FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Friday, June 14, 2019

Update on #SUP use at #HollywoodBeach under City of Hollywood's experiment that still falls far short of what Hollywood residents expect and want for using their own beach; Haulover Sandbar - a South Florida slice-of-life that makes people who have never been here wish that they were; Cat Uden, Josh Levy, Surfrider Broward, Standup Paddleboard





















Thank you Caitie Switalski at @wlrn for the article and interview that aired on NPR this morning regarding @surfrider campaign to relax restrictions on Hollywood Beach. Ocean Rescue absolutely did not do an extensive survey of laws in other municipalities, so I did the work for them. I compiled a list of what is enforced on many beaches in south Florida. I gave this data to the city commission and Ocean Rescue. I provided names, numbers, and emails. Ocean Rescue chose not to use this data in their presentation to the commission, and public comments were unfortunately not allowed after the presentation. As far as hitting swimmers, Chief Bruce Wilkie has never been able to present any evidence that SUP’s have hurt swimmers at Hollywood Beach. Lifeguards have never ever separated swimmers from paddlers. There have always been swimmers in the paddle/surf zones on Hollywood Beach. And they’ve never had any issues. Same thing with Dania Beach. Dania Ocean Rescue said they’ve never had a conflicts between SUP and bathers. Stand up paddlers travel at a very slow rate of speed. If they were that worried about paddlers, why have they always let swimmers bathe illegally in the “recreation zones.” If lifeguards were concerned about safety, why were they forcing paddlers 300 yards from shore, not knowing that paddler's physical ability or swimming ability? Bathers are extremely friendly when SUPs are around and often want to engage in conversation. They are not incompatible. SUP is good for citizens and for the city. The benefits of allowing SUP far outweighs any tiny possible risk. We are still advocating for a less restrictive plan, and definitely a less complicated plan. The city's current plan is very confusing, even to paddlers that have studied it. They are unsure where they have to remain because it is a patchwork of regulations all down the beach. Surfrider's compromise is much less complicated, and satisfies Ocean Rescue's concerns about the busy Broadwalk. You can write to the Hollywood city commission through this link: https://www.hollywoodfl.org/89/City-Commission 🌊 And Yes, surfing zones were also expanded. 🏄🏾

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More re ./'s common sense proposals for use @ 🌴🏖️🌊 is available at my last two blog post about her:

JANUARY 16, 2019 So proud of two of my newer friends, Morgan Knowles and Cat Uden, for their selfless, enthusiastic and imaginative efforts to keep Broward residents' eyes on the #Environment and natural beauty that sometimes gets taken for granted in South Florida; @mo_seas_, @flipflops365
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/so-proud-of-two-of-my-newer-friends.html

 MARCH 22, 2019
One of the Best Things about #HollywoodFL: Positive change is, in fact, possible, even in getting some common sense changes enacted re #SUP/Stand Up Paddleboard use. It's not perfect, of course, but a nice improvement that can be built upon
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/one-of-best-things-about-hollywoodfl.html

 Below, Cat's recent recent comments before the City of Hollywood City Commission, from her handout before the meeting. Her comments were even more focused and emphatic in-person!

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I'm very happy to see that a very impressive woman I met earlier this year at a City of #HollywoodFL City Commission meeting, someone who's doing some very important #environmental work in #Broward and #SoFL, getting some much deserved attention: Catherine "Cat" Uden. She's on the cover of the new August issue of @hollywoodgazette Cat's fabulous #Instagram page, @flipflops365, includes some amazing photos and videos of her on her #Paddleboard, often with her friends, interacting with the inviting blue and green water and amazing variety of nature that's here that draws so many people to this part of #Florida, and why so many people I know here are #SUP people. This attention befits someone who is such an important voice for positive change in #SouthFlorida, at both @oceana and @surfriderbroward. Cat is currently serving as the Chair of #Broward's Surfrider chapter.
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Catherine "Cat" Uden
Twitter: @UdenCatherine, https://twitter.com/UdenCatherine
Instagram: flipflops365 https://www.instagram.com/flipflops365/
Cat- BOGA Ambassador, SUP Gladiator Race Fins Team, Mom, Surfrider Broward, Oceana, dreaming of O’ahu, views are my own, #teamuden
South Florida Campaign Organizer for Oceana, Twitter @oceana https://twitter.com/oceana

More about Cat's activities with Oceana here:
https://oceana.org/about-oceana/people-partners/oceana-staff/catherine-uden
Catherine believes strongly in a quote by David Suzuki, "unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we can't expect them to help protect and care for it." 


For those of you reading this outside of Florida, especially my friends in Washington, D.C. or over in Sweden and Great Britain, you with your all-too-short summers, this is proof that, yet again, seeing is truly believing
There's a reason that this venue, the Haulover Sandbar, on the Intracoastal Waterway, between Olete State Park to the north and west and to the east, the beach in Sunny Isles/North Miami Beach that I and my two younger sisters grew up going to remains such a popular place to be.

 For many of us, especially those of us who grew up here and then left and returned, in my case for college at Indiana University and a life in Chicago and Washington, D.C., it's one of the Quality of Life reasons that we choose to stay in South Florida and not accept nice job offers back in DC, even with all the nonsense and chaos that you must endure down here on an almost daily basis, whether it's traffic, transportation, government red tape or the frustrating, second-tier or incompetent status of so many local South Florida institutions that fall short of meeting reasonable expectations.

