Politics – Page 19 – West Boca News

US-441 Improvements Coming?

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is working on plans to improve US-441 (State Road 7). They’re looking specifically at the stretch from Glades Road in West Boca down to Sample Road in Broward County. FDOT is making a presentation to the Palm Beach County Metropolitan Planning Organization on Thursday at 9 am, which is considering whether to endorse the plan:

The plan recommends (in bureaucratic language of course):

Context Sensitive Alternative with multimodal solutions
– Bicycle and pedestrian facilities
– Transit stop infrastructure and access improvements
– Intersection improvements to improve traffic flow
Transportation systems management and operations (TSM&O) initiatives
– Traffic signal system operations
– Traveler information and incident management
– Transit service and operations

A lot of the discussion deals with “transit” which is another word for buses. Palm Tran and BCT (Broward County Transit) are mentioned by name in the document we reviewed.

The biggest change we see in pictures like the one above are the “Premium Bus Stop.” While much of the focus is on transit, there are some minor intersection improvements in the conversation, and most are in West Boca. This may be a smaller part of the document but it looks like a much bigger chunk of money.

The plans would add or expand turn lanes at Marina (SW 18th), Sandalfoot, Judge Winikoff, Palmetto Park, Boca Woods, and Glades Road. Some of these make little sense to us. For example, the plan says to “add a westbound right-turn lane” at Palmetto Park Road. There is already a long right-turn lane there and we’ve never seen it back up.

The proposal to add a “westbound left-turn lane” at Boca Woods Lane makes even less sense. Boca Woods Lane, by that name, sits entirely west of 441. The east side, where a westbound left-turn lane would be, is named N Central Park Blvd. That’s the loop that serves West Boca Medical Center. It already has a left-turn lane.

Adding a westbound turn lane at Sandalfoot would probably require a bridge upgrade, which we mentioned before is in the works.
The most important change mentioned is increasing storage capacity for the southbound left-turn lanes on 441 at Glades. These back up quite a bit, though we don’t see a lot of room for that because of the northbound left turn lane into Mission Bay Plaza.

Other plans include:

Traffic Signal System Operation
• Signal coordination through jurisdictional boundaries n Adaptive signal timing
• Peak period arterial progression
• Dynamic signal timing
Information and Incident Management
• Incident and emergency management
•Traveler information systems
Transit
• Transit information system
• Transit signal priority/Queue jump

Most of it again sounds like efforts to improve busing, such as signs to provide updates on transit information (such as how far away the next bus is). Others may not appreciate giving buses priority on traffic signals.
For the next five years transit improvements will be limited to traffic signals and signs for bus status updates. There’s also talk of creating a hub at West Boca Medical Center to connect Palm Tran and BCT, as well as upgrading bus stops.
If all goes ahead as planned the intersection improvements would start about five years from now.
The project website is SR7Mobility.com. For the document that was provided to us by FDOT and that will be used for Thursday morning’s meeting, click the following link for the SR7-US-441 pdf file.

Peggy Rowe-Linn: Judge Candidate

We had the pleasure this morning to meet Peggy Rowe-Linn, a candidate for Circuit Court Judge in Palm Beach County. The election is on August 26th and there are two other candidates on the ballot for the seat in “Group 30.” We previously wrote about Jessica Ticktin, who is running for a different seat.
Ms. Rowe-Linn grew up in West Palm Beach and runs her own law practice there focusing on family law, Peggy Rowe-Linn, P.A. We had a pleasant and wide-ranging conversation. She struck me as open-minded and very experienced as an attorney.
She is board-certified in marital and family law, a status that some consider a sign of expertise, ethics and civility. While we don’t think it’s that important, it is a positive sign. In a long career she has also touched on just about every other area of law she might encounter in Circuit Court. That kind of breadth can also be helpful.
One thing we look for in a lawyer is story-telling ability. If you’re not good at telling stories, how are you going to talk to juries? And if you don’t have any stories, you haven’t really been in court that much. Ms. Rowe-Linn is great in this area. It’s obvious she’s been in a lot of courtrooms and dealt with a lot of clients, judges and lawyers.
Rowe-Linn is loaded with other credentials including memberships in various bar associations, community service, awards and honors. She does real pro bono work to help people in need rather than buy her way out of it.
We’ve reached out to the other two candidates in the race, and will be happy to interview them if they’d like. Judicial races aren’t always interesting but it looks like we’ll have two campaigns this year that could provide a bit more drama.

Massage Arrests Fell Asia O

Boca Raton Police made three arrests on Friday accusing the O’Asian Massage Spa of prostitution.

The arrestees include Xiaoqin Li, Exian Zheng and Yan Lin. The police say they were tipped off by a complaint.
We did our own investigation and found that the spa listed on some websites that might suggest they offer more than just a massage.
On WestPalmBeach.BackPage.com, we found some pictures that look more sexy than massage oriented.

These young women above look quite a bit younger than the three who were arrested, so perhaps the misleading ads motivated a complaint.

The investigative report indicates that the ad had more suggestive pictures in the past.
But the bigger hint was the listing for erotic massage on RubMap.com.
When you have fifty reviews on a website that has “happy ending” in the top left corner (dare we say the header?), there’s a good chance something naughty is going on. The police also reviewed the RubMaps listing.

Perhaps more disturbing is the lengths to which Boca PD went in order to pull off this sting. From the 12-page report we reviewed the investigation took a year or longer and dates back to a complaint allegedly made over two years ago. Twelve customers were subjected to traffic stops from June of last year through May of this year. Surveillance of the business began in January of 2013.
They went so far as to get a warrant to secretly install cameras inside the massage parlor and filmed the massages. It isn’t as though these kinds of services are that bad compared to other crimes. Why do people always focus on the https://www.escortdirectory.com/escorts-stuttgart-201 services or other sexual matters?
When you consider what went into this investigation, all to charge three women with non-violent offenses, you begin to understand why there aren’t enough resources in South Florida to arrest and prosecute violent criminals.
O’Asian Massage Spa is (or was) located on the northeast corner of St. Andrews and Glades, which is in the looser definitions of West Boca:

Following on a reader request, here is the Complaint Affidavit.

