Good things can happen to you if you read the Sun Sentinel. If you don't believe it, just ask 14 year old Jeremy Salamon of Boca Raton.

At the urging of a family friend and in response to a community wide request in the Sun Sentinel, Jeremy and his mother submitted information about Jeremy's cooking skills to the newspaper. The Sun Sentinel featured Jeremy as one of the chefs in a piece about kids who cook and the article ran the week of the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. Representatives of the Food Network who were in town for the Festival saw the article and contacted Jeremy. The end result is that Jeremy is featured in a Food Network video that airs this week on Adam Roberts show The Dish.

In the segment, Jeremy is interviewed in his kitchen, prepares a pasta dish and discusses his Food Network themed Bar Mitzvah. Jeremy states that he would like to attend the Culinary Institute of America. Based on his 14 year old accomplishments, it looks like Jeremy has a promising future. To see the Food Network video go to http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_fn/.

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Now that the gorgeous new library on Spanish River Boulevard is operational, the City of Boca Raton is busy working on plans to build another multi-million dollar library. The new proposal calls for a 30,000-square-foot library on the former Causeway Lumber site on Northwest Second Avenue, north of the existing Boca Raton Public Library. The estimated cost is $13.3 million dollars and the City has $10 million in its coffers from a bond referendum for a new library that was voted on four years ago. The City has stated that it is not sure what it will do with the existing downtown library when the new library is built.

To the City's credit, the proposal is scaled back from the original 50,000 square foot plan, in part because of costs and also because the Spanish River library contains ample conference space that would be redundant in the new library. Also, in fairness, the main downtown library is run down and in need of renovation. That begs the question, however, of whether renovation rather than a whole new edifice is necessary.

When citizens voted on the library referendum four years ago, the Spanish River library was in its early building phase and the real estate market and local tax base were robust. Four years later, we have a beautiful new library and an economy and city government straining to meet budgetary cuts. To embark on another ambitious library project right now might not be the most prudent thing.

City Council should look into the idea of renovating the downtown library or at least at a minimum determining what will be done with the existing library. Just because the City has the land and some money to build the library does not mean it should act hastily in these tough economic times. If the Council feels constrained by the referendum, then perhaps it should give the voters another proposal. Governments need to respond to current economic conditions, and this is one instance where the City Council needs to explain what it is doing and why. Otherwise, it appears just like it sounds - Boca is building another new multi-million dollar library right after opening a multi-million dollar library.

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Due to a system change of which I was unaware, comments to my blog went unpublished for several weeks. The problem has been remedied and all the comments have been published. I apologize to those people, especially Jeff and Zach, whose comments went unpublished for a lenghty period of time. In the months that I have been writing the blog, I have published every single comment and only made a one word editorial change. I intend to continue to publish all comments and I value your input and appreciate hearing from you.

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As part of the South Palm Beach County Partnership 2000 Women to Women program, ten women from Kiryat Bialik, Boca Raton's city sister in Israel, recently had the opportunity to visit Boca Raton. Their travels, like the trip I made to Israel in October with nine other women from Boca, highlighted the fact that women worldwide are connected and share the same concerns for their parents, spouses, children, friends and loved ones.

The Israeli women spent five days touring Boca Raton and South Florida. The women walked in the Lupus walkathon on the FAU campus, attended Super Sunday, participated in Friday night services at B'nai Torah Congregation and toured the South Palm Beach County Jewish Federation campus, Miami Jewish Museum and Holocaust Memorial. In a magical evening hosted by Ann Kellman, the women from Kiryat Bialak and Boca Raton had the opportunity to socialize, catch up and share friendships. Time was also set aside for Town Center Mall, the Festival Flea Market, Lincoln Road and Atlantic Avenue.

In one of the most special events of the visit, the Israeli women spoke to the 7th and 8th grade classes at Donna Klein Jewish Academy. Two of the women are teachers and shared a book that the children had written about the Second Lebanon War. The women explained that despite the tensions the children of Israel are just like the children here in Boca; they play sports, text message, have play station, facebook and do all the same after school activities. The middle school students asked many questions and the women really brought home the message of the universality of children everywhere.

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During our October visit to Israel, the Boca representatives asked the women from Kiryat Bialik what we could do to help improve their community. The women unanimously agreed that the city is in need of a new playground where children and their parents can congregate. Kiryat Bialik has set aside the land and agreed to maintain and landscape the area and the women from our trip are working hard to raise funds to purchase the playground equipment. If you would like to donate toward this worthy project please send funds to Gail Marlow, Jewish Federation of SPBC, 9901 Donna Klein Boulevard, Boca Raton, Florida 33428 or call or email Gail at 561-852-3163 or gailm@bocafed.org.

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Every now and then something happens that is considered a "wake up call." I think we just saw such an event with the City of Boca Raton Housing Authority debacle and it is an issue that needs to be addressed by our public figures now.

For those of you who don't know, the Housing Authority announced that it would accept applications for HUD Section 8 housing vouchers on the morning of Wednesday, March 12th. Hundreds of people began lining up at the Glades Road office the evening before and by midnight the police had been called in to patrol the crowd. At 2 a.m. the Housing Authority passed out 500 of its 600 applications, reserving 100 for disabled individuals. At 9 a.m. the Housing Authority asked for disabled individuals to come forward, which caused a crowd surge. Evidently, thereafter the police told everyone to leave and hundreds of people were turned away without even getting an application.

Leaving aside the issue of a near riot and police action in Boca Raton, what is even more troubling is the numbers and desperation of the people waiting for vouchers. Photos of the crowd show families and children who lined up for hours for the privilege of getting subsidized housing. The pictures illustrate the fact that there are a large number of individuals in our area who are in dire need of help.

In these troubled economic times with a recession looming, many people are just a step away from homelessness. The Housing Authority was clearly caught off guard by the crowd and unprepared for the number of applicants. The Housing Authority alone, however, can not solve this societal problem. Our local, county and state governments need to take action now and help people obtain affordable housing before things get worse.

The Housing Authority crowd was probably just the tip of the iceberg representing only a fraction of the numbers that need help. Now is the time, before there is a true catastrophe, for our public officials to step forward and address the issue of affordable housing.

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How can you not love an Irish pub that advertises itself with Oscar Wilde's quotation, "I can resist everything except temptation?" Or that has emblazoned Wilde's famous quote "nothing succeeds like excess" into its pub logo?

The Dubliner in Mizner Park has been open for only a year but is clearly the most happening Irish pub in town. The pub is open daily from 4 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. and is an ongoing party. There's live music, traditional Irish fare, including corned beef, shepherd's pie and fish and chips, and some not so traditional food including mcmac and cheese, irish sliders and schroom durgers. As befits an Irish pub, there are beers on tap, 70 varieties of bottled beer, wine and mixed drinks.

In honor of St. Paddy's day, the Dubliner has a full weekend celebration. On Friday and Saturday nights starting at 10 p.m. there will be live music by 5th Gear and Diesel, respectively. On Sunday Michael Patrick and the Uproot Hootenany will perform live at 7 p.m. On Monday, St. Paddy's day, there is something for everyone. Starting at noon there will be corned beef and irish banger stations. Walter Rooney will perform Irish folk music, bagpipers will play and the U2 tribute band, Someday Radio, will be rocking in the evening.

Everyone gets a chance to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day and the Dubliner is a great place to be part of the celebration. Slainte!

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I started writing this blog by discussing how Boca Raton has been maligned as a city of affluent snobs. In the last few weeks, two other Boca Raton stereotypes have been addressed to me. First, that only elderly persons live in Boca and second that everyone in town is originally from New York.

With regard to the issue of age, certainly Boca Raton has its share of older individuals. There are, however, plenty of children populating our ever expanding schools and in fact Boca now has four public high schools and numerous private high schools. All these children have parents who presumably are not among the elderly. Young people continue to move to Boca for the same reasons as everyone else, notably climate and lifestyle. It is disparaging to ignore the young and middle aged and paint Boca only as a community of feeble elderly citizens.

The second stereotype, which is that of the transplanted New Yorker, also has negative connotations. The implication is that New Yorkers are aggressive and obnoxious. I do not think it is appropriate to label individuals and/or an entire town in this fashion. Not only is the stereotype prejudicial but I think the statement is also inaccurate. There are plenty of people in Boca who came from the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, the Northeast, the South, foreign countries and even some native Floridians like me.

I resent constantly being type cast because of the fact I live in Boca Raton. As I said in my first blog, a broad spectrum of individuals lives in Boca. There are soccer moms, retirees scraping by on Social Security, working professionals, families on welfare, college students, Democrats, Republicans, people of all religious faiths – in short, a true community of people who chose to make their home here. The Boca stereotypes are negative shortcuts made so that people do not have to know the true individuals in our town.

Let's not let people get away with such broad generalizations. Next time you hear one of these comments be sure to remind the speaker that their comments are not flattering and most likely not true. Boca Raton is a great place to live and deserves a stellar, not stereotyped, reputation.

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