How to Bully Proof your Child

Saturday September 23rd, 2017

10 am to 11:30 am

With a new school year starting having to meet new teachers, spending a bunch of money on school supplies, new clothes, new shoes and the occasional “I don’t want to go to school” you will have to deal with a fresh new batch of bullies.

Bullying is all too real. Did you know that 25% of public schools report that bullying among kids happens on a daily or weekly basis? And that 1 in 5 high school students report being bullied in the past year?
​
The good news is that because bullying has made national headlines, schools and communities (and even celebrities) are taking a strong stand against bullying.

For real confidence and safety an ongoing self-defense program is a choice of many parents.  Although it may be easiest for parents to tell kids to ignore the bully, walk away or tell a teacher, that is not always the safest, easiest thing for a child to do.  Kids don't want to be in fear of school or other kids.  Parents want to make sure their kids are safe.  This is often a have/need choice.  Kids and parents would rather have their kids know self-defense skills and not need to use then than to not have the skills and someday need them.

HOW TO PREVENT BULLYING THROUGH MARTIAL ARTS

Enrolling a child in a martial arts program is one of the best actions a parent can take to prevent bullying.
​
Why? Because martial arts can help children on both sides of the bullying equation. By providing benefits such as confidence, discipline, respect, self-control, leadership, stress relief, and self-defense; martial arts helps both the children who are being bullied, and the children who are bullying others. Here’s how:

​​So whether you believe your child is either bullying or being bullied we can help. All our classes are high energy and super fun while reinforcing the family values you want your child to have.
​

• RESPECT
• DISCIPLINE
• LEADERSHIP
• CONFIDENCE
• SELF CONTROL
• CAN DO ATTITUDE

For more information or to register please click on this link...

https://www.miamishoreskickboxing.com/bully-proof-your-child

And It Could Have Been a Lot Worse.

We all thought hurricane Irma was heading directly toward us, a maxed out level five storm.  But we lucked out, and it took a different path.  The West Indies, especially Barbuda and St Martin, didn't luck out.  Neither did Puerto Rico and Hispanola.  Cuba didn't luck out.  They all got badly slammed.  A co-worker yesterday showed me photographs of a small country village in Cuba after the storm.  The wood frame buildings were just piles of rubble, and the inhabitants had no place at all to go.

The storm was then supposed to ravage the west coast of Florida, but by the time it got there, it was a level two, and it did much less damage than we thought it would.

Here, we got much more wind than rain, and not nearly the wind we thought we would get.  But it was enough to take out power starting Sunday morning, 9/10, and it brought down lots of branches and a noteworthy collection of whole trees.  Over-represented among the fallen trees were the Australian pines and the ficus/banyans.  The former are already recognized as menace invaders, and the county has outlawed them.  I hope the county, or the Village, will outlaw the latter.  They have very shallow root systems, and they can't take storms.  I saw many large ones down after the '05 storms, and a bunch more this week.  And with the large canopy, they always take power and other lines with them, as do the Australian pines, which are too tall to miss doing considerable damage when they fall.

We were all out working in the yards and streets by Monday.  There was lots and lots of debris, and we piled it where we could.  Swales and medians were loaded with it.  The Village engaged a company called Grubb to do the storm clean-up.  The word on the street at one point was that Grubb would be making its sweep on Thursday, 9/14.  Frankly, I'm not sure if anything happened on Thursday.  Clearly, the debris didn't disappear.  Today--Saturday, 9/16-- I was out walking, and I encountered a crew on upper Griffing.  I thought it might be Grubb, but it was FEMA.  They told me Grubb had concentrated the debris onto the medians, to work to get it out of the streets.  They--FEMA-- were now removing it.  They will make three passes through the Village, taking the largest loads first, then some of the left-overs, then using the fine-toothed comb at the end.

Some people on my street (119th) got power back by Monday morning, 9/11.  Mine came on Friday afternoon, 9/15, at about 4:00.  Much or most or all of Griffing still doesn't have power.  It'll all come.  We have been told everyone in BP will have power by the end of the day Sunday, 9/17.  I have no idea what the pace is for the rest of the county.   One guy I encountered this AM was a FEMA employee who happens to live in west Broward, in a relatively newer community in Pembroke Pines.  He told me the power lines in his community are all under ground, and they never had a flicker of lost power.  One BP resident I saw on Monday, 9/11, said he was glad for the concrete poles.  He was one of those whose power came back on Monday AM.  He said he hadn't favored them at first, but he likes them now.  I've noticed others of the old wooden ones leaning or down again this time.  Maybe eventually, we can get all the poles changed to the concrete ones.  It's too late to bury all the lines.  But if we had all concrete poles, and we got rid of the most vulnerable tree species, we'd do ourselves a big favor.