 Because no matter how nice the DC area is, and no matter how many of my funny and smart friends are still living and working there or how how amazing the museums and attractions are there, you simply can't do this on the Potomac River or Lake Michigan in January, or watch #WorldCup soccer on giant screens while wading in water and eating or drinking with your friends and following the action on the screen and the top shelf people-watching all around you. 






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghem7rrAVw8

 Above is Esther's amazing September 2016 video that she shot one Saturday afternoon while with some #SUP friends, picnicking at Oleta State Park and then chilling later at the Haulover Sandbar, with the Intracoastal and sandbar coming into view at about 0:40 seconds into the video. 
I am especially fond of this video of hers because I remember how excited she was when she got home from this outing just a few miles from where we lived in Hollywood Lakes at the time. 

Later that night, or maybe it was early in the morning because we tended to stay up late on weekends, at one point while Esther was editing this video on her desktop computer, she came running -all excited- out into the living room, where I was at the dinner table writing something on my laptop, maybe even for the blog. 
I asked Esther why she was shaking and if anything was wrong. But she told me that she was shaking because she was so happy with her first edit of the raw footage of the video, and how well it was turning out. There was SO MUCH usable footage. And she just couldn't wait for me to see it!  

 So we walked into the room where she kept her desktop and I sat down and watched the video 3-4 times, with Esther getting progressively more animated and anxious as she watched me intently for any hint of what I thought. After seeing enough of it to have an opinion, I got up from the chair and looked her in the eye. 
I smiled and reminded her for the umpteenth time that nobody she knew or would ever know, knew better than I did how amazing and talented she was. 
Told her that nobody had or ever would believe in her and her talents and dreams more fervently than I did, or would work harder to make them come true. 
And then she flashed that amazing smile of hers, which lit up that beautiful face of hers, because she knew that what I was saying was true. Again.

 I told her that I was very proud of her, but that we both knew that when she was finished editing, it would be even MORE amazing and compelling. She grinned that grin of hers that always gets me and said she would stay up all night if she had to in order to have it be as good as she wanted.
But because she's very talented, she didn't have to stay up all night, proving me right again. 

 That talent of Esther's for capturing what fun can be like in South Florida that's so different than almost anywhere else in the country, because of our area's unique and wacky geography, sub-tropical weather and not-always serious mindset, is perfectly captured in this video she spent a few hours on, doing everything herself. 
A video with a South Florida slice-of-life that makes people who have never been here wish that they were.
She is truly amazing.




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In which I get in a quick plug for a friend who offers an amazing Airbnb Experience for a very reasonable price that you and your friends -and visiting family members- won't soon forget. 
A #SUP/#kayak trip along the Miami River at night. #fun

Looking for some out-of-the-ordinary FUN in / 🏖️🌴🌊🍻🍴?
Trust me, this = ! City Lights Night / 🌊 - Experience. Use my code: … … … … And bring your 📸! … …

Dave 



Snapchat: SoBeHoosier

P.S. I was the top tweet on Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nick Kristof's Twitter feed for about 6 or so hours last Tuesday because of the #Tiananmen 30th year anniversary, which because of his 2 Million-plus Followers, generated MUCH MORE traffic than usual for both me and the blog! :-)
More eyeballs for my blog's ads, obviously.
I even heard from some people I hadn't heard from in many years, who saw my tweet RT'd on other twitter feeds.






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Thursday, June 6, 2019

#DDAY75 - So many stories to tell and share, including actor Charles Durning's, but one in particular that connects-the-dots: Four generations of one family remember Great Britain's D-Day heroes






I've been watching Sky News since late last night, early this morning in France, so wanted to share just some of what I've seen and been thinking about all day on this very important day.
























#DDAY75

Four generations remember Britain's D-Day heroes
Sky News
Uploaded on June 6, 2019

Clive Pitt is a D-Day veteran and, as the 75th anniversary of the landings returned, his family - including Sky News presenter Sarah Hewson - heard from him about his journey and made a journey of their own. #DDAY75



















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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Lots of interesting names -and "Usual Suspects"- applying to be named to City of Hollywood's important 15-member General Obligation Bond Oversight Advisory Board today at 3 pm at #HollywoodFL City Hall



Lots of interesting names -and "Usual Suspects"- applying to be named to City of Hollywood's General Obligation Bond Oversight Advisory Board this afternoon at 3 pm at Hollywood City Hall.
Should be interesting listening to folks talk about their qualifications to be on the board.

I will be @ Hollywood City Hall for -and before- GO Bond Advisory Board is selected. 
Come speak to me if you can if you are an applicant.

Can you think outside-of-the-box?  

Do you believe the new Hollywood Police Dept HQ must be next door to their current location on SE corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Park Road on the city-owned golf course, or, are you open to the idea of revisiting the issue? 

 Open to taking a longer term view, i.e. actually placing the new Police Dept HQ in the BEST location to be useful and practical for the largest number of Hollywood residents/businesses for the next 30-40 years, and not limit city to only considering one location because the city happens to own the land now? 

 Why not consider exchanging the corner parcel now occupied by the HPD HQ for another owned by another party in the city that actually might make more sense long-term for the future, and that can offer room for expansion/adaption to changing technology?
Shouldn't finding the best location for it in the future be more important than getting it built ASAP?

Lots of people I know and respect in Hollywood think so, and they are concerned this point of view is not being properly respected at Hollywood City Hall.
Just saying...

My blog post on this subject will be up tomorrow afternoon.





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