Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL3RmJGETqc&list=PLOQvdw7d0cd9RZZkd2lZy2hmrnJv-cfLI&index=32
Evan Snow: On this episode of the Choose954 podcast, back here on the Choose954 podcast with Parkside Civic Association President Ken Crawford, a very passionate Hollywood local here from our new residences in the Circ Residences in downtown Hollywood.
If you didn't know, we started a social movement called Choose954 to cultivate culture and community here in Broward County, where myself, Evan Snow, is very proud to be born and raised from. In an effort to keep people in the know with all the great things that are going on to make this a better place to live and not just a better place to vacation. The point of the podcast is to connect you with passionate and interesting locals like Ken, who are doing important work in the community. Thankfully, there is a lot of great stuff going on here in Hollywood.
Ken Crawford: Absolutely. So without much further ado, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself at a high level?
Evan Snow: Great, thank you for having me, I appreciate it.
Ken Crawford: I’ve lived in Parkside, or actually the city of Hollywood, for about 27 years. I actually rented on the beach at one point and decided to purchase in Hollywood because I thought downtown Hollywood was fantastic and fell in love with Parkside neighborhood. I’ve been living in that neighborhood for 22 years now.
Evan Snow: Where is it for those that aren’t familiar?
Ken Crawford: For those who don’t know, we are south of downtown. We’re a small little neighborhood that apparently a lot of people don’t know about, which is great. It’s between Federal Highway and Dixie Highway, Pembroke Road and Hollywood Boulevard, so it’s a little rectangle neighborhood.
Evan Snow: And what is the role for those that aren’t familiar with the civic association?
Ken Crawford: A civic association is a combination; it’s not like a homeowner’s association because we have developers who are members, we have business people who are members. So it’s sort of like a combination of everyone who is actually in the boundaries of Parkside itself.
Evan Snow: Okay, and what do you passionately do as president of the civic association?
Ken Crawford: President of the association is sort of a job that nobody wants. Once you get in there and you’re doing the job, everybody’s like, “No, no, no, just take care of it, you’re doing a great job.” So basically, I attend a lot of meetings with the city, like the mayor and the commissioners. We tend to work together to better the neighborhood, work with the police department, the CRA, and try to get grants for the neighborhood to improve the neighborhood. We’re just going through a fantastic change. We have all our water lines replaced in Parkside, so that’s fantastic. We got all new water lines, they’re paving all our roads now. That’s one of the things that we worked really hard with the city for.
Evan Snow: These are all important things.
Ken Crawford: These are very important things because Parkside is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Hollywood, so the infrastructure started to act up a little bit.
Evan Snow: Development in Hollywood.
Ken Crawford: And with what’s going on with the fantastic development that’s coming into Hollywood, the leaders said, “We should really sort of look at this because Parkside right now has a lot of attention with developers coming in.” So the city agreed and said, “You know what, we should just jump in and fix the problems now so that we don’t have any issues down the road.”
Evan Snow: Amen.
Ken Crawford: Which down the road, right? We saw the issues with the sewer pipes in the city of Fort Lauderdale, right? And this happens with major cities, with older cities, and you know, you can’t ignore them forever. Thankfully, you guys are very passionate and very proactive. One of the things I found very interesting was some additions and upgrades to your website. Do you want to tell them some of the goals of what you guys are trying to do with attracting a business?
Ken Crawford: Yeah, what we’re doing on our website, if you’d like to go to it, it’s parksidehwdforhollywood.com. It’s a very informative website. What we’re trying to do is promote our neighborhood because we are the only neighborhood in Hollywood which has a walkable score of 82 out of 100, which is phenomenal. What we want to do is promote not necessarily our neighborhood but how downtown is so important for our neighborhood because you can just walk to it. Downtown is so important that on our website, we have a whole listing of restaurants downtown, activities going on downtown, and what’s coming into our neighborhood in terms of new construction and new development.
Evan Snow: It’s not only really downtown because we have a plethora of restaurants around our entire boundaries, from Pembroke Road, we have fantastic Argentinian, South American places, French places, we have Russian places on Federal Highway, so we’re basically surrounded by cuisine of the world. We can just walk in any direction and find a fantastic place to eat. So we try to promote those businesses as well as others downtown, showing that hey, we’re all in this together. We’re improving our neighborhood; downtown’s improving, so we just want to make it a conscious effort to help the businesses downtown, which they really, really are excited about.
Ken Crawford: Amen.
Evan Snow: People want to live in places where there are good culinary options, things to do, arts and culture. I often say nobody wants to live in a place that’s dark and gray, that’s devoid of culture. You need to have this art and play element of the live, work, and play cycle. Nobody just wants to go to work, go home, rinse, and repeat.
