Little Havana condo owners get little help as units collapse

When a group of Little Havana condominium owners realized in 2009 that there were serious structural problems in the properties they had just bought, they sought help from several local officials.

They called Miami building inspectors. They wrote letters to the directors of the city and county programs that helped finance their purchases with nearly $1 million in public funds. And they contacted their elected officials to complain about the developers who had sold them the condos.

In November 2010, County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, whose district the complex is in, offered to try to help convert the zero-to-low-interest loans that eight of the condo owners had received as first-time homebuyers into grants.

But they rejected the offer because it would have required them to stay in their homes for 30 years and they didn’t think they would last that long.

A month ago, the floor in one of the units collapsed. Other owners are having similar problems. The owners want somebody to take responsibility for what happened.

“Who could the county go after? The engineering firms? All the appraisers sent by the banks?” asked Barreiro.

It’s unclear when the floors in the five buildings that make up the Havana Palms complex, 960 SW Second St., began to deteriorate.

Public records show that Montara Land V, LLC — owned by Anibal Duarte-Viera and Gabriel de la Campa — bought the 1946 apartment complex for $2.5 million in 2005. The developers converted the units into condominiums the following year, investing about $120,000 to repair the electric and plumbing systems, as well as installing central air conditioning, according to city permits.

Between December 2006 and March 2009, Montara Land sold 18 of the units to buyers, 14 of whom qualified for government aid for low- to moderate-income first-time homebuyers. The prices of the condominiums dropped as Miami’s real estate bubble burst, but the sales varied from $119,000 for a one-bedroom to $184,000 for two. By 2010, when the real estate market had collapsed, they sold one last condo for $44,000.

Unable to sell the remaining 13 units, Montara Land began to rent some of them out, according to the residents. The developers finally sold the remaining stock to investor Constantino Cicchelli in March 2011 for $475,000, or less than $37,000 per unit. Duarte-Viera and De la Campa shut down their company that September.

The condo owners say that the floors showed signs of deterioration shortly after they moved in. After a 2009 city inspection confirmed problems with the floor joists, Montaramade some repairs, but the work was never completed, according to city records.

Duarte-Viera told El Nuevo Herald said that he remembers that some repairs were made in the complex but said he was unfamiliar with the details.

The owners say they asked the developers to take responsibility for repairing structural damages. When the work didn’t take place, they reached out to government officials for help.

In October 2011, the county offered another solution: It gave the condo owners the option to sell or rent their units before the loans expired. “This waiver has been approved due to the unsafe structural condition of the property and the developer’s non compliance with the city of Miami building codes,” wrote Rubén Arias, the county’s public affairs director.

But the owners also turned down that offer. By then their properties had lost so much value that, even if someone wanted to buy them, the money from the sales would not have been enough to pay off their mortgages. The condos currently have assessed values of between $41,770 and $48,450, according to the county’s property appraiser.

At the city level, the deputy director of Miami’s Community Development Department told the condo owners in November 2011 that he would recommend total or partial pardon of the debts to a committee with authority on such matters. Nine owners received aid from the city government. However, the city could not allow the property owners to participate once again in the first-buyers program as they had requested.

For now, many of the condo owners at Havana Palms say their only recourse is a civil suit. They are unsure who to sue because Montara Land no longer exists. They are considering a suit against the private appraisers sent by the banks or the private engineering firm that conducted a 40-year certified inspection of the complex in 2009 that found the complex structurally sound.

Juana Blandón, one of the few owners who did not receive government aid to buy her condo, is among those in talks with a pro bono attorney. Blandón’s bathroom floor has broken in two and the floors in the rest of the unit feel spongy.

“Maybe we will have to sue the banks, the inspector and all those responsible in order for this to get resolved,” Blandón said. “We have no other choice.”

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Rihanna Obtains Restraining Order From Obsessed Fan

Fearing for her life, Rihanna has filed for and been granted a restraining order from an obsessed fan.

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The singer obtained a temporary order against Steveland Barrow, 31, on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. According to paperwork acquired by ET, Barrow broke into a residence adjacent to Rihanna's (believing it was hers) where he "removed various items from the home and slept in a bed."

When arrested, Barrow told officers that the songstress had invited him to her home where he had intended to distribute his poetry.

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A judge is set to determine whether or not the order, which currently prohibits Barrow from coming within 100 yards of Rihanna, should be made permanent during a March 21 hearing.

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Bloomberg’s thirst

Confronted with revelations that his ban on jumbo-size soda is far more extensive than New Yorkers have realized, Mayor Bloomberg showed that his thirst for control remains unquenched: If he can’t impose his preferences on everyone, then the state should do it for him.

His remarks come as restaurants and other food establishments prepare for the day, less than two weeks hence, when they’re banned from serving sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. But as The Post’s Brad Hamilton and Susan Edelman report this week, Bloomberg’s ban extends to more than just individual drinks.

Reuters

Michael Bloomberg

Take the two-liter soda bottles people often have delivered with their pizzas. Or the large pitchers of soda served at bowling alleys. Or the carafes of mixers served in city bars and nightclubs.

