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 đ«đđșđœ️đ. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
All Aboard Florida and the Federal Railroad Administration announce an additional public scoping meeting/open house in Fort Lauderdale as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process. The EIS will evaluate the potential environmental and related impacts of constructing and operating an intercity passenger rail service between Orlando and Miami with intermediate stations in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
The public scoping meeting/open house will be held on Wednesday, May 29, between 3:30 and 7 p.m., at the Holiday Park Social Center, 1150 G. Harold Martin Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304. We invite you to attend and share your comments on the project. There will not be a formal presentation or comment period. Information from previous public scoping sessions will be shown at this venue.
If you cannot attend but wish to submit a comment, they must be mailed or emailed to Catherine Dobbs, Transportation Industry Analyst, Office of Railroad Policy and Development, Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590, or catherine.dobbs@dot.gov.
Please visit our website for more information and share this email with interested parties so they can receive updates from All Aboard Florida. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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My May 6th blog post, below, about my perspective on the public outreach efforts of All Aboard Florida and SFRTA/Tri-Rail, left no stone un-turned -or thrown if it deserved it
For those of you who are curious, I have still never received a response to my April 12th email to SFRTAExecutive Director Joseph Giulietti about whether or not Hallandale Beach will have a commuter train station as part of their proposed Tri-Rail Coastal plan, which currently shows no proposed station here in their released plans. Tomorrow will make five weeks and counting since I wrote it, which itself, was the second effort to get an honest answer from SFRTA/TRi-Rail, with my previous email never getting a response, either.
More Transit Policy Woes in South Florida: With stealthy and self-sabotaging friends like All Aboard Florida and SFRTA/Tri-Rail, pro-transit advocates in South Florida don't need any more enemies; 'All Aboard Florida' fails to schedule a single public scoping meeting in Broward County this Spring despite Fort Lauderdale being a proposed station, while SFRTA chief refuses to answer a simple question -Will Hallandale Beach have a station under the proposed Coastal line plan?; Just because you're pro-transit doesn't mean you have to ignore displays of transit incompetency or mismanagement when you see it!
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel video: 50 seconds of Cecilia Nilsson singing her first single, "In My Room." Uploaded May 10, 2013. http://youtu.be/0SjBQnl1FNU Written by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson Sunday brought some very positive and interesting news from Sweden concerning a Friend of the Blog, Andreas Jismark, So good, in fact, that he also shared the news via his Twitter feed, shown below.
The good news concerns a very talented young female singer from GĂ€vle who's part of his talented music stable, and whose first single will officially be released on Wednesday.
To prime the public interest in her, Andreas has teased us, Sweden and the larger world with a clip featuring some of the first single. Not too much, lest we get a sugar rush or brain freeze, but just enough to give us a taste and keep us interested in seeing how the story ends on onsdag, Wednesday. Mañana! Andreas wrote...
This bit of news follows closely on the heels of the blog post that Andreas had written back on April 29th titled, quite cleverly, Goodbye, See See, Hello Cecilia Nilsson, which detailed some of the very hard work over the past two years that she's put in to make this moment possible. http://andreasjismark.se/goodbye-see-see-hello-cecilia-nilsson/ Last Fall, some months before I traveled to Stockholm in January and met with Andreas and another great music talent whom he manages, the amazing Anni Bernhard, i.e Full of Keys, whom you'll be hearing more about in the coming days here at the blog, I'd watched this video of Cecilia quitea number of times, since by now you all know how much I love context. I was looking for clues and hints of things to come. As it happens, the video is in Swedish, but I still think you'll enjoy it as she speaks about herself and her music interests and desire to write songs that are honest and that will connect with people. It was recorded mostly at her home in GÀvle, a very middle-class Swedish city in the best possible sense of the word, and one that I've written about a few times here in the past, which has not always had the easiest go of things. Just like growing-up or living in Baltimore or Pittsburgh or Indianapolis makes you a little more in-touch with the rest of the country than would be true in Santa Monica or Bethesda or Brookline, her town is a much-more accurate barometer of daily life in Sweden than many of the sweet upscale neighborhoods in Stockholm that I spent a lot of time in back in January. Places where money and some degree of influence often helps keep some social problems at bay a little bit longer than it does in GÀvle, where you take life as it is. To me, at least, that means that any songs Cecilia writes and sings will be much more in-tune with the average listener's personal experiences than if she'd been born or raised in Södermalm, and had parents who pushed her around in one of those amazing $800-plus German prams they sell atNordiska Kompaniet, which I spent some time eye-balling on my last day in Stockholm. That came after I'd spent time walking at night from my hotel, The Omena in Norrmalm, down to the Royal Palace and then headed back to the hotel via the KungstrÀdgÄrden ice skating rink one last time and then the central downtown business district. NK has an entire area of the store on the 4th Floor not just dedicated to upscale Kids, but to what seemed to be designer baby strollers, complete with a video showing German soccer Moms putting them thru their paces in Frankfurt.
