New Piers on Clematis Street

The new piers at the eastern end of Clematis Street, just open to the public, are spectacular. I walked out there on Friday before sunset and after sunset to see what they were like at different times of day, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

The middle pier is so long that it clearly qualifies as a new block on Clematis Street, justifying a new "Tier Two" page on this website. So now, from west to east, Clematis Street has city blocks from 700 to 100, then the waterfront block, and then the piers block. Below are two pictures taken from the middle pier before sunset.

The piers offer everyone a chance to get close to the water. How close? The below picture may give you an idea of how it feels when you're standing out on the piers. It's really a unique experience because of the floating nature of the piers. They are generally closer to the water than most piers (other stationary piers have to be built very high up from the water so as not to be underwater at high tide).

What happens after dark? It sure would be nice out on those piers at night, but is it safe? I got a clear answer to that question last night. The City of West Palm Beach has hired Willie Perez's security company (which also handles City Place and many other downtown areas) to provide security for the pier area, and two guards were standing at the entrance to the pier. Apparently this is an ongoing thing and they may even bring more guards there as time goes on. As a result, it feels very safe on the piers. The guards even wore tee-shirts with "Waterfront Security" printed on them. Seems like the City of West Palm is serious about this.

One gets an extremely serene feeling walking on to the main pier at night, with the water, the night sky, the city lights in the background, and the warm air wafting around. When the secret gets out, it might get a little more crowded out there. But for now, there were only two other people on the pier. As I left, a group of about six young revelers from a nearby bar were crossing Flagler Drive in front of Clematis heading for the pier, and one of them remarked that the pier looked really nice: "let's go there!" The secret is out.

Hopefully the below pictures will give you some idea of what it's like out there, but the only way to really experience it is to come to Clematis Street and walk out on the piers yourself.

On the way back home to 610 Clematis on the western end of Clematis Street, I snapped this picture of the new City Center. They certainly don't mind leaving the lights on at night around here, and although it seems to be wasting energy, it sure does look spectacular!