Stet NewsFor you today, the traffic nightmare that wasn’t, Florida’s DOGE has entered the chat, businesses sprout in West Palm Beach’s new Styx Promenade, another round begins in the State Road 7 battle, and behind the scenes at Tiger Woods’ golf league.
🚧 ‘Smooth congestion’
The traffic calamities predicted for The Acreage Monday did not come to pass.
- “Smooth congestion,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson called it, despite the closure of a main artery: Northlake Boulevard at the CSX railroad crossing west of the Beeline Highway.
Why it matters: Northlake is an east-west lifeline for communities west of the Beeline Highway, including Ibis and Avenir, as well as the thousands of single-family homes in The Acreage/Loxahatchee.
- Monday marked the first weekday commute since the road closed at 8 pm Friday.
What they’re saying: “It really is moving well,” said Elizabeth Accomando, president of the Indian Trail Improvement District board, which oversees The Acreage. “It’s a combination of everyone preparing — a lot of businesses are adjusting schedules, letting people work from home, some even paying for hotels east of the crossing for their staff — and the county being able to control the traffic lights and PBSO watching it as well.”
Catch up quick: Until it reopens, the 45,000 cars per day that cross the rails in both directions will be forced to follow detours to Okeechobee or Southern boulevards stretching from 20 to 35 miles. The Beeline Highway remains open but frustratingly out of reach for many.
- But many of those drivers didn’t venture out Monday.
Zoom in: Traffic never got bad enough for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to employ the pickle, which allows deputies to change traffic signal timing, said Lady Hereford, spokeswoman for Palm Beach County Engineering and Public Works.
“Everyone is pleased with how it’s gone so far,” she said before what she hoped would be an uneventful Monday afternoon rush hour.
“What GREAT news!” echoed sheriff’s spokesperson Teri Barbera about the morning rush. “We saw smooth congestion.”
The afternoon rush hour didn’t add any drama. Some intersections slowed but few mile-long lines of cars formed. Northlake itself, the end of the road for most, remained wide open most of the day.
The bottom line: Work remains on track to meet an Aug. 10 reopening date, the state reported.
Video: See the county traffic cameras here.
Read more and see the drone photos of the construction work at StetNews.org .
— Joel Engelhardt
✂️ Florida DOGE takes its first bite
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ DOGE push has made it into Palm Beach County, with the county and its 39 cities providing a first round of financial information.
Why it matters: Evidence of misspending could fuel the governor’s push to eliminate property taxes, the main source of money to run cities and counties.
What they’re saying: “This is information the state already has,” said South Bay City Manager Leondrae Camel, president of the Palm Beach County City Management Association. “Also, from a home rule perspective, each municipality should have the opportunity to manage their own communities.”
- Camel estimated it took his workers 32 hours to complete the detailed spreadsheets the state demanded. Mostly, he said, they copied information from the city’s audited financial report.
- In much larger Jupiter, two workers spent about 10 hours compiling the data, a city spokesperson said. The town also paid $2,400 to an auditing firm to help.
- County Commissioner Gregg Weiss echoed concerns that the state already has the information but interim County Administrator Todd Bonlarron said the requests were not onerous and, overall, “a good exercise for us.”
Zoom out: Local visits from DOGE staffers are not imminent. Having already put “boots on the ground” in Broward County and Gainesville, the state team’s next stops will be Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Orange counties and Jacksonville, DeSantis announced in a press release last week.
To quiet skeptics who believe the government efficiency team is targeting Democratic strongholds, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said auditors will review spending in Manatee County, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1.
- “To get real property tax relief, leaders in both red and blue counties need (to) take a serious look at wasteful spending,” Ingoglia wrote on X.
Yes, but: As Jason Garcia points out in Seeking Rents, five DeSantis-appointed or endorsed candidates were on the Manatee ballot last year — and all five lost.
Punch and counterpunch: DeSantis said that Broward County’s budget has increased 50% since 2020 even though its population has increased only 5%. He blasted it for spending $800,000 on a float in the Rose Bowl parade. County leaders balked, saying the money came from tourist tax revenues that are targeted for advertising the county as a destination.
- Palm Beach County’s spending has increased 35.6% since 2021 to $8.8 billion, county records show, while its population has increased 2.98%.
