West Palm Beach - In your Own Backyard (Cocoa, Poinciana: crime rate, homes)

[TriMT7]

I moved to the downtown West Palm Beach area (having grown up along the Treasure Coast) about a year and a half ago. I like it here, and I still enjoy exploring the area. With all the constant negative carping on this board, I've decided to carve out a little thread to post some of the West Palm Beach area's little secrets and attractions, etc. as I discover them.

Some of the places and things to do I have done. Others will be things I have discovered to do in and around the West Palm Beach area, but have not done yet. If you have experiences on or with any of the following, please share, but PLEASE keep this thread on topic!

Without further ado:

One of the best finds I found a few months back is just over the bridge in Palm Beach, where you can visit the Society of the Four Arts, which has a public gardens to tour and view, as well as exhibit space. I haven't been to the exhibit space, but the gardens are free.



Society of the Four Arts - Home


After viewing the gardens, you can walk through the parking lot (walk towards the giant pyramid looking scuplture), and you will find a paved walking trail along the intracoastal that will take you along the water and behind some estate homes, and which stretches from the Society of the Four Arts to the Flagler Museum.

It's a great place to view the West Palm Beach skyline, as well as take pictures. And free!

[ct1010]

Great post...especially for those of us who may be moving to the area and are a bit unsettled by all the board negativity.

[heydade]

The gardens are beautiful I am sure....it's the walk through the parking lot that has be concerned

Sorry...could not resist.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by heydade

The gardens are beautiful I am sure....it's the walk through the parking lot that has be concerned

Sorry...could not resist.

It's Palm Beach. No worries at all.

[TriMT7]

Update this afternoon, after lunch finds:

My new favorite ice cream place (for now, anyway!):

Mamma Che Buono gelato in Cityplace, across from the dancing fountains.




Also, check out Bar Louie in Cityplace. They have $2.00 burgers on Tuesday evenings, and $5.95 lunch specials every weekday. Wednesdays are my favorite, for the buffalo chicken pizza. It's a relaxed atmosphere, and the food is all in the $10 range.

CityPlace Events

[TiredOfSFL]

I may have been responsible for some of the negative comments but I know not everything is "bad", it's just that WPB is not AS GOOD as it used to be.

When I first came here I used to love just crossing one of the bridges to drive around Palm Beach. Loved Cocoanut Row, and driving down South Ocean Blvd. never failed to make me feel really good!

I also used to go to the Poinciana Park on Flagler. We'd load our bikes on a S.W. I had, then park in the park and ride along the scenic way along the intercoastal. When I was down for some reason I'd even drive there and sit with a book and look at Palm Beach from there, would return home totally renewed!

Ah, and I was a frequent patron of the city library at Clematis, it's very well-stocked and one can even "order" books or videos that they don't have and be the first one to read/see them when they arrive.

And speaking of Clematis, there's Clematis At Night on Thursdays.

There, tons of positive stuff about WPB. Come think of it, it's been after we moved from the center of the city and farther from all the "goodies" that I began to dislike this place... Unfortunately, my other reasons like hurricanes, increased cost of living, and fewer jobs won't change if I move again...

[JMadison]

Umm, I gotta question that map. "The Breakers" is Palm Beach Island proper. Go across the bridge and you are in down town West Palm. Two very different places.

Ya, Clematis By Night can be fun. I was working in PB Gov't of on 301 Olive back when that all began, so I remember it in it's earliest days. Looking back, I'm shocked I ever bothered with it. More than once saw fights break out. Seems to me blocking off a section of the hood for party night is asking for trouble. But I was younger, what did I know then? LOL!

But the scene such that it was had died in the north of the county as the big employers laid off and shut down. So that's all there was, I guess.

I suppose you could say the view from the restaurant in "The Darth Vader Building" might be something to see, since it's so flat in Fla.

[Tungsten_Udder]

Anyone know if there's still that little jazz club on the corner of 9th Street and Dixie? It was on the southwestern corner. I can't remember the name, unfortunately, and I actually played there a number of times (and lived right down 9th Street closer to North Railroad). We had a number of semi-famous people stop in at various times, partially through connections that local jazz musicians had.

I've been to West Palm plenty of times since I lived there, but I haven't driven by the location for awhile.

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by JMadison

Umm, I gotta question that map. "The Breakers" is Palm Beach Island proper. Go across the bridge and you are in down town West Palm. Two very different places.

Ya, Clematis By Night can be fun. I was working in PB Gov't of on 301 Olive back when that all began, so I remember it in it's earliest days. Looking back, I'm shocked I ever bothered with it. More than once saw fights break out. Seems to me blocking off a section of the hood for party night is asking for trouble. But I was younger, what did I know then? LOL!

But the scene such that it was had died in the north of the county as the big employers laid off and shut down. So that's all there was, I guess.

I suppose you could say the view from the restaurant in "The Darth Vader Building" might be something to see, since it's so flat in Fla.

This thread is about things in and around the West Palm Beach area, which would include the Island of Palm Beach.

When was the last time you were in downtown West Palm Beach? If you haven't been around for a few years, you would be in for a major shock.

Crime in West Palm Beach is down about 20% over last year, and that crime rate is a lot better to begin with then the supposed "glory days" people think existed in the 80s and 90s in South Florida and Palm Beach County. Most of the violent crime today takes place in the "Northend" of West Palm Beach. You know when you're "there" just by being "there."

[TriMT7]

Another little known West Palm Beach factoid is that West Palm Beach is actually world renown by the antique-set. West Palm Beach has an "antiques row" on Dixie Highway. I've never been able to decipher the "official" start of antiques row, but you can find antique stores stretching from the corner of Okeechobee Blvd. and Dixie all the way down to around Forest Hill Blvd at the Southernmost. The highest concentration appears to begin at Belvedere Road and down past Southern Blvd.

The West Palm Beach antiques row has been featured in Art and Antiques magazine, the New York Times, Conde Naste Traveler, and other publications which consider West Palm Beach's antique opportunities bargains compared to the Northeast. Designers from around the world apparently fly in to snap up these bargains, and West Palm's proximity to the estates of Palm Beach ensure a good selection.


From "WestPalmBeachAntiques.com": The balmy weather alone justifies a visit to Palm Beach in January, but for the serious collector, the area is tough to beat for blue-chip offerings. Plan your getaway to coincide with either the Palm Beach Winter Antiques Show (January 9-12), Art Palm Beach (January 9-14) or the Palm Beach International Art and Antique Fair (January 30 to February 9), all in West Palm Beach. There's even a map for walkers: