Reject this development in the Ag Reserve | Letters to the editor
Palm Beach County commissioners on Wednesday will hear another awful Privately Initiated Text Amendment for a project now known as Park West.
This project (once known as Tenderly Reserve) proposes a 150-room hotel, 734 multi-family units, 100,000 square feet of self-storage, 200,000 square feet of commercial retail and office, all in the wrong place.
The applicant wants to be exempt from any long-range traffic requirements. If this project proceeds, a preliminary traffic analysis indicates there will be two roadway failures, on Jog Road and State Road 7, west of Delray Beach. So they don’t want to do a traffic study.
They are also asking for a reduction of the preservation land requirement from 40% to 20%. They want to be exempt from the commercial square footage cap. Currently there is 10,227 square feet of additional commercial use allowed in the Ag Reserve. They want 300,000 square feet.
Who in Palm Beach County wants to sit in traffic more than they do now? Who wants less conservation land and more concrete? No one.
Linda Smithe, Jupiter
The writer represents the Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group.
(Editor’s Note: The hearing is at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the County Commission chambers, 301 N. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. The county planning staff recommends rejection of the proposal.)
Truly a local treasure
My husband and I went to the Wick Theatre in Boca to see “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.”
The show was magnificent. The casting is spot-on. The talent is mind-boggling.
When the character Ritchie Valens (played by Giorgio Volpe) sang “La Bamba,” he brought the house down. Buddy Holly (Matt McClure) was a ringer for the role in appearance and with his hiccuppy vocals and falsetto. He plays a mean guitar, too.
The Big Bopper (Mike Brennan) rounded out the main character trio with his booming voice and larger than life persona. One dancer had the most fabulous moves I’ve ever seen and was also the production’s choreographer (Natalie Hershman).
Except for the main players, every actor had multiple functions, either playing instruments or dancing. These people are beyond talented and they’re performing right up the road.
Marilyn Wick, her daughters, employees and the Wick Theatre are truly a local treasure, providing live performances with independent casting. Anyone who remembers the roots of rock and roll will appreciate this production (playing through May 5).
I forgot that Holly and Valens were just 22 and 17 respectively at the time of the tragic 1959 plane crash, known as “the day the music died.”
This play brings all of that home with a final scene that’s one for the record books.
Deb Tarrant, Hillsboro Beach
Praise for UF’s response
Antisemitism on campuses must stop. I applaud the University of Florida’s handling of pro-Palestinian protesters.
Permitted activities include speech, expressing viewpoints and holding signs. Prohibited are bullhorns, loudspeakers, weapons, protesting in campus buildings, littering, camping, tents, sleeping and blocking others. Penalties for student violators include suspension and banishment from campus for three years.
Guess what? It works. All universities should try it.
Steve Peters, Boynton Beach
Trump v. United States
Above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court are the words “EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW.” Considered inviolable, this phrase expresses the ultimate responsibility of the court.
As guardians and interpreters of the Constitution, the court is charged with making decisions based on law, not politics, and ensuring that equality before the law, the bedrock of a democracy, holds all citizens, institutions and entities to account.
With the apparent divisions among the justices over whether former President Donald Trump should receive immunity against federal charges that he tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election, the dismantling of the equal justice covenant by the conservative majority may be in the offing.
The constitution’s framers intended for the judiciary to be apolitical. More than two centuries later, the Roberts court, with its right-leaning majority, has become indistinguishable from elected officials with a partisan agenda.
Jane Larkin, Tampa