(And do the well-educated Moms ever love to show those prams and their babies off at their nearby coffee shops! Or even the "Social Media" McDonalds I was at. That is a whole 'nother blog post entirely -upscale Swedish soccer Moms! They were everywhere! Not that I was complaining. )
And, now that it occurs to me, this film was recorded back when Cecilia's hair was much-longer than it currently is, which I know causes her some small distress, something I know about and recognize from having grown-up with two attractive younger sisters with beautiful long hair.
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: See See (Presentation). Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/0syxcoAblN8
Some of Cecilia's hard work and preparation came just a few weeks ago when she spent some time over in Gotland, where Andreas lives, where she rehearsed and even performed at Hammersmith Odeon Visby, which you'll recall is also where Anni/Full of Keys performed, as I mentioned here on the blog at the time.
There was a nice article on Cecilia that appeared in one of the local Gotland papers at the time of her trip and it includes a nice photo of her and the band rehearsing, including Andreas on guitar, which Cecilia also plays. StjÀrnskott i Visby i helgen (Shooting stars in Visby this weekend) http://www.helagotland.se/nyheter/artikel.aspx?articleid=8210085 One of the quotes I love is where Andreas, a music veteran in all sorts of important ways -as a performer, teacher, promoter, producer and manager- says the following:
– Jag har aldrig stött pĂ„ en elev som ens Ă€r 30-40 procent sĂ„ bra som Cissi, sĂ€ger han.
Miriam, from Göthenberg, had a gig on Friday in TranÄs at Babar, as did another young singing dynamo from GÀvle I've been keeping close tabs on by the name of See See -a.k.a. Cissi Nilsson- pictured below, whom I'll be writing about in more detail soon.So much sheer musical talent in Sweden, it's hard to believe sometimes!
Andreas was actually able to record one of the songs Cecilia performed in TranÄs at Babar before Miriam came onstage to perform later, and it's a tune some of you might recognize:
Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: Cecilia Nilsson "Never Let You Go" -LIVE at Babar in TranÄs, Sweden. April 5, 2013. Uploaded April 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/xVmsUZCpJqI
Here's a nice newspaper article on Cecilia that ran on Friday in her local newspaper, Arbetarbladet, which has done quite a number of stories on her over the past few years as she's sung and performed at many events all over the area, and developed quite a great reputation with a killer voice: Hur kÀnns det att slÀppa en singel? (How do you feel about your first single coming out?) http://arbetarbladet.se/noje/musik/1.5861796-hur-kanns-det-att-slappa-en-singel- Friday, Fredag, Friday, Fredag... For those of you reading this in Sweden -or elsewhere, but who want to check her out via the Internet- Cecilia will be performing two songs LIVE on Sveriges Radio, specifically, Radio P4 Gavleborg, on Friday at 15:30 Swedish Time, which is 9:30 a.m. Eastern U.S./Canada.
But if you miss her, you WILL be able to listen to Cecilia here on the blog at some point soon, because one of the very best things about Sveriges Radio is that they make almost everything they air available online, and best of all, with embeddable code for blogs and websites.
(You longtime readers of the blog will recall that I've posted lots of SR audio material here in the past for Timoteij, Full of Keys, First Aid Kit and other singing artists, as well as various pieces they've done on Melodisfestivalen.) So, even if you miss her, I'll have her right here where you can take a listen just as soon as it's humanly possible, more than likely, this weekend.
Wednesday morning update:
Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song)
Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAao
Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.
Red Broward YouTube Channel video: "Michael Putney: Ann Murray Has To Go" -Veteran Channel 10 reporter and fave of the blog, Michael Putney, their Senior Political Correspondent and longtime host of their popular "This Week in South Florida" Sunday morning public affairs program, chews up and calls-out District 1 Broward School Board member Ann Murray for her unacceptable words and behavior, saying she "has to go." Uploaded March 29, 2011. http://youtu.be/EL0S6YSYi-s
Spring 2013 Observations re Broward School Board: controversial Broward School Board member Ann Murray gets a challenge from someone who will go right at her, Felicia Brunson -will a third candidate join them by 2014?; Broward School Auditor Patrick Reilly finds more appalling evidence of School system's gross waste of taxpayer dollars, and as usual, Broward civic activist and Audit Comm. member Charlotte Greenbarg is 100% correct in analyzing the situation and saying it's what we think, too -it's the usual toxic combination of insubordination, entitlement and longstanding incompetency
Broward Beat School Board Member Who Used “N” Word Draws Black Opponent By Buddy Nevins
May 7, 2013
School Board member Ann Murray, who was reprimanded for making a bigoted statement using the “N” word, has picked up a re-election challenge from a black elected official.
Vice Mayor Felicia Brunson of West Park holds her kick off fundraiser tonight.
I mentioned Felicia Brunson's candidacy to unseat southeast Broward incumbent Ann Murray to some of you hereabouts a little over a month ago, via emails or in conversations, when I asked if you'd been contacted yet by Brunson, either by email, phone or direct mail, since I know that, quite logically, Brunson views Hallandale Beach as prime pouncing territory for her, given AnnMurray'sdisastrous time in office and complete disregard and contempt for HB and its kids, parents and taxpayers in every way that counts for anything -like actually showing-up at a public event in HB once in a while, besides ones where Supt. Robert W. Runcie is around.
That is, except for Murray's PR stunts like the one last year at the Broward School HQ, where Joy Cooper and Anthony A. Sanders showed-up for a School Board meeting to be thanked by Murray for all the city -them!- do for the kids!
I have that whole thing on videotape and trust me, it's quite a scream watching the three of them -Murray actually left the dais to stand with them- to compete and try to out-do one another in the Flattery Dept.
A scream, that is, except for it being so damn dishonest and despicable, given the true facts-on-the-ground since she has been in office.
My many previous blog posts about Ann Murray are located here:
I would not be at all surprised if another candidate gets into the District 1 race, and frankly, I hope that one will, esp. if that is someone who's savvy enough to keep publicly hammering home the true facts about what should be happening instead of what is happening with Broward Schools.
Like being able to discipline or fire perpetually insubordinate employees who continually disregard explicit instructions from their bosses -Supt. Robert W. Runcie and the School Board- and in this particular case, have cost Broward taxpayers over a million dollars.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Audit: Broward schools paid $1 million for canceled project
By Karen Yi, Sun Sentinel
May 4, 2013
Broward schools paid more than $1 million toward a construction project that had already been terminated by Superintendent Robert Runcie, according to a new audit report that found the payments were for work never completed.
The $4.8 million project to construct maintenance offices in Pembroke Pines was scrapped last January after the work lagged for more than three years, failed to meet state standards and proceeded despite an expired contract, prior audits show.
"Both the board and Superintendent directed that this project stop. In spite of this fact, over $1 million was paid," said audit committee member Charlotte Greenbarg. "We have a situation of gross insubordination on the part of staff members."
A Broward School Board candidate who will talk-the talk and walk-the-walkabout aggressively work for more public accountability and aggressively ridding the Broward School system and taxpayers of the army of bad, incompetent and insubordinate employees that continue to plague it, whether front line workers, administrators or teachers, is precisely the sort of person that I will happily support and vote for every time.
In spite of the fact that the Broward School Board and Supt. Runcie directed the project to stop and nothing more be done, the Deputy for Facilities, Tom Lindner, his staff and the General Counsel ignored the directive andRoyal Concrete Concepts was paid more than $1 Million.
NedNickerson2010 YouTube Channel video: The Fifth Dimension - One Less Bell To Answer. Uploaded on April 16, 2011. http://youtu.be/bmM72gxbdfUPerfection!
Plutootjes YouTube Channel video: Dusty Springfield "A House is Not a Home" from Burt Bacharach 1970 TV special. Uploaded November 2, 2008.
