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

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Temporary placeholder for The Related Group's preposterous plan to ruin Hollywood Beach forever in exchange for a few dollars that won't actually lower anyone's taxes, contrary to Related's simple-minded assertions


I'm still working on my account of what took place all day Wednesday at Hollywood City Hall.

Both in front of the cameras and the public as well as online and below-the-radar regarding The Related Group's preposterous effort to build an incompatible 26-story luxury condo tower for multi-millionaires on PUBLIC LAND on #HollywoodBeach, so I'm leaving this collection of my Wednesday morning, afternoon and evening tweets here as a placeholder, to let you know that I'll have something here on Friday that will be full of facts, insight and ideas you can't find anywhere else in South Florida.

The lack of media attention this issue generated on local Miami TV stations in terms of LIVE reports from the scene or on 11 pm newscasts, and the general sense of incuriosity at The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, is just a sign of what has happened to any pretense that this was a major media market for serious news coverage. It isn't any longer, and hasn't been true for at least 15 years.

Too many local reporters in South Florida seem to aspire to be well-paid publicists for large companies, and deal with life at an arms-length. The sooner many of them resign or retire from "journalism" the better off everyone here will be.

I should have something up here on the blog and on my Facebook page Saturday by Noon.








South Florida Business Journal
Related Group returns to Hollywood with smaller proposal for oceanfront condo
By Brian Bandell  –  Senior Reporter, South Florida Business Journal
March 16, 2022

The Related Group will make another attempt at winning approval to build a condo on a public beach site in Hollywood, but the terms of the deal and size of the project have been revised.

The City Commission declined to move the project forward Feb. 3 during a long hearing featuring hours of public comments mostly against the project. On March 16, the City Commission will vote on the 99-year lease and development deal with revised terms. Four of the five commissioners must agree.

Read the rest of the article at:

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South Florida Sun Sentinel
Editorial
Reject Hollywood high-rise condos, once and for all
March 16, 2022

Hollywood City Commissioner Caryl Shuham told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that public comments continue to run roughly 10 to 1 against a proposed deal for a private high-rise condominium complex on the city's public beachfront.

That's no surprise.

Six weeks ago, the commission nearly killed the deal at 3 a.m. after 10 hours of discussion. But enough commissioners gave Related Group of Florida and the city another chance to make the agreement work better for the city.

It still doesn't work well enough.


Read the rest of the editorial at:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-related-hollywood-condo-project-20220315-qizwwmz72veozhfdzgnup5klse-story.html

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https://www.change.org/p/hollywood-city-commission-hollywood-residents-opposed-to-high-rise-on-public-land-at-azalea-terrace




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Friday, February 25, 2022

President Biden chooses Miami's #KetanjiBrownJackson for historic #SCOTUS nomination. 🌴 Pick would make the 1988 Miami Palmetto HS grad the 1st Black woman on nation’s high court if confirmed. Her father worked as an attorney for Miami-Dade School Board, and her mother was a HS principal. She's a real dynamo!




Above is my tweet from earlier this afternoon,
https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1497291445644017668 and at the bottom and at my Facebook page, I have complete copies of the first two Miami Herald articles that ever mentioned Ketanji Brown Jackson specifically in some fashion other than simply as someone on a list of members of the excellent Palmetto HS debating team, which came in second place in a national competition in Baltimore in 1986. 

(I lived in what is now Palmetto Bay one summer when I was back from Bloomington for the summer from college at IU -Indiana University- when I lived a few blocks from The Fall Shopping Center on S. Dixie Highway and S.W. 136th Street.) 

That 1987 Herald article which quotes her is about... offshore oil drilling in Florida.

It's the second article, though, from 1988, that is even more prescient, given what has happened to her today. 😉


ICYMI: #HollywoodFL and #HallandaleBeach City Commissions seem completely oblivious to a looming education crisis this Fall as several Broward Schools there could be merged, "overhauled," or closed due to a steady decline in student enrollment
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2022/02/hollywoodfl-and-hallandalebeach-city.html 

Dave 

David B. Smith  


Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 


Miami Herald
SECRETARY IS GRILLED ON POLICIES
By TERESA SMITH, Herald Staff Writer
October 4, 1987

U.S. Interior Secretary Donald Hodel, who is under intense criticism from Florida politicians, got the same treatment last week from Palmetto High School students.

