Naming Names Herald-style -Beach One Resort Hotel in Hollywood Passes Round One

June 2008 Artist rendering of aerial view of Beach One Resort, Hollywood, FL

Carlos A. Ott, Architect from submitted documents to the City of Hollywood Development Review Board. September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

This was NOT intended to be an accurate representation of all beach properties along that part of State Road A1A, since SIAN is missing from it, but rather an attempt to show what the general area heights were, with the Westin Diplomat a few blocks to the north and the three condo towers of The Beach Club in HB a block to the south.

The newest proposal by Beach One Resort is 130 feet/ten stories shorter than their original one.

Hollywood Beach Eyesore Continues to Grow

The view of the neighborhood nuisance as seen on April 3rd, 2008 at Hallandale Beach Blog.

My frustration with this longstanding situation on State Road A1A, which lasted for years, led me to placing this photo front and center on my blog for quite some time.

While I was obviously pleased to see that a slit-fence was finally installed there a few weeks ago in August, and even more pleased to see the 25-foot mound of dirt removed, frankly, I never really got the reasonable answer I was looking for from the City of Hollywood about why there wasn't one to begin with, and why that property seemed to have special rules that applied to it, despite how self-evident the problem was.

Honestly, could it have been more evident?

A few times, I spotted City of Hollywood building inspectors in front of the Crowne Plaza -before it officially opened- and walked over to inquire if they knew anything about what was going on with all the dirt that had been flying around the neighborhood for at least 18 months.

Sad to say, their customer service skills couldn't have been worse -un-friendly and un-professional.

Dudes, when you park your City of Hollywood car right on the sidewalk, forcing everyone in the neighborhood to actually have to walk out into the street with traffic, the least you could do is keep the bad work attitude to yourself.

For what it's worth, I did manage to snap a few quick photos of these nominees for Hollywood city Employees of the Month with the bad attitudes.

But I decided not to "out" them by posting their photos months ago, though I could've, since I know they'd have claimed they were "misunderstood," always the last refuge for bad govt. employees.

No, actually, I didn't misunderstand, I just wrote down what you said, the day and time, your license plate tag info, and a general description of you.

That way, in the future, if I see you in the Hollywood City Hall Commission chambers, I can stop, pivot, and segue into your actions and call you out in front of your colleagues as a jerk.

Don't thank me, it'll be my pleasure.

In August of 2007, I finally got so frustrated with the situation that I went to Hollywood City Hall myself, and after describing why I was there, I got the opportunity to speak with someone about it in the Planning Dept.

I asked questions about the property and why it seemed so impervious to the usual rules that apply to areas like that prior to construction, since by then, it had been about 10 months without any slit-fencing of any kind, even while the mound of dirt had grown to be at least 25 ft. high, which was not really what the neighbors next door at SIAN and elsewhere signed up for in the way of beach culture.

Despite my various efforts, it would be almost an entire year before the slit-fence was erected.

For the record, as I've written many times here, though this property has been a neighborhood nuisance for both Hollywood and Hallandale Beach residents for quite some time, when Mayor Joy Cooper obliquely referred to it at the joint HB-Hollywood City Commission meeting I attended in June, from my perspective and that of many others, that was THE first time Cooper ever referred to it publicly, despite it having been a self-evident problem since at least November of 2006.

Mayor Peter Bober -whom I'm a supporter of- wasn't elected mayor of Hollywood until March of this year, so honestly, how could it be that Mayors Cooper and Mara Giulianti and City Managers Mike Good and Cameron Benson could all have ignored something that large at one of the busiest intersections in southeast Broward for so long? 
And at the beach, no less!

Do you really have to ask?

Well, at least there's a new sheriff in town in Hollywood who's interested in accountability and transparency, which is more than can be said in Hallandale Beach.

More comments following the Miami Herald article.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/709814.html

HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood high-rise wins key backing

By Breanne Gilpatrick

October 2, 2008

Hollywood city commissioners tentatively approved a key zoning change Wednesday for a proposed 41-story ocean-side hotel set to join other high-end high-rises near the Hollywood-Hallandale Beach border.

Developers for Beach One Resort sought the change to allow them to build a 477-room hotel on the 1.59-acre parcel at the northeast corner of South Ocean Drive and Hallandale Beach Boulevard.

Once completed, the hotel will join Hollywood's Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, the three-tower Beach Club condo complex in Hallandale beach and other high-rises in the area. Commissioners said the project blends well along the southern stretch of Hollywood beach dominated by luxury hotels and condominiums.

''I love this project,'' Commissioner Heidi O'Sheehan said.

"It's beautiful, and I appreciate that you did look to the Diplomat and you did look at what we already have and it complements that area beautifully.''

Original plans called for a 549-foot-tall building with 51 stories.

But developers worked with the city to lower the height by more than 130 feet, bringing the building in line with the other hotels along that portion of Hollywood beach.

Earlier this year, some beach residents told the city's Planning and Zoning Board that they thought developers were trying to build too much on the parcel and worried the 418-foot-tall building would cast a shadow over the beach.

But the reaction Wednesday was largely positive.

''It's perfect for our community,'' Hollywood beach resident Joe Joynt said.

Because the property sits outside the boundaries of Hollywood's Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, any property tax revenue generated by the project would flow into the city's budget.

-----------------------

I will have much more to say about the particulars of this project over the next week, as well as lots of details about that Hollywood City Commission meeting that the local media have failed to report or mention, but I wanted to post this information before any more time slipped by.

I attended the Sept. 11th Development Review Board hearing in Hollywood on the Beach One Resort project and attended this past Wednesday afternoon's Hollywood City Commission meeting on it, the first of their two meetings on the proposed 41-story hotel, which will be just north of the Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A and Hallandale Beach Blvd.

This past Tuesday night, I sent out an email to some local South Florida public policy folks of my acquaintance whom I knew had an interest in the project, and what it might represent for Hollywood, asking for as many of them as possible to attend the meeting so they wouldn't be hearing rumors and scuttlebut and could contribute some thoughts.

My thinking all along was that many people initially liked The Radius project on Young Circle, too, but we know what everyone thought once it was actually built, don't we?

Where's that curvilinear aspect to it that would have prevented it from feeling like it's going to topple over on top of you, like a top-heavy model or Playmate, when you walk across the street to the Starbucks.

The curvilinear aspect is something that was added to the WSG project on the southeast corner of Young Circle a few months ago, and is one that will be immediately noticeable about the Beach One Resort, also, something that, if executed properly, will help it become a real iconic property in South Florida.

(As opposed to those South Florida real estate projects elsewhere that bastardize the meaning of the word because their dopey PR folks can't think of another name for ugly and tall, so they call it iconic. As if.)

It holds great promise for being a signature location for Hollywood, a visible landmark for decades to come that shapes visitors first impressions of the city, while also being the embodiment of that ideal that Bernard Zyscovich has spoken about with regard to the area south of Young Circle, i.e. a tangible and visible entryway into the city, to give it a sense of place.

