Showing posts with label Miami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miami. Show all posts

Saturday, June 18, 2016

My Muhammad Ali update, with great insight into him from two longtime favorites of mine, Roy Firestone and Maureen Dowd; @RoyFirestone @NYTimesDowd



#MuhammadAli thru prism of an avid, teenage sports fan in 1970's #Miami. #transcendent #SoFL
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/remembering-muhammad-ali-thru-prism-of.html

 I have seen and read so many great and inspiring things about Muhammad Ali since my initial blog post of June 3rd about him and my memories of him from the 1970's while I was growing-up in Miami and South Florida, where he spent so much time -inc. the time I actually received an award from him- that I initially thought I'd have a lot of trouble deciding what to be sure to include in any update I ever did.

 In the end, though, I decided to keep it simple, something that I don't always do here on the blog.

 I decided to include the contributions from two hyper-observant people that I've both long admired and have come to know to a small extent over the intervening years since first leaving South Florida for college in Bloomington and my life thereafter.
Each person, uniquely, with their own personality clearly shining through, shares some insight and reflections about Ali and what to me made Ali such a unique character in American and world history: Maureen Dowd and Roy Firestone.

 I really encourage anyone who has NOT read my earlier post to do so first, since they'll gain some very useful context on me and my observations about Ali that I think will well serve you to better appreciate the three of them. Trust me, you'll be glad you did!

 That June 3rd post of mine also includes a great video of Roy talking about Ali that as I have said and written elsewhere, has the great advantage of not only being funny and sweet, but 100% true.
#perceptive doesn't even begin to describe it.
I've posted it below, too.

 Ironically, as it happens, I also once shared an early film review of Will Smith as Ali with Maureen Dowd in the lobby of the NY Times Washington bureau, where she works as a columnist.
That's the same lobby where for SO many years during the 15 years I lived and worked in the D.C. area, until 2003, that I used to spend a LOT of time after work with friends who not only worked upstairs at the Times, but also well-informed media-centric friends who worked nearby in downtown D.C., right around the corner of the Baltimore Orioles team store, another longtime haunt of mine.

 (For those of you who are new to the blog, the Orioles store is where, on 9/11, hours after it happened, I first saw video of the Twin Towers coming down, after my colleagues and I were ordered to evacuate earlier that morning from our office, then located across the street from the FBI and Dept. of Justice on Pennsylvania Avenue, due to growing concern about the exact location of a "missing" airplane. The airplane which we subsequently came to know and grieve for which carried the very brave passengers and crew of United #93. 
Knowing that one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers that morning had originated out of Boston had filled me with dread all day because... on 9/11, one of my former Arlington housemates was a flight attendant who worked out of Logan Airport, so...) 

 There in the lobby of the Army-Navy Building on Eye Street is also where, as I have blogged about previously, Maureen Dowd and I picked up our respective copies of Variety's Daily Gotham edition, Monday thru Friday. That edition is the one seldom seen in 99% of the country, and has the green masthead on the top to differentiate it from its much-larger weekly edition with the red masthead.

 Even in a large and important city like D.C., there was a very tiny delivery window for the handful of people who subscribed to Daily Variety and could get it hand-delivered on a same day basis, at no extra cost, and luckily for me, 1627 Eye Street was one of them.
It helped enormously that the Motion Picture Association of America, MPAA, the U.S. film industry's trade association has its lobbying HQ in D.C. just down the block on Eye Street, which is how it came to be so many times over my 15 years there that I saw and even had a chance to talk sometimes to its iconic leader Jack Valenti, often while he was making his way down to the nearby CVS.

 Sometimes, in her haste to get upstairs, depending upon who swung by the concierge's desk in the lobby first that particular morning, Maureen would grab my copy by mistake, so I'd have to take the copy with her name on the mailing label.
Which, as I've remarked here previously, occasionally, got me some pretty quizzical looks on my Metro ride home later to Arlington. :-)











Roy Firestone remembers Muhammad Ali on Good Day LA. with hosts Steve Edwards and Maria Sansone. He talked about his first interview ever, and it was interviewing Muhammad. He was only 21 years old.
FOX 11 Los Angeles YouTube Channel video, Uploaded on June 10, 2016
https://youtu.be/NKguJRUCIx0
Muhammad Ali's Procession
The New York Times YouTube Channel, Uploaded on June 10, 2016
https://youtu.be/G5ZDZMLfgqY


Muhammad Ali's Funeral
The New York Times YouTube Channel, Uploaded on June 10, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bYFb97j7Ro




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Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Common sense questions about public policy, process and public engagement -to say nothing of financial risk- continue to dog @AllAboardFla and the Fortress Investment Group as they seek $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds from the Florida Development Finance Corporation for their planned Miami-to-Orlando express train, via Fort lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Some observations on what we know and what reporters should have been asking all along, but were NOT.

