FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Showing posts with label Gulfstream Park Race Track and Casino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulfstream Park Race Track and Casino. Show all posts

Thursday, October 18, 2018

How do you solve a problem named Mike Satz? Speculation by Buddy Nevins on whether Broward's state's attorney should run for re-election after 42 years in office gives me a chance to piggy-back and raises some questions of my own regarding Satz & Co's underwhelming performance and the state of ethics in Broward County and Hallandale Beach today, as per Joy Cooper

How do you solve a problem named Mike Satz? Speculation by Buddy Nevins on whether Broward's state's attorney should run for re-election after 42 years in office gives me a chance to piggy-back and raises some questions of my own regarding Satz & Co's underwhelming performance and the state of ethics in Broward County and Hallandale Beach today, as per Joy Cooper

 How do you solve a problem named Mike Satz?

Now there's a question...

 As veteran Broward County political observer and Broward Beat blogger Buddy Nevins writes about and speculates about some of the behind-the-scenes moves swirling around whether Broward State Attorney Michael Satz will defy common sense yet again and run for re-election after being in office since 1976, and who might or should run for the office if he doesn't, I hold a mirror up to Satz and his many past failures to act in ways that I believe he should have.

 That includes one huge lingering question that so many people in Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and other parts of South Florida routinely ask me when I'm minding my own business somewhere, regarding the arrest last December by the FBI of then-Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper on multiple felony counts: "Dave, what took Satz so long?" He sat on almost five years of audiotapes of Joy Cooper bragging about her influence to undercover FBI agents posing as real estate interests.






So, continuing on the subject of Satz, per this story and tweet below by blogger Red Broward, i.e. Tom Lauder,
Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London Pays Disgraced Former County Commissioner With PAC Funded By Developers & Casinos
https://redbroward.com/2018/10/15/londonpac/

 First, I have known and communicated with Tom for many years. I meant to his tweet on Monday afternoon when I first saw it and read the piece.
I even meant to respond to the other day via a tweet storm but got tied up with something else before I really could.
Then, once I started, I didn't have enough time or energy to do it justice the way I wanted to... folks, real tears!
I discovered that my beloved laptop's not working properly so that what I wrote and saved as a file there on Monday night when I got home isn't available for me to write and post here now.
So, that said, I've added a smaller ad hoc version of that response of mine to Tom's story and tweet below my own tweet.

There's more at: https://twitter.com/RedBroward/with_replies

 Tom: I appreciate that you have a very different take than me re Keith London, now Hallandale beach mayor and someone that I have known for roughly 12 years, many of them when he and I spoke or saw one another 3-4 times a week at times when things were going crazy at South Florida's #1 home of chaos, Hallandale beach City hall.

 That's your right, of course, but Keith -whom I haven't spoken to for longer than 45 seconds in more than 5 years, despite so many people even now persisting in thinking that we're somehow tied to the hip like we often seemed to be years ago- has to deal with reality and one of them is that #Gaming and #Gambling interests have ALWAYS mattered in a small city with two separately-operated casinos & race tracks. (The town and this part of Broward was run by Organized Crime just a few decades ago, as any historian can tell you, and as I know you know as well.)

Not to tell you what to think or how to write your posts and tweets but... personally, I think it'd be a good idea to remind your readers when you write about people associated with Hallandale Beach's "gaming interests" who are communicating with or helping Keith with some effort of his, like it's some sort of nefarious plot, you simply need remind them to take a look at a map and see that Gulfstream Park Race track & casino and its Village at Gulfstream are, literally, across the street from Hallandale Beach City Hall.
AND it's still THE largest employer in the city, such as it is.
That explains Gulfstream Park's interest in what goes on across the street.

But that said, I also need remind you that I have personally been one of the -if not THE- biggest critics of Gulfstream Park's management and its operations in the city for the entire length of the 11 years that I have had my influential blog that LOTS of well-informed people in South Florida read to get insight and perspective they don't get elsewhere.
It's why so many people call me and write me to tell me something or even argue a point, including TV/print reporters and newspaper columnists, some of whom are outside of South Florida but who have an interest in what goes on in South Florida, good and bad, whether in Miami, Tallahassee or Washington, D.C.
It's why reporters and bloggers and other, like you, tag me in their tweets, because they know I know the score and can usually add something to what's on the table.

