A flop

I like Busy  Signal, but being bored for an hour or two waiting for him to come on stage, is not my idea of an afternoon well spent!

Tamarac is well known and respected by adjoining cities for it's excellent festivals.  

But this was not one.

To begin, it was not held in one of the usual spacious parks, but in an chucked- up area where they have established an amphitheater. This place is so small that you immediately start to feel claustrophobic the minute you get there. 

Most of the people I saw there did not appear to even be patrons, but workers, volunteers,  vendors, security personnel etc. Up to when I left after a boring 90 minutes, the attendance was really poor. Obviously, unlike me, most people knew what to expect, so they stayed away!

Apart from using this, small inadequate place, there were no chairs available and to add insult to injury, we were prevented from bringing our own folding chairs on the shuttle bus!

There were lots of food trucks offering the usual wide range of delicious dishes they usually offer right there on the last Friday of every month, but wine? I only saw one small table offering tasting of the cheap, bad tasting boxed wines.

 Yuck.🤑

I hope those who paid $85 to attend got a better quality of wine to taste.

Stage and sparsely supported VIP area.

The entire affair was not only badly planned but also boring, for although there was background music being played by a DJ, I saw no other form of entertainment after spending more than an hour and a half there.

And I was not the only one who left early, disappointed at the offering, as there was a steady stream exiting, most  leaving with the food they bought.

And many grumbled.

Crowded sidewalk but noting spectacular happening. Mostly vendors.

Sparse attendance.

Before leaving I made sure to call a friend from Miramar whom I had encouraged to attend, to tell her not to bother wasting her gas to come up, as this festival was nowhere close to the standard of Tamarac festivals which we all love so much and enjoy.

Yup, in my book, this one was a big flop.

Battle of the posters

For decades, American leaders have been tramping all over the world and touting their democracy, even on occasion, waging wars on others they say are not walking down the same path!

However, in recent times, the hypocrisy and madness that passes for democracy in that country has been exposed for all to see.

A sea of posters of unknown people at Tamarac Library

For, indeed, the emperor has no clothes.

While the Donald Trump fiasco has played out for the world to see and the sickening polarization which stops all progress at the federal level dominates, even at the important local level, what is passing for politics is somewhat discombobulating.

But it seems that is what the voters want.

But in my book, if your city is not properly run, your entire existence can be difficult if not impossible.

It is in Tamarac where I currently reside where I have seen a kind of bureaucratic madness at the local level that would make all other administrations throughout the world appear to be super-efficient.

This involved the department that is in charge of building permits.

In this instance, a condo association was given a run around for seven months, to get the approval to repair a small 2x4 opening in a condo.

Yup, SEVEN MONTHS!

That’s probably the time it would take to get approval to build an entire complex or a duplex in an efficient municipality!

It’s this kind of madness at the local level why people need to be conscious and vigilant about who they elect to run the affairs of their city.

I don’t know if Tamarac City has a staff shortage in the building permit department, but it certainly couldn’t be because they have a shortage of funds to hire adequate staff. For they charge so much for a permit and you need one to do the simplest thing on the very inside of your condo.

I can see why this happens though, as clearly those who are running for office in this municipality do not take their jobs seriously. Most don’t even bother to try and meet their constituents and find out what their concerns are.😡

All they all seem to do is to depend on posters to convince people to vote for them! 

I am new to this city and for the upcoming election, only one candidate bothered to visit to tell my household about himself and answer questions. Two others sent around informational material, but look at the hordes of posters of persons unknown, asking constituents to vote for them!

I guess it works for them though, for most people seem to vote according to party, not for candidate they know from information gathered, will do the best job.

So, when they fail to perform, we the voters can only put the blame on the posters, not ourselves.

No wonder we get such underperformance at the city level.