"Reviving the Economy"-Revisiting Mayor Richard Kaplan of Lauderhill
Friday, May 29, 2009JEFF YASTINE: It's not energy, but economic challenges which face Florida these days. It's one of four states that account for nearly half of the new foreclosures nationwide. Lauderhill is a small south Florida town where the housing has taken a hit. I visited it 18 months ago and introduced you to the mayor, Richard Kaplan, who was fighting to maintain his city. As we continue our series "Reviving the Economy," I went back to Lauderhill, caught up with Kaplan and asked him how it's weathering the real estate bust now.
MAYOR RICHARD KAPLAN, LAUDERHILL, FL: This is a relatively stable community. Many of the people who live in Lauderhill have lived 20, 30 years in this city.
YASTINE: Lauderhill's Mayor Richard Kaplan drives his convertible all over this town. Lauderhill is a community of 60,000 people. Roughly one-third are recent immigrants, many from the Caribbean. When we talked to Kaplan a year and a half ago, he was deeply worried about the impact of the foreclosure crisis.
KAPLAN: I don't think anyone has seen the worst yet.
YASTINE: And now?
KAPLAN: I think our city overall has come through quite well, because we've got some excellent personnel in our city that recognized what the problems were, addressed them, putting plans into place to try and stem off as much as possible to avoid the problems that a lot of other communities have.
YASTINE: There are about 300 foreclosed homes within the town limits. There are also many rental complexes here; as the housing crisis lengthened, some, like this one, became eyesores, although it will soon re-open. Spending on transportation and beautification efforts continues, investments, Kaplan says, to avoid a key problem, spiraling declines in quality of life seen elsewhere.
KAPLAN: From a personal point of view with households where they're having problems with jobs and stuff, yes, there's still a problem, There definitely still is a problem. But from a governmental point of view, we've provided what we can for the community to sustain itself as well as possible.
YASTINE: Kaplan says the city has been applying aggressively for Federal stimulus funds and stepping up efforts to stabilize former high-crime areas.
KAPLAN: I'm going to drive into an area. It's called the renaissance of Lauderhill. This is some of the biggest problem area or challenges we have in the city. Brand new housing, this was sold to people under a lottery system, newly constructed housing. In an area that nobody would ever want to come to except those that could not afford anything other than that.
YASTINE: The city's housing authority also bought some struggling older condos where crime was a problem.
KAPLAN: This is the Windermere area. This is going to become a gated community. This is where crime has dropped tremendously. We own a lot of the units in here that we rent out. We were finally able to secure ownership of it and we have totally rebuilt the center. The center is a very positive community. The police have some presence here. The rec center has some presence in here and -- hey how you doing? This is one of our officers. Maybe you might want to ask a question.
YASTINE: Officer Lerue Sarvis says the city's efforts, in the face of the real-estate crisis here, are now paying off.
OFFICER LERUE SARVIS, LAUDERHILL POLICE DEPARTMENT: I'll put it to you this way. I've been back here now for about seven months. After the first three months, crime decreased 39 percent. After the fourth month, it went down to 43-44 percent.
YASTINE: There's one last stop Kaplan wants to share on our tour of the city.
KAPLAN: We're going to have to walk out here and get our helmets.
YASTINE: The new city hall. The previous one was destroyed by a hurricane in 2005. Local tax dollars are funding the construction, not Federal stimulus money. After a short tour inside, I ask Kaplan if other cities can follow his example.
KAPLAN: You just can't look at what can we do today. You have to look at what we can do today and what we're going to need to do tomorrow and take those steps to tomorrow. You have to follow certain principles and don't violate those principles and if you do, then you start running into problems. You won't be able to do what you need to do. We (INAUDIBLE) very true to the principles that we've instilled in Lauderhill.
YASTINE: And with tax revenues shrinking, Lauderhill has cut its budget and city workers recently switched to a four-day work week.
