Stet NewsGreetings, Stetters! For you today, downtown Lake Worth Beach’s destiny, a friendlier State Road A1A, the Community Foundation’s way forward for young readers, a youth summit and help for Hannah’s Home.
🪧 Museum in the middle
A clash over the future of downtown Lake Worth Beach is playing out in protests, on social media and in confrontational meetings.It has drawn demands for investigations, spawned spats among city commissioners and provoked vocal groups both pro and con.
Why it’s important: Plans for the Wiener Museum of Decorative Arts pit opponents who love downtown’s small-scale vibe against proponents who say the project can help the city realize its greater destiny.
Catch up quick: The project is based on the city’s decision to give 1.78 acres to developer Arthur Wiener, who pitched an unsolicited proposal for a museum for his personal collection of glass arts and a 110-unit apartment building to help finance the museum’s operations.In recent months, Wiener has spent $6,000 on marketing to counter critics.
Zoom in: To make up for the loss of 65 parking spaces, the city would pay $7.5 million for a 265-space parking garage. Wiener would chip in $1 million.Paying for the garage likely would spell the end of free parking downtown.
Read more at ByJoeCapozzi.com, where reporter Joe Capozzi details the positions of both sides in a debate that led one city commissioner to exclaim to the mayor at a March meeting, “Stop interrupting me! That will be enough!”
Of note: Both sides hashed out their points last night at a public meeting hosted by WMODA at the Lake Worth Beach Casino Complex.
— Reported by Joe Capozzi
🛣️ State Road A1A gets an upgrade
Here’s good news for cyclists and pedestrians in north county.
New bicycle lanes, curb ramps and traffic signals are being installed on State Road A1A from south of the John D. MacArthur Beach State Park entrance to the Portage Landing North entrance.
What’s happening: The $3.9 million project by Hialeah-based Florida Engineering and Development Corp. started in February. Completion of the 2-mile stretch also known as Jack Nicklaus Drive is planned by the end of the year, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
Why it matters: Florida is the worst state for cycling safety, according to the League of American Bicyclists. Florida also ranks among the highest in pedestrian fatalities, along with Arizona, Louisiana and New Mexico.
- Six bicycle riders and 61 pedestrians were killed in Palm Beach County during 2024, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
The project includes:
- Lanes designated for bicycles-only on both sides of A1A. The width of the lanes is planned to vary between 4 and 8 feet.
- Sidewalk curb ramps to improve pedestrian safety. Existing sidewalks will remain.
- Improved traffic signals and lighting at intersections including Lost Tree Village and Old Harbor Road.
- Modernized video detection. The system uses cameras to measure traffic speed and flow, identify congestion points and monitor pedestrian and bicycle volume. Traffic engineers use that data to sequence traffic lights, determine locations for crosswalks and signs as well as identify where traffic improvements are needed.
- Repaved roadway.
- Improved traffic signal arms to meet hurricane standards.
Zoom out: This is the third recent piece of good news for north county bicycle riders and pedestrians.
- The $122 million U.S. 1 bridge over the Jupiter Inlet reopened in early April. The new bridge has 8-foot-wide sidewalks on each side for pedestrians and 7-foot-wide lanes for bicycle riders. The old bridge had neither, making crossing it a shaky adventure.
- New bicycle lanes on both sides of A1A at Coral Cove Park just south of the Martin County line are finished. The lanes make it safer along A1A, where paddle boarders, snorkelers, sunbathers, kayakers and swimmers park for free at the beach and the Intracoastal Waterway.
– Bill DiPaolo
🫲🏼 Feeding Hungry Minds: Connecting supporters
Fifth of five
A philanthropic prizefighter, the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties connects philanthropic donors to a network of nonprofit partners fighting the biggest local challenges.
Context: The foundation has priorities that it modifies from time to time — no surprise since it has been making grants and giving scholarships for 50 years.
- Its mantra, Giving For Good, is practiced by uniting generous people with changemakers in areas from housing to mental health, early childhood to education.
Why it matters to reading: One of the foundation’s priorities is education and youth, with a focus on healthy development, education and literacy.
What they’re saying: “Experts tell us a child’s ability to read at grade level by third grade is the single greatest predictor of future success because this is when they transition from learning to read to reading to learn,” said Danita DeHaney, the foundation’s president and CEO.
What’s new: In 2024, it launched the Early Literacy Fund in response to the literacy crisis.
- Designed to help nonprofit organizations focused on improving youth literacy rates in Palm Beach and Martin counties, the foundation uses competitive grantmaking to find groups to support.
That summer, the foundation brought a University of Florida reading curriculum to four local nonprofits for a nine-week program.
How it works: The curriculum clarifies the techniques needed to teach ‘decoding,’ the process of reasoning used to identify a new word based on what one already knows.
- Using phonics, segmentation, blending, chunking and a plethora of tools, helps children figure out new words. Decoding (reading) is — like any skill — improved by repetition, the curriculum says.
- The lead donor, the Lawrence A. Sanders Foundation, committed $100,000 to support the pilot program for 55 children from Banner Lake Club in Hobe Sound, Fuller Center in Boca Raton, the Achievement Center for Children & Families in Delray Beach and the Edna W. Runner Tutorial Center in Jupiter.
The bottom line: All saw significant improvements in reading scores.
Read about the fundraising record the Community Foundation broke in 2024 here.
