Showing posts with label Caitie Switalski. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caitie Switalski. Show all posts

Monday, August 19, 2019

So THAT just happened... for the worst. Broward County's 325-foot 911 Services radio tower at West Lake Park in #HollywoodFL just got the green light from an independent consultant. So now what? Don't hold your breath, Hollywood!

Today's blog post is the latest update to the neverending story regarding Broward County's longstanding effort to put a 325-foot high 911 emergency services radio tower and antenna in a very popular county park in northern Hollywood off Sheridan Street, West Lake Park. 
Map here: https://goo.gl/maps/mM7qZd1Hz6aBHqx2A

 That plan has been almost universally opposed by the the city's residents and elected officials on largely environmental grounds and financial grounds, though there are clearly many Hollywood homeowners who are opposed to the radio tower being located there for strictly aesthetic reasons, too.
Which is their right, of course.


This blog post will cover what's largely taken place since my last blog post on this issue of May 6th, 2019, The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-west-lake-park-radio-tower-issue-is.html


The map above and the following infromation comes straight from Broward County's website:

Consultant Concludes West Lake Park is Best Site for 911 Tower Site

On June 19, Broward County and the City of Hollywood agreed to hire an independent subject matter expert to evaluate two proposed locations for a new radio tower in east Hollywood. The independent expert released his report earlier today and recommends the West Lake Park location (view site map) in lieu of the CIRC Hotel location. Per the terms of the agreement between the City and County, the independent expert’s decision is binding on both parties. Read Consultant Report.
Broward Comm. Beam Furr, a former City of Hollywood Commissioner -and a friend of yours truly- was very articulate and persuasive in pointing out these environmental and financial facts at a summer County Commission meeting, pointing out that having it placed atop The Circ Hotel at Young Circle on U.S.-1/Federal Highway is better for all Broward taxpayers because
a.) it would cost less, and, 
b.) there would be ZERO possibility of storm surge affecting the antenna tower during or after a hurricane, as would be more likely if it's located at West Lake Park.

 As is commonly known, the whole Broward 911 communications system has been a fiasco for many years, with the murders at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywod International Airport in January of 2017 - I knew someone who flew out of the airport shortly before it took place- and the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas H.S. having revealed the self-evident dangers of the County Commission being  behind-schedule on updating and improving the 911 system for what seems like forever.
That being the case, actually having the radio antenna located in a site that is both cheaper and safer made a lot of sense to me and most of the people I know, whether they were Hollywood residents like me or not.

 But the rest of the Broward County Commission had little-to-no interest in listening to what Comm. Furr and the residents of Hollywood said, and to me seemed to have largely made their minds made up long before the meeting started, as evidenced by many their overly-dramatic self-serving, self-pitying, sanctimonious and sarcastic comments, especially those coming from Comm. Barbara Sharief and Comm. Michael Udine, the latter of whom I zinged on Twitter in late June, as you can see below.
Their whole Chicken Little "sky-is-falling" mindset was embarrassing, though predictable given where we are.

 This all taking place despite the fact that it's clear to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention that the 911 radio tower antenna tower, no matter where it was located in the greater Hollywood area to cover SE Broward, would NOT be complete until... NEXT YEAR.

 I heard one of the county's own experts say that right in front of me at the June meeting in Hollywood.
But to not real effect apparently.
People who know better still claim it will be done this year.
It's simply a preposterous claim, especially if we get anything close to a minor hurricane before the end of November now that we have moved into the heart of hurricane season, where 85% of them emerge.





Photo from @SAVEWESTLAKE




































 

Dave 

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Friday, June 14, 2019

Update on #SUP use at #HollywoodBeach under City of Hollywood's experiment that still falls far short of what Hollywood residents expect and want for using their own beach; Haulover Sandbar - a South Florida slice-of-life that makes people who have never been here wish that they were; Cat Uden, Josh Levy, Surfrider Broward, Standup Paddleboard





