Still, as you can tell from my comments accompanying some photos I've snapped over the past few months of the area, I do have a real fear about the shadows that will be cast upon HB's already tiny beach in the afternoon.

Design, specs, renderings at: http://www.hollywoodfl.org/docdepotcache/00000/812/PO-2008-20.PDF

You can watch a replay of Wednesday's meeting online at: http://www.hollywoodfl.org/city_clerks/meetings_webcast.htm

That's right, you can watch the whole thing, about ninety minutes, complete with graphics on the screen so you can actually follow it at home -unlike the case in Hallandale Beach.

You can even see the running time so you know that when X,Y or Z was said or done, you can tell someone about it and they can find that exact moment.

Imagine that? Graphics and running time and everything.


Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach has COMCAST Channel 78, which might as well be running a test pattern, since it has no information onscreen during HB City Commission telecasts to let you know where they are in the proceedings.

--------------------

PO-2008-20 - Ordinance First Reading
An Ordinance Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Waiving The 10 Acre Minimum Acreage Requirement For A Planned Development; Changing The Zoning Designation Of The Property Generally Located At 4111 South Ocean Drive From C-1 (Commercial Low Intensity) To PD (Planned Development District);
Allocating Up To 238 Bonus Hotel Density Rooms From The "Hollywood Beach Hotel Room Pool";
Approving The Planned Development (PD) Master Development Plan For The Subject Property
(Hereinafter Known As "Beach One Resort Planned Development Master Plan"); And Amending The City's Zoning Map To Reflect The Change In Zoning Designation. (05-ZJ-21)

September 28, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking east towards the Hallandale Beach Water Tower from Hallandale Beach Blvd.

September 28, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking northwest from Surf Road in Hallandale Beach towards the Beach One Resort lot, whose fence currently is sporting a Dotty Ross for HB City Commission campaign sign, which will no doubt come as news to the owner. In the past two years, that exact spot, just opposite The Beachside Cafe, has had Tim Ryan for State Senate campaign signs and William Julian for HB City Commission campaign signs. Every time I've seen them, I've wondered who thought they could put a campaign sign on someone else's property, since it doesn't belong to The Beachside Cafe or the City of Hallandale Beach.

But that's symptomatic of the attitude and culture here in Hallandale Beach among many local pols and their supporters: to try to get away with things until you get caught and then feign ignorance when you are.

September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking up at the east facade of Hollywood City Hall on my way into the meeting.

September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A rendering of the Beach One Resort looking south on the beach from north of the property, basically around the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa.

September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A rendering of the Beach One Resort looking north from State Road A1A.

September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A rendering depicting the West/A1A and East/beach elevation of the Beach One Resort.

September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

A rendering showing the narrow ship-like appearance of the hotel, with the beach to the right.

September 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Looking west towards Hollywood City Hall as I made my way home.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking east from the north sidewalk of the Intracoastal Bridge, i.e. State Road 858/Hallandale Beach Blvd., towards the Hallandale Beach Water Tower to the left and the north (1850 S. Ocean) condo tower of The Beach Club to the right.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking north onto State Road A1A from the city boundary dividing the City of Hollywood to the north and Hallandale Beach to the south.

You can see the yellow 9/11 Development Review Board meeting sign right next to the bus bench.

As I was leaving the beach area around 6 PM or so, to get back home for the Hurricanes-Gators ballgame, I walked over to it and pushed itdown a bit, but given the heavy winds that day, I had no reason to think the sign would still be there and not on the street somewhere.

Hollywood might want to make a mental note of the simple fact that the beach area is always going to be the windiest place around, so lightweight Notice signs that are planted in the ground, probably should not be used there.

I'm constantly surprised at the number of people in the area who don't realize that the north side of Hallandale Beach Blvd. is, in fact, the entrance to Hollywood.

The sign on the A1A median welcoming you into Hollywood is two blocks north only because that median is the first one on A1A which is wide enough for the sign's placement, since the median on HBB is too narrow.

Much of the confusion no doubt stems from the fact that the city border is farther north on U.S.-1/ Federal Highway, up at Pembroke Road, and many people just assume it's at roughly the same position over on the beach.

That's why even in local sources or on www.flickr.com, you often see incorrect references to the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa and Hallandale Beach.

From the hotel, looking west, the west side of the Intracoastal is HB, but the hotel itself is in the City of Hollywood.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking west from Surf Road towards the lot and the sign announcing the Sept. 11th City of Hollywood Development Review Board hearing.

Currently, this is the beach parking lot controlled by what some call the rather 'shady' folks at The Beachside Cafe, which charges $5 to park in this unlit and un-supervised lot full of rocks, gravel and potholes. And did I tell you about all the feral cats?

The cats who used to congregate below the 'scarecrow' Hallandale Beach Police car near the entrance to the parking lot?

Even amongst the dumbest of South Florida's criminals, seeing bowls of cat food and water in front of a Police car's front or back tire, day after day, well, it's a bit of a hint that there are no real cops around.

And there aren't, either!

But that's another familiar refrain and subject I won't get into a tangent on now.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking south from Surf Road towards the HB Water Tower and The Beach Club.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Hallandale Beach Water Tower.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

This image, of course, will all but disappear once the Beach One Resort goes up.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Me and my early evening silhouette.

September 6, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The dividing line beween sunshine and shadows is a very clear one.

Shadows courtesy of The Beach Club.

The long shadows cast by the condos make it much more difficult for the lifeguards to discern swimmers in the water. Just ask them and they'll tell you as much.

September 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The view of the Beach One Resort lot while standing atop that A1A bus bench, minus about 20 feet of dirt.

September 2, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking southeast from the east sidewalk on State Road A1A towards the Hallandale Beach Water Tower, Hallandale Beach Fire/Rescue #600.

I'll have MUCH more soon on that whole crazy area, scene of some shady shenanigans that have taken place there for years, as well as a thorough photographic review of the so-called North Beach Community Center, which has been the subject of many past HBB blog posts.

(See http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/mid-julys-very-odds-and-ends-in.html )

The city took title to it on August 3rd, 2007, but it won't be open to actual Hallandale Beach residents and taxpayers 'till February or March of next year, 18 months later.

Eighteen long months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But not to worry, friends, pals and cronies of the well-connected at Hallandale Beach City Hall have been able to use the building over the past 14 months.

Just not you!

For you, it's closed.

That's life in Hallandale Beach, Florida in the year 2008 under the ruinous reign of Joy Cooper, Dotty Ross, William Julian and City Manager Mike Good.

How many times can I say here that they're a very big part of the problem, not part of any constructive common sense solutions.

Election Day is just 30 days away, so do yourself and the city a big favor and vote NO on Dotty Ross, and cast a vote for reform, accountability and transparency at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

Vote for Arturo O' Neill and Carlos Simmons on November 4th for the Hallandale Beach City Commission.

For more information, see http://www.arturo-oneill.com/ , www.changehallandale.com

Joy_loses_control_-_Clip.mp4 and

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/no-more-joy-cooper/3961248210/?icid=VIDURVNWS05

You'll be glad you did!

