Boca Falls – Monuments

The Boca Falls HOA had a meeting tonight to consider a “special assessment” to fund new monuments for the development. The monuments stand at the entrance to each subdivision within the community. A picture of the proposed monument is below:

The board and the landscape committee have been looking at this idea for about four years. The proposal is to assess each home $250 for the project.
The meeting was well attended with about thirty people. The video below shows an early part. A few more people showed up afterward.
Boca Falls HOA Meeting
Members of the audience expressed concern. Some seemed angry, both due to the difficult economy, and due to what seems like a large expense.
Several spoke up in favor, saying that $250 is a small amount. Others felt that the total project cost ($734,000) works out to $1000 per home, most of which comes out of the budget or reserves.
There are 5 houses in foreclosures and a total of 40-45 that are in some legal status. These are more likely not to pay the assessment and that was factored in.
Some of the audience didn’t understand that many decisions were made over the course of four years and residents had an opportunity to comment at many meetings along the way.
The sense of the board appears to be that the monuments and associated landscaping need to be redone to preserve or restore the community’s status as the premiere neighborhood in West Boca.
I have to say that even though I personally disagree with the decision, the board obviously put a lot of time and effort into this and appear to be doing what the community wants.

Chamber Breakfast

About 50 people attended for a West Boca Chamber breakfast meeting. Upcoming chamber events include a Women in Business luncheon (men apparently not welcome) on May 16th at Boca Greens Country Club, and an After Hours Networking event at the Jimmy the Greek Taverna on May 24th at 5:30 pm. Also notable is the October 5th golf tournament to be held starting at 1 pm at Boca Greens.

Judges Ron Alvarez and James Martz led the pledge of allegiance. Both are running for reelection in August. Apparently someone doesn’t like Judge Martz, but we suspect that’s just sour grapes. Alvarez has some competition for his seat, according to WPTV, but the last name Goodman isn’t going to help at the moment. For more on the judicial race, see this article in the Palm Beach Post.
Attendees introduced themselves to the room, describing briefly what they do. The attendees were a wide array including attorneys (many attorneys), accountants, insurance, investment and real estate professionals, candidates, contractors and so on.
Next meeting will have meteorologist Kate Parker. I did not hear the date and it’s not on their website.
Capt. Eisenberg reports an increase in car break-ins and residential burglaries.
Don’t leave anything in your car. The criminals seem to target shopping plazas during the day and your driveway at night.
Put your alarm on during the day. This appears to be a quasi-professional organized effort going on all over South Florida. Call the police if you see something suspicious.
Rep. Steve Perman spoke about the state legislature. He described four major issues during the past session, including the budget, redistricting, destination gambling, and insurance reform.
The new District 81 will be entirely within Palm Beach County, mostly west.
Destination Gambling: Perman discussed the pros and cons. The proposal did not have enough support and was withdrawn.
Budget: State budgeting now tends to push costs down to the counties.
Perman opposes cuts to education, including taking $350 million from Bright Futures.
Insurance Reform: Citizens Insurance program is oversubscribed. Private carriers leaving Florida. Majority solution was to move people into “surplus lines” that are based in other states, using an opt-out approach. Opposition wanted opt-in. The measure did not go through.
Perman suggests encouraging carriers in other places to do business here but wasn’t completely clear how that would work.
Change in PIP. Reduction in PIP benefits for most claimants from $10K to $2500. Turns on whether patient seeks emergent care, not including chiropractors (Perman is a chiropractor), podiatrists and a couple other fields. The part that reduces premiums was removed.
Your correspondent asked: Would you cut spending or raise taxes?
Perman criticized a corporate tax deduction for contributions to private schools. He later admitted this would not be enough money to cover the amount he wants to spend.
He spoke at length about philosophy but did not answer the question of where he would cut or where he would add taxes.
He spoke philosophically asserted that government services are more transparent and accountable than private services (like schools). A couple attendees groaned in disagreement.
There was a good discussion about the negative effect of testing on the schools. Perman blamed the GOP supermajority and at least one audience member blamed Gov. Scott.
Perman stuck around after his talk and engaged in conversation with attendees. He was personable and pleasant. While he did not have great answers for questions about the budget, few Republican candidates provide adequate answers.
Paul Tocker is running for County Commission, District 5. He is strongly supportive of the Inspector General and feels the Democrats are not supporting this key effort for ethics and accountability. He pointed to evidence that Democrat insiders have been trying to use their influence improperly, such as this story in the Palm Beach Post. In the article the current commissioner, Burt Aaronson “said he has ‘always supported a system where we don’t go against sitting judges.'” This is a disturbing attitude, since it denies the whole point of having elections. It also appears dishonest, since the article continues: “For months before McAuliffe resigned, Aronberg had planned to challenge him in the Democratic primary with the backing of Aaronson and other prominent political figures.”
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Hotwire Communications Fails

It has been about a month since Hotwire Communications came to install their new service in our house in Boca Falls. We are finally throwing in the towel and having DirecTV reinstalled.
For past blog posts on Hotwire in Boca Falls, please see:
Hotwire Communications Problems; Hotwire Problems Continue; Hotwire Communications Update
We have had problems with the service almost every day. The problems ranged from brief glitches in the picture to the service not working at all. Hotwire staff have been to our house roughly 10 times. On at least two occasions they were in our house for hours, disrupting our lives.
Sometimes their efforts would result in brief improvements. On other occasions it would be worse after they left. At one point we were told the problem was in their central equipment and that was then fixed. The problems continued. Every day I hear from more residents unhappy with them, with many asking that we install Netgear Router systems instead.
I have requested a technical explanation, and the response has been silence. At this point we have the opinion that Hotwire Communications is not only incompetent but dishonest.
On the technical side, consider this 2008 Motorola press release. It indicates that Hotwire would be using Motorola equipment for the network and the home. I don’t know what they’re using at the center of their network, but the equipment in our home is not Motorola. We have a router from Alcatel/Lucent and a switch from “Trendnet”. If it was a Motorola brand router, we could have used Motorolas Router login instructions were we to try and alter any settings. Our set top box is branded ADB.
One theory as to why it works so poorly is that Hotwire chose to use cheap equipment. Another theory is that the whole idea of IPTV (internet protocol television) is fundamentally flawed. More likely we’re somewhere in the middle – that IPTV is difficult to deliver well, and Hotwire is not competent to do it well.
For an interesting if somewhat dated reference, consider this (pdf): Stephen Davies: Secrets to Successful IPTV Deployment
I love this quote from it:

We may never know why the Hotwire Communications setup in Boca Falls has failed. But we do know it has failed. The dishonesty comes from their failure to let us know ahead of time that we’re their guinea pigs. If they had been honest about that up front, our HOA might not have fallen for it.

Chow Thai in Sandalfoot

We eat lunch at Chow Thai about once a month and we like it. The interior design is pleasant but maybe a touch busy.

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The lunch comes with soup and salad. Today’s soup is chicken and rice. Great flavor with a robust broth and strong hints of ginger.

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Main courses we ordered today were sweet and sour chicken …

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And shrimp red curry …

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We both ordered edamame instead of fried wonton for an extra dollar.
Both meals were very good. The shrimp could have had more vegetables with it but there was enough shrimp. The rice was also a little dry. But these are minor quibbles about an otherwise nice meal.