Our friend, Hastighetslotteriet, or The Speed Camera Lottery: The fun theory works in Stockholm, but NOT in Joy Cooper's Hallandale Beach, Red-light Camera Central

Hastighetslotteriet - Rolighetsteorin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wMoK0Gxcs
With Swedish subtitles

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The Speed Camera Lottery - The Fun Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iynzHWwJXaA In English

Today's blog post features one of the many interesting public policy ideas that I've had waiting in cold storage in Draft for a few weeks that's finally coming out to play, with more set to come out over the weekend as it gets warmer -until Tuesday's cold front, which may require me wearing some IU sweatshirts while out and about for the first time since February.

Ideas like transportation policy in an auto-centric region of the country like South Florida, where locally, I travel on F-rated roads; traffic synchronization as an overdue dream that never quite becomes a reality because of bureaucracy; South Florida cities using legitimate safety concerns as the raison d'être to install red-light cameras, and then completely ignoring the evidence that they aren't making the community any safer but are expanding the program nonetheless in order to male their individual city halls a tidy sum, or in Hallandale Beach's case, a windfall...


While the sort of positive reinforcement and appeal to the best in human behavior that this Volkswagen-sponsored video demonstrates could conceivably work as an experiment in democratic and orderly Stockholm, here in chaotic South Florida, the land of people who adamantly refuse to follow even the simple common sense rules at grocery stores in order to utilize the 'express line' -ten or less items- in my opinion, it's far too logical and optimistic to ever work in South Florida.

(Or, anywhere in the Sunshine State, where the Florida Sec. of Transportation is Stephanie Kopelousos, a woman I've previously mentioned and taken to task here in this space many times before. While in office, she has largely managed to avoid ever having to actually speak to Florida's beleaguered citizen taxpayers to justify what passes for transportation policy, instead of hob-nobbing with govt. officials or transportation industry types who only want one thing: taxpayer money.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Stephanie%20Kopelousos
http://www.dot.state.fl.us/publicinformationoffice/moreDOT/mission.shtm)

That's especially the case in the South Florida of 2010 where FDOT and Broward County and Miami-Dade government and the MPOs have proven for years that they are constantly unable to predict the all-too-predictable consequences to their efforts on road projects or so-called 'experiments.'
http://www.95express.com/
http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/TestimonyRailroads/2010-05-03-Kopelousos.pdf


That Broward County citizens reside in an area where there's a publicly-known level of pettiness, parochialism and maybe even unethical behavior, but which is ignored by local South Florida TV reporters, is just a reflection of how bad things are down here in terms of both civics and journalism: reporters, editors and producers too lazy to report on a story that is served up to them on a silver platter by the Broward Bulldog's Dan Christensen.
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2010/09/whistleblower-probes-expose-bad-blood-behind-county-mpo-split/


That particular crowd is constantly being surprised at things that almost anyone who knows public policy -or who has common sense about both transportation policy and human behavior- could have told them was absolutely going to happen.
But they never see it coming around the corner, do they?

Instead, embarrassing policy debacles are inevitably followed by pronouncements from PIO's minimizing the jaw-dropping stupidity, forgetting the negative reinforcement that is taking place among the larger South Florida community as yet another govt. effort comes a cropper.

For instance, here in Hallandale Beach, at the Southeast end of Broward County nestled next to the Atlantic Ocean, with Hollywood to the north and Aventura and Miami-Dade county to our south, we have what is arguably one of the most infamous red light camera in the country, on northbound U.S.-1/Federal Highway as it approaches Hallandale Beach Blvd.

Though it was supposedly installed in the name of maximizing public safety on the roads of one of the most traffic-congested corners of all of South Florida, where all the main roads are ALREADY rated F by FDOT using national methodologies and analysis, the actual result was NOT a noticeable increase in public safety at that intersection, but rather a license to print MONEY: $1.3 million in just seven months!

From one camera!

As Channel 4 News correctly noted on their July 13th newscast, which on their website they labeled Hallandale Beach Red Light Cam Generates Big Bucks "The one red light camera there is giving out an average of 700 more tickets every month than all 10 of Miami Beach's cameras combined."
http://miami.cbslocal.com/local/red.light.cameras.2.1802814.html
Unfortunately for my purposes here, that video is now no longer available.

Hallandale Beach Comm. Keith S. London, a friend of mine as most of you know, had it exactly right back in 2007 when the city commission voted 3-2 to pass this:

"The issue didn't come up during a public safety workshop," London said. "It came up during a budget meeting. This is strictly about revenues."

Red light camera in Hallandale Beach has some seeing red 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wl8xGKzfTU

Just to give you a sense of the numbers involved, in Hallandale Beach, red-light camera revenue for July 2010: $119,613.98; violations = 263 right turn on reds and 40 straight through intersection. I remind you, that's from just one camera.