Upcoming Broward and Miami-Dade Tri-Rail transportation workshops

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/larry-lebowitz/story/696025.html

Miami Herald
Tri-Rail moves along, but still on a rocky road
By Larry Lebowitz
September 22, 2008

The good: Tri-Rail smashed another ridership record last week. The South Florida Transportation Authority reported that 17,241 passengers boarded a Tri-Rail train on Thursday.

It was the second largest day in Tri-Rail's 20-year history, and all the more remarkable because it was just another Thursday in paradise and the record -- 18,452 -- was a once-in-a-lifetime event: the Miami Heat NBA Championship victory parade in June 2006.

Tri-Rail is consistently surpassing the 16,000 boardings-per-day mark -- more than double the 7,500 boardings a day the agency was recording just three years ago at the nadir of the double-tracking construction project from hell.

Public transportation numbers are up across the United States since gasoline prices spiked at $4 a gallon earlier this year. And in Tri-Rail's case, the numbers are continuing to rise even though gas prices have receded, ever-so-slightly back into the $3.70-to-$3.80 neighborhood.

With the 28 percent growth in year-to-year ridership, Tri-Rail ranks third, on a percentage basis, for ridership growth among commuter rail providers nationwide.

Now, the bad: It's still only 17,000 boardings a day in a car-crazed region of more than six million people and a gazillion tourists and snowbirds, and the local governments -- especially Broward and Palm Beach counties -- are making more noise about cutting Tri-Rail revenues next year.

They're already making it harder or more expensive for Tri-Rail passengers to get from the train to the bus to the office or home. Several of the critical connector routes that run from station to workplace and back are in danger.

Broward County Transit and PalmTran are starting to charge transfers that used to be free. Those connector routes are in danger.

Passengers will be digging deeper into their pockets just to get to and from work everyday.

It's still a bargain compared to gas and insurance and maintenance of a personal vehicle. But it's less of a bargain than it was a year ago.

If any of the three counties reduces its share of funding to the train, then it will set off a cascading series of events that will dramatically reduce the subsidies from the other two counties and 50 percent match from the state.

And now, the ugly: The commuter train's long-term future is as hazy as ever.

Tri-Rail has to start prepping for another year of dancing in the corridors of Tallahassee, hat in hand, begging the Legislature and the governor to finally adopt a dedicated local funding source. Rental car fees, license plate renewal fees, fees on fees. Everything is on the table, as it has been since 2003.

A series of Tri-Rail specific transportation summits are being set for each of the three counties between now and mid-November followed by a regional summit that will be set before the Legislature returns next year.

It might be a tougher sell in Miami-Dade, where the locals will already be suffering from DTSF -- Dueling Transpo-Summit Fatigue.

Miami-Dade will be inviting the community to gather and hear, once and for all, why the half-cent sales tax for transportation hasn't delivered many of the major promises of the 2002 campaign, why the money was diverted to other pressing needs, and then start to prioritize what's left.

THE `BLOGOSPHERE'
South Beach photographer and agitator extraordinaire Bill Cooke took a potshot at Miami-Dade Transit in a recent not-so-private memo to Director Harpal Kapoor on his blog, "Random Pixels.''

Brandishing the 50-cent fare increase that goes into effect Oct. 1 like a barnacle-encrusted scabbard, Cooke riffed on an all-too-common complaint about Metrobus driver habits on his route, The South Beach Local:

"May I suggest that you use a fraction of that money to retrain your drivers. Specifically, you might want to refresh them with the rules that are posted on every bus and train in the county. You know, the ones that prohibit smoking, drinking or eating on buses.

"And you might want to start with the South Beach Local drivers since just this last week I saw no fewer than three drivers at different times eating while driving.

Transit's unionized drivers are supposed to have time in between runs for contractually mandated bathroom and food breaks. But when the routes run late, break time disappears.

''A side benefit of having drivers abide by the no-eating rule,'' Cooke notes, ``would be to cut down on the scores of cockroaches that now ride those buses for free!''

Streetwise thinks Cooke -- and Transit -- are missing an opportunity here. If the agency is so strapped for cash, why can't we charge the cockroaches fares?

Slightly less sarcastic side notes to the Transport Workers Union Local 291 and to Miami-Dade Transit: First, nobody should be riding any public transportation vehicle with vermin.

Second, this isn't an isolated rant from Metrobus passengers on Miami Beach. And it's not just about eating habits.

Do you have a commuting question or an idea for a future column? Contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@

MiamiHerald.com or call him at 305-376-3410 or 954-764-7026, ext. 3410.
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SFRTA SPONSORS TRANSPORTATION WORKSHOP SEPTEMBER 26 IN BOCA RATON

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority will host the first in a series of three county-specific transportation workshops Friday, September 26 on the Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton. The workshop, which is open to the public and free of charge, will be held at the Live Oak Pavilion from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Registration will be held from 12:45 to 1 p.m. Reservations may be made in advance by calling 954-788-7958.

The workshop will focus on discussions about future regional transportation needs, priorities and funding in Palm Beach County. Elected officials, transportation industry professionals, local government administrators, community activists and members of the general public who are concerned about sustainability and mobility within Palm Beach County are encouraged to attend.

Director James F. Murley, FAU’s Center for Urban & Environmental Solutions, will be the moderator. The agenda includes presentations by the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization, South Florida Regional Planning Council, Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, Florida Department of Transportation, Palm Tran and the SFRTA. Additional topics to be discussed are the Florida East Coast Railroad Study, transit-oriented development and the proposed development for Tri-Rail’s Boca Raton Station.

South Florida Regional Transportation Authority
Palm Beach County Transportation Workshop
September 26, 2008

AGENDA
12:45 - 1:00 p.m. Registration

1:00 - 1:15 p.m. Welcome Remarks
- The Honorable Josephus Eggelletion, Jr., SFRTA Chair
Comments
- The Honorable Bill T. Smith, Jr., Esq., SFRTA Governor Appointee, Palm Beach County
Recognition of Elected Officials
- The Honorable Marie Horenburger, SFRTA Governing Board Member, Palm Beach County
Introduction of Moderator James F. Murley

1:15 - 2:10 p.m Regional Session
- Regional Overview - FAU CUES - presented by James F. Murley
- Southeast FL 2060 Vision Plan - presented by Carolyn Dekle
- TCRPC Strategic Regional Policy Plan - presented by Michael Busha
- SFRTA Strategic Regional Plan - presented by Joseph Quinty
- Q&A

2:10 - 3:20 p.m Palm Beach County - Session 1
- FDOT - represented by James Wolfe
- Palm Beach MPO - represented by Randy Whitfield
- Palm Tran - represented by Charles Cohen
- SFRTA - represented by Joseph Giulietti
- Q&A

3:20 - 4:15 p.m. Palm Beach County - Session 2
- Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC) Study/Tri-Rail Jupiter Extension
presented by Scott Seeburger
- Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)/Station Area Planning - presented by
Kim Delaney
- Tri-Rail Boca Raton Station Proposed TOD - presented by
Tom Gustafson
- Q&A

4:15 - 4:30 p.m. Concluding Remarks - James F. Murley

Don't say you didn't know it was coming!

