Colonial / Fairway Estates

[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.

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

Dear Neighbors:

As many of you may know, our civic association has been waging a battle for more than two years now over hazardous, open Comcast utility boxes placed on public rights-of-way. We sent many of you an e-mail message on April 14 about the latest dangerous situations we have encountered. As of yesterday, April 23, nothing had been done over NINE whole days to correct any of the serious problems we reported to the County on April 14.

For example, these are before and after photos of a very dangerous open electrified utility box at 17600 SW 112 Avenue.

Thursday afternoon, after various complaints to Miami-Dade County by our association and by residents who live west of SW 112 Avenue, we finally received the below e-mail message from Comcast corporation management.

Please assist us with this hazardous utility box situation!

If you see an open or vandalized box on a right-of-way (they are lime-green or greyish-green, like in the photo), please use the Internet link specified below to report it to Comcast.

Also, we have received information that these Comcast boxes are being vandalized or broken open to steal expensive backup batteries from within. If you witness anyone in the process of breaking into one of the boxes, call 9-1-1 and report “crime in progress.” If you have any other information about theft or vandalization of the boxes, please report it to Comcast at the Internet link below.

Thanking you for your help!

Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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

Date: Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 5:20 PM
Subject: Comcast Utility Boxes
To: Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association

Dear Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association Members:

Thank you for submitting various reports about the Comcast utility boxes. All of the reports have been forwarded to Comcast by the respective county representatives who you contacted.

In the future, a Comcast representative is available to assist you 24/7 by going to https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/report-issues-xfinity-services and clicking on the “Chat With Xfinity” button. This is the quickest way to report any issues to Comcast.

Rest assured that the restoration of the boxes and safety issues are being addressed. We regret any delays and are working as quickly as possible to complete repairs.

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

//////////////////////////////////////

Below is just a sampling of some of the previous correspondence we have had about this Comcast matter:

April 14, 2020

To:  3-1-1, Comm. Dennis Moss, Comm. Daniella Cava, County Mayor

And here we go again– another open electrified Comcast  box on public r.o.w.  (see attached photos).  This one has trays full of rainwater — prime opportunity for ELECTROCUTION  —  17600 SW 112 Ave

Also opposite 10790 SW 160 St, adjacent to elementary school, there was empty Comcast box with badly deteriorated sharp metal hinges.. good to slice some kid’s hands off,,  we had to tape it closed, but the whole damn box needs to  ***GO***.  This is the fourth time we have done tape repairs on this one…

This is the very last time we are going to nicely  ask for this company to take proper care of its equipment (much of which is obsolete and nothing BUT a hazard to our community).

Next time we see one of these atrocities, we’re penning a national PETITION drive to get proper attention to this matter.

Colonial / Fairway Estates Civic Association, Inc.

To:  3-1-1, Comm. Dennis Moss, Comm. Daniella Cava, County Mayor

FYI

Again, we have another instance of an electrified Comcast utility box being wide open to passersby on a busy main street (the 10100 block of SW 160 Street).

This is at least the third  time we have found this same box open with the cover lying on the ground.  Apparently employees of this company cannot see fit to lock down the covers after service,  OR  someone has figured out how to jimmy the box locks.

Again, as we noted in the below recent message, if this company cannot keep its equipment in good repair, then we do not want it to be allowed on public property!

Photos attached

colonial/fairway estates civic association, inc

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

Feb 19, 2020

To:  3-1-1, Comm. Dennis Moss, Comm. Daniella Cava, County Mayor, Major Charles Fernand, MDPD

FYI

we seem to have a flurry of vandalizing to ComCast boxes in our area. Two of the obvious forced entries to boxes are depicted in attached photos

locations: 9500 blk SW 163 St

10100 blk SW 160 St

Of the two, the one on SW 160 St looks the most worrisome appears to be electrified and “hot”

we are continually having to close or tape up broken doors on these boxes all over the area… many seem to be empty and of no use to anyone — just bait for vandals and graffiti artists

There is no reason for most of these boxes to be allowed on public property THEY ARE EMPHATICALLY A ***MENACE***

colonial/fairway estates civic association, inc

/////////////////////////////////////////////

Posted  to our website      2-15-2018:

COMCAST  CABLE HAZARDS  IGNORED  BY  ITS MANAGEMENT

It’s truly fitting that our first news story on our new updated website might well have been about corporate irresponsibility. That’s pretty much the way it was when we launched our old website way back in May 2005.