After-the-fact, it's hard NOT to think that the whole public safety issue dialogue that took place here prior to the red-light camera installation was nothing but a shell-game, and the city dealt
themselves Aces while dealing the public nothing but Jokers, as by their own numbers, 94% of all the tickets initially given were for right-turn violations, NOT dangerous red-light runners on U.S.-1.

The fact that the busiest intersection in the entire city, literally, the choke point, is rarely if ever given any permanent police presence, as is common in many other cities at certain times, is a message to residents that City Hall's talk about public safety is just a smokescreen.

Further proof of that is that you are MUCH MORE likely to see Aventura Police giving tickets for speeding in front of Gulfstream Park or the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex than you are to see them from HB Police, even though their own Police Dept. HQ is right across the street!
Trust me, I've got the photos to prove it, too.

The fact that HB City Hall was so wrong about the actual real world results doesn't cause them
to publicly question their earlier votes or even call for its removal.
Far from it!

HB and other South Florida cities that are making out like bandits, unlike has been the case recently in Oxfordhire, with few rare exceptions, has just stood pat and turned the legitimate safety concerns expressed by some citizens completely on their face, and exiled them to public policy Siberia, making their words difficult to hear with a straight face, even where it might be true.

In fact, just the other day, a good friend wrote me quite angrily in parts that he had watched the most recent HB City Commission via the web:

"I was surprised to hear during yesterday's HB City Commission meeting that two additional cameras are about to go into operation. It was the first time that I heard that the original agreement called for 3 cameras not one. So much for openness at City Hall."

In late July, I wrote an email to my usual crowd of friends, concerned civic activists, elected officials and some print and TV reporters alerting them to something that I had picked upon some three weeks earlier at a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting that was discussing their infamous red-light camera, which I walk, bike or drive by a few times everyday, and which you may not know, I took photos of the day they installed it, because I knew what a lightning rod it would become.
And how!

Part of that was directly due to the city's lack of adequate publicity, compared to Aventura's, just down the road, with their huge sign and their warning period, which was discussed in newspapers and on local Miami TV newscasts for a few weeks before they started enforcing it.

That made for quite a contrast with Hallandale Beach's clumsiness, whose sign doesn't mention the city by name, only a drawing of a traffic light, and which you don't even see until it is to your immediate right as you drive past it, obstructed as it is by a bus shelter, even though Broward County buses no longer use it. (Yeah, that's what passes for normal here.)

At this City Commission meeting, HB Police Chief Thomas A Magill -whom as most of you who come here frequently know, I loathe, to put it lightly- was going thru his paces in his verbal testimony from the dais to not only keep the status quo but expand upon it, echoing the usual BS about safety.

Then, rather amazingly, Magill said that there'd been an accident at that intersection recently, a fatality.

Well, this was news to me and everyone else in the Commission Chambers, so I leaned forward towards the seat in front of me to get a better listen, but nobody up on the dais commented on what Magill said to get any more specifics, which seemed not only odd but counter-intuitive. 
But then this is Hallandale Beach, after all!


Finally, Comm. Keith London got his opportunity to speak on the subject and after some careful proddding, whether intentional or not, got Magill to admit that the accident he alluded to earlier with the fatality, actually happened elsewhere, at U.S.-1 and S.E. 3rd Street, right near the entrance to Gulfstream Park Race Track and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex, and HB City Hall, one short block away.

It actually had nothing at all to do with the red-light camera issue -the subject at hand.

It was classic mendacious Thomas Magill!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Thomas%20A.%20Magill
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Thomas%20Magill
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel

HALLANDALE TO MOUNT RED-LIGHT CAMERAS -
3-2 VOTE APPROVES NEGOTIATIONS WITH INSTALLATION FIRM

Thomas Monnay Staff Writer

September 2, 2007

Run a red light? Soon the city will know.

The city is negotiating with American Traffic Solutions, of St. Louis, Mo., to install red-light cameras at some intersections.

"I've been fighting for it for three years," Mayor Joy Cooper said. "It's for safety reasons."The decision to negotiate, approved Wednesday by a 3-2 vote, comes as Pembroke Pines works on a similar initiative with American Traffic. Palm Beach County officials are considering it as well.

Although Orange County and Gulf Breeze near Pensacola already have the cameras, the state refuses to endorse them, saying they violate people's privacy.
Supporters, however, say the cameras are no different than those the state installed at tollbooths to catch drivers not paying mandated fees.

"I don't look at this as a right-to-privacy issue," Vice Mayor Bill Julian said. "When we go through the tollbooths, our pictures are taken anyway. In the interest of public safety, I can't wait to see them. The sooner, the better."

Commissioner Keith London, who opposed the decision, said cameras would cause more rear-end accidents by drivers who prematurely slam on their brakes to avoid running red lights.

"The issue didn't come up during a public safety workshop," London said. "It came up during a budget meeting. This is strictly about revenues."
He said the city should instead concentrate on improving intersections and synchronizing lights to help move traffic smoothly.London said after the city works out a contract with American Traffic, it would pass a law allowing the cameras and resulting fine collections.

