ABC News Nightline, March 18, 2009 Champions of Breakfast? In the recession, Dunkin' Donuts goes head to head with Starbucks. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7108261
When I lived in Evanston and Wilmette in the mid-1980's, I used to go with friends to an Unos after every third Cubs game we went to at Wrigley Field.
The best pizza in Evanston back then was Carmen's, on Church Street, which wasn't cheap, but was delicious. http://www.carmenspizza.net/
In the Washington, D.C. area, where I lived for 15 years, I was partial to Armand's Pizza, usually the one on Mass. Avenue on Capitol Hill, that was located next to The Heritage Foundation and near the U.S. Senate buildings and Union Station, or the one in Tenleytown on Wisconsin Avenue near American University.
Not surprisingly, my friends and I were partial to their all-you-can-eat deals with salad. http://www.armandspizza.com/newsite/index.html From this you can deduce that my favorite kind of pizza is Chicago Deep Dish style. There are currently no Unos in South Florida, which is a shame.Only wish there was one here in Hallandale Beach at the Village at Gulfstream Park or in nearby Hollywood. http://www.unos.com/ 2010 BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes Best Pizza: Readers voted Joe Jamz Pizza & Baked Goods in Hollywood as the best pizza in Broward County. Joe Jamz Pizza & Baked Goods, 320 S. Federal Highway, Hollywood, FL(954) 927-7707 http://joejamz.com/ http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/bestof/2010/award/best-pizza-1148826/
The newspaper chose Sicilian Oven in Lighthouse Point. Sicilian Oven, 2486 N. Federal Highway, Lighthouse Point, FL (954) 785-4155 http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/bestof/2010/award/best-pizza-1148935/ http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/restaurants/search/?cuisine=Pizza
Given this bit of good news from Capitol Hill on what is otherwise a wet, cool and miserable Saturday afternoon exactly seven days before Christmas -may I suggest some hazelnut coffee at Panera's?- where I'm listening to BBC Radio's 5 live's Saturday Editionwith Chris Warburton, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tl9cb and http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/#two, amidst all the reports about the bad weather -6 inches of snow in 25 minutes at a North London mall and canceled football matches everywhere- I can hardly wait for tomorrow.
Yes, there will likely be hard-luck stories galore in Sunday's Miami Herald but likely little insightful analysis that matches what I have for you below from the Washington Post'sShankar Vedantam,who wisely keeps to the facts and doesn't editorialize in his stories, as seems so common at the Herald, where facts that don't support the passage of the DREAM Act simply don't appear with regularity in stories, despite the fact that a clear majority of the country opposes it.
Not that this stops the Miami Herald or their minions. Their editorial board, reporters, columnists and editors have long championed a ridiculous immigration policy that defied logic and reason that was the very definition of "backdoor amnesty for lawbreakers" that critics like me said it was.
They lost because it was a bad idea that failed to persuade.
----- The Washington Post Defeat of immigration measure reveals failed White House strategy, advocates sayBy Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 18, 2010; 12:55 PM
Whenever Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and other immigrant-rights advocates asked President Obama how a Democratic administration could preside over the greatest number of deportations in any two-year period in the nation's history, Obama's answer was always the same.
Deporting almost 800,000 illegal immigrants might antagonize some Democrats and Latino voters, Obama's skeptical supporters said the president told them, but stepped-up enforcement was the only way to buy credibility with Republicans and generate bipartisan support for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
On Saturday that strategy was in ruins after Senate Democrats could muster only 55 votes in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a measure that would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children. Under Senate rules, Democrats needed 60 votes to overcome Republican opposition to the bill. The House of Representatives had passed the measure earlier this month, 216 to 198.
Meant to post about this on Monday morning to give everyone a head's up. Oh well...
From the Miami-Dade County legal ad website: http://miamidade.gov/wps/portal/Main/legalads
Sunshine Notice - Miami-Dade State Legislative Delegation Meeting
NOTICE IS GIVEN that a Miami-Dade State Legislative Delegation Meeting has been scheduled for Friday, December 17, 2010, at 10:00 AM, to hear testimony from various community organizations and other entities, and discuss legislative issues and priorities for the 2011 session. The meeting will be held in the Commission Chambers, located on the Second Floor of the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 N.W. First Street, Miami, Florida 33128. Members of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners may attend.
