Hallandale Beach Blog -A common-sense public policy overview offering a critical perspective on the current events, politics, government, public policy, sports scene and pop culture of the U.S. & South Florida, in particular, Broward & Miami-Dade County, and the cities of Hallandale Beach and Hollywood.

Trust me when I tell you, this part of Florida is NOT the Land of Lincoln. Pictured in upper-left is Hallandale Beach's iconic beachball-colored Water Tower on State Road A1A; September 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song) Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAao Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify. My May 14, 2013 blog post on her, titled, "On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom" is here.

A problematic model: Hallandale Beach CRA under city manager’s thumb

A problematic model: Hallandale Beach CRA under city manager’s thumb By William Gjebre* BrowardBulldog.org After a brief period of independence, the Hallandale Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is once again under the thumb of the city manager. Read the rest of the post at: http://www.browardbulldog.org/2013/05/a-problematic-model-hallandale-beach-cra-under-city-managers-thumb/

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Future of Hallandale Beach's Fashion Row Arts District on N.E. First Avenue will be discussed at an important 5:30 p.m. meeting on Wednesday at Dekka; What, if any, are insurance executive and developer Stephen L. Riemer's strategic plans for the future of the N.E. First Avenue area, alongside the F.E.C. tracks?; More cases of déjà vu on Hallandale Beach's woeful website


Above from June 19, 2012 

March 12, 2013

One day before an important 5:30 meeting at Dekka about the future of NE First Avenue and HB City Hall's willingness to actually live up to their past promises after years of eyerolling obfuscation and rhetoric -with only one Fashion Row banner still flying above the street that took the city over ONE YEAR to actually order and then erect onto First Avenue street light fixtures, in Dec. of 2011- and less than one week before next Monday night's HB CRA meeting on that matter, weeks after being hired, new CRA Director Daniel Rosemond's email address STILL does NOT appear on the city's own website. 

And can anyone plausibly explain why Liza Torres' contact info is NOT also located on the same webpage?

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=82


Why is it SO consistently hard over several years for the city to actually construct a normal, accurate and intuitive hierarchical directory on the city website that lists who's in charge of what, and their contact info?
It's like pulling teeth to get them to act like a normal city!

For some of you reading this, these words ring very, very familiar.
But it wasn't yesterday, it was four year ago.
In fact, it was March 8, 2009 when I wrote and posted this...
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Mayor Joy Cooper's so-called column in The South Florida Sun-Times had this headline for her most recent column: It was a very busy week around the community

 Her 9th paragraph begins: 
   We continued the first meeting of the month with the public works update. Director William Brandt reported
on the many ongoing construction projects. Many were in the final stages of completion. West Hallandale Beach
Blvd is almost fully completed with punch list items and final signalization test. This included the intersection at
8th Ave., which was implemented jointly with our city. Staff continues to evaluate the continued erosion along 
Shafer Canal and is looking to work with Broward County Erosion Control and the South Florida Water Management
District. We are looking at the possibility of a grant or loan program to assist in repairs. 
   One other project that was highlighted was the bridge rehabilitation project which has already commenced.
It will continue over the next few months with a projected completion date of November 1. This project includes
the beautification and lighting enhancements on the bridges located SW 7th St, Paradise Isles Blvd. and the
seven bridges within the single family residential area.
   After his report Mr. Brandt introduced the new Director of Public Works Department.
   Bill Brandt will remain as Director of Utilities and Engineering. Our utilities infrastructure continues to create a
high demand with many necessary on going projects . These include; sewer line rehabilitation, lift station replacement,
water plant operations, water main line improvements and daily crew operations and maintenance. 
All these projects include extensive engineering and planning.
   In order to expedite many of our construction programs and projects City Manager Mike Good recommended the
department be split between utilities and public works. Mr. John Chidsey was introduced as our new Director of 
Public Works. His duties will include but are not limited to; construction planning and supervision, facility maintenance,
sanitation, fleet management, street maintenance and transportation. Mr. Chidsey has over 30 years of supervisory
experience in construction, mechanical repair and maintenance. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Business from Nova,
is a State Certified contractor having built over 100,000 million dollars in construction and holds a Broward County
Engineering 3G Certificate.
   The combined expertise of both these gentlemen will provide much better service to our community. Keeping with
our goal not to increase costs and provide the same quality or improved services this staff change will create no
additional costs. Recently Frank Hilemen Legislative Analyst/Grant Specialist left the city for a job with a  private firm.
This position was not filled in the city manager's department but transferred to create the new public works position.
   After the introduction I took an opportunity to thank Director Brant on a job well done in repairing the water main
break that occurred on Hallandale Beach Boulevard. at Golden Isles Drive.  During these trying financial times I
have been approach many times with the question.  “Why we are not laying off people and going out to contract
service to save money?” This is one of the prime examples. Our staff was able to mobilize instantly and insure
that our water services were up and running within 24 hours for thousands of residents. If we had to wait to call in
an out side contractor the job would have taken much longer and would have cost much more to complete.

