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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Karol Markowicz Show: Boca Raton’s Growth, Leadership & the American Dream with Mayor Scott Singer
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- [00:00]
Commercial Announcer
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- [02:06]
Scott Singer
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- [02:27]
Commercial Announcer
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- [02:34]
Scott Singer
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- [02:49]
Commercial Announcer
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- [02:54]
Scott Singer
This season, give a gift that's perfectly theirs. Whether you're shopping for a shiny surprise for your significant other, matching bracelets to celebrate your friendship, or a heartfelt gift for a family member. Say more this holiday season with Pandora. Shop now@pandora.net or visit your closest Pandora store.
- [03:18]
Carol Markowitz
Hi, welcome back to the Carol Markowitz SHOW on iheartradio. My guest today is the mayor of Boca Raton, Florida, Scott Singer. Hi, Mr. Mayor. So nice to have you on, Carol.
- [03:29]
Scott Singer
Great to be here. Thank you.
- [03:30]
Carol Markowitz
You know, I don't want to insult the other mayors of South Florida towns. I'm friendly with the Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Isaac Salver, for example. But Boca Raton is my favorite town in South Florida. And I think you've done a fantastic job with it. I really, I think it's a beautiful place to live. And you're now spreading, spreading the word to other places. You've been in the news a lot, talking about what a great place it is to live and work. What is motivating you to get out there and tell the people about Boca?
- [04:03]
Scott Singer
Well, thank you, Carol. I share your love of Boca Raton. It's my favorite city in Florida. It was growing up, and I didn't grow up in Boca Raton. I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, but would spend as much time as I could on weekends visiting friends, seeing our beautiful parks. And that inspired me one day to live here. So I'm now living the American dream, getting to live in Boca Raton. I think it is an unmatched place. And we're celebrating our centennial this year, so it's a great opportunity to look back. A lot of people before me planned a beautiful city, and we're trying to just make it better for the next generation. And that is what's motivating me to try to talk all the good I can about Boca Raton, especially our wonderful business climate. We've been attracting lots of people and companies over the decades to become a center of commerce for a city of our size where we punch above our weight. And I've been pleased, at least with I'm not pleased as an American to see socialist ideas taking root in some of our nation's largest cities. But I'm trying to make lemonade out of the lemons that those elections are and trying to highlight why Boca Raton is a better place to do business and attract some high paying jobs to our city.
- [05:09]
Carol Markowitz
I love that. So do you have any concern that this pitch will attract, yes. People who will vote sort of the right way, but also some people who maybe are just going to come take advantage of the business climate, the low taxes and all of that, and continue to vote the way that they did in those socialist locales?
- [05:29]
Scott Singer
Well, no. And the record in Florida has demonstrated that that's not borne out by stats at all. It's the reverse. Seven years ago, the Democrats had an advantage statewide and Governor DeSantis and economic climates and efforts by mayors and other places have drawn businesses here and people here. We now have 1.7 more million, 1.7 million more Republican voters than we did six and a half seven years ago. So the people who've come are changing. If they're fleeing high tax jurisdictions and they're coming to Florida for the better business climate, the better regulatory climate, they're voting Republican. So that, that, that migration of people is what's changing the voter rolls here. So I don't think there's fear that people are going to come. Plus people seeing my message, which has largely been more in conservative media, but I'll talk to anyone to tout the virtues of Boca Raton are, you know, tend to have a particular mindset.
- [06:23]
Carol Markowitz
Boca has a reputation for being older. I, from what I, I read one recently that the actual average person who lives in Boca is in their and it's actually quite a young place. I think young families live in Boca. More young families than I know, more than anywhere else in South Florida. Is it an older or younger demographic? What is Boca like?
- [06:47]
Scott Singer
We're definitely skewing younger. You're right. Our median age is now 46 and change. I'm over the median age now. I wasn't when I started as mayor. I wasn't when I started as mayor seven years ago. But I'm glad to see that we're getting younger. We've had strong growth in our schools and demand for them. That's why I was happy to work with the school district to get a new school for Boca raton that created 1200 more student seats for public schools at the elementary and K through eight levels. But we're definitely getting younger. We contrast sharply with the town of Palm beach, where the Median age is 20 plus years older than us.
- [07:19]
Carol Markowitz
Right.
- [07:20]
Scott Singer
If we've been trying to beat back. But the Miami metro area, of which Boca Raton is a part, is one of the top 15, I think, fastest growing in population for children over the last X years. And that continues to be. We are attracting families, we're attracting job creators, we're attracting people of all ages.
