Colonial / Fairway Estates

 

                          

 Early risers may have been astonished, as we were, last Sunday morning, August 10, to see several blocks of Colonial Drive (SW 160 St) being chopped to pieces. The rotting top surface of the street from   SW 112 Ave eastward to SW 107 Avenue was being removed  (milled).

This was  the kickoff for a roadway restoration project sponsored by MDC District 9  Commissioner Kionne McGhee.  Eventually, the old roadway will be repaved and repainted all the way from SW 112 Avenue east to US 1. This  is a very notable achievement as the majority of this 2.3 mile long main street had not been resurfaced for fifty years.

The Colonial /Fairway Estates Civic Association, as well as individual residents, had been lobbying for this improvement about six years.  We used the forum afforded us by the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for MDPD Cutler District (now under the Sheriff’s Office).

In August 2023, representatives from MDC Public Works met with us and agreed that Colonial Drive was in pretty bad shape due potholes or weathered trenching and needed to be formally included in a projects list.  Three months later (see October 2022 news story at https://fairwayestateshoa.com/holy-moly-colonial-drive-has-been-repainted/ )   yellow and white painted road markings were redone and reflectors were  placed in the middle line.  This made the driving experience a much safer one especially at night.

 

As we file this report, the first section of roadway chipped out  (milled) last Sunday (SW 112 to SW 107 Aves) has now been resurfaced with new asphalt and fully painted with appropriate lane/directional  markings.  Milling of old road surface has now been completed eastward to SW 95-96 Avenues  and will be next in line for new asphalt application when appropriate.

 

Completion of this project is expected by early September.  In the meantime, residents and visitors who use our main street are cautioned to drive very carefully in the sections where top surface has been removed and the roadway is essentially an unmarked  gravel passageway.  Residents in streets adjacent to Colonial Drive are also cautioned that there may be unusual traffic on their streets from vehicles temporarily diverted away from Colonial Drive due to restoration activities.

The latest cost estimate data we received from MDC for this restoration work  was dated :    Dec 2023;   cost $613,000   ;  Project 20240291 – WO #3

ATTENTION ALBERT REY, MIAMI-DADE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT (DTPW)

July 1, 2024

Dear Mr. Rey:

Reference the below 6-24-24 e-mail and attachments, I have been partially disabled for about a week and thereby prevented from giving you an update on recent streetlight outages on Fairway Heights Boulevard.

Both on the night of June 27 and tonight July 1, I observed that all but one of the seven AT&T-related streetlight outages has been remedied.

The remaining outed pole is on the northbound Boulevard just south of SW 102 Ave intersection. It is on the Boulevard side of a residence at 15472 SW 102 Avenue — TLN # 8-6244-2403

I am hoping that DTPW / AT&T engineers can quickly locate the remaining underground problem and get this important streetlight functioning soon.

Thanking you and Mr. Navarro and your Public Works staffs for your perseverance in getting our community’s lighting working again. Based on work I did for years in helping FPL with their outages, I know some situations can be very tricky and frustrating to deal with.

Best regards,

Robert Holley
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association

UPDATE ON STREETLIGHT OUTAGE– FAIRWAY HEIGHTS BOULEVARD

May 31, 2024

Since our NextDoor posting on May 23, we have determined the following about the major streetlight outage on Fairway Heights Boulevard in the Fairway Estates/Colonial Drive community:

(1) There are at least SIX tall overhead streetlights that are OUT in a space of just three blocks at the north entrance to our community; a 4-lane roadway is without any illumination. This is 25% of the total lighting capacity of the Boulevard (26 lights)

(2) Miami-Dade County Public Works, NOT FPL, is responsible for maintenance of these lights and repairs to them when necessary.

(3) This dangerous outage has been going on for TWO WHOLE MONTHS NOW, not for a few weeks as we previously thought. It is the County’s position that the outage was caused by the negligence of a third party contractor which allegedly damaged the underground electric feeds to the subject poles

It has taken some time for the County and the contractor to agree on what the best way should be to repair the damage and make sure there will be a permanent repair. The solution is to lay down a whole new conduit system rather than try to look for individual breaks; Once that is done, electric wire will be pulled thru the new conduits and connected to the unlit poles.

All this conduit reconstruction has taken up some time but is near completion. Currently, according to May 31 Public Works estimate, the rewiring will be completed and tested by June 15. All the lights should
be back on by that date.

Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association

A few days ago, some residents in the west-central part of the community received the below postal mailing from the Miami-Dade Department of Public Works and Transportation.

The County has abruptly announced that SW 107 Avenue is to be four-laned from SW 184 Street northward to SW 160 Street. No hint of the reasoning behind such an atrocious idea. There are currently no traffic tie-ups on
SW 107 Avenue like the ones on our east-west streets– SW 152, 160 and 168 imposed on us by the County’s poor planning, bowing to greedy developers. and Busway/ Metrorail mismanagement.