Still being resolved are how many cameras there would be and where they would be installed. Cooper said two key locations are the intersections of Hallandale Beach Boulevard with Dixie Highway and 10th Avenue.

Cooper said the cameras would be installed on private property since the state won't allow them on its rights of way.

Instead of a traffic citation, violators would be notified by mail of a city code violation and told to pay a $100 fine, Cooper said. Drivers wouldn't lose points on their license because the citations would be issued against vehicles involved in the violation, not their drivers.

"This will teach people to be better drivers," Julian said.

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http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-07-10/news/fl-red-light-cameras-mayocol-b071110-20100709_1_red-light-cameras-dwayne-flournoy-easy-money
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Rolling right turn could cost you $158 
Red-light cameras are helping Hallandale Beach raise $1 million
Michael Mayo, News Columnist
July 10, 2010

In theory, red-light cameras are supposed to be about safety, curbing reckless drivers from blowing through intersections at high speeds.

But the reality at one South Florida intersection seems more like a game of "Gotcha," with an astounding 93 percent of violations going to unwitting drivers making rolling right turns on red.

"This feels like a money grab," said Phil Kodroff, one of almost 11,000 drivers to get snagged by Hallandale Beach's red-light camera since it started snapping away in January.

The city's take by mid-June: almost $1 million.

"Let's be honest about it, we're here to gouge you," said Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London, an opponent of red-light cameras. "To say it's about public safety is pretty disingenuous. It's all about the revenue."

Love them or hate them, the cameras soon will become fixtures of South Florida life. Now that the devices have gotten the green light from the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist, more cash-strapped cities will be turning to them for easy money.

In the past week, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Boynton Beach have moved forward with plans to install cameras.

They will join Hallandale Beach, Pembroke Pines and West Palm Beach, which already have cameras running. Royal Palm Beach installed cameras in November but has been issuing only warnings; fines likely will start by September.

Under the law that took effect July 1, fines for the first offense increased to $158 from $125, with the money now divided between the state and cities.

"The mentality of the South Florida driver is going to have to change," said Mark Antonio, interim city manager of Hallandale Beach.

Said Hallandale Beach Police Maj. Dwayne Flournoy: "It's the 'Halo effect.' If you get compliant at one intersection, your behavior will change at all the others."

Kodroff, of Hollywood, said his behavior has changed: He is avoiding Hallandale Beach's camera intersection at Federal Highway and Hallandale Beach Boulevard, along with the businesses on that corridor.

After a steak dinner at the Gulfstream Park casino complex May 22, Kodroff thought he had an uneventful drive home to his beachfront condo.

A month later, he opened his mail to find a $125 ticket.

His speed when he made the right on red onto Hallandale Beach Boulevard, according to the violation notice: "0."

"It's not sensible," Kodroff said. "I hit my brakes, I thought I came to a full stop."

Michael Mayo's follow-up blog post to this was:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2010/07/with_redlight_cameras_does_yel.html----

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Daily Pulp blog
Rolling Red-Light Camera Scourge Shames Miami-Dade
By Bob Norman,
July 24 2010 @ 6:05PM

Red-light cameras, when misused by idiotic and irresponsible public officials, can be one of the great scourges of America. That much is fact. Even when they are used with some semblance of jurisprudence, they might be flat-out illegal. We'll just have to see how the court challenges turn out.

But in the wrong hands, they can be downright evil. Check out this Miami Herald story on the poor people of Aventura -- and all others who drive in that city -- who are getting shaken down by their own government for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. Their "crime": Rolling a red light on a right turn. You do it all the time even if you don't know it. You come up on an intersection, see there's no cars coming, and never quite come to a complete stop.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/07/rolling_red-light_camera_scour.php
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South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Mayo on the Side blog of Broward news columnist Michael Mayo
Red-light cameras: Big drop in Hallandale Beach with new state lawBy Michael Mayo
August 16, 2010 10:29 AM
Hallandale Beach's lone red-light camera has generated more than $1.3 million in fines since starting in January, but the latest monthly figures show a big decrease in violations for slow-rolling right turns with a new state law in effect.

Starting July 1, cities were no longer supposed to cite offenders who made right turns "in a careful and prudent manner."
Before July 1, cities could fine anybody who didn't come to a complete stop before an intersection.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/2010/08/redlight_cameras_big_drop_in_h.html-----
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/09/1866038/red-light-violations-take-detour.html

Miami Herald
Red-light violations take detour into court
By David Ovalle
October 9, 2010