After he gave a brief speech about the Interior Department and what it does, a panel of eight seniors questioned the secretary, who was in Miami on Thursday and Friday, with pointed questions about the environment.

"Oil and water don't mix," said Ketanji Brown, who asked why the department is endangering Florida's irreplaceable reefs by permitting offshore oil drilling.

Under Hodel's plan, waters off the Florida Keys would be leased to oil companies for exploration beginning in 1992. Gov. Bob Martinez, the state's two U.S. senators and environmental groups are leading a fight against the plan.

Hodel said the government's task was to find a balance between energy needs and environmental preservation. "This is a sensitive environmental mix," he said, adding that tankers are a greater threat to the coast than the "remote possibility" of an oil spill from drilling.

"He didn't really answer the question," said David Eckstein, editor of the school newspaper. "He made reference to California oil spills but didn't say anything about the effect on reefs in the Keys."

Ameeta Ganju asked Hodel what he thought about Sen. Bob Graham's proposal to end draining of the Kissimmee River into surrounding farmland, which she said has decreased the number of wading birds 90 percent.

Hodel said he was not familiar with the proposal.

"We thought as Secretary of the Interior he would know about it. But with everything he has to do I guess it's understandable," Ganju said later.

Hodel spiced his arguments with personal anecdotes. His jokes and offhand manner won him laughter and smiles, if not applause, from the audience.

Hodel's dollars-and-cents approach to environmental problems reflected President Reagan's philosophy.

The United States should not stop producing chemicals that deplete the ozone layer in the atmosphere because other countries would then produce them instead, he said, taking profits away from our businesses.

"I think he contradicted himself," said junior Aaron Greenman. "He based all his arguments on an economic standpoint, but at the end he said the main objective was the environment."
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Miami Herald
PALMETTO STUDENTS EXAMINE THEIR VALUES
JONATHAN KARP, Herald Staff Writer
April 17, 1988

It may be as impersonal as a swastika scrawled on a bathroom stall or as blunt as a teacher telling a black student she will not be considered for a starring role in a play about a white family.

Thursday morning at Palmetto High School, students discussed prejudice in all its forms, from ethnic jokes to the crimes of Nazi Germany. During the three-hour program on values, students heard from community activists and participated in classroom discussions.

"What we're attempting to do as a community and staff is to start thinking about what our values are and how they affect our thinking," said Janet Hupp, chairman of the school's intergroup relations task force.

Hupp said she hopes an emphasis on values will reduce cheating and other unproductive forms of academic competition, as well as promote harmony among students.

Students viewed The Wave, a film about a high school teacher who convinces his students to follow a mass movement based on strength and discipline. After stirring wide support, the teacher identifies the leader of the movement -- Adolf Hitler.

The film, designed to provoke students to think for themselves, drew a lively response in creative writing teacher Stephanie Loudis' class. Some students said they avoid the calculated displays of loyalty at pep rallies and football games. One student said the only group activities he endorsed were singing, and possibly prayer.

But when Loudis abruptly asked all the students to stand up, none of them hesitated except Luis Rotolante, 17, who with his long hair, torn T-shirt and assortment of punk jewelry, embodied the classic rebel.

Loudis complimented Rotolante for questioning authority.

"No one thinks the same way as anyone else," Rotolante said. "People just want to think the same way."

Before seeing the film, students attended three different assemblies. At one, Valerie S. Berman and Fred David Levine of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith led a discussion on racial, ethnic and religious awareness.

Meanwhile, actress Roz Ryan of Miami, a regular on the NBC comedy Amen and mother of Palmetto sophomore Darren Reid, told students to set their goals and stick to them. "You can do anything you want to do," Ryan said. "Just make up your mind and get on down."

Ryan said she started singing in clubs at age 16. Her parents allowed her to perform as long as she maintained a B

average. Now 36, she works three weeks a month in Hollywood and returns to her home in Miami to be with her family. "When I come back here, my husband and son want to know if their dinner is ready and their underwear is clean," she joked.

