Author: Noreen Marcus
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Fort Lauderdale DDA’s decline: from nurturing the rise of the city’s center to installing a mural on a city parking garage
By Noreen Marcus
FloridaBulldog.org
A bill to prolong Fort Lauderdale’s downtown taxing district for 20 years beyond its 2030 expiration date failed this legislative session. Expect another try in Tallahassee, though critics wonder why the Downtown Development Authority is still around after 54 years. -
Taboo-busting case pits Fort Lauderdale bankruptcy judge vs higher federal courts
By Noreen Marcus
FloridaBulldog.org -
A Streetcar Named Devour: Downtown Fort Lauderdale officials invested over $18M in quiet bet on WAVE ‘Loop’ they pushed
By Noreen Marcus
FloridaBulldog.org
Downtown Development Authority board members Alan Hooper and Tim Petrillo invested more than $18 million in real estate beside or near a planned “Loop” route along North Andrews Avenue at the northern WAVE terminus, near high-end Flagler Village. The timing of those deals raises concerns about a possible conflict of interest that was not made public. -
Has developer-dominated Fort Lauderdale DDA taxing district outlived its usefulness?
By Noreen Marcus
FloridaBulldog.org
Republican State Rep. Chip LaMarca, wants to extend the life of the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority until 2050. DDA critics are not happy. -
White property owners get full refunds for streetcar snafu, black community’s CRA takes hit
By Noreen Marcus
FloridaBulldog.org
Fort Lauderdale killed the controversial Wave streetcar in May and earlier this month the city announced that about $10 million in tax refund checks will go out on Feb. 1 to downtown property owners who paid a special tax to help build it. But a local agency created to clean up slum and blight that also kicked in heavily will up to $3 million hit. -
Who were pedophile Epstein and prosecutor Acosta protecting with ‘bizarre’ deal?
By Noreen Marcus and Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org
The secret deal that lawyers for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein struck with then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta a decade ago did much more than protect the disgraced billionaire from an extended prison term. It also shut down a South Florida grand jury probe that could have reached to others in Epstein’s international sex-trafficking ring.
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