The video-camera footage showed Dean Dadic's BMW running a red light. Guilty, the judge decided. Aventura slammed Dadic with a $125 fine -- even though he produced paperwork showing he wasn't behind the wheel that day.
"I had no recourse, even though I proved I wasn't driving,'' Dadic complained after a recent hearing at Aventura City Hall, where the video screen warns motorists: "You must stop for all red lights.''
Thanks to a new state law, however, drivers like Dadic who contest controversial red-light violations in city halls across South Florida will soon have relief: In coming weeks, the hearings will shift from municipal control to regular traffic court, where violations will be harder to prove.
South Florida judges and lawyers believe traffic court will dispense fairer and more independent decisions -- along with basic due process that critics said was lacking.
Miami-Dade, for instance, will dismiss citations for two of the most common and controversial infractions: rolling right-hand turns where the driver attempts a "careful and prudent'' stop, and tickets against vehicle owners who prove they weren't behind the wheel.
Red-light cameras have been a hot-button issue since cities across Florida began installing cameras at intersections and then mailing municipal code violations to surprised drivers.
The number of cases figure to grow as the camera programs have expanded throughout South Florida, including Pembroke Pines, Hallandale Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Hialeah, West Palm Beach and Miami Gardens. Coming soon: Hollywood and Davie.
Critics said the citations were heavy-handed cash grabs. A slew of lawsuits followed, and in February, a Miami-Dade judge ruled that Aventura's enforcement system -- the first in Miami-Dade -- circumvented state traffic laws. An appeal is pending.
But advocates, including Aventura officials, maintain that the red-light cameras are designed to reduce accidents rather than generate revenue, and say statistics back them up.
Since September 2008, when the cameras went up, crashes in Aventura dropped by 200, about 15 percent for the nearly two-year period ending Aug. 26.
"I think the results bear out the fact that the intent of the City Commission was always to put the [cameras] in for the safety of the motorists,'' City Manager Eric Soroka said.
In response to the uproar, the Florida Legislature passed a new law that made red-light camera infractions a state violation. The statute went into effect July 1, but cases are just now trickling into the state system.
In Miami-Dade, the court could receive about 50,000 new cases over the next year, according to County Court Judge Steve Leifman, head of the already taxed traffic division. Between five and 15 new hearing officers -- lawyers trained to preside over traffic citation cases -- will be hired at a combined salary of more than $70,000 for the first year.
Broward County, which so far has few operating red-light cameras, will devote one court session a week to its trickle of citations. No additional hearing officers will be hired unless cities operating cameras help defray the costs, said Broward County Judge Robert W. Lee, who oversees the traffic division.
The state law allows a police agency to issue citations to drivers who run red lights at intersections, using video cameras that capture the back of a vehicle. Citations are mailed to the registered owner of the car.
For 30 days, the $158 ticket remains just a fine. When it is paid, the money is split between the city that issued it and the state's general revenue fund. If a recipient fights or ignores it, the ticket morphs into a moving violation and has the potential to affect a motorist's driving record.
For now, cities are still holding hearings on citations that were issued before July 1. Held in government buildings, the hearings are lambasted by drivers as unfair and biased.
Arlene Segal, at the recent Aventura hearing, unsuccessfully argued against three violations for failing to stop while turning right on red.
"Officer, would you have stopped her if you had seen her?'' asked special master Raquel Rothman, a real estate and probate lawyer appointed by the city to preside over the cases.
"Yes, ma'am,'' replied a uniformed police officer, overlooking the conference room from behind a laptop-equipped podium.
Segal left with more than $600 in fines.
"The deck is definitely stacked against you,'' she said. ``It's intimidating for the average person.''
In the new setting at Miami-Dade's Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, 1351 NW 12th St., Judge Leifman hopes the process will be perceived as wholly independent. Hearing officers, who undergo 40 hours of special training, will preside from behind an elevated judicial bench.
A screen will be set up so that officers may present the video evidence. In Broward County, hearings will be held at Deerfield Beach courthouse, the only facility with space.
Leifman said fewer people will be found guilty of right-turn violations, because the new statute says a driver is in the clear as long as they ``turn in a careful and prudent'' manner.
And unlike the city hearings, Leifman said, defendants who can reasonably prove they were not behind the wheel won't be punished -- or pressured to identify the real driver.
"If someone didn't do it, my hearing officers are not likely to find them guilty if the state can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were the driver,'' Leifman said.
South Florida ticket attorneys, while happy the hearings are now in state court, still chafe at the camera concept. They say replacing the discretion of a live officer with a video camera will raise serious questions for appeal courts -- including how authorities notify alleged violators.
Drivers are not handed tickets by police officers, but are mailed citations. So if a mailing address is wrong, citizens could face a license suspension if the violation goes unpaid or uncontested.
Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa, whose department operates red-light cameras at seven intersections, said citations are sent to the current registration address.
"At the end of the day, you assume responsibility for that car. People who are driving are not children -- they are responsible for making sure their registration, their licenses and their insurance is up to date,'' he said.
Regardless of the mechanics, traffic-ticket lawyers above all object to replacing a police officer with a video camera that only captures a vehicle's rear view.
Because no image of the driver is captured, the cameras unfairly force a vehicle owner to prove they weren't behind the wheel, said attorney Bret Lusskin, who successfully sued Aventura over its camera citations.
"The fact is, this turns American law on its head,'' he said. "A person who is accused of violating the law is presumed innocent until the state proves them guilty.''
Miami Herald staff writer Howard Cohen contributed to this report.