You’ve kind of already outlined some of the great reasons, but for yourself and maybe new people who, like myself, have been considering choosing Hollywood, what are some reasons why people would choose to live in a city like Hollywood?
Ken Crawford: Hollywood is like, at one point, I know it’s sort of cliche, but we’re like the gem of South Florida. We’re not overpopulated like you have in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. We still retain that sort of coastal town community. We have these beautiful neighborhoods, Parkside included, where you have the old Florida homes, homes built in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s in Parkside as well as throughout. It has a lot of great architectural elements. Parkside especially, downtown Hollywood, you’re a mile from the beach. You can take your bike, you can walk to it. We have a shuttle service from downtown that you can pay a dollar for, and you don’t have to worry about parking at the beach; you go right to the beach. Hollywood has a lot going for it. We’re 10 minutes from the airport, if that. We’re 20 minutes from Miami, 20 minutes from Fort Lauderdale, without the congestion and all the chaos going on down there. We’re very quiet. It’s a great, really sort of untapped city to live in or even to go and see.
Evan Snow: Amen. Great place for families.
Ken Crawford: Absolutely.
Evan Snow: Still affordable. For those of you that didn’t know, I just moved to Hollywood to the Circ here in downtown, and I’m really enjoying it so far. Everybody’s been very nice, welcoming, and accommodating. I’m enjoying the rooftop area, and also just everything that you know, the things that I need easy access to. I have a Publix downstairs, a UPS store downstairs, there’s a spa downstairs, and then Arts Park is right across the street. The art walk and downtown Hollywood are literally right here, with tons of restaurant options. It’s very convenient, and I’m really glad to have made the move.
Ken Crawford: Yeah, you have the Arts and Culture Center like a stone’s throw away. During the fall and winter, we have so many bands and movies in the Arts Park. It’s just a great city because you can literally walk to everything in Hollywood, not out west Hollywood, but you know.
Evan Snow: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ken Crawford: And the Circ, which I’ve been using the dollar-a-ride transportation option that you just mentioned, it’s very convenient. My bike’s in the shop at the moment. I plan on biking to the beach. I also hear that there’s a great Critical Mass community ride every last Friday of the month.
Evan Snow: Yes, absolutely. What are some other events or things that people should look forward to either in Parkside or throughout greater Hollywood?
Ken Crawford: We have a wonderful thing the first weekend of every month, the Classic Car Show. You can go downtown and look at all these beautiful pieces of art and vintage cars, hang out with the owners, get to know them, see the beautiful cars, enjoy a sandwich or a cup of coffee. We have so many coffee shops now, it’s fantastic downtown. That’s one thing we have. An art walk with a mural guide, which you happen to be, which is fantastic. We have live people doing art down there, the Art and Culture Center just has a new exhibit opening up Saturday, and they have all these wonderful fundraiser events going on. There’s just so much to do in Hollywood.
Evan Snow: It’s like, right now is a great time because we’re going into season. We don’t have the heat and humidity anymore. People are walking out, enjoying the night. We have people in Parkside who walk downtown with their family, grab an ice cream, walk around. Hollywood is such a great city to live in.
Ken Crawford: It is. It has a certain charm to it, this historic business association and feel to it. It still has Cinema Paradiso, which we’re glad to start getting some more people out to. We’re actually going to start the tours of the art walk that we host every third Saturday night of the month. Traditionally at seven o’clock, we actually just added a tour for nine o’clock for the later crowd, and we’re going to work to integrate the cinema further as part of the tour and actually potentially end the nine o’clock tour with a short film, maybe an art film or documentary at the cinema to get more people out to this great historic gem of downtown Hollywood. Unfortunately, cinemas are dying, and we want to support film, which is a form of art.
Evan Snow: There’s also a great annual event coming up, Hollyweird, the annual Halloween festival.
Ken Crawford: It is Hollywood. It’s Hollywood, you know they say it for a reason, but for a good way. They close the street off, and it’s just a big party fest. It’s great; bring your families, dress up in costume, they give real prizes.
Evan Snow: I was actually a judge one year, and that was fantastic.
Ken Crawford: So the Hollyweird’s coming up, the art walk’s every third Saturday night of the month. I got word, and I don’t know if it’s public or if they’ve confirmed it yet, but we’re looking potentially at the first Hollywood Pride.
Evan Snow: I think that’s actually a thing.
Ken Crawford: It is confirmed.
