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28 September, 2016 0 Comments

Impact 100

September 28, 2016 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

It was a great night at Prime Cigar in Boca.

A group of men is seeking to replicate the success of Impact 100 for Women and it’s off to a strong start under the leadership of Chuck Halberg and the stewardship of the Community Foundation.

The concept is simple: 100 (or more) men donate $1,000 (plus a modest administrative fee for the foundation’s services) and the money is donated to an area non-profit to benefit children.

I joined.

I hope you will too.

Our community is counting on us. Contact me through this site and I will help get you connected.

10 August, 2016 2 2 Comments

Change

August 10, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 2 Comments

You are never FINISHED

“By nature good public spaces that respond to the needs, the opinions and the ongoing changes of the community require attention. Amenities wear out, needs change and other things happen in an urban environment. Being open to the need for change and having the management flexibility to enact that change is what builds great public spaces and great cities and towns”–Project for Public Spaces 11 principles for creating great community spaces. Note: Founder and President Fred Kent has a home in Delray Beach.

The Project for Public Spaces is spot on, as they always seem to be.

The best part of cities is their changing nature. Cities evolve. Places change. That’s the beauty of an urban environment, it’s never stale. And switched on cities know this, embrace this and seek to shape and ride the waves of change.

We are witnessing tremendous change in Boca Raton these days. Just cruise on over to Palmetto Park Road and you’ll see large scale development taking shape on what I’ve always found to be an interesting but underperforming street.

The nature of the development is not everyone’s idea of healthy growth but there’s no question that Boca is evolving before our eyes. And I’ve talked to many people who love what they’re seeing. Development and change will always be a mixed bag. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder as they say.

On Military Trail, the Moderne Boca is taking shape and its nice to see some attention to design in a western location.

FAU Research Park is booming under the capable leadership of Andrew Duffell. Both FAU and Lynn are coming of age as innovative institutions of higher learning and the Park at Broken Sound is sprouting three new residential apartment projects (1,050 units) to go along with office space and new retail in the 700 acre business park. With yoga rooms, pet facilities, a Fresh Market, putting greens and Zen Gardens, the former home of IBM is shaping up to be a true, live, work, play destination.

It’s an interesting time.

And a time when visionary public officials have an opportunity to work with the community and design spaces that can become great public spaces.

In Delray, the opportunities are immense but only if we recognize them and embrace good design and change.

US 1 is looking good these days. And there is tremendous opportunity to extend the downtown north and south along Federal Highway. The idea to narrow the federals and slow down speeding traffic was first broached in 1991 but it took a decade before it became a city goal when it was included in the Downtown Master Plan. It took years to construct, but now that the project is complete, it presents an opportunity to create something special; it’s now a street not a highway. There’s a difference.

The area near Third and Third and South of the Avenue offer great opportunities for infill development.

Congress Avenue also represents an important opportunity for transformation.

My hope is that both Delray and Boca think strategically about placemaking and about what is needed in order to sustain and build on their obvious success.

Any analysis would include honest discussions about what has worked (and how those aspects can be extended and sustained), what’s not working, what can work better (lazy assets) and what’s missing.

Other key discussions should focus on demographics, design, mobility, land uses and how it’s all paid for.

In Delray, that means focusing on what’s important and no more majoring in the minor. (For example, weeks of discussion on a tattoo shop but little or no discussion on how to attract millennials, create more jobs and add middle class housing or how to improve our torturous approval process).

It’s time to move on Congress Avenue, not wait for an outside firm to confirm and codify what 30 plus citizens who studied the corridor for nearly a year already concluded. A sense of urgency is needed to take advantage of the economic cycle.

It’s also time to activate the Old School Park and make it a great public space as was envisioned when voters overwhelmingly passed a bond issue in support of that idea in 2005.

It’s time to bring back discussion of a bonus program for our CBD to jumpstart housing for young professionals who are attracted to downtown living. The best way to support our mom and pop businesses is to encourage people to live downtown. Study after study show that downtown residents strongly support local businesses. As rents soar –threatening to crowd out independents –this is needed more than ever.

Downtown office space is also critical. Every conversation I’ve witnessed with and about entrepreneurs laments the lack of office space in the urban core. This isn’t necessarily a call for class A space, but rather creative space, co-working space and incubator space. It’s nice to see The Kitchn open inside the offices of Woo Creative and Delray Newspaper, but more is needed.

The aim of past citizen driven visions was to build on food, beverage and culture and create a sustainable city driven by creative industries. Delray’s vibrant, urban feel is hugely appealing to entrepreneurs but a lack of space hinders the sectors ability to gain traction in our central business district.

An important caveat to note: the key words are “build on” not jettison or replace. So it would be folly to lose events or culture or our robust food scene, we need an additive attitude because community building is not a zero sum game.

