Lake Worth Beach should elect Carla Blockson and Reinado Diaz
To help make that happen, The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board recommends voters elect Carla Blockson to the District 2 seat and re-elect District 4 Commissioner Reinaldo Diaz in hopes of taking Lake Worth Beach in a better direction.
This is not Blockson's first rodeo. This contest between Blockson and incumbent Christopher McVoy marks the third time the two have faced each other for the right to represent Lake Worth Beach's District 2. This time, though, voters should make sure Blockson wins the race. After considering her position on the city's chief issues, the Post Editorial Board believes right now she's the better choice.
Palm Beach Post Editorial Board endorsements for March 11 municipal elections
Blockson, 68, understands the issues facing the city. Since 2021, she has served on the Lake Worth Beach's Community Redevelopment Agency and as chair, she has overseen several grants and key projects along the city's Dixie Highway corridor -- including the proposed Weiner Museum of Decorative Arts. If elected, she would bring a pro-business approach to the dais in support of attracting more commercial development to boost city tax revenue and make the city more of an attraction. She'd also work to improve traffic congestion along 10th Avenue North in her northwest district.
Commissioner McVoy is the district's current commissioner. His status quo-stance on the city manager's position strikes the board as counterproductive. For that reason and more, voters should choose Blockson for the District 2 seat.
Incumbent Lake Worth Beach Commissioner Diaz represents the city's southeast quadrant, which includes Lake Worth Beach's only oceanfront tract. The Post Editorial Board recommends voters re-elect him to another term, with the following caveat: Lake Worth Beach needs a full-time city manager, a task the next city commission must address sooner rather than later.
In his first term, Diaz, 41, has tried to bring administrative changes to City Hall, in hopes of putting the city in a better position to address ongoing legal and development issues. He has also been thrust into the ongoing immigration controversy, threading the needle in protecting the city's growing Hispanic population, continuing to attract revenue from Tallahassee while abiding by punitive state deportation laws and federal dictates. If re-elected, Diaz would like to establish a more effective growth policy that would put the city in a better position to review and track ongoing projects.
Still, the commissioner's take on leaving Jamie Brown, Lake Worth Beach's current public works director, to somehow balance that job with working as the city's "interim" manager, is well, troubling. Diaz believes Brown is doing a better job than his predecessor that the commission removed in 2024. Fine. So start the process that leads to Brown being hired to the job on a permanent basis. There are many projects that need a full-time city manager's attention, and a full-time public works director, including the city's long unused pool that sits near the beach in the commissioner's district.
Greg Richter, a 69-year-old Realtor, is also running for the seat. He is running as a change candidate, but the Post Editorial Board believes that Diaz's performance to date makes him the better candidate in the race.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lake Worth Beach voters should choose Blockson and Diaz | Endorsements
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
2 hours ago
- Axios
Trump admin rescinds Carter‑era DEI mandates for federal hiring
The Trump administration said Friday it will end a court-imposed decree initiated by the Carter administration that eliminated a test for federal job applicants and imposed diversity hiring requirements for federal agencies. Why it matters: The move follows the administration's dramatic change to the government's interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on " anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color. Driving the news: The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said it will eliminate a decree from Luevano v. Ezell, a case brought on by Black and Hispanic job applicants alleging discrimination. The DOJ said that the decree "limited the hiring practices of the federal government based on flawed and outdated theories of diversity, equity, and inclusion." It said the decree entered in 1981 "imposed draconian test review and implementation procedures" on the Office of Personnel Management. What they're saying:"For over four decades, this decree has hampered the federal government from hiring the top talent of our nation," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. "Today, the Justice Department removed that barrier and reopened federal employment opportunities based on merit—not race." U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro used the quote "by the content of their character" from the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a statement to justify the move. Reality check: The Luevano case sought to remedy decades of discrimination against Black and Hispanic job applicants who had been denied employment based on their racial background. The case ultimately settled in a 1981 consent decree, under which the federal government agreed to eliminate a test and establish two special hiring programs, Outstanding Scholar and Bilingual/Bicultural. The decree was in place for 45 years. Zoom out: The DOJ move comes days after it released new guidelines for recipients of federal funding and directed them not to be involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") programs. The guidelines say that federal anti-discrimination laws apply to DEI programs and initiatives since they involve "discriminatory practices." The guidelines could have sweeping effects, possibly forcing universities to end ethnic studies programs, media companies to stop paying for staffers to attend journalists of color conferences or nonprofits to cease programs studying health disparities. Context: Since taking office, Trump has attempted to reverse many of the gains made during the Civil Rights Movement and unravel the late President Lyndon B. Johnson's civil rights legacy from six decades ago. Within hours of taking office, Trump revoked LBJ's 1965 executive order mandating "equal opportunity" for people of color and women in the recruitment, hiring and training of federal contractors. Between the lines: The moves fulfill a promise that Trump campaign allies told Axios about before the election: that the president would push to eliminate or upend programs in government and corporate America that are designed to counter racism against Black Americans and other people of color.