Evan Snow: It’s confirmed? Okay, very good. Hollywood Pride, I believe, January 22nd, which is actually during Fort Lauderdale Art and Design Week, right? So you could partake in not just that; there’s going to be events at the Hollywood Art and Culture Center, but these are great progressive steps. Somebody looking to further engage with the community, maybe someone like myself looking to relocate to a new city, you want to go places where there are things to do, ways to get involved if that’s what you’re looking for.
Ken Crawford: Thankfully, there are plenty of options here, in addition to the beach, the Marine Education Environmental Center, with the phenomenal sea turtle whose name I forget now, but that’s okay. For more information on some of those initiatives, you can log on to floridashollywood.org, which is the website of the Community Redevelopment Agency, the CRA.
Evan Snow: If you didn’t know about the CRA, they’re dear friends of mine and supporters of Choose954, and I’m glad to support them. The CRA takes tax dollars generally from the businesses in the CRA district, which is downtown on the beach, and they use that to put on events and promote events like the art walk, the Dream Car Classic Car Show every first Sunday night of the month, like Hollyweird, St. Patrick’s Day, and all of those. They use these tax dollars from the businesses to drive more people out to downtown and to the CRA districts. Because if nobody knows about them, if there wasn’t any marketing, it’s not really doing anybody any good.
Ken Crawford: One of the best ways I like to describe the art walk to people, if you haven’t been on the tour, you’ve never heard of an art walk before, the art walk is our greatest community event of the month. It’s really the only time in the community that one, two, three, four, five thousand people come together over our love of art, culture, food, music.
Evan Snow: And it’s not only Hollywood people; there are people around Broward County who come to that.
Ken Crawford: Correct. And one big event during the holiday season is the Candy Cane Parade. Huge event on the beach. I remember our association used to have a float one time, and I think what happened, the reason why during the event they used to throw candy canes out, and I guess too many people got bruises because people were winging them. So that’s Hollywood for you.
Evan Snow: Not only can you find these events online on floridashollywood.org, but if you come to the art walk every third Saturday, there’s an information tent. At the information tent, there are generally flyers of all these great events. That information tent is on the corner of 20th and Harrison, right in downtown Hollywood, right in front of End to End Gallery and Patty Mac’s restaurant. That’s where the tours start of the art walk every third Saturday night of the month at six o’clock. There’s a tour of the mural project, which is a world-class public art street art project that the curator and project manager Jill Weisberg leads. A free guided and curated tour every third Saturday at six o’clock takes about 45 minutes. Then there’s a gap between her tour and the tour that I lead of the Hollywood art walk, the galleries, the studios, and the artists and market participants that roll in. If you haven’t been, we really try to connect the dots and educate people on the importance of the art walk, the importance of arts to the community, and literally let you meet and speak to and get to hear from the people that make the art walk great.
Ken Crawford: That leads into Daniel Ponten’s painting with his feet at eight o’clock with Resurrection Drums. That’s something you really need to see in person because that will just knock your socks off.
Evan Snow: He can paint better with his feet than most can with their hands.
Ken Crawford: It’s amazing what he can do, and with the drum circle there with Resurrection Drums, phenomenal. That’s at Zaza Italian Café, which is one block south of the information tent on 20th Street and Harrison. Then there’s also every month two main either bands or performers at a stage on the corner of 21st and Harrison.
Evan Snow: We’ve had huge Grammy award-winning centers.
Ken Crawford: Absolutely. And this month, two great jazz bands are playing, so we definitely encourage you if you haven’t been out there before to come out. And now we also have a tour at nine o’clock if you can’t join for the seven o’clock tour, and you want to be part of the later crowd.
Evan Snow: So for that, you can also log on to Choose954 social media’s website to find out more about great events that are going on. If they want to follow what’s going on in Parkside, where can they find you guys on social media?
Ken Crawford: On social media, we’re on Instagram. You’ll probably see my face all over that. Basically, what I do is talk about the restaurants, the stores downtown, I talk about what interesting changes are coming into Parkside, and talk about how unique and different the neighborhood is. One thing that’s really fantastic now is we have an influx of small boutique projects coming in, new development. And what we’re finding out is that these are young families who are moving into these buildings, and they say the reason why they like Parkside is that they’re so close to downtown that they can leave their cars at home and just walk and go downtown and eat with their families and then come home. So we’re sort of like, this is fantastic. And that’s what we’re seeing more and more of. We see more bicycles, and now we’re starting to see more school buses because we have so many more families moving into our neighborhood. That’s great for downtown, and it’s great for our neighborhood too. We’re finally turning around; we’re starting to become an urban neighborhood that a lot of people are interested in wanting to live in.
Evan Snow: Amen.
