<b>[Music]</b><b>Welcome to GenX Adulting and for this episode we are going to get a little</b><b>personal. Well I guess we've gotten very personal. Personal and political I think.</b><b>I don't know about political, we try to stay out of politics but we have</b><b>gotten incredibly personal in past episodes</b><b>I guess but. This is nothing in comparison.</b><b>Yeah true true. And it's political and local</b><b>politics. True local politics that's very true.</b><b>So this is currently personal. It's about the</b><b>town we live in and there's some controversy going on</b><b>that's surrounding some open space public land</b><b>that is 31 acres of open space and within that</b><b>there is 17 acres called Memorial Park</b><b>which was dedicated to World War II vets in 1947</b><b>and our local government wants to put this 31</b><b>acres of open land open space in our downtown area</b><b>into the hands of developers so that they can build housing, hotel, stores.</b><b>Put the picture up. This is the mock up, the</b><b>plan of it and if you look at our video or we did a</b><b>short a couple days ago, um, taking pictures</b><b>of the tennis courts that were there, the park,</b><b>the basketball courts, our community center, the</b><b>softball fields, the skate park, the children's</b><b>museum. It would all be replaced with this</b><b>monstrosity of just crap to be honest with you.</b><b>It's a, it's a hotel, maybe more than one</b><b>hotel, housing, stores, cafes, restaurants.</b><b>We have old growth banyan trees all over a lot</b><b>of this open space and there's been mixed messages</b><b>as far as sometimes they say that the banyan trees</b><b>will not be cut down and then other times when you</b><b>look at what they're planning on doing it's</b><b>almost impossible to do what they want to do</b><b>without cutting down some of the banyan trees.</b><b>The latest I saw today they came out with a revised</b><b>plan there. I think let's, let's say there's</b><b>six banyan trees. They plan to keep five and</b><b>move one of them, which isn't going to</b><b>happen. You can't, those things are almost a hundred</b><b>years old I think. Yeah, yeah. But to give a</b><b>little bit of history, so like I said, uh, Memorial Park</b><b>also called, um, war memorial was dedicated</b><b>in 1947. And what's interesting about this land</b><b>is that it was part of the Boca Raton Army Airfield, which was established in 1942</b><b>by the U.S. Army Corps. And the base served as</b><b>our nation's sole training center for top secret</b><b>airborne radar operators. And it, uh, that</b><b>played a critical role in the Allied victory.</b><b>Thousands of servicemen and women trained in</b><b>this space we're talking about before deployment</b><b>overseas. And so, uh, the war ended and two</b><b>years later this space was named Memorial Park</b><b>or war memorial in honor of the, um, you know,</b><b>the servicemen and women that train there and the</b><b>veterans that served in World War II. And I do</b><b>think that, um, it even expanded into all veterans,</b><b>kind of a dedication for all veterans. And</b><b>opponents are saying that because there wasn't</b><b>an official war memorial building, so, uh,</b><b>anything on the property wasn't dedicated as</b><b>this is the designated onsite war memorial, whether</b><b>it was a statue or a building that there's nothing.</b><b>When it was dedicated, it was like the whole</b><b>park, the 17 acres was the war memorial, but opponents</b><b>are really picking to find, uh, the debate</b><b>seems to be over the park's name and intent.</b><b>So do you need like a bust or a statue?</b><b>Something like that, a plaque to make it official?</b><b>It seems so. It seems that the whole 17 acres</b><b>isn't quite enough of a dedication you need to</b><b>have had. They're saying because there</b><b>isn't something specific that that doesn't prove</b><b>they're ignoring the intent. And you can go back and look at old newspaper articles</b><b>in Boca Raton. And it's very obvious that</b><b>this is a dedication. This is a memorial park.</b><b>Not to interrupt you, but I was reading</b><b>something on the sayboca.org site. I think it was,</b><b>and it's talking about how the Boca historical</b><b>society may have changed some of the verbiage.</b><b>Can't verify that. Maybe an accusation. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not,</b><b>but that's how hotly contested this thing</b><b>has become. Um, but they changed the wording to</b><b>reference or refer to the park. Kind of like</b><b>you're talking about where it's in, there's no</b><b>statute. There's no official declaration.</b><b>The land itself being dedicated and called</b><b>memorial park. Isn't enough that the council went in and said that basically. Yeah.</b><b>Not you didn't say the Boca Raton historical society.</b><b>Yeah. Yeah. I'll look it up as we're talking. I think I saw that.</b><b>So you're saying the Boca Raton historical</b><b>society was citing saying that that wasn't enough and</b><b>that it's not a memorial park. I'm not saying</b><b>that what I'm saying is in the, there's an FAQ</b><b>out there where the language was changed to favor</b><b>the pro development over building of the community.</b><b>Yeah. So the, the FAQ on the website, the town</b><b>website for the information is a seems to be fluid</b><b>because yes, they keep changing the fact</b><b>frequent, the facts of the frequently asked questions. Um,</b><b>depending on how things are going, all of a</b><b>sudden you go there and that frequently asked question</b><b>is has now has a different answer. Um, so I</b><b>didn't realize that that was a subjective thing</b><b>where you could just go in and alter it</b><b>depending on the mood or the, um, temperature of the</b><b>situation. But I do think answers to frequent</b><b>frequently asked questions are fluid. They can</b><b>be right. This new information comes about.</b><b>That's true. But this doesn't feel like new</b><b>information. No, this is, this is established</b><b>information. And if you go back to articles,</b><b>um, there have been some local reporters who've</b><b>written already done some really good writeups</b><b>about the subject. Um, and one in particular,</b><b>he found articles where the town, when it was</b><b>talking about different events going on the</b><b>town, it would say at Memorial park, that at a, at</b><b>Memorial park, this has been Memorial park, war</b><b>Memorial, either one people have called it the war</b><b>Memorial since 1947. And that is being completely</b><b>ignored. And, um, because if, if it was, if they</b><b>had to acknowledge that they couldn't do what</b><b>they want to do. What do you mean? If it was a war</b><b>Memorial, if it was a truly, like if it is a</b><b>dedicated Memorial park, but if it had, um, what</b><b>they're saying, a building or like, you can't</b><b>go into Washington DC and just build on the world</b><b>war two Memorial, it's a Memorial to veterans.</b><b>So if, if they were forced to acknowledge this as</b><b>an actual Memorial to veterans, they wouldn't be able to develop it.</b><b>Yeah. I am displaying now some of the, this is off the say bokeh.org website.</b><b>Yeah. And you can see that's the painting trees</b><b>are going to cut down. There it is. There's an</b><b>original FAQ statement and a new one. Yeah.</b><b>And it's, it's hard for us to read it right here,</b><b>but they did change the verb. They changed</b><b>the verbiage, but, but as you alluded to before,</b><b>and we did make, we went out and signed the</b><b>petition. Um, the petition is basically saying</b><b>that there needs to be a vote on this. This</b><b>is public land. So the people need to vote.</b><b>The people have a right to vote. Um, and so we</b><b>went out, we signed the petition. It was storming.</b><b>We, uh, took film of the area. There are 10</b><b>clay tennis courts. There are softball fields,</b><b>baseball fields, basketball courts, a great</b><b>playground, open space. There's a skate park.</b><b>There's shuffleboard, uh, courts. There's a</b><b>historic children's museum that has the second</b><b>oldest building in Boca on it. And then of</b><b>course there's our community center and our city hall.</b><b>And one interesting thing they were trying to</b><b>say is that in exchange for this, we will get a new</b><b>city hall, but from my research, I found out</b><b>that we Boca Raton has to front the cost of the city</b><b>hall. So it's not an exchange. We have to front</b><b>the cost of our city hall and then, okay, sure.