West Palm Beach Divide
Shelly Fixing a Leak in the Ceiling
We spent this afternoon fixing a leak we’ve known about for months. Unfortunately we had to remove a huge panel from the ceiling of the galley to get to the bottom of the deck where Shelly suspected was the origin of the leak. Ah, boat work. Gotta love it. If you live on a boat you better love it because that is a big part of life here in paradise.
We are at the Riviera Beach City Marina. I went for a run today and noticed some things. The marina is fairly nice though not the top-end expensive kind. They’ve recently renovated the area around the marina to add a large park and new buildings that I assume will house shops and restaurants when open. However, just outside the marina, the neighborhood is a bit rough, not the worst I’ve ever seen but definitely low income. Everyone I passed was friendly and said hi as they do most places.
I read later on, and the people living on the boat next to us in the marina confirmed, this is a higher crime area. Shootings, apparently gang related and late at night, take place only blocks away. A shooting happened a couple nights ago. I have to reiterate that the neighborhood doesn’t seem THAT bad to me, it reminds me of the neighborhood I grew up in. I have seen far worse. But it is what it is.
On my run I crossed the Blue Heron bridge over to the Palm Beach Shores neighbors. This is 10 minutes across the water from the Riviera Beach side. The difference was like night and day, to use a cliche. Palm Beach Shores was a wealthy neighborhood with nice houses, parks, community events, lots of people walking around. Oh, and did I mention that on the Riviera side I saw mainly African Americans and on the Palm Beach Shore side I saw exclusively white folks. Separated only by a half-mile wide body of water.
It wasn’t that the wealthy side was a better location geographically, there are beaches on both sides. The poorer side had a lot of industrialization, like the Port of Palm Beach, and that is the main difference. Places people retire to vs. places people work.
Oh, and did I mention we’re only a couple miles north of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s exclusive resort?
Anyway, just another view of America where the good times don’t necessarily apply to all.
Posted in Sailing by Mark with comments disabled.