MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

CITY OF MIAMI BEACH SHAMED BY ITS OFFICIALS

Their worst enemies are its best friends

10 January 2015
Editorial by David Arthur Walters
THE MIAMI MIRROR
Antonio Halabi has become a thorn in the side of city officials. He thought he would enjoy the
equal protection of the laws in the United States of America when he came to Miami Beach
from Venezuela to establish the Flame restaurant on Espanola Way.
He was terribly disappointed by the popular city manager and his henchmen, dismissive inhouse defense lawyers for the racket they legalize no matter how constructive the criticism of
their highhanded methods might be. Now they need to integrate good deeds with fine words
lest their polished resumes resemble so much trash blowing in the wind of the metaphysical
integrity they presently vaunt in lieu of objective performance.
Halabi says he does not want their jobs: he says he wants justice. Therefore he has become
their worst enemy, hence the best friend of the city. He insists on pointing out their faults on a
daily basis now, taking them to task for their negligence and incompetence, and their support
of the Espanola Way of doing things that is emblematic of the rent-seeking old-cronyism that
has plagued the community and rendered corruption systemic on the beach for decades.

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He does not care if they happen to be popular right now, nor does he care how much money it
will cost him to bring them personally to the bar for what he believes is the violation of his civil
rights. After all, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and their public works, were popular to begin with.
As for the money, city officials have no idea whom they have offended. He celebrates the great
friend of American revolutionaries, Simon Bolivar, who sacrificed his fortune for freedom and
independence from the very sort of privilege Halabi suffers at their hands on Espanola Way, the
historic retreat of Al Capone and his cronies.
That being said, what is his main beef? A river of tourists enters Espanola Way at its mouth on
Washington Avenue. They prefer to settle down on the sidewalk cafes. The city regulates the
number of seats each establishment can place on the public right-of-way for safety and
aesthetic reasons. City officials have selectively enforced the regulations with very few,
occasional citations, allowing restaurants to set out scores of unpermitted seats to absorb the
traffic before it gets to the restaurants at the end of the block, where Halabis restaurant is
situated, The family of restaurants known as Vida & Estilo, namely, Oh Mexico, Nuvo, and
Havana 1957, along with unrelated Hosteria Romana got the lions share of the overflow, very
little trickling down the block.
The scofflaws and their cooperating city officials were costing Halabi thousands of dollars of lost
revenue each week during the busy season, wherefore he complained, insisting that the laws
be enforced equally. That resulted in a rise in citations, with the small fry being hit hardest
despite the earnestness of the new code compliance director. For example, on one evening
Halabi called Code officers to report scores of unlawful seats set out as usual by the Vida &
Estilo family of restaurants. Instead of counting those seats and issuing a citation, they cited a
small restaurant down the block, fining it $750. Halabi complained about numerous other
incidents of favoritism, to no avail with the exception of obtaining the citys popular sidewalk
coordinators involuntary resignation.
A trumped-up fan misplacement charge was brought against Halabi when he moved a fan out
of the rain to another place in his allotted space for fifteen minutes, although an official memo
had put a moratorium on fan citations pending the development of a fairer system. He paid the
fine rather than fork over a $10,000 retainer to appeal it to the circuit court from the citys local
magistrate facility called the Special Master.
The Special Master facility is little more than a tool of the administration, as demonstrated
when the new city manager, a political insider who was once himself a special master for the
city, and who has no previous experience actually managing a city like a business, replaced the
special masters, two of whom were becoming too independent, because he said he wanted to
take the special masters in a new direction.
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Halabis restaurant was further singled out by black-shirted code compliance officers because
its plants along Drexel Avenue were a few inches over the maximum height allowed, which
shielded his customers from the panhandlers and vagrants habituating the chic habitat. He was
forced him to butcher his plants down to stubs sticking out of the planters. Other plant
violations were ignored until the injustice was reported by the independent press.
Halabi and his wife received thug-like visitations from a Vida & Estilo manager, and he duly
reported the threatening behavior to the police. Most recently he was told that he will be
ruined, that his Chavista dollars will not save him. That amounted to a sort of Hispanic hate