So now the “planners” want the heart of our residential community to be pierced by a 4-lane thruway that will connect, in a school zone, to a section of roadway called Fairway Heights Boulevard. While already four-laned, the Boulevard is not at all safe for the traffic flow it has today. It is not a typical straight-line N-S roadway. Its
curves and blind spots keep all nearby 75+ residents in absolute terror of the speedsters. There has already been a fatality due to recklessness.

And, of course, one has to wonder what is supposed to happen to the new SW 107/Boulevard traffic flow once it reaches SW 152 Street. Bridge over the C-100 Canal ???

Viewed in the context of long-needed street maintenance (e.g., resurfacing of most of our major streets – SW 160 Street, SW 99, 102, 104, and 109 Avenues). this 4-laning proposal is really an insult to this community.

To make matters more interesting, the MDC Transportation folks have been so kind as to schedule a virtual “Zoom session,” during dinner hours, in a holiday venue (6:30 p.m. November 30) to “discuss” this nonsense. Registration is required to participate in the “Zoom session.”

We urge all folks who are computer-smart to register for the Zoom session, but in the meantime, we also urge EVERYONE to bombard the County Mayor’s office ( Mayor@miamidade.gov, 305-375-5071) and the office of your District 8-9 Commissioners (district9@miamidade.gov, Kionne.McGhee@miamidade.gov ;305-375-4832 ; district8@miamidade.gov; 305-375-5218 ) with e-mails and phone calls objecting to this 4-laning proposal AND the way it has been announced.

Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association

register for 4-laning Zoom Session at :
https://miamidade.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4WBk9aX4SVelLfTNGgB8KQ

 

The Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association is very pleased to announce that seven years of lobbying Miami-Dade County have finally paid off.

Starting in Fall 2015, we used the MDPD Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) to bring to the attention of the County the serious fading of center line and road edge markings on our main streets. Over the years, markings got repainted on roadways like SW 112 Avenue and SW 107 Avenue, and on a short section of SW 160 Street in our business area, but the majority of Colonial Drive (SW 96 Avenue west to SW 112 Avenue) was passed up.

More recently, starting last year, the requests for roadway repainting were elevated to a request for complete resurfacing, something that has not been done for decades. These requests were voiced in several CAC meetings and through e-mail communications to our MDC District 9 Commissioner Kionne McGhee. We had been receiving considerable querying from the community asking why Congress-approved Federal “infrastructure” funds were being allotted to TransitWay and bike path projects but not to the main streets that we have to drive on each day.

In August, our CAC meeting was visited by a team from Miami-Dade Public Works, which gave us an acknowledgment that Colonial Drive was in very poor condition and needed repaving. They also gave us an excellent PowerPoint presentation, that showed us the status of local roadway projects, as well as information on the South Dade TransitWay Project. See:

https://www.miamidade.gov/global/transportation/public-works/construction-projects.page

and

https://www.miamidade.gov/global/transportation/smart-plan-south-dade-transit-way-corridor.page

The bottom line is that badly deteriorating Colonial Drive will get resurfaced, but probably not this year. Federal money has not yet filtered down to the local level, and some of the nearby projects we now see in progress have actually been in the planning stages for a few years. In the interim, at least we will have the benefit of the repainted markings to tell us where the Colonial Drive roadway is. This is particularly important at night as oldsters struggle with the inadequate illumination situation FPL imposed on us with their installation of bogus LED street lighting.

We wish to thank all involved in enabling the roadway repainting project—the Commissioner’s Office, MDC Public Works, and particularly the MDPD CAC for giving us a forum for lobbying for a safer community. The latter group meets at Cutler Ridge MDPD Station #4, 6 p.m., the second Monday of each month, and welcomes resident attendance and input on crime, traffic, and quality of life issues. [If second Monday is holiday, CAC meeting is on third Monday.]

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association

A week ago (Apr 17), various local media reported on a grisly murder that had supposedly happened in or near a parking garage at “The Falls” Shopping Center in southwest Miami-Dade.. victim was found burned beyond recognition by MDC Fire Department.

Following the very brief Apr 17 news stories, which received recognition even out-of-state, there apparently has not been a peep of information from local authorities about the facts of this event.

Needless to say, absence of follow-up information is causing significant apprehension to people who frequent or live in the subject shopping area, and to those who must park in local parking garages.

Homicide often must withhold detailed information to insure proper investigation and successful prosecution of a criminal, but, for their protection, the community needs to know some basics.

If anyone out there (where is the press?) has basic facts about this event: victim’s sex, age, residence, or crime circumstances: time, actual place of demise, investigation progress, etc., it’s really time to tell the public.