</b><b>They'll build it. To be honest with you, who</b><b>gives a shit about the city hall that this is crazy.</b><b>You know, it's, it was, I was thinking about this.</b><b>We were just up in Washington DC last weekend for</b><b>a wedding and the nicest buildings are all</b><b>government owned. It's crazy. It shouldn't be</b><b>that way. Right. And so the city wants to build</b><b>these, you know, this wonderful city hall, which</b><b>people really don't, don't care to go to. There's</b><b>no reason to really go to city hall. Yeah. Yeah.</b><b>It's crazy. I mean, people, you sure having a</b><b>nice city hall is, it's not a priority. That's what</b><b>you're saying. It's not a priority. Not at all.</b><b>What I'm concerned with as a citizen is I want</b><b>open space and that little area there's pretty</b><b>nice, right? It's not bad. I want less traffic.</b><b>And the, in the, you know, there's a lot of</b><b>folks focusing on the war memorial aspect of this and</b><b>the dedicated land in the open space. The</b><b>reality is there is massive gridlock on the corner of</b><b>Palmetto and Dixie and Palmetto and federal, right?</b><b>It's so bad that people, when you're heading down,</b><b>if you're heading east on Palmetto towards the</b><b>beach and the light turns red, people literally</b><b>pull into the middle of the intersection</b><b>because they don't want to have to wait too long. They</b><b>want to just game the system, right? It's like</b><b>you're in New York. Right. But we're in, in our,</b><b>they're in New York with that, that kind of</b><b>mentality. Yeah. No, the congestion is off the</b><b>charts. Maybe Boca in general has been over, over</b><b>developing completely and not our infrastructure</b><b>has not been altered in any way or supported.</b><b>And I think people also may not be aware, but</b><b>starting around end of October through mid April</b><b>or so, or maybe beginning of April, just depends</b><b>when Eastern Passover fall, um, is seasoned for</b><b>us. So our population grows significantly from</b><b>all the snowbirds that come down here. So it's</b><b>congested just when it's us quote unquote locals</b><b>define what season is. What do you mean by that?</b><b>Season is when the snowbirds come. It's when the</b><b>people from the North come down and they have</b><b>homes down here and they have their cars shipped</b><b>down here many times on the, uh, what are</b><b>they called? Traction trailers or car carriers or</b><b>whatever. Yeah. And they, they live here from</b><b>like, I mean, people would probably say like</b><b>November to March, I think it starts around. I</b><b>go by Costco whenever, when I see them at Costco,</b><b>it's like, okay, it's season. And then when</b><b>Costco is kind of empty again, season's over,</b><b>but, um, it's a good half of our year is when</b><b>it's seasoned and the snowbirds are here. And so</b><b>I don't know the numbers. I don't know how much</b><b>our population increases, but it's significant.</b><b>And it adds to the traffic. It's noticeable.</b><b>It's hard to go to restaurants. It's the grocery</b><b>stores get crazy. You have to adjust as a</b><b>local, you adjust a lot of your regular daily life.</b><b>That's just normal. But then the congestion</b><b>from the extra traffic, because they do bring their</b><b>cars down here. So I can't even imagine if this</b><b>area gets developed, it is in downtown. And the,</b><b>the thing is, is this is downtown, but you</b><b>think of downtown, right? And a lot of people think,</b><b>you know, buildings and concrete, but Oka downtown is very lush. It's very green.</b><b>There are a lot of open spaces. East Boca</b><b>in particular has its own beachy charm vibe.</b><b>It's different than central Boca and it's really different than West Boca.</b><b>And anyone who's lived in Boca Raton would agree.</b><b>And so part of having that chill beachy vibe and</b><b>that small town community feeling is having the</b><b>open spaces and having the recreation facilities</b><b>that are open to all the families. And if you</b><b>put high rises, or you put a hotel, or you put</b><b>more housing or restaurants, cafes, if you cover</b><b>everything with that, if you put Meisner parks,</b><b>everywhere all over downtown Boca, then you have</b><b>completely changed the entire vibe of East Boca.</b><b>Well, it's already happened, right? Look at</b><b>that monstrosity of an eyesore called the Mandarin.</b><b>Right? Yes. This thing's been under development</b><b>for what? Three, five, seven years or something?</b><b>I don't even know. I don't remember when they started.</b><b>It's a condo hotel. I don't know what it is. I think it's a condo. It's giant.</b><b>It's a perpetual high rise construction site. Yes. And it's absolutely terrible.</b><b>For anyone that's familiar with Boca,</b><b>that's on the corner of Federal and Camino, Real.</b><b>Yeah. Just across the street or not too far,</b><b>half a mile away on the west side of Dixie,</b><b>the old Wawa location got turned into high rise apartments, right?</b><b>No, that was the, was that the Piggly Wiggly or something?</b><b>No, no, it was the Wawa.</b><b>It's something like a Piggly Wiggly, but it's not</b><b>a Piggly Wiggly, but it's another grocery store.</b><b>And they tore down the grocery store and they put</b><b>high rises. I don't think those are even near full.</b><b>I don't think they are either.</b><b>And that area is congested.</b><b>That's what I'm saying. Yeah.</b><b>So they've taken these small little parts of</b><b>East Boca and put these high rise apartments</b><b>that aren't even filling up, but the people</b><b>that are there are adding to the congestion.</b><b>But now to do this in this area that's kind of</b><b>centrally located, it doesn't make any sense.</b><b>I mean, I understand it's all about money, but it does not make any sense to me.</b><b>Other than money, why would you do such a thing?</b><b>Well, I think the argument is they're affordable housing, which is bullshit.</b><b>They're saying that this new project will</b><b>bring business in, so commercial real estate,</b><b>which is bullshit because on our way home</b><b>yesterday, or whenever it was a couple of days ago,</b><b>I counted at least, we counted at least eight</b><b>commercial locations that are vacant that have</b><b>signs up saying available to lease. One of them</b><b>was the CVS. Then there was about four or five</b><b>right in that general area. Right? Yeah.</b><b>So the town is making these projections and</b><b>they put a capital B like it's billions of dollars</b><b>of revenue. So they're, they're pitching it as a, as a moneymaker for the city.</b><b>It'll help develop the city with no increase</b><b>in taxes, which is pure bullshit because they're</b><b>projecting this out the net present value of</b><b>this project. And they're, they're forecasting</b><b>it out 99 years, 99 years. No one born</b><b>today is even going to be around in 99 years.</b><b>Wait, what do you mean?</b><b>You can't forecast out the revenue and the impact over 99 years.</b><b>They're saying that BOCA will earn billions</b><b>of dollars by this, but it'll be 99 years.</b><b>No, what it is. So it's a 99 year lease.</b><b>Right? So this is going to be, they're leasing this</b><b>property or this space to this private development</b><b>company for 99 years. What they're saying is that</b><b>the, um, this project will generate revenue for</b><b>the city in the form of commercial locate businesses</b><b>and taxes there, probably hotel revenue and</b><b>receipts. Um, probably the, whatever housing</b><b>it's going in there, right? That's going to fill</b><b>the city's coffers with money. That's going to help</b><b>offset our local property taxes. And it's</b><b>the, so it's a, you know, they're forecasting,</b><b>they're saying over 99 years, we're going to</b><b>bring in billions of dollars pure bullshit.</b><b>Right. That's what I meant. So over that 99</b><b>year time, you might, it'll maybe bring in the</b><b>billions of dollars, but it's nothing that</b><b>we're going to feel or see any, anytime soon,</b><b>or for most of the people that live here right</b><b>now, by making it 99 years, your multiplier is</b><b>times 99. It's, you can't predict that</b><b>it's, it's stupid. It's, it's stupid to do that,</b><b>but they're projecting for this development</b><b>company. They will have a 99 year lease. Yeah.