I guess I hardly need tell you that as far as the city's own website goes, as of today, after typing his name in the
search function, it shows that there is no person -with or without quotation marks- named "Chidsey" working
for the City of Hallandale Beach, as you can see below.

 Not surprisingly, as of today, the city's website, http://www.hallandalebeach.org/Directory.asp?EID=67
also still shows Mr. Brant as DPW Director
You are here: Home > Staff Directory

William Brant 
Department of Public Works
Title: Director of Public Works
Phone: 954-457-1611


Return to Staff Directory


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No, four years ago, I had to send Mr. Chidsey an email thru other city Dept. heads in order to let him know that the only reason he wasn't already hearing from citizens completely disgusted and dismayed with the continuing unsatisfactory performance of DPW at public parks and the beach was simple -his city email address was still missing from the city's website several MONTHS after he'd been put in charge of the Dept.
Yes, as always, the past is prologue in Hallandale Beach.

Like many of you, I think it will be very interesting to see if insurance executive and real estate developer Steven Riemer attends Wednesday's meeting, given all the properties that he owns or is associated with in the immediate area.

All properties in Hallandale Beach currently owned by Stephen L. Riemer or Riemer Brothers LLC: http://riemerinsurance.com/  http://www.riemerbrothers.com/

We have located more than one record for the information you entered.
Directions: Click the folio number to see property details.
 Sort By Folio Number      Sort By Name      Sort By Address
50 Records Found
Folio NumberOwner NameProperty Address
514227070090 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC NE 1 STREET  
514227270050 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC NE 3 AVENUE  
514227300090 RIEMER BROTHERS L L C 101 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227290220 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 105 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227300080 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 105 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227300200 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 106 NE 2 TERRACE  
514227300071 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 107 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227290240 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 109 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227300320 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 109 NE 2 TERRACE  
514227300070 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 109 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227290260 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 113 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227270011 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 114 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227300040 RIEMER BROTHERS L L C 115 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227290100 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 116 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227290280 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 117 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227290110 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 118 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227300250 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 118 NE 2 TERRACE  
514227290120 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 120 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227290130 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 122 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227300160 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 20 NE 2 TERRACE  
514227110120 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 201 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227290330 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 203 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227290340 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 205 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227110170 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 207 NE 2 STREET  
514227300110 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 21 NE 3 AVENUE  
514227110160 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 211 NE 2 STREET  
514227110150 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 215 NE 2 STREET  
514227300150 RIEMER,STEPHEN L 217 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD  
514227110140 RIEMER BROTHERS L L C 217 NE 2 STREET  
514227300140 RIEMER,STEPHEN L 219 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD  
514227300170 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 22 NE 2 TERRACE  
514227300130 RIEMER,STEPHEN L 221 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD  
514227300120 RIEMER,STEPHEN L 221 NE 3 AVENUE  
514222310130 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 224 NE 4 STREET  
514227300360 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 23 NE 2 TERRACE  
514227070070 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 25 NE 4 AVENUE  
514227070010 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 301 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD  
514227270010 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 308 NE 2 STREET  
514227070111 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 309 NE 1 STREET  
514227070100 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 314 NE 1 STREET  
514222340130 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 316 NE 4 COURT  
514227270030 RIEMER BROTHERS L L C 320 NE 1 COURT  
514227070080 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 320 NE 1 STREET  
514222340030 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 321 NE 4 STREET  
514227270014 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 328 NE 2 STREET  
514227110320 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 329 NE 2 STREET  
514227270020 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 330 NE 1 COURT  
514227080040 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 34 SE 3 AVENUE  
514222120110 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 408 NE 2 AVENUE  
514227010570 RIEMER BROTHERS LLC 410 NE 2 STREET  


