Tuesday, September 17, 2013

New downtown Business Owner organization formed in Lake Worth

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A new Lake Worth business owners' club, not yet named, has been formed in our low-rise downtown with the first meeting today, September 17, at 10am and will be held at Studio Dance of Lake Worth, 8 South Dixie Highway. Hosting the meeting will be Michael Puccio, owner of the studio.

The Club's purpose is to carry on what they thought were the goals of the DCA, that is now described as an event planning organization, not a merchant support group. The new business group wants to do everything it can to save their businesses--it's been a slow summer according to most. They want to create traffic for themselves and address the many issues they face trying to survive in this economy and in this "town that they love."

We always had the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce that was there to help businesses. It became political and now it's not even run from Lake Worth as it merged. It is now called the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of commerce. I was opposed to this but they lobbied and the commission said "yes." If you go to their web site it is promoting Wellington.


Commissioner Andy Amoroso formed the DCA before the Chamber merged. This is how the DCA describes itself: The Downtown Cultural Alliance is a membership organization of Downtown businesses, galleries, merchants and restaurants. Formed to enhance the downtown corridor, the mission of the DCA will organize and promote events that will benefit the entire community. 

So now, the downtown merchants will have three groups trying to help their business. As we are a tourist driven economy, off Season is especially difficult for small businesses unless they are in a service type of operation, i.e., convenience store, doctors, handyman, accounting, and the like. As the CRA and the city has been promoting Lake Worth as an artists' destination, it needs all the help it can get. 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck on this new group. We need to take the politics out of the downtown.

Anonymous said...

If they want to promote an anti-growth, anti-business (low rise) agenda for the downtown, I hope they are ready for longer, slower summers.

Lynn Anderson said...

Gee, anonymous @2:46, what rock did you crawl out from? Silly comments really are not encouraged here. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

i would like to know the real story behind all of this.

Anonymous said...

ANDY START WITH THE COTTAGE WHO YOU RENT FROM THE OWNERS --WHO THE STATE CLOSED DOWN FOR BUYING BOOZE FROM STORES AND NOT FROM THE DISTRIBUTORS--LIKE THE LAW SAYS---ANDY WHY IS EVERYONE AROUND YOU ARE CRIMINALS THAT IN SOME WAY YOU ARE CONNECTED---

Anonymous said...

Under rock dweller here.... Lynn, it was not a silly comment. I am a long time business owner here in Lake Worth. I don't know what the DDA or the Chamber is about and feel they do nothing for me. What I do know is that almost all thriving communities go out of their way to encourage every type of business and support the development and re-development of their communities.... that is except Lake Worth.

It's bad enough that our Comp plan was non-existent and we had no Land Development Regulations for 10 years until a few weeks ago.

Now, they are finally complete and we have a group that will sue the city to bring back the whole mess so that we can spend a few more years discouraging business.

What rock did "I" crawl out from under?

Look around the county or state. NOOOOOO! We don't want to look like Delray Beach! Ya, who wants to be one of the "Best Small Towns in America"?

"I want to make sure Lake Worth is not touched and that no growth happens that will raise the property values which in turn will make rents rise which in turn, you guessed it, would "gentrify" the area".

No! If there happens to be a business group forming that wants to promote businesses, promote development and re-development, and won't be against ANY development that will add to the quality of life in Lake Worth, whether it is one story or 6 stories, that's the group I want to join.

Not a bunch of mamby pamby "We want to keep Lake Worth small, and quaint, and cheap and low rent".

Guess what, the rest of the world (including Belle Glade)is passing us by and you don't care. We keep going down and down you keep digging and complaining that the hole we dug is too deep.

Rock this.....

Lynn Anderson said...

Dear rock-
You got it all out of whack! You see it one way; the YES voters see it another. Having a low-rise downtown is not discouraging business. Not one little bit. That is a fantasy. Open businesses that we want to buy from...give us a quality. Tell the landlords to lower the rents. The reason we couldn't get the LDR's going was politics. Blame it on your politicians. No one is suing to discourage business. Where did you dream that one up? The suit, I believe, is because this city made the election results moot. This is some sort of dictatorship we have in our electeds.

NO ONE HAS EVER SAID THAT WE WANT TO KEEP LAKE WORTH LOW RENT. If you want growth, we have miles of road on the Dixie corridors. Tell all your developer friends to have a go at it. In fact, this commission has done more to bring in low cost housing than any other commission. Tell it to them.

