Month: September 2014

….. With September comes action in Fort Lauderdale. Everyone has come home from their vacations, and vacation homes, and have gotten down to business for a new year.

So let’s catch up on what’s happening, and some updates from last season. Now a days people are loving bicycles to travel from one place to another. But it is essential to know about traffic failure after bicycle accidents with the help of attorneys to avoid consequences.

1.) Beach Place “ a place for all your dope needs ?” – 

 

 

………….. you might remember that the busy retail complex on the beach, on the famous strip, had been sighted as a nuisance for issues on the property, including disturbances, assaults, batteries, wanted persons, trespassing, beverage violations, and narcotic offenses.

     ….. The property has had over 1000 calls for service from the police over the last year. The City’s Nuisance Board placed the complex under their control and ordered corrections, including more security guards from their security group.

 

……. 

 

… The good news is that they staffed more Navarro guards –  the bad news? … two of the Navarro security guards were getting arrested another state for dealing dope there !!  I’m not kidding.

……   The first guard  “sold $20 worth of cannabis” to an undercover cop that was first brought from the Best Brampton dispensary. Navarro fired that guard after his arrest. The second Navarro guard directed an undercover cop to to the cook at Lulas, who eventually sold a pound of pot to undercover cops . Click here to meet the experts  who explains on how useful the cannabis is on delta-8 flower strains and other products.

……   The attorney for Beach Place had said that the Navarro guards had gone through rigorous screening, and they were happy with Navarro. Now, they apparently have changed their minds and are hiring a new security company. I reached out to Navarro, and they said they would get back to me  ……hmmm

 

2.) The Mayoral race in Wilton Manors has an interesting new twist. I endorsed the challenger to the long term mayor a few months back. Now, that challenger, Doug Blevins, has secured another substantial endorsement – Dean Trantalis!

 

   

….   Trantalis has said that the current Mayor, Gary Resnick, has not put enough effort into the proposed enhanced pedestrian promenade ( two-laning Wilton Drive), and that Blevins has been a long time  advocate for it and will get it done…. …..

3.)  …..  Remember when then City Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom delayed her departure date from the City Commission by two weeks, although that decision ended up costing the taxpayers $200,000 for a special election?

….  Well now, an effort by their attorney, Bill, Scherer, to let the Republicans vote in Charlotte’s County Democratic primary effortlast August has  lost,  the Supervisor of Elections says that a special election will have to be held – price tag? – $400,000 !

………… Can we invoice the Rodstroms?

 

 

 

I’ve caught some flack for not keeping you up on things,  as of  late.

My apologies for not blogging much lately, but the wife and I took some time off, played hooky, a little down time, some much needed  VAKAY!

It was great, but I have so much important City stuff to talk to you about….

And God knows I need to take off a little of that weight that I put on – while goofing off!

 

                          …        

 

Talk to you tomorrow!

…. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department is  returning to Community Policing …… (I’ll take an amen to that!)

………….but they need you, the community,  to join them –

 

….  I’m going to sign up for this forum, and I hope you will too ……

….  The Forum will take place on 6 consecutive Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 until 9:30 pm, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 19 …. It looks to be interesting, with topics covering all things Police!  And the Police are coming into the community for these series of forums, so no need to hassle going downtown to the Police Department.

….. Now we’ve come along way baby – Here is a picture of our Police Dept. at work back in the 60’s –

 

…… Thankfully, our police racial issues seem to be solved, with an integrated department, where nearly all the top brass are black. (Chief Adderley is Bahamian, but I think he still qualifies 🙂

…. To understand how far we’ve come, in 1994, amazingly, Fort Lauderdale had the highest crime rate  in the whole United States ( last year it was East St. Louis), and now Fort Lauderdale no longer even makes the worst 100 list.

….. Even those stubborn crime areas like South Middle River, and Lauderdale Manors, are seeing steep drops in their crime rate.

…..  But we still have way too much crime, and the FLPD, led by Chief Frank Adderley, is working it, but says we all need to climb aboard to help!!

 

 

So go to flpd.org, and sign up, and I’ll see you on Oct. 15th !

Tim

 

 

 

 

….. This will be a double header about two types of poison ….

 

….    First, the non-political kind, arsenic –

 

…. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection swooped into the Middle River Terrace Park last week, with their poison finding digging machine (above).

 

…… The State came  to see if arsenic, discovered on the property next door, had leached underground into the park.

It’s still unclear of any dangers the underground arsenic could cause, but the City is advising residents not to eat the mangoes, just in case !

 

 

……  Here is a bowl of samples collected during the two day poison investigation. The State says it will take about 45 days until we know the outcome …. I’ll let you know  …

…………………………………………………………..