I say that in light of all the many below-the-radar comments that have been heard around town about him and his purported desire to essentially take over the street, and build a high-density building there, perhaps a mixed-use development with residential on top of first-floor retail.

Of course, if Mr. Riemer or one of his associates is there in-person, they need to be prepared to be asked reasonable questions by the public and small business owners about the specifics of Riemer's strategic plan for N.E. First Avenue.

If those comments I've heard are, in fact, true, personally, I don't think his keeping the entire community in the dark on his plans would work to his advantage.
Quite to the contrary.

I guess we'll all see what happens and who plays their cards tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.
Make plans to be there!

Dekka is located at 139 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
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Broward IG: Hallandale leaders don’t know what they’re talking about

Broward IG: Hallandale leaders don’t know what they’re talking about, By William Gjebre, The Miami Herald, Posted on Tue, Apr. 23, 2013 The Broward Inspector General’s final report on the “gross mismanagement” of millions in tax dollars by Hallandale Beach is sharply critical of city leaders it says have shown a “basic misunderstanding” of what’s gone wrong. Hallandale Beach city managers past and present, the city attorney, the mayor and other city officials defended the handling of funds of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency in formal responses included in the 56-page report released last week. Read the rest of the article at: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/23/3360640/broward-ig-hallandale-leaders.html

FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HB CRA

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Complex on S. Federal Highway/U.S.-1, where attention to details and appearances has never been their strong suit in the nine years I've lived here, since returning to South Florida after 15 years in the Washington, D.C. area. Thanks to the city's incompetent, myopic and poorly-managed DPW, the spotlights seen above in 2011 on the city's monument sign, at the corner of U.S.-1 & S.E. 5th St., have NOT worked since June of 2012. Which is to say that they have NOT worked since City Manager Renee C. Miller has been in place. But attention to details and appearances really DO matter when you are a government, and the situation with the lights is but the tip of the iceberg. The city's log of Visitors & Lobbyists, which is required by law to be up-to-date, was TWO MONTHS old as of last Friday. Really. August 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
BROWARD INSPECTOR GENERAL FINAL REPORT RE: GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS BY THE CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH AND THE HALLANDALE BEACH COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY

Now we need to see some logical follow-up in the way of prosecution.

Please be advised that the report can take up to a minute to open due to the many exhibits. 
It took 55 seconds for me.

Csaba Kulin re Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield's comments re ethics at City Hall

HallandaleBeachBlog YouTube Channel video: Csaba Kulin re Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield's comments re her role on ethics. Uploaded May 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/dtpFnVOFA-I From my May 3, 2013 blog post titled, "Csaba Kulin asks Hallandale Beach City Attorney Whitfield THE question HB citizens have long wondered, esp. as the Broward IG's Office has been busy investigating the city and turning-up mountains of incriminating and jaw-dropping evidence: Who at HB City Hall is supposed to make sure that applicable laws, ordinances and rules, especially those regarding ethics and conflicts of interest, are followed and enforced fairly? Teaser Alert: You won't like her answer" at http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/csaba-kulin-asks-hallandale-beach-city.html
____________________________________________
Hallandale Beach Blog is where I try to inject or superimpose a degree of accountability, transparency and insight onto Florida and local Broward County government and public policy issues, which I feel is sorely lacking in local media now. On this blog, locally, I concentrate my energy, enthusiasm, anger and laser-like attention on the coastal cities of Hallandale Beach and Hollywood.

