Take A Sign in South Beach

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MIAMI MIRROR – TRUE REFLECTIONS

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South Pointe Park Center and Tot Park

TAKE A SIGN

Don’t Be Stupid in Paradise

2 February 2014

By David Arthur Walters

MIAMI MIROR

MIAMI BEACH—I received several suggestions from City Attorney Jose Smith subsequent to the

publication of my article about purse snatchings and other thefts in South Beach’s South Pointe

Park, which has been fabulously renovated under former City Manager Jorge Gonzales. He said

his own family members had electronic valuables stolen at the tot park there. He

recommended better police coverage, video surveillance, and public education including signs.

Capt. Mark Causey, who heads up the Special Investigations Unit for the Miami Beach Police

Department, said that efforts were being made to apprehend what might be a career criminal

operating in the park.




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Capt. David De La Espriella, well known for his pioneering work in Community Policing, said

there were signs warning the public to protect their valuables, but too many people tend to

behave stupidly in the beautiful surround. He noted that the Gonzales city administration was

averse to cluttering up parks with signs. He said lockers were being set up for people to secure

their valuables while on the beach.

The aversion to signage seemed ironic to me in view of my investigation of the signage blight on

the streets, with half of the signs unpermitted due to the lax and selective enforcement policy

of the city’s code compliance officials.

In any event, we should know from the Garden of Eden myth that we should not continue to be

stupid in paradise after we are robbed of our innocence.

I walked around the park again to examine the warning signs. I found many gaudy greenish

signs warning people not to misbehave in one way or another, signs publishing a special rule for

sex offenders, and a huge sign advertising the names of city officers, but I did not notice any

signs warning against thieves until I asked a private security guard, who said there were a few

such signs in the enormous parking lot.

I surveyed the parking lot and found two “Park Smart” signs on the north row of parking spaces,

none in the center row, and three on the south row, for a total of five signs, each about a

square-foot in size. A member of the valet service said there were virtually no few thefts in the

parking lot when the service was operating because it was being watched. Yet many thefts

occurred on the beach and within the park where most visitors had ventured from the hotels

and surrounding streets.

To be sure of the signage, I flagged down a Parks Department truck and asked Edgar Rodriquez.

“Where were the signs warning people of thieves?” He said there were “big” signs in the

parking lot, and that was all, because there should be no signs inside the park. I pointed to the

top of the hilly landscaping that elevates a portion of the walkway.




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“There should be a billboard on top of the hill saying, DON”T BE STUPID, PROTECT YOUR

VALUABLES!” I jested.

“They do not read the signs. Look!”

Two guys were riding their bikes on the elevated sidewalk, disobeying the commandment setforth on signs below.

“No bicycles up there!” Edgar shouted. The cyclists shrugged stupidly, so I cupped my hands

and yelled, “Please do ride bicycles on the hill!”

“No English!” shouted one cyclist.

“Maricon!” Edgar answered with a favorite Latino term of endearment. They got the message,

dismounted and took their bikes off the hill.

“Do you know about the Take a Sign program?” he asked me,

“No, I’ve never heard of it.”

I told Edgar that I had often spoken with the Park Department guy who attended to the park

before it was renovated.

“I think his name was Jimmy, an Anglo, I believe. There was a discrimination issue, problems

between the union and management. He sued the city for something and was proud to talk

about it.”

“You should not sue the city. That was a long time ago. There are always issues.”

“You’re Cuban?”

“No, I am Rodriquez, I am Columbian. Before I was transferred down here from the beach up

north, I was commended for my work,” he said proudly.

“Do you know Capt. De La Espriella with Internal Affairs? He’s Columbian.”

“No.”

“Isn’t Rodriquez a Mexican name?”

“Mexicans have mustaches. You cannot please everyone. There will always be complaints

because people are different, black, Cuban, Columbian, Mexican. This is the problem

government has. Look at those trees there. One will claim it is getting less water than others, or

that one is blocking its leaves from getting sunlight.”




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way, although it is extremely politically incorrect for me to say this since he was ousted, I would

rename South Pointe Park the Jorge Gonzales South Pointe Park after his death.

The Australian tourists, who did not want to be personally identified with toilets, said they had

visited Miami Beach 30 years ago when it was pretty and clean. Now they were appalled by the

filthy restrooms on 10th Street inhabited by tramps, so they came to this park, and decided to

use the portable toilets set up for an event rather than go inside the public restroom a few

steps away. They said filthy public restrooms leave a lasting impression on visitors from clean

places, who may never return because of that experience.

I cannot say that I blame them. Miami Beach tramps do tend to trash and flood the public

restrooms, which are rarely attended to. I have even had to call the city about backed up

sewage including human waste.

I ventured onward toward the security lockers on 7th

Street, pausing to observe the

groundwork being done for the new restrooms near 5th

Street in Lummus Park, the old ones

having been demolished. As usual, the contractor signs did not bear license numbers as

required by law, and were most likely not permitted since we have to mark the city’s code

compliance division absent when it comes to enforcing many codes unless someone risks

retaliation by making a fuss.

I walked onto the beach at 7th

Street, where I observed several white trailers, with no signs

indicating that they offered locker services. But one square trailer did attract me, sort of like the

monolith in 2001 Space Odyssey . And there it was: a bank of attended, high-tech lockers

available 9-to-5 at a charge of $5 per day, thanks to a big concession company called Boucher

Brothers. (http://www.boucherbrothers.com)

The attendant, a high school student whom I shall not identify unless I receive parental consent

in accordance with general AP guidelines, was informative and had an excellent customer

service attitude.




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Boucher is a big company, I was advised, and has many of the chairs and umbrellas on the

beach. Its name is on the edges of the blue umbrellas. The company is testing the locker-trailers

on the beach, and at present there are only two. Another locker is needed on the South Pointe

end because tourists are saying they do not want to walk all the way back up the beach torecover their valuables.

True, the lockers are not easily recognized because there are no signs, and the city does not like

signs on the beach, but that is being worked on.

Yes, the public restroom at 10th

Street is horrible so do not go there. Use the hotels because

most of them are nice enough to accommodate tourists.

Finally, it is too hard for high school students to get jobs. That was the second time I heard that

this week from ambitious kids.

Author in Chicago March 1964 - 18 years old




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I left some grandfatherly advice, recounting how I had left home at six-feet tall and 13-years-old

in the old days when employers were not so careful about checking ages and credentials, and I

managed to work myself into an important position, after which hardly anyone ever asked me

for credentials.

I said the biggest mistake I made was running away from home and then not staying put in one

place. For example, if I had stayed in South Beach in 1969, I’m sure my business today would be

as big as that of Boucher Brothers, and I would hire plenty of high school kids.

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Take A Sign in South Beach

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