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 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. This photo of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 classic "To Catch a Thief" is the large Twitter photo on my @hbbtruth account

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west from the Baltic Sea towards Gamla Stan, with the iconic City Hall in the distance, on left, with the three golden crowns on top, which are the national emblem of Sweden. In my previous life, I was definitely born and raised there.

A reminder of why I and all of my savvy, sensible friends -like @UdenCatherine- push back hard vs. the serial nonsensical public policy + misanthropy emanating from #HollywoodFL City Hall the past few years, both the elected Mayor and City Commission, as well as the city's often imperious, feckless, thin-skinned highly-paid bureaucrats. THIS! ☀️🌴🏖️😎. Photo: March 2025, Hollywood Beach, Florida.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

You had me at Sofia Vergara! NY Mag Daily Intel blog reports that Nick Loeb may run vs. Bill Nelson in 2012; he's 'reportedly' dating actress Vergara

sofia vergara Pictures, Images and Photos
Actress Sofia Vergara, via photobucket.com

New York Magazine

Daily Intel Main

This Woman Could Be a Senator’s Wife
By Chris Rovzar
January 14, 2011
at 12:15 PM

Nick Loeb, the "tall and handsome scion to New York's Loeb Rhoades banking fortune," had to abandon his U.S. Senate run in Florida in 2009 because his wife left him. He felt it was unfair to conduct a campaign while dealing with such personal turmoil, so he paid back all his donors (out of his own pocket) and called off the run.


Read the rest of this very popular post at:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/01/this_woman_could_be_a_senators.html


As of now, there are 145 comments, and none of the first 20 are about Nick Loeb's personal stance
on the role of the federal government in a citizen's daily life.
Imagine that.


The Palm Beach Post's
Jose Lambiet http://www.page2live.com/ wrote a bit about the Nick Loeb conundrum last year -and his serious car accident in Bel-Air near Sofia Vergara's home-
http://www.page2live.com/2010/08/24/ex-florida-senate-candidate-nick-loeb-injured-in-car-crash/ which featured this photo essay:
http://page2live.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlargePopup.asp?image=29724487&event=1012290&CategoryID=59758&pSlideshow=1

But then how do you photograph someone's personality?

And a story like this won't stay a secret for long among attention-starved Washington, so The Hill is already saying...
http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/7823-sofia-vergaras-boyfriend-mulls-senate-run

You all know how much I love Sweden, but from the looks of things, given our particular geographical location in the Sunshine State, Colombia looks to have home-field advantage in this one.



http://www.oceandrive.com/home-page/articles/sofia-vergara-spices-up-primetime


And before you ask, I know nothing about the wife of Mike Haridopolos, the Florida Senate President, who has already announced he's running for next year's GOP nomination to run against Nelson.

http://www.senatormike.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/members/652.html

He looks like he ought to be the number-two at a Hollywood studio and a regular at Laker games, or the lead anchor at an LA TV station:
"From the Southland's news leader, Mike Haridopolous, Eye...witness News!"

Talent & Moxie Straight From the Heart of Scotland: Emma's Imagination (Emma Gillespie); This Day, 500 Miles; Wow!


Emma's Imagination - This Day (official video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsS9IwR6n-U

From Emma's debut album, Stand Still

So, tell me that when you watch this video of the amazingly-talented Emma Gillespie, the 27-year old Scottish singer-songwriter whom I've been following for a few months, that you don't see her resemblance to actress Sean Young -whom I love- right?
Wow, what a voice!


The LIVE performance of This Day at Wembley Arena on Sept. 19, 2010 that garnered Emma first-place in Sky1's Must Be The Music talent contest -and changed her life.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkQl034uA8g



http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/Emmas-Imagination-Wins-Must-Be-The-Music-Final-Sky-1-HD-Talent-Show-At-Wembley-Arena/Article/201009315735117




Emma's Imagination - 500 miles

from BBC Hogmanay Show, December 31, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz8Dwn-8jPY

BBC: Emma's Imagination returns home to Dumfries

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-12165481

-----

More on Emma at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/EmsImagination
http://www.emmas-imagination.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/EmmasImagination

Friday, January 14, 2011

Touché! "Dear Lois" adroitly zeroes-in on Lois Wexler's defense of lobbyist Ron Book and blindsides her something silly over her pal, Judy Stern

Touché! "Dear Lois" adroitly zeroes-in on Lois Wexler's defense of Ron Book and blindsides her something silly over Judy Stern

For weeks, I've been sitting on an already-written blog post after engaging in some candid conversations with Broward County community activists and elected officials throughout the county that have taken me to places that are NOT usually part of my routine.

But live and learn...


The subject of these conversations was the very curious (and disturbing) public stance towards effective enforcement of strengthened ethics laws and standards in Broward County by someone that, until two years ago, I had generally assumed was one of the more dutiful and well-grounded public servants in South Florida.

And who is this mysterious person at the center of this discussion? Broward County District 5 Commissioner Lois Wexler.
http://www.broward.org/Commission/District5/Pages/Default.aspx

A woman that Daily Pulp blogger
Bob Norman painted to a 'T' in an October 2, 2008 post titled Billed for Bull, Broward County Commissioners want you to pay for their pet projects, writing in part:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2008-10-02/news/billed-for-bull-broward-county-commissioners-want-you-to-pay-for-their-pet-projects/
The fun part was listening to county Mayor Lois Wexler defend the money drain. Wexler has slowly transformed herself into a human version of spackling paste, helping to hold together the commission's longstanding culture of waste and mismanagement.
For whatever reason -boredom, tenure, general antsiness- the formerly-astute Wexler increasingly seems tone-deaf to things that once upon a time...
Well, let's just say that I'm far from the only person in this county with 20/15 vision who's noticed the slide towards the slippery side of the slope.

