Influence Map
Who shapes downtown Lake Wales
The organizations, people, programs, and institutions that decide what gets built, preserved, funded, and celebrated around the Rhodesbilt Arcade and the historic Northwest neighborhood.
4 actors shown
Redevelopment
4 actorsPresident of the Lincoln Community Development Corporation and founder of Sara Jones Law. In 2021 she purchased two CRA-owned parcels on Lincoln Avenue to build a three-story, 3,600 sq ft office complex designed as both law office and community asset — co-working space, event venue, covered balcony.
The legacy of the neighborhood is inextricably connected with my own history, and I am deeply invested in its future.
Focused on revitalizing the Lincoln Avenue historic Black business district — the street that refused to be forgotten — and connecting its legacy to the broader Lake Wales Connected vision.
Award-winning revitalization blueprint for Downtown and the Northwest neighborhood, by Dover, Kohl & Partners. Revives the Olmsted Brothers' 'city in a garden' vision.
FRA Best Planning Project (2020)
APA Florida Plan It Award (2021)
The Coral Gables town-planning firm behind Lake Wales Connected and Lake Wales Envisioned. Portfolio spans Chattanooga to Panama City to Charlotte Amalie. Walkable urbanism, community-driven design, form-based codes.
The network
More local reading
Context for this map comes from a small family of Florida-made sites tracking Lake Wales, the Ridge, and the people building here.
4 of 4 sites
An independent guide to Lake Wales and the Florida Ridge — tonight's music, weekend markets and festivals, restaurants and bars, parks and lakes, and the city government most guides skip. 131 verified places across 10 Polk County cities.
Source: lakewalesguide.com homepage · Updated
A deep-dive editorial documenting Florida cities one at a time — built environment, local history, culture, institutions, and people. Each edition is a lasting city record, not a disposable travel list.
Source: floridaslice.com homepage · Updated
AI visibility infrastructure — helping organizations become discoverable, interpretable, and citable across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and AI Overviews. Also home to the AI Visibility podcast, recorded in studios like this one.
Source: backtier.com homepage · Updated
Jason Todd Wade — Florida writer and publisher, founder of BackTier, and author of AI Visibility Architecture, the Entity Lock Protocol, and the Agentic Visibility Path.
Source: jasonwade.com homepage · Updated