</b><b>So once they sign this over to this</b><b>company, this, this development company has control</b><b>of 31 acres of public land to do whatever they</b><b>want with for 99 years to do whatever they want</b><b>with might be a stretch, right? That's what's kind</b><b>of happening now. It's getting sorted out, right?</b><b>But I mean, let's face it once you destroy the</b><b>property and it becomes this ugly monstrosity,</b><b>concrete jungle, right? Where it's currently open grass and old trees,</b><b>it all bets are off. It short-term memory sets</b><b>in 10, 15, 20 years out. They could easily go up</b><b>higher. You're giving up open space now for the</b><b>promise of tomorrow, but you're also relinquishing</b><b>a lot of control and other zoning laws and stuff like that. Right. But apparently</b><b>I don't want to accuse the city council or</b><b>the mayor of, of illegal things, but you know,</b><b>there's something's wrong here. So who's</b><b>profiting, right? You got to follow the money on this type</b><b>of thing. Yeah. And so I, not making any</b><b>accusations. I have no data to suggest any of that</b><b>except my age experience and, and just looking</b><b>around at how stupid this is. Right. Right. That</b><b>makes sense. No, it does make sense. And, um,</b><b>I think the most, one of the most interesting</b><b>things about all of this is that they called it</b><b>a government campus, campus redevelopment plan.</b><b>So, um, cause the mayor did come out with something</b><b>yesterday, actually, um, a new message. And in it,</b><b>he said, you know, that they'd been discussing</b><b>this particular project for over three years and that</b><b>he has sent out new numerous newsletters about</b><b>it. And there's been meetings about it and, um,</b><b>there hasn't been a lot of interest in it. And,</b><b>and I felt it was a little passive aggressive,</b><b>but whatever. Um, but in there, it's like,</b><b>yeah, you were calling it a, uh, government campus</b><b>redevelopment. So any regular person that lives</b><b>in Boca is going to think, Oh, they're rebuilding</b><b>the city hall. Oh, they are real bit rebuilding</b><b>the recreation center. Oh, maybe they're going to</b><b>upgrade the tennis courts. Like we, I think</b><b>most of us thought they're just going to make that</b><b>upgrade. What's already there. They're going</b><b>to maintain what's there, but make it nicer. And</b><b>then come to find out, no, they're giving this</b><b>all over to a developer developer. So I think there</b><b>was, um, it was very misleading. Let's put it that way. It was very misleading.</b><b>I do think that's a segue into really what's</b><b>pro what's problematic for local governments,</b><b>right? As local citizens, it's so often as the</b><b>case, local governments have people running for</b><b>their offices, mayor city council, town council,</b><b>whatever. Most of the citizen re, uh, doesn't pay</b><b>attention to what's who's funding these</b><b>people's campaigns, who these people are. And it's only</b><b>once they're in office and they start doing</b><b>various things, do you realize, okay, you kind</b><b>of get a peek into it, right? This current</b><b>regime has overdeveloped the downtown area.</b><b>They've even probably you can make a case,</b><b>maybe they've developed, overdeveloped some of the</b><b>westerly part of town, right? They're on Clint</b><b>or a Clint Moore and, uh, military, right? The old</b><b>office depot campus is going to get half one third</b><b>of it's getting knocked down to have like a six or</b><b>seven or 10 store. I don't even know how big a</b><b>multi-story multi-development or multi-purpose</b><b>building put out there. Do we need that? I don't</b><b>know. Probably not. But, but that, but either way.</b><b>So my point is people get elected, they start</b><b>doing things that serve their own personal interests.</b><b>Most of the, most of the population's not</b><b>tracking this stuff and that's our fault. That is our</b><b>fault. And it's not just our fault in our town</b><b>happens everywhere. I will go into it in a little</b><b>while, but I can even speak to the town I</b><b>grew up in, how it was overdeveloped. And you've,</b><b>you've been there. What used to be a nice town</b><b>that you could easily navigate and cruise around</b><b>and no problem. It's now a traffic nightmare</b><b>and all the woodlands that used to be our old</b><b>playground are all now McMansions and old and</b><b>houses that all look the same. And, um, and it's</b><b>happening here. Yeah. That's what's happening to</b><b>our town. Well, and I think something else that's</b><b>also happening maybe all over America, I'm not</b><b>sure, but I've definitely have seen it here in</b><b>Florida. And I'd be curious if any listeners</b><b>are listening about this, uh, if it's happening in</b><b>their area, but, um, I remember years ago,</b><b>there was this concept of copying what Europe does</b><b>where you live in the same place where you</b><b>grocery shop, where you eat almost maybe where</b><b>you go to school. Like everything is within</b><b>walking distance. And it's almost like you're creating</b><b>these little towns. Well, it's even worse. Um,</b><b>and it is a trend. You remember the game sim tower?</b><b>You probably don't. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do.</b><b>There was some tower. You could make a tower and</b><b>your high rise. You put in elevators, you</b><b>got stores on the bottom and add a dry cleaner.</b><b>So it's that's what's going to happen at that</b><b>office, deep a location. And it's already happened</b><b>just south of that, at that 10 X location, right?</b><b>Yeah. Where the, the burger places, the Chipotle,</b><b>yeah, that whole thing. There's probably a dry</b><b>cleaner there. There's a, there's a shopping,</b><b>uh, the grocery store. I first saw this up in</b><b>Ashburn, Virginia, though, when I was up there,</b><b>probably 10 years ago. Um, and there's a, there</b><b>was a tower up top was people living down below</b><b>with the grocery store, dry cleaners, um, across</b><b>the street was a home depot. So you didn't have</b><b>to go too far. Right. And that's</b><b>absolutely happening. And then, and then COVID hits.</b><b>And now that really starts to take off because,</b><b>okay, people are working from home. They don't</b><b>necessarily have to travel. They can just go</b><b>downstairs and do their grocery shopping. Don't</b><b>really need the dry cleaner so much anymore, but</b><b>yeah, self-contained units. Yes. Very much so. But</b><b>it insulates people and it, I mean, I</b><b>understand the convenience of it, but it's efficient, but</b><b>I don't know. You, you definitely don't have a</b><b>small town vibe in that situation because you</b><b>have these tiny little almost cities within</b><b>themselves. And I don't know. I feel like you</b><b>lose the character of a mom and pop stores. And</b><b>I mean, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,</b><b>it makes me sad. It really does. And that's</b><b>probably what strikes a chord for me here is that</b><b>where they want, what they want to do with this</b><b>land today, it's community. It's softball fields.</b><b>It's basketball courts. It's a playground. It's</b><b>tennis courts, but not only that, right? Because</b><b>that allows you to have some organized sports and</b><b>volunteering and coaching. Right. I used to do that.</b><b>But what happens is you, you can't go play. Your</b><b>friends can't go with a football and just throw a</b><b>football around. Right. You can't go down there</b><b>and throw a frisbee around in the open grass. You</b><b>can't just go kick a soccer ball. Well, you can</b><b>right now. You can right now. But once you get rid</b><b>of that stuff, where do you go? And I feel like</b><b>the mayor in his statement yesterday also tried to</b><b>say that he said something like, let's face it,</b><b>or let's be honest. Very few residents go to this</b><b>area and that's not true. There were people</b><b>there just last night. They were using all the</b><b>facilities. It's, it's used by people that do</b><b>play tennis there. There's kids. I've played tennis.