I will have that post here on the blog in the not-too-distant future -Operation Mentos- but until then, I wanted to share with you all the delicious and spot-on lacerating wit of Dear Lois, who has quite properly put Wexler back in her place today on the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog in a way that just causes me to simply step back and admire it from a distance.
I salute you.

Game, set, match, "Dear Lois."

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics

Broward's Wexler defends lobbyist Ron Book
By Brittany Wallman

January 14, 2011 03:35 PM


As Broward County commissioners weigh what to do about a prominent lobbyist who represents the county and the county's political foe on a huge issue, one person who came to the lobbyist's defense is County Commissioner Lois Wexler.


At issue is lobbyist Ron Book's work for the county and for the Miami Dolphins.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/01/browards_wexler_defends_lobbyi.html#comments

See also:
Mentions of lobbyist Judy Stern in the
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Judy+Stern%22&x=10&y=10
and of lobbyist Ron Book:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Ron+Book%22&x=0&y=0

Are you sure you don't have a Mentos?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdTe9AuqoT8



The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-hXcRtbj1Y

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

While her opponents are busy trying to brainstorm and reinvent themselves to thwart her, like the Mississippi River, Sarah Palin keeps rolling along..

See my response to this story at TheWrap amongst their reader comments.

Brand Palin Takes a Hit With 'Blood Libel' Video
By Brent Lang
Published: January 12, 2011 @ 7:21 pm

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/after-giffords-shooting-brand-palin-takes-hit-23857


I must admit that I make a mistake in responsing to this post in such haste, as I was wrong about there being only one person quoted, as I forgot about Laurence Barton's comments and...

Then again, I also neglected to attack the asinine 'remain a punching-bag' remarks by
John Feehery
“She should let others defend her and keep quiet for a while,” John Feehery, a Republican political consultant and the president of Quinn Gillespie Communications, wrote in an email message to TheWrap.
His comments may be the single dumbest thing I read all year.

Consider this:

In the 2008 Democratic primary -you know, the one that the MSM said was already Hillary's in 2007- if Obama's media acolytes and union pals at SEIU kept attacking Hillary with untrue info and she let it stand for nearly a week, the media would've said that she showed weakness, correct?
Yes, he said in answering his own rhetorical question.

Palin waits five days after being hammered for something she didn't do and is promptly attacked for "inserting" herself into the situation by ABC News.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/01/the-note-obama-palin-and-arizona-a-tale-of-two-speeches.html?cid=6a00d8341c4df253ef0148c78e402e970c

You don't have to want Sarah Palin to be either the face of the GOP or president -and I don't- to know that this was a 'high-tech lynching.' and a probable preview of what the MSM has in store for the GOP this year.

Go ahead, explain the difference in media sentiment.


Welcome to the American mainstream media's 2011 version of civility: They'll attack you and say things that are clearly absurd, then attack you for defending yourself, and when you finally respond, they'll selectively run stories featuring people who never liked you, who then further attack you.
Afterwards, they'll attack you for needlessly "inserting" yourself.


And after it's all over, and the lack of evidence is even more stark, and there are recriminations for the lynch mob, they'll say, "Well, even if it's not true this time..."


My favorite version
of Ol' Man River, from the 1936 film starring the amazing Irene Dunne, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028249/



Paul Robeson - Ol' Man River (Showboat - 1936) J.Kern O. Hammerstein II

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

Must-see TV tonight: ABC News 20/20 on cover-ups at The Peace Corps re murder, gang rape of American volunteers; Pitt & Jolie as a bad Tarzan & Jane



ABC News 20/20: Parents of Slain Volunteer Say Peace Corps Error Led to Murder
Anonymous Whistleblower's Name Revealed to Suspect Accused of Sexually Abusing Children
By Anna Schecter and Brian Ross

January 14, 2011


The family of a 24-year old Peace Corps volunteer from Atlanta, Kate Puzey, says agency personnel set her up to be murdered by revealing her role in the dismissal of an employee she accused of sexually abusing children at a school in the African country of Benin.


Read the rest of the story at: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/parents-slain-volunteer-peace-corps-error-led-murder/story?id=12607274&nwltr=blotter_featureMore





ABC News 20/20: Peace Corps Volunteer Murder
Cousin of victim Kate Puzey: 'It's hard to be a girl in that part of the world.'


ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross:
Why Would Anyone Want to Kill Kate?
20/20 Investigation: Scandal Inside the Peace Corps

Story at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/peace-corps-murder/story?id=12583120



ABC News 20/20: Peace Corps Volunteer Describes Brutal Rape

Jess Smochek said she was gang raped while working in Bangladesh.

January 12, 2011

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/video/peace-corps-volunteer-describes-brutal-rape-12600417

ABC News 20/20 Investigation: Scandal Inside the Peace Corps airs tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern on ABC-TV.

As I've mentioned here previously, I've had many friends from IU and former housemates in Washington, D.C. who were former Peace Corps volunteers in countries ranging from Mali to Nepal, quite literally, Timbuktu to Kathmandu.
In fact, I've even had Thanksgiving Dinner at a friend's home in Northern Virgina and around a large table, been surprised to discover that I was the only one there who hadn't been in the Peace Corps.


