The crowds are back, and they enjoyed New Year''s Eve on Miami''s famous South Beach. Happy New Year!

Of course where good is found some evil is bound to lurk, and so it was at four in the afternoon on New Year''s Eve on the crowded, umbrella-laden beach backed by luxury hotels at the mouth of South Beach''s famed Lincoln Road.

An apparently lifeless body was seen floating in the water, and was pulled in by beachgoers. A man called 911. Another man, who said he was a doctor, bemoaned the fact that he did not know CPR. The Miami Beach Fire Department''s Ocean Rescue division was soon on the scene.

Nobody knew how long the drowned fellow had been floating in the water. He was small in stature, perhaps a teenager. Nearly 200 tourists and a few locals watched the attempted revival for about an half hour. Of course CPR was applied. An injection was given and the young fellow jerked. Water was emitted from his mouth, but he remained lifeless or unconscious.

A weeping woman said the poor man''s feet were whitening. I said I had a hunch that he was alive and would come to - that notion was frowned down by negatively shaking heads. I  wanted to shout "WAKE UP!" but I supposed that would do no good, or else Ocean Rescue would have already tried it.

The Miami Beach Fire Department was not about to give up. Artificial respiration was maintained while the young man was put on a board and carried to a waiting ambulance; the procession was followed by a sobbing young girl, and a little boy trailed along behind, alone, looking lost and bewildered.

I hoped for a miracle, and remember how drowned people had been revived after an half hour or so of unconsciousness. The ambulance remained on the beach for some time; the rescuers emerged; bystanders supposed the struggle had been lost.

"Why isn''t there a lifeguard stand here?" a tourist asked.

I found members of Ocean Rescue setting up on the beach on New Year''s morning, and asked the same question.

Good question, one of them said. That section of the beach is one of the most populous along the strip, he said, and was "a blind spot" due to the way it was situated on the long beach and also because of the many large hotel umbrellas that block the view of the patrols along the back side of the beach. In fact, said one rescuer, a photograph had been taken, and city management had been notified of the dangerous situation, to no avail.

I promised to notify the Miami Beach City Manager Jorge M. Gonzalez of the results of the city''s blindness, but said I did not believe that would do much good since he never seems to respond to private citizens, perhaps because he feels he is not responsible to them because they do not elect him. His attitude seems to be that of many city managers across the country, summed up by the recent response of the City of Miami''s manager to citizens'' complaints that they were not given an opportunity to discuss the huge raise suddenly given to Mayor Diaz: "That''s their problem."

"The City Manager doesn''t listen to us," another Ocean Rescue rescuer said.

"The only chance of getting anything done in Miami Beach  is to get ahold of the new elected commissioner," I was informed by another.

As for the drowning victim, I was given cause to hope that he might still be alive, for they had "had a pulse on him," they said. No word had come back from the hospital yet.

I scoured the Miami Herald for word of the man''s fate, but have seen nothing so far. The Miami papers, including the so-called "alternative" paper, the SunPost, often turn a blind eye to evils that might have a negative impact on tourism and condominium sales. But people who ignore evil are good for nothing, and evil will catch up to them in the worst way and when they least expect it, despite their "positive mental attitude."  


Addenda:

February 10, 2006

Editor
THE SUN POST
Miami, Florida

Re: The Blind Spot

Thank you for responding to my efforts to obtain media coverage of the broad-daylight drowning of a man on New Year’s Eve at the “blind spot”, the popular beach at the end of Lincoln Road. I contacted editors and reporters at all Miami publications, along with several members of the business and political leadership, and you were the only person to respond besides David Kelsey, President of the Miami Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association.

I noted with keen interest your report that, “for whatever reason,” statistics were not kept on drownings when Ocean Patrol was part of Parks and Recreation, but were in fact kept on such minor events as jellyfish stings. Although such statistics have been kept since Ocean Rescue was put under the purview of the Fire Department, we are left to speculate on the causes of the continuing blindness.

One possibility - we might not want prospective tourists to be leery of our beautiful beach. Another possibility - if the allegations of certain Ocean Rescue members are true, the City of Miami Beach could be sued by the drowning victim’s family for its blindness to professional pleas for the placement of a lifeguard stand at the blind spot. I note that the city would not release the name of the victim, therefore you cannot contact the family and get a full picture of the tragedy that day.
I arrived on the scene after the man had been carried ashore. I spoke to lifeguards the next day. About two hundred tourists were watching the valiant efforts to revive the man, who appeared to be much younger than the 39 years of age reported – we thought he was in his early twenties at the most. As the president of the lifeguard association rightly told you, the scene was “very sad,” especially for the man’s children, who were standing helplessly by.