</b><b>Yes. But Dylan there. Yeah. There's kids that</b><b>play softball, baseball, kick the soccer ball, play</b><b>basketball. It's used. Yeah. It is used. And you</b><b>know, Boca, a lot of people that you don't know</b><b>Boca, you might have an idea about Boca. There</b><b>is wealth, some wealth here and all that. And yes,</b><b>we do have some really nice clubs and areas where</b><b>people can go play tennis, but there are regular</b><b>people here in Boca too. There that could use,</b><b>they do use the tennis courts there. You know,</b><b>it's, it's affordable recreation for just regular</b><b>people that want to go and just throw the football</b><b>or kick the soccer ball. And you're going to</b><b>remove all of that freedom from, it's such a central</b><b>point of the community. Well, you know what</b><b>they're doing too. If you look at the year,</b><b>their master plan right there. And they came out today, I think saying, we'll add more tennis courts.</b><b>We'll do this and do that. I bet they'll</b><b>charge. Well, not only that, but right now,</b><b>at least in that area, it's a nice open free</b><b>flowing space. It's nice. Yeah. It's nice. And</b><b>they want to put in these just shitty looking</b><b>buildings that look the same as everything else</b><b>and turn it into a concrete jungle. And it's</b><b>nice right now. Yeah, it really is. And I think,</b><b>you know, when we had posted our short</b><b>yesterday, there was some people that commented</b><b>up in New York that it's happening even in, I</b><b>think somebody commented it's happening in Brooklyn.</b><b>Yeah, from Brooklyn to Boca was there.</b><b>Yeah. This seems to be just such a trend is this</b><b>over development. And it's, I don't understand,</b><b>I get it. A ton of people moved to Florida during</b><b>COVID. So I understand we grew like crazy all over Florida. It was insane. But</b><b>the over development everywhere, it confuses</b><b>me because I don't feel like they're filling</b><b>all the buildings or all the apartment buildings</b><b>or all the houses. I don't feel like people are</b><b>moving into all these places, but they</b><b>keep developing, developing, developing. Well,</b><b>I mean, it makes sense, right? Real estate is</b><b>such a huge part of our economy from everything</b><b>from the raw materials being sold. So</b><b>those people make some money. The guys that are</b><b>make some money. The guys who deliver it, they get</b><b>paid, they make some money. The guys who build it,</b><b>they get paid, they make some money. The</b><b>politicians who approve it, I think they get paid too. Again,</b><b>I don't want to accuse anybody of anything,</b><b>but there's no, it makes no sense to approve this</b><b>stuff. The realtors who sign the leases sell the</b><b>properties, they get a cut of the action. So it</b><b>makes sense. It's an economic engine to do all of</b><b>this. If you own the land and you sell the land,</b><b>you have every right to do all of that</b><b>stuff. But when it comes to this kind of project,</b><b>it just reeks of greed. It really does because,</b><b>and I was reading something on Facebook today,</b><b>somebody posted to that Save Boca, maybe it was the Facebook page, I think it was,</b><b>just talking about what kind of legacy do you</b><b>want to leave? And I remember seeing the mayor</b><b>at the Hobachi place a couple of Christmas years</b><b>ago, I think it was. That's when we typically go.</b><b>Right? Yeah. And he was there with his family.</b><b>And, you know, I, it was, I almost wanted to say,</b><b>hey, I think you're doing a decent job, but it</b><b>was there with his family and it wouldn't have been</b><b>appropriate. I don't think he's doing a good job</b><b>anymore. And I know he has kids and is this the</b><b>legacy wants to leave? Like the C plan to be in</b><b>the community? Do any of these people plan to be</b><b>in the community? And if so, do they ever go down</b><b>there? Have they sat in that gridlock on Palmetto</b><b>and Dixie or sat in that, that gridlock on</b><b>Palmetto in federal? You would never want to</b><b>make your legacy be, yeah, we made this big,</b><b>beautiful pile of shit. We, yeah, we got rid of</b><b>some banyan trees. We got rid of the softball</b><b>fields that were there, the park, the nice open</b><b>space. That's their legacy that they're</b><b>chasing. And I find that weird. I find it weird. Well,</b><b>and I wondered do if they don't, they may not</b><b>live in this area. They may live out in West Boca or</b><b>they may live in central Boca. And I always say</b><b>Boca is three parts and three different personalities</b><b>in three different towns within Boca. So if you</b><b>live in West Boca, you really have, you only come</b><b>over to East Boca for maybe a restaurant or</b><b>something, but, or you drive through East Boca</b><b>to get to the beach, but you don't do a lot of</b><b>your life here. And so if they live in West Boca,</b><b>they don't feel an affinity to what life is</b><b>like here. And to your point, they may not even</b><b>experience what we all experience living here,</b><b>but we've lived here for almost 20 years. And I</b><b>can't tell you the change, the change from when</b><b>we moved here and I get it, things are going to</b><b>change. I understand that, but some of it is just</b><b>a, it's just so offensive. It's just so ridiculous.</b><b>And you know, I know that, um, the whole thing</b><b>Meissner park's so great and that was a success.</b><b>And so this will be a success. Like I said</b><b>before, we don't want a bunch of Meissner parks. What</b><b>makes Meissner parks is that the air is only one</b><b>Meissner park, you know? Great point. And lately</b><b>it's been a revolving door of business. It's</b><b>not like you can, there's a couple yard houses</b><b>been there for a while, right? There's a few</b><b>others, you know, better than I do. Yeah, but</b><b>every, but it's been a main, uh, a major rotation</b><b>in the last few years. Yeah. No, it's not even like</b><b>there's definitely been things that have come</b><b>and gone. So I, I think, again, their vision,</b><b>it's like they want to make a East Boak downtown</b><b>Boca. They call it downtown Boca. Yeah. They call</b><b>it downtown. Guess what we call it? East Boca.</b><b>We call it home. We call it home. Yeah. Right.</b><b>This is East Boca. This isn't downtown Boca to us.</b><b>Those of us who live here don't think of ourselves</b><b>as living downtown. We live in East Boca.</b><b>Well, that's, but that's the rub. They're trying to</b><b>make it a downtown. Yes. Like a Miami downtown or</b><b>a Fort Lauderdale downtown or a West Palm downtown.</b><b>Yeah. That's not the vibe here. They're trying</b><b>to change East Boca into a downtown. Like what you</b><b>just said, we don't want that. Yeah. It's not</b><b>anything. That's what makes this area so special</b><b>is we don't want to know offensive to Fort</b><b>Lauderdale. We don't want to look like Fort</b><b>Lauderdale. We don't want to look like West Palm.</b><b>Delray beach has its own unique character with the</b><b>av and Boca has its own unique character with a</b><b>small town beachy feel and with things that are</b><b>going on, right? It's just, it's like a</b><b>city within a small town. It's hard to explain,</b><b>but we don't want it to feel like a downtown.</b><b>It's not a priority for most of the citizens here.</b><b>Well, what's fascinating to me is the</b><b>email the mayor sent out on Sunday, how he said</b><b>they he's, they've been communicating the plan</b><b>for the last three years and that for the last</b><b>three years, they've been hyper focused on</b><b>redeveloping that area, right? That that's</b><b>their main priority. I think those were his words</b><b>that it's been our, our, we've been hyper focused</b><b>or it's our main priority to develop that</b><b>area, which is crazy to me because as a person who</b><b>lives here, my main priority is how do I get</b><b>from South Boca to North Boca on Dixie or federal</b><b>in less than a half an hour? Yeah. And it used</b><b>to be 15 minutes or 10, 10 to 15 minutes to make</b><b>it down to the park where we do flag football.</b><b>Yeah. Now that's 20 minutes for, yeah. Any time</b><b>a day. Yeah. That's crazy. No, it is. It's the, I</b><b>would be congestion, traffic congestion. And I'm</b><b>sure central Boca has its own issues and so does</b><b>West Boca. So I'm not leaving them out, but what's</b><b>happening right now is an East Boca. Yeah. And</b><b>again, you know, South, well, South Florida is,</b><b>you know, not, not to catch up, but West Boca is</b><b>overdeveloped too, right? Along what is it? 441 is</b><b>that, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. 