I didn’t have time to look deeply into this, but there are some interesting statistics about all of us folks who live here. Check out the Florida Department of Health county by county health reports. Pull up your favorite county, and tell us which stat worries you most.
Last week, Gov. Charlie Crist named former Buccaneers linebacker Shelton Quarles as chairman of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority. Lots of people are scratching their heads over a football player. From Quarles:
“I’m not a dumb jock. I went to Vanderbilt University, I didn’t have the easiest course load, and I was able to graduate in four years,” said Quarles, who won’t have to leave his job as a Bucs scout for this part-time position. “We have a lot of different possibilities as far as how we could alleviate the congestion here, so I’m looking forward to being a part of the solution.”
Loafie winner Michael Hussey suggests that Quarles’ $500 donation to Crist’s campaign got him the gig. That’s a pretty cynical reaction, without knowing Quarles’ qualifications. But even the St. Pete Times wonders why Crist appointed Quarles, and says the move suggests your governor doesn’t care about TBARTA.
Huh? Come on, the gig is only a part-time job - how hard can it be? These folks just like to whine. The main function of a board’s chairman is to provide leadership and ensure the agency stays on track. A middle linebacker on a great NFL defense certainly needs leadership and direction, and Quarles has those qualities in spades.
Anyway, you can find out more about his qualifications from Quarles’ biography on the Buccaneers website. Also take a look at the Shelton Quarles IMPACT Foundation. In addition to his many charitable initiatives and football-related accolades, you’ll find that Quarles is a bright and passionate guy. We think he’ll do fine as chairman of TBARTA.
I’m sure you have heard of Hometown Democracy. Citizens tired of unchecked development and rampant growth have put together a constitutional amendment to make sure that nearly each and every property improvement is voted on by citizens like you.
Howard Troxler says “Hometown Democracy is the ultimate citizen revolt. It would take power away from Florida’s city and county elected officials, and give that power directly to local voters.” Here’s how it works:
Each city and county currently has some sort of “comprehensive plan” which determines what kinds of things get built where. Hillsborough County’s comp plan spells out where we can build industry, retail, residential, parks - just about everything.
Currently, any property owner (usually a developer) can ask for changes to the comp plan, and if elected and appointed officials think it is a good idea, they change the plan.
If the Hometown Democracy amendment passes, there can be no changes to the plan without voter approval. The amendment would not require voter approval for rezonings or building permits, but zoning decisions must obey the comp plan.
Hometown Democracy was created because some citizens feel that “too many county and city commissioners just can not say no to comprehensive plan amendments that are destructive to a community’s well being.” Supporters also have produced a four minute video that spells out their stance: Why we need Hometown Democracy.
Developers and other pro-growth groups are freaking out. They say that if the amendment is passed, most property improvement plans will become a bureaucratic nightmare. Some say that growth will come to a complete halt, and that any growth would become much more expensive.
The Underground Utility Contractors of Florida says that things are just fine as they are:
The nations [sic] most comprehensive statewide growth management law that requires input from professional planners, two public hearings, a review and an appeals process at the state level and numerous opportunities for citizens to participate in and challenge any changes to the Comprehensive Plan would be replaced by ballot box planning.
They also suggest that voters are too uninformed and apathetic to make “complex land use decisions.”
The Florida Chamber of Commerce says Hometown Democracy will “Cripple Florida’s Economy and Choke Investment in Our Communities and “Artificially inflate housing costs,”
In a nutshell, here are the two sides:
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… If you are ok with how your government currently approves changes to the comp plan, don’t do anything, and be prepared to vote “no” to Hometown Democracy if it shows on the ballot in January.
OR
These idiots that I elected are not doing what I expected. I now want a say in every single comp plan change. Go sign the petition to get Hometown Democracy on the ballot.
Resources:
Florida Hometown Democracy
For:
Save the Manatee Club
The Sierra Club
Against:
Underground Utility Contractors of Florida
Florida Chamber of Commerce
Okay, so it won’t be THAT bad, will it?
