WMG Volume 6 • Issue 11 June 5, 2019
Wilton Manors Gazette Facebook.com/groups/WMGazette
community
Challenge Fitness 'Challenged' Again Activist fails to persuade Commission
By Sallie James A noisy gym that’s been operating complained to the city about lighting for more than a year without a business issues, drainage problems and noise from tax receipt — despite complaints from the Pride Center property for the past neighbors — got another pass last month year. The plat originally designated the from the city. City commissioners voted 3-2 on May current land use as industrial. The 28 to approve a revision to a previously changes designate 60,000 square feet of OK’d plat (map for the site) amendment, community (30,000 square feet of existing paving the way for Challenge Fitness to and 30,000 square feet of proposed); 4,000 square feet of office; 6,000 square legally obtain a business tax receipt. The property at 2040 N. Dixie Highway feet of commercial; and 48 mid-rise is the future home of a nearly $15 million, units and accessory residential uses. 48-unit LGBT-friendly affordable housing The city approved the plat amendment last year but had to revisit project for seniors to it last month due to minor be built by Carrfour language changes requested Supportive Housing Inc. by the county. The gym is located on The plat amendment property owned by the now makes it legal for the Pride Center. noisy business to continue “The current retail operation. occupant, a violation Commissioners Paul Rolli of the current plat and Gary Resnick voted “no.” restriction, and “I am very concerned we unlicensed, has been are going to be expanding a nuisance since its the ability for the uses of inception. The Pride this property that are going Center has refused - Paul Rolli to be inconsistent with to intervene in this Commissioner the residential units next nuisance,” neighbor door and create more of a Matt Dreger, president of the nearby Townhomes of Riverside nuisance to them,” said Resnick, who Homeowners Association, told the also suggested delaying the vote. “I have Commission. “After 13 months and absolutely no evidence that they are nearly $7,000 costs to the city, the only willing to comply with our code so I’m not compromise was how much noise can we in favor of supporting this today.” Commissioner Julie Carson stand.” Dreger implored commissioners to sympathized with Dreger but voted for delay their vote without success. He has the plat revision anyway.
“The real issue is we don’t have a landlord or property owner that commands the tenants.”
Photo via Challenge Fitness, Facebook.
“Part of my difficulty is balancing what business tax receipt. “The real issue is we don’t have a landlord or our ordinances say and what we are required to do and also making sure we preserve the property owner that commands the tenants. integrity of the neighborhood,” Carson said. The Pride Center is a community center She assured Dreger his concerns did not “fall and their business is to provide community services,” Rolli said. “It seems to be they are on deaf ears.” Dreger is also upset because the project more in the real estate business than providing proposed by Carrfour routs stormwater community services. They are leasing out across the Homeowners Association’s land. x their land to build affordable housing, they The easement agreement does not allow flow lease a lot of their office space. So are we in the from any new drainage infrastructure on the real estate business or in community services? adjacent property through the Association’s My concern is about the future. Is that going to property and they are unwilling to revise the be an impact on the neighborhood?” Dreger expressed similar sentiments. agreement so far out of fear additional water “This property is supposed to be the gay and flow will cause flooding issues. The Pride Center has no plans to upgrade its lesbian community center, not a multi-rental money grab for the Pride Center,” Dreger stormwater system, Dreger said. Rolli said the issue is much bigger than noted. “The Pride Center has not conducted concern over a business operating without a business with a good neighbor policy.” WMG
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Opinion
The People’s Advocate By Sal Torre Photo: preview of pridecenterflorida.org.
