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, December 5, 2019

In Miami, An Unspeakable Tragedy in a Time of Thanksgiving - South Florida suffers a grievous loss. The news about the death of young and idealistic Alejandra Agreda literally broke my heart Saturday night. @VirginTrainsMIA

In Miami, An Unspeakable Tragedy in a Time of Thanksgiving - South Florida suffers a grievous loss. The news about the death of young and idealistic Alejandra Agreda literally broke my heart Saturday night. @VirginTrainsMIA

 So now South Florida leans forward towards a 2020 that will begin with one less concerned, committed civic activist here that's ready, eager and able to make a positive difference on behalf of others in a part of America that's known for its shallowness and selfishness.



I heard from Alejandra/Bryan regularly via Twitter and received dozens and dozens of followups and DMs several times a month. Sometimes, when she was particularly vexed or exorcised about something in particular, I'd receive several of them in one day.

It's fair to say that nobody in South Florida Liked & Retweeted my tweets and blog posts more than Alejandra did, even my non-transit and non-public policy related ones.
But I think at the heart of all of her her questions, to me and to others she tweeted to and emailed,  was a curiosity on her part to understand something fundamental about South Florida.
Something that reminded me of myself when I was that age, namely, her asking me very good and pointed questions abt why SO many things in South Florida -especially regarding public transit- seem SO... perpetually counter-intuitive.

Why was it that even relatively simple things seem to take 3-4 times longer to do here in South Florida than usually seemed to be the case in most other cities in the U.S. and overseas?
Right, besides the usual issues involving corruption, incompetency, and a serious lack of necessary public/govt. oversight!

Once I finally figured out that Ale really was still just a high school student, I told her that I myself had wondered why such a high percentage of South Florida elected officials over the years weren't so much problem-solvers but rather buck-passers and problem-creators.
That I'd wondered that same thing ever since I worked so hard for so long on the Jimmy Carter and Lawton Chiles campaigns in Miami-Dade and South Florida in 1976.

 Yes, back when I was a precocious, well-read sophomore at North Miami Beach Senior High that the professional campaign staff from Washington, D.C. and the Atlanta national campaign HQ always said looked and acted like I was already in college.  Which pleased me to no end., of course.
Combined with the tons of coffee -and a never-ending supply of boxes of peanuts- that positive feedback was more than enough positivity to keep me deal with much of the drudgery in thoise pre-PC, pre-Internet days working over 7 hours a day after schol at Carter-Mondale HQ in North Miami Beach on N.E. 167th Street & NE 6th Avenue, directly behind the iconic Krispy Kreme doughnuts site there that everyone knew and depended upon, including me.

I was honest with Ale and told her I'd met lots of prominent local South Florida pols from working on the campaign and especially doing highly-visible work as part of Walter Mondale's advance team on his hectic South Florida visits from the airport to a million places in 2-3 days.
The truth was that many people whom I'd really expected to like and admire, and had from afar, via Tv or newspaper or magazine articles were, up close, unfortunately, nothing less than... truly appalling people. And dumber than rocks.
Not unlike today in South Florida, unfortunately.

She'd ask me if it'd always been that way, since she knew from what I wrote online that I knew a LOT of insider dope and had a great memory for what things were REALLY like in 1970's and '80's in South Florida, as opposed to how many in the current South South Florida news media recall it publicly. Revisionism.

She was particularly interested in how Metrorail was sold to the Dade public as a ballot issue, compared to its resulting inadequate reality for most of county, esp NE and NW Miami-dade, since she knew I'd written a lot about it and had commented on it at many places online.
Simply put, promises made, promises broken...

Alejandra's Dad Freddy's tweets, which Billy (Corben) linked to at the top, made me cry so very more than I have in quite some time. Really.

Her Dad, Freddy, sent out a very sad and upsetting note out late Saturday night, at bottom, to 
some people in South Florida involved in public policy, politics, govt. and media announcing 
that his only child, Bryan/Alejandra had committed suicide last Tuesday, and had jumped in front 
of one of the Metrorail cars she loved riding in and writing about -and criticizing.
Probably one they'd ridden in dozens and dozens of times.