441. It's all</b><b>overdeveloped traffic nightmare. Yeah. No, for sure.</b><b>But South Florida is unique because South Florida does have its own unique charm</b><b>and its own history. And part of that is where</b><b>we live at least from Miami all the way up until,</b><b>gosh, Jupiter, Vero. It's, it's beach towns.</b><b>Like these are towns along the beach, right? And</b><b>a lot of them have been able to hold on to their</b><b>old unique charm. And the, I think what has made</b><b>Boca so special is, but you have Miami,</b><b>you have Hollywood, you have Fort Lauderdale,</b><b>and then you get to Pompano and you get to</b><b>Deerfield Beach. And Deerfield Beach actually</b><b>has held on to its charm in a lot of ways.</b><b>Actually, I mean, there's really nice beaches</b><b>down in Fort Lauderdale, some nice neighborhoods.</b><b>There is. Hollywood has the boardwalk area. That's</b><b>pretty cool. There is. Miami obviously has South</b><b>Beach and stuff like that. But I'm talking about,</b><b>there's that downtown vibe and in Miami,</b><b>Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. Yeah. Right. But the thing</b><b>about Boca is you'd get to Boca and it felt</b><b>like, Boca's downtown just felt like just a regular</b><b>neighborhood, small town in a way. It was just,</b><b>you didn't feel like you were entering a downtown.</b><b>You never once felt like you were entering a</b><b>downtown. In the last, last five years, for sure.</b><b>Now you do. Yeah. It's starting. And if they</b><b>keep going, it's lost. All of it is lost. Yeah.</b><b>Because once it starts, you can't put it back in</b><b>the, in, it's done. It's, you know, so I think,</b><b>you know, to our listeners, if you're still with</b><b>us, because I know this is very local to what's</b><b>going on with us, but who knows? Maybe in your</b><b>town, you're also trying to deal with some over</b><b>development and are fighting the good fight to</b><b>try to hold on to the history or the charm of your</b><b>city or your town. I do think a lot of this is</b><b>happening all over our country. And so we may be,</b><b>what's going on with us may just be symbolic of</b><b>what could be going on for a lot of other listeners.</b><b>I do think that's, that is going on. I feel</b><b>like a message for everybody who's listening is to</b><b>protect your town. If you like your town, protect</b><b>it. Because I think we voted for people. We thought</b><b>we could trust. And then it turns out that they</b><b>can't be trusted. And this isn't just Boca, right?</b><b>We're talking about it because it's our town, but</b><b>where I grew up in Sparta, right? They have their</b><b>own controversies going on up there where,</b><b>you know, like I say, when I was a kid, this is</b><b>fascinating to me because I was thinking about</b><b>it. It's probably the genesis of why I just have</b><b>such a distrust in government. When I was a kid, I</b><b>remember we had in New Jersey, there were wetlands</b><b>laws. You were not allowed to develop or build</b><b>properties in the wetlands. Well, they did. You</b><b>know, when I was a kid, we used to play around</b><b>Fox Hollow in Sparta. It was all swampy. Wetland</b><b>had those skunk cabbages, which have to grow in</b><b>very moist soil. It's all homes now. When I was</b><b>younger, Hemlock Hill was one of the first</b><b>developments in Sparta off of Green Road and</b><b>Sawmill Estates and other places. And we used to</b><b>play in a stream back there. We'd catch fish and</b><b>frogs and stuff. It's all homes. And so</b><b>it's all corrupt, local government corruption</b><b>being bought out and paid for by developers, you know, and that happens everywhere.</b><b>Yeah.</b><b>Unfortunately. And so if you live in a small</b><b>town, you probably, maybe you can trust those,</b><b>you know, the folks for a little while,</b><b>but you got to keep a real close eye on them.</b><b>And I think that goes back to your original</b><b>point is stay active as much as you can, or keep your</b><b>finger on the pulse as much as you can. And I</b><b>know we all get busy with our lives and we certainly</b><b>did, but you think you, who you're voting in, you</b><b>can trust. And so you think that you don't have to</b><b>watch as closely, but you do because</b><b>before you know it, you're being presented with</b><b>a part of your town that is cherished and</b><b>beloved. That's going to be handed over to people that</b><b>aren't from your town that don't care about your</b><b>town that are in it for the money and have their</b><b>own vision that does not align with your town</b><b>because they haven't, they don't know the culture</b><b>of our town. They don't have it lived it.</b><b>And so whatever they're going to put there</b><b>is going to be uncomfortable and is going to</b><b>be foreign to all the people that live here</b><b>instead of working with the citizens from the start.</b><b>Well, they claim to, right? But most of us</b><b>as citizens are asleep at the wheel. Again,</b><b>we vote these people and we expect them to</b><b>represent our interests. The things most of us</b><b>care about are decent schools, open spaces,</b><b>you know, good police department. We want good</b><b>healthcare nearby. You know, we have a great</b><b>bike lane system here in town. We've got beautiful</b><b>beaches. We have the police are excellent. The</b><b>fire department is excellent. All the city workers</b><b>in our city are great guys. You know, if you sit</b><b>and talk with them and whether it's everyone from</b><b>the sanitation guys to the guys who work the</b><b>fields, you know, they do a great job keeping</b><b>the fields intact. They wonderful job just keeping our city looking good.</b><b>Yeah, absolutely. 100%.</b><b>Those are the things that we don't want traffic. We don't want crime. We don't want</b><b>weird shit going on. And BOCUS actually run</b><b>extremely well. And that's part of the charm</b><b>of East Boca, right? That's what we all like is</b><b>it's a nice, clean, safe place. When you put in</b><b>these high rise developments, I'm not</b><b>opposed to the Brightline station that was put in,</b><b>but you combine the Brightline with this high</b><b>rise monstrosity, it brings in an element of</b><b>crime with an easy exit, right? So that's all part of what's going on here.</b><b>It's a change of just all of it. It's a shift, right? But again, I still feel like</b><b>this was, it was sneaky. I feel sneaky. It</b><b>feels like the name they gave it was so misleading.</b><b>100%. Yeah.</b><b>So I feel like you, like you said, you think</b><b>you vote somebody in that you can trust, which</b><b>is just ridiculous because they're politicians.</b><b>And so there's just no way. But again, I think</b><b>this is happening all over the country.</b><b>Yeah, no doubt.</b><b>And it's definitely Florida. Definitely</b><b>Florida. They've been cutting down farmland,</b><b>orange tree orchards, all of that out on West</b><b>Florida, all that's been cut down for subdivisions</b><b>and homes. And we had a listener comment that</b><b>downtown St. Petersburg has completely changed.</b><b>So I don't know. I guess it can get</b><b>overwhelming when you think about it. So you at least focus</b><b>just on your one little area, which is what</b><b>we're doing. We're trying to be a part of at least</b><b>having our voices heard in this situation and</b><b>maybe be able to change the course or at least</b><b>force the government to listen to us. And</b><b>so whatever they end up with is a compromise</b><b>between the citizens and what the government wants, I guess.</b><b>Well, I think one thing that's interesting is</b><b>the developer. So I think they've gone out to</b><b>bed, right? They've been kind of doing this</b><b>for the last few years. And the mayor probably is</b><b>right. He's probably been communicating via emails</b><b>and newsletters and old archaic stuff no one pays</b><b>attention to. Maybe if he had a TikTok account or</b><b>an Instagram account or was on Facebook or YouTube,</b><b>right? Something that people are actually</b><b>paying attention to rather than the local flyer down</b><b>at the community center, people would be</b><b>more aware. But what I find very interesting is,</b><b>you know, so they've gone through bidding processes. I think they've down selected.