I thought we would have much more flooding than we did.  It turns out rain was not a major feature of this storm, and we didn't have large pools of water left.  The main area of flooding I saw was in front of the Rosses' house, across from the church.  And it's possible that that flooding was only because the canal got backed up, also flooding the open lot just south of the 6th Avenue bridge, next to the Rosses.  Maybe it backed up from there onto the street.  I heard that some houses just north of that bridge, on the north part of Griffing, and houses south of there, on the south part of Griffing, also had flooding from the canal.  As far as I know, it's all resolved now.

I hope everyone is OK now.  If not, let someone know.  You can tell me, or Roxy or Chuck Ross, or Krishan Manners, or Nick Wollschlager.

Lebensraum

It was not easy to stay for the first three hours of tonight's Commission meeting.  I assume there was another hour.

It was once again the Tracy Truppman Show, Starring Tra-cy Trupp--man.  This time, there was a bit more of a twist.  I think Tracy is perfecting a system for herself.

Tracy couldn't even allow Daphne Campbell to spin out the Daphne Campbell Show without frequently interrupting and trying to have a private conversation with Daphne.  Frankly, I suspect this was due to Daphne's too frequent references to her past collaborations with Roxy Ross to make the accomplishments Daphne tells herself she's made.  I think Roxy is to Tracy what Barack Obama is to Donald Trump: any traces must be eradicated.

We got through several Resolutions without much extraneous meandering.  Then, it was onto the "old business" of driveway and landscaping considerations.  Specifically, it was Tracy's considerations.  Last month, Roxy introduced a driveway plan.  Tracy immediately and unceremoniously ignored it in favor of her own proposal.  Tonight, the proposal came back for continued discussion.  What initially came back was a combination of Roxy's proposal and the proposal from the Code Review Committee.  But Tracy again immediately superimposed her own version.  She simply ignored what was on the table.  Tracy made clear to her colleagues what she expected of them.  But her three stooges were somehow getting excessive minds of their own, as if they were entitled to their own views of things.  So Tracy announced that they were moving on to something else, and that they would return to the driveway proposal later.  The kids had lost sight of who their daddy is, and Tracy allowed them an opportunity to think about it.

Then, there was the matter of a landscape proposal.  On the Agenda, there were two such listings.  The first was proposed by Roxy, and the second was proposed by Tracy.  Roxy introduced her proposal, and Tracy immediately-- again-- ignored it and simply went on to discuss her own proposal.  Just like last month, and again this month, Tracy treated Roxy as if she wasn't there.  This was when I remembered I had to go home to, um, I forget why I had to leave to go home.  Oh, yeah, to walk my dog.

One of the remaining issues-- a leftover from last month-- was Tracy's alleged concern about how to communicate more fully with BP residents.  She gave us yet another demonstration as to what that would look like.  The room tonight was unusually empty.  At one point in the driveway discussion, Bob Anderson raised his hand.  He wanted to say something.  Tracy shook her head no.

Tracy did say one funny thing tonight.  The Commission was discussing driveway surfaces, and Roxy-- oh, yeah, the beast-- took issue with Tracy's insistence on making asphalt an unacceptable surface.  Roxy asked or suggested that it seemed that what Tracy was trying to do was avoid impervious surfaces, to which Tracy agreed, and Roxy pointed out that there is pervious asphalt.  So maybe we should ban impervious surfaces, not asphalt.  But Tracy again brushed Roxy off, telling her "we're not engineers."  Usually, the rank Tracy likes to try to pull is to suggest to everyone that she is, in some sense, an engineer.  But I guess when you have to fight the beast, you have to get a bit creative.  Or inconsistent.  Or you just make stuff up.

And On the Eighth Day... (Part I)

There was a bit of good news in the Commission meeting last night.  For some reason, our new Commission has figured out what to do with a Consent Agenda.  Each Commissioner had seen it, there was nothing requiring deliberation or comment (the definition of a Consent Agenda), and all it needed was to be passed.  So they passed it.

It's difficult in retrospect to remember if the Commission got through half of its remaining agenda.  It could even have been a bit more than half.  But whatever proportion was addressed (not completed), the meeting got horribly bogged down.  And not in the most likely places, either.

The Police Chief's report and the Village Manager's report didn't need to take long, but they took longer than seemed necessary.

I would have figured the first millage discussion as a black hole for the Commission, but it was over before long.  I would have figured a bigger crowd, too, but the room was not packed, as it usually is for that conversation.  No real decision was made, and the conclusion was to schedule a separate meeting just for that.  Next Monday, July 17, at 6:30.  We have deadlines.  Last night's quickie agreement was to start the conversation at our good old friend, the irrational 9.7 mills.  We're kind of stuck on that number, even though it has no meaning.  It is, however, more than 10% higher than the "rollback" property tax of 8.8 mills, so agreeing to it might require the assent of at least four Commissioners, instead of the usual simple majority.