The Association has spent the last FIFTEEN  days trying to get the Comcast Corporation to  repair five different  hazards (or certainly what appeared to be hazards) on our public streets.

The last two of these (finally accomplished late this afternoon)   certainly did not require rocket science.  They involved securing some open metal doors with metal screws.  Fifteen minutes’ work at best.

We have been met with every possible diversion and excuse one can imagine, from inappropriate company telephone numbers given to Miami-Dade  3-1-1, to witless Comcast call-takers who demanded that we give them a Comcast  Account # and our partial social security number before we were allowed to report an electrical hazard,  and to  their “repair personnel,” who we guess just can’t read a city map.

The last few days,  we made repeated calls to Comcast’s  so-called Public Relations Department. at  1-855-820-5946. No one there ever answers the phone, no one returns calls.  Our Comcast complaint ticket #  ESL03185280 went unanswered  despite numerous attempts to redress this situation by Miami-Dade RER, Miami-Dade Public Works, and (bravo!) staff of District 8 Commissioner Daniella Cava.

 Still unresolved—   we inquire of our  Miami-Dade County government– why, pray, is electrified  Comcast  equipment in public places not labeled with a company name  and an emergency  telephone number like the equipment of other utilities?

Since March 14, 2020, there has been a very unusual outbreak of crime in the residential area close to the west side of the Palmetto Golf Course. This includes at least four auto thefts, a home burglary, two car burglaries, and a case of vandalism.

Residents should be on special alert and call the police immediately if you see suspicious persons or activities. If you see a crime IN PROGRESS, call 9-1-1. For all other reporting, call 305-4-POLICE (305-476-5423).

Vehicle burglary and theft can be discouraged by keeping your vehicles locked at all times. DO NOT leave anything of value in your vehicle, particularly not in plain sight.

Whatever you do, make CERTAIN if you are a victim of a crime that you report it to the police. If you do not report a crime, as far as Miami-Dade County is concerned it did not occur. The quality of police patrols and crime prevention activities is highly dependent on getting accurate incident information.

Crime activity in your area can be monitored on your computer or phone by linking to https://www.crimemapping.com/

Colonial CRIME WATCH

fehacw@gmail.com

On the afternoon of Wednesday, November 6, we discovered a large plastic bag at the edge of the roadway in the 11300 block of SW 168th Street. In the bag were about 350 pieces of mail stolen out of mailboxes; about one third was addressed to 25 homes in the area near where the bag was found, and the rest to addresses in Homestead and Cutler Ridge.

This matter was duly reported to the so called U.S. Postal Inspection Service and to the Miami-Dade Police on Thursday morning November 7. Subsequently, the matter was reported to both enforcement agencies by other citizens.

To date, no one has had a meaningful response from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service   (1-877-876-2455 ). Accordingly, since there were many important pieces of mail including, tax notices, bills, medical information, etc., we endeavored ourselves to deliver the local pieces to the appropriate mailboxes from which they were stolen. We were  unable , however, to deliver/return the 200+ pieces from Homestead or Cutler Ridge. Finally, we were able to turn this stolen mail over to the local Post Office at Quail Roost.

During our investigation, we have uncovered situations where mail was opened and checks, credit cards, etc. removed therefrom. We also located a resident who videoed theft of U.S. mail from their mailbox and their front porch—including close-ups of the thief and his automobile which had apparently been following closely behind a U.S. mail truck to watch its package delivery. After the porch theft, the subject almost ran down the mailman with his auto as the resident chased him down the street. NO ONE in the Postal Service seems the least bit interested in any of this.

After some time, we did receive a brief response from the Metro-Dade Police Department (MDPD). We hope they will publish a formal statement making clear our current understanding of the matter, but we will relate it here. Theft of U.S. mail letters/packages from mailboxes or property is a federal crime. Tampering with or vandalizing mailboxes is a federal crime. Accordingly, the police have limited powers in these matters. Local police are only authorized to
do the following:

(1) If you actually see mail being stolen, or vandalism/tampering in progress, you should call 9-1-1 and report a “crime in progress.” The MDPD will respond and attempt to apprehend the vandals/thieves. If they are successful in witnessing and apprehension, they may detain the perpetrators until they can be turned over to federal authorities. They have no further responsibility.

