Fort Lauderdale New Year’s Resolutions

       I was asked about a month ago, by the Fort Lauderdale Magazine, to write a bit about what “New Year’s Resolutions” I thought our City should take on in 2014, and here is what I submitted….. The article comes out in their January 2014 issue  …..

     …. Let me know if you agree or disagree!  …  thanks, … Tim
                                              
      ….. I think it would be a healthy exercise for Fort Lauderdale to
make some New Year’s resolutions. We are an exceptional city for sure,
with real possibilities, but some things need tending to.

    
Our challenges, (or root problem) may be that our city was not very well
planned out from the get-go. We began as a tropical winter destination,
and no one stayed here past March except for the Seminoles and a few other hardy souls!

    
Then came air conditioning, and the frenzy for year round living took
hold fast. We grew from about 14,000 people in the early ’50’s, to
nearly 200,000 today. The boundaries that used to stop at Searstown, are
now many miles away – out in Palm Air! While we can thank our lucky
stars that we are not Des Moines, or Detroit,  we can do more about :

                                  
      . the beach
    
    
We are constantly bickering about the beach, it’s time to stop!

    
…… Are the greedy developers controlling the beholden politicians, or are
the whiny beach residents ungrateful that they live in paradise, and
don’t want any new neighbors? The city needs to make sure the beach is a
fun, lively place for all citizens of Fort Lauderdale, and the tourists.
And it needs to attract lots of new residents, but don’t let the
developers build just anything, make the new hi-rises contribute to a
better beach!


     . crime

  ……. Some of our neighborhoods have no crime and some are inundated!

    ….We need our own Apollo Project, for
safer neighborhoods thru-out!  Get those troubled areas up to snuff.
Control the traffic going in and out of them, use cameras, citizen
patrols,
alarms, repeat offender programs, community policing, whatever it takes, but try something new, the status quo is intolerable.

     . downtown –

     …… It looked like we were almost getting there, but the downtown has slid backwards somewhat since the economy soured. The Riverfront is
a shame. The elected leaders have to put their heads down and get that
Riverfront back up and running! Use as many carrots and sticks with the
property owners that you can muster!

                                       

    … 
And while they’re at it, the land by City Hall, that we all own, has sat
there looking worse and worse, year after year.. Knock the junk down,
see what we can put in its’ place! More people downtown will bring more
restaurants, entertainment, culture, and that important  – Je ne sais
quoi!

     . history

   ……  Some cities save all of their old buildings for posterity. That’s not
what we need here, but there are some important old structures in our
city that are worth saving.

     The Bryant Homes and the
Shippey House are making progress, but let’s make this year the year
where the leaders identify the rest of the important historical
structures, and put a plan in place to save those important parts of our
past. The days of waiting until a developer starts a demo plan to start
screeching needs to end!

     . Sistrunk Blvd.

    ……. Now that we’ve set aside the few naysayers that want to hide our
historically black part of town, let’s bring it totally out of the
shadows. The area has lots of possibilities to make it a more functional
part of Fort Lauderdale!  I’m ready to buy some tickets to BB King at
the new House of Blues on Sistrunk, and drink some wine that goes with that traditional soul food afterwards.

                             

                                                 What do you say?

4 Replies to “Fort Lauderdale New Year’s Resolutions”

  1. I agree on all points and the big one for me was COMMUNITY POLICING the elected official should form a task board with the funds and resources to make it happen we need to do something out of the box because the old ways in most part are to slow like years slow and most of the time do not work

  2. Wake up, wake up, you’re dreaming again. I took a drive down 13th Street today since you’re always talking about it. The lanes are too narrow, heavy cement light and power poles are right up at the curb where one slip of the wheel and the car would be a wreck. And again, its parking, parking, parking. There’s no parking to do anything other than to be a dangerous, narrow thru street alternative to Sunrise boulevard during times of heavy traffic. As for the rest of the city, again it’s parking, parking, parking. I WILL NOT go downtown and feed those parking meters period. This city is not pro-business, it’s pro-parking meter revenues.

  3. All good points. Another concern . . . as our beach develops, a central consideration has got to be easy access to the beach for average people without high parking costs. Can the average person who lives in Croissant Park or Lake Ridge get easily to the beach and plan on spending the day on the beach? No, parking is a mess and expensive. The beach has become a place for tourists and the wealthy. This is not the Ft. Lauderdale I knew growing up in 50s and 60s.

  4. Boy what a year we just went through(huh). I was so exhausted last night when I heard “start spreading the news” immediately I knew it was Frank Sinatra singing” New York, New York” From that moment I knew you made it Robert. As far as this new year is upon us those that are having trouble if it is proplems w/ your finaces, proplems w/ your family, sickness etc. Hang in there I feel your pain and never give up. WE are all in this thing called together. Harmony, peace, charity is the answer.. (Help each other).

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