Tonight will be the public meeting on the Hallandale Beach Wal-Mart expansion plans at the Hallandale Beach Culture Center at 6 p.m., so make arrangements to be there so you can hear for yourself what their plans are.
All photos on this page taken July 27th, 2010 by South Beach Hoosier. Now about the absolutely ridiculous location of the public notice sign, above, that was placed just off of north-bound Three Islands Blvd., next to shrubs of a professional office building that has been completely vacant ever since I returned to South Florida over six years ago... and which is far from any street lights, insuring that almost nobody saw it, since very few people actually walk on that sidewalk, and if you're driving and need to make that right turn, you can't read it since traffic is constantly turning.
In fact, you'd probably assume it's just snipe advertising of the sort that this city is positively drowning under, no thanks to the city's lackluster Code Compliance office, which continually ignores self-evident violations all over the city, including boats in areas they're not allowed -like restaurant parking lots!- or advertising signs on the U.S.-1 median directly in front of HB City Hall and Gulfstream Park for weeks at a time...
Well, perhaps that's not completely true.
I suppose IF you are walking out of the HB Three Islands Fire Station across the street, between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., you can see the public notice sign, even if you can't read it from there.
But then it's not really put up for the benefit of city employees, is it?
No, it's supposed to be placed in a VISIBLE location on the applicant's property for the benefit of the immediate neighborhood and interested citizens of the city.
The back side of the sign, HB's Three Islands Fire Station across the street, around 6:45 p.m.
As it gets darker, the sign begins to fade from view...
...and you notice that there are no street lights focused on that side of the street.
Dark, darkerer, darkest...
That white square on the right is the public notice sign reflecting back my camera's flash.
And did I mention yet that where the sign is placed is NOT Wal-Mart's property nor the property of its landlord?
It's true!
Shouldn't something like that actually matter, legally?
So, why wasn't the sign placed somewhere near the entrance to the store so that all the customers and interested citizens who would have an interest in this issue could see it for themselves?
Because that would be too easy and logical, and that is simply NOT how things are done in Hallandale Beach.
If you needed proof of that, consider the situation just a few months ago with the yellow public notice signs regarding the requests of several nightclubs at The Village of Gulfstream Park for extended serving hours.
They lay on the ground in front of Gulfstream Park's entrance on U.S.-1 for well over a week BEFORE the HB City Commission meeting -and for two weeks after THAT!
This, despite the fact that it's located directly across the street from HB City Hall.
That's how they roll in Hallandale Beach!
