Sunday, November 15, 2015

Homeless advocates declare war on family park in Lake Worth; but what West Palm Beach is doing is just fine? (a re-post by request)

At a Lake Worth city commission meeting (8/18) the City was given a warning, or some might take as a threat, to make our Bryant Park ground zero in the continuing debate about homelessness in south Florida.
Again at a city commission meeting on 9/1 former commissioners Cara Jennings and JoAnn Golden ramped up their rhetoric. They are determined to use our City's family park, Bryant Park, as a pawn in their fight against "homelessness". Pay particular attention to what Golden says the the 1:20 mark in the video below:
Here is the reality: this drama is a Kabuki dance and has nothing at all to do with the homeless. The homeless, innocent actors, are being used as pawns in a political struggle to regain control of City Hall once again. And if they can drive tourism away, damage businesses in the City, and stop a hotel from re-opening (across the street from the park) that would be an added bonus.

Here is proof this has nothing at all to do with the homeless: just north of Lake Worth is West Palm Beach and the city there is taking steps to reign in the out-of-control homeless along Flagler Drive. What has been the response from the 'homeless advocates'? Silence.

Here is a news segment from Rachel Leitao at NBC5/WPTV, and an excerpt from the text of the news segment:
"Basically we're trying to discourage people [the homeless] from hanging out here and turning this into a make shift camp," says Elliot Cohen, Communications Director for the City of West Palm Beach.
So it's OK for West Palm to take steps and make their public spaces better for the public but not OK for Lake Worth? It's not hypocrisy; it's just politics.