All interested parties may appear at the time and place specified.
A person who decides to appeal any decision made by any board, agency, or commission with respect to any matter considered at its meeting or hearing, will need a record of proceedings. Such persons may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, including the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based.
Miami-Dade County provides equal access and equal opportunity in employment and does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its programs or services.
For material in alternate format, a sign language interpreter or other accommodations, please call 305-375-1293 or send email to: clerkbcc@miamidade.gov
Sometimes, when you least expect it, the Blogger Dashboard located on my blog -under thehood, as it were, which tracks the various blogs and websites I'm subscribed to- hits a grand slam so obvious that you just know that when you see it list something as being only two minutes old at a little past midnight, your intuition, your internal news director, tells you that it will be THEmust-read article the rest of that day.
And so it was just an hour ago when I was going thru my eclectic list of reading material before going to sleep.Or so I thought. But here I am, blogging at 1:15 a.m. Eastern, Hallandale Beach temperature 45 F.
There it was underThe Atlantic'sJames Fallows' blog: Peter Orszag: The Shoe That Didn't Drop. Hallelujah!!!
Trust me, you'll thank me later. Really. That's why he's James Fallows, and there is no substitute.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fallows
And why I've been reading him in his various media manifestations, legacy media and new media, prescient overseas dispatches and domestic cultural and political analysis, since I was at IU. And bought his books. The Atlantic Online Peter Orszag: The Shoe That Didn't Drop By James Fallows December 15 2010, 11:33 PM ET
I made a mistake several days ago when lamenting Peter Orszag's decision to take a senior job with Citibank, reportedly for several million dollars per year, so soon after leaving a senior Obama Administration post. Over the past two-plus years, Obama (and GW Bush) policies played a crucial role in saving Citi -- and in not holding its executives (or other senior financial-world figures) accountable for polices that brought on the world financial crisis or reining in top-end pay as profitability has returned. Now a senior member of the Obama team -- Orszag was budget director -- was going straight to one of those top-end jobs, even as his former colleagues in the administration have their hands full fighting the social, economic, and political effects of the crisis on "ordinary" Americans who can't find jobs or are losing their homes.
Read the rest of this fabulous post at:http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/12/peter-orszag-the-shoe-that-didnt-drop/67869/
See also this excellent essay by Fallows in the June 2010 issue of The Atlantic: How to Save the News http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/06/how-to-save-the-news/8095/
James Fallows archives from The Atlantic at: http://www.theatlantic.com/james-fallows/
The first five photos above are screenshots I took ofAmanda Römmesmo Diaz (as Lucia) from Tuesday morning's St. Lucia concert at Kungsholms Church in Stockholm, that was broadcast LIVE by SVT -at 7 a.m.- in an event officially titled, Luciamorgon i Kungsholms kyrka.
The ridiculously cute St. Lucia icon/photo directly below those photos of Amanda is from Elina Thorsell's blog post Tuesday, as the flute-playing member of Timoteijrecounts what she was up to today on one of the biggest days on the Scandinavian calendar.
This was updated in December 2015
------
Lucia
Av Elina den 13/12/2010
Idag är det den 13 december och julen närmar sig med stormsteg! När jag gick upp imorse så var tv.n på och luciafirandet strömmade ut ur högtalarna. Så fint!... Read the rest of Elina's post at:http://www.timoteij.se/2010/12/13/lucia/
In Elina's particular case, the celebration of the Queen of Light amidst supernatural forces, included her going to her little brother's school to listen to him and his classmates sings some festive traditional holiday songs. What a sweetie she is!
As the ever-adorable Elina alludes to in her post, Swedish TV was in full St. Lucia mode today from the get-go, and one of those features was SVT's fabulous one-hour broadcast this morning featuring the Södra Latin Chamber Choir -conducted by Jan Risberg- singing traditional Lucia and Christmas favorites like, well, yes, angels, even as the St. Luciaaction holds our attention, as our brunette Lucia, Amanda, stays perfectly still throughout the ceremony, with four burning candles on her head wreath.
Good job, Amanda!