See also:

BBC 24 November 2010 Last updated at 00:24 ET
RAC Foundation report backs speed camera safety benefit
Speed camera Some councils have decided to get rid of their speed cameras because of a lack of funding

Some 800 more people a year could be killed or seriously injured on the UK's roads if all speed cameras were scrapped, a report has suggested.

Read the rest of the story at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11826295
See also:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/07/rothstein_cops_pay_little_pric.php

http://redlightrevolt.com/

Keith London's official website: www.KeithLondon.com

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A story from KDVR-TV, Fox 31 in Denver

Photo Radar red light camera license plate spray

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_e2BC_kXis


See also: http://www.rolighetsteorin.se/
Other finalist submissions and past Fun Theory videos
http://www.rolighetsteorin.se/finalister

City-sponsored 'Fashion Row' meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at Dekka in Hallandale Beach

The City of Hallandale Beach is hosting a 'Fashion Row' meeting tonight at 6 p.m. at Dekka, 139 N.E. 1st Avenue, Hallandale Beach.
It's long overdue!

To me and many other concerned residents of this southeast Broward County city, it sounds exactly like something that... well, in another city, would've already been taking place at least once a year since the Fashion Row idea started, whenever that was while I was working up in Washington, D.C.

My reason for mentioning this now, at this rather late date, is that I just recently found out about it on Tuesday night, and I want as many articulate and impassioned people as possible to make plans to show-up and demand some accountability, since the red-tape overkill and lack of clarity by Code Compliance at Hallandale Beach City Hall is literally killing businesses and jobs here.

It's something that lots of people in town are talking about more and more openly and frequently in restaurants and other meeting places, and many believe that City Hall has been guilty of being too blase about this simmering dis-satisfaction.
Well, now it's all in the open.

I don't currently own a business here in town but in talking to friends and trusted activists in HB who do, it's clear that there are far too many nonsensical sections of the code compliance manual in this city that rather than serve some self-evident public safety or building safety aspect that everyone would support, actually serve to frustrate small business owners who want to improve their property and become more competitive.
And stand out!

Their ability to survive is in question, and un-necessary permit costs and fines are the very thing that will cause them to either move or close-up shop, and there are too few big-picture minded business owners in HB as it is, we can't lose the ones we have.

Just to give you some sense of the dis-connect, as I've mentioned in this space previously, as of today, there are a couple of dozen Fashion Row directional signs still standing, but STILL ZERO of the HB Chamber of Commerce, which you can't find unless you go to City Hall, park your car in the parking lot and walk past their entrance opposite the breezeway from City Hall.
Another genius marketing move -NOT!

Echoing comments I've made here and at City Commission meetings, there's nothing about the location of the CoC anywhere in the city, not even right out front on U.S-1 despite the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars that have flowed their way, averaging about $50,000 a year, with very little to show for it in the way of tangible results.

I wonder if their Patricia Genneti will have the nerve to show her smug face at the meeting and, ironically, face the music?
I suspect she will be a no-show, even though she is exactly the sort of character who needs to be held to account.

I can hardly wait 'til I hear the questions about the rampant and rapidly-expanding graffiti problem and the city's invisible effort to combat it, not only near the businesses along the F.E.C. railroad tracks and Hallandale Beach Blvd., but all down U.S.-1/Federal Highway, where it is on nearly single every light and traffic pole and bus shelter on U.S.-1 all the way down to Aventura Hospital, just as it was early last year on the east side before The Village at Gulfstream Park opened.

"HGS" positively owns U.S.-1!

I've been taking photos of the problem for years and the fact that the Nick's restaurant parking lot sign on 1st Avenue is completely covered with 'tags' is embarrassing in the extreme.

I'll post some of them here in the next few days when I can lay them out in a way that gives more context to you readers so it'll be clear why this news is so very troublesome.

It often seems that these sorts of Quality-of-Life issues are ignored and forgotten almost as soon as HB City Hall hears about them, as that's been my experince over the past seven years, even when I've connected-the-dots to City Hall officials in excruciating detail.
At City Hall!

Tonight's meeting should be pretty fiery and I plan on being there.


View Larger Map

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=139+N.E.+1st+Avenue,+Hallandale+Beach&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=139+NE+1st+Ave,+Hallandale+Beach,+Broward,+Florida+33009&gl=us&ei=4BABTc7KMIKClAeNkaDnCA&oi=geocode_result&ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA&z=16

Being Shanghaied never looked SO stylish - H&M Fashion Video: My Shanghai; World's largest H&M is opening in Las Vegas on Saturday on the Vegas Strip

My Shanghai - H&M Fashion Video - The H&M film crew tags along with fashion designer and entrepreneur Lûlû Han as she shows you some of the sights and sounds of her professional and personal life in Shanghai.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df_t0kzByCI


As of Saturday, there will be 3 H&M's in Las Vegas and 3 in the entire state of Florida: Orlando, Palm Beach Gardens and Sanford.
If only the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex here in Hallandale Beach had one! That'd bring in the customers!
C'est la vie.