Oh, the yard trash.  Man, did that topic eat up time.  And here was the big issue:  WastePro comes here to collect yard trash on Mondays.  They take whatever is there, unless the pile is more than an estimated two cubic yards.  In that case, they alert the Village Administration, which warns (or something) the homeowner, and WastePro comes back on Wednesday to collect those larger piles, which results in an extra charge to the homeowner.

A very bad construction was made of this phenomenon in last night's meeting.  These larger loads were described as "illegal," "violations," evidence of "non-compliance," and other similar histrionic characterizations.  They are nothing of the sort.  They are, as they were occasionally described, "oversized" loads, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them.  If anything, they are the results of more ambitious yard maintenance.  What a wonderful thing!  And the extra charge is for the extra work, not as some sort of punishment to the ambitious and tidy homeowner.

The fact is, we and WastePro set a fee for predictable yearly service.  This fee includes two weekly garbage collections (Tuesday and Friday), one recycling collection (Friday), and one yard trash collection (Monday).  We did not set an amount of garbage or recycling that would be the prepaid maximum, but we did set an amount of yard trash that would be prepaid.  We are welcome to put out as much yard trash as we like, but anything over two cubic yards per week is not prepaid.  We pay for the overage additionally and in arrears.

Not only did this matter get way too much chatter, and not only were the results of more ambitious landscaping somehow characterized as misbehavior, but somehow (I'm still  not clear how), some on the Commission wanted to blame WastePro for something to do with the piles of yard trash, and for the profusion of waste containers that are visible in the Village for too many days.  It was a little nuts, frankly.  It's a very good thing when Village residents do big landscape clean-ups and projects.  It results in a lot of debris?  Yeah, so?  And it took too long (although not as long as under the prior Commission) for Commissioners to suggest simply that WastePro just pick up the debris on Monday, take a photograph, in case anyone disputes, and have the Village charge the resident.  What on earth is the big deal?  And why this preoccupation with blaming, accusing, and wanting to punish?

The other side issue (more or less a complaint, or at least a matter of possibly manufactured concern) was that it's much, much easier to dispose of large piles of landscape debris with a power scooper than by hand.  Some people spoke as if they thought it would be a bad thing to have one available as part of the collection effort.  But again, what's the big deal?  What's wrong with power scoopers (the things with the big claw, that grabs up a large pile of something, and dumps it in a truck)?  They would be used to collect only the large piles, so they wouldn't slow anything down, and they wouldn't leave scars on everyone's driveways and swales.

Speaking of which (slowing things down), there are still (more than able-bodied) Village residents complaining that they don't want to bring their refuse out to the curb.  They want side yard pick-up.  Some Village residents who want, and get, side yard pick-up are too busy to bring out their own refuse, in part because they're at the gym.  You need exercise?  Um...

The time we wasted on that issue.  More than one person summarized this exchange as our having beaten up Kenny Rivera of WastePro.  The way he scurried out of there when the matter was finally over suggested he felt that way, too.

And on the Eighth Day... (Part 2)

I sat through almost four hours of this meeting.  Shortly after about half the agenda got postponed, because the time was gone, I left.  So if I can have invested that much time (three hours, 45 minutes) sitting there, you can spend a few more minutes reading about it.

On the eighth day, "god" considered all he had done the week before, decided it wasn't what he wanted it to be, and created Donald Trump and Tracy Truppman (what a cheap give-away that he used such similar names).  He respun the universe, so it would revolve around them, told the kids to "make it work" (oh, that's who Tim Gunn really is), and retired.

In the public comment portion of last night's meeting, I made what was probably a bit of a wisecrack.  (Who, me?  I know!)  I was thinking about Tracy's item 12.a, which I (mis)interpreted as a wish for more and better communication from non-Commission Village residents to the ruler(s).  I pointed out to Tracy and the bobbleheads that they get plenty of very clear communication from their neighbors.  Then, they ignore it, tell their neighbors to drop dead, and do whatever they want.  So I asked for an explanation as to what Tracy and the bobbs thought they wanted.  But I now think I was wrong.  I don't think Trace and the kids wanted to hear anything more from their neighbors.  I think they wanted a better mechanism for their neighbors to hear from them.  I guess they think that when they tell their neighbors that the neighbors' opinions don't count for anything, the neighbors would like that message to be easier to understand.  TT, et al, shouldn't worry.  We got it.

Agenda item 11.a was the trash.  Item 11.b was a proposed driveway and swale Ordinance.  And item 11.b.1 was Tracy's personal reworking of the driveway and swale Ordinance.  Tracy swept 11.b off the table.  It wasn't hers, and she had no use for it.  Whose was it, Ross's or someone's?  Yeah, well Ross don't matter.  Only Tracy matters.  And she gave us all a nice dose of it.