Details are finally coming together for the Miami-Dade and Broward transit workshops sponsored by Tri-Rail, SFRTA, which, I'm reliably told, will include a lot more real public input than usual, not just the agency and engineering/planning consultant types throwing jargon around.

The transportation workshop in Miami-Dade County will be on Friday November 14th at the Miami-Dade Expressway office located at 3790 N.W. 21st Street (across the street from Tri-Rail's Miami Airport Tri-Rail Station) and in Broward County on Wednesday November 19th at the International Game Fishing Association, located at 300 Gulf Stream Way (adjacent to Tri-Rail's Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Int'l. Airport Station at Dania Beach.)

You know, the non-airport "Airport" station!

Both workshops should begin at 8:30 a.m. and are slated to end around noon.

Special shout-out to Joseph J. Quinty, Transportation Planning Manager of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority for the very helpful information and feedback on some upcoming events that should foster some honest and healthy debate, something not always seen herebouts.

Now mark it on your calendar, toute-de-suite.

See also: http://www.tri-rail.com/announcements.htm

HB Mayor Joy Cooper Freaks-out at City Comm. Mtg, -flees dais!

September 23rd, 2008 photo of Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting by South Beach Hoosier. Missing from photo -Mayor Joy Cooper.
If you look closely enough at the mounted TVs above the dais, they show the mayor's empty chair.

Wednesday night's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting captured mayor Joy Cooper at her absolute brazen worst: by turns condescending, accusative, arrogant, sneering, abrasive and totally full of her bullying self, once again over-playing her hand.

Naturally, as this observer has seen on far too many occasions over ther past few years, the mayor, as is her established custom, tried to turn the events into one where she could try to play the 'victim card' as well.
"I take offense at..."

She never really quites pulls off the victim card, though, because more often than not, Cooper is the aggressive bully, upset that people are remaining independent and not bending to her will.

It was all so unseemly and un-necessary, yet it's representative of why Hallandale Beach needs fresh faces of reform come November to prevent the continuing sense of democratic decay under the older, sclerotic members, who are not only not friends of government reform, accountability, transparency and increased citizen participation in city business, but are, by their own recorded votes, their sworn enemy.

They are the very portrait of status quo for the well-connected and the well-heeled in this community, who like things done one way -their way!

The photo I took above captures the moments just after Cooper stormed off the dais, while Comm. Keith London, speaking via telephone, explained for the second time, his personal rationale for voting No on the city's proposed budget.

By late Thursday afternoon at Hallandale Beach Blog, you'll be able to find much more context and analysis on this mind-blowing meeting, this mini-Rorschach test, along with some well-chosen comments on some typically short-sighted and self-serving remarks by ethically-challenged Comm. William Julian, who once again showed his lack of character and class by his words and behavior.

I just wanted to let you know since you weren't there.

Pity.

A Sign of Hallandale Beach's Endemic Apathy is Staring Right at You -Get Even on Election Day!

Looking east from U.S-1 at the main construction site of what will be the retail component of The Village of Gulfstream, on what used to be the huge West parking lot of Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino.
September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

I've got dozens of photos that I've taken over the past year of the construction all along U.S.-1, many of which I will be posting in coming weeks.




September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

The sign above on U.S.-1 and S.E. 5th Street, across from the Gulfstream Park Race Track
& Casino, lets you know that you're just feet away from the Hallandale Beach City Hall and the Hallandale Beach Police Department Headquarters.
But what should really be erected there is a warning sign complete with skull and crossbones: Beware all ye who enter forth...

In the time that I've lived here, it's continually shown itself to be a completely dysfunctional government, one that gives every impression of holding itself both apart and above the citizens and residents it's supposed to serve and protect, almost daring you at times to complain about its queer habits and erratic behavior by means of comparison to what's generally thought of as "normal" everywhere else.

The crazy thing is, they really DON'T seem to think they have to follow the laws that govern everyone else in the state of Florida and the United States, whether of logic and reason, contracts, or, more to the point for this blog and the city's residents, simple things like the Florida Statutes on Sunshine Laws and Public Records to name but one.
You see, they love nothing so much as, alternately, playing a game of "Pass the buck," or,
attempting to tie you up in knots of red tape and double-talk.

At times you'd swear they've perfected the legendary Abbott & Costello "Who's on First?" comedic routine, and adapted it to sub-tropical municipal government in trying to confuse you about who's really responsible for anything.
(Video of their routine at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M)
And good luck in trying to get an accurate and up-to-date City Hall organizational flow chart!

City employees in Hallandale Beach routinely refuse to answer reasonable questions posed to them bycitizens, and often even berate you for having the nerve to ask!
This has happened to me and many other residents I know enough times to be more than a sheer coincidence, even though I have a low threshold for tolerating govt. employee apathy or incompetency.
At some point, when you see the same behavior exhibited over and over again in just about every dept., you come to understand that it's just S.O.P. at Hallandale Beach City Hall.

One of the first things that any visitor here notices that both self-evident and quite shocking in its own backward way, is the blatant disregard by the HB Police Dept. and HB Fire Dept. for basic safety rules.
Common sense rules of behavior that are in place in every other American town, no matter how large or obscure.
City employees -and friends of theirs- routinely park "their cars" directly in front of the building's east entrance, often for hours at a time. That's right, I said for HOURS at a time.

While in every other town you'd find a clearly posted sign saying simply: "No Parking, Fire Zone, Cars Will be Towed," in Hallandale Beach, there are NO signs at all.
(Not even signs warning you that you are being monitored by security cameras when you are in the parking lot, as is standard procedure everywhere else. Par for the course!)

I've personally observed parked HB city vehicles parked there at the east entrance that have prevented HB Fire & Rescue vehicles from getting as close as possible to the building.
I've also personally spoken to individual members of HB Fire & Rescue after such incidents, and they were positively indignant that they are forced to put up with this sort of behavior in the Year 2008.

Oh, and one last thing.

The lights that are supposed to illuminate this sign in front of Hallandale Beach's City Hall HAVEN'T worked properly in over FOUR YEARS, either.
Just like their cousin down the block on U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, at the city border with the City of Aventura.

Since I've lived here, I've mentioned this simple fact to dozens of Hallandale Beach city officials, including Mayor Joy Cooper, City Manager Mike Good, his staff, the mendacious Police Chief...
None of them have done a thing, which is why, as of September 8th, 2008, the sign was STILL completely dark at night!

Around September 15th, an evening visit revealed that 1 of the 2 lights had finally started working within the previous few days.
But NOT both!

September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
Part of this light is from my camera flash.

September 17, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier
In this photo you can clearly see what's what.

A Sign of Hallandale Beach's Endemic Apathy is Staring Right at You -Get Even on Election Day! Six weeks from today!

