Broward County Ethics in Action! Sometimes the gravy train of cronyism leads you and your family to a yacht vacation to The Bahamas; Local10 investigative reporter Bob Norman asks Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to answer questions about his family's yacht vacation after the Sheriff claimed paying $1,500 settled the matter. But websites say the value of that yacht trip is MUCH MORE!; @CityEthics

Local10 News video: Broward Sheriff Scott Israel won't talk about yacht vacation

Sheriff didn't disclose vacation, claims $1,500 footed bill

Bob Norman, Reporter, bnorman@Local10.com

Published On: Jul 23 2013 05:35:26 PM EDT   

Updated On: Jul 23 2013 11:00:00 PM EDT

http://www.local10.com/news/broward-sheriff-scott-israel-wont-talk-about-yacht-vacation/-/1717324/21129710/-/im030b/-/index.html

I love a good story as well as the next person, more than most, actually, but that said, there's no way that five days on a top-of-the-line yacht for Scott Israel, his wife and three kids to The Bahamas cost Broward's Sheriff less than twice the cost for me -alone- staying at a very nice B&B -with absolutely delicious breakfast but without elevators to my 3rd-floor room- for four days in the Södermalm neighborhood of expensive Stockholm.

In January, the coldest month of the year, and, yes, definitely off-season!

Just saying...

A well-informed friend writes me that after watching this video and thinking about the high level of endemic corruption and longstanding culture of wink-wink back-scratching attitudes among elected officials and their bankrolling friends here in Broward already, the most-corrupt county in the country's fourth-largest state, their sad prediction is that Sheriff Israel will be making a lot of headlines in the coming years for all the wrong reasons.

I tend to agree, absent something big happening in the next year that causes his judgement to fundamentally get better.

I sent an email with most of this info to lots of people throughout the state to get their take on it, as well as to blogger Robert Wechsler of cityethics.org up in Connecticut, hoping that he will consider giving this matter that at first blush fails the smell test, his usual careful ethical scrutiny and give it the column inches it deserves, which he has given other Florida ethical situations, including a few I first alerted him to.

Check out his blog on the website at: http://www.cityethics.org/Blog-RobWechsler

Robert's blog posts re Broward County: http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/Broward

The City Ethics Twitter feed of @CityEthics is at https://twitter.com/CityEthics

My prescience is priceless: Americans will soon show their disdain for 'Occupy' by leaving home before 12 a.m. to buy corporate must-haves at Le Mall

Above, the Tom the Turkey balloon in the flower section of the Publix grocery store on Hallandale Beach Boulevard & S.E. 14th Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL. November 24, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My prescience is priceless: In days, Americans will show their overwhelming disdain for Occupy Wall Street by leaving their families at home to get to stores by Midnight to buy Corporate America's must-haves.

Or, put another way, welcome to "A Very Vegan Thanksgiving in Ft. Lauderdale" -with French faux-Turkey recipes collected by Ron Gunzburger, noted Francophile and Vive-le-Jet-Set member! http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=34136590@N02&q=France

How the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel , the business/legal newspapers and all the local Miami-area TV stations have managed to hold off on doing articles, columns or news broadcast about his seeming hypocrisy on this issue, on the one hand, comporting himself every bit the Broward establishment figure from his position as a government attorney for the Broward County Appraiser's office, while at the same time, having been the very picture of the savvy PR flack for the Blame America First branch of the Democratic Party in Broward, that's so universally laudatory about the Occupy Wall Street protesters, is really quite something.

That "something" is called being asleep-at-the-wheel.

Seriously, is there anyone around in South Florida political life who more consistently imbues the average American's (outside of South Florida) mental image of the prototypical liberal, wine-sipping, self-loathing American Bohemian who must escape to France en vacances once in a while to get in touch with himself than Ron Gunzburger?

Mon dieu, non!

(Of course, once he's over there, he can see all over again what real pretentious hipsters are like first-hand by simply looking around, and trying not to be drawn into un-necessary internecine French political arguments over party purity or the merits of a fusion ticket.)

That Ron Gunzburger is well-known, gay and in a position to actually either compliment or scold well-known reporters, columnists and media personalities thru his popular political website, is, of course, only the liberal gravy if you will, speaking of upcoming Thanksgiving.

http://www.politics1.com/

And yet because of one thing or another, even the thing I don't mention here, the local Miami and Ft. Lauderdale news media haven't even bothered to lift their fingers in an attempt to put him on the spot for a bit and have him try to explain himself, chiefly his seeming bi-polarity of both having his cake and eating it, too.

