South Florida Bloggers Pick Their Favorite Posts of 2012, Part Two

The first installment of our highlight reel from the area blogosphere featured everything from legal scholarship to sex toys.

Round two keeps the quality flowing, with a diverse selection from all over the ideological map. Here are laser-guided muckrakes and movement funeral oratory, community issues, and court cases. If anything, this gives you a sampler platter of which local keyboard pounders to bookmark for 2013. Below are some thoughts from the bloggers about why this is their pick, followed by some lines from the original post. Enjoy.

Tim Smith, Tim Smith's Fort Lauderdale: The Great Mahogany Massacre, published June 23

"I wrote this piece back in June, when the School Board started a late Friday hacking of some beautiful giant Mahoganies around the Fort Lauderdale High School. Channel 10 picked up the story and it went a tad viral... had thousands of visits to that little story and it set up a battle between the City's laws and the School Boards' authority... I'm hoping they'll think twice next time (they'll probably change the work to a Sunday afternoon)."

It may go down as one of the biggest tree massacres that Fort Lauderdale has ever seen! Before yesterday, these gauged Mahoganies were part of the treelined, shady Fort Lauderdale High School grounds -- Then came yesterday! .... Neighborhood President Randall Klett was the first to see the carnage happening Friday afternoon (odd time to start ?) . . .

Fane Lozman, Fane Lozman.com: The Supremes hear the Lozman Case, published October 22

"After a nightmarish 3 ½ year climb through the Southern Federal District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, I reached the summit on Monday October 1. Sitting in the United States Supreme Court chambers when my case was called for oral argument, the first of the Court's 2012 term, I felt a remarkable sense of peace and calmness. The dog fight between the members of the Riviera Beach City council a.k.a. the cesspool of political corruption, and I was finally laid out for all to see. The City taxpayers could understand what their $600,000 in legal bills to both silence me and destroy my floating had brought -- simply nothing but a free junket to Washington, D.C. for the Mayor, the City Council and their cronies."

At last! My appeal of the City of Riviera Beach's arrest and destruction of my floating residential structure was argued before the United States Supreme Court on Monday October 1, 2012 . . . 

RedBroward.com: Letting Go, Moving On, published November 7

"Letting Go, Moving On" written day after November election, was one of the most read posts on RB. Using a blend of pop culture, faith and post-partisan hope, [the] post reminds us one election will not fix the corrupt mess in Broward."

Letting go is very hard.

Moving on is very hard.

Luckily, nobody does it alone.

So, take a day to be pissed, angry, or sad. Then hug your kids and loved ones. And let it go.

We need to move on. There is much work yet to be done.

You are not alone...

Wes Blackman, Wes Blackman's City of Lake Worth Blog: The Beach: Promises made, promises not kept, published January 19

"This is from January of 2012 and it is a good summary of the promises made by the Lake Worth City Commission, and the promises not kept, in the redevelopment of the beach property and the city's Casino building. The Casino building is just now opening for business. My blog is peppered with posts about the progress and problems associated with the project."

During their individual campaigns, candidates and elected officials make promises to those who elect them (us) to serve as our representatives. In fact, 2012 is a presidential election year and already we are hearing promises being made by those running in the various primaries leading to the upcoming November election. The public, however, has become increasingly cynical about whether these campaign promises really mean anything... 

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