 At HB City Commission meetings as well as many public events and especially on my blog, I have openly laughed at and enjoyed publicly poking large holes in Gulfstream's feeble excuses for all sorts of actions they've taken over the years, including their well-known propensity in the past to use ex-mayor Joy Cooper as their personal go-to person to get everything they wanted.
Sometimes, as in 2013, that included quite justified large fines for operating against the city's own code and trying to get away with things simply because of who they are -used to calling the tune.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/gulfstream-park-race-track-casino-will.html

 Cooper, typically, loved to say she'd take care of it and tried to ram waivers of fines down the HB City Commission without any documentation or even any staff prep, and ignore their proscribed government oversight role. Cooper didn't care, but she also didn't get her way because I let the public know what was what. And one TV reporter in particular - Bob Norman of Local10.

 Local10: Mayor wants $52K fine against Gulfstream Park waived
No vote taken on waiving fine at Hallandale Beach budget meeting
By Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com, and Ben Candea, Senior Web Producer, bcandea@local10.com
Published On: Oct 04 2013 06:13:16 PM EDT   
Updated On: Oct 04 2013 11:51:10 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/mayor-wants-52k-fine-against-gulfstream-park-waived/-/1717324/22282006/-/p0vivbz/-/index.html


My intimate knowledge of the facts and not just the prevailing media or party narrative, along with some demonstrated shrewdness, plus, actual results, are why I've succeeded in getting negative stories about Gulfstream and other parties on local Miami TV newscasts when they've acted in truly egregious ways that shocked any reasonable person's idea of propriety.
In this case, Gulfstream Park was used to carrying a Big Stick -and was not afraid to use it.
But I'm not afraid of bullies.
Guess how that turned out in the end because of me?

 But all of that said -and it's easy to find on my blog's archives- it is demonstrably true that the Diplomat Hotel and its management team and crew of legal and PR mouthpieces also had a TON of influence at HB City Hall and used that influence and leverage routinely to get what THEY wanted, too, even when HB residents made clear that they were against it, including, famously, the 2009 RAC plan that called for multiple condo towers to go up around their golf course north of F-rated Hallandale Beach Blvd. that were all over twenty-five floors and would have ruined many residents quality of life, including people on Diplomat Parkway who paid thru the nose for homes with unobstructed golf course views and who did not want their home in near-perpetual shade.

 Gulfstream has tried to exploit that perception and beat them at their own game. It's that simple.

 So when writing about the amount of campaign funds that Gulfstream Park gave, be sure to mention that while Gulfstream backed both Michele Lazarow and Annabelle Taub-Lima in their pre-acrimony days vs. Diplomat-backed, ethically-flawed ex-HB Comm. William "Bill" Julian, they still got out-spent by the Diplomat and its minions desperate to get Cooper's pawn Julian back on the dais to do her bidding.
Just saying, proper context and perspective have a place in the Keith London pieces you write.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA mtg re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA meeting re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station


Tonight at 8:30 PM the City of Hallandale Beach City Commision is schedued to come face-to-face with its future direction when it has the Second of two required hearings on the second incarnation of the HUGE Oasis project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. next to Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino's northern entrance on Hallandale Beach Blvd., which first came up ten years ago.

I attended those meetings, too, where then-state Senator Steve Geller represented the developer. At the time it featured two very large buildings as well, but seemed to be set back farther from the sidewalk so didn't seem quite so... looming, and featured a not-unattractive office and retail building in front of a residential condo.
Not fantastic, per se, but certainly much better than what HB usually has presented before them in terms of looks of proposed buildings and projects.
That was then.

Well, this new proposal has the buildings side-by-side, and what seems to me to be closer to the road and both large buildings will be residential, which means ... MORE cars on F-rated HBB.

This is a time-certain agenda item at 8:30 PM
But then you know how time certain things are in HB, so, get there earlier!


I plan on being at the Hollywood CRA meeting at 10 AM that will feature what's being called an "Updated Presentation" by Dana Little, Urban Design Director, Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, regarding The Station Area Master Plan. 
That is to say, what's what with where the Hollywood Blvd. area commuter train station may be located and other useful information about what will completely transform Downtown Hollywood and US-1 once a commuter train is up and running, whether that's the Tri-Rail Coastal that I've championed forever, or something that's the creation of Brightline, not my favorite people these days, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/989981873278541824
who seem very much to want to elbow SFRTA out of the picture entirely, and with it, some real public accountability and oversight. 