If you lived in this part of South Florida, you'd ALREADY be stuck in stultifying traffic, paying higher-than-necessary taxes and continually musing about the chronic lack of accountability among not only elected govt. officials, but also of city, county and state employees as well. Collectively, with a few rare exceptions, they couldn't be farther from the sort of strong results-oriented, eager work-ethic mentality that local residents deserve and expect.

This is particularly true in the town I live in, the City of Hallandale Beach, just north of Aventura and south of Hollywood. There, the "Perfect Storm" of years of apathy, incompetency and cronyism are all too readily apparent.
Sadly for its residents, HB is where even easily-solved, quality-of-life problems are left to fester for YEARS on end, because of myopia, lack of common sense and ineffective supervisory management. It's a city with lots of potential because of its terrific location, yet its citizens have become numb to its outrages and screw-ups after years of the worst kind of mismanagement and lack of foresight. On a daily basis, they wake up and see the same old problems that have never being adequately resolved by the city in a logical and responsible fashion, merely kicked -once again- further down the road.

I used to ask myself, not always rhetorically, "Where are all the enterprising young reporters who want to show that through their own hard work and enterprise, what REAL investigative reporting can produce?" Hearing no response, I decided to start a blog that could do some of these things, taking the p.o.v. of a reasonable but skeptical person seeing the situation for the first time, and wanting questions answered in a honest and logical way that citizens have the right to expect.

Hallandale Beach Blog intends to be a catalyst for positive change.

If there's one constant gripe in South Florida, regardless of your age, race, nationality or political persuasion, it's about the fundamental lack of PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY here among Florida's state, regional and local govt./agency officials. Hallandale Beach Blog aims to be a small step towards regaining some of that needed accountability, whether it's thru simple public scrutiny, or requires a degree of follow-up investigation and public exposure of incompetency, cronyism or simple negligence -South Florida's usual governing style.

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen."- Preacher Purl encouraging the underdog Hickory High basketball team before the state title game against heavily-favored South Bend Central in 1986's Hoosiers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/

Audio of pregame speech:
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_____________________________________
The South Florida I Grew Up In

Excerpted from Joan Didion's Miami, 1987, Simon & Schuster: In the continuing opera still called, even by Cubans who have now lived the largest part of their lives in this country, el exilo, the exile, meetings at private homes in Miami Beach are seen to have consequences. The actions of individuals are seen to affect events directly. Revolutions and counter-revolutions are framed in the private sector, and the state security apparatus exists exclusively to be enlisted by one or another private player. That this particular political style, indigenous to the Caribbean and to Central America, has now been naturalized in the United States is one reason why, on the flat coastal swamps of South Florida, where the palmettos once blew over the detritus of a dozen failed booms and the hotels were boarded up six months a year, there has evolved since the early New Year's morning in 1959 when Fulgencio Batista flew for the last time out of Havana a settlement of considerable interest, not exactly an American city as American cities have until recently been understood but a tropical capital: long on rumor, short on memory, overbuilt on the chimera of runaway money and referring not to New York or Boston or Los Angeles or Atlanta but to Caracas and Mexico, to Havana and to Bogota and to Paris and Madrid. Of American cities Miami has since 1959 connected only to Washington, which is the peculiarity of both places, and increasingly the warp...