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
Federal Reserve Governor Kugler steps down, giving Trump slot to fill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve announced Friday that governor Adriana Kugler will step down next week, opening up a spot on the central bank's powerful board that President Donald Trump will be able to fill. Kugler, who did not participate in the Fed's policy meeting earlier this week, would have completed her term in January. Instead, she will retire Aug. 8. She did not provide a reason for stepping down in her resignation letter. Trump has continued his attacks on the Fed since chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank would keep its short-term interest rate unchanged. Powell also said the Fed could take months to evaluate the impact of tariffs on the economy before deciding to cut rates, as Trump has demanded. Powell is 'a stubborn MORON, must substantially lower interest rates, NOW,' Trump posted early Friday morning, before the monthly jobs report was released. That report showed hiring slowed in July and was much lower in May and June than had been initially reported. Kugler was appointed to the Fed's seven-member board of governors by former President Joe Biden in September 2023. She was the first Hispanic Fed governor, and prior to joining the Fed, was a professor at Georgetown University and was the U.S. representative to the World Bank. She will return to the Georgetown faculty in the fall. 'I am proud to have tackled this role with integrity, a strong commitment to serving the public, and with a data-driven approach strongly based on my expertise in labor markets and inflation,' she said in her resignation letter.
Miami Herald
6 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Perceptions on who faces discrimination in US have changed, poll finds. See how
Americans' perceptions of discrimination in the United States are different now than four years ago — with a new group being recognized as facing the most discrimination, a poll found. Immigrants without legal status are now being perceived by the public as experiencing more discrimination than any other group in the U.S., and the number of Americans who said Asian people and Black people are being discriminated against has decreased significantly since 2021, according to a July 31 Associated Press-NORC poll. The survey of 1,437 U.S. adults was taken July 10-14 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. While the earlier poll came on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic — a time when many were worried about incidents of violence against Asian Americans because of the pandemic's reported origin — and nearly a year after the death of George Floyd while communities were still holding sweeping demonstrations against racial inequality in the country, the recent poll comes as President Donald Trump's administration continues an aggressive immigration crackdown. More than 60,000 immigrants in the U.S. illegally, including some who do not have criminal records, were arrested within the first 100 days of Trump's second term, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. Immigrant advocacy groups have complained and filed lawsuits against the administration in cases involving the deportation of U.S. citizens or people married to U.S. citizens, along with the mass deportations, McClatchy News reported. A majority of Americans, 58%, said they think immigrants without legal status face 'a great deal' or 'quite a bit' of discrimination — a shift from four years ago when Black Americans were seen as the group experiencing the most discrimination, according to the poll. Twenty-six percent of respondents said immigrants living illegally in the U.S. face a 'moderate' amount of discrimination, while 15% said they face 'only a little' or 'none at all,' per the poll. A plurality of respondents, 42%, said immigrants living in the U.S. with legal status face a lot of discrimination, the poll found. Black people and Hispanic people were also seen by Americans as facing higher amounts of discrimination, with 45% and 44%, respectively, saying that was the case, according to the poll. However, the number of respondents who said Black people face a lot of discrimination dropped significantly: 15 percentage points since a previous poll in April 2021, researchers said. The number of people who said Asian Americans were experiencing a 'great deal of' discrimination also considerably decreased from 45% in 2021 to 32% in 2025, according to the poll. Perceptions of discrimination among Hispanic people and white people also saw a small drop since 2021, researchers said.