Read more about local reaction to state efforts to bring DOGE to cities and counties at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
🛍️ The promise of Styx Promenade
A key piece of the revival of West Palm Beach’s historically Black Northwest Neighborhood clicked into place last week with a celebration of six small businesses at the Styx Promenade.
Driving the news: The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency injected $2.6 million into building or restoring nine shotgun-style houses where businesses can grow on 7th Street west of Rosemary Avenue, about seven blocks north of downtown.
Why it matters: A new business district is emerging. The Styx Promenade is kitty-corner from two other multimillion-dollar CRA investments in the Northwest Neighborhood: the 4-year-old Heart & Soul Park and the Sunset Lounge, which could begin offering dinner and shows later this year.
- Directly to the west of Styx on 7th Street is Queen of Sheba Ethiopian restaurant.
Flashback: The name Styx recalls the neighborhood in Palm Beach that Black families left when they were displaced to West Palm Beach more than 100 years ago. They made their home in the nearby Pleasant City neighborhood and transformed it into a bustling business corridor.
“This promenade tells a story of resilience, creativity and economic inclusion,” City Commission President Christina Lambert said in her remarks Friday. “It blends our past with our future.”
Alfonso Hernandez Architect designed the structures, which Hartnett Building Group built after Burkhardt Construction paved the way with the 7th Street Streetscape project.
An outsider may wonder why entrepreneurs like Gregory Eaton would open his cafe and catering operation in the heart of a gritty urban neighborhood.
“This is home,” said Eaton, who spent his teenage years there. “This road that we have here is really an homage to our ancestors. Because, by law, they couldn’t live anywhere else in the city. They built something, and we’re doing the same thing.”
- Eaton continued, “When I walk out the door, these kids call me Mr. Greg.”
Business owners represent a town-square mix that will serve Northwest Neighborhood residents and visitors: a second-generation florist, a bookstore, a home care provider, a cupcake and soul food cafe, an intimate event space and soon, a beauty salon.
Keep reading to find out about the businesses setting up shop in the Styx Promenade at StetNews.org.
– Carolyn DiPaolo
🥊 State Road 7 back to court
The challenge to the environmental permit to extend State Road 7 to Northlake Boulevard has entered a new phase.
The city of West Palm Beach, arguing that the four-lane road could damage its surface water supply next to the Ibis Golf and Country Club, filed an appeal last week.
Why it matters: The extension would provide a direct link between Northlake and Okeechobee boulevards, a shortcoming in the area road network made more visible this week when a CSX rail crossing closure at Northlake is forcing drivers to follow lengthy detours through The Acreage and Loxahatchee to reach another east-west artery.
What’s next: The city’s appeal of the permit granted by the South Florida Water Management District will go before a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal.
Yes, but: The city made another request as well, in light of what it called new evidence. It asked the appellate court to give it 60 days to get the Water Management District to reconsider its July 1 decision to grant the permit.
- The new evidence emerged when the district responded to a June 2 city public records request on July 11, after the district issued the permit. The city says the records argue in its favor.
- “By this motion, the city seeks to ensure that neither this court nor the parties waste valuable resources in this appeal from a final order that may be vacated based on the city’s pending motion,” the city’s Tampa-based attorney, Edward de la Parte, wrote.
Catch up quick: The city argued that revisions to state code in June 2024 apply to the case even though the case was tried before that date.
- The district, in rejecting the city’s argument in the July 1 order, noted that “the city raises a procedural quagmire.” And added that the parties did not agree to meet the new state code, even though they knew it was going to be approved.
What they’re saying: “Not only was the (administrative law judge) entitled to apply the statutes and rules agreed to by all parties, but the (judge) certainly did not create, as the city claims, a ‘fundamental procedural error that is contrary to the essential requirements of law’ by doing so,” the district’s top attorney, Maricruz Fincher, wrote in granting the permit.
Of note: The city had success with an appeal before, in 2018. That forced a second lengthy trial before a state administrative law judge. That retrial took seven weeks over eight months.
Read more and share the story at StetNews.org .
