Gazette Wilton Manors
Volume 3 • Issue 6 March 16, 2016
Twice-Monthly Neighborhood Outlook
Community
Business
Gay Hookup Ads Removed After Resident Complaint
Ed Lugo Resort Named #20 Top Small Hotel by Trip Advisor
By Michael d’Oliveira
Days after receiving a complaint that the city should not be associated with ads for a gay hookup app, the ads were removed. At the March 8 commission meeting, resident Michael Rajner, a gay man, said he thought it was inappropriate for the city to allow Squirt.org ads on the solar-powered advertising boxes. The Squirt.org ads, which were featured on at least four boxes, read “Real Guys Real Hookups,” feature a man in a tank top, and were located along Dixie Highway and Wilton Drive near the Five Points intersection. “Gay men are a bit more sexually charged, yes. But I know we also have schools,” Rajner told commissioners. In a later interview, Rajner said he’s got nothing against anyone who uses hook up apps but that the city should have higher standards. “As much as the city is a destination for the gay community and should be welcoming, it’s ads like that one that continue to put a divide between some of our residents and the gay community.” The solar-powered boxes, which accept trash and recycling, are owned by Go Green Eco Bins and 7 Sun Media. The city receives 15 percent of the ad revenue from the boxes because they are located on city property or in city rights of way. In total, there are 11 boxes spread out along Wilton Drive and other parts of the city. They feature ads for a restaurant, home improvement business, bar, church, real
By Michael d’Oliveira
estate agent and others. On March 8, Henderson said the city has the right to refuse ads and that her office would initiate a review. After the ads were removed on March 10 by 7 Sun Media, according to City Manager Leigh Ann Henderson, Rajner said the city was standing behind, “Life’s Just Better Here,” its new tagline. “It’s a city for all the people.” Before the ads were removed, Andrew Nolan, marketing and communications manager for Pink Triangle Press, which oversees the Squirt.org ad, defended the ads in an email. “We obviously don't believe the ads are inappropriate and we always work with the owners of the advertising boards to ensure that any advertising is placed in/around the gay communities and are sensitive to any restrictions they might place on our ads. We currently have advertising in Australia, UK, Netherlands, Canada and the US and although we have had some complaints to the advertising standards board in those countries – each time the complaints have been dismissed and we have been allowed to continue advertising.” After the ads were taken down, an email was sent to Nolan, asking for comment on their removal, but no response was given before press time. A call to 7 Sun Media was also not returned. WMG
Ask Ed Lugo what makes his resort, Ed Lugo Resort, so popular and one answer he will give is “attention to detail.” And those details have gotten him noticed again by Trip Advisor. Ed Lugo Resort has been named the number 20 Top Small Hotel in the United States. A total of 25 were selected and Ed Lugo Resorts is only one of three in Florida to be named. But it’s not Lugo’s first award by Trip Advisor. He’s gotten multiple awards from the online rating service. Out of 228 reviews on Trip Advisor, 214 were “Excellent,” the highest rating, 11 were “Very Good,” 2 were “Average” and only 1 was “Terrible.” “What a great place and staff! I came with no reservation. They helped me out, gave me the nicest house you can imagine! The friendly staff made you feel like family and included you in everything you wanted to. Super friendly staff, as service minded as you can imagine and more. Felt like home and was so taken care of!” wrote Sascha A on Trip Advisor. “To get Wilton Manors recognized around the nation, and on a website that big, is amazing,” Lugo said. “It makes me very proud that a small place like ours is recognized around the United States and around the world.” Lugo estimates that he has about 1,500 guests a year. Once they’re here, they frequent the city’s bars, restaurants and other businesses. “One of the reasons I started this business was to help other businesses.”