"The general wildness, the eternal labyrinths of waters and marshes, interlocked and apparently neverending; the whole surrounded by interminable swamps... Here I am then in the Floridas, thought I," John James Audobon wrote to the editor of The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science during the course of an 1831 foray in the territory then still called the Floridas. The place came first, and to touch down there is to begin to understand why at least six administrations now have found South Florida so fecund a colony. I never passed through security for a flight to Miami without experiencing a certain weightlessness, the heightened wariness of having left the developed world for a more fluid atmosphere, one in which the native distrust of extreme possibilities that tended to ground the temperate United States in an obeisance to democratic institutions seemed rooted, if at all, only shallowly. At the gate for such flights the preferred language was already Spanish. Delays were explained by weather in Panama. The very names of the scheduled destinations suggested a world in which many evangelical inclinations had historically been accommodated, many yearnings toward empire indulged...

In this mood Miami seemed not a city at all but a tale, a romance of the tropics, a kind of waking dream in which any possibility could and would be accommodated...
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A fish rots from the head down, and so does local government in Hallandale Beach, FL

A fish rots from the head down, and so does local government in Hallandale Beach, FL
City of Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex, 400 S. Federal Highway. The City of Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex: If it's true that a fish rots from the head down, so it does in local government in Broward County, FL. This monument sign on the west side of the intersection of U.S.-1 and S.E. 5th Street, across from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex, alerts you to your proximity to HB City Hall and the HB Police Department HQ. It's a place and culture whose very own words and actions have made clear to taxpayers of this city -regardless of age, race or income- that it holds itself apart from and above from the very citizens it's supposed to serve, often acting like they don't have to follow the same laws that govern everyone else in the state of Florida and the U.S., whether of logic, reason or contracts. (More to the point of this blog, the Florida Statutes on Sunshine Laws and Public Records.) City employees in Hallandale Beach routinely refuse to answer perfectly reasonable questions posed to them by taxpayers, and as I have found out myself and witnessed, are not above berating you for even having the nerve to ask! As it happens, it's also not a very safe area, despite who operates here, and over the past nine years, the public parking lots have often been pitch-black for 6-9 months at a time, including in front of the HB Police Dept. HQ. Then-Police Chief Thomas Magill even shrugged his shoulders at City Comm. meetings when told about this a few times. As if they couldn't make a worse first impression, at one point, even the spotlights shining on this sign didn't work at night for over FOUR YEARS, either. October 13, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Nice from a distance, not so nice once you're there and see the years of City Hall's neglect

Nice from a distance, not so nice once you're there and see the years of City Hall's neglect
North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL. June 19, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Just as true now as it was when it was written in June 2012!

Just as true now as it was when it was written in June 2012!
"So this is where our tax dollars go to die? My friend and fellow civic activist Csaba Kulin, perhaps wondering when we're FINALLY going to get the clean and inviting public beach that Hallandale Beach residents believe we're entitled to but have never received under Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew. Instead, we get rusty pipes in the middle of the beach and garbage cans on the beach -without lids- at the windiest place in the entire city. And a public building across the street from the beach that the public can't use for free but which city employees can -for their holiday parties." Click photo to see many more photos of the site and the original post. Or, go to http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/latest-info-photos-re-related-groups.html; 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The View from the Hallandale Beach/Hollywood city line

The View from the Hallandale Beach/Hollywood city line
Looking south towards The Beach Club and the Hallandale Beach Water Tower on A1A from the beach, near the Hollywood cityline, May 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