Video below shot on September 17, 2008 by South Beach Hoosier

A Sign of Hallandale Beach's Endemic Apathy is Staring Right at You -Get Even on Election Day!

Welcome to Dark and Scary Hallandale Beach!

Monday September 22nd, 2008

U.S.-1/South Federal Highway
7:45 p.m.

You know that 'Welcome to Hallandale Beach' sign that's been out for over FOUR YEARS that I'm always complaining about?

Which one, there's two of them. The one in front of Hallandale Beach City Hall, or the one on the Broward County/Miami-Dade boundary with the City of Aventura, near the entrance to The Village at Gulfstream?
The latter.
What about it?
It's still out!

Now you can see for yourself what bad governance looks like.

It looks like this -years and years of continually making a bad first impression on visitors at night.

That's the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida in a nutshell in the Year 2008.

re The Miami Herald and "off-shore drilling"

My comments per yesterday's Miami Herald article on oil drilling and a poll they commissioned were expressed in an email I sent to Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, with a cc to sometime Herald ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos.


POLITICS
Drilling favored, Crist dips in new poll
High gas prices have more Floridians giving a thumbs-up to oil drilling, while Gov. Charlie Crist finds his luster fading, a new poll shows.
Sept. 20, 2008
By Lesley Clark and Jose Pagliery
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/top-stories/story/694114.html


Accompanying graphics for poll: http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/09/19/17/101908_flapoll.source.prod_affiliate.56.swf
Reader comments at:
http://pod01.prospero.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=58212&nav=messages&webtag=kr-miamitm
_____________________________
September 20th, 2008


Dear Mr. Gyllenhall:


1.) Why is the Miami Herald continually unable to report on off-shore drilling intelligently?


2.) When are those much-discussed positive changes at the Herald going to start paying tangible dividends for readers?
I mentioned that I knew about the promise of some positive changes in my email to you of July 18th re the Herald's coverage of the Broward Charter Review Commission.
I ask because it doesn't seem like they're anywhere close to happening.


(Editor's note: please see my post of August 3rd, 2008 titled, A Letter to Anders Gyllenhaal of the Miami Herald on Local News Coverage. http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/letter-to-anders-gyllenhaal-of-miami.html)


As for the article I reference today, are Floridians polled for the story told that for the purposes of the poll, "off-shore drilling" means a facility at least 125 miles west of the state in the Gulf of Mexico, before responding?

Your pie graph on page one today gives the impression that they are, but then, as always in a Herald story on this subject, you quote someone in a story saying something that indicates they don't understand this.
That they don't favor drilling if it mars the view.
The view?
From what, 125 miles away?
There's no internal logic!


People can have the opinion they do, of course, but a poll where respondents are free to disregard the poll's basic predicate are of zero use to anyone.


"Supporters include Pinecrest attorney Nick Bohn, a Pinecrest lawyer, who said he believes drilling off the coast could relieve U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He said he's not worried about seeing oil rigs off the shoreline."
(Question: Is Nick Bohn a "Pinecrest attorney" or a "Pinecrest lawyer?" Most likely somebody who's sorry he agreed to be quoted by the Herald.)


In any case, you quote Nick Bohn as saying, "If it's because it's an eyesore, then put it out someplace they can't be seen,'' the Republican said. "You probably couldn't see them 10 miles off.''

Yes, that's true, but under current federal rules, they have to be 125 miles out at a minimum, i.e. 12.5 times farther out then the suggested ten miles.
The story makes Mr. Bohn seem like an idiot.


Honestly, IF someone can see the rigs that far, pay 'em the same as 'Noles coach Bobby Bowden and Gators coach Urban Meyer -combined- and get them to the Pentagon, pronto!

Florida has a large percentage of voters who are self-identified Independents, perhaps as large as 40%, if not more, in urban areas.

Everyone who follows politics here accepts as common knowledge the idea that those Independents are the voters who (largely) decide statewide elections.

But they are completely invisible in this story because it never quotes/interviews anyone ID'd as an actual Independent, only Republicans and Democrats. Why?

What do the large number of Independents in Florida think?
After reading this story, I still don't know.


Instead, the article states, "That number, however, reflects a partisan divide..."
Does it, really?
To me it reflects a poorly explained and executed poll.


Later, the article states, "The strongest opposition was in the Tampa Bay area."
Hmmm....interesting.
So what exactly are those numbers for that part of the state, and why don't you wan tto share those numbers with your readers???
Is it 80-20%, 70-30%, 60-40%...?
It's very frustrating!


Reading this article was so painful that all I can do is repeat what I learned in the late '70's at North Miami Beach Senior High School, "Me duele la cabeza!"


Bewildered in Hallandale Beach

Tomorrow's News Today: Substitute "at The Biltmore Hotel" for "Beverly Hills"

So very predictable, tomorrow's Obama news today.
Just substitute "at The Biltmore Hotel" for "Beverly Hills."
----------------------------------------------
Los Angeles Times
Barack Obama raises millions in Beverly Hills
Video: http://www.latimes.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=2922248
TV crews are kept from two Beverly Hills fundraisers as John McCain mocks the Democrat's connection to celebrities.
By Dan Morain and Michael Finnegan,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 17, 2008

It was clear why Barack Obama's campaign barred television crews from a Beverly Hills mansion at twilight Tuesday as the Democratic presidential nominee mingled with movie stars on a giant terrace overlooking Los Angeles.

The cocktail reception was part of Obama's biggest night of Hollywood fundraising so far, an evening capped with a live performance by Barbra Streisand at the Regent Beverly Wilshire

The money paragraph is this one: Lest anyone be diverted by the Hollywood spectacle Tuesday evening, Obama's campaign denied TV crews access to the mansion and hotel events -- perhaps mindful of the political damage wrought by TV images of celebrities at Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's fundraisers in 2004.

See the rest of the column at: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/campaign08/newsletter/la-na-obamafund17-2008sep17,0,211476,full.story
----------------------------------------
Speaking of Obama, ethically-conflicted public officials and the power of lobbying money, in case you missed it 13 months ago, in the glamorous world of Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter and husband Russ Klenet of Russ Klenet & Associates.

On Aug. 25, Russ Klenet and his wife, Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, will host a $500-per-person breakfast at Cafe Bella Sera in Parkland. Klenet is a registered lobbyist in Tallahassee with a stable of clients that has included everyone from South Florida municipalities to Election Systems & Software, whose much criticized touch screen voting machines have drawn the ire of Democratic activists nationwide...

Klenet and Ritter are named on the invitation as event chairmen, but Klenet insisted his wife is the real draw. "We decided we'd be happy to welcome him to Broward County and that's it," he said. "I'm not making phone calls. I'm not raising money."