If you buy any of these, Bloomberg’s ban will affect more than your sweet tooth. That two-liter bottle of Coke for your daughter’s birthday you used to pay $3 for? An equal amount of soda will now set you back $7.50.

So what was Mayor Mike’s reaction when The Post asked him about all this? Any objections, he said, are “just made up because somebody on Sunday wants to write a column and they can’t find any news that day.”

And the gaping hole in his plan — the fact that grocery stores and supermarkets will be unaffected by his ban because they’re regulated by the state and not the city? “The state should do exactly the same thing in stores,” said Bloomberg.

In other words, the answer to problems caused by big government is even bigger government.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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Is this really the end of Cuba’s Castro brothers? Exiles say not so fast

On the streets of Miami, the announcement of a possible end to the Castro brothers’ rule was met with uncharacteristic silence Monday — no clanging of pots and pans in Little Havana and Hialeah.

No loud pronouncements on Spanish-language radio, either, about the news that President Raúl Castro planned to retire in 2018 and had named an heir apparent.

“There’s like, a little burnout about this subject with us,” said Alex Fumero, 30, a co-creator, editor and contributor of the poetry group Hialeah Haikus.

But the emotions were as strong as ever for Cuban-born U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who believes this is just another sinister ploy by the Castro brothers.

“The fact that this possible retirement won’t take effect for years is just another in a long line of false propaganda tactics used by the regime to trick the masses and international community,” said Ros-Lehtinen, whose political career has been dedicated to opposing Castro.

“U.S. law states that no Castro may be in power, so this may be a ploy by the Cuban regime to attempt to normalize relations prematurely with the U.S.,’’ she said.

Miami radio commentator Ninoska Perez Castellon said five more years of any Castro is a long time. "This is just more of the same, and a cruel joke on a people enduring a 54-year-old dictatorship," she said.

Many like the idea of an end to the Castros, but they say it should have happened years ago.

“They’re giving up power too late and five years is too long to wait for them to actually do it,” said Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez, president of the Cuban-American National Foundation, a group that has long lobbied in Washington against the Castros.

“‘They’ve already done so much harm to the Cuban people. And the nerve to think they can name a successor, as if Cuba was their personal farm. The successor they named better be careful; those guys sometimes just disappear,” he said.

Cuban-born Marta Olchyk, a Surfside commissioner, said she was “glad that Raúl Castro said he is leaving in five years” although it would have happened anyway because of his age, she said.

“Cuba is slowly but surely moving away from communism,” said Olchyk, who left the island in 1960. “So, this is not earth-shattering news.”

Battle-weary Jose Basulto met the news with a cynical laugh.

“I have to laugh because this is so disrespectful, such an insult,” said Basulto, who took part in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion and founded the Brothers to the Rescue, a group that helped rafters fleeing Cuba find their way to U.S. shores.

Juan Clark, a professor emeritus at Miami Dade College and Bay of Pigs veteran, does not believe Raúl Castro actually will leave on his own in five years.

“I think many people were eager to see the end of the system and unfortunately that hasn’t happened,’’ said Clark, who has studied the exile community for many years.

Some “historic exiles” who came to the United States in the early days of the revolution have sworn they will never return as long as a Castro is in power.

Others, mainly those who have arrived after the Mariel boatlift in 1980, still have family on the island and travel there to help fledgling family businesses and might not even consider themselves exiles, Clark said.

Cuban-Americans offered a variety of opinions through The Miami Herald’s Public Insight Network.

It was ho-hum news for some younger Cuban-Americans, known as the ABCs — American-born Cubans who learned to hate the Castros from older family members.

Lazaro Castillo of Orlando, who was born the year of the revolution, gave little credence to the announcement.

“Any change in the island has a meaning, and this particular change is another manipulation, and in order to maintain the dynasty,’’ he said.

Miramar resident Olga Perez-Cormier, an American-born Cuban, also felt it was no more than a ploy.

“I listen to this with my usual skepticism,’’ she said. “I wish both Castro brothers would hurry up and die, but apparently, it will never be that easy.”

Miami Herald staff writer Mimi Whitefield contributed to this report. It also includes comments from the Public Insight Network, an online community of people who have agreed to share their opinions with The Miami Herald. Sign up by going to MiamiHerald.com

/Insight.

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Let Them Eat Cake

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville celebrated the release of her book Drinking and Tweeting and Other Brandi Blunders with co-author Leslie Bruce and two girlfriends during a raucous party at Lavo in Las Vegas over the weekend.

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Old McDonald had a donor

Mayoral candidate George McDonald scored a small win in court yesterday: For the time being, he can collect campaign donations that are legal under state law but exceed the $4,950-per-donor limit imposed by the city.

That’s great news for New Yorkers who are fed up with the city’s current class of politicians. For this case is about more than money in politics: It’s about laws that favor the established political class at the expense of credible challengers.