The news really hit me and I cried much more than I was expecting to, as I read Freddy's note about how Bryan/Alejandra had been bullied and mistreated, which I guess I should've expected, especially
in a place as Hispanic as where we are.

And what really hits you so hard is that the last two tweets she sent right before she jumped - "i could use a hug right now"


and "bon voyage"




Wow! Me being me, a very empathetic ENFP, those tweets hit me like a ton of bricks!

Apparently Ale's father was, eventually, okay with the idea of a "transition," or, at least had reconciled himself to it, but because Ale was 17, well, obviously, there's lots of things involved that could not be done legally right now.

I wound up staying up late Saturday night/Sunday morning writing down some thoughts -some of which I've included here- and shared them with a bunch of the same people her Dad sent his original letter to who'd interacted with Alejandra.

So yeah, I've been feeling very down the last few days, not least because this news has also made me rethink of all the things I knew about someone I loved whose suicide attenpt and the ricky road afterwards, not least, because many of her friends turned their backs on her prior to that because they'd told many times that the person she was getting involved in was trouble. And was.
So, what are we left with? A bright and caring 17-year old kid who wanted Miami/South Florida to be better than it was, and who was utter fascinated by public policy and transit... commits suicide.
By jumping in front of a train she probably had ridden in at least once before.

How the hell do you even begin to make sense of that?
I can only imagine how totally devastated Alejandra's family is right now.

No need to respond to this post, I just needed to get this out of my system.

















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Alejandra's Celebration of Life / Memorial service will be held this Saturday (December 7th) at Mapsons Funeral Home, 3500 SW 8th Street, Miami, Florida.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/alejandra-agredo-miami-riders-alliance


 If you consider her ideas and value the huge amount of dedication and time she invested in building her non-profit and writing her application please donate to allow her team to keep working on it. Thank you so much for reading. Her family and those who ride trains and buses will really appreciate it. Thank you.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article237935779.html

https://twitter.com/Kounikishi/status/1200699123013435392?s=20

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2536385439750099&id=100001360044353






— RIP My Little Heart 💔 (@Kounikishi) December 5, 2019

@BillyCorben, @Kounikishi, @RidersMIA, @VirginTrainsMIA, Alejandra Agreda, Billy Corben, Brightline, City of Miami, development, Florida, Metromover, Metrorail, Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade Metrorail, redevelopment, RidersMIA, SMART Growth, South Florida, teen suicide, transit, Tri-Rail, Twitter, transportation, Virgin Trains
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Thursday, October 24, 2019

Shabo's Barbecue, one of the most popular restaurants in Downtown #HollywoodFL🌴, serving delicious American-Mediterranean cuisine, is moving 6 doors down the block and re-opening @ its new location, 1814 Harrison St., tomorrow, Friday Oct. 25th @ 5 pm. Come join me and check it out!🍴 Ribbon Cutting/Live Music/Free Champagne

Shabo's Barbecue, one of the most popular restaurants in Downtown #HollywoodFL🌴, serving delicious American-Mediterranean cuisine, is moving 6 doors down the block and re-opening @ its new location, 1814 Harrison St., on Friday Oct. 25th @ 5 pm. 
Come join me and check it out!🍴 
Ribbon Cutting/Live Music/Free Champagne

 Updated October 28, 2019



1814 Harrison Street, Hollywood, Florida 33020
(954) 367-2991
(954) 559-6164
shabosbbq@gmail.com 
www.shabosbarbecue.com
www.facebook.com/falafelfans
www.instagram.com/shabosbbq

  Didn't arrive @ 'new' Shabo's Barbecue #YoungCircle #HollywoodFL til 7 pm yet got inside and was able to congratulate its owner/chef over how beautiful it looked inside + SO much larger than old site! 
Packed w/smiling customers!

My cell phone 📱 was full of photos, literally, no shots left, so I had to use my #Sony 📸
that has no working flash any more, and take only outside shots. :-(
Looking straight on from the sidewalk cafe

Looking east/southeast, you can spot the Hollywood Bread Building peeking out from the SE side of Young Circle on U.S.-1 and Harrison Street


Looking east towards Young Circle and U.S.-1


Looking north/northeast across Young Circle towards The Circ Hotel







Image

Dave 
David B. Smith 

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Wednesday, October 16, 2019

ICYMI: A subject that may come up tonight at Hollywood Hills Civic Ass'n mtg., tonight at 7 pm at David Community Center. Broward's 911 radio antenna and #MSDCommission findings. I'll be there!



