Mid-July 2008's VERY odds and ends in Hallandale Beach

Directly underneath the circle of the Hallandale Beach Water Tower around 5:45 p.m., Hallandale Beach, FL; July 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
© 2013 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

Took the shot above while roughly about one inch from the front door of the "community center" facility below the Water Tower that adjoins Hallandale Beach Fire Rescue Station #60.

The City of Hallandale Beach has held title to the facility since last August, but it has only been used a handful of time in those eleven-and-a-half months, and usually by people with a very close relationship to the folks at City Hall, prompting some heated emails to me over the past few months asking if I know what's afoot.

In all that time, there has yet to be even ONE public meeting in the city dedicated specifically to allowing the community to speak their mind about the future uses of the facility.

In fact, the only meeting in the city that I've attended since January of last year where it's even been broached in a halfway-serious fashion, was the all-day budget meeting held in mid-May, where somewhat incongruously, I found myself agreeing with Mayor Joy Cooper more often than has ever been the case previously or since.

(That was the meeting where I snapped some damning shots of the city's blase approach to recycling by showing city plastic water bottles tossed in with regular garbage, despite all the PC talk at HB City Hall about taking recycling seriously. I have a whole series of post with photos that take the recycling program to task, but until then, there's http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/talking-globally-polluting-locally-in.html )

Despite what I though at the time were my common sense comments at that budget meeting to the City Manager, the Mayor and the City Commission that, at a minimum, they needed to put up some signs or fliers on the doors letting residents know that the building did in fact belong to the city -despite the Beach Club Realty info that remains on the front door.

I also argued that in the absence of any information on the matter whatsoever, the city also needed to post something on the doors about what the tentative plans were regarding a prospective city-wide meeting, where residents could weigh-in on the facility's future use.

Frankly, it's a huge embarrassment to the city that there was not such a meeting held early 
LAST YEAR over at the HB Cultural Center, months before the building actually reverted to the city, so that plans could be made to have something resembling a seamless transition.

I hardly need tell you, do I, that not only were there no signs two weeks after I made my comments at that mid-May city budget meeting, but there are still no signs, two months later.

The city is communicating ZERO information about what's happening with it or when or if any public meetings will be held, which I personally think is MUST in order to prevent it from becoming a Clubhouse for the favored few in the community who have connections, or are otherwise cronies to those who do.

Say, like the people who got the VIP parking passes for the beach concert a few months ago, when it was not at all clear what made them VIPs other than their connections to City Hall.

(I personally apologize for not having written what I know and observed that day at the beach, which, even for Hallandale Beach, showed signs of laughably bad planning, organization and execution, right down to the number of people who had to make U-turns around the fountain because the electronic sign wasn't located somewhere in front of the area, and assigning a uniformed cop to guard the South Beach while Police Explorers goofed around on the sidewalk and didn't even help direct traffic, thereby helping folks trying to cross the street with coolers, umbrellas, et al. That's all coming. Mieux tard que jamais!)

Here's why this negative news about the difficulty of simply planning a public meeting isn't surprising.

It took the city almost THREE MONTHS exactly to simply replace the severely damaged American flag that flew in front of the Water Tower and Fire Station #60, despite my personally having told the Fire Dept. about it in minute detail -twice.

The last time, it was when I spoke face-to-face with HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan during a City Commission meeting at the beginning of June, and he pooh-poohed my concerns, saying it'd be taken care of right away.

Then I told him that I wish that were so but the facst were that I'd already spoken to someone in the Fire Dept. about it -a captain?- for about 5-10 minutes and it was now six weeks later, so I wasn't exactly wowed by the follow-up, and wanted to see some tangible sign of progress, not more promises.
It would be another five weeks before it was actually done -eleven weeks in total!

By Sunday evening, I'll recount here that sad example of what life in Hallandale Beach is like, complete with photos.
------------------------------------------------------------http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/2007-10-17/item%206a/supp_docs/documents/doc2.doc.MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COMMISSION, CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH, FLORIDA, HELD ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 01, 2007

Discussion of Public Works Construction Projects
City Manager Good advised that DPW has inspected the former Beach Club sales facility on the beach by the Fire Station and the facility will be turned over to the City on Friday, August 3, 2007.--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.cohb.org/DocumentView.asp?DID=416
page 55

Upgrades to Municipal Building @ North Beach, CIP #: 07 46 02

Fiscal 2006-07 Funds: $100,000
Upgrades to Municipal Building located at North Beach
----------------------------------------------------------from May 2008 monthly DPW report
10) Demolition of interior of North Beach Municipal Building was completed, and parking machines with signage has been installed.
I've been on the case since last year, but my new camera has allowed me to connect the dots on all sorts of shady things that have been happening over at the beach -and environs- for a long time, which will be the subject of future posts, replete with lots of incriminating photos.
Herewith, I some of the comments I've received over the transom, some direct comments and others I've paraphrased:


"Do you know when the City of Hallandale Beach will make their final decisions on which 'so-called' non-profits they'll be funding for next year? At the budget meeting in August?"