Ryan's husband, Lance Singleton, also spoke at the assembly and drew hearty applause from girls in the audience when, in discussing teen-age sexual relationships, he said, "Gentlemen, you have a responsibility."

Singleton, a manager for Eckerd Youth Development Foundation in Okeechobee, helps incarcerated youth adjust to life after jail. "If you care about an individual," he told the boys, alluding to birth control, "care about what's going to happen to their future."

The third discussion was led by six students, and focused on the lack of communication among ethnic and racial groups at the school. Although Palmetto is 73 percent non-Hispanic white, 11 percent Hispanic and 16 percent black, those groups do not frequently mix, said panelist Ketanji Brown, 17.

After the discussion, Brown and panelists Stephen Rosenthal, 18, and Guillermo Cano, 17, said they each had seen examples of prejudice during their years in the public schools.

Cano, who is from Nicaragua, remembered being called "alien" in elementary school. Rosenthal, who is Jewish, said he had seen swastikas in bathrooms. Brown said a drama teacher told her she would not have a chance to win a role in a play about a white family because she is black.

"We can be a beginning," Cano said. "We have to start changing these prejudices."

Echoed Brown, "If you don't talk about it, you never deal with it."
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Thursday, February 17, 2022

#HollywoodFL and #HallandaleBeach City Commissions seem completely oblivious to a looming education crisis this Fall as several Broward Schools there could be merged, "overhauled," or closed due to a steady decline in student enrollment

#HollywoodFL and #HallandaleBeach City Commissions seem completely oblivious to a looming education crisis this Fall as several Broward Schools there could be merged, "overhauled," or closed due to steady decline in student enrollment


So, a propos this December 12th Sun Sentinel news article and the subsequent failure by the South Florida news media to follow-up and actually provide the public and parents some hard data that was broken down in a way that they could easily wrap their heads around.... I submit the following for your consideration, keeping in mind that Hollywood Central Elementary, McNicol Middle School and Hallandale High School are on that prospective hit list.

Something that area realtors can NOT be crazy about talking about to prospective buyers, who would prefer that their kids can walk to a good, quality school.


HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog  @hbbtruth
To @nathalie_lynch
Since #Broward #SchoolBoard is considering closing some #schools this Fall bec of low enrollment -w/several in #HollywoodFL- have you personally seen info re # of students that've gone "missing," by either district or zip code? Or is specific data "Top Secret"?

Nathalie Lynch-Walsh  @nathalie_lynch
I don't think they can just close schools this fall. They might wait till after elections to announce plans to close schools . . .

HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog  @hbbtruth
Perhaps, but my Q is re the data. #SoFL media seems to be in no hurry to report it, even while they DO mention names in print, inc. Hollywood Central Elementary, McNicol Middle + Hallandale High. Reasonable to see SE Broward + realtors looking at problem.
@beamfurr  @MarieWoodsonFL


Nathalie Lynch-Walsh  @nathalie_lynch
Here's the link to Demographics. People can look up enrollment numbers . . .
Link above is https://www.browardschools.com/Page/34033


South Florida Sun Sentinel

School Board debating closing some schools - Campuses with low enrollment could be merged, overhauled as soon as fall 2022.
Scott Travis, South Florida Sun Sentinel
December 12, 2021

A student exodus has left Broward County schools with a lot of extra seats, and now School Board members say it's time to consider closing, merging or overhauling half-empty campuses.

The district has lost 51,000 students over the past 15 years, due to the rise of charter schools, concerns about academics and safety and more recently issues related to COVID-19, according to surveys. Now 30% of district schools have enrollment that's low enough to be considered problematic under district guidelines.

Read the rest of the story at:




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Thursday, February 10, 2022

Reality is starting to sink-in for The Related Group. #HollywoodFL residents and stakeholders really DO hate their absurd plan to build a 30-story luxury condo tower for multi-millionaires on PUBLIC land at Hollywood Beach. An energized public is prepared to make life miserable for any Hollywood elected official or city employee who tries to change the ambiance of that quiet, natural area of the beach.