Klenet, a former legislative aide to now-state Sen. Steve Geller of Hallandale Beach, is a longtime lobbyist with a client list that includes numerous cities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, as well as the Florida Association of Mortgage Brokers, Match.com and Tampa Electric Co

above from The St. Petersburg Times Politics, Obama follows fine line to stay clear of lobbyists
Co-host of a Broward event has state clients, by Alex Leary, Times Staff Writer August 16, 2007
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/16/Worldandnation/Obama_follows_fine_li.shtml
With a big assist to their Politifact: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/32/

And be sure to read the comments below the article about what Oakland-area Obama supporter Zenophon Abraham -or someone purporting to be him- thinks of Floridian's concern about the corrupting influence of the intersection of politics and lobbying in Florida.

Speaking of a local official who gets too much attention, largely because of her money, connections, poor judgment and prenatural tendency to insert foot into mouth, see Bob Norman's recent Daily Pulp blog post at the about Ritter's recent appearance on CNN. titled Stacy Ritter Gets Her Mouth On. Norman also has the YouTube video of her appearance at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2008/09/stacy_ritter_gets_her_mouth_on.php

See Norman's strong posts from last July and August on their antics and roles in our collective lives, 1.) Marital Law, Does Stacy Ritter's lobbyist husband swing her vote? at http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-07-26/news/marital-law/ ,

2.) The Stacy 'n' Russ Show Ritter & Klenet sounds like a lobbying firm at http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2007-08-02/news/the-stacy-n-russ-show/

3.) Reporter Accused of Stealing Notebook, at http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2007/07/reporter_accused_of_stealing_n.php

Another post of his about Klenet was this one from 2004, called Lobbyist- Lovin' Lori, How cash-fueled politics and a grudge could cause another election fiasco http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2004-07-01/news/lobbyist-lovin-lori/

And since we're still in hurricane season, might as well go back 13 months ago to the Herald's Glenn Garvin commenting on her big mouth: South Florida politics: Profiles in Hypocrisy, part 9,027 http://miamiherald.typepad.com/changing_channels/2007/08/south-florida-p.html

That came a month before yet another Herald story on Sept. 1st about their complicated intersecting personal and professional relationship and the voting machines the county would be purchasing. http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/222413.html
Miami Herald, Ritter's vote still raising eyebrows, By Dan Christensen

Just so there's no misunderstanding my point here, when Florida voters say they support, in theory, the concepts behind proposals like Lesley Blackner and Ross Burnaman's Hometown Democracy project -see http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2008/04/good-news-re-signature-petitions.html and http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&q=%22Florida+Hometown+Democracy%22&scoring=n - Comm. Ritter's husband is one of the persons who gets paid very handsomely to frustrate those citizens on behalf of very rich and self-interested groups like big government, Broward style.

Simply put, they don't want voters having an effective veto power over local officials' bad decisions involving planning and zoning over multi-million dollar projects thru an actual vote.

See his list of clients at http://olcrpublic.leg.state.fl.us/by_report.cfm?rpt_id=4387&CFID=3252&CFTOKEN=61690

As it says clearly on that website, he and his firm are the lead lobbyists in Tallahassee for the Broward League of Cities, which represents the interests of elected municipal officials, NOT the interests of the citizens whom those officials are supposed to represent.

When those interests conflict, guess who wins?

The evidence is all around you -elected officials, not citizens.

For instance, see these minutes of the January 18, 2001 meeting of the Broward County Charter Review Committeee: http://www.broward.org/charter/pdf/pii01174.pdf.

Mr. Weiss [ CRC member Richard Jay Weiss, Esq.] suggested that a member of the LOC attend every future CRC meeting and plan to inform the CRC of the League’s concerns regarding any agenda items. It was determined that all agendas and minutes of the CRC will be forwarded to Ms. Eileen Cudney, Executive Director of the LOC.

That's the same warped thinking that gives the (elected) hacks at the Broward League of Cities two prospective votes on the Ethics Board in the future if the measure is approved by Broward voters in November, even though their president at the time, HB mayor Joy Cooper, publicly questioned the need for the Ethics Board at the Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting held one week before the final public meeting of the most recent CRC in April.

(Like the CRC could really care what HB's City Commission thought, given that they were against so many of the very important ballot issues that the CRC members had been poring over for months! I guess I don't need to remind you that HB didn't have a single rep on the CRC.)

I know that because I was present for the entire length of both meetings and still have my contemporaneous notes. To quote something from my own blog:

"Laws and Constitutions go for nothing where the general sentiment is corrupt."-New York Times, September 22, 1851

"Why do they need that in the Broward County charter?" -Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper at April 2, 2008 City Commission meeting, in discussing possible inclusion of Broward County Charter Review Commission's proposal for Ethics Commission to deal with Broward County Commission, on November 2008 ballot.

Six YEARS after the county's voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the County charter requiring its adoption, the Broward County Commission has yet to live up to its responsibility.

That's why!

http://www.stacyritter.com/

Greg Hurst was the KHOU-TV anchor I wrote about yesterday

Apparently I wasn't the only TV viewer who caught the action from Houston, as this forum makes clear.
http://www.khou.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=216589&sid=a40c84c686a82a09e6825c8413eccb07

KHOU-TV anchor rips Entergy media rep for Houston power outage

Based on something I observed myself on the tube this morning, I sent this head's-up email earlier this afternoon to longtime South Beach Hoosier favorite Aaron Barnhart, TV critic of the Kansas City Star and the genius creator of the TV Barn website, http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/index.html one of the top TV sites in the country for the thoughtful and discerning TV viewer.
It doesn't really require much explanation to see where I'm coming from here.
________________________________
September 15th, 2008

Dear Aaron:

Just a head's-up for something you'll likely be hearing about and maybe even seeing video of in the next few days.

Last night, thanks to DirecTV airing KHOU-TV 11 telecasts of Hurricane Ike coverage on Channel 361, discontinued as of today, I was able to watch something you rarely see any more on live TV: angry personal invective by a reporter/anchor who felt unencumbered by either common sense or ethics.

Naturally, this blow-up was completely misplaced and a real classic example of 'shooting the messenger,' something that you'd think someone in the TV news business would appreciate better than most folks.

Last night/early this morning, one of KHOU-TV's male anchors hosting their Hurricane Ike coverage from the studio really lit into the media rep for Entergy for the Houston area still largely being in the dark, his seeming to think it was a matter of simple incompetency, not pure logistics and manpower.

The rep said the company had aid agreements with other power companies and that people were coming in from 19 other states to help Texans get their power restored, had planes flying people around the state to get them in a position to do their job first thing Monday morning, were doing aerial surveys and had everyone in the company out in the field.

But he also admitted that it would likely be Monday or even Tuesday morning before they could add up all the disparate info and get a realistic idea of when power would be restored.

Obviously, here in South Florida, it's drilled into people that you have to be responsible for yourself and your own family for at least the first 72-96 hours after a disaster.
(Not that people are!)

There's no cavalry coming into town to knock on your door after a day or so to ask you if you want some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup with your drums of drinking water, like a waiter. (After Hurricane Wilma in 2005, I was out of power for over 11 days.)

So, less than 48 hours after Ike hits, this anchor at Channel 11 is giving the Entergy guy enormous grief for everything not moving fast enough to suit him.

