you are running for county commission
Often we hear politicians tell us what they want to do while in office. Let’s turn it around. If you were to run for County Commission, what would be your platform, what issues would you deal with?
We did this on the Seminole Heights Blog for the City Council race.
Development? Mass Transit? Affordable Housing? 40 million dollar pet project? Tell us.
Tags: election '06, hc bocc, tampa
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May 26th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Mass transit is THE issue that no one wants to admit to because it will end up meaning more t-a-x-e-s somewhere along the line (I couldn’t even say it — I’ll be slayed for just spelling it). Transit is the unifying issue the Bay-area over and the same issue that every political candidate runs away from around these parts.
There is also the issue of development in unincorporated parts of counties in the Bay area. There is heavy sprawl and no real attempts at conservations (and when there IS an attempt at conservation — it ends up being for naught. Look at Pinellas and the Brooker Creek debacle that is currently ongoing).
May 27th, 2006 at 9:35 am
Transportation-all modes, including my least favorite, roads. We need a metro transit cooperative planning authority that includes all municipalities and counties in the bay area, or “sprawl area.”
Light rail, commuter rail, bus rapid transit (BRT), and personal rapid transit (PRT), roads, bike trails, and safe pedestrian routesand should all be part of the mix. For roads we need to start with “park and ride” lots for express bus services. We need to reserve some lanes for carpooling, perhaps eliminating tolls entirely for vehicles with 3 or more occupants.
May 27th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
BRT is only as good as the roads that it’s operating on as well as the routes that are planned.
In Pinellas, they are keen on starting BRT running from downtown to the beach — a route only the tourists will take. The county is treating BRT like a novelty and nothing else (which is the same with how they treat ANY form of mass transit)
May 27th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Transit is an easy answer, but as they showed with the flying highway the county just might not be up to the task. How about quality of life issues, extend sidewalks in the unincorporated area to make walking easier, make crosswalks more visible and safer for pedestrians. Expand and create small community parks that enhance the feeling that you live in a town not a generic subdivision.
A loan program for small business owners within the unincorporated county. We complain about chain resturants and strip malls lets use to increased revenue from property taxes to provide money to peope willing to open new businesses and provide new jobs to locals.
Maybe we could look into outsourcing non-critical job functions (fine collection, customer service, janitorial services, and other things private industry does well) and use the money to increase wages for teachers and schools which we are still lacking.
How about a program to ask local business to alter work schedules to allow employees to avoid peak traffic hours? A recent study we talked about cited Tampans as being drawn to large companies for employemtn, lets go and review their workplaces and see if staggering work hours is feasible at the biggest 10 employers and see if that spreads the volume out. The traffic in Tampa really isn’t that bad as long as you are not on the road during “rush hour”
Transit is just the easy answer.
May 27th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Jason:
If transit was the easy answer — then how come no one has come up with a solution yet? No one even runs on a Transit platform.
Transit is the top issue that is ignored by the local governments. Transit is the #1 issue… I would not call it an “easy” issue. Easy to name? Certainly. But that’s about the last “easy” part of transit concerns.
May 27th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
I totally agree. The comment “How about a program to ask local business to alter work schedules to allow employees to avoid peak traffic hours?” is laughable. They don’t care how you get ther just get there on time. Florida long ago marketed (pimped) its citizenry to out-of-state business interests thinking of relocation as cheap labor. I worked at Chase Manhattan in the mid ’80’s and my starting salary (with 8 years of experience in my field)was $10.85 an hour. The New York staff who came down with the company were making over $19. In 1996-10 years later- same position, greater experience, they offered $12. Gee, thanks. Without decent wages for the average person (some college, maybe an AA) they can come up with all the ideas they want. S’why I’m back in college–you ain’t worth shit without a good degree anymore. They even want CSRs to have degrees! Bullshit. Nobody apparently really cares how the average Joe gets to work or how much it costs. That’s why the movers and shakers don’t address the issue, even when confronted by the mess of their ignorance: everyone thinks they’re better than everyone else. Mass transit? That’s for “poor people” who can’t afford a car. Sniff. It’s been like this forever in Tampa.
May 28th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Speaking of “for poor people” — I was on Itsyourtimes.com and was confronted by an anti-rail zealot who likened rail passengers to Welfare moms and communists.
Someone on Skyscrapercity.com and the Florida forum thinsk that Business has to get behind transit problems in an effort to find solutions. The problem is (like you noted) the main corporate structure of the area is outside Tampa Bay. They could give a shit about the common worker here. We’re outsourced labor.
No one in the government gets involved because no one in the private sector urges them to do something…
June 2nd, 2006 at 9:16 am
[...] David recently asked you to run for county commission, and determine Hillsborough County’s biggest need. Transportation was mentioned along with “quality of life†issues such as sidewalks and parks. Education was referenced briefly, too. [...]
June 16th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Hi. Did you see the Tampa Tribune May 31st, 2006? Putting hurricane category and surge levels on flag poles in the Bay area was my idea. I also thought up the “Lights On Tampa!” art contest, and the “Floating Riverwalk” idea to finish the Riverwalk without the stupidity of having to knock down bridges. I proposed the HOPE Scholarship Program for Zell Miller of Georgia back in 1975, and the Tuskeegee Apologies & compensations, the Gays in the Military E.O and it’s timing, the Freedom of Religion in the Federal Workplace E.O. for Bill Clinton, and the Deadbeat Dad Laws for Ann Richards of Texas during the McGovern campaign.
Passenger rail needs incentive to connect Tampa and St. Pete. Obviously we need a new bridge between Tampa and St. Pete for both road and rail. Running the Selmon Expressway and the CRX rail line over to St. Pete across the shallow bay is the best partial solution to everyone’s dilemma about transportation. Most of that incentive is for government to be cooperative and helpful rather than deceitful, obnoxious, and obstructive. We need to enclose and soundproof our noisy roads (like the expressways, and my proposed new expressways) so that people can live next to them. The boon to property values of living next to a green hill instead of living in a house that faces an expressway would more than pay for the insulating roofed structures needed. Taking responsibility for destroying property values and compensating property owners for inflicting damage to their property is not something anyone around here is interested in persuing. That will require a sea change, and that won’t be happening for quite some time.