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 Hollywood Lakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hollywood Lakes. Show all posts

Monday, May 6, 2019

The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

The West Lake Park Radio Tower issue is rubbing #HollywoodFL residents the wrong way, esp. people who don't see 325-foot tall radio antennas, even for 911 services, being compatible for a  nature park. Especially when there's a better answer available. @SAVEWESTLAKE

 Updated Tuesday May 7th, 2019






Lakes Residents, The HLCA Board of Directors supports the Circ Hotel rooftop as the best place for the County's radio communications antennas. Many thanks to the residents of West Lake Village for all their hard work on this issue. Also many thanks to all concerned residents who came out to support West Lake Park at the Rally on Saturday. Broward County is proposing to install eight 325' towers throughout Broward to have a countywide emergency 911 system for first-responders. They plan to install two towers in Hollywood, one in East Hollywood and one West Hollywood. The East Hollywood site they proposed is in West Lake Park. The City of Hollywood asked Broward County to look at the rooftop of the Circ Hotel as an alternative to building a tower in the park, as they are currently utilizing rooftops at Point of the Americas and Playa Del Sol condo buildings. The County commissioners voted to have a feasibility study done on the Circ Hotel. The feasibility study was completed and the City's experts say the study is positive for the Circ rooftop, but it is biased towards a tower in the park. Any challenges cited in the report are either standard procedure for rooftop installations or estimates and assumptions without detail. The City had an engineering study completed as well and the engineer stated that the County's report takes an extreme position in terms of costs and coverage. Further he stated that the Circ can be done without extensive modifications to the building, at lower costs than the County report estimated and without loss of coverage. On April 16th, the Broward Commission voted to move forward with West Lake Park based on the results of the County's feasibility study. Comm Furr and Comm Ryan, both wanted confirmation that the County was working simultaneously with the Circ in the event there is a problem with the park, which the County administrator Bertha Henry said they would. They also approved voting on removing the current restrictive covenant currently protecting the park to a
A post shared by SAVE WEST LAKE PARK (@savewestlake) on

https://www.instagram.com/savewestlake/

Just wanted to share some news about an important Hollywood Lakes area story that has been percolating just below the surface for quite some time and only gotten the right amount of attention and analysis at what seems to me to be odd times. 
At the last minute. Not unlike how it came up in the first place.

Many of the most trusted people I know in Hollywood wonder why it's come to this, and why this issue could not have been handled in a more transparent and professional manner by Broward County. But it was not.
So that's why Tuesday morning's proceedings are key.

 Here's some of the backstory...

 First, this is the website for the Broward County park involved in the controversy, West Lake Park in Hollywood, at 1200 Sheridan Road, not in West Park, the city west of Hallandale Beach, as some South Florida media have erroneously been reporting. 
http://www.broward.org/Parks/Pages/Park.aspx?=44

Background info from Broward County's website, agenda item #62:
http://cragenda.broward.org/agenda_publish.cfm?id=&mt=ALL&get_month=5&get_year=2019&dsp=ag&seq=586

Local 10 News
Parker Branton, Reporter
Protesters rally against county's plan to build radio tower in park
Posted: 11:54 AM, May 04, 2019
https://www.local10.com/video/protesters-rally-against-county-s-plan-to-build-radio-tower-in-park








Local 10 News
Commissioners favor building radio tower in West Lake Park
Residents worry structure will be an eyesore
By Saira Anwer - Reporter, Tim Swift - Local10.com Digital Editor
Posted: 5:39 PM, April 16, 2019Updated: 6:27 PM, April 16, 2019
https://www.local10.com/news/florida/broward/commissioners-favor-building-radio-tower-in-west-lake-park




South Florida Sun Sentinel
Broward reverses course and looks to put radio tower in Hollywood park
Larry Barszewski, Reporter, South Florida Sun Sentinel
April 10, 2019

There are plenty of crossed fingers in Broward County hoping another major police incident doesn’t occur before a new public safety radio system starts operating. But time is slipping away as the county struggles to nail down the final details.

Commissioners have been criticized for not moving faster to replace the county’s old and overloaded system — a system that was crippled during the Fort Lauderdale airport shooting in 2017 and the Parkland school shooting last year.

The new system would help police and firefighters responding to 911 calls, improving their ability to transmit and receive messages anywhere in the county, including in schools, condominiums and hospitals. It will also be able to handle more traffic, so police at a major crime scene aren’t having to resort to using hand signals to communicate or aren’t able to get an open line to dispatchers.

The most recent stumbling block the county has faced is where to put a Hollywood antenna needed for the system. The city wants the antenna placed on top of the Circ downtown apartment high rise, where it will be less conspicuous than erecting a 325-foot tower in West Lake Park.