Because McDonald has opted out of the city’s matching-funds program, he argues he should be governed by the state’s finance laws. These laws allow campaign donations of up to $19,700 in the primaries and $41,100 in general elections.

George McDonald

Without access to these donations, McDonald simply can’t compete. An advocate for the homeless, he doesn’t have the money to self-finance. He isn’t bankrolled by a union, and, unlike lifelong politicians, he has no donor base built up by years of dishing out political favors.

It’s telling that a brief filed in court against McDonald came from state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who obviously has no personal objection to big donations. In his most recent six-month filing, we found more than 60 contributions that would exceed the city limits.

Indeed, Schneiderman has amassed a $2.8 million war chest, which suggests that his agenda here has little to do with keeping money out of New York elections.

Like so many others who want to extend the city’s narrower campaign-donation limits to the state, Schneiderman knows that it’s a good way of keeping first-time candidates like McDonald out of the running — and keeping entrenched pols in power.

As McDonald told The Post: “I’m planning on financing my campaign exactly as the attorney general does now. It hasn’t seemed to invite corruption as far as he’s concerned. It certainly won’t for me.”

We agree. Shouldn’t McDonald be allowed to run his campaign under the same rules as Schneiderman?

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a healthcare informatics and management systems program in its graduate school of business.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Analysis: When it comes to Citizens, property insurance costs, Gov. Rick Scott keeps mum

TALLAHASSEE --
He says he is protective of Florida families, but Gov. Rick Scott can’t get a grip on one of the big pocketbook issues for many of them: the rising cost of homeowner insurance.

Scott has ordered internal investigations into spending practices at the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance, Florida’s largest insurer, and when he was blindsided by big raises to top executives, he told them to return the money.

But tackling the price of insurance is a different story.

When it comes to the cost of living, Scott talks about taxes and tuition, but insurance seems rarely part of the conversation.

“I’m for Florida families,” Scott said in an exclusive Times/Herald interview in his office. “My goal is to get more competition.”

While Floridians have dodged a hurricane for seven years, the rising cost of property insurance looms as a potential major issue in the upcoming race for governor — the political equivalent of a large, dangerous weather disturbance.

Nearly half of all Florida homeowners rate property insurance costs as a top financial concern, according to some polls. But it has never made the top of Scott’s agenda and is missing from his priority list for 2013, which is topped by a $2,500 pay raise for teachers.

Scott’s predecessor and possible future opponent, Charlie Crist, bashed insurance companies to promote his populist image. Shortly after taking office in 2007, Crist called a special legislative session to freeze Citizens’ rates, and he demonized insurers as greedy.

That’s not Scott’s nature. A conservative supporter of free markets, he wants to shrink Citizens and lure more private companies into the Florida market, on the premise that more competition will lower costs, but critics say that won’t help.

“Gov. Scott just doesn’t get it,” said Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who hears daily from constituents fed up with Citizens. “Homeowners are absolutely disgusted with what Citizens is doing to them, and they definitely will blame a governor who allowed it to happen.”

In places such as Miami-Dade County, Citizens policyholders pay an average of $3,300 a year for standard coverage, eating up nearly 5 percent of a typical family’s budget. Rate hikes of 10 percent a year apparently are straining household budgets in Tampa Bay and South Florida, where Citizens dominates the market — and where more than a third of Florida voters live.

Scott says his control over Citizens is limited: He appoints two of its eight board members.

The governor’s most vocal stance on Citizens occurred at a Cabinet meeting in late 2011. Informed that the insurer was growing rapidly and struggling to control risk, Scott told then-president Scott Wallace to fix the problem within six months.

“This is something we cannot continue to do,” Scott said, harking back to a campaign promise to shrink risk at Citizens.

ONLY GETTING WORSE

By some measures, the problem has gotten worse since that Cabinet meeting. A month later, Wallace resigned, and was replaced by Tom Grady, Scott’s Naples neighbor and political ally, who soon fell out of favor with Citizens board members. He was replaced by Barry Gilway.

In the months following, property insurance has receded from Scott’s policy priority list, just as Citizens has become more aggressive than ever about remaking the company.

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Christoph Waltz Shocked in Oscar Press Room

Christoph Waltz took home his second career Oscar statue at tonight's 85th Annual Academy Awards and no one was more surprised about the win than the actor himself.

The 56-year-old performer entered the Oscar press room clutching his prize for best supporting actor in the slavery western Django Unchained looking visibly flustered.

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"I still am [in shock]," stammered Waltz. "Literally. That's why my answers are somewhat incoherent but I don't care."

Beating out Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook), and Alan Arkin (Argo), the star said he could barely comprehend the honor.

"I was on a list with the greatest actors around," said an awestruck Waltz when asked about hearing his name called just moments earlier. "How do you think someone feels when all of a sudden, his name is called in that context? I can't tell you."

Related: The Complete Oscars 2013 Winners List

In Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge western Django Unchained, Waltz plays a dentist-turned-bounty-hunter who helps a freed slave (Jamie Foxx) rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from a ruthless plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Waltz's Sunday win gives the star two victories for two nominations in just three years.

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