Author: commtims

     There’s something a little different about this 21 year-old.

      We’re talking about well known, local aspiring rap artist Chris Wilder, a.k.a. –  Sneetch.

     The Fort Lauderdale native, and  Fort Lauderdale High School alumni, has done something that might give you a chuckle. At least it gave me one. Let’s play kind of a ” Where’s Waldo” game in his picture below and see if you can tell what I’m talking about!

                              Here’s Chris !!!

                       

     Yup ! ……. Chris is such a fan of his hometown, that he has a tattoo with the logo of Fort Lauderdale right there on his bicep ( his guns, he calls them).

     The State of Florida is also represented, but he says he mostly loves the City, says there’s nowhere like Fort Lauderdale. He says he hopes the City keeps going forward, but gets back to it’s “splendor of the 1980’s” ( I’m confused too!).

     Chris told me that all rap is not ” drug dealin and gang bangin”, and invites you to hear his stuff at youtube.com/sneetchtv.

     He says you might even like it!

    

     The Time Machine buzzed and chirped, and out from behind the marked up, king size bed sheet, famous Fort Lauderdalians, long dead, emerged !

             

                  Chief Billy and the Brave One were the first to arrive ( fitting eh?)

           

     Frannk Stranahan and Virginia Schuman Young took the stage next, explaining lots of important Fort Lauderdale history. Stranahan was still wearing the sewer grate around his waist that he used to drown himself a hundred years earlier !


        

     The first town Doctor, Thomas Kennedy, was there with his hacksaw, Annie and Alfred Beck opened their lovely 1916 home ( they looked great for being 147 years old!), Ivy Stranahan nagged Frank, and the crowd hooped it up with delight!  

            ….  Fun it was !!!

     I know this sounds crazy!

     But our City turns 100 years old next month, so this coming Sunday afternoon, at the monthly meeting of the Middle River Terrace Neighborhood Association, some very famous, but very dead Fort Lauderdalians will be coming back from the past to share some historical tidbits – and you’re invited!

                                     

                                               
                                                Frank and Ivy Stranahan
     
      Frank Stranahan ( who you’ll think bears an uncanny resemblance to Mayor Jack Seiler) will be there to tell us why he jumped in the river !

                                     
                                             mysteries finally solved !

     And former Mayor Virginia Shuman Young, though she’s been gone for decades, will be there also.
 
     You might think Young looks an awful lot like Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom, but Rodstrom hair isn’t stark white and it’s not up in a bun! We’ll have to ask Young what it feels like to be the only female Mayor of Fort Lauderdale (to present!)

                                   
                                          after the 1926 hurricane
    
      You’ll hear fascinating facts about our City, from the first Doctor who cut off limbs with a hacksaw, to the hair brained scheme to drain the everglades, to the man who got stabbed with fingernail clippers at Joe’s Bar! Other famous historical figures will also join ( and they’ll look a bit like some current people you know also

     And after the historic greats entertain and enlighten us and disappear back to the past, 

                                                  ( picture courtesy of Art Seitz)
    our current elected officials, Jack Seiler and Charlotte Rodstrom, will show up and answer a few questions from the crowd about our fair city.

     And wait…wait…. there’s more !  ..  get there at 4 pm,
 
     ………………….   eat free pizza

                           Place: Middle River Terrace Park
                             1329 N. Dixie Highway

                  this Sunday, Feb.13th – 4 p.m. – 5 p.m.

                               ( e-mail questions to Tim@TimSmith.com)

                          
            

     

      

     Former Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson has been “temporarily” removed from her job as President and Director  of the Riverwalk Trust.

     The move comes as a reaction to Hutchinson’s arrest last week on public corruption charges.


     Hutchinson

     “The removal is temporary”, says Mark Budwig, Chairman of the Board of the Trust, while Hutchinson “attends to personal matters” (we all know what those matters are!) Hutchinson will be paid while on a 30 day administrative leave.

     Budwig added that Cindi has done an “outstanding job” as Director of the Trust, and when asked if he expects her to return, he strongly said he did.

                                
                    Chair Budwig , Cindi,  and George Mihaiu ( publisher of Go Riverwalk magazine)

     The Director position at the Trust has been “temporarily” filled by dynamo and city activist Genia Ellis.

     The move was made official just this morning, and Ellis’s name already replaces Cindi’s on the Trust’s web site. But as of this morning, you still hear Hutchinson’s voice mail message if you hit the President’s extension- 202 -when calling the Trust.

     Ellis is best known as the long term President of the Council of Fort Lauderdale Civic Associations, but has spent the last few years in many other volunteer endeavors including working at the Riverwalk Trust. Most observers I’ve talked to think Ellis is the perfect fit for this Interim appointment. Budwig says bringing in Ellis ” assures a smooth transition” for the Trust.

     Ellis could not be reached for comment for this story! ( but she can’t hide forever!)