Also appearing this morning to sing some traditional Christmas favorites and give it some oomph were some very popular singers like Darin, Sonja Aldén, Shirley Clamp and Sanna Nielsen.
As always when I recommend an SVT program for your enjoyment here on the blog, once you have pulled-up the SVT web page, click the word "Fullskärm" to the bottom right in order to make it "full screen." Though some of the program is in Swedish, obviously, you'll still be able to appreciate the songs without knowing a single word of svensk.
I really urge you to watch some of it -if not the whole thing- as a means of not only reducing your own holiday stress, but gaining some Scandinavian cultural awareness, PLUS, and I can't emphasize this enough, the audio and video production qualities of this are just flat-out amazing! Especially considering thatSVT had this entire program up on their website within hours of it airing!
(I have a future blog post on the amazing technical quality of SVT and SVT Play's programs and website that features plenty of examples of why they win so many design and technical awards.)
There's no heavy-handed VO narration by some un-seen quasi-celeb, nobody in the audience aping for the cameras, nobody in the church trying to steal the limelight from the kids performing. In a sense, it's almost like watching a documentary on another culture, with cameras that are carefully hidden to prevent anyone from acting un-naturally. The video is available for watching on the SVT Play web page until January 11, 2011, so you only have a month to catch it before it goes buh-bye!
2015 Update: Excerpts from SVT's 2010 Luciamorgon, i Kungsholms kyrka, via 398asa YouTube Channel
SVT's holiday webpage,http://svt.se/2.114277/julen_i_svt_2010 is chock-a-block full of interesting things and as usual, is not only clever and colorful -while a bit cheeky- but also well-produced, but NOT busy and cluttered, unlike the Miami Herald andSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel'sweb pages these days, which cause me to get a headache at the complete waste of resources in an area like South Florida that is crying out for real news coverage, not more syndicated photo files of B-List celebs or amusing animals.
Will someone please put a stop to that madness before the shareholders finally find out what's been going the past few years?
Tell them that the second-rate websites and the duplication of stories isn't fooling anyone about the actual quality of the product anymore?
We see thru the self-serving lies, the ridiculous fallacies, clear-cut news mis-representation and the longstanding charade that most of the reporters, columnists and editors really want to bring compelling stories to the public's attention -they don't.
That dog doesn't hunt anymore, plus, it's so, so painful to wade thru all the junk online plus seeing links to so-called Breaking News that's already 18 hours old.
Me duele la cabeza! ----
I know that I am remiss in this, and I've already received some emails from overseas the past few days asking me why I haven't said anything yet about the suicide bombings in Stockholm.
Well, I'm working on something right now in regards to that specifically, as well as the larger change in Swedish political and social culture. I think it'll give you some real insight into some matters that you won't find elsewhere in South Florida, though that clearly isn't really much to brag about these days, is it?
All-in-all, I think at least some of you of a more serious bent will be surprised at what you learn -as well as disturbed- and find out how much has been going on in a modern democratic European country like Sweden that you haven't been hearing about in the American mainstream media, print and electronic.
For instance, the efforts by certain non-native groups that aren't particularly keen to assimilate and adapt to Swedish norms of democracy and civics, to actually prevent people from being able to speak freely at public forums, and inciting violence so that they can then be cast by the news media as victims. There has been an awful lot of that! Whether you haven't seen it in print or on TV already in the U.S. because of journalistic laziness, editorial myopia or that old alibi, lack or resources, I can't say. But after you read a bit and see some videos I have in mind for you all, you won't be able to say that you didn't know. And the facts are pretty compelling, especially when you have the video that tells the tale.
If you think the mainstream news media in the U.S. is condescending and ideologically against the interests of the average American, you have no idea how much worse it is in Sweden, as the election coverage showed.
As Christmas nears in the U.S., nobody-but-nobody wants 'legacy media' in their Christmas stocking, not even their own employees. It's the same thing in Sverige.
More than anything else, this video reminded me of: 1.) certain elaborate Capitol Hill and Georgetown parties I attended in D.C.,minus the bikini-clad wrestlers.
