Back in my college days, I lived a couple of neighborhoods south of Broadview Park, located in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale), Florida.
It wasn't a great neighborhood then and that was thirty plus years ago.
I'm not inferring Broadview is worse because residency restrictions have clustered offenders in the 'hood.
I'm stating offenders (the majority low-level offenders) and their families (wives, kids, etc) have been regulated (forced) to live in dangerous areas that I wouldn't walk a dog through.
That being said, the Sun Sentinel is reporting that Broadview has become one of the only areas in Broward County that citizens identified as sex offenders can legally live due to recently increased residency restrictions.
The Broward Sex Offender & Sexual Predator Residence Task Force was recently charged by the Broward County Commission with finding a way out of the conundrum created by sex offender residency restrictions have listened to experts, crunched numbers and discussed a dismaying array of unintended consequences and issued the following recommendations. (Read more about the recommendations of the task force here ).
Although AG candidate State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, "...plans to keep pushing for a bill to create a standardized, statewide 1,500-foot rule that would include a 24-hour child-protection zone, banning loitering around schools, parks and libraries. A statewide standard would avoid unintended colonies of sex offenders...", he still simply STILL does not get it.
Let me spell it out. It's incredibly difficult to find a home in a safe neighborhood under the current statewide residency rule of 1000 feet, a figure many municipalities increased, because they jumped aboard Ship Hysteria). Add five hundred feet and see how quickly a school, park, library or licensed day care center pops up on the old Google map.
Dave, you might as well suggest a Julia Tuttle, increasing the standard to 2500 feet as did the City of Miami, which resulted in a homeless camp under the now infamous JT causeway.
The Broward task force made one recommendation that would solve these ridiculous, backwater, finger-pointing, Scarlet Letter laws.
(...)
We also recommend that the legislature review the crimes that require registration and that Florida create a more refined, risk-based classification and tier system of offenders that might, in some circumstances, lead to individuals eventually being deleted from the registry but only upon meeting criteria established by statute and requiring judicial review.
I issue a challenge to fellow Democrat state senator DaveAronberg.
Call a realtor and go house hunting within the parameters of residency restrictions, including your recommendation of 1500 feet. And don't call just any realtor.
Call Paul H., the low level offender who sat as a member of the Broward Sex Offender & Sexual Predator Residence Task Force, who finally found a house somewhere out in the Everglades. (Read Educating Martin Kiar, 6/1/2009).
And take along a cop. (Call it a ride-along). Because you are going to need one.
While your phoning folks for the house hunt, Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald might be interested in tagging along. The columnist actually seems to GET IT.
For those who doubt my impression of Broadview Park, the area is currently in the midst of a summer crime spree which includes home and auto burglaries.
Per JustNews.com (6/24/09):
(...)
As soon as school lets out for the summer every year, Detective Dan Mellies of the Broward Sheriff's Office prepares for more break-ins. However, he never anticipated anything like the recent crime streak. "They're picking out their houses very carefully. They kind of know when people come and go," he said.In the span of less than two months, Mellies said criminals burglarized 15 homes and 15 vehicles in the Broadview Park area.
Ah. There's no place like home.
