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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Correspondence-William J. CastilloMr. William J. Castillo 643 NE 74 Street Miami, FL 33138 September 25, 2008 Sent via FACSIMILE and U.S. Postage Mail Office of Commissioner Marc Sarnoff City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 Dear Commissioner Sarnoff, SUBMITTED INTO THE PUBLIC RECORD FOR ITEM Fz_ON ial_i I�� Ms. Margaret Tynan suggested I contact you about the Vagabond Motel situation and how it affects Belle Meade homes on NE 6th Court. Since 1999, I have owned a home in Belle Meade that is directly catacomer to Mr. Eric Silverman's abandoned motel. Since he purchased his parcel a couple of years ago, it's been a war zone on NE 6th Court. We fought the good fight with the City of Miami Planning Advisory Board (December 2007) and Zoning Board (October 2007) back when Mr. Silverman and some of the leaders of the Belle Meade Homeowner's Association felt it was a grand idea to have his motel property rezoned — from mixed dense residential to commercial. We vehemently opposed that suggestion and only one member of the Advisory Board voted with us. The other advisory board members admonished Mr. Silverman to work with us homeowners. Since then he now knocks at my door when he wants something that will help him. In October 2007 I canvassed the homeowners on NE 6`h Court to appear with me at City Hall before the Advisory Board (please see attached memo to these homeowners). These homeowners were never contacted by the Belle Meade Homeowners Association as to how we felt about the motel property being rezoned. When it came for me to knock on their doors and rally them to oppose the rezoning initiative, they had already given up; they had suffered enough as victims from the "business" being conducted proximal to the motel. I have also suffered from Mr. Silverman's inattentiveness to his property probably because he lives in a safe, luxury home in Broward County — City of Davie. We, on the other hand, have had to stare at the blight during the day that the motel has become and the danger it brings in the thick of night, while Mr. Silverman sleeps safely and peacefully in his home. Mr. Silverman often laments the alleged millions of dollars he has spent on his property. However, from our side of the street, he hasn't even thrown a nickel at the east side of his property, the side that faces our home. The Vagabond Motel is nothing less than a great barrier wall for prostitutes, their clients (i.e. "John's"), drug trafficers and perpetrators of all types of crime. There exists no more ideal place in the Upper East Side than the East Side of Mr. Silverman's property, a topic I have brought to his attention too many times in writing and face to face (please see attached memo to Mr. Silverman). The Vagabond Motel is a de facto barrier to hide crime on NE 6th Court, 1 block east of Biscayne Blvd. I 0 87at-Subrrrta-Corms ondence_ t�Vi��10.V�^i J, Cast iio 08 P In my line of business, as I'm sure with yours, it is incumbent upon entrepreneurs to possess specific tools: e.g. business plans, SWOT Analysis, fiscal responsibility, budgetary spreadsheets, etc. He recently told me he was strapped for money. Lacking practical business sense and market savviness aren't excuses for jeopardizing our residences. Accordingly, he has once again switched dreams and now has decided to run a farmers market instead of the promised restaurant. He came to my door 2 months ago and asked me to sign a petition to support the market at his motel, after garnering 20+ signatures. He told me that the successful farmers market at Legion Park was being moved to his motel. I signed the petition but I was suspicious. Ms. Tynan last week told me that Silverman's farmer market idea will actually compete against the Legion Park market. She now realizes that Mr. Silverman has bamboozled the BM Homeowners Association leadership. My significant other, Andrew J. Tiner, III, and I are fed up with this situation. The fact that Mr. Silverman allows his motel to be a blight, a covered market, for thugs, thieves and dangerous individuals to moonlight behind his property, show complete and utter disregard for us NE 6`h Court homeowners. Although the MiMo Association has fawned over the supposed savior -like qualities of Mr. Silverman by "restoring" the motel building, he has restored nothing. The MiMo Association members don't have to pick up the used condoms, syringes, liquor and beer bottles, etc. that we homeowners must. In fact, no one from the MiMo Association ever asked us homeowners what we thought of the present condition of this infamous piece of parcel. Never have we seen a single one of them out on the street at night to patrol for crime, nor during the day to pick up the evidence from the "dark night activity" provided by the Great Wall of Vagabond. I ask you for your help, as do many of my neighbors. They dare not speak on the record for fear of retribution. Some of them have disabilities preventing them to get involved