…. The second poison is political …..  do you know the latin root for politics? …..  poli (meaning many)  … and tics (meaning blood sucking insects)!

…. Never has latin seemed to make as much sense to me as in the actions of the giant political lawyer – Bill Scherer.

 

 

…. Scherer is arguably the most connected lawyer in the County, and has a penchant for suing the system when it benefits his political friends.

…  Fortunately, this week, he was overruled, (once again), by a Court outside of his territory – ( Broward County).  This time, Scherer had sued to open the August Democratic County Commission primary to Republicans, which insiders said could help his longtime friend, Charlotte Rodstrom, in her second attempt to get on the County Commission.  [ The Rodstroms, though registered Democrats, have long held ties to the Republican party.]

 

 

….  Scherer also unsuccessfully sued to overturn term limits ( a few years back), which would have allowed his friend John Rodstrom tostay on the County Commission.

….. This latest Scherer defeat could mean another expensive special election, with we taxpayers holding the bag (once again) …..

  shameful !

 

 

…..  So I went down to the Middle River Terrace Park this morning to let the FDEP ( Florida Department of Environmental Protection) into the historic Annie Beck House, as we are letting them set up their base as they check to see if the park has unacceptable limits of arsenic in the soil  ….

 

.

 

But when I got there, a bigger story emerged !  …. ( I’ll get to the arsenic story in the next post)  …..

 

 

…………   Turns out, somebody tried to set the historic Annie Beck House on fire !!!

 

…..    The arsenic investigators saw the arson evidence  first – “hey guy,”, they yelled to me shortly after arriving to begin their arsenic investigation  …. ” looks like somebody tried to burn this place down out here!”   …..  They were out at the back steps of the house, and this is what they saw –

 

 

The rag was shoved in the hole and set on fire.  ….It looked like it started to burn pretty good, a rather large black charred step as the evidence….  Acting Fire Marshall Jeff Lucas and Fire Inspector Ray Cicero arrived quickly to begin the investigation.

 

 

Cicero spotted this crack baggie just under the burnt step – and Lucas said it looked like it started to burn but “maybe it started raining” and that put out the fire.

 

They put the rag/etc. in evidence cans and took them for analysis. The Police Officer took a report and they all drove away.

 

……Sheesh, what a morning!

It’s still a slow news period for us – still steamy summer – but here are a few tidbits ……

 

 

…… A rumor floats that perennial Seiler thorn Earl Rynerson’s moving billboard received a traffic ticket as it circled the Mayor’s State of the City address this past Thursday. I haven’t heard back from Rynerson for verification, and the Police are mum.

                      ……… Rynerson

They should at least give Rynerson a ticket for using that old, heavier photo of Seiler if nothing else!

…………………………………………………………………………….

Crime stats for July came out this week, and the news is almost all good. Out of the nearly 100 neighborhoods in the City, only a handful saw any appreciable increases in crime over this time last year – But if you live in any of the neighborhoods below, you now have a better chance of a burglar invading your home or car – (and you should complain!)

Colee Hammock- CityView Townhomes- Chula Vista- Harbordale- Coral Ridge- Flager Heights- LakeRidge- Landings- Nurmi Isles – Victoria Park   …….

 

call Adderley

……….. Thankfully, the  South Middle River neighborhood continues its’ remarkable recovery, with the home burglary rate down another 25%, with only 97 burglaries so far this year    …..   In comparison, Nurmi Isles ( the Las Olas neighborhood where the Rodstroms must no longer live in as Charlotte Rodstrom is running to be a County Commissioner for the Coconut Creek area) has seen an explosion of burglaries from their historical NONE, to SIX, so far this year.

……………………………………………………………………………….

………. A few nut-jobs continue to make a mockery of the City Commission meetings. One in particular signs up to speak on every item, and then rambles off topic until the Mayor eventually stops him. Something needs to be done –

 

 

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………..  And lastly, the upcoming Funky Fun Run, a really fun 5K road race that will take place along 13th Street on Feb. 21, 2015, officially opened it’s enrollment at this last Commission meeting (go to FunkyFunRun.org) ….  You may think it is too early, but with the prizes mounting, you should put on those running shoes ( or even buy some new ones).

…….  As you can see from the unabashedly self- promoting selfie below, I have been running 5Ks to get in shape, and got second place for my age category in one already ( and yes, there were more than two people in the race!).

 

 

 

 

…………    from today’s Sun-Sentinel ……

 

………    Life can be strange  ……

……..    here’s what a pit bull did to my  lips some years back …..

 

                                       

 

…………………………… ……………………….    Karma ?