Wall Street Journal | Your Delray Boca

Scott Pape gets an earful of praise from City Manager Terrance Moore at his retirement party last week. Three mayors, three planning directors and a room full of current and retired city staff came to celebrate Scott’s storied career.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal published a poll that blew people’s minds.

The pollsters asked a cross-section of Americans whether they thought that life for their children’s generation would be better than it was for them.

The answer: no.

Check that: it was heck no.

By a 78-21 percent margin, Americans did not feel confident that their kids would have a better life. One percent didn’t know.

That’s a startling number and as one commentator put it: “the poll quantifies a generational and political divide that shows a rot at the very soul of our nation.”

When you use the word “rot,” good news usually doesn’t follow. Whether it has to do with your house, your marriage, or your nation, you really want to avoid rot.

Here’s what the Journal found.

Asked to describe the state of the nation’s economy, 1% (not a typo) chose “excellent.”
56% said a four-year college degree is “not worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt.”
33% said they have very little or no confidence in public schools.
Tolerance for others, deemed very important by 80% of Americans as recently as four years ago, has fallen to 58%.

The numbers look even worse when compared to Journal polling data from 1998.

Patriotism is very important: Dropped from 70% to 38%.
Religion is very important: Dropped from 62% to 39%.
Having children is very important: Dropped from 59% to 30%.
Community involvement is very important: Dropped from 62 % to 29%.
Money is very important: Rose from 31% to 43%.

Blame it on politics, Covid, inflation or the very wrong decision to end Ted Lasso, but something is amiss in our society.

Patriotism, community involvement and having kids–and believing they will live in a better America— are the core values of our nation.

It’s a lot to grapple with, but grapple with it we must because so much is at stake.

As concerned locals, we should be asking what we can do here in Boca/Delray to address some of these issues?

If you are involved in a college or university, you need to be laser focused on the value you are providing students. Will they get a return on their investment of time and tuition?

I’m happy to report that I think Lynn University, FAU and Palm Beach State are focused on those very questions. As a trustee at Lynn, I’ve been impressed with the focus Lynn puts on providing “hands-on” educational opportunities and making sure students are engaged and getting what they need to succeed. As a private institution, Lynn can pivot and innovate– and they do.

FAU, coming off a basketball season for the ages, is blossoming and serves as an economic engine for our region. Let’s hope the specter of partisan politics surrounding the selection of a new president doesn’t set the school back. If the powers that be recruit a great educational leader in the seat, not a political hack who needs a job, FAU will soar.

Likewise, Palm Beach State is doing a good job preparing students for careers with low-cost certificate and degree programs in fields ranging from manufacturing and welding to construction and marine services.

As for local public schools, this requires a very deep dive.

Delray Beach schools need our care and attention. Our city has a rich history of supporting local schools and it looks like we need to undergo another visioning process to address some pressing issues which includes test scores, graduation rates and declining enrollment at local schools.

We need to empower our Education Coordinator and Education Board to bring the stakeholders to the table so we can find strategies to positively impact local schools. Promising programs to support our youth exist: Bound for College, Milagro Center, KOP Mentoring Network, Roots & Wings, EJS Project and the Achievement Center are good examples. We have a foundation in place on which to build something unique in Delray. It will take a village and a vision to knit these programs together and create a compelling narrative that this can be a learning community

The distressing numbers on community involvement are another cause for alarm.

Some of the lack of interest may stem from cynicism, some may be caused by economic strain and some by the lack of a “community water cooler” (i.e. local news) that once made it easy to find out what was going on in town.

Regardless, there was a time when city government was designed to encourage civic engagement. Virtually every department in the city was focused on getting the community involved.

Examples include citizen police academies, resident academies, police and fire volunteer programs, open houses, neighborhood dinners, neighborhood task teams, charettes, visioning, community reading initiatives, events, festivals etc. There were numerous and varied “connection” points; opportunity upon opportunity to get involved.

It’s never been easy to engage the public, but community building is critical and worth the effort.

The Journal poll was a wake-up call. I hope we answer the alarm.

AMERICAN VALUES BY THE NUMBERS:

70.0%: In 1998, 70.0% of Americans said that patriotism was very important.
38.0%: In 2023, 38.0% of Americans said that patriotism was very important.
62.0%: In 1998, 62.0% of Americans said that religion was very important.
39.0%: In 2023, 39.0% of Americans said that religion was very important.
59.0%: In 1998, 59.0% of Americans said that having children was very important.
30.0%: In 2023, 30.0% of Americans said that having children was very important.
62.0%: In 1998, 62.0% of Americans said that involvement in community was very important.
29.0%: In 2023, 29.0% of Americans said that involvement in community was very important.
31.0%: In 1998, 31.0% of Americans said that money was very important.
43.0%: In 2023, 43.0% of Americans said that money was very important (Sources: NORC at The University of Chicago and The Wall Street Journal, 3.27.23).

Odds and Ends

Congratulations to Detective Charles Lunsford who was named 2022 Officer of the Year by the Delray Elks Lodge.

Charles’ dad Scott was a legendary Delray officer, so clearly the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

Great job.

Condolences to Lt. Gary Ferreri on the loss of his wonderful grandfather Richard Lewis who passed away recently at the age of 98.

In March, Mr. Lewis received the Legion of Honor Award for his service in World War II. The Legion of Honor is the French government’s highest honor. Mr. Lewis saw action in the Battle of the Bulge.

“He was a man that never complained about anything, he literally went through hell and back as he was captured and held as a POW for 4 months in Germany. I have had the honor and privilege to hear many of his stories, about the men he saved on the front line, his time in prison camp, and so much more,” Lt. Ferreri said in a Facebook post.

His grandfather went back to Normandy to walk the beaches last June.

He will be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Recently, Delray lost a local icon with the passing of Bruce Gimmy.

The long-time owner of The Trouser Shop on Atlantic Avenue, Mr. Gimmy was known for his colorful wardrobe and lately for his participation in Delray Fashion Week.

Rest in Peace.

I’d also like to wish a happy retirement to Scott Pape, who spent 37 years—most of them in Delray Beach—working as a city planner.

Scott is not only a great guy, he is universally respected. Known as the “fixer” Scott was often tasked with the most sensitive projects in town—including Ipic and Atlantic Crossing because Planning Directors through the years knew he would be fair, thorough and professional regardless of circumstances.

It’s not easy being a city planner in any city—especially Delray which can be a challenging place when it comes to the public square. But this town has always been known for its outstanding planning department and Scott was a star among stars. We wish him well in his next chapter.

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.

A Wake Up Poll, Saying Goodbye To A Special Planner

On Teaching, Walkability & The Future