PBS YouTube video: Burt Bacharach's Best: My Music, June 2013, PBS. The My Music series spotlights the greatest hits and moments from songwriter and arranger Burt Bacharach in an all-new special airing June 2013 on most PBS stations. Uploaded May 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/taa-K_DNef0
TooleMan87 YouTube Channel video: "Hollywood Palace 1967 w/host Herb Alpert Part 5 of 7". ABC-TV's "The Hollywood Palace" of December 12, 1967. Uploaded July 31, 2009. Order of guests performers in this segment with host Herb Alpert, and Burt Bachrach on piano, saluting Bachrach/David songs: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, Wes Montgomery, Liza Minnelli, Baja Marimba Band, Liza Minnelli and Wes Montgomery, Herb Alpert.http://youtu.be/BvxCuN6W_9U
This last video is clearly one of THE greatest single videos that currently exist on YouTube.
In the late 1960's, some music critics said that Bachrach's music suffered from, perhaps, an "overcomplex melodic structure."
Well, whatever it was, people liked it and couldn't get enough, and neither could other talented singing artists of the time -and future singers hearing it as kids.
FA Cup Final on Saturday is a Rich Man, Poor Man tilt between Man City and Wigan -airing on Fox at Noon Eastern- and could prove interesting trivia answer if Wigan wins but then is relegated to the Championship League. (With Roberto Martinez going to Everton to replace David Moyes?) I sincerely hope it's a hoot instead of a snooze, since to be honest, 95% of the matches I've seen on TV the past 4-5 months have been pretty much on the blah side, leading to lots of involuntary naps on Saturdays.
thefacup YouTube Channel video: Dave Whelan and Matt Jackson preview Wigan's first ever FA Cup Final, Uploaded May 9, 2013. http://youtu.be/78j3tTRJD80
mcfcofficial YouTube Channel video: Kit man Les Chapman has a unique kit list for the FA Cup final. Uploaded May 10, 2013. http://youtu.be/wZcocgFt9kU
"Special underwear?"
mcfcofficial YouTube Channel video:FA CUP FINAL: Players depart for Wembley Stadium, Uploaded May 10, 2013. http://youtu.be/NBM-Rz-_gbw
Nobody but nobody can smile as often when she speaks and with as much appeal as talented and vivacious lead singer and guitarist Cecilia Kallin of Timoteij.
*This post was updated with additional videos and text at 11:55 p.m. Does it really matter what Cecilia was asked about here at the Helmia car show in Arvika?
Not really.
Cecilia's friendly and infectious smile just knocks me out every time I see her in an interview, even one as semi-awkward as this. She's such a charmer!:)
Also seen in the top video in Arvika: bandmates Bodil Bergström, fleetingly: Elina Thorsell, and, rather abruptly: Johanna Pettersson. Uploaded April 21, 2013. After they sang a few songs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm0I6JzzMGI and had finished signing autographs at the record signing, Cecilia and Bodil, separately, were among a number of passengers in a rally car driven by 22-year old Swedish professional rally driver Pontus Tidemand,which resulted in some great photos of him, Cecilia and the band -and a very smart and well-produced video that's definitely worth checking out.
