Another weekend of 'Chicken' with the public's safety in Hallandale Beach as City Hall continues to ignore self-evident safety problems at RR crossing

Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:20 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/hallandale/fl-hallandale-crossing-closing-20110202,0,1531328.story
Hallandale Beach Boulevard to close at FEC tracks for 3 days
Crossing will be rebuilt from Feb. 6-9
By Michael Turnbell, Sun Sentinel
6:40 PM EST, February 2, 2011

HALLANDALE BEACH
Hallandale Beach Boulevard will be closed at the Florida East Coast Railway tracks east of Dixie Highway for three days starting Sunday.

The crossing will be reconstructed.

The closure will begin at 6 a.m. Sunday. The crossing will reopen at 6 a.m. Feb. 9.

There will be separate detours for cars and trucks.

Eastbound automobile traffic will be detoured south on Dixie Highway, east on Southeast Third Street and north on Southeast First Avenue. Westbound traffic will be directed north on Northeast First Avenue, west on Northwest Third Street and south on Dixie Highway.

Eastbound truck traffic will be detoured north on Northwest Eighth Avenue, east on Pembroke Road and south on Federal Highway. Westbound truck traffic will be directed north on Federal Highway, west on Pembroke Road and south on Dixie Highway.

-------

For those of you living in the S.E. Broward County area who need the above information to be placed into its proper perspective, and for the even larger number of you readers who want some added insight into how even small things in the city I live in can reveal deep Grand Canyon-like examples of longstanding incompetency on the parts of several parties and agencies,
pay attention.

The street described above as the temporary east-bound route, S.W. 3rd Street and S. Dixie Highway, is where the city's Fire-Rescue vehicles usually come screaming eastbound across the FEC Railroad tracks a few times a day -with ZERO firetruck warning signs on any of the nearby streets, including U.S.-1 -a longstanding problem throughout the city.

Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue truck.
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


That street is noteworthy for being near pitch-black at night, a longstanding fact well-known to not only many lower-level City of Hallandale Beach employees, for many, many months, but also to HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan and HB City Manager Mark Antonio.

In fact, the Fire Chief's office is less than two blocks away.
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?nid=24

As it happens, City Manager Antonio was reminded of this in December at a public meeting on the myriad problems experienced by business owners along Fashion Row, held at Dekka, just five blocks north of that intersection.

Dekka, 139 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL (954) 455-2616 ‎
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Absolutely Fabulous 20 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL (954) 455-5200
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My friend Michele, who owns the popular boutique above, was given nothing but grief from HB City Hall and Code Compliance for the longest time about her desire to actually IMPROVE the appearance of her store, costing her un-necessary time and money. Why?
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


The graffiti-scarred parking lot sign for Nick's Restaurant, off Fashion Row, next to the FEC railroad tracks, the most obvious of several graffiti targets on Hallandale Beach Blvd. near the railroad tracks. In Hallandale Beach, as I've written here on the blog before -and will be doing again soon with lots and lots of photos- graffiti stays on surfaces large and small for months and years at a time, as if, somehow, customers don't notice it and it don't wonder if an area is sketchy.
Where in the world is the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce and where are the HB police? Good questions!
February 4, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


I know that City Manager Antonio knows that area on 3rd Street and the FEC is pitch-black because the person who reminded him of this simple public safety fact at that meeting was me.

What's happened since?
NOTHING.
Their patented specialty.

In fact, the block east of Dixie Highway there -adjoins the former City Hall complex as it comes to the city's Fire/Rescue HQ- is as dark as a black hole, and has been an accident waiting to happen for MANY, MANY YEARS.

Considering what drives by there everyday, should a road that crosses a railroad track really continue to be one of THE unsafest streets in all of S.E. Broward instead of one the best lit?

Yes, it seems counter-intuitive to logic based on other places I've lived, but that's how HB City Hall rolls!
No detail is TOO obvious or TOO large to be... noticed.

It would be a shame if someone got injured or killed there this weekend because of the added traffic there and longstanding negligence, which would be a slam-dunk for any attorney suing the city and the county and the...

Just feet away, in fact, on south-bound Dixie Highway, there's a speed limit sign -on a pole with a street light that's been out since March- that has been completely obstructed for nearly a year.