(2) If you suffer theft of a package or mail item addressed to you in the U.S. Mail that has value to it, you may request (at 305-4-POLICE) that the MDPD pay you a visit and write a report of the incident. They will record the particulars of the theft and give you a numbered report “case card” that you can use for theft verification for insurance purposes. Because the crime is federal, however, they may possibly report it to federal authorities, but they cannot really investigate your theft. You must report the crime yourself to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

If you suffer theft of a package/letter delivered by a commercial entity, however, (e.g., UPS, FEDEX, DHL, Amazon Prime, etc.), the rules are different. Such a theft is a state crime, and the local police have full authority to act on it just like if someone stole your auto or your lawn mower. If you see the theft in progress, call 9-1-1 and report “crime in progress.” Note for them that you believe the deliverer is not the U.S. Mail Service. If the crime has already occurred and you have suffered a loss, report it at 305-4-POLICE. MDPD will respond as soon as they can, write you a report, and, if feasible, fully investigate the crime that caused your loss.

Those concerned with U.S. Postal theft would do everyone a great service by calling the so called U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 and your local Congress person and demanding to know how they plan to better protect us (and their mailmen) against this rampant thievery.

It should be noted that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service does provide useful information on how to protect yourself against mail/package theft at their website: https://www.uspis.gov/tips-prevention/mail-theft/

For further protection you may want to consider using Informed Delivery® by USPS®. Digitally preview your mail and manage your packages scheduled to arrive soon! Informed Delivery allows you to view greyscale images of the exterior, address side of letter-sized mail pieces and track packages in one convenient location.*

Many of you know that we have been lobbying for infrastructure improvements here in the Colonial Drive / Fairway Estates Community for three years. Initially, these included painting center and road edge lines on our main streets, and then, as various installation projects (gas and sewer) seriously degraded the surfaces of those streets, we have been asking for complete resurfacing. In most cases, that resurfacing has not taken place in decades. Streets on our remedy list involved main arteries: SW 160 Street (Colonial Drive), SW 102nd Avenue, SW 99th Avenue, SW 109th Avenue, SW 101st Avenue, SW 104th Avenue, and SW 168th Street.

Now, unexpectedly, we have been given a gift: all the streets north, and west of Colonial Drive Park have suddenly received a beautiful new topping of asphalt. The streets include SW 106th Avenue (from Fairway Heights Boulevard to SW 156th Terrace), SW 156th Terrace (from SW 106th Avenue to SW 108th Court), SW 108th Court (from SW 156th Terrace to SW 158th Street), and SW 158th Street (from SW 108th Court to SW 109th Avenue).

Those streets would have not been on our primary “wish list,” but certainly they would have been on a secondary list. The resurfacing of roads in the proximity of the park adds to its practical and aesthetic value. The park is special to us. Our civic association contributed over $500,000 in grant money, gifts, and sweat equity in park restoration and improvement in the decade following Hurricane Andrew. The road condition at the extreme northeast corner of the park (intersection of SW 106th Avenue & SW 156th Terrace) was probably the worst in the whole community– many decades of extensive pothole repairs .

We thank our County Commissioner Dennis Moss for his sponsorship and support of the park-proximity street resurfacing: Roadway Resurfacing Contract – Project #20180253.

The sewer project on 9800-9900 blocks of SW 168th Street, and 16300-16800 blocks of SW 99th Avenue has to be the worst conducted and administered public project we have  seen here in 25 years. The attached photo shows a red barricade that was placed by a citizen whose vehicle nearly went off the road due to hitting deep pothole at 25 mph.

Five blocks of main artery SW 99th Avenue have for weeks been ravaged by a poorly filled trench marked with only sporadic, badly placed warning cones. Even at normal speeds, this roadway is in such terrible condition that it should be **CLOSED**. Speeders are regularly ripping down this travesty at 40-50 mph, and someone is going to get killed!

About a block or so of what passes for final repaving is now finally evident on SW 168 Street and on 16700 block of SW 99th Avenue, but it is simply not going to be acceptable; the whole five blocks of SW 99th Avenue will need to be completely resurfaced.

If this nonsense is what our community is going to have to endure to be entitled to overdue sewer work, FORGET IT; keep the sewers the way they were and leave us the hell alone!

