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

Saturday, May 19, 2018

This was their finest hour - Perspective on a #TurningPoint: Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour speech (Complete) His most-famous speech made after reflection at the most-famous moment in British history

This was their finest hour - Perspective on a #TurningPoint: Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour speech (Complete) His most-famous speech made after reflection at the most-famous moment in British history

Meant to post this yesterday afternoon...
So, naturally, with me, as always, there's a backstory...

Family Trivia: My paternal ancestors, the ones who came to America in the 17th Century, left an area of central England corresponding roughly to where the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest was set, eventually making their way to a town in New England where history of a different sort was made - Salem, Massachusetts, before and during the infamous Witch Trials.
That same family had the second Minister of the very first Baptist Church in the Colonies, in that very Baptist city of... Newport, Rhode Island! :-)

One of their descendents marched in the French and Indian War with British Gen. Braddock, directly under a young and overly-confident George Washington, from present day Alexandria, VA towards French-held Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh), in a quite disastrous effort by the British that killed Braddock and which was nearly the undoing for good of Washington and his reputation. Same ancestor, years later, was a spy for Gen. Washington against the British in the American Revolution -he knew his way around the area like a realtor!- and for his efforts, was later given land in the Ohio Territories.

Which is why my family has been in Ohio since before it became a state in 1803, settling in a town on the Ohio River south of Canton, where the NFL was born, southwest of Pittsburgh.
That's why my late father was born in Steubenville, a couple of years after singer Dean Martin.


https://youtu.be/esU7kPQLEck
David Cameron's Favourite Past Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
Published on Mar 13, 2012

Prime Minister David Cameron's personal reflections on why Winston Churchill is his favourite former Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON "My favourite Prime Minister is this man right here, Winston Churchill. He was an incredible leader for our country and indeed for the whole free world at the most impossibly difficult time. Just a few yards away from here is the Cabinet Room, and Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister, sat in that Cabinet Room and decided, with his colleagues, to fight on against Nazi Germany and Hitler, even after France had fallen. That was a heroic decision, a right decision, and actually meant that the world was saved from Nazi tyranny. It was the most important moment in British history, and I think it's because of his courage and guts that we made the right call."

ARCHIVE NEWS FOOTAGE "Behind Winston Churchill we stand united as never before in history."

PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON "Well obviously he came to office in Nineteen Forty at a desperately difficult time; France was about to fall, the war was going extraordinarily badly from Britain's point of view, Hitler was rampant across Europe, it looked like the end for the free world, the end for Britain, and the end for Churchill too. But he showed incredible bravery, incredible courage, at bringing the nation together, forging a courageous spirit, taking on Hitler, and eventually winning. So it was a very difficult time for Britain, a time when you needed the best possible leader, the most courageous possible leader to come forward, and in Winston Churchill we were incredibly fortunate to have that man."

Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour Speech - Complete

"If the Empire lasts a thousand years men will say, this was their finest hour."








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Tuesday, May 8, 2018

A Rising Tide May Lift All Boats but... the proposed Wave streetcar in downtown Fort Lauderdale is a bad idea that's the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time. But will simply being a bad and impractical idea be enough for the Broward County Commission to actually kill it? The vote comes today at 2:00 PM - Time to hammer the nails in that coffin!

A Rising Tide May Lift All Boats but... the proposed Wave streetcar in downtown Fort Lauderdale is a bad idea that's the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time. But will simply being a bad and impractical idea be enough for the Broward County Commission to actually kill it? The vote comes today at 2:00 PM  
Time to hammer the nails in that coffin!