It's long past time to put the BEACH back in Hallandale Beach

It's long past time to put the BEACH back in Hallandale Beach
For there ever to be a successful balance between business, town, and nature in Hallandale Beach, big changes will be necessary. Late afternoon, North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL, February 10, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. While it might look nice and inviting from afar, the sad and galling reality for far too many Hallandale Beach residents who want to enjoy their public beaches, is that in the ten years under Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew at City Hall, the city's highly-paid top bureaucrats and the city's ineffective Dept. of Public Works, the public beaches have been consistently neglected and poorly-maintained for MANY, MANY YEARS. In fact, there are several places at the beach where it's self-evident to even the casual observer that the city is NOT even in compliance with its own rules or ordinances -or even state laws- and hasn't been since I moved here in late 2003. To say nothing of showing initiative or common sense there. Yet despite the fact that the beach is an invaluable resource and the reason that many people have consciously chosen to live in Hallandale Beach instead of somewhere else in south Florida, Mayor Cooper and 3/4ths of the City Commission -and those bureaucrats- have chosen to squander time, energy and large sums of money on one terrible idea after another elsewhere in the city because of either personal connections or their push for the furtherance of crony capitalism, rather than in making the investment in making the public beaches cleaner, more attractive and more interesting for residents and guests alike. More recently, in her role as head of the Florida League of Cities, Mayor Cooper has neglected the city even more than usual, as she has flitted from one part of the state to another, acting like a Queen Bee. Believe me, the people she meets in other Florida cities in that FLC capacity have no earthly idea of what a poor job she has done for years by any sort of objective measure. In my opinion, in the year 2012, after all the dozens of fact-filled and photo-filled posts I've posted here documenting the deteriorating conditions of the city's public beaches, it's long past time to not only put the BEACH back in Hallandale, but to put genuine oversight and meaningful financial accountability to taxpayers in it as well. The citizens of this beach-side city deserve MUCH BETTER than they get with regard to beach maintenance and overall attractiveness. Ask yourself a question: If a well-managed but land-locked city like Coral Springs had a beach this size, what would it look like and how would it be managed? Now compare that image in your head with the current reality of ours under Mayor Joy Cooper. 'Nuff said!

"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"

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"Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt."
-New York Times, September 22, 1851

"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?"
-Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 HB City Commission meeting, in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission, on November 2008 ballot.

Six YEARS after the county's voters had overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission had yet to live up to its legal responsibility. That's why!
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Corruption Isn't Unique to South Florida, It's the Level of the Stupidity That Is

Corruption Isn't Unique to South Florida, It's the Level of the Stupidity That Is
"[Chicago Mayor] William Hale Thompson was defeated Tuesday after a campaign which he alone made disgraceful. The election was an ejection, a dirty job, but Chicago has washed itself and put on clean clothes. Thompson recognized the [Chicago] Tribune as his chief enemy. The Tribune was glad to earn that opinion. It certainly tried to do so. It has taken the fight to him on every occasion during the long and depraved course of his administration. It is unpleasant business to eject a skunk, but someone has to do it. For Chicago, Thompson has meant filth, corruption, obscenity, idiocy and bankruptcy. He has given the city an international reputation for moronic buffoonery, barbaric crime, triumphant hoodlumism, unchecked graft and a dejected citizenship. He nearly ruined the property and completely destroyed the pride of the city. He made Chicago a byword for the collapse of American civilization. In his attempt to continue this he excelled himself as a liar and defamer of character. He’s out. He is not only out, but dishonored. He is deserted by his friends. He is permanently marked by the evidences of his character and conduct. His health is impaired by his ways of life and he leaves office and goes from the city the most discredited man who ever held place in it."

-Excerpts from April 1931 Chicago Tribune editorial following Republican "Big Bill" Thompson's loss to his Democratic rival Anton Cermak. A friend of organized crime during the Al Capone era, Thompson was the last Republican elected mayor of Chicago. But less than two years later, Mayor Cermak was shot while shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt at Miami's Bayfront Park. He died from gunshot wounds to his lungs three weeks later.