Tracy launched into an encompassing (and monopolizing) exposition of her driveway and swale Ordinance.  But as humble as Tracy is, she reassured us she's not "married to the language; [she's] just married to the concepts."  Hey, you give Tracy exactly what she wants, and you can call it anything you like.  So Tracy walked us through the magnificence that is her Ordinance.  And don't be concerned that she ignored the Ordinance that was sent to the Commission by the Code Review Board.  Tracy researched this matter herself.  She drove around.  She made phone calls.  Even to municipalities in Canada.  Stones left unturned by our Tracy?  No, I wouldn't think so.  And if anyone was still unconvinced, Tracy threw in some engineering terms.  Case closed, I would think.

At one point in Tracy's verbal odyssey, Roxy Ross was trying to say something, and she reminded the group that she's the "fifth Commissioner."  Really?  We have five?  We don't need five.  We have four who always vote together (the heads always bobble in unison).  But we really only need three, as Tracy pointed out on one occasion.  She and her two pet boys agreed on something.  I don't remember what it was.  Roxy Ross interrupted the steamrolling to register her disagreement.  Tracy told her it didn't matter, because she and the lads already comprised a majority.  She didn't even bother to ask what Jenny thought, because that was irrelevant, too.  It was sad, possibly even pathetic, to see Roxy having to remind the group that she's the fifth Commissioner.  She exists, too, she tried to imply.  Not for them, she doesn't.  And really, not for anything.  What's the difference between 5-0 and 4-1?

Funny enough, Tracy told us when she ascended to the throne that she was going to streamline meetings.  Starting when?  So far, they take much longer than is necessary, and much longer than they used to, because Tracy can't get enough of herself.  She did make one interesting revelation last night, though.  She figured out that now, having come to learn more about the issue, it turned out not everyone was going to be pleased.  Some would be, and others would not.  Amazing insight, Tracy.  Maybe you should have listened more when others with actual experience tried to tell you that.

Well, the question I asked-- why does Tracy want improved communication-- was in response to item 12.a,  We never got near concluding the 11 section of the Agenda.  So when it got late enough, and I'd stayed awake and listened long enough, I left.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting an answer anyway.  Of course, I wasn't expecting the nonsense spewed in this long meeting, either, so who knows?

Slow Down.

There is an ongoing sentiment among some BP residents to lower the speed limit in the Park.  This sentiment comes from two places.

Old time BP residents recall with pride and satisfaction the days when people in two counties knew of BP as the place that told motorists "Don't Even Think About Speeding," and we meant it.  Enforcement was tight.  Now, the perception is that people speed, and no one inhibits them.  So some yearn for the good old days of what they recall as tighter enforcement.

Other BP residents, old and newer, also want to slow the flow of traffic, but they have another reason.  They want traffic impediment, for the expressed (sometimes) reason of making driving through BP so annoying that people will prefer not to do it.  These residents don't want "cut-throughs."  Some of these residents want slower traffic, and some just want less traffic.

This theme-- of traffic slowing-- got some attention at last night's Commission meeting.  Specifically, there was discussion of methods to slow traffic.  These methods included tighter enforcement, as well as installation of "traffic calming" mechanisms and devices.

I put the term traffic calming in quotes for a reason.  The mechanisms used don't really calm traffic.  They slow it.  Drivers whose progress on the roads is slowed by rotaries/roundabouts/traffic circles or various kinds of bumps are not calm.  They are aggravated.  And they are paying more attention to the slowing devices than they are to traffic and pedestrians.  An experiment in one of the Scandinavian countries showed that eliminating most traffic control resulted in fewer accidents, because drivers had to be more attentive and careful at intersections.  They couldn't simply assume that the traffic control devices would control traffic.  They realized they had their own responsibilities to control themselves, and be mindful of others.  Other problems with many of the kinds of traffic control mechanisms discussed last night include that they are traumatic to the vehicles, and they cause damage to suspensions.  And if they slow regular drivers, they also slow drivers of emergency vehicles.

None of this got much discussion last night.  Instead, there was the usual (especially for this Commission) intensity and urgency to do something, whether or not what was proposed was rational or adaptive.

In an attempt to deflect concern, Harvey Bilt told us that we should just lower the speed limit, and that doing so would not cost anything(!).  Harvey said he had researched this carefully, having made what he counted as 35 phone calls on the matter.  Others who also researched it made only one or two phone calls, and what they learned was very different from what Harvey thinks he learned.  For example, we cannot lower the speed limit-- let alone install traffic obstacles-- without the County's permission, and the County requires us to get a traffic study first.  Traffic studies are not at all free.  There's also the cost of the signs announcing the speed limit.  Tracy Truppman says she learned that if we use devices, such as speed cushions, they cost $3000 each.