Broward Beat
Ft Laud Mayor Dean Trantalis Takes Fight Against Streetcar To The County
By Buddy Nevins









I'll be writing something about these articles and what it represents over the next few days, while also finishing up my big long-promised 2018 blog post re Broward County and its longstanding, myriad transportation problems, something that I've been writing off-and-on for many months, while trying NOT to repeat what I've written in any of the DOZENS of fact-filled blog posts I've penned the past ten years about public transportation.
Posts that often caught people's fancy throughout South Florida and caused them to nod in agreement because of both my persuasive writing and institutional knowledge and memory about a lot of transit elements in South Florida that other residents either never knew about, forgot about, or took place before they moved here.
So, actual context for better understanding the current sad and sorry state of affairs.

Like the proposed Miami-Dade Metrorail Purple Line that would've connected NW Miami-Dade to Downtown Miami and the Dadeland South, which is one of the reasons that people in NW Dade voted for Metrorail in the first place -to achieve a sense of connectedness to the rest of Miami, especially its job center, government center and attractions.

To cite but one simple benefit of that Purple Line that was never built, it'd have allowed allowed Miami Dolphins football fans in South Dade as well as notoriously fickle University of Miami students to go to Dolphins and Hurricanes games via the very large University station in Coral Gables. 
No need to drive and pay for parking.   
Just as they could have done for the Marlins baseball team if it the line was up and running years ago the way it should have been, which would've made building a baseball stadium near the football stadium and thereby utilize the same great road connections the area has, including direct access to the Florida Turnpike.

It wouldn’t be the first time Miamians fell victim to a transit bait-and-switch. Miami-Dade voters in 2002 approved a half-penny transit sales tax that was supposed to pay for a massive Metrorail expansion — one new line would jut out west to Florida International University, while another would connect to the Miami Dolphins’ Sun Life Stadium.
As it turned out, county politicians had promised far more than they could ever deliver in order to win voter support. Making matters worse: a 2008 Miami Herald investigation revealed that the county frittered away much of the sales tax money on raises for the politically powerful Transport Workers Union. A wasteful hiring spree, meanwhile, awarded transit jobs to aides or relatives of at least nine local elected officials.
above from: Miami Herald
All aboard! Imaginary Purple Line created to generate interest in mass transit for Miami
By Michael Vasquez
March 08, 2013 07:50 PM
Updated March 08, 2013 09:26 PM
http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article1948039.html

 See also http://www.urbanimpactlab.com/purple-line/


But, of course, those same factual blog posts also earned me a lot of animosity from high-ranking people at local transit organizations -like the Broward MPO among others- for daring to hold a mirror up to their consistently dismal performances given the resources they command and their near-anonymous hold on power.
Trust me, there are few govt/agencies in South Florida who are more used to people telling them how wonderful they were/are than the folks at the Broward MPO.

 Which, of course, explains a lot.
The evidence of their collective failure is all around us in Broward
Their failure to take other groups, agencies and elected officials to task publicly and highlight policies and methods that are counter-productive.

 Instead, the Broward MPO is known largely by a sub-niche of people within the political power structure, and as I've tweeted about a few times over the years, is often NOT mentioned in the Miami Herald or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for years at a time. YEARS.
Despite their stranglehold on policies and seemingly endless resources.
Where's the media oversight and accountability? MIA.

 Though I could be wrong, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of you reading this today to be criticized 
in public by the head of the Broward MPO after I detailed his and his agency's many failings at a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting some years ago.
Promises, promises, but where were tangible results that Broward residents, taxpayers and Small Business owners actually wanted? MIA.

Thin-skinned Greg Stuart waited until I could no longer speak before blasting me, then obfuscated instead of simply answering the questions I posed to him because the truth was on my side, not his. As both of us knew at the time.
His aides at the time were not exactly the pick of the litter, either, considering their snide remarks at the time that showed that they were more cronies than transportation experts.

Needless to say, then-Mayor Joy Cooper -since removed from office by Gov. Scott after her arrest for numerous felonies- just chuckled from the dais, completely aware that she could prevent me from refuting what Stuart was saying, but unaware that Stuart was, in fact, making a monkey out of her and the entire Commission.
In short, he took advantage of her great ignorance and was flat-out lying to her -to her face- while he also tried to make an example out of me publicly for daring to challenge him and his band of thin-skinned bureaucrats.   