The public safety negligence in the city and that area in particular is so well-known that it was memorialized forever a few years ago when Google's Street View came by and caught it on film, a fact I've already highlighted on my blog a few times.
See for yourself!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=W+Dixie+Hwy,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.671324,89.824219&ie=UTF8&geocode=FctVjAEdtgk5-w&split=0&hq=&hnear=W+Dixie+Hwy,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida&ll=25.981869,-80.148332&spn=0.009606,0.02193&z=16&layer=c&cbll=25.981839,-80.148301&panoid=mdakDjW2f1cLUn7nr-skpA&cbp=12,187.3,,0,4.65

The Broward County Transit bus stop there, hidden by a hedge, is so dark and grim at night that it might as well just be a stop on the way to the morgue in a Friday the Thirteenth film.
Just saying... be careful.


The three photos on this page were taken within ten minutes Thursday night, and you can see the complete lack of appropriate road lighting.
In fact, the only light that you see in the photos, besides that emanating from auto headlights, are from signs and reflecting material caused by my camera's flash.
If I hadn't used the flash, you wouldn't even see that.

Trust me, when you're there, it's even darker than these photos depict.
And it has been like this for a long, long time.

In the upside-down world of Joy Cooper/Mike Good/Mark Antonio, it's yet another success story!


Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:25 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Darkness on the Edge of Town, 6:30 p.m. Looking at S.E./S.W. 3rd Street FEC Railroad crossing from S.E. 1st Avenue. February 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.




Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Live 1978) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqGld8_HpOQ


Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Candy's Room
Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ. 1978 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oTFJhhWW8g

http://www.youtube.com/user/BruceSpringsteen

Sunshine State awaits announcement on future of... Mike Good

Along with many other concerned residents of Hallandale Beach, I received the following email from Commissioner Keith London at 1:07 p.m. today
--------

Everyone,

The City Attorneys’ office has advised me that the Mayor has requested a “Special Meeting” regarding the employment of City Manager Mike Good and the details are as follows:

· City Hall

· Upstairs in Room 219

· Friday, April 30, 2010

· Time 10:30 A.M.

· Open to the Public

Please plan on attending if you are available. This is a “Publicly Noticed” meeting.

Thank you,

Keith S. London

City Commissioner

Hallandale Beach

954-457-1320 Office

www.KeithLondon.com

------------------
I will be in attendance at the Special Meeting and suggest you make plans to do likewise, since we know from years of experience how existing city rules and state laws are routinely flouted around here.
There's no reason to think this will be handled any differently.
The more HB residents present the better.

There are lots of ideas floating around as to what will actually happen tomorrow, and after hearing from lots of people already, I'd say the three separate scenarios competing for oxygen are: family reasons, health and Loss of Confidence.

I can confirm what Thomas Francis mentions below about the unusual requirement of a super-majority in order to terminate Good's contract, because I can distinctly recall talking with mt friend Michael Butler over at Panera Bread after he'd already spent an enormous amount of time carefully reviewing the docs he had requested on the City Manager's curious contract.
See Michael's excellent factually-based website, Change Hallandale Beach at http://www.changehallandale.com/

Considering where we live and the small size of this city, I'd say that you'd be quite surprised upon learning some of the other aspects of his contract, including, among other things, the proviso about HB taxpayers being on the hook if he ever wanted to go to Business School, even after he left the city.

After all, as I've written so many times, this is the same city where in clear violation of the state's Sunshine Laws, the existing City Manager (Mike Good), the Police Chief (Thomas Magill) and Fire Chief (Daniel Sullivan) were all re-hired at separate City Commission meetings where these items (contracts) were NOT on the published agenda, NOT held in the City Chambers but rather upstairs in a room where it was NOT videotaped, and with ZERO HB citizens present to speak on the issues involved.

And in the case of Good, there was no documentation provided for the commissioners to read before voting.
Guess who the staffers who'd usually do that work for?

None of this happened by accident, of course, it was all done intentionally according to Mayor Joy Cooper's personal desire to keep this community in the dark as often as possible while she orchestrated policy, even though she is just one of five votes.

Joy Cooper's longstanding anti-democratic behavior, words, actions and notions about what truly constitutes a participatory democracy, will make an excellent case study someday, but in the meantime, the very people who are supposed to protect the community and enforce the laws in this state continue to look the other way -as they have for years.


BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Hallandale Mayor Calls Special Meeting to Discuss "City Manager's Employment"
By Thomas Francis, Thursday, Apr. 29 2010 @ 12:26PM
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/04/hallandale_special_meeting_mike_good_employment.php

At top: September 17, 2008 photo of Hallandale Beach City Hall by South Beach Hoosier.

