Friday, December 19, 2008

Our Beach and Casino property

Ride my bike, walk or take the trolley? Whaaaaaaa trolley?

How long has this been going on now? If you listen to Retha Lowe she says 30 years. The other night it shot up to 40 years. Retha has always exaggerated this subject when it comes to years just like she exaggerates her lack of complicity in election law violations.

This entire mess started when Rodney Romano was Mayor. That is when maintenance stopped on the casino. This is when it was jack-hammered to “prove” that there was so much decay that the building just had to be demolished. This was so all the developer friends of Lake Worth could come in and do the dirty. No money after that was ever put in the CIP to take care of our beach property. Maintenance was so minimal that it was nearly non-existent and in fact, there were many years were no money was budgeted for maintenance. This, in my opinion, was a “criminal” act. Instead of a citizen lawsuit against the City for an outrageous beach lease with and outrageous company, Greater Bay, perhaps it should have been for gross neglect of citizens’ assets.

Obviously, there are still some citizens out here who have their own ideas on what should happen to the beach. Our beach has been designed this way since inception in 1922 after engineering studies concluded that the Casino needed to be erected right where it is today. There have never been any complaints about this and in fact anyone ever asked about the parking wants our upper level access.

Just when we all agree that refurbishing the casino and using the County money to improve the parking, boardwalk etc., is the way to go, we have a CRA member who suggested last year that the casino was dangerous and should be demolished for safety, now coming forward with some "visionary" idea about busing people across the bridge to our beach…no personal cars. His idea-- “encourage trolley, walking or biking to the beach.” He wants the parking for the beach to be downtown Lake Worth. Who wants going to the beach to be inconvenient or an all day hassle? Just imagine Mr. Smith going to the beach with his cooler and his four kids with that idea in place. Sorry, what ever have you been smoking? :)

If there is anyone else out there who just does not understand what the majority of people want for their beach, ask Dave Vespo. I believe that he finally gets it.