This is an expanded version of an email that I wrote about All Aboard Florida that was sent out around South Florida and Florida this morning shortly after I received a Twitter notification from someone at the group FloridaNOTAllAboard, @FLNOTAA who describes themselves thusly:
"We are a grassroots group of citizens who have created this page to help facilitate communication and inform residents that are affected by AAF."
floridanotallaboard.com

 Since I'd been planning on posting something about All Aboard Florida this week, once I received that message, I decided to write something today instead of waiting until later in the week.

 Those of you unfamiliar with some of the issues here and my own perspective on the frustrating and often confounding public transportation scene in Florida may want to consult my blog post from March 26th and use that as a predicate:
South Florida has once again redefined the meaning of "Free Ride." But shouldn't we all realize by now that when it comes to #TransportationPolicy in #SoFL, there's no such thing as a free ride? But #Miami pols, @Tri_Rail & @AllAboardFla can't help themslves when it comes to taking taxpayer dollars and taking credit for something BEFORE the facts are ALL in
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/south-florida-has-once-again-redefined.html

 ----------

 So, look who seems to have finally woken up from many years of his Rip Van Winkle-like slumber? 

 Columnist Michael Mayo of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, who for many years was one of the few full-throated voices in the South Florida news media willing to publicly tell the truth and speak ill of the powerful, comfortable, affluent and influential of our part area of the Sunshine State. 
That is to say, the same small handful of people of means and influence in South Florida who, over the years, have become quite accustomed to them and their favorites pet causes being catered to (and indulged in and promoted) by the South Florida press corps, no matter how wrong or dubious they were regarding an issue of public concern. 
To an extent, frankly, that would be embarrassing in most parts of the country, but which has become commonplace here, where there's a real paucity of reporters with old-fashioned notions of serving the public FIRST.

 That is also to say that Michael Mayo was someone who used to be mentioned and linked to rather frequently here at Hallandale Beach Blog, in large part because of his willingness to call things exactly what they were here in Hallandale Beach and environs with respect to the illegal, unconscionable or downright stupid things that routinely took/take place at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

 Mayo, to his great credit, unlike the majority of the news media in South Florida, was NOT content to just look away or merely swallow whole the PR spin served up by the usual Suspects at HB City Hall, whether Mayor Joy Cooper or her usual partners in dubious/unethical/shady shenanigans that embarrass the beleaguered residents of this ocean-side Broward city just north of the Miami-Dade County line, namely, HB City Commissioners Anthony A. Sanders and William 'Bill" Julian.

 But for whatever reasons -and I have my own educated hunches- things changed with Mayo and what he chose to write about and make his primary focus.
To me and several other people in my circle of friends and acquaintances in South Florida and around the Sunshine State, he seemed to retrench, which was disappointing, given how few people seemed willing to do what he did in the first place.
The change made him seem like he not only avoided going after low-hanging fruit in our area that needed to be swatted at, but not even bother to aim for high-minded fruit on the top shelf, either.

 But for today at least, he's back with some well-placed energy and moxie, asking overdue questions that others in the #SoFL media universe have been very, very reluctant or afraid to ask publicly.


"But the bigger question is this: If All Aboard Florida is such a good idea and has a reasonable chance of success, why is it falling on junk bond investors to back them, instead of AAF’s deep-pocketed corporate parent, Fortress Investment Group?"

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
All Aboard Florida bonds involve 'high degree of risk'
By Michael mayo
August 4, 2015
11:37 a.m.

Getting $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds approved by a state board on Wednesday looks to be the easy part for All Aboard Florida.

 The seemingly harder part for the proposed Miami-to-Orlando express train: Getting investors to buy the risky unrated bonds (junk bonds, in financial parlance), and being able to make an estimated $105 million in annual debt payments to repay the bonds.

