re Beachwalk project in Hallandale Beach: Hallandale Beach Mom with common sense writes re the conditions at HB's North Beach. Yet City Hall STILL won't accept ownership of longstanding problems there, just like they've ignored city's education/White Flight problems for years

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Yes, it seems so nice from a distance, but ... 
North Beach, Hallandale Beach, FL

Earlier today I received an adroit comment regarding my post of last Friday titled, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's old threats & lawsuits re-emerge as Hollywood's Beach One Resort sues over its access to the beach, the latest shoe to drop in The Related Group's Beachwalk project that'd make HB's North Beach a de facto private beach for The Related Group's properties, NOT a public beach for HB residents
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/hallandale-beach-mayor-joy-coopers-old.html


In just a few sentences, she managed to get to the heart of so many longstanding problems in this city: the unwillingness of elected officials and highly-paid city employees in charge to first acknowledge the problems and to solve them to the satisfaction of Hallandale Beach taxpayers residents, and business owners.
Instead, out of habit or personal preference, they either ignore, deny, or kick the can further down the road.


Or, as has often happened when I've publicly discussed these matters, found myself personally attacked for pointing out what everyone but them seems able to see right in front of our collective faces. 


Barboryte wrote:

I went to this beach once and never again. I would rather drive to Hollywood boardwalk and spend money there and have my kids play in the sand and enjoy plenty of showers and clean beach.Maybe it's time to get up and sell and move from this town. All I see is our town being sold piece by piece to developers with absolutely no regard to the residents. 

Her comments are not unlike many I received over the recent years during the battle against Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School trying to force itself down the throats
of a single-family residential Northeast HB neighborhood, on N.E. 8th Avenue, with the promise of far more kids and traffic coming from outside of HB and southeast Broward than the neighborhood either wanted or could stand.


But associated with that issue was the related one that is the abject failure over the eight-plus years that I've lived here of Mayor Cooper and the City Commission and City Managers Good and Antonio to be serious and convene a citywide forum at the HB Cultural Center, say on a Saturday morning, run by a moderator and with experts present, where the city's educational problems and future could be FINALLY be discussed, calmly but honestly.


Frankly, it's as if everyone at HB City Hall was so afraid that the truth would be uttered by so many dozens and dozens of HB parents that it would actually hurt someone else's feelings, so instead, we simply had to just pretend, year-after-year, that the problem didn't really exist.
But it did and it still does.


Specifically, that would mean publicly airing a problem that I've written about here on the blog a few times but which nobody at HB City Hall wants to publicly acknowledge, but which as everyone who has lived here for any amount of time knows, is one of the main reasons that families move away from Hallandale Beach: the popular perception that the nearest public high school, Hallandale High School, is unsatisfactory and a poor educational choice.


So instead we have either White Flight to the more western suburbs of this county, or high school age kids attending private or charter schools located outside of this city.
That's NOT how you build a community -or keep one intact.


But year-after-year this problem has been allowed to exist below the radar.
And equally so, the awful conditions of this city's public beaches, which clearly ought to be a jewel and natural meeting place for the community, but which isn't.


Which, of course, explains why you are much more likely to run into someone you know from HB at Hollywood Beach, near Johnson Street on the Broadwalk, than you are at HB's own beaches.
People have and are voting with their feet -and their cars.


I'm now going to quote myself.
Really.


From my January 19, 2009 blog post titled, Welcome to Hallandale Beach: where old cigarettes and condoms party at the beach that HB Cops ignore!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/welcome-to-hallandale-beach-where-old.html

As we all know from our travels, in many if not most American communities fortunate enough to have a beach, especially those dependent on tourism, the beach is an invaluable resource that's esteemed, treasured and given extra care and concern.

It's a place where city officials and elected officials constantly visit and hover around to keep track of not only its physical and aesthetic condition, but also to gauge the mood of resident and visitor beach-goers to see if there's any problems or concerns there they need to be aware of.

They are pro-active, NOT reactive and slothful and full of excuses as they are in Hallandale Beach. 

That public sentiment is often an early indicator of the residents' collective feeling about the town itself, since when resident taxpayers feel that a place as high-profile as the beach is going downhill, and not being properly looked after, it's only natural that they suspect that other things in the city they can't see are falling apart, too.

It's only human nature, but it's something the City of Hallandale Beach has been in utter denial about for years, as one problem after another has been left to fester there.Yet when confronted with the reality, they've instead put their heads in the sand.The evidence is all around you.

So, I was at North Beach on Saturday for well over an hour, checking things out, and as usual, it was fine as long as you only saw it thru the prism of the palm trees along Surf Road.

Yes, from there, everything always looks fine!

 Above, July 26, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

But once you've parked in the garage (the one that the mayor seems perfectly willing to give away) and were actually standing on the beach, you could tell that it was as filthy and unappealing as ever, though to be fair, for once, I didn't find any condoms or liquor bottles over near the rusty pipes that have been on the beach for years...

Snapshot of a poorly-maintained public beach: Finding a used condom near one of the only two park benches at 4 p.m., on a Friday holiday afternoon on a beach full of families. January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

It could hardly be clearer that HB City Hall and their DPW leadership STILL won't accept ownership of the longstanding problems there.

They act like residents who pay taxes for that beach to be properly maintained CAN'T see what has been in front of us for years and we don't know who is responsible.

They're wrong -we do.

We know EXACTLY who is responsible!

The very problems I telephoned DPW about two weeks ago -FROM the beach- which they said they'd take care of.

Among other things, that included the city's Beach sponsorship signs that we've seen there for the past few years, were still lying on the ground, not properly erected.

And were far from where they were supposed to be.

Like last time we were there.