Finally, both Delray and Boca are blessed with abundant human capital. A strategy to retain graduating college students and bring home locals who go off to college while also attracting the best and brightest from other locales will go a long way toward diversifying our economy and growing opportunities. Again, placemaking is at the core but so is opportunity making. We need to create cities of opportunity.

We also need to tap into the incredible knowledge base of our boomer and senior population many of whom long to be creative, active and involved as they age.

Cultivating our human capital is the best economic development strategy we can ever hope to conceive.

When I survey the region, it’s hard not to get excited by the possibilities. Sure there are big problems and challenges. Every single place in America has them. But few regions have our upside potential.

Miami is rapidly taking its place as among the world’s most exciting cities. Fort Lauderdale is making some interesting strides and several other cities in Broward, notably Pompano Beach are well positioned for a renaissance.

Boca is attracting industry and further north Boynton Beach is making some noise with several growing breweries, Hacklab, young leaders, eastern investment and some really cool restaurants (Bond and Smolders, Sweetwater and The Living Room among them) and keep your eyes on 22-year-old Ariana Peters who is quietly accumulating key properties in Lake Worth. Northern Palm Beach County cities, led by dynamic business leaders such as Chamber President Beth Kigel, are working well together on branding and industry recruitment efforts.

It’s an exciting time. Cities can’t rest on their laurels and they can’t succumb to those who want to freeze progress and stop change.

You can do the former but you can’t do the latter. And if you freeze progress you can be sure that the change you’ll see won’t be pleasant. Not at all. It will be ruinous.

As General Eric Shinsecki once said: “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

27 June, 2016 0 Comments

Celebrating Entrepreneurs Delray Style

June 27, 2016 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

It’s Sugar CEO Jeff Rubin

Five years ago I co-chaired a committee for the Business Development Board that focused on entrepreneurship.
It was a change of pace for the BDB– our county’s chief economic development organization– which has traditionally focused on recruiting new businesses and expanding existing ones.

But more and more communities are realizing that economic gardening –growing your own–is a desirable strategy. I would argue it’s the most desirable strategy– surely better than throwing money and incentives at companies that may or may not stay for the long haul.
The entrepreneurship committee is the BDB’s foray into connecting with and supporting efforts to strengthen our entrepreneurial ecosystem. The BDB is an effective convening entity able to bring big businesses, governments and chambers together and introduce them to the next generation of business leaders.
So when my friend, Committee Chair Connor Lynch, invited me to this year’s entrepreneurs lunch I was eager to see what’s happened since Connor and I along with other committee members launched the lunch a few years back with a keynote from the founder of Priceline.
That event was a success and I’m happy to report that this year’s event was even better and far more powerful.
Connor and the BDB delivered.
And what made the event even cooler for me and other Delray folks in the crowd -Chamber CEO Karen Granger, UBS exec Nick Sadowsky, Red Pepper Principal Christina Hammond, Florida Blue’s Beth Johnston, Economic Development officials Joan Goodrich and Liz Burrows and the Small Business Development Center’s Vin Nolan–was that this year’s lunch featured TED like talks from three talented entrepreneurs with strong Delray ties.

Woo Creative founder Ryan Boylston

The featured speakers were Ryan Boylston founder of Woo Creative and my partner in Four Story Media, Felecia Hatcher founder of Feverish Pops and Code Fever and Jeff Rubin founder and CEO of It’s Sugar.
Ryan runs a successful branding and creative agency, serves on city boards and is an active volunteer for community causes. Together with several other partners, employees and freelancers we are working on creating a Hyperlocal news platform in Delray and Boca. Ryan is a whirlwind of activity and ideas as well as a young father and husband. You can get exhausted just thinking about his daily responsibilities. Ryan’s talk focused on millennials and business creation. It was fascinating and can be viewed on Facebook’s Woo Creative page. (If I was tech savvy I would have figured out how to add the link).
He also made an important point: while we celebrate the Zuckerberg’s and Branson’s for their moon shot success we need to build the capacity of those starting local businesses so that they can succeed and create jobs.
Yes. We. Do.

Felecia Hatcher founder of Code Fever

Felecia, who is a delightful and energetic entrepreneur, grew up in Delray (she went to high school with Connor) and her dad has run a successful construction company here for 17 years. She sold Feverish Pops, has written some great books and is now passionately building Code Fever which seeks to teach African Americans and Hispanics the coding skills they need to succeed in the 21st Century.
That type of effort needs to happen in Delray.
Jeff Rubin has an It’s Sugar store on Atlantic Avenue and has seen his candy business grow exponentially. He’s on pace to have over 100 stores in 2017.
Despite that frenetic pace, he has found the time to connect with students at Carver Middle School teaching students about business and marketing. The effort created a Carver branded gummy bear. How cool is that?
Kudos to the Delray chamber and City education efforts for making that connection happen.
So my friends, Delray’s Got Talent.