What is it with the City of Hallandale Beach and American flags? The city's DPW perpetually seems unable to handle the small things and the big things. It's long past time to outsource some of their responsibilities since they are not performing satisfactory and not meeting taxpayers expectations

Above, another shot of the missing American flag in front of the Hallandale Beach Water Tower and the HB Fire/Rescue Station at the intersection of State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive and Hallandale Beach Blvd. It's next door to the so-called North Beach Community Center that average HB taxpayers haven't been able to access since it was given to them, not the HB City Commission and PAL, on August 3rd, 2007, 28 months ago. The person most-responsible for this: Mayor Joy Cooper.
The same person who won't allow a public meeting about the building's future to be held because her interests are in complete conflict with the community's, who want to actually be able to use their city building steps from the ocean and with a great view of the ocean. 
December 19th, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier. All photos on this page © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Just the latest in a never-ending series of missing American flags at that site over the years, in this case, missing since August.

Just saying...For those of you who've been paying close attention to what I've written here on the blog over the years to the damage done by the longstanding gross indifference to the importance of first impressions, appearances, aesthetics and public safety by Hallandale Beach City Hall, to say nothing of ethics, laws and proper procedures, the following bit of old news will not surprise you a whit.

You may recall my specifically commenting here five weeks ago on the truly embarrassing situation involving the American flag at the Hallandale Beach City Hall and the HB Fire/Rescue Station on Three Islands, where I even had video.

See my November 16th blog post
Oh, say can you see... Guess which city's flag ignored Fort Hood and Veteran's Day?
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/oh-say-can-you-see-guess-which-citys.html

And that criticism itself only dovetails with the longstanding, year-after-year problems with the
American flag next to the HB Fire/Rescue Station at the intersection of State Road A1A/South  Ocean Drive and Hallandale Beach Blvd., in front of the HB Water Tower, which I've written about after first speaking to people in the city nominally in charge, who did NADA.

As it happens, as of last week, the American flag over on A1A has been missing since August.

Well, that sort of general indifference and turning a blind eye to what's patently obvious has been par for the course under Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike Good since I returned to the area, as well as under HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan & Company, and to prove that point, I include here now some photos that I meant to run on Nov. 16th to show that very fact pattern.

These photos are from Oct. 26th of 2008 and show rather conclusively that the sort of thing that would be completely unacceptable in most American communities, continually flying a badly-damaged American flag for WEEKS above a government building, is just a normal day for officials of the City of Hallandale Beach.

They just shrug their shoulders and move on, pretending they're busy earning their salaries.
They're not, and we know it.

Below, photos taken on October 26, 2008 by South Beach Hoosier.

Oh, say can you see... Guess which city's flag ignored Fort Hood and Veteran's Day?

For those of you who are new to this
blog or who may occasionally think
I'm too critical of the denizens of
Hallandale Beach City Hall, such as
City Manager Mike Good and his
highly-paid staff, Mayor Joy Cooper,
her dependable Rubber Stamp
Crew of Commissioners William Julian,
Dotty Ross and Anthony A. Sanders,
plus the grab-bag of Dept. directors,
let me return to a central tenet of this
blog.

It should help connect-the-dots
for you.


In my humble opinion, you earn trust
and respect from the community by
consistently showing sound, reasonable
judgment; of being scrupulously fair
in the performance of your duties;
and of being competent, professional
and efficient in carrying-out those
responsibilities, starting with small
easy to resolve problems.


Then, gradually, like a child shedding
their bike's training wheels, you can
begin handling things more complicated.
Like gravity.


But if you chronically keep screwing-up
the smaller matters that are self-evident,
of being un-necessarily egotistical,
adversarial and hyper-sensitive to
any constructive criticism regarding
the safety and Quality-of-Life of the
citizens of this community, I DON'T
have to trust you.


I DON'T have to respect you or have
faith that you can handle more complex
matters simply because you want me
to believe you can.

I don't.

Why should I or anyone else in this
community when you have utterly
failed, by both words and action,
year-after-year, to earn the trust
of the community?


So, that said, you may've heard last
week about the massacre at Fort Hood
as well as being aware that Veteran's Day
was being celebrated on November 11th.
It was "In the news."