 Read the rest of the column
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/michael-mayo-blog/sfl-mayo-aaf-bonds-20150804-story.html


This is esp. interesting in light of my tweets last week to Brian Bandell of the South Florida Business Journal reminding him of the tone-deaf and self-inflicted problems of All Aboard Florida a few years ago when it came time for them to actually engage the public in Broward County, whom they wanted to completely ignore in their original scoping meetings.

But then I started complaining about it loudly and publicly via emails, phone calls and blog posts to some responsive local officials -and certain key news media members- in South Florida, who agreed with me that given the scope of what was at stake, the All Aboard Florida geniuses core belief that they could literally force everyone in Broward who was interested in this plan -because there's a Fort Lauderdale station- to have to travel to a not-great area of downtown Miami at night, on a
weeknight when the Miami Heat were in the NBA playoffs, was probably NOT the greatest idea in the world.

But the decision to ignore Broward's residents -AAF's own future customers!- was entirely indicative of the decision-making prowess of the AAF braintrust.

Personally, I'm not against the idea, I merely find it hard to believe that in August of 2015 that there remain SO MANY basic questions, policy and process, that are both unasked and unanswered to my satisfaction, and clearly part of that has been because of the cheerleader attitude taken by so many in the South Florida press corps towards this plan.
That sort of bias and un-professionalism reminds me of the same media's attitude towards the Dolphins' terrible idea just a few years ago of forcing taxpayers to pay for stadium improvements at Dolphins Stadium, i.e Joe Robbie Stadium.
(You recall how badly that flopped, given that the owner of the team and the stadium, Stephen Ross, is only one of THE richest Americans alive today.)

The South Florida media was played like a fiddle by the Dolphins and their PR people and lobbyists, 
with several usually-solid reporters even being reduced to playing the role of little kids on "exclusive tours" of the stadium with the Dolphins then-President Mike Dee.
(Okay, you got it out of me -it was Lauren Pastrana of CBS4 News in Miami. For mojnths I watched her story out at the stadium and it made me cringe every time.)

That is to say, the media could look and listen to what was said, but seemingly couldn't ask adult questions. 
Like perfectly reasonable questions about why the Dolphins seem to have intentionally chosen NOT to repaint some areas of the stadium so that it would look worse as they and the NFL engaged in a PR battle via the media to force South Florida taxpayers to pay the freight so that perhaps the NFL might deign to have the Super Bowl played there in the future.
Some day.
Maybe!

A basic question I have had and never seen answered adequately is how will the City of Fort Lauderdale and/or Broward County government and All Aboard Florida legally keep the Fort Lauderdale train station-cum-transit center from being over-run by the army of transients and 
homeless, which has been the sad reality for the Broward County Transit main HQ off Broward Blvd. & Andrews Avenue the past few years, as anyone who has used it or gone to the McDonald's next door well knows.

It's both sad and tragic on many levels and... made worse by the fact that it is within two blocks of the Broward County Govt. HQ building and Fort Lauderdale City Hall.
But that everyday reality is also why some people don't use public transit and specifically don't go THERE.
Despite the fact that both are places that people ACTUALLY go to in real numbers.

If the public doesn't buy into a Fort Lauderdale train station/transit center right away, or have doubts about their safety and that of their family, no amount of PR spin and attempted media manipulation will prevent it from quickly becoming a No-Go Zone.
Another White Elephant monument to South Florida's long history of elected officials and "insiders" being persuaded/conned into forking over taxpayer dollars and rights for what was supposed to be, after all, yes, a private enterprise endeavor.

"But the bigger question is this: If All Aboard Florida is such a good idea and has a reasonable chance of success, why is it falling on junk bond investors to back them, instead of AAF’s deep-pocketed corporate parent, Fortress Investment Group?"
Yes, what is the reason for that lack of enthusiasm?
You can follow Lisa Broadt, aka @TCPalmLisa for live coverage of the meeting.




I encourage you to do so.

Adios!

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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Florida's regionalism, identity politics and political and social cleavages were displayed rather accurately, curiously enough, in a map re NFL game telecasts I saw at Deadspin.com

The things you find when you're not looking: a near picture perfect example of the identity politics/political cleavages that exist in Florida displayed -curiously enough- in a map re NFL game telecasts that I saw at Deadspin.com.

The map below is from www.deadspin.com and The 506's Week 17 preview of NFL game broadcasts a week ago, and specifically, revealed what fans in the U.S. were getting most screwed-over by the TV networks by getting a lousy ballgame when they ought to be getting  something better.