Our FAKE PRESIDENT owes an apology to thousands of scientists and workers involved in the earth sciences– an apology for developing his very own spurious Hurricane Dorian weather forecast and unnecessarily panicking and inconveniencing citizens and public agencies in Alabama. All he had to simply say on Day 1 was that “I made a mistake and I’m sorry,” and none of this divisive contention would ever have happened.

It’s high time that at least a few folks in our laughable Congress stand up to this vile, corrupt imbecile Donald J. Trump. He is clearly unfit for public office of any kind and is in fact a dangerous person who should be taken out of the Oval Office TODAY for this “Sharpie-gate” incident alone.

I suppose maybe I’m taking all this too seriously, but I guess it’s kind of personal.

I spent 12 years of my life getting an education in how to save lives with hurricane forecasting. Mike Garstang, my major professor, and my fellow FSU grad school researchers launched the very first weather data buoy into the Atlantic Ocean off Barbados, W.I. the summer of 1968. Mike almost drowned during the placement. I was responsible for archiving and processing much of the data that came off that buoy. I spent three years (1972-75) at the National Data Buoy Center in Bay St. Louis, MS helping to develop a robust, affordable data buoy that could be deployed all over the deep oceans.

Now, there are many hundreds of data buoys feeding prediction models which furnish hurricane tracking information that, when accurately reported, can help avoid panics and tragedies like those we have suffered right here in Miami-Dade.

Since 2005, I have been engaged in private tropical storm forecasting, “The Weather Insider,” that is presented as a public service on our local civic association website at https://fairwayestateshoa.com/weather-insider/

During the 2017 hurricane season, using the European prediction model, the “Insider” predicted within seven miles, thirty hours in advance, the landfall  of Hurricane Irma.

Robert Holley
B.S., Meteorology
M.S., Physical Oceanography
“The Weather Insider”
Miami, FL

The July 23 edition of the Digital Access version of the Miami Herald features a lead story entitled “Miami-Dade started installing modern streetlights this year. Was that a mistake?”

This story is available to on-line subscribers of the Miami Herald at:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article231737293.html

The story is also available in the  e-Edition of the Herald — See July 28 Neighbors section.

Written by the Herald’s long-time civic affairs reporter Douglas Hanks, the story reviews various aspects of FPL’s efforts to “modernize” the Miami-Dade County’s street lighting. In particular, it features on-the-street interviews with three of the local citizens who last month first lodged complaints against what they consider very serious inadequacies of the new LED light fixtures.

There is also interesting information about successful implementations of LED street and building lighting in Albany, NY; Cleveland, OH; Fresno , CA; and Kansas City, MO.

Perhaps most controversial in the news item, is Miami-Dade Parks & Recreation’s claim that, in the nine districts with new LEDs, their “photometric audit” shows “…the overall square footage being covered by the newly installed LED fixture is greater than its [sodium-vapor] counterpart.” “County administrators insist that [citizen] complaints are based on misconceptions about light and dark, with the sharper LED illumination drawing more attention to coverage gaps that have always existed.”

Those of you who have followed this story may remember that on June 4 and June 18, in response to complaints brought forward by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Dennis Moss, FPL promised that it would suspend installation of LED fixtures pending further study. There is considerable evidence that this promise was not kept. Nevertheless, pending “audit” results, the LED installation suspension was supposed to stay in effect at least until today’s (July 23) County Commission hearing.

Since most of that hearing was taken up by a very contentious incorporation issue, no such “audit” results were ever publicly presented by Miami-Dade Parks & Recreation. There is a rumor that the FPL installation suspension was officially lifted via a quickly approved resolution buried deeply in one of the hearing agenda items, but, at the time of this posting, neither we, nor the Miami Herald, have been able to verify this rumor.

A July 17 edition of the Florida Bulldog website ( www.FloridaBulldog.org ) features a lead story entitled “FP&L switch to energy-saving LED bulbs for Miami-Dade streetlights halted amid resident safety concerns”

Written by staff writer Francisco Alvarado, this watchdog group’s story reviews many of the aspects of the controversy swirling about FPL’s efforts to “modernize” the Miami-Dade County’s street lighting system. The controversy began when on June 4 County Commissioner Dennis Moss mentioned constituent complaints, along with his own reservations, about the new lights— they don’t cast wide-enough light; residents say the LED beams are too concentrated and downward-facing, leaving dark areas (“dark spots”) between light poles. On June 18, Moss claimed that the “dark spots” had facilitated a wild shooting spree near his home. He further criticized FPL for ignoring a June 4 promise it had made to the County Commission to suspend all new LED installations pending further study.

