Must-read reader responses to fiscal questions re the Hollywood-based Holocaust Documentation and Education Center and its desire for MORE public $$$

This is the latest information that Sara Case & Co. have posted at their Hollywood-based website, Balance Sheet Online, http://www.balancesheetonline.com/ as a candid response to the long-overdue questions that were first raised here about the Hollywood-based Holocaust Documentation and Education Center.
http://www.balancesheetonline.com/money.htm

I urge you to read it and become familiar with the information and the public policy that's at stake: the public treasury is NOT an all-you-can-eat trough for feel-good or pet projects that lack BOTH public accountability and common sense.
Even in South Florida!

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 2:57 PM

Subject: Balance Sheet Update - Reader Responses

We received a number of interesting responses to our recent article about the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center. We have posted some of them and they can be viewed at the link below.

http://www.balancesheetonline.com/hdec_response.htm

Upcoming 2010 Spring Cleaning Media & Blog Purge: Sleepwalking South Florida news media and lemming blogs to be tossed overboard!

There is just a tremendous amount of news and information that will be coming to this space over the next few weeks, much of it about political ideas and strategy and upcoming elections that will have the possibility of seriously shaking up the deplorable status quo hereabouts.

Things both long in the planning as well as items that I've, admittedly, sort of lucked-into by paying close attention while most of South Florida's news media continues their 2010 spring slumber, preparing for their 2010 summer-long siesta.

But that's how it goes when you try to keep your eyes and ears open, return emails and phone calls from others promptly, and try to remain on good terms with people in a position to either make news -or cover it- all over the county, state and country.

In fact, I suppose you might even call what I have in mind -and in many cases, already have written- a torrent, though given the Broward School Board's continuing sub-par performance, if there are any Broward high school grads reading this, that's your cue to right-click 'torrent' and see what Google says it means.

I've got some big changes in store for my humble little blog, as this weekend I'll begin my 2010 Spring Cleaning Media and Blog Purge, wherein I make some long overdue changes that I had originally planned on making after Christmas, but couldn't due to time constraints
and some family obligations.

It's my hope that these particular changes will improve the blog's functionality and topicality, though perhaps not to everyone's satisfaction.
C'est la vie.

Frankly, I don't spend any time worrying about what people I've NEVER met, actually spoken to or received an email from, think about the blog, whereas those who have taken the time to actually contact me with their thoughts know that I generally take their constructive criticism pretty well, and only wish that I could change it the way I want to.

In the case of the former, people who have never contacted me but who have heaping helpings of criticism, I refer to people who never seem to actually manage to attend South Florida govt. or public policy meetings in person, what most people in the country might call no-shows, and who seem to "cover" things almost entirely second-hand from their living room or dens.

As anyone paying attention knows, that's the exact OPPOSITE approach of Genius of Despair and Gimleteye at Eye on Miami, http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/;
Daniel A. Ricker at Watchdog Report, http://www.watchdogreport.net/;
Chaz Stevens at My Acts of Sedition, http://www.myactsofsedition.com/;
Michael Butler at Change Hallandale Beach, http://www.changehallandale.com/;
Sara Case at Balance Sheet Online, http://www.balancesheetonline.com/;
Bett Willett at Blog by Bett, http://blogbybett.blogspot.com/ and myself.

(In case you're unfamiliar with the situation involving my friend Michael being sued by Joy Cooper, the thin-skinned, anti-democratic mayor of our fair city -who calls her political opponents "Nazis" while at Hallandale Beach City Hall- for simply attempting to get some public records, YET ANOTHER story that the Miami Herald and all of the local Miami TV stations have completely ignored, please see the following:
1.) http://openrecords.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/michael-butler-sunshine-troublemaker-of-the-week/

2.) http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/10/mayo_why_are_taxpayers_footing.html )
3.) http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2009/10/judge_patti_henning_and_mayor_joy_cooper.php )

While I obviously don't agree with them on everything they might say about a particular subject,
I ALWAYS know that they are actually spending their time and energy to be physically present and accounted for when news could be made that's of interest to the discerning and concerned citizens of South Florida.
And they don't lie or intentionally misrepresent the facts.

Both are more than can be said for the large majority of South Florida's sad sack excuse of a press corps, who would be greatly improved if 75% of them were fired toute-de-suite, and simply replaced by some of the plucky and curious kids on the journalism farm at Ernie Pyle, Medill and some other places I could name, where curiosity is a prerequisite.
See http://journalism.indiana.edu/ and http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/

Then we'd see some serious Who, What, Why, When Where and How action in our local media diet, and improved verb subject agreement and proper verb tense, to boot, and less fluff TV stories on liposuction, women's clothes, Rapping Grandmothers, and Grade D celebs and celebutantes making paid appearances at South Beach clubs.

It's exactly like the sad and feeble approach employed over at WTVJ-6 -the News Nobody Watches- "who don't know what's going on, and send a cameraman (without a reporter) to an event at the last minute just so they can maintain the illusion they're a real news operation."

That particular tart quote comes from one of their most industrious TV news competitors, who told me that exact thing two years ago while we were both sitting in the Broward County Chambers for a Broward County Charter Review Commission meeting.

This comment about Channel 6 only served to confirm what I'd long felt since returning to the area from D.C., and when I shared this comment with other industrious reporters and bloggers I know, who have often shared their take on what ails South Florida and its incurious news media, they all seconded that emotion.

It goes without saying that if I knew then what I know now, I'd have perhaps made some different choices when starting the blog, perhaps going with TypePad instead of Blogger, or perhaps some other blogging platform, as many newspaper and TV friends of mine in D.C. had originally suggested. http://www.typepad.com/

Since many of you readers probably don't know this, with Blogger's software structure, unless I remove all the 'anchors' on it at the beginning, the photos and thoughts about the area, I can't physically move my most recent comments up to the top of the blog.
If I could, I'd have done that years ago.
But I can't, hence the upcoming changes.

But even with the changes I hope to make over the next few weeks, I know that I won't be matching the prodigious blog posting and video output of South Florida's number one Watchdog, Chaz Stevens, who surely must get less sleep than anyone in the 954 area code.

FYI, last night and early this morning, I downloaded all the video I shot from Tuesday afternoon's historic Broward County Commission meeting, where the plucky underdog activists from Hallandale Beach brought the Broward County development/lobbying machine to heel, 6-3, and hope to have at least some of it on my YouTube page on Thursday.

My personal take on what transpired yesterday will soon be here, along with photos, now that I'm finally starting to get caught up on all the sleep I've been missing the past few weeks.

Community Forum on Johnson Street Redevelopment Monday, March 15 at 6 p.m. at Hollywood City Hall

I will be writing and opining about the Johnson Street RFP
at Hollywood Beach over the weekend,
http://www.hollywoodfl.org/purchasing/pdf/RFP-4212-09-IS.pdf
along with some photos and video, having put it off since
last week's formal pitches to the Evaluation Committee,
but wanted to post this now as a reminder of this very
important event on Monday, since I received this email
this afternoon from Hollywood City Hall.

See the city's excellent website for the Johnson Street RFP
at http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/johnsonstbeachrfp.htm

I also encourage you to read Sara Case's comments at her
excellent Balance Sheet Online website,
http://www.balancesheetonline.com/ and click the Bigger Not
Better link on the left to see her comments from October 18th.

Sara and I both attended last week's presentation and
much- preferred the Planet Hollywood presentation
to the Margaritaville one, even though there were
some aspects of it that we wish would be modified.


City of Hollywood, Florida

Office of the City Manager

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 12, 2010

Contact: Raelin Storey

Public Affairs and Marketing Director

Phone: 954.921.3098

Cell: 954.812.0975 Fax: 954.921.3314

E-mail: rstorey@hollywoodfl.org

Community Forum on Johnson Street Redevelopment

Monday, March 15, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Hollywood City Hall

HOLLYWOOD, FL – The City of Hollywood will host a Community Forum on the redevelopment proposals under consideration for the Johnson Street site on Hollywood Beach on Monday, March 15^th at 6:00 p.m. in Room 219 at Hollywood City Hall, 2600 Hollywood Boulevard. Residents will hear presentations on two different redevelopment proposals: Margaritaville at Hollywood Beach and Ocean Resort and Village by Planet Hollywood.

Last summer the City of Hollywood issued a two-stage Request for Proposals (RFP) for the redevelopment of the nearly 6 acres of city-owned land located at Johnson Street and A1A on Hollywood Beach. This RFP was developed after numerous community meetings to gather input from Hollywood residents and business owners about their ideas and priorities for this important beachfront site.

The stage II proposals were due on February 18, 2010. Two development teams submitted proposals: Margaritaville at Hollywood Beach, LLC and Hollywood Beach Partners, LLC for Ocean Resort and Village by Planet Hollywood. These proposals, along with the video of the Stage II Evaluation Committee proceedings, can be viewed on the City’s website, www.hollywoodfl.org, by clicking on “Johnson Street/Beach RFP” under Hot Information.