October 19, 2021 photo of Hollywood Beach via Catherine "Cat" Uden https://www.instagram.com/p/CVOYElvvMLa/


In a few moments, you'll have the chance to read for yourself the 4 complete media accounts of what took place at last Wednesday's Hollywood City Commission regarding The Related Group's ridiculous plan, and some things for all of us to remember in advance of the next meeting on this subject, on Wednesday March 16th, the day before St. Patrick's Day.

That'll necessarily include many smart, dumb, inarticulate, curious and incurious comments from our local elected officials, including two truly great "money" quotes, which make it seem like at least some of them were living in two completely separate worlds, no?
 
In one world, a cold-hearted look at the facts-on-the-ground where logic meets reason, the other, a kind of fantasy story that depends upon unicorns, dragons and a collective sense of amnesia among the citizens of this community, wherein, for the benefit of the developer, we all forget everything we have personally seen and witnessed first-hand with real estate development on Hollywood Beach the past 15-20 years.

"Do we sell our soul for just money?" Shuham asked. "Once we sign it, we're stuck. We don't get to walk away from this. This contract is not a good deal."

Commissioner Traci Callari, stating she had planned to vote yes on the deal, blasted Shuham for making the city "look like a fool" by airing her concerns at the 11th hour, in public.

Hmmm.. could it be because Comm. Shuham could NOT legally talk about it with her or any other commissioners if Shuham wanted to stay on the right side of Florida's  Sunshine Laws, so often ignored in South Florida city halls, and a subject that I've written about dozens of times over the past 14 years here on my blog, Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog?

Yes. Something that Callari should know something about given that she was recently the President of the Broward League of Cities, the Broward politico lobbying group that over the years has received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Broward citizens to employ attorneys and consultants to further their power grab in Tallahassee and continue to put citizens, taxpayers and Small Business owners at a further disadvantage, while trying to carve out more power and privileges for politicos.

I also wanted to single out those of you who have been telling me for years that I made a real mistake a few years ago when I decided to be more open-minded to what Comm. Callari said, and that I would judge her in the future by her words AND actions, and not just her often hostile or antagonistic attitude towards citizens or common sense or both.
You all are looking more and more correct right now, given what Comm. Callari said in front of everyone at the public meeting.

There's really no need to impugn her, since all we have to do is take her at her word that she REALLY believes the nonsense she spouted last Wednesday.
Yes, my days of giving her the benefit of the doubt are.. Gone With The Wind.

And for the record, Comm. Callari caring whether the Hollywood City Commission looked "like fools" at that meeting is hardly a reasonable measurement barometer on this specific issue, given the fact that neither Mayor Josh Levy or Commissioner Callari or any of the other 5 members of the City Commission ever did the right thing over 19 very long months, and publicly chide The Related Group and their execs for Related's repeated, abject failure to meet with the community at an in-person meeting as required by the city's very own rules.
That's a very low bar to surpass, and yet...

Yes, a public meeting where the actual neighbors of such a prospective building could speak, much less, the rest of the Hollywood community -and the South Florida news media- that genuinely loves that quiet and natural ambiance, and who'll fight to ensure it stays that way, could look Related Group execs, attorneys, architect, and transportation consultants in the eye and ask them to defend what they claim, and then point out its many self-evident holes and flaws in logic. 
Though a plan so devoid of logic and common sense, and which fails to properly judge both public sentiment and human behavior, will not suddenly transform in one month.

Just because the Hollywood City Commission itself, collectively, was not showing proper diligence -or any curiosity!- in their thinking and judgment, and instead chose to act more like cheerleaders for the plan, via their softball questions publicly for two years -save Comm. Shuham- doesn't mean that we could not throw fastballs at a public in-person meeting when we got the chance to let them know that this deal was NOT a fait accompli.

Or, as I said in my last blog post before last Wednesday's meeting, here:

By the way, again, for the record, the Miami Herald has said nothing about this preposterous, incompatible Related Group plan since they first sent word of their unsolicited bid to City Hall 19 months ago, and the city, in their failed decision-making process, decided that it was both a love letter and a promi$$ory note.
Nor has the Herald EVER mentioned Caryl Shuham by name since the day after she was elected on Nov. 6th, 2018. Really.

I checked and then double-checked their archives before I posted this.