</b><b>There is one developer now there's, it's a combo.</b><b>I don't know their names, but one of the developers</b><b>is the developer who put up the building that collapsed in Miami a few years ago.</b><b>No, they put up, I think they put up what</b><b>they were building. It's like terrace something.</b><b>The building they were building next to Surfside,</b><b>what they were doing there with the construction</b><b>was what had an effect, I think on Surfside</b><b>collapsing. I don't know if Terra built Surfside.</b><b>I'm not sure. I just know that the building</b><b>they were building next to Surfside down in Miami,</b><b>if anyone remembers that story, was horrendous.</b><b>The whole community collapsed and people died.</b><b>So this developer was building next to it and</b><b>whatever they were doing, whether it was through</b><b>strong vibration, it was weakening what was</b><b>going on over the building foundation at Surfside.</b><b>I believe that's what happened. I think they got sued. I'm not sure.</b><b>Oh, of course they got sued. People died in their sleep.</b><b>But I don't know if they built Surfside. I'm not sure on that.</b><b>The same developer sued over Surfside collapse. So you're right. Maybe they didn't.</b><b>It was almost like they reviewed as they caused</b><b>the collapse of Surfside. This is the developer</b><b>that wants to be in charge of this project</b><b>in Boca. So I just think that's bad juju.</b><b>I think that's bad karma. I don't think you bring that in here.</b><b>Yeah, there it is. So the Terra group, the</b><b>Miami-based developer now pursuing a high-profile</b><b>project in Boca Raton was a key defendant in lawsuits tied to the 2021--</b><b>Champlain Towers, South Collapse, and Surfside.</b><b>This is despite not disclosing the lawsuit and the</b><b>proposal submitted to the city of Boca Raton in</b><b>January 2025. So they did not disclose that there</b><b>was a lawsuit. They hid it. For anyone</b><b>listening, we're putting up information on the screen.</b><b>So if you go to watch on YouTube, you'll see. So that's already sketchy.</b><b>So you started off this entire project calling it the government redevelopment--</b><b>what was it? Government redevelopment project or</b><b>something? Whatever it was called, it wasn't clear.</b><b>I think it's called the don't worry about it. We got this project.</b><b>And so that was sketchy. And then any</b><b>newsletter-- because the mayor does send email newsletters--</b><b>any newsletters that were coming through, I</b><b>read them. So I do read those newsletters,</b><b>not every single one of them, but I'll look</b><b>through them. I don't remember ever-- nothing</b><b>caught my eye. Nothing caught my attention.</b><b>I was like, what are they doing down there?</b><b>I agree. I read them too. Yeah, whatever was being said,</b><b>it was not clear. It was misleading. I'm not saying it was misleading on purpose,</b><b>but it was misleading. And now you have a</b><b>developer who didn't disclose that they were part of the</b><b>lawsuit of the collapse of the Surfside. This</b><b>is just all bad. It's just all like so sketchy.</b><b>Well, what's interesting to me is we're</b><b>late to the party. Just for full disclosure,</b><b>ours-- we do not have full 1,000% command of</b><b>all facts, but doesn't pass the sniff test.</b><b>But we are late. And think some higher power.</b><b>Thank God, I'll say it. For the people in Boca</b><b>who started the Save Boca, the project--</b><b>Dan Perlman, I think, is one of the main guys.</b><b>Nice job, Dan. Thanks for bringing this to</b><b>everybody's attention. I'm looking at you.</b><b>Good job. Yes. There's a whole group of people</b><b>who started the SaveBoca.org campaign, basically.</b><b>And not only that, well, it is a campaign,</b><b>but they're, you know, you've got your shirt.</b><b>If I wore anything besides a black shirt, I</b><b>would wear that shirt. But they've made the t-shirts,</b><b>they've got the signs, they've attended the</b><b>city council meetings, they did the whole petition</b><b>effort. So kudos to all of you guys. So now I</b><b>think you've woken us up. They did get some good</b><b>press. They made national news. I think they</b><b>did. It was on Fox News. I don't know if they've</b><b>been seeing it or not, but I know Fox. So they've</b><b>got the word out and they've woken up the people</b><b>of our town now, which is a great thing. So</b><b>thank you for doing that. Yes. For doing that. They</b><b>have a Facebook page, they have an Instagram page,</b><b>they have a TikTok. I went and followed all of them.</b><b>So anyone listening that wants to follow along</b><b>on this, because we have, when this airs tomorrow,</b><b>this is Monday right now, tomorrow night,</b><b>Tuesday, there is a city council meeting at six o'clock.</b><b>The address is on say, Boca.org. I think</b><b>it's 60, I looked it up. I think it's 6,500</b><b>Congress Boulevard and what that is. So where</b><b>that is, it's between Yamado and Clint Moore on</b><b>Congress. And it is where like the, there's like</b><b>a police academy, not academy, but maybe training.</b><b>There's, it's kind of a, I don't know, a</b><b>nondescript building, but what's interesting</b><b>about it. So it is there tomorrow. People are</b><b>encouraged to go. There's instructions on the</b><b>sayboca.org homepage. If you go in, you sign</b><b>in, every person does get three minutes to speak.</b><b>The challenge is they did request, officially</b><b>requested Monday to have it moved to a larger</b><b>location. They did, and they were denied. They</b><b>were denied, yeah. And there's plenty of places to go.</b><b>I don't, you know, it's a tough one. I want to</b><b>believe in the, I want to believe in the sentiment</b><b>that's coming from the mayor. I don't think</b><b>he's inherently a bad guy. I think he's currently</b><b>misguided on this one. And I think he's wrong,</b><b>right? I 100% believe he's wrong. I don't think</b><b>he's a bad guy. It is probably logistically</b><b>difficult to change it last minute in their</b><b>defense. They are saying some of the right things</b><b>that this is just the beginning. They're going to</b><b>try to work it out, but anything short of a</b><b>full stop is, is unacceptable in my mind. Just</b><b>operationally, logistically kind of makes sense</b><b>for them to say, we're going to keep it here this</b><b>time. But given the demand and popularity of this,</b><b>they need to move it elsewhere. For the next one.</b><b>For the next one, 100%. Yeah. Because I think this is...</b><b>And make it longer. Yeah. I think this is just the beginning in some ways. I think</b><b>the more people hear about this and are going to</b><b>get involved, you know, until the mayor and the</b><b>city council have a good answer for everyone. I</b><b>don't see this dying down anytime soon, you know.</b><b>This isn't like how, you know, a private developer</b><b>wanting to build townhomes around the corner from</b><b>us in a ridiculous, ridiculous location. That's</b><b>another stupid one. I think the city approved that though.</b><b>Yeah. Okay. So the city might have approved that, but that seems more private land,</b><b>privately owned land that was sold, right? Well, and if I'm totally against it.</b><b>Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But to your point, there could have been a zoning...</b><b>I don't know if they made it a zoning accommodation</b><b>or not. It wouldn't surprise me. This city council</b><b>and this mayor is 100% pro over development. So I</b><b>do believe right now it was a small title company</b><b>and some other, you know, office space that they want to turn into a three...</b><b>They're still there, the title company. Yeah.</b><b>Yeah. I think they want to turn that into a three-story</b><b>multifamily housing. Yeah. It's going to be like</b><b>four condos or something. I don't know. And then</b><b>there's a whole other thing down up the street by</b><b>our local school that they want to put in a gated</b><b>apartment or condo community. And the traffic</b><b>on the road that both of these proposed projects</b><b>are on is already insane. But my point was,</b><b>is I think both of those areas are privately,</b><b>commercially owned by someone. Whereas this is</b><b>public land. This is city land. And that's...