editor’s letter

The Year Of Our Discontent

We start 2022 by celebrating good times and bad times—but hoping for the best

In this issue we take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly. The good? Delray’s history of surfing (page 58) and the local kids who shaped the sport here, like Ron Heavyside and Paul Aho and Tom Warnke. The early days when Nomad Surf Shop was a tiny corner of a father’s TV repair shop, and surf club meetings were held at a local dairy farm—with ice cream afterward.

There was a sweetness to that time, and a sense of joy, a time that launched a whole culture in Delray that thrives today. That is the Delray old-timers get misty about, when people all knew one another, and each others’ kids, and even seemed to have a collective sense of self as a community.

The bad? This whole episode of Old School Square (page 50) pitted against a city that has embraced it for 30-some years. The actions of three city commissioners acting without notice—on their own—to evict a longstanding nonprofit from the very buildings it helped bring to life—and refusing to even consider some kind of dialogue with said organization.

More than 10,000 Delray citizens signed a petition asking for reconsideration of the action, yet the city refuses to even entertain the notion of a civilized meeting. There have been issues in the past with Old School Square—everyone gets that. But you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater with an organization that has served as the heart and soul of the city—and its entire transformation—for three decades.

The ugly? The lawsuit that emerged from this whole disaster. Another lawsuit against the city that will cost tons of money, give Delray yet another black eye (eight city managers and unclean drinking water did wonders for its image) and deepen divisions in the city.

There is a lot to think about as we start the New Year. I hope those thoughts veer to redemption as we find some way back to a Delray we love, with shared history and a purpose that serves us all.

FIVE (MORE) THINGS I LOVE ABOUT DELRAY

[ 1 ] The Delray Beach Open [ 2 ] The endless menu (with pictures) at Furin [ 3 ] Christina’s for breakfast [ 4 ] An early morning walk at Wakodahatchee Wetlands [ 5 ] Charlene Farrington and the Spady Museum