And the week before that...

And the month before that...

According to the life guards, the sign on South Beach has been under the lifeguard stand -that STILL has graffiti on it- for easily 3 or 4 months, waiting for DPW to do the job they're paid to do -basic maintenance.

It's only further proof to me that, as I've been stating for years, the look and care of the public beaches has fallen so far below what is acceptable, that we should immediately take it away from a clearly-ineffective and dis-interested DPW, and privatize the function, just like the beach life guards are actually contractors for Jeff Ellis, not city employees.

A firm given the money that was previously appropriated to DPW for beach maintenance, and which has properly maintaining an attractive and safe beach as their only function, knowing that if they fail they'll be replaced.

I believe that almost anyone we choose would do a MUCH-SUPERIOR job by us as taxpayers then continuing to expect a dog that clearly won't hunt, like DPW, to suddenly learn to hunt.

Obviously if this happens, there also needs to be a commensurate cut in personnel numbers for DPW, since I'm certainly NOT going to reward DPW for doing a terrible job by letting them keep the same number of employees, since actions and consistent poor performance must have consequences, and that should include some for Hector Castro himself, the DPW Director.

http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=19

So where exactly is Hector Castro on this matter, and WHY is it that he is never grilled about this longstanding failure at HB City Hall, when it's clearly a big enough and obvious enough problem that even Joy Cooper apologists were mentioning it at the June 6th City Commission meeting?

And why was his immediate predecessor or Antonio or Good never grilled, either?

Where is the personal and professional accountability at HB City Hall?

By the way, the life guards stands we have on the beach are NOT properly "grounded" for lightning strikes, which is both a liability issue and a maintenance issue.

Rather than have the city hand-over de facto control of the public beach called North Beach, so The Related Group can make it a boutique beach that caters largely to their residents and hotel clients for their three properties within four blocks of that location at the Hollywood-

Hallandale Beach city-line, and also maintain control of the public parking garage, too -both for thirty years- we should tell the City Commission to tell TRG, thanks but no thanks.

But do go ahead and build the hotel you can already build, because that is something that nearly everyone in the community agrees we need.

But build it WITHOUT the condo units, and WITHOUT tossing the North Beach parcel in as a sweetener -to a real estate corporation!

Then, we vote in November for a mayor and city commissioners who take their job as public representatives seriously, who actually DO their homework, read the background documents  fully and who actually show-up for HB City Commission meetings ready, willing and able  to ask tough, probing questions of city staff and applicants, for the benefit of this city's taxpayers, NOT for the benefit of developers or a certain group of people in town used to having their way.

And after those sort of people get elected in November -and they are NOT named Joy Cooper or members of her Rubber Stamp Crew named Anthony A. Sanders and William "Bill" Julian-  they can instruct our new City Manager, Renee Crichton, that owing to the longstanding neglect of the city's public beaches for years, fixing the public beaches is now deemed a HIGH PRIORITY, and she needs to come back to them within thirty days with some realistic proposals to make that a reality -ASAP!

One that also includes the possibility of the city privatizing the maintenance of the beach so that it properly reflects the fact that 13 years ago, the people of this community overwhelmingly voted to "put the beach back into Hallandale Beach."

News re Ben Gamla Charter; Csaba Kulin informs us how Mayor Joy Cooper seeks to divide the community again and make-up new rules for her own benefit

Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex, February 13, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Below, excerpts from my email earlier this afternoon to interested parties in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Broward County and South Florida:


Now they tell us! 
"Ben Gamla, ironically, probably spoke Aramaic." 
Rimshot! - http://instantrimshot.com/


With news that he is now trying to tap the Tampa Bay area for one of his Hebrew Charter schools, the first article mentioned in the Google Alert I received today is especially good at describing Peter Deutsch's mendacity, his verbal sleight-of-hand with facts, and his facility for using an air of presumed authority to get his way if he can't simply bulldoze neighborhood opposition out of the way.


Florida Jewish Journal
Ben Gamla Schools: Threat to Judaism and the Constitution
By Rabbi Bruce Warshal
1:46 p.m. EST, February 21, 2012
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/opinion/fl-jjps-warshal-0222-20120221,0,6894869.story


It goes without saying that it would've been nice for those of us in Hallandale Beach opposed to Deutsch's proposal on N.E. 8th Street, and in particular, his constant belittling treatment of HB citizens and frequent use of bullying tactics, if there'd been some articulate people in South Florida like this particular author writing in local newspapers last year, who could've verbally supported the NE neighborhood's opposition, instead of keeping quiet like church mice.
Oh well, a victory in hand... 


http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/05/hallandale-beach-neighbors-fight-plans-for-charter-school-pushed-by-ex-congressman-peter-deutsch/


http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/07/hallandale-to-vote-on-1-2-million-deutsch-land-deal-purchase-would-quell-upset-neighbors/

Above and below, looking east from in front of 416 N.E. 8th Avenue, the former Hallandale Jewish Center that the city purchased last year from Peter Deutsch; main building above, parking lot below. February 20, 2012 photos by South Beach Hoosier.

Speaking of that apparent "victory" though, what do we actually have right now, as of February 22nd, after four years of fighting Deutsch?
Correct, the city owns a property on N.E. 8th Avenue in a largely single-family neighborhood, but it's one with an old building on it -and lots and lots of asphalt.
That's it.
But that's NOT at all what the HB community desired for the property long-term, is it?


Not by any stretch, so make sure you take advantage of the opportunity and ask questions 
and state your own personal preference for ensuring that the future of that property, which the city over-paid for, WILL BE a park or recreational space, at tonight's Town Hall meeting at the Hepburn Center on NW 8th Avenue at 6:30 pm, or the one being held at the North Beach Center on A1A next Wednesday night at 6:30 pm.
The sooner that green metamorphosis begins, the better for the kids.
Especially the older kids.