The local media haven't made any serious attempt to give South Florida residents an idea of why someone who is in many ways the very picture of a govt. bureaucrat -and image-conscious to boot- hasn't seen even a single negative news vibe since the whole Occupy PR machinery went into high gear? Not one.

Really.

Want proof, see for yourself:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=%22Ron+Gunzburger%22&target=adv_article

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=%22Ron+Gunzburger%22

The next time you see a professional reporter or columnist or editor hereabouts skulking about at some news event or public meeting take a moment to walk up to him or her and ask them about that supreme and jaw-dropping lack of effort.

And if they actually respond civily, take the opportunity to ask who else is on that Untouchable list of theirs, write it down and let me know.

We'd all like to know, though some are givens, like all the Dem congresspeople from South Florida, who hardly need press secretaries given the job the local media does of playing stenographer.

Broward Clean Sweep video: How Broward reporters cover Broward politicians

http://youtu.be/cUDV_E4hO3s

For the record, I don't personally dislike Ron Gunzburger, I'm just genuinely mystified how and why in the year 2011, given what is known about him -his political sympathies, his various efforts locally, et al, plus, the ease of technology that makes it easier for the news media to do their job than ever before- that the South Florida news media is SO completely frozen in place that they are unable to see a NEWS STORY when it is staring right in front of their face waving a red cape like a matador.

Frankly, I don't doubt that he has wondered the same thing.

It's media myopia plus dollops of disconnectedness, a very bad combination for newspaper readers and TV news viewers if ever there were any, and that won't be helped any by Tryptophan Thursday, as next weekend's newspaper stories and columns are almost guaranteed to be the worst of the year, as happens every year like clockwork.

In fact, even as we speak, someone's column for next weekend is either being written or edited right now, so that column will on some large 'theme' instead of a particular news story.

Unfortunately, many of those columns will be written by the very same Mainstream Media folks like E.J. Dionne, Leonard Pitts, Jr. or Kathleen Parker -who can't help herself from mentioning Sarah Palin, even when nobody else is- all of whom, so consistently mis-fire and continually draw the wrong conclusions about what is actually happening in our country, good or bad, regardless of what the subject is, and, consequently always seem to prescribe a cure that may well hasten the demise of the system we enjoy, however imperfect and galling at times.

Speaking of income equality, Mickey Kaus is spot-on here: http://dailycaller.com/2011/11/11/ows-to-msm-dynamics-of-closed-loop-systems/

Yes, in the very same newspapers all over the country that have, does have and will have front page stories all week about the confounding trend of holiday consumerism intruding on family time together, and instead heading for Ye Olde Galleria or Target or Best Buy at Midnight, après le third NFL football game du jour is finit, to indulge in some consumer theory first-hand, are the very same people will say that the Occupy forces have really taught us all a valuable lesson.

Aand that their message will linger longer than anything the Tea Party does.

In my opinion, that conclusion, common in the blogosphere among self-styled 'progressives' is not only untrue, but unprovable, but that hardly seems to matter now, despite the fact that these same folks say the intentionally loose amalgam of people supporting the Tea Party's economic and limited government principles are the power within the GOP.

(How can it be both the power and a negligible force that will soon be eclipsed, they never quite explain.)

It's like saying if Don Shula had finally traded for an elite NFL running back, the Dolphins of the 1990's would've won a Super Bowl with Dan Marino at quarterback.

BOBBY KNIGHT OF INDIANA

A Profile by Frank Deford, January 28, 1981

Like if you gave former IU coach Bobby Knight control of North Carolina's perpetual mother-lode of crazy incoming talent that Dean Smith had all those years, and ask how many MORE NCAA basketball titles he would have won before Coach Smith finally won his first -years after Coach Knight had already won two titles at IU, including my sophomore year in Bloomington?

THE CHAMPS!

Hoosier Hero Isiah Thomas, April 4, 1981

That's speculation of the worst sort because in the end, you only end up chasing your tail.

But I've heard those very questions posed before.

Sometimes, all in the same long drive to South Florida from Bloomington at the holidays or Spring Break.

Imponderables.

Like what if political candidates said out-loud in a prologue before debates, forums and speeches, what particular reporters & columnists they sincerely believed were stupid, biased, incompetent or unethical -and had to give examples; would that be a positive to society to get it all out in the open and have some genuine transparency?

I say yes, but how can that be proven true unless everyone does it?

Aye. there's the rub!

