The approaching hoofbeats of Robin of Locksley -that's Robin Hood to you

The original 1938 Robin Hood film, The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Raines and Basil Rathbone, remain one of my all-time favorite films, one I've seen and enjoyed at least thirty separate times.

 

The thing to consider when you see this film is that although Olivia de Havilland was only 25 years-old when she filmed this, and three years younger than Vivian Leigh with whom she starred in Gone With the Wind the following year, yet she was cast to play Melanie, Scarlett's older sister, and was superb. 

She is the only star of either film that's still alive, and remains movie royalty.

 

Of the upcoming remake of the gritty swashbuckler, due out in May, we now finally have a film trailer to analyze for great portent. Robin Hood, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Max von Sydow and Oscar Isaac, directed by Ridley Scott. Opening May 14, 2010. For film synopsis and images see: http://www.robinhoodthemovie.com 

For a historical perspective, see Robin Hood and his Historical Context By Dr Mike Ibeji http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/robin_01.shtml

The unlearned lesson of Isadora Duncan, redux -Cambridgeshire teen Suzanne Cornwell killed in tragic accident

I never knew the precise details on how ballet legend Isadora Duncan died until I was living in Arlington County, and saw a book on her in one of my roommate Sandra's bedroom book shelf, one of dozens of books on ballet and ballet-related personalities, like Darci Kistler, "Mr. B." and many others. http://www.nycballet.com/index.html

That Duncan died a tragic and senseless death 14 years after her two children died as a direct result of an equally tragic and senseless accident, also involving a car, is very chilling.

The awful lesson taught by Suzanne Cornwell's senseless death below is one I've been somewhat
hyper-vigilant about since first reading that book on Isadora Duncan and absorbing the lesson.

I've been a real stickler about extra-long scarves, purses and long jackets with girlfriends and female friends and family members for years, because it only takes one moment of inattention to lead to tragedy.

Not unlike the valuable lesson of bike helmets that I learned while living in Evanston, IL in the
mid-1980's, and regularly seeing someone slightly-older than me over at the Evanston Public Library, usually by himself at a table near the periodicals.
I eventually asked enough people about him and learned the tragic story about how his happy suburban life was turned upside down as a result of a moment's carelessness, when he chose not to wear a bike helmet on a neighborhood sidewalk.
Just "one of those things."

His health and physical abilties changed drastically for the worse forever, his family and marriage gradually disintegrated and his hip, upscale lifestyle soon became a thing of the past, replaced by hours spent reading magazines and newspapers in the public library as his day's highlight. :-(

---------------
The Daily Mail
Teenage girl killed after her scarf got tangled up in speeding go-kart during after-hours track session
By Daily Mail Reporter
December 14, 2009

A teenage girl died after her scarf got caught in a go-kart and strangled her.

Suzanne Cornwell, 18, was one of a group of people invited to a racing track for a private after-hours session.

A member of staff, who would normally have locked up by 9pm, let Suzanne, from Hardwick, near Cambridge, and her friends in and allowed them to start racing.

But Suzanne's scarf came loose, before getting caught in the engine, and cutting off her airways

Read the rest of the sad story at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235661/Teenage-girl-killed-scarf-gets-tangled-kart.html

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan

See Daily Mail update of February 8, 2012;

Girl, 18, was 'strangled to death by own scarf in freak go-karting accident'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098353/Suzanne-Cornwell-inquest-Teenager-strangled-death-scarf-freak-karting-accident.html

The little video that could reaches #1 in U.K. -BBC Children in Need 2009

The little video that could reaches #1 in UK
BBC Children in Need 2009 - Animated Official Single Video [HD].
This is genius!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu1azebTN0k

Pictures from BBC Children in Need Rocks
the Royal Albert Hall
from November 20th:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/fundraising/gallery/concert.shtml

For more information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/

See also:
1.) http://www.peterkay.co.uk/

2.) The Daily Mail
Children In Need: Sneak preview of EastEnders cast
delivering Motown Medley
By Daily Mail Reporter
November 20, 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1229510/Children-In-Need-Sneak-preview-Eastenders-cast-delivering-Motown-Medley.html

3.) The Daily Mail
Katie Price and Pamela Anderson turn heads in garish dresses at British Comedy Awards
By Charlotte Spratt
December 13, 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1235460/Katie-Price-Pamela-Anderson-turn-heads-garish-dresses-British-Comedy-Awards.html

An interesting ad I've previously alluded to re the Diplomat Country Club expansion/LAC

At the bottom of this post is the new print ad
that I've alluded to in emails and conversations
with some of you over the past two weeks at
meetings and forums throughout the area.
Want more traffic & condos?