Read the rest of the story at:
Local 10 News
HOLLYWOOD
BSO radio tower delayed again after concerns from Hollywood residents
Equipment needed to improve Sheriff's Office's communications system
By Tim Swift, Terrell Forney - Reporter
Posted: 5:15 PM, January 29, 2019Updated: 7:05 PM, January 29, 2019
https://www.local10.com/news/florida/hollywood/bso-radio-tower-delayed-again-after-concerns-from-hollywood-residents

 The following email was sent out this morning by Hollywood Lakes Civic Association President Terry Cantrell, who has given me permission to share it here on the blog to get the word out about Tuesday's important meeting.

 Also, if you are interested in more information, the URL for the Twitter handle @SAVEWESTLAKE is at https://twitter.com/SAVEWESTLAKE

Lakes logo new
  
Lakes Residents,
  
The HLCA Board of Directors supports the Circ Hotel rooftop as the best place for the County's radio communications antennas. Many thanks to the residents of West Lake Village for all their hard work on this issue. Also many thanks to all concerned residents who came out to support West LakePark at the Rally on Saturday.

Broward County is proposing to install eight 325' towers throughout Broward to have a countywide emergency 911 system for first-responders. They plan to install two towers in Hollywood, one in East Hollywood and one West Hollywood. The East Hollywood site they proposed is in West Lake Park. 
The City of Hollywood asked Broward County to look at the rooftop of the Circ Hotel as an alternative to building a tower in the park, as they are currently utilizing rooftops at Point of the Americas and Playa Del Sol condo buildings. The County commissioners voted to have a feasibility study done on the Circ Hotel. 

The feasibility study was completed and the City's experts say the study is positive for the Circ rooftop, but it is biased towards a tower in the park. Any challenges cited in the report are either standard procedure for rooftop installations or estimates and assumptions without detail. The City had an engineering study completed as well and the engineer stated that the County's report takes an extreme position in terms of costs and coverage. Further he stated that the Circ can be done without extensive modifications to the building, at lower costs than the County report estimated and without loss of coverage.

On April 16th, the Broward Commission voted to move forward with West Lake Park based on the results of the County's feasibility study. Comm Furr and Comm Ryan, both wanted confirmation that the County was working simultaneously with the Circ in the event there is a problem with the park, which the County administrator Bertha Henry said they would.  They also approved voting on removing the current restrictive covenant currently protecting the park to allow for the tower to be built. That vote will take place:

Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at 10 AM.

At the County Hall Chambers

4th Floor, Government Center
115 South Andrews Ave
Ft Lauderdale, FL 33301

Please come on 5/7/19 and make your voice heard. You will need to fill out a card to speak upon arrival. Parking is available in a metered lot to the north and corner of SW 1st Avenue and Broward Boulevard, or within the parking garage located west of the SW 1st Avenue on SW 2nd Street, by the railroad tracks. They do validate parking for the garage by the railroad tracks and it is free.

The City of Hollywood has been very supportive as well as a couple of the county commissioners, such as Comm Beam Furr and Comm Tim Ryan.  If you would like to write to the Broward County Commissioners to tell them to please move forward with the Circ Hotel and not to remove the covenant on the park, you can use the following email addresses:


We must show Broward County Commissioners that we do NOT want the 325 foot Tower in our Park. We DO NOT want them to remove the protections that now exist.

Tell them to Park it on the Roof of the Circ Now , before they vote on May 7!!!!
HLCA
-----






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

Monday, July 3, 2017

#SharingEconomy - Hollywood City Commission's 2nd hearing on its latest version of its ill-considered Vacation Rental legislation come up Monday afternoon. Will reasonable compromise and specificity finally trump arrogance and greed? Would be nice for a change! #tourism

#SharingEconomy - Hollywood City Commission's 2nd hearing on its latest version of its ill-considered Vacation Rental legislation come up Monday afternoon. 
Will reasonable compromise and specificity finally trump arrogance and greed? Would be nice for a change! #tourism

 Updated on July 3rd at 2:55 PM -see bottom

I'm writing this blog post on Sunday night, the night before the Hollywood City Commission's second hearing on its latest version of its ill-considered Vacation Rental legislation, agenda item #34. Meeting starts promptly at 1 PM. 

There is clearly a case to be made on Monday afternoon for compromise and reasonable, achievable legislation that resolves most of the legitimate concerns of Hollywood City Hall, pacifies the angry, vituperative and influential neighbors from Hollywood Lakes, and, of course, helps raise the morale and hopes of very-concerned Airbnb hosts, who for months have wanted greater specificity and yet were made had to fly under-the-radar like they were Public Enemy Number One, because of the consistently unfair and one-sided manner that this issue has been publicly handled and presented in Hollywood (and Broward) for far too long.

 Having read every single article about Vacation Rentals that has appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times or Florida Trend magazine of the past three years, and checked the video archives of WFOR, NBC6, WSVN and Local10, all before the city of Hollywood's pubic presentation one month ago, I can vouch that I was right all along in my thinking even before I started doing my research.

