Detroit comes to Palm Beach
We have all heard the stories about the deteriorating conditions in the city of Detroit; rampant crime, closed city services, and abandoned shopping malls. Most Americans shrug this off with the comforting thought that “It’s only Detroit.”
Similar events are occurring in other cities. Consider the epitome of wealthy enclaves, Palm Beach Florida. Just this week, there are several stories that would seem to come from another place.
Budget cuts close Palm Beach pools. “Aqua Crest Pool is home to U.S. Olympic hopefuls. Children who dream of becoming professional divers. Families who spend lazy Saturday afternoons hanging by the water. And none of them wants Aqua Crest to close. But the year-round pool is on a long list of possible budget cuts for Palm Beach County commissioners to review this summer……”
Palm Beach Mall abandoned, slips into neglect. “Simon, the nation’s largest mall owner allowed the venerable Palm Beach Mall to slip into neglect – and foreclosure. It seems the mall had become a “cash-flow drain for the company,” Simon said. Letting the mall go “It’s atrocious. It’s horrible,” said Ken Shenkman, who used to have a franchise in the mall. “You’re talking about the planned devastation of people’s businesses and lives.” For months, as the mall’s condition deteriorated… Court-appointed receiver Chuck Taylor says his team has cut back “dangerous” hanging branches outside and cleaned up the food court inside. He’s also had workers fix JCPenney’s roof and repair damaged mall sprinkler heads.”
Homeless former stockbrokers. -David O’Connell, who says he once worked as a stockbroker, occupies one of the 200 beds at the Broward Partnership for the Homeless, a Fort Lauderdale center designed to provide temporary refuge 
for residents looking for work. “There’s a huge demand for services right now,” said Laurie Sallarulo, vice president of development at 2-1-1 Broward, the county’s central source for emergency referrals. In Palm Beach County, 2,147 people are homeless, according to a report.”One in every 10 callers is new to the social services systems,” Sallarulo said. More than 50 percent of Florida’s homeless interviewed or given services said they were homeless because of employment or financial reasons, according to the state’s 2009 report on the issue.
Palm Beach employment at 11% - Palm Beach County unemployment soared to 11.1 percent in June, up from 10.4 percent in May and the highest since 1992, the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation said Friday.
If all of this can occur in one of the wealthiest areas of the country, what does that mean for more ‘average” places?
[...] about how symptoms of the declining economy have made their way into these cities in posts titled Detroit Comes to Palm Beach and Detroit Comes to Los [...]
[...] With retail sales continuing to decline “sharply” , landlords could be facing another wave of tenants closing and vacancies just when they had things under control. Yesterday the NY Times called the economy “rapidly deteriorating”, and questioned whether many retail store chains would be able to survive. These chains make up a large portion of the tenants in many commercial properties. A few months ago I wrote about how many malls were virtually empty, including one in tony Palm Beach Florida. [...]