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Las Vegas Sun
World’s largest H&M store will open Saturday in Las Vegas
By Amanda Finnegan
December 8, 2010 3:46 p.m.

The largest H&M store in the world is scheduled to open Saturday on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Swedish clothing retailer will open its doors in the recently closed FAO Schwarz location at the Forum Shops at Caesars.

The three-level, 55,000-square-foot store will house women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, shoes and accessories.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/dec/08/countrys-largest-hm-store-will-open-saturday-las-v/


H&M YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/hennesandmauritz

H&M U.S. locator http://www.hm.com/us/__start.nhtml#/start/

Don't say you weren't warned: the City of Opa-Locka is set to declare war on saggy pants on Wednesday night. But will they go 'Urkel' code red?

WMC-TV, Memphis, TN: Threat of being "Urkeled" keeps students from sagging
http://www.wmctv.com/global/category.asp?c=195967&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5357200&flvUri=&partnerclipid=
Story at: http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13625348

Don't say you weren't warned: the City of Opa-Locka is set to declare war on saggy pants on Wednesday night, December 8th.

Notice above was published in Miami Herald on 11/28/2010.

http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/ads.aspx?adid=10208940&advid=268710&type=

See also: The Racial Undertones of Baggy Pants Laws
by Matt Kelley April 14, 2009 04:43 PM (PT0 at
http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/the_racial_undertones_of_baggy_pants_laws
and
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnlyinAmerica/story?id=3519569

Amusing video of Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban serenading (roasting) pal Simon Baker of CBS-TV's The Mentalist at G’Day USA 2010 Black Tie Gala in LA

Expressen TV's video: Se Kidmans galna duett med maken
Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban serenading (roasting) pal Simon Baker of CBS-TV's The Mentalist at G’Day USA 2010 Black Tie Gala in LA in January.
http://tv.expressen.se/noje/1.1849391/se-kidmans-galna-duett-med-maken
This video has a Swedish V.O. but the excerpts of the gala are in English.

Also appearing in video above: actress Cameron Diaz, golfer Greg Norman, actress Toni Colette. Simon Baker and Toni Collette received the Excellence in Television and Film Award. A longer clip of this event -in English- from Access Hollywood is located at the bottom of this post.

I first became a big fan of Simon Baker in The Guardian on CBS-TV in 2001, recording every episode on my VCR when I lived up in Arlington (VA) and watching them over-and-over because of the consistently high-quality of the acting and creator David Hollander's writing.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048932/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian_%28TV_series%29

It was always powerful stuff and in my opinion, the story-lines were definitely the most-realistic on TV, esp. the episodes that depicted people you (Baker) help eventually turning on you and resenting you, despite what you've done.
Wow! Been there!

Sometimes, quite frankly, the dialogue between Baker and Dabney Coleman, who masterfully played his emotionally-distant father, sounded eerily similar to awkward conversations I had had with my own father when he tried to verbally or emotionally undermine some career events I was involved with.

One episode in particular, Heart, Season 1, Episode 8 -with guest star JoBeth Williams as Coleman's girlfriend- gave me some added insight into someone I knew because of how well a particular personal relationship was depicted in the show, which exactly mirrored an awkward relationship I'd previously dealt with. Except now, it all made sense to me!

The Guardian - Heart - Nick & Lesley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3p0lfGSUw0

The Guardian - Heart - Court & End Scenes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNPTHlunZ3M

Simon Baker on The Late Show with David Letterman, 9/23/2009, CBS-TV

"That'll learn ya!"

LOL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCFSI2Xhz2A


Expressen TV homepage http://tv.expressen.se/

Expressen News homepage http://tv.expressen.se/nyheter

http://www.youtube.com/user/GDay2011

http://www.accesshollywood.com/

Access Hollywood video: It’s A ‘G’Day’ For Simon Baker & Toni Collette

South Florida's apathetic news media; Giving credit where credit is rightly due: Buddy Nevins: "Blogger Chaz Stevens Scores Again"

Above, photo of Hallandale Beach Water Tower and so-called North Beach/A1A Community Center. July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

It should be a positive and dynamic resource, not a storage closet on the beach!
I've been meaning to bring your attention since last week to Buddy Nevins' spot-on blog post at Broward Beat, titled simply, Blogger Chaz Stevens Scores Again, as it underscores a point that I've been wanting to make here on the blog for quite some time.