Below, how those two separate events,
which required the appropriate but
easily-understood flag etiquette being
employed, were handled by the City
of Hallandale Beach under the current
Cooper & Good regime.



Above, the American flag at Hallandale Beach
City Hall last Monday, November 9th,
when it was supposed to be at half-mast
per the president's direction, in honor of
the Fort Hood victims.




Video from last Monday night showing this
yet again, with attention once again to the
dark conditions of the public parking lot
outside HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept.
HQ.



The Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue
station on Three Islands Drive
on Wednesday November 11th,
Veteran's Day.



A closer shot of the flag on the Hallandale
Beach Fire/Rescue flagpole.



Even closer.

Yet another one of Hallandale Beach Fire
Chief Daniel Sullivan's screw-ups to
add to the list.

But don't worry, I'm sure he's "handling it."

That's exactly why I'm concerned.

Yet another Hallandale Beach Keystone Cops
success for Mike Good and Daniel Sullivan.

It's one stupid screw-up after another...

Tonight's Hallandale Beach Transportation Master Plan meeting is a Sign of the Times in HB: We Need Change!

January 2, 2009 photo 
All photos on this page by South Beach Hoosier © 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved. 

July 26, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Was at the city's public beach for a bit late Sunday afternoon after the downpours, walking around, observing, doing some writing and reading the NY Times and Post up at North Beach.

Things there are as bad and depressing as ever, if not worse.

From my point-of-view and that of many other Hallandale Beach taxpayers and residents I know and speak to regularly, folks who go to the city's public beach often, the change at the top at DPW, from William M. Brant to John Chidsey as Director the past three months has made ZERO positive difference for folks like us who want a nicer, cleaner and better-maintained beach.

He and his dept. still seem blind to the problems and clueless about how to solve them, even though many of the answers are entirely self-evident.

Why does this not surprise me?

Because my past experience here the past five years informs my trust level of the city's management and accountability, as this post today will show once again.

Perhaps the evidence will cause some of you who have yet to grasp the obvious, to finally see that it's not a matter of my opinions, rather it's a matter of the self-evident facts-on-the-

ground.

June 6, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Notice what's missing from the photo above?

HINT: It's not the first time it's happened, in fact, it's not even the first time this year it's been missing.

It was missing for MONTHS last year AFTER I'd already told HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan about it at a City Commission meeting.

Which was, itself, weeks AFTER I'd already told the HB Fire Dept., about it.

I've even written about this subject a few times before on my blog.

Here are some more hints:

Jan 18, 2008, photo by South Beach Hoosier

17 months ago

May 12, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier, 13 months ago

May 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier, 13 months ago

June 13, 2008,photo by South Beach Hoosier

And who was the City Hall genius who thought it was a good idea to okay nailing a city sign into a palm tree?

Yes, the correct answer is the American flag is what's been missing for weeks and weeks.

The version with 50 stars for 50 states, not Obama's 57-state version.

That would be the flag that flies on the flag pole right next to the empty public fountain, which, conveniently, has also been empty for many weeks.

The fountain in front of the so-called 'Beach community center' that you can't use unless you're from HB City Hall or one of their numerous back-scratching cronies.

April 28, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved 

Looking east towards the Atlantic Ocean.

The beach-front facility which marked it's 22nd month in city hands on Wednesday, June 3rd. Twenty-two long months where you couldn't use something that already belonged to you because of City of HB incompetency and malfeasance.

May 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

13 months ago

Then as now, the city was so incredibly incompetent that they kept the old info on the front door, with nary a sign or flier to alert people passing by as to either its new owner or true

purpose.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/hallandale-beach-interpretive-house-of.html

May 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

13 months ago

Looking west from the beach.

June 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

June 6, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Shocker: Thirteen months after Mike Good's "promise" at the Budget meeting at HB City Hall, a promise he made to me, there is not one single light blue recycling bin (with a lid) on the public beach -where the people are!

Just garbage containers without lids at THE windiest place in the entire city.

April 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

May 13, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

The photo I took at HB City Hall during their City Budget meeting, where Good promised recycling bins on beach.

Those are HB plastic water bottles tossed into the garbage can because at a public meeting at City Hall where everyone talked about being "green," there was not a single recycling box or receptacle present, even though there was food.

It's the perfect example of the city saying one thing and doing quite another.

May 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Looking north from The Beach Club property, seven garbage cans without lids and no recycling bins in sight.

Just like last year and the year before that and the year before

that and...