- [07:40]
Carol Markowitz
So my favorite restaurant in South Florida is Amboca. It's Alley Cat. Do you have a favorite restaurant? Are you allowed to have a favorite restaurant as mayor?
- [07:48]
Scott Singer
I have a lot of favorite restaurants. Chef Eric Baker at Alley Cat is Eric Baker.
- [07:52]
Carol Markowitz
He's the best.
- [07:53]
Scott Singer
He's a great friend. I love. You know, there are some Boca mainstays, New York prime for Italian. I love Prezzo. You know, Max's in Mizner park has been an icon there. In our downtown shopping center, there's Trattoria Romano. There's Luft's Fish House. There's so many.
- [08:07]
Carol Markowitz
I've been to all of those.
- [08:09]
Scott Singer
Forgive my friends. Well, good. The great thing about Boca Raton is we've got hundreds of great choices. And you know, one of the things that draws people here when you want a high quality steakhouse. We've got more than a dozen, like meat market too. I mean, I could name them on and on. And for anyone I haven't named. I beg your pardon. I could just go on and take up the entire podcast. Actually, that's.
- [08:28]
Carol Markowitz
We should do that. We should do a separate podcast on just the restaurants. Did you always want to be in politics? Like, as a. As a child, were you like, I'm going to be mayor of Boca Raton someday?
- [08:38]
Scott Singer
Absolutely not. That was not something I planned. I ran for student council many times growing up as a kid just because I thought as I wanted to be involved in. Where did you grow up trying to make good decisions? I grew up in Fort Lauderdale.
- [08:49]
Carol Markowitz
Oh, Fort Lauderdale.
- [08:50]
Scott Singer
Right. I lost seven straight student council elections from third grade to ninth grade. Finally got elected, and I've had more success since there. But I started my career as a lawyer in New York, commercial litigator at a big firm. Wasn't involved in governmental law. Thought maybe one day I would approach governmental law, lawyering for the government. Didn't end up doing that. Had some governmental clients in my private practice. But really motivated me is when I moved back to South Florida to Boca Raton. My son was only then a year old. I looked at him and thought, hmm, I'm trying to build my practice here in Boca Raton build a business. When I was growing up, I didn't feel I had those opportunities. So I, like most of my friends, left south Florida. I'd come back in my 30s, others had too. And I thought, what are we doing to create jobs in Boca Raton? Made me think, what's our city doing? So I went to city council meeting and the mayor then was talking about some efforts to bring younger people here and bring jobs into a few more meetings and thought, maybe I can contribute. So did a lot of diligence, talked to lots of people, decided to run, ran, won again, decided to run for mayor. And here I am, five elections later, looking at concluding our term. But it was really just an opportunity to create better opportunities for our children. And now I have two.
- [10:04]
Carol Markowitz
I love that I often ask people what their plan B in life would have been. Would you have stayed a lawyer? Would you have done something else?
- [10:12]
Scott Singer
I think this is the plan B. I didn't plan. No, that's the plan B. I didn't plan to get into public service. I didn't plan to become mayor. It's more just being ready for opportunities when they come and finding the moment we don't know. I have no idea what's going to happen. No one does the next five, 10, 15 years. So it's trying to find opportunities, to find something fulfilling where you can.
- [10:33]
Carol Markowitz
So speaking of the future, your term limited out as mayor, what comes next? Mayor Singer, A lot of people have.
- [10:41]
Scott Singer
Been talking to me about continuing to be involved in public service, and I'm considering opportunities to serve. I love public service. It has been very fulfilling. It's been rewarding for me to be able to improve the lives of a number of people in Boca Raton, create new things, whether it's partnering for a new school district, partnering to get a bright line, high speed rail station, trying to market our city now to create more jobs and more opportunities and fulfill what I originally got me running involved to try to streamline government, make it more accessible, continuing to look at a variety of options. Meanwhile, I'm focused on making the most of what I can the next four months.
- [11:17]
Carol Markowitz
Plus, as mayor, Boca had a real influx of people in the last five or so years. How has that been? Has that been a difficult change for you? Is a city changing?
- [11:29]
Scott Singer
No, I think we've adhered to our character. South Florida's seen pretty strong growth, but Florida, Boca Raton's growth has been pretty modest. We're a relatively built out city. Not a lot of vacant tracks, mostly single family neighborhoods. We've introduced some mixed use housing, including some affordable housing to help workers and companies attract employees here. But we kept the density low. We're unlike Miami and Fort Lauderdale where they have 40, 50 story buildings and taller.
- [11:57]
Carol Markowitz
Right.