Now you can see it for yourself.

People in Southeast Broward who see the
Diplomat Country Club's LAC exactly for
what it is, a direct threat to the Quality-of-Life
for residents of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach,
have chosen to show some moxie and run it right
in the 'sweet spot' of the HB City Hall faux
newspaper/propaganda sheet, the South
Florida Sun-Times.


The faux newspaper that serves as the propaganda arm to
Hallandale Beach City Hall and the Joy Cooper & Mike Good regime,
the South Florida Sun-Times.

Unless something unexpected happens, though
I've had them for weeks, this weekend I'll be
running on the docs the Sun-Times had to sign
in order to get their $50k sweetheart deal of a
grant and loan from the city's CRA program.

Money that could be better utilized towards
following the original intent of CRA legislation,
than in allowing this cast of characters to decide
which of their myriad cronies should get their
hands on some greenback$, like the preposterous
$90K deal they approved months ago, where,
under the ruse of economic development,
brand-new TV sets were placed in the common
areas of condo buildings on A1A, where individual
condo units cost many hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
Really.

This despite the fact that A1A isn't in the city's
CRA district and the people asking for the money
didn't even own any property in Hallandale Beach,
a requirement that was waived.

So why are funds that are supposed to combat
blight being used for such absurd purposes,
like subsidizing a propaganda sheet that doesn't
even pretend to be genuine newspaper?

Are other South Florida governments engaging
in similar actions, essentially buying positive
news for themself thru their financial arrangements,
with beleaguered taxpayers picking up the check?
Those are both good questions.

Maybe, someday, they'll actually be investigated
and answered by a real South Florida reporter.

But then to get the answers to those sort of
questions, you'd have to start with the basics,
and that would mean asking (and explaining)
as well, why, in the year 2009, isn't there even
ONE directional street sign in the entire city of
Hallandale Beach indicating where HB City Hall is?
Or the HB Police Dept. HQ?
Or the HB Fire/Rescue HQ?

What sort of people make THOSE
sort of conscious decisions?

The answer, as we know all too well,
is one and the same.
The very people who've been running
Hallandale Beach City Hall and made it
both a punch-line and a laughingstock.

The very same ones whom we all know
would like to approve the Diplomat deal,
regardless of the serious negative consequences
to all of us who already live in the area.

Hoosier Hysteria in Stockholm: IU's Elinor Ostrom accepts her Nobel Prize for Economics from King Carl XVI Gustaf

Photo by Jonas Ekstromer/Associated Press
IU's Elinor Ostrom accepts her Nobel Prize for Economics
from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm

For "analysis of economic governance, especially the commons."

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/12824.html
https://www.iu.edu/~iunews/blogs/nobel/

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien)
-lots of very neat stuff here worth taking a look at, too
http://www.kva.se/en/

Nobel Prize web page on 2009 Economic winners:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2009/presentation-speech.html

Here's some photos of the royal family
-a.k.a. Kungafamiljen- attending the formal Nobel
banquet earlier Friday, which ran a little under four hours
with entertainment and speeches.
http://www.royalcourt.se/kungafamiljen/aktuellahandelser/2009aretsaktuellahandelser/aretsnobelpristagarepatraditionellmiddaghoshmkonungen.5.62402a8b12475b47cdb80004857.html

This Aftonbladet online article has an especially great
photo of Princess Madeleine worth seeing.
Så var Nobelfesten
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article6269587.ab

Here's the story and photo that Aftonbladet ran on
October 13th about Prof. Ostrom being honored:
Så vill Elinor rädda världen
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article5948388.ab

It's always good to see Indiana universitetet
in print.
----------

Early this morning, I received my weekly editor's
newsletter from The Local -Sweden's news in English.
http://www.thelocal.se/email/127/88512/

In that newsletter were these very amusing and spot-on
comments from the editor, Paul O'Mahony, which were
titled, Nobel banquet broadcast makes toes curl:

Last night I carried on the by now venerable tradition of tuning in to the live broadcast of the Nobel banquet for five minutes before taking aim at the screen with heart in mouth and dignity almost intact.

