3 February, 2025 2 2 Comments

The Future May Be Here

February 3, 2025 By 2 Comments

I ran into my old friend Kelly Smallridge while attending an event recently at the beautifully restored Delray Beach Club.

Kelly is the longtime president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. I did two stints on her board over the years and had the privilege of watching Kelly at work. Palm Beach County is fortunate to have her. She’s great at what she does. Her practice is economic development. Her job is to sell Palm Beach County as a great place to live, work, learn and play.

Kelly does all that and more. She’s also a visionary. She’s the architect of  a campaign called “Wall Street South” that has rapidly gone from dream to reality.
I was involved with the BDB when that phrase was coined and Kelly reminded me that when the term was first introduced it was often greeted with laughter.

Yes, we have sunshine and no income taxes. Yes, we have an emerging cultural scene and lots of wonderful beaches, but it’s doubtful New York City’s movers and shakers spent much time thinking about us as a place to do business or as competition for Wall Street.

But fast forward a few years and here we are. Financial firms are pouring into the area and Wall Street South is suddenly very real.

At the same event, I ran into Brian Seymour, the chair of the Business Development Board, and a prominent land use attorney at Gunster. In his roles, Brian gets to see a lot. And he’s seeing a lot. A whole lot of investment, plans, vision and excitement for Palm Beach County.

Early beneficiaries are West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton.

We are experiencing huge investment in the office sector (once written off as dead), retail, industrial and residential asset classes. It’s something to see. You can feel the change that’s happening. It’s in the air.

I felt the excitement last week, when we caught up with our friends at 1909, an exciting business incubator/accelerator in West Palm Beach. The Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation is an investor in this wonderful nonprofit.

We have seen the group reach hundreds of entrepreneurs with an array of programs. They also build community, which is important for entrepreneurs.  They are moving into beautiful new office space in downtown West Palm, and we got to visit with an array of business owners who are seeing their dreams come to life while taking advantage of the support services offered by 1909.

At the event, we talked to County Commissioner Gregg Weiss who spoke about the county’s investment in 1909 and we learned that Boca Raton has invested as well. Both governments will surely see a return on that investment as 1909 grows.

The same week we experienced these meet-ups with people hard at work making things happen in our county, we watched with amazement a meeting in Boca Raton in which the City Council weighed four proposals to re-imagine 30 acres of their downtown, including their City Hall campus. It’s a multibillion bet that— if done right— has the potential to remake an already successful city. And that’s an important distinction. Boca’s leadership isn’t content to coast or rely on its past success, it’s striving and aspiring for more.

That will be music to some people’s ears and nails on a blackboard to others. But change doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game, you can evolve and hold onto your soul. You can progress and keep the good stuff too.

But it’s hard and it requires leadership that is not only visionary, but vigilant and sensitive to the needs and concerns of all stakeholders.

Often cities respond only to the loudest voices, which tend to protect the status quo. The need and concerns of existing residents and business owners are super important, but there is also a very strong need to consider the future, which includes people who will eventually want to live and work in your city.

It’s a balance. More art than science.

Watching the workshop, I was struck by the comments of Stephen Ross whose Related Ross company is a bidder on the project.

Mr. Ross (who owns the Dolphins) has gobbled up a ton of downtown West Palm Beach real estate, including old and new office projects. Ross sees this area as the next “Silicon Valley” and predicts that Boca will be the equivalent of Palo Alto in that scenario. He sees Palm Beach County as offering the “greatest opportunity” in America.

“I believe this will become the most important place in America, going forward, from a business standpoint,” Ross told the Boca Council.

That’s heady stuff.

Many regions have aspired to be the “next Silicon Valley” including our region with an effort called the “Internet Coast.”

Personally, I think cities and regions should aspire to forge their own identities, but I think Ross makes a larger point. We are rapidly turning into something different, something significant too.

Like anything in life, change brings both good and not so good consequences.  No doubt, there will be opportunity and lots of money flying around.

Recently, Lake Worth Beach, which has enormous potential (untapped and sometimes unrealized) received an unsolicited $355 million bid to redevelop its waterfront casino and nearby golf course from a group that includes Stiles Corporation and golf great Jack Nicklaus.