The Florida Department of Transportation announced that the first phase of widening I-275 through West Tampa officially started yesterday:
TAMPA — A project to reconstruct two miles of northbound I-275 from Himes Avenue to the Hillsborough River is now underway (as of Monday, August 13). The $106 million project is expected to be completed by early 2010. When finished, this stretch of I-275 will feature four through-lanes, wider shoulders, and improved lighting and drainage. The majority of the new interstate will be built to the south of the existing northbound lanes and tie into the existing roadway at Himes Avenue and the Hillsborough River.
Interstate lane closures will be limited to night hours between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.; side street closures will be allowed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Project and closure information can be found on the www.myTBI.com site, where users can also sign up for free e-mail updates.
They also have a good RSS Feed at that site.
According to the DOT website, the remaining section from Himes Avenue to Tampa Bay won’t start construction until 2011. Not to mention the Veteran’s/Memorial/Airport construction that will also take until 2010.
We all better be ready to live with Bob’s Barricades for a long time.
This post was originally written on Tuesday, and is now updated with the most recent information.
A Tampa man is in jail for violating Florida’s flag-desecration law.
Police say 45-year-old Donnie White stomped on the flag, sat on it, and “rubbed it on himself.” He’s charged under Florida statute 876.52, under the category “Criminal Anarchy, Treason, and Other Crimes Against Public Order” (check it out, it’s almost entirely made up of laws aimed at the KKK):
Public mutilation of flag.–Whoever publicly mutilates, defaces, or tramples upon or burns with intent to insult any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States or of Florida shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.
First degree misdemeanors are punishable by a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. It isn’t White’s first clash with the cops; Hillsborough County records show several open container and disorderly conduct violations. Yet Donnie may have more than a public defender on his side this time around; flag desecration laws were struck down by the 1989 Texas v. Johnson Supreme Court case (one my Public Speaking students know very well).
I love America. I cheer for us in the Olympics and World Cup. I vote. I blow sh*t up on Independence Day. I have a flag I fly from time to time. Yet I recognize the semiotic difference between signifier and signified. Donnie White wasn’t stomping on America; he was stomping on the symbol of an idea — an idea that, by way of the First Amendment, protects his right to stomp on it (though I doubt Donnie had any particular political expression in mind).
Flag desecration laws are fairly ludicrous on their face, however — regardless of their unconstitutionality. This is for several reasons:
1. The U.S. Flag Code is regularly violated. Here’s a few examples:
2. To ban desecration of an object, you have to define that object. How do you define the American Flag? If I draw it on a blackboard with chalk, am I not allowed to erase the blackboard? If I make an American Flag cake am I not allowed to eat it?
3. What, exactly, is desecration? How do you delineate between burning the flag in protest and burning it to dispose of a used or worn flag?
Certainly if this story makes any kind of national news, the ACLU will come to Donnie White’s aid — and they should, as Florida’s law is in clear violation of Texas v. Johnson. Interestingly enough, Donnie would be in the same situation if he’d stomped on the Confederate flag — that’s illegal in Florida too.
Thoughts?
– UPDATE –
The First Amendment gives people the freedom to desecrate the American flag.
That’s why the state attorney’s office decided to drop charges Thursday against a Tampa man police say stomped on the flag this week. The archaic Florida law holding him was unconstitutional, officials said.
Nice of them to realize that — but why did it take three days?
Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said the arresting officer was not aware of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Texas v. Johnson is one of the most well-known U.S. Supreme Court decisions — I learned about it in HIGH SCHOOL. You’re telling me that not one person, from the arresting officer, to the booking officer, to the prosecutor, to the JUDGE AT THE ARRAIGNMENT had never heard of it?
Donnie White spent three days in jail for no reason. Hillsborough County residents will foot the bill. Are there graver injustices in the world? Of course. But this case might be a microcosm of other problems in the Hillsborough County system…
Why is a Tallahassee law firm lobbying your Hillsborough county commissioners to eliminate our local wetlands regulations?
Hopping Green & Sams didn’t identify a client in their letter to our commissioners, but their clients include some of the biggest companies in industries notorious for polluting Florida’s environment, including Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida (54 cane growers—think Everglades pollution), CF Industries ($1.9-billion phosphate company), Sunniland Pipeline Company (spilled 154,696 gallons of crude oil into South Florida’s Big Cypress wetlands) and St. Joe Company (Florida’s largest landowner & mega-monster developer planning to pave over springs and cypress swamps in the panhandle for a gigantic airport complex.)