The FloridaBulldog.org story features heretofore unpublished interviews with FPL and Miami-Dade County management, and Robert Holley, Board of Directors & Chairperson – Safety, Security and CRIME WATCH Committee, Colonial /Fairway Estates Civic Association.

“I was pleased,” Holley said, “ to do this interview with Mr. Alvarado of the Florida Bulldog group. I pointed out to him that I have a very unique perspective on the street lighting issue in our community. First, I have been actively involved with safety and anti-crime activities here since 1992. I was selected as “CRIME WATCHER of the Year” for all of Miami-Dade County in 1996. I have served on the MDPD, So. District Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) for 27 years. Second, as part of our Association’s civic activities, since 2000, I have often traveled the 55+ miles of streets (with 771 lights) in this community at night detecting out-of-service light poles. As volunteers, we have reported almost 200 of those to FPL in the past six years. Frequently traveling the streets has made me more familiar with good/poor street lighting than perhaps any other person in this area. And, I say unequivocally that I agree with Commissioner Dennis Moss that the new LED lighting presents a definite crime THREAT to our particular community. Simply stated, the new lights may be energy efficient, but they are not SAFETY efficient! Believe me, I know these streets. The new lighting is not of the same quality as what we had with the sodium based lamps.

Giving cover to criminal activity is but one lighting issue. In addition to coping with Miami-Dade’s grossly negligent ability to provide reflective street markings on many of our main streets, now we have limited, badly distorted views of the streets themselves. Are our fading night vision folks just supposed to stay home after dark?

It is really 1984 Orwellian to see a major utility and a large government try to claim that everyone will be “content” with this new lighting after it is all installed. Big problem is when it is “all installed,” then there is nothing else to compare it to. Memory fades quickly, and the purveyors of this implementation are all well aware of that fact..

To combat the before/after perception fallacy, we took the trouble to take before and after photos of lighting in certain areas, and these show a marked difference in the dispersion of street lighting. For those unhappy with the technical merits of the photography, we have publicly challenged FPL/Miami-Dade to install here some old sodium lamps for their own “before” shots, and to replace them with LED lamps for “after” shots to prove to the community that we are getting the same global intensity of street lighting as we had before. We have had no takers from either party, and I think that speaks volumes.”

Catch up with happenings in this evolving saga at:

www.floridabulldog.org/2019/07/fpl-switch-to-energy-saving-led-bulbs-for-miami-dade-streetlights-halted/?

———-

Well, as might have been expected, no one from our community (or any other one) had the time or means to attend June 20th’s downtown County Zoning hearing sham, so we lost another quality of life battle – and it likely would not have made much difference if we had spoken for the allowed two minutes per person, because our Commissioners were not about to listen to the simple argument we would have posed to them in opposition to the proposed two measures— we are already strangling in traffic !

Both issues— approval of a major future expansion of Jackson South Hospital (JSH) and permission to build a 13 acre “wellness center” west of the hospital– were passed with blind spot consideration of the future. The 13 acre matter (on appeal) had already been turned down 5-0, with prejudice, by our local Zoning Board 14, but none of the Commissioners even made mention of that fact.

Instead, the same developer attorney who appeared before the local zoning board on April 4, noted that “all the communities in the area approved of their project.” That is an absolute lie that at least two Commissioners could not have possibly been unaware of, and of course one wonders why local residents’ zoning board members already voted NO NO NO NO NO 5-0. How does that happen if “all the surrounding communities approved of this project?” Our Fairway Estates/Colonial Drive community (3562 residences ) certainly did NOT approve of the project, and we voiced our strenuous objections to it in the April 4 local zoning meeting AND in great detail on  this website.

Let’s not wander from the truth. None of us who raised legitimate objections to these projects object to hospitals or “wellness centers” per se. This writer congratulated the developer’s attorney after the negative vote on April 4, and told him, “ I think this wellness campus is a fine project plan —except for one thing—“ it’s in the wrong place.” Lack of roadway infrastructure has already made future building development, not only locally, but in large parts of the Miami-Dade County, an absolute absurdity. We are faced with the decision of either having a standout medical facility here or not being able to get through traffic to work (or to the hospital) . How ridiculous is that?