Sweden is justly proud of its Nobel Prizes, as scientists and writers are rewarded in this life for their vast contributions to humankind. But something deep inside me rejects the idea of television cameras trained on the every move of boffins, royals and dignitaries, all dolled up to the nines and gorging on a bacchanalian feast under the watchful eyes of the etiquette Stasi.

However, the gods of curiosity demand an annual five-minute suspension of disbelief to absorb with jaw on floor the public broadcaster's amnesiac rejection of Sweden's trademark egalitarianism and informality.

Royalist fervour drips through the screen as one commentator fawns over Princess Victoria's frock and delights in the prospect of her impending nuptials. The cameras then pan to the Crown Princess, who is in the process of applying lip gloss while talking to a clever person. It's hard to escape the fact that we're watching people having dinner.

Meanwhile a presenter is aghast as the finance minister appears to send an under-the-table text message. "Tell me I did not just see Anders Borg doing what I think he just did. Off with his ponytail!" Or words to that effect. "Help so bored no pizza on menu 2 many nerdz", wrote Borg. Probably.

Cut to the top of the steps in the Blue Hall, where a pantomime horse trots into view, neighing loudly and pursued with great vigour by a red-clad choir. And that's when I reach for my revolver.

Anybody with the stomach for an entire evening of this stuff has my grudging respect, and indeed there are plenty who revel in it. Good luck to them. But by the time the new day dawned and the crowds had dispersed, all I was left with was a hole in my soul and the need for a new television. Again.

He shoots and he scores!

---------

Earlier in the year, I posted a video of the King
and Queen Silvia discussing the news about
Crown Princess Victoria's engagement to
Daniel Westling and the wedding scheduled
for next June.

Since it's going to be at the beautiful 700 year-old
Storkyrkan Cathedral, which is in the Gamla Stan
section of Stockholm, the oldest section of town,
it really ought to be awesome.
http://www.royalcourt.se/royalcourt/theroyalfamily/hrhcrownprincessvictoria.4.396160511584257f218000503.html




A few months after Victoria's wedding. the King
will be walking down the aisle again as Princess
Madeleine gets married to Jonas Bergström.
http://www.royalcourt.se/royalcourt/theroyalfamily/hrhprincessmadeleine.4.396160511584257f218000839.html



Here's a video of Victoria making the announcement
in February

Stockholm: After seven years, a "Ja!"
Kronprinsessan Victoria och Daniel Westling
förlovade. Den 19 juni 2010 växlar Victoria och Daniel
ringar i Storkyrkan.

Did a non-resident of Hallandale Beach cast illegal vote at HB P&Z meeting last month approving the Diplomat Country Club's LAC? Hmm-m-m...

I'll be posting my thoughts soon on my experiences
Monday night at the Hollywood Lakes Section
Civic Association (HLSCA) public meeting on
Hollywood Beach regarding the Diplomat Country
Club's LAC proposal, and this morning's meeting
up on Andrews Avenue of the Broward County
Ethics Commission, both of which I video-recorded,
and hope to share with you here.

But more important than that right now, I wanted
to bring your attention to a matter that I only found
out about late this afternoon via an email from
Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Keith London.

It concerns his formal request to City Manager
Mike Good to follow state law and determine whether
or not a current member of the HB Planning & Zoning
Board, which voted last month FOR the Diplomat
proposal with certain provisos, is, in fact, an actual
HB resident.

Comm. London has what he says is proof to the
contrary, and if so, that will clearly have some legal
and public policy consequences.

My comments on this follow the info that he emailed
me, which I shared a short while ago with a couple
of dozen people I know in both Hollywood and HB
who are strongly opposed to the Diplomat project,
for reasons stated here previously, as well as to
various members of the South Florida press who
haven't fled the area for the holidays -YET.

