August 23, 2019
Peter Moore, P.E., F.ASCE, ENV SP, LEED AP
President, Chen Moore and Associates
Looking ahead: When you get a minute next week, find three paperclips. Individually, bend open the end piece and then bend it back in place. Do that over and over again, counting the number of bends until it breaks. You’ll find that the numbers differ. If you did ten paperclips, that difference would vary more greatly. The difference is a result of slightly different strength used each time, slightly different metal in each paperclip and a number of other factors. That’s exactly the same thing that our infrastructure experiences. Instead of complaining when it fails, we need to fund proper maintenance.

August 4, 2019
Peter Moore, President, Chen Moore and Associates
Last week: The first water treatment plant in Fort Lauderdale opened in 1926. For 93 years, the City has been providing clean, safe water that “magically” shows up at homes and businesses. At last check, they have still yet to receive a single thank you note for that incredible service. During the recent outage, my home and business were impacted. It cost me money and hassles, but I know the idea of suing the City for not doing something we’ve taken for granted for nearly 100 years is preposterous. Every dollar taken away by lawsuits steal from safe water.

Looking ahead: Treating climate change as a national security threat is not a new idea, nor is it a foolish idea. That’s why I’m optimistic that once Julia Nesheiwat starts as the State’s first Chief Resiliency Officer, there will be a definitive path forward towards a united approach to battle a common enemy. While I am friends with some of the 25 other candidates and I’m well aware their technical backgrounds are much more extensive that Ms. Neshiewat’s, her leadership experience is what is sorely needed. My toddler and her future children are counting on her.

Check out Peter’s article here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/south-florida-100/fl-op-sf100-online-version-for-sunday-4-august-20190802-qx5mdfktnzfn7mssob3tlx543i-story.html

June 28, 2019
Peter Moore, President, Chen Moore and Associates
Last week: This week, the Breakthrough National Center for Climate Restoration in Australia that stated there would be worldwide devastation by 2050 if swift and dramatic action isn’t taken on climate change. These “shock tactics” are exactly the opposite of the way in which we should be looking at the problem. Is there a climate change problem? Absolutely. Will it be fixed by incremental corrections? Also, absolutely. We can’t ignore the problems we face, but giving such a bleak outlook and expecting millions to abandon their homes discourages the type of active participation we need from everyone.

Looking ahead: Next Monday, the new fiscal year begins for the State of Florida and a whole list of new laws come into effect. One that still up in the air is HB 385 that effectively replaced the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority with the Greater Miami Expressway Agency, re shuffling the leadership in the organization. This bill has been presented to the Governor and he must act by July 11. Let’s hope that cooler head prevail and the new expressway authority is allowed to continue to provide quality services to the residents and visitors to Miami-Dade County.

Check out Peter’s article here: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/south-florida-100/fl-op-sf100-web-version-south-florida-democratic-debates-2020-20190628-wj66thoxuzdddnujo6l4fd3m64-story.html

July 5, 2019
Peter Moore, President, Chen Moore and Associates
Last week: Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All for the Gators, stand up and Holler! For a nearly 60 year stretch, if you went to the University of Florida, you knew that George Edmondson was in the stadium. This past week, Mr. Two Bits, as he was more commonly known, passed away at 97. He left UF without graduating to join the Navy in World War II, but in his heart stayed a Gator for life. He endowed cheerleading scholarships and kept positive energy in all kinds of weather. Rest in Peace.

Check out Peter’s article here: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/south-florida-100/fl-op-sf100-web-version-sunday-july8-edition-20190705-sh5pamv6sbghdjha2uxyjbk33q-story.html

June 7, 2019
Peter Moore, President, Chen Moore and Associates
Last week: I recently saw a commercial from a well known pest control company that showed a roach crawling into a drain in the yard and crawling out the drain in a shower. It was a bit disturbing to me that, at least in Florida, that is impossible because those two systems aren’t physically connected. I’ve heard that same company telling a person with a rat problem that rats crawling from the sewer drains could impact the tap water their children drink. It’s unfortunate that companies play on people’s lack of understanding and fears to make money.