On the brighter side, there were well -delivered presentations on Jackson South Hospital by Mr. Carlos Migoya, CEO of Jackson Health System , and Dennis Moss, County Commissioner representing most of our local neighborhood. The former reported on the remarkable recovery/progress, and the future, of the various components of the Jackson Health System, an enterprise that was almost in bankruptcy just a few years ago. Commissioner Moss provided a short history of health facilities in South Dade and explained his long-time, and we feel quite sincere, desire to have a first class medical center right nearby.

One thing also stood out: neither of these projects are breaking ground tomorrow at dawn. The hospital expansion is perhaps the furthest away from fruition. If they will just listen and act, this fact offers our County leadership a small margin of time that could be used to at least develop a plan for infrastructure redemption. And that plan must be serious and well thought out—not be based on simplistic ideas like building expensive bridges – bridges effectively to nowhere– over the C-100 Canal.

The subject building projects, for which we simply asked a moratorium—a delay in immediately going forward–both have great merit. We do not oppose the eventual development of a sophisticated local medical center here. That would be silly. What we oppose is putting the cart before the horse—having rapid development without supporting infrastructure. In short , to be blunt, the simple message we have been trying to convey to our leaders is – IT’S THE TRAFFIC, STUPID !

To be clear, what we lost, for the time being, on June 20 is serious consideration by our MDC commissioners of the proposition we stated on May 8, viz. “For now, we will continue to oppose any further building projects or re-zonings on SW 152 St. until such time as Miami-Dade County can guarantee us a traffic solution, fund it, and actually begin to make it happen. We would really like this to be put in the form of a referendum– maybe even county-wide – a complete moratorium on building projects until we catch up with some infrastructure.”

But, if our commissioners, for whatever motive, as they did June 20, continue to wave their arms and say .. “traffic here, on 152 Street, oh well, there are problems all over Miami with traffic” and just continue to plunge ahead with large new building projects, the result will sooner or later be tragic. When we finally suffer complete gridlock, we wonder if any of them will recall or care about what we said here today.

An important local election is coming up next summer, and we should be thinking about a major campaign to replace or reject leadership that continues to have a severe hearing problem. To have a real hope of doing that, all our various civic associations are going to have to band together, understand each other, and work seamlessly together.

The July 2 edition of Miami New Times’  daily newsletter features a lead story entitled “Miami-Dade Commissioners Say New LED Street Lights Could Lead to More Crime”

Written by staff writer Manuel Madrid, the story reviews many of the aspects of the controversy swirling about FPL’s efforts to “modernize” the Miami-Dade County’s street lighting system. The controversy began when on June 4 County Commissioner Dennis Moss mentioned constituent complaints, along with his own reservations about the new lights— they don’t cast wide-enough light; residents say the LED beams are too concentrated and downward-facing, leaving dark areas (“dark spots”) between light poles. On June 18, Moss claimed that the “dark spots” had facilitated a wild shooting spree near his home. He further criticized FPL for ignoring a June 4 promise it had made to the County Commission to suspend all new LED installations pending further study.

Catch up with happenings in this evolving saga at:

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-dade-commissioners-residents-say-fpls-led-street-lights-could-lead-to-more-crime-11209195

Well, we thought we had already heard every possible horror story in the ongoing saga of FPL’s new street light installations– substandard un-vetted equipment, deficient illumination (“dark spots”) between poles, broken FPL promises to suspend installation for further study, etc., etc. BUT WE WERE WRONG!

The latest spin is that many of the newly installed LED’s are burning out… frequent reports heard of LED light failures within a week of installation. Yesterday morning , we received a report of one new light burning out THREE times since it was put up. — accompanied by the complete destruction of the resident’s swale by the huge tires of
multiple repair trucks…

And, then there’s this fabulous information from an FPL manager passed on to one of our staff.. yeah, we expect a lot of the new lights to burn out. Once that happens, the new bulbs we’ll put in will last ten years…

Of course, that begs the questions— why would you ever install new fixtures with bulbs you know to be defective ? How did a “legitimate” government (Miami-Dade County) ever involve itself in this out-of-control scheme to destroy our residential street lighting?

If you have information about the failure of a new LED street light, please pass it on to fehacw@gmail.com … location of light- if known, date of install, date of failure.