2.) most of the the "Swimmer" parties at IU, in Bloomington, especially those thrown at the Lantern House Apts., circa 1981-83, by my great friend Dave Whitmore from Overland Park, KS, who lived across me at Briscoe Quad my freshman year. Dave and I quickly became fast friends because of similar interests and geography, he just happened to be faster than me in the water -even while doing the backstroke, his specialty- which is just part of why legendary IU and Olympic swim coach "Doc" Counsilman chose Dave to be captain of the IU swim team, and why I became such a familiar presence at Royer Pool inside the HPER and at their social shindigs. I even missed the 1980 U.S.-Russia Olympic hockey game the Friday night it was first broadcast because I was at Royer for a meet against Michigan.
"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, i.e. me, in 2007. Those "Swimmer" parties were insanely fun and animated, and featured some of the most beautiful women on campus on a large Big Ten campus of uncommonly beautiful and smart girls-next-door to begin with, something my friends and I were eternally grateful for.
When there were big sorority social shindigs going on that we weren't part of, we got even MORE of the beautiful coed "Independents," like my sweet and talented friend Laura Seitz from Pittsburgh, also an IU swimmer herself for a while, always so breath-taking and dapper in her sweet cherry red AdidasIU swim jacket, something I can still see today with eyes closed.
Laura was someone I knew from her very first week on campus, as she was also at Briscoe Quad my sophomore year, and for me, sort of became the model for the sort of well-rounded college students that IU has so many of: diligent with her studies, always asking good probing questions, great sense of humor and always game for some tennis on a lazy afternoon or taking in a movie or anIU soccer game. I was indeed fortunate to have so many high-quality and high-caliber friends at IU the likes of Dave and Laura. 3.) certain IU frat parties, esp.Alpha Tau Omega on Third Street the weeknd before classes started, which featured a live band, or the parties at Sigma Chi that I usually found out about after they'd started by my friend there who could recite the dialogue from Fast Times at Ridgemont High by heart the same way another friend down here at NMB had been able to recite dialogue verbatim from Gone With The Wind. And accurately, in those pre-video and pre-YouTube days, too, which is all the more remarkable.
If only we had had cell phone technology, camera phones and blogs back then, the fascinating stories I could tell you about my friends and IU with photos...
Like with a Nokia N8, now that I think about it. C'est la vie
Which reminds me, before it's too late...
Dear Santa, Secret and Otherwise:
The Nokia N8comes equipped with a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, HD-quality video recording, film editing software and Dolby surround sound. http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/04/28/first-sample-hd-video-captured-on-nokia-n8/
Compared to what I currently have to work with now, it would really help a humble blogger like myself ferret-out more hidden facts and capture below-the-surface skullduggery and crony capitalism in action in chaotic South Florida -and look good while doing so! I only mention it, Santa, since you asked me to be more direct this year and to not beat-around-the-bush.
If you have any questions, please see: http://events.nokia.com/nokian8/home.html
Nokia FranceYouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NokiaFrance
The official Nokia blog: http://conversations.nokia.com/ WTIU-TV's documentary about James "Doc" Counsilman http://www.indiana.edu/~radiotv/wtiu/doc/
Today's blog post features one of the many interesting public policy ideas that I've had waiting in cold storage in Draft for a few weeks that's finally coming out to play, with more set to come out over the weekendas it gets warmer -until Tuesday's cold front, which may require me wearing some IU sweatshirts while out and about for the first time since February. Ideas like transportation policy in an auto-centric region of the country like South Florida, where locally, I travel on F-rated roads; traffic synchronization as an overdue dream that never quite becomes a reality because of bureaucracy; South Florida cities using legitimate safety concerns as theraison d'être to install red-light cameras, and then completely ignoring the evidence that they aren't making the community any safer but are expanding the program nonetheless in order to male their individual city halls a tidy sum, or in Hallandale Beach's case,a windfall...
While the sort of positive reinforcement and appeal to the best in human behavior that this Volkswagen-sponsored video demonstrates could conceivably work as an experiment in democratic and orderly Stockholm, here in chaotic South Florida, the land of people who adamantlyrefuse to follow even the simple common sense rules at grocery stores in order to utilize the 'express line' -ten or less items- in my opinion, it's far too logical and optimistic to ever work in South Florida.
