Al Kaplan, A True Visionary Looking Out For North Miami's Future! North Miami's Best Choice For Our Next City Manager.

An email to Councilman Scott Galvin:
Hi Scott,

Things were going along so nicely when I resigned from all of my board positions, and then, good buddy, I let you talk me into taking a seat on the Board of Adjustment. I think that it was 1971 when I first got on the Youth Opportunity Board. Between city advisory boards, from vice chair of the Planning Commission to the Disaster Preparedness Board, and being on the boards of directors of the Mayors Economic Task Force (I was one of the founding members), the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce, and the North Dade YMCA, I must have a cumulative total of about sixty years of civic involvement, based on the years on various advisory boards.

That involved a major rewrite of the city charter. When I asked the city attorney "Why me?" she said "Because you're the only one on the Charter Review Board that understands this shit!" When I handed in my rewrite she said "Oh, I just wanted your opinions and suggestions. I didn't expect you to do the rewrite!" Anyway, we went over it together, cleaned up some language into proper legal terminology, and until the latest rewrite large sections of the charter were my writing. I suppose some still are.

The city could do worse than to hire me.

Elect Al Kaplan North Miami Mayor in 2011

A few years ago a bunch of us decided to go to the February annual camera show at the North Miami Armory (sadly now torn down) and we met up at Jimmie's Place for brunch first. Paul Neuthaler from Hollywood snapped this shot of me in front of Jimmie's Place and posted it on a photography forum. Then James Mitchell, another amateur photographer who is from Washington D.C. and is frequently in Miami on business emailed me. He wanted to use the photo on a T-shirt, Paul said "Go for it!", and suddenly people from Alaska to Europe to God knows where were posting pictures of themselves wearing their "Al Kaplan T-Shirt" on that photo forum. I scanned the photo on the shirt to post it here, which accounts for the texture.

A few months ago people around North Miami were getting fed up with the way the city was being run, about the 1,000% raise the city council awarded themselves on top of a new gold plated pension plan and health benefits better than Obama gets from the feds. The way to balance the depleted city budget? Raise the utility bill! But the water plant is falling apart from lack of maintanance and half the water pipes around town are leaking like seives. The city parks are in horrid shape. The mayor, council, and city manager can afford to drive oversize SUV's that probably get 8 miles per gallon around town while the tax paying residents are losing jobs and falling behind on their mortgages.

People started asking me to run for mayor. I don't want to be mayor. Really! I don't. I'm not on an ego trip. I couldn't run for city council this go around anyway because my district's councilman, Scott Galvin, still has two years to run on his term.

OK, I'm making the announcement! It's official! I'm running for mayor in two years. Vote for Al Kaplan in 2011. Monkette will be thrilled! She's been bugging me to do it for months now! She can't wait to start mapping out strategy and throwing campaign parties withe big platters overflowing with fresh fruit and lots of bananas. With her at the helm there's just no way I can lose. After all, there's just no way anybody would dare to run against me. Can you imagine having to explain to people how you lost a race against a candidate whose campaign was chaired and managed by a toy monkey? It's better to just not run at all.

Now I need YOUR help on a big decision. I'll need a photo to give to the papers, use on posters and handouts, and yes, probably a T-shirt as well. I can't decide on whether I should use this photo or the color shot of me (scroll down) with the cuts on my face and the black eye. Email your vote to preacherpop42@aol.com

The Last Of The Al Kaplan T-shirts?

Amazing. James Mitchell gets the idea of sticking my ugly face on a T-shirt, complete with a cigarette dangling from my lips, posts the thing on an internet Leica Photography forum, and suddenly orders are coming from as far away as Australia! Next thing I know I'm having coffee at a sidewalk cafe on South Beach, another photo of me, this time with Leicas draped across my chest. by a top advertising photographer, and James decides another T-shirt is called for. In the meantime I've discovered that a market has developed for the few T-shirts out there, used I'm assuming, and I suggested to James that maybe he should make up some more, or better yet, a coffee mug! He just emailed me this link. Seems he has a few of the first batch of both editions still available and right now he's listing them on ebay. Put one on, grab a cuppa java, and you can pretend that you're having Coffee With Al

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300280263884

"Al,Can you put a link to the auction in your blog. This is on Ebay for the remaining 7 Large size shirts. I have a couple of odd sizes, but these are the last. I have two more of the newer shirt too. But let's see how this goes. Here is a link"

Al Kaplan And Jon Sinish On Miami Beach

If you've been following this blog for awhile I'm sure that you're aware that Jon and I have been friends now for about forty years. We just look young! Every time he's visiting Miami there's the obligatory trip to Miami Beach so he can see the genuine Atlantic Ocean instead of Long Island Sound.

There's a bit of size distortion caused by the perspective of the 15mm Heliar, but I am 6' 3" and Jon is just a tad shorter. I have a much larger nose too. That part isn't camera induced distortion! The camera hanging from my shoulder is my Leica CL with a 40mm Summicron.

When I shot this one I hadn't had the Bessa with the 15mm Heliar for very long, and I wasn't yet very good at guessing the framing while holding the camera off to the side. I'm still not exactly adept at shooting verticals with the rig. I like this picture anyway. That stance and facial expression are pure Sinish!