Stet NewsFor you today, Glenn Straub and the Miss America pageant; Palm Beach High memorabilia in peril; a chapter ends for artists in Palm Beach Gardens; early returns on what you want in transportation — bike lanes? meh; and surprising photos at the Norton Museum of Art.
🏛️ Straub in court over Miss America pageant
Wellington developer Glenn Straub is accused of stealing the ownership of the century-old Miss America pageant from a woman he befriended.
In a yearlong legal battle, Straub says he wanted to boost the pageant’s message of women’s empowerment but got stung by an unscrupulous operator who devised a “scheme by which she intended to wrestle control of the Miss America companies from Straub in hostile fashion.”
The woman, Wellington resident Robin Fleming, said Straub, 78, turned on her after she rejected his sexual advances in keeping with his “long history of fraud in business dealings and predation upon women.”
Why it’s important: It’s another legal action that pits the owner of Palm Beach Polo & Country Club in Wellington against a woman who claims she spurned him. A Broward County judge in August dismissed a five-year-old criminal case against Straub in which a former girlfriend claimed he punished her for breaking off a relationship by slapping liens on her houses.
What they’re saying: “It’s a house of cards,” Fleming’s attorney Justin Chretien said in federal court Sept. 8. “It is a chain of events that began with a decision by Mr. Straub to take control of the Miss America companies from Ms. Fleming when he was supposed to be her banker.”
- “It is a house of cards,” countered Straub’s attorney, Todd Levine, “but it was constructed by Ms. Fleming. She is not the owner (of the pageant) and she knows she is not the owner.”
Read more: See the text message Fleming sent Straub after she said he suggested they begin having sex — or becoming “friends with benefits” — and more details behind the dispute at StetNews.org.
— Jane Musgrave
🎓 End of an era
A trove of memorabilia from Palm Beach County’s first high school is in peril.
The Palm Beach High School Museum’s collection of more than 1,000 pieces — trophies, yearbooks, sweaters, photographs, footballs, school newspapers and much more — has been on display since 1987 in the county’s oldest commercial structure, the former Dade County State Bank building on the downtown West Palm Beach waterfront.
Yes, but: The alumni group that runs the museum is pulling out at the end of September.
Why it matters: The museum’s most significant pieces will be offered to Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fairgrounds. The other pieces will be offered to alumni or tossed in the trash. The fate of the museum’s home in the city-owned octagonal building with the cone-shaped roof at 401 N. Flagler Drive remains unknown.
- West Palm Beach has no plans for the building, city spokesperson Kathleen Joy said.
Zoom in: The museum doesn’t draw visitors and it’s just about out of money, caretaker Dwight Saxon told alumni in a letter. He’s working to find the collection a home.
Zoom out: The old bank building was moved by barge to West Palm Beach in 1897 and has been home at several locations to a barber shop, dentist’s office, real estate office, beauty salon and, starting in 1935, Johnny’s Playland, a trick and novelty shop.
- West Palm Beach took ownership in 1971 and granted it historical status in 2018.
Now termite damage is visible inside. Beehives occupy holes in the exterior. Unkempt vegetation has all but covered a historical plaque outside. Homeless people sometimes sleep behind it.
What they’re saying: “I don’t know if the city wants to spend the money to bring it back to where it was, but it’s gotten to the point where if you go behind the museum, you see underwear and beer cans and whiskey bottles,” Saxon said.
Read more at StetNews.org about the museum’s collection and the building’s chances of ending up at Yesteryear Village.
Click here for a video tour of the museum and hear from caretaker Dwight Saxon.
— Joe Capozzi
🖼️ Zero Empty Spaces is on the move
More than 20 artists are looking for a place for their artwork after learning they’ll need to vacate their studios in Palm Beach Gardens’ Legacy Place by Sept. 26.
Why it matters: The news is a surprise but not a shock. The artists knew as tenants of Zero Empty Spaces, a company that sublets vacant commercial space to artists at a bargain rate, that they might need to move with short notice.
Flashback: The Legacy Place suite was once a spa and will become a spa once more. But for six years, it’s been home to an assortment of artists.
- The studios are each unique, down meandering hallways adorned with art that spills out of the rooms onto the walls. The space is open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. seven days a week, but that ends Sept. 20.
The big picture: Zero Empty Spaces, cofounded by Andrew Martineau and Evan Snow in Broward County in 2019, drew inspiration from Miami’s Wynwood Arts District, which turned empty warehouses into art centers.
- Snow and Martineau persuaded landlords with vacant retail space in several Florida cities plus in Natick, Mass., and Richmond, Va., to turn dead space into lively artist studios. Artists pay sharply discounted rent.
- Everyone involved accepts that the landlord eventually may find tenants willing to pay fair market value.
- Until then, the spaces become cultural hubs, offering far more curb appeal than empty suites with “for lease” signs in the window.
What’s next: Martineau is pursuing another space. And he says he is close to an agreement with a landlord in the Lake Park area.
Read about the studio’s last benefit, for children with cancer, at StetNews.org.
— Janis Fontaine
🚗 Master planning transportation
Local residents have a chance to shape the future of transportation in Palm Beach County.
In four sessions last week, 120 people showed up to answer questions, including: “What transportation advancements do you anticipate or want to see by 2050?” and “Which travel options should Palm Beach County prioritize to improve travel across the region?”
Why it’s important: The sessions are not geared toward local complaints but, rather, to gauge opinions about long-term solutions, the initial stage of a yearlong effort to develop the county’s first transportation master plan.
- How people across the county view the problems is part of the challenge of piecing together a master plan that could justify raising sales taxes to pay for a wide variety of improvements, including more mass transit or a coastal commuter train.