The Community Forum will provide an opportunity for the public to hear from both development teams and ask questions about each team’s project plans. These public comments, along with the evaluation committee’s recommendation and consultant reports will be forwarded to the City Commission members for their review and consideration in preparation for the April 7^th regular City Commission meeting. At that time, the City Commission will discuss the proposals, take additional public comments and be asked to authorize staff to begin negotiations with one or both development groups.

For additional information, please contact Raelin Storey, Public Affairs Director at 954.921.3098.

Last minute thoughts on HB Budget Workshop on Wednesday

Well, as you know, tomorrow at 10 a.m., the
powers-that-be at Hallandale Beach City Hall have
decreed that despite the over-riding public interest
of many HB citizens in attending and participating
in the city's public budget workshop at a convenient
time and place, they voted 4-1 against Comm.
Keith London'sperfectly reasonable motion to
move the public workshop from a smallish second-floor
City Hall room -that's considerably smaller and less
convenient than the Commission Chambers that just
underwent repairs that YOU paid for- and keep
it in a place where they can better tamp down
attendance and keep citizens under control.

They also voted 4-1 against moving the city budget
workshop to the evening, where more Hallandale
Beach citizen taxpayers and residents could attend
and express their opinions, ask for pertinent facts
and figures, or even demand some long-overdue
explanations from the city commission and mayor,
the all-too-often-absent city manager and his
overpaid staff.

The latter includes the various Dept. directors,
some of whom pay so little attention to matters
around them, that two months after taking over
their Dept., they don't even know that their name,
phone number and email address are STILL
not on the city's terrible website so that citizen
taxpayers can actually contact them.
You know, the people who pay their salaries?

Speaking for myself, it's hard not to see this 4-1
vote as yet another in the never-ending efforts by
Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Mike
Good to orchestrate a public meeting like a
puppet show.
One guess who the puppets are?

They are deathly afraid of the kind of unscripted
and spontaneous meeting that could emerge when
a room full of well-informed citizens are present
precisely because it would mean going off in directions
that City Hall doesn't like, and for good reason.
Even they know they can't explain the
unexplainable, and what is HB City Hall
if not unexplainable?

And how do you explain away the fact nobody ever
is held responsible and accountable and punished?

Last week, I asked an unelected city official in a
position to know whether or not the city ever even
considered moving the budget workshop to the HB
Cultural Center, since there's so much more room.

Then I decided to check if there were some time
conflicts in that building that'd prevent it from moving
there.

Answer: The city never explored it and there
are no conflicts tomorrow that'd prevent it from
being held there.

Again, Joy Cooper and Mike Good want the
meeting in a small room because it discourages the
public from attending -and staying!

Strangely enough, back in June when the Planning
& Zoning meeting was moved to the Cultural Center,
there were only three non-city employees in the entire
room, of whom I was but one.
But that didn't seem to bother anyone.

Cooper and Good don't want to have a scenario
where well-informed ordinary citizens ask why the
city continues to spend money in amounts and scale
(and accrue debt) that seems completely inappropriate
for a city of Hallandale Beach's size, even while simple
and self-evident problems are never properly resolved.

Problems that we see everyday that last for weeks
and months and years, like simply having appropriate
signage or ensuring public safety on city property,
including directly in front of Hallandale Beach
City Hall.

Where are the much-needed cuts coming from and
what are the policy or procedure modifications that
will be necessary?

They'd rather talk about how much of your money
they plan on giving to cronies of theirs or waste on
the HB City of Commerce, that does zero but which
last year received $50,000.

If you doubt what I'm saying about puppet shows,
just consider how terribly botched the recent Master
Transportation Plan meeting was handled, years
late and over-budget.
The meeting that Comm. Anthony Sanders was
AWOL at, with no explanation then or since.

Despite its importance, there were no helpful handouts
of any kind for the public to peruse, and the Power Point
presentation was full of numbers and columns that were
FAR TOO SMALL to make any sense of, which
meant that citizens couldn't ask informed questions,
but instead had to generalize and got little specificity
in return.

The City Manager's office could've easily posted all
the pertinent info on the city's terrible website in
advance of the meeting, even the Friday afternoon
before the meeting, so that citizens could look at it
over the weekend and take notes.
But they didn't do that, did they?
Instead, who had the copies?
Not you, but you're the ones left to pay the bill.

