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

Above from June 19, 2012 

March 12, 2013

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

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

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

http://hallandalebeachfl.gov/directory.aspx?eid=125

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

It's like pulling teeth to get them to act like a normal city!

For some of you reading this, these words ring very, very familiar.

But it wasn't yesterday, it was four year ago.

In fact, it was March 8, 2009 when I wrote and posted this...

-----------------

Mayor Joy Cooper's so-called column in The South Florida Sun-Times had this headline for her most recent column: It was a very busy week around the community

Her 9th paragraph begins:     We continued the first meeting of the month with the public works update. Director William Brandt reported on the many ongoing construction projects. Many were in the final stages of completion. West Hallandale Beach Blvd is almost fully completed with punch list items and final signalization test. This included the intersection at 8th Ave., which was implemented jointly with our city. Staff continues to evaluate the continued erosion along  Shafer Canal and is looking to work with Broward County Erosion Control and the South Florida Water Management District. We are looking at the possibility of a grant or loan program to assist in repairs.     One other project that was highlighted was the bridge rehabilitation project which has already commenced. It will continue over the next few months with a projected completion date of November 1. This project includes the beautification and lighting enhancements on the bridges located SW 7th St, Paradise Isles Blvd. and the seven bridges within the single family residential area.    After his report Mr. Brandt introduced the new Director of Public Works Department.    Bill Brandt will remain as Director of Utilities and Engineering. Our utilities infrastructure continues to create a high demand with many necessary on going projects . These include; sewer line rehabilitation, lift station replacement, water plant operations, water main line improvements and daily crew operations and maintenance.  All these projects include extensive engineering and planning.    In order to expedite many of our construction programs and projects City Manager Mike Good recommended the department be split between utilities and public works. Mr. John Chidsey was introduced as our new Director of  Public Works. His duties will include but are not limited to; construction planning and supervision, facility maintenance, sanitation, fleet management, street maintenance and transportation. Mr. Chidsey has over 30 years of supervisory experience in construction, mechanical repair and maintenance. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Business from Nova, is a State Certified contractor having built over 100,000 million dollars in construction and holds a Broward County Engineering 3G Certificate.    The combined expertise of both these gentlemen will provide much better service to our community. Keeping with our goal not to increase costs and provide the same quality or improved services this staff change will create no additional costs. Recently Frank Hilemen Legislative Analyst/Grant Specialist left the city for a job with a  private firm. This position was not filled in the city manager's department but transferred to create the new public works position.    After the introduction I took an opportunity to thank Director Brant on a job well done in repairing the water main break that occurred on Hallandale Beach Boulevard. at Golden Isles Drive.  During these trying financial times I have been approach many times with the question.  “Why we are not laying off people and going out to contract service to save money?” This is one of the prime examples. Our staff was able to mobilize instantly and insure that our water services were up and running within 24 hours for thousands of residents. If we had to wait to call in an out side contractor the job would have taken much longer and would have cost much more to complete. I guess I hardly need tell you that as far as the city's own website goes, as of today, after typing his name in the search function, it shows that there is no person -with or without quotation marks- named "Chidsey" working for the City of Hallandale Beach, as you can see below. Not surprisingly, as of today, the city's website, http://www.hallandalebeach.org/Directory.asp?EID=67 also still shows Mr. Brant as DPW Director You are here: Home > Staff Directory William Brant  Department of Public Works Title: Director of Public Works Phone: 954-457-1611 Return to Staff Directory ______________________________

http://www.hallandalebeach.org/Search.asp?SearchString="Chidsey"&Action.x=12&Action.y=6

March 8, 2009

FAQ's Customer Satisfaction Survey Community Forums E-mail Notifications / Notify Me Directions Emergency Management Home Page Forms Hallandale Beach Happenings Parking Permits

You are here: Home > Site Search The site search allows you to look for specific items. The first three results are listed on the first page. Additional results are found by clicking “View Next”.  Search Results     Advanced Search   Your search: "Chidsey" No Matches were found for your query. Please try again.

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

Yes, as always, the past is prologue in Hallandale Beach.

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

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

http://www.bcpa.net/RecSearch.asp?URL_Sort=Address&URL_Seq=0&URL_City=HA&URL_Name=RIEMER

We have located more than one record for the information you entered.
Directions: Click the folio number to see property details.