And now on to my main reason for writing you today, rather unexpectedly.


Those of you who recently received a copy of Csaba Kulin's very-informed email about the proposed undemocratic Charter change re the HB City Commission, should re-read it soon, or, if you no longer have it, look for it on my blog tomorrow, where I will post both his first and second email, and some thoughts on what he wrote.
Here's why it's IMPORTANT.


Having previously used undemocratic methods that violate the spirit of the City Commission's own established recommendations for filling the then-upcoming Commission seat vacancy in August of 2008 -the topic of many past blog posts here- without ever allowing the public to speak, Mayor Joy Cooper is going full-bore to do what she can to ensure that her very own Rubber Stamp Crew stays in place, even if that means she has to use extraordinary measures.


She's trying to head off 'the posse,' i.e. an informed, pro-reform HB citizenry that wants big changes and genuine financial accountability at HB City Hall come November 6th.


As most of you know, the HB City Commission recently voted to have this Charter issue appear on the 2012 General Election ballot in November, believing, quite naturally, that having it in August during a party primary would be a very bad idea, besides the simple fact that many Hallandale Beach residents don't come back to the area until around Labor Day, to escape the awful summer heat.
Comm. Keith London even made a point of reminding his colleagues of these self-evident facts in saying why November was the clear preferred time so that the largest number of voters could participate.


Well, this morning I received a copy of an email from Csaba detailing his experiences last night at Comm. Alexander Lewy's meeting over at Brio, the restaurant at Village of Gulfstream Park closest to U.S.-1. 
And it's a revelation in its own small way, which is why I wanted to share it with you ASAP, with Csaba's permission.


It shows that even more than many of you have privately expressed to me in confidence -via phone calls and emails- of your fears that Mayor Cooper is SO anxious to stay in power in November, after ten years as mayor, that she will attempt to split the community if need be, or even act in a clearly undemocratic manner, to get what she wants.


Simply put, Mayor Cooper does NOT want the largest number of eligible and well-informed Hallandale Beach citizens to have a chance to vote AGAINST this bad Charter idea, enthusiastically supported by her and Comm. Lewy. 
Instead, she wants the smallest number of people deciding its fate, and she wants to get her way, even if that means foisting a 100% vote-by-mail referendum that would happen before November.
This, in a city where there has NEVER previously been a 100% vote-by-mail election.


Again, I plan on posting most of the particulars of this issue on my blog tomorrow, which will also incorporate and analyze some particularly laughable, galling and condescending statements made by Comm. Lewy as well, so go there mañana and check it out and ponder its deeper significance for us.
It's a lot to take in, I know, but we also all know from personal experience that an educated voter is Joy Cooper's worst fear.


-----
N.B. to readers of the blog:


Rather than my trying to characterize Csaba Kulin's email, since I think it speaks for itself as far as Comm. Lewy and Mayor Cooper's myopia about the public's current mood and what they're willing to tolerate, I decided to simply post his words and let you read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. 
Keep in mind, too, that Michele Lazarow and Csaba have already filed with the City Clerk to run for the Hallandale Beach City Commission, for what are currently the two seats on the dais with terms ending in November, now belonging to Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders.
Michele and Csaba are pro-reform candidates opposed to the stealthy and incompetent way that Hallandale Beach has been mis-managed for many, many years under Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, a motley group which over the years has variously consisted of Ross, Sanders, Alexander Lewy and former commissioner William "Bill" Julian, the latter of whom was defeated for re-election in 2010 and who is running again this year, as is Sanders for re-election. 
  
After the meeting Comm. Lewy approached me with a question. Who am I running against in the election? I responded that "I am not running against anybody, I am running for one of the two seats available in November." He than stated that "we must maintain a minority seat on the dais and it would be good for me if I would run for Ross's seat." I reaffirmed that "I intend to get the most number of votes I can and let the chips fall where ever they will." It was not the answer he wanted or expected.

After that, Comm. Lewy started to talk about the hypothetical "numbered seats" idea of his. He wanted to know if there was if there was "numbered seats" who's seat would I run for." I told him that it will not be an issue in this year's election so any discussion is purely theoretical. He tried to trap me to somehow say something different. 

As we all walk out of Brio, we see Mayor Cooper sitting about 30 feet away. Comm Lewy walked over to her for a 10 minute chat while I am talking to two people from the earlier meeting. After another 5 minutes, Mayor Cooper walk over to us and proceeds to tell us that she "enthusiastically" supports Comm Sanders for the commission. After then she said "I made a big mistake before" but now I support Bill Julian for the commission.

Mayor Cooper continued saying that "she is ready to start a petition drive" to put the "residential districting" on the ballot. No discussion, she walked away. After the she left, I asked the two residents standing there with me if they heard what I heard. They said that they heard the same thing. 

As far as Comm Lewy is concerned, I believe he is fishing for another person to endorse in November. He is not comfortable with Julian. 

The Mayor is clearly forming a "slate" of Sanders and Julian to run with her. It is not surprising to me, or to you, but wanted to share it with you anyway.

Mendacious Peter Deutsch & Ben Gamla Charter get caught red-handed on YouTube and pull their video before more people can see the truth for themselves

Below, for your edification, is a copy of an email that I sent out just before midnight to some South Florida reporters, columnists and editors for their perusal Wednesday morning in their office, while I'm over at the Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting.

Given what I have written here on the blog in the past on the subject of former Congressman Peter Deutsch's proposed Ben Gamla Charter School in Hallandale Beach -which I have strongly opposed from the very beginning- this post almost writes itself, but this time, a new development has emerged since I last wrote about the subject.
A shoe has dropped.

