Strongly urge you and your #art-loving, #culture-going and #golf-playing friends to attend tonight's important 6:30 pm Hollywood Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Master Plan Community meeting at the David Community Center, 108 N. 33rd Court, near Offerdahl's Off-The-Grill.
There's plenty of nearby parking
Last week I saw the renderings of the proposed addition to the Arts & Culture Center on Harrison Street and heard the architect and Center Director Joy Saterlee speak about them in some detail at the GO Bond Oversight Board meeting at City Hall.
As you may recall from some of my blog posts and widely-circulated emails last year, I have LOTS of issues with how the Parks Dept. is handling things, esp. public engagement.
Or rather the lack of it as it concerns many matters, with how badly the Hollywood Beach Golf Course's future has been handled by city bureaucrats -both before and after last year's vote- being perhaps the best example of this.
In my opinion, knowing many facts that others don't, an advantage gained from simply attending all the Evaluation Comm. meetings concerning it, often being the only member of the public present, it's been wholly inadequate to what was and is necessary for the public having the best possible final result that the community can use, enjoy, and take pride in.
Plus, it raises lots of serious questions about the city's longtime Evaluation Comm. process and whether or not incumbent vendors have an unhealthy advantage in the process, even when they have a demonstrated track record of NOT fulfilling their past promises to the city in a timely fashion.
That is to say, a real lack of public accountability -and punishment.
In ways that I never have before in the 16 years since I returned to the area from Washington, D.C., I have seen some legitimate areas of public concern re genuine conflicts of interest within City Hall's bureaucracy and the Eval. Comm. process, and it came with respect to the future use, purpose and design of the Hollywood Beach Golf Course.
Things that made me shake my head at what I was seeing and hearing.
Concerns that I have already shared with some of you in private.
I'll be expanding upon this in the coming days with a fact-filled blog post that lays out my concerns.
As usual, full of photos and in this case, self-evident examples of how the city and its bureaucrats
seem to be performing in ways that I believe shortchange not only the larger community, but,
specifically, the very target audience for whom the improvements are being made -golfers who
actually pay to use the golf course. I won't get into all my concerns here, but suffice to say, why does it seem like that their concerns are secondary to so many other area groups?
I'll see you at the meeting!
Things that made me shake my head at what I was seeing and hearing.
Concerns that I have already shared with some of you in private.
I'll be expanding upon this in the coming days with a fact-filled blog post that lays out my concerns.
As usual, full of photos and in this case, self-evident examples of how the city and its bureaucrats
seem to be performing in ways that I believe shortchange not only the larger community, but,
specifically, the very target audience for whom the improvements are being made -golfers who
actually pay to use the golf course. I won't get into all my concerns here, but suffice to say, why does it seem like that their concerns are secondary to so many other area groups?
I'll see you at the meeting!
Dave
David B. Smith
David B. Smith
Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.
Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://
Instagram: https://www.
Travel Massive: https://