     Thirty days falls on March 9th – we’ll check back in then … 
    

….. A lot of my friends are wondering why I haven’t blogged on the Cindi Hutchinson matter……

     …..You say you’re looking for answers….you want me to weigh in….. I get it ….. but truthfully,

    ….I really haven’t known what to say!


     … I’d like to have some brilliant thoughts on why these things happen, why humans can be so weak….. why  …… just why…..but this is all I have ………

     …..  some very unsolicited advice for Cindi…..
 
        I served with Cindi on the Fort Lauderdale City Commission for 3 years, from 2000, to 2003, so I do have standing….. 
 
  …. I was a City Commissioner from 1997 to 2003….. Cindi had beat Commissioner Jack Latona in 2000 for the southern side of the city, and I served with Cindi for those last three years of my service…

     … she had earned her election…..  and  she  was a damn good neighborhood president before that….

…….  when I first met her, back in the 1980’s,  we were both neighborhood presidents, neighborhood activists, ( in the best sense of the word) ……. we served on the Council of Neighborhoods together….we fought for our friends and neighbors …. her heart was pure…. 

                                                            ….. so what happened?

 ……  this much I can tell you, this much I know … when you get elected  to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission, you become a real bigshot, overnight,…… the richest, most important people in the City come out of the woodwork to kiss your behind…….

     … if you aren’t careful, you might start to think that your behind is special, but it’s really not…it’s just a behind…   I’m thinking Cindi missed that……

              ………………………….

       Here’s my completely humble advice for  Cindi Hutchinson

     You made some serious mistakes…..you’re screwed  …. don’t do what the others did, what human nature will tell you to do….deny ! … fight  …. deny !!

                                                         NO  ….. don’t do it !!!

    …..  you know what’s ahead….. just throw yourself on the mercy of  the court …… on the mercy of your fellow citizens…. apologize…  fire the lawyers ….. .do your time….live again…

                      Good luck………… Tim

    By the time George Gretsas left as the Fort Lauderdale City Manager last summer, the only question remaining was ……..
 
       ” how many of his upper management will he take with him?”


                                               
                                          Gretsas’s new City of  Homestead  picture

      Gretsas surrounded himself with loyal underlings from the day he came to Fort Lauderdale.

     Many of those loyalists came from his old job in White Plains, N.Y. ( as Assistant to the Mayor there), and criticism of those high paid assistants he brought with him dogged Gretsas throughout his tenure with the City.

      Word leaked out today that the first of those assistants, Assistant City Manager Ted Lawson, would be leaving at the end of February. The short, one paragraph city memo said Lawson would be leaving to accept a position as Director of Operations and Support at the Cleveland Clinic. The memo said one of Gretsas’s other insiders that still remains, Kathleen Gunn, would be serving “temporarily” in Lawson’s spot.

                                 
                                            Fort Lauderdale City Hall 
                                                      
     City Hall insiders, (who spoke anonymously, of course) say they expect the rest of the “Gretsas Mafia”, (as they were sometimes referred), would most probably go soon… A hunt for a new permanent City Manager is in high gear, and most people expect the person chosen would arrive in the city with a clean slate.


     

Dateline – January 20, 2014

     Mayor John P. “Jack” Seiler and his entire Fort Lauderdale City Commission received the prestigious Real Solutions Award  today at a White House recognition ceremony from President Barack Obama.
                               
                       Obama yucks it up with Jack,Bruce,Charlotte,Bobby, and Romney

     The award was bestowed after the Fort Lauderdale Commission was the first in the Nation to find a solution to the chronically homeless, hard to reach homeless population that had taken over parts of their Downtown.

                            
                       Commission swearing to continue providing “Real Solutions”

     The homeless had taken over Stranhan Park, which sits next to the Woman’s Club,
which is in the heart of the Downtown.

     The ingenius, celebrated program found a way to deal with this difficult group of homeless that had proved very hard to help.

     The Commission determined that these homeless were left out of the already successful Homeless Assistance Center on Sunrise Blvd. due to several reasons. A large percentage had mental health needs, many were current alcoholics and drug abusers, and some were wanted by the law. This left them unqualified for the help doled out at the HAC.

     The Commission developed their  ” City Without Any Homeless Plan” or CWAHP and against all odds, it worked!
 
            This is how it went down –  

     The Commission started by commandering the Police Department’s Mobile Command Unit”, and parked it next to Stranahan Park. They put up a big banner on it that said “We’re  Here To Help”, and filled it with Mental Health Professionals, Substance Abuse Counselors, VA specialists, Apartment Finders and security.

                           
                              Chief Adderley gets word he’d be loaning out his Command Unit

      The professionals, many who donated their services, moved among the population and found solutions to their situations. The Commission had sought out private sector help for the initial funding, and two very respected small developers, R. Opine, and Elaine Pooper, stepped up to the plate and donated $10,000 in seed money for the project to begin. (They were at the White House Thursday with the Commission, and were expected to receive other local recognition next week at the Commission meeting).