That Broward County citizens reside in an area where there's a publicly-known level of pettiness, parochialism and maybe even unethical behavior, but which is ignored by local South Florida TV reporters, is just a reflection of how bad things are down here in terms of both civics and journalism: reporters, editors and producers too lazy to report on a story that is served up to them on a silver platter by theBroward Bulldog'sDan Christensen. http://www.browardbulldog.org/2010/09/whistleblower-probes-expose-bad-blood-behind-county-mpo-split/
That particular crowd is constantly being surprised at things that almost anyone who knows public policy -or who has common sense about both transportation policy and human behavior- could have told them was absolutely going to happen. But they never see it coming around the corner, do they?
Instead, embarrassing policy debacles are inevitably followed by pronouncements from PIO's minimizing the jaw-dropping stupidity, forgetting the negative reinforcement that is taking place among the larger South Florida community as yet another govt. effort comes a cropper. For instance, here in Hallandale Beach, at the Southeast end of Broward County nestled next to the Atlantic Ocean, with Hollywood to the north and Aventura and Miami-Dade county to our south, we have what is arguably one of the most infamous red light camera in the country, on northbound U.S.-1/Federal Highway as it approaches Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Though it was supposedly installed in the name of maximizing public safety on the roads of one of the most traffic-congested corners of all of South Florida, where all the main roads are ALREADY rated F by FDOT using national methodologies and analysis, the actual result was NOT a noticeable increase in public safety at that intersection, but rather a license to print MONEY: $1.3 millionin just seven months! From one camera! As Channel 4 News correctly noted on their July 13th newscast, which on their website they labeled Hallandale Beach Red Light Cam Generates Big Bucks"The one red light camera there is giving out an average of 700 more tickets every month than all 10 of Miami Beach's cameras combined." http://miami.cbslocal.com/local/red.light.cameras.2.1802814.html Unfortunately for my purposes here, that video is now no longer available. Hallandale Beach Comm. Keith S. London, a friend of mine as most of you know, had it exactly right back in 2007 when the city commission voted 3-2 to pass this:
"The issue didn't come up during a public safety workshop," London said. "It came up during a budget meeting. This is strictly about revenues."
Red light camera in Hallandale Beach has some seeing red http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wl8xGKzfTU Just to give you a sense of the numbers involved, in Hallandale Beach, red-lightcamera revenue for July 2010: $119,613.98; violations = 263 right turn on reds and 40 straight through intersection. I remind you, that's from just one camera.
After-the-fact, it's hardNOT to think that the whole public safety issue dialogue that took place here prior to the red-light camera installation was nothing but a shell-game, and the city dealt themselves Aces while dealing the public nothing but Jokers, as by their own numbers, 94% of all the tickets initially given were for right-turn violations, NOT dangerous red-light runners on U.S.-1. The fact that the busiest intersection in the entire city, literally, the choke point, is rarely if ever given any permanent police presence, as is common in many other cities at certain times, is a message to residents that City Hall's talk about public safety is just a smokescreen.
Further proof of that is that you are MUCH MORE likely to see Aventura Police giving tickets for speeding in front of Gulfstream Park or the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex than you are to see them from HB Police, even though their own Police Dept. HQ is right across the street! Trust me, I've got the photos to prove it, too.
The fact that HB City Hall was so wrong about the actual real world results doesn't cause them to publicly question their earlier votes or even call for its removal. Far from it! HB and other South Florida cities that are making out like bandits, unlike has been the case recently in Oxfordhire, with few rare exceptions, has just stood pat and turned the legitimate safety concerns expressed by some citizens completely on their face, and exiled them to public policy Siberia, making their words difficult to hear with a straight face, even where it might be true. In fact, just the other day, a good friend wrote me quite angrily in parts that he had watched the most recent HB City Commission via the web:
"I was surprised to hear during yesterday's HB City Commission meeting that two additional cameras are about to go into operation. It was the first time that I heard that the original agreement called for 3 cameras not one. So much for openness at City Hall."
In late July, I wrote an email to my usual crowd of friends, concerned civic activists, elected officials and some print and TV reporters alerting them to something that I had picked upon some three weeks earlier at a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting that was discussing their infamous red-light camera, which I walk, bike or drive by a few times everyday, and which you may not know, I took photos of the day they installed it, because I knew what a lightning rod it would become. And how!
