Warren Redlich – Page 302

Late April Arrest Report

Here’s the late April (and early May) arrest report for West Boca Raton. Remember, they’re all innocent until proven guilty.
Also, we are working on a research project and want to assure people of something: West Boca has a slightly lower crime rate than East Boca, and both have much lower crime rates than the county average.

Alexander Toohey (top left, 26) was arrested on Monday the 28th for “hit and run” and failing to remain at the scene of a crash involving an injury, which is a felony in Florida. He received a ticket for improper lane change from the same incident. The Spanish River grad’s court history in Palm Beach County is limited to a few tickets from 2005 to 2007. His reported address is in the Paseos of Boca off Powerline. Toohey was released after about 12 hours in custody.
We haven’t found much more about Mr. Toohey but he did make a pretty interesting YouTube video:

Andres Garcia (top center, 29) was arrested Wednesday night for driving with a suspended license and possession of drug equipment. It’s unusual to see a drug equipment charge without also seeing a drug charge. Mr. Garcia appeared in our mid-April arrest report on a felony larceny arrest, and had another felony larceny arrest in 2011 that was reduced to a misdemeanor with a short jail sentence. His reported address is just south of Logger’s Run Park. He is still in jail pending $6000 bond.
Christopher Williams (top right, 29) was booked early Thursday morning on a DUI charge, though it does not show up in the court system yet. His reported address in the Mission Bay townhouses near the IHOP, and we see no criminal history for him. He was released a few hours later.
Ben Ohana (bottom left, 18) was arrested Tuesday for battery and released the next day. His reported address is in Sonoma Lake Estates behind Somerset Shoppes. This kid really seems to enjoy life:

This is the only case we see for him in the county court system, and it’s being treated as domestic violence. He was released the next day.
Sean Heffernan (bottom center, 51) was booked early Wednesday morning on a battery charge which is being treated as a domestic violence incident. His reported address is in the trailers off Sandalfoot, and he appears to like fire trucks and motorcycles. His local court record is clear other than a very recent ticket for driving with a suspended license, but Broward shows a few including a couple of felony charges back in 2006 and a domestic violence case in 2002.
Just a few doors down from Heffernan, “Micheal” Ferreira (bottom right, 47) was booked early Wednesday for battery and released about 8 hours later. His case does not show up in the court system, and the only history we see (under the name Michael) is a minor traffic case in 2013 that was dismissed.

In an unusual case, Bonnie Suglio (left, 59) of Country Landing II in Loggers’ Run was arrested Monday the 28th on a civil contempt of court charge and has not been released yet. This appears to arise out of a civil Marchman Act proceeding brought by her sons in November to force her into drug or alcohol treatment, and a judge’s order finding she failed to comply with a court order from early April.
Lul Lagalante (2nd from left, 52) of Sandalfoot Cove was arrested Wednesday for check fraud, and released on $3000 bond the same day. The offense allegedly took place in mid-December, and the delay suggests the prosecution may have a problem.
Kristen Lausten (2nd from right, 42) of Escondido off Lyons, was arrested Thursday morning for simple assault, a very minor charge. We’re puzzled that it took over 24 hours to release her. The case is in domestic violence court. Her court history is limited to a few traffic cases.
Jason Lotterman (right, 34) was arrested for loitering or prowling, booked early Friday morning and released only a few hours later. His reported address is in Wind Drift off Camino Real near Military Trail. We see no history for him and the charge is an awfully vague one that will likely be dismissed.

Hobby Lobby Update and Michael's

West Boca News consulted with an industry insider about the soon-to-open Hobby Lobby in West Boca. It will be in West Boca Square, the plaza on the northwest corner of 441 and Palmetto, with Target, Burger King and Chili’s, replacing the Beall’s that closed this past summer.

We asked the insider (who preferred to remain anonymous) about the impact of Hobby Lobby on the Michael’s store in Somerset Shoppes (northeast corner of Glades and Lyons). She said the new Hobby Lobby will destroy that Michael’s for a few reasons.
First, the Hobby Lobby’s location will cut into nearly all of Michael’s customer base west of 441, as well as much of their business west of Lyons.
Second, the Hobby Lobby will be twice as large as the Michael’s store, so the selection will be better. Note that we previously reported the Hobby Lobby would be 78,000 square feet. We had that wrong. Hobby Lobby said in a press release that the store would be 52,000 square feet, which is still more than twice the size of the Michael’s. The property appraiser lists the building at 78,000 square feet so we’re not sure what’s happening with the extra space.
Third, the Hobby Lobby will be newer and that naturally draws customers. Our insider said she’s seen Hobby Lobby in other states and they do very well.
She did offer one caveat. Hobby Lobby has restricted hours, closed on Sundays and open only until 8 pm the rest of the week. She feels that will leave some business for Michael’s, but probably not enough to survive.
West Boca News thinks there are two other challenges for Hobby Lobby that may help Michael’s survive. Michael’s has been in that location for a while and has some local customer loyalty to rely on. Meanwhile Hobby Lobby has had some rough spots recently with the Jewish community and with political liberals over their Obamacare lawsuit. Both are substantial parts of the West Boca market.