I've actually received several emails from people around town asking me why the same groups keep getting funded, year-after-year, despite perhaps only getting "sketchy results" as one letter writer put it.

The same groups who, according to that letter writer, "get to use the Cultural Center (and that space below the HB Water Tower) all the time, thanks to City Hall cronyism."


Myself, I realize that there's a charge to use the Cultural Center facility, but I don't know whether the letter writers necessarily

a.) know that, or
b.) are implying that these "groups" are getting a break on the price.


It used to be -may still is- the common practice on Capitol Hill that Members got the use of their committee rooms for certain pet projects or to hold press conferences for concerns of their district, after getting the okay of the Comm. Chair and the Ranking Member, which is why certain well-known but relatively small groups, got the use of some of the nicer rooms on Capitol Hill.

I was at lots of those events myself, including some DLC meetings when Rep. Dave McCurdy was running things, and I often lugged food and drinks from his office over to wherever we were meeting that day.


Email writers have also asked me whether I knew who in the city actually receives those non-profit funding requests before the decision is made, so that HB residents could, if so inclined, see who was making formal requests, and take a look at those groups financial disclosures.
(This has only served to make me curious about it, too.)


Would that be the Finance office or the City Manager's office?
I don't know, myself, but given the level of interest in this, I'd now like to follow-up and find out, since there seems to be much more interest in this topic than you'd generally think, especially since it's clear that the City of HB will have to make some funding and employee cuts in the near future.

Speaking of which, consider this approach to the problem:
Imaginative ways of culling the public service workforce http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0709/1215537641182.html

I'm curious if any of you all have yet discovered the new blog that comes from our fair city, http://cityofhallandalebeach.blogspot.com/ ?

I ask because it's interesting to me that the author doesn't reveal much of anything about themself, much less, detail their motivation for doing so, the exact opposite tack I took in creating my two blogs.

Obviously, everyone has their own personal reasons, it just struck me as odd to never mention it. Certainly, at first glance at least, it seems clear that the person behind it is more overtly religious than the average person I run into in at local events and meetings.

The fact that they choose to use the phrase "City of Hallandale Beach" in their title seems a rather curious one to me, since there's no disclaimer on it anywhere, so far, saying that it isn't an official city blog or being written by a city employee, though it's clearly not a tourist-y blog, like the one up in Ft. Lauderdale for the Greater FTL CVB, http://www.sunny.org/blog/index.html

Then again, the Aventura-centric blog that started up a few months ago, http://cityofaventura.blogspot.com/ has the phrase "City of" in it, but they have a disclaimer.

I describe it on my blogroll this way: City of Aventura Blog -The 2007 brainchild of longtime Aventura resident Aaron Gurland who seeks to give the city with no downtown a virtual place to come together._____________________
Below are some of the very fact-specific posts on discretionary spending in Miami-Dade County written by EyeonMiami, voted the #1 blog in South Florida by Miami New Times.
I highly commend it to you now, given what's going on in Miami.

Despite it being a big election year and many of the people involved here running for re-election in November, or worse, un-opposed, http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/other_views/story/574089.html it's not exactly been a case of local media -and TV in particular-rushing into this particular area of inquiry, so until they do so, somebody has to do all the heavy lifting.
Up 'till now, that's been EyeonMiami. http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/


In reading the blog posts on discretionary funding, I can't help but think of the comments I shared a few weeks ago with the Herald's Larry Lebowitz, after his recent exhaustive research project resulted in the excellent front page series on Miami-Dade transit issues, one of the best the Herald has had. http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/news/transit/


There, he revealed in minute detail the myriad promises to voters that were broken over the years, as to the nature and scope of the system, because corruption, cronyism and political sleight-of-hand are so scarily endemic here, while transparency and accountability are not.


I wrote: "Your head must ache from all the negativity and incompetency you encountered and wrote about, knowing you couldn't possibly include everything you found out about.
I commiserate. I know the feeling."

Over the weekend, I hope to be sending the guys at EyeonMiami some comments on the topic of elected officials' discretionary funding in general, including the amazing fact that, per the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial below- Palm Beach County commissioners had almost $1 million dollars a piece to hand out as party favors, three times what NYC Council members and Miami-Dade County commissioners had to dole out.
______________________________
These results are as of a week agohttp://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/search?q=discretionary

Private Foundation "Wounded Healers" Got $13,000 from District 7 Discretionary Funds with a Numberless Tax Return! By Geniusofdespair

Bay of Pigs Veterans...Is Natacha Seijas Mad At Them? By Geniusofdespair

Commissioners Giving our Tax Dollars to Non-Profits: Bad Idea. By Geniusofdespair

Ongoing Investigation into Non Profits that get your tax dollars. By Geniusofdespair

Miami Herald, on the permanent incumbency... by gimleteye

The Miami Herald Wrote This? Sounds More Like Eyeonmiami by Geniusofdespair.
Backed by discretionary accounts and swelling war chests, County Commission incumbents are sitting comfortably. This year's batch of challengers faces a difficult test.

