WMG Volume 6 • Issue 21 November 6, 2019
Wilton Manors Gazette Facebook.com/groups/WMGazette
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City Approves Process for Naming Streets By Sallie James
If you want to rename a street to honor name changes. “I think Justin’s request that we name someone’s memory, or name a building, or a park after someone of note, the city a street after Harvey Milk kind of caught us by surprise. It wasn’t brought up by will soon have a formal process. City commissioners in October the community,” said Commissioner Gary reviewed and tweaked a set of standard Resnick. Resnick said wasn’t opposed to procedures and guidelines for naming, the idea of renaming a street after Milk. co-naming or renaming city amenities, He was opposed to renaming the street because the city had no policy including buildings, at the time. recreational areas, and “If your street name other facilities operated Mayor Justin Flippen changes you may have to by Wilton Manors. The had proposed renotify a lot of people who policy and guidelines send you mail. Some of these will be up for a vote at naming Northeast things have a lot of practical the November 12th City and Northwest implications, especially if you Commission meeting. are running a home-based The move comes 21st Court as business,” Resnick added. about five months after “Harvey Milk Flippen said he proposed the city designated May the resolution last May Court,” but after 22nd as “Harvey Milk because he wanted the city Day” in honor of the much discussion, to honor Milk because of late gay rights icon after commissioners his significant civil rights a proposal to name a residential street after declined to make the contributions. His colleagues agreed on Milk’s societal Milk fell apart because street name change. contributions but not on the the city didn’t have a renaming process. naming policy. “The members of the Mayor Justin Flippen had proposed re-naming Northeast Commission wanted to formalize the and Northwest 21st Court as “Harvey process, hopefully to streamline it and Milk Court,” but after much discussion, not make it more bureaucratic,” Flippen commissioners declined to make the said. “We unanimously agreed we were street name change in May, saying the comfortable with it coming back to us as a city first needed to establish a policy that policy resolution we will adopt.” The new policy: would outline a procedure for making
1. Requires an applicant, including city commissioners and city staff, to submit an application to the city for review. 2. Requires inclusion of written documentation of approval by next of kin of the person to be honored, if possible.
If the application pertains to a leisure services facility, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board can review the application and make a recommendation to the City Commission. If the application is for a public street, property owners who live within 300 feet of the street or who live on the street must be notified by mail of the date of the City Commission meeting when the item will be discussed. Public input will be sought through no
less than two City Commission meetings. Notification will be made through the city’s weekly email blast, the city’s monthly newsletter and social media. The renaming will be confirmed by City resolution. The city shall have final approval and absolute discretion to approve or deny any request for any reason. In April, Commissioner Paul Rolli spoke against the street naming saying, “City property belongs to all the inhabitants of the city. It doesn’t belong to a couple of people. I think the first thing we do is create a process.” “When it first came up, my recommendation was that we develop a policy for naming of all public property. I wanted the process to be transparent,” Rolli said. WMG
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Opinion
Sins, Biden, Plastic WMG and Fascists …. Oh my!
November 6, 2019 • Volume 6 • Issue 20 2520 N. Dixie Highway • Wilton Manors, FL 33305 Phone: 954-530-4970 Fax: 954-530-7943
By Sal Torre Wicked Manors 2019. Photo credit: J.R. Davis.
This year’s theme for Wicked Manors, the Seven Deadly Sins, offered many options to write about this week. Unfortunately, in our world today one does not have to look far to find many who openly flaunt the sins of greed, lust, gluttony, sloth, wrath, envy and pride as if a badge of honor. Our President alone is guilty of all seven and tweets daily of such sinful behavior. However, who am I to judge the actions of others, being just a sinner myself. That, in itself, is viewed as sinful behavior. “Judge not, yet ye be judged.” Here in our Island City we choose to celebrate All Hollow’s Eve each year with a night of merriment, fun, costume wearing, frolicking and perhaps indulging in a few of those seven sins. Afterwards, once we finish with all the debauchery and celebrations, perhaps we should spend some time contemplating the opposite side of these sinful behaviors, known as the contrary virtues. As the world around us becomes more and more polarized each day, perhaps we all need a little practice in humility, charity, kindness, patience, chastity, temperance and diligence. Now don’t get your knickers all twisted with the notions of chastity and temperance. I am not suggesting giving up happy hour or becoming celibate, so don’t delete that online dating app just yet. The virtue of chastity can refer to the purity of one’s conduct and intentions, so one can be chaste by striving for better health through good personal hygiene and practicing safe sex. Temperance is defined as moderation not abstinence, so go ahead and have that cocktail, but perhaps refrain from using too many of those drink tokens after you have had a few. As for the other five virtues; humility, kindness, charity, patience and diligence, they should not be too hard to work into our daily routine. Well, humility might be a problem for some. Yes, you know who you are.