Finally after a few minutes of this, the Entergy media rep said that he'd had enough, that he wasn't going to put up with any more negative media reporting not based on the facts on the ground, when everybody in the company was doing their best under trying circumstances to get power restored. (Their homes are out, too!)

And the anchor just kept going on and on about what a poor job Entergy was doing...

It was pretty wild drama to stumble upon by accident, but made worse by my not being able to tape it right away, and the station not showing the name graphic of the anchor while he was on his tangent, which is why I can't tell you his name or the name of the female anchor at the studio desk with him. (Ed. Note: Or if they did, I was too stunned to notice it.)
Sorry about that!

The power rep explained that his company's customers were not all clustered in just a few easy-to-resolve urban areas like CenterPoint Energy Inc., but were instead spread out over a much larger geographical area, including most of the rural communities affected by Ike.

The anchor couldn't care less.

He repeated his claim that Centerpoint was clearly doing a much better job, and then it got even more heated.

Despite the fact that from the very beginning, and to their great credit, KHOU was posting nearly everything they broadcast onto videos you could see on their website, not surprisingly, this particular encounter is not yet on the station's website.
At least not yet, as of 12:30 p.m. Eastern

http://www.khou.com/blcS.sc?search=Entergy&sorder=S&rep=&act=&cat=multi
Your search - Entergy - did not match any documents. No pages were found containing "Entergy".

Best video I've seen thus far is this one, which has a lot more than what is officially described here, including the dozens of oil barges in the Gulf waiting to get into port, who had to stay away from the area while the hurricane was on the way.
It starts repeating after about 18 minutes into the video, with VO descriptions of Blackhawk helicopters landing and President Bush coming Houston on Tuesday:

http://www.khou.com/video/topstories-index.html?nvid=282706&shu=1
Raw video: Bolivar Peninsula devastated
September 14th, 2008, The communities of Crystal Beach, Bolivar and High Island suffered the worst damage we have seen from Hurricane Ike.

Below is a perfect example of what has everyone down there upset, with most of the coverage being too urban/Houston-based, even while there are towns and completely underwater or destroyed. Just like Katrina and media fascination with New Orleans!http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou080915_tnt_guardsmen_food.7a5e7c1f.html

See bayousinker's comments! I concur 100%.

Meanwhile, the best spot-on column of the weekend is this one in yesterday's Houston Chronicle by Lisa Falkenberg Maybe some live and never learn, along with the reader comments.

That could just as well describe people in South Florida and the Keys in particular, where alcoholics at Key West bars uttering their philosophical banalities during hurricane evacuations draw Miami TV cameras like flies -over and over and over!
It never ends!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/falkenberg/6000302.html

By the way, my interest in this hurricane hitting Galveston and Houston is more than passing, since just before Christmas in 1855, my maternal ancestors arrived in America via Galveston by ship from Prussian-controlled Poland.
They put all their belongings in an ox-driven wagon and walked for days to get to the Texas Hill Country they'd heard about in Poland, becoming Texas Hill Country pioneers in the process.
My family has lived in the Cowboy Capital of Bandera ever since then.

Aaron, I hope that you can use your great industry connections to get and post the video of that KHOU reporter losing his cool to your great TV Barn site sometime soon.
As always, your website continues to rock!

Adios!
Dave
--------------------------
If I get any info on that TV encounter from this morning, I'll post it here so you can see it for yourself.

By the way, two of my favorite financial reporters will be on Charlie Rose tonight talking about all the ramifications of the Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch stories, Charles Gasparino of Newsweek and Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times., who edits their great daily financial e-mail newsletter DealBook. His column archives are at: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/andrew_ross_sorkin/index.html

Watch it on Channel 17 at midnight, since you never really know when WPBT-2 is going to air it, despite their schedule, just one of the reason's it's the country's worst PBS station.

Johnny Depp shows up for ballgame, Dolphins don't!

Cardinals QB Kurt Warner and star WR Anquan Boldin, formerly of Pahokee High School and FSU, walk from the sidelines towards the field after a Dolphins punt leading into commercial break of Dolphins game Sunday afternoon. Boldin caught six passes for 3 TDs in the easy 31-10 Cardinals victory.

The Cardinals are now 2-0 for the first time since 1991, while the Dolphins didn't score in their opening drive for the 20th straight game.

Screenshot by South Beach Hoosier

Screenshot by South Beach Hoosier

Coming out of a commercial break with the Arizona Cardinals leading the Dolphins 14-0 with 28 seconds left in the first quarter, CBS-TV cameras caught former South Florida resident (Miramar) and film star Johnny Depp taking in the game at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Ironically, I was taping the ballgame on a videotape that I'd used earlier this morning when I popped it into the VCR before going to sleep so I could catch some films on the Starz free weekend promotion. The last film on the tape was the last Pirates of the Carribean film starring... exactly.

With this loss the Dolphins have now lost their last 11 road games, going back to the Thanksgiving game at Detroit in 2006.

Conversely, the New York Giants have now won their last 11 games on the road, since the Dolphins home game last year against the Giants was in London.

You may recall that we all learned from multiple sources last year that agreeing to move the home game to London and deprive Dolphin fans of a rare Giants home game, was the high price that Dolphin owner Wayne Huizenga happily paid in order to get the NFL to award him another Super Bowl -before he sells the majority share of the team in 2010.

(There are plenty of rumors percolating in South Florida -and around NFL media circles- that the sale will actually happen sooner rather than later, now that Huizenga sees that the team is, yes, years, from being playoff caliber material.)

I've long been of the school of thought that argued that Huizenga should've sold the team years ago, the same way that he should've never listened to Jimmy Johnson and talked him out of resigning, and then agreed to that Faustian bargain of accepting Dave Wannstedt as Dolphins head coach-in-waiting, to help JJ with the coaching load.

You made your deals with the Devil -now he's collecting!

With interest!

Below the first mentions of Johnny Depp and Hallandale in local newspapers:

excerpt

Miami Herald

By Joan McIver, Herald Staff Writer

March 14, 1985

OH HORRORS:

When former Miramar resident Johnny Depp , 21, moved to California, he acted as though his life had turned into a nightmare. Depp, the son of Betty Sue Palmer and Hallandale public utilities director John Depp, became a movie star. He co-stars with Heather Langenkamp in "Nightmare on Elm Street," his first movie. Depp was back in town last week for a short visit with his parents.

"I play the part of Heather's boyfriend," he said." is not a complete work of art, but it's right." Since filming the horror flick, Depp has completed another movie, "Private Resort," also by director Wes Craven. Not bad for someone with no previous acting experience.

Depp moved to California in 1983 with a local band called The Kids, but found the going rough for musicians. "I was hanging out in Melrose, just looking for a job," Depp said. "I had a friend who was an actor. He took me to see his agent, and they signed me up for 'Elm Street.' Acting is real addicting."

----------------------

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

ACTOR JOHNNY DEPP FINDS SUBSTANCE IN FILM 'PLATOON'
By Debbie Blaylock, Staff Writer
February 4, 1987

In the spring of 1985 after filming Nightmare on Elm Street and Private Resort, actor Johnny Depp said he was ''ready for something with more substance than chasing girls and running down hallways.''