Pizzi to challenge Seijas? by gimleteye

Curley's House of Style Has Your Tax Dollars! By Geniusofdespair

The Inspector General's "Random Audits" of Non Profits: There are none!! by Geniusofdespair

Miami Dade County Should Stop Funding Non-Profits. By Geniusofdespair

Miami Dade Elections Department is Dead Right. By Geniusofdespair

County Commissioners: Buying Votes? by Geniusofdespair

Obscene Amounts of Money in Miami Dade County Commission Races


See I told you there's a reason why EyeonMiami won the Best Blog award!
See http://miaminewtimes.com/bestof/2008/award/best-blog-1006337

Without getting too deeply into this Sun-Sentinel Editorial, perhaps the most shocking aspect of this is their blase reporting of the fact that Palm Beach County commissioners had approximately a million dollars a piece to generally do with as they chose, almost
three times as much money in their discretionary accounts as those of NYC Council members.

The least shocking was the Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board failing to put the Palm Beach s.o.p./shenanignas in their proper numerical perspective for comparison's sake, and comparing them to other counties in the state.__________________________________
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editnbslushfundspnjun05,0,5505617.story
South Florida Sun-SentinelSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Commissioners' discretionary accounts better used elsewhere, like on Tri-RailJune 5, 2008


ISSUE: County administrator recommends commissioners give up discretionary funds.Call them what you like — "discretionary funds," "slush money," a "lifeline" for community services.

Whatever their moniker of the moment, this year, once and for all, county commissioners should have one overriding description for the controversial accounts: "gone."

The money, used by each commissioner at their discretion for local needs from streetlights to street festivals, can be used for very good purposes. But they've become a target for budget cuts, and rightfully so, given an economic climate that's got the county weighing crushing cuts to such essentials as its mass transit programs, parks services and employee salaries.

Last year, amid a financial storm that had the county considering laying off deputies and cutting whole programs to make up a $14 million shortfall, commissioners agreed to give up the biggest chunk of their discretionary accounts — $7 million in gas-tax money split evenly among the seven commissioners for new roads and beautification projects.

But still left for each commissioner to spend as they pleased was $200,000 from property tax revenue for pet projects like band uniforms and downtown Christmas trees.

Only Commissioners Karen Marcus and Bob Kanjian, seeing how inappropriate it was to lavish money on chosen projects when the county budget was bleeding, refused to take the money.

Now, this year's budget is expected to be even more painful. With property values falling 7 percent, the economy teetering on recession and cuts expected from voters' Amendment 1 directive, County Administrator Bob Weisman is slicing department budgets by another 5 percent and limiting employee raises.

So it makes perfect sense that he recommend eliminating the last of commissioners' discretionary accounts. The $1 million in savings could prevent deeper cuts to Palm Tran and park services. Or, better yet, the county could put the money toward its faltering Tri-Rail contribution, sending a message to Broward and Miami-Dade counties that keeping an increasingly popular commuter rail service afloat in today's $4-a-gallon gas market will take us a lot further than band uniforms or street festivals ever will.

BOTTOM LINE: Money better used elsewhere, like on Tri-Rail.
_______________
Reader comments at:http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/T33JMASVE3UQR5TOB

2008 Hallandale Beach Hurricane Preparedness Forum tonight

I'll have more observations on the preparation for this year's event a little later in a separate post.

Trust me when I tell you, based on my experience last year, the actual discussion won't start until after about 45-60 minutes after the ritual community/crony kibitzing starts at 6:30 p.m.

Once it actually starts, I plan on asking some questions at the forum that I think will make me seem, for a bit, like a bull of in a china shop.

But this being Hallandale Beach, more like crashing their poorly publicized tea party.

And don't forget, after the special encore with new footage at 8 p.m., the LOST season finale, "There's No Place Like Home" is from 9-11 p.m., so don't stay at the meeting after 8:30 or you'll be sorry!
The big rumor that's gaining currency, courtesy of the estimable Michael Ausiello, still of TV Guide, but soon to be of Entertainment Weekly, http://www.tvguide.com/Ask-Ausiello/080528 is that THREE, count-em THREE original cast members will go buh-bye for good tonight.
And where the hell exactly is Penny Widmore? http://tviv.org/Lost/Penelope_Widmore

"He wants us to move the island."
-John Locke to Hurley and Ben

The Hallandale Beach Blog post prior to last year's HB hurricane preparedness event:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/hurricane-preparedness-meeting-in.html

Bob Norman connects Steve Geller dots on Park Vue deal backed by Cornerstone Group that leaves Hallandale Beach taxpayers perplexed

It would seem pretty self-evident after reading Bob Norman's very good piece from the current New Times -link at bottom- that we all NOW know a lot more about the machinations behind the property at 601 Old Federal Highway that I referenced in my April 8th blog post, right next to the U.S. Post Office on Old Federal Highway, just south of the Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex.