Looking ahead: While the exact benefits are only theoretical at this point, the addition of $60M in Federal Funding to the $40M of state funding for the raising of 6.5 Miles of Tamiami Trail is a huge step forward in the restoration of the natural flow of water to the Everglades. The diversion of water to the east and west is a huge ecological problem, but there are several physical impediments to returning the natural southerly flow. This is a big win for the environment and a big win for Florida.

Check out Peter’s article here: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/south-florida-100/fl-op-sf100-d-day-peterson-arrest-mass-shooting-20190607-5kneelp5zjazhnneaxe72lzoam-story.html

April 5, 2019
Peter Moore, President, Chen Moore and Associates
Last week: I was an engineer two weeks when I learned the valuable lesson that 95% of soccer/football fields need to be oriented North/South, not East/West and yet despite that, I’m very sad to hear about the tentative deal signed by the Fort Lauderdale City Commission to allow Beckham’s Inter Miami to tear down Lockhart Stadium. With roots dating back 60 years, I watched by share of Strikers games and saw many a Soul Bowl with my alma mater Blanche Ely High School. I hope the Commission was right in choosing Beckham’s glitz, or we’ll lose a landmark for nothing.
Looking ahead: In Tallahassee, there is legislative pressure to reduce the minimum numbers of hours to receive an engineering degree from 128 to 120. While this seems like a relatively small change, it needs to be noted that my program, just over 20 years ago was 144 hours as a minimum. I know the real fiscal needs behind graduating students in four years, but next time you drive over a bridge or walk into a high rise, think about students receiving 20% less education than a decade ago.

Check out Peter’s article here: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/south-florida-100/sfl-south-florida-100-lots-of-attention-on-the-florida-legislature-as-it-moves-through-a-busy-agenda-20190405-htmlstory.html

See Peter’s article posted to the Broward Sun-Sentinel here

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/

“You may have wondered what happened to my personal message in last the last CMA Quarterly. Internally, we made the decision that there were just too many wonderful things going on in the firm for us to “waste” nearly 1/3rd of our publication on my thoughts. Over the years, though, I’ve gotten so much wonderful feedback from some of the stories that I wrote, we wondered how to keep that connection going with our audience. Since the term blog has been around for over 20 years, though, that seemed like a great way to transition.”
The above was repeated from the print version of the Quarterly as I didn’t have space to get into my research on blogging that happened as we decided delve into this space. Blogs really opened up the ability for the average person to communicate with “the masses” of the World Wide Web. That is pretty fitting as the Quarterly allowed me to get my message and feelings out to all of the Quarterly readers.

The Winterly Quarterly is typically the time that I try to reflect on the past year. 2017 was such a crazy year for me, with the transition of ownership in the firm and, even more importantly, the birth of my daughter Sofia that I was hoping 2018 would be a much calmer year. Little did I know that 2018 would be just as stressful, if not more stressful, than the previous year. We’ve dealt with firm growth and I’ve dealt with first steps as the year progressed. CMA and Sofia both become more dynamic as time goes on, but I also get more and more nervous as the risks they face grow accordingly. So, managing risk and the associated stress was on the front of my mind as 2018 came to an end.

Is it socially acceptable for one to talk about being nervous or stressful? Is it a sign of weakness? I know most traditional definitions of leadership and, the unpopular term “manliness” often have felt that those traits are signs of weakness. As all the readers of the Quarterly know, though, I have no problem talking about the things that make me human. I think it is more important to talk about how to manage these normal human emotions than to ignore them before they take over. How do you manage stress? As we get older, we forget to prioritize ourselves in the guise of saying that “we’re too busy”. While our families and our jobs are incredibly important, if you aren’t centered and happy with yourself, the stress that you feel will make you a burden and not an asset to those most important to you. Please feel free to comment about your feelings on making time for yourself.

I hope to generate even more conversations than before with this blog. I’ve also asked some of our practice and discipline leaders to develop blogs of their own to share their views and breakthroughs. Please enjoy this additional feature to the CMA website and feel free to share your thoughts and comments! Please scroll to the bottom of this page and click on ‘Write a Comment’ and then ‘Login to Leave a Comment’ and create a user name and password.