-----

Santa's assault on Thanksgiving

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/santas-assault-on-thanksgiving/2011/11/19/gIQA0bKQcN_video.html

The Washington Post

A defense for Thanksgiving

By Ylan Q. Mui, Published: November 19

Thanksgiving is under assault.

Stores that once closed their doors in deference to the holiday are now touting Turkey Day deals starting as early as 9 p.m. Workers who should be on vacation are answering office e-mails on their smartphones. And those who plan on celebrating with a traditional dinner are finding that the cost of a bird is near its 30-year high, according to government data.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-defense-for-thanksgiving/2011/11/17/gIQAM33tcN_story.html

Welcome to Hallandale Beach: where old cigarettes and condoms party at the beach that HB Cops ignore!

Above, January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

 Above, July 26, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

January 17th, 2009

Sometimes, coincidences happen for a good reason, and I think such is the case today.

I was already in the process of writing something that I was going to post this weekend about the deplorable conditions of the beach, when the Broward Palm Beach New Times' Juice blog did a piece yesterday afternoon that covers much the same ground.

It's just below my comments 

Have you all read Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London's interesting email yet about developments at last week's HB City Commission meeting -which I didn't attend- regarding conditions at the beach?  Here's the germane portion for this email:

There was a presentation from two high school students requesting the implementation and participation of a beach clean up in the City of Hallandale Beach.  During the clean up, the waste will be sorted, measured and cataloged by type and volume of waste on the beaches. The students informed the Commission that in past clean-ups, cigarette butts accounted foe 46% of the waste. 

Armed with this information, I made a motion requesting the city attorney the feasibility of a creating a future ordinance "to make smoking illegal on City of Hallandale Beach public beaches".

The Motion passed 3:2. London, Ross, Sanders for, and Cooper and Julian against.

I really commend these high school kids and only wish I'd been there to speak with them afterwards, to say so in person, since that's the kind of positive reinforcement they need.

If high school kids are so appalled by what even they can see at their beach that they actually feel compelled to show up at City Hall to complain about it -and we'll assume that they don't share that public policy gene like us- just remember they're NOT the only ones to notice, just the only ones with enough resolve to press the issue.

How truly embarrassing for this city!!!  

I have dozens of photos, including many from the past two weeks, that are emblematic of the awful current reality and recent past of the beach, as evidenced by the photos below.

As we all know from our travels, in many if not most American communities fortunate enough to have a beach, especially those dependent on tourism, the beach is an invaluable resource that's esteemed, treasured and given

extra care and concern.

It's a place where city officials and elected officials constantly visit and hover around to keep track of not only its physical and aesthetic condition, but also to gauge the mood of resident and visitor beach-goers to see if there's any problems or concerns there they need to be aware of.

They are pro-active, NOT reactive and slothful and full of excuses as they are in Hallandale Beach. 

That public sentiment is often an early indicator of the residents' collective feeling about the town itself, since when resident taxpayers feel that a place as high-profile as the beach is going downhill, and not being properly looked after, it's only natural that they suspect that other things in the city they can't see are falling apart, too.

It's only human nature, but it's something the City of Hallandale Beach has been in utter denial about for years, as one problem after another has been left to fester there.

Yet when confronted with the reality, they've instead put their heads in the sand.

The evidence is all around you.

That's why I and many other HB residents I've spoke to over the past 18 months want the city to emulate the City of Hollywood, where the city's Parks and Rec. Dept. manages their award-winning beach, doing a great job that makes them the envy of South Florida.

Just because our beach is so much smaller doesn't mean it has to be managed SO poorly and with so little regard for either safety or aesthetics.

(Ask yourself a question: If a well-managed but land-locked city like Coral Springs had a beach this size, what would it look like and how would it be managed?

Now compare that image in your head with the current reality of ours.  'Nuff said!)

To accomplish this in HB would require yanking responsibility for the beach away from Hallandale Beach's incompetent DPW and assigning it and the requisite money and personnel to HB's Parks and Recreation Dept., which currently is only responsible for the children's playground equipment and rental Chickee Huts down on South Beach.

(Not that you would know that, though, since there is NO signage of any kind at the beach letting patrons know just who is responsible for what or whom to contact.  

Just like so much of the city, right?)

   

Everything else at the beach is the current responsibility of DPW, whose employees are consistently unable to perform their jobs in a timely, efficient or competent manner, as the evidence clearly shows, day-after-day.