Thank you Caitie Switalski at @wlrn for the article and interview that aired on NPR this morning regarding @surfrider campaign to relax restrictions on Hollywood Beach. Ocean Rescue absolutely did not do an extensive survey of laws in other municipalities, so I did the work for them. I compiled a list of what is enforced on many beaches in south Florida. I gave this data to the city commission and Ocean Rescue. I provided names, numbers, and emails. Ocean Rescue chose not to use this data in their presentation to the commission, and public comments were unfortunately not allowed after the presentation. As far as hitting swimmers, Chief Bruce Wilkie has never been able to present any evidence that SUP’s have hurt swimmers at Hollywood Beach. Lifeguards have never ever separated swimmers from paddlers. There have always been swimmers in the paddle/surf zones on Hollywood Beach. And they’ve never had any issues. Same thing with Dania Beach. Dania Ocean Rescue said they’ve never had a conflicts between SUP and bathers. Stand up paddlers travel at a very slow rate of speed. If they were that worried about paddlers, why have they always let swimmers bathe illegally in the “recreation zones.” If lifeguards were concerned about safety, why were they forcing paddlers 300 yards from shore, not knowing that paddler's physical ability or swimming ability? Bathers are extremely friendly when SUPs are around and often want to engage in conversation. They are not incompatible. SUP is good for citizens and for the city. The benefits of allowing SUP far outweighs any tiny possible risk. We are still advocating for a less restrictive plan, and definitely a less complicated plan. The city's current plan is very confusing, even to paddlers that have studied it. They are unsure where they have to remain because it is a patchwork of regulations all down the beach. Surfrider's compromise is much less complicated, and satisfies Ocean Rescue's concerns about the busy Broadwalk. You can write to the Hollywood city commission through this link: https://www.hollywoodfl.org/89/City-Commission 🌊 And Yes, surfing zones were also expanded. 🏄🏾

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More re ./'s common sense proposals for use @ 🌴🏖️🌊 is available at my last two blog post about her:

JANUARY 16, 2019 So proud of two of my newer friends, Morgan Knowles and Cat Uden, for their selfless, enthusiastic and imaginative efforts to keep Broward residents' eyes on the #Environment and natural beauty that sometimes gets taken for granted in South Florida; @mo_seas_, @flipflops365
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/so-proud-of-two-of-my-newer-friends.html

 MARCH 22, 2019
One of the Best Things about #HollywoodFL: Positive change is, in fact, possible, even in getting some common sense changes enacted re #SUP/Stand Up Paddleboard use. It's not perfect, of course, but a nice improvement that can be built upon
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/one-of-best-things-about-hollywoodfl.html

 Below, Cat's recent recent comments before the City of Hollywood City Commission, from her handout before the meeting. Her comments were even more focused and emphatic in-person!

View this post on Instagram
I'm very happy to see that a very impressive woman I met earlier this year at a City of #HollywoodFL City Commission meeting, someone who's doing some very important #environmental work in #Broward and #SoFL, getting some much deserved attention: Catherine "Cat" Uden. She's on the cover of the new August issue of @hollywoodgazette Cat's fabulous #Instagram page, @flipflops365, includes some amazing photos and videos of her on her #Paddleboard, often with her friends, interacting with the inviting blue and green water and amazing variety of nature that's here that draws so many people to this part of #Florida, and why so many people I know here are #SUP people. This attention befits someone who is such an important voice for positive change in #SouthFlorida, at both @oceana and @surfriderbroward. Cat is currently serving as the Chair of #Broward's Surfrider chapter.
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Catherine "Cat" Uden
Twitter: @UdenCatherine, https://twitter.com/UdenCatherine
Instagram: flipflops365 https://www.instagram.com/flipflops365/
Cat- BOGA Ambassador, SUP Gladiator Race Fins Team, Mom, Surfrider Broward, Oceana, dreaming of O’ahu, views are my own, #teamuden
South Florida Campaign Organizer for Oceana, Twitter @oceana https://twitter.com/oceana

More about Cat's activities with Oceana here:
https://oceana.org/about-oceana/people-partners/oceana-staff/catherine-uden
Catherine believes strongly in a quote by David Suzuki, "unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can't expect them to help protect and care for it." 