This area of Florida is rich in public officials and bureaucrats eager to appear in public to be seen as playing the role of vigilant defenders of neighborhood Quality of Life, but behind 
closed doors, they play their preferred role of thinly-disguised holdup men, eager for a big score of cold hard cash at the expense of Airbnb, travel hosts and others for the public kitty.
More money to spend on stuff!

No matter what individual travel hosts say at the hearing, compelling or not, regardless of whom they are affiliated with, or even what Tom Martinelli, the head of Public Policy in Florida for Airbnb might say or suggest at the meeting that sounds logical or inspired, the die is already cast.
The electeds and the bureaucrats will be the ones wearing the White Hats afterward, not anyone else, even if you are the one who saves a deal that threatens to come apart because of their greed or desire to be shown driving a hard bargain against big, bad Airbnb & Company.
Our South Florida pols and bureaucrats, they sure do love them some straw men!

In public, they expect hosts and the Vacation Rental industry to jump thru their hoops and be happy about it, and for others to provide enormous amounts of information to them, while they in turn are vague about what they can give interested individuals and groups in the way of information or assurances.
Or conveniently forget about past promises to treat everyone fairly.

 Having gone to so many Hollywood City Commission meetings over the years, and about 85% of the ones held since the November election brought two new faces to the dais, Mayor Josh Levy and District 1 Commissioner Debra Case, I must say that I was NOT at all prepared that at the first hearing on this matter that so many Hollywood Commissioners appeared so publicly tone-deaf and myopic. 
Even to the idea of multiple competing companies cooperating on an issue past a certain point not being seen as a possible cause for anti-trust or legal action by someone.
It was just par for the course as this issue has chugged along.
They just don't see the bigger issues involved, just their own POV.

 For those of you who are new to this issue or who might've forgotten what led to this point, one month ago I wrote an honest and well-circulated account of the city's quite disastrous dog-and-pony show led by Laurie Mertens-Black, the closest thing to a lynch mob I have ever seen in Hollywood -at least in a civic setting.

The many Hollywood Police who were there seemed not at all interested in preventing the constant verbal threats and taunts that filled the air as you would reasonably expect. 
That's how nuts it was.
I urge you to take a look at it before tomorrow's meeting starts.

Updated: A veritable trainwreck of a public meeting. Wednesday's embarrassing 

Vacation Rental Ordinance Amendment presentation at Hollywood City Hall was 

not a pretty sight by any stretch of the imagination


Now you can guess why I didn't speak that night?
Why I didn't ask any of the dozen of good questions that I had researched and written out in advance, just in case we had to hand in our questions instead of being able to ask them ourselves, an oft-used trick in South Florida political and govt. circles to prevent well-informed citizens from being able to ask hard questions.
Or even more importantly, follow-up questions!

Speaking truth to power is not now or ever been a problem for me, but doing so at the same time as I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall -and accomplishing nothing- is a different thing altogether.
I chose to save my powder and live to fight another day.

When I'm finished here, I'll be sending out some 125-odd emails around -and some tweets via my Twitter handle, @hbbtruth- to some local TV & print reporters to persuade, induce or otherwise get them to show up and give an honest account of what transpires Monday afternoon, instead of following the now-familiar Miami TV narrative of finding the angriest "citizen" in the room, and then making that person and their particular case/cause/issue the new "norm."

Besides being guided by my own personal opinions about how this particular 
#sharingeconomy issue has been handled, poorly, as it has been in almost every city after another in South Florida -to say nothing of poorly covered by the South Florida news media- by trying to adopt a one-size-fits-all mindset, instead of trying to go after persistent bad actors who comprise a disproportionate share of all complaints, I'm also guided by my own personal experiences with Airbnb, as well as other guests who have used it in this area and throughout South Florida and Europe.

Take my word for it, I have talked with them for HOURS about their Airbnb experiences as well as what they like and dislike about the South Florida, Broward and Fort Lauderdale
and Hollywood hospitality and tourism scene.
I only wish the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau did as much talking to actual travelers as I do, since it's clear that follow up and understanding consumers is NOT high on their list of things to do.
Perhaps if the CVB did as much talking with paying consumers s I have, they would realize how much travelers to our area feel taken advantage of, especially at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

As it happens, I am very, very close to someone who is a very successful Airbnb host in the area. I would likely have brought her with me to the last City Commission meeting on this issue except for the fact that she was traveling in Europe then.
Staying at Airbnb properties while there, of course.

if anyone wants to have some pre-game talk about all of this, I'll be in the lobby outside Hollywood City Hall Chambers about 30 minutes prior to the meeting, in what is Hollywood's de facto 'spin room.'





