Life's a Coast

More expensive mis-management waste. The egregiously incompetent dimwitted nincompoops that mismanage the Hollywood "public works" department pull off the most incredibly stupid "works" that we have ever had the misfortune to witness. The above video is not the worst example, but it depicts a very expensive, incredibly moronic failure. They took several months of an overstaffed, lackadaisical work crew to plant hundreds of new sickly palm trees, upwards of a thousand, along several miles of beach, as you can see in the video in a very dense pattern. What may not be very obvious is that for some insane reason, almost all of the green foliage of the new palm trees had been trimmed down to virtually nothing. Consequently, lacking fronds to soak up sunshine, about eighty to ninety percent of the new trees have already died, and even some of them had brown leaves and were obviously already goners before even being planted. The result is that the beach now has what looks like a bunch of barren "telephone poles" strewn upon several miles of beach. The catch is that this particular species of ugly palm tree has only a little round patch of palm fronds at the top, does not provide any shade like the coconut palm, and of course does not yield any coconuts (the coconuts from coconut palms are harvested by locals because the juice and pulp of the coconut is beneficial to health), and rather rains down hoards of inedible red berries that rot in the sun and draw flies, with the branches drying up and turning brown -- an ugly useless type of palm. Only in Holly-DUH-wouldn't, home of the stupidest, laziest, most indolent, most obnoxious, most arrogant, freeloading public works (or, doesn't work) department ever witnessed. Lastly, whatever the enormity of the cost to procure and plant the dead palm trees, realize that they are now faced with the added expense of removing the ugly stumps. More wasted money down the so-called public works drain, money that could have instead been used to promote tourism, and to have financed tourism-promoting websites, like the one we once maintained. How certifiably stupid this entire fiasco was, is almost beyond comprehension... Update: the video below was taken a few months later, showing a "crack" dead tree removal crew pulling up and disposing of the dead trees (note that three of the four palms planted had died and were taken out here in this one spot -- and the fourth one that they left did not look terribly healthy...).

The un-ending morass of mis-management. In 2002 Broward County mandated that all coastal cities must pass laws requiring "turtle-friendly" lighting (night-time glare from beachfront lighting attracts newly hatched sea turtle babies to go the wrong way...) and all cities complied except for Hollywood. So here it is 2010, after eight years of resisting the county mandate, and Hollywood finally acquiesced because Florida's Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers refused to grant permits for Hollywood's beach restoration project unless the city puts an ordinance in place to make lighting along the five mile beach sea turtle friendly. In 2007, five years after the county mandate to dim the lights, the city of Hollywood installed new a new picket fe nce of bright street lights directly on their beachfront broadwalk in defiance of the mandate. So, now it is back to the drawing board, another boulder added to the mountain of wasted project$ that has to be done over because of local mis-management lacking foresight (or just being plain ignorant, stupid maybe"). Link to article about the costly street light fiasco (note the comment that the "cost could reach $1 million" to undo their blunder; no doubt one or some or all of the city officials will get a financial kickback out the taxpayer money to finally do the right thing).

Hollywood's plan to dump "waste water effluent" into their drinking water source. As a followup to the aforementioned saltwater intrusion scenario, we thought we should pass along the certifiably boneheaded plan that the local gourdheads have dreamed up. The city of Hollywood has a plan to implement a "salinity barrier project". This would inject "treated" (with toxic chemicals which leave heavy residues) "wastewater effluent" (a.k.a. "sewage") into their portion of the Biscayne Aquifer that has been intruded with salt water (reportedly, so far about one mile inland from the ocean), supposedly creating a temporary barrier that will hold off saltwater intrusion for a while, they hope. But, since Hollywood draws it drinking water from this same aquifer, we question the intentional dumping of toxically treated "wastewater effluent" sewage into what is "tap water" for the average resident/tourist.