PTMRacing YouTube Channel video: Pontus Tidemand Videoblog EP09 Helmia Show-driving in Arkiva, Sweden. Event was on April 20th, Uploaded April 22, 2013. http://youtu.be/pVWknesYt0I Above, you can see a truly striking-looking Bodil getting into the car at 1:15 and then the whole band from 1:31 to 1:38, with Cecilia happy and clearly relieved to be standing on her own two feet again and Bodil looking calm and cool. From 2:08 to 2:15, Bodil is recounting the experience to Elina, standing next to her, sipping a drink. There's a great photo of a smiling-but-nervous and helmeted Cecilia in the rally car on her blog page on the group's website at http://www.timoteij.se/2013/04/22/det-svanger-om-arvika/ where she admits that for at least part of the ride, she had her hands directly in front of her face and was peering thru her fingers, while, not surprisingly, 'driving' and 'braking' with her feet. Here's the photo of her and the band on Pontus' wonderful website and Instagram account: http://instagram.com/p/YVYMIqiw0R/
*I received a link to the below-the-radar video at the top of this post courtesy of an eagle-eyed reader of the blog living in -wait for it- Sweden, who wanted me to see it and share it with you all, but remain anonymous. Tack sÄ mycket, Anonymous! On Saturday the band will be performing in Cecilia's hometown of Falkirk, so I'm sure she will be snapping lots of photos that will soon be appearing on the band's always amusing blog and her Instagram page at http://www.timoteij.se/ andhttp://statigr.am/ceciliakallin Timoteij tour schedule: http://www.timoteij.se/turne/ Pontus Tidemand's official website, which is very attractive and , well-designed, is at: http://www.pontustidemand.se/
Wolfson Archive YouTube Channel video: A Soaring Tuttle Tribute. WTVJ-TV news anchor Ralph Renick, the founding anchor of Florida's first TV station, driving east on the Julia Tuttle Causeway from Miami to Miami Beach in 1959 to show viewers what it would be like, just before it opened. Renick is driving what the Wolfson Archives thinks is a 1959 Simca Aronde Oceane. Uploaded May 9, 2013.
I'm following up on my angry blog post of yesterday morning bemoaning and hectoring the two local South Florida newspapers -Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel- that insist -or is it persist?- in claiming that they're STILL major dailies, for their consistent lack of backbone and commitment to hard news coverage locally or nationally, by way of offering you three videos featuring South Florida's first TV news anchor and journalism icon, Ralph Renick. For 36 years Renick's distinctive voice was the defining voice of Miami-area journalism and public policy, and for most of those years, he was the most well-known, most-recognized and most-respected man in all of South Florida. (Compare to now.) Ralph Renick was a smart and shrewd man and cleverly used that power he'd earned over those many years in many very positive ways to help guide a somewhat-isolated and sometimes-youthful and unruly South Florida, towards becoming a more civic-minded place to live and work. To not accept a poor work ethic and mediocrity and insist on high ideals in politicians and government officials so that when those standards sagged, they knew that he would goad them or go after them. Renickwas not only a man who anchored and reported on the news, but someone who, when he actually showed-up at a government or political event around the area, actually made that event news itself, and always caused a stir when he showed-up. His being there made it news, and something that you would mention to other people the next day at work or school, back before you could immediately Tweet or blog about it with a photo to boot. That trust and respect Renick earned came from being very demanding of himself and of the people at the TV station he was so widely identified with, which had a very positive national reputation within the TV news industry, too. His influence on the reporters, producers and writers he hired and molded was profound, and since his general renown in the area, plus his status as station news director, which was and is very, very unusual, gave him lots of natural advantages that other stations couldn't compete with, like being able to groom young reporters in his serious image, but with their faces and talents, he could keep the standards very high, which only served to give the people who worked there a very real sense of well-earned satisfaction. There's a reason that people like myself who grew-up or who lived here in the '70's can still remember the names of the field reporters at that station, and that is because they were very talented and worked very hard and didn't cut the corners on quality. And, in many cases, were so good that many of them wound up working as national reporters for CBS News. That these traits were also his traits only caused that station to hum in ways that most TV news operations never ever do. For almost every month that Renick was the anchor, his 6 and 11 p.m. thirty-minute newscasts were the number-one newscast in the market, and the fact that he also did his trademark civics-minded editorials before signing-off and the intro to the CBS Evening News withWalter Cronkite or Dan Rather, gave his newscasts an extra heft and punch that the three others couldn't match for most of his reign, even with talented people in place there, too.
August 25, 1982 Ralph Renick editorial on WTVJ-4, Miami, on the filming of Scarface in South Florida. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyuJGHrjbRY I guess what I'm trying to say here today, is that when I talk here on the blog about news reporting and journalism, and doing things the right way, what most stands in contrast to how things are now is that Ralph Renick wasn't just a newsman's newsman, he was an attitude. A professional arms-length relationship with people and personalities in the news. I don't want anchors and reporters to be pals and chums with elected officials or Dolphin or Heat players or head coaches, and playing in their charity golf or tennis outings, I want them hungry to keep them honest and above board.