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Bisnow South Florida
Vote Delayed On Related Group's Controversial Condo Project
Deirdra Funcheon, Bisnow South Florida
February 3, 2022
 
At the end of a meeting that lasted from 5 p.m. Wednesday to 3 a.m. Thursday, city commissioners in Hollywood, Florida, delayed a vote on whether to allow Florida's most prominent condo developer to build a 30-story condominium on part of a taxpayer-owned, beachfront site that now includes a public park.

Commissioners are now scheduled to vote on March 16 whether to authorize city officials to execute a comprehensive agreement, a ground lease and easements between the city and PRH 1301 S Ocean Drive LLC, a subsidiary of The Related Group.

Read the rest of the article at:
https://www.bisnow.com/south-florida/news/commercial-real-estate/hollywood-florida-related-group-condo-111743

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South Florida Sun Sentinel
Hollywood delays vote on condo deal - Vice mayor skewers plan as too risky in marathon meeting
Susannah Bryan, South Florida Sun Sentinel
February 4, 2022

HOLLYWOOD - Go big or go home.

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the folks who want a private 30-story condo built on a prized piece of taxpayer-owned beach in Hollywood went home without a deal.

But the proposal, skewered around the midnight hour by Vice Mayor Caryl Shuham, is not dead.

The commission agreed to resume discussions on March 16 to give city staff and The Related Group time to come up with a revised deal. The 5-2 vote came just before 3 a.m. Thursday, ending a marathon - and sometimes snippy - debate that began Wednesday afternoon.

The 10-hour meeting, compared by some to a filibuster, began with a two-hour presentation by city staff hyping the deal as a boon for Hollywood that could bring the city an estimated $1.4 billion over the course of a 99-year lease.

Read the rest of the article at:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/hollywood/fl-ne-condo-tower-hollywood-beach-vote-20220203-iiikon4pkjb27a4u6swijk7fq4-story.html

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South Florida Sun Sentinel
Editorial
Hollywood puts off vote on condo on public land, but problems remain
February 4, 2022

Residents speak during a meeting at Hollywood City Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022 to vote on the building of a condo tower on a section of taxpayer-owned beachfront land. John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS

Hollywood is trying to make better a deal that the city can’t make good.

We have 10 hours of new evidence. That’s how long it took Wednesday night and Thursday morning for the city commission to discuss and hear comments on the proposed lease of oceanfront property to Related Group of Florida.

The company would build a 190-unit, 30-story condo on roughly one acre of the four-acre site. In return, Related would pay for a new, upgraded Harry Berry Park, a larger community center, a plaza and a sculpture garden. Hollywood officials say the project also would bring the city money from rent and increased property tax revenue.

After that marathon debate, the commission voted 5-2 to continue the discussion on March 16. Given the level of opposition, we’re doubtful that the city and Related can refashion the deal enough to gain more support.

Read the rest of the editorial at:

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South Florida Sun Sentinel
Editorial
Hollywood gets reality check on Related condo deal
By Randy Schultz
February 9, 2022

Caryl Shuham is not a prosecutor. But shortly before midnight last Wednesday, the Hollywood city commissioner delivered a forceful indictment.

For roughly 45 minutes, Shuham - a construction lawyer - picked apart the proposed deal under which Related Group of Florida would build a 30-story condo on a public oceanfront site in return for building a park and community center. Supporters call it a great example of public-private partnerships, known as P3s.

Such partnerships, however, must strike the proper balance between public and private. Shuham argued that the deal would have been very unfair to Hollywood. "It began on Related's terms" after the company approached the city, Shuham told me, and stayed there.

Shuham called the projected revenue to the city "speculative" because Related based it on inflated sales prices. The contract, she said, "guarantees nothing" to Hollywood. After Related sold the 190 units, the city would be dealing with a condo association. Nothing prevented the project from becoming rental.