Sadly, we know even more than we want to about the City of Hallandale Beach's ability -or inability- to make a good deal on behalf of its current citizens and taxpayers -or its future ones.
If you're curious to see drawings and depictions of what the Park Vue "lifestyle" was all cracked up to be, complete with fanciful depiction and floor plans, see:
http://forsale-miami.com/pre-construction/hollywood/park-vue/park-vue_property-detail.htm

FYI: Miami Beach-based Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design Inc. was the architect.

If you didn't already know, the Cornerstone Group is also the developer behind the project in the City of Hollywood that has generated so much attention, animosity and controversy over the past few years, Hollywood Station, http://www.hollywoodstation.com/

(Hey Commissioner Blattner, considering you spent so much time and effort defending this place based on transportation and mass transit grounds -which I usually support- I think you ought to know, if you didn't already, that their corporate website for Hollywood Station doesn't specifically use the word "transit" or "transportation" even once. Hmmm... I thought that was supposed to be one of its selling points, even in car-crazy South Florida?)
Cornerstone is also behind the La Perla project in Sunny Isles Beach, the area I knew so well as a kid. http://www.laperlamiami.com/english/index.html
I can't help but think that it all went downhill when the Castaways Wreck Bar went buh-bye!

As it happens, in March of 2005, the Herald referred to the Park Vue project in Hallandale Beach -and re-ran the same story on December 31st, 2006- in one of those occasional pieces they have a penchant for running on South Florida towns and communities.
Sort of "Up-close and personal" if you will.

Except more often than not, they seem to focus almost exclusively on these places in strictly real estate terms and not ever mention whether or not the individual city government's are maintaining a good quality-of-life or are actually efficient, responsive or transparent in their dealings with citizens.

Of course, back then, in more innocent times, real estate speculators waiting overnight in line to place deposits were referred to in local Miami TV newscasts as families investing in their futures, not folks threatening the integrity of the American housing system, who'd be demanding that someone rescue them from their lack of financial acumen.

So let's jump aboard the Hallandale Beach Blog Time Machine and go back to 2005 for a few minutes, back when it hadn't yet been scientifically proven that Nick Saban was The Devil Himself.
How could we not see it, when the signs were all around us?!!!
-----

Miami Herald
CONDO PLAN IS SCRATCHED AT THE GATE
By Diana Moskovitz
August 17, 2005

The future of one of Hallandale Beach's major redevelopment projects, 13 stories overlooking Gulfstream Park, appears to be dead, but city leaders and developer Cornerstone Premier Communities disagree on who is at fault.

But buyers at Park Vue Residences should be getting their money back, plus 10 percent.

They also will get a shot at lofts in another Cornerstone project, Hollywood Station in downtown Hollywood, said Richard Lamondin, president of Cornerstone.

"There was no conspiracy. No anything. We just had to make a business decision,'' Lamondin said.

Delays from the city and additional fees made the project "outrageously costly,'' to the point it would not be feasible to build, Lamondin said.

But a letter sent to buyers outraged city leaders, who felt it unfairly singled them out as the sole cause for the project's apparent demise.

"I don't like the city to have to take the responsibility on its own,'' said City Manager Mike Good."

I would expect more from a developer,'' Good said.

Good and several commissioners said they got calls from buyers wondering why the city was holding up the condos.

The plan for Park Vue had been for 147 units.
About 128 had been sold, Lamondin said.

The company initially sent letters to buyers telling them it was delayed, then, that it "probably'' would be canceled.
About 90 percent have agreed to the refund, Lamondin said.

Problems started when the developer changed the project from work-force housing to high-end units, Good said.
As the project changed, the city altered its demands. "This project will not be anywhere near work-force housing,'' Good said.

Two years ago, the city agreed to a project called the Aquamarina Condominiums, one-to-three-bedroom apartments starting at $130,000.

Commissioners saw the project as affordable homes near the city's center and one of Hallandale Beach's major employers - Gulfstream.

But the owners sold the project to Cornerstone, which transformed the project into Park Vue with one-, two- and three-bedroom residences priced from the low $200,000s to the mid-$300,000s.

Since the agreement has expired, Lamondin said Cornerstone probably will withdraw its application.

It has not decided whether to sell the land or try another project, Lamondin said.

Good said the rest of the city's redevelopment projects are moving ahead as scheduled, including massive renovations to Gulfstream.

In other action Tuesday, commissioners:

* Silenced one of their biggest critics, voting 5-0 to end their public access channel, probably taking the channel's two shows with it. One show was by former Mayor Arthur "Sonny'' Rosenberg, who used his show as a platform to criticize city leaders, especially Mayor Joy Cooper.