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Dave 
David B. Smith 

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Monday, September 30, 2019

#HollywoodFL updates re Public Parking @ Hollywood Beach; possible walking police patrols in Downtown Hollywood from Friday thru Sunday nights; news re the University Station redevelopment; Have a feeling all of these issues will come up Tuesday night at Comm. Peter Hernandez's 6:30 pm Town Hall mtg at the Lippman Center

#HollywoodFL re Public parking @ Hollywood Beach, possible walking police patrols in Downtown Hollywood from Friday thru Sunday nights, news re the University Station redevelopment...
Have a feeling all of these issues will come up Tuesday night at Comm. Peter Hernandez's 6:30 pm Town Hall mtg at the Lippman Center

First, from city's press release:
District 2 Town Hall Meeting
Tuesday, October 1
District 2 Commissioner Peter Hernandez is hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, October 1 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Fred Lippman Multi-Purpose Center at 2030 Polk Street in Hollywood. 
Find out about septic to sewer conversion and water infrastructure replacement in the Royal Poinciana area. There will also be information about downtown security (roving patrols) and low to moderate income availability of city funds. Refreshments will be provided. 
For more information, contact Commissioner Hernandez at 954.247.7136 or the Office of the 
Mayor and Commissioners at 954.921.3321  

The unmentioned good news in that press release is that my friend Claude Luciani, stalwart Hollywood animal supporter and owner of Pizza Rustica in Downtown Hollywood, located opposite two of the most popular places in all of Hollywood -and I'm happy to say, advertisers on my blog!- The Greek Joint and Mickey Byrne's Irish Pub & Restaurant, will be bringing examples of his oh-so delicious pizza 🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕 at the meeting, so be sure to bring your pizza taste buds.
But leave plenty for me, as I love Claude's pizza! 🍕
1. re Public parking @ Hollywood Beach.

The issues at stake here are self-evident but please read the full thread. 




2. re possibility of evening walking police patrols in Downtown Hollywood.

First my tweets and then some discussion of perceived safety problems and a possible solution.

As most of you know, over the course of a typical month, I go to all kinds of public meetings at Hollywood City Hall, as well as to numerous Civic Association meetings being held throughout the city, so I can keep tabs on the evolving concerns of the city's residents and Small Business owners.
But I also spend a lot of time during the week in Downtown Hollywood in the afternoons and evenings -and not just on weekends- talking to individual owners and managers of restaurants, bars, retail shops, boutiques as well as office buildings about their concerns about Hollywood in general and the Downtown area in particular.
People who, despite having lenty of choices to do so elsewhere, have personally decided to invest themselves emotionally and financially in Hollywood's Downtown area, and want it to be much better, safer and more-interesting than it currently is or has been in the past.

 They are long past tired of hearing excuses, alibis and unkept promises to "fix things."
Simply put, they are also not buying the popular perception hereabouts that you really can't force the City of Hollywood or the Hollywood CRA or Broward County or FDOT to acknowledge, recognize and actually resolve problems with anything under some six-month projection.

 Over the past few years, but most especially the past year, both during the 9-10 months while I was out-of-town, and then after I returned to Hollywood in late April, these same stakeholders who are invested in so many ways in this city's success, have expressed themselves to me in increasingly angry and ominous tones about what they feel is going on now.
They are particularly upset about how this past summer's business seemed especially dead, with few events going on in the city that would attract genuine crowds of visitors and consumers to the larger area as a whole, not just to the immediate area around Young Circle.

 So, despite some positive developments over the past year, including the introduction of some new businesses and eager faces, like my talented photography friend, Noël de Christián, who opened up an amazing gallery bearing his name a few months ago on the west side of S. 20th Avenue, and my friend John Wiltsey, who last month opened up his Camp Cocktail Bar + Grill on the corner of  N. 21st Avenue and Hollywood Blvd., many Downtown stakeholders feel like there is a palpable sense of complacency among the local powers-that-be that can simply not be allowed to continue moving forward.
Some dynamic changes in attitude and behavior are needed lest these ingrained public perceptions among Hollywood and regional residents go unchallenged and continue to grow.

