Above, state Senator Steve Geller and Channel 4's Michael Williams outside of Hallandale Beach City Hall, May 7, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
State Senator Steve Geller, the erstwhile Florida Senate Minority Leader and Democratic Super-Delegate, representing the Oasis project, spoke to WFOR-TV's Michael Williams
following the Commission's approval on second hearing of his client's project on the 1100 block of East Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Zoning and Land Development by Hallandale Oasis Limited LLLP, located at 1100 East Hallandale Beach Boulevard, concerning the following:
-Applying the Planned Development Overlay District
-Application for a Conditional Use Permit to construct 250 Residential Units
-Application to Construct a Mixed Use Development and Build a Residential/Retail Building
-Resolution Assigning 250 Residential Flexibility Units.
Geller's comments on the DNC aired later that afternoon, the same day that state Rep. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, also a Super Delegate, finally threw in the towel of neutrality and formally endorsed Sen. Barack Obama.
Among the other nuggets of news that Geller revealed that afternoon were that the FL Dems had three law firms working on getting their vote counted, and that the last DNC plan for a FL recount was a (laughable) proposal for 150 caucus sites throughout the states, which I think(?) Geller said would represent only 6% of FL pop.
I originally posted the above photo during a 40-minute lunch break of last Wednesday morning's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting.
Once I raced home, eager to post a few shots before getting back for the meeting, I found out once again just how incompetent I was with the new digital camera my sister Jennifer recently gave me, witness the wrong date on the photo, which I'd neglected to set correctly when I put in new batteries.
When I initially came out of the city hall chambers and threw on my sunglasses, I was going to dash home, but when I spotted Sen. Geller getting ready to be interviewed, my nose-for-news gene kicked in, and I thought I'd snap about 6-8 real quick shots shots, figuring that at least one or two would turn out pretty well and I'd post it while home for lunch.
The best laid plans of mice and men, gang aft a-gley....
(South Beach Hoosier trivia: One of my favorite all-time films is the original 1939 Lewis Milestone-directed Of Mice and Men, starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney, Jr., which I've only seen about thirty times. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031742/
The opening scenes just grab you from the word go, and you are immediately caught up in the crazy drama of George and Lennie running to catch a moving train and stay one step ahead of the law, with Aaron Copland's great music just sweeping you up in case you stumble.
The scene of the two of them them pulling the train coach door shut, only to reveal the original line of Robert Burns poetic genius, from whence the title comes, is sheer magic!
In my opinion, it's one of the best and most-stylized film scenes ever shot.
Not that I didn't really enjoy the 1992 version with John Malkovich, Gary Sinise and charter blog favorite, Sherilyn Fenn, too.
I absolutely adore Sherilyn Fenn, who STILL makes me dizzy when I watch Chiller specifically to see her in Twin Peaks repeats, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105046/)
As I watched the action, I could literally feel my lunch break ticking away, and because the friendly Channel 4 cameraman was right near me, I had to wait a bit until after he switched rolls before I could shoot this scene, since I didn't want get in his way or distract him.
Yet because it was SO sunny outside that afternoon, every time I got off the building breezeway, and tried a different angle, getting the three of them in the shot, the light and darkness contrast thru my viewfinder was blinding, so I just bided my time, and started taking mental notes.
Sadly as it turned out, this so-so effort was the mediocre best shot of the lot.
Among the things Geller revealed that I'd never heard or read elsewhere was that the FL Dems had three separate law firms working on their behalf to get their vote counted and/or have the 100% disqualification penalty lifted, and that the last DNC plan for a FL recount he'd seen was a (laughable) proposal for 150 sites throughout the state, which I think(?) Geller said would represent only about 6% of FL's population.
My comments on the hearing itself, where I spoke during the public participation segment on the topic of the City's employees longstanding and very unprofessional follow-up on matters previously discussed, will be posted here soon.
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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbbeacon0509sbmay09,0,4098003.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Hallandale OKs more downtown development
By Thomas Monnay
May 8, 2008
Another large retail/office/condo complex is coming to the new downtown, less than a mile from the $1 billion Village at Gulfstream Park, now under construction.
The City Commission this week approved the site plan for Hallandale Oasis, at 1100 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. Beacon Investment Properties LLC., of Hallandale Beach, will tear down the office building on the 5.28-acre site and replace it with a four-story retail and office building, a five-story parking garage and a 26-story, 250-unit condominium.
Ariel Bentata, a Beacon managing partner, said his company chose Hallandale Beach because "there's a lot of demographic expansion."
The property is zoned commercial, but city commissioners gave Beacon permission to build the condos because it's in a district that allows a blend of commercial and residential development, Commissioner Keith London said. Bentata said Beacon will build the project's commercial component first. He said he couldn't give a specific timetable for the condos because of the housing downturn.
"We don't have a crystal ball," Bentata said. "We don't know how long it's going to take the housing market to recover."
London said Beacon has four years after completing the project's commercial phase to build the condos, or it will have to start the permission process over again.
But London said, "We're not worried. They have a lot of money invested into this project."
The project site is just east of Hallandale Square, an $85 million development planned for the southeast corner of Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Federal Highway.
The area includes the Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino property, where Forest City Enterprises is building its Village at Gulfstream Park, with 70 stores, 1,500 condos, a 500-room hotel, a 2,500-seat theater and dining facilities.
London said the company will pay a one-time, $2.97 million fee for water, sewer and traffic improvements. The $2.97 million will also cover the developer's required contribution to the city's affordable housing trust fund.