Read the rest of the editorial at:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-op-col-schultz-hollywood-commissioner-beach-high-rise-related-20220208-w3p5mfkub5hoxfwf3qdaojl36e-story.html

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Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Today at 5:00 pm, #HollywoodFL residents get the opportunity to criticize The Related Group's incompatible plan for a 30-story condo tower on PUBLIC land at the beach in front of Related's top execs and the Hollywood City Commission that's been trying to sell-out their own citizens the past two years

October 19th, 2021 @flipflops365 Instagram photo of Hollywood Beach, Florida by Catherine Uden, https://www.instagram.com/p/CVOYElvvMLa/

Today, after being postponed a few weeks, actual Hollywood taxpayers, residents and stakeholders are FINALLY going to be able to light a fire under Hollywood mayor Josh Levy, the other 6 members of the City Commission and City Manager Ismael and his highly-paid minions, all with the South Florida news media there to record the equivocating, melodrama, pointing of fingers and squirming in their seats for posterity.

Based upon all of the in-person conversations and emails and text messages that I have had with others about The Related Group, people are looking forward to seeing and publicly castigating the mayor and the city commission sleepwalk for months and shirk their moral duty to remind The Related Group of their legal obligation to meet with the community in-person

This view of #HollywoodBeach above, this ambiance, this restful peace and quiet, is what my friend Catherine "Cat" Uden -@flipflops365- and I and SO MANY others in #HollywoodFL are working so hard now to preserve and protect at Hollywood Beach, so that people in the future can enjoy it, too. 

As so many of you in Hollywood, #SouthFlorida, and the other parts of the #SunshineState and the rest of the globe on my contact list know, via my frequent fact-filled emails, HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog posts + tweets - @hbbtruth on both platforms- over the past two years, the most upsetting aspect of this effort by The Related Group -to build a 30-story luxury condo tower on PUBLIC land for multi-millionaires that is 7 TIMES what can legally be built there now- is NOT the sheer gall and audacity of Related trying to fundamentally change -forever- the most peaceful and natural part of Hollywood Beach, nor is it their belief that they and all their money and influence can get them their way without ever ONCE meeting the community in-person in the 19 months-plus since their unsolicited bid to the City of Hollywood.

No, the most upsetting part is the truly craven and cowardly performance of Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy, the other six members of the City Commission, and City Manager Ishmael, plus their continuing bad judgement and tin ears.
They, plus the City Mgr's highly-paid staff, who have actively run interference for Related the past two years, have rather consistently and intentionally misrepresented to the public and the South Florida news media both the history and reality of this plan. Frankly, the city's so-called Communications Dept. is now, from all appearances, not unlike a Propaganda Ministry.

Which is a large part of why their rather sad and pathetic online ads are so unsuccessful and unpersuasive.
People inherently know a con job when they see one.

In over 19 months, rather inconceivably for a city like Hollywood that imagines itself being very high-minded, neither the Mayor, City Comm. or City Mgr. has ever publicly chided Related for their abject failure to meet the citizenry of this city in-person to answer questions that are NOT softballs, unlike Commission's.


This wonderful photo, above, of the most natural and quiet part of #HollywoodBeach is the single best photograph that truly captures what she and I and so many other concerned Hollywood civic activists and residents are fighting to preserve. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVOYElvvMLa/

I strongly urge those of you reading this who want to become more familiar with the FACTS involved here to read Cat's informative, recent Instagram and Twitter posts at
https://www.instagram.com/flipflops365/ and
https://twitter.com/UdenCatherine/with_replies

Please consider joining the vocal opposition to The Related Group's incompatible plan: NoNewTower.com

And as Cat is always writing, Protect what you love ❤️

You can watch the Hollywood City Commission meeting here: 

https://www.hollywoodfl.org/146/Watch-Commission-Meetings


Dave 

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Thursday, January 20, 2022

In 2022, as in 2021, the City of #HollywoodFL's Vacation Rental rules are useless, universally ignored, and yet exactly what City Hall and the City Commission want: a distraction from how truly ineffective they are in doing their job handling pretty much everything else! 🙄🤨🤔


Above, one of my many photos of Hollywood Beach, circa December 9, 2020

In 2022, as in 2021, the City of #HollywoodFL's Vacation Rental rules are useless, universally ignored, and yet exactly what City Hall and the City Commission want: a distraction from how truly ineffective they are in doing thr job handling pretty much everything else! 🙄🤨🤔

Eleven months later, what I wrote about Hollywood and Vacation Rentals last year on this blog is still 100% true, as is the fact that many people in Hollywood have a genuine fetish about VRs and  #Airbnb that is all out of proportion to reality.