An embarrassing, smelly mess of a shoe that has left fingerprints for us to examine.
It shows Peter Deutsch for what he truly is, and typically -and I could hardly have dreamed this next part up!- his clumsiness in attempting to erase the truth has only drawn more attention to his impudent mendacity and gall.
Peter Deutsch being Peter Deutsch.

-----

Lost in Translation.
That's an excellent name for the well-thought out and fact-filled essay below penned by www.savehallandale.wordpress.com that I decided to share with you tonight, on the chance you haven't already received it.

It's point is clear and one that I have often written myself, namely that sometimes, things are EXACTLY what they seem.

In this specific case, it's nice of Peter Deutsch & Co. to be so obvious about his mendacity and actually use YouTube to spread his message of... well, it's NOT exactly a celebration of diversity in Hallandale Beach and the actual school kids who already live HERE, is it?

No, Peter Deutsch & Co. are exactly whom I and the other concerned citizens of this city thought they were when he personally said over a year ago -at one of HB Comm. Keith London's monthly Resident Forum meetings with HB citizens- that there was absolutely nothing that anyone in this city could do to stop him from getting what HE wanted. No citizen, no elected official -NOBODY.

This latest piece of the puzzle described so accurately by savehallandale seems like what some people with old-fashioned notions of serious journalism actually call NEWS.
I'm one of them.

It would be nice for a change to actually see this story treated in the serious fashion that it has long deserved, say, sometime before that HB City Commission meeting in two weeks, on the 18th, at 6 p.m.

But perhaps you think differently.
I guess we'll all see what South Florida media outlets really think is news.
Or not.

In any case, regardless of what you do, this will be the last time you hear from me on the unpopular Ben Gamla Charter School, a development proposal that any reasonable person can see doesn't just ignore the genuine needs of school kids in THIS city, but threatens to turn a largely single-family neighborhood in NE HB into a perpetual parking lot, courtesy of parents who live in distant Broward and Miami-Dade cities that are NOT named Hallandale Beach.

The savehallandale post in question is at:
http://savehallandale.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/lost-in-translation/

My previous blog posts on Ben Gamla are at:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Ben%20Gamla%20Hebrew%20Charter%20School

Hallandale Beach Planning Dept. Dir. Christy Domiguez's incredibly embarrassing screw-up ensures that unpopular Ben Gamla Charter is approved by P&Z

Above, the Hallandale Jewish Center in Hallandale Beach, FL.
The future home of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School?
I sure hope not or this single-family residential area in northeast HB is going to see their Quality-of-Life go down drastically starting in August as out-of-town parents use their neighborhood like a fast-food drive-thru.
March 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

If you can't rely on the city's well-paid professional staff in the Planning Dept., and their well-paid Director, Christy Dominguez, to actually know the applicable laws of the state we are living in -Florida, if you forgot- rely on them to actually double-check their work if necessary to make sure that their "facts," analysis and staff reports submitted to taxpayers and elected officials are both accurate and unbiased, why NOT simply fire the whole Dept.?

Yes, FIRE the whole Dept. and contract out the work out to people who DON'T get publicly humiliated and 'schooled' like a small child -in from of dumbfounded city taxpayers- about the actual laws, rules and guidelines that are the focus of her Dept.'s report on the compatibility of developer's projects subject to approval by this city's elected government.

Is it really too much to hope that she and her staff actually know what the hell they are talking about?

To not be told matter-of-factly by an architect for Ben Gamla that the city's analysis is not just WRONG, but relies on information that has NOT been applicable for over 5-6 years?
I mean it's only their job, right?

What were Dominguez & Company completely wrong about?
Item #7 in their staff report placed on the city website last Thursday, that I mentioned here on Monday, saying that the proposed project was Incompatible with the Florida Dept. of Education's requirements regarding size of school recreation space/room for expansion:

If you forgot what that was about, see my post titled,
The facts -and city staff report- are in re application of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School in Hallandale Beach
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/facts-and-city-staff-report-are-in-re.html

That information is what concerned residents and parents in this city city were hanging their hopes on, besides the inherent logic of all their other valid points about traffic, pollution and safety.
And now, at the Eleventh Hour, we learn at the meeting that it was all a mistake they SHOULD'VE already known about, and are told about it not from Dominguez herself or even her staff, but by BG's architect and their attorney, Alan D. Koslow.
We were blind-sided by city staffers!

Just imagine how much Koslow and Co. were laughing when they got the staff report from the city and saw that item at #7 and knew with certainty that the city was wrong on the law?
They must've laughed their asses off!

No wonder Alan Koslow concluded his remarks by saying what a great job the city's staff does.
Their incompetence makes his job easier!

March 23, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Their demonstrated incompetence in a debacle of a public meeting Wednesday afternoon before the city's Planning & Zoning Advisory Board, above, and their longstanding continued inability to competently and reliably use the technology in the Commission Chambers -that Hallandale Beach taxpayers have ALREADY PAID FOR- to put the relevant information on the projection screen for the benefit of the citizen taxpayers in the room, as well as the ones watching on Cable TV, make me one taxpayer who has already seen quite enough incompetency the past seven years to last a lifetime, and willing to try something new.

Wrong Way? You bet! The perfect metaphor for so much of what goes on in this city under the current Cooper/Antonio regime at HB City Hall. Above is a shot of the only two Wrong Way signs on southbound N.E. 8th Avenue between Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Atlantic Shores Blvd., a distance of roughly a mile. Coincidentally, they are located right next to the Hallandale Jewish Center, and one of them is STILL obstructed by a tree, like a million other signs in this city.
It just gets better and better...
March 7, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

What we have now is NOT working for taxpayers, esp. given the Planning Dept.'s longstanding practice of hiding information from the public and making them jump thru hoops, a la the Diplomat LAC, where public info came out 28 hours before a public vote of the P&Z.
But the lobbyists had it the previous week!

