Where's that red-light camera warning sign?Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. approaching N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. About 6:50 p.m. on April 24, 2011.
Photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Where did you say that red-light camera warning sign was, again?No, it's not that silver-colored one next to the curb, that the Merge/Bike lane sign. Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
Oh, there you are, red-light camera warning sign, intentionally placed right between two trees! You only see the sign above because of the reflection of my camera flash, there are no street lights nearby. You'd almost say they were hiding it, yes?
Looking west on W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. & N.W 10th Terrace, Hallandale Beach, Florida. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
My own comments about Buddy Nevins' new post on red-light cameras at BrowardBeat, which I first read about around 10:15 p.m. Monday night, follow his own critical comments.
I read it while watching a new episode of NBC-TV's terrific and re-configured Law & Order: Los Angeles, which had a common element of the real-life murder last November of noted Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen thrown in, which I immediately caught despite not having read about the episode online or in print, but still felt uncomfortable about.
Chasen was the victim of a random shooting by a guy on a bicycle; in the episode, it was a hit.
Still, it was a hell of a compelling story well-told and is exactly why everyone I know is watching this show after the recent cast changes were made, with cast regular Alfred Molina sent from the DA's office to the detective squad, replacing the departed Skeet Ulrich, whose character was killed on the show a few weeks back after it finally returned to the air.
Dick Wolf Must Really Hate Skeet Ulrich
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/04/dick_wolf_must_really_hate_ske.html
Watching LOLA after Fox-TV's The Chicago Code is definitely a habit I could grow accustomed to. http://www.fox.com/chicagocode/
TheWrap
Ronni Chasen Laid to Rest, but Hollywood Can't Shake the Shock
By Sharon Waxman & Dominic Patten
Published: November 21, 2010 @ 10:31 am
They came by the hundreds from all across the country and within Hollywood. Every senior PR professional and most entertainment journalists but also composers, executives and movie stars -- to pay respects to Ronni Chasen, laying to rest the beloved publicist just five days after she was killed.-------
The primary message at the packed midday funeral service in the bright, fall air was of shock and loss. Elegant eulogies conveyed how fresh the grief was -- not yet a week removed from her senseless killing at the hands of a person or people still at large.
Read the rest of the post at: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/indignation-hollywood-friends-set-bury-ronni-chasen-22675
Broward Beat
TV Highlights Hypocrisy Over Red Light Cameras
By Buddy Nevins
Channel 6-NBC Miami proved tonight that elected officials who support red light cameras are hypocrites.
The report by Willard Shepard featured the red light camera Pembroke Pines has installed westbound at Pembroke Road and SW 129th Avenue. This is at the southern entrance of Century Village.
I want to see any official claim how these particular Pembroke Pines cameras are being used as a safety measure. Their nose is growing.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/tv-
There was no video of this story on NBC-6 website as of 11:30 p.m. Monday night; I'll re-check Tuesday and post it on the blog if found so you all can see it for yourselves.
See also:
Broward Politics
Red light camera spokesman didn't like yesterday's post
By Brittany Wallman April 19, 2011 10:37 AM
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/04/red_light_camera_spokesman_did.html
Per the above, I should mention that every time I have posted something on my blog about the mendacious red-light camera situation in Broward County or Florida, esp. anything that is at all critical of them -which is each post on red-light cameras!- I quite suddenly get lots of hits from the home of American Traffic Solutions Inc., i.e the Phoenix area. Hmm-m...
Also, per the arrogant, condescending and patronizing tone of the note above in the Brittany Wallman post from Pembroke Pines Comm. Angelo Castillo -did I leave out an adjective?- as I stated recently to some of you via email, I'm really starting to fully grasp the full-dimension of my misplaced positive words about Castillo last year, as he has increasingly become for me the poster boy for the pro-govt., know-it-all Nanny State in Broward County that brooks no disagreement from its citizens.
Castillo's 'my way or the highway' attitude expressed in that note above is precisely the opposite of what an elected official should be saying right now in Broward, and, again, is about the last thing I'd have thought I'd be hearing out of him, based on his comments to me a year ago.
But make them he does, and with increasing frequency!
In one new story after another on Pembroke Pines -where my youngest sister lives- he somehow keeps finding himself on the side of everyone but the average taxpayer, having supported one pink elephant or govt-funded fiasco after another, and thus far, at least as the stories have been reported, there never seems to be even the slightest amount of doubt on his part about his actions, words or votes.
It must be great to be so sure of yourself, despite the observable, quantifiable facts all around you. General Custer must've had those traits in spades I think.
