Social Citizen Upcoming Bus Tour

June 7, 2021

I had hired David Udoff as a writer/photographer for our club to put

articles into your Biscayne Times , in the Aventura and Sunny

Isles Beach edition, when we had our events. Sorry to say that David is

no longer with our club.

The good news is that I hired a new person to do the same work for us.

His name is Cesar Becerra and he is also a historian on many parts of

Florida.

I am enclosing the first of many articles that he will be writing for our

club, the Social Citizens of Southeast Florida.

Thank you for all that you have done for us in the past.

Sincerely

Dennis P. Stubbolo: President

Social Citizens of Southeast Florida

Email: dennis@socialcitizenssef.org

Cell: 305-333-2865

By Cesar A. Becerra

Everyone can agree that The Pandemic did not bode well for social situations. Double that for an older generation going through the pandemic. And so it was that after what seemed like an eternity, the decade old Social Citizens of Southeast Florida, returned with a vengeance on March 27th at their first function of the amended 2021 season for a luncheon and lecture at The Olive Garden in Aventura. On that day the group looked forward as they simultaneously honored the past with a brief talk by former Sunny Isles Beach Mayor Norman Edelcup about the nascent beginnings of their city no less than 25 years ago. 

Buzzing about with great intensity and ready to get back to normal were 40 fully vaccinated members of the Social Citizens who were eager to get back to their adventuresome pace of bus tours, luncheons, socials and broadway play outings. President Dennis Stubbolo flitted about welcoming back new and old members alike as they consumed a never ending array of pasta dishes, unlimited salad and of course the never ending refills of teas and The Olive Garden's signature bread rolls.

The season though cut in half by the ongoing issues of the pandemic and vaccination rules for gathering would have rendered most groups a death knell but the "Citizens" used it wisely to regroup, re-plan and re-envision a future that has new programming already abuzz beginning with a hearty re-launch of activities beginning with a special tour on July 29th to coincide with Miami's 125th anniversary. Speaking of history, The Citizens - with their main office in Sunny Isles Beach - organized a special reunion of the key pioneers who actually birthed the town of Sunny Isles Beach on the 12th of April, 1996.

"We thought this is the perfect time to make sure we get our story right" feined Stubbolo who discovered Sunny Isles in 1995 as his firm offered to transfer him to South Florida and adds "we figure instead of just a photo of the group we may as well record their thoughts and details of what they remembered in their respective roles in creating Sunny Isles Beach. One doesn't get that opportunity everywhere in cities that are several centuries old!" And so it was on 12th of April at One Netanya Center that founders Danny Iglesias and Godmother Susan Fried convened with Norman Edelcup for a one and a half hour recording session that was immortalized on both audio and video.

The former Mayor, who hailed originally from Chicago and who served as Sunny Isles Beach mayor from 2003 to 2014 shared a few anecdotes and details about those early days at the luncheon last week. Mr. Edelcup, spoke as a true and bold pioneer when he shared the story of how Sunny Isles Beach had dropped in stature by the early 1990's from its original glory as the place to see and be seen in the 1940's when it was at its height at the top the list of all of Florida's beach resorts. "We were the envy of all beach front resort towns until slowly the way American and foreign families vacationed began to shift to Disney's powerful and trendy allure." Slowly a decay began to fall over the area to the point where hotel properties and our sandy sidewalks of Sunny Isles began to be snapped up by hungry developers at below market prices and even prostitutes began outnumbering tourists as its citizenry realized they had to take matters into their own hands.

A push to break away also meant a push to even jettison the name Sunny Isles as Edelcup mentioned in his speech that "The people that did choose to break away wanted to join the Aventura bandwagon." And so with a promise to eventually do just that they initially tabled the Aventure name and incorporated it as Sunny Isles Beach with the promise that in the near future they would vote to rename it. Edelcup added; "It never got brought up formally after incorporation so we kept on with Sunny Isles Beach!"

Also on hand at the luncheon was Lewis Thaler the former vice mayor and present Vice President of Social Citizens who piggybacked on Edelcup's assessment and added that to pull away from Dade County was both easy and a no brainer. "You have to understand that we had to do something. We were not being treated fairly even when it came to basic services. We would of course not have any clue of the level of expertise we would have to take on over the upcoming years but we knew it was better than seeing our paradise run amok."

And indeed they did. From the allure of the quick-buck-property-owners were susceptible to quick lucrative payouts. It would take years before Sunny Isles Beach would see their population and reputation skyrocket. By the new millennium Sunny Isles Beach had been saved and the community began being known once again as The City of Sun and Sea. It is no surprise that Social Citizens was born (on March 10th 2011) within their city limits and chose to headquarter right down the street from City Hall. But President Stubbolo explained that in the future plans are afoot to grow past those boundaries; "Remember when we started we didn't want to be pigeonholed to just Sunny Isles, in fact we are seeing now some of our members are located in locales far away from the beach even deep inland. Which makes sense as our name was purposefully chosen as Social Citizens of Southeast Florida and this upcoming year we intend to grow into that zone by some exciting promotional materials we have planned and tours that stretch from here to Key West."

As the coffee and dessert was served at the tail end of a nearly 3 hour robust lunch several members like Gloria Ezrin along with Marvin Zubisky wished it to not come to an end. Marvin echoed; "Now I wish I had planned to stay longer but I'm headed back to New York in a week. But I'm definitely looking forward to the next season!" For a full roster of activities Social Citizens urge newcomers to check out their website www.socialcitizenssef.org and reminds all that with a discounted $10.00 membership (instead of the regular 20.00 a year) this year only due to the cut in programming you are getting a steal of a deal in time for the rest of the season. "It's still the best deal in town!" enthusiastically explains Nancy Leyton who is happy the group is back and firing on all cylinders. "Where else are you going to have an entire year of social outings planned for such an affordable membership!"

And speaking of affordable membership. The club is about to launch a membership expansion program with even more great (and sometimes NEW) programming which include Dinner Theatre Trips, Educational Trips plus our Monthly Luncheons that are held at different restaurants in Sunny Isles Beach, Aventura and Hallandale Beach area. The next big activity will be an all day tour celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Miami with Historian Cesar A. Becerra on July 29th; All tours and activities can be booked by calling Dennis Stubbolo at 305-333-2865 or email at dennis@socialcitizenssef.org