For those of you reading this outside of Florida, especially my friends in Washington, D.C. or over in Sweden and Great Britain, you with your all-too-short summers, this is proof that, yet again, seeing is truly believing
There's a reason that this venue, the Haulover Sandbar, on the Intracoastal Waterway, between Olete State Park to the north and west and to the east, the beach in Sunny Isles/North Miami Beach that I and my two younger sisters grew up going to remains such a popular place to be.

 For many of us, especially those of us who grew up here and then left and returned, in my case for college at Indiana University and a life in Chicago and Washington, D.C., it's one of the Quality of Life reasons that we choose to stay in South Florida and not accept nice job offers back in DC, even with all the nonsense and chaos that you must endure down here on an almost daily basis, whether it's traffic, transportation, government red tape or the frustrating, second-tier or incompetent status of so many local South Florida institutions that fall short of meeting reasonable expectations.

 Because no matter how nice the DC area is, and no matter how many of my funny and smart friends are still living and working there or how how amazing the museums and attractions are there, you simply can't do this on the Potomac River or Lake Michigan in January, or watch #WorldCup soccer on giant screens while wading in water and eating or drinking with your friends and following the action on the screen and the top shelf people-watching all around you. 






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghem7rrAVw8

 Above is Esther's amazing September 2016 video that she shot one Saturday afternoon while with some #SUP friends, picnicking at Oleta State Park and then chilling later at the Haulover Sandbar, with the Intracoastal and sandbar coming into view at about 0:40 seconds into the video. 
I am especially fond of this video of hers because I remember how excited she was when she got home from this outing just a few miles from where we lived in Hollywood Lakes at the time. 

Later that night, or maybe it was early in the morning because we tended to stay up late on weekends, at one point while Esther was editing this video on her desktop computer, she came running -all excited- out into the living room, where I was at the dinner table writing something on my laptop, maybe even for the blog. 
I asked Esther why she was shaking and if anything was wrong. But she told me that she was shaking because she was so happy with her first edit of the raw footage of the video, and how well it was turning out. There was SO MUCH usable footage. And she just couldn't wait for me to see it!  

 So we walked into the room where she kept her desktop and I sat down and watched the video 3-4 times, with Esther getting progressively more animated and anxious as she watched me intently for any hint of what I thought. After seeing enough of it to have an opinion, I got up from the chair and looked her in the eye. 
I smiled and reminded her for the umpteenth time that nobody she knew or would ever know, knew better than I did how amazing and talented she was. 
Told her that nobody had or ever would believe in her and her talents and dreams more fervently than I did, or would work harder to make them come true. 
And then she flashed that amazing smile of hers, which lit up that beautiful face of hers, because she knew that what I was saying was true. Again.

 I told her that I was very proud of her, but that we both knew that when she was finished editing, it would be even MORE amazing and compelling. She grinned that grin of hers that always gets me and said she would stay up all night if she had to in order to have it be as good as she wanted.
But because she's very talented, she didn't have to stay up all night, proving me right again. 

 That talent of Esther's for capturing what fun can be like in South Florida that's so different than almost anywhere else in the country, because of our area's unique and wacky geography, sub-tropical weather and not-always serious mindset, is perfectly captured in this video she spent a few hours on, doing everything herself. 
A video with a South Florida slice-of-life that makes people who have never been here wish that they were.
She is truly amazing.




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In which I get in a quick plug for a friend who offers an amazing Airbnb Experience for a very reasonable price that you and your friends -and visiting family members- won't soon forget. 
A #SUP/#kayak trip along the Miami River at night. #fun

Looking for some out-of-the-ordinary FUN in / 🏖️🌴🌊🍻🍴?
Trust me, this = ! City Lights Night / 🌊 - Experience. Use my code: … … … … And bring your 📸! … …

Dave 



Snapchat: SoBeHoosier

P.S. I was the top tweet on Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nick Kristof's Twitter feed for about 6 or so hours last Tuesday because of the #Tiananmen 30th year anniversary, which because of his 2 Million-plus Followers, generated MUCH MORE traffic than usual for both me and the blog! :-)
More eyeballs for my blog's ads, obviously.
I even heard from some people I hadn't heard from in many years, who saw my tweet RT'd on other twitter feeds.






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