It’s here.

The talent has been attracted to Delray by three decades of redevelopment efforts which has created a vibrant place with great restaurants, events, festivals, cultural activities, recreational opportunities and other intangibles that we need to support, cherish, improve, protect and nurture. These are the conversations we need to be having. How to leverage what has been created in our city.
Unfortunately, our city is not having those discussions and to the extent they are, the discussion seems fixated on costs, negative not positive impacts, inconveniences etc. All of those are valid items to discuss and debate but it’s not a complete picture if you don’t include the benefits and the possibilities. And I would argue that the benefits far, far outweigh the negatives.
If we want to take care of our future we have to raise the level of discussion beyond whether Garlic festivals should have mechanized rides or whether we should permit a tattoo business into town.
We have to figure out how we can make sure Felecia brings Code Fever to Delray so our children can learn needed skills.
We have to figure out how to improve our public schools. And we have to figure out where our workforce can live and how we can bring businesses to our downtown (which will never be done) and to Congress Avenue and to our Federal Highway corridor, West Atlantic and “four corners” area at Atlantic and Military Trail.
You can’t cut your way to success, you have to grow responsibly and strategically.
We need expansive thinking, not regressive and deconstructive policies.
The entrepreneurs are here. And more will come and more will emerge if we continue to aspire as a community. They will go elsewhere and our youth will leave if we don’t aspire. That’s how communities whither and die, when they fixate on negatives, grow complacent or send a message that business (and dreams) should look elsewhere.
Let’s embrace progress and manage change. It’s what entrepreneurs do every day.

12 May, 2016 0 Comments

It’s All Connected

May 12, 2016 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

Recipe for conflict. Every. Single. Time.

Consider the following…

-When the CRA was founded in 1985, the total property value of the district was $245 million, today it is more than $1.6 billion and growing.

-In recent years, the CRA has received more than $6 million from the county annually in tax increment funding contributions; over the last three decades the total from the county is over $60 million. That’s funding that almost surely would have been spent outside the city if it didn’t go to our CRA.

–Over the years, our CRA has reinvested over $100 million in local TIF revenues in our city. The money has been spent on infrastructure, capital improvements, parking facilities, affordable housing, beautification efforts, economic development initiatives, land acquisition (turning unproductive property into uses that often produce jobs) and arts and culture that drive more jobs, tax revenues and quality of life. Signature projects include: the beautification of Northwest and Southwest 5^th Avenue, Atlantic Grove, the Fairfield Inn, The Hyatt, Old School Square, the Delray Beach Public Library, Spady Museum, South County Courthouse (land acquisition), Worthing Place, the Downtown Master Plan, improvements to U.S. 1 and the new Uptown Delray project which includes plans for a long sought neighborhood grocery.

–From the Green Market and Municipal Tennis Stadium to historic preservation efforts and the Community Land Trust, the CRA has been an integral part of Delray’s fabric.

The list of achievements, public private partnerships, site development assistance, façade improvements and business grants goes on and on.

In other words, it takes a village to build a village.

And this village would not be nearly the same without its CRA. It has been far and away our best economic development tool and has only gotten more effective along the way.

CRA monies have always complemented the city’s budget, including paying for police officers to make our city’s downtown clean and safe and funding for planning and engineering initiatives that built a pretty cool city.

For most of the past 20 years, the CRA has been focused on the West Atlantic corridor and neighborhoods north and south of the avenue and east of 95.

More than $60 million has been spent on sidewalks, water pressure improvements, beautification, housing, lighting, parks, plazas and economic development initiatives.

This wasn’t a heroic contribution; it was the right thing to do. But it should be acknowledged as well.

Public spending should be directed where the needs are but this was not always the case in Delray Beach.

As late as the 1980s, large parts of the central business district suffered from blighted conditions and disinvestment. Pineapple Grove was an idea, but it was pretty decrepit when it was hatched. And that’s a compliment.

When I was elected to the City Commission in 2000, there were still a few unpaved streets in our southwest neighborhoods. Many blocks did not have good water pressure, sidewalks or lighting.

But there was a whole lot of vision and a lot of dedicated people working together on what became known as the Southwest Plan. When the citizen driven plan was completed and adopted by the city, spending by the city and the CRA was earmarked to bring the plan to life. And while much was done—see the above millions invested—it was clear that even more needed to be done to improve neighborhoods and to break the cycle of poverty that gripped many families in our city.

Beacon Programs—providing wrap around social, educational and health services—were created, a Boys and Girls Club opened with the invaluable help of Mayor Tom Lynch and former CRA member Marc DeBaptiste, the Village Academy opened and was expanded to cover pre-K through 12^th grade and a Community Land Trust was established to add much needed housing in underserved neighborhoods.