Not that the local South Florida news media is asking too many hard questions about that, though it's been low-hanging fruit for MANY MONTHS. 

I spoke with Dana Little and his associates a few months back at an informal meeting on the train station project for just under an hour at the Littman Center.
I was very surprised and angry that there were ZERO fliers and or sandwich boards on US-1 and in the downtown area, inc. on store fronts, about the meeting, just as there were none regarding the Young Circle meetings last year that I felt were preposterous on so many levels.
Very, very curious that.

Last I heard, the downtown train station will be on FEC tracks between Dixie Highway and N. 21st Avenue between Taylor and Fillmore streets, 4-6 short blocks north of Hollywood Blvd., in part because the city owns much of the land in that vicinity and can control what happens.
(Yes, the same Fillmore Street I lived on off US-1 for a few months after Thanksgiving until last month.)

I will also be at the Hollywood City Commission meeting scheduled for 1 PM, 
with some time afterwards to catch my breath, grab something to eat, write some clever and informed words on what I saw and then head over to Hallandale Beach to see what sort of turnout there is for the Oasis project, which will likely be the largest development project coming before the HB City Commission for the rest of the year.

Coincidentally, coming just as many of the city's best-informed citizens and part-time residents have fled for northern climes before the heat and humidity hit us like a hammer for the summer.
Like my friend and fellow civic activist Csaba Kulin to name but one.
Just as happened with the meetings regarding The Related Company's Beachwalk project a few years ago.
Sure, there's nothing at all curious about that.

 ----
5:45 PM Update

 I've included a link to Google Maps here, right above my friend and fellow Broward civic activist Csaba Kulin's comments so that those of you who don't go by this site on Hallandale Beach Blvd. very much -the only east-west street that connects A1A to I-95 in HB- could et some useful perspective for what an unmitigated disaster this could be unless the developer and Gulfstream Park reach an accord so that construction crews entering and exiting the site spend a minimum amount of time on HBB.

It's time for Gulfstream Park to actually BE a good neighbor instead of just talking about it, having gotten their way years ago when they got the clueless city to approve their three employee dorms/apts.RIGHT WHERE Hibiscus Street should have been extended east from US-1 down to behind the Publix on 14th Avenue many years ago, so that local traffic, esp. Three Islands residents, could avoid HBB instead of being forced onto it, with ZERO 
alternatives.

Item is scheduled to come up at 8:30 PM tonight.


---
 Mayor London, Vice Mayor Lazarow and Commissioners,

 What one hand gives the other hand takes it away.

 On one hand you have done a great job fixing N. E. 14th Avenue. Narrowed the roadway to reduce speed, added a bicycle lane and created a lovely landscaping.

 We are very happy about it. Thank you.
On the other hand you are about to approve the Oasis (1100 East Hallandale Beach Blvd.) with its flawed traffic proposal. Exiting the property you have to cross three (3) lanes of traffic to get to N.E. 14th Avenue and ether make a U-turn or turn left into N.E. 14th Avenue. It does not make any sense.

 If you allow this to happen you just created a major problem for the next 100 years.
During the last 10 years no better solution has been found than this? There must be an effort made by the developer to come to an agreement with Gulfstream to allow an exit to Gulfstream Boulevard and N.E. 8th Avenue. It will cost money but otherwise the residents will suffer.

 In my opinion when FDOT installed the dividers on Hallandale Beach Boulevard they significantly reduced the utility and value of that property.

 The Oasis owners are sophisticated investors, they should have known this fatal flaw in this property.

 Now you are facing no win situation tonight. Either the developer or the residents will be upset with you.

 You can explain to the residents when you will be knocking on doors this summer.  

Sincerely,

 Csaba (Chuck) Kulin 

---------


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, September 16, 2017

When the going gets tough, doers take charge. My own experience of Florida Power and Light electricity outages in #HollywoodFL as of Saturday afternoon. My neighborhood got power on Thursday but my neighbors and I on our street are STILL an island of darkness and frustration

It's proving to be a very sheepish Saturday... 