FYI: I've deleted some blank space below in order
to make it more compact and easier to read.
----------

From: London, Keith

Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:33 PM
To: Good, Mike; Rafols, Nydia M; Santiago, Cary; Crowder, Claudette; Magill, Tom; Buschman, James
Cc: Jove, David; London, Keith;
Subject: Commissioner Request (CR) Proof that Planning and Zoning Board Member Sheryl Natelson lives in Hallandale Beach 12-09-09
Importance: High

Commissioner Request (CR) Proof that Planning and Zoning Board Member Sheryl Natelson lives in Hallandale Beach 12-09-09

Mike Good,

There are residents and neighbors that have informed me that Ms. Natelson sold her condominium unit on Golden Isles Drive and moved out of the City of Hallandale Beach. See attached BCPA web page showing no listing of her owning property in Hallandale Beach

It is a requirement of our Charter to be a resident to serve on our Planning and Zoning Board.

The residents are requesting an updated copy of her Florida Driver License reflecting her current address. As you know, Florida Statue 322.19 requires you to update your address within 10 days of changing address (see attachment below).

Please provide me with updated proof of her eligibility to serve on the City of Hallandale Beach Planning Board.

Keith S. London

Commissioner

Hallandale Beach

---------

We have located more than one record for the information you entered.
Directions: Click the folio number to see property details.

Sort By Folio Number

Sort By Name

Sort By Address

2 Records Found

Folio Number	Owner Name	Property Address
514235030150	NATELSON,GERALD & ROBERTA	207 HOLIDAY DRIVE
514220AC0400	SLIPACOFF,RENA N 1/2 INT NATELSON,GERALD BRUCE	4001 HILLCREST DRIVE 405

© 2009 - Broward County Property Appraiser's Office - Contact our office at 954.357.6830.
-------
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/STATUTES/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0322/SEC19.HTM&Title=-%3E2008-%3ECh0322-%3ESection%2019#0322.19

The 2009 Florida Statutes

Title XXIII
MOTOR VEHICLES

Chapter 322
DRIVERS' LICENSES

322.19 Change of address or name.--

(1) Whenever any person, after applying for or receiving a driver's license, changes his or her legal name, that person must within 10 days thereafter obtain a replacement license that reflects the change.

(2) Whenever any person, after applying for or receiving a driver's license, changes the residence or mailing address in the application or license, the person must, within 10 calendar days, obtain a replacement license that reflects the change. A written request to the department must include the old and new addresses and the driver's license number.

(3) A violation of this section is a nonmoving violation with a penalty as provided in s. 318.18(2).

(4) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, if a licensee established his or her identity for a driver's license using an identification document authorized under s. 322.08(2)(c)7. or 8., the licensee may not change his or her name or address except in person and upon submission of an identification document authorized under s. 322.08(2)(c)7. or 8.

History.--s. 31, ch. 19551, 1939; CGL 1940 Supp. 4151(645); s. 31, ch. 20451, 1941; s. 18, ch. 84-359; s. 41, ch. 89-282; s. 409, ch. 95-148; s. 8, ch. 95-326; s. 40, ch. 95-333; s. 5, ch. 2002-259; s. 80, ch. 2005-164; s. 34, ch. 2008-176.
-------

To refresh your memory, Sheryl Natelson is the
same person who... well, I already wrote about it
in an email to some people back on Oct. 28th.

Below, in blue, is what I wrote six weeks ago about
her, the daughter of one of Mayor Joy Cooper's
best friends.
The mayor lives a block away from Natelson's parents.
-----------
I will be at what promises to be the contentious
P&Z meeting this afternoon re the city's controversial
and unpopular RAC proposal at 1:30 p.m., and
hope that you can come by for a spell as well.

The last time I was at a P&Z meeting, in late August,
held over at the HB Cultural Center, the Board Chair,
Arnold Cooper, and one of the members, the
often-absent Sheryl Natelson -daughter of Mayor
Cooper's very close friends- threatened to call the
HB Police and have me evicted from the room and
charged with something after I spoke during public
comments, and then returned to my seat,
against the side wall, and started taking photos
of the public proceedings from a good 80-feet away.
(12/9/09 Note: I wasn't video-recording the HB
P&Z meetings then as I do now.)

This being Hallandale Beach, of course, these two
individuals had no compunctions about threatening
me, even though there was a COMCAST TV camera
only about five feet away from them broadcasting
everything they said and did.

This was made all the more absurd and pointless
by the fact that there were only two other people
in the entire HUGE room at the time besides myself,
who weren't Board members or city employees.