The proposal includes two Hyatt Hotels. Interesting.

In addition, the new Trump administration is clearly a factor in our backyard with Mar A Lago serving as a magnet for an array of lobbying and public affairs firms seeking local digs to be near the nexus of power—at least for the next four years.

Still, there are headwinds that we should be mindful of. Those of us who came decades ago or who are natives found an affordable paradise in South Florida. That is no longer the case.
Housing costs, food costs, insurance costs and divisive and often corrosive politics have changed the personality of our region.

Executives from Related Ross, including a young executive who grew up in Boca’s Mill Pond neighborhood but went elsewhere to build his career, promised to bring jobs to Boca so that future generations won’t have to head to New York and California for career growth.

That’s wonderful, it truly is. It’s hard not to get swept up when a proven visionary like Stephen Ross outlines a big (and I think achievable future) but it would be folly if we create a place that displaces those who can’t afford seven figure homes. If we can’t accommodate teachers, nurses, restaurant workers and essential service providers we will cease being a place.

Years ago, I was part of a group that brought the president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group to Lynn University for a conversation. We had a conversation about success, innovation, invention and technology. It was fascinating. But at the time and to this day, Silicon Valley struggles with a lack of attainable housing.

We struggle mightily with this issue now; can you imagine what it will be like if Ross’ prediction comes true.

Affordability, insurance, mobility and fostering enlightened and effective leadership are complex topics. Ignore them at your own risk.

Market forces will prevail, and change is inevitable and often desirable. But smart leaders and smart communities plan, shape and lead the way into the future.

These are interesting times. Frankly we’ve lost a lot of ground relative to affordability already. But it’s never too late to course correct, prepare and innovate.

Here’s to the future.

 

Notes:

A heartfelt congratulations to Assistant Police Chief Jeff Rasor on his new position as chief of police in Manalapan, just up the street from Delray.

Chief Rasor served 22 years with the Delray Police Department and distinguished himself every step of the way up the ladder. I got to know Chief Rasor when he spearheaded the Criminal Justice Academy at Atlantic High School, a program the commission I served on championed along with then principal Kathy Weigel. Jeff created a great program that fed a lot of talent from the academy into service to our city.

We wish Jeff lots of success and thank him for his dedicated service.

Delray continues to mint chiefs of police. It’s a very proud legacy.

 

 

 

30 September, 2015 1 Comment

Moving the Big Rocks

September 30, 2015 By 1 Comment
Moving the Big Rocks is a choice and a commitment.

Moving the Big Rocks is a choice and a commitment.

When it comes to publicity very few people can match Donald Trump.

But Mr. Trump met his match last week with the immense amount of coverage given to Pope Francis on his maiden voyage to America.

The Donald and the Pope talk about many of the same issues, immigration, income inequality and climate change, but with all due respect to our Palm Beach neighbor, I prefer listening to Pope Francis’ message—and I’m not even Catholic.

While he was visiting the U.S., Pope Francis skipped out on Congress to eat lunch at a homeless shelter, visited a Philadelphia jail and in one of his most stirring public addresses, reminded mass-goers to stop averting their eyes.

 

“In big cities, beneath the roar of traffic, beneath ‘the rapid pace of change,’ so many faces pass by unnoticed because they have no ‘right’ to be there, no right to be part of the city,” he said at a mass held Friday at Madison Square Garden in New York. “They are the foreigners, the children who go without schooling, those deprived of medical insurance, the homeless, and the forgotten elderly. These people stand at the edges of our great avenues, in our streets, in deafening anonymity.”

Pope Francis knows that our shared future depends on building cities where all people have the opportunity to thrive. But how do you do that?

There are ideas galore from across the country on strategies that work. There are best practices relating to housing, crime, neighborhood revitalization, economic development and education.

But I would argue that the first step is always a decision on whether you want to do these things.

Many cities say they want to tackle their problems, but often it’s only words. But the cities that act are the ones to watch and the communities to emulate.

