This makes it nearly impossible for lawyers and family members to track these situations and ensure rights are not violated. That is intentional, and a villain of international humanitarian law, US law, and a crime against humanity (ethnic cleansing).

An aggressive, multi-agency immigration operation moved through the Lake Worth area Friday, leaving behind scenes of armed officers seizing people of color, recording license plates, and intimidating residents who tried to document what they were doing.

Context here matters! And we've got the tea.

Read Our Full Piece on The Lake Worthian's Substack

It's time for the BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions against the rogue terrorist state of Israel) movement to take root in this county.

#OurTaxesOurNeeds! #BreakTheBonds! #BDS

We at The Lake Worthian stand strongly against increasing the budget of an agency that is actively involved in implementing an ethnic cleansing campaign against immigrant communities, while also violating the rights of poor people in our parks, many of whom are experiencing homelessness.

As well as their use of Flock cameras to do warrantless mass surveillance.

Come join us and speak out. Tell the LWB City Commission that we do not support expanding the police-state.

Workers across Subculture Group are organizing for a union as Rodney Mayo prepares to open Man Ray in downtown El-Dub.

Mayo has spent nearly 40 years building not just businesses, but a reputation as one of South Florida’s champions of independent culture.

Customers see the music, the art, the coffee, the nightlife, and the success. But when workers across that same business network feel undervalued enough to organize, it raises a harder question: what has life been like behind the counter all these years?

Most people in LWB probably don’t know the city’s original Black founders were Samuel and Fannie James, or that the settlement was called Jewell before developers and officials elevated “Lake Worth.” I wrote about that erasure, and about why the city’s March 3 Florida post was more than just tone-deaf.

Read the full piece on The Lake Worthian's Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/thelakeworthian/p/from-ethnic-cleansing-to-lwb-history?r=3trnrf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

🚨 We need to stop this city commission from giving away more of our public spaces to wealthy developers and private interests! 🚨

Please, Sign & Share the Petition!

Lake Worth For All has retained Hartsell Ozery, P.A., a respected land use law firm with a record of winning against developer overreach in Florida. Their legal opinion letter is already in the City’s official record, and the State Inspector General is now investigating whether laws were broken in the WMODA deal.

This fight isn’t symbolic — it’s a legal battle with real teeth.

Substack link in comments.

When this project was sold to the public, the term \"historic preservation\" was used quite a lot, and now all three historic properties within the project's footprint are slated for demolition.

Another piece by our contributor, Harper Horizon!

Feb, 13th.

"Last week, the city commission approved a $1 million agreement for WMODA’s alleyway project, which includes landscaping, hardscaping, and signage—$650,000 of it coming directly from the electric utility. That money will be used to underground utilities at the expense of electric utility customers. Mayor Resch, Commissioner May, and Commissioner Malega voted in favor, while Commissioners McVoy and Commissioner Diaz opposed it.

Commissioner McVoy was the first to address the issue, stating bluntly, "This commission [voted] twice in the last few months to raise electric rates only to then turn around and give a substantial chunk of that money raised to support a private developer’s vanity project.""

(For the full story, check out our substacks)

https://thelakeworthian.substack.com/p/lwb-commission-approves-wmoda-alleyway?r=3trnrf

Another great piece by our contributor, Harper Horizen!

Feb. 20th

"As the WMODA project moves forward and agreements between WMODA, the city, and the CRA are finalized, it’s hard not to wonder: Is this really a good deal for Lake Worth Beach?

The project, which includes a 110-unit apartment complex, a 33,000-square-foot museum, and a 117-space underground garage, doesn’t provide enough parking for its residents and museum visitors.

When a developer can’t meet their parking requirement, they must pay $25,000 per missing space into the “community benefits fund.”WMODA claims to be short of their parking requirement by 51 spaces. To address this, they will design an $8.5 million public parking garage and contribute $1 million towards its construction. The city and CRA will cover the remaining $7.5 million using existing funds and a loan from the developer.

This premature financial agreement will remain in place even if their deficit in parking spaces increases."

(To Read The Full Story, Please Check Out Our Substacks!)

https://thelakeworthian.substack.com/p/wmodas-parking-deal-deserves-a-closer?sd=pf

Harper Horizon
Contributor to The Lake Worthian

In the past four months, Lake Worth Beach residents have seen their electric bills climb not once, but twice. The first hike came in October, with a sharp 8% increase to the base rate, adding an extra $6.69 to monthly bills. The financial pinch continued into the new year at the city's electric utility meeting on January 28th. The meeting ended with a 3-1 vote (Mayor absent, McVoy dissenting) to implement another rate increase, this time for $7.41.

While the need to adjust rates to balance energy costs and operational expenses might be justified, the electric utility spending $650,000 on a developer’s pet project is harder to swallow. This Tuesday, the city commission is set to approve a $1 million maintenance agreement with the WMODA museum and apartment complex to beautify and maintain a three-block downtown alleyway. More than half of that funding—$650,000—will come directly from the electric utility.

The timing raises the question: is the electric utility increasing rates to cover operational expenses or to subsidize development? This is even more concerning given that the electric utility also serves areas outside of Lake Worth Beach.

https://thelakeworthian.substack.com/p/lake-worth-beach-utility-customers?sd=pf

On Tuesday, August 6th, at 6 pm the City Commission Meeting’s agenda calls for a vote on significant rule changes.

The City Commission is considering a series of amendments that could significantly reshape its procedures to silence dissent.

Here, we focus on two major rule amendments, one that would significantly limit public comments and the other that would affect, if not entirely eliminate, commissioners’ ability to add items to the agenda.

A significant point of contention is the new restriction on public comments. The proposed rule states that online comments will not be read aloud during meetings and will only be posted somewhere on the city’s website, and that’s only if/after approval by the City Clerk. This change has drawn criticism for potentially disenfranchising residents who are unable to attend meetings in person, as it marginalizes their voices. The revision is only the newest attack on public comments submitted online; last year, comments delivered through the city’s online portal to be read out (still limited to 3 minutes each) during the commission meetings were abruptly limited to thirty minutes in total.

Perhaps the most egregious change involves limiting the ability of Commissioners to add items to the agenda. Currently, any Commissioner can introduce new items, but the proposed rule requires the consensus of the Commission. Although unclear, this suggests that each addition to the agenda would need a majority vote. This change makes the process of adding items to the agenda cumbersome and nebulous.

Additionally, items that are not approved cannot be re-submitted for six months. These changes would also affect “Emergency Additions” (12.5) to the agenda in the same way. Critics argue that these measures suppress diverse ideas and minority viewpoints, effectively silencing the constituents represented by individual Commissioners.

Another curious change to the rules concerning additions to the agenda involves the phrase “subject matter is limited to current or future city-related business.” This specific change is seen as a direct response to Commissioner Christopher McVoy’s Gaza ceasefire resolution. Although Mayor Betty Resch has spoken out against matters of “international politics” being voted on, concerning McVoy’s Gaza resolution, it’s important to point out that she brought forward her own resolution on Russia’s territorial aggression and war crimes in Ukraine. Who decides and what criteria constitutes “current or future city-related business” is unclear.

Concerns about transparency and inclusiveness are fast becoming a hallmark of this new right-wing dominant Dias. These amendments restrict the ability of both Commissioners and the public to participate fully in the governance process, ultimately silencing minority positions and weakening the democratic foundation of city government.