Trust me, if Arnold Cooper and Sheryl Natelson
even hint at such illegal and anti-democratic efforts
again, I will be videotaping it and then calling the
FDLE and the State Attorney's Office from the
hallway, and immediately begin filing formal ethics
charges against the city, collectively, and Cooper
and Natelson individually.

I appreciate that many of you who already know
about that incident have told me that I should've
already filed the ethics charges and had the city
investigated, since we know that they are not
pro-Sunshine Laws.

For the record, here's just a few of the HB city
employees or Board members present who said/did
NOTHING at the time to counter their illegally
threatening a citizen for taking photos at a public
meeting:
then-Assistant City Attorney Melissa Anderson,
Planning Dept. director Christy Dominguez,
Development Services director Richard Cannone,
then-Acting City Clerk Shari Canada, former
mayor Eudyce Steinberg...
Yes, they are very First Amendment-friendly
at Hallandale Beach City Hall, and that starts
at the top with Joy Cooper!
That's our home sweet home.
----------

Trust me, given Natelson's anti-democratic track record,
you have absolutely no reason to give her the benefit of the
doubt on this.

Reminder: Broward County Ethics Commission meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, from 9-11:30 a.m.

Just a reminder that the next Broward County
Ethics Commission meeting is tomorrow,
Wednesday morning from 9:00 - 11:30 a.m.
115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 430,
Ft. Lauderdale.

Public testimony at 11 a.m.

Tomorrow's agenda at:
http://www.broward.org/ethicscommission/12092009agenda.pdf

Not mentioned below?
That Genentech was ranked the seventh-best
company in the U.S. to work for.
That's not by accident.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2009/snapshots/7.html

Number of Florida companies on that Top 100 list?
LOL!

Zero! That's also not by accident.

Top 100 Headquarters

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2009/full_list/

South Florida's longstanding culture of corruption,
entrenched cronyism and and pay-to-play city and
county governments, where lawyer lobbyists often
run the roost and keep unqualified people in office
thru their fundraising largesse, on top of all the other
well-known problems, chase companies away.

If you attend their meetings or read the Minutes
of the meetings, it's apparent that that the Broward
Ethics Commission and the county's top administrators
haven't gotten that memo yet.

Consider this email from one of the county's top
administrators, which I mentioned previously on
my blog on Nov. 25th at
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/ilene-lieberman-churlish-chronic-self.html

From: Cepero, Monica
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 1:13 PM
To: 'Alfreda Coward'; 'Carl Shechter'; 'Comm. Carl Shechter'; 'Felicia M. Brunson'; 'Howard Bakalar'; Jardine, Arlene; 'Julie Lakosky'; 'Kenneth Fink'; Leu, Leah; Cepero, Monica; 'Neal de Jesus'; Robert Wolfe; 'Robin Rorapaugh'; Russo, Jean; Seff, Bradley; Teitler, Robert; 'Washington Collado'; 'William Scherer'
Subject: Broward County Ethics Commission verbatim minutes

Attached are the verbatim minutes from the last Ethics Commission meeting. The summary minutes will be forthcoming next week.

Have a nice weekend,

Monica

Monica M. Cepero

Assistant to the County Administrator

115 South Andrews Avenue, Room 409

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

Phone: (954) 357-7354

Fax: (954) 357-7360

mcepero@broward.org

www.broward.org

Well, today, 18 days after Monica Cepero wrote
that letter, the Minutes of that last meeting, the ones
that were supposed to be made available, STILL
don't appear on the county's Ethics Committee
web page for the public to see.
http://www.broward.org/ethicscommission/schedule.htm

You know, in case facts actually matter.
---------------
Speaking of the power of lobbyists, in case you
missed it last month...

New York Times
In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists’

By Robert Pear

November 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html

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

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/fl-ethics-code-prosecutor-20091126,0,1228111.story
Panel calls for ethics prosecutor in Broward

But commissioners' attorneys say task force overstepped its authority in asking Legislature to create position

By Scott Wyman, Staff Writer

November 26, 2009

A state prosecutor would be permanently assigned to the Governmental Center to root out corruption by Broward County officials under a proposal that an ethics task force is pushing.

The task force assigned to write a first-ever conduct of conduct for county commissioners has asked state legislators to require a permanent prosecutor. The request comes as state and federal prosecutors are investigating possible corruption in local government.