As Dragnet’s Sgt. Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Robert Holley
Colonial CRIME WATCH
www.FairwayEstatesHOA.com

posted to Nextdoor social media app – 4/23/2022

A bit tardy reporting on this, but on March 5 the Miami Herald published a news story on the proposed renaming of our Colonial Drive Elementary School — see

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article258984318.html

This is a well-written,  informative article except for the fact that the subject school is NOT geographically within what most now recognize as Richmond Heights.

… which may really say something about whether the school name should be changed at all — this is the Colonial Drive / Fairway Estates Community !

It’s also revealing that there seems to be quite a bit of contention among the various groups that are proposing a new name; we guess maybe that’s what made this renaming saga pretty hard to follow up to now.

Toward the end of January 2022, we received rumors that a group of students’ parents were proposing a change to the name of Colonial Drive Elementary School. A meeting was held at that school on the evening of February 10 to discuss the proposal.

Unfortunately, because of the Covid-19 scare, we were unable to attend that meeting. After some investigation, however, we have discovered that on March 3 at least two names will be submitted to the Miami-Dade County School Board for its consideration in renaming the school.

The names are:

(1) Johnnie Mae Parris Marsan (1933-2007), a distinguished African American civil-rights organizer and activist, who led the campaign in 1965-66 for having Colonial Drive Elementary School being built in its present location. Further information about Ms. Parris’ part in the history of Colonial Drive Elementary is available at: https://johnniemparrisfoundation.splashthat.com/

(2) Albert E. Dotson, Sr. (1938-2021), a well known businessman, entrepreneurial and higher education supporter— he was the first African American store manager in the history of Sears, Roebuck & Co., the first African American president of the Orange Bowl Committee, and a member Emeritus of the Florida International University Board
of Trustees.

At the end of June, our civic association discovered four large ALDI’s shopping carts blocking a sidewalk in front of a vacant home at 16211 SW 102 Court. We first filed a complaint with Miami-Dade Code Enforcement.

Then, as a courtesy, on July 22, we messaged ALDI’s corporate “Customer Service” comment board (which promised a quick reply – Case # 2414123) giving them the stolen carts’ address as well as the location of what we considered to be the nearest ALDi’s market at 15033 So Dixie Hwy. We noted that the carts were probably worth a few hundred dollars, and the company could avoid paperwork with the County if they would just have their local store pick them up.

Unfortunately, none of these local “markets” have phone numbers – the only way to do formal business with ALDI’s is through their private messaging service .

The carts are still there on the right-of-way so we tried in person to bring this to attention of the local store on the So. Dixie Highway. There, we were greeted by a very rude employee who refused to produce a manager or to even to glance at our photos of the carts or take down a retrieval address.. “Not our problem,” she said. “This is a corporate matter.”

Well, now it is a *COMMUNITY* problem. It does not appear that this business has any regard for its customers who live nearby, or any sense of responsibility for their property littering our streets.

Please, please CONSIDER SHOPPING SOMEWHERE ELSE !

You won’t be sorry.

 

Last fall, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) painted our 1.5 mile subdivision wall on the south side of Coral Reef Drive (SW 152 Street)– with the exception of an entranceway section at SW 102 Avenue that did not immediately face the State roadway.

We need 4-5 gallons of BRIGHT WHITE OUTDOOR paint to complete this beautification project. If you have any leftover paint or would like to help us with a $$$ contribution, please e-mail to fehacw@gmail.com

Last fall, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) painted our 1.5 mile subdivision wall on the south side of SW 152 Street– with the exception of about twenty feet around a bus shelter at about 9814-24 SW 152 Street.

Ten days ago, on a painting expedition, our civic association discovered the very good reason for the missing twenty feet — THERE IS A VERY ACTIVE HORNETS’ NEST IN THE WALL NEAR THE EAST SIDE OF THE SHELTER.

Our hazard notifications to Miami-Dade (3-1-1 and RER Code Enforcement) have gone largely unanswered, so we feel it incumbent to tell the public—unless you have an immunity to hornet stings, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS SHELTER !!

You might also want to call the County Mayor ( 305-375-5071 ) and County Commissioners Danielle Higgins (305-375-5218 ) and Kionne McGhee ( 305-375-4832 ) to ask them why this threat to the public is not immediately removed.

**********

Thursday afternoon (8/5) pass-by of transit shelter indicates that there has been an attempt to eradicate the hornets’ nest. Please use caution until we can verify that it has been destroyed !

Monday afternoon (8/9), we heard officially from District 8 Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins’ office that the hornets nest has been removed. We wish to thank her staff and all others involved in the expeditious elimination of this hazard !

On the morning of November 4, I had a surprise call from Mr. Wayman Bannerman, Chief of Staff for County Commissioner Moss, who informed me that someone was painting the 1.5 mile long subdivision wall that faces out to the south side of SW 152 Street (Coral Reef Drive) from SW 112 Avenue east to SW 98th Avenue.

