Top West Boca Stories for 2015

It has been an interesting year in West Boca. Here are some of the biggest stories we saw.
1. Old Business and New Business
We’ve seen a lot of new businesses opening, and that’s good news for the local economy.

Our favorite new business is Boca Black Box, a “comedy theater” in Piccadilly Square (behind the Dunkin Donuts on Glades near Boca Rio). It’s not just new. It’s different. Along with that, the plaza also opened Armadillo Cafe. Now if you want to do something special for an evening, you don’t have to leave West Boca.
Walgreens opened in a new larger outbuilding in Shadowood Square. Shadowood also saw the addition of Lime Fresh Mexican Grill.
On the south side of Glades at the corner with 441, the Westwinds of Boca plaza added a new building. The story began in 2014 but the building didn’t open for business until well into 2015, and is still waiting for the 5th occupant to open. Pei Wei has opened and appears to be doing well. And it appears that a Benihana may be coming very soon to the building behind that, which used to be a Denny’s.
The big news in Mission Bay, from yesterday, is that Toys R Us is closing and Dick’s Sporting Goods will open in its place, sometime in 2016.
There was an odd closing and reopening of the Western Beef in Sandalfoot Square. We never learned a sound explanation for this one. Around the same time, ALDI opened in West Boca Square (the Target plaza).
We’re big fans of Sweet Dewey’s BBQ. As we reported earlier this month they are expanding and changing their name to Boca’s Best BBQ & Smokehouse. We’re not sure when the name change will be official or when the larger space will open, but it should be very soon.
Dunkin Donuts is coming soon to Loggers’ Run plaza. The Players Edge indoor baseball place closed. There’s a new art studio for kids, and a FitRX gym coming soon. The Wendy’s underwent remodeling in the spring.
Also in Loggers’ Run, behind the plaza, a new assisted living facility will be built. The work is under way.
Another assisted living facility has been proposed at Clint Moore and 441, and the animal shelter on Boca Rio is looking to expand.
We had fun making a nice video at Stella’s Pizzeria, below:

2. Year of the Coyote

2015 could be called the Year of the Coyote.  Our biggest article on the subject was about whether you can shoot a coyote. We also covered a meeting at Boca Winds conducted by the Fish & Wildlife Commission.
On Facebook one of our biggest posts was when a coyote took a small dog, Lola, in late May when she was outside with her owner. A larger dog was attacked by a coyote in July, also in Boca Winds. We also reposted a video of a coyote there.
There were coyote sightings in Meadow Lakes, Boca Winds and Lexington Estates, Palmetto Pines, and we also remember sightings reported in Boca Falls and Loggers’ Run. Our biggest Facebook video of the year was of a coyote in Boca Winds.
Eventually there was some success in trapping coyotes and the problem faded away, either because of the trapping or possibly for other reasons.
3. Restaurant Inspections

Restaurant inspection reports have become very popular with our readers. We were doing these on a sporadic, rotating basis, covering West Boca, East Boca, and “Near Boca” in separate articles. Now we do them all together in weekly reports. The most-read one of the year was about roaches at the La Bamba in Margate.
Other restaurants hit with bad inspections included:

• Boca’s Best Pizza in East Boca – Closed by rodent and roach droppings.
• Odyssey Diner on Jog in Delray Beach – 58 violations!
• Villagio and Stir Crazy both closed for roaches and/or rodents.
• Cabo Flats in Delray Marketplace
• Most recently a Brooklyn Water Bagel in Delray had repeat rodent closings and closed for “remodeling.”

The good news is that the worst inspections stories of the year seemed to focus on restaurants outside of West Boca. Maybe our coverage pushes West Boca restaurants to be more careful.
4. Dead Bodies and Deaths

Sadly we had a few big stories related to deaths. The biggest in terms of most readers was a body found hanging near Loggers’ Run in an apparent suicide. Others included:

• Just a couple weeks ago we reported on a Shooting at Shadowood. That incident led to one local private school to go into lockdown, and provoked significant concern from readers. It turned out to be another suicide.
• In March an Olympic Heights graduate passed away in a jet ski accident in South County Regional Park.
• Another West Boca man died in May when his pickup burst into flames after hitting a tree in Deerfield Beach.
• A dead body was also found on the edge of a canal near the Saturnia neighborhood in May. As far as we know this one has not been solved.
• And a couple weeks before that a woman’s body was found near Delray Marketplace. An arrest was made in that case.
• Also in May, a young man died after what was described as a high-speed car crash on Glades Road.

5. Crime Stories

We used to do more arrest stories but we cut down on that during the year. Still, a few of these stories drew a lot of attention. The biggest was when this author, Warren Redlich, was arrested in Coral Gables while challenging a checkpoint. The traffic case coming out of that is still pending and a federal lawsuit is about to be filed.
Other crime stories that were popular included two cases where one teen and then another from The Oaks were arrested for battery in separate, unrelated incidents.
There was a mysterious incident in Mission Bay in June where police appeared to arrest two people.
And back in February there was a big drug bust in West Sandalfoot, aka Watergate Estates.
6. School News
Unfortunately some of the biggest school news stories were unflattering. We did a story on disparities between schools on AP exams that drew a lot of attention.
West Boca High was hit with a plagiarism scandal leading to the principal leaving. On the bright side the school has a new principal and a new performing arts academy too. And the school band was invited to participate in the London New Year’s Day Parade (they’re in London now).
Spanish River High buried a time capsule. Unfortunately the school got substantial local press for fights that were captured on video and spread through social media. Here’s one of the videos, a brawl in the Regency Square parking lot:

Olympic Heights has added a Marine JROTC program. The school did a cancer fundraiser in May and one of the school groups volunteered to help out at the Purple Stride cancer event at Sunset Cove Amphitheater. They also had a Trunk or Treat event for Halloween.
On the negative side, complaints about problems with the Olympic Heights air conditioning system date back years and are ongoing. There were issues with school buses throughout the county and we heard the most complaints about it from OH.
Below is a list of top articles on WestBocaNews.com from 2015, as measured by “Jetpack Site Stats”