* Voted to give final approval to a proposal effectively banning sexual offenders from moving to the city. The rule says no sexual offender can live within 2,500 feet of any school with students younger than 18, school bus stops, day-care centers and public parks and playgrounds.
________________________________________________
excerpted from South Florida Sun-Sentinel of April 4, 2005

Coral Gables-based Cornerstone Premier Communities LLC has announced plans to build Park Vue Residences, a 144-unit condominium at 601 Old Federal Highway in Hallandale Beach. Construction will begin in April, with completion scheduled for the fall of 2006.
_____________________________________________
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11157333.htm
Miami Herald
BOOM TIMES ONCE AGAIN
By Ana Rhodes, Special to The HeraldMarch 19, 2005

Today's Hallandale Beach is one of Broward's latest boom towns, with young professionals, families and international investors clamoring for new oceanfront condos.

With Sunny Isles Beach and Aventura built out, buyers are spilling across the Broward County line, where they can still find a beachfront condominium in one of the older buildings for $300,000.

"Everything's being grabbed up as soon as it comes on the market,'' said Abe Lenkov, an agent with DeRosa Realty in Hallandale Beach.

The buyers are coming from South America, Canada, and increasingly, Russia.
And they're coming from the suburbs of West Broward, where buyers are tired of the long commute east.

The new development comes after a long hiatus in Hallandale Beach, whose last growth spurt came in the 1970s. After that, city leaders felt overwhelmed and put the brakes on construction.
Until recently, there were few new condominiums or real growth.

"There comes a point where you wind up choking yourself, and the city started depreciating in the last 10 years, going down hill. People weren't investing,'' Assistant City Manager Charity Good said.

REJUVENATION TOOL
Now a new, younger City Commission is pushing to change the city's image and sees new development as a tool for rejuvenation.

Three new high-rise condos are on the horizon.
The first tower of the Beach Club at State Road A1A and Hallandale Beach Boulevard has been built. When the $400 million project's other two towers are ready, the Beach Club will have more than 1,200 units.

All three towers will be built more than 40 stories tall on South Ocean Drive.

Two-bedroom condos sell for $700,00 to $895,000, still much less than similar places in South Beach or Fort Lauderdale.

The Duo, a $70 million project with two high-rise towers holding 400 units, is being built behind the newly renovated Diplomat Mall. That is expected to open in about a year.

The 28-story Ocean Marine Yacht Club, to be built on the Intracoastal Waterway, will add another 283 units.

YOUNGER CROWD
Many of those buyers are professionals in their 30s and 40s, some of them families with children.
Ninety percent of buyers at the Duo and most at the Beach Club are younger than 55.

"We've got a lot of younger people coming into these condos. We're not a sleepy little retirement community. We're coming into our own,'' said Kathi DeRosa, who owns DeRosa Realty in Hallandale Beach. "We're walking distance to the beach and now we've got the Diplomat Mall. What more could you want?''

DeRosa said the Diplomat, renovated and renamed RK Diplomat Center with a Starbucks, two Italian restaurants, a Quizno's and some yogurt and ice cream shops, is a draw for young people.
The new developments also are attracting international investors.

"We have a lot of investors from Canada. I had one Canadian gentleman buy five units at The Duo,'' said Abe Lenkov, an agent at DeRosa Realty.
"There's a lot of Russians also.''

Gulfstream Park Development is looking into taking 80 acres of its property at the horse track for mixed use, with 1,500 residential units (possibly town homes), 600,000 square feet of retail space, and a 30-screen movie theater.

Gulfstream also is expecting a big boost from the arrival of slot machines, approved by voters earlier this month.

Mayor Joy Cooper said it will be a huge boost to tourism and property values in Hallandale Beach.

"Jobs alone will be so beneficial,'' Cooper said. "It's a myth that it brings crime. Blighted areas don't have jobs for residents, so bringing in jobs would actually help fight crime by putting people to work.''

The southwest and northwest parts of the city, traditionally ignored by investors, are seeing a resurgence as well.

In the southwest, many are rebuilding homes.

In the northwest, many homeowners are taking advantage of loans from the Community Redevelopment Agency. Single-family homeowners can borrow up to $6,500 to fix up their houses and only pay back half of it - at 2 percent interest. Many have painted their homes and put in new driveways.

"In the northeast section, I'm going to say you go down east of Eighth Avenue and you will see the effects of that program,'' said Frank Durkin, code compliance and redevelopment administrator for the city.

Durkin said the base property values in the area have almost doubled, from $340 million in 1996, when the CRA was started, to $680 million in 2004. The money from the increase goes directly back to the area.

Developers are taking notice of the northwest and its need for affordable housing.

Miami-based Cornerstone Development has broken ground on Harbor Cove, a $20 million complex of four buildings containing 212 units off Ninth Court and Hallandale Beach Boulevard east of Interstate 95.

TRAFFIC CONCERNS
Cornerstone also is building Park Vue, a 13-story project with 147 units, just off U.S. 1 west of Gulfstream Park. Those units, selling for $250,000 to $400,000, appeal to single professional people or young couples tired of long commutes from out west.
That project should be ready in September 2006.