But attorneys for the commissioners have accused the task forcel of overstepping its authority in seeking the legislation.

The task force has until early March to complete its work. The group zeroed in on giving the power to prosecutors over creating a full-time ethics agency or relying on county lawyers.

"You can write all the rules in the world you want, but it is meaningless without enforcement," said Robin Rorapaugh, a Hollywood-based political consultant and task force member.

Voters amended the county charter last fall to create the task force after commissioners failed to follow through on an earlier charter requirement that they draw up an ethics code.

State Rep. Ari Porth, a Coral Springs Democrat who heads the county's legislative delegation, said that if asked, lawmakers would be willing to look at legislation requiring a full-time prosecutor.

The task force is suggesting the prosecutor be paid through fees that the county collects from lobbyists to register each year.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Bill Scherer, a member of the ethics panel, said he suggested a full-time prosecutor as a cheaper alternative to an ethics agency like that in Miami-Dade County.

"It seems so simple if you had a prosecutor whose sole job is work at the county offices, has subpoena power to investigate and ensure compliance with ethics laws and does not report to the commission," Scherer said.

But county attorneys say the task force acted improperly in making the request to the Legislature.

"It is quite clear in terms of the charter what the charge of the ethics commission is and that charge is to develop an ethics policy for the board of county commissioners," County Attorney Jeff Newton said. "Anything else is outside their scope."

Reader comments at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/elections/fl-ethics-code-prosecutor-20091126,0,6098208,comment-display-all.story

Really, FDOT, 8-10 a.m. twice? Nice going. Another in a long line of genius moves under the Kopelousos regime! The road to ruin!

FDOT District 6 Annual Tentative Five-Year Transportation Plan

Really, FDOT, 8-10 a.m. twice?
Nice going. Another in a long line of genius moves
under the Kopelousos regime! The road to ruin!

For those of us who learn from past history to take
a more cynical attitude towards what we hear coming
from FDOT under Stephanie Kopelousos
-one of our chief bête noires- and wonder how
they can churn-out the sort of counter-intuitive and
nonsensical consumer transit opinion polls we hear
about a few times a year, consider the following
as just an especially illustrative piece of the larger
puzzle.

I'm very pro-transit and go to lots of public policy
meetings, including ones in the morning, but I'd
almost guess these meetings are scheduled
for 8-10 a.m. so that they can attract the largest
number of possible govt. employees and as
few actual citizen taxpayers as possible.

That's not how you build trust.
Way to do outreach!

Meanwhile, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority
is having a Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday
at 4 p.m.at their HQ, William M. Lehman MDX Bldg.
3790 NW 21st Street, Miami, FL 33142

List of MDX Directors:
http://www.mdx-way.com/about/structure

As I write this, 1:20 a.m., less than fifteen hours
before the meeting starts, they STILL haven't
placed their agenda on their website.
http://www.mdx-way.com/calendar/agendas_transcripts

MDX Board of Directors Meeting - Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 4:00 PM

12/08/2009

Location/Time

Above, copied directly from the website.
If it was there, you'd be seeing it.
You don't see it because it's not there.
Non-adherence to Sunshine Laws?

That's not how you build trust.
----------
Miami Herald
Editorial

Get ready for new toll system

November 9, 2009

People on the go in Miami-Dade use the SunPass to avoid stopping at toll booths and paying more. It's working, too, more than eight in 10 toll-road drivers use SunPass to zip by while other drivers' cars stack up in line to pay at the toll booth.

The convenience and cheaper tolls with the SunPass transponder that drivers attach to windshields is wildly popular.

There's another paramount reason to get rid of all cash toll booths: safety.

Deadly crashes at narrow toll plazas can be prevented as cars and trucks can keeping moving on the toll road with the overhead electronic scanner debiting their SunPass account. The removal of toll plazas at six turnpike locations has reduced the crash rate by 58 percent.

Now, as the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority and Florida's Turnpike rev up to go to a totally electronic system in the next two years, drivers will be able to prepay their accounts in cash, check or with a credit or debit card through a Toll-by-Plate system. Cash-only customers will be able to prepay at thousands of stores and supermarkets statewide.

