POLITICIANS AND REAL ESTATE SPECULATORS COZY UP TOGETHER IN FORT LAUDERDALE TONIGHT TO RAISE BIG BUCKS, DENY CITIZENS THE RIGHT TO VOTE: Local Citizens For Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 Will Protest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 9, 2010
Contact: Bett Willett (c) 954-464-8009; (h)954-596-2992
NOTE: THERE WILL BE VISUALS
FORT LAUDERDALE – Wealthy real estate speculators are ponying up $250 to $50,000 each tonight in a fancy fundraiser that aims to deny Floridians the right to vote. A who’s-who of real estate speculators, strip mall developers, bankers, politicians, and lobbyists is gathering at YOLO restaurant ($11 hamburgers and $24 pork ribs) , 333 Los Olas Blvd in downtown Fort Lauderdale tonight from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.
“These are the same people who overbuilt and crashed our economy,” says Florida Hometown Democracy founder Lesley Blackner, who will join local citizens in a protest outside the fete from 4:30 to 6:00 pm. “Local taxpayers are paying for these speculators and politicians’ mistakes, and still they are raising millions to try to defeat Hometown Democracy and prevent us voters from having a say.”
Mayor Frank Ortis is hosting the event on behalf of wealthy speculators. A political committee called The Broward Workshop is promising to match the first $100,000 contributed at the event. The International Council of Shopping Centers has pledged to raise a half-million dollars toward the group’s $15 million goal.
Featured guests include South Florida apartment developer Joel L. Altman, Tallahassee uber-lobbyist Ron Book, corporate giant Wayne Huizenga, developer lobbyist Skeet Jernigan, Canadian multimillionaire Bobby Julien (Kolter Communities), and Colin Brown, CEO of JM Family Enterprises, a $12-billion private company that builds car lots.
“This event shows the cozy relationships between all these speculators and politicians, “ Blackner said. “When Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 passes, we can finally have some citizen oversight on all this political back-scratching. ”
“We’re the ones who pay taxes to extend the roads, schools, water, sewer, police and fire to these new developments that get approved left and right,” said Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 supporter Bett Willett of Deerfield Beach, who organized today’s protest. “We should get to vote before we’re forced to pay.”
The protesters plan to highlight a particularly galling 26-story luxury high rise built way out on the edge of the Everglades called The Tao Sawgrass, which the Broward-Palm Beach New Times called a “ghost tower” because it sits empty, a poster child for overdevelopment. “Today the complex is an elaborate monument to the folly of the boom years, when it seemed logical to sell half-a-million-dollar high-rise units on the edge of the Everglades,” the New Times wrote.
Broward politicians changed the local comprehensive land-use plan to add more density and allow the giant, unneeded development – the very type of action Hometown Democracy would give voters the power to approve or deny.
“The rights of these land speculators and corporations are considered more important than the rights of existing residents,” Willet said. “Our local leaders didn’t care about our quality of life. This is why it is so important to pass Hometown Democracy Amendment 4 in November –ordinary citizens will finally get a say.”
Amendment 4 is an add-on to the existing land-use process. Local city or county commissions will study, hold public hearings, and vote on proposed changes to the overall master plan (local comprehensive land-use plan) just like they do now. Here’s the new Amendment 4 step: voters will veto or approve their decision on the next regularly scheduled Election Day. No special elections are required. It’s that simple. Learn more at www.floridahometowndemocracy.com, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
10 comments:
Too bad the Anti-4 crew has nothing to offer but lies. NO SPECIAL ELECTIONS REQUIRED. But taxpayers do get stuck with the bill for all the special gift developments authorized by our commissions. That's exactly why taxpayers need Amendment 4
Just love watching the developers pour all that money against Amendment 4, kind of like the oil spill live feed you have on your site.
First Anon, the developers already cost me 40% of my home value. At this point, I am ok for pitching in a little tax money to pay for the election. Try a different spin. That one just fell flatter than a collapsed housing bubble.
I think we need to offer the developers re-training in new jobs. They can sit in class along with the factory workers and auto makers. Perhaps they can become involved in green industries and, by this, I am not referring to sprawling suburbs with front porches on the edge of farm country.
Here in the small seaside Town of Surfside, since 2004, our town Charter already mandates a Referendum for any zoning changes that would affect density, height or intensity.
Commissioners in other municipalities should do their town a favor and put that up on Referendum to enter such a law in their own town charter.
regarding the above "press release", class-based insinuation campaigns are what you engage in when you have no real ideas, in fact when you're trying to distract people from the fact that your "movement" has no logical connection with better planning outcomes and improving people's lives. amendment 4 has no substance, just cynical smoke and mirrors.
It is correct in that citizens are the ones who pay taxes but the Amendment 4 supporters ignore the fact that if Amendment 4 passes our taxes will go up and up to pay for all the elections their ill-conceived amendment would require. The Orlando Sentinel estimated the cost of the elections to be in "the millions". Is this really what we need now - more government costs at taxpayer expense? I think not.
I found it interesting that Amendment 4 supporters are protesting the opposing side's right to assemble and raise funds to oppose their position - essentially protesting these individual's first amendment rights.
I was previously torn on this issue. But the more I learn about it, the more I realize that the perceived benefits of having some land use amendments reviewed by voters are far outweighed by all of the mess that this will cause. I can't imagine looking at a ballot a year from now if this thing passes. Ballots are long enough and the electorate is not educated on the issues as it is. To force them to vote on every CDMP amendment is mindboggling.
Cost of losing 40 to 60% of my home value versus cost of adding CDMP amendments to ballot - I vote for the latter.
As to planning - we have one. It's called a CDMP and it is ignored regularly. THAT is why we need Amendment 4.
Try another spin......you keep landing flat as the real estate market.
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