Which is just what I told the Broward County Planning Council and the County Commission three times last year when I spoke on the issue.

I've always suspected that the Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School application would be approved today, since five of the seven members of the P&Z Advisory Board have actually acted more like cheerleaders for the project in the past than the serious deliberative members of the community -our community, NOT Tamarac's- with some actually going out of their way to publicly criticize HB residents exercising their rights -and being against it.

That's especially the case with P&Z members Eudyce Steinberg and Sheryl Natelson, who on Wednesday and in the past have all but accused HB citizens opposed to this very unpopular project of being -wait for it- anti-Semitic.

If you don't believe me, check the prior P&Z videos -it's all there.

In fact, one of the members voting for it, Jack Fendell, actually recused himself at a prior P&Z meeting on Ben Gamla, yet no mention was made of that fact, and he participated.
So what changed exactly?

And why did nobody from the city even ask if there were any conflicts of interests that needed to be publicly disclosed at the beginning of the meeting? It's common practice in the rest of country, but here, well, it's just different rules entirely, isn't it?

Perhaps it's all for the best, since part of changing this community for the better and enacting the desperately-needed reform and accountability that is obviously lacking now is pro-actively effectuating that change, perhaps via a recall of bitter, mean-spirited and disconnected Comm. Dotty Ross and equally disconnected and apathetic Comm. Anthony A. Sanders.

What better way to move that process forward than the public spectacle of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew -and Ross & Sanders in particular- actually having to debate the facts and realities of this unpopular project in public, not only amongst themselves, but with BG's attorney, Alan B. Koslow, standing there, ready to pounce and take advantage of their lack of clarity, common sense and knowledge of the issue.

Yes, they will no longer be able to hide behind their longstanding list of alibis, excuses and delusions for not paying close attention to matters they OUGHT TO KNOW better than my
concerned friends and I -but don't.

And unlike his behavior at the required Ben Gamla 'community meeting' of two hours last year that City Manager Mark Antonio insisted be held at the sweltering Hallandale Jewish Center, without the benefit of A/C or a single fan in the place, Sanders can't just up and leave after about 45 minutes.

Is it Sanders' well-known short-attention span or just his general dis-interest in actually doing what his job as an elected official requires? Or both?
Who can say, but Sanders & Ross definitely have to go!

And as if everything wasn't already a total mess, typically, Mark Antonio and Co. had the meeting end without being able to tell city residents when specifically that City Commission meeting on Ben Gamla will take place.
Surprise!!!

Yes, it was just the latest red ribbon on yet another perfectly awful day in Hallandale Beach's upside-down version of public policy, where the interests of the citizen taxpayer usually come up dead last.

Well, Mission Accomplished, no thanks to the HB Planning Dept. who didn't know what they were doing, and caused the last laugh to be had at the expense of this city's taxpayers and the N.E. neighborhood that now has to hope that, for once, the HB City Commission will actually do what it seldom ever does -the right thing.

The facts -and city staff report- are in re application of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School in Hallandale Beach

The pertinent facts -as well as the city's staff report- are now available for perusing by anyone curious about the application of Peter Deutsch & Company's Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School in Hallandale Beach, the subject of so many posts here over the past three years.
Past posts are here: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Ben+Gamla%22

I've waited a few days before saying anything about it here on the blog because I wanted to give people in the larger HB community -and the specific NE Hallandale Beach neighborhood- a chance to read it, and share what they thought about it with me first before I chimed-in online.

Among the other findings of the city's staff, the application is Incompatible with the State of Florida requirements on item (7), recreation space, at the student population size desired by Peter Deutsch -450 students, down from his original 600-plus.

In fact, even if reduced to 300 students, as suggested by city staff, in order for the applicant to meet the state's requirement, they'd STILL legally be required to have a minimum of 5.0 acres for student recreation, but the site is only 1.90 acres.
Math is their problem -their numbers don't add up to something viable.

Many HB residents in the area most-affected along N.E. 8th Avenue have phoned or written me the past few days asking me variations of the same thing, after I emailed a version of this post as an email last Friday:

why didn't anyone ever say anything about this state-mandated recreation area requirement in the first place, since they could never ever hope to meet that standard, given where they want to locate the school, at the present Hallandale Jewish Center?

To which I would simply say that Peter Deutsch wants what Peter Deutsch wants.

I don't think you have to be a genius to know that Peter Deutsch & Company are now flexing his wide array of resources, calling-in longstanding personal & political chits, and communicating with his powerful and well-connected pals throughout the county to get what he wants.

Perhaps even people like Broward School Board members Ann Murray and Jennifer Gottlieb, neither one of whom attended the required public community meeting re BG at the HB Cultural Center they both knew about for quite some time -and which I wrote about here.

Yes, the required meeting that Deutsch grudgingly hosted and which he admitted a few times during that it would NOT be taking place if it was up to him, since he didn't care what the neighborhood thought, but the city required it.

In Ann Murray's case, she and her staff didn't even bother to respond to emails of HB residents asking whether she'd attend.
Surprise!

And by surprise, of course, I mean no surprise at all, since Murray has been an almost completely invisible presence in Hallandale Beach since first getting elected to the Board under the guise of being a "reformer."
As I've detailed here for years, Murray has proven to be no such thing, of course!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=%22Ann+Murray%22

Prior to last month, nobody among my circle of well-informed friends and acquaintances recalls Murray EVER being in HB for any purpose other than politics or campaign fund-raising.
Ever.