For proof of that, see my blog post of last Monday on beach conditions:
Ron Gunzburger sees a LOT of amusing things at his beach; I only see incompetency at mine!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ron-gunzburger-sees-lot-of-amusing.html

Failing that sort of inter-dept. transfer, I and many others would prefer that the city simply request bids from private contractors to perform specific beach maintenance that will get the most out of that precious resource, which DPW's director William M. Brant clearly has shown no interest in doing.

To be kind, Mr. Brant seems to be like Aquaman: fine when dealing with water, but when he's on dry land for very long, he loses all his powers.

That's simply not good enough for the amount of taxes HB residents pay.

The citizens of this beach-side city deserve MUCH BETTER than they get with regard to beach maintenance and overall attractiveness, and over the next week or so, I will be posting numerous photos to my blog to illustrate the exact nature of the problems I've witnessed first-hand over the past two years.

And letting others in the South Broward area who have an interest know about it, too.

Self-evident problems of the sort that DPW consistently ignores, doing far less than the bare minimum acceptable in most American communities, but which the current crew at HB City Hall ignores completely and gives lip service to.

Make no mistake about it, DPW is a big part of the problem at the beach, not part of the eventual solution.

Just as is true with the city's recycling program, which is a laughingstock, as I was reminded of all over again last Sunday morning, when I saw the same broken glass on the ground next to the two poorly positioned dumpsters -with holes in their lids- at the facility next to Ingalls Park, as I'd seen last week.  

And the week before that and... 

See my Sept. 5th, 2008 post on the whole recycling mess in HB, complete with photos of the ever-widening disaster at Ingalls Park:

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/re-comm-keith-londons-sensible-lawsuit.html

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

BROKEN LATIN IN HALLANDALE BEACH, FL -SEAOATS

 
This descriptive nature sign on Hallandale Beach's north beach, regarding a supposedly protected environment, complete with Latin genus, is a particularly telling example of the kind of terribly myopic and non-existent mgmt. the beach has received for years from the City of HB and the State of Florida. This sign has been broken since at least October of 2003.

Even more galling, the area immediately around the seaoats has pile after pile of hundreds of old cigarettes dumped willy-nilly around it. 

The day this photo was taken, the garbage below the sign and in adjoining areas had been there for WEEKS! 

Original photo here was taken January 2007; this one taken May 11, 2008; photo by South Beach Hoosier

CLOSE-UP OF BROKEN LATIN

 
The Seaoats sign that's been broken since at least Oct. 2003 at Hallandale Beach's north beach, not far from the lifeguard stand.

In late June of 2008, due to the combined neglect of the State of Florida, Broward County and the City of Hallandale Beach, the sign was blown off and landed fifty feet away, where yours truly noticed it under a beer can. Now there are ZERO signs on Hallandale Beach's North Beach. Your government in action!  May 16, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Two photos above from my blog.

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

Below, beach memories of August 11, 2008: one of the areas replete with hundreds and hundreds of old cigarettes

punctuated by old condoms!

Photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Below, January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Snapshot of a poorly-maintained public beach: Finding a used condom near one of the only two park benches at 4 p.m., on a Friday holiday afternoon on a beach full of families.

If any of you all are interested in getting the royal Hallandale Beach Blog tour of the beach area some time, let me know, and I'll be happy to highlight all the problem areas for you, so you can see that I'm not exaggerating.

Trust me, there are MANY MORE problems there I don't even have time to get into here.

_______________________________________

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2009/01/hallandale_anti-smoking.php#commentForm

Broward Palm Beach NewTimes

The Juice blog

Hallandale Wants to Kick Our Butts Off the Beach

January 16, 2009

By Amy Guthrie

Ron Gunzburger sees a LOT of amusing things at his beach; I only see incompetency at mine!

Well, it's a whole new year with the same old cast of South Florida and State characters and their grab-bag of personal, ethical and public policy problems they never solved, plus, a whole new cast of characters and personalities who are just waiting for their moment in the sun, to alternately amuse, irritate, bewitch, frustrate and vex those of us who know what is efficient, logical and common sense in the rest of the world.  

 

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Looking northeast from north-bound U.S.-1 towards Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino, with the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa and The Beach Club condo towers in distance.

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

The new Village of Gulfstream entrance north of the Aventura/Miami-Dade County line.

 

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

You can see the construction of Village of Gulfstream continues apace even as the track prepares to open on January 3rd.  I've taklen dozens and dozens of photos over the past few months of Village of Gulfstream and will be posting them soon, hoping to do a compare-and-contrast sort of thing, so you can see the progress taking place there.