All this development will add as many as 3,000 units - and up to 10,000 new residents - by the end of 2006, bringing more traffic to an area that is already gridlocked.
Many of the old condominiums, for example, typically had one parking space for each unit, as retirees and snowbirds rarely needed more than that. But now couples with double incomes and two cars are moving in full time.

The stretch of Hallandale Beach Boulevard east of U.S. 1 - where The Duo and The Beach Club are being built - is busiest, with 48,500 cars a day and little room for expansion.

LOOKING AHEAD
"Traffic has increased at a frightening rate,'' said Armin Lovenvirth, who lives at the Towers of Ocean View. "The City Commission will have to have real foresight to make the right changes.''

Cooper said work will begin in April on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, to include new medians and synchronized lights to help traffic flow. Other options to ease traffic are being considered.

Vice Mayor William Julian said the city might want to slow down again after 2006 or 2007, when many of the new projects will be done.

"We don't want to infringe on people that already live here,'' he said.

"We might decide we don't want to have any more growth for quite some time until we have more public transportation,'' he said.

----
Transit guru William Julian, please report to the principal's office!

That's funny, last week at the HB City Commission meeting, William Julian spoke out sarcastically and often against the Broward County Charter Review Commission's myriad proposals.

That included one offering Broward citizens the right to vote in November on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority that would be required to be more responsive to resident and rider concerns by sheer virtue of the composition of its members and their affiliations.
No more bureaucrats, lawyers and lobbyists making ALL the decisions.

Real citizen input and decision-making by people who actually use the system and know how bad it really is.
As was expressed loudly and often at the Broward County Transit Forum in October that I attended.

I should know -I was one of the persons with a microphone complaining about the county's dismal performance and general inability to adapt, accept constructive criticism and stop letting the bureaucracy decide everything, instead of the actual customers.

At a certain point, you'd think that a tiny town like Hallandale Beach would have the common sense to recognize that getting behind such an engaged advisory panel would be smart politics and good self-preservation, since under the present arrangement, Hallandale Beach seems permanently condemned to eating at the little kids table, not even eating with the cool teenagers.

Meanwhile Ft. Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Weston, Miramar and Cooper City sit at the adults' table and make all the decisions.

You know, in the same way that NONE of the 19 members of the county-wide CRC hailed from Hallandale Beach.
You think that's just a coincidence?

Facts are funny that way.

Having a commuter train along the FEC tracks could revitalize this city more dramatically, per capita, than it could any other Broward city along the line.
Hallandale Beach's City Hall gives lip service to being concerned about transportation, but when push comes to shove, juvenile ignorance and arrogance rule the day, and another sign goes forth that the city's only kidding about being pro-active and finally growing-up.

At the all-day City Commission forum last month at the Cultural Center, I twice took the microphone in hand to express my concerns about the direction of the city and to point out some areas that were sorely in need of improvement.
Honestly, it's not like I'm the only one who noticed.

The second time I did so came during the discussion of the city's months overdue transportation plan, and I specifically asked why it was that when the SFECC was having town meetings in this area in 2006 and 2007, they held them in Hollywood and Aventura -both of which I attended- but Hallandale Beach got shut out, despite the fact that the City Hall Chambers and Cultural Center are more than large enough to have handled the sort of crowds that have attended the meetings.

(Again, I would know, since I've actually gone to the SFECC meetings. FYI: I never saw an elected official from Hallandale Beach at either meeting I attended.)

I asked why the city couldn't, for a change, be pro-active and just call them up and ask to host a meeting, instead of simply waiting to be asked, always the bridesmaid.
And what I said resonated with most of the public who was there, since even Mike Good was forced to nod in agreement to the simple logic of my proposal.

But a few weeks later, when his staff prepares information for the commission, they actually recommend voting no on the MTA proposal.
And the ill-informed City Commission shows it clearly never read the Minutes of the CRC meetings outlining the goals and structure of the MTA, by virtue of its own comments last Wednesday, votes no.

So I show up as individual to speak in favor of the MTA proposal, and what do you know, Hallandale Beach Manager of Intergovernmental Affairs Franklin Hileman gets dispatched to represent Mike Good -because of an "emergency"- and tell the CRC that HB says "no thanks."

That's right, the only person from the public at the meeting speaking against the proposal was the representative from the Hallandale Beach City Manager's office, on behalf of a town that everyone in South Florida already thinks is a basket case and rolls their eyes at.
Wow!

Now that's a bad PR hit!

You know, at first, when you first get into line, the kid rolling on the ground at the Aventura Target store screaming his lungs out and throwing a tantrum for whatever reason can be sort of funny, as long as it's not in your aisle.
You might even cringe a bit for the parents, perhaps.

But after you've been waiting in line for five minutes for the very slow cashier to get to you, that sound of the screaming kid isn't quite so funny, is it?
No, it's just sort of embarrassing.