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
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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Getting back to the subject of sinful behavior, I cannot stop thinking about Joe Biden’s past support for credit card companies and banking interests after watching the new Meryl Streep movie, “The Laundromat.” While serving as Senator from Delaware, Biden took very good care of monied interests who used Delaware as a tax haven and other lucrative reasons. Perhaps such a history might be the reason his campaign is failing to arouse strong grass roots support. Democratic Party leadership might want to start listening to the workingclass Americans they sold out with NAFTA, lucrative banking and usury laws, and by courting big business over union membership. Middle-class dreams evaporated over the last twenty years while the wealth of just one percent ballooned to new heights. Younger Americans are demanding answers, but those answers are not going to come from Joe Biden. Another sell-out being perpetuated is the notion of recycling and the continued use of single-use plastics. Some cities here in Broward County are making moves in the right direction by banning the use of plastic straws, but so much more needs to be done. We need to look at all single-use plastics,
I am not suggesting giving up happy hour or becoming celibate, so don’t delete that online dating app just yet.
like cups, take-out containers, grocery bags and individual water bottles if we are going to make any real difference in our environment. With all the kickback over something so miniscule as a plastic straw, the plastic industry has nothing to worry about anytime in the near future. Another item we don’t need to worry about here in our Island City are those Spanish Fascist Blackshirts rumored to be bullying some members of our community at City Commission meetings. Although a unified group of individuals wearing black shirts were present and vocal at our last city commission meeting, I was told by a reliable source that the choice of color had nothing to do with goose-stepping gestapo tactics, but rather for the slimming effects of black clothing. The group was united in their support for the Urban Form Study recently submitted to the city. This study advocates increasing density in appropriate areas of our city, tiering height requirements, changes in parking requirements and many other recommendations to steer our city ahead to the future. Enough rambling already, let me get busy carving my pumpkin so I can have that jacko-lantern gleaming with candlelight by my front door. This way I will not have to worry about any evil spirits that might be roaming the neighborhood when I head out to enjoy the autumn festivities along Wilton Drive. Merriment like Wicked Manors make life 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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The Wilton Manors Library. Photo via the City of Wilton Manors, Facebook.
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November 6, 2019
Wilton’s Third Quarter – What’s New?
Real Estate
By James Oaksun These next two columns will be shorter on the text, but hopefully chock full of information to make you a better consumer. Whether you wish to buy or sell in Our Fair Island City, or simply wish to impress those know-it-all guys from DC or Boston, you will find the knowledge helpful. There are storm clouds around the national real estate market. Just last weekend I read a column titled “The U.S. Housing Crash is Officially Here.” The article picked a couple data points and overgeneralized, in my opinion. However, I have been warning about how the super-strength of our local market will not continue forever. Considering WilMa as a whole, the median sale price of a single family home in the third quarter was $485,500. This is a seven-percent increase compared with 3Q18, and a sixpercent gain compared with the third quarter of 2017. However, it is important to note that the median price did decline four percent versus 2Q19. The graph shows the trend in median price back to 1Q17. I have also included the prices at the 25th and 75th
So, prices have been trending up, but at a reduced rate. The drop from 2Q19 is troublesome, and merits attention.
percentiles – what more geekish-oriented people call the “interquartile range”. So when one of the DC know-it-alls starts pontificating about local real estate, just say “the current interquartile range is 350 to 600 for single family.” Then make them buy you a beverage. So, prices have been trending up, but at a reduced rate. The drop from 2Q19 is troublesome, and merits attention. The attached text chart breaks down the three neighborhoods in the Island City – West being all west of Andrews, Center being Andrews to the train tracks, and East being train tracks to Federal. Here I make a six-month calculation due to fewer data points. As in prior quarters, pricing is at a premium in East Wilton, with the other neighborhoods more “affordable.” I’ll point out three things here. First, the overall city decline compared with 2Q19 was due to decreases in Center and East Wilton; median prices in West Wilton increased. Second, the seven-percent increase versus 3Q18 was driven by Center Wilton, as the other two neighborhoods had just minor gains. Finally, the two-year change was entirely due to East Wilton. West Wilton had no change in prices, while Center Wilton had a small decline. Tune in next time for a sales and inventory check. James Oaksun, Florida’s Real Estate Geek(SM), is BrokerOwner of New Realty Concepts in Fort Lauderdale. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a Graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI).
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this, justin
Density Study Lays Out Future Planning By Justin Flippen
Photo via PxHere.
Document. Remember. Empower. HIV is Still here. Broward County is #1 in new HIV cases #itsnotoveryet
I believe one of the best ways forward to maintain funding for our city’s level and quality of services and alleviate the burden on current property owners is to expand the tax roll through carefully increased density along our commercial and transit oriented corridors with redevelopments that conform to our city’s scale and small town sensibility. The year to come should bring progress in this area by us all working together. In late October, the city’s consultant, Calvin Giordano, provided a presentation to the City Commission on the draft Urban Form and Density study, which offered results of their research and public outreach on the future of our urban form and density in Wilton Manors. The full presentation can be found online. This process has been specifically designed to provide the public with opportunities to weigh in and share their thoughts and support as to what kind of form new and future growth should look like in Wilton Manors and where in the city that growth should
be limited. I have been encouraged, as the public has confirmed the position I have shared and will continue to take on their behalf in that preservation of our single-family neighborhoods is a priority and that the growth we seek to develop should be limited to our aging commercial and transit oriented corridors. The City Commission will accept the full report later this year, and Calvin Giordano will begin to build the regulations that will provide developers with the vision and tools to redevelop our aging commercial infrastructure.
Justin S. Flippen, J.D. “The People’s Mayor” Wilton Manors Mayor WMG
The year to come should bring progress in this area by us all working together.
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November 6, 2019