Funny enough-- or perhaps not so funny-- we got a traffic study back in about 2006 or 2007.  A driver hit two children in the Park, and there was a lot of energy to lower the speed limit.  Curiously, there was no indication at the time that the faulty driver was speeding.  But there was that intensity and urgency at the time, and some simply wanted to bull ahead.  So we got our traffic study.  At the time, the permitted speed limit on all Village streets was 30.  The traffic study showed that few drivers in the Village drove faster than 25.  So we changed the limit to 25, by which action we accomplished nothing.  It did cost us, though.  And now, despite what Harvey Bilt thinks he has reassured himself, we are considering costing ourselves again.  And that's to make of the County a request they might not grant.

The alternative suggested by some, including our new Police Chief, was that we wait to see what the new administration (Manager and Police Chief) accomplish, before we start doing things.  They want to increase enforcement, and they have already begun doing it.  It seems eminently sensible, but we now have a Commission that shoots first, and asks questions later, so there's no real confidence available that the sensible will prevail.

It's not clear that traffic needs to slow down much.  Some residents who don't have speed guns have a sense that people drive too fast.  I walk for exercise, and I have that sense, too.  I sense it especially on Griffing.  Our Police Chief does have a speed gun, and he says most traffic is between 22 and 29 mph.  More than 25 is not legal on any street except 6th Avenue, but up to 29 is not blazing speed.  And the effect of that slightly higher than maximum permitted speed is mitigated for pedestrians by those pedestrians walking against the flow of traffic, so they can see cars coming (at any speed), and step onto the swale or the median.

Sure, drivers should do the right thing.  So should pedestrians.  We should all be careful.  And no one should get hysterical.  We should find solutions to problems, not invent problems, because we're eager to do something.

I think the Chief is right.  He's new at the job, we just welcomed him, and we should see what he can accomplish for us.  He knows to try to slow the traffic down, and we should slow ourselves down.

I Was Wrong, and Harvey Bilt Was Right.

I made a mistake a month or so ago.  The matter of Will Tudor's new pet Boards was presented, and I made the mistake of speaking against them.  I completely disoriented Janey Anderson, who was mindlessly compelled to disagree with whatever I said (either she got this from Bob, or he got it from her), and she spoke in favor of these useless and meaningless Boards.  Well tonight, when the second reading of the Ordinance for the Boards was presented, I didn't bother to say anything.  I see how the bobbleheads act, and there's no point in trying to communicate with them.  They just do whatever they want, regardless of what any of us think.

So this time, since I didn't present a target or a distraction, probably half a dozen of our neighbors, including Janey, arose to speak strongly against the Ordinances.  Janey even remembered that she had spoken in favor of it before, but I don't know if she remembers why she did.  Not tonight, though.  Janey, Bob, the Kuhls, Dan Keys, and I think Chuck Ross all spoke against it.  And they offered a variety of reasons the new Boards were a bad idea.  No one spoke in favor of it.

Harvey Bilt, in reviewing his experiences with Commissions, talked about Commissions that don't listen to non-Commission residents of the Village.  And he was right.  Sometimes, they don't.  Harvey and the bobbleheads gave us a good dose of it tonight.  They completely ignored a collection of their neighbors, in favor of no one, and they passed the Ordinances everyone who expressed an opinion asked them not to pass.  Jenny Johnson-Sardella made some reference to positions she took when she was running for Commission.  She didn't seem to remember the bit about listening to neighbors.  Neither did Will Tudor.  And neither did Tracy Truppman, who was talking about something else later when she mentioned "complete disregard."  Yup, that's what it was: complete disregard for neighbors and the neighborhood.  Harvey sure was right about Commissioners who don't listen.  Well, four out of the five didn't listen.  Or maybe they did listen, but they just didn't care.  It was actually somewhat comical, in a twisted and pathetic kind of way.  Poor Roxy Ross.  On the short end of two more 4-1s.

"I" Have an Idea. I Think I Can Save Us a Lot of Tax Money.

I admit I didn't just think this up myself.  I took the idea from a number of Village residents.  Here's my current synthesis.

For a tiny and limited municipality, we have a noteworthy amount of overhead.  And our ad valorem tax rate is high to accommodate our needs, since we have no other real way of raising revenue.  And most of the non ad valorem revenue comes from us, too, in the form of user fees and utility charges.  Very many of us complain about all of this.  I think our real complaint is about the taxes, and if everything we did was free, we wouldn't be complaining about it.  That's what I think. If someone thinks I'm wrong, I hope they will correct me.

So the question is, could we have what we have, and not have to pay for it?  And I think there are some who think we could.  Here are some examples:

One current Commissioner pressed us into appointing a group of residents who will plumb the outside world, to see if we can get someone else to pay for us by granting us money.  And the resident group who will supposedly do this will do it for free.  They'll donate their time.  Another current Commissioner--actually our Mayor-- has suggested that some other imagined Village residents will also complete grant applications for us for free.  Unfortunately, one of our past Commissioners offered to do this for us, then reneged.  Our current Mayor claims expertise in this area, but she would never do it, either.  So I'm not sure this will ever happen, but the theory is that if it did, it wouldn't cost us anything.