Many of you may remember that our Civic Association spearheaded two projects to paint that wall– one solo project in 1991-2 (including extensive 1993 repairs after Hurricane Andrew), and again in 2006 with the help of Commissioner Moss and TEAM METRO.

Unfortunately, our loss of membership and financial support since the “Great Recession” has prevented us from participating in another project. Remarkably, the price of paint alone has about doubled in 14 years.

But, what was slowly becoming an ugly mess is now once again a beautiful sight to behold. We have not yet determined exactly how all of this has come about, but the best information we currently have is that this is a beautification project of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

There is one small section of the wall, about 150 feet, that has not been repainted because it faces out to Fairway Heights Boulevard rather than SW 152 Street at our community entrance-way at SW 102 Avenue.

We are going to make inquiries with adjacent property holders and other interested parties to see that this section is attractively painted. If you would like to participate in this effort, (labor, $$$, whatever), please contact us at our e-mail address.

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc
fehacw@gmail.com

5 p.m., Wednesday, November 11… Eta, Eta, Couldn’t You Just Go Away??

Excerpted from “Weather Insider”  https://fairwayestateshoa.com/weather-insider/

To catch up with our devious little friend Eta, upon crossing over Cuba on Monday, the tropical storm never regained quite enough strength to become a hurricane until it moved past the Lower Keys. The very broad center crossed over the Keys just west of Marathon, just as predicted, but most of the bad weather occured way up in Broward County, which got caught up in its spiral feeder bands that dropped more than a foot of rain in places. Most of the strongest winds also occured in those spiral bands. We only had a bit over 5 inches of rain in our station in Perrine. Half that amount occurred in just two hours, when we sat under our own spiral band.

After Eta moved off into the Gulf of Mexico late Monday, it stayed stationary for a short time and then started moving slowly northward. It regained enough strength to be declared a hurricane for a very brief time early this morning. Then, to add to the serious mischief, its projected track, over 48 hours changed radically from projected landfall in the central Florida Panhandle, to landfall just north of Tampa. As we speak Eta, is back to tropical storm status (sustained winds 39-73 mph) and is expected to make landfall tomorrow morning between Cedar Creek and Crystal River, FL.

As Eta moves northward off the Florida West Coast tonight, Miami-Dade may again be caught up in some of its spiral bands and experience heavy rain and wind gusts in periodic squalls.

If Eta acts completely as expected … DO NOT relax… What is to possibly be Tropical Storm Iota is currently forming up south of Puerto Rico !!

Stay tuned to the “Weather Insider” for the latest in tropical storm information and forecasts.

***************************************************************************

 

Excerpted from “Weather Insider”  https://fairwayestateshoa.com/weather-insider/

 

6 a.m., Sunday, November 8, 2020 … Tropical Storm Eta Still A Threat For South Florida..

The latest forecasting models (4 a.m.) have moved the projected track of Tropical Storm Eta even more to the southwest– over the lower Keys, or even a bit south of them– but, as a precaution, Miami-Dade County, the Broward coast, and the Keys are now under a Hurricane Watch. All of Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, and Monroe Counties are under a Tropical Storm Warning, These counties should also be alert to the possibility of tornados late Sunday through Monday.

Fortunately, for now, the storm is being affected by vigorous shear which tilts it vertically and interferes with its energy production. Eta is currently crossing over the south coast of Cuba, and interaction with land may also keep it weakened. Once it gets back over the  warm water of the Florida Straits and heads northwestward toward the Keys, however, it may restrengthen.

Our vantage point is that while ETA’s sustained winds may not reach full hurricane strength (excess of 74 mph), they may pound us in squalls for 10-14 hours; this is similar to the long duration of tropical storm conditions we experienced three years ago in Hurricane Irma.

Also, heavy rainfall of 6-10 inches, which could continue into Tuesday, will cause severe local flooding and cannot be good for tree loss owing to ground which is already saturated from late October rains.

Please complete severe storm preparations and secure needed supplies during Sunday morning as winds and rain will increase quickly as the day wears on. Tropical storm conditions in mainland South Miami-Dade (sustained winds 35-50+ mph) will prevail Sunday night and much of Monday.

Stay tuned to the “Weather Insider” ( https://fairwayestateshoa.com/weather-insider/ ) for  the latest in tropical storm information and forecasts.

***************************************************************************

 

[below is most recent correspondence with Comcast]

 

FROM: Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association <fehacw@gmail.com>

TO: Marta Casas-Celaya Comcast Corp.

SUBJ: Re: Dangerous Comcast Utility Boxes

Thu, May 14, 2:52 PM

Dear Ms. Casas-Celaya:

I am responding to your e-mail of May 11 regarding break-ins to Comcast utility boxes in the public right-of-way.