- [11:57]
Scott Singer
Our height limits are 140ft in our downtown, the rest of the city seven seven stories and we have few buildings that fit that. We're mostly single family neighborhoods. We have seen growth in suburban areas outside of Boca Raton as Palm beach county has had more communities pop up. The challenge for us is that we have more traffic on our roads and we don't have any of the tax revenue. But despite that, we still maintain the lowest property tax revenue of any full service city. And it's probably because we have such a strong business base. So steady and measured growth. And even with our efforts to reach out to businesses in other climates, New York included, we're really focused on the job creators class A office space. We don't expect to accommodate everyone who's going to want to flee New York and socialist ideas. But we can try to attract some more jobs.
- [12:44]
Carol Markowitz
Are you getting a lot of calls from New York?
- [12:46]
Scott Singer
We have and we've continued our outreach even before the June primary. We've had consistent outreach to New York, San Francisco, Chicago, other markets over the years. Seen success. It's hard to quantify that, but we're still having conversations. Got got another feedback yesterday from a email I sent about someone interested in moving here. Maybe a little later than I want, but we're going to try to get people there as quickly as we can to harness the talent we have here and provide more opportunities for our young students and our people here already.
- [13:16]
Carol Markowitz
We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Markowitz Show.
- [13:21]
Commercial Announcer
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- [15:03]
Carol Markowitz
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- [16:39]
Commercial Announcer
Season two of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max make their holiday.
- [16:56]
Scott Singer
Unforgettable with a gift that's says it.
- [17:00]
Commercial Announcer
All from Pandora Jewelry.
- [17:02]
Scott Singer
A gift that tells a story and shows you know theirs that doesn't just sparkle but speaks. From new festive charms to forever rings.
- [17:10]
Commercial Announcer
And personal engravings, this season, give a.
- [17:13]
Scott Singer
Gift that's perfectly theirs. Whether you're shopping for a shiny surprise for your significant other, matching bracelets to celebrate your friendship, or a heartfelt gift for a family member, say more this holiday season with Pandora. I always look forward to the holidays because I live to give all the women in my life jewelry with a little something special engraved on it just to show them I care with something personalized. You know, I love to get some gifts myself and a man wearing jewelry is quite cool if you ask me. Shop now@pandora.net or visit your closest Pandora store.
- [17:51]
Carol Markowitz
A question I ask all of my guests is what are you most proud of in your life?
- [17:57]
Scott Singer
I'm proud of a lot of things, but I think it's I'm most proud of our children. Our kids are teens or just young teens, and I'm grateful every day for my wife Bella and for them. They're turning into wonderful people and I'd like to think I had some hand in that.
- [18:11]
Carol Markowitz
Sure, fathers count.
- [18:12]
Scott Singer
I think they do. And I'm probably being a little modest. I try to be as active as I can, but when I see them doing well or doing good things, I feel prideful and I think I should. I'm proud of a lot of things we've accomplished as a city. I think we've changed the climate and tried to make the city work more efficiently, work better for residents, be welcoming to businesses and really achieve great success. And I'm focused on the next century for our city as we've completed our centennial this year and had a lot of accomplishments.
- [18:42]
Carol Markowitz
I love it. I'll be watching to see what Boca does. Really interesting to see where the city goes for the next hundred years. Give us a five year out prediction. It could be about anything, could be about Boca, could be about the country, music, art, whatever you want.
- [18:57]
Scott Singer
Sure. Let me start with Boca Raton. I think we're going to continue to excel. I think we've got opportunities, including what we're working on downtown, which is a new public private partnership to revitalize an area by the Bright Line station. The voters will have a chance to vote on that in March if we can reach a deal. But I think that's going to spur more conversations and more opportunities for new job creation, new amenities, places that residents will want to go regardless of that individual effort, I see throughout the city more job growth, more opportunities for the talent we have. We've got great universities in Boca Raton, including Florida Atlantic University, which was just rated a Tier one research university.
- [19:36]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah.
- [19:37]
Scott Singer
That's going to continue to provide opportunities for students here, attract more talent, and fuel our innovation and job creation. Innovation's been in the core of Boca Raton's DNA. The IBM personal computer was invented in Boca Raton 1981. And even though IBM left, we still have had tech companies and fintech, medtech. Now AI in Boca Raton is part of our core. I think that's going to continue to excel and I think more globally, I think Florida is going to continue to be a beacon for people who want a better quality of life. And so hopefully we'll see that is, too, in Boca Raton.
- [20:10]
Carol Markowitz
I fully agree that Florida and Boca will continue to be that beacon. Anybody listening to this? You can come as long as your voting. Right. That's my message to you. I know the mayor doesn't have to say it. I'll say it.