in such public discourse. Others are so convinced that we are going to lose no matter what we say and do, that they opt to sit behind their closed drapes frightened. Please protect our residential community that is proximal to the Vagabond Motel. Don't let it become like the neighborhood that surrounds Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana, SW 8th Street, or something much worse. As it is, I understand there is a movement to place parking meters on NE 6`h Court. Since many of the "John's" park their cars inside of Belle Meade in front of our homes near NE 6th Court, we are forced to park on NE 6th Court outside of Belle Meade barriers. Do not force us to shoulder the burden of paying to park our cars because prostitutes' clients are parking their cars in front of our homes, thanks to the Vagabond Motel. We want to keep our side of Belle Meade a residential community, and not a dumping station. Sincerely, William J. Castillo & Andrew J. Tiner, HI CC: Ms. Margaret Tynan, President of Belle Meade Homeowner's Association Enc: Memos to Belle Meade Homeowners and Mr. Eric Silverman Submitted Into the public-_ record in connection with item 112- r on {Z-Il -t " Priscilla A. Thompson City Clerk Mr. William J. Castillo 643 NE 74 Street Miami, FL 33138 September 25, 2008 Sent via FACSIMILE and U.S. Postage Mail Office of Commissioner Marc Sarnoff City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 Dear Commissioner Sarnoff, Ms. Margaret Tynan suggested I contact you about the Vagabond Motel situation and how it affects Belle Meade homes on NE 6th Court. Since 1999, I have owned a home in Belle Meade that is directly catacorner to Mr. Eric Silverman's abandoned motel. Since he purchased his parcel a couple of years ago, it's been a war zone on NE 6th Court. We fought the good fight with the City of Miami Planning Advisory Board (December 2007) and Zoning Board (October 2007) back when Mr. Silverman and some of the leaders of the Belle Meade Homeowner's Association felt it was a grand idea to have his motel property rezoned — from mixed dense residential to commercial. We vehemently opposed that suggestion and only one member of the Advisory Board voted with us. The other advisory board members admonished Mr. Silverman to work with us homeowners. Since then he now knocks at my door when he wants something that will help him. In October 2007 I canvassed the homeowners on NE 6'h Court to appear with me at City Hall before the Advisory Board (please see attached memo to these homeowners). These homeowners were never contacted by the Belle Meade Homeowners Association as to how we felt about the motel property being rezoned. When it came for me to knock on their doors and rally them to oppose the rezoning initiative, they had already given up; they had suffered enough as victims from the "business" being conducted proximal to the motel. I have also suffered from Mr. Silverman's inattentiveness to his property probably because he lives in a safe, luxury home in Broward County — City of Davie. We, on the other hand, have had to stare at the blight during the day that the motel has become and the danger it brings in the thick of night, while Mr. Silverman sleeps safely and peacefully in his home. Mr. Silverman often laments the alleged millions of dollars he has spent on his property. However, from our side of the street, he hasn't even thrown a nickel at the east side of his property, the side that faces our home. The Vagabond Motel is nothing less than a great barrier wall for prostitutes, their clients (i.e. "John's"), drug trafficers and perpetrators of all types of crime. There exists no more ideal place in the Upper East Side than the East Side of Mr. Silverman's property, a topic I have brought to his attention too many times in writing and face to face (please see attached memo to Mr. Silverman). The Vagabond Motel is a de facto barrier to hide crime on NE 6th Court, 1 block east of Biscayne Blvd. Submitted Into the public recor in connection with itemYz6 on 12_ll-0( Priscilla A. Thompson City Clerk In my line of business, as I'm sure with yours, it is incumbent upon entrepreneurs to possess specific tools: e.g. business plans, SWOT Analysis, fiscal responsibility, budgetary spreadsheets, etc. He recently told me he was strapped for money. Lacking practical business sense and market savviness aren't excuses for jeopardizing our residences. Accordingly, he has once again switched dreams and now has decided to run a farmers market instead of the promised restaurant. He came to my door 2 months ago and asked me to sign a petition to support the market at his motel, after garnering 20+ signatures. He told me that the successful farmers market at Legion Park was being moved to his motel. I signed the petition but I was suspicious. Ms. Tynan last week told me that Silverman's farmer market idea will actually compete against the Legion Park market. She now realizes that Mr. Silverman has bamboozled the BM Homeowners Association leadership. My significant other, Andrew J. Tiner, III, and I