Black arrow points to new Hobby Lobby; Red points to Michael's. — Arrows point to new Hobby Lobby (lower left) and to Michael’s (upper right).

Sidewalk Sale at Fresh Market to Benefit JDRF

The Fresh Market at 20409 S. State Road 7 is hosting its Annual Sidewalk Sale to benefit Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) on Friday, May 16th through Sunday, May 18th. There will be hamburgers, hot dogs, root beer floats, ice cream and soda for sale. The Fresh Market donates all of the food/beverages and 100% of the proceeds to the JDRF.
Volunteers are needed to help serve food and collect donations. The Fresh Market also has stores at 100 Camino Real and 1727 S. Federal Highway in Delray Beach. For more information, call 561-801-7273.

Hyperlocal, Google Analytics, and Odd Cities

Here we are building a “hyperlocal” website and we notice this weird thing in our Google Analytics data. Why are we getting so much traffic from Sky Lake?
In the image above you can see that our traffic is pretty concentrated in the Boca Raton area, but there are a couple of obvious outliers. The top arrow points to a concentration in Sky Lake, a place we did not recognize, a three hour drive away near Orlando, with a population of only 6000 people. The lower arrow points to Hialeah, which is larger and closer (about an hour drive), but still doesn’t make a lot of sense for reading news about what’s happening in West Boca Raton.
When you look at our top ten cities (below) there’s a third one that doesn’t quite fit – Davie. It’s closer but still odd.

For readers unfamiliar with our area, five of the other seven “cities” are in Boca Raton. Parkland is just south of us, and Delray Beach is just to the north. Many people in those communities work in or frequently visit Boca Raton. So they still fit our natural audience.
After spending some time looking through our Analytics data, we figured out what’s going on. At first we obsessed about Sky Lake and noticed that a company named Omniture has significant operations there. Since they’re in online marketing and web analytics, we thought maybe they were running bots onto our site. We checked to see who the service provider was and we saw another thing that confused us:

What the heck is “service provider corporation?” We’re used to seeing cell phone company names or cable providers. Jeffalytics describes it as a “United States based provider of IP Addresses to various phone providers.”
Phone providers? That led us to the answer, or at least a partial answer. We looked at “device category” as the secondary dimension while looking at the Sky Lake in Google Analytics.

Aha! 97% of the users from Sky Lake are on mobile, 2.5% on tablets, and only 0.23% are on desktop. Overall 60% of our site users are on mobile, 10% on tablets and 30% on desktop, so this is a huge difference. Sky Lake is apparently a hub for some unknown group of mobile device users.
We found somewhat similar numbers for Hialeah and Davie:

Davie is close enough that some people there probably do commute into Boca for work, and/or some Boca residents may work there. That would explain why their desktop numbers are a little higher.
Boca Raton is in Palm Beach County and our area code is 561. A lot of people in Boca Raton have cell phone numbers with area codes from Broward County (954 and 754) or Miami-Dade County (305 and 786). They may have lived in those counties in the past, and some may live there but work in Boca. Davie is in Broward and might be a common city used by cell phone companies for phone lines that were set up in Broward. Similarly Hialeah is in Miami-Dade and the same logic would apply.
Sky Lake still seems odd. What might explain it is that Palm Beach County used to be in the 407 area code. The 561 area code was created in 1996. So it’s possible that a significant number of Boca Raton residents somehow retained phones with 407 area codes. That explanation doesn’t feel right because we encounter very few people with 407 area codes. But we don’t have a better explanation for it.
This detail creates a problem for those of us trying to build hyperlocal websites. Part of the business model is to sell local advertisers on how well targeted our website is to the very local audience they want to reach. When we show them analytics data (whether from Google Analytics or other tools) these odd cities weaken our pitch. Hopefully this article will help other hyperlocal webmasters explain the data, and if you are looking to get certified in Google Analytics, you might want to take a google analytics certification practice test first.

Boca Raton Restaurant Inspections for April

We reviewed April restaurant inspections for Palm Beach County relying on TCPalm. There weren’t that many for West Boca Raton so we included East Boca Raton and a couple others.

For previous restaurant inspection reports: Late March, Early March, February, and early 2014.