See http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3686.html

Hallandale Beach. Actually, it's a city of gross incompetency, red-tape & myopia

Hallandale Beach. Actually, it's a city of gross incompetency, red-tape & myopia
Hallandale Beach, City of Choice. The monument sign that greets northbound drivers on U.S.-1/South Federal Hwy. at the gateway into the city as they leave the City of Aventura and Miami-Dade County in the rear window, on one of the three main streets into Hallandale Beach. Unfortunately, it's the perfect metaphor for the City of Hallandale Beach and its elected officials and employees the past 8 years: myopic and lacking in common sense. This sign, five blocks south of City Hall, was originally placed so far west on the median strip -and practically BEHIND a palm tree- that drivers actually COULDN'T actually read it even if they wanted to. In any case, because of the city's longtime gross incompetency, negligence and lack of appropriate oversight, the spotlights that were supposed to illuminate the sign at night HAVEN'T worked since about mid-January of 2004. Which is to say, yes, MUCH LONGER than the U.S.'s involvement in WW II. Welcome to the City of Hallandale Beach! Begin heavy traffic, chronic red tape and mis-adventures in government! My original photo here on the blog of this situation was taken January 2007; this one was taken May 8, 2008; photo by South Beach Hoosier. The three palm trees that had been in front of it on the median that obstructed it for so long have come and gone, with the result that for a few years you couldn't help but notice that it DIDN'T work! In February of 2009, in order to make room for a southbound left-turning lane at S.E. 5th Street into The Village of Gulfstream retail complex, the 'invisible' sign was removed and placed farther north on the media. For more than a year, despite a solar panel nearby, there were no actual light fixtures present! As of April 15, 2013, if you can believe this, with a new expensive street-lighting project along the median of U.S.-1 finally finished, where recently-planted trees now have lights shining on branches -as if that meant anything- guess what? Despite another nearby solar unit, there are STILL zero actual light fixtures pointed at the sign! ZERO! Correct, all these years and tax dollars later, the City of Hallandale Beach is STILL unable to figure out how to light this sign on the busiest street in the city at its southern gateway. Yet another sign of the ruinous reign of Mayor Joy Cooper. No attention to detail! © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Looking east on State Road 858/Hallandale Beach Blvd.

Looking east on State Road 858/Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Looking east on State Road 858/Hallandale Beach Blvd., over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway bridge, toward the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower and the three condo towers comprising The Beach Club. September 8, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

City of Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, FL

City of Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, FL
City of Hollywood City Hall. An early morning shot of the east side of Hollywood City Hall the morning of the Johnson Street Redevelopment RFP Evaluation Committee meeting, where presentations were heard; October 14, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. For more info on what's going on with this important project, see http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/JohnsonStBeachRFP.htm

Political Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Lies of Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good

Political Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Lies of Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good
Political Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Lies of Mayor Joy Cooper and former City Manager Mike Good. March 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier, This photo was taken just days before the Air Supply fundraising/concert on the beach, as Hallandale Beach DPW employees try to make the area "appear" to be well-maintained -when in reality, it hadn't been properly maintained -and thus fool HB taxpayers and visitors alike. This building underneath the city's iconic Water Tower, just steps from both the Atlantic Ocean and State Road A1A, was given to the City of Hallandale Beach for free by The Related Group on August 3rd, 2007, and yet STILL remained OFF-LIMITS to everyday HB citizens, taxpayers and residents, the true "owners" of the building, until July of 2010, 35 MONTHS later. As of April 15, 2013, there hasn't been a single public forum held by the city dedicated to gauging how citizens want to utilize it best. That's because the community wants to actually be able to use THEIR OWN facility, while the city prefers keeping it locked-up, or as currently, rented out to The Realted Group to use as a model for their Beachwall development. Even worse, for years, the building remained a veritable clubhouse for the cronies and pals of HB City Hall's elected officials and city employees, who get to use it for free. And for many separate periods of time, often six months, the city couldn't even manage to keep an American flag on the city flagpole next to the fountain, even on Holiday. Like MLK day in 2012, among several others. Once again, HB City Hall & DPW shows their gross incompetency by being unable to manage something as simple as keeping a flag flying. Pathetic! © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Looking towards southern Hollywood Beach