— Joel Engelhardt
🍊 The Juice
📰 Land-use attorney Harvey Oyer has purchased a share of The Coastal Star, a free monthly newspaper serving the barrier communities from Boca Raton to South Palm Beach. It has been locally owned and operated since its founding in 2008. (The Coastal Star)
📲 Residents are more frequently turning to social media, newsletters and blogs to influence and participate in local government. At times, these vehicles can be agenda-driven, censoring opposing viewpoints and allowing personal attacks while spreading misinformation. (The Coastal Star)
Former Palm Beach County Commissioner Dave Kerner, now heading the state agency that oversees the Florida Highway Patrol, criticized a Palm Beach Post account of the arrest of a U.S. citizen as part of the federal immigration crackdown, calling it “a false narrative” and “trying to change history.” He also criticized local prosecutors for dropping resisting arrest charges. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🚊 Fitch Ratings downgraded Brightline’s bonds to “highly speculative,” saying “there remains a high degree of uncertainty that increases to capacity will be met with demand that can drive both higher ridership and fare revenues,” and that operating losses have depleted cash liquidity faster than expected. (South Florida Business Journal$$$)
- Railroad owner FEC sues Brightline over its efforts to license commuter rail. (WLRN)
🛋️ A tiny Ikea store will open this year in the Boynton Beach Best Buy. (Axios)
📉 Palm Beach County’s animal shelter still euthanizes animals but at a much lower rate than in previous years. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🌴 The New York Times joins the guessing game of who is buying up oceanfront property in Palm Beach. (NYT via WLRN)
- “In Palm Beach these days, it is no longer enough to own a landmark house by a noted architect like Addison Mizner, Maurice Fatio or Marion Sims Wyeth. Nor is it meaningful to test the latitudes of local preservation boards with mega-structures like one resembling an airport terminal and owned by John Phelan, the investor and Trump donor sworn in as secretary of the Navy in March.
- “Rather, the status flex for today’s billionaire class is snapping up mansions, tearing them down and fitting the accumulated properties together like pieces of a colossal jigsaw puzzle.”
🎙️ Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg joins Brian Crowley on “Top of Mind Florida” today to talk Jeffrey Epstein facts or fiction, conspiracy theories, Florida justice, court mistrust and a busted Democratic Party in Florida. (Listen here. Watch after 2 pm here)
561NSIDER: ⛳️ 5 moments from the first season of TMRW Golf — and they’re not all about Tiger Woods
Three executives from TMRW Sports offered behind-the-scenes insights into the first season of TGL, the internationally televised, indoor tech-powered golf league that started play in January at the SoFi Center at Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens.
It was a “season of learning,” said Andrew George, senior vice president of live event experience, at the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce breakfast for about 160 people Wednesday at PGA National Resort.
Why it matters: They touched on how the league’s 24 professional golfers got along, how technology came together to create a lot of firsts and what it felt like when the original, air-inflated dome collapsed in November 2023, delaying the first season by a year.
Here are five highlights from George’s conversation with Andrew Macaulay, TMRW’s chief technology officer, and Jeff Neubarth, vice president of content and media production.
- Innovation in camera placement: “One of the goals is take you where you’ve never been able to go before. So, how about inside the flag stick?” Neubarth asked. “(After) 18 months of work, a 360(-degree) camera on both sides of the flag stick that Andrew’s team helped connect to power and connectivity under the green in seven different hole locations, rotating throughout the night, gave you views like you’ve never seen before.”
- On the “it factor,” surrounding the Jupiter team, led by Tiger Woods, a co-founder of the league: “They didn’t always win, often they lost, but when they were there, it was the most entertaining thing,” Neubarth said.
- How the green works: “The middle of the green area is a 41-yard-wide circular turntable. It’s 250 tons and it moves between every hole,” Macaulay said. “Every hole we had world-renowned golf course designers that built our holes for us, and they got to choose where they wanted, what degree of rotation they wanted the turntable to be at. As we finish one hole, the players walk off, we hit a button in our operating room and it turns to the right degree of rotation for the next hole.”
- On the power failure and storm that wrecked the air-inflated dome in November 2023 and forced the first season to be delayed a year: “We considered the extra year definitely a blessing,” Macaulay said.
- On planning behind the scenes to pull off a live, two-hour TV show: “You had (singer) Celine Dion next to Josh Allen (Buffalo Bills quarterback). We had the governor there. Every one of these high-profile celebrities or officials had their own security detail,” George said. “This was a three-day showcase of Palm Beach County in South Florida, in the middle of a great time of year to be down here.”
Read more insights from the TMRW Sports executives at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
