Early morning fire at Hallandale Beach trailer park rocks U.S.-1 area

Thursday April 9th, 2009

2:15 a.m.

A series of loud explosions rocked the area immediately west of the Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and and the under-construction Village at Gulfstream retail complex in Hallandale Beach early this morning.

A series of separate loud explosions sounding like fireworks were heard between 1:15 and 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning, as the result of a fire at a trailer park located at 720 S. Federal Highway, just south of the main Hallandale Beach Post Office, and two blocks south of Hallandale Beach City Hall.

One trailer and an adjacent car were all but destroyed as Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue dispatched what seemed like at least half of the HB Fire Dept., plus at least one responding Broward Sheriff fire engine, to the area to prevent the fire from quickly spreading to the dozens of adjacent trailers, which are home to many retired Senior Citizens and seasonal French-Canadian residents, all of whom, were quite literally shaken out of their beds.

Photo shot from about 40 yards away before the first HB fire truck arrived.

After the fire had largely been eliminated, the destroyed trailer quickly began

to spew out white smoke insread of black smoke and embers.

Above, additional fire engines and ambulances on U.S.-1 at 2 a.m.

Because I'd taken a lot of photos earlier in the day that I handn't

downloaded yet, the only video I could shoot before my camera

batteries went dead were this one of the Fire/Rescue vehicles on

U.S.-1, and one of the HB ladder truck hose that poured a tremendous

amount of water on the burning trailer.

So guess which video wouldn't download properly here

-the latter, the best one!

A Sign of Hallandale Beach's Endemic Apathy is Staring Right at You -Get Even on Election Day!

Looking east from U.S-1 at the main construction site of what will be the retail component of The Village of Gulfstream, on what used to be the huge West parking lot of Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino.
September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

I've got dozens of photos that I've taken over the past year of the construction all along U.S.-1, many of which I will be posting in coming weeks.




September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

The sign above on U.S.-1 and S.E. 5th Street, across from the Gulfstream Park Race Track
& Casino, lets you know that you're just feet away from the Hallandale Beach City Hall and the Hallandale Beach Police Department Headquarters.
But what should really be erected there is a warning sign complete with skull and crossbones: Beware all ye who enter forth...

In the time that I've lived here, it's continually shown itself to be a completely dysfunctional government, one that gives every impression of holding itself both apart and above the citizens and residents it's supposed to serve and protect, almost daring you at times to complain about its queer habits and erratic behavior by means of comparison to what's generally thought of as "normal" everywhere else.

The crazy thing is, they really DON'T seem to think they have to follow the laws that govern everyone else in the state of Florida and the United States, whether of logic and reason, contracts, or, more to the point for this blog and the city's residents, simple things like the Florida Statutes on Sunshine Laws and Public Records to name but one.
You see, they love nothing so much as, alternately, playing a game of "Pass the buck," or,
attempting to tie you up in knots of red tape and double-talk.

At times you'd swear they've perfected the legendary Abbott & Costello "Who's on First?" comedic routine, and adapted it to sub-tropical municipal government in trying to confuse you about who's really responsible for anything.
(Video of their routine at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M)
And good luck in trying to get an accurate and up-to-date City Hall organizational flow chart!

City employees in Hallandale Beach routinely refuse to answer reasonable questions posed to them bycitizens, and often even berate you for having the nerve to ask!
This has happened to me and many other residents I know enough times to be more than a sheer coincidence, even though I have a low threshold for tolerating govt. employee apathy or incompetency.
At some point, when you see the same behavior exhibited over and over again in just about every dept., you come to understand that it's just S.O.P. at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

One of the first things that any visitor here notices that both self-evident and quite shocking in its own backward way, is the blatant disregard by the HB Police Dept. and HB Fire Dept. for basic safety rules.
Common sense rules of behavior that are in place in every other American town, no matter how large or obscure.
City employees -and friends of theirs- routinely park "their cars" directly in front of the building's east entrance, often for hours at a time. That's right, I said for HOURS at a time.

While in every other town you'd find a clearly posted sign saying simply: "No Parking, Fire Zone, Cars Will be Towed," in Hallandale Beach, there are NO signs at all.
(Not even signs warning you that you are being monitored by security cameras when you are in the parking lot, as is standard procedure everywhere else. Par for the course!)

I've personally observed parked HB city vehicles parked there at the east entrance that have prevented HB Fire & Rescue vehicles from getting as close as possible to the building.
I've also personally spoken to individual members of HB Fire & Rescue after such incidents, and they were positively indignant that they are forced to put up with this sort of behavior in the Year 2008.

Oh, and one last thing.

The lights that are supposed to illuminate this sign in front of Hallandale Beach's City Hall HAVEN'T worked properly in over FOUR YEARS, either.
Just like their cousin down the block on U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, at the city border with the City of Aventura.

Since I've lived here, I've mentioned this simple fact to dozens of Hallandale Beach city officials, including Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mike Good, his staff, the mendacious Police Chief...
None of them have done a thing, which is why, as of September 8th, 2008, the sign was STILL completely dark at night!

Around September 15th, an evening visit revealed that 1 of the 2 lights had finally started working within the previous few days.
But NOT both!

September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
Part of this light is from my camera flash.

September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
In this photo you can clearly see what's what.

A Sign of Hallandale Beach's Endemic Apathy is Staring Right at You -Get Even on Election Day! Six weeks from today!

Video below shot on September 17, 2008 by South Beach Hoosier

A Sign of Hallandale Beach's Endemic Apathy is Staring Right at You -Get Even on Election Day!

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

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/
______________________________

______________________________