Look below at the state of Florida, such as it is.
There was nothing but a series of meaningless 1 o'clock kickoffs on Fox-TV Sunday, that rare day when both CBS and Fox had double-headers throughout most of the country because the Cowboys at Redskins game was 'flexed' and moved to NBC's nationally-televised game, where it set all sorts of viewing records.

One of those 1 p.m. kickoffs was the Tampa Bay Bucs at Atlanta Falcons game.

But the map clearly shows that even when all the games are unimportant and in many cases, probably almost un-watchable, in the view of local CBS station general managers, SE Florida STILL has more in common identity-wise with the Northeastern U.S. than it does with another part of Florida just a few hours away, in this case, Tampa Bay, as Fox TV stations voted with their wallets in mind, not state unity: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants. 

NFL on FOX: Week 17 Early Game - December 30, 2012

(Unless the Bucs are very good and might go to the Super Bowl! 
Then, of course, everyone's on the bandwagon!) 

That is, unless that sort of de facto regionalism and identity-politics doesn't lead to money or more money:

So let me lay the groundwork for bringing up the map. 

Based on my own experiences and those of friends, and especially my 15 years living and working in the Washington, D.C. area, I can tell you that it's often the case for well-informed and politically-aware Floridians that when you're outside of the state, regardless of where you are or even whether it's a formal occasion, that upon finding out where you're from -and that you really are on top of things- that people will start making a beeline towards you, even if somewhat slowly at first.

Eventually, someone will start randomly asking you to try to explain something they heard or read about that happened in Florida that they can't make sense of, or ask you how and why Florida is the confusing, peculiar and exasperating way that it is.

If you're anything like me, your response probably starts out with the most obvious -geography.

In such a large state, one that actually includes two different time zones, and cursed with a state capital that is not only NOT located in a large city, but located in a city that is NOT in any way shape and form centrally-located to the majority of the state's population, a lack of a common frame of reference for residents and voters is often the biggest problem when it comes to identity and knowledge of individual issues and personalities.

All of this is made worse by the generally poor coverage of local and state politics at most TV stations compared to even twenty years ago.
Institutional knowledge, what's that?

Yes, the people who actually knew the personalities involved, their pet projects and longstanding grudge and the general ins-and-outs for how things work, to say nothing of where the bodies were buried have come and gone.
They've been replaced by younger reporters who, in many cases, couldn't legally vote in the 1980's and who actually know very little.
Very, very little -and you know it.

And who had no connection to Florida before being hired.

The reality of Florida having so many different TV markets is that many well-qualified candidates running for statewide office, people who could plausibly be elected in many other states, simply can't compete here because of the prohibitive media costs involved, even if most voters agree with them on the issues.

Lofty and abstract ideas of democratic participation and outreach quickly fall by the wayside when your reality is that that unless you raise X millions of dollars, just for TV commercials, you are dead in the water.

Despite the Digital Revolution and the growing importance and influence of blogs, websites and Social Media to political campaigns, the sort of "free media" that exists in many other states that allows high-minded and well-informed candidates to remain a part of the larger conversation simply DOESN'T exist in Florida.
I wish it did but it doesn't.

This is made worse by the fact that despite the influx of new residents from other states, many from states with such a tradition, Florida DOESN'T have a tradition of voting "Independent," despite how many people in this state claim to be "independent."

So, those are just a few of the more obvious barriers to getting the sort of high-caliber candidates that other states often have and which keeps Florida a Confederacy of Dunces.

Once you've mentioned this to your interlocutor, you usually mention the influence of Latin America, blah, blah...
Then you mention the five/six nations of Florida, which is itself, a metaphorical subdivision of Joel Garreau's “The Nine Nations of North America.”

When I was a kid growing-up in South Florida during the 1970's, what was frequently remarked upon by almost everyone, especially during the holidays, was the low number of actual Florida-born natives we knew, since when I was in Jr. High and High School in North Miami Beach, despite being someone who knew almost everyone, I knew only a handful of people who were actually born in Florida, which made them outliers.
The kids who'd never seen snow!

Most of them were either Hispanic or African-American, and for whatever reason, almost always boys.
For some reason, girls were almost always from somewhere else, somewhere where they wore nice sweaters purchased at upscale Northeastern or Midwestern stores.