Zoom in: In The Acreage, where single-family homes on large lots predominate, 22% of the 50 residents attending Wednesday night said they’d like to see “more roads.” But “more frequent trains, rail lines and stations” grabbed the most votes at sessions in Palm Beach Gardens, West Palm Beach and Delray Beach.
Of note: Among improvements people wanted to see the least: “more bicycle lanes.”
Zoom out: Consultant Claudia Bilotto of WSP noted that 2022 U.S. Census data showed that 97.1% of local commutes are by car and just 2.9% by bus, bike or foot.
Yes, but: Residents don’t have to show up to share their opinions. They can fill out a form on the plan’s website, which offers more extensive surveys for the general public, business community and technical experts.
What’s next: The consultants plan to ask the same questions at four more sessions Wednesday and Thursday.
Wednesday, Sept. 17
- 1 to 3 pm: Canyon Branch Library, 8915 Senator Joe Abruzzo Ave., Boynton Beach.
- 6 to 8 pm: Governmental Center Chambers, 301 N. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach.
Thursday, Sept. 18
- 2 to 4 pm: Riviera Beach CRA Community Center Clean and Safe Office, 1229 E. Blue Heron Blvd., Riviera Beach.
- 6 to 8 pm: Palm Beach County Vista Center offices, Hearing Room 47, 2300 N. Jog Road, West Palm Beach.
For more on the first week meetings, check out the story at StetNews.org.
— Joel Engelhardt
🍊The Juice
🚪 Former Fire Chief and Assistant County Administrator Reggie Duren is out and two new hires, Tracy Ellison and Tomer Nadler, are in, as the upper echelons of Palm Beach County government are reorganized by new County Administrator Joe Abruzzo. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
✂️ How the state may have broken state laws while helping pay for tax cuts when it chopped $27 million a year in spending to run the state-owned rails in South Florida, jeopardizing the future of the Tri-Rail commuter line. (Seeking Rents)
🗣️ Raising the issue of civil discourse in troubling times, Lake Worth Beach City Commissioner Anthony Segrich took Commissioner Chris McVoy to task Friday for refusing to apologize to his colleagues for the “pay to play” comment he made at a commission meeting last month. (Lake Worth Beach Independent)
🍗 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen is coming to Northlake Boulevard. But it won’t have a drive-thru window. The Palm Beach Gardens City Council approved rezoning Sept. 4 for the fried chicken fast-food chain to open in Gardens Towne Square, a Publix-anchored center west of Interstate 95 and south of Northlake. It joins Subway, Pizza Hut, Carvel and Nothing Bundt Cakes. (Palm Beach Gardens City Council video, Resolution 63)
💰 Billionaire cable magnate John Malone sold his Wellington home for $10 million to a company led by Charlie Jacobs, co-CEO of Buffalo-based Delaware North food service and hospitality company and chief executive of the Boston Bruins hockey team. (South Florida Business Journal $$$)
Saudi Arabian intelligence officials pushed the 9/11 Commission’s top staff to exonerate a key Saudi suspect, Omar al Bayoumi, who the FBI later concluded was a Saudi spy who provided significant support to the first two al Qaeda hijackers to enter the United States. (Florida Bulldog)
🧳 About one-third of Florida college professors surveyed have applied for a job outside of Florida since 2023, an American Association of University Professors survey found. (Florida Phoenix)
Florida Atlantic University put a tenured faculty member on leave while it investigates comments she shared on social media after the assassination of commentator Charlie Kirk. (Sun Sentinel $$$)
⚖️ The School Board of Miami-Dade County is suing South Florida Public Media Group, which manages WLRN public radio, over its proposed acquisition of an FM station in Palm Beach County. Stet is a news partner with WLRN. (Current)
🎧 “Top of Mind Florida,” the podcast by Michael Williams and Brian Crowley, talks music with saxophonist Patrick Lamb, who toured with legends Smokey Robinson, Gino Vannelli and Diane Schuur. (Listen here; watch after 4 pm Wednesday)
561NSIDER: ⚫️ Norton has new old photos
The Norton Museum of Art’s ongoing photography exhibit dates back about 175 years.
Lauren Richman, curator of photography at the Norton, put together the exhibit, “Veiled Presence: The Hidden Mothers and Sara VanDerBeek.”
Why it’s important: Visitors can see a side of history that is not often talked about, with the “hidden mother” phenomenon emerging at nearly the same time as photography itself.
What they’ll see:
- Photos from the dawn of photography in the 1860s that hide mothers and caretakers in unique ways.
- Antique studio equipment made to assist the photographers to keep children still.
- Contemporary pieces made for the Norton by Austin, Texas, artist Sara VanDerBeek.
Zoom in: The photographers of the 19th century tried many techniques to hide mothers in photos. Some used cloth drapery; some reduced the mother to an ominous shadow; and some scratched the mother out completely.
Zoom out: Richman, hired in 2023, has been interested in photography most of her life, and has worked with the Smithsonian as a fellow and at the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University as an assistant curator of photography.
What’s next:
- “Achromatic Scales,” a conceptual exhibit with Leslie Hewitt, on display now through Feb 22.
- “Atlantic Coast,” a documentary photography exhibit with Anastasia Samoylova, opens Nov 15.
Where to go: “Hidden Mothers” is on display until Nov. 30 at the Norton, 1450 S. Dixie Highway. Tickets are $18 but West Palm Beach residents get free admission on Saturdays.
Click here to read more about the unique photography on display at the Norton.
— Erik Kvarnberg
💐 A Stet welcome to Palm Beach Post refugees Lou Ann Frala and Holly Baltz, who are committed to continuing to bring you local news. We are happy to have them on the Stet team!