Those of you who have spoken to me in the past
about what you said was your anger or seething
disgust with the longstanding unethical hijinks,
gross incompetency and low-caliber management
at Hallandale Beach City Hall, will have your
opportunity to finally stand-up and be counted,
even if it's less than the optimum situation.

Will you take advantage of it, or will you let it
slip away like so many other opportunities,
and let the Rubber Stamp Crew under Joy Cooper
once again have the last laugh at your EXPEN$E?

By the way, in case you forgot, the room that the
workshop will be held in is the same exact room
where Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good,
Police Chief Thomas Magill and Fire Chief
Daniel Sullivan all quit their jobs since December
-and then were magically rehired, with new
contracts.

It's also the same exact room where the vote took
place to buy the property of Comm. Anthony Sanders
and his wife for more than it was appraised at.

And what do you know, coincidence of coincidences,
in none of these cases did the city ever comply with
the state's Sunshine Laws and make that agenda
information public beforehand as required.
Not once.

Not on the city's website and not on the printed agendas.

Hm-m-m... the city manager, police chief and fire chief
all being re-hired without any input from Hallandale
Beach citizens?

Yes, because the mayor and city manger wanted it done
that way, and City Attorney David Jove just winked at
that insult to Hallandale Beach citizens like he has so many
times before over the years.

This essay below by Sara Case is what the Balance Sheet
Online wrote about Hollywood's budget situation back on
June 26th.
--------------
http://www.balancesheetonline.com/money.htm

Hollywood Budget: A Stone Unturned

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

SPECIAL MEETING (Supporting Docs)

CITY COMMISSION, CITY OF HALLANDALE BEACH

CITY HALL, ROOM 257

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2009 10:00 AM

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

4. OVERVIEW OF THE PROPOSED FY 2009-2010 BUDGET

5. CITY COMMISSION REVIEW OF THE PROPOSED FY 2009-2010 BUDGET

A. MAJOR EXPENDITURES BY CATEGORY

1. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (See Capital Improvement Tab)

2. GENERAL FUND (See Expenditures Tab)

3. TRANSPORTATION FUND

4. SANITATION FUND

5. CEMETERY FUND

6. WATER FUND

7. STORMWATER FUND

8. SEWER FUND

9. OVERVIEW OF LANDSCAPING PROJECTS, VEHICLE REPLACEMENT REQUESTS, AND COMPUTERIZATION REQUESTS

B. REVENUES

1. REVENUE PROPOSALS & NEW REVENUES (See Revenue Facts Tab)

C. GOLDEN ISLES SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD DISTRICT (See Expenditures Tab)

(Including Revenues) (See Revenue Detail Tab)

TO BE HEARD IN CONJUNCTION WITH GOLDEN ISLES SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING ITEM #3.A.

D. THREE ISLANDS SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD DISTRICT (See Expenditures Tab)

(Including Revenues) (See Revenue Detail Tab)

TO BE HEARD IN CONJUNCTION WITH THREE ISLANDS SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING ITEM #3.A.

E. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (See Expenditures Tab)

(Including Revenues) (See Revenue Detail Tab)

TO BE HEARD IN CONJUNCTION WITH HALLANDALE COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING ITEM #3.A.

F. BUDGET NOTES (See Budget Notes Tab)

6. REAPPROPRIATIONS OF FY 2008-2009 FUNDS (See Reappropriations Tab)

7. BUDGET AGENDA

A. Discussion of Sanitation Division (Staff: Director, Public Works) (See Backup) (Staff Report)

B. Discussion of the Property and Grounds Maintenance Division (Staff: Director, Public Works) (See Backup) (Staff Report)

C. Discussion of City Web Streaming (Staff: Director, Information Technology) (See Backup) (Staff Report)

D. Discussion of Aquatics Division (Staff: Director, Parks and Recreation) (See Backup) (Staff Report)

E. Discussion of Group Medical and Dental Coverage for FY 2009-2010 (Staff: Director, Personnel)(See Backup) (Staff Report)