Well, meet Hallandale Beach in the year 2008, the screaming kid that can't quite let logic and reason rule the day.
It has to throw the predictable tantrum.

I'll have a future post that will detail some of the possible consequences of the appalling votes against the CRC propsals from that City Commission meeting last week, and the CRC meeting I attended days ago up on Andrews Avenue, where Mayor Joy Cooper, Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan and Franklin Hileman were HB's motley triumverate.

I sat in the middle section of the chambers while they were a few rows behind me in a different section, but I just ignored them, since they were clearly speaking for somebody else and NOT for Hallandale Beach's citizen's, whom, I'm pretty sure, would like to decide what and how they vote in November for themself, and don't need Mayor Joy Cooper's obvious Broward League of Cities bias or William Julian's absurd antics and clowning to guide them.
You know, the will of the people.

Meanwhile, getting back to Bob Norman, as of Thursday afternoon when I drove by it, the 601 Old Federal Highway address sports nothing but some "No dumping" signs.
Come for the traffic, but stay for the dumping!

By the way, according to the city, that road between the Post Office and HB City Hall, S.E. 6th Street, belongs to the U.S. Post Office.

Hmmm... maybe that explains why it took MONTHS for the STOP sign at Old Federal Highway and S.E. 6th Street, only a few feet away from the Hallandale Beach Police Dept.'s parking lot, to be put back in its small hole after Hurricane Wilma.

Postal efficiency meets Hallandale Beach government apathy and red-tape to form a devastating combination!

---

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2008-04-10/news/wait-let-me-change-hats
Miami NewTimes
Wait, Let Me Change Hats
Senator Geller does costly deals but shuns the L word.
By Bob Norman
Published: April 10, 2008

Hurricane preparedness in Broward County and Hallandale Beach

Upside down hurricane evacuation sign on A1A at 1800 S. Ocean Drive, south of Hallandale Beach Blvd., in front of The Related Group's Beach Club, taken May 29th, 2007;
photo by South Beach Hoosier

June 1st, 2007, the first day of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, and the City of Hallandale Beach is already behind the proverbial eight-ball, as the above photo ominously foreshadows.
Yes, it's already later than you think.

If you're a regular reader of Hallandale Beach Blog -or have simply come to it by accident- you need to know that the main reason that I personally hold the City of Hallandale Beach in such low regard, and, frankly, am so contemptuous of it, is that because in the three years since I returned to South Florida (I grew-up in North Miami Beach) from the D.C. suburbs of Arlington County where I lived for 15 years, is because I've personally witnessed, on a daily basis, their chronic inability to do even the smallest aspect of responsible governance correctly or promptly.

Whether it's keeping supplies in the public rest rooms at the beach, keeping street lights on, cleaning up debris along the city's three most-heavily traveled roads, or, if you can believe this, responding to traffic accidents on US-1 -in front of their own building- in less than 20 minutes, as I witnessed last year, after personally walking into the Police Dept. HQ.

Twice.

(See my April 3rd post on HB's joke of a city dumping policy, compete with photos, where junk was dumped just two blocks from HB's own City Hall, directly across the street from Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, and phone calls to the appropriate individual produced no tangible results. Ever.
So there it stayed there -for months.)

Things that are taken for granted in other parts of the country -much less, the absence of a resolutely hostile attitude from city employees- fester here for months and even years in some cases, with nary a care expressed by either the elected/appointed officials or HB city employees.

It's a simple point, one that can hardly be expressed better than this:
If, as a city, you consistently prove that you can't handle the simplest tasks, the sort of problems that require easy, straightforward solutions, how can I possibly trust you to handle difficult problems that require real leadership and difficult choices to be made that have very tangible consequences to your own residents, as well as those of Aventura and Hollywood, who must, necessarily, travel over roads in HB?

What do you expect from people who run a city where the most well-known thing in the entire city, The Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, the city's largest employer, is NOT pictured on the city's website photo montage?
Hard to believe, but true!

Let me show you two photos that really speak volumes, photos I had planned on using in other contexts on the blog, but which now require their use here.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a municipality in Florida, no matter how small or parochial, where you could routinely park your car in what is clearly understood to be a FIRE ZONE.
It's just something that's not done.

Yet in the City of Hallandale Beach, city employees have routinely parked in front of City Hall's east and south entrances for hours at a time, as I've witnessed for three years.

I've recently seen city cars parked there for up to three hours at a time, and actually been there to witness HB EMS personnel being forced to wait for city or resident's cars to move their vehicles from the entrances to City Hall, so they could pull their ambulance or truck up to the sidewalk and attend someone inside City Hall, as happened in April, something that I've mentioned in phone conversations with both Chief Daniel Sullivan and Chief Johnson.