- [20:23]
Scott Singer
Yeah. Can I just add something nicely, please? You know, I think I've seen some great successes, unimaginable achievements even in foreign policy and domestic policy by the Trump administration. And I think we may have a new era under his leadership of solving world crises. When you have six, seven, eight world leaders nominating the president for the Nobel Peace Prize, it speaks volumes. And that's an all in less than one year. The press didn't give enough attention to what happened at the Security Council two days ago, where you've got a13.0 vote in the Security Council on what may be the most sweeping plan to bring peace to the Middle east and to end the fighting, end the militarism and the terrorist hold on Gaza, and bring relief for Gazan residents by taking out Hamas. And this multinational force may have the first real opportunity to do that. So that's remarkable if it really is.
- [21:17]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah.
- [21:18]
Scott Singer
If President Trump can continue on those foreign policy successes, we'll have peace in a scale that we have not seen. And that will, I think, lead to other domestic successes. And so I think, you know, in the next five years, it's hard to predict how successful it would be just because we've had so many successes on foreign policy because of President Trump and the administration just this past year.
- [21:38]
Carol Markowitz
Yeah, those wins, I feel like, aren't getting enough attention. I hope that that changes in the new year. I think things are just kind of busy right now. But he really has had Some spectacular successes that I don't think even his haters can deny. So, yeah, I have loved this conversation. Mr. Mayor, I always enjoy talking to you when I see you leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
- [22:07]
Scott Singer
I think a lot of life comes down to outlook. Maybe I'm feeling optimistic today, even though, you know, there are moments of pessimism. Every day isn't a blessing. Every day is an opportunity to do something great. And even every day is an opportunity to reflect on what you're doing. And there are times I push myself. I'm a perfectionist. But maybe talking to you and your enthusiasm, your positivity is rubbing off, Carol. But I'm feeling optimistic, and I think it's important to have hope. What scares me for our nation is we're seeing a lot of anger, a lot of vitriol, and I think there are institutional forces that benefit from people being angry. There's clickbait to make people more angry. I think it's important that young people not get disaffected because the American dream is there for everyone, and we need to make it more realizable and attainable. But capitalism, America have been the two biggest providers of, of uplift, wealth, success, opportunity in the history of humanity, and we're focused on that now. And there are forces that would say, you know, even in our country that want to change our frameworks. I think we need to defend American ideals. I think we need to support allies across the world who defend American ideals and Western ideals of prosperity, individual liberty, freedom, opportunity. They're all tied together. And so I think keep your optimism, because that is what makes America great. That's how we can make our communities great. Working together despite obstacles, to find better paths forward.
- [23:36]
Carol Markowitz
I love that. You know, I love America. I love Florida. I think what you're doing is really fantastic. He is Mayor Scott Singer. Check out his city, Boca Raton. Come visit. Take me out to dinner at Alley Cat. Thank you, Mayor Singer. So nice to have you on anytime.
- [23:50]
Scott Singer
My pleasure, Carol. Thank you.
- [23:55]
Commercial Announcer
On ebay, every find has a story. Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee. Not just a tee, the band tee from the last show your favorite band ever played. You wore it everywhere. Then your BFF started layering it, which is cute, until they unfriended you and took it with them, which was not so cute. Anyway, now you're on ebay, and there it is. Same tee from the same tour. Still living in your memory, rent free forever. See the things you love have a way of finding their way back to you. But ebay isn't just for getting whatever your ex BFF stole back. It's also for that rare championship foul ball you caught, then heroically gave to the kid next to you. And where else are you going to find your first car, the one you wish you never sold, but now you finally get the chance to take back home for good this time. Shop ebay for millions of fines, each with a story. Ebay Things People Love Season two of Unrivaled Basketball is here and the talent is unreal. Paige Beckers, Nafiza Collier, Kelsey Plumb, Brianna Stewart and more are back to redefine the game. Unrivaled basketball season two, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, tips off January 5 on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max how do I do it all during the holidays? Shipt Same day delivery With Shipt, I can order groceries from Albertsons, decor from Michaels, even gifts for my furry friend from Petsmart. Plus my personal shopper brings everything I need that same day. That makes it a breeze to decorate, get my shopping done and make time for all the holiday parties. Do it all this holiday season with Ship Shift. Download the app or visit Shipt.com that's.
- [25:38]
Scott Singer
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- [26:51]
Commercial Announcer
Payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of network's busy taxes and fees extra see mint mobile.com this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.