F. Discussion of City Programs (City Manager) (See Backup) (Staff Report)

G. Discussion of the City Commission Summer Meeting Schedule(City Manager)(See Backup) (Staff Report)

8. PUBLIC HEARINGS

A. An Ordinance of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida Pertaining to Public Health and Safety; Amending Chapter 14 "Minimum Property Maintenance and Occupancy Code" by Creating Article IV, "Lot Maintenance and Clean Up" in Order to Require the Clean-up of Property Under Certain Conditions; Providing the Purpose and Intent of the Revision Providing Definitions; Declaring Certain Conditions on Lots, Parcels, and Tracts Within the City Boundaries to be a Nuisance; Prohibiting the Accumulation of Trash, Junk, or Debris, Living and Nonliving Plant Material, and Stagnant Water; Prohibiting the Excessive Growth of Grass, Weeds, Brush, and Other Overgrowth; Prohibiting the Keeping of Fill on Property that Results in Certain Conditions; Prohibiting Certain Conditions that Constitute an Imminent Threat to Public Health; Authorizing the City to Undertake Immediate Abatement and Remedy of Imminent Public-Health Threats; Providing for Enforcement of Violations; Requiring Notices to Owners and, if Applicable, Agents, Custodians, Lessees, and Occupants of Property in Violation of this Article; Providing for Appeals of Violation Notices; Authorizing the Imposition and Levy of Special Assessments if Costs are Incurred by the City and not Reimbursed by the Property Owner and, if Applicable, the Property Agent, Custodian, Lessee, or Occupant; Requiring Notices of Assessment; Creating Assessments for the Cost of Lot Clean-up; Establishing the City as a Special Assessment District; Authorizing the Levy of Non-Ad Valorem Assessment in Connection with Violations of this Article; Providing for Collection of Non-Ad Valorem Assessments; Authorizing an Agreement with the Broward County Property Appraiser and Tax Collector; Authorizing and Requiring the Adoption of a Resolution Regarding the City's Use of the Uniform Method of Collecting Non-Ad Valorem Assessments; Providing for Annual Non-Ad Valorem Assessment Rolls; Providing Transition Provisions and Ratifying Assessments to Recover Costs Incurred by the City to Remedy Violations Prior to the Ordinance's Enactment; Repealing all Ordinances Inconsistent with this Ordinance; Providing for Severability; Providing and Effective Date. (First Reading) (Staff: Director, Development Services) (See Backup) (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

9. DISCUSSION OF DONATIONS TO CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS

A. Discussion of Donations to Charitable Organizations (Staff Report, Supporting Docs)

10. PERFORMANCE REVIEW OF EMPLOYEES HIRED BY THE CITY COMMISSION

Tuesday's Johnson Street Redevelopment Mtg. in Hollywood; a dynamic 'change agent' named Swanson-Rivenbark

Received this email below last week from the

City of Hollywood about a new location for the

meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Bastille Day.

Just so you know, there will be no waiters or

waitresses with serving trays running through

a block-long obstacle course on the Broadwalk

or over at The ArtsPark, with musical

accompaniment, à la D.C.

But there ought to be!

Plus de la pitié!

I attended the first public outreach meeting

at Hollywood City Hall on June 16th, following

the regularly-scheduled City Commission

meeting on whether or not the City Commission

should authorize City Manager Cameron

Benson to file an application for a City Of

Hollywood Charter School, which they did.

(More on that issue here soon.)

See the Proposed Redevelopment Process

at: http://www.hollywoodfl.org/html/JohnsonStBeachRFP.htm

For those of you who live in the Hallandale

Beach, South Broward or NE Miami-Dade

area with some time that day, I urge you

to attend and watch the city's new Assistant

City Manager, Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark,

in action.

She's a flat-out dynamo!

She's also a Big Ten grad, from Badgerville,

up in Wisconsin's capitol and public policy

incubator of Madison, a fabulous campus

and city with a social/cultural life that,

for its size and location -and weather-

makes Fort Lauderdale and most of Miami

look quite lame by contrast, and for good

reason.

People there are good-looking AND smart,

not just, well, you know.... like here?

For more on Bucky:

http://www.buckyslockerroom.com/

Coincidence that she's dynamic and a

Big Ten grad?

I think not!

Hollywood City Manager Cameron Benson

is also a member of the Big Ten club,

via his years in Champaign-Urbana.,

a.k.a. U of I as it's known in the Midwest

to distinguish it from IU.and Iowa.

Yes, that's why there used to be a minor

league baseball league sometimes called

the -wait for it- yes, Three-Eye League.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois-Indiana-Iowa_League

As it happens, Champaign-Urbana is also

where my wonderful friend from IU and

Briscoe Quad, the lovely, witty and oh-so

talented Lolita Zwettler was from.

Her folks were U of I professors, but fortunately

for me, she saw the light and came to

Bloomington, a wise decision I will always

be very grateful for, due to her friendship,

thoughfulness and incandescent smile.