It’s a remarkable story of a community, a city and a CRA working together.

In community building, one of the first lessons you learn is that you are never “done.”

There is always more to do: more progress to be made, more challenges to overcome and more opportunities to seize.

That seems to be a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised as you make progress how many people want cities to declare victory and stop investing. That’s a mistake, complacency is a killer.

Usually, the argument is that spending needs to be directed elsewhere—and many times it does. But community building is not a zero-sum game.

You can and should invest in multiple neighborhoods. It’s not a choice between East Atlantic and West Atlantic or between the downtown and Congress Avenue as some elected officials wrongly claim. Sure, you need priorities, but that doesn’t mean that you neglect one part of your town in favor of another—especially when your city is interconnected and certain neighborhoods provide the fuel and the funding to ensure that needier neighborhoods can receive what they need.

A friend has pointed out to me that it is impossible to improve blighted residential neighborhoods without the cash generated by successful commercial development.

Residential neighborhoods—especially ones that have problems—do not generate the tax dollars to do the job. But successful downtowns do. And because East Atlantic has performed so well, TIF dollars generated as a result can be and have been (for a long time now) used to fund improvements to West Atlantic and adjoining neighborhoods.

The key to doing more is to keep your pump healthy—to maintain your focus on all parts of your downtown and to create new economic drivers such as Congress Avenue, US 1 and the four corners of Atlantic Avenue and Military Trail.

The other key is to support, collaborate with and sharpen your economic development agencies.

Schools, quality health care, a strong business community, the arts, recreation and open space are also critical components—along with safe streets and a city government that provides services efficiently.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. Remember, you are never done and if you think you are, complacency or smugness will bite you.

27 April, 2016 0 Comments

Daring 2 Be Future Focused

April 27, 2016 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

The Class of '13 is distinguishing itself with students in med school and working at the White House among other adventures.

The Class of ’13 is distinguishing itself with students in med school and working at the White House and State Senate among other adventures including the music industry and international NGO’s.

Every year around this time, the board of Dare 2 Be Great has the privilege to sit down and meet some of the best kids you can imagine.

These are young men and women who live in Delray Beach and have achieved some amazing things in their short lives. But their community service and academic achievements pale in comparison to their dreams and goals for their futures. It is our mission to help them get there.

Dare 2 Be Great provides scholarships and mentoring services to between 6-12 special students a year. To date, we have touched the lives of over 40 remarkable young people.

It’s a modest effort measured against the needs and the number of local students who can use and are deserving of help.

But for those we work with, it’s an important assist–they do the work, we provide some of the funding and guidance.

We have never been a “needs based” organization, preferring instead to invest in students we feel can be game changers. But over the years, we have found ourselves choosing to work with young men and women with little to no means.

We have heard stories of violence, drug abuse, foreclosure, unemployment, illness and even murder. Yet these students are determined to overcome and achieve. They want better lives. And in many ways the challenges they face make them better people and more passionate about changing the trajectory of their lives.

Our investment of time and money is really an investment in Delray’s future. While we cannot and would not mandate that these exceptional young people return home, we do hope they will and we ask if that is something they desire.

Most do want to return after college and that’s a testament to Delray. Think about how many young people want to escape where they grow up. This year, we interviewed students who want to come back to teach, practice medicine and go into business.

It’s our responsibility as citizens to build a community of opportunity for these young people.

The interviewing process is always an emotional one. We laugh, we tear up and we never fail to be amazed by the stories we hear and the personalities we meet. I truly wish everyone in the community can see what we’re seeing because you’ll feel better about our nation’s future.

I will tell you more about these special people once we make this year’s selections—always a tough choice because we see a whole lot of human capital, but have finite resources. But this year’s candidates included a young man who has toured with a famous rock band, the first ever Village Academy student accepted to an Ivy League college and immigrants who have overcome physical, financial and emotional turbulence.

A common theme is loss—of a parent, a home, health, employment. But a stronger thread is desire, hope and aspiration.

Many of the young men and women talk about growing up in Delray—some mention a special teacher who inspired them, a parent who touched them, and a friend that helped them overcome. Others talk of dangerous neighborhoods, temptations they avoided and their passion to make a difference in this life, right here in this community.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Isn’t that what it is all about? Building a community in which our children can return to find opportunity and quality of life.

Like every year, we have a tough choice to make, because the truth is all of the applicants deserve our support. And it’s not just the financial piece—as important as that is—it’s the mentoring and the connection to their hometown. When a community embraces its young people—looks them in the eyes and tells them that we love and cherish them and want to see them succeed it’s a powerful statement.

I’ve spent many years engaged in all sorts of economic development activities on a statewide, regional, county, city and neighborhood level. I’ve been involved with efforts relating to incentives and other tools commonly deployed to land jobs and investment. But while some of those efforts are worthwhile—and a few aren’t to be frank—I have concluded that the best economic development strategy is to nurture, develop, attract, grow and retain young talent.