By 2011, toll road managers will also offer monthly bills with a nominal fee of about $3 for drivers who don't have a SunPass and haven't prepaid in the plate system. A camera at exits would snap a photo of a vehicle's plate and the bill would be sent by mail to that car's owner, whether a Miami native or a tourist from Ohio. And rental car companies already are working with toll managers, offering their customers a prepaid fee to use the toll roads.

All of this is part of toll road managers' ambitious plans for MDX and the turnpike. They plan to close all cash-only toll booths and to start charging for exits on some toll roads that are now only partially covered by tolls, such as the Dolphin Expressway and the Don Shula Expressway that links the Palmetto Expressway to the turnpike's Homestead extension.

Local drivers used to taking sections of those roads without paying a dime will complain, but the truth is, there's no free ride.

As it is, about six in 10 drivers using sections of toll roads like the Dolphin can get off at various exits without paying, yet their vehicles are tearing up the roads as much as those of toll-paying drivers.

The county's half-penny sales tax for transportation does not apply to Miami-Dade's toll roads, nor do they get gas tax money. So repairs to the Dolphin (SR 836) and Shula (874) and expansion of other toll roads, such as the Gratigny Expressway that's supposed to link the Palmetto with I-95 in north Miami-Dade, depend on tolls.

That said, it's incumbent on MDX managers to make every effort for transparency and accountability because they can expect a revolt from drivers used to not paying tolls on well-traveled sections of the Dolphin. They have to show that the tolls will produce better commute times -- as has happened on the I-95's toll-paying section.

They also should reduce the cost of tolls throughout Miami-Dade. With a closed toll system, everyone must pay, which will mean toll managers can reduce toll rates and still bring in more money for road repairs and new turnpike links.

And there's plenty of work ahead. MDX's five-year work plan will produce about 13,400 jobs and have an estimated economic impact of $1.3 billion. Among the improvements: working with the Florida Department of Transportation to fix the chronic congestion at the interchange of the Dolphin with the non-toll Palmetto Expressway. That's long over due.

With smart and fair toll plans, MDX can bring a little sanity and save time for commuters.

So where's the transparency, exactly?

That's not how you build trust, either.

Send questions/comments to: info@mdxway.com

Miami-Dade Expressway Authority
3790 NW 21 Street
Miami, Florida 33142

Phone (305) 637-3277
Fax (305) 637-2537

Monday night's HLSCA meeting re the Diplomat Country Club expansion plan/LAC affecting Hollywood & Hallandale Beach

In lieu of my previous plans to bring you word of yet
another email of Mayor Cooper's, full of her typical
intemperate remarks, bad spelling and lighter-than-air
brand of logic, I'm happy to be alerting everyone to
some very interesting news.

Tomorrow evening, Monday the 7th, the Hollywood Lakes
Section Civic Association (HLSCA) aka "The Lakes"
is going to be hosting a SPECIAL MEETING regarding
the Diplomat Golf Course LAC at 7 p.m. on Monday
Dec. 7th at the Hollywood Beach Community Center,
1301 S. Ocean Drive. http://www.hollywoodlakes.com/

It's the building that's next to the county's Hollywood
Reading Room/Library on the east side of the street,
with the message board.

Since I can't recall whether or not the Hollywood Beach
Community Center still has a Coke machine, you might
want to bring along a drink or two from home, just in case.
I will definitely be attending.

They'll be seeing a presentation by the developers of the
Diplomat Golf and Country Club on what so many
of us feel is their absurd and out-of-proportion expansion
plans, made worse by their condescending sense of
entitlement.
As if the ownership group being a union males their
preposterous plans more palatable.

I assume it will again be Greenberg Traurig's Debbie
Orshefsky paired with Suzanne Friedman doing their
roving microphone Q&A thing, but I suppose they also
could also be joined by their transportation consultant,
since traffic is but the most obvious reason to reject
the proposal among many others, like it NOT actually
conforming to the city's adopted Master Plan.

If the HB City Commission is going to ignore its own
Master Plan, its key tool for long-term planning
-as the mayor herself is always reminding us-
particularly, the element about NOT allowing large
out-of-scale structures to be built on secondary roads,
then what was the whole point of the city hiring
EDAW to create one?
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1025

Links for Citywide Master Plan and
Transportation Master Plan
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=601

And when are we going to start seeing some public
discussion about what the individual City Commissioners'
priorities are among the options described by EDAW,
so that we can start seeing actual implementation,
so the plan doesn't become a series of great
recommendations that collect dust on a Hallandale
Beach City Hall shelf?