The resort was opened in 2007 and consists of converted single family homes. With no hotel, Ed Lugo Resort, located on Northeast 8 Avenue, just a few feet from Wilton Drive, is one example of how tourists are able to stay in the Island City. Lugo, in part because he’s located in an area the city set aside for paid lodging, is considered one of the good ones by city officials. Some vacation rentals, located in residential neighborhoods outside the designated lodging, have caused a lot of problems and disturbances for residents. That caused the commission to recently pass regulations on vacation rentals. “The city, has always been very supportive,” Lugo said. Commissioner Justin Flippen, who also works as the tourism project manager for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Lugo’s award-winning property, and its proximity to the Entertainment District, brings visitors to the city and has a positive impact on businesses here. He added that it also impacts Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park and other parts of the regional economy. “From a tourism perspective, I think it’s great. From a city perspective, small bed and breakfasts, not vacation rentals, help to preserve that small town charm of Wilton Manors. We pride ourselves as a small bedroom community. Ed Lugo is really a success story in that regard.” WMG
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Opinion
Spring Forward Gazette Wilton Manors
March 16, 2016 • Volume 3 • Issue 6
By Sal Torre
2520 N. Dixie Highway • Wilton Manors, FL 33305 Phone: 954-530-4970 Fax: 954-530-7943
As I sit to write my article, already past deadline, I am distracted by having to set my clocks ahead for Daylight Savings Time and the seemingly early approach of Spring. Easter is early this year, only two weeks away, along with the rest of the springtime holidays and festivities, such as Purim, Nowruz, and others throughout the world that celebrate the coming of the Spring Equinox. As I ponder higher electric bills as my AC starts to run full-time, leaving behind those few cooler months in South Florida we call winter, I cannot get a song out of my mind, “Springtime For Hitler” from a Mel Brooks movie, The Producers, which was released in 1968. Not sure why this ditty is playing over and over in my mind, I start to review recent events in the news to see where my mind is leading me. Recent clashes in Chicago at a Donald Trump rally, bullies physically and verbally attacking protestors and others who did not display the same level of loyalty and faith, and blaming the victims reminds me of how the Brownshirts operated during the initial rise of Nazism and Hitler in an educated, accepting society such as Berlin and throughout Germany during the 1920s. Unfortunately, I will anger some readers by comparing Donald Trump and his followers to Nazi youth and Hitler, but that is the reality I see. It frightens me, and it should frighten all of you. So, you think I’m overreacting or that you have nothing to worry about here in the relative safety of Wilton Manors. After all, Donald and his boot stompers are only demonizing Mexicans, Muslims, and other freeloading criminals, rapists, and terrorists. So, you probably think it’s OK not to speak out and protest such behavior. Have you stopped to consider who might be next? There are a lot of angry radical Christians out there who think those in the LGBT community should burn in hell, or right here on earth if they had their way. People remained quiet in Germany while the boot stompers began vandalizing Jewish-owned businesses and places of worship, and then turned on others in the community like homosexuals, who were enjoying a certain level of openness and freedoms in major cities such as
Community
Publisher • Norm Kent norm.kent@sfgn.com Chief Executive Officer • Pier Angelo Guidugli Associate publisher / Executive Editor • Jason Parsley jason.parsley@sfgn.com
Berlin. They continued to march on in a very methodical way, crushing dissent one group at a time until, like the poem states, “When they came for me, there was nobody left to speak up.” Americans deserve better than this! The Republican Party needs to do some very serious soul searching. Not one candidate left in the field is worthy to be President of the United States, except perhaps John Kasich. Are Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio really the best the Republican Party has to offer? The waste of so many millions of dollars by billionaires forcing the Republican Party to put their puppets, Cruz and Rubio, before the American electorate has helped fuel the march to make Trump the frontrunner. Now the so called “establishment” has awakened to the reality they created, a nightmare the rest of us have been witnessing for years. They are frightened and no longer able to control the horrors they have unleashed—horrors such as hatred, religious zealotry, discrimination, demonization of fellow human beings, and division. So the tune goes: America was having trouble, what a sad, sad story, needed a new leader to restore, its former glory, where oh where was he? Where could that man be? We looked around and then we found, The man for you and me, … and now it’s…Springtime for Trump and America…. Watch out world, we’re going on tour… Perhaps Trump is just a smoke screen, and when the stage clears we will see the real wolf emerge, Ted Cruz, backed by those in Goldman Sachs and the ‘Kill the Gays’ Pastor, Kevin Swanson. Enough already, let’s try and get back to reality, back to an educated advanced society in the year 2016, because our history and our claim to greatness demands that we make our life and the life of all our neighbors just a little better here… WMG