Peter Deutsch & Company will leave no stone unturned in enlisting help from his pals and past supporters in persuading HB city officials to let him have the school that he wants, a school that the N.E. neighborhood and HB community are VERY OPPOSED to.
A school that if approved, would be 90% non-Hallandale Beach students.

The school that Deutsch insisted at a Resident Forum hosted by Comm. Keith London that "nobody" in this city could prevent him from getting -not citizens, not the neighborhood, not even the city's elected officials.

The Hallandale Beach Planning & Zoning Advisory board meeting is Wednesday the 23rd at 1:30 p.m. in the Commission Chambers, 400 S. Federal Highway.

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My emphasis below:
Complete staff report at: http://www.cohb.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1743

(7) That the land area is sufficient, appropriate and adequate for the use and for any reasonably anticipated expansion thereof.
Inconsistent. The land area of the subject property was reduced in size in 2005 when the lot to the west across NE 8th Avenue which was used for synagogue parking was sold and a townhouse development was constructed. The site, even with the proposed improvements, does not contain sufficient land area generally found in public schools and does not have sufficient recreational areas. A sodded area approximately 11,000 square feet (0.25 acre) is provided in the southwest corner of the property. According to the State Requirements for Educational Facilities (SREF), elementary schools shall contain a minimum of four (4) acres for the first two hundred (200) students plus one (1) acre for each additional one hundred (100) students. Based on this standard, the proposed school with 450 students should be on a parcel of land at least 6.5 acres in size. The subject site is 1.90 acres. Therefore, based on the State’s requirements, the site is not sufficient to accommodate the proposed use and is not adequate to accommodate future school expansions.

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http://www.cohb.org/DocumentCenterii.aspx?FID=168

March 23, 2011

	Ben Gamla Application and Plans 3271 KB, Last Uploaded: 3/14/2011 3:22:02 PM
	Ben Gamla Staff Report 79 KB, Last Uploaded: 3/17/2011 4:00:29 PM
	Planning and Zoning Board Agenda 03/23/11 11 KB, Last Uploaded: 3/17/2011 4:11:03 PM

Is tonight the night you stop procrastinating and start getting better informed about Hallandale Beach and its future?

Come out Tuesday night at 6 p.m. and become better informed on the day-to-day and long-term issues directly affecting Hallandale Beach and its future Quality-of-Life, and meet some of the city's most concerned citizens who keep tabs on what's happening -and what isn't.

Then again, you can always continue procrastinating about attending and blaming others for why you don't know what's going on in your own city, and continue to believe that it's someone else's responsibility to make it the sort of well-managed, upbeat place it ought to be, since the evidence is clear that the current mayor, city commission and city manager aren't up to the task, despite their recitation of boilerplate catch-phrases at public meetings.
It's your choice.

Commissioner Keith S. London Resident Forum
City of Hallandale Beach Cultural Center – Room 107
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 2011- 6:00– 8:00 p.m.

According to Comm. London, the following topics will be discussed:

a.) Traffic and gridlock conditions in and around Hallandale Beach.

b.) Proposal to institute two-way traffic on N.E. 8th and N.E. 10th Avenues at a cost of over $1,500,000.

c.) City of Hallandale Beach Parks & Recreation Master Plan proposals and upcoming meetings of Saturday, March 19, 2011, 10-12:00 a.m. at Ingalls Park, and 1-3:00 p.m. at O.B. Johnson Park.

d.) Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School application to be heard at HB Planning and Zoning Meeting – Wednesday, March 23, 2011 1:30 p.m.

e.) Traffic Calming Devices to be discussed at HB City Commission Workshop on Monday, March 28, 2011 6–8:00 p.m.

Any other subject you would like to discuss

SaveHallandale.com deconstructs the myth of the might of Peter Deutsch's Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School and reveals its true purpose

Today, SaveHallandale.com deconstructs the myth of the might of the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School political machine that employs whatever tactics it needs to get what IT wants, whether by self-evident intimidation, threats or the very worst sort of pandering and condescension, regardless of what the people of Hallandale Beach want, especially the parents of HB school kids.

Yes, creepy and impudent Peter Deutsch & Co. are finally starting to get the kind of public opprobrium they've richly earned thru their own noxious words and actions, and I have to tell you, it fits them like a glove!

As I've often remarked on this subject here on the blog over the past two years, it's a pity that the South Florida news media was asleep at the wheel all year, and never bothered to notice this issue in a serious way, even while they did a decent job of covering the charter school trying to shoe-horn their way into one particular incompatible neighborhood in Coral Gables, a compelling story I posted here.

Actually, I seem to recall that it was mostly Carli Teproff of the Miami Herald, alone, since I never once saw a story on Miami TV newscasts about it.

But being a resident of Hallandale Beach means the South Florida new media looks at you -and what happens here- askance, as they generally ignore what happens here unless it creates problem of some sort for others living outside of this small community.

More often than not, that consists solely of something awful happening on1-95, the western border of the city, that stops traffic, like Wednesday's high speed police chase from Miami that ended there.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/18/1931294/police-chase-in-miami-ends-with.html

But if you prick us, do we not bleed?
Aye, there's the rub!

We do, but the sleepwalking South Florida news media merely ignore it.

To them, it's an inconvenient fact, another story among so many that they'll ignore and toss into that ever-growing of stories that were worthwhile but ignored nonetheless.

To many though certainly not all people opposed to the Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School -a high school, mind you- trying to shoe-horn itself into a single-family middle/upper-class residential neighborhood in northeast HB, is NOT all that different than developers who want to put huge condo towers on the perimeter of an existing golf course, and not only ruin the views and neighborhood, but also ruin the quality of life in the immediate area which already has F-rated roads as measured by FDOT.