 To these stakeholders, there's a very strong public perception among both Hollywood residents as well as from nearby cities, that too many parts of the Downtown area are not as safe as they
should be. And perception IS reality, whatever the actual Hollywood criminal statistics may say.

 To be honest, I've personally been stopped DOZENS of times over the past six months by either Hollywood residents or visitors/tourists who did not understand why there were seemingly uniformed Hollywood Police officers in the Downtown area every night who seemed to always congregate on Hollywood Blvd. -and take up too much space there- yet who never venture more than ten feet away from their patrol cars.
To paraphrase, "Why don't they stop leaning on those damn cars and actually walk around and
see what's going on and stop trouble before it happens?"

I've explained every time, often until I simply can't repeat myself again, that in most cases, these police officers were/are "off-duty," and there because they are detailed to a specific business that 
is paying for that, and thus, not "on-duty," per se.
As you might imagine, though true, this response of mine tends not to either placate or delight 
most people.
They just shake their heads and say that they visit plenty of other cities in South Florida and the 
rest of the state where they see walking police patrols at night and why can't that happen here 
in Hollywood.

Just so you know, over the past few years, an increasing number of the successful people I know 
who live in the Hollywood Lakes area have felt emboldened to tell me that they personally feel like 
they are safer and have more choices of things to do if they go to Aventura, Sunny Isles, Bal Harbour 
or up to certain Fort Lauderdale-area neighborhoods.
They tell me they wish they were spending that money in Hollywood, but that their perception is 
what it is, and until they see some kind of tangible sign that the city and the CRA are changing it, 
why should they alter their behavior and go there with their spouses or families?

I should mention that women seem to find the current reality even more ridiculous than men, 
which given where the city's two public parking garages are located, in not-always bustling areas 
at night, perhaps explains itself.

"David, do they even have operating cameras in the public parking garages?"
People consistently tell me the answer is NO, so perhaps that is something simple that 
the city and CRA should explore changing, since many woman I've spoken to feel the 
public garages are just as likely a site with potential for harm for themselves and their 
guests as any other spot in the Downtown area. That perception must change.

Towards that end, over the past few months, District 2 Commissioner Peter Hernandez and many Downtown business owners have been calling for the city to institute nighttime walking patrols in the Downtown area to assuage people's reasonable beliefs and directly change those self-evident public perceptions about public safety.
Last week at the CRA HQ on Harrison Street, I was one of about two dozen interested parties at the latest meeting Comm. Hernandez has held since June with downtown business owners about their concerns. CRA Executive Director Jorge Camejo was also there as he was at previous meetings, along with a few reps from the Hollywood Police Dept..

The possibility of having these nighttime walking patrols, at least on Friday, Saturday and Sunday 
nights, was broached once again.
I think there's a reasonable possibility that the CRA may be willing to put some money forward to help pay for those costs, but it will not happen unless the public wants it and expresses themselves to the people who will actually be deciding the matter, that is, the seven members of the Hollywood City Commission/CRA Board of Directors.

---------------------------------------------------
3. news re University Station redevelopment



Redevelopment Opportunity University Station

Univ Station redev opp

Hollywood Accepting Proposals for the Redevelopment of University Station Site

The City of Hollywood, Florida, received an unsolicited proposal submitted under the provisions of Section 255.065, Florida Statutes, Public-Private Partnerships, for “University Station” to finance, develop, construct and manage an urban, mixed-use project on approximately 2.5 acres of City-owned real estate in Downtown Hollywood. The City-owned site is located along a major north/south corridor known as the Dixie Highway/Florida East Coast Railway Corridor, between Fillmore, Taylor, and Polk Streets, and adjacent to N. 21st Avenue (“Site”). The Site currently houses the City of Hollywood’s Shuffleboard Center and Courts, a public parking/DocumentCenter/View/16458/University_Station_Barry_University_Lease lot and a repurposed former fire station that is leased to Barry University College of Nursing & Health Sciences. The Site is also located within the Downtown District of the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The City has published the required legal notice of the acceptance of an unsolicited proposal under the provision of 255.065 and is willing to accept other proposals to finance, develop, construct and manage an urban, mixed-use project on this property. Competitive proposals should be for an innovative, mixed-use, market-driven concept that takes full advantage of the Site. The City has determined the unsolicited proposal is sufficient for consideration on a preliminary basis and will accept other proposals for the same project during this notification period. No final decision has been made relative to selecting any proposal for this site.



