North Bay Village Reality Based Community: This Post Is A Lie

It's August. It's hot. I've been busy. I haven't been blogging. Sorry about that. I was actually thinking that like our commission I would take the month off but the most interesting thing happened today.

I got a call today, actually two calls, from the US Postal Service.

The subject was the rotted out mailbox at 7525 East Treasure Drive. You see, I had submitted a question on the USPS website about how this might be fixed and replaced. And the people calling, Paula from the Miami Beach 33141 Post Office and Jim Croce from the district office, with the same message that the Post Office is aware of the problem and the boxes are scheduled to be repaired and replaced before the end of the year. They also added that it was not true that they do not replace street mailboxes and couldn't understand why anyone thought that.

Good news, right?

Why though, you might wonder, did I take my time to do this? Well I'll tell you.

You see on July 30, there was a meeting of the Community Enhancement Board where the subject was brought up. Our Village Manager, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason told the Board and the people in attendance that he had personally talked with the Post Office and the USPS would not for any reason fix or replace the mailboxes and if the village did, the USPS would take the mailboxes away and then we would have no mailboxes. (He speaks in bold font when he's condescending to people he doesn't seem to respect.)

Except, I kind of knew that couldn't be true. I'm actually a fan of the USPS. They've been reliably delivering my VISA bill every month since 1975 or so and I've worked in places where there is no effective postal service and I see how it hurts the quality of life, so I thought, "that's not true". And sure enough, a few internet clicks away I found out "that's not true."

So why the weirdness? I mean even if somebody told Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason that, why would he accept it as an answer and think the matter was closed?

In the same meeting, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason also explained that Howard Tonkin of Urban Habitat, who did the native plantings at our "monument" signs, had dropped out of sight and the village had no way to contact him and that's why the native plants are being butchered by SFM, Rollason's favorite gardening partner.

Also, There Are These Signs Around The Village

Except that's not true either. Howard Tonkin is easily contactable at his email, phone number, number on his signs and in Facebook. In fact, when a member of the Community Enhancement Board reached out to Tonkin, he explained that Urban Habitat had tried to take care of the plants and was ignored. No return phone calls, nothing.

What's going on here? Why is the manager lying on things that are so easily caught out? And when there's no purpose to be served? I mean, look, Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason was never a real municipal manager and he has a dismal record in his current position but man, how dumb does he think we are?

Oh wait, Mayor Kreps recruited him so maybe Rootin' Tootin' Straight Shootin' Son Of A Gun Frank Rollason thinks that's the norm. Yeah, maybe.