Sort By Folio Number

Sort By Name

Sort By Address

50 Records Found

Folio Number	Owner Name	Property Address
514227070090	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	NE 1 STREET
514227270050	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	NE 3 AVENUE
514227300090	RIEMER BROTHERS L L C	101 NE 3 AVENUE
514227290220	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	105 NE 2 AVENUE
514227300080	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	105 NE 3 AVENUE
514227300200	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	106 NE 2 TERRACE
514227300071	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	107 NE 3 AVENUE
514227290240	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	109 NE 2 AVENUE
514227300320	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	109 NE 2 TERRACE
514227300070	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	109 NE 3 AVENUE
514227290260	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	113 NE 2 AVENUE
514227270011	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	114 NE 3 AVENUE
514227300040	RIEMER BROTHERS L L C	115 NE 3 AVENUE
514227290100	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	116 NE 2 AVENUE
514227290280	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	117 NE 2 AVENUE
514227290110	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	118 NE 2 AVENUE
514227300250	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	118 NE 2 TERRACE
514227290120	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	120 NE 2 AVENUE
514227290130	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	122 NE 2 AVENUE
514227300160	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	20 NE 2 TERRACE
514227110120	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	201 NE 3 AVENUE
514227290330	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	203 NE 2 AVENUE
514227290340	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	205 NE 2 AVENUE
514227110170	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	207 NE 2 STREET
514227300110	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	21 NE 3 AVENUE
514227110160	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	211 NE 2 STREET
514227110150	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	215 NE 2 STREET
514227300150	RIEMER,STEPHEN L	217 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD
514227110140	RIEMER BROTHERS L L C	217 NE 2 STREET
514227300140	RIEMER,STEPHEN L	219 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD
514227300170	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	22 NE 2 TERRACE
514227300130	RIEMER,STEPHEN L	221 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD
514227300120	RIEMER,STEPHEN L	221 NE 3 AVENUE
514222310130	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	224 NE 4 STREET
514227300360	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	23 NE 2 TERRACE
514227070070	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	25 NE 4 AVENUE
514227070010	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	301 E HALLANDALE BEACH BOULEVARD
514227270010	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	308 NE 2 STREET
514227070111	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	309 NE 1 STREET
514227070100	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	314 NE 1 STREET
514222340130	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	316 NE 4 COURT
514227270030	RIEMER BROTHERS L L C	320 NE 1 COURT
514227070080	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	320 NE 1 STREET
514222340030	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	321 NE 4 STREET
514227270014	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	328 NE 2 STREET
514227110320	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	329 NE 2 STREET
514227270020	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	330 NE 1 COURT
514227080040	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	34 SE 3 AVENUE
514222120110	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	408 NE 2 AVENUE
514227010570	RIEMER BROTHERS LLC	410 NE 2 STREET

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

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

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

Quite to the contrary.

I guess we'll all see what happens and who plays their cards tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.

Make plans to be there!

Dekka is located at 139 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009

ProPublica's Lois Beckett on how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences and whether they have a responsibility to tell people about the personal information they collect about them on Facebook, Google and other social media

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people
ProPublica

How to Win Facebook Friends and Influence People

by Lois Beckett, ProPublica,  
March 13, 2012, 1:31 p.m.

Instead of picketing outside company headquarters, an advocacy group is using Facebook ads to try to influence people whose profiles identify them as employees of Freddie Mac or JPMorgan Chase.

The anti-foreclosure ad campaign, which launches today, asks Freddie and Chase employees to talk to their CEOs about a veteran -- a former Marine -- who's facing eviction in California.

"This is not any sort of attack on the employees there," said Jim Pugh of Rebuild the Dream, which is running the ad campaign. "We're trying to let them know what's happening."

The ad that targets Freddie Mac employees features a small picture of CEO Charles Haldeman's face, and the message, "Freddie Mac did what???? Freddie Mac is evicting a former Marine who's been trying to pay his mortgage. Tell CEO Haldeman to work out a fair deal with him!" according to a copy of the ad provided by Pugh.

The JPMorgan Chase ad is similar, but with a Chase logo instead of an executive's face.  

We've contacted Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase spokespeople for comment, and also reached out to Freddie Mac and JPMorgan Chase employees on Facebook. If you've seen one of these ads, please let us know.

 Targeted online advertising is nothing new. (As anyone who has changed their Facebook status to "engaged" can tell you, a simple update can bring a deluge of new ads.) But political campaigns and advocacy groups are increasingly adopting the same microtargeting tactics that companies use.  

Rick Perry's campaign, for instance, targeted faith-focused ads to people in Iowa who listed themselves as Christians on Facebook, and ads featuring his wife to the state's female conservatives, Politico reported.  

According to FEC data, Endorse Liberty, a super PAC that supports Ron Paul, has led the way on Facebook expenditures, spending a total of $241,508 through January 2012.

And it's not just Facebook and Google where campaigns and activists are doing microtargeting. The music site Pandora announced last year that it would be selling political ad space targeted to the zip codes of particular listeners, the Wall Street Journal reported.

There's nothing inherently problematic about targeted ads. Campaigns have been using direct mail to target particular voters for decades. Digital targeting can be a cost-effective way of spending advertising dollars, especially for smaller groups, like Rebuild the Dream, which sees the ads as a great way to get more bang for their buck in terms of reaching their intended audience. (The group also launched a special donation drive specifically for the Facebook ad buy.) ProPublica even used Facebook ads to try to find sources for our 2009 series, When Caregivers Harm.

But as the ability to use data to reach particular people grows more sophisticated, targeting risks crossing privacy lines, as demonstrated by a recent New York Times article on how Target knew a teenage customer was pregnant before her father did.

What's clear is that if all this microtargeting translates into electoral gains, the scale and sophistication of these efforts will continue to grow, and the data science that gained traction in 2008 will become a regular part of campaigning. In the meantime, the Obama campaign's already substantial data team continues to hire statistical modeling analysts and analytics engineers.

The increasing ease and flexibility of online targeting also raises new questions about how politicians are presenting themselves to different audiences, how much campaigns need to tell their supporters about the personal information they collect -- and what will happen to the massive databases of voter information collected during the 2012 presidential campaign. Will they be sold? Passed on to other politicians?

Rebuild the Dream, which focuses on economic issues, was launched by MoveOn.org in 2011, but has been independent since January, Pugh said. The group's president is former Obama green jobs adviser Van Jones.

Pugh worked on the Obama campaign's digital analytics team in 2008 while also trying to finish a Ph.D. dissertation in robotics, and later did similar work for the Democratic National Committee. He said he was not sure what kind of reaction the ads would receive.

"I would imagine that people are fairly used to targeted ads at this point," he said. But while people who work in politics and advocacy may be used to receiving Facebook ads targeting specific causes, "It's hard to know in advance how unusual it will seem to the employees of Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase."
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Reader comments at: http://www.propublica.org/article/how-to-win-facebook-friends-and-influence-people/single#comments

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