Don't Drink the Water? Most informed people are aware that public water supplies around the nation are contaminated with prescription drugs. Consider that America is the heaviest user of prescription drugs on the planet, something like three times more than the second place victim. Also, consider that south Florida is heavily populated with the elderly, most of which (if not all) are known to ingest multiple prescription drugs (as many as a dozen), many of which are mood altering psychotic drugs, so the level of these drugs in the water supply is much higher than it is nationally. Given this, and the previously mentioned unpleasant nature of SoFla residents, we have to conclude that ingestion of SoFla tap water has something to do with the difficult, even deranged people that reside, and visit here...

Corruption. We will not even attempt to summarize the overwhelming corruption in the area, which extends ad nauseum from "legal" gambling and all that it attracts, city administrations, community organizations, politicians, police, to the mainstream medical community (consider elderly, nursing homes, hospice "assisted suicide", pharmaceutical abuse, about which the local media does articles entitled "Neglected to Death"), and much more...

Police. A sincere and monumental topic to cover, but we will mention here that altho there are some "good guys" on the local police force, that there are some really sinister law ignorance officials in Hollywood, and there are far too many reports of corruption to even begin to address here. One point we will cover is this. Everywhere you go at any time on the beach you will see "cops", on bikes, on foot, and of course in their air conditioned patrol cars parked everywhere. Given this, consider that there is no crime on the beach, AND THERE NEVER HAS BEEN ANY CRIME on Hollywood BEACH; all the criminals live inland and never come to the beach, so even if the cops were not hanging out everywhere on the beach, there would be NO crime there... Contrast that with the fact that I once had reason to drive into, around, and remain at a location in the worst high crime area of Hollywood for three hours and never once saw a cop. Not one. Because they were all hanging out at the beach, a nice safe place. The corruption here is absolutely sickening. One more thing, if you dare to do what I am doing, you will be "BOLO-d", harassed by the police -- they will try to put you in jail, they will follow you everywhere. This is a "police state" here, and mostly a very corrupt one. Perhaps you noted Hollywood on the national news recently. The report was on a patrol car accidentally rear ending another vehicle. With the patrol car video camera running the officer conferred with other officers on the scene and decided to arrest the innocent person whose vehicle was rear-ended by the patrol car for supposedly backing up into the patrol car and claim that the driver was drunk (which they did do...). That's how it is here, blatant hypocrisy and corruption...

Utility Companies. The same vacant lot in the above video with the tree planting mis-management example, is "posted" with several no-parking and no-littering signs, along with signs that violators will be towed and fined. Florida Power and Light work crews storm in out of nowhere and park up to five of their huge utility trucks there at a time, sometimes taking up half the street, restricting traffic flow. They then remain parked there for hours at a time, doing nothing (aka loitering) while "on the clock", with their diesel engines running (for air conditioning) cranking out toxic carcinogenic diesel fumes which drifts into the local residences in this private residential neighborhood of north Hollywood. Note that these do-nothing power company employees eat, smoke, sleep, congregate, ogle at beach bypassers, spit, scratch themselves, and openly throw out their trash and cigarette butts. Complaints to the utility company usually work for a week or two but are eventually ignored and the disgusting riff-raff returns to terrorize the private neighborhood. We concede that it is necessary to some extent to overstaff these types of work crews for times of emergency, but following hurricanes all of the work crews that we see here actually doing work are contractors from out state, not FP&L work crews. This one example is all too typical of Florida utilities and their blatant disregard for the public which they overcharge through exorbitantly high utility rates, with the profits from which they do NOT adequately prepare for emergencies, always tackling problems after the fact, then requesting funds to do what they should have done with the profits before the obvious problems arose. Yep, this is typical of the state of Flori-DUH, and what you will be faced with if your happen to have to relocate here -- not good for the old high blood pressure problem. More on this later, much more, but for now, the video below shows a couple of the trucks getting ready to hang out for a few hours (note that they don't give a rat's rear end about blocking traffic while doing absolutely nothing; all to typical of the jerks that live and work here...