You reported that “lifeguard stands are visible to sunbathers” at that location although they are several football fields apart; however, you cautioned, that does not mean that the public should feel safe. Indeed, several tourists on the scene asked me, after I identified myself as a resident, “Why is there no lifeguard stand here?”

Because, at least according to the lifeguards I spoke with, the City Manager and City Commissioners have not responded to Ocean Rescue’s warnings, which, I was told, included the presentation of photographic evidence of the blind spot. In fact, two lifeguards asked me to contact a particular city commissioner, since “the rest of them do not care.” And I did just that, as a concerned resident, and I had not the courtesy of a bare acknowledgment.

Now that some media glare is on the blind spot, what will be done? We shall apparently have more studies, committee discussions, analyses, planning-aheads, and active-looking-ats from the leadership; to wit, more talk. Of course the assistant fire chief said “substantial” all-terrain vehicles have already been added; however, according to a member of Ocean Patrol, the plethora of large, blue umbrellas blocks the view of patrols passing by that location.

The SunPost reported that the drowning victim was near the shoreline yet was “sucked under,” and then was pulled ashore. In fact, the water was a sheet of glass that day: there was no rip tide or undertow. Tourists wondered out loud why the man had drowned in such calm water. An eyewitness said the victim had been floating on the surface for some time before anyone suspected he was in trouble. I put the question to Ocean Rescue, and was told that bathers can mistakenly believe the ocean bed is flat, then suddenly step into a hole and drown.

As you know only too well from your report on the recent drowning of a Russian girl, who came to that area of the beach to say goodbye to the ocean with two friends, the ocean can be turbulent, particularly during hurricane season. A month or so thereafter, just after a hurricane, I warned parents of the danger: they were not paying close attention to their small children, who were playing in the water.

Finally, I do have one complaint about your report: It failed to honor the fine men and women of the Fire Department’s Ocean Rescue. Believe me, they did everything humanly possible to save the man’s life – although you reported that he had already expired when pulled ashore, one man who was working on him told me that “we had a pulse on him.”

After seeing Ocean Rescue in action and speaking with the lifeguards, I knew what I would want to be if I had it all to do over again; but I cannot, so you have this letter. Sadly to say, it is too late for the man who drowned and his loved ones.

Sincerely,

DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS

 
 

Miami Beach Official Declares Independent Journalist Crazy


March 13, 2006
South Beach

The reader may not be surprised to hear that a confidential source has revealed that a highly placed Miami Beach official, in response to an independent journalist’s expressions of his constitutional interest in the public welfare, has declared him, namely me, to be "crazy."

Nor may the reader be astonished to learn that I, in turn, am seeking an attorney to sue the city and its official agent for slander. She will have to take the case on contingency, for my novel-news-writing schedule precludes me from taking my case. She will have to take the case as a matter of principle, for only a dollar and court costs might be won for my real damages, which have thus far been less than a dollar because I have nothing to lose except my honor, and honor is not worth much in Miami.

I think the case might be won by a competent attorney: she would have to overcome the argument that to falsely declare anyone crazy around here is not slander, for the high incidence of craziness in this locale is such that crazy people fit right in here, therefore to call them crazy is not to say they are unfit for society. That is, if they were unfit, they would not be everywhere. Still, my reputation would be tarnished in the Midwest.

In any case, the allegation of my craziness is false: I happen to know that I am one of the few people in hurricane country whose brains have not been thoroughly scrambled. That is why I fail to get other people''s jokes, and why I am the only one who laughs at my own.

My confidential source - whose name I cannot reveal because I cannot remember names and dates although I have an almost perfect memory of conversations - thinks the Hole in the park, in which my friend nearly broke her leg, has been filled because an official worried that some crazy editor might call attention to it now that my expose of the Blind Spot where a man drowned the other day has gotten some press attention. And who knows what might happen at the Crawl Space?

Now one might wonder, even in South Beach, why would a man interested in the public welfare be called "crazy" at City Hall? What is a drowning or two or three or four or more or a few broken legs or a number of disturbed homeless people in the high-flying real-estate scheme of things? Who cares about admittedly rather minor incidents, small particulars? Anyone interested in their personal welfare should have a positive mental attitude and just ignore such dirty details instead of waxing eloquently on them. But those details, including the fact that I am considered crazy for considering them, are in my opinion significant signs of what is really going on. The truth of the matter is this, that universals are found in the particulars, and those particulars often belie the Big Picture presented to the public at large.

