Your "about" should be a simple two paragraph page..

Other tabs in your about should be layed out with your other content. For example, instead of having a seperate page "timeline worksheets" that information should just be embedded in your worksheets page. Also think of a better name for that, worksheets just doesn't, work.

The tabs work pretty well for your pages, but I would have them all available from "home" page. Instead of having to go to "about" then "Woodstream Plat History".



Also, lose whatever part crop of an image that is on the bottom of your page. Leave all that crap for the tweens.

I will work in your ideas on the next revision.

Appreciate it!

What do you think about Section, instead of Worksheets?

Element, Unit, Installment?

wouldn't feel like you are trying to do an excel doc

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your input. Should have all the revisions up by Sunday.

I realized that there would be a point when I would exhaust everything I knew, and wondered what the next step would be. Thanks for opening up the horizons.

on the sovereignty thing in future posts. This is the first I've heard of it. We have comprehensive planning in my state, but all it does is force local governments to come up with a plan, which, in theory, cannot be manipulated by those opposing forces you mention.

At least publicly, it all begins with opinions from city attorneys. The instructions were basic: city code applies, unless the commission waives them. It sounds innocuous, but from there you begin to hear people say, the power of the city is in the hands of the commission. From there they move on to, the city has sovereign immunity. People who have no legal background, just assume that once the city commission approves something, it's done.

But, an outsider might see something different. They look at the actual wording of the city code and it states. &quot a)ll powers of the city shall be vested in the commission, except as otherwise provided by law or this Charter." It seems like there's no conflict. But that's because they don't see what's happening in the rest of the state. They don't realize that local government, with the help of the Florida League of Cities, is wrenching power from the State and collecting it at the local level. In addition, Federal law is shut out because the Fourteenth Amendment is absent in just about everything that happens at a community development planning level locally, (especially if they're dealing with private, residential communities). No one can challenge them. It would require homeowners to launch resources they don't have to traverse the gauntlet of ethically challenged lawyers to find one that will fight their cause in court. It just doesn't happen often enough in Florida to make a difference.

You should send this to Dylan Ratigan. This sounds like it belongs in his book, Greedy Bastards.

Imagine having community leaders who are egged on by loose legal interpretations. If they didn't fear legal ramifications, it shouldn't come as a surprise that they pushed things over the edge.

There was also a law on the books that said that if you were going to sue a municipality, you had to sue in the county courts where that municipality exists. And guess who presides as judge? One of the good ole boys.

Finally, in 1998 someone beat them at their own game, and managed to get them into the federal courts. But it required an enema of public record requests, and it was resolved with a settlement agreement that included a confidentiality clause. That means that it may have slowed them down, but it isn't going to stop them. Not with the current trends being what they are in Florida. Meanwhile, their side has learned from their mistakes, and our side doesn't have a clue what it was all about because the papers kept is tamped down.

It definitely needs an airing because it looks like it was all about loosening regulations to allow a selected group to enjoy an economic boon at everybody else's expense. If there was a case which the NAACP should take a closer look to find evidence to support Affirmative Action, it's this one.

and the only way I knew I was in a different town was when the big box stores repeated. I was very disappointed and will not spend any more time there. Hope you get your state back.

I now consider myself a native Coloradoan and have sympathy with you as all the threats we have here, similar to your situation, are from people and corporations that have no interest in what people who live here love about our home state.

They can be anyone, from anywhere. The only thing that they have in common is that they have no conscience. They take leadership roles with the intention of benefiting from their position. No concept of community, except that they expect you to know your place. Unfortunately, I have a short attention span and keep forgetting.

Their website at http://www.curg.org/ might give you some useful links. Being in the capital of the state, many of the members have great contacts with the state offices that are supposed to help keep uncontrolled development in check.

Of course, over the last twelve years, many of those offices have been emasculated, but there are still some laws in effect.

CURG has a great email discussion, though there are a lot of local development notifications that go out, they also cover state wide issues. You might want to join, just to see how theirs works, but the archives could also be of great use since they will include a bit of history on some of the dismantling of the comprehensive plan system.

Good luck with your efforts!

I think my efforts, however, are more grassroots. People tend to think that this state is going to the dogs because politicians are responsible for all the bad legislation, but I think there is something closer to home that is keeping most of us off balance. Specifically, people underestimate the puckish work that lawyers do behind the scenes. And I mean, at the grass, grassroots. If we had honest lawyers to count on, you would see our municipalities buckling under the weight of lawsuits from all the malfeasance they commit. But someone always manages to head them off before it goes to court. That someone is usually a lawyer dispensing bad legal advice to homeowners to take them off the trail. And when they do that, we lose the punch we need to keep the public focused on the real problems of this state.

If someone can finally write about it, I believe members of the public will begin to recognize the patterns.

sounds like a great idea.

You need to add more descriptions of the damage of unregulated development. People can then relate to the same or similar issues where they live.

What does it look like? How are people impacted day-to-day? You say they did things the wrong way. Give examples....This helps highlight why the malfeasance must be exposed, why it's wrong.

Good luck with your website.

I think the biggest challenge has always been finding a way to present the data. Still working that one out, but, at least I took the first step.

no insurance regulation, and a winter haven for the traveling circus as far back as the Spainish Americam War.

I.m still looking for land that I brought in the 40's from the back page of a comic book.

So pace your effort to revive the Florida civic sceen and be more realistic.

I will succeed if I manage to bring enough awareness to specific scams that are currently being played out with these public-private partnerships. Just so that the next time someone stands up in a HOA meeting to tell their neighbors that they were victims of fraud, they won't have to deal with minds that live in very simple worlds--which is what makes them such easy marks.

In other words, CK_John, not everybody knows Florida as well as you do. In fact, I know they don't. What an irony Florida has become. You have white islands where people are so convinced that they have inoculated themselves from the worst because they've managed to keep minorities out of their neighborhoods, and the reality is, that inside their barricades are sharks that treat them like one giant bait ball.

It would almost be justified if I did nothing but continue to observe.