     Hundreds of the homeless that had been considered  “nomads”, and unhelpable, found relief and a new life due to the brave Commission’s actions, and the City got back their parks! 

           …. ( this doesn’t have to be a work of fiction, does it? ) ….Tim 
      

     

     Last night’s meeting of the Progresso Village Civic Association in Fort Lauderdale degraded into a profanity screaming free- for- all.

     The volatile melee was all over the much discussed Homeless Feeding Camps the City is trying to place.

     This is Progresso Village Civic –



     And this is Progresso Village Civic –



     It’s a neighborhood that had started it’s comeback when the bottom fell out of the economy a few years back.

       Now, it’s mostly known as the neighborhood by Sunrise Boulevard that the City originally proposed to move the troublesome hardcore homeless into, in order to get them out of the downtown parks.

     That proposal died on the vine last month, but the tension in the Progresso Civic group hasn’t died.

     Here’s the problem …..the five members on the Board of Directors had quietly told the City that they could put the feeding center in Progresso. The problem was, most of them owned rental houses there and lived elsewhere.

     To make matters worse, one Board member, Ron Centamore, actually is the President of the Downtown Residents group that is pushing to have the vagrants moved out of the downtown! Talk about a rotten cauldron !

     Mayor Jack Seiler came to last night’s meeting in hopes of calming the situation.


                 Seiler in front of room trying to calm the situation

     The Mayor was not successful.
 
     The meeting built to a boil. 

     The residents were mad. They felt they had been poorly represented by their non-resident Board and were strongly taking the Board to task, when one Board Member, developer Renee Lepine, who was unfairly shouldering much of the blame for the Board’s action, banged on the table in front of him, lept up, and yelled 

                               Go F_ _ _ Yourselves (Renee filled in the blanks!)

     As he fled the room, he added, you can all go to hell.

     So much for kinder political discourse!

     Riverside Hotel …… tonight –  6 p.m.- Friday, January 7th 2011. They came to honor Gerry Cooper,  officially named –   E. Gerald Cooper. 

     Many of you knew Gerry Cooper. He built an vast empire of residential rental buildings in Fort Lauderdale over the last three decades. Ask him how many rental units he owned,  he would chuckle and say “-  “oh, I don’t know, quite a few”.  ( I’m sure it numbered in the many thousands!)

     What I’m quite sure of – and is quite an accomplishment –  he was the largest individual tax payer in the City of Fort Lauderdale. 
 
    But it  also should be mentioned –  he was one tough son of a  bitch. But one thing I respected about Gerry,  if he told you he was going to do something, you could take it to the bank.



     The room was packed……. most everyone that was anyone was there…. Mayor Seiler read a formal City Proclamation.

     There were current City Commissioners  one County Commissioner ( Lieberman was missing?), former City Commissioners, a former City Manager, big Law Firm principals, all sorts of important City Advisory Board members, the  Police Chief, Fire Chief, the Chief Planning Official, Downtown Development Officials, ….etc. etc. etc.  I half expected Obama  to walk in…..

      If Gerry was watching, he would have been pleased…..

     Stay with me now!

     Not only is Mayor John P. “Jack” Seiler running, he’s running. 

                 
                                              Jack is running


     Yes, you remember that Seiler is trying to get back to his old fighting shape. He’s been on a public jog/walk program throughout the City, exercising in each political district ( more about that in a minute).

     But what you don’t know until now, Seiler is definitely running for re-election as Mayor.

                                                            
                                               and Jack is running

     Rumors have run rampant since Seiler was elected in February 2009. Many people suspected Seiler would be using the Fort Lauderdale Mayorship as a building block to higher office. Many see Seiler staying in elected office, but ultimately moving his way up for a run to become Florida’s Governor. 

     The first rumor that surfaced that Jack would be a short timer in Fort Lauderdale came last fall. Stories began to circulate that Seiler would run as Lieutenant Governor on the Democratic ticket with Alex Sink . I do have it on good authority that he was approached for that job, but turned it down.

     Now, rumors are circulating that Seiler will run for Congress, taking on newly elected Representative Allen West. 

     Seiler debunked all such rumors in a phone call with me earlier. “I’m running for re-election as Mayor of Fort Lauderdale”, Seiler said. He wasn’t sure when he would open his re-election effort, but said it will probably be “very soon”. 

     Seiler said he is enjoying the job of Mayor, feels as though progress is being made on the city’s economy and budget, and says his family is loving having him home for soccer car pooling, football coaching and the like.

    

     No word yet on who the competition will be.

    …….. and, as far as Jack’s other running, he’d like everyone to meet up with him at the Beach Community Center, Monday, January 10th, at 6:00 p.m. for a jog walk along the Galt Ocean Mile   ……  you’ll have his ear   …. and ….

      …… no campaign contributions are necessary !  ..

     …..( call his assistant, Safeea, at 954-828-5003 if you have any questions)…

                                     P.S. Happy New Year !