Just wanted to share some thoughts on FP&L outages in Hollywood as of Saturday afternoon, after having gone down in-person at 12:45 PM today to the multi-state utility company staging area on the south side of Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino in Hallandale Beach.

The outage and its attendant days of frustration, largely spent away from the house and spending lots of money just to keep out of the sweltering heat -and keep my cell phone and laptop charged- and nights of quiet exasperation/exhaustion, without a breeze to be found, STILL includes my house on Wiley Street.

To be factual, it's my house and about 5-7 others on the south side of the 1400 block of Wiley Street and a similar number of houses behind us on the north side of Mayo Street, despite the fact that electricity in the larger neighborhood west of Temple Beth El came on sometime Thursday afternoon.
I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure that when the streetlight on the north side of the street across from my house comes on at night, it's actually mocking me as I sit on the porch, sipping my room temperature soda...

On Wednesday, the FP&L power line that connects to my house from the pole in the alley, which has been lying on the ground in my backyard since last Sunday when one of my neighbor's large palm trees came crashing thru the fence and yanked the line off the house, started sparking when the electricity was returned to the larger neighborhood.
Two houses down from us, I heard that a light pole in the alley caught on fire at the same time.

None of the neighbors that I have spoken to on Wiley has seen a FP&L rep or truck (or another utility company) working in the alley since Thursday, so the popular sentiment on the street about whether the power company cavalry will be back and be able to keep the promise they made at their press conference this week that power should be restored by Sunday night, is starting to look like a promise about to be broken.
At least on my street.

So that's what lead me today to head down to Gulfstream, since I recall FP&L previously using the old Gulfstream parking lot off of US-1 that's now home to their retail shops, as a staging area for utility workers and trucks for Hurricane Wilma. 
That resulted in me without power for two weeks, even while Aventura, then a ten minute walk from where I was living, was up and running right away.

Today, after lots of walking around from one tent and trailer to another, I finally found someone from FP&L near the logistics tent who seemed responsible.
Even better than just looking responsible, though, he said that he could do something 
tangible about the larger problem where I live in Hollywood, and help get a team dispatched to the alley between Wiley and Mayo.

Eventually.
Sometime...
Whenever that is...

Just checked FP&L's homepage for any changes before I post this.

Now they're saying by 11:45 PM on... Monday night.
And that the number of affected customers is about 121.

Que sera sera..

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Hallandale Beach's bright future depends upon electing Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow, defeating unethical Diplomat Country Club lackeys Bill Julian & Alex Lewy, and ending thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper's long reign of cronyism, incompetency and anti-democratic behavior

Hallandale Beach's bright future depends upon electing Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow, defeating unethical Diplomat Country Club lackeys Bill Julian & Alex Lewy, and ending thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper's long reign of cronyism, incompetency and corrupt anti-democratic behavior


@SunSentinel Editorial: "The dirtiest election in Broward County" is in #HallandaleBeach.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-editorial-hallandale-dirtiest-election-20161104-story.html





Local10 News, Miami
Secret audio implicates Hallandale Beach city attorney in alleged improper conduct
Commissioner Bill Julian can't seem to hang up his phone
By Bob Norman, Investigative Reporter
Posted: 11:58 PM, November 01, 2016
http://www.local10.com/news/bob-norman/secret-audio-implicates-hallandale-beach-city-attorney-in-alleged-improper-conduct







Channel 7 News video: GPS Trackers Secretly Placed on City Commissioner's Car. https://youtu.be/VyKXb4qBLo0
By Brandon Beyer, October 24, 2016
News report at: 
http://wsvn.com/news/local/hallandale-beach-commission-candidates-claim-gps-devices-placed-on-vehicles/

 Corruption in Hallandale Beach: Are GPS Trackers Illegal?
By Brian Silber
http://www.briansilber.com/2016/11/corruption-hallandale-beach-gps-trackers-illegal.html





Hallandale Beach's bright future depends upon electing Anabelle Taub and Michele Lazarow, defeating unethical Diplomat Country Club lackeys Bill Julian & Alex Lewy, and ending thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper's long reign of cronyism, incompetency and anti-democratic behavior. 

Destroy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew with your vote today!



Dave 
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)