I have a very strong feeling that DPW Director John Chidsey is going to start feeling like a human piñata over the next few weeks at public events from all of the valid criticism thats going to stick to him.

In fact, I'm going to make sure of it.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/hallandale-beach-interpretive-house-of.html

June 8, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

How can I put this?

Dark green plastic bins on the beach specifically marked "Yard Waste Only" are NOT recycling bins.

You do know about tonight's citywide Transportation meeting at 6:30 p.m.,right?

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/CurrentEvents.aspx?EID=2337

Hm-m-m... a public discussion for an important report that was both past their original deadline and over- budget?

You'll understand if I don't really think that truth-telling is high up on HB City Hall's list of things to do on Tuesday.

Which, when you think about it, actually means that getting a good turnout of concerned and indignant HB citizens who will call them out for this should make the proceedings livelier and

quicker for those of us who attend.

May 28, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Sign on W,. Dixie Highway & N.E. 185th Street, Ojus.

Why aren't these signs present in HB in numbers even one-fourth their presence in next-door Aventura?

I'm especially interested in seeing and hearing people ask specific questions of Commissioners Julian, Ross and Sanders, and have THEM actually answer questions in detail and in complete sentences, not Good and his staff of minions, who do his bidding for such absurdly high salaries.

People need to specify that they want the Commissioners to answer, since that's why they were elected in the first place.

They were elected to represent all of us and THEY need to explain their lack of accountability or anything even close to resembling oversight, not to mention, their self-evident lack of familiarity with the subject, since they foolishly approved large development projects without there being a single real and understandable plan for the construction of a working

S.E. 2nd Street (now Hibiscus) from U.S.-1 to S.E. 14th Avenue.

That, of course, is desperately needed to relieve the enormous traffic flow that will come from the Hallandale Square project and the Oasis project that would otherwise all go onto HBB,

making that EVEN WORSE!

Ask them why they went ahead and approved it without a sensible plan in hand.

Jun 13, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Future site of Hallandale Square

June 8, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Future site of Oasis

Hibiscus, i.e the future SE 2nd Street?

May 12, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

13 months ago

June 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

The only thing on Hibiscus now when you turn right from U.S.-1 is a yellow warning sign in the middle of the block that has been twisted and bent for over FIVE years.

A sign that you can't see when you turn onto the street because it is completely obstructed by foliage.

June 22, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Once again, the city has shown itself unable to do even that simple thing.

And why isn't it closer to the intersection so you can see it?

This obstructed sign has dozens of cousins all over the city, but one I've chronicled in particular is this speed limit sign next to the old City Hall on West Dixie Highway and S.W. 3rd Street.

June 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Looking south on West Dixie Highway,& S.W. 3rd Street, next to the old HB City Hall.

What's the speed limit?

It was even captured for posterity on Google.

From December 2007.

http://maps.google.com/maps?cbp=12,183.05,,0,4.9&cbll=25.98185,-80.148293&ll=25.98185,-80.148293&layer=c

June 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Looking east on S.W. 3rd Street towards S.W. 1st Avenue

Another Mike Good success story!

This afternoon, after the downpours, I noticed this sandwich board sign on the median of Hallandale Beach Blvd. & 16th Avenue, for left-hand turns into the Winn-Dixie parking lot, advertising it. (Actually, the sign was on the shrubs!)

June 6, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Taken from one foot away.

What can you really say about the genius of this particular effort?

It's the city in a nutshell!

June 6, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Naturally, this being the backward Duchy of Hallandale Beach, the type was FAR TOO SMALL for anyone sitting in a car to actually make sense of, plus, the rain made everything on the board bleed.

I have not seen another sign anywhere in the city this weekend, which is not to say they don't exist, only that I haven't found one.

But what I do know for a fact is that there isn't one at the city's busiest intersection, HBB & U.S.-1, or anywhere along U.S.-1, or at the busy intersection of HBB & A1A.

Why no HB Police Dept. electronic board message?

Oh, that's right, it's not related to the Hallandale Beach PAL!

May 28, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

S.E. 1st Avenue & S.E. 3rd Street

City truck full of signs to put up.

So why is the HB Park & Recreation Dept. responsible for putting up signs for City Hall, but they aren't allowed to put up Parks & Rec. signs for sports registration and kids activities throughout the city, while PAL is allowed to put signs up everywhere?

June 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

June 8, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

On median in front of HB City Hall.