Which is why when I was growing-up in NMB, January and February existed at Jr. High as fashion season for girls, the one time they could wear something that was identical to what every other girl was wearing.

Boys wore boring windbreakers of 4-5 primary colors, unless, like me, they were sporting a teal-colored Dolphins windbreaker, back when they were, to use a word, relevant.
Those were the days!
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Miami real estate developer Jorge M. Perez's Coconut Grove house and new tastes in art get the once-over from the Wall Street Journal's Robbie Whelan


WSJDigitalNetwork video: WSJ's Lunch Break show: A Miami Condo Kingpin's Modern Turn. Uploaded November 28, 2012. http://youtu.be/y8mVZVxoCyE

Miami real estate developer Jorge M. Perez's Coconut Grove house and new tastes in art get the once-over from the Wall Street Journal's Robbie Whelan.

 See also:
http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=%22Jorge+M.+Perez%22
and http://www.forbes.com/profile/jorge-perez/
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Friday, August 10, 2012

"This is what I've dreamed about my whole life" -Miami connection of Baltimore Orioles' future arrives early as Oriole's 20-year old star prospect and Miami-area native Manny Machado gets called-up from Double-A Bowie to start at third base in Thursday's Royals-O's ballgame, and 2010 First Round pick impresses with two hits in O's loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards; #MannyMachado

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=23768641&source=MLB&gid=2012_08_09_kcamlb_balmlb_1
"This is what I've dreamed about my whole life" -Miami connection of Baltimore Orioles' future arrives early as Oriole's 20-year old star prospect and Miami-area native Manny Machado gets called-up from Double-A Bowie to start at third base in Thursday's Royals-O's ballgame, and 2010 First Round pick impresses with two hits in O's loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards 
The Baltimore Sun
Manny Machado makes his major league debut — even sooner than he expected
By Eduardo A. Encina
11:57 p.m. EDT, August 9, 2012
He had replayed the moment in his mind many times before growing up, but Manny Machado didn't know exactly what playing in his first major league game would feel like. One thing was certain: Knowing it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, he wanted to make sure he was able to make Thursday night memorable.
Less than 24 hours earlier, he came off the Double-A Bowie team bus after Wednesday night's game in Altoona and be told by manager Gary Kendall that he was about to become a big leaguer the next day.
Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bs-sp-orioles-manny-machado-debut-0810-20120809,0,6084272.story

See the Baltimore Sun video of Manny Machado at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/videogallery/71742592/Sports/VIDEO-Machado-This-is-what-I-ve-dreamed-about-my-whole-life

 Great photo of Manny Machado at  http://network.yardbarker.com/mlb/article_external/manny_machado_arrives/11417719

 See also:
Baseball America
Prospects Blog
Orioles Calling Up Manny Machado
Posted Aug. 8, 2012 11:56 pm by Ben Badler
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2012/08/orioles-calling-up-manny-machado/

Above, some of my tickets from the last few Baltimore Oriole games I saw in-person at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 2002, before I moved back to South Florida in 2003.

The Orioles are in it to win it!
-----
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/
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Monday, June 25, 2012

Even more on the dueling Marco Rubio biographies: this time, multiple videos of Rubio discussing his autobiography, "An American Son"; #MarcoRubio


MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on NBC News' "Meet the Press"  speaks with host David Gregory regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son," and his current stance on immigration, one day before the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's laws re illegal immigration. June 24, 2012. 

MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on CBS' "This Morning" speaks with hosts Charlie Rose and Erica Hill regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son," his being considered as Mitt Romney's VP choice, and his current stance on immigration. June 21, 2012.

MarcoRubio video: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on ABC-TV's The View, regarding his new autobiography, "An American Son."June 25, 2012 

Marco Rubio's YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcoRubio





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Sunday, June 24, 2012

More on the dueling Marco Rubio biographies: Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of "The Rise Of Marco Rubio"; #MarcoRubio



WFOR-TV/Miami -Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede: Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of "The Rise Of Marco Rubio," June 24, 2012.


Fox News Latino
FNL Exclusive: Rubio's Unauthorized Biography Mixes Questions and Praise for the GOP's Rising Star. Juan Williams interviews Washington Post reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia, author of "The Rise Of Marco Rubio," June 23, 2012.

The Washington Post
Book review: ‘The Rise of Marco Rubio’ by Manuel Roig-Franzia
By Andrew Ferguson, Published: June 21
By the look of him, you’d never guess that Marco Rubio played defensive back on his college football team — even if the school was the now-defunct Tarkio College, folded deep into the remotest cornfields of northwest Missouri. But he did, and on the gridiron he showed the same gift that has guided his path from downy-cheeked member of the West Miami City Commission at age 26 to the highest reaches of American politics: an unerring ability to be in the right place at the right time. No matter the play, “he was never out of position,” one still-impressed teammate told Manuel Roig-Franzia for his new book, “The Rise of Marco Rubio.”
Read the rest of the review at:




© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved
Above, one of my Marco Rubio photos from his June 23, 2009 appearance in Hallandale Beach at the Southeast Broward Republican Club meeting, which you can see more of at
my February 26, 2011 blog post titled, The show is Jeopardy! and the question is: "Can I have 'Midterms' for $2,000", http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/show-is-jeopardy-and-question-is-can-i.html.

As most of you regular readers of the blog know, I've been a Marco Rubio supporter since before he ran for U.S. Senate in 2009, but I also don't think he's qualified to be president and say as much.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

re The Miami Herald: What's black & white, increasingly unread and continually resented? Why is McClatchy Corp. doing nothing as the Herald slides further into irrelevancy, and further alienating its readers by the clear lack of a tangible strategic plan -or even effort- to change? They're running multiple stories on front of website that are weeks old!



re The Miami Herald: What's black & white, increasingly unread and continually resented? Why is McClatchy Corp. doing nothing as their Miami Herald slides further into irrelevancy, and further alienating its own readers by clear lack of a tangible strategic plan -or even effort- to change? They're running multiple stories on front of website that are weeks old!

Last Monday, I sent the email below to some high-ranking executives at McClatchy Corp HQ -in Sacramento- the parent company of The Miami Herald, along with bcc copies to some other interested parties throughout South Florida, the state and the country who wonder -like me- why this area continues to be so severely underserved by The Herald despite the advent of new and rather technology the past ten years that makes actually covering and reporting on everyday news events or even investigating more-complicated stories, easier and quicker than ever.

Why do we STILL see no tangible sign that there's an actual plausible and logical plan in place at One Herald Plaza to actually improve the overall news product and become much more responsive to South Florida's readers desire for better and more-thorough local news coverage? 
Why is there so much resistance to what is staring them right in the face and what what their remaining readers actually want?
It's very, very strange counter-intuitive behavior.


Which is not to say that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel or any of the news operations for the four Miami-area English language TV stations are doing their viewers any favors, either, or being any more responsive, as I mentioned the other in discussing how none of them have done a single campaign story this year on 36-year Broward States Attorney Michael Satz or the two men who plan to ease him out of his office with extreme prejudice.


(By the way, could we all just agree amongst ourselves that stories about diets, fashion, plastic surgery, celebrities-in-jail/celebrity-shoot-outs and phony corporate-sponsored events on South Beach shouldn't be run or mentioned on the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts? That'd be a great start!)

And to point out just three of the many more-obvious things that I've previously mentioned here that are currently missing in the Herald, why in the year 2012 do we STILL not see a single Broward-centric columnist in their pages, a South Florida-based conservative columnist who is NOT a former pol or campaign adviser and who can write persuasive prose that respects both history and reality?
Or even an education blog that is more than simply a random collection of PR releases from publicists, School Boards and colleges?

In the past few months, because I spend so much time reading domestic and foreign news sites and blogs that give me more of what I actually want before I go to sleep, I've gotten in the habit of not actually looking at the physical copy of the Herald until sometime after 4 p.m.

And yet partially because of that new reading habit, just within the past month, I've voluntarily put the kibosh temporarily on 6-8 different blog posts that I've written that dealt with some aspect of problems that I detected in the Herald.


Whether it was dealing with the reporter's inaccurate use of facts, insufficient use of facts, misleading statements, continuing reliance on a source that is not objective, down to the brutal coverage of the Jonathan Vilma Saints bounty-gate story, where despite the fact that Vilma went to high school and college down here -Coral Gables High School & U-M- there was no original Herald reporting or analysis the next day, just wire service copy.
Pitiful.


This was 100% accurate when I wrote it on June 12th, and one of the two stories I refer to was still displayed on the Herald's website with a photo as of Noon Monday afternoon.

-----
What's black & white and continually read -but resented? 
It's a rhetorical question because there are currently two stories featured on the Miami Herald's
website that are one week old -or older. Why?

We all know it's because of the Herald's continued and pronounced geographical bias for news coverage.
One article is about Miami Beach and the other is about Coral Gables. In fact, the Coral Gables
story is 12 days old.
But The Herald loves both cities and considers them both simpatico and part of the Herald's natural coverage area, while I and my neighbors, 14.2 miles due north, are considered outliers.

If either piece I've highlighted below in red had happened in Broward County, and Hallandale Beach in particular, they'd have vanished from that webpage within about 30 hours, if that long.
But a week later, these two particular stories remain.
Why?

Even as there is nothing in the newspaper about any of about a dozen different stories regarding Broward County people, places and events that I can think of.

Like, for instance, a story about the 36-year incumbent States Attorney and his (perceived)
failed legacy against police, govt. and political corruption.
But the Herald has chosen not to write a single story this year about his campaign race,
so five months have come and gone and now, as of today, he is eight-weeks removed from a
primary election challenge and 21-weeks from a general election challenge if he survives the first.
But the Herald has written nothing about him, and, of course, because of that, they've also
written nothing about his opponents.
That's no way to run a newspaper.

And far, far too often, at almost any time of the day you check it, day or night, too often to be
mere coincidence, the Herald's Broward homepage 
consists of a majority of stories that have nothing to do with this county, the sixth-largest in the
fourth-largest state in the country.

Last week, checking at random, at different times of the day, on four separate occasions, only
two of the seven featured stories on the Herald's Broward homepage had stories that had anything to do with anyone, anything or any issue in Broward County
That's no way to run a newspaper.

WHEN are we finally going to see some some tangible, positive changes at the newspaper that reflect the genuine interests of the population of South Florida, particularly those of us that live north of the Miami-Dade countyline?
It's getting worse by the month, worse by the week, and worse by the day...

As I've told you previously, that iceberg on the horizon isn't going away, so if a course correction isn't made soon, the Herald will once and for all pass the point of no return for many readers like me who've held out hope that changes were afoot.


At some point, the survival of the newspaper is merely an academic exercise, not one that most of my friends and neighbors will care about after so many years of consistently sub-par performance that irked them instead of informing them.
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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Besides a lack of scoring coming off the bench, the other reasons the Miami Heat have lost their way in their playoff series against the Indiana Pacers -palm tree karma, simple math and lack of attention to detail

Above, the electronic mesh advertising billboard sign on the facade above the entrance gates to the AmericanAirlines Arena in downtown Miami around 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon before that night's Pacers-Heat playoff game. All photos on this post were taken Tuesday May 15, 2012, all  by South Beach Hoosier.


Besides a lack of scoring coming off the bench, the other reasons the Miami Heat lost at home Tuesday night to the Pacers in Game 2 -palm tree karma and simple math. 


The number of playoff games left for the Miami Heat to win the 2012 NBA title going into the best-of-seven series against the Indiana Pacers was 12, but on Tuesday afternoon, with under 4 hours to go before Game 2, already up one game to none, the total was 11, not the 12 that was indicated on the (illegal) signs placed on the palm trees in front of the arena on Biscayne Blvd., opposite The Freedom Tower.
There should've already been an "X" marked thru this number.






Above, looking west towards Biscayne Blvd. from in front of the AAA, and at bottom, looking south from there towards The Freedom Tower and downtown Miami.







Looking east and upwards towards the AAA from the sidewalk along Biscayne Blvd. 
I was in downtown Miami on Tuesday, a warm, muggy and overcast day that looked to be uncomfortable from the get-go when I left Hallandale Beach that morning.
It had glare written all over it, and the closer I got to downtown, the more it was obvious to me that it was one of those days that make sunglasses a must, even for kids.
And yet I saw plenty of tourists walking around near Bayside and the Port of Miami without them, squinting like crazy, which I'm sure will show up in many of the photos they shot that day, once they got home.

On a personal level, I knew the overcast skies and glare would play havoc with any outdoor photos or video I shot as I made my way from the Miami-Dade County Govt, HQ bldg, the Stephen Clark Building I hadn't been at since the Marlins Stadium controversy a few years. 


Having already read the illegal signage story in the Miami Herald the previous week about the Heat, largely owned by the state's wealthiest person, Micky Arison, once again throwing their weight around and acting like they were above local laws, as I went past the area in the morning, I knew I'd have to swing by later to take another first-hand look at what was what.


The Kumho Tires ad image above shows the numbers being crossed-out correctly, showing 11, but the actual sign in front of the arena was not touched, and thus, sports superstition raises its head, as does the palm tree karma for being f-ed with in the first place.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/09/2791625/city-tells-miami-heat-to-remove.html
Miami Herald
City tells Miami Heat to remove tire ads wrapped on palm trees at arena
By Andres Viglucci
May 10, 2012

The Miami Heat must have missed the news: The Miami Commission killed a measure two weeks ago that could have allowed advertising banners to be placed on trees.
That didn’t stop the team from wrapping the trunks of 16 royal palms in front of the publicly owned American Airlines Arena on Biscayne Boulevard with ads for Kumho tires. City officials say the ads are illegal.

On Wednesday, just before game five of the Heat’s first-round playoff series with the New York Knicks, code enforcement officers ordered the team to take down the white banners, which carry the slogan “DRIVE to the CHAMPIONSHIP’’ printed sideways above the image of a car tire and a Heat flaming-basketball logo.

“Not very catchy,’’ opined assistant city manager Alice Bravo.

And not very legal, either, she said. The team, which manages the arena, didn’t apply for permits, Bravo said.

Even if it had, Miami-Dade County’s sign ordinance, which applies inside the city as well as in unincorporated areas, frowns upon signs of any kind on trees. Under a section entitled “Prohibited signs,’’ the code reads: “No sign shall be attached to trees.’’

The county owns the arena, but the city is supposed to enforce the Miami-Dade sign ordinance inside its own borders.

The team could be fined if the banners aren’t gone by Thursday, Bravo said, though the city prefers to achieve compliance first. She did not know how long the signs have been up.

The Heat, however, refused to take the signs down. In a statement Wednesday, spokeswoman Lorrie-Ann Diaz said the team would remove the “sponsorship message’’ from the banners but leave them up “until the end of the playoff run’’ while applying for a permit.

Bravo said she was uncertain whether the tree banners without an advertising component would be permissible on the arena property itself, but added that she believes draping banners on palms on the public sidewalk is not. The festooned trees are on both the arena steps and the sidewalk out front.

The Kumho tire ads, in any case, remained up as crowds of fans arrived for the game Wednesday night.

The ads-on-palms flap comes amid growing controversy over the proliferation and legality of LED billboards and other outdoor ads locally, especially in and around downtown Miami. Billboard opponents, county planning administrators and county attorney Robert Cuevas say the county ordinance bars electronic ad billboards, which the city has approved.

More recently, the city commission gave preliminary approval to LED billboards on the Gusman theater downtown, the Miami Children’s Hospital and the Knight Center, as well as in city parks. But on April 26, facing public criticism, the board killed a measure intended to allow ads on parking pay stations and bicycle-rental kiosks that was so broadly worded that it could have permitted them as well on fire hydrants, public buildings, bridges and even shade trees.

Also in violation of the rules, the critics say: The Heat’s digital mesh on the arena facade. The electronic sign, also permitted by the city, shows ads for Goya products, Kia cars, Office Depot and Kumho. But the county’s sign code explicitly disallows ads for goods and services unavailable at the site, Cuevas said in a recent legal opinion.

Cuevas’ memo said enforcement is up to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and the county commission.

The elected officials, however, have not taken action.

On Wednesday, an anti-billboard group, Scenic Miami-Dade, filed a complaint with Gimenez’s office over the Heat’s palm-tree ads. The letter opened with a single word: “Disgusting.’’

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As we all know, this is NOT the first time the Heat acted like they owned the property and built everything themselves, when that is not the case. It's a county-subsidized building. 





WFOR-TV
I Team: County Receives Nothing From Heat, Arena Revenue
Reporting Jim DeFede
May 5, 2011 10:52 PM




Biscayne Times
A Waterfront Park for All to Enjoy
REMEMBER “PARCEL B,” THE LAND BEHIND THE MIAMI HEAT’S ARENA? YOU OWN IT BUT CAN’T USE IT -- YET
Written By Erik Bojnansky   
AUGUST 2011

Miami NewTimes
Banana Republican blog
Micky Arison and Miami Heat Get Audited by Miami-Dade Inspector General
By Francisco Alvarado 
January 13 2012 at 2:02 PM


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