David Lipsic

Warning: This article contains coarse language.
David Lipsic does not like West Boca News. It’s unavoidable when you publish anything that you will encounter someone who doesn’t like what you put out there.
We see this in two ways. Some people contact us politely. Others are rude. Mr. David Lipsic falls into the latter category.
Two of our arrest articles include someone he cares about. He approached us in an aggressive manner and it hasn’t gotten better. Here’s how it started back in January:

You should consider who’s pictures and what information you put on your FB Page. Their are family members, friends, and privacy issues you should seriously consider. Some people who get arrested are not hardened criminals. They might have substance abuse issues or mental health issues that should stay within their families and protect their personal privacy.
You mentioned [omitted] in this article, who in fact has a substance abuse issues. One could only hope you have the same issue in your family so you can see what it does to a family privately let alone on a FB page.
Shame on you!

Lipsic suggests there should be some standard we use to decide whose pictures and what information get published. He’s never clear but when you dig into all of his messages it becomes apparent that his standard is that his family and friends should be exempt from crime reporting.
When Lipsic’s connection appeared in a recent article, he was back for more:

I am not going to ask your newspaper to stop posting things about [omitted] again. This is now the 2nd time that I have “politely” asked you guys to remove articles about her. I also don’t understand how you guys feel her arrest and history of her arrests or other individuals drug arrests are neighborhood news. I can only wish that you get to experience the heartbreak addiction can bring to a family and then have it publicized in a newspaper article and on a Facebook page. So for the last time, please remove your article about her otherwise I will seek other means of ceasing this article from both print and social media.

This is twice now that his approach is to wish ill upon us, that we should experience the heartbreak of addiction or mental health issues in our family (as if we haven’t already). He also shows his deliberate ignorance of us by referring to “print and social media.” We have no print version. We’re online only.
But now he raised it to another level: “I will seek other means.” That, dear readers, sounds like a threat.
When we asked what he meant by other means, he responded with this:

That’s your response? A shitty small town newspaper makes that response! Fascinating. Do you sleep well at night?

David Lipsic is an Olympic Heights graduate and currently lives in New York City. And yes folks, he just referred to West Boca, the place where we all live, as “a shitty small town.” He also again refers to us as a newspaper.
It gets worse. Here come more insults:

It’s sad that a supposed criminal defense attorney and ambulance chaser that doesn’t have a successful enough practice and needs to write for the West Boca news because he isn’t good enough to be a journalist for a relevant publication either

And we see Lipsic’s journalistic standards again in the next attack:

I’m not the one pretending to be a journalist. I didn’t think your punk ass would actually want to do journalism. I know your type. Punk ass little bitch. The funny thing is you have to go thru life know what a punk ass you are.
Now take her out of your article! Because you are offending me and my family.

If it offends him and his family, it shouldn’t be published. It’s okay for the media to cover other arrestees. Just not David Lipsic’s family. It’s the little known Lipsic exception to the First Amendment.
At this point I’d had enough. I sent the following to Mr. Lipsic:

Stop sending me messages.

His response was classic for an abusive personality:

If you haven’t noticed no one cares that you are a lawyer. When she comes out of the article I will stop messaging you trust me. Until then I will do all in my power for it to come down.

We’ve been through this before with others. West Boca News does not take kindly to rudeness, name-calling and threats. We respond better to politeness.
In this case it wouldn’t have mattered. One of our standards is that people who have multiple arrests are more newsworthy. We might be willing to remove a first offender in some circumstances.
Our regular readers know that we oppose the so-called War on Drugs. Prohibition failed with alcohol and drug prohibition is no different. We have been outspoken critics of this terrible policy for roughly 15 years.
We have no problem with Mr. Lipsic’s family member. She should not have been arrested. There is a real problem with the criminal justice system in Palm Beach County and South Florida. Violent criminals are treated too lightly because the courts, prosecutors and police are too busy with cases that should not be treated as crimes.
As for David Lipsic, we can only hope he learns from this experience. But sadly we doubt he will.

Questions About Marc Bell's $35M Woodfield House

The somewhat notorious Marc Bell is selling his house in West Boca’s Woodfield Country Club. Listed in May for a whopping thirty-five million dollars (yes, that’s $35,000,000), the story got national media attention from Forbes and Business Insider.
The media frenzy jumps on Bell’s connection to Penthouse Magazine, which he was involved with for roughly five years out of a career of thirty to forty years. They also froth at the house having a “Star Trek” room.
There are a couple of pieces to the story we think are more interesting. First, if you’re going to list a house for $35M in West Boca, your realtor’s “map location” should probably show the correct place rather than a spot a few miles into the ocean east of Hallandale Beach.

The correct location for the house is actually within Woodfield Country Club, just north of Yamato and east of the Turnpike:

Second and more serious, as taxpayers many of our readers might be curious why a $35M house is appraised at only $6 million. County tax records show that the appraisal and taxes have been going down significantly in the last few years.

If the house was assessed at a more accurate but still conservative $30 million, the county would be receiving an extra $500K or so in additional tax revenue from Mr. Bell. That would mean either more services from county government, or the rest of us might pay a little less. One wonders how many other fat cats are getting huge tax breaks leaving those of us in Boca’s middle class (or as the rest of the world might call us, “the moderately wealthy”) picking up the tab.