Believe me, from talking about it with them, the EMS first responders are LONG past being pissed-off about it, yet HB Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan, who's been a member of the force for 24 years and Chief for 8 years, along with that all-star braintrust of City Manager Mike Good, City attorney David Jove and Mayor Joy Cooper, apparently see no need to have the City of HB come into the 21st Century and conform to the same societal norms, rules and regulations that any responsibly run city or town requires of its commercial property owners and merchants, and homeowners with respect to fire hydrants.

You know, commercial property owners such as the RK Diplomat Center on Hallandale Beach Boulevard, where there are plenty of such Fire Zone signs.
How can the city be so clueless?

How can they be so blind to something so obvious in FRONT of their own City Hall?

Where's the simple sign that reads something along the lines of "FIRE Zone, No Parking/Tow Zone, By Order of HB Fire Chief"?

(Just as a point of information, this past Wednesday, on my way over to the library, I saw yet another scofflaw, an HB city car parked in front of the eastern entrance to city hall, #3340 645, FL license plate 13829, parked there from 3 p.m. 'till at least past 4:45 p.m. That's just par for the course.)

And the City of Hallandale Beach City Hall Crew wonders why it's considered a laughingstock by South Florida residents and local media?

Photo of eastern front of City of Hallandale Beach Municipal Complex, May 29th, 2007; photo by South Beach Hoosier

Photo looking east on State Road 858/Hallandale Beach Boulevard, May 29th, 2007; photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Quick: What does the sign say?

The gateway to the beach is a perfect example of the City of Hallandale Beach's neglect and their city employees' and contractors' chronic inability to see the forrest for the trees. (Or the sign for the bush.)

This bush has been growing steadily larger since last summer, yet, somehow, nobody in city government seems to notice that the drawbridge warning sign with flashing yellow lights is disappearing because of a lack of common sense pruning and maintenance.
Not even members of the HB City Commission who pass it just about everyday, like Francine Schiller?

Yes, exactly like someone who lives on A1A.

Hmmm... I'll bet that's how HB senior citizens get stuck walking across the bridge when it goes up, don't you think?
I realize that it's a state bridge, but am I supposed to believe that nobody who works at City hall has never seen it? Really?

I first met Alex Baird, the City of Hallandale Beach's EMS Division Chief last week at the Hallandale Beach branch of the Broward County library, realizing once I showed up that I'd incorrectly written down the meeting info, having placed it for later in the week. C'est la vie!

Part of Mr. Baird's duties include, apparently, being the face of hurricane preparedness in the city, and towards that end, he helped conducted the meeting in the the much larger HB Cultural Community Center from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

(You might recall that the CCC is the place where last December, I saw State Senator Steve Geller, the Florida House Minority Leader,
http://www.flsenate.gov/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Tab=legislators&Submenu=1&File=index.html&Directory=Legislators/senate/031/
wearing his other hat, that of lobbyist, where he was at a public meeting attended by me and a handful of others -plus the Miami Herald's Jennifer Lebovich, who was sitting by herself at the table next to me- to hear what his client, Millennium, was planning to do with their property at 2500 HBB.
No shocker that -expand upward and outward.
See #12 on http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.asp?DID=203

2500 HBB is the VERY SAME building where the very popular and well-regarded Padrino's restaurant is located, where a horrific murder took place last year that was solved not by HB Police ingenuity or detection, but rather because the guilty suspect was dumb enough to quickly use his victim's credit cards at a Wal-Mart, and was photographed by the store's security cameras -along with his girlfriend- after being alerted by a store clerk who sensed that something wasn't quite right with the transaction.

I was very tempted to ask about the poor security there, the self-evident and longstanding parking lot lighting problems.

The problem?
Oh, that the first five lights you encounter upon pulling into the parking lot there are either broken or obscured by tree branches, including the two lights closest to the sidewalk on HBB, which have been broken for months and months and now into years.
Yes, years as in plural.

In the end, I bit my tongue. Bit over the next few days, I'll have photos to buttress my point.
safety is NOT a concern of Millennium.)

I must admit that though I only spoke to Mr. Baird for a few minutes, I was impressed, since besides the fact that he has a very serious job, I got a real sense that he was forthright and honest, and thus, not one of the armies of City of HB drones who seem to do as little as possible for their paycheck, especially when responding to citizen complaints.

It's a sign of the times that since it's the City of Hallandale Beach you're dealing with, the following is what greets you when you go to the City of Hallandale Beach's NEW website, the supposed new-and-improved one that was years in the making -to replace the one where, to cite but one embarrassing example from many, the police chief, Thomas Magill -who was so busy snapping photos at last night's meeting- didn't have an email address.

You had to know the name of his secretay in order to send him an email.

When you check the link, you find out that Baird's bio isn't there, which would've proved helpful in getting some sense of his professional background, prior to the actual meeting:

"You are here: Home > Staff Directory

Alex Baird Fire & Rescue Title: EMS Chief Phone: 954-457-1481
Return to Staff Directory
No biography exists for this person."

I'll hope to have more info here on the blog regarding Thursday's meeting over the next few days. In the meantime, add this to your list:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/
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