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

I think I've mentioned here in the past at Hallandale Beach Blog that, with certain limits, I try to take full advantage of helpful technology and tools out there to be a well-informed citizen and blogger, though there are certain things, like widgets for headlines or sports scores or videos, for instance, that I try to stay away from because it only makes the "look" of the blogs, such as they are, appear even more cluttered.

As an example, I make extensive use of Google Alerts on my various email accounts and use them as a fishing net to capture information in both popular media as well as far-flung and obscure sources about people, personalities, places and ideas that may be of interest to both me and anyone swinging by the blogs for a few minutes during the course of the day.

Given my own wide-ranging interests and the topics I've written about here over the past two years, some of those Google Alert terms seem self-evident at first glance: "Gunzburger," "Steve Geller," and, of course, "Hallandale Beach," while others, though less popular, like "SFFEC," "Broward MPO," and "South Florida Regional Planning Council" have a habit of really delivering gold the few times a month where they are caught in the net, even if I don't appear to make use of them right away.

(Not to be redundant, but I was forced to remind a friend over the weekend that about 85% of all the things I've written over the past year have yet to ever be put online, as I'm waiting for just the "right time" and circumstances to drop them online so they'll have maximum effect.

So keep that in mind over the next few weeks as you wonder where the "sudden" avalanche of posts came from.)

Though it's obviously a term that I get multiple hits on per week, "Gunzburger" actually delivered some unexpected laughs this morning when my inbox brought forth the following.

It seems that Ron Gunzburger, the son of Broward County Commissioner Suzanne Gunzburger and founder of the hugely popular eponymous political blog, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, http://politics1.com/, seems to routinely encounter more amusing things at the beach he goes to than I do -and I'm looking hard for the odd and the unusual, camera in tow.

Google Web Alert for: "Gunzburger"

Twitter / Ron Gunzburger: says Al Franken is good en ... Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time. The URL for the above is http://twitter.com/RonGunzburger/statuses/1094662837, then click the red-colored link marked Ron Gunzburger, which should take you to:  http://twitter.com/RonGunzburger   Well, personally, the highlights of the above include:

 "and am now watching some idiot swimming in the ocean wearing a football helmet, pads + jersey"

"had another WTF moment: just saw a guy trying to get his pet ferret to stay on his surfboard, before they went into the ocean"

I have definitely got to find out where this beach he's talking about is!!!

No, the public beach in my city, Hallandale Beach, the one that Mayor Joy Cooper threatened in October to start charging the public for access to, is far from that interesting and colorful one described by Ron Gunzburger, wherever that is.

It's an indictment of HB's current City Hall Crew and city employees that the beach is in the poor physical and moral condition it's in, where all sorts of weird and curious things happen around there, with a wink-wink and a closed eye here and there for a pal, and where pretending to do something gets treated the same as actually doing it.

In the weeks to come, I'll be publicly writing about (exposing) some of that incompetence, malfeasance, public corruption and moral turpitude, and I'll do so knwoing that I've already successfully communicated back and forth with some interested government officials who are far removed from Hallandale Beach and Broward County's tentacles and orbit of cronyism.

Professionals who now know what's really been going on here for years, and who, frankly, don't really much care who somebody is, what position they occupy locally, or even how long they've lived here or what sorts of notable charities they're involved with.

They don't care about any of that.

They just care about enforcing laws, regulations, statutes and standards that have been ignored, winked-at and laughed at in the City of Hallandale Beach and at City Hall on South Federal Highway for YEARS.

Which'll translate into some LONG OVERDUE public accountability for what's been taking place here, and some appropriate levels of punishment for all those involved.

While it may be a New Year with a clean slate for you, dear reader, trust me, for the particular cast of local characters that I'm referring to, the slate is anything but clear. 

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Looking south on the beach towards the hulking towers of The Beach Club, whose tall shadows cast such a dark pall on the area for most of the day.

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

My first photo of the year of the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower.

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

The side of the lifeguard tower on North Beach describing what proved to a very nice though slightly overcast day in early January.

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Above, one of my favorite places to stop, relax and read is this simple bench on North Beach.

Of course, it's also one of the only places to sit at the beach -not ON the beach- since most of the other benches that were formerly in the park have been removed and NEVER replaced, months and months after the fact.

And HB's DPW keeps the one and only picnic table at the park right near the sidewalk, just steps from the garage entrance, hardly the best place for something like that.

