Like many of you, I've got my own long list -and collection of photos- regarding Code Compliance and safety violations that are routinely ignored by City Hall or the HB Police or Fire Dept., many of which are right in front of them, while still others are actually violations and safety problems THEY are actually responsible for, but yet they've done nothing about it for YEARS.
All years when present City Manager Marc Antonio was at City Hall in some high-ranking capacity or another.
I'm continually finding myself -and many of you- saying "How can he remain SO oblivious for SO long?"
And why is there STILL absolutely NO FEAR among HB city employees of being terminated for NOT doing their jobs and treating residents with professionalism and honesty?
If not now, when?
Please try your best to make it to one of these meetings if you couldn't attend in March, since we all know that Mayor Cooper truly believes -really!- that the less HB residents attend public meetings, the more it indicates that they think she's doing a great job -not the sad reality, which is that her mean-spirited, egotistical and disorganized manner of running the meetings actually repels people from attending and participating.
Which only hurts the city, not to mention, democracy.
I'll try my best to be at all three meetings, since this is precisely when those foam boards I've spoken to some of you about here in HB about are most useful. Sturdy boards that can be displayed at public meetings -on chairs if need be- with photos and
information on them of the self-evident and longstanding problems that will finally see the light of day. HB City Hall can't deny what's in the photos -but you know they will TRY!
Starting this month, with the help of a new piece of SONY electronic gadgetry that was seemingly tailor-made with bloggers like me in mind, you'll start seeing those old (and new) problems displayed here and on my YouTube Channel page in a way that I believe will make them much harder for City Hall and Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew and cronies to ignore.
Hallandale Beach Quadrant Meeting for Northeast Quadrant
Monday, April 11, 2011, 6:30 pm
North Beach Municipal Building, 2813 E. Hallandale Beach Boulevard
Special City Commission Workshop on the Parks Master Plan
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 6-8:00 p.m.,
Hallandale Beach City Hall Commission Chambers, 400 South Federal Highway
Hallandale Beach Quadrant Meeting: Citywide
Saturday, April 30, 2011, 10:00 a.m.
Hallandale Beach City Hall Commission Chambers, 400 South Federal Highway
Wynwood/Overtown
Residents want construction site shut down due to noise, dust
Residents of a Miami neighborhood have been trying for months to get authorities to do something about a noisy, dusty construction site near their homes. Their pleas were ignored until they called the newspaper.
By Jared Goyette
April 7, 2011For six months, Liz Fate has been unable to open her windows, because when she does, dust from an unpermitted construction site across the street covers her floor and furniture.She complained to the city of Miami, the Florida Department of Transportation, whose contractor is using the site, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, but nothing happened. Finally last week she complained to the City Attorney’s Office and The Miami Herald, which contacted several government agencies to inquire about the situation.
Within hours, city code-enforcement inspectors visited the property and cited owner David Lombardi for lacking a permit and for improper storage of construction materials in a residential neighborhood.
Now it turns out Lombardi’s tenant, American Engineering and Development, never had city permits to be there to begin with.
“They are operating illegally,’’ said city Zoning Administrator Barnaby L. Min. “If they do not have permits they should not be operating.”
American is leasing the site, 2238 NW Second Ave, from Lombardi — a prominent Wynwood developer and landowner — and using it as a staging area for the construction on nearby Biscayne Boulevard.
Lombardi and the contractor now have until April 11 to either obtain the proper permits, which require approval from the city, or shut down. FDOT has spoken with American Engineering and issued a statement saying that the department will monitor the company’s efforts to reduce dust and comply with the city’s regulations. The department also told the contractor it can’t start work at 5:30 a.m. and must wait until 8 as required by city rules.
A spokesman with the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management said that while the dust might be a nuisance, inspectors had tested the air on four separate occasions, and found it didn’t pose a health risk for residents.
The government’s belated actions aren’t enough for Fate. She wants the project stopped altogether.
“We can’t make it safer; we just need to shut it down,” she said. “It needs to be shut down immediately.”
Lombardi said that he believes the work is allowed because the site is zoned light industrial. He doesn’t think Fate’s efforts to stop the work will be successful.
“Would she prefer that we parked containers for the port there?” he said. “I mean, does she understand where she rented? She rented in a neighborhood that’s zoned light industrial. If she wants Brickell Avenue, go rent on Brickell. The rents are triple.”
Min, the zoning administrator, said that only a portion of the property is zoned industrial, and that only that section could be used for the storage of construction material.
City Commissioner Richard Dunn, whose district covers the area, echoed Min’s comments.
“Whatever the law is, it should be upheld,” he said.
Miami Code Enforcement Director Sergio Guadix said he planned to give the contractor time to respond before asking police to stop the work.
Fate lives in Wynwood Lofts, which is also owned by Lombardi. She first started calling city officials and Dunn’s office at the end of September. In the last month, she started going door-to-door at the on the other side of the site, at the New Horizon Square apartments in Overtown.
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