IT’S THE LAW. MIAMI BEACH IS VIOLATING IT
This bumpy, steep & horrible 20+ feet of tar pretends to be an ADA accessible sidewalk.
This is Lincoln Road at West Avenue in Miami Beach.
It must be fixed immediately.
Lengthy construction means temporary sidewalks and ramps must be compliant.
It’s the
law.
WHEELCHAIR USERS CANNOT SEE WHAT’S COMING BEFORE CROSSING BUSY ALTON ROAD AND LINCOLN ROAD IN MIAMI BEACH
Every wheelchair user’s safety is threatened by bollards along Lincoln Road at Alton Road in Miami Beach.
The car in the photo is a lane over.
It’s impossible to see what’s coming
north on the closest lane.
We all know Miami drivers run red
lights serially.
The bollards are there on the one in 1
in 10 million chance that a terrorist drives onto Lincoln Road.
In an urban area that consistently
rates as one of the most dangerous for pedestrians, the odds of an accident
because of the bollards are probably 1 in 10,000.
Very bad planning guards against the extreme
outlier while ruining independence, inclusion, mobility and dignity of all
people with disabilities.
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
She praised the National Association
of REALTORS® for covering 100 percent of
RRF’s administrative costs, so every dollar donated goes directly to disaster
relief efforts.
“For more than 24 years, the RRF has
been a lifeline for communities affected by disasters, providing
housing-related assistance.
Since 2001, the foundation has
distributed more than $43 million in aid, helping more than 25,000 families
nationwide,” according to an NAR statement released when $1 million was granted
to California wildfire relief.
“When a major disaster occurs, RRF
mobilizes its outreach efforts and turns to NAR members and other constituents
for support.”
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
“We need to build more affordable
homes. Our lobbying team was just in Washington, D.C., to support the
bipartisan More Homes
on the Market Act (H.R. 1340) which would raise the capital gains tax
exclusion on the sale of a primary residence,” she said, noting that more
people would sell, increasing housing availability if they didn’t face high
capital gains taxes.
“Zoning needs to allow more homes.
We need to revisit constraints that
makes building so costly, so we can create more affordable and attainable
housing.”
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
“Wildfires are a huge concern
nationally and in California.
The question is how do we help with
fire hardening in the future?
We must find the best ways of
mitigating against disaster for residential and commercial buildings,” she
said, noting that property owners could benefit from government grants to pay
for retrofitting against wildfires.
“The wildfires exacerbated an
insurance crisis that we already had in California. We need to continue to work
with state officials to help alleviate that and ensure that every family can
insure their home,” Ozur said.
She explained that many families in
working- and middle-class parts of Los Angeles County, such as Altadena, may
not have enough of an insurance settlement to rebuild.
The wildfires took away affordable
housing in one of the highest housing cost areas in the nation.
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
“We are working in the Sacramento
Capital with legislators, the governor and the commissioner of insurance to
help extend relief.
We successfully got a price gouging
moratorium extended to July,” she said of disaster-related protections against
price hikes for hotels, motels and rental housing plus prohibitions on
evictions of tenants to relist the rental at a higher rate.
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
“With so many homes and businesses lost and a housing crisis that existed long before the fires, REALTORS® recognize the importance of reaching out and helping their communities to recover and rebuild,” CAR President Heather Ozur said when the funds were received.
“As residents begin the long process of starting over, the REALTOR® community is glad to be able to provide some immediate support in their time of need.”
The CAR’s REALTOR® Member Grant Program also made $1 million available to REALTORS® and staff members.
The grants within the REALTOR® family,
available for up to $10,000 per household for disaster relief, were quickly
exhausted in Los Angeles County.
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
The $1,000-per-household grants — for
mortgage relief, rental payments, or temporary housing, such as hotel stays due
to displacement from their primary residence—were fully disbursed in a month’s
time.
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
“Agents who are REALTORS® deeply
understand that in times of crisis, we step up to help our communities remain
resilient and united, even in the face of devastation like what we’re
witnessing in Southern California,” RRF President Greg Hrabcak said in statement
when the funds were granted.
“This grant underscores RRF’s
dedication to providing assistance during the critical weeks and months
following a disaster, and we are committed to helping families stay in their
communities and begin to rebuild their lives.”
REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES
“After burning for 24 days, both fires
were fully contained on Jan. 31, with over 37,000 acres burned and more than
16,000 structures destroyed.
At least 29 people were killed in the
two fires—17 in the Eaton Fire and 12 in the Palisades Fire, according to the
Los Angeles County medical examiner,” ABC News reported.
The National Association of REALTORS®
(NAR) and California Association of REALTORS® (CAR) were in action before all
the flames were extinguished across 45 square miles of the densely populated
area.
THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT
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Miami-Dade Animal Services has robbed me of half a
working day and despite my valiant efforts, incompetence has prevented me from
petting/bonding with a single cat.
Callousness and unequaled incompetence has left me with
zero desire to ever visit again.
I have taken in dozens of street cats.
I fund cat rescue on three continents.
I am the perfect candidate to address the crisis that
Miami-Dade has with animals in need of homes.
But I will not be able to keep cats from being lonely or
euthanized.
Not until Miami-Dade County leadership fixes its nightmarish Animal Services process.
I leave -- after being blocked by incompetence -- the Miami-Dade Animal Services house of horrors crushed, spirit broken.
None of the more than half dozen cats that I tried to will leave to a good home -- because this facility is run by uncaring workers.
THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT
I select yet another cat to try to adopt.
It pays to take lots of photos of
the cat’s code number, as incompetence will deny your first several choices.
10 minutes to see the cat cage woman.
The same woman who told me I had no choice in the matter
of bonding with the cat she (and she alone) deemed unadoptable.
This time, my fourth or fifth choice of a fur baby is smiling and
mewing at me.
My heart melts.
Then the cage area woman says he has a return to owner
order and I’m out of luck.
If Miami-Dade Animal Services staff could take two
minutes to update info on the cages, would-be adopters wouldn’t get their heart
broken time and time again.
THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT
I say I’ll decide.
She refuses to let me see the cat.
I go back, but even though it is 100% Animal Services’
fault, I go to the back of the end of the line again.
20 minutes to wait for the cat with the infection.
Now I’m told it also has FIV and I cannot have.
THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT
I find out my first choice is FIV positive and they will
not adopt that cat out to a home that has another cat. I have a cat.
It would take two minutes to print out this info and put
it on the cage – so I wouldn’t get enamored with a cat I cannot have.
There will be many heartbreaks that could be avoided by
taking all of two minutes to update information on cats in the cat adoption
zone.
I am told my second choice has a respiratory infection
and I cannot touch another cat after him, so I should pick another cat to see
first.
I share my third pick.
They tell me that cat is available.
THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT
I fall for a few.
I take pictures of the data card next to them.
I got to the desk labeled adoptions.
I get some annoyed looks, then hear a number called.
I realize I was standing in a line that went by number
called.
But unlike a grocery store deli, there no little machine
from which to grab a number.
You have to talk to a lady. She wanders off frequently,
so I had no way of knowing that I could not take my place in line without her
interviewing me and printing a ticket.
THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT
It’s a pretty building and modern facility.
Any semblance of competency and care is an illusion.
I went to adopt a cat.
There is about one half as much needed parking, because
it’s in the middle of nowhere, miles from fixed rail transit.
Google Maps shows it would take 2 hours of multiple bus
transfers to get there from my Little Havana home less than 10 miles away.
I wait 20 minutes for a parking space.
