Public Comment at the August 25 meeting
116 Comments
Below is one comment from Dan Volker:I believe critically important information is missing from the town's collective knowledge base --- The town is collectively UNAWARE that Lake Worth Beach could be a world-famous Scuba Dive and Snorkel Destination.
This means tens, or hundreds of millions of dollars, should be pouring into Lake Worth Beach right now. This money would be pouring in right now except for the failures of past Commissions on recognizing the enormous natural resource they have. Next month I will be acquainting the Commissioners with the PROOF of what I am suggesting here.
The take-away for today... is that the Gulfstream should become a MASSIVE CONDUIT to funnel State and County Tourism Dollars into, as well as to represent a foundation for a very large influx of Dive Tourists, directly into the town's entertainment district economy, and this should be with practically no increased traffic by rental cars, as Dive Tourist do not typically desire a car at Dive Resorts... Very easy solutions for them will be presented. THE GULFSTREAM WILL MAKE LAKE WORTH SO MUCH MONEY THAT THE HUMAN SERVICES THAT SEVERAL COMMISSIONERS ARE FIGHTING FOR -- WILL BECOME EASY TO ACHIEVE AND ENTIRELY PAID FOR BY THE ECONOMY THE HOTEL WILL GENERATE.
I have not seen the good or bad in the contracts, so I have no knowledge of what several commissioners are attempting to protect us from.
I am sure they are trying to protect us.... Whatever good or bad, the potential economic benefits need to be considered WITH the other issues.
28 comments:
Love this, Dan. thank you.
reminds me of Peter Timm
I just wish I could care about this. I sometimes sit at the new Coffee Shop at the corner of Lake and Palmway. It is relatively quiet sitting there. Not too much traffic on a Sunday morning. How will this change my life? Or any of our lives, for that matter. Just another high-priced restaurant with mediocre food.
I just don't care to be in an over-crowded area, which might very well be the case when they go forward with this project.
It's true there will be a few managerial jobs, but mostly low wage jobs, depending on tips.
Some in the crowd were downright mean and disrespectful towards Vice Mayor McVoy.
This sentiment reflects no understanding of what thrusting Lake Worth into a 50 or 100 million dollar per year Dive Tourism Economy would mean to the growth of new businesses in the downtown- both employee and entrepreneurial (why not start your own business? Do you have ambition?), restaurants, cafes, sports expedition, arts and culture for gift shops, infrastructure for town and beach...on and on.
If you went back in time to 1980 before Grand Cayman's 7 mile beach was known to an but die hard divers...you'd be walking into a place with close to the same tourism base and economy LWB has today. But today Cayman has over $350,000,000 go through it each year from Dive Tourists. You could step into hundreds of jobs or new businesses you could start..that the tourism economy would help you start(think Lake Worth helping entrepreneurs for this)...You can be what you want to be and those with no ambition can do what they like.
The "Crowds" stay in hotels, not apartments on your street, they don't need cars because the dive operations have vans and busses...and the town gets the Molly Trolley again.
Tourism funds human services easily..things that many of our commissioners are fighting for.
I just have a question can the City of lake Worth handle all the traffic on that road no can the City of lake Worth handle all the sewage I don't think so they had a problem with their sewage a while back they put liners in all the pipes can they handle it can lake Worth beach handle the infrastructure no so why we going to put a hotel it is going to be nothing but headaches oh that's right to see if lake Worth Beach likes to giveaway things like they did to golf course they did Benny's on the beach like they did the pier like they did office buildings they love to give away stuff why do we even need a commission why don't we give everything away and we don't need a city
Everyone I know wants the Gulfstream to re-open . Not everybody is on board with paying for the " luxury appts" that will be built surrounding the Gulfsteam. If you want to build ,great. But I don't like my town being ,basically, blackmailed into funding somebody's construction project. Why does everyone wanting to come in and IMPROVE our town always have their hands out as a condition ? Has our town offered millions to any of the other businesses that have taken a gamble and opened for business in our town?
The people who are all excited about this Hotel, are the ones who think they will profit from it in some way.
