MARCH 10TH: OUR LAST CHANCE TO SAVE BOCA

BY JON PEARLMAN, SAVE BOCA FOUNDER AND CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE

Most local elections come and go quietly with familiar names and predictable outcomes.  But March 10th is different.  The outcome of this election will shape the future of Boca for generations to come.  As a husband and father here in Boca, I care deeply about our city’s future for us, our children and all future generations.  That’s why I started Save Boca and am a city council candidate.  The character and integrity of our city is at stake on March 10th and I hope you will Vote No with me to the 99-Year Lease of our public land.

My wife and I chose to make Boca our home and raise our children here because Boca is unique. Boca is special because of our neighborhoods, our parks, and the high quality of life we enjoy every day. Boca is called a City Within a Park for a reason.  Boca was never intended to be Miami or Ft. Lauderdale.

Yet the current city council has set Boca on a course for just that.  They have been taking our city to a place that nobody wants to go.  They teamed up with Miami developers and were quietly moving this mega-project along unbeknownst to the majority of residents.  The developers they brought in have a dark history.  They’re the same developers that were sued for the Surfside Collapse.  Not only that, but the developers hid this fact in their proposal to the city, even though there was an entire page dedicated to litigation history. 

The plan was to build this mega-project right on top of the largest park in downtown Boca and on 31 acres of our public land.  My opponent, a current city council member, wrote an op-ed—with a picture depicting high-rise condos on top of Memorial Park—strongly supporting that proposition.  He and the city council were moving the project along at lightning speed with each milestone being passed in the blink of an eye.  The deal would have been signed and sealed with no public vote on October 28th had our citizens not rallied behind Save Boca and fought back.   

Were it not for our community coming together in support of Save Boca to fight this, Memorial Park would be a demolition site right now.  The two iconic Banyan trees that adorn our entrance to City Hall would have been cut down already.  The council originally planned to sign and seal this mega-project with a 5-person vote amongst themselves.  The only reason we’re getting a vote on this is because of the the tens of thousands of residents who supported the Save Boca movement.

Without your support and the tens of thousands of citizens behind Save Boca, Memorial Park would be a demolition site right now and the two iconic banyan trees in front of City Hall would have already been cut down. 

For the last year, this plan has been a moving target.  The hotel was removed.  Now the hotel is back.  Condos were located on top of our city hall Banyan trees.  Now the condos are located on top of our police station.  The current plan is to remove our large police station from downtown to make way for two large condo high-rises.

If we, the residents, don’t show up to put a stop to this we will be dealing with an ever-moving target that will be present in our city for good.  This is the developer’s starting point.  What will prevent these developers from going after the park again?  What’s to stop them from coming into our neighborhoods next?  This project has always been a moving goal post and it will continue to be...until we shut the door. 

After March 10th we won’t get a say anymore.  If this mega-project passes, it will set our city on an irreversible course of losing everything that makes Boca unique. The Boca we know will no longer be recognizable.

I think we can all agree that what we have in Boca is worth protecting. I’m fighting for all of us, our children and all future generations of Boca to preserve our beautiful city, our high quality of life, and our legacy as a City Within a Park.  The heart and soul of Boca is at stake on March 10th.  I ask you to stand with the tens of thousands of our neighbors on March 10th to protect our city.

Jon Pearlman is a city council candidate and the founder of Save Boca, a grassroots non-profit organization whose mission is to protect parks and public land and fight overdevelopment in Boca Raton. Click Here to read more.