June 25, 2019 —  Nextdoor comment by Djloco79:

“Those two photos are deceiving as the first one has a flash and the second one does not. Secondly, these lights are to light up the street and sidewalk not your home. If you can see, the street is lit much brighter than the first photo.”
—–
Dear Djloco79:
We thank you kindly for your remarks about the new LED street lighting, and we also thank you for your astute observation that the “before” and “after” lighting photos we published yesterday did not accurately depict what we had intended, i.e., to show that illumination from new FPL LED fixtures is decidedly less in certain directions than it was with the previously installed sodium fixtures.

Upon close examination of the cell phone camera which shot the “after” picture, we discovered that the flash had inadvertently been switched off. With the flash properly turned on, the lighting in the “after” photo turns out to be brighter than it was in the no-flash shoot. We apologize for this error made by someone who is still getting familiar with his new smart phone. The phone is very smart; this writer is not!

It has been our wish all along that some responsible, technically qualified media organization would undertake the responsibility of doing comparative photography on this lighting subject, and we are now promised that there will be a newspaper item published on it in the next few days.

We also now challenge FPL to take comparative photography and prove to the public, if it can, that safe, adequate illumination, comparable to what we once had, is really going to be provided to all our neighborhoods.

The correct comparison of before/after pix should look like this:

For certain, the depletion in illumination – before to after– was not as severe as depicted in the two originally posted photos, but significant depletion is still apparent. And, we agree that if you stand right directly under the new light, it may possibly be brighter than the one provided before.

However, when we compared “before” and “after” photos of illumination between light poles 300 feet apart, the “dark spot” phenomena is readily apparent in the “after” photo looking down the street just past the white mailbox on the right:

As to the matter of what illumination should be expected to shine back onto one’s property, that issue seems quite controversial. Some are highly desirous of that lighting being on their property, some not at all. In the past, back shields have been provided for those with the latter wish. We see nothing written down, in records that may go back 50+ years, that would cause one to assume that light thrown onto one’s yard by up-to-now current sodium lights was some sort of a magic, decades-old GIFT that could just be arbitrarily, suddenly withdrawn without any discussion.

And indeed in all of these recent dealings and mailings, what we as residents have been asking for, is just what we believed was already agreed on by all parties on June 4 and June 18 at the Miami-Dade County Commission Meetings – that this street lighting conversion matter is an extremely complex one that requires a lot more discussion, study, and buy-in than has heretofore taken place. That is the reason that we were given to believe that LED installations would be suspended until a plan was formulated/initiated to address as many citizen concerns as possible.

It seems quite obvious, however, that that the “suspension pledge” has been seriously violated, and the violator of same has some real explaining to do!

E-mail to Miami-Dade Commissioners sent 12:27 p.m. 6/25/2019

The below “before” and “after” photos depict what FPL (or their contractors) did to the illumination of my front yard by breaking an LED installation suspension pledge made to the County Commission on June 4, and YESTERDAY installing one of their LED lighting gadgets on the light pole at the end of my driveway. I am lame and this very questionable installation directly affects my safety.

Other available graphic “before” and “after” photography near my home speaks well for my demand that this utility company return to my street and reinstall the two sodium lamp lighting fixtures that they replaced yesterday morning in violation of their June 4 pledge.

If the Commissioners cannot stop these lying folks in a courteous nice way, they need to obtain a court injunction forbidding FPL from any further installations pending further study– violations $1000 per pole. More and more this appears to be the only way that our residents can be assured that their streets will remain well illuminated– safe and crime free.

Robert Holley
Board of Directors
Colonial/Fairway Estates Civic Association
www.FairwayEstatesHOA.com
Member, Citizen Advisory Committee, MDPD So. District

On June 4, in biweekly County Commission Meeting, Miami-Dade Commissioner Dennis Moss received a promise from FPL that it would completely suspend installation of new LED street light fixtures pending study of the efficiency of lighting of some neighborhoods’ streets. According to the Commissioner, the new LED lights, because they point straight down, were leaving huge “dark spots” in illumination of streets near his residence.

Over the past few days, we have received various reports that FPL has *NOT* stopped the installations as agreed. This morning, that was verified because an FPL contractor installed a new LED lighting device right in front of this writer’s home.

If you see FPL or any electrical contractor installing new street lights near you, we would like to know date, time, location, tag #s (photos would help)– mail to: fehacw@gmail.com

If this company has violated its agreement as seems to be the case, we are going to do our best to seek legal action to shut this down – any lawyers out there?