City Gets $356,000 in Park Money from County By Michael d’Oliveira The recently-redeveloped Mickel Park will get more amenities because of a $356,752 grant approved by the Broward County Commission on March 8. “This was a really great accomplishment for our city,” said Mayor Gary Resnick. He thanked city staff members for their work in getting the grant. The grant, part of the remaining money from the $400 million Safe Parks and Land Preservation Bond referendum approved by county voters in 2000, will be used to buy new energy efficient
Editorial
Art Director • Brendon Lies artwork@sfgn.com Graphic Designer • Charles Pratt Editorial Assistant • Jillian Melero JillianMelero@gmail.com News Editor • Michael d’Oliveira
Correspondents
Natalya Jones • John McDonald • James Oaksun
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Sales Manager • Justin Wyse justin.wyse@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Edwin Neimann edwin.neimann@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Cindy Curtis cindy.curtis@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Jim Albright jim.albright@sfgn.com Accounting Services by CG Bookkeeping South Florida Gay News is published weekly. The opinions expressed in columns, stories, and letters to the editor do not represent the opinions of SFGN, or the Publisher. You should not presume the sexual orientation of individuals based on their names or pictorial representations. Furthermore the word “gay” in SFGN should be interpreted to be inclusive of the entire LGBT community. All of the material/columns that appears in print and online, including articles used in conjunction with the AP, is protected under federal copyright and intellectual property laws, and is jealously guarded by the newspaper. Nothing published may be reprinted in whole or part without getting written consent from the Publisher, at his law office, at Norm@NormKent.com. SFGN, as a private corporation, reserves the right to enforce its own standards regarding the suitability of advertising copy, illustrations and photographs.
Associated Press lights, a splash water playground and an electric car charging station. “This is just going to be awesome for our city,” Commissioner Julie Carson said. Patrick Caan, Leisure Services Department director, said he estimates the new lights will have a 15 to 20-year lifespan and could possibly save about $8,000 a year on energy costs. The money saved from lighting, which would have been taken out of the operating budget, can be used for other purposes. “I’m so thrilled about this,” Caan said.
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WMG
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Who's Doing What In WilMa (Real Estate)
Real Estate Geek
By James Oaksun …cue exciting martial-like music… Hello again, James Oaksun here with the WilMa Halftime Report. Last year about this time, I filled you in on where the real estate market in the Island City stood at the halfway point of the season. Let's go to the Big Board to see the latest results, looking at single family home sales only. I've said many times that all real estate is hyper local, and the results so far illustrate that clearly. You can't always get meaningful information from county results, from city results, or even in many cases at the zip code level. Let's start with overall Wilton Manors stats for the first half of this season, compared with last season. Homes sold: 55 Percent change from last season: 0 Median price: $417,500 Percent change from last season: +19 Yes the volume is flat, so the more unit-driven market participants (closing agents, movers, contractors maybe) may have noticed a pause. But the higher prices are a good sign. Right? Maybe not. When you look at neighborhood level
results some interesting dynamics appear. Let's start with the good news, east of the train tracks: Homes sold: 27 Percent change from last season: 69 Median price: $465,000 Percent change from last season: +24 This season the east is where's it at, so far. That can change in the second half of course. But things definitely start cooling off as we head west. Here's the status in the center of the city: Homes sold: 17 Percent change from last season: -26% Median price: $331,000 Percent change from last season: -15% The most interesting news comes out of the western neighborhood: Homes sold: 11 Percent change from last season: -31% Median price: $385,000 Percent change from last season: +17%
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Sales volume in the center and west has cratered. While prices seem to have nosedived in Center WilMa also, the contrary seems true in the west. Here's where you need to peel back the onion a bit, as they say. Most of the homes selling in the west so far this season are updated midcenturies, often with pools. When looking at neighborhood level information you need to consider the types and conditions of the properties being sold, so that appropriate comparisons can be made. Preliminary research indicates that on a comparableproperty basis, prices have increased in the east, but have gone flat in the center of town in the last year, and have actually declined in the west over the last six months. We'll be here after the final whistle for our postgame report. Now back to the action. WMG James Oaksun, Broward's Real Estate GeekSM, is a Realtor with the Wilton Manors office of RE/MAX Preferred. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a graduate of the Realtors Institute (GRI).