</b><b>So yeah, you can go out and you can get upset</b><b>about townhomes being built in an area that's</b><b>so ridiculous and apartments being built in an area that makes no sense,</b><b>but it's privately, commercially owned land,</b><b>I think. This is 100% public land. This is a</b><b>memorial park for World War II vets, which I</b><b>think is just... You can't overstate that enough.</b><b>You just can't. And 31 acres of open public</b><b>land. You can't just swoop in and give that over to</b><b>developers without the citizens having to say.</b><b>But we do. All right. So here's another one. I</b><b>forgot about this one. Out on Glades, just west</b><b>of the Turnpike, was the golf course, the 27 whole</b><b>city-owned and operated golf course that got</b><b>bulldozed probably what, five years ago maybe?</b><b>And now it's all condos. That's where they took</b><b>the kids to learn how to golf. Full of alligators,</b><b>the golf course out there was just sold to</b><b>private developers and turned into condos. Now,</b><b>I lost my train of thought. No, what's</b><b>interesting to me, and I think focused on a historically</b><b>tremendous job at this, but we've lost our way.</b><b>And what that is, that golf course was city-owned.</b><b>I could buy a golf cart or as a city resident,</b><b>you buy a card, you get a discount, you can book</b><b>tea times. They were excellent golf courses.</b><b>We've got city-owned and operated pickleball</b><b>courts, city-owned and operated tennis courts.</b><b>I'm not the biggest advocate for the city-owning</b><b>and operating all this stuff, but it's what made</b><b>Boca different is that they've always done a nice</b><b>job. They've paid great wages for the people</b><b>to run these things. They've done a great job</b><b>running them. It's always been open to the</b><b>community. They've always been fairly priced</b><b>and they're giving all that stuff up for</b><b>this over-development. The golf course out on</b><b>Yamado and that Hidden Valley Road, I think is by</b><b>Clintmore. By Costco, you come over the overpass.</b><b>That's a golf course out there. I think the</b><b>city's trying to turn that into a golf course,</b><b>but now they're combining it with pickleball</b><b>courts or maybe scratching the golf course.</b><b>It's crazy.</b><b>Yeah. I think if anything, people will start to</b><b>pay more attention. I know I will to what's going</b><b>on. A hundred percent. But the thing that's</b><b>special about this, again, is it is in the heart of our</b><b>"downtown area," but it helped keep our</b><b>downtown area feel neighborly and it helped maintain</b><b>community within our downtown area. It</b><b>helped our downtown area feel like a small town.</b><b>When you would drive by and see kids play</b><b>softball there, I'm telling you to listeners,</b><b>it's the same feeling as when I lived up in</b><b>New Jersey in a small town and I drove by and saw</b><b>kids play softball. We live in a large city, but this area...</b><b>Or West Virginia.</b><b>Yeah, exactly. This area is nostalgic. This</b><b>area that they want to develop is nostalgia</b><b>for Boca Raton. It's almost like one of the last</b><b>pieces that we have of the small town that Boca</b><b>Raton was. When you drive past this area,</b><b>you remember coaching your children there. You</b><b>remember watching your children play there.</b><b>And then you also currently see other people's</b><b>children playing there. You see people playing</b><b>tennis. You see people on the basketball courts.</b><b>What you see is the community of Boca Raton. And</b><b>if they develop that, it's gone because all you're</b><b>going to see then are concrete buildings and our</b><b>sense of community and one of our last pieces of</b><b>nostalgia in our little downtown area will be</b><b>wiped out. Well, I think also just to add to that,</b><b>it's everything you just said, but it's unstructured. Meaning if you go out to the</b><b>fields at Spanish River, they're beautiful. We've got beautiful facilities here.</b><b>The fields out there are beautiful soccer fields, baseball fields, a nice wonderful</b><b>playground, but it's all got a spot. It's all nice</b><b>and tidy because it's all new and it's all planned.</b><b>You go out to Patroif, it's beautiful. It's</b><b>phenomenal. This area is very unstructured.</b><b>I think they last developed in 1964. So to your</b><b>point, that's probably nostalgic at this point.</b><b>But it's free flowing. It evolved. The banyan</b><b>trees were put in probably as small trees. Now</b><b>they're these big, beautiful 15 foot across base</b><b>trees with vines hanging down. You walk over to</b><b>the fields. It's just unstructured. It's old</b><b>school. It's old school. It's old school. And</b><b>we need old school. You need old school. Everything can't be new. Everything can't</b><b>be developed. Everything can't be planned.</b><b>Everything shouldn't be shiny. You need to still</b><b>have some history without it being always totally</b><b>historic too. You just need that sense of nostalgia,</b><b>that sense of old school. And I know we're</b><b>Gen Xers. And so, yes, we do feel nostalgic</b><b>when we see certain things. But for younger</b><b>generations too, I think there's Gen Zers that</b><b>remember playing baseball and softball on</b><b>those fields. And just five, 10 years ago, there's</b><b>puddles. It's just like you said, it's</b><b>unstructured and it's a sense of childhood. It's a sense of</b><b>community, our community center. There's just so</b><b>much there to save for Boca Raton. So if anyone</b><b>is interested, saveboca.org has all the</b><b>information. It has all the current information. There is also</b><b>a Facebook page. There's an Instagram page. I did</b><b>join the TikTok. I don't know how much they post</b><b>on there, but that's where all the information</b><b>will be. And we just felt compelled to do an episode,</b><b>to at least put our voices to this and be a</b><b>part of trying to hold on to just that sense of</b><b>nostalgia and community in our town. And that's</b><b>why we're doing this episode, honestly. Because</b><b>I do think there are people all over this</b><b>country that have had to watch their nostalgia get</b><b>bulldozed over and their nostalgia get developed</b><b>by people who don't live in their town, by people</b><b>who don't care about their town and by people</b><b>who don't understand their town. So I don't think</b><b>this is a Boca Raton problem. I think it's a</b><b>problem probably in many, many towns and cities</b><b>in our country. And I think that it's important to</b><b>hold on to that. If you can, just hold on to a piece</b><b>of what was. I mean, look at that. That's just</b><b>such a mess. There is no value in what we're looking</b><b>to develop here in our town. It looks like</b><b>anything else. Yeah. You know what's fascinating</b><b>to me? It does not look like Boca Raton.</b><b>What's fascinating to me is when you look at that,</b><b>if you look at it in the eyes of the developer,</b><b>it's money. And when you look at it in the eyes</b><b>of the politician, it's just pure ego and greed,</b><b>right? They want to say, "I helped develop that</b><b>and put their name on it." Which is crazy to me.</b><b>I would want nothing to do with that. But when you</b><b>look at it, all of the people I just mentioned,</b><b>they'd look at it on a grid and they see, "Okay,</b><b>this is a thousand feet by a thousand feet and</b><b>there's a 45 degree angle here from the natural</b><b>terrain, right? What can we put in there?" And</b><b>it's just moving boxes around just to see what</b><b>can you put there and what's going to</b><b>maximize the square footage profitability of that</b><b>multi-block chunk of the city. They don't give a</b><b>shit about the impact to the traffic flows. And</b><b>now they'll come up with some BSO, "We did a</b><b>traffic flow and it's not going to impact traffic."</b><b>Bullshit. And they're going to come up with these financial models that says,</b><b>"We estimate that the commercial tax base</b><b>revenue is going to be X and it's going to help offset</b><b>the local property taxes." Bullshit. It's all just nonsense. It's just pure greed.</b><b>And it's unnecessary. If you guys want, go</b><b>elsewhere. Go somewhere else and do this,</b><b>right? There's plenty of other cities that</b><b>might be interested in something like this,</b><b>but I don't think there's an interest here.