Another of our current Commissioners sponsors a yearly gardening event on some public tract in the Village, and she calls it an MLK Day of Service.  Some of us help, and we do it for free.  Not only do we not get paid, we actually pay the Village!

Another resident a few years ago offered to donate to the Village a lawn mower.  There was a condition for the donation, though, and the condition was not met, so the neighbor did not donate the mower.

A year or two before that, a Commissioner-- the Mayor then-- offered to donate his own money to pay for a tiny public copying center at the recreation center.  I'm not sure that ever happened, but the offer was made.

Another resident, who happens to be a gun enthusiast, told me he thought we had, and paid for, too many police, and we could really contribute to our own security, literally by arming ourselves.  I suppose we would have to patrol, too, but we already have CrimeWatch, so maybe it would only be a short additional step to being organized vigilantes.

So here's what I'm thinking.  We could pretty much eliminate all of our expenses simply by doing for ourselves.  One neighbor will donate a lawn mower.  The condition was that we do our own solid waste collection, which would require us to buy at least one garbage truck.  Let's say we do that, too, and we can do it either with donations, or maybe we have to tax ourselves just a little bit.  Richard Ederr's son once spent a year as a Village employee, picking up garbage with our other hired guys.  But Richard's son got paid.  We can do this for ourselves with volunteer shifts, so we simply save the whole expense.  (Except the cost of the truck, maintenance, licensing, gas, and other possibly minor incidentals.)

We can get rid of the Manager and almost all Village employees.  Instead of volunteering to clean up one little patch of public land one morning per year, we have shifts to maintain all the public tracts all year.  By the way, we would need a Charter change for this, so that's an expense, too, but it's only one time, and it's not that much money.  We're already OK with blatantly miserable-looking medians and unrepaired streets, so what do we care if it stays that way?  We can just keep saving the money.

We already have two Village residents who volunteer at Village Hall and the recreation center, and they're both retired.  So we get more residents like that, and switch those two to full time.  Cha-ching.

Raise your hand, if you think we spend just too much money for our recreation function, and it serves people who don't even live here.  Exactly, just what I was thinking.  So we dump the whole business, and save ourselves the dough.

Our current Commission has hit on the brilliant idea of using more "reserve" ($1 per year, possibly negotiable) police officers (this is one of the great things about our new Commission: they think of the things that never before occurred to anyone).  So let's do that, supplement with ourselves on a real volunteer basis (not beating the Village out of $1 per year), go back to donated cruisers, instead of paying to lease new and reliable ones, and become truly hands on.  We have some firearm experts in the Village, and we can run our own training program.  In fact (oh, I did think of this myself), we can even train outsiders, and we can charge them for the training.  Cha-cha-ching!

And by the way, guess who gets in really good physical condition doing all the yard work, and chasing thieves.  Our new "tax" rate?  What taxes?  You're welcome.

Local Treats and Treasures.

I love gems.  And I love them even better when they're local.  Recently, I discovered two local gems.

At a MOCA art opening a couple of months ago, there was food service, as is typical of MOCA art openings.  One of the items was popsicles.  These were unique popsicles, with very unusual flavors.  And they were amazingly good.  I don't generally care for popsicles.  They're sweet and standardized.  Not these popsicles.  They didn't taste overly sweet at all, and they were a frozen version of gourmet dessert.

The person behind these popsicles is Megan Danko.  Her popsicle store, Ladyfingrs (no, I did not forget to type an e), is on 6th Avenue, just above 123rd St, on the east side of the street.  Her sign in the window says Popsicles, and she keeps a little bistro table and chairs outside during business hours.  Her slogan is "Fresh Popsicles Handmade with Love."  Do you think that's a bit too flowery?  You think it's a bit much?  Go taste one of Megan's popsicles.  Then tell me what you think of the slogan.

This is how Ladyfingrs' website describes the birth of this business: "It all began with two girls from fashion school and a love for ice cream. After working in the corporate world for several years, they both decided that bringing their passions together and starting their own business was the way to go. Mariana, already having amazing success with an ice-cream business in Brazil, brought the idea back to Miami to link up with business partner Megan and from that moment, Ladyfingrs was born."

