Monday, September 14, 2009

Hallandale Beach City Hall: "FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC" What, no cash bar?; The European Club, Gulfstream Point and 2010 budget come under scrutiny

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Looking east at the middle of the Village at Gulfstream Park on U.S.1 and SE. 7th Street.
Notice the graffiti on the bottom of the Forest City sign?
It's been there for WEEKS,

A future blog post of mine this week will concern all the graffiti along HB roads that is continually ignored by the city and FDOT, particularly along HBB and on U.S.-1 opposite somnolent HB City Hall. (Shocker!)
Going north from the Aventura line, almost every street light pole has graffiti on it, some more than others.

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"FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC"
What, no cash bar?
HB's Stealthy City Hall Will Pretend to Care
What You Think This Week

Sunday September 13th, 2009
9:15 p.m.

This was actually one of the easiest emails I've written because when HB City Hall makes so many screw-ups in one week, all I have to do is point them out and get out of the way.

Be sure to see the previous email at the bottom to learn more about who's behind Gulfstream Point.

Based on the city's toothless shopping cart ordinance, which continues to be ignored on a daily basis by Code Enforcement, just like they ignore other obvious violations for months and years at a time, in my opinion, that Dept, needs to be privatized toute-de-suite!

All photos below from September 7th, 2009 by South Beach Hoosier
---------------
The first item below was added to the city's website calendar since
Wednesday morning, since I
actually copied and pasted the whole calendar then to an email page so I'd have it handy
and searchable.

What does it say that City Manager Good and Mayor Cooper care so little what you think and about your input that they don't even give you one week's notice about this?

Have any of you seen even ONE sign, anywhere in the city promoting Monday's event?
I haven't and neither have you -there aren't any.

Meanwhile, PAL, as usual, has its signs -for this weekend's antique sale at the Cultural Center- on the medians along the major roads, esp. HBB, which NO other group in town can use.
Nope, just PAL

Here's the city's website calendar as of Saturday afternoon:
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/CurrentEvents.aspx?vm=0
Go ahead, John and Jane Q. Citizen, click the
"More Information" link and see what you get.


City Manager/City Commission Forum - Sep. 14
FY 2009-2010 CITY COMMISSION PROPOSED BUDGET

Where: City Commission Chambers
When: 6:00 P.M.
Cost: FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC
[ More Information ]
----------------
As you can see, after clicking, you get no
more information than you already had,
below

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/CurrentEvents.aspx?EID=2383
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September 12, 2009
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Title: City Manager/City Commission Forum
Date: September 14, 2009
Description: FY 2009-2010 CITY COMMISSION PROPOSED BUDGET
Address: 400 South Federal Hwy
City Commission Chambers
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
View Maps: Google | MapQuest | Windows Live | Yahoo!
Location: City Commission Chambers
Hours: 6:00 P.M.
Contact: 954-457-1340
Cost: FREE AND OPEN TO PUBLIC




Hallandale Beach
400 South Federal Highway
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
954-458-3251
---------------
City Manager Good's proposed city budget is at:
http://fl-hallandalebeach.civicplus.com/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1205

---------------
re 9/16/09 HBCC meeting at 7:30 pm re Gulfstream Point (918 S. Federal Hwy.) and Broward County library lease

Doesn't the city or Gulfstream Point have to legally put up public notice signs for this?
There weren't any there as of Thursday.
(There also were no signs outside the library, as other cities would require to be posted on a lease that was ending that was coming before a commission.
Zero
!)


Gulfstream Point is the proposed tall, skinny and ugly office project north of the Steak & Shake on U.S.-1 that I first wrote about on August 22nd, that will also include a hotel element.

Yes, TWO hotels within a block of the Aventura border/countyline on what is, essentially, one large block on U.S.-1, just steps from the Hampton Inn.


But the real kicker, of course, is that it's across the street from the southern-most entrance to the
Village at Gulfstream Park, which means it'll be a traffic nighmare for HB and Aventura residents,
since as I can tell you from personal daily experience, there are already so many U-turns and near-collisions
there in that one block stretch as it is, right now.


And at night -shocker!- it's very, very dark owing to the street lights that only work occasionally.

When I spoke to someone at Development Services in person at HB City Hall days the day after my Aug. 22nd email (below), and asked when Gulfstream Point would be coming up before the City Commission for further action,

I was told probably not until the end of the year, and maybe not until early next year.
And here we are three weeks later!


This was printed in the
Herald on Sept. 6th.



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re 9/15/09 HBCC meeting at 5:05 pm re city budget

Yes, the map of the city is upside down!
This was printed in the Herald on Sept. 6th.
Announcements: Miami City and Public Notices - City of Hallandale Beach

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re 9/16/09 HBCC meeting at 7:30 p.m. city recycling program, lot maintenance
Once again, the map of the city is upside down!

This concerns the future of ugly and poorly-maintained development lots, such as The European Club
.
What an eyesore!


My blog post on this topic Wednesday will have photos and video of what a mess it is similar to the below,
and other examples throughout the city.

This was printed in the
Herald on Sept. 6th.
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The empty financial black hole that is The European Club is mocked by the Westin Diplomat and the
Trump Hollywood in the horizon on A1A. Looking NE from the p.o.v. of Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Three Islands



?ui=2&view=att&th=123b5d2b697af0dd&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=ii_123b5d2b697af0dd&zw
Many of these advertising panels have been on the ground or torn for MONTHS
And the long pipes next to the sidewalk don't
add much to the ambiance, either.
It cries out poor management and proper lack of supervision by both the developer and the city.


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Once upon a time, what The European Club was supposed to look.


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Don't you love their open door policy?
But the gate doors are actually supposed to be locked and secured to prevent vandalism, criminal mischief and, oh right, fires, like to those wooden pallets that have been on the lot for YEARS.



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?ui=2&view=att&th=123b5d5d3a93b055&attid=0.1&disp=attd&realattid=ii_123b5d5d3a93b055&zw
These last two photos highlight the fact that the HB City Commission already passed an ordinance a few years ago regulating shopping carts that quickly became the butt of jokes on the Internet.

This shopping cart on Three Islands, just a few steps from the driveway of a HB Fire Station, has been in the
same exact spot for AT LEAST three weeks.

So tell me, why would you expect the city's ordinance about the maintenance of development lots to be any better enforced if they ALREADY ignore what's right in front of them?
--------------

re 9/16/09 HBCC meeting at 7:30 pm
re Water and Wastewater Impact Fees

This was printed in the
Herald on Sept. 6th.




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Butler
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: What and where is
Gulfstream Point Hotel and Offices? Any idea?

David, its a pencil thin highrise, already approved by the city commission.
the platting must be done, or the city could be sued.

On Aug 21, 2009, at 2:39 PM, Hallandale Beach Blog wrote:

I've never heard of it and when I do a Google search, this press release is the only reference to anything with the actual name Gulfstream Point Hotel and Offices.
How in the world can that be?

Is it this property?
www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1113 which is north of the Steak and Shake restaurant on U.S.-1, just north of the countyline?
I was at this HB P&Z meeting in April and because it was a plat, apparently HB's policy is to NOT require a public notice sign for the public to become aware of the change, a public policy that I think ought to be changed to allow for maximum scrutiny.

I even swung by there before the meeting started to see if there were any signs and took photos of the sheer nothingness.

Have you seen this yet?
http://www.thevillageatgulfstreampark.com/images/inserts.pdf
I'm curious whether the traffic numbers cited are accurate.

Meanwhile...
Magna Entertainment Creditors Allowed to Sue Chairman
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aDZ9U8v5fDTM

It's mentioned in the last paragraph below.
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http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/55948/

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