My unnamed source said he thought my Hole had been filled because my Blind Spot had gotten some media attention. He offered to send me a copy of an official memorandum, ordering lifeguards not to talk to the press. I proceeded to the beach at once, found myself a lifeguard, mentioned that I read the letter about the valiant effort to save the drowning man, and wondered if he had received a copy of the order not to talk to the press.

"That''s standard protocol," said the handsome young man. "Everything is supposed to go through a public affairs liaison."

"Yeah, I realize that. The public spokespersons have their own little broadcasting planet, and sometimes don''t seem to want people to know what''s going on in this world. Nobody listens to me because I don''t remember names and I listen to gossip, so the media says my reports are too incredible to publish. By the way, I wonder when the lifeguard stands blown down by the hurricanes are going to be replaced by the city. They look like outhouses. I understand they are full of crap and condoms in the morning when you guys show up."

"The city didn’t show up so we built the temporary stations."

"What? You had to build your own stations?"

"We got some police platforms used at fairs and used some scrap wood on the beach to put walls on them. The city finally put doors and roofs on them, after clean-up teams were called in several times and someone threatened to report the unsanitary conditions to OSHA. So now the doors are locked. We can build good stations too - we built the nice one, Number 72."

"Number 72?"

"They are numbered by streets. The lifeguard stand at Seventy Second Street."

"Oh. But why haven''t these temporary ones been replaced?"

"We have trouble getting things from the city, especially with the current city manager. They think we are sort of prima donnas. But someone''s head is going to roll about these stands. A reality TV show is being filmed, and these stands don''t look good."

"Well, they won''t have to hire beautiful extras," I remarked, gazing over the bodies tanning all around - I wondered later where the gorgeous female lifeguards worked, as I usually see muscular white males on South Beach. "So what''s with this city manager? I can''t get a peep out of him, I guess because I am not an official spokesperson."

"He''s one of those one-hundred-grand guys with a degree who doesn''t know how to actually do the things he manages, like saving lives from drowning, fires, crime.... Why should he care? He''ll just go on to another job."

"Yes, I''ve seen that in cities where city managers are not elected because they are supposed to bring professionalism to government. They''re not elected, but they do the bidding of the politicians, and they take the credit when things go right, seldom take the rap when things go wrong, put the job on their resume, go on to another city or into consulting or something." 

The lifeguard was silent on that note, so I asked, "What about the blind spot at the Lincoln Road beach, where the man drowned in broad daylight on New Years Eve? When will a stand go up there?"

"We''ve been warning officials about that spot for years. Maybe a stand will be put up now that someone has drowned. If you look into it, you''ll find that several stands are the result of drownings. Like Number 29 - that case has gone up to the Supreme Court. We do our best to get stands, protect the public."

"You guys are union?"

"Yes, those who want to can join C.W.A., Communications Workers of America."

"Communications. That''s kind of ironic, since lifeguards aren''t supposed to talk to the press. Are you telling me that your union has to fight against the city for the public safety?"

"You might say that." - he was reluctant to affirm the proposition behind that question.

"You''re under the Fire Department now?"

"Yes."

"Is that better?"

"Yes. We have more discipline, like the military, but we have more latitude in some areas. Some lifeguards want to become firemen because they have more opportunities, and some fireman want to become lifeguards."

"Maybe being out here on the beach is more glamorous," I suggested. "But I suppose the lifeguards have their own spirit, stand independent from firemen."

"We have our thing. That includes saving the lives of firemen who try to save people who are drowning. Sometimes we''ve had to pull them out of the water, puking, and save the victims they were trying to rescue."

"How much does one of these lifeguard stands cost, by the way? Someone said one hundred and thirty grand, but that seems to be way high. I could build a house for that."

"Not really. You can build a stand for maybe thirteen grand, but you need two guys on each stand at a minimum, say, of nineteen dollars per hour, so you could run a payroll with benefits of one hundred grand, and you need support people too. It’s not cheap, but the city should take care of the beach, Miami depends on it.”

“You can say that again. I wrote an article recently about the nymph I on the beach, and why I like Miami Beach – it’s the beach, stupid. The Magic City gets its magic from the beach. Hey, I really appreciate the conversation," I concluded. "My name is David Arthur Walters."

"Don''t mention my name," he said. "Anything I said could be found in the public record, but I am not supposed to talk to the press."

"I can''t remember names, and that''s the truth. It''s a weakness of mine."

  

BLIND SPOT
http://authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=19219

THE HOLE
http://authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=17446

CRAWL SPACE
http://authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=17483

THE MIAMI BEACH NYMPH
http://authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=16968