August 2012
Volume 5 Issue 8
Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream, Coastal Delray Beach, Highland Beach and Coastal Boca Raton
Along the Coast
Boca Raton
Keeping an eye out for the president
Council proposes 10.5 percent tax increase
Security atop the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan keeps a lookout (above) as crowds wait for President Obama to pass (below). Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett The recent years of low or no tax increases appear to be over in Boca Raton. City Manager Leif Ahnell proposed that property owners pay $3.66 per $1,000 of taxable value for the coming budget year, up 4.3 percent from this year’s $3.51 rate. “Remember, this is the maximum. You can always lower it in September but you can’t increase it beyond this,” Ahnell said, adding that his rate would provide $250,000 for security at the presidential debate in October as well as money to reopen Spanish River Park on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and to operate a new, larger library downtown. But council member Michael Mullaugh persuaded the council to add 17 cents to Ahnell’s proposal. “It gives us some room if we were to decide to fund something more than what the city manager comes up with in a budget,” he said. “We need to have some flexibility to look at things.” The council July 10 voted 5-0 to adopt Mullaugh’s $3.83 rate. Mullaugh said he hoped the final budget would require even See BOCA TAX on page 13
A political buzz and a (mostly) profitable swarm
By Tim O’Meilia Four things learned from last month’s visit of President Obama and Vice President Biden: 1. Waiting onlookers and reporters like pizza, ice cream and cinnamon-nut French toast. 2. Roped-off parking lots mean no parking meter revenue and no beachfront breakfast crowd. 3. No school buses parked noseto-tail were harmed during the presidential and vice-presidential visits.
4. You can get from Manalapan to the Palm Beach International Airport in 17 minutes even if the bridge is out — if you’ve got a Secret Service escort. President Barack Obama’s motorcade didn’t buzz up to the Ritz-Carlton’s back door until after 9:30 p.m. July 19, giving well-wishers and television news crews hours of milling-around time in the Plaza del Mar shopping center at the corner of Ocean Avenue and State Road A1A. “It was the best night we’ve had since we opened,” beamed Dean
Summer Arts Artist sees flourishing gallery off the beaten path By Mary Jane Fine DELRAY BEACH —Vincent Cacace envisions the future of Artists Alley as if it were a canvas awaiting his brush. The colors. The shapes. The blocking. This is how it can be: “I see that as a gallery, at the end,” he says, pointing down the alleyway to a vacant building. “And there’s a guy who wants to open a café down there, and he’d hang the artists’ paintings on his walls.’’ Cacace foresees bamboo plantings — the purple variety, 70 feet tall — and a butterfly garden where, now, there are only grass and shrubs. And a mural, a stylized wave, on the side of that concrete structure,
Ismajli, who opened his second Lantana II Pizza two months ago in the Plaza courtyard. The restaurant wrote 227 order tickets that night. Ismajli suspected the Secret Service had been reconnoitering the plaza for several weeks. “Well-dressed, clean-cut, big,” he said, flexing his shoulders and arms. “They won’t tell you (who they were) but you could pretty much tell.” Around the corner, the Ice Cream Club didn’t have a Rocky Road to See PRESIDENT on page 10
Trolley takes enthusiasts on art-oriented tour By Ron Hayes
Vincent Cacace shows off artwork to Anne Walsh. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star the one festooned with mildew drippings. That little red-and-grey-brick pocket-park, across the way, the one the city built? That’ll be a sculpture park. See DELRAY BEACH on page 14
Hot deals!
It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy — on the wallet. Check out these bargains at local hotels and restaurants. Page 25
BOYNTON BEACH —Shortly after 5 p.m. on July 19, a Molly’s Trolley carrying about 35 enthusiastic men and women left Cuthill’s Backyard restaurant on Northeast Fourth Street and went in search of art. They found it where you’d expect to find art — colorful galleries in a shopping plaza, tiny strip malls along Federal Highway. And then they found it where you’d least expect art — an industrial district off Boynton Beach Boulevard, just west of I-95, just north of Lloyd’s See BOYNTON BEACH on page 14
Around Town
Big names, big business and lots of burgers. Page 8
Meet Your Neighbor
The Morikami’s longtime former director has changed his focus, but not his passion for making a difference. Page 34
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