That’s the best investment we can possibly make, because it pays off in so many ways.

When a community’s young people know the adults care about their future it sends a powerful and profound message. Dare 2 Be Great is but one effort, there are others. But even more is needed and that’s the investment we should be making.

11 April, 2016 0 Comments

Leadership Is The Answer

April 11, 2016 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

Fortune Magazine just released its list of the world’s top leaders.

Interestingly, no candidate running for president on either side of the divide made the list which was topped—somewhat controversially—by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Bezos was the recent focus of a New York Times expose’ detailing some pretty tough working conditions at the Seattle based company. Fortune’s editors acknowledged the piece and said that Amazon will probably never make the list of `best places to work’ but noted Bezos’ business acumen and the disruptive business model he has employed to challenge and or beat everyone from Walmart to Barnes & Noble.

While there’s no doubt that Bezos has changed the world, I find it hard to fully admire someone who doesn’t create a good culture in the workplace. While Amazon may be an outlier in terms of performance, my guess is that most companies, organizations or governments can’t thrive unless they get their culture right.

A friend recently asked me what I felt were the biggest issues facing Boca Raton and Delray Beach.

Was it education? Drug addiction? Crime? The sober house/ rehab industry? Overdevelopment? Traffic? Affordable housing?

Nope.

The biggest challenge we face as a community and as a nation is leadership, or the lack thereof.

Leadership matters.

If you attract, retain, cultivate, grow and support leadership in your schools, companies, organizations, non-profits and communities you can pick the problem and be assured that good leadership will either solve it or make a noticeable difference.

Good leadership makes the intractable, tractable. And the opposite is also true. Without solid leadership it’s hard to make a dent in problems and just as hard to seize opportunities.

On the national level, this election is certainly unlike any other we’ve seen. I have friends who are all over the philosophical map—conservatives, liberals, moderates and people who usually don’t pay any attention to politics. But this year it seems everybody is paying at least some attention and most of the people I know cannot believe what they are witnessing.

Regardless of your views, it’s hard to make an argument that this is a contest between our best and brightest minds—leaders who are equipped to tackle an increasingly complex and dangerous world.

I’ve heard the words “scary” “surreal” and “embarrassing” used frequently.

This brings us to the local level; where government is closest to the people.

One of the scary trends I’ve seen is the diminishing number of people who vote despite increases in population.

When the universe shrinks, a small number of people can exercise control over the many that choose—inexplicably– not to have a voice.

Consider these numbers in Delray Beach.

In 1990, there were 26,330 registered voters in Delray. The landmark vote that elected Tom Lynch mayor and Jay Alperin and David Randolph to the commission attracted 41.54 percent of eligible voters. Randolph earned 7,720 votes.

In 2014, less than 6,500 votes were cast in the Delray municipal election. In 2015, less than 7,000 votes were cast in a hotly contested mayoral election. The winner had less than half the votes that Randolph earned 25 years prior in a city that had far less people. The turnout was 16 percent.

That’s not a sign of civic health.

Boca’s not any better. In 2015, there were slightly less votes cast in Boca than in Delray, despite Boca being a much larger city.

In 2014, about 11,000 votes were cast. There are nearly 60,000 registered voters in Boca.

Low voter turnout is not necessarily a symptom of poor leadership, but the more people that pay attention to local issues the better. And if they pay attention they may get involved and that should certainly improve the pool of candidates.

If we want to solve problems and seize opportunities, we need good people at all levels of government participating in our Democracy. It’s that simple and that hard.

24 March, 2016 4 4 Comments

They Dare 2 Be Great

March 24, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 4 Comments

Dare 2 Be Great supports promising Delray students with a goal of bringing them back home.

About six years ago, I met Morgan Russell for breakfast at Christina’s in Pineapple Grove.

I hadn’t seen Morgan for a while, he had done a lot of investing in the Grove when I was on the city commission but after I termed out he moved to Colorado and while we kept in sporadic touch, I wasn’t really sure what he was up to when we sat down.

Delray had been good to Morgan and in turn he was good to Delray. He owned and operated some great real estate including a corner of US 1 and Linton Boulevard and the Esplanade in Pineapple Grove, a district he helped to pioneer back when the hordes were heading to Atlantic Avenue.

His signature project–co-developed with Scott Porten — was CityWalk, a gorgeous mixed use project that we had worked closely on to make happen. Imagine that, working closely with a real estate investor, what a concept. But I digress.

Now Morgan was back and anxious to pay it forward as they say.

He wanted to do something cool for Delray. So after some brainstorming we sketched out an idea. I know it sounds clichéd but its true– on a napkin we created Dare 2 Be Great.