</b><b>No, there isn't. I mean, you literally are</b><b>creating something that does not fit in any way with the vibe of this area.</b><b>Well, it does, but it's called Fort Lauderdale.</b><b>It's called Miami. It's called West Palm Beach.</b><b>It's called anywhere but Boca and quite frankly Delray. Delray's got a lot of nice</b><b>charms on there and Deerfield too, but</b><b>Deerfield's a little overbuilt, but at the same time,</b><b>it's not bad. No, that Deerfield Boca</b><b>Delray area. Hillsborough Beach is nice. Yeah.</b><b>So yeah, our stretch from the last condos,</b><b>probably once you hit the Hillsborough Inlet</b><b>Bridge, just south of that, that whole stretch all</b><b>the way up into even past Lake Worth up where you</b><b>start to get where like Oprah's got a place</b><b>and write that extreme wealth of that town, but</b><b>kind of by the breakers. Yeah. Like Palm Beach.</b><b>Yeah. Well, Lake Worth-ish area that I forget the</b><b>town, but there's a lot of wealthy big homes</b><b>up there. And I mean, and that's fine. We don't,</b><b>there's wealth here. So it's not, we're not</b><b>against wealth and we're not against growth.</b><b>We wouldn't live here if we were. Yeah, we're</b><b>not. Yeah. We, to be clear, we're not saying we're</b><b>wealthy. That just sounded like that. The nice</b><b>thing about living amongst wealth is that you</b><b>get the benefit of living amongst wealth. We</b><b>have several billionaires living in both. Yes. Very,</b><b>we have a very, just a very wealthy</b><b>populace. We do. And so for regular people like us,</b><b>we, you know, our children get to enjoy the</b><b>community because the community is kept to a</b><b>certain state because of the wealth that's</b><b>here. So it all kind of balances out and works out.</b><b>But again, that's, that's what's so unique</b><b>about Boca is that at least East Boca, I can say,</b><b>is that if you ever came into East Boca, it would</b><b>just feel like any other town. You wouldn't feel,</b><b>unless you drive along certain roads and you see</b><b>like mansions and stuff. But if you were just to</b><b>go to like, we've been here close to 20 years</b><b>and I agree with you 15 years ago, 10 years ago,</b><b>but we are screwing the pooch here. Yeah. We're</b><b>watching it. We're watching the next real estate</b><b>and housing bubble commercial real estate.</b><b>Yeah. Yes. We're watching the next commercial</b><b>and apartment real estate bubble unfold in real</b><b>time. Fast forward five years or some point on</b><b>the horizon and we're going to see an</b><b>implosion. Yeah. And it's not, I'm not fearing doom. It's</b><b>just reality. This shit goes in cycles. And I</b><b>wouldn't even say we're in a big boom right now.</b><b>I did look up vacancy rates today in Boca</b><b>and we do have about a 7% vacancy rate here.</b><b>How that compares? Not sure. For commercial or for? Just the, like an apartment.</b><b>More on the apartment side. Yeah. Yeah. I think our commercials even, I don't know,</b><b>it's probably not worse, but there's plenty</b><b>of like, with like we saw yesterday or a couple</b><b>days ago, a lot of commercial real estate and a</b><b>lot of longer term ones, right? That CVS has been</b><b>vacant for like how long? A year? Two years</b><b>now. Yeah, probably. No, a few years I think. Which</b><b>becomes blight, which becomes crime. Yeah. Right.</b><b>All those things. I don't know. It's, it's a tough</b><b>one because you want to, you do want to</b><b>support growth and progress in your town, but I think</b><b>there's a way to do it where you can still hold</b><b>on to your town's character, your town's charm,</b><b>your town's nostalgia, and not completely come</b><b>in and wipe everything out and change everything</b><b>so that you don't recognize your town anymore.</b><b>And I know that has happened to so many towns</b><b>and it's, it's makes me sad that now it's come</b><b>to our town to this degree, to take 31 acres of</b><b>a beloved part of Boca and just plop down</b><b>crap. We haven't even touched on the fact that</b><b>the hotel will be adjacent to the local school</b><b>there, right? The Boca Christian high school.</b><b>No, it's K through 12. K through 12? Yeah. And</b><b>then there's that other little learning center.</b><b>I don't know what that is. Yeah. The hotel</b><b>will be right next to two schools. Yeah. No,</b><b>there's just so much about this. So again, we</b><b>just felt we needed to do this. We needed to</b><b>put our voices to it. It may not be very</b><b>interesting to anyone if you're not from Boca</b><b>or maybe you can relate or maybe you saw this</b><b>happen to your town and you can understand where</b><b>we're coming from, but you kind of feel a little</b><b>bit helpless in this situation. So we thought we</b><b>would at least do an episode on it and we are</b><b>going to stay on top of everything and attend the</b><b>meetings and do anything we can, but the least</b><b>we can do is at least talk about it and get it out</b><b>there. So for anyone that's interested and wants</b><b>to get more information about it, we just touched</b><b>on the tip of the facts. This goes deeper and</b><b>deeper and deeper. You can easily go down a rabbit</b><b>hole. If you Google and research any of this</b><b>stuff, even if you go to sayboca.org, they have</b><b>so much more information. We really just</b><b>touched on things. So again, thanks for listening and</b><b>please support if you're local, please</b><b>sign petition. Please show up at the meetings.</b><b>Please stay on top of things. I think we're all</b><b>going to read the mayor's newsletters going forward.</b><b>Read your local mayor's newsletter.</b><b>Read everything. Yeah, that's one piece of</b><b>advice. If your mayor is sending you guys something in</b><b>your town, read it. But for those of you who are still with us that aren't local,</b><b>thank you for listening and we will get back to</b><b>our normally scheduled program. We do have a ton</b><b>of guests, a ton, you guys, coming up for the</b><b>fall. We are double, triple, quadruple booked up</b><b>with so many cool and interesting people. We're</b><b>so excited to start. We took a little bit of a</b><b>what, a two week break or a week of break. How long did we not record a week?</b><b>I don't know. We had a out of town wedding we</b><b>went to. Then we did have a couple of folks,</b><b>or at least one person cancel it. We're going</b><b>to reschedule. She's from Australia. I was very</b><b>excited. So I think she's rescheduling for</b><b>November. So she actually came down with the flu.</b><b>So we have had, I think a week and a half or maybe two weeks where we haven't had</b><b>a record recorded an episode, maybe a week and</b><b>a half, which has been a trip for us because we</b><b>record every week nonstop. So that's been a bit</b><b>of a break. But now we're, and then we got involved</b><b>with the save focus. So well, yeah, I was just</b><b>going to say we had other topics, but I think</b><b>this is important. I can see us doing, we'll</b><b>probably throw some more episodes out on this</b><b>topic. I think we'll see how things evolve.</b><b>Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we'll see what happens.</b><b>And this may be something that we touch on</b><b>again, a little mini episode, just to update</b><b>anyone who's interested. If there's some</b><b>local folks that are part of the save Boca that,</b><b>you know, maybe when they come on and they</b><b>talk and provide more factual information and,</b><b>you know, that kind of speak to it better. Yeah.</b><b>Anyone local out there, if you do would like to</b><b>come on, please reach out to us. Go to our</b><b>website, genexadulting.com. There is a form on</b><b>there to contact us and we do receive those and,</b><b>and almost daily we receive those. So reach out</b><b>to us if you are interested and you can speak on</b><b>this topic much better than we can. Cause this was</b><b>obviously all of our opinion. Pretty much. Please</b><b>reach out to us and we would like to have you on.</b><b>I think it's opinion and wisdom in this show</b><b>before. That's true. That's it. We're old enough</b><b>now. We can speak to that. So exactly. Yeah.</b><b>Yeah. So, um, again, we'll, uh, we'll keep everyone up</b><b>to date. Uh, we're back to recording with guests</b><b>this week and, um, we will see you next time. Bye.</b>