Today, the Miramar High School graduate is being watched by millions of movie-goers in the highly acclaimed movie Platoon.

Some critics describe Platoon as the first realistic depiction of the Vietnam War. Director and writer Oliver Stone drops Depp and the rest of the dirty, sweat-soaked platoon into a jungle heavy with the stench of death.

To describe it in one word: intense.

''For the first week or so, he didn't know if he would make it,'' said John Depp of Hallandale , Johnny's father. ''For two weeks before they started filming, they made Johnny and the others live in the jungle.

''It was 115 degrees by eight in the morning. It was just mud and swarms of ants. They slept in two-man foxholes and didn't get much sleep, and they ate out of cans.''

Johnny is currently filming a series for TV in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was unavailable for comment.

In 1983, Depp, the lead guitarist in The Kids rock band, left south Broward for Hollywood, Calif., looking for a record deal.

How Depp broke into acting sounds like a movie script itself. A woman who worked at a recording studio saw The Kids perform at some no-name bar. She convinced Depp to audition for a role in the television series Fame.

Depp was one of the final four auditioners before the producer showed him the door. He decided to pursue music instead of fame on the silver screen.

However, playing at out-of-the-way bars for $25 a night didn't pay the bills, so Depp sold T-shirts and worked at telephone solicitation.

Meanwhile, a friend, actor Nicolas Cage, introduced Depp to his agent and persuaded the musician to give acting another chance.

That's when Depp auditioned and earned a role in writer and director Wes Craven's thriller Nightmare on Elm Street.

Since then, Depp has worked on a now-defunct television series, Lady Blue, and starred in a Showtime-produced show and other programs. He will be seen tonight in Hotel at 10 on ABC.

Meanwhile, back in Orlando, transit also stammers and stu-t-t-ers...

Meanwhile, back in Orlando, just as is the case in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, transit also stammers and stu-t-t-ers...

Received some very interesting info earlier yesterday afternoon in my daily email from the Central Florida Political Pulse blog, the Politics blog of the Orlando Sentinel, one of my daily must-reads, in the form of a post by the Sentinel's David Damron titled Orange Mayor Crotty Reveals Lynx Funding Plan.

But after reading it and absorbing the central points, I surprised myself and got to thinking about something else, or rather, some one else -Alex Sink.


Though it's been little commented on so far, don't think that people around the state, esp. those of us with an interest in transportation policy, aren't paying attention to CFO Alex Sink's role in the continuing transit mess in Central Florida -esp. commuter rail- even as she tries to morph her official role into that of a numbers-crunching, truth-telling combination of Agent Dana Scully and Agent Clarice Starling, saving the day right before it's too late.


Since I returned to South Florida from D.C. a few years ago, to the extent that I thought of Alex Sink at all -which I didn't- due largely to some positive words from friends back in D.C. and in Florida who were longtime Lawton Chiles supporters, I gave Sink the benefit of the doubt, even as I wondered why in the world she got so much attention.


(For instance, Florida Trend's May 2008 story, Sink Sees a Silver Lining in Florida's Slowdown
by Amy Keller http://www.floridatrend.com/article.asp?aID=48843 )


But given that other than Gov. Charlie Crist, Sink has been the subject of more laudatory media coverage than anyone else in the state, where has she made a real difference in the lives of Florida citizens yet?


I've yet to hear Sink say anything either counter-intuitive or politically brave that would really cost her politically in the future, much less, take a principled stand that goes against the personal interests of her usual political/financial supporters. Where's the bold thinking?



Who knows, maybe something will happen in the not-too-distant future that'll give her the opportunity to show her true stripes and abilities, but thus far, given all the ink that's been used on her, color me unimpressed.


Can I really be the only person in South Florida who thinks this?


By the way, you may or may not be aware of the fact that in stark contrast to the popular approach that Gov. Sarah Palin took in Alaska with regard to getting rid of state aircraft, FL pols are much more averse to saying sayonara to their beloved "Wings of Man.'



Just over a year ago in a great Aug. 28th, 2007 post at the aforementioned CFPP, http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2007/08/just-plane-comm.html#more labeled, Just plane common sense, Aaron Deslatte wrote about the efforts to pare just one of the planes from the state's control.


Among the more interesting facts to emerge from that post was this one: Since June 1, state officials have racked up $258,962.50 in air fare on Florida's fleet, according to manifests for the three planes. Records show Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink flew the most in that period, with over $31,000 in air travel used through the summer.Crist came in second, with almost $24,000 in airfare around the state.

(Speaking of that, how funny would it be if somebody in a position to know, floated a rumor that the state airplanes had contained listening devices!? The sheer amount of lies and B.S. told on those planes would stupefy the electorate! And make great columns and newscasts!)

Based on what I've read and heard from across the state, and in myriad conversations/emails with folks much closer to the scene than me, including elected officials, for my money, Sink is THE most over-rated pol in the state, edging out Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, long a bête noire of mine, in case you've forgotten some past blog posts of mine where I've zeroed-in on her.

I really loathe DWS.

I've already written a pretty informative blog post about DWS that'll be coming out within the next week regarding her inclusion in the John Harwood and Jerry Seib book, Pennsylvania Avenue, which I think paints a very unflattering portrait of her personal scruples.

That's not my opinion alone, but rather one that's also shared by many folks around the country who've read the book, and commented to the authors.
In fact I even wrote someone recently and said that I wouldn't bring her up again in future emails because she's too much of a downer!


(The book was the NY Times Book Review's featured review three months ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/books/review/Widmer-t.html?partner=rssnyt )


By the way, per some of my earlier blog posts at HBB, and the August 1st post by Gabriel Lopez-Bernal at Transit Miami, http://www.transitmiami.com/2008/08/01/mary-peters-in-miami-today/
my formal request for info and docs about FDOT Sec. Kopelousos and her co-called "public" appearances in South Florida will be sent within the next few days, hopefully by next Monday.

I can hardly wait to read the predictable lame excuses, alibis and PR-spit-shined obfuscation that awaits me.

I will, of course, share it with you once it's in my hands.
______________________________
Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Political Pulse
Orange Mayor Crotty Reveals Lynx Funding Plan
posted by David Damron on Sep 9, 2008


Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty released a Lynx funding plan Tuesday that would create a long-sought dedicated funding source for the bus system, but would likely do little to head off an immediate budget crunch that could gut some routes and trim service.


Crotty's plan calls for the leaders of Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties to each pledge a certain level of property taxes to fund the system, and lock it into place by establishing a regional transit system between the three governments.
The effort would require voter approval.


It would also put more of the future funding burden on Oseola and Seminole counties, who now contribute roughly $5 million.
Under Crotty's plan, that number would rise significantly to almost double that amount.


"If this is truly a regional asset, like a university or an airport," Crotty said, "then we need to think regionally and pay for it regionally."


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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/09/orange-mayor-cr.html