The non-profit, which has virtually no overhead, sends great Delray students to college and provides mentoring services as well. In six years, we have supported well over 40 students and we are about to interview candidates for our class of 2016.

Our kids have gone to just about every state school and to places like Stanford, NYU, George Washington, Northwestern and the Savannah College of Art and Design. We have Dare Scholars in medical school and in the White House (a White House fellow, my mentee Ian Mellul).

It has been a spectacular experience. And the students we have met along the way are amazing, inspiring and every other positive adjective you can dream up.

The “human capital” in this city is nothing short of eye opening and remarkable. And I wish everybody could see what we see; because if our citizens could see the potential and the drive and the adversity our kids—Delray’s kids—overcome we’d have a better conversation in Delray about our future.

I’m all in on creating opportunity and quality of life for not only our current residents but our children as well. We need to be a city, county, state, nation and world that thinks about our future and feels an obligation to leave a better place for those who come next. It’s not about any single person’s vision of a village or personal drive times; it is about creating good opportunities for the next generation.

I think it begins with education and ends with good jobs, community, family, friends, spiritual life and quality of life. In order for our community to thrive we need all of those things and a bunch more too—including housing, health care, a quality environment, cultural opportunities and safe neighborhoods.

You can’t scrimp on any of those things—we have an obligation and a duty to be thinking long term.

Dare 2 Be Great is a bet on our future. From the beginning it was designed as an investment in Delray Beach. We believe that if we mentor and provide an education to kids who we believe can be game changers that they will come back home to a place they love and make us an even better community.

While we focus on kids who are succeeding and overcoming adversity, organizations like the Achievement Center, Milagro Center, the Miracle League and Delray Students First are working with kids in the midst of the struggle to overcome a dizzying array of challenges. As a community, we need to take a holistic approach and we need to find a way to scale programs that work so that we can break the cycle of poverty and build a city that cares, loves, nurtures and protects people while providing opportunity. It is important to note that as we interview these kids about growing up in Delray they all mention one program or another that helped them turn it around: the Teen Center, Youth Council, tennis lessons, the Criminal Justice Academy at Atlantic High, a class at Old School Square or volunteering at the Caring Kitchen. These programs aren’t frills they are life savers and investments.

Dare to Be Great is but one effort—there is so much more to do. But in six short years since we left that restaurant with a napkin and an idea we have touched lots of lives. We have seen kids grow and thrive and honestly we have seen a few who have struggled. We have exacting standards; we demand good grades and engagement with mentors. We insist on stellar citizenship and on paying it forward.

We have had a few difficult conversations with bright students who underachieved, but we feel it is an important lesson to impart—we won’t abandon you as people but in life you have to live up to the terms of your obligations or there are consequences.

Fortunately, most of our students make it; they exceed even our lofty expectations.

Some of our students come from solid homes, with two parents and lots of love and support. But many, probably most, come from difficult situations. Parents have died or been murdered, there is poverty, foreclosure, homelessness, drug abuse, crime and violence and yet they have overcome and succeeded. They are succeeding– in an odd way –because of the adversity, we have had many a young man and woman look us square in the eye and say they will do whatever it takes because they cannot live the way they are living and want to escape the lives of desperation lived by their parents and siblings.

Many came in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and despite not having money or even speaking the language within a few years they excelled in high school, worked multiple jobs and found time to volunteer in our community. We feel honored and privileged to help them realize their dreams of a college education.

Last year, we interviewed a very polite young man who had been homeless. He told us of not sleeping at night because he wanted to watch over his younger sister, afraid that if he slept, something might happen to her. In the morning, he would walk to school, where he got all A’s and after school he would take care of siblings. He had never been out to dinner at a restaurant in Delray, something most of us take for granted. But he was a great student, with a drive to succeed and a strong desire to break the cycle of poverty that had engulfed his family.

We were pleased to offer him a scholarship, assign him a mentor and yes –take him out for a meal in his own hometown. P.S. He is doing great at college. We adore this young man.

In a few weeks we will be interviewing a new class of potential scholars. We are currently sifting through applications as we speak. Our volunteer board and a few folks from the community will sit in on interviews that are sure to change their lives—but the goal is to change the lives of our kids in a positive way.

We struggle with many problems here at home and across the country and world. The news has become a veritable nightmare to watch, but the solutions to our many challenges are always people based.

We are helping to educate and mentor the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, volunteers, philanthropists, scientists and researchers…it is a small but meaningful effort because every one of these students are very special and will make a positive impact on Delray Beach and on our world.

A friend of mine tells me that in church they call this “ministry”. I’m here to say we need a lot more ministry and a lot less complaining. Ministry solves problems, complaining only makes them worse.

In a few weeks, I’ll introduce you to our new crop of Dare 2 Be Great Scholars—they are our children and they are our future.