Frankly, I've wondered for the six months since Election Day why the Miami Herald never gave his truly disastrous County Comm. run last year the full Quincy, M.E. post-mortem it deserved, the sort that we have become accustomed to in other cities, since Castillo seems by most accounts to have run THE single-worst election campaign of any Broward candidate last year, esp. for one so well-financed and known.
The final totals for that three-way primary: Sharief 6,973 Castillo 2,415
Despite he and I having exchanged several friendly emails early last year, Castillo never once contacted me on when he was actually coming into HB to talk to the residents of the city living in that District 8, which had formerly been represented by Diana Wasserman-Rubin, until she was FINALLY arrested.(Frankly, I don't know that he ever visited, since nobody I know ever heard about such a thing, which explains a lot in retrospect.)
I'd have been more than happy to post the meeting info here and remind people in emails, just as I would've been for (eventual winner) Barbara Sharief as well, because I wanted HB residents to take full advantage of the opportunity, however fleeting.
But despite having all my contact info, he never did anything to communicate.
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REMINDER: Don't forget that Comm. Barbara Sharief will be speaking at HB Comm. Keith London's Resident Forum at the HB Cultural Center Tuesday at 6 p.m.
http://www.co.broward.fl.us/Commission/District8/Pages/Default.aspx
Sharief has been a voice of logic, reason and sanity on the red-light camera issue, and has refused to be intimidated, or swallow whole the laughably bogus claims of local officials like Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines' mayors, Joy Cooper and Frank Ortis, that fall apart as soon as you examine them for facts, not spin.
It's telling that like Buddy Nevins says in his post, if there are problematic intersections that are responsible for a larger number of speeding-related accidents than seems reasonable, why aren't local city managers and mayors directing local police resources there to make their presence felt and change the dynamic?
The sort of thing that would have been common sense years ago in other cities I have lived in like Bloomington, Evanston and Wilmette, and which is still probably the first thing that happens in the cities and towns where many of you reading this now live.
That doesn't happen here in South Florida, though, for the very same reason that the HBPD doesn't care about all the speeding on U.S.-1, esp. at night, and while you are more likely to see someone pulled-over there by an Aventura policeman than you are a HB one. They don't want to do what's simple and necessary.
Instead, as I've mentioned so many times here, with photos, what happens is that rather than locate the second red-light camera in HB somewhere where it might actually do some public safety good, it's deliberately placed in a location, one block east of I-95, in order to nab drivers eager to get onto I-95 and out of the daily HB gridlock.
So tell me -since Mayor Cooper and City Manager Mark Antonio won't say publicly- why are there NEVER any HB police cars stationed near there if it really is a problem?
If Mayor Cooper were really interested in public safety, as she said she was a few weeks ago in her laughable performance with Mayor Ortis before the Broward County Commission, to cite but one example, why is it that for well over a year, despite everyone in the city seemingly knowing about it, for a few blocks on one of the three streets that directly lead to the HB Police Dept, it's pitch-black at night?
Yes, pitch-black, just like the Police Dept. and City Hall parking lots were so frequently for 6-9 months at a time, numerous times over the past few years, a subject I frequently mentioned at City Commission meetings and which the myopic and mendacious HB Police Chief at the time, Thomas Magill, completely ignored, along with the mayor and the city commission.
(The same way Magill continually ignored the broken parking lot light nearest the ONE security camera in front on the U.S.-1 side of the municipal building, having been out 99% of the time since the security camera were installed over three years ago. It's still out as of last night. And what about the city's liability in case something unfortunate happens? City Attorney David Jove takes the who-cares route, ignoring that possibility. month-after-month, year-after-year. Personally, I don't think the city's insurance company will take such a happy-go-lucky view, which is sure problematic for city taxpayers in the future in the event of a lawsuit.)
That pitch-black street would be Old Dixie Highway, the same street that's right near the city's largest park, Blusten Park, which many kids walk to and ride their bikes to and from everyday. The park's lights are usually turned off about 9:15 and then it's every man -or kid- for himself.
Safety is not what they care about in HB, revenue is.
Above, (diagonal) Old Dixie Highway looking north from S.E. 7th Street towards the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. HQ and parking lot on the right, two blocks away. The lights you see on the left are the auxilary lights at the city's municipal pool at Blusten Park. Hallandale Beach, Florida.April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
The photo above was taken WITH a flash, otherwise you'd see nothing but arc lights emanating from the pool area.
My prior posts on red-light cameras can be found at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=red-light
Because of the number of posts I've written on the subject, and the particular template and design I use on my blog, after you click the URL and go to the most recent one, continue to the end and right below the Google Ad Sense ad you will see "Older Posts."
Click that to see prior post on the subject in reverse chron order.