are fed up with this situation. The fact that Mr. Silverman allows his motel to be a blight, a covered market, for thugs, thieves and dangerous individuals to moonlight behind his property, show complete and utter disregard for us NE 6`h Court homeowners. Although the MiMo Association has fawned over the supposed savior -like qualities of Mr. Silverman by "restoring" the motel building, he has restored nothing. The MiMo Association members don't have to pick up the used condoms, syringes, liquor and beer bottles, etc. that we homeowners must. In fact, no one from the MiMo Association ever asked us homeowners what we thought of the present condition of this infamous piece of parcel. Never have we seen a single one of them out on the street at night to patrol for crime, nor during the day to pick up the evidence from the "dark night activity" provided by the Great Wall of Vagabond. I ask you for your help, as do many of my neighbors. They dare not speak on the record for fear of retribution. Some of them have disabilities preventing them to get involved in such public discourse. Others are so convinced that we are going to lose no matter what we say and do, that they opt to sit behind their closed drapes frightened. Please protect our residential community that is proximal to the Vagabond Motel. Don't let it become like the neighborhood that surrounds Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana, SW 8'h Street, or something much worse. As it is, I understand there is a movement to place parking meters on NE 6th Court. Since many of the "John's" park their cars inside of Belle Meade in front of our homes near NE 6th Court, we are forced to park on NE 6th Court outside of Belle Meade barriers. Do not force us to shoulder the burden of paying to park our cars because prostitutes' clients are parking their cars in front of our homes, thanks to the Vagabond Motel. We want to keep our side of Belle Meade a residential community, and not a dumping station. Sincerely, William J. Castillo & Andrew J. Tiner, III CC: Ms. Margaret Tynan, President of Belle Meade Homeowner's Association Enc: Memos to Belle Meade Homeowners and Mr. Eric Silverman Submitted Into the public recur in connection with item K25 on 12-II40 ' Priscilla A. Thompson 1.fedi Mr. William J. Castillo Mr. Andrew J. Tiner, III 643 NE 74 Street Miami, FL 33138 December 1, 2007 Mr. Eric Silverman 7300 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 33138 Dear Eric, Andrew and I will not be able to attend your meeting today. Andrew's grandmother is on life- support systems at the hospital, and he and his family are gathered around her bedside, 24/7 trying to make her comfortable before she expires. We hope you understand that we are not rejecting your gracious offer to gather together with us on the rezoning of your property. It's just that the timing right now isn't good for us given this recent development. Andrew and I are very encouraged that you have taken an interest in responding to our pleas about crime on the street that abuts our properties, namely NE 6 Court. We remain concerned, Th however, that the re -designation of your Vagabond Motel property to commercial zoning will bring, as the City of Miami staff members of the Planning Advisory and Zoning Boards put it, a "negative impact, a domino effect and intrusion to our residential community". We hope to meet with you in one or two weeks to discuss further this situation. Regards, William & Andrew Submitted Into the public record in connection with item KZ 5 on12-11-0cd Priscilla A. Thompson -4t1 Clerk Dear Belle Meade Neighbor, October 1, 2007 Please help us fight this initiative. Please attend the public hearing this Wednesday October 3, 2007 @ 7 PM, after completing & submitting your opinion card that the City of Miami sent all of us homeowners (see attached) either in person or via FAX (305) 416-2035 We have also written a letter to the City of Miami (attached). Please consider writing your own letter or, at the very least, sending your completed opinion card by 1 PM on Wednesday, and then appearing at the Hearing at 7 PM We look forward to seeing you then. Thank you!!! William Castillo & Andrew Tiner 643 NE 74 Street Belle Meade Dear Belle Meade Neighbor, October 1, 2007 Please help us fight this initiative. Please attend the public hearing this Wednesday October 3, 2007 @ 7 PM, after completing & submitting your opinion card that the City of Miami sent all of us homeowners (see attached) either in person or via FAX (305) 416-2035 We have also written a letter to the City of Miami (attached). Please consider writing your own letter or, at the very least, sending your completed opinion card by 1 PM on Wednesday, and then appearing at the Hearing at 7 PM We look forward to seeing you then. Thank you!!! William Castillo & Andrew Tiner 643 NE 74 Street Belle Meade Submitted Into the public record in connection with item KZ 5 on 2-I I - Priscilla A. Thompson City Clerk Submitted Into the public record in connection with item ; on diI U �5 Priscilla A. Thompson City Clerk