The HG&S letter was signed by Frank Matthews,
who lobbies for both the Florida Home Builders Association and the Association of Florida Community Developers and who has long advocated doing away with the county permit programs [across the state]. …
Two years ago he helped write a bill … calling for the state to take over much of the federal government’s wetland permitting duties because the state says yes to destroying wetlands faster and more often.
Recently, Matthews lobbied for a law that would have eliminated local wetlands protections throughout Florida. That legislation drew massive opposition, much of it from Hillsborough residents fighting hard to protect our EPC. Governor Crist promised to veto the legislation, and it died.
In that attack on our EPC, as in the current attack, county commissioners acting as the EPC board, sabotaged the very agency they are charged with leading. In that case, as in this, the Tampa City Council voted unanimously to appeal to the Governor to save EPC from county commissioners.
Citizens across the county are asking Governor Crist to intervene. Friday, while Crist was in Tampa, about 40 citizens picketed around the building where he attended a ceremonial bill-signing. The citizens’ signs asked the Governor to investigate county commissioners, and save our EPC. (My sign borrowed mug shots of the Gang of 4 from Stogie.)
Over 165 individuals and community groups (listed below the fold) — civic associations, neighborhood groups, etc. — signed a letter asking our Governor to investigate the county commissioners’ mishandling of our EPC. The letter also asks:
Why is a Tallahassee state-wide development industry lobbyist law firm interested in Hillsborough County’s EPC?
One reason could be that once the battle against local wetlands regulations is won here, the state-level war will be much easier to win with Hillsborough’s vocal citizens out of the fight. But if we lose that war, all of Florida’s wetlands will be less safe from Hopping Green’s clients — from the Panhandle’s springs and cypress swamps to the coastal mangrove shorelines to the Everglades’ river of grass.
If our local agency wasn’t doing a better job than the state does protecting our natural resources, then special interests wouldn’t be fighting so hard to eliminate our local regulations. And if this was only about unnecessary duplication of effort, then Hillsborough’s citizens wouldn’t be fighting so hard to save our EPC.
See below for a list of groups and individuals who have asked the governor for help, and links to where you can add your name.
Just yesterday the State of Florida announced the website to help with shopping for homeowners’ insurance. Not so fast, say some folks:
several insurers listed as writing cheaper policies in the Tampa Bay area are actually dropping policies or dramatically restricting their policy writing.
For example, the Web site ranks United Services Automobile Association Group, Florida’s fourth-largest property insurer, as the cheapest in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. But that company insures only veterans and active-duty military and is dropping about 27, 000 policies on second homes.
State Farm Florida, the state’s largest private insurer, also contends the data is misleading.
In Monroe County, for instance, State Farm is listed under the heading “companies reporting recent new business.” But State Farm has not written new business in Monroe since 1993, said State Farm spokesman Chris Neal.
According to the state website, State Farm seems to be the most expensive insurer in many counties. The insurer didn’t mention anything about that in today’s newspapers.
One of life’s biggest pains in the ass is shopping for insurance. Personally, I dislike the entire concept. The entire industry is simply legalized gambling. But even besides that, it seems that even if insurers are quick to take your money in premiums, they look for every excuse not to pay a claim. However, regardless of how you feel, most of us need insurance of some kind.
Today the State of Florida unveiled a new tool to make shopping for homeowners insurance a bit easier - Compare Homeowner’s Insurance Rates. From Governor Crist:
Many Florida homeowners are finding it difficult and frustrating to compare the cost of homeowners insurance. This site is intended as a starting point to help you compare rates and to demonstrate the importance of shopping around for the best policy to provide the coverage and terms you need to protect your home.
On this site you will find approved rates from a sampling of insurance companies for a typical Florida home. The typical rates quoted here are not guaranteed rates, but are only intended to demonstrate that rates vary significantly from company to company. Please contact the insurance companies or agents of your choice to obtain a quote for your home.
Simply go to www.shopandcomparerates.com, click the “compