dumpster within the property.
Scott Maxwell showed up saying he would get to the "bottom of it." The Park of Commerce is his "baby" and now, as that old cliche goes, the park residents feel they are being thrown out with the bath water.
No one from the city has explained to them what is going on or that we are pouring $11 million into the Park of Commerce this year for infrastructure to attract development. All they know is, they now are denied permits for their homes and have been told that they cannot get their roads fixed. The straw that broke the camel's back? Ending garbage pick-up in front of their homes.
Channel 5 video
Channel 12 video
Palm Beach Post article
37 comments:
I've seen a bunch of apartment building complexes near me that have recently changed from having a bevy of wheeled plastic garbage containers to a dumpster which is much neater.
According to the videos, there is a cost factor and it looks like their anarchist style protest is working as they may still be able to keep thier curbside pick-up if they want to pay for it.
8:21, you are a real piece of work. They DO "pay for it". This mobile home park is the 3rd highest taxed property in the whole city.Maybe the city can make you and all of your neighbors take your trash to a centralized location. Hope you aren't in a wheelchair. Hope you have a car. Hope you don't have M.S. or just one lung. Again, real nice anon at 8:21.
This zoning change was passed in 20012, NOT 2009. Scott Maxwell did this.Scott, you should be ashamed.
Notices about this zoning change were sent to the wrong address. Another Lake Worth administration FUBAR, just like the voting notices that went out saying the vote was March 10th, not the correct date.
People have the right to peacefully assemble under the First Amendment of our Constitution.
There is NOTHING anarchistic about it.
They have been paying for this service all along. But now that they are zoned commercial, I guess the rate is higher or no longer provided at the curb.
One further thought to 8:21, my condo which is residential is considered "commercial" for garbage pick-up but the configuration out here is totally different than the mobile home park.
It seems to me they should be all over their own commissioner, Chris McVoy. Where is he? How can you blame any of the commissioners if they were unaware of the problem that started in 2009? Did these homeowners ever contact Public Works to discuss the problem? My thoughts. That is the normal process is it not?
Mcvoy was not a commissioner in 2009
The HOA pres says the zoning was changed in 2012.
That would lead a normal person to assume that it is under the watch of this commission plus Szerdi minus Maier.
Let me guess, pam scott and andy should be voted out because of a change in garbage pickup, right? And let me guess again, the other candidates have promised never to change the garbage pickup service, right? Freaking amazing how anything can be turned into a political hit piece. eye <3 lw
It is amazing that people are continually treated with no respect and like garbage.
On they have shuffle board? Senior citizens love playing shuffle board. Every time I pick up lunch at Clearys there are dozens people playing shuffle board, they, we all love it!
Lynn the zoning decision was made in 2009 by Stanton. Look it up.
Read your article and I wanted to say:
Were any of you people there last night. We were ready to answer your questions.
Did any of you hear Maxwells condescending, argumentative attitude to the people and the press.
Did any of you hear the false promises he made that require a majority vote to make the changes he promised.
Sounded like he could get everything fixed with a majority vote. Oh wait he would have the majority vote with the current 3 in office.
But you can bet you sweet $$ the vote would not take place until AFTER the election on March 15th.
By the way we pay $20 per household (that includes the vacant property and homes). We are not paying the peanuts that they are saying we are paying.
Just hope the naysayers never have to go through what we have had to deal with over the past 3 years. Look around you--do you feel safe with everything that is going on.
By the way we asked what was being built on the west side of Boutwell and we were unable to get any answers. We were told that is is privately owned. (DUH) They would still have to get building permits that would have to be OKayed by the City. Do they think seniors are stupid.
Smoking gun alert... Diane Jacques is flaming this fire storm and yes it was 2009 when none of the current commissioners were on the dais, it's all in the permanent record. Why not ask Joann Golden, vice mayor at the time! Or Cara Jennings, Suzanne Mulvihil, Retha Lowe or Sen Jeff Clemons who was mayor at the time!
Where is commissioner McVoy? Is this his district?
FRom what I heard, many of the residents there are snowbirds from Canada. That is why this is coming to light now, not the political season. Lynn, how far do you have to walk to throw your garbage away? And you have stairs to navigate.
Maxwell just stepped in a big pile of poo. Burger boy should have just kept driving,,,,
@3:23...No one is taking advantage of these people but the City of Lake Worth perhaps.
I live in a condo...not a mobile home park. There is a big difference. Mobile homes are houses situated on small lots, etc. Usually, mobile homeowners rent the lot space and pay the owner for services which includes garbage pick-up. There are some mobile home communities where the owners all own it but this is not one of them. The HOA president has stated that they pay more than what is being reported by some. They, in all good faith, have paid for these services for decades without problems until now when the city sent them some sort of letter.
That's all I know.
As far as McVoy is concerned, because he is part of the minority on the dais, he is not kept abreast of all the happenings within the city. And there is no one who can prove to me that zoning changed in 2009. If you have that, send it on. Thanks.
. Only approx 190 out of our 600 residents are snowbirds. All of these comments are coming from people who support the current 3 Pam, Maxwell and Amaroso. This is typical of theiir smear campaign. False information. Check the st ats. Crime in Lake Worth number 3 on a list of 100 cities in surrounding areas. 1 being the highest per capita. Electric prices are 27 highest our of 36, No hurricane fund left due to excessive spending. Don''t blame it all on the previous administration. You don't like your financial directors because they don't like what you are doing. Changed 3 times. Only money grabbers would support these three.
Seems like the residents should be grandfathered in at least. Doesn't seem right City can change this right out from under them. Their zoning change means their taxes, fees etc are higher. Of course it is obvious the City wants them OUT and this is their Avenue of force! Sickening their interests are always about $. Doesn't even sound like we live in America. No wonder politicians are not trusted when you find out about what they do and lie about it.
Ok Lynn I found the ordinance. The municode site has it Ord. 2009-02, Section 12-11 Definations says the mobile home park is commercial property. It's. 2009-02 Section 12-12 Collection and disposal... says garbage goes into a dumpster on the commercial property.
So there us go, it happened in 2009. What does the previous vice mayor in 2009 Joann Golden say about all of this or is her memory failing?
Sec. 12-11. - Definitions
Commercial establishment: Any public or private place, building and/or enterprise devoted in whole or in part to a business enterprise whether nonprofit or profit-making in nature, including but not limited to hotels, motels, any office buildings, stores, markets, theaters, hospitals or other institutional buildings, but excluding any structure which constitutes a residence as defined in this section. For the purpose of this article, "commercial establishment" shall include structures containing nine (9) or more dwelling units.
How are a bunch of concerned seniors trying to survive and keep living in their homes, in any way be considered "anarchists?" Has peaceful assembly and protest been outlawed as well?? Isn't this still the United States?
I don't understand why the seniors who live here were never notified of a zoning change like this that may make it more difficult or even impossible for them to continue to live here? Isn't there some law to protect people like this? Especially the disabled?
If the ADA covers these so called "Sober Homes" which seem more like "insurance scam homes" aren't these people covered as well?? It sure looked like many of these seniors would qualify as disabled. Shouldn't they have been notified if a zoning change would make it impossible for them to continue living in their homes?? And there used to be legal condition and I hope still is; that if you are removing living quarters such as a mobile home park and the residents are forced to relocate--that cannot happen if there are not like accommodations they can move to, including affordability.
Those at the mobile home park organized this protest themselves. There was no other person organizing it or leading the way for them. OK? Got it? So, any comment that comes over here condemning a candidate running for office and making false assumptions, will not be posted.
In regard to this zoning change, does anyone know if people who actually live in an area up for a change or "future land use" change, have to be notified in any way? With this great push for development and "moving forward" is there anything to protect me as a resident from a similar fate? I live in a neighborhood of single family homes by choice. Could they pass a new zoning ordinance making my neighborhood multifamily or hotel district or commercial without my knowledge? Kinda scary.
So Lynn are you prepared to state, in public, on this blog, that you have not been involved in promoting Diane Jacques and her editing comments, which were to be released, in a letter to the PB Post, or other nefarious deeds in this matter?
Zoning changes are political.
They should notify you by public notice in a newspaper where you can come to a meeting and speak. I'm not sure they have to give you any other type of notice.
But, remember, zoning can be changed on a 3/2 vote and there's not one damn thing you can do.
It just happened for the Gulfstream Hotel on a 3/2 vote.
8:13-
the only letter (e-mail) I know anything about is the one I posted here about 10 days ago. I have not seen the one sent to the post. Was it good?
Lynn, PLEASE address the fact that the ordinance was approved by a PREVIOUS Commission.
At least be forthright in acknowledging this fact.
How in your mind, is this somehow an "evil 3" enactment??
Stop the Insanity, please.....
It's sickening that anyone would claim that any candidate was involved in our protest. Are you saying that senior citizens are too stupid to organize ourselves or stand up for our own rights? Some of us may be disabled, but we're not idiots. Our president, Jerri Green, is a fighter and she's going to continue to fight this ordinance and we will help any time we are asked to. I resent the comment that we are unable to fight our own battles. The only politician that tried to get his face and comments to the media was Maxwell. Just like him to try to make it an opportunity for his reelection campaign, but he won't get many votes from our residents!
Lynn, you're absolutely right some of these things are all political.
Back in 2009 it was published in the paper and notice issued to the owner of the property, which is now Riverside communities. The tenants, who are renters, do not have standing in this matter, but if they had a look in the newspaper they would've seeing the notice. And like all other citizens and residents of LW, the tenants did have the opportunity to speak before the 2009 commission of Clemons, Golden, Jennings, Mulvihil, and Lowe... They, the tenants chose to not become involved. Sorry for their lack of concern at the one in this matter.
The tenants need to take this up with their landlord.
Whether it was in the newspaper or not is not the problem here. It is how the city notified them just recently that is the problem.
Shoe me the public notice of 2009.
So that is even more scary to me. It sounds like they could change my zoning as well. And only notify the Eastmans in the Lake Worth Herald which no one reads anymore as it is only a local propaganda periodical. Why not use a reputable newspaper, or list it in a prominent position on the city website?
So a bunch of old people that went out and bought signs and the materials to paint the signs, piled into a couple of cars and traipsed over to city hall to march up and down dixie highway carrying their home made signs are incapable of carrying trash bags to a central dumpster? Morons.
Don't you worry its all going to come out and you will have major egg on your face troublemaker.
I believe these seniors and their president. They don't have any reason to lie. The city, however, as well as this commission has every reason to spin it differently. Sad. So bring on the eggs. I like mine over well.
As a Senior, I will do everything possible to help them when they have a problem. An owner in this mobile home park had a problem. I printed her letter. I notified candidates that I support to contact her. Not sure if only one or more did but I surely hope so.
This is election time and everything is about politics. It is dirty and vicious in this city.
If you want to help the Seniors mayor, zoning can be changed from the dais. Just do it. Don't let them be surprised.
Dear anonymous of Feb 27, 2016 - 8:02 AM.
Get your facts straight. I you cruised the trailer park on Feb 26, you must have done so with your eyes closed, hope you were not driving. I have been in this park for over 7 years and have yet to see garbage trucks or emergency not being able to access what they are here for. The majority of vehicles are parked in their respected spot and by the way in a park with over 300 mobile homes we don't have more than 10 motor cycles. You are exaggerating this situation. Why not write your name to your comments, too scared! You must hold a position in the city of Lake Worth or you are a politician with no guts. As a snowbird, this situation is absolutely not entertaining for me or my colleagues. Do your homework before you write this nonsense and please before taking your pen, go back to school and concentrate on your grammar as it is left to be desired.
Gisele Fortin
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