Since the time of that communication, there have been TWO MORE boxes broken open, and that intrusion left their electrified contents needlessly exposed to passers-by.

The first incursion, as I reported to you in an e-mail on May 12, was at 15601 SW 104 Avenue. It occurred during Monday night-Tuesday morning May 11-12. The second incursion that I discovered early Wednesday morning occurred Tuesday-Wednesday morning, May 12-13. It was at the very same address 15601 SW 104 Avenue and was made to a box right next to the first one.

You may remember that your below e-mail, was a reply to our report to you that the reporting website you had furnished us earlier was not a very effective means for an average citizen to report damaged equipment to COMCAST. We tried that out on Monday afternoon, and an hour long very negative experience was the result. I should mention that after FINALLY being able to “chat” report two locations with open boxes (SW 112 Ave @ SW 166 Ter and 10790 SW 160 St) in that website encounter, we were promised a status call back by 5:02 P.M., Tuesday, May 12. After all that chatting on the website, (1) we never received any call-back, and (2) The reported box near to 10790 SW 160 St, adjoining an elementary school public sidewalk, which needed all of five minutes attention, was only partially dealt with Wednesday, and that was by sheer happenstance!

Now, as a result of that website reporting failure, you are strongly recommending to us that we try another means of reporting– namely your general reporting telco number 1-800-COMCAST. We had mentioned in reporting the inadequacy of the website that we tried using that 1-800-COMCAST number way back in February 2018 and found it to be severely lacking.

You apologized for what you termed an encounter “with a a poorly trained or inexperienced representative” and said that ” I will bring that to the attention of our training department and can only suggest calling back and speaking with another representative or requesting a supervisor should that happen that again.”

You went on to say that you didn’t know about what telephone number we had been given out in Feb 2018, “but directory assistance or online search engines readily generate 1-800-COMCAST as the number of record for our company. So, the general public also instinctively dials 1-800-COMCAST, as you did, for anything Comcast related.” “That has been and continues to be the proven and effective way for citizens and customers to report damaged Comcast equipment.”

Well, madam, that is EXACTLY, the instinct that we used in February 2018 . We called your wonderful 1-800-COMCAST number and discovered after a half hour of nonsense that it was an abject failure. The second number we were finally furnished was supposedly a number for your so-called Public Relations Department. Despite having a repair ticket #, numerous calls to that number were ALSO an abject failure. No one ever answered the calls, and a voice-mail promised call back never occurred.

As I promised you in our e-mail to you Tuesday morning, I offered to be the guinea pig for trying out the 1-800-COMCAST reporting scheme again– to report the first box incursion at 15601 SW 104 Avenue. I was on the phone, or waiting for a call back, for 53 minutes. After trying to wade through your VRU, which has no recognition for words like “emergency” or “hazard” or “agent” to get attention, I was finally (by chance I guess) put into an agent queue, which turned out to be 18-27 minutes long. I elected for a call-back which I received 23 minutes later. I was then connected to an agent “Liv” to whom I tried to explain my hazardous box problem.

Well, Liv has a script which requires her to associate any reporting only to the street address of the caller, who (by virtue of his/her telephone) is assumed to be a Comcast customer, In a conversation which very closely paralleled the Feb 2018 experience, and the recent experience of other callers, it was obvious that I was not going to get anywhere reporting a hazard address to this agent. I believe she probably did understand finally what I was trying to report, but she absolutely declined to take a hazard location report. She insisted I would have to have someone come to my address. I do not need or want anyone at my address; I can hardly walk out to my gate. I want someone to go to the COMCAST hazard location AND FIX THE PROBLEM !!

The conversation did get rather heated when I repeatedly asked her to  connect me with a supervisor and she declined. I apologized to her for her being put in a position that she was not trained to handle. Finally, she did offer to connect me, and after another ten minutes or so, I was connected to supervisor “Fernando.” He was very accommodating, but explained that he was totally unfamiliar with the notion of customers trying to call into the 1-800-COMCAST number to report broken, hazardous COMCAST equipment. He stated that if COMCAST management had asked customers to call in that way, he would have to retrain all his agents to act appropriately He, the supervisor, FINALLY took down the location of the badly damaged equipment.

So, in spite another bizarre encounter with your company, which I don’t believe any average reporter (especially a non-customer) would have tolerated, I felt at least that I had succeeded in reporting a hazard address.

Well, I was wrong, Upon my return from grocery shopping, at about 4 p.m., Wednesday, I had a large Comcast utility van at my driveway. Driver wanted to know what/where my problem was. He had no idea whatsoever of what had been discussed in the 53 minute 1-800-COMCAST call. (Driver IDs: FL tag # GCQ 902; truck #s E1918; 11400.