Self-evident matters never adequately explained by the City of Hallandale Beach:

Why is there only one picnic table at a public park next to the beach there, and whatever happened to the green-colored aluminum mesh picnic table that the folks at The Beachside Cafe long ago moved directly next to their property, and treated like it was their property, an overflow if you will, not the public's?

In fact, they continually served alcohol on the beach to people sitting there, even though the nearby posted city signs specifically prohibit the drinking of alcohol on the beach.  Wink-wink!!

Trust me, The Beachside Cafe has no earthly idea of the avalanche of negative publicity that is going to be falling on their head soon.

And it's all richly deserved!!!

 

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Snapshot of a poorly-maintained public beach: Finding a used condom near one of the only two park benches at 4 p.m., on a Friday holiday afternoon on a beach full of families.

And it's far from the only time I've seen condoms on the beach that have been there for days.

I've got the photos to prove it, too.

 
January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Just one of the 14 garbage receptacles on North Beach the day I stopped by -all full of items that are recyclable in normal cities- and none of which had a lid to keep garbage from getting out and flying around on windy days.

January 2, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier

While I was there that afternoon, there were about 14 garbage receptacles in the immediate North Beach area, many of them overflowing with garbage by 3:30 p.m. -and with no paper towels in Mens room.

Really not surprising for a beautiful day on January 2nd, with most people off from work and just a so-so Cotton Bowl Game on TV.

REMINDER: At the windiest place in the city, Hallandale Beach DPW uses receptacle baskets without lids!

I mentioned this and a number of other concerns about the beach back in August at a public city budget meeting at City Hall, and City Manager Mike Good pledged to follow through on common sense things like that, as well as the recycling bins.

Shocker! Nothing has changed for the better in five months.

Number of blue-colored "recycling" specific bins actually on North Beach and environs last Friday:

ZERO!

Logically, given the size of the area and where the paths are, there should be at least 6-8 of them distributed where they are most convenient for Hallandale Beach residents and guests to use, NOT where they are most convenient for the city's DPW employees.

For the past five months, they've hidden the ONE and only blue recycling bin for the beach near the access road, not even bothering to put it on the beach itself where it can be seen.

Everyone knows it, too.

Just before sundown, about 5:15 p.m.

Looking north from the lifeguard stand on Hallandale Beach's North Beach towards the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, four blocks north, and the crane building the Trump Hollywood, two blocks north of that.

All photos above taken Friday January 2, 2009 by South Beach Hoosier.

__________________________________________

Contact information for the person responsible for the beach in Hallandale Beach, the DPW Director: 

William M. Brant, P.E.,

630 NW 2nd Street, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009

Ph: (954) 457-1600,  Fax: (954) 457-1624

Email:

Contact him and let him know what you really think about the sorry and embarrassing physical conditions of the beach; the complete lack of enough conveniently-located blue recycling bins along the beach; the longstanding garbage that's inside of so-called "protected" plant areas, and along the emergency access road and beneath the Water Tower, much of which has been there for months and YEARS at a time, as my photos will illustrate. 

And then, ask him when was the last (or first?) time he actually spent more than an hour or so at this beach on a busy weekend afternoon.

It probably won't surprise you that after numerous conversations over the past year or so with other Hallandale Beach residents and taxpayers, that some of my future posts here in this space will address the issue of improving the public beach status quo by either privatizing the city's DPW operations on the beach, or completely transferring those responsibilities and funds to HB's Parks and Recreation Dept.

Currently, the latter's only responsibility on the beach is the kids playground equipment and the rental Chickee Huts on South Beach. That's it!

You can hardly be blamed for not knowing that, since there is no information posted on the beachanywhere letting you know whom exactly to contact with comments, complaints, kudos, or suggestions.  Zip.

You don't have to go far to see why moving it to Parks makes more common sense.

In next-door Hollywood, it's the city's Parks and Rec Dept. that actually manages and mainatains their famously excellent beaches, NOT their city's DPW.

And you constantly see city employees around, especially towards the popular Johnson Street area.

Unlike Thomas Magill's Police Dept. in Hallandale Beach, which is apparently afraid of either the sand, the surf or the sun -or all three!- Hollywood's Police Dept. under Chadwick Wagner is not afraid to actually walk/bike around the beach areas and interact with people to provide needed security and a sense of calm, especially on hectic busy weekends.

The contrast between the two neighboring city's styles, and ways of dealing with both residents and gue$t$, could hardly be more stark and self-evident than on this issue.