So, I've got a bit of a secret to share with you loyal readers of the Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog today, just days before Christmas 2020. The COVID19 Christmas none of us wanted to go through.
Well, actually, it's NOT much of a secret. I mean, to be honest, it's been hiding in plain sight.
And certainly I've been talking about it to many people in emails, texts, and phone calls and in-person conversations at some of the handful of haunts in the area that were open and convenient for others to meet me over the past few months. Which includes a handful of the community-minded people reading this blog post today.
So here's the story in slightly more than a nutshell.
Hard-working and concerned residents and a few civic activists of Hallandale Beach -and to be fair, a few well-informed and concerned Broward County insiders who live elsewhere, like me in Hollywood- have been wondering for most of this year about a shoe that never seemed to fall from the sky.
Wondering, mostly, why nobody in the South Florida press corps was the least bit interested in investigating and reporting on YET ANOTHER Hallandale Beach CRA scandal that's been sitting there on a silver platter for nearly all of 2020, just waiting for someone to simply look at the self-evident facts and the public data, and metaphorically kick the tires and connect-the-dots.
Someone who would logically explain why, once again, the elected officials of Hallandale Beach were consciously choosing to spend many tens of thousands of dollars that the State of Florida mandates be used on matters centering chiefly on the removal of (self-evident) blight and slums in this city located in the SE corner of Broward County, right on the Atlantic Ocean.
And certainly I've been talking about it to many people in emails, texts, and phone calls and in-person conversations at some of the handful of haunts in the area that were open and convenient for others to meet me over the past few months. Which includes a handful of the community-minded people reading this blog post today.
So here's the story in slightly more than a nutshell.
Hard-working and concerned residents and a few civic activists of Hallandale Beach -and to be fair, a few well-informed and concerned Broward County insiders who live elsewhere, like me in Hollywood- have been wondering for most of this year about a shoe that never seemed to fall from the sky.
Wondering, mostly, why nobody in the South Florida press corps was the least bit interested in investigating and reporting on YET ANOTHER Hallandale Beach CRA scandal that's been sitting there on a silver platter for nearly all of 2020, just waiting for someone to simply look at the self-evident facts and the public data, and metaphorically kick the tires and connect-the-dots.
Someone who would logically explain why, once again, the elected officials of Hallandale Beach were consciously choosing to spend many tens of thousands of dollars that the State of Florida mandates be used on matters centering chiefly on the removal of (self-evident) blight and slums in this city located in the SE corner of Broward County, right on the Atlantic Ocean.
A city that should be, as I have argued for the soon-to-be 13 years of this blog, MUCH BETTER in all sorts of ways that matter to the people who live and work there and call it home, regardless of race, gender, political sensibility or economic status.
The people I know best and trust the most in Hallandale Beach are long past being tired of continual half-assed PR efforts to make unsatisfactory look passable, and deliberate stupidity look like a policy choice.
Specifically, they've been waiting for someone to investigate why tens of thousands of CRA dollars was given to the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, for what, in the end, seems to have been... nothing but positive PR buzz.
Like self-publishing a vanity book using someone else's money.
No, there would be no unsightly, curb-unfriendly slums in Hallandale Beach to be razed, no HB neighborhoods that would be improved by this transaction.
But it would allow a handful of not-so-sharp elected officials in Broward to once again pat themselves on the back for imagining that they'd pulled the wool over the nearly 40,000 residents of the city and the perpetually sleepwalking news media of South Florida.
The same news media that somehow imagines that whatever happens in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, or over on Miami Beach, always seems to trump all other local news, no matter how banal or cringe-worthy those stories in those two places might be.
Specifically, they've been waiting for someone to investigate why tens of thousands of CRA dollars was given to the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, for what, in the end, seems to have been... nothing but positive PR buzz.
Like self-publishing a vanity book using someone else's money.
No, there would be no unsightly, curb-unfriendly slums in Hallandale Beach to be razed, no HB neighborhoods that would be improved by this transaction.
But it would allow a handful of not-so-sharp elected officials in Broward to once again pat themselves on the back for imagining that they'd pulled the wool over the nearly 40,000 residents of the city and the perpetually sleepwalking news media of South Florida.
The same news media that somehow imagines that whatever happens in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, or over on Miami Beach, always seems to trump all other local news, no matter how banal or cringe-worthy those stories in those two places might be.
Since the local South Florida press corps didn't seem the least bit interested in investigating or reporting on this story involving bad to corrupt public policy and use of public funds, with a lot of curiosity and resolve, and fueled by some hazelnut coffee and a delicious steak + egg sandwich -with bacon!- I connected-the-dots on the latest #HallandaleBeach CRA scandal re $$$ given to #FIU + #SOBEWFF- in one afternoon at the Hollywood Panera Bread on Sheridan Street near where I live, all while listening to a college football game on the radio.
I'll be posting the results in 2021 right here on the blog.
I may even use this issue as a reason to once again start uploading some more original content to my YouTube Channel, after not doing that for many years.
I'd been itching to do that for month, as well as start posting more original content at Instagram, until #COVID19 struck and a lot of election year ideas and plans went by the wayside.
Dave
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