I led him a block away to the now **TWO** ravaged boxes, which he was totally unfamiliar with (he thought they belonged to AT&T) . He did listen to my story as I related to him that I had earlier been on scene with an MDPD investigator (their investigation showed that it was very likely that batteries had been stolen from the boxes on successive nights). He took some photos, he noted the address, etc., and we moved on to the problem box near to 10790 SW 160 Street. That is a newly fashioned utility box which was installed the night of May 7 to replace an old one that had been vandalized . The new box unfortunately was broken into within a few days. I showed your technician how the box door had been jimmied open (MDPD concurrence) and possibly a battery removed. After several attempts, he managed to wedge the door back into the opening, but I doubt that it will stay put.  It should be revisited.

So now, madam, to protect our citizens, and to assist Comcast from being the victim of what seems, to us anyway, to be RAMPANT crime, we have spent quite a bit more of our time trying to get along with you folks. I am frankly very weary of this effort. My overall, 26-month-old impression of Comcast is for certain that “the left hand has absolutely no idea what the right hand is doing” and my suspicion, as far as the public is concerned, you really don’t give a damn.

I might add here that your interpretation of the word “widespread,” when referring to the frequency of box burglaries, differs very considerably from ours. It also differs significantly from what local law enforcement is reporting. I might also note that only three out of the seven most recently reported incidents occurred in “our neighborhood.” The others were reported as a courtesy to your company and to adjoining communities.

I might also note that the design of your new control boxes, while very aesthetic, is an invitation to pilfering. The box door can be jimmied open in an instant by any ten year old with a screwdriver.

We are not going to try out any more of your hazard reporting schemes. What you have offered to the public as a reporting mechanism clearly does not work– even for a Comcast customer.

If you do not ASAP affix decals to your electrified, public-facing equipment, identifying your company and providing a 24×7 accessible emergency number, to report hazard addresses, then we are going to be forced to seek legal remedies to have your equipment ** REMOVED** from our public right-of-ways.

Sincerely yours,

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc.

******************************************************************************

FROM: Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association

SUBJ: Re: Comcast Utility Boxes — More Boxes Vandalized !

TO: Marta Casas-Celaya Comcast Corp.

Tue, May 12, 12:15 AM

Hello Ms Casas-Celaya:

I did not expect to be back to you this soon, but I had to do some
banking around noon time on Monday, and en route I discovered that
two of the seven new control boxes that Comcast installed last
Thursday have already been broken into. The doors are ajar and are
in one case lying on the ground.

The intrusions (photos attached) are at:

(1) west side of SW 112 Ave @ 166 Terrace, and

(2) north side of SW 160 St opposite to res at 10790 160 Street.

Upon close inspection, I think it is obvious now why box doors
are found intact but dislodged. The doors have two metal latches
which may be easily displaced by wedging a screwdriver or knife
between the door and the door frame. This allows the door
then to be pulled open without any problem at all. I have
close-up photos of the jimmy marks. Since the latch lock is never
opened, the door will not go back into the opening because
the unlocked latches stick out and prevent the door from easily
being inserted into the opening.

This finding did give me the opportunity to test out the web site
that you recommended. I entered my on-line Comcast account
information (apparently, you can’t just provide a paper account #,
you also have to have opened an on-line account). Then, you have
to patiently try out different things to get a human ‘Chat’ agent.
Then, you are asked for your name, address, and social security’s last
four, which seems entirely redundant since you already logged-in.

I was finally able to report the problem boxes to an Emelyn
from 1547 to 1702 hours, but she did not appear to have any
pre-training or communications capability to easily handle such
hazard/vandalism reporting:

————————

Emelyn:
“Alright. Still finding on what can I do with your report
since I don’t have access to telephone here. I am only handling
chats and we should report this issue to our security team.
I am also coordinating with my colleagues. Please stay on
the line.”

ROBERT HOLLEY SR 4:28:35 PM
“well, you should know that your Director for External Affairs
Ms. Marta Casa-Celaya has identified this site to us to be the
place we could report vandalized equipment. Accordingly,
someone in management there should be ready to take
these reports”

Emelyn:
“Yeah, please give me a moment, If this only happens on calls
it would be easier for me since I have access to phones but
right now I don’t have that’s why I am finding ways on how
can I escalate the issue.”

————————-

I think she was finally able to escalate the issue to someone
who could deal with it (give her an A for determination). We were
promised a Comcast phone contact by 1702 hrs, Tuesday May 11,
and a problem resolution by 1702 hrs, Tuesday, May 18.

I very seriously doubt that the average citizen is going to take
this kind of time or trouble to try to help you with a vandalism/hazard
complaint. You may be able to tweak this website some way to
make reporting more straightforward, and have trained personnel
ready to do something with the reported information, but right now
I do not think this will be an effective way for citizens to report
information to Comcast.