The problems we face today are vast, serious and seemingly endless and intractable. Most Americans would agree that Washington is broken and that their state governments, while usually more functional than Washington (a very low bar indeed) are also vast and distant from most people’s day to day lives.

The answers therefore must come from the cities, smaller communities that can marshal resources and people and actually solve or at least improve problems if they choose to do so.

The operative word though is choose…cities must commit.

I’m a fan of citizen-driven planning. When done well and with the right motives and people in the room, there is no more powerful tool that communities have than to create a blueprint by engaging as many stakeholders as possible.

I’ve seen this strategy change cities, including Delray Beach and I have seen cities fail to advance because they don’t engage their stakeholders.

So who are the stakeholders?

They include residents, property owners, non-profit organizations, educators, social service providers, law enforcement, business owners etc., anybody who has a “stake” in a city’s past, present and future. These are stakeholders, not special interests.

But often cities fail in their visioning and planning if they try and cut corners by either convening for the wrong reasons (to check a box), restricting input, rushing the process or the common mistake of dictating from the top.

Community engagement takes longer and can be messy. But engaging the public has magical advantages including buy-in and better ideas.

But once you commit, you had better deliver.

When I look at my city of Delray Beach and my neighbor Boca Raton, I see two really different but complementary communities with vast resources and amenities. But I also see challenges and opportunities.

There is great wealth and great poverty in our communities. There are safe neighborhoods and dangerous ones. There are kids who thrive and children who struggle with poverty, violence and dysfunctional home lives.

Cities are fascinating places because they have obligations to the past, present and future and they have responsibilities to all people—including the invisible and the struggling, the people mentioned by the Pope.

We can honor the past by preserving our historic neighborhoods and buildings, but also by recognizing the hard work that went into long term visions for our cities. We can serve the present by adapting those visions for today’s needs and by ensuring that current residents, from all walks of life have a place in our planning and in our communities. And we can create a better future by remembering that we are stewards. Therefore, it’s not all about our needs, wishes and conveniences; we also have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren as well.

Back in the day, we called some of these issues “the Big Rocks”. And we were determined to move them, even if ever so slightly forward. In Delray, the big rocks were education, crime, neighborhoods, race relations, building a vibrant and sustainable downtown, supporting culture, preserving the beach and creating jobs beyond food and beverage. In Boca, which had good schools, strong businesses, culture and neighborhoods I saw the big rocks as mobility, creating a downtown core and building on some remarkable foundations; medicine, education and technology.

Washington may or may not be fixable—but our cities are pockets of opportunity for us to work on big challenges and be beacons for others to emulate. You just have to choose to move the big rocks.

14 April, 2014 0 Comments

Boca Rude? Yes, According to Foursquare

April 14, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Never seen in Boca...just saying

Never seen in Boca…just saying

Just came across an interesting little study that solidly placed good old Boca Raton in the Top 20.

Hold on. It’s not for the best beaches, finest restaurants, or even for some of the top-notch golf courses.

Drum roll please….Boca Raton is ranked #12 in the world for being the “rudest.” Yup, that’s right. This is according to social media firm Foursquare. The list was based on the number of curse words used in random situations and recorded by people charged with infiltrating English speaking cities throughout the world.

Let’s have a big shout-out for Boca! Obviously, can’t say Jeff and I agree since we’ve had great experiences in the area we call home. Right Jeff? (Yes, Dave).

Here’s  the full list. Please note some of the cities that aren’t on the list (i.e. New York). As a New York native, I never really understood that perception. New Yorkers are actually extremely friendly, as evidenced by your’s truly.
1. Manchester, U.K.
2. El Paso, Texas
3. Pittsburgh, Pa.
4. Bloomington, Ind.
5. Riverside, Ca.
6. Tempe, Ariz.
7. Scottsdale, Ariz.
8. Portland, Oregon
9. Venice, Ca.
10. Orange, Ca.

11. San Jose, Ca.
12. Boca Raton, Fla.
13. Culver City, Ca.
14. Fullerton, Ca.
15. Los Angeles, Ca.
16. Melbourne, Australia
17. Staten Island, N.Y.
18. Miami, Fla.
19. Boston, Ma.
20. Jacksonville, Fla.

Discuss?