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

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Monday's important meeting offers long-overdue opportunities for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents/elected officials to say critical things to local state officials who constantly work AGAINST their best-interests. Like voting against Sunshine Laws that ensure transparency and accountability.






Monday's important meeting offers long-overdue opportunities for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents/elected officials to say critical things to local state officials who constantly work AGAINST their best-interests. 
Like FL state Rep. Shevrin Jones voting against Florida's Sunshine Laws that ensure transparency and accountability.

As most of you know by now, I was an eyewitness two weeks ago to the very contentious meeting at Hollywood City Hall regarding the City of Hollywood's presentation to the public about their new proposed rules re vacation rentals.
A few hours later, I added some much-needed facts and context I had written in my notepad but had neglected to include in my original blog post that many of you received via an email.
If you didn't see the updated version, please see it now at 

Wed.'s veritable trainwreck of a mtg. in #HollywoodFL re a VacationRental Ordinance Amend. at City Hall.🤔

I mention this because on Monday, I was looking again at the email I received last week from Terry Cantrell, head of the HLCA -see below- and Tuesday from the City of Hollywood and noticed something that I hadn't seen before: 
the contact info for the public meeting in Hallandale Beach next Monday night with local state legislators, where the subject of vacation rentals is sure to come up and be argued over.

State Town Hall Meeting
Monday, June 19

Members of the State Legislative delegation will host a Town Hall Meeting for Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents on Monday, June 19th at the Hallandale Beach Community Center at 410 SE 3rd Street from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The public is invited to join State Senator Gary Farmer and State Representatives Shevrin Jones & Joseph Geller to get an update on the most recent legislative session and discuss topics related to Hollywood and Hallandale Beach including the environment, neighborhood vacation rentals, education and property insurance. Refreshments will be provided. To RSVP, please email Gottlieb.Jennifer@FLSenate.gov or call 954.467.4227.

Do you have any idea if the Jennifer Gottlieb listed here as working for the FL Senate -and presumably state Sen. Gary Farmer- is THE Jennifer Gottlieb, or simply another woman with the same name?

Since I was traveling and away from the area for two years, it's possible nearly everyone but me knows the answer to this, but none of the people I've asked so far could say so one way or the other.

I'm asking because the Jennifer Gottlieb who was formerly on the Broward School Board was NOT one of my favorite people, and was a frequent target of mine on my blog of fact-filled news regarding her latest public policy antics, attempts at misdirection, and splitting of hairs on matters involving ethics and public accountability.

Like these posts from 2010 and 2011:

No, the buck never ever stopped with her.

My fact-filled blog posts that posed inconvenient questions/facts JG and Ann Murray and their colleagues wished to ignore, and more recent ones about the awful/mendacious words and actions that the Broward School Board has done under Supt. Robert Runcie on the behalf of kids, parents and Broward taxpayers -and their and our collective future- are one of the reasons that I'm BLOCKED on Twitter from accessing and commenting on
Broward Schools and Runcie tweets. 

They prefer their fact-challenged spin to context, nuance and doses of reality.








Any insight from anyone who actually knows the answer about this JG question would be greatly appreciated.

I'll have some pointed thoughts and questions to share with you about that Monday night meeting -and its hosts- as well as remind you of some of the #facts and #issues likely to come up at it, posted on my blog on Saturday, so please check here by Noontime Saturday.

 That will likely include "correcting" some things that state Rep. Joe Geller, the subject of many posts here on the blog the past few years re his curious and troubling choice of words, actions and ethics the past few years, has already been saying things publicly in Hallandale Beach that might surprise many of you who have actually been following the news in Tallahassee and pride yourself on knowing the #facts.

I probably am not shocking you when I tell you that having seen him in action myself recently, Geller's recounting of #reality and #facts in the past Florida legislative session, to say nothing of an individual legislator's original intent with a bill,  or a member's rationale for votes or trends and the larger scheme of things in Tallahassee, is far different than yours and mine. 
And most every other Florida legislator who was actually there, too.

 Yes, for Joe Geller, as well as Shevrin Jones, facts remain a troublesome thing.


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

From: Hollywood Lakes Civic Assn. 
Date: Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 11:18 AM
Subject: Town Hall Meeting Upcoming



Lakes logo new
  
Lakes Residents,

There will be a Town Hall Meeting in Hallandale Beach on Monday, June 19th. See flyer below. This will be an important meeting as two critical issues that affect the Lakes neighborhood will be discussed: vacation rentals and mooring buoys. We encourage all concerned Lakes residents to attend.







HLCA



Hollywood Lakes Civic Assn., P.O. Box 223922, Hollywood, FL 33022

----


#HollywoodFL, City of Hallandale Beach, City of Hollywood (FL), FL legislature, Gary Farmer, Hollywood Lakes, Joseph S. Geller, Shevrin Jones, Terry Cantrell, Vacation Rentals, Sunshine Laws, 
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)