20 Nov

Posted at 10:06h in Boca Raton Politics

We attended the joint meeting between the City and Beach & Park District on November 12th, which was very interesting, but not too productive. The only thing positive from the meeting was that the City and the Beach & Park District agreed on the layout...

12 Nov

Posted at 08:40h in Boca Raton Politics

There's a City Council Workshop today at 2:00 P.M.  The Agenda is here.  Brightline will be presenting, in advance of the Ordinance being introduced at tomorrow's City Council meeting at 6:00 P.M.  That agenda is here.  The actual vote will likely be on November 26th,...

11 Sep

Posted at 04:07h in Boca Raton Politics
  PUBLISHER'S UPDATE:  This morning I received a text message from an interested third party informing me that Blake MacDiarmid has registered with Palm Beach County as a lobbyist for Virgin Trains USA.  A review of the Lobbyist Registration list demonstrates that Blake MacDiarmid is still not registered as a lobbyist for Virgin Trains USA, but yesterday, a James MacDiarmid did register.  James and Blake may turn out to be the same person.  If true, why the need to use a pseudo name.  Furthermore, since publishing today's article, www.blakestrategy.com has been taken down off the internet.  Al Zucaro, Publisher  ____________________________________________________________________ Narrative: With the March, 2020 City Council elections inside a 6 month window, the time is now to look at the political and policy issues on the horizon and the professional influencers shaping Boca Raton's politics and legislative outcomes.

11 Sep

Posted at 04:06h in Boca Raton Politics
Those of us who follow national politics have heard about the influence lobbyists have over Congress and the President. Local lobbying occurs too. Local and out of town investors are paying local "influencers" to lobby for them all the time. Local government and politics depend on lobbyists for reasons I'll explain in this article. Lobbying isn't necessarily bad and only works best when it's aligned with voter interests. Despite its necessity and potential to do good there are reasons why lobbying is regulated with requirements of transparency.

05 Aug

Posted at 12:08h in Boca Raton Development, Boca Raton Politics
Last month, in a search for alternative financing for the Boca National Golf Course, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District requested an official opinion of the market value of the vacant parcel of land located at 2300 N. Ocean Blvd., known as the Ocean Strand; this unimproved parcel is currently zoned "PL", Public Land.

24 Jul

Posted at 14:42h in Boca Raton Development, Boca Raton Politics
Exacerbation is when something is increased or, in the case of a medical condition, worsened. Here in the USA we have a chronic tendency to sometimes worsen things when we give them attention. There's several examples around us, going on today, where we've failed to recognize how much we've exacerbated the things we're outraged about. When we let our outrage get the best of us we often cause the reverse effect of the intent of our outrage and make the problem worse.