There are plenty of new hotels and all kinds of extravagant projects going on in Miami. Move to Brickell. That should sate your lust for building projects.
Why try to make Lake Worth like a big city? It's ludicrous.
To anon @11:05.
I don't want Lake Worth to be another Delray Beach...and hotel room nights will not cause that kind of urban sickness. On the other hand, if you want no development at all then Lake Worth is the wrong place for you...towns are about commerce...maybe what you need is a rural area where people live miles apart and there will never be any development beyond barns and pasture land....Or, there is living on the border of a state or national wilderness area.
Why exactly would it be wrong for Lake Worth to have a good tourism economy and be able to afford human services for those that need it...and not lose its small town charm by enforcing transportation alternatives for tourists...trlleys and busses and vans....even Bike taxis.
Dan, ask me how much I care about divers? So let them go to Grand Cayman. Better, why don't you go to Grand Cayman? Why are you so dissatisfied. Are we supposed to cater to some whim of yours about divers?
@12:20. I believe Dan is asking YOU to look at the big picture. It is his opinion that the city will prosper just like Grand Cayman did with the program he is introducing.
Dan is not dissatisfied. The Gulfstream vote passed on a 5/0 and he wanted the hotel vote to pass.
@9:54...I agree with you. Help with the hotel but not the new construction. They are a for-profit corporation, are they not?
Anon@12:20
A. We have better diving than Grand Cayman does.
B. Divers would bring big money into Lake Worth without the traffic and urbanization many are afraid of...and divers hate urban..divers are mostly environmentalists..this is ecotourism.
C. Don't you want to help the underprivileged and the homeless? Don't you want better lives for the majority of LWB residents? This is the natural result of Dive Tourism..and Cayman is a close example.
And...I will talk to any of you guys about this...the coffee shop at lake and Palm way one of the posters suggested would be a great place for this.
I am not a developer and I am not a dive operator...I just happen to know what Dive Tourism could do for our town. However, the more pro and con discussions we have...the better. This will help provide a smarter part as we go forward.
I think you're a dreamer. Your description reminds me of that TV Show. What was it called "Baywatch".
Not only are you a dreamer, but you are a Utopian.
I'm more of a "No Free Lunch" kind of guy!
so tired of allthe 'i know better than you'.was wondering if when they first built the hotel if they had the same know it alls.let the people putting up the money do their thing.this article shows who is in it for the money'THE CITY'
Anon@2:33
Before using headlines and quick stereotypes, it would be nice if you delved into the Economics of Dive Tourism, or spoke with me in person about details and proofs.
One thing I don't believe in is a Utopian existance. But Lake Worth has failed miserably in using it's natural resources for the benefit of it's residents.
We are like the people of Vail Colorado in 1950...constantly complaining that things are not BETTER, AND just accepting that from November to April the roads will be snowed in, and the economy of he town will Stink.
THEN...someone began believing that tourists would come and ski on the mountain..if only they put in a few amenities and rope tows...and built a few hotels...Today Vail has an Economy bigger than some Nations. This is not Utopia..this is looking at what you have...and when you have something special, you use it.
If I wanted to live in Vail, I'd live in Vale. What is your point? You're worried about the people of Lake Worth? Don't you think that whole area on Boutwell that they developed provides opportunity enough for anyone interested in working in Lake Worth? They are building a big hotel complex there.
That's in Lake Worth. Why do you want to change the character of Lake Worth, to suit your idea of an ideal city.
You are reminding me of that book, "Lost Horizon".
We depend upon tourism as does Palm Beach County and the State of Florida. Having the Gulfstream Hotel won't change the character of Lake Worth. Building on that entire block could change it. We want our hotel.
As more and more people make Florida their year-round home, we should need fewer tourists. Obviously, if you have a shop that sells Tourist type merchandise, you will depend on tourists. It's a matter of changing the character of your town. You are always going to have tourists if you have a beach. Tourists go everywhere. They are like pigeons.
Our downtown depends on tourists. It's not the poor people of LW who spend the money here other than those who like the bars. We also have a few fine restaurants.