Part of that was directly due to the city's lack of adequate publicity, compared to Aventura's, just down the road, with their huge sign and their warning period, which was discussed in newspapers and on local Miami TV newscasts for a few weeks before they started enforcing it.
That made for quite a contrast with Hallandale Beach's clumsiness, whose sign doesn't mention the city by name, only a drawing of a traffic light, and which you don't even see until it is to your immediate right as you drive past it, obstructed as it is by a bus shelter, even though Broward County buses no longer use it. (Yeah, that's what passes for normal here.)
At this City Commission meeting, HB Police Chief Thomas A Magill -whom as most of you who come here frequently know, I loathe, to put it lightly- was going thru his paces in his verbal testimony from the dais to not only keep the status quo but expand upon it, echoing the usual BS about safety.
Then, rather amazingly, Magill said that there'd been an accident at that intersection recently, a fatality. Well, this was news to me and everyone else in the Commission Chambers, so I leaned forward towards the seat in front of me to get a better listen, but nobody up on the dais commented on what Magill said to get any more specifics, which seemed not only odd but counter-intuitive. But then this is Hallandale Beach, after all!
Finally, Comm. Keith London got his opportunity to speak on the subject and after some careful proddding, whether intentional or not, got Magill to admit that the accident he alluded to earlier with the fatality, actually happened elsewhere, at U.S.-1 and S.E. 3rd Street, right near the entrance toGulfstream Park Race Track and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex, and HB City Hall, one short block away.
It actually had nothing at all to do with the red-light camera issue -the subject at hand.
HALLANDALE TO MOUNT RED-LIGHT CAMERAS - 3-2 VOTE APPROVES NEGOTIATIONS WITH INSTALLATION FIRM
Thomas Monnay Staff Writer
September 2, 2007 Run a red light? Soon the city will know.
The city is negotiating with American Traffic Solutions, of St. Louis, Mo., to install red-light cameras at some intersections.
"I've been fighting for it for three years," Mayor Joy Cooper said. "It's for safety reasons."The decision to negotiate, approved Wednesday by a 3-2 vote, comes as Pembroke Pines works on a similar initiative with American Traffic. Palm Beach County officials are considering it as well.
Although Orange County and Gulf Breeze near Pensacola already have the cameras, the state refuses to endorse them, saying they violate people's privacy. Supporters, however, say the cameras are no different than those the state installed at tollbooths to catch drivers not paying mandated fees.
"I don't look at this as a right-to-privacy issue," Vice Mayor Bill Julian said. "When we go through the tollbooths, our pictures are taken anyway. In the interest of public safety, I can't wait to see them. The sooner, the better."
Commissioner Keith London, who opposed the decision, said cameras would cause more rear-end accidents by drivers who prematurely slam on their brakes to avoid running red lights.
"The issue didn't come up during a public safety workshop," London said. "It came up during a budget meeting. This is strictly about revenues." He said the city should instead concentrate on improving intersections and synchronizing lights to help move traffic smoothly.London said after the city works out a contract with American Traffic, it would pass a law allowing the cameras and resulting fine collections.
Still being resolved are how many cameras there would be and where they would be installed. Cooper said two key locations are the intersections of Hallandale Beach Boulevard with Dixie Highway and 10th Avenue.
Cooper said the cameras would be installed on private property since the state won't allow them on its rights of way.
Instead of a traffic citation, violators would be notified by mail of a city code violation and told to pay a $100 fine, Cooper said. Drivers wouldn't lose points on their license because the citations would be issued against vehicles involved in the violation, not their drivers.
In theory, red-light cameras are supposed to be about safety, curbing reckless drivers from blowing through intersections at high speeds.
But the reality at one South Florida intersection seems more like a game of "Gotcha," with an astounding 93 percent of violations going to unwitting drivers making rolling right turns on red.
"This feels like a money grab," said Phil Kodroff, one of almost 11,000 drivers to get snagged by Hallandale Beach's red-light camera since it started snapping away in January.
The city's take by mid-June: almost $1 million.
"Let's be honest about it, we're here to gouge you," said Hallandale Beach Commissioner Keith London, an opponent of red-light cameras. "To say it's about public safety is pretty disingenuous. It's all about the revenue."