That's an attitude that I and many of my friends seldom see in this TV market now, despite amazing technological innovations that make their jobs easier, and which ought to make it easier as well to tell compelling stories in new and original ways. But it isn't happening, especially at the newspapers, where things only seem to be getting worse quality-wise.
thecardsaysmoops YouTube Channel video: WTVJ / Miami News Open - November, 1970 - Ralph Renick's Six O'Clock newscast, with its famiar musical theme, which odds as it sounds right now, was actually a comforting sound back in the day, when yours truly was a nine-year old living in North Miami Beach when this took place. Renick's last newscast for WTVJ was in March, 1985. He died in June of 1991. http://youtu.be/aCVUJmoBN1M
Honestly, I never feel older than when I think about how influential Renick's newscasts were on me and my friends as kids growing-up in NMB in the 1970's, and our way of looking at South Florida and what it could be someday if only...
And naturally, I can't help but wish that this area now had more people who took their jobs as reporters or govt. officials or community leaders as least as seriously as I want them to take it -and as seriously as Ralph Renick took his big responsibilities- not only for myself, but also so that kids growing-up down here now would know that there are some people here entrusted with power and influence who really take their positions seriously, and don't cut corners and compromise on ethical standards and behavior, so that frivolity and excess are not always shown as the easiest way to go through life. I want more serious, hard news coverage of local news and so does everyone I know and respect. In the year 2013, it's fair to ask, "Where's the quality 24/7 Miami/FTL local news cable channel we need and deserve?"
"Nancy Drew - Reporter" - 1938 (Original Trailer). The apple of her father's eye! Leading River Heights attorney Carson Drew's teen sleuth daughter, Nancy, (Bonita Granville) is fast on the case and she won't stop until the mystery is solved and the story is told! Nancy would have been all over the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal here and taken no prisoners as she zeroed-in on all the questionable grant and loan recipients, shadowing them to see what they were really doing with the city money they were given, and seen whether any of the so-called projects they received the money for ever actually were accomplished. Unlike HB City Hall's high-paid minions, who didn't care what happened to the city's money and did no follow-up at all as the Broward Inspector General's final report makes clear.
Our Nancy -along with Ned Nickerson- would've had lots of fun playing tricks and mind games on HB Comm. Anthony A. Sanders and Comm. Alexander Lewy until they finally stopped their foolish and tiresome -to say nothing of transparent!- efforts to funnel CRA money into Northwest HB with no real tangible plan other than to keep their political pals there happy, with typical lip service when pressed to explain their antics. Yes, our Nancy, being an intelligent and solid reporter, would've dug deep into the public records and might've even asked publicly in a column at the River Heights Tribune: "How come Comm. Lewy received an award from a prominent Broward County Jewish group whom just a few scant months before, he had voted to give one of their leaders a sweetheart CRA deal to, despite it actually being evident that it was to HB taxpayers great disadvantage? Very curious."
Yes, Nancy would've already had that particular story published by now, unlike the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, whose own reporters have yet to ever mention a single word about it in-print.
After reading this fantastic Lakeland Ledger editorialbelow, which appeared in-print last weekend, ask yourself a good question.
How many times, conservatively, over the past nine years, should we have -and could we have- seen such an editorial about the City of Hallandale Beach's consistently anti-democratic, conduct during what are labeled as "public meetings" in Hallandale Beach under Mayor Joy Cooper,and past City Managers Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio and current City Manager Renee C. Miller?
Conservatively?
Dozens and dozens of times, including the city's all-day "Visioning" meeting held in February, where HB citizens who showed-up were NOT allowed to make any comments, ask any questions, or even allowed to point out actual mistakes in claims made by the city's elected officials and employees that were not backed-up by the facts or reality -or both?
Or as I wrote here on March 2nd:
'Visioning' and Public Participation: Comparing and contrasting Ft. Lauderdale and Hallandale Beach's approach to planning for the future -one is open to constructive criticism & suggestions from its populace, and the other is stealthy and closed-minded. Guess which one I live in?; @MayorCooper
But given these dozens of opportunities to shed some light on the untoward behavior taking place right where everyone could see what they were doing -and by they, of course, I mean Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, plus the City Manager at the time- how many times did the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel rise to the occasion and do the appropriate thing by saying what happened in-print? ZERO! Fairly recently, the Miami Herald went the better part of an entire year without sending a reporter to HB City Hall a single time to cover the public's business. When did these two newspapers give even one example of the many dozens that we've all experienced at HB City Hall the past ten years, where Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew treated those of us in the audience with contempt, as the enemy, and just continued apace with their anti-taxpayer, anti-Sunshine Law behavior? Not once.