Vice Mayor Bill Julian said the project will incorporate water conservation features. Its wide sidewalks should help make the area pedestrian-friendly, he said.
"It's quite an upgrade to the area," Julian said. "It's something that we don't have now on that side of the boulevard."
Thomas Monnay can be reached at tmonnay@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7924.__________________________________
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfgeller0501sbmay01,0,3905987.storySouth Florida Sun-Sentinel
Florida Sen. Steve Geller, D-Cooper City, leaving office after 20 years
By Linda Kleindienst
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
April 30, 2008
TALLAHASSEE
Steve Geller walked into the Legislature 20 years ago as a member of the "Broward Mafia," one of the Democrats from South Florida who controlled the state House and, in many ways, the future of Florida.
Now 49, he leaves the Capitol because of term limits and as a member of the minority party, outgunned in the Senate by Republicans who control 26 of 40 votes, but by most accounts at the peak of his power and performance.
The senator from Cooper City is one of the "Gang of Three" — along with Majority Leader Dan Webster and Budget Chairwoman Lisa Carlton, both Republicans — who decide which bills will make it to the Senate floor. It's a position of power that few Democrats enjoy in Tallahassee these days.
"It's kind of like you reach your pinnacle at 49 and it's all downhill from there," Geller said recently, as he sat in his cluttered Senate office, rows of certificates of appreciation covering his walls.
"What is that saying, better to be a 'has been' than a 'never was?'"
Among Geller's friends and sometime political allies are Webster, a social conservative from the opposite end of the political spectrum, and Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. Geller can even claim to be the first to have encouraged Crist to run for political office, when they were students together at Florida State University.
Colleagues and lobbyists call Geller talkative, egotistical, boisterous, over-confident, bright, softhearted and persistent."
He is so persistent in the things he believes in, but you can't get along up here without being persistent because people don't necessarily do what you want them to do," Webster said, adding that every day this spring Geller has pestered him with questions about boosting funding for Tri-Rail, South Florida's commuter rail line.
With his sometimes-rumpled allure, Geller is a wisecracking quotemeister with a gift for simplifying arcane subjects into easy-to-digest sound bites.
"It's a shame it's his last year," said Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, a former Senate president.
"He's matured in the process and he's become a whole lot more statesman and a lot less oracle."
Geller, a lawyer, also has become an acknowledged specialist on insurance and gambling.
Founder and president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, he has promoted expanded gambling in Florida, especially to benefit Broward County's dog and horse tracks, and in turn they have helped finance his re-election campaigns.
He's the only legislator in decades who has managed to get often-warring pari-mutuels to talk to each other.
Geller, who has won election to five House terms and three Senate terms, is used to being in the heat of the political battle, and has proven a tough opponent.
In 1990, although hospitalized with pneumonia, he made it to a Broward Legislative Delegation meeting in a wheelchair, with an oxygen tube, to help Ben Graber defeat Peter Deutsch in a race for vice chairman. "Let that be a lesson; you don't cross Steve Geller," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D- Greenacres.
In the past two years Geller has been in the thick of the Legislature's thorniest issues, negotiating legislation aimed at cutting government spending, helping to write a constitutional amendment to make it easier for Floridians to take their property tax breaks along if they move and influencing a property insurance package to rein in premiums.
But ask him for his top accomplishment and he'll recall 1988. Shortly after his election that year, Christy Schafale, a 17-year-old Cooper City High School senior, died on a ride at the Broward County Fair. Geller's first bill called for tougher fair ride inspections. It passed.
"No one will ever know the exact number of children saved by that law," said Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, as he presented Geller on Wednesday with a framed copy of that bill, the "Amusement Ride and Attraction Act."
"When somebody tells us, there oughta be a law, frequently, there's a law," Geller told a hushed chamber of his colleagues. "Being a legislator for 20 years means a lot to me. I think I helped a lot of people."
While he may be leaving the Capitol, Geller said he's not ready to quit politics. He promised his sons, Marc, 11, and Ben, 8, that he wouldn't run for any job that would keep him away from home for long.
So, next on his agenda: a race for the Broward County Commission in 2010.
"I'm not quite ready yet to be put out to pasture," he said.
Reader comments are at:
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TSOLK45GF18A7TDB8#comments
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Village Voice
Runnin' Scared blog
How Howard Dean's Florida Ambiguity Helps Obama and Hurts Hillary
Posted by Wayne Barrett
May 2, 2008
My favorite excerpt:
...Dean clearly hopes that his evasions on this elemental question of fairness will be seen as a demonstration of his unwillingness to take sides between the warring camps within his own party. It is the opposite. In the absence of an unambiguous statement clarifying the limits of the DNC’s delegate ruling, he is siding with Obama, whose recent conflating press releases have argued that “without the rogue states”—Florida and Michigan—“Obama is still up by 500,000 votes.” Everyone involved understands that it is Obama who is benefiting from the media decision not to include Florida’s vote in the popular vote boxscore that runs across every American television screen, on virtually every news channel, everyday.
Of course, the endlessly repeated omission of this vote, and Dean’s abdication, is not just affecting the candidates. It’s doubling the pain for Florida Democrats—not only are they invisible in the delegate tabulations, which the courts have ruled is clearly within the powers of the national party, they are phantoms in the popular tally, a nullification unsupported by any legal authority...
Rest of post at:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2008/05/how_howard_dean.php