Love them or hate them, the cameras soon will become fixtures of South Florida life. Now that the devices have gotten the green light from the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Crist, more cash-strapped cities will be turning to them for easy money.
In the past week, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Boynton Beach have moved forward with plans to install cameras.
They will join Hallandale Beach, Pembroke Pines and West Palm Beach, which already have cameras running. Royal Palm Beach installed cameras in November but has been issuing only warnings; fines likely will start by September.
Under the law that took effect July 1, fines for the first offense increased to $158 from $125, with the money now divided between the state and cities.
"The mentality of the South Florida driver is going to have to change," said Mark Antonio, interim city manager of Hallandale Beach.
Said Hallandale Beach Police Maj. Dwayne Flournoy: "It's the 'Halo effect.' If you get compliant at one intersection, your behavior will change at all the others."
Kodroff, of Hollywood, said his behavior has changed: He is avoiding Hallandale Beach's camera intersection at Federal Highway and Hallandale Beach Boulevard, along with the businesses on that corridor.
After a steak dinner at the Gulfstream Park casino complex May 22, Kodroff thought he had an uneventful drive home to his beachfront condo.
A month later, he opened his mail to find a $125 ticket.
His speed when he made the right on red onto Hallandale Beach Boulevard, according to the violation notice: "0."
"It's not sensible," Kodroff said. "I hit my brakes, I thought I came to a full stop."
Red-light cameras, when misused by idiotic and irresponsible public officials, can be one of the great scourges of America. That much is fact. Even when they are used with some semblance of jurisprudence, they might be flat-out illegal. We'll just have to see how the court challenges turn out.
But in the wrong hands, they can be downright evil. Check out this Miami Herald story on the poor people of Aventura -- and all others who drive in that city -- who are getting shaken down by their own government for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. Their "crime": Rolling a red light on a right turn. You do it all the time even if you don't know it. You come up on an intersection, see there's no cars coming, and never quite come to a complete stop.
Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/07/rolling_red-light_camera_scour.php ----- South Florida Sun-Sentinel Mayo on the SideblogofBroward news columnist Michael Mayo Red-light cameras: Big drop in Hallandale Beach with new state lawBy Michael Mayo August 16, 2010 10:29 AM Hallandale Beach's lone red-light camera has generated more than $1.3 million in fines since starting in January, but the latest monthly figures show a big decrease in violations for slow-rolling right turns with a new state law in effect.
Starting July 1, cities were no longer supposed to cite offenders who made right turns "in a careful and prudent manner." Before July 1, cities could fine anybody who didn't come to a complete stop before an intersection.
Miami Herald Red-light violations take detour into court By David Ovalle October 9, 2010
The video-camera footage showed Dean Dadic's BMW running a red light. Guilty, the judge decided. Aventura slammed Dadic with a $125 fine -- even though he produced paperwork showing he wasn't behind the wheel that day. "I had no recourse, even though I proved I wasn't driving,'' Dadic complained after a recent hearing at Aventura City Hall, where the video screen warns motorists: "You must stop for all red lights.'' Thanks to a new state law, however, drivers like Dadic who contest controversial red-light violations in city halls across South Florida will soon have relief: In coming weeks, the hearings will shift from municipal control to regular traffic court, where violations will be harder to prove. South Florida judges and lawyers believe traffic court will dispense fairer and more independent decisions -- along with basic due process that critics said was lacking. Miami-Dade, for instance, will dismiss citations for two of the most common and controversial infractions: rolling right-hand turns where the driver attempts a "careful and prudent'' stop, and tickets against vehicle owners who prove they weren't behind the wheel. Red-light cameras have been a hot-button issue since cities across Florida began installing cameras at intersections and then mailing municipal code violations to surprised drivers. The number of cases figure to grow as the camera programs have expanded throughout South Florida, including Pembroke Pines, Hallandale Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Hialeah, West Palm Beach and Miami Gardens. Coming soon: Hollywood and Davie. Critics said the citations were heavy-handed cash grabs. A slew of lawsuits followed, and in February, a Miami-Dade judge ruled that Aventura's enforcement system -- the first in Miami-Dade -- circumvented state traffic laws. An appeal is pending. But advocates, including Aventura officials, maintain that the red-light cameras are designed to reduce accidents rather than generate revenue, and say statistics back them up. Since September 2008, when the