Looking towards southern Hollywood Beach
Trump Hollywood, Diplomat Residences, Westin Diplomat, Crowne Resort. Looking NE towards Hollywood on State Road A1A from the 2500 block of East Hallandale Beach Blvd./State Road 858 just before crossing the Intracoastal Bridge: (l-r) Trump Hollywood, Diplomat Residences, the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach. March 25, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Hallandale Beach in The Miami Herald over 25 years ago

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Hallandale Beach in The Miami Herald over 25 years ago
"For years people living in and out of its condo-walled sector east of U.S. 1 have wondered what to do about the city of Hallandale. In the 19th Century the condo giants would have served as ideal fortresses. From top floors of the towers, enemy ships could be readily spotted and blown out of the Atlantic. Oceanfront dwellers could have been protected from the west by the Hallandale Beach Boulevard drawbridge and moat called the Intracoastal Waterway. But this is the 20th Century..."

-Miami Herald Broward Columnist Bill Braucher's first paragraph from July 24, 1983.
To which Hallandale Beach Blog can only say, Bulls-eye!

The Related Group's The Beach Club, consisting of three condo towers

The Related Group's The Beach Club, consisting of three condo towers
The Beach Club. Looking SE at The Beach Club from the Hollywood side of State Road A1A. May 12, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Hallandale Beach Water Tower on A1A/South Ocean Drive

Hallandale Beach Water Tower on A1A/South Ocean Drive
Hallandale Beach Water Tower on A1A/South Ocean Drive. Located below the Hallandale Beach Water Tower on A1A/South Ocean Drive, on the south side (right) is the "Community Center" that HB City Hall, thru their gross incompetency, has made impossible for HB citizen taxpayers to use now for 41 MONTHS as of January 2011. (And where's the American flag on the Fourth of July weekend? Missing in action as it had been for months!) July 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and Village at GP retail complex, Hallandale Beach, FL

Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and Village at GP retail complex, Hallandale Beach, FL
Entrance monument to Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and The Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex on U.S.-1 & SE 3rd St. Hallandale Beach, FL. October 5, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Gulfstream Way at Gulfstream Park Race Track in Hallandale Beach, FL

Gulfstream Way at Gulfstream Park Race Track in Hallandale Beach, FL
The north-south street sign in the middle of Gulfstream Park Race Track in Hallandale Beach, FL that leads to-and-from the track and the retail Village at Gulfstream Park to Hallandale Beach Blvd. north of the facilities. October 5, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

400 S Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009


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North Miami Beach Senior High School, the Home of the Chargers

North Miami Beach Senior High School, the Home of the Chargers
Before I was a Hoosier, I was an NMB Charger, Class of 1979

In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation

In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation
"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, 2007.

The NCAA Championship Banners

The NCAA Championship Banners
Assembly Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. I was there in 1981 for NCAA Title #4 vs. North Carolina. Click on photo to go to the IU Basketball homepage.

Let's end the 27-year NCAA title drought!

Let's end the 27-year NCAA title drought!
IU All-American and U.S. Olympian Steve Alford on the cover of the 1987 Indiana University basketball media guide, months after IU won the NCAA basketball title.

Sebastian the Ibis, the U-M mascot

Sebastian the Ibis, the U-M mascot
Like longtime U-M fans everywhere, including me, Sebastian the Ibis, the U-M mascot, hasn't had very much to cheer about lately, given the general state of mediocrity and underwhelming performances coming from the Hurricanes. Isn't it about time for fans to finally see some tangible signs that the new AD is moving things in the right direction? Where are the signs? I'm NOT seeing them. The woeful U-M Women's program is largely composed of teams that are NOT even close to being competitive for NCAA titles like their ACC competition, and they don't even field Women's Lacrosse or Field Hockey teams. It's embarrassing! Click on Sebastian for retrospective photo gallery of The Orange Bowl