Black Bears & Snakes With Two Feet

At least the young bear had taste, he just couldn't make up his mind...was it going to be Weston, an exclusive West Broward suburb, or Wellington, more or less the same thing in Palm Beach county. Had he checked 2008 property taxes in either city he would have run for his life. Notice he has some idea of home values because he didn't go near Sunrise or Coral Springs.

But it wasn't going to be his choice anyway. Weston wasted little time in moving out the black bear, and it looks like Wellington didn't waste a minute either. Wildlife officials although they are quick to point out that black bear attacks in Florida are unheard of, have once again relocated the young male to northern Florida.

The good news is so far no one has been eaten by bears, gators or pythons in South Florida recently. But the bad news is that Florida has a real problem with finding elected & appointed state officials with any sense of ethics.

I have it on good authority that the pythons are heading northward, maybe planning on running for governor's office in the next campaign....guess they heard about all the other snakes we seem to have in the state capitol. Snakes with two feet that is. For just what is Tallahassee doing these days aside from continue to increase property taxes while devaluing homes, hike insurance rates, ensure FPL milks every penny it can from Floridians? Answer is simple. They are doing nothing. This while school enrollment and tourism has signficantly dropped, and too many people are packing their bags to relocate to states they can afford to live.

Pythons might prove a welcome relief.

Mr. Bear, you might want to consider heading for the state line until our state capitol does more than just talk the talk about home affordability. We need the jobs that pay the mortgages, and electric bills that don't rival the mortgage payment.

Most importantly we need a state government that actually works.

Sawgrass Mall Wins!

It's official...Sawgrass Mall, that sacred tourist highlight of many a tour, now ranks as having the highest number of robberies in South Florida. Not only highest, but at a glance easily triple or quadruple other malls.

This gives those of us in Weston have very good reason to warmly welcome our potentially new stomping grounds, The Commons, if it ever gets built. It will be so nice to park and walk into a mall without having to pack one's magnum. Not that I have a magnum. No way would I ruin the shape of one of my purses. But until the city of Weston decides to stop locking horns with Davie over The Commons, I'll have to settle for packing the Chihuahua instead.

Pudgy dogs get can get so mean on an empty stomach that I will have nothing to fear.

Death by Mall, South Florida Style

I love my malls...and I have my favorites. I used to love the Mall at Macys in Plantation which was beautiful but went under for reasons never understood (by me). I love the Galleria Mall in east Sunrise but it means putting up with traffic on Sunrise Boulevard. Aventura is a great mall but it's so far for me in North Miami Beach. I never liked the Sawgrass Mall which smells like some kind of bologna and where the tourists run like wild buffalo. Those who know better go to Sawgrass only for what they need and leave as fast as they can. Broward Mall is still there, which is about all you can say about it. Pembroke Mall gets the most crowded award with parking during holidays an absolute horror show. There is a new Mall coming to Davie, The Commons, but it will be some time down the road, especially since Weston is fighting its coming as if it were the Antichrist. Ah Weston, you can be so compulsively anal about anything that is not masterly planned for at least fifty years...

So you can imagine how happy I was to discover the Boca Town Mall this year which I described to a friend as absolutely mind blowing. What bad choice of words....for that is exactly what happened to poor Nancy Bochicchio and her seven year old daughter Joey just last week in the mall's parking lot. And before that was a woman and her two year old who had been kidnapped at the same mall and eventually released unharmed in August. And before that was poor Randi Gorenberg who was last seen leaving the mall, only to be found shot and thrown from her mercedes this past March. Coincidence? Just now Boca residents are questioning why no news coverage was given to these earlier incidents, and the security services at the Boca Town Mall never made customers even aware. The suspect's sketch is the most information Boca residents have received thus far.

Wondering if your favorite shopping spot is safe? Check the list of malls around the country that indicate the crime rate for their area. Here are some of the top ten with Aventura taking first place in the country! Congrats Miami!

Rapes, armed robbery, car theft, car break ins, child abductions, pick pocketing....these are only a few of the more garden variety of crimes at your local shopping outlet. I won't even begin to talk about the crazy sniper shootings that recently made the news. But when I checked back even my old Malls had quite a history. A security guard was shot at the Broward Mall by someone trying to shoplift, a woman was raped in the Galleria Mall shopping lot, a man robbed the Polo outlet at Sawgrass and ran shooting through the Cheesecake Factory. Sawgrass Mills was sued & paid out a $325,000 settlement a few years back for negligence in failing to provide adequate security after a woman was assaulted in the parking lot and evidence in the case revealed that the Sawgrass Mall, which is one the largest malls in the country as well as Florida's largest retail & entertainment center and a major tourist attraction, had non-functioning security cameras, minimal security protection for their parking lots and inadequate lighting, all of which created a dangerous lure for criminal activity in its parking lot.

In case you thought the Mall you loved actually loved you back. Never mind wearing comfortable shoes, better to pack a bullet proof vest the next time you hit Dillard's after Christmas sale.

It won't stop me shopping. But it sure has me wondering what kind of damage the NRA has done to this country by making sure every criminal out there is well armed. Why have our legislators let this lobby monster grow unchallenged? When do we stand and say stop to another holiday killing, another school shooting, another needless death courtesy of the NRA?

Nancy Bochicchio and her beautiful daughter Joey are paying the price along with the rest of us. Guns do not make us free, they are making us prisoners in our own country.

Weston Dog Etiquette...Bark and We Shoot You?

Just the other day I was remarking to a coworker that nothing ever happens in our west Broward development, otherwise known as Weston. Zero crime for the most part, top rated schools, architecturally controlled homes along with lawns kept lean and green, thanks to the most diligent group of code enforcers this side of the Tallahassee line. It's all part of this Arvida developed community-city which boasts it ranks the highest median income in Florida, ranking number 13 nationwide in the U.S. 2006 census. So safe, so planned, so very Stepford.

Alas, I may have spoken too soon. It appears that for what is probably the only time in Weston's history a police officer was forced not only to draw a gun, but fired twice, striking the subject, who was seriously injured and is now hospitalized. You might wonder if this was done to halt a run away armed burglar, murderer or rapist....certainly all of which might justify such deadly force. But no, the culprit had not robbed a bank or broken into a home.

The perpetrator, otherwise known as Fred, had been barking at the ducks in his backyard. Yep, ducks. Not too horrific a crime unless you happen to live in Weston where the police get called at the slightest Westonite complaint, and dog barking happens to rank up there with seriously overgrown ficus hedges. When the police officer investigated by going around back the home, Fred ran out an open screen door "lunging" at the officer, resulting in the officer shooting the 11 year old (yes, 11) epileptic dalmatian twice.

Fred underwent surgery, remains in guarded condition. His owners are not thrilled, and are planning on filing a law suit. Hopefully, if indeed he survives, Fred will have learned his lesson about violating dog etiquette standards in Weston. But I am a little worried about my yapping chihuahua, which is probably silly because he is too small to be shot.

They probably would just taser him to death.