Unfortunately for Common Sense, the City of Hollywood's new #VacationRental rules are a HUGE fail, and a step backwards. Simply put, the City and its officials have NOT actively and honestly engaged the honest stakeholders in this effort, yet at the same time, also allowed genuine troublemakers to continue angering neighbors, who quite rightfully feel aggrieved and taken advantage of, and are looking for some party to blame and hold responsible.
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/unfortunately-city-of-hollywoods-new.html


To say that the level of intellectual discourse re Vacation Rentals on some websites, esp. NextDoor, https://nextdoor.com/p/S3HPh3D6gJ6Y is often as simplistic and one-sided as it is, though, perhaps, cathartic to the person venting, is self-evident.
In some cases, some of those people whose comments I read might as well be wearing t-shirts with a diagonal arrow that reads, "I'm with Stupid."

But as we know, there's a big difference between light and illumination.

As I've written many times in fact-filled posts on my popular blog here, the City of Hollywood's Vacation Rental program was, is, and remains a snapshot of a disaster because, among other things, as I predicted years ago, when I publicly said at a Hollywood City Commission meeting that it would never crack 25% participation. 

Not so long as the City Commission, the City Manager's office, the Chamber of Commerce and the Civic Associations buried their heads in the sand, and didn't see it as the opportunity it was and is.

A fact made worse by a South Florida media that continually asks the same handful of people in Hollywood what they think -the Usual Suspects- and their response was and remains, almost always, that the sky is falling.
24/7/365.

Even when it's not.

The city administration, the mayor and the City Commission have utterly failed to try to understand the myriad reasons why people are visiting here in such numbers.

It's NOT  just because of the weather or because of a conference or symposium or a concert taking place nearby at the Hard Rock Guitar Hotel casino or at Hard Rock Stadium. 

All of these parties have failed to do even the most basic research, or ask the questions that they should have asked years ago and already know the answers to now.
But they don't. 
They remain like hamsters on a hamster wheel.
Round and round and round and round...

They've consistently failed to quantify what visitors contribute daily, weekly, monthly and yearly to the local economy, even as many Hollywood businesses barely stay afloat, as all the empty storefronts on Hollywood Blvd. and Harrison Street and 19th and 20th Avenue remind anyone who simply walks by.



Try NOT to notice all the restaurants that are only open Thursday thru Sunday.

Even worse, they've all failed to appreciate and incentivize the VR people in Hollywood who DID follow the law, and spent a lot of money to do so.

The city and its elected officials continually look the other way at public meetings as those few people who are doing the right thing are thrown to the wolves, left to fend for themselves, as irate people talk only about the worst-case scenarios and realities that the city has failed to resolve.

Also, it's a certifiable fact that the city website's VR directory is NOT intuitive and is completely useless, especially for visitors who would actually want to stay at licensed VR properties. 
But the city prefers the list be the way it is -useless.

Which sums up their strategy for so many things going on in this city.

Governing magazine
THE FUTURE OF WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW
Why Cities Can’t Afford to Put the Squeeze on Airbnbs
A mobile workforce needs housing options beyond long leases, but regulations stand in the way of short-term rentals.
October 11, 2021
By Scott Beyer

There’s a perception among public officials that Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms are a problematic form of housing. The assumption is that homeowners or investors rent their spare units to vacationers, thereby taking supply from full-time residents who need rental housing. Many cities have passed ordinances that restrict the use of housing for these rentals.

But that misidentifies the short-term rental customer base. This kind of housing is no longer just for vacationers; it’s for workers who need temporary housing for too short a time to sign a six- or 12-month lease. By serving them, too, short-term rental companies are providing a crucial form of workforce housing that is needed in our dynamic, mobile economy. “24 percent of our business is not travel,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told Yahoo Finance recently.

The large number of Airbnb clients looking for a month-plus stay is diverse. Some are remote workers who do not need to be in a fixed location. This includes those who are employed in one city but may have reason to live for a month or two in a different one.

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