I'm sorry to say that the stories Brian Ross tells of a disconnect between
Peace Corps HQ and the emotional and physical depredations suffered by American volunteers surprises me not a whit. According to Ross, nine-hundred Peace Corps volunteers have been sexually assaulted or raped in just the past decade. 900!

Yet the New York Times hasn't had a single story about assaults against Peace Corps volunteers since 2002.
It's like they think they're part of the South Florida news media, where stories happening right in front of you don't see the light of day, but Lisa Petrillo news stories -practically infomercials- on eyebrow surgeries for middle-aged yentas MUST make 6 p.m. newscasts.


I've heard days and weeks of stories of both heart-breaking tenderness and of the perils of feeling sorry for people who lived in poverty or near-poverty, and hearing how brazenly evil and corrupt many of these residents were, involved as they were with organized crime and the black market, happy to subjugate their own town or neighboring ones thru fear, violence and physical intimidation, while government workers in their area knew full-well what was going on.

The latter had practiced the art of looking the other way, either due to fear or unwillingness to be the bearer of bad news to some Ministry office.

(That behavior sounds awfully familiar to Floridians, does it not he said knowingly?)

When you know about these sorts of things from having been eyewitness to them, you feel the need to unburden yourself and try to tell others whom you think will profit from knowing the truth, which is why I never tired of hearing these stories from my friends, even if they often were such downers that we were drinking by the end of the story.
Even when I'd already heard the story before.


Daniel Patrick Moynihan described the Peace Corps in a letter as:
“a rip-off by the upper middle classes. Fortunes spent to send Amherst boys for an interesting learning experience in Venezuela,” paid for by “men equally young pumping gas on the New Jersey Turnpike.”

An even more negative and eye-opening view of what often happens when the West tries to help the poor and gets in the way of common sense public policy and hinders the responsibility of the people you're trying to help to actually help themselves, comes in the form of this prescient 2005 New York Times Guest OpEd essay by writer Paul Theroux, whose books and essays I've read for many years and who is, himself, a former Peace Corps volunteer to Malawi.

But
Theroux was so much more than the average volunteer, and is more than just a critic of the bureaucracy of empire aid, as this makes clear:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Theroux
He puts his money and his body where his mouth is.

I read this essay in The Times the day it was printed, cut it out and still have it in a folder.

It's a keeper!


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/opinion/15theroux.html?scp=20&sq=%22Peace%20Corps%22&st=cse

New York Times
Op-Ed Contributor
The Rock Star's Burden
By Paul Theroux
December 15, 2005

Hale'iwa, Hawaii

THERE are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment. If Christmas, season of sob stories, has turned me into Scrooge, I recognize the Dickensian counterpart of Paul Hewson - who calls himself :Bono"- as Mrs. Jellyby in "Bleak House." Harping incessantly on her adopted village of Borrioboola-Gha "on the left bank of the River Niger," Mrs. Jellyby tries to save the Africans by financing them in coffee growing and encouraging schemes "to turn pianoforte legs and establish an export trade," all the while badgering people for money.

It seems to have been Africa's fate to become a theater of empty talk and public gestures. But the impression that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit. Those of us who committed ourselves to being Peace Corps teachers in rural Malawi more than 40 years ago are dismayed by what we see on our return visits and by all the news that has been reported recently from that unlucky, drought-stricken country. But we are more appalled by most of the proposed solutions.

I am not speaking of humanitarian aid, disaster relief, AIDS education or affordable drugs. Nor am I speaking of small-scale, closely watched efforts like the Malawi Children's Village. I am speaking of the "more money" platform: the notion that what Africa needs is more prestige projects, volunteer labor and debt relief. We should know better by now. I would not send private money to a charity, or foreign aid to a government, unless every dollar was accounted for - and this never happens. Dumping more money in the same old way is not only wasteful, but stupid and harmful; it is also ignoring some obvious points.

If Malawi is worse educated, more plagued by illness and bad services, poorer than it was when I lived and worked there in the early 60's, it is not for lack of outside help or donor money. Malawi has been the beneficiary of many thousands of foreign teachers, doctors and nurses, and large amounts of financial aid, and yet it has declined from a country with promise to a failed state.

In the early and mid-1960's, we believed that Malawi would soon be self-sufficient in schoolteachers. And it would have been, except that rather than sending a limited wave of volunteers to train local instructors, for decades we kept on sending Peace Corps teachers. Malawians, who avoided teaching because the pay and status were low, came to depend on the American volunteers to teach in bush schools, while educated Malawians emigrated. When Malawi's university was established, more foreign teachers were welcomed, few of them replaced by Malawians, for political reasons. Medical educators also arrived from elsewhere. Malawi began graduating nurses, but the nurses were lured away to Britain and Australia and the United States, which meant more foreign nurses were needed in Malawi.

When Malawi's minister of education was accused of stealing millions of dollars from the education budget in 2000, and the Zambian president was charged with stealing from the treasury, and Nigeria squandered its oil wealth, what happened? The simplifiers of Africa's problems kept calling for debt relief and more aid. I got a dusty reception lecturing at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when I pointed out the successes of responsible policies in Botswana, compared with the kleptomania of its neighbors. Donors enable embezzlement by turning a blind eye to bad governance, rigged elections and the deeper reasons these countries are failing.