Last Tuesday, September 24th, from just before 3 pm until about 5:15, I was at Hollywood City Hall in Room 421, up on the locked floor, for the City of Hollywood's Evaluation Committee meeting re the P3/University Station redevelopment project that both Pinnacle Housing Group and Housing Trust Group, LLC want.

The public notice was only put up before 3 pm the day before, after I had already been at City Hall around lunch time. To be honest, I was very suspicious that something fishy was happening, since for just barely 24 hours to lapse between an announcement and an actual meeting is very unusual in Hollywood, though was not so uncommon in Hallandale Beach during the lamentable reign of Joy Cooper, with the goal of keeping the public out of the room and in the dark. :-(

Public perception-wise, it seemed to me to be an especially bad move, too, especially for such an important project that has the potential to help positively transform the Downtown Hollywood corridor area from the FEC train tracks going back east to US-1, as was so often
repeated at the meeting itself.
I was the first person in the meeting room not on the Eval Comm. or with a business interest in it, though there was one person there already monitoring it on behalf of one party's attorney.

Right before the meeting started, literally, while outside the door and standing next to the window that offers an interesting aerial view of the immediate area to the east, I called my friend, North Central Civic Association president Patricia "Patty" Antrican, who has talked to
me about this project for many months, and asked her to come by if she could, though I knew she'd likely still be busy because North Central was having its monthly meeting that night, and I assumed Patty was still trying to add some public speakers to the agenda for her typically large crowd of very concerned residents and business owners to hear over at the Lippman Center later.
Fortunately, she was able to get over there pretty quick and caught most of the Eval. Comm.'s discussions and points about what they thought about the two parties eager to control that property with so much potential for being a dynamic force in the city.

Patty and I, as well as anybody paying close attention, knows that the tract under discussion there, offers lots of interesting possibilities, and a chance to reshape those public perceptions about what was and is possible in Hollywood, especially if there's a train station nearby that allows residents to easily go points north and south on the FEC tracks towards Downtown Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

As regular readers of my 12-year old blog know, I've attended dozens of transportation meetings over the years, most though not all about the proposed Tri-Rail Coastal line that is my preferred choice because it services the largest number of people and accomplished a VERY POSITIVE public policy goal -mobility. Increased ease of travel

I am not at all sold on the idea of having that location be a Virgin Train stop for the train north to Fort Lauderdale, West Paln Beach and eventually, Orlando, and south to Miami, since tickets would be so much more expensive and draw a fraction of the public of what those well-located tracks will bear.

I took about 9 pages of copious notes about what was said, and will soon post some of them to the blog about it in depth.
But for now, it was clear to me that the two most important of several concerns expressed were:
1.) Whether the two groups were prepared to be a key and vocal part of the referendun process if they are selected and get it thru a purchase instead of a lease, as they would prefer, and,
2.) What would Pinnacle's level of interest in constructing the market rate building component of the project still exit if they did not get the available tax credits within two years?

I reconfirmed this afternoon with Hollywood Procurement Dept. Director Paul Bassar that the Oral Evaluations for Pinnacle and HTG will be next Monday, October 7th, at Hollywood City Hall in Room 215, starting at 1:30 p.m. and likely ending about 4:30 pm or so.
I strongly suggest you bring some caffeine and something to munch on!


ICYMI: My last blog post was this!
Can development and historic Downtown #HollywoodFL co-exist? Current public pushback against possible demolition of a historic Hollywood Bank Bldg. to make way for the Soleste
Hollywood project, makes one wonder whether it can or not 

 Dave
David B. Smith

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