While I was, of course, happy to see Chaz finally get some overdue credit where credit is rightly due, that dispatch, good as it was, could've easily been written any number of times in the recent past by others in the South Florida news media if they'd been more curious, were paying more attention and were, frankly, more professional and savvy.
To me, what makes that piece last week unusual is not so much where it appeared so much as that it took so long for it to ever appear anywhere.

In other parts of the country, that is to say, one where the majority of the news media professionals are NOT so inclined to be spoon-fed information when they show-up at a public meeting to compensate for having done so very little homework prior to walking thru the door -as seems to be the case in South Florida, based on my own personal observations the past seven years- Chaz Stevens would have an even higher profile than he does now.
And would be a valuable resource that someone would be smart enough to want to help from time-to-time to keep information about public policy issues coming out.
And everyone concerned would benefit, most especially, the public -taxpayers.

In that part of the world where common sense, logic and reason STILL makes personal appearances once in a while, someone in the local news media, especially at a TV station that imagines itself savvy on the investigative front, would've been smart enough to know how to use the valuable information that Chaz digs up thru dint of personal effort -at personal expense- and know how to actually carry the ball forward from that point on.

Many former South Florida TV reporters you and I could all name -Ike Seamans, Susan Candiotti,et al- would know exactly how to get the facts in Deerfield Beach gleaned by Chaz dispersed to the greatest number of South Florida TV viewers in an informative and
perhaps even amusing way.

Perhaps by using video of certain pols voting one way in public and claiming no conflicts of interest, yet money still somehow winding-up in their own pocket, their family's or those of pals and cronies.

Those two reporters were expert at coming to people under scrutiny with all the facts and asking them to explain them all away -on camera- just like the golden age of Sixty Minutes in the 1970's and '80's.

Here, it's a simple case of one person who's been paying attention -Chaz- having bought all the ingredients and making it easy for the South Florida news media to put it all in the oven for the appropriate amount of time.
It's not rocket science! After besides, the oven does all the hard work.

But instead, the continual problem that I and my friends Chaz and Micheal Butler and some other South Florida bloggers and civic activists that I could name here share with the South Florida news media, is the one for which there is seemingly no cure for in the year 2010.
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/http://web.me.com/mike.butler/Change_Hallandale/Updates/Updates.html

How do you fix the South Florida news media's longstanding apathy, lack of curiosity, lack of effort and even the inability of them to seriously think thru a situation to see the possible consequences, given certain options?
In short, what to do if the South Florida news media simply doesn't care?

On a personal level, how do you combat their apathy, other than simply by de-listing certain print reporters, columnists, editors and TV producers and reporters from your email list if they consistently fail to respond to the self-evident, fact-based material that you give them on a silver platter, often with photos or links to video?

Well, I've already deleted plenty of them because certain print and TV reporters have made it abundantly clear that they don't really want to hear from readers or viewers who actually know something of public interest, despite all the faux encouragement on their websites that they do.
You can't make reporters, columnists and producers curious or conscientious if they aren't already.
You'd think that natural competitiveness would drive at least some of them to try to get the most interesting and compelling stories in print or on the tube ASAP, right?
In the abstract, that's true.
But that abstract idea of journalism simply DOESN'T exist in South Florida.

Consistent, rigorous fair-minded reporting is something glimpsed from time-to-time, but it's often but a dream, and usually disappears moments later.

Some members of the South Florida news media that I've met and otherwise observed from close distance over the past seven years are, indeed, very professional, and exactly like what you hoped they'd be like.
They give you some solace when things look bad that at least some people really do seem to be in the business for the right reasons.

But these few people in South Florida-very few- are doing the vast majority of the real heavy lifting for everyone else, and often are given to apologizing for their colleagues down here who evince a more, well, dis-interested approach to news, when you speak with them in private.
Trust me, this apologia happens much more often than you imagine.

But sadly for South Florida citizens, the truth is that the media industry people these true professionals are often apologizing for are almost comically disconnected to reality.
At times, seeing in-person how clueless they are, their inability to formulate good probing questions that can lead to rich sources of information being made public, is downright scary and jaw-dropping.

It's almost as if they seem to imagine that they are merely practicing for what they foolishly imagine will be some lucrative PR gig for themselves in the future.

As if they don't really see the gigantic dis-connect staring back at them in the mirror -their own lack of curiosity and willingness to follow-up on information they are already given.
And they want to be on the other side?

They're the very reporters you WOULDN'T contact with information on behalf of a PR client!

Let me give you a perfect example of this lack of media curiosity, if by perfect, you mean one that causes me and other concerned citizens in this community great consternation and distress. I do.

Last Friday, December 3rd, was the 40th-month anniversary of the so-called Hallandale Beach Community Center on State Road A1A being given to the citizens of this city by the developers of The Beach Club, which had used it for their sales office and as a 'model.'
It has been CLOSED continuously to this city's citizen taxpayers to whom the facility belongs,
for all but one day in those 40 MONTHS, July 24, 2010, a city-sponsored Parks & Rec Master Plan meeting that I attended.
See my post on that meeting with photos at: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/final-hallandale-beach-parks-rec-master.html

Photos by South Beach Hoosier

Photos by South Beach Hoosier

Looking west at the so-called North Beach Community Center that Hallandale Beach City Hall resuses to allow its own citizens to use.
For years, I've written multiple emails and blog posts about it, with photos and video, and sent information not only to the responsible officials and other concerned citizens, but to the South Florida news media.