Ken Crawford: Yeah, great place to live.
Evan Snow: Absolutely.
Ken Crawford: And the Arts Park itself, there’s a whole children’s section that the kids can go to. We have certain Jamaican bands, classical bands, you name it, they have it, maybe every night. It’s just Hollywood is like, as I say on social media, it’s the it place to live. And Hollywood is hot, that’s my phrase.
Evan Snow: There you go. And one other great initiative we were discussing before, we’re adding more art to downtown Hollywood.
Ken Crawford: Absolutely. The Parkside Civic Association has been working with the CRA in getting funding to do a sidewalk mural from Harrison Street all the way down to Washington Street. We’re trying to take art and move it around the Parkside neighborhood. That’s one of the things we’re trying to work with as well. That’ll be installed on 21st Street, 24/7.
Evan Snow: South 21st Avenue?
Ken Crawford: Yeah, right near Harrison. Just south of Harrison to Washington Street, which is south.
Evan Snow: That’s great. There have been a few installed by Jill, Lisa Leota, George, and Susan Goldberg.
Ken Crawford: The whole Hollywood, the CRA is fantastic. A lot of people don’t understand that they work so hard to promote Hollywood, to promote the businesses. They even help out Parkside because half of our neighborhood is in the CRA boundaries. What we did is we worked with George and Lisa, and we got in the budget to do acorn lights into our neighborhood, which adds another charming feel with our tree-lined streets. That’s one thing that we got from the CRA as well. We try to work with the CRA and the city to benefit our neighborhood, and everybody realizes that right now Parkside is one of the neighborhoods everybody wants to live in. So we’re working feverishly and very, very hard, the association, downtown, and the city itself with Wazir, who’s a fantastic city manager. I’ve got to say, we’re so lucky to have him and of course, Josh Levy, who is probably one of the best mayors we’ve had in such a long time. They do so much for our city and fight so much for our city, and they really appreciate all the hard work that we’re doing as well to not only help Parkside but downtown.
Evan Snow: Amen. I’m not too political, but I will say, great city commission. Commissioner Shoehams, Kevin Biederman, Linda Sherwood, Adam Gruber, and Tracy Clary.
Ken Crawford: We have a fantastic commission right now, and they are working so hard for the city. We’re on the right path and continuing to make Hollywood a better place to live, and it’s absolutely working. We’ve got great leadership, great associations, and it’s just a fantastic place to live.
Evan Snow: Amen. I will tell you from my experience in Broward County, working with other CRAs, this one definitely does get it. They are progressive, they do put their money where their mouth is, they do put money back into the community. They’re involved in the planning meetings for the art walk, the amount of money they spend on marketing to get people out. If nobody knows about it, it’s not really doing anybody any good. They run ads on WLRN, they run ads all throughout, and they really care, and they really actually do put a lot of time and energy, so we’re very grateful for the CRA and their support.
Ken Crawford: So hopefully you can check us out every third Saturday night of the month during the downtown Hollywood art walk, which has been running now, I believe, obviously there was a little COVID gap, but about 16 years, which is one of the longest-running art walks that I know about. Dream Car Classic Car Show, every first Sunday morning of the month from 10 to 2. Hollyweird annual Halloween festival, which I think falls on the 30th this year. St. Patrick’s Day festival, Candy Cane Parade, the first annual Hollywood Pride, January 22nd, and there are some other great events that go on throughout the year.
Evan Snow: There’s also tons of great art, not just on the walls as part of the downtown Hollywood mural project that we talked about. This is actually a local artist that exhibits and actually has a residency in End-to-End Gallery on Harrison Street. This is Thiago Magro, originally from Brazil but actually grew up and went to school in Coconut Creek, still lives here in Broward County. Galore’s Jeremiah Heller, who initiated a place on Tyler Street and loved Hollywood so much he upgraded to a bigger space on Harrison Street, actually gave the whole entire space as a residency to Thiago, who he literally let paint the whole entire gallery, which if you’ve ever been to an art gallery, there aren’t many places that let an artist paint the walls to complement his artwork. So they have some artwork here in the Circ. We’re in the clubhouse room here doing this podcast, so you can find out more about Thiago and some of the other great artists that are exhibited at End-to-End Gallery during the art walk and throughout the week, throughout the year.
If you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out to me, I’m Evan Snow at Choose954. Always love to hear why you guys choose 954. Anybody else we should have on the podcast, always open to sharing these local stories so you can get a better appreciation for the people that make our communities great. We hope to see you guys out at some of these events that we outlined and talked about.
Ken Crawford: Absolutely.
Evan Snow: You guys have a good one. Cheers.
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