The Bad - Lake Worth Development

Written By Diane Freaney

The Gulfstream Hotel has so many developers make proposals over the years, I find it hard to trust that Restoration St. Louis’s proposal will actually happen, because so many developers have failed in the past.

Mark Foley, former-US Senator who grew up and started out in business in Lake Worth, supports the Gulfstream Hotel Project. Mark has supported so many visionary projects in Palm Beach County (PBC), which have made PBC a destination for tourists and young folks to raise families as well retirees.

Lake Worth Beach Commissioners McCoy, Stokes and Diaz are sensitive to the needs of the lower income folks who are reeling from recent inflationary increases in basic needs - rent, food and electricity.

I have a suggestion which may help.

Lake Worth Beach Commissioners could REQUIRE COA, HOA, Cooperative and Trailer Parks owners who are non-homesteaders to list their Apartments for rent whenever they are not in-residence at their Apartment.

This would increase revenues for Lake Worth Beach from Business License and Use and Occupancy Fees and Building Inspections. Non-homesteaders would be REQUIRED to pay the Tourist Development Tax which benefits arts, culture, history, sports in addition to other amenities which benefit visitors and residents of Palm Beach County.

The housing stock available for tourists (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.), which I believe would convince landlords to value good renters, particularly with the threat of rent control on the horizon.

Some non-homesteaders may find this REQUIREMENT untenable, in which case the the City of Lake Worth Beach could suggest that they sell their Apartment and move to West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach or Delray Beach, where the rules are different.

And the Lake Worth Commissioners could mandate that all buyers file for homestead during closing as a condition of purchase.

Diane Freaney

I have been seated at the table – rather, more accurately, been seated behind the white men seated at the table and told to hold my tongue – at the launch of some of the most radical new business models of the last century.

I have had a front row seat for every new finance and/or economic theory that came down the pike.

This is a dubious honor. I have watched these same new business models crash and burn, take jobs, destroy families, make ghost towns of cities, compromise our health and well-being, and rob us of our happiness. With the economic meltdown of 2008, I watched as my retirement fund plummeted 42% from the top of the market in 2007 to the bottom in 2009.

My life has been magical. I have over 70 years life/work experience and an excellent educational background.

Syracuse University (1965) – In my accounting courses, I learned to fill in forms and play games with numbers. In anthropology and public speaking, I learned storytelling and gained an appreciation of other cultures.

Harvard Business School – Corporate Finance Executive Education (1982) – I learned about OPM (other people’s money), the strategy that brought the global financial markets to their knees in 2008.

University of Pennsylvania – Organizational Dynamics (1999) – I learned that student’s work is only valued when it follows a structured academic path. My master’s thesis, “A New Model for the Creative Use of College Endowments to Reduce College Tuition” would have prevented today’s student loan crisis. Penn had no mechanism for “the administrators” to listen to students.

Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) (2013) – I learned the importance of social media to listening deeply and delivering my message.

At an early age, I learned to communicate by listening. At my current age, I feel driven to share the knowledge and understanding amassed during my lifetime. Now I am speaking out.

—Diane Freaney, The Cat Lady


https://www.dianefreaney.com
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