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Community
Tip-a-Cop to Raise Money for Special Olympics
By Michael d’Oliveira Wilton Manors police officers will soon trade in their badges for serving trays. On Friday, March 18, police officers will volunteer as celebrity waiters during Tip-a-Cop. Money raised during Tip-a-Cop, held at Shawn & Nick’s Courtyard Café, 2211 Wilton Drive, from 6 to 9 p.m., will go to Special Olympics Florida. “It’s a great way to spend a Friday night. Take care of [the police officers]. They take great care of you,” Chief Paul O'Connel said. Money donated to Special Olympics Florida is used to pay coaches, buy equipment and cover the expenses for athletes to travel and compete. The sporting competitions that Special Olympics athletes compete in include, golf, bowling, powerlifting,
volleyball, surfing, softball, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, cycling, bocce and gymnastics. “Our larger vision: to use sports to inspire people throughout the world – to create a community where everyone has the lifelong opportunity to develop physically, emotionally, and socially through sports, wellness and leadership. We celebrate now and always that our athletes are at the center of our work and the heart of our movement; we will only continue on this trajectory with the support of our families, volunteers, partners and sponsors,” said Sherry Wheelock, President/CEO of Special Olympics Florida. For more information, call 954-856-5898. WMG
Briefs
News Briefs From Around Wilton Manors By Michael d’Oliveira
Kiwanis Chili Cook Off Get your chili spoons ready for the Kiwanis Club of Wilton Manors’ Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, April 2 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Kiwanis Clubhouse, 2749 NE 14 Ave., Wilton Manors. Tickets are $10 per person before the event and $15 at the door. Chili cooks can enter up to three chilies in the cook-off contest for a fee of $20. To sign up or for more information,
email Chili@wiltonmanorskiwanis. org or call 954-561-9785 extension 702. Money raised from the event will be used to fund Kiwanis programs, including the backpack program which provides weekend meals to needy children. For more information about the Kiwanis Club of Wilton Manors, visit WiltonManorsKiwanis.org. WMG
Kids In Distress Duck Fest A $5 investment could earn a $10,000 return. That will be the case for one lucky person who buys one of the $5 ducks in the annual Kids In Distress Duck Fest Derby. Every duck purchased, along with thousands more, is dumped into the New River on Saturday, April 19 at 2 p.m. The first duck to cross the finish line will win its purchaser $10,000. Other prizes will also be given out.
CERT volunteers wanted Training for CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, will be held on May 14 and 21 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Fire-Rescue Station 53, 2200 Executive Airport Way, Fort Lauderdale. CERT members are trained to assist emergency response personnel during disasters. Preregistration is required. To register, call 954-828-6700. WMG
Money generated from the fundraiser will benefit Kids In Distress, an organization that provides services for children in the foster care system. The event, which runs from 12 to 3 p.m. at Esplanade Park, 400 SW 2 St., Fort Lauderdale, will also include bounce houses, petting zoo, face painting, food trucks and more. To purchase a duck, visit Support.KidINC.org. WMG
Mayors’ Chess Challenge
Shred documents for free After tax day, shred sensitive documents for free on Saturday, April 16 from 9 to 11 a.m. at Hagen Park, 2020 Wilton Drive. A hard drive destruction service will also be offered. The event is free for Wilton Manors residents. Proof of residency is required.
Think you can beat Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick at a game of chess? Now’s the time to try. The Mayors’ Chess Challenge, a monthly chess event rotated through various Broward municipalities, will be held on Saturday, March 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Hagen Park, 2020 Wilton Drive, in Wilton Manors. The free event is open to all ages and skill levels. Resnick joked that he isn’t too hard to beat. “I’m not proud.”WMG
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