Well, I'm not exactly breaking news here,

per se, but as has been said repeatedly of late

all around Hollywood City Hall and everywhere

else she's been in person since coming up from

the City of Coralk Gables, new Assistant City

Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, is like,

yes, "a breath of fresh air."

And people all over Hollywood and environs

are noticing how she manages to be several

positive things all at once: analytical and

professional but genuinely folksy, great at

making knowing references to public policy

successes and failures elsewhere and

far-sighted in vision for what this area needs

more of and less of, but also keenly aware

of the current economic malaise that's this

area's daily reality, especially in Downtown

Hollywood.

Every time I've been in Downtown Hollywood

for the past 18 months, one of two things

inevitably happen.

I either hear people kibbitzing or speculating

about when the bottom of the local real

estate market is "REALLY going to hit

bottom" and start rebounding, while I'm

either eating, reading or writing bearby,

or, I'm being asked directly by some small

business owner whose store or restaurant

I've been patronizing, who knows me casually,

by face or even from reading the blog,

about what I think of what's happening in

Hollywood these days, and whether I believe

local residents and businesses can really

be as patient as they may need to be,

patience never being something in great

supply around here even in the best of times,

after all.

To the latter question, I can now say truthfully

that with the addition of someone of Cathy's

self-evident talent and ability, someone who

can rather effortlessly but charmingly synthesize

information and public policy in an interesting

but understandable fashion, the City of

Hollywood has one very large and dynamic

change agent in its deck of cards that the

majority of South Florida communities simply

can't beat, not least, Hallandale Beach.

When she walks into a corporate office and

is 'on message' about Hollywood's core

strengths and opportunities, she can close

the deal for Hollywood and get them coming

back for more.

That Cathy is tremendously likable, personally,

on top of her innate talent and abilities, is

something that simply can't be ignored either.

Obviously, she can use that to the city's great

benefit in the future while trying to create some

positive opportunities, even as regular South

Florida bureaucrats fumble-and-stumble

when they make their pitch about why their

own city ought to be considered for a project.

Recently at Balance Sheet Online,

http://www.balancesheetonline.com/

co-editor Sara Case wrote about Johnson

Street's great unrealized recent potential and

mused on what ought to go up there for the

short-term.

In a sidebar on the same page, after having

seeing her dynamic, bravura first appearance

before the bedazzled City Commission,

which I watched via streaming video, Sara wrote

http://www.balancesheetonline.com/better.htm

"Having tried and failed three times to

get a up-market hotel resort built on the

property, the city is ripe for a major

reassessment and Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark

seems up to the task of guiding us through

it successfully."

Yes, a 'breath of fresh air" is a wonderful thing,

and can almost make you wonder how you made

do without it for so very, very long.

Having finally had it, how can you ever go back to

what you had before?

Having now seen Cathy in action first-hand a few

times myself, and also having seen far too many

woeful and forgettable presentations elsewhere

around South Florida's public policy world,

I can't help but think that if there were a few more

people this sharp and professional, taxpayers

and citizens could actually sleep a little more

soundly at night, and not be quite so anxious

about everything always getting worse around

here.

----------

From last month, before the brainstorming began

in earnest...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-hollywood-johnson-street-bn061109,0,1693729.story

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hollywood seeks residents' input on beach site

What to do about Johnson Street will be the subject of two meetings

By Ihosvani Rodriguez

June 11, 2009

HOLLYWOOD

City officials are asking residents to put on their thinking caps and come up with ideas on what to do with a city-owned property on the beach.

The first of two informal public meetings will be held next week to gather input on the long-awaited redevelopment of the city-owned Johnson Street property at A1A on Hollywood beach.

The first meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

A second meeting will be at the Hollywood Beach Culture and Community Center on June 18.

The city has also established an e-mail address to gather comments: johnsonstreetrfp@hollywoodfl.org.

The meetings come after a developer walked away from a plan

to build a $100 million hotel and beach resort on the property

now occupied by an aging garage and a parking lot.

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

See also:City seeks community input for Johnson Street property

http://www.hollywoodgazette.com/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379:city-seeks-community-input-for-johnson-street-property&catid=42:beach-news&Itemid=600077

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

A message for the public policy guys and gals

of Hollywood who were at that first Johnson

Street brainstorming meeting last month:

PLEASE don't say -for like the millionth time-

that "there really ought to be a Hard Rock

Casino over there..."

Please, I'm begging you.

No more!!!

It's just NOT going to happen, so please limit

your ideas and suggestions to ones actually

possible in this version of Hollywood in the

year 2009, not the one in your alternative

universe.

Tack så mycket!