Here’s what we found in April:
Zero Violations
West Boca

Villa Rosano, Clint Moore and 441
Brendy’s Ice Cream & Yogurt at Lakeridge
Kagura Sushi, 5030 Champion Blvd.
Manhattan Joe’s Pizzeria, 5030 Champion Blvd
East Boca
Five Guys, 2240 NW 19th St.
Pasta Fever on Federal Highway
Souvlaki Fast on NE 2nd Street
Jimmy John’s at 861 Yamato
Pita Loco, 1320 NW Boca Raton Blvd
Rebel House, 297-299 E. Palmetto Park Road
16 Handles at 1400 Glades
Pita Pit, 2200 Glades
Nino’s of Boca II, 1930 NE 5th Ave
Crystal Cafe, 2500 Military Trail
Gourmet to You Cafe, 4920 Conference Way South
Mutual of America Cafeteria, 1150 Broken Sound Parkway
Wyndham Hotel, 1950 Glades
Cinemark Palace 20
Deck 84 in Delray Beach (included because it’s prominent)
Honorable Mention: Two or fewer violations with zero high priority
West Boca
Monkey Joe’s in Loggers Run Plaza
El Jefe Luchador, 6000 Glades
La Luna, 5030 Champion Blvd. (was inspected two days later and had zero violations)
Mizner Country Club had three inspections, two with zero violations and one with two minor ones.
East Boca
Subway at 7531 N. Federal Highway
Deans Anthony’s Express Pizza at 1449 Yamato
Griddle, 475 Spanish River Blvd
Funky Buddha on Federal Highway
Amitie Cafe at 301 Yamato
Sanctuary Cafe at 4800 Federal Highway
Skyview Cafe, 2424 Federal Highway
Boca Raton City Library Cafe
Worst

Arturo’s on Federal Highway: 19 violations including 6 “high priority”

Renzo’s Cafe Pizzeria, 6900 N Federal Highway: 17 violations and a stop-sale and follow-up inspection required
Nick’s New Haven Style Pizzeria, 2240 NW 19th St: 17 violations with 3 high priority
Sushi Masa, 2200 Glades: 16 violations including 3 high priority
Josephine’s Italian, 5751 N Federal Highway: 15 violations with multiple repeat violations and follow-up inspection required
Grille on Congress, 5101 Congress: 14 violations including 4 high priority
Kapow Noodle Bar, 431 Plaza Real (Mizner Park): 14 violations with 5 high priority
Sushi Rock on NW 51st St.: 13 violations including 5 high priority
Mikey’s Hot Dog & Pizza: 13 violations including 5 high priority — We were unable to confirm this one with the official state database. We tried calling and the phone number was not in service. We called a neighboring business which confirmed that they did close.
Stir Crazy, 6000 Glades Road (Town Center): 12 violations (most were corrected on site)
Villagio, 344 Plaza Real (Mizner Park): 12 violations with 3 high priority
Sonny’s Gelato Cafe, 2151 N Federal Highway: 11 violations with 3 high priority with a stop sale and a follow-up required
Cuban Cafe, 3350 NW 2nd Ave: 11 violations with 5 high priority
Sakura Thai & Japanese, 2201 Federal Highway: 11 violations
Dishonorable Mention
Atrium Financial Center, 1515 N. Federal Highway: 10 violations with 4 high priority
The Irishmen, 1739 NW 2nd Ave.: 10 violations
Original Italian Pizza, 3731 FAU Blvd: 10 violations with 3 high priority, and a history of poor inspections:

Jerry’s Pizza, 2001 NW 2nd Ave.: 10 violations with 3 high priority

Chili’s (West Boca, NW corner of Palmetto & 441): 9 violations with 2 high priority
Pinon Grill, 6000 Glades: 9 violations with 4 high priority
Pavilion Grille at 301 Yamato: 9 violations with 4 high priority (all violations were corrected on site)
Abe & Louie’s at 2200 Glades: 9 violations with 4 high priority
Embassy Suite, NW 53rd St: 9 violations with 6 high priority
Other inspections of note:
Flakowitz, 1999 N Federal Highway had only 3 violations, all corrected on site. The biggest problem was the “matza balls” weren’t hot enough at only 117º. Seriously?

Blue Martini at 6000 Glades (Town Center) had only 3 violations, all corrected on site. Grand Lux there had 5.

Hooters at 2240 NW 19th had 5 violations. This will discourage exactly zero men from going there.
Corner Bakery in the same plaza had 6 violations. C R Chicks there had 4. Gyroville had only 2.
Shake Shack at 1400 Glades had 4 violations. In the same plaza J. Alexander’s also had 4 violations including 3 high priority ones that were corrected on site. Mario’s Osteria there had 7 – we ate there 10 days later and really enjoyed our meal.
Trulucks in Mizner Park had only 4 violations, with one high priority.

Tanzy at Mizner Park (with the iPic) had 7 violations including 2 high priority. The iPic Theaters had only 3 violations.
Sloan’s in Mizner (the ice cream and candy place) had one high priority violation (live small flying insects in food storage area) and no others.
Le Rivage on NW 20th had only four minor violations.
Tomasso’s Pizzeria, 1229 W. Palmetto Park, had 8 violations.
Bluefin Sushi & Thai, 861 Yamato, had 8 violations, all minor. A complaint inspection was just filed today showing only 5 violations.
Millers Ale House at 1200 Yamato also had 8 violations. Palm Beach Bagel in the same plaza had 7 – we had breakfast there a few weeks later and it was good.
Strikes @ Boca (the bowling alley) had only 4 minor violations.
The Muse on Beracasa Way had 7 violations, all minor.

For previous restaurant inspection reports: Late March, Early March, February, and early 2014.