This past week left me pondering what role our elected officials and community non-profits should be fulfilling here in our Island City. This quandary is complicated by the circumstance of having a mayor who vociferously proclaims himself as the “People’s Mayor” and a non-profit that touts itself as the LGBT community center here in Wilton Manors. If one looks at the seven revolving pictures on the homepage of the Pride Center’s website, none really show an engaged community center. The first picture is an advertisement for office space with Robert Boo’s name listed as if he were a commercial real estate agent working on commission instead of the director of a community center. The next photo is that of a real estate development, followed by a corporate advertisement for Amazon, then a list of businesses that have paid for the right to solicit LGBT customers from our community, and then a picture of the Pride Center’s newsletter. The cover of the newsletter offers no comfort, with pictures of two well-dressed gentlemen who paid far more than most people in our community could afford for the privilege of attending an exclusive soiree co-hosted by the Pride Center. In comparison, if one looks at the website of Palm Beach County’s LGBT Community Center, “The Compass,” one is welcomed by a collage of photos of a vibrant community working and celebrating together. Looking past this welcoming introduction, one is quickly informed of the great work being done in the community and shown a running total of counseling hours provided, of free and safe space given to the youth of the community, of lives saved, of HIV testing, and much more. The Pride Center looks like a commercial website selling office space, advertising local business, and providing a directory of those paying for access to our community. Compass’ website portrays a community coming together offering services, a safe space, and resources for those in the LGBT community. A very telling comparison. Now on to our elected officials. This past week Mayor Justin Flippen acted
WMG June 5, 2019 • Volume 6 • Issue 11 2520 N. Dixie Highway • Wilton Manors, FL 33305 Phone: 954-530-4970 Fax: 954-530-7943
Publisher • Norm Kent norm.kent@sfgn.com Chief Executive Officer • Pier Angelo Guidugli piero@sfgn.com Associate publisher / Executive Editor • Jason Parsley jason.parsley@sfgn.com Copyeditor • Kerri Covington
Editorial
Art Director • Brendon Lies artwork@sfgn.com News Editor • Sallie James
Correspondents
Sal Torre • James Oaksun
Staff Photographers
J.R. Davis • Carina Mask • Steven Shires
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more like the Pride Center’s mayor than the "People's Mayor." When one proclaims the title of "People's Mayor," one must accept being held to a much higher standard by residents who seek the advocacy of such a representative. Being a proclaimed Flippenite, my words are not adversarial in nature, but of a colleague delivering an honest observation. Commissioners Gary Resnick and Paul Rolli were ready to hold the Pride Center’s feet to the fire over the continuing failure of the Pride Center’s management to appropriately deal with the surrounding community’s concerns. However, Mayor Flippen and Commissioner Julie Carson were verbally tripping over each other in their rush to defend the interest of the Pride Center. The people’s advocate should be more attentive to the concerns of the surrounding community, a community whose residents have had their lives disrupted for years due to issues stemming from the operations of the Pride Center. To make matters worse, the rest of us taxpaying, law-abiding citizens have been totally marginalized by the Pride Center, who so boldly allows and continues to collect rent from an illegal commercial business operating on their campus, while at the same time the Pride Center comes before our elected officials looking for our Affordable Housing funds and other benefits with all the chutzpah of someone deserving of royal treatment. Our city staff knows how to get someone to pay their bills. Those who have neglected to pay past due utility bills have their water turned off. When this happens, one can watch
the rush of people descend upon City Hall ready to pay their delinquent bills and get their water turned back on. Commissioner Resnick and Rolli were ready to use this same tactic on the Pride Center at our last commission meeting: place a hold on all the requests by the Pride Center needed for their real estate development plans and see how quickly the issue of the illegal business and the complaints of neighbors would be dealt with. Unfortunately, our City Commission by a 3 to 2 vote decided to continue giving candy to a bully instead of drawing a line in the sand and taking the side of the residents of our Island City. These actions leave me wondering the meaning behind community advocacy and serving the people of the community. The Board of Directors of the Pride Center might want to learn from our community partner to the north on how a community-based organization should operate. We have been insulted and treated badly by the Pride Center. They have allowed an illegal business to operate on their campus. They have turned a blind eye to the concerns of their neighbors for years over parking issues, noise issues, code violations and much more. If not now, then when do we ask our leaders to hold this community partner responsible for their actions? Only when our elected officials and community partners truly advocate for residents’ concerns will life be just better here. WMG
Sales Manager • Justin Wyse justin.wyse@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Edwin Neimann edwin.neimann@sfgn.com Advertising Sales Associate • Clark Rogers clark.rogers@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. MEMBER
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Mark your calendars! The 20th Annual Stonewall Pride Wilton Manors Parade and Festival takes place on June 15, 2019. Photo via The City of Wilton Manors, Facebook.
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June 5, 2019
Rules of Thumb?
Real Estate
By James Oaksun
Every now and again, I perform a refresh on a project I commenced shortly after moving to South Florida and becoming a realtor. Oftentimes I hear realtors discuss relative property values in terms of the statistic “price per square foot.” Perhaps you have heard such discussions yourself – or even participated in them. My questions in the process are twofold. First, since literally everybody is using this measure, it must be a pretty good predictor of value… Isn’t it? And second, if it’s really not that great a predictor, is it possible to construct something better? As always, we start with the data. I looked at all single family home sales in Wilton Manors
Oftentimes I hear Realtors discuss relative property values in terms of the statistic “price per square foot.”
in the 12 months ending April 30, 2019. Then I analyzed the relationship between sale price and square footage. The result is the chart included here. The dots are all the actual values. You can see there is somewhat of an upward trend with the dots, which is what you would expect. A larger home would generally cost more to buy. I then (well my software truth be told) put in a line to show the best fit among all the dots. That’s the thick red line here. You should notice something. Yes, the line slopes up and to the right, just like the dots. However, there is a pretty wide variation in the distances of some of the dots from that bestfit line. And what that means is very simple – price per square foot is not a “one size fits all” measure. It is only a ballpark number and should always be used and presented as such. Of course, this doesn’t happen, and I probably won’t change things in everyday practice with just one SFGN column. But I can still try. (I am correct, after all.) That red line has an R-squared (a statistical measure of goodness of fit) of 54 percent. (100 percent would be perfect.) To wrap up this week’s episode: Well, if you
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were going to use just one measure to make an assessment of value, price per foot would be the best one to use. But it’s really not all that great. So the follow-up question is: Can we come up with something even better – a calculation that will move that R-squared thingie closer to 100 percent? And what factors are most important?
June 5, 2019
Tune in next time for the answer. WMG James Oaksun, Florida’s Real Estate Geek(SM), is Broker-Owner of New Realty Concepts in Oakland Park. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI).
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Letter to the editor
community
Boomerangs Got Shafted by Wilton Manors Photo via Boomerangs, Facebook.
BAD HAIR DAY: A Fort Lauderdale police officer and a local resident collided on NE 26th St. in Wilton Manors in front of the Wilton Station apartment complex June 3 at 3 p.m. Everybody seemed to be OK, and the boys in blue and the trucks in red responded in force. Who got the ticket? Photo credit: Norm Kent.
The Criminal Defense law CenTer of souTh floriDa
What an infuriating article. Let’s look at it objectively. Boomerangs has given to our community in huge dollar amounts and supported our pets for many years. They’ve helped our pet family personally in ways that cannot be measured. What is their reward? Rent being raised 50% and the high-hatted Mr. LoGrande who poo-poohs their contributions. “Charity shops” provide much needed funds to underfunded groups in our community. They need to be supported and lifted up to help their work. Do you think Wilton Drive will be like
Las Olas Blvd. someday? I don’t think so. Meanwhile Wilton Manors redevelopment project was planned as being adequate for traffic from one engineer’s faulty conclusions? It will look pretty but the empty storefronts still predominate. Boomerangs site will likely be one of those for some time, unnecessarily. Glad that the Cat Cafe has its’ next life at least. Thanks to all at Boomerangs for their incredible service.
Let your voice be heard!
William Burnworth
This letter remains unedited.
Submit your own letter to Jason.Parsley@sfgn.com
Pot laW Cannabis DeFense CenteR
954.763.1900 Russell CoRmiCan Attorney at Law 12 se 7th st Fort lauderdale, Fl 33301
noRman elliott Kent
Attorney at Law 2520 n. Dixie Hwy Wilton manors, Fl 33305
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June 5, 2019