We saw that effort with the Diplomat LAC fail for many similar reasons, not the least of which was that they could NEVER ever male a solid argument that it would do both the neighborhood and the greater HB community any good.
But it would make them a LOT of MONEY.

And so it is with Peter Deutsch and the Ben Gamla folks, who can make an argument for why it's good for them, but not for the neighborhood that ALREADY LIVES THERE, and the rest of the city.

The kind of sheer arrogance that HB citizen taxpayers have suffered under Peter Deutsch and his Not-So-Merry and equally arrogant BG parents the past two years is the sort that Once Upon a Time in the West, got you and your family exiled, and banned from proceeding further on a large wagon trail traveling West thru hostile Indian Territory.

You were left with whatever you brought -and maybe some additional supplies if someone had some pity for you- and were told in no uncertain terms that you were on your own.

You no longer had the backing and protection of the larger assembled community. You were judged an outlier because your behavior and words were judged so egregiously anti-social and harmful that the society that existed amongst the families headed West wanted nothing to do with you.

Well, 2010 Hallandale Beach isn't exactly 1850's Nebraska, Kansas or Colorado in the wintertime, and Peter Deutsch actually lives most of the month in Israel with his wife and family, NOT in South Florida, so the metaphor, admittedly, isn't a perfect one.

Still, it gets the point across: prickly Peter Deutsch and his brood of self-righteous parents need to get the sort of social ostracism they've richly earned.

Towards that end, in the near future, I will likely be posting some of the video I've shot of them the past two years at the two required 'Community Meetings' that Peter Deutsch had the nerve to publicly admit that he would NEVER have held if the city didn't require it.

Fortunately for all involved, he WAS required, and he did us the honor of telling the truth that one time so that we all knew what sort of character we were actually dealing with.

You see, despite all the evidence to the contrary, because of who he was and still is, some South Florida media folks -and perhaps even some of you blog readers out there- evinced an attitude that all but said that residents of HB were exaggerating what was actually happening. Nope, we didn't need to, the reality was bad enough.
Seeing was believing.

But the news media couldn't even show up, other than Sergy Odiduro of the Sun-Sentinel whose article on this controversy I ran here recently.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-piece-of-deutschs-ben-gamla-in.html

That Deutsch actually showed us his true lack of character -again- by doing as little as possible to actually engage the Hallandale Beach community, only proved the larger point about what sort of person wants to have some say-so about what sorts of educational opportunities Hallandale Beach kids will have -a loathsome person who threatens city residents in public.
I guess that's just not considered news in South Florida in the year 2010.

Yes, at times it's almost like Deutsch thinks he's won the lottery, and has big plans on collecting some of his winnings in person in Hallandale Beach by way of using one of our nice quiet family neighborhoods as a warehouse for kids from outside of Hallandale Beach, since 90% of them will live outside of this community by his own admission.
He has a very funny way of defining 'community school,' don't you think?

That Deutsch is perfectly willing to do whatever he has to do in order to get his way, regardless of what the people in this community want, whether by threats and intimidation, is no longer subject to question- he will.

But in his efforts thus far, the only convincing argument he's made is that Peter Deutsch is nothing but a self-aggrandizing bully, plain and simple, and the worst sort of bully at that.
One who lacks both the hubris and self-awareness to acknowledge that he is his own worst witness.
Every time he talks, he makes our argument for us.

Naturally, I'm only too happy to lend a hand in painting that public opprobrium on Deutsch and his fellows, and today, I do so by sharing with you the spot-on words of the folks at a newly developed civic group in Hallandale Beach.

SaveHallandale.com is a group that won't lay down for the Peter Deutsches of the world, nor for the anti-democratic and self-serving Hallandale Beach City Hall Crew run by mayor Joy Cooper, or even the rapacious real estate developers and self-serving corporate pimps with legal eagles, who want to steal us blind by putting their hands into the HB till or making life around here even more difficult.

And like me, they are NOT afraid of helping launch a recall of certain City Commissioners, either, for reasons that have already been discussed here at length previously.

SaveHallandale.com has been sending out informed and pointed fact-filled emails now for a few months and has just created a blog, so today I am going to give those folks a bit of a boost in getting some public awareness by running the entire email I received earler this evening, and trust you readers to have the good sense to frequently go to their sites in the future to keep yourselves inside the information loop.

I will, of course, link to them in the future when it's appropriate, but otherwise, this ought to be the only time I run one of their letters in its entirety.

With a blog and website, it's now much easier than ever to give you a head's up on what SaveHallandale is saying and doing.

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Visit our blog @ http://savehallandale.wordpress.com/. All prior emails are there and you can start leaving your comments for other people (besides us) to view.

Word on the street is that the Ben Gamla school application has been pulled again; perhaps Peter Deutsch had a chance to read the latest article by Diane Ravitch, (http://www.dianeravitch.com/vita.html) called “The Myth of Charter Schools” http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?page=1.

In HB that article would be titled “Myth: The Proposed Ben Gemla Hebrew School Is Good For the Local Community". The myth being that the proposed Ben Gamla Hebrew School is a positive for the local community, that it doesn't cater to a small and very specific demographic and that Ben Gamla folks actually care about the non Jewish students currently attending Hallandale schools.

Interestingly, there is an inkling that Mayor Joy Cooper may actually care about the students in which Ben Gamla pushers have no interest.

The Diane Ravitch article discusses the myth of charter school superiority, citing “the idea that teachers are the most important factor determining student achievement” and that there is a relative consensus (that) teachers statistically account for around 10–20 percent of achievement outcomes…..

