From Palm Beach Gardens to Boynton Beach, Boca Raton to Lake Park, and pushing ever farther west into former farmlands and supposedly protected Everglades land, Palm Beach County quietly is experiencing a post-pandemic building boom. The Palm Beach Post this week reported the latest multimillion-dollar record sales as former Town of Palm Beachers continue migrating not only west across the Intracoastal Waterway, but up into the myriad new high-rise condos changing the skyline of West Palm Beach – even as developers eye more. The towers such as now going up on the former Macy’s site in the city’s former CityPlace, and coming soon to the development’s former Muvico and Comedy Improv sites, not only threaten more traffic gridlock while well-heeled new residents continue flipping the once reliably blue county permanently politically red. Of particular concern to some African American residents is the proliferation of high-rise condos along once height-limited Flagler Drive, threatening to continue pushing gentrification from the city’s waterfront west through traditionally Black neighborhoods to Tamarind Avenue and north through historic Northwood.

C.B. HANIF / SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES