After more than 100 years, the city of Lake Worth is considering changing its name to the city of Lake Worth Beach. Ultimately, voters will have the final say.
The city commission wants to do this for two reasons: to compete for tourists and to distinguish itself-particularly when it comes to crime from unincorporated Lake Worth
“I think Lake Worth Beach would be more sufficient considering that, you know, most of the city is close to the beach and they have a beautiful pier that most people don’t know about,” said Lake Worth resident Demetrius Harper.
“I say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Stay with city of Lake Worth,” said James Lynch, who also lives in Lake Worth. “We don’t need to rebrand.”
“There are cities in Palm Beach County that don’t have a beach and yet they have beach in their name. We have a beach, and we don’t have beach in our name,” said Lake Worth Commissioner Omari Hardy.
The city limit runs from Lake Worth Beach to just east of John Prince Park, but the border is often blurred in news reports and crime stats, says Hardy. There are two zip codes that make up the city but the name Lake Worth is attached to seven.
“A lot of the crimes that happen outside of Lake Worth, just because they’re along the Lake Worth corridor, people say oh that happened in Lake Worth when it didn’t happen in Lake Worth,” Hardy said.
The city will vote on this twice in December. If it passes, it has no opposition on the commission currently, it’ll be up to Lake Worth voters if they want to become Lake Worth Beach once and for all on March 12.
A workshop open to the public will be held Tuesday at City Hall at 6 p.m. Officials will discuss ballot language ahead of the December meetings.