But the same body of research shows that nonschool factors matter even more than teachers. 60 percent of achievement is explained by nonschool factors, such as family income. So while teachers are the most important factor within schools, their effects pale in comparison with those of students’ backgrounds, families, and other factors beyond the control of schools and teachers.”

The article continues “charter schools were created mainly at the instigation of Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997. Shanker had the idea in 1988 that a group of public school teachers would ask their colleagues for permission to create a small school that would focus on the neediest students, those who had dropped out and those who were disengaged from school and likely to drop out. He sold the idea as a way to open schools that would collaborate with public schools and help motivate disengaged students. In 1993, Shanker turned against the charter school idea when he realized that for-profit organizations saw it as a business opportunity and were advancing an agenda of school privatization.”

Let’s connect these dots shall we?

• Ben Gamla is a Hebrew charter school whose founder has gone on record that the school was started to serve a very small and specific demographic but we are led to believe it is intended to serve the general community. In fact, by Peter Deutsch’s own admission, less than 10% of the students would be from the local community.

• Ben Gamla pushers promote the superiority of their teachers as a plus to the less than 10% of community children that might attend but it’s a fact that teacher efforts “pale in comparison with those of students’ backgrounds, families, and other factors beyond the control of schools and teachers”.

• Mayor Cooper seems to recognize the need to address at risk schools in Hallandale as evidenced by her request that the school district consider spending money “on improving eastern (Broward) schools”. In a letter to School Board Chair Maureen Dinnen, Mayor Cooper stated “We would request that …the eastern (Broward) schools be guaranteed no school closure…” but her vote for Ben Gamla would in fact, result in less students attending local schools which would jeopardize them further. http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/parents/

• The Ben Gamla model is in direct opposition to the original intent of charter schools as envisioned by their creator, Albert Shanker.

Additionally, a study by the Center for Public Education “finds that rather than encouraging a race to the top, charter school competition in fact promotes a race to the bottom in the traditional public school system.” The new study evaluates the record of charter schools in terms of academic achievement, racial and economic segregation, and their competitive impact on traditional public schools….“Rather than being a solution to the educational problems faced by low-income students and students of color, charter schools are deepening these problems.”

Table 5: Average charter school performance relative to traditional public schools by state

Source: CREDO (2009)

The study goes on to say “similar to other studies….varied performance results based on students’ location. In relation to their peers in traditional schools, the average performance of charter school students in reading was significantly positive in Arkansas, California, Colorado (Denver), Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina. In the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois (Chicago) and Ohio, there essentially was no difference between charter students and their traditional public school peers. In Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas, charter school students underperformed when compared with students in traditional public schools.

The math data were similarly varied. Charter students did better than their counterparts in Arkansas, Colorado (Denver), Illinois (Chicago), Louisiana, and Missouri. There was no significant difference in the District of Columbia. In Arizona, California, Florida,Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, charter school students did not perform as well as their virtual twins from traditional public schools.

http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lvIXIiN0JwE&b=5868191&ct=8101759&notoc=1

So what does the promotion of this MYTH mean for HB residents?

It means that the proposed charter school will do absolutely nothing for local residents and their children. It means that all the propaganda put forth by advocates of the school is just that – self serving propaganda.

And it means that rather than be able to rest assured that city commissioners will vote against the school on the very solid grounds that the local infrastructure and the Master Plan do not support it, HB residents must point out all the misinformation and lies people spread in the interest of getting what they want.

Maybe commissioners already realize approving Ben Gamla is political suicide AND bad for the area in general but maybe not. It’s unlikely any of them realizes the political respect that comes with making an easy decision based on facts and then standing by it with conviction but our commissioners don't inspire much faith, do they? Not one fact points to the proposed Ben Gamla Hebrew School being good for this community; NOT ONE.

Hold your elected officials accountable; all over the country people are looking at facts and forcing politicians to change their ways by forcing them out.

Remember to forward this to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to visit the blog at

The study goes on to say “similar to other studies….varied performance results based on students’ location. In relation to their peers in traditional schools, the average performance of charter school students in reading was significantly positive in Arkansas, California, Colorado (Denver), Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina. In the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois (Chicago) and Ohio, there essentially was no difference between charter students and their traditional public school peers. In Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas, charter school students underperformed when compared with students in traditional public schools.

The math data were similarly varied. Charter students did better than their counterparts in Arkansas, Colorado (Denver), Illinois (Chicago), Louisiana, and Missouri. There was no significant difference in the District of Columbia. In Arizona, California, Florida,Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, charter school students did not perform as well as their virtual twins from traditional public schools.



http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lvIXIiN0JwE&b=5868191&ct=8101759&notoc=1

So what does the promotion of this MYTH mean for HB residents?

It means that the proposed charter school will do absolutely nothing for local residents and their children. It means that all the propaganda put forth by advocates of the school is just that – self serving propaganda.

And it means that rather than be able to rest assured that city commissioners will vote against the school on the very solid grounds that the local infrastructure and the Master Plan do not support it, HB residents must point out all the misinformation and lies people spread in the interest of getting what they want.

Maybe commissioners already realize approving Ben Gamla is political suicide AND bad for the area in general but maybe not. It’s unlikely any of them realizes the political respect that comes with making an easy decision based on facts and then standing by it with conviction but our commissioners don't inspire much faith, do they? Not one fact points to the proposed Ben Gamla Hebrew School being good for this community; NOT ONE.

Hold your elected officials accountable; all over the country people are looking at facts and forcing politicians to change their ways by forcing them out.

Remember to forward this to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to visit the blog at http://savehallandale.worpdress.com.