I am reporting these incidents to the Miami-Dade Police, and I would strongly
suggest that your security people do the same. The police will not normally
investigate a misdemeanor reported to them second hand. The victim
must be the complainant. I will volunteer as a witness, and I think
they would be very interested to see the photos I took of the break-ins.

Regards,

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc.

P.S. The problem we had with the 1-800-COMCAST phone number was over two years
ago, so something may have improved since then. I will serve as the guinea
pig to attempt reporting to that venue as soon as I find another open box.

******************************************************************************

On Mon, May 11, 2020 at 5:11 PM

Casas-Celaya, Marta <Marta_Casas-Celaya@comcast.com> wrote:

Mr. Holley,

I’m sorry that you encountered a poorly trained or inexperienced representative
when reporting damage to Comcast equipment. I will bring that to the attention
of our training department and can only suggest calling back and speaking with
another representative or requesting a supervisor should that happen that again.

I don’t know what other contact numbers you were given but directory assistance
or online search engines readily generate 1-800-COMCAST as the number of record
for our company. So, the general public also instinctively dials 1-800-COMCAST,
as you did, for anything Comcast related. given

That has been and continues to be the proven and effective way for citizens and
customers to report damaged Comcast equipment, as well as any service, account or
other Comcast related issue.

And, fortunately, the extent of vandalism taking place in your neighborhood is
not widespread. This is the first time in my years with the company that I have
encountered so many cabinets, so badly damaged, in a concentrated area.

Marta M. Casas-Celaya, APR
Director, External Affairs
COMCAST

*******************************************************************************

From: Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association <fehacw@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2020 8:36 PM
To: Casas-Celaya, Marta <Marta_Casas-Celaya@cable.comcast.com>

Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Comcast Utility Boxes

Dear Ms. Casas-Celaya:

Thank you for your note about hazardous, open Comcast boxes.

You should be glad to know that SEVEN defective boxes (two we didn’t
even know about) have been replaced in the last few days on the west
side of our community. I feel certain that you had a lot to do with that
effort, and we are most appreciative.

I have to confess that I took it for granted that the URL you sent for a
reporting Comcast website was one that an average citizen could use
without any restriction. I should have tried it out before publicizing it to others.

Given that the ‘Chat’ function on that website actually has knowledgeable, live
“chatters” when you are able to sign-in with Comcast account information, the
website you recommended may still work for some people to report hazards, etc.
I will have to try it out using my Comcast account # the next time that I see
an open box.

The Comcast telephone number that you suggested happens to be the first thing
that we tried when we first started seeing hazardous boxes over two years
ago. Our call then was quite a bit of a disaster. The call taker absolutely
refused to take any report without my providing her a Comcast account
verification and part of my social security number and acted like she knew
nothing about the possibility that your company’s equipment could be a risk
to passers-by. It was quite an unnerving experience.

An e-mail to MDC 3-1-1 then yielded “emergency” information that turned out to
be obsolete. I believe they finally did find for us some sort of Comcast repair
ticket #. After about a week of effort, we were finally given a Comcast Public
Relations telephone number 1-855-820-5946; no one ever answered the phone
there or returned the many messages we left. The only way we finally got a
resolution to our open box problems was to find a knowledgeable enforcement
officer in the MDC Public Works Department.

The repair to the then open boxes involved a few metal screws and about 15
minutes work per box (4 of them) so I think you can imagine that this two-week-
long experience did not leave our community with a very favorable image of
Comcast.

It also really left us wondering how it could possibly be that difficult to report
utility company hazards on public property– and it still does. It seems like Comcast
might be best served by stenciling a company logo on each box along with an
emergency phone number tag dedicated to that kind of reporting.

I am not in the liability business, but it seems hard to believe that this sort of a
tagging effort would be a tenth as expensive (lawsuit or PR-wise) compared to the
consequences of having someone, say a child, badly injured.

And, now there is still another very relevant issue in all of this. We have heard
several stories (not officially verified) that various Comcast boxes are being
vandalized to steal a very expensive back-up battery. More than half of the boxes
we have found in the last months show signs of forcible entry– the doors are badly
bent like they were pried open with a crow bar or wrecking bar. I was able to peer
into the damaged box I last reported to you in the 15200 block of SW 112 Avenue
(now replaced), and I was able to see for the very first time an intact large battery,
which must be very costly to replace.

Our civic organization has a very active CRIME WATCH component,which normally
patrols about sixty miles of residential streets on the west side of US 1, and I have
been actively engaged in police work, as a citizen, for the past 27 years. We take a
VERY dim view of theft of, or vandalism to, anyone’s property. Some of the questionable
intrusions into your equipment have already been reported to the MDPD, South
District police command.

And, when we published the information about the Comcast reporting website you
sent to us, we added a paragraph asking the public to be on the special lookout for anyone
vandalizing or stealing your equipment and to appropriately report same to the
police.

