Writing this post to remind you about tonight's important Hollywood Mayoral and District 1 City Commission candidate forum at the Hollywood Beach Culture & Community Center at 7 PM, 1301 South Ocean Drive.
I will be attending it and hope that as many of you as possible can make it as well to let the candidates know what you and your neighbors believe are the top local concerns and priorities of Hollywood residents and Small Business ownwers -esp. in the Hollywood Lakes and District 1 community- and let them and any pundits and reporters who attend get a sense of what they all collectively ought to be talking about, writing about and considering as voters as Election Day draws near.
As you might guess, I'm working on some questions of my own, and am hopeful that the local Miami news media will take full advantage of the opportunity to show up and perhaps do some LIVE stand-ups for the 6, 10 or 11 pm newscasts.
I have been to two candidate forums so far, each of which drew very large crowds of residents and interested parties. First was the joint candidate forum on September 16 at the Fred Lippman Community Center that featured the City Commission District 2 and mayoral candidates -minus District 1 incumbent Patricia Asseff- and last week at David Park in Hollywood Hills featuring all three mayoral candidates: Asseff, Joshua Levy and Eleanor Sobel.
In theory, tonight's forum should give District 1 candidates Debra Case, Victor Debianchi, Stacey North Kotzen and Luis H. Prada plenty of time to draw attention to their particular priorities and make a case for their candidacy, given that District 1 has traditionally had a lot of influence on what happens in the city because it includes the beach area that has long served as the economic engine of the city, via tourism.
So far, to my mind, based on what I've seen and heard, all the District 1 candidates have thus far been talking too much in cliches and platitudes, and really need to give some specificity and nuance to the voters to give them some sense of what they are for -and what they are against.
I do have some news to share with you that I suspect few of you have caught wind of yet, and that is that I learned recently that former Broward County Sheriff and Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth and former Broward Commissioner Sue Gunzburger have officially endorsed Victor Debianchi in the District 1 Commission contest.
As many of you know, the Dolphins at Bengals game tonight is slated to kickoff at 8:20 and I was hoping to miss as little of it as possible after the candidate forum is over, so depending upon what time it's over, and knowing that they'd like to close up around 9 pm, I may be there a bit after the forum if there's a TV showing the game.
So if you don't get a chance to come by and say hello before or during the forum, swing by afterwards and let me know what you think.
Also, you might be interested in knowing that tonight is Comm. Asseff's 49th wedding anniversary, and yet because she cares so much about the city and its residents, instead of celebrating the anniversary, she'll be there tonight to listen to the residents and Small Business owners of Hollywood, and explain her goals and priorities for the city moving forward.
See ya there!
Dave
All August and September 2016 photos below by me, South Beach Hoosier. © 2016 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.