Per the article, as most of you know, I genuinely do consider Beam Furr a friend and believe he's a real role model for what a diligent, hard-working, well-informed and open-minded South Florida elected official ought to aspire to be.
But I also believe that Buddy is 100% right about what he writes here, especially about SE Broward taxpayers' collective disinterest in ponying up money for a bad idea that's the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 Didn't know until Monday that Broward County would have been responsible for the secretive Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority's share of possible Wave cost over-runs over DDA's agreed-upon share of $3 Million. Why was that? Whose great idea was this?  

See page 4:
I will likely be at that Broward County Comm. meeting today at 2 PM, since it could be must-see viewing in-person, as the transit and transportation industry's contractors and lobbyists have so much "riding on" The Wave, and will be happy to break the bank to turn their people out en masse and try to triangulate every county commissioner, however they can.  

But a county like Broward that's suing the state because they say they want to exert "local control" in their own area re guns, is going to have a hard time arguing the opposite POV here, and urging The Wave go forward in FTL when a majority of the elected FTL City Commission clearly don't want it.

But again, that assumes that logic and reason will plays the deciding role here in making the final decision, and I don't have to remind you where we actually live, now do I?

May 9th 615 PM Update: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it up to Broward Govt. HQ to see this in person and speak against it because the 2 PM agenda time ended up conflicting with something I had to deal with that I had forgotten about, but I did watch the entire discussion online and was pleasantly surprised that some holdouts, i.e. supporters of The Wave, finally saw the light: #facts

I'm concerned, though, that some people on the Broward County Commission, with the same general facts, would likely have voted for it if it had been in THEIR district. 
Won't name names but it's pretty clear who they area. 
Yes, the Usual Suspects! :-(









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Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA mtg re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA meeting re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station


Tonight at 8:30 PM the City of Hallandale Beach City Commision is schedued to come face-to-face with its future direction when it has the Second of two required hearings on the second incarnation of the HUGE Oasis project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. next to Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino's northern entrance on Hallandale Beach Blvd., which first came up ten years ago.

I attended those meetings, too, where then-state Senator Steve Geller represented the developer. At the time it featured two very large buildings as well, but seemed to be set back farther from the sidewalk so didn't seem quite so... looming, and featured a not-unattractive office and retail building in front of a residential condo.
Not fantastic, per se, but certainly much better than what HB usually has presented before them in terms of looks of proposed buildings and projects.
That was then.

Well, this new proposal has the buildings side-by-side, and what seems to me to be closer to the road and both large buildings will be residential, which means ... MORE cars on F-rated HBB.

This is a time-certain agenda item at 8:30 PM
But then you know how time certain things are in HB, so, get there earlier!


I plan on being at the Hollywood CRA meeting at 10 AM that will feature what's being called an "Updated Presentation" by Dana Little, Urban Design Director, Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, regarding The Station Area Master Plan. 
That is to say, what's what with where the Hollywood Blvd. area commuter train station may be located and other useful information about what will completely transform Downtown Hollywood and US-1 once a commuter train is up and running, whether that's the Tri-Rail Coastal that I've championed forever, or something that's the creation of Brightline, not my favorite people these days, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/989981873278541824
who seem very much to want to elbow SFRTA out of the picture entirely, and with it, some real public accountability and oversight. 

Not that the local South Florida news media is asking too many hard questions about that, though it's been low-hanging fruit for MANY MONTHS. 

I spoke with Dana Little and his associates a few months back at an informal meeting on the train station project for just under an hour at the Littman Center.
I was very surprised and angry that there were ZERO fliers and or sandwich boards on US-1 and in the downtown area, inc. on store fronts, about the meeting, just as there were none regarding the Young Circle meetings last year that I felt were preposterous on so many levels.
Very, very curious that.