I never met or spoke to Mariana, but Megan might be all the heart and soul this business needs.  And here's what they sell: "natural and hand-made ice cream popsicles with ooey-gooey surprises in the middle...sourced from the best chocolates from Italy, the freshest local fruits, and the most unique fillings from all around the globe."  They make their proprietary "Booze Pops, which are famous classic drinks served as a popsicle."  Their range of flavors includes coconut pineapple, lemon basil, passion fruit with condensed milk, strawberry mint, lychee rose water lemonade, mango ginger, chocolate lava (yes, "chocolate fudge gooey filling"), cream 'n' nutella, oreo madness, strawberry and condensed milk, watermelon flavor (sounds tame by comparison, right?), strawberry cheesecake, and dragonfruit blueberry.  Are you still reading this, or have you gone to Megan's place by now?

I know you're going to say $5 is too much to pay for a popsicle, but I think you should try "one" before you make up your mind.  If you love these as much as I do, and you really think $5 each is too much, ask Megan how many you would have to buy-- you know, to keep handy in your freezer, just in case you should ever want another one-- for her to give you the wholesale price.  And for what it's worth, not that I ever care about such things, but Megan is a delightful woman.  The address of the shop is 12327 NE 6th Avenue, and the phone number is 305-970-9252.  Megan's not always there when she's supposed to be, so maybe call first.

Last week, I went to the last installment of this season of musimelange.  I've told you about musimelange, and if you don't go, that's your problem.  It's quite an amazing cultural treat, like nothing you ever attended.  One of the central features is food.  The other central features are music and wine.  The food offering is always different from one musimelange evening to another.  This last time, they featured a bread offering (along with all the other food, the main course of which was extremely unusual tacos), and bread-based desserts.  The reason for this focus was the discovery of Bryan Ford and his wife, Alycia Domma.  They run a brand new bakery called Lesage.  Lesage is so new that they don't even have a storefront yet.  They work out of "shared [commercial baking] space" in Hallandale, and they deliver whatever their patrons choose.  They have two main offerings.  One is bread, which is fundamentally sourdough, and the other is croissants.

I love bread.  That, and tomatoes, are my favorite foods.  And I love sourdough bread.  For the past couple of years, I have bought little else, and I get Zak's bread, which I buy from Marky's gourmet grocery store on 79th Street.  I was completely content with Zak's bread, and I would not have considered getting any other bread, until I encountered Lesage.

Here's what Lesage sells: multiseed sourdough baguette for $3, plantain sourdough loaf for $6.75, papaya almond sourdough loaf for $6.75, multiseed sourdough loaf (the full size one, not the baguette) for $6.75, country white/wheat sourdough loaf for $5.50, croissants for $18 for six, pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) for $24 for six, and fruit danish for $24 for six.  The sourdough loaves (probably 2-3 pounds)  are at least as good as Zak's-- probably a bit better-- and the croissants are the best I have ever tasted.  Bryan and Alycia, since they do not have a retail outlet, do not bake up a batch of goods to sell over the course of the day.  They custom bake what their customers order in advance.  And they deliver Mondays and Wednesdays.  So you tell them the week before what you want, and you'll get it on Monday or Wednesday.  If you're home, they'll hand it to you, and you can pay them.  If you're not home, they'll leave it for you, and you can pay them later or next time.  If you order on a given week, the prices are what I quoted.  If you commit to regular, predictable deliveries, a month at a time, you get a 10% discount.  And that discount is generous, because the bread is worth every bit of the retail price.  If you're interested, you can go to Bryan's and Alycia's site-- www.lesagebakery.com-- or you can call Bryan at 305-310-1487.  Funny enough, Bryan and Alycia live in Miami Shores, so it's easy for them to serve us on their way home.

Don't make a mistake.  Go see Megan, and give Bryan a call.  If you don't absolutely love what you get from them, I'll buy the unused portion of it from you, for whatever you paid.  And if you do absolutely love what you get from them, you're welcome.

Tracy Truppman Agrees With Me. Up to a Point. Sort Of. Maybe. Oh, Let's Just Wait and See.

Last night's meeting was one of those typically aimless ones that was not actually about anything.  Except we predictably hired Krishan Manners to be our new Manager.  We'll see if he stays on Tracy's good side.  Does Tracy have a good side?  Oh, yeah, it's if everyone does whatever she says.  So we'll see how Krishan "manages."

There really wasn't much else on the agenda.  That's why the meeting flew by in just over two hours.  Two school teachers wanted to use the log cabin for free for some awards dinner or something for their teachers group.  We gave them a hard time about it, until Tracy offered personally to provide free opening and closing of the log cabin, so they wouldn't have to pay.  Our regular charge was $500 per hour, the resident charge (one of the teachers is a BP resident) is $350 per hour, and we eventually reasoned that our only real expense was hiring some member of Village staff to open and close the log cabin.  So, if Tracy would do that, we had no expense (except the cost of electricity, which we agreed was nominal).  And Krishan also offered to be on hand for free.  And Dan Samaria offered to pay something or other.  But it was taken care of by Tracy and Krishan.  The discussion took way longer than it should have, though.  We paid John Hearn for that.