I really can only theorize that the damaged Comcast boxes we recently found point to
something really widespread. I do know that, like many, I have been a prisoner in my
home for the better part of seven weeks, and in the five or so very brief, short grocery
trips I made, I have just happened onto five open Comcast boxes. This seems quite
remarkable to me.

With all the above in mind, I hope that you can assist us by going back to your
management and devising some foolproof plan whereby average citizens can readily
report open-box problems that they observe with Comcast equipment. A web site
or a telephone number would work, but only if the site and the humans who man same
are reasonably prepared 24×7 for the kind of input they might receive from the public.
Requiring folks to be a Comcast customer to report vandalism or a hazard, or not being
aware of the types of hazards that may be reported is simply not going to work.

If you can describe such a plan back to us, we would be more than happy to publicize
it to as many of our residents as possible. We have 250 e-mail addressees and the
means to use a local Nextdoor resource to notify about 6000 others.

I hope you will agree that damaged utility boxes have been been a serious, on-going
problem, and now it may be even more so by virtue of dedicated criminal activity.
Comcast and the public are both victims in that instance, and we should work together
to protect ourselves.

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc.

****************************************************************************

On Fri, May 8, 2020 at 4:15 PM

Casas-Celaya, Marta <Marta_Casas-Celaya@comcast.com> wrote:

Mr. Holley, I was obviously not aware the chat function was limited to customers. That being the case, anyone wishing to report an equipment issue should contact 1-800-COMCAST, speak with a representative and tell him/her that they wish to make an emergency report about damaged Comcast equipment.

The construction cabinet in your email was not reported in any previous emails and will also be addressed. As of this writing, all but two of the cabinets that were previously reported have been replaced. The remainder should be repaired or replaced by next week.

Marta M. Casas-Celaya, APR
Director, External Affairs
COMCAST

********************************************************************************

From: Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association <fehacw@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 10:18:08 AM
To: Casas-Celaya, Marta <Marta_Casas-Celaya@cable.comcast.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: Comcast Utility Boxes

Dear Madam:

This morning, very unfortunately, we have had the first opportunity to attempt
to use the Comcast website reference you sent (and we publicized to 6500
citizens) to report a NEW and dangerous situation with your defective
utility box equipment on public property.

This defective, damaged, utility box (see attached photos) is located on the
west right-of-way in the 15200 block of SW 112 Avenue. Smashed in cover,
tied to the box with a child’s jump rope, open to anyone who wants to stick a
hand in to do whatever. Electrified with a large black-box inside with flashing
red lights. All this right next to a very heavily traversed public sidewalk.

And this, by the way, is the second time this writer has had to report this
same box as open. See attached previous photo dated Jan 10 2019.

Unfortunately, the URL to Comcast website that you provided gives one
access to “Report Issues With Your Xfinity Services.” This is decidedly
**NOT** what the public is looking for to report an emergency, hazardous
situation due to your defective, damaged equipment. We are not looking for
a place to report “Issues with Your Xfinity Services– i.e., problems with your
TV signal and the like. We, the public need to report an immediate
**THREAT** to our welfare caused by your company’s negligence.

To use “Report Issues With Your Xfinity Services,” at all, one has to
attempt to use the “Chat” portion of the site. And to use the “Chat,” one
has to sign in with their Comcast account log-ins.

Now, to ask the stupid question– what if your child has come home and
told you that boys are playing around a dangerous open utility box and you
are **NOT** a Comcast customer (believe me, there are many of those)?.
It is absurd to think that a multi-million dollar entity like yours is going to
require a customer sign-on to report a problem **YOU** are causing by having
your poorly maintained, dangerous equipment on **OUR** public right-of-way.
This website you provide (sign-in required) is no better than the same run-around
we got by telephone when we tried to report open utility box problems to
Comcast more than two years ago.

Handing out a website URL, that is intended for another purpose, to those
trying to report a hazard, and requiring them to be a Comcast customer is
**NOT** going to solve this problem, and we are rather astounded that you, as
a Comcast “Director for External Affairs,” perceived that it would solve the
problem.

Absent providing a “Chat” ability for non-Comcast customers on this site,
or providing another site expressly devised or reporting equipment problems, it
seems that we, the public, are going to have to insist that you do as other
utilities do and affix emergency telephone number decals to your public-facing
equipment.

I hope that maybe I am missing something here, and that I took some misstep
in trying to use your Comcast site to report a hazard, but I got nowhere trying to
use a “Chat” without specifying a Comcast log-in (which I am NOT going to
provide). The (non-sign-in) “Chat” is obviously not manned by humans and does
not respond to queries like “**EMERGENCY**” or “need to report dangerous
Comcast equipment”

I am going to wait for your answer to what I have written here before I forward
this message to our many neighbors and to interested Miami-Dade County
officialdom.

Respectfully yours,

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc.

****************************************************************************************