cameras went up, crashes in Aventura dropped by 200, about 15 percent for the nearly two-year period ending Aug. 26. "I think the results bear out the fact that the intent of the City Commission was always to put the [cameras] in for the safety of the motorists,'' City Manager Eric Soroka said. In response to the uproar, the Florida Legislature passed a new law that made red-light camera infractions a state violation. The statute went into effect July 1, but cases are just now trickling into the state system. In Miami-Dade, the court could receive about 50,000 new cases over the next year, according to County Court Judge Steve Leifman, head of the already taxed traffic division. Between five and 15 new hearing officers -- lawyers trained to preside over traffic citation cases -- will be hired at a combined salary of more than $70,000 for the first year. Broward County, which so far has few operating red-light cameras, will devote one court session a week to its trickle of citations. No additional hearing officers will be hired unless cities operating cameras help defray the costs, said Broward County Judge Robert W. Lee, who oversees the traffic division. The state law allows a police agency to issue citations to drivers who run red lights at intersections, using video cameras that capture the back of a vehicle. Citations are mailed to the registered owner of the car. For 30 days, the $158 ticket remains just a fine. When it is paid, the money is split between the city that issued it and the state's general revenue fund. If a recipient fights or ignores it, the ticket morphs into a moving violation and has the potential to affect a motorist's driving record. For now, cities are still holding hearings on citations that were issued before July 1. Held in government buildings, the hearings are lambasted by drivers as unfair and biased. Arlene Segal, at the recent Aventura hearing, unsuccessfully argued against three violations for failing to stop while turning right on red. "Officer, would you have stopped her if you had seen her?'' asked special master Raquel Rothman, a real estate and probate lawyer appointed by the city to preside over the cases. "Yes, ma'am,'' replied a uniformed police officer, overlooking the conference room from behind a laptop-equipped podium. Segal left with more than $600 in fines. "The deck is definitely stacked against you,'' she said. ``It's intimidating for the average person.'' In the new setting at Miami-Dade's Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, 1351 NW 12th St., Judge Leifman hopes the process will be perceived as wholly independent. Hearing officers, who undergo 40 hours of special training, will preside from behind an elevated judicial bench. A screen will be set up so that officers may present the video evidence. In Broward County, hearings will be held at Deerfield Beach courthouse, the only facility with space. Leifman said fewer people will be found guilty of right-turn violations, because the new statute says a driver is in the clear as long as they ``turn in a careful and prudent'' manner. And unlike the city hearings, Leifman said, defendants who can reasonably prove they were not behind the wheel won't be punished -- or pressured to identify the real driver. "If someone didn't do it, my hearing officers are not likely to find them guilty if the state can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were the driver,'' Leifman said. South Florida ticket attorneys, while happy the hearings are now in state court, still chafe at the camera concept. They say replacing the discretion of a live officer with a video camera will raise serious questions for appeal courts -- including how authorities notify alleged violators. Drivers are not handed tickets by police officers, but are mailed citations. So if a mailing address is wrong, citizens could face a license suspension if the violation goes unpaid or uncontested. Fort Lauderdale police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa, whose department operates red-light cameras at seven intersections, said citations are sent to the current registration address. "At the end of the day, you assume responsibility for that car. People who are driving are not children -- they are responsible for making sure their registration, their licenses and their insurance is up to date,'' he said. Regardless of the mechanics, traffic-ticket lawyers above all object to replacing a police officer with a video camera that only captures a vehicle's rear view. Because no image of the driver is captured, the cameras unfairly force a vehicle owner to prove they weren't behind the wheel, said attorney Bret Lusskin, who successfully sued Aventura over its camera citations. "The fact is, this turns American law on its head,'' he said. "A person who is accused of violating the law is presumed innocent until the state proves them guilty.'' Miami Herald staff writer Howard Cohen contributed to this report.
See also:
BBC24 November 2010Last updated at 00:24 ET RAC Foundation report backs speed camera safety benefit Speed camera Some councils have decided to get rid of their speed cameras because of a lack of funding
Some 800 more people a year could be killed or seriously injured on the UK's roads if all speed cameras were scrapped, a report has suggested.