Please don't come over here again and say that I don't care. The gentrification theory hasn't been discussed since Jennings. You keep living in the past on this. We all want property values to go up and our city to become a town of pride.

Anonymous said...

Thinking it over and I truly believe that the CRA is the biggest detriment in keeping our city poor and low valued. Get rid of the CRA.

Anonymous said...

Rock here.... This is grand and to be able to use your own words. Not too hypocritical:

"NO ONE HAS EVER SAID THAT WE WANT TO KEEP LAKE WORTH LOW RENT."

and, you guessed it.....

"Open businesses that we want to buy from...give us a quality. Tell the landlords to lower the rents."

And this is in just the same post.

The rents in Lake Worth, both commercial and residential are a fraction of what other business friendly city's are.

Try to rent space on Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach... oh that's right,. there is none. Try to rent one of Delray's townhomes on Federal Hwy., you know, the ones that look like the style you continually rail against, that we tried to convert South Federal in LW. They are all doing quite well and well we, that don't want that kind of development here, now must embrace those wonderful low rise drug re-habs that were once motels.

Thank God we have a majority up there that at least try to move Lake Worth in the right direction. It is almost insurmountable fighting you each and every step.

Look at the last comment about the CRA being a detriment. It is the only well functioning entity in the city. It is the only reason the property values went up 4% citywide. Inside the CRA district, the taxable property went up 12% because it was the only entity building ANYTHING in the city.

Those "low income" Artist's Lofts must really get your goat. They are the only expansion West of the tracks that have ever been done in decades. They are low rise. They are all spoken for with owners. But you didn't think they would work.

All the Habitat homes are owner occupied, but you belittle them as if they are second class citizens and call them low income housing as if that is a crime.

These new owners are becoming catalysts for change in those neighborhoods demanding streets, sidewalks and lighting be addressed. Why? Because they want their new neighborhood to improve. They want their investment to appreciate. These are not homes that fall below the taxable value of the homestead exemption and they are contributing to the area.

But of course, they are occupiers of "low income housing". You'd like to see some smart investor plop a mini mansion on D Street (on 25 foot lots to boot)and expect the neighborhood to follow suit.

Gentrification is not a theory. It describes a very real concern of the anarchist crowd that wish to live like they do. Ever see Casa Vulva? Now that's a great little compound and a real asset to the neighborhood.

But it is low rise.....helping to keep us quaint....

Lynn Anderson said...

That is why you vote the way that you do. Many people disagree with you but you are entitled. I still don't understand why you believe 6 stories will solve all of your problems...it won't.

You are attracting all of these poor people...how noble of you.

Get some shops that we want to buy from. Do you shop for your clothes in our downtown? What about your shoes? I don't want to buy clothes that someone else wore. The corner of Lucerne and Dixie is used clothes. This is catering to more poor folks and the illegals. We have 2 new stores that cater to 19 year olds. Have you seen the shoes? Someone walking on Dixie might wear them.

What I would like to see is eradicating the slum and the blight and the crime. LW has attracted more of this through renting to poor people and looking the other way on federal laws and local laws--slum lords are the biggest part of our problem. Every townhouse built in this city has failed. Building on the railroad tracks--that will also fail in the sense it will attract the people that have been a cause of our problems and our property values going down. The CRA was trying to build up this area at a big cost. It failed and tax payer dollars were wasted. Rentals on the tracks-- with this decision, which is contrary to the CRA objective, will fail too. Building workforce housing (affordable rentals) at the park of commerce that was supposed to be for industrial and commercial enterprises will, in five years, be one big mess. Speculators are buying right now and renting to POOR people who can't afford anything else. We need a balance of poor, middle and upper class here...not ALL POOR.

As far as The Lofts are concerned, I do not believe this is AFFORDABLE housing that it was intended. When someone buys for $134,000 that is not exactly catering to the poor which was the original intent of this place-- although owners are getting in at one/third the cost to build them. And just imagine, they are living right next door to the convenience store that has all the drunks and crime and a neighborhood ridden with problems. I guess you believe that the Lofts will change that neighborhood? Perhaps now that you believe the lowering of heights have been stopped, building 10 story buildings will block out the blight.

The downtown is looking like one big filthy flea market. Clean it up. Make the Cultural Plaza attractive again. No one wants to go there.

AND IF YOU CONTINUE ALONG THE SAME VEIN, YOU WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR the consequences and contributing toward the total demise of this city.

Get rid of the CRA in our downtown.

:) :)