21 January, 2016 1 Comment

On Teaching, Walkability & The Future

January 21, 2016 By Jeff Perlman 1 Comment

Streets like this one in Denver, just feel good.

I’ve always had a desire to teach.

I think it correlates with a strong yearning to learn.

My early career was in the newspaper field, where your job boils down to learning about subjects and then sharing (reporting) what you’ve learned with your readers.

Working at a community newspaper is a dream job—if you discount the long hours, low wages and dim prospects for the future. As a young man I did—because the job itself is fascinating.

You get to write. You get to satisfy your curiosity by researching things you’re interested in. You to get meet interesting people and cover fascinating subjects; no two days are the same.

I’ve always liked the excitement of deadlines, it focuses you and you have to produce, which is a cool way to work. When everybody around you is on a similar deadline, there’s an energy in the room that is hard to describe.

I would imagine that teaching has a similar adrenaline rush. If you’re in the flow and connecting with your audience there’s just nothing like it. My daughter is a brand new teacher in Tampa—I plan to talk to her about what she feels when she’s working with students.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that when a friend called and asked if I would speak to his urban planning class at FAU—I jumped at the chance.

Still, it’s nerve wracking to walk into a room full of strangers; most especially young people who are beginning to look even younger to me with every passing year.

Can you connect? Can you relate? Do I have anything to teach them? And what can I learn from all these young minds?

We talked about how cities evolve and transform– one of my favorite subjects.

I love to tell the Delray story, because I think we are a good case study and that past leaders and city staff used sound strategies for over 20 years to achieve success. Success, not perfection.

For example, we went from 35 percent vacancy and little going on downtown in the 80s to a glowing feature story in the Wall Street Journal last week.

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/a-sunny-escape-3-perfect-days-in-delray-beach-florida-1452796534-lMyQjAxMTE2NzExNjIxMzY0Wj

We talked a lot about Boca too.

But the best part is to hear from future planners, urban designers, developers and architects.

What do they see? What do they expect and want from cities? Here’s a few takeaways from an admittedly small sample, but the sentiments seem to match surveys I’ve seen.

Affordability—not just in housing but also reasonable costs for food and entertainment.

Mobility—The young aren’t car centric. Study after study show that millennials are delaying getting driver’s licenses, don’t feel a strong desire to own a car and appreciate and seek out walkable environments. They also believe in services such as Uber and Lyft and understand that driverless cars will change our urban environments.

Environmentally Sensitive and Realistic—They know that Florida is a popular place and that even if “they want their own slice of heaven” i.e. a suburban home on ½ acre they know sprawl is bad for the environment and that we may need to grow vertically rather than sprawl to accommodate a growing populace.

Design Savvy—My small sample of future urban professionals were keen on good architecture and design. They appreciate art and culture, good looking buildings and a mix of uses.

They also talked about wanting their cities to be safe, diverse and chock full of amenities.

A few of the students have been interning in Delray. I hope that many end up staying here after they graduate FAU.

As for me, I kind of wish I was 20-something again, so I can experience it all again. The future is exciting indeed.

10 December, 2015 1 Comment

How About Some Good News?

December 10, 2015 By Jeff Perlman 1 Comment

Good news…lord knows we need some.

How About The Eagles!
The Atlantic High Football team had a great season. Coach TJ Jackson, his staff and the players should be proud of their accomplishments. And we should be proud of the team.
Boosters such as Lee Cohen and Ryan Boylston also deserve a round of applause for their commitment to the team and its players. It takes a village and Lee and Ryan get that. They are building a special program at Atlantic.

A Smile Is a Gift
Have you heard about the great work that Spodak Dental is doing with Marlins superstar Giancarlo Stanton?
Well, it’s astonishing. The duo have teamed up to provide dental services to needy kids, restoring their smiles and their confidence and in many cases alleviating painful conditions.
Craig Spodak is a true leader. His community efforts, understanding of what it takes to build a sustainable city and his belief in Delray is a model for young entrepreneurs. The investment he made in a green building west of 95 ought to be celebrated. We’ve seen big investments downtown but out west? Wow!

It Takes A Village Part II
I had a chance to have lunch with Mark Sauer and Leo Ressa of Delray Students First last week. The nonprofit provides mentoring and tutoring services to our neediest kids.
Mark and Leo are smart retired business executives with tons of smarts, heart and energy. Mark used to be president of the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Blues and Leo was a managing director for Merrill Lynch in NY. They could spend their time on the links or on the sand but they have rolled up their sleeves to help kids. Our Dare 2 Be Great foundation works with them.
They are doing an amazing job. They are changing lives –check that they are saving lives. But the needs are enormous given the amount of people that need help right here in our own community. Delray Students First needs to scale and they need our help.
We can talk all we want about buildings, height, density etc., but the important work in a community is how do we develop our human capital? That’s the question and the challenge that we should be wrestling with. It ought to keep us up at night and it should be the first thought when we wake up.
It is the first and last thoughts of each day for guys like Mark and Leo.
We have tremendously gifted kids in our community who need our help, love, guidance and support so that we can break the cycle of poverty that fuels crime, abuse and dysfunction in society. Mark and Leo and others are hard at work on this opportunity…but they can’t do it alone. It takes a village. Let’s be one. Contact me through the blog and I will connect you.