speech based on country of origin. Halabi is actually one of the so-called elitists whom the
Venezuelan populists have historically resented. He said he voted against Chaves every time,
has no ties to the Maduro regime, and that his main concern with his beloved Venezuela is
rampant crime.
His Miami Beach landlord, the wealthy mayors good friend and fellow investor, who has been
operating an unlicensed hotel above Halabis restaurant for several years with impunity, filed a
retaliatory eviction action against Halabi a few days after sending him a letter complaining that
he was disturbing his other tenants with his complaints about their noncompliance with city
ordinances.
Halabi has time and again said that, if everyone would just obey the law because the city
enforced it equally, then there would be no complaints between competitors about
disobedience and selective enforcement because everyone would actually be treated equal
under the law as they should be.
The poisonous cake was iced when the city manager signed two Special Event permits for the
main offenders to do just what Halabi has complained about and even worse: set out scores of
seats on the street itself on New Years Eve.
The city manager, although he has been a special master for the City of Miami Beach, and was
the city attorney for Doral, either has difficulty understand municipal law or makes decisions
based on personal prejudice. Indeed, the former city attorney had to box the new city
managers ears for his ignorance or prejudice in regards to resort taxes that he wrongly claimed
were due from the Madonna Club.
Prior to New Years Eve, Halabi pointed out that the Special Event permits signed by the city
manager were improperly authorized inasmuch as all the requirements for getting such permits
had not been met. One important requirement is that letters of consent be obtained from all
the businesses affected, which was not done, most obviously where his restaurant was
concerned.
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Another interesting item was that the Vida & Estilo group stated on its application that no
alcohol would be served on the street, and therefore did not supply the required liquor liability
insurance, whereas Hosteria Romana met the alcohol requirements. In fact, alcohol was
consumed at the tables on the streetguess where it came from.
As the result of Halabis intervention, the Special Event permits were cancelled, according to
the Special Events official, who said that Right-of-Way permits, usually used for street work,
would alone be sufficient because they temporarily extended the sidewalk cafes onto the
street. However, Right-of-Way permits alone are insufficient for a Special Event, and another,
quite lengthy process must be completed to extend sidewalk cafes.
The Special Event was allowed to occur as if the Special Event permits were in force, which they
were not, at an estimated cost in revenue to Halabi of $5,000. A Code Compliance officer on the
scene told Halabis restaurant manager that Halabi had the city managers ear, implying that
the event, replete with entertainment and alcohol inside and outside the restaurants,
exhausting the traffic before it got to his restaurant, was the city managers response to
Halabis complaints.
The legitimate response of the fire, police, and code compliance departments would have been
to shut down the event in the interest of public safety, for noncompliance with the law, citing
two violations of the Special Event ordinance, with a fine of $1,000 each, and citing the
participants for all the unauthorized seats and tables set out on the sidewalks and street.
Code compliance did cite Hosteria Romana. A laconic sidewalk appears on the online form as
the description of the violation. No further explanation has been forthcoming thus far. Perhaps
one is being concocted by the pettifoggers so that the citation can be dismissed or marked
Invalid. Incidentally, the restaurant group was cited for violating the fire line with its tables.
Business is business, and competition in the restaurant business can be especially vicious. The
main violators are the city officials who are supposed to fairly regulate or organize the greed in
the public interest.
What the officials have done here is a crying shame, and they should be ashamed for shaming
the city. But do not expect them to apologize or change. Expect them to justify whatever they
do with specious arguments, and to retaliate against anyone who exposes them.
Of course there might be a miracle if the mayor were truly interested in good customer service
for all. After all, the politician managing city business will do what he is told because he is a
really nice guy.

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However, anything less than 100% appreciation of everything the new regime does is not
appreciated by the stonewalling mayor and his purchased majority on the commission. They
are riding on the laurels of the regime they ironically deposed on corrupt grounds. The
honeymoon is coming to an end, nevertheless. You cant fool the majority all the time.
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