This is the fifth of five Stet News snapshots of Palm Beach County organizations devoted to childhood literacy. The others focused on the Runner Center, the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, Roots & Wings, and Foundations School.
📧 Please click reply to this email and let us know what you thought of the series.
– Janis Fontaine
🖤 And now for some Love, Hope and Healing
Police chiefs, a judge and returning citizens will reach out to young people this week to share their experience and advice.
Why it matters: The “Stop Throwing Rocks at the Chain Gang” Youth Summit is a new event designed to prevent crime by educating and empowering young people.
- It’s counterprogramming to the popular culture of negativity and violence.
What’s happening: Teens, young adults and their families are invited to hear from speakers including Riviera Beach Police Chief Michael Coleman, West Palm Beach Police Chief Tony Araujo and Circuit Court Judge Bradley Harper.
Backstory: The summit is organized by Donte and Yolanda Bates of West Palm Beach.
- They are founders of the nonprofit Love, Hope and Healing.
- The organization is devoted to wellness, mental health and healthy behavior.
What’s this about a chain gang? In the metaphor “Stop throwing rocks at the chain gang,” rocks are crimes and the chain gang is prison.
- The message is to avoid choices that lead to incarceration.
Details: The free summit will be 10 am to 4 pm Saturday, May 3, at Gaines Park.
- More information and registration is here.
– Carolyn DiPaolo
🍊 The Juice
🥾 West Palm Beach’s longtime planning director, Rick Greene, resigned last week rather than fire an employee who angered the mayor over her presentation of a plan for an 11-story parking garage at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Greene said. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚔 A new report calls the West Palm Beach Police Department an agency “in crisis” with staff and equipment shortages, low morale and tension among its officers. The department spent $6.9 million on overtime last year, far exceeding its overtime budget of $3.6 million, the report said. (WPTV)
- Chief Tony Araujo responded that 13 officers will join the force in June and concedes the department’s overtime spending is unsustainable. (WPBF)
- Read the 89-page report.
🏛️ Florida Senate Democrats’ choice for their new leader is Boynton Beach’s Lori Berman. She succeeds state Sen. Jason Pizzo, who announced on the Senate floor last week that he was leaving the party, which he declared “dead.” (Sun-Sentinel $$$)
✍🏼 Weeks after rejecting a letter to the editor from civic leaders protesting the firing of Opinion Editor Tony Doris after he published an editorial cartoon that was called antisemitic, The Palm Beach Post on Sunday ran a column from the men defending the right to publish it and a column next to it condemning the cartoon. In recent weeks, The Post has not published any editorial cartoons.
☀️ With no Sunfest set to stage shows on the Flagler Drive waterfront this year,Andrew Marra takes readers on a 42-year journey through the music and arts festival’s history and the factors behind its cancellation. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🔔 Cultural Council for Palm Beach County Senior Vice President Jennifer Sullivan shared an alert last week on social media saying arts and culture in Florida appear to be on track for state money this year.
- Sullivan cautioned that lawmakers in Tallahassee are also debating whether to cut hotel bed taxes and dissolve tourism agencies, which she warned would greatly impact the arts around the state.
- She invited supporters of the arts to contact their legislators in the state Houseand Senate and make their voices heard.
🗓️ Nearly 30 local government and nonprofit organizations will help connect residents with everything from court payment plans, affordable housing information, mental health resources, job training, mugshot removal to legal advice for civil court cases. It’s the county clerk’s third annual Community Resource Fair from 9 am to noon Saturday at the Greenacres Community Center, 501 Swain Blvd. More info here.
561NSIDER: Developers start turn
Come inside the man cave extraordinaire and see the meticulously preserved cars of developer Nick Mastroianni II.
- In an industrial park near Interstate 95 in Jupiter, Mastroianni and his family have amassed a gleaming array of hand-picked cars, while creating a unique space for charity fundraisers.
Why it’s important: Last week, the developer of Jupiter’s Harbourside and his family turned over the warehouse-size space to Hannah’s Home, a Tequesta charity that gives pregnant women a place to live for up to two years.
What they’re saying: “They’re helping children who are having children, which I think is a very important cause,” said Mastroianni, who is on the Hannah’s Home board.
- He made that comment on Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Auction. There he sold a low-mileage, cyber gray metallic 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 for $110,000.
Zoom out: The proceeds from the car’s sale went to Hannah’s Home, lifting its share from last week’s event to $330,000.
Catch up quick: Hannah’s Home, named for the barren woman in the Bible who promised to dedicate her son to God, has helped 100 moms since opening in a $550,000 house in 2012. Its expansion campaign already has raised $1 million to add two cottages with four beds to its 2.9-acre site. The cottages will open in the next few months.
Of note: Babe Rizzuto, daughter of the founder of Conair, the late Leandro Rizzuto, sponsored the appearance of country singer Chris Lane, who performed for an hour.
Zoom in: Classic Chevys and sporty Corvettes, their engines gleaming beneath open hoods, mixed with more sports cars, jeeps, a Volkswagen bus and even a restored fire truck. Visitors could walk among the vehicles and pose for photos.
Read more about Hannah’s Home and last week’s event here.
— Joel Engelhardt
Joel loved the turnout Sunday for the Palm Beach Gardens Historical Society’s first Open House, showcasing the many photos and artifacts that the society has collected since its founding in 2008. One simple thing: People were delighted by the high school yearbooks! Of note: Joel serves on the society’s board.