Mr. Gates has said candidly that he wants to rid himself of his burden of billions. Bono is one of his trusted advisers. Mr. Gates wants to send computers to Africa - an unproductive not to say insane idea. I would offer pencils and paper, mops and brooms: the schools I have seen in Malawi need them badly. I would not send more teachers. I would expect Malawians themselves to stay and teach. There ought to be an insistence in the form of a bond, or a solemn promise, for Africans trained in medicine and education at the state's expense to work in their own countries.

Malawi was in my time a lush wooded country of three million people. It is now an eroded and deforested land of 12 million; its rivers are clogged with sediment and every year it is subjected to destructive floods. The trees that had kept it whole were cut for fuel and to clear land for subsistence crops. Malawi had two presidents in its first 40 years, the first a megalomaniac who called himself the messiah, the second a swindler whose first official act was to put his face on the money. Last year the new man, Bingu wa Mutharika, inaugurated his regime by announcing that he was going to buy a fleet of Maybachs, one of the most expensive cars in the world.

Many of the schools where we taught 40 years ago are now in ruins - covered with graffiti, with broken windows, standing in tall grass. Money will not fix this. A highly placed Malawian friend of mine once jovially demanded that my children come and teach there. "It would be good for them," he said.

Of course it would be good for them. Teaching in Africa was one of the best things I ever did. But our example seems to have counted for very little. My Malawian friend's children are of course working in the United States and Britain. It does not occur to anyone to encourage Africans themselves to volunteer in the same way that foreigners have done for decades. There are plenty of educated and capable young adults in Africa who would make a much greater difference than Peace Corps workers.

Africa is a lovely place - much lovelier, more peaceful and more resilient and, if not prosperous, innately more self-sufficient than it is usually portrayed. But because Africa seems unfinished and so different from the rest of the world, a landscape on which a person can sketch a new personality, it attracts mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth. Such people come in all forms and they loom large. White celebrities busy-bodying in Africa loom especially large. Watching Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie recently in Ethiopia, cuddling African children and lecturing the world on charity, the image that immediately sprang to my mind was Tarzan and Jane.

Bono, in his role as Mrs. Jellyby in a 10-gallon hat, not only believes that he has the solution to Africa's ills, he is also shouting so loud that other people seem to trust his answers. He traveled in 2002 to Africa with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, urging debt forgiveness. He recently had lunch at the White House, where he expounded upon the "more money" platform and how African countries are uniquely futile.

But are they? Had Bono looked closely at Malawi he would have seen an earlier incarnation of his own Ireland. Both countries were characterized for centuries by famine, religious strife, infighting, unruly families, hubristic clan chiefs, malnutrition, failed crops, ancient orthodoxies, dental problems and fickle weather. Malawi had a similar sense of grievance, was also colonized by absentee British landlords and was priest-ridden, too.

Just a few years ago you couldn't buy condoms legally in Ireland, nor could you get a divorce, though (just like in Malawi) buckets of beer were easily available and unruly crapulosities a national curse. Ireland, that island of inaction, in Joyce's words, "the old sow that eats her farrow," was the Malawi of Europe, and for many identical reasons, its main export being immigrants.

It is a melancholy thought that it is easier for many Africans to travel to New York or London than to their own hinterlands. Much of northern Kenya is a no-go area; there is hardly a road to the town of Moyale, on the Ethiopian border, where I found only skinny camels and roving bandits. Western Zambia is off the map, southern Malawi is terra incognita, northern Mozambique is still a sea of land mines. But it is pretty easy to leave Africa. A recent World Bank study has confirmed that the emigration to the West of skilled people from small to medium-sized countries in Africa has been disastrous.

Africa has no real shortage of capable people - or even of money. The patronizing attention of donors has done violence to Africa's belief in itself, but even in the absence of responsible leadership, Africans themselves have proven how resilient they can be - something they never get credit for. Again, Ireland may be the model for an answer. After centuries of wishing themselves onto other countries, the Irish found that education, rational government, people staying put, and simple diligence could turn Ireland from an economic basket case into a prosperous nation. In a word - are you listening, Mr. Hewson? - the Irish have proved that there is something to be said for staying home.

Paul Theroux is the author of "Blinding Light" and of "Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town."

-----

See more at: http://abcnews.go.com/2020

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/t/paul_theroux/index.html

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/authordetail.cfm?authorID=2221107

For a new super-hero like Britt Reid to emerge, a newspaper mogul must die -Oh, well! The Green Hornet opens today in the U.S & U.K.



http://www.sonypictures.com/previews/movies/thegreenhornet/clips/2173/


The Daily Sentinel
: "Who is the Green Hornet?"



http://www.sonypictures.com/previews/movies/thegreenhornet/clips/2732/


Interactive trailer: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thegreenhornet/itrailer/

http://www.greenhornetmovie.com/


U.K. ad: http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/01/13/17631-sony-pictures-go-to-great-lengths-to-plug-the-green-hornet/



The ABC-TV series from the 1960's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIwsqFjfKPs

I wonder if the fictional Daily Sentinel under the late newspaper mogul James Reid was routinely blowing-off covering local City Commission meetings, or blocking stories about the curious personal behavior of local female elected officials and instead, directing his reporters to write puff-pieces on real estate developments like... say, the Miami Herald:

For instance,

Midtown Miami sparking an urban renaissance
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/14/1776662/midtown-miami-an-everything-in.html

Has t
he era of the Miami Herald as real estate pimp returned?
Five months ago today, at least for two days, it did.