The above video depicts the ATV's which each lifeguard at each station cruises up and down the beach with, and the huge jet ski, sitting on a trailer. Note that this was taken on an unpleasantly hot day, and there was no one on the beach, no swimmers. So they haul out these huge machines, they sit on a trailer not near the water, and by the time they manage to get the jet ski in the water a swimmer could drown. There are also several "fire rescue" trucks that cruise the beach, park anywhere ogling the girlies, and never seem to have anything constructive to do except collect a paycheck. The hours that the lifeguards sit around in their cozy beach stands are supposedly 9 to 5, altho they often don't show up til 10 or after and of course leave early. So, what about the swimmers before 9 and after 5? You're on your own...

The above video shows three of the aforementioned "fire rescue" trucks which must have something to do with the lifeguard thing, but in all of our decades living on the beach, we have never observed them to do anything but drive around, read newspapers, sleep, eat, and some other things we suspect...which we don't even like to think about. But seriously, consider why these "truck drivers" congregate at one lifeguard stand? Shouldn't they be out somewhere loafing in their designated area of the beach?

With your life on the line...

And, the above video would indicate that a lifeguard clocked in, drove his ATV up the beach, parked it at the lifeguard stand, didn't bother to even open it up to make it look like anyone was there, then likely jumped in the car with his girlfriend and headed off for a "romp in the hay"? We see this happen a lot, and realize that sometimes there might be a valid reason for it, but strongly feel that this is simply more lackadaisical easy living while getting paid for it, just like all the rest of the "in cahoots" Hollywood freeloaders from the lowliest public works bathroom scrubber all the way up to the top...

Rising Sea Levels. The "great coverup" along Florida shores is that the sea levels are rising due to the polar, glacial, and global ice sheets melting at a much more alarming rate than predicted and the effects are already being seen here, but not reported. A couple of years ago, a road construction project in north Hollywood raised the level of the AIA roadway by two feet, also adding abutments to hold back rising waters. This road runs parallel to, and between, the ocean and the intracoastal waterway (that separates the coastal barrier island from the adjacent mainland swamp) and had increasingly experienced flooding of the roadways at high tide in times of drought -- so the flooding was from rising water levels, not from torrential rains. That was two years ago; we recently observed that the water levels were now approaching the top of the new abutments at high tides. This of course is kept quiet by the local chamber of commerce and real estate industry, as it is difficult to sell waterfront property and attract new residents when the area is faced with rising sea levels consuming low lying areas. You see this on the news about coastal dwellers in Alaska and remote Pacific islands, but the same thing is happening here -- they just try to keep it very quiet or put their own spin on it. See the point above entitled "The eventual flooding of Sofla" for proof of this. Also, below, we have added a video of the old AIA sidewalk where it merges with the new raised sidewalk -- note the high-tide detritus on the old lower section of the sidewalk where the water is still flooding the sidewalk/road and that the watery swamp vegetation is pushing out onto the sidewalk...

Raising the sidewalks and roads to counteract the rising sea levels flooding the streets, already, now, today...

Update: now that the word about the already-occurring inland-flooding has gotten out, they are trying to throw up a smokescreen mirage about it with "their brainless" solutions. Here is a link to an article on the problems of the rising sea levels for Florida and what they shamefully imply that they can try to do about it. Yep, they are just going to pump the encroaching, intruding, flooding ocean waters back out into the ocean surrounding this flat low-lying peninsula...riiiight, that ought work! I mean the water they pump out into the encroaching ocean waters won't just come right back in will it? Flow-rid-DUH...