Well, we already have tourists. How many tourists do you want? So, we have tourists, and we don't have the hotel. Sometimes you can hardly walk on Lake Avenue, there are so many tourists. Tourists basically buy chachkas and eat. That's it!
Too much crime and blight in this dirty city!
I also dont want to go to Vale or the Islands.Also heard there are quite a few dive shops here.Why should we talk of more.Lets talk of bettering our golf course.I just wish the people that want to do something with the hotel 'GOOD LUCK'
@9:59--Dan Volker was not talking about a dive shop. He was talking about a destination for divers as our reefs are better than the Caymans and the opportunity down the road to make our city extremely wealthy because of the interest in diving that will be world renowned, thus attracting them here.
soccer is world renowned and look at all the parks they took over
So what does that mean? We get to work for rich people?
I just can't understand all of this excitement over a hotel.
How will it change your life?
Anon@9:39
I'm thinking we would have to start somewhere else with you if we want to ever be in the same page.... If you had the power to DO what you wanted, what changes would you make to Lake Worth to make the lives BETTER for as many residents as possible?
Would you do something to make more jobs in low, medium, and high income?
Would you try to match skills of Lake Worth residents that needed jobs, to new positions AND new businesses that the town could help CREATE?
If a guy or a girl starts a new Cafe or retail shop in town, are they RICH, and by definition bad people to work for? Can middle class or hard working, working class people with ambition start their own businesses, and if they do, would they be inherently BAD to work for?
Would you look for ways to fund programs to help the homeless, and would you prefer to use money that came in from outsiders ( tourists) to pay for this, or do you like the idea of forcing all the hard working Lake Worth residents that are "just getting by" to have to pay for it?
The Hotel, if used properly for Dive Tourism, would be a way to get the County and State to inject very large sums of money into advertising Lake Worth as a Dive Destination---If you don't have hotels, you can't get this money--it is from Bed Tax of all hotel room/nights, and it is intended to go into good advertising opportunities. Lake Worth would be one of the best they have ever considered. This is a fact.
So the hotel is a "conduit" for money to flow into the town from County and State, in order to cause people from OTHER STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES to stay in our HOTEL(S) and to spend money at restaurants in town and at the beach each day they are here ( not once per weel like a LW resident might spend) , as well as to shop several days HERE IN THE TOWN, AND TO PAY the hotels enough money to afford the taxes they will pay the town to improve sewers and many other infrastructure projects the town needs now, but does not have enough tax base to pay for.
Dive Tourists typically do NOT want to bother with a rental car, and would expect a Mollys Trolley for hotel to beach to town transport, and they would expect the Dive Operator to get then van or bus transport to dive charter boats in Boynton Beach ( where the inlet it).
In other words, we do not need a new parking garage in our new tourism income is from Dive Tourism.
Additionally, Divers are eco-tourists...they champion environmental causes, and they would be 100% behind the big environmental causes of Lake Worth.
And finally, the things the town will do for the Hotel, will end up helping every citizen in Lake Worth Beach---In Grand Cayman, the $350,000,000 dive tourism economy they have ( because of hotels and dive advertising) pay into each Caymanian resident about $15,000. And this provides all the government services Cayman or it's people could want....basically, the rest of the world is paying for the needs of Cayman......We want the rest of the world to desire to pay into Lake Worth Beach...the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all ships.
Does that explain how a hotel is important a little more effectively ?
I'm not from Lake Worth. I'm from a big city surrounded by steel and coal. When the Steel Mills closed, some men went into roofing. I actually know a man from Phoenix Steel who became a Morgage Officer.
I don't think of Lake Worth as a town that you would grow up in and expect to live in and make a living.
As a Professional, you could live comfortably in Lake Worth. As a Tradesman, plumber, electrician, carpenter, auto mechanic, you could live comfortably in Lake Worth. As a Barista, you could not.
How do you think the hotel would change that?
When you can't make a living where you live, you move to a place where you can make a living. That applies, today, as well as it did 1000 years ago. When the sheep ate all, of the grass, you moved to where there was new grass.
I never wanted to live in a transient area, and that is what tourism represents to me.
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