A new two-story building off of A1A, located below an iconic landmark, the HB Water Tower that is just steps from the Atlantic Ocean, and that was given to the city for FREE over three years ago, REMAINS CLOSED to the very people who ought to be using it every day -the residents and taxpayers of this city.

It's a new facility near the beach that land-locked cities like Hialeah, Pembroke Pines, Doral, Miramar and others would kill to have the opportunity to have, and yet here in Hallandale Beach, it has remained closed to citizens, even while it has been used by cronies of HB City Hall for their use, usually parties and fundraisers.
But what about a public building being open to the public?
Did you see that story last week in the Miami Herald or in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel or on ANY of the Miami TV station newscasts?

No, you didn't, because the South Florida news media may talk a good game about being sophisticated news professionals, but in general, they fire nothing but blanks.
The South Florida news media has completely ignored the story that is just staring at everyone on the beach.
But if this happened in Coral Gables, do you think that it would be ignored for 40 months?
I don't.
That's where South Florida's concerned residents all live in the year 2010, in a landscape largely populated by an incurious and hibernating news reporters, editors and producers.

------
Broward Beat
Blogger Chaz Stevens Scores Again
By Buddy Nevins

Chaz Stevens is the face of the new media.
Not me. I’m the old media working on the Internet.

Stevens, with no experience in journalism listed on his biography, has brought Deerfield Beach City Hall to its knees. He is the the new version of a city hall gadfly– electronically empowered, fighting the power structure with bits and bytes.

This week he got more results.

Read the rest of the post at:http://www.browardbeat.com/blogger-chaz-stevens-scores-again/

Above, September 2008 photo of Hallandale Beach Water Tower by South Beach Hoosier.

Now, though, as you can see in my photos below, it's just an airy storage room for stacked-up chairs, albeit in a room that just happens to be steps from the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.Pathetic!
Above, July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking east from front door of HB A1A Community Center. The Palm trees you see thru the window are on the beach.

Above, July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking north from window of HB A1A Community Center, opposite The Beach Club condo towers.

Above, July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking west from window of HB A1A Community Center, reflecting the Palm trees behind me and the Atlantic Ocean less than 80 yards behind me. The color teal you see is the bottom of the Water Tower outside the front door.

A two-story facility with an observation area on the roof that is but a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean, one that other towns and cities in South Florida would positively kill to have, which was given to Hallandale Beach for free, and yet under Mayor Joy Cooper and former City Manager Mike Good and present City Manager Mark Antonio, for 40 very long months, it's been strictly off-limits to its rightful owners, the citizen taxpayers of Hallandale Beach.

I'll have more news about this facility in the days ahead and who will be using it
before New Years Day.
One guess: NOT the Hallandale Beach citizen taxpayers who own it.

Nothing like a romantic weekend getaway at the Stacy Ritter suite at the Westin Diplomat! Esp. when your political contributors are paying for it.

Above, June 3, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, Hollywood, FL. It's located about three miles from me, on the the beach. This view is from SW of the hotel as seen from State Road A1A thru a slightly wet car window.

Bob Norman's recent spate of stories on Broward County Comm. Stacy Ritter and her days of reckoning with the Florida Comm. on Ethics have been esp. instructive, not only in depicting the unappealing aspects of the dysfunctional Broward County political culture and the rather creepy and sordid people who inhabit it, but also the resolutely galling sense of entitlement of folks like Ritter and what they believe passes for normal.

His latest dispatch, below, is no exception.

BrowardPalmBeach New Times
Daily Pulp blog
More Ritter-Klenet Campaign Expenses: $2,189 At Diplomat Hotel
By Bob Norman,
Sunday, December 5 2010 @ 11:27AM ​

Among the many whopping charges reimbursed by Stacy Ritter's 2008 campaign account for herself and her lobbyist husband Russell Klenet were two at the swank Diplomat Hotel & Spa totaling $2,189.14 -- including one for $1,889.31.

Over $1,000 was spent during four shopping trips at The Fresh Market, an upscale grocer that happens to have a notably fine wine and meat selection.

Curiously, the couple like to have alleged "campaign dinners" in Boca Raton in Palm Beach County. A visit to Chop's Lobster Bar in Boca Raton ran $682.20. Another dinner well outside of the district happened at Emeril's Miami Beach where a $769.80 charge was racked up. Let's not forget the $156.89 charge for a limo service, Carey International, Inc.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/12/stacy_ritter_campaign_expenditures.php

Archives of Bob Norman columns:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/author.php?author_id=202