Instead of wisely spending time doing that this past year
at one or two public informational meetings on the
EDAW proposals themselves, like finally fixing-up
Chaves Lake and making that the sort of positive
resource for the community that all residents think it
ought to be,
http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1023
and which nobody is against, what we've gotten
so far is the priority of one unelected man who doesn't
even live here, City Manager Mike Good and his
proposal for a RAC.

That's a proposal that none of the HB citizens I saw
at any of the many meetings I attended over the past
few years on the city's Master Plan ever spoke about.

Trust me, if a city resident had actually stood up at
one of the meetings and said that all these proposals
were nice, but that their personal favorite was a
mechanism for optimizing and concentrating density,
after the audience's laughing died-off,
I'd have written that down and mentioned it
on my blog.
But nobody did.

Mike Good doesn't care about that.
Because he wants it, that's the city's new priority.
But nobody elected him.

You'd think that at a certain point, that would
actually matter, but HB Commissioners Dotty Ross,
William Julian and Anthony A. Sanders seem
perfectly happy to turn their derived legislative power
over to an unelected person and his over-paid staff,
so long as they can still drive around town pretending
that they're the ones with the power.
Pathetic!

Because the Diplomat's proposal has so many
self-evident, long-term negative implications for
the Quality-of-Life for the citizens of both Hollywood
and Hallandale Beach, many people in our community
have made a point of trying to become better-informed
about the true facts of the proposal, and have taken
the time and energy to appear at the often inconvenient
meetings and do some original thinking, and not
merely accept the HB City Hall platitudes
as either factual or the Gospel, as it were.

2009 Diplomat LUPA Staff Report 2009
http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=1299

2008 Diplomat report prepared for City of Hallandale Beach
byThe Mellgren Planning Group
http://www.hallandalebeach.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=751

If the Diplomat's case was so logical and compelling,
Comm. Keith London would've gotten a second at
the City Commission meeting in November on his
common sense motion to put the Diplomat LAC info
onto the city's website many weeks ago, to allow
everyone time to peruse it and properly digest it.

Then, regardless of what people thought of the issue,
whether pro or con, we'd all be basing our own
opinion on some commonly-agreed upon set
of facts in evidence.

In a normal American city, his motion would've
been quickly seconded and we'd all have benefited
from the time to analyze the information.

Instead, because we live in Hallandale Beach,
and things at City Hall are routinely done in a
deceptive and stealthy way, Comm. London's
common sense motion died for lack of a second,
and the information that the city ALREADY HAD
was NOT put on the city's website until just
28 hours before the afternoon HB P&Z meeting,

That's not by accident, that's the way that Mayor
Cooper and City Manager Good wanted it.

And because they didn't really care what you thought
or whether or not you had time to read the information,
Commissioners Dotty Ross, William Julian and
Anthony A. Sanders just sat quietly in their seats,
letting the motion die.
Ask yourself why they'd do that.
Correct -because they can

That's why these three individuals are called the
Rubber Stamp Crew

And as for Debbie Orshefsky's Power Point
presentation at both the jam-packed Community
meeting and the overflow HB P&Z meeting
last month NOT having anything written on them
saying specifically how many stories the condo
buildings would be 27-35, well, that's NOT
by accident, either.

Just to give you a head's up, if you live in a condo,
you might want to consider attending the
United Condominium Associations of
Hallandale Beach meeting on Thursday,
Dec. 17th at 7 p.m., at the Mar-Bay Condo/Hotel
ballroom, on the corner of Hallandale Beach
Blvd. and Diplomat Parkway, so that you can
see what's afoot politically.

And finally, congratulations to my friend
Michael Butler of Change Hallandale Beach
http://www.changehallandale.com/
Earlier this morning, his spot-on question about
Hallandale Beach City Hall, and Mayor Cooper
and the Rubber Stamp Crew's lax oversight of
City Manager Mike Good, was included on the
Mail segment of Michael Putney's This Week
in South Florida show on Channel 10.

See the screen-shots I took below.





See also:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/bestof/2009/award/best-tv-news-anchor-845598/
http://www.justnews.com/station/269244/detail.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/michael-putney/
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/search/?keywords=%22Michael+Putney%22&x=21&y=10