Seriously,
Midtown? But there's no real there there.

FYI: The Herald deleted all the clever and well-written negative reader comments that were there for months that called into question many aspects of the article, including what was missing from the story.


-----

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/14/1776662/midtown-miami-an-everything-in.html
Miami Herald
Midtown Miami sparking an urban renaissance
By Elaine Walker
August 14, 2010

When a friend invited Sarah Weintraub to visit Midtown Miami over a year ago, she was reluctant, remembering the location just south of Miami's Design District as a ``dilapidated, horrible neighborhood.''

Fast forward to today and Weintraub, 23, not only lives in Midtown Miami, she's one of the area's biggest fans. She revels in the growing excitement of an urban lifestyle whose restaurants and retail beckon just steps from her door.

``I instantly fell in love with Midtown,'' said Weintraub, who moved from Coconut Grove into a one-bedroom rental in March. ``The energy is incredible.''

Somehow, amid a bleak real estate meltdown with shopping centers clinging desperately to tenants, Midtown appears to have caught on, fulfilling a long-desired demand for urban retail. For more than a decade no one could find a suitable place to make it happen, leaving the best shopping meccas a long drive away for residents of central Miami.

What makes this area different from other redevelopment plans is that Midtown was started from the blank canvas of an abandoned inner-city railyard. You had the benefit of two developers controlling a 56-acre site -- a rare find in urban Miami and about the same size as a suburban strip mall. Plus, they had financial help from the city to get started and the deep pockets to wait out the recession.

While Midtown started like many condo ghost towns, the developer got aggressive early with value-priced rentals aimed at drawing new, hip residents to the once blighted area.

SPILLOVER BENEFITS

The success of Midtown, in Wynwood at the corner of 36th Street and Miami Avenue, has helped energize the surrounding area. It has boosted the revitalized Design District directly to the north and spurred additional development in the surrounding commercial district.The entire area has become a destination, dotted with art galleries, high-end home furnishing stores and some of the area's best restaurants.

As for Midtown itself, a combination of new residents like Weintraub and hot new restaurants like Sugarcane and Mercadito have breathed life into the former no-man's land. Some liken it to New York City's Meat Packing District or SoHo in its early days.

A key catalyst has been the growing restaurant scene, drawing in new visitors from a wide area stretching from Miami Shores to Coral Gables.

``I like the vibe,'' said Michael Schwartz, who hopes to open a barbecue restaurant at Midtown. ``It's accessible, and it's close to everything,'' said Schwartz of Michael's Genuine Food and Drink in the Design District.

China Grill owner Jeffrey Chodorow also is negotiating on a Midtown location to launch a new version of the landmark chain, featuring new items in smaller portions with lower prices.

Coming soon: the fall opening of organic bistro Sustain, and an Italian cafe.

Whether it's someone who comes to play at Midtown or actually lives there, the convenience of everything in one place -- condos, offices, shopping and restaurants -- is helping drive the area's popularity.

``We can't accommodate all the people that are looking at Midtown now,'' said real estate broker Michael Comras, who has been working for Midtown Miami on retail and restaurant leasing. ``That's pretty amazing considering where we were two years ago.''

Back then, Shimon Bokovza, co-owner of Sushisamba, thought the owners of Midtown were ``out of their mind'' when they asked him to open a restaurant.

CONVINCING SKEPTICS

After visiting the complex regularly for about a year, Bokovza changed his mind.

He decided the key was creating a restaurant and lounge that would draw people from outside the area. But even when he signed a lease for Sugarcane Raw Bar & Grill, Bokovza couldn't get his financial backers to support him.

``Nobody believed this place was going to make it,'' said Bokovza, who put more of his own money into opening Sugarcane. ``You would go see the place and there was hardly anybody walking around.''

Since its January opening, Sugarcane has helped lead the way toward changing that, drawing crowds for happy hour and stretching into the late-night. Bokovza estimates 30 percent of his diners live in Midtown, with the rest coming from Miami Beach, downtown and beyond.

The strategy was much the same at Mercadito, which opened in March.

``We realized that we would have to reach out beyond Midtown to be successful,'' said Alfredo Sandoval, managing partner of Mercadito Restaurant Group.

Gary Bahadur, who lives in downtown Miami, is the kind of customer the restaurants are targeting. He comes to Sugarcane for Happy Hour every couple of weeks, goes to the casual taqueria that's part of Mercadito and also visits Midtown's big box stores like Target.

``It's a fun place,'' said Bahadur, 36. ``It's more relaxed than South Beach. Plus, they have parking, which is a big bonus in my book.''

When Miami's condo sales started to grind to a halt in 2008, developer Midtown Equities made the decision to rent the buildings designed as luxury condos rather than be forced into a bargain-basement sale.

The developer, which controls the residential and boutique retail, also refunded deposits on a third tower and put the rest of construction plans on hold.

That's not to say Midtown hasn't seen its share of foreclosures and litigation, from buyers who didn't want to close or service providers alleging they didn't get paid. Most of that litigation has been resolved.

``Our bet was on the long-term play,'' said Jack Cayre of Midtown Equities. ``We view it as more of an investment that requires us to put in more funds today before we can sell it at a higher base tomorrow.''

THE LONG HAUL

While Midtown Equities is losing money in the short run, experts hail the project an example of successful urban redevelopment, although it's a long way from finished.

``We got a great place,'' said Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and an advocate for mixed-use development. ``The bones and the genes that went in are absolutely of the best character. It will grow up well.''

The benefits of Midtown also have had a positive impact on surrounding areas like the Design District, Wynwood and Buena Vista.

Residents of Midtown say they frequent many of the restaurants, clubs and art galleries in these neighborhoods.

Jean-Jacques Chiche, owner of W Wine Bistro on the south end of the Design District, gets many Midtown residents as customers.

``Midtown has brought a lot of vitality to the area,'' Chiche said.

The co-owner of Buena Vista Bistro has had so much success in the area, six months ago he opened Buena Vista Deli. While it faces competition from Cheese Course at Midtown, he doesn't see it as an issue.

``We do a lot of deliveries to Midtown,'' said Cory Finot. ``Midtown for us is very positive. People are asking for our food.''

Finding a vacancy at Midtown Miami isn't as easy as it once was.

These days the developer has only a handful of vacant condos available for rent and people are renting units sight unseen. That's a dramatic change from where Midtown Equities started in 2008, giving away a month's free rent to fill up 557 condos -- or 60 percent of the units.

Many of the initial residents came from South Beach's West Avenue -- including artists who worked in the Design District and trend-setters in the gay community who weren't scared off by the area's location on the edge of urban rebirth.

They liked the combination of Midtown's proximity to the Design District and the accessibility to Miami Beach.

Ben Clark was drawn by the edgy feel of the neighborhood that reminded him of where he used to live in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. He had first tried Brickell Avenue and found it was not his style.

``Brickell was a little too stiff for me, a little too planned and a little too perfect,'' Clark said. ``In Midtown there is cool stuff that makes me feel like I'm in a real city. Yet, you still have the modern conveniences that Brickell has.''

CHEAPER THAN SOBE

The value at Midtown was also a selling point. Residents were attracted by brand-new apartments with luxuries like wood cabinets, granite countertops, fancy gyms and swimming pools. Most of the rental units fall in the $1,250-$2,900 range, other than some larger three-bedroom units or penthouse apartments.

Those same units once sold for between $195,000 and over $1 million. This year, small units have gone for as low as $125,000.

Carolina del Rivero moved from Miami Beach because she got a brand new two-bedroom apartment with 1,700 square feet for a fraction of what she would pay on South Beach. Plus, she has a pool for her two boys to use on the weekends.

``On Miami Beach, if I got space like this I would be paying double or triple the rent for a building from the 1960s,'' said del Rivero, a 35-year-old single mom.

The bargains have had their downside for investors like Nathan Heber, who bought his two-bedroom Midtown condo near the peak of the market for $455,000. He had planned to flip the unit or rent it out. But when the market crashed and Heber couldn't rent it at a price that would cover his mortgage, he moved in.

While Heber and his wife, Dr. Jordana Herschthal, have grown to love Midtown, they sold the condo last month for a loss. Now, they're renting it back.

``We're paying less than half of what we used to pay between interest, property taxes and maintenance,'' said Heber, 33.

Since last fall, there has been a steady string of openings of new cafes, small boutiques and shops like Cheese Course, Dog Bar, Cherry Bomb Boutique and Sakaya Kitchen.

``I see Midtown as where Lincoln Road was in 1998 when there was nothing going on,'' said Steven Cohen, owner of Dog Bar, which opened this month at Midtown after years at the Miami Beach hotspot. ``We've always been pioneers.''

NAIL SALONS, BAGELS

The risk has already paid off for Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, which opened in November 2008. The restaurant is one of the chain's top performers and sales are up 25 percent this year, said founder John Kunkel.

``We had a good idea that we could do well, but from the day we opened it has been nonstop,'' Kunkel said.

That success is luring others. On the residential side, a nail salon, convenience store, yogurt shop, yoga studio, liquor store and bagel shop are now open or should be by the end of the year.

At the Shops of Midtown Miami, the retail component owned by Developers Diversified Realty, a HomeGoods store will open late this fall in the former Linen's 'n Things. Other new tenants coming this month: Guess Factory Store and Hurricane Wings & Grill. Two more restaurants are coming in October and industry sources say The Sports Authority is expected to take the vacant Circuit City space.

Allapattah resident Mariano Cruz goes to Target regularly and thinks it has helped his neighborhood.

``I love Midtown,'' said Cruz, interim chair of the Allapattah Business Development Authority. ``It's good because we don't have to travel anymore to go shop. We can spend money here.''

Patricia Smith comes at least once a week to lunch at Lime or shop at the Midtown Target from her Design District office. She also likes the Happy Hour at Sugarcane, but she doesn't come as much as she would like.

``At night, I'm not too eager to come here by myself,'' said Smith, 33, a paralegal who lives in Key Biscayne. ``If I see it getting dark, I will probably leave soon. I don't feel that safe at night.''

The Wynwood/Edgewater neighborhood, with about 14,000 of Miami's approximately 480,00-plus residents, had 7 percent of the total crimes committed in the city of Miami last year. That's better than the Coral Way/Brickell corridor but slightly worse than Coconut Grove, according to Miami police stats.

TARGET WAS PIONEER

Target was the first to open its doors at Midtown in October 2006. Angel Blanco, Target team leader, says traffic has gotten better every year and the store is hoping to draw even more business when its expanded grocery department debuts on Sept. 12.

``We have a big opportunity here,'' Blanco said. ``It's going to be really good for business.''

Residents like Weintraub can't wait. She already takes full advantage of what makes Midtown unique.

At the Cheese Course, the employees know Weintraub's favorites: oatmeal cookies and Midnight Moon gouda cheese. After work at an employee benefits company, she craves a cup of frozen sangria at Lime Mexican restaurant. She knows the cashiers by name at Target, buys clothes at Loehmann's and decorated her apartment from West Elm.

``I park my car on Friday and I don't use it again until Monday,'' Weintraub said. ``Everything you need or want is right there. Plus, South Beach or Brickell Avenue are just a hop, skip and a jump away by cab.''

---------

The next day... the real estate PR onslaught continued...

Miami Herald

Midtown Miami overcomes challenges Growth at Midtown Miami hasn't been easy. But the project is overcoming its challenges.
By Elaine Walker

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/15/1775428/midtown-miami-overcomes-challenges.html

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Why are there so many incompetent police officials & pols in South Florida? Miami-Dade police won't repay 'misspent' environmental funds used on flat-screen TVs. Yet another spot-on story by Matthew Haggman that reveals the true depths of the problem in Miami and environs: lack of #ethics & #competency

To those of you reading the spot-on Matthew Haggman story below outside of South Florida, the Miami-Dade County mayor Carlos Alvarez referenced in this article is the very same Carlos Alvarez that was formerly the Miami-Dade County Police Director.

He is also the same Carlos Alvarez that I believe WILL be successfully recalled from office on March 15th, owing to his lethargic, myopic leadership style, and his rather curious predilection for outright duplicity in dealing not only with his colleagues on the publicly-unpopular County Commission -in far too many instances to cite here- but also in his dealings with the general public.

The people who voted for him in the first place.


Alvarez is part of the harmful mass of middling-mediocrities of elected officials that I have long contended have held South Florida hostage for decades with their short-sighted ego and ethnically-driven brand of public policy that resembles nothing so much as a dog forever chasing its tail.
Somewhat humorous to observe from the outside, perhaps, but not so funny closer to the action, where it's just maddening beyond belief..


Consider what has happened politically to former City of Miami and Miami-Dade County mayors:
NOTHING!


Hardly anyone ever talks about it, not even Channel 10's Michael Putney, but the fact is that in one of the largest cities in Florida -and the largest county in the fourth largest state of the country- is the exact opposite of a political launching pad: it's where political ambitions crash-and-burn.

In other states, those people would become governors or U.S. Senators, but here, they just disappear completely.
That's one of the reasons this area is so backward and why the I-4 corridor is considered by many objective observers to be both more important politically and home to more pols who can be elected statewide.

Soon, that black hole he's created in the universe thru his negative karma will swallow
Alvarez whole, and he will disappear from sight entirely, recalled from office by an embarrassing margin.

(FYI: My father is a retired Miami-Dade police officer who was on the job for 25 years.)


Sadly for its citizen taxpayers who by now are long used to being the money pinata that is regularly bashed for loose change for purposes unknown -Miami-Dade Commissioners' discretionary funds- this terrific Matthew Haggman story shows what passes for governance in South Florida in the year 2011.

Cops intentionally and brazenly mis-using funds for purposes that have nothing to do with its original intent and nearly everyone involved is making excuses for it, led by the incompetent police officials and gutless Miami-Dade politicians who are the embodiment of the sick political culture, led by Carlos Alvarez, who will be pushed from the political stage with a vengeance in exactly two months for crimes of omission: lack of leadership.

And not that I'm the first person to say it among my circle of friends and acquaintances, but where the hell exactly has Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman been hiding?

The Northeast Dade district, that includes Miami Beach, is full of lots of smart and well-educated good-government types who have high expectations that whoever represents the district will be someone who's adept at keeping an eye peeled for exactly the sort of dubious behavior this article highlights: lack of effective internal controls and a complete absence of real punishment for people who abuse their authority.

For someone like Heyman, who has such a very high opinion of herself and her record in office, especially about what she thinks is her fiscal and ethical probity and sense of accountability, tell me, other than her vote against the Marlins Stadium in Little Havana, how can you not say that she's been slumping noticeably, almost sleep-walking since it was revealed in 2009 how much taxpayer money she doles out thru her Commissioner's discretionary fund.

Your taxes,
her discretionary fund...

excerpts from
I-Team: You Pay, Miami-Dade Commission SpendsJanuary 13, 2009 10:25 AM 

 
As the slumping economy drives most people to cut costs, the CBS 4 I-Team learned lawmakers aren’t doing the same with your tax dollars.
Here’s what the CBS4 I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock found after pulling the Miami-Dade county budget for the past three years.
Read the rest of the story at:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2009/01/13/i-team-you-pay-miami-dade-commission-spends/


-----

excerpt from I-Team: M-D Commission “Carrying Over” Controversy
March 3, 2009 3:41 PM


District 4 Commissioner Sally Heyman agreed.

“I like opportunity to have it when we need it,” Heyman told the I-Team.
“This is not my money. It is an office fund, it is the people’s money,” Heyman said.
The people’s money that builds up into a financial kitty to be used any way a commissioner wants with little oversight, debate or public input.
Here’s how it works.
Any money budgeted for commissioners’ district offices NOT spent in one fiscal year carries over. It accrues in future years.
Commissioner Sally Heyman says her preliminary records show she has $1,006,000 in carry-over.

Add up all 13 Miami-Dade Commissioners’ carry-over for fiscal year 2007-2008 unaudited and you are talking about almost 4 million dollars in their carry-over kitty. That’s $3,816,000 of your tax dollars that has accrued in carry-over budgets over the years with little oversight, process or debate.

Read the rest of the story at: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2009/03/03/i-team-m-d-commission-carrying-over-controversy/

-----
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/13/2015129/miami-dade-police-wont-repay-misspent.html

Miami Herald

Miami-Dade police won't repay misspent environmental funds

By Matthew Haggman

January 13, 2011

The Miami-Dade Police Department is acknowledging it misspent funds meant to fight environmental crime on flat-screen TVs, SUVs and firearms.

"Clearly inappropriate,'' Police Director James Loftus says.

But putting the money back into the green funds, as the county's inspector general has requested? Not so fast.

"No, we are not,'' county police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said.

Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said in a recent memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the police have adopted many of his recommended fixes, following a scathing IG audit that found the police used two environmental trust funds as a kitty for pricey purchases with little connection to environmental crime-fighting.

But the police department is flatly rebuffing two IG recommendations: that it stop using green-fund money to pay expenses such as monthly cellphone and aircard bills, and that it repay the misused public dollars.

"We continue to stand by our original recommendations that the Trust Funds be reimbursed,'' Mazzella said in a Dec. 21 memo to Alvarez.

The police department isn't obligated to follow the IG's recommendations, unless the mayor or the county commission act. And there's little push coming from the county executive's office.

Mayoral spokeswoman Victoria Mallette would only say in a statement that "administrative procedures have been strengthened.'' When pressed whether the mayor thinks county police should pay up, she referred questions to Loftus and hung up.

The standoff is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted last year over county stewardship of funds that were meant to combat polluters. Instead, amid "overall chaotic administration,'' the funds were steered to "excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary'' purchases, the IG audit found.

The IG's inquiry, following a Miami Herald series last year that detailed dubious spending, focused on nearly $6 million spent from 2000 to 2009 from two funds: the South Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund and Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund.

More than $1.1 million was spent on vehicle-related expenses, including the purchase of 23 SUVs and trucks that went to top brass rather than environmental investigators working in remote areas. Another $1.1 million went for cellphones used, in many cases, by officials in non-environmental departments.

Three Sharp 52-inch flat screen TVs were snapped up for about $6,000. Nearly $35,000 was spent on 30 Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifles and holographic sights. Police justified the firearms on the grounds that an environmental investigator might encounter "a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle.''

Three Segways were bought for $25,000. One was used periodically to patrol MDPD's suburban headquarters, and two were found "sitting unused in a warehouse,'' auditors found.

The episode served as an embarrassment for embattled Mayor Alvarez, who is facing a recall vote on March 15.

Division Chief Frank Vecin, a close ally and supporter of Mayor Alvarez, was in charge of fund spending. At one point, Alvarez was ferried around in a Chevy Tahoe purchased with green-fund money. The county mayor later returned the automobile, saying he didn't know it was bought with funds meant to fight polluters.

The revelations of fund mismanagement prompted the retirement of Vecin.

"The IG believes the funds were managed improperly,'' said C. Michael Cornely, Vecin's attorney. "It was their opinion. To me, the IG justifies its existence by looking for things and making issues out of things that are not really an issue.''

The two environmental funds, created in 2000 by the county commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were established to help fight polluters in South Florida, which the county has called a "drum dump capital.'' Funding sources included fines and court judgments.

Police director Loftus -- named to the top job in February, after spending questions were already being raised -- now says new money will not be accepted into the two funds. The remaining balance in the accounts is $1.5 million.

In defending his position that the police department need not repay the misspent dollars, Loftus contends that over the life of the trust funds, the department paid some $27 million out of its general fund for the salaries and benefits of officers and directors working environmental investigations -- that, in sum, the contribution of personnel costs far offset the questioned expenses.

Mazzella responded that the trust fund money was "to augment, not replace'' general funds.

If they police were to repay for misspending, the precise amount isn't clear, though the August audit provides a road map.

"We left it to the police to determine what was justified, and repay what was not,'' said Mazzella.

Miami Herald staff writer Martha Brannigan contributed to this report. 

-----  
In case you were wondering, yes, the Frank Vecin mentioned above, the Carlos Alvarez supporter who was in charge of those environmental funds, is the same Miami-Dade police commander who, in the words of Channel 4 News' I-Team , had:
"allegedly been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by developers to expedite their request for permits and provide access to top county administrators, has agreed to retire..."
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2010/06/23/i-team-police-commander-steps-down/
At the same time Vecin was assisting various developers as CEO and as President of Oak Tree Development, he was also in charge of the police department’s Intergovernmental Bureau, which is responsible for investigating illegal contractors and criminal violations of the county’s building code.
In other words, he was being paid by the very same developers and builders his police unit might be called upon to investigate. Instead it was the developers who found themselves with a valuable friend in the police department.
Here's the link for that I-Team story which also reveals how much Vecin was getting for his handiwork from The Terra Group:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2010/06/20/i-team-frank-vecin-beyond-the-badge/


Not that things are any better in the City of Miami.. cops paid overtime for work they didn't do.
That's how it's done down here!

 
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2008/12/10/i-team-money-for-nothing/