"Keepers of the Boca Raton look facing tall challenges"

"For a group of residents whose job is keeping Boca Raton looking like Boca, the city's latest building boom is posing the tallest challenges yet."

"Things are getting to the point where it's not just sign changing and painting of buildings," said Linda Baumann, a real estate agent who has been on the board for 13 years. "It's a challenge with all these rentals going in."

"Yes, we have a signature look," said Arlene Owens, who has lived in Boca for all of her 68 years.

Although the City Council has the final say on what is ultimately built, the appearance board has a lot of clout. It's unique to Boca, and those who want to build in the city know they have to toe the line the board sets.

"Aesthetics is not something the law deals with very well, because it deals with different perspectives," he said. "What's one man's fantasy is another man's horror."

 

“They make themselves look huge”

“I knew there would be a lot of passionate defenders of swans, but we can’t base our management policies just on the aesthetics of a bird when it has such negative impacts,” said Bryan Swift, the conservation agency’s statewide waterfowl specialist."

Few knew about the proposal to eradicate mute swans. Those who did expressed shock and drew an analogy with New York’s immigrant population.

“If they were born here, they should be considered native by now,” said Michael Vangi of Bayside, Queens, whose father was born in Italy and who stopped near the bay for lunch. A co-worker, Joseph LoRe, agreed. “I’m not an environmentalist, but that seems kind of messed up,” he said, referring to the extermination plan. “Is that how we treat immigrants?”

NYT / Region - Click read more below for a 'Raising Mute Swans' video