The Herald in particular, as you recall, not only went out of its way to NOT report on some issues that I repeatedly gave their reporters and editors -and top management- on a silver tray, they even seemed unwilling to give due credit to someone who deserved it -my friend, Csaba Kulin- for uncovering devastating financial information re the city's pension plan for top management that even today, HB City Hall can't explain with a straight face and STILL CAN'T provide documents on:
Csaba Kulin gets the Miami Herald's whitewash treatment: McClatchy's Co.'s Herald practices the opposite of giving credit where credit is due, editing out the name of the one person in South Florida most-responsible for finding out why and how 3 former Hallandale Beach City Managers will soon be multi-millionaires with taxpayer dollars; a story that Miami Herald reporters, editors and management have completely ignored for years!
The facts speak for themselves. Some newspapers get it and some don't. Here's one that does:
Lakeland Ledger
Editorial
Landings Settlement Talks: City of Secrecy
Published: Sunday, April 28, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Monday, the Winter Haven City Commission, and residents attending the board's meeting, hoped to hear a solution to one of the city's most divisive issues of recent years, The Landings.City Manager Deric Feacher gave a report, the details of which he had kept secret, and the commission discussed Feacher's findings — for a total of 1 hour, 8 minutes. The comment time allotted to residents in the audience to talk about the report: zero.
Not only has the city government made a mess of a project meant to improve its best tract of land, which overlooks Lake Lulu and holds great memories for many in Winter Haven, it has allowed the also revered statewide process of government in the sunshine to collapse within City Hall.
*Make sure you read all three pages So it's clear that it's not just those of us in Hallandale Beach who've been paying salaries for City Managers and their high-paid help who've actively work against the best interests of taxpayers, residents and small business-owners, trying their best to prevent them from participating in participatory democracy and NOT making public information available ASAP even while lobbyists and contractors have it. But because it HAS been going on here for years, it often feels much worse because the facts are pretty clear that, for whatever reasons, most of the South Florida news media -with the exception of a handful of people whom I won't name here- clearly DON'T want to report the truth about what's really been going on here for years, with far too many reporters and columnists content to either just look the other way or engage in one-dimensional stenography. And that's just when reporters can be convinced to actually show-up,
But actually paying attention, though? That's an extra burden, so getting them to put two and two together and getting four, or actually doing some shoe-leather reporting and and following-up on longstanding problems in a meaningful way? No, they don't that that and they don't promise to connect the dots or even come to any solid conclusions.
The incidents cited in the Broward Inspector General's Office on the City of Hallandale Beach didn't just happen a few minutes ago, they were ongoing for YEARS. But what did the local papers report on? It's like every time reporters show-up at 400. S. Federal Highway, they ignore all the pieces of the puzzle that are already in evidence on the table, and already connected, and instead, are surprised and unsure of what to make of the pieces on the table, like they have no idea what it all is. It's so infuriating and the thing that always gets me is that so many of the reporters who do occasionally show-up have no serious idea of how loathed they are by the people in town who really are well-informed. No idea at all. But justifiably loathed they are. THAT is how oblivious they are. As I've stated here previously, if I had the power, with the exception of those un-named reporters I alluded to before, I'd replace almost every print and TV reporter in South Florida with recent journalism grads of Ernie Pyle at IU or Medill at Northwestern and Cal-Berkeley, and a few other places if I could, because they still have their natural curiosity and are not jaded, cowed or resigned the way so many of the current crop are, many of whom haven't been rotated to another beat in many years and seem to me to have grown a little too fond of writing about their favorite pols and excusing things that fresher eyes would fully investigate instead of passing up on. (Sorry, no Columbia J-School or University of Florida J-School grads, please.) The current crew are no Nancy Drews, that's for sure, since she always put the pieces of the puzzle together and solved the mystery, no matter how obtuse.
Though it's been needed for many years, the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel have resisted writing full-barreled editorials like the oen in the Ledger I've brought to your attention today. Ones that zero-in on completely un-acceptable behavior by elected municipal officials and city employees and open them up to long -verdue public scrutiny.