An EASY Target for Terrorism. Surrounded by water, intrusion by terrorists makes this densely populated area easily accessible. The Port of Miami to the south and directly adjacent Port Everglades increases the susceptibility of bioterrorism as well as the importation of nuclear weapons. Consider the heavy concentration of the pro-Israel population residing here and you have an area with an easy target on its back... Also, consider very strongly that porous southeast Florida is home to the Cuban exile community, and be very aware that Castro is said to have extensive biological weapons research facilities in Vedado Cuba (in the lower floors of Farmacia Internationale del Cubanos). Given the high potential and susceptibility of the Sofla region, realize that they allow unmonitored, uncontrolled flights of gasoline powered hang-gliders by anyone at any time; how conveniently easy that makes it for terrorists to do a simple fly-by releasing a deadly bio-weapon nerve gas onto the onshore prevailing winds into the wall to wall mile high resorts and condominiums, home to not just Americans, but to a high concentration of Cuban American exiles and American Jews, as well as tourists and far too many retirees that only suck up federal funds via social security and medicare. "How stupid is that", to allow absolutely anyone to fly these contraptions to up and down the coast line unchecked and unimpeded -- they can even launch from boats offshore and would never have to set foot on American soil, and they would even have a high chance of getting away after killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. You think "911" was bad? And, this fly-by nerve-gas approach is wide open, easy, inexpensive, safer for the terrorists, and much more effective. How can they allow this to be a free and open method of killing Americans, when they shoot down errant private planes that get off course?

Disclaimer: again, we are not "letting the cat out of the bag", this is all too well commonly known; consider that the eventual 911 terrorists took up residence in Hollywood prior to executing their plan, and their cohorts (and Castro) are well aware of this ignored vulnerability... We speculate that "they" ignore this for several reasons, like the world is overpopulated anyway, so what's a few hundred thousand less Cubans, Jews, tourists, and retirees sucking up federal monies via their monthly social security and medicare allotments...

Education? What education? If you or anyone you know with children is considering relocating to Sofla, realize that the public education system here is horrendously substandard and private schools are exorbitantly expensive and few and far between. I assure you that you do not want your children in public school here and not just because of the educational system itself (see the topmost point above regarding the psycho-ward "mentality" that is prevalent here, plus the new post over on the "SoFla News" page regarding the layoff of hundreds of teachers in the county to save money). Realize that the high school graduation rate in Dade and Broward counties (Miami and Lauderdale) was 45% and 48% last year, and has been decreasing yearly -- so two out of four students become high school dropouts here, then look to government handouts and crime as a means of subsisting, turning to drugs and making babies which will increase the number of impoverished hopeless...

Religions. To name just a few: "El Africano'', "Oloye Ifatoku", "Ifa Orisha", "Santería", and "Yoruba". Not only are Judaism and Islam religions prominent in Sofla, but there is a preponderance of occult, satanic, and paganistic "religions" to be found here. The practices of these religions range from drinking the mucus of giant African snails to public mutilation of animals (see the video of the decapitated chicken on the "SoFla Beaches" page).

Certifiably inept commissioners from hell. Documenting this ditty would fill volumes. For now, just an example of a much too typical fiasco. First, the state of Florida is nationally recognized as narcotics trafficking scourge, but for anyone uninformed, the entire state of Florida allows the sale of narcotics to anyone that has the money from out of strip mall "pill mills" which are not licensed nor monitored nor staffed by medical personnel and are even owned by ex-convicts, and on and on. But, back to Hollywood and the commissars: they enacted an ordinance to regulate pill mills that covers only unincorporated areas, where there just happen to be no pill mills. Zero, zilch, none whatsoever. We will leave it at that for now with no further comment at this time; none needed we think...

Outside of a little moaning and groaning with the above colossally monumental DUH examples, we do not have much here yet, but there are hundreds of examples yet to go (which unfortunately increase daily) and until we can get back to adding more examples of why Hollywood sucks, click on this link to the "Why we changed this website" page, or see our overview of "DUH Keys" page for a sample of the type of valuable local resident insider information that we are going to provide here, and see our "Top 50 Reasons to Avoid Florida" page for a rundown of some well suppressed but essential information on what goes on in the moonshine state...

In the Interim...

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