Will Tudor's ideas were back, this time at actual Village expense. Will wants us to have two new Boards.  He envisions one as a Safety Board or something, and the other as a Grant-Writing Board.  The Safety Board is supposed to be some collection of Village residents who will decide whether we need more lighting, sidewalks, or some other public safety-related feature.  Most likely, these residents will just dream up what seems to them to be safety enhancements, since no one said we had residents who were expert in this area.  And we do have a professional Police Department.  And a professional Manager.  And an amazingly effective CrimeWatch Chairman who has several yearly meetings which are attended by interested Village residents, the Police Department, all or most (until now) of the sitting Commissioners, and invited experts who make presentations.  So really, it's just not clear what this new Board is supposed to do, and on what its imaginings will be based.  And perhaps more to the point, if they do decide we should have more lighting, or sidewalks, or whatever else, which they will then suggest to the actual decision-makers (the Commission), we're limited by our real problem.  In any case, we moved this from Will's good ol' boy, plum common sense, folksy, inclusive wisdom to an Ordinance, which cost us money in legal fees.  The bobble-heads agreed with Will, too.  4-1, they agreed.  Poor Roxy Ross.  She's just spitting into the wind with those four.

Then, Will had us buy ourselves another Ordinance, too.  This one was his handy-dandy Grant-Writing Board.  Some imagined Village residents are going to meet to think of grants for which we can apply.  For, um, something.  I sure hope they're not those pesky matching grants, as almost all are.  We're going to match the grant money with what?  And who, exactly, is going to write these grants?  I reminded our fearless and thoughtless leaders of Bryan Cooper, who ran on a platform that included his offer to write grants for the Village (since he alleged he had lots of experience), but then, he got mad, because some Commission vote didn't go the way he wanted, and he refused to help us at all.  And I reminded Tracy/Will/Jenny/Harvey that Tracy had said at the last meeting that she had written many grants in her life (after my comments, she adjusted many to a few), but that in all the years she's lived here, she's never once offered to help us write a grant.  I neglected to mention the night Barbara Watts asked Candido Sosa-Cruz and me to come to her house to write a grant for something, as if any of the three of us knew how to write a grant.  So, after all these imagined grant inspirations are materialized, I still wanted to know who's actually going to write the grants.  That question remained unanswered.  Roxy Ross pointed out that any Board also makes its little claim on staff time.  But she was on the short side of yet another 4-1.

Tracy did at some point(s) come back to the matter of our real problem.  That's the one she and Jenny and Will agreed was our biggest problem, but which none of them has proposed to address.  Specifically, she reminded us that this year, there is the possibility/likelihood/guarantee that the Florida Legislature will offer a law expanding, yet again, the homestead exemption.  We used to be able to exempt $25K from being part of assessed value, then, it was/is $50K, and now, it may/will go to $75K.  That's value that will not be assessable for taxation purposes, which means assessed valuations will be that much lower, which means that property taxes will be that much lower.  There was some reference to the Village's ad valorem hit being about $200K for the coming year.  If (yeah, right, "if") the voters of Florida agree to have their property taxes reduced, which means a reduction of support for the municipalities.  And Tracy, being a good Commissioner/Mayor, said she hoped Village residents would vote against this expansion of the homestead exemption.

It's a different story-- isn't it-- when you don't just get to sit in the audience and criticize.  When you're actually responsible to do something, supposedly in support of the Village(!), you look at matters like this one a bit differently.  Roxy Ross related a comment once made to her by former Mayor James Reeder, who just died.  Reeder told her that the task in elected office is to "do something.  Just do something."  And Tracy wasn't exactly proposing to "do [anything]."  She was asking her neighbors not to do something.  She was acting as if she was worried about Village finances.  Good for her!  But later, she said in passing that we were maxed out on our millage.  We're not.  We have a little way to go to get to 10 mills, and it would make about $50-60K difference to the Village to go there.  I'm giving Tracy credit for actually knowing very well that we could raise the millage a little, but I'm interpreting that this was her way of saying she didn't have the courage and resolve to go there.  And Tracy owns three other Commissioners.  So if she wants us to increase our taxes, we'll do it.  If she doesn't, we won't.

But that wasn't what Tracy said or suggested.  She doesn't want to raise taxes.  She doesn't want to take that particular heat.  Rather, she'd like us to vote against the expansion of the homestead exemption.  We should do the heavy lifting, so she won't have to.  And won't be conspicuous for failing to do the little bit she could do.

So for a fleeting moment, and with her trying to dodge responsibility for it, Tracy agreed with me that we need to be more committed to our Village, and generous to it and ourselves.  She urged us to do what we can to keep our taxes just a bit higher.  She doesn't want to do what she can, and she'd like us to bail her out.  You got it, Tracy.  I'm voting against the expansion.