The Ties That Bind
Final piece of good news..Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are coming to the BB&T Center in February.
Bruce is our neighbor in Wellington. We are hoping– nope we are praying, that he will visit his old Jersey friend Fran Marincola at the two-time restaurant of the year Caffe Luna Rosa while in our neck of the woods.
A guy can dream right?

18 November, 2015 0 Comments

Building the Ecosystem: Addressing the Gaps

November 18, 2015 By Jeff Perlman Leave a Comment

All across America, communities are celebrating entrepreneurship.

As well they should be, because America was built by entrepreneurs and its future depends on their success.

Americans are an innovative people, freedom loving, creative problem-solvers who aren’t afraid of risks or dreaming big. No act of terror can shake those values, it’s in our DNA.

That ethos has made us an exceptional nation—and the pacesetters for the world. But here at YourDelrayBoca.com, we think local.

Luckily, there’s a nascent effort under way at FAU to foster the next generation of great entrepreneurs.

Tech Runway as it’s called sits in a barren part of the campus in an airplane hangar not far from Boca Airport.

It’s a cool building—you really ought to stop by and visit– and it’s buzzing with possibilities and excitement.

In the interests of full disclosure, I sit on the Tech Runway Advisory Board because the concept taps into the three ideas/values that drive me: leadership (Tech Runway seeks to be a leading voice in the emerging South Florida entrepreneurial ecosystem), entrepreneurship (the runway is a launching pad for new companies) and community (Tech Runway seeks to be a gathering place for those who want to see an entrepreneurial ecosystem take shape).

Last week, thanks to Connor Lynch, Stacey Hallberg and Northern Trust, we hosted 60 plus business, civic and entrepreneurial leaders at the bank in downtown Delray to discuss Tech Runway’s vision and to elicit buy-in and support from local movers and shakers.

Our new board chair David Roth—an accomplished entrepreneur behind the brands Wakaya Perfection and Fiji Water—keynoted the event along with FAU President Dr. John Kelly.

I had the honor of speaking at the event and outlined Delray’s long time vision to be a hub for creative professionals offering jobs and opportunities for young people. But it was President Kelly who ignited the crowd with his aspirations for the university.

Dr. Kelly summed up the mission of Tech Runway perfectly: “we’ll be educating future scientists, propelling undergraduate research and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs to take their ideas from concept to commercialization. This infusion of intellectual capital will create a powerful new economic engine for South Florida.”

Kelly’s goal is to turn FAU into one of the top public universities in America and he has assembled a stellar team to lead the way. The Runway is an important component in the big picture.

Delray and Boca—as the cities closest to FAU—have a unique opportunity to benefit from the investment and the talent that is being attracted to the university and to projects like the Research Park and Tech Runway. As mentioned in other columns, Lynn University is emerging as a player as well.

So what’s missing? Quite a bit, but creative office space in urban environments and investment capital are two glaring gaps that need to be filled if we are to fulfill our potential and realize the vision.

Young entrepreneurs are seeking urban, walkable and vibrant environments—much like what Delray and Boca Raton has to offer. They are also seeking a community of like-minded people who they can partner with. These “collisions” are harder to arrange in traditional suburban style office parks.

Building “creative” space, co-working facilities and the like in a high cost environment is not easy, but we must find a way or we risk losing our best and brightest to other cities and regions.

In Boca, Dr. Kelly thinks the 20^th Street corridor and its warehouses represent an opportunity. Durham, North Carolina converted similar space to entrepreneurial uses to great success.

In Delray, we have opportunities on Congress Avenue, but also downtown if we can find a way to talk intelligently about growth and sustainability. Like I’ve said, the downtown is not done. We are missing the work and learn part of live, work, learn and play. We can’t lose our will now.

Boca too has an enormous opportunity and many units are being planned for downtown Boca. Hopefully, the city is also leaving space for creative style offices, not Class A, but space that entrepreneurs would seek out and enjoy.

The other missing ingredient is angel, seed and venture capital.

We have plenty of wealth in these parts, but we need more local investing and we need to attract some accomplished VCs too. VC’s and angels look for deal flow, the more the better.

Historically, we haven’t had much, but that’s changing in South Florida, thanks to efforts such as Tech Runway.

If we can support, nurture and invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs we will do a lot to diversify and improve our local economy.

There have been efforts in the past. But this effort looks and feels different. I think this one is going to work.