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President’s Message

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

riving through our community you'll notice the big yellow buses that remind
us the school year has begun. Children's safety is our top priority, so please
Dabide by the traffic regulations regarding school bus drop-off and pick-up.
The 17th Street Mobility Workshop has reconvened after the summer break. RVCA
Vice President Christina Currie attends on our behalf. We continue to make good
headway working with the county, ports and DOT. Commissioners Ben Sorensen
and Steven Glassman have also begun a similar initiative to deal with Las Olas
traffic and mobility.
The Alexan project, the proposed building at the site of the Edgewater condos, was
presented to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission. The original proposal was to
build a 21-story building with a first-story breezeway, a setback from the river, and
Warren Sturman, MD gift of land to the city to add park space. In June, the city asked the developer to
President, RVCA decrease the size from 21 stories down to 14 and decrease the number of units
from 180 down to 120. After review, the developer determined that the revised
plan would not work at that site and asked the commission to vote on the original
OFFICERS
plan. At their last commission meeting on August 21, the city commission voted the
President proposal down.
Warren Sturman, MD
president@riovistaonline.com The return of Fire Station 8, the station which will service our neighborhood, was
also brought up at the last city commission meeting. Original plans called for
Vice President/Secretary
Christina Currie locating the station in the vicinity of SE 8 Street and Federal Highway. Later the city
secretary@riovistaonline.com proposed locating the station at SE 17th Street and Andrews Avenue because they
already had land there for a maintenance facility to service the Wave Streetcar.
Treasurer
Mark Snead The Wave Streetcar is now dead, however, so RVCA, the Downtown Civic
tresurer@riovistaonline.com Association and members of the Fire Bond Committee all opposed this site because
it is too far from where it will be needed most, namely downtown and Rio Vista.
BOARD MEMBERS Because we already owned the land, the city decided to go ahead with their
Bill Boder location. When final approval came up at the last City Commission Meeting on
builderbil@aol.com August 21, I spoke against the proposed 17th Street site. However, in the interest
of time, the commission voted to go ahead with their 17th Street location because
Nancy Messing Brand finding and building on a new site will cause a delay of over a year. The new Fire
nrmessing@aol.com
Chief presented a "before and after" map at the Commission meeting and I want
Sam Koster everyone to realize that even with the new station, areas of Rio Vista still remain in
cksk2002@aol.com
the Orange and Red (unacceptable response time) zones. As a compromise, the
Tom Maus city promised to build a medical EMS-only unit near the tunnel and allocated $3
tom@mausandhoffman.com million towards this. We MUST ensure that this gets built ASAP. With the growth of
population downtown and our neighborhood still waiting, waiting yet another 15
Michael Orlando
mjopa@aol.com years is totally unacceptable.
Eladio Perez Vice Mayor Ben Sorensen and I continue to work together on homelessness in the
peladio2@yahoo.com city. Last week, Ben and I met with County Commissioner Tim Ryan, United Way,
and Broward Health's Community Health Administrator to coordinate our efforts. In
Fred Stresau addition, we have hosted several neighborhood forums to raise awareness of what
stresau@bellsouth.net
is being proposed. Many in attendance feel that the old "County Stockade" could
COUNSEL TO THE BOARD be repurposed as an ideal site to deliver food, services, temporary housing and
Charles Tatelbaum
cmt@trippscott.com
6 6 rio vista civic association • www.riovistaonline.com