Last I heard, the downtown train station will be on FEC tracks between Dixie Highway and N. 21st Avenue between Taylor and Fillmore streets, 4-6 short blocks north of Hollywood Blvd., in part because the city owns much of the land in that vicinity and can control what happens.
(Yes, the same Fillmore Street I lived on off US-1 for a few months after Thanksgiving until last month.)

I will also be at the Hollywood City Commission meeting scheduled for 1 PM, 
with some time afterwards to catch my breath, grab something to eat, write some clever and informed words on what I saw and then head over to Hallandale Beach to see what sort of turnout there is for the Oasis project, which will likely be the largest development project coming before the HB City Commission for the rest of the year.

Coincidentally, coming just as many of the city's best-informed citizens and part-time residents have fled for northern climes before the heat and humidity hit us like a hammer for the summer.
Like my friend and fellow civic activist Csaba Kulin to name but one.
Just as happened with the meetings regarding The Related Company's Beachwalk project a few years ago.
Sure, there's nothing at all curious about that.

 ----
5:45 PM Update

 I've included a link to Google Maps here, right above my friend and fellow Broward civic activist Csaba Kulin's comments so that those of you who don't go by this site on Hallandale Beach Blvd. very much -the only east-west street that connects A1A to I-95 in HB- could et some useful perspective for what an unmitigated disaster this could be unless the developer and Gulfstream Park reach an accord so that construction crews entering and exiting the site spend a minimum amount of time on HBB.

It's time for Gulfstream Park to actually BE a good neighbor instead of just talking about it, having gotten their way years ago when they got the clueless city to approve their three employee dorms/apts.RIGHT WHERE Hibiscus Street should have been extended east from US-1 down to behind the Publix on 14th Avenue many years ago, so that local traffic, esp. Three Islands residents, could avoid HBB instead of being forced onto it, with ZERO 
alternatives.

Item is scheduled to come up at 8:30 PM tonight.


---
 Mayor London, Vice Mayor Lazarow and Commissioners,

 What one hand gives the other hand takes it away.

 On one hand you have done a great job fixing N. E. 14th Avenue. Narrowed the roadway to reduce speed, added a bicycle lane and created a lovely landscaping.

 We are very happy about it. Thank you.
On the other hand you are about to approve the Oasis (1100 East Hallandale Beach Blvd.) with its flawed traffic proposal. Exiting the property you have to cross three (3) lanes of traffic to get to N.E. 14th Avenue and ether make a U-turn or turn left into N.E. 14th Avenue. It does not make any sense.

 If you allow this to happen you just created a major problem for the next 100 years.
During the last 10 years no better solution has been found than this? There must be an effort made by the developer to come to an agreement with Gulfstream to allow an exit to Gulfstream Boulevard and N.E. 8th Avenue. It will cost money but otherwise the residents will suffer.

 In my opinion when FDOT installed the dividers on Hallandale Beach Boulevard they significantly reduced the utility and value of that property.

 The Oasis owners are sophisticated investors, they should have known this fatal flaw in this property.

 Now you are facing no win situation tonight. Either the developer or the residents will be upset with you.

 You can explain to the residents when you will be knocking on doors this summer.  

Sincerely,

 Csaba (Chuck) Kulin 

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Wednesday, April 18, 2018

So here we are, South Florida, now in 2018, asking the very same kinds of questions as 2014: Supt. Robert W. Runcie - What happened to the 💰💰💰? What happened to the #SchoolHardening at #Broward #Schools that taxpayers/parents were promised? Where ARE the actual #results? #SoFL


So here we are, South Florida, now in 2018, asking the very same kinds of questions as 2014: Supt. Robert W. Runcie - What happened to the 💰💰💰?
What happened to the at that taxpayers/parents were promised? Where ARE the actual ?
Continued inability of Schools & Supt. Runcie to take public criticism, respond appropriately;











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