Paint a shovel today for the Pompey Park groundbreaking
Shovel painting today, Sept. 1 budget workshop, and Restaurant Month next week.
The long stretch of late August is almost behind us. A few things worth putting on your calendar before the weekend gets away from you.
Pompey Park's new recreation center is close enough to real that the city is prepping the shovels. Today, August 27, residents are invited to help paint the ceremonial shovels that will turn dirt at the groundbreaking.
The groundbreaking itself is set for September 10. That makes this a rare chance to put your hand on a piece of the ceremony rather than just watch it from a folding chair.
Pompey Park carries a lot of history on the northwest side, and the shovels will end up in photos people keep. If you have kids who use the park, this is an easy one to bring them to.
The city's annual report also puts a price on the Pompey Park work, alongside the rest of the capital project list. More on that below.
Atlantic Avenue rents are squeezing small shops
The stretch of Atlantic Avenue that people drive in for is getting expensive for the people who work there. Small business owners say rising rents are threatening their ability to stay.
This is the quiet math behind every storefront that turns over. Rent goes up, margins do not, and the shop that gave a block its character becomes something else.
A 55-and-over community is stuck on permitting
A 55-and-over community here is trying to renovate its pool restrooms and running into county permitting rules. Residents say the requirements do not make sense for the work they want done.
The specific fight is small. The pattern is not. Anyone who has tried to pull a permit for a modest project in Palm Beach County will recognize the shape of it.
It is a fair question for the people who set those rules: what does the process actually protect here, and who pays for the delay?
Restaurant Month starts next week
September kicks off Delray Beach Restaurant Month, with specials at restaurants around town. It is a reasonable excuse to try the place you keep driving past.
Given what is happening with rents on the avenue, a month of specials is a good time to spend money locally. Check with individual restaurants for what they are running.
Budget workshop lands Tuesday afternoon
- When
- Tuesday, September 1 · 4:00 PM
If you want to hear how next year's spending gets shaped, put Tuesday, September 1 at 4 p.m. on your calendar. The City Commission holds a budget workshop that afternoon.
Workshops are where the arguing happens before the votes do. Pay, capital projects, and service levels all get sorted out in rooms like this one.
The agenda is posted ahead of the meeting, so you can see what is coming before you decide whether to sit in.
City manager's report ends the Highland Beach water deal
The city manager's annual report is the closest thing we get to a plain accounting of the year. This one ends the water deal with Highland Beach, a relationship that shaped utility planning here for years.
The same report sets the price for the Pompey Park recreation center and walks through the rest of the capital projects. It also covers pay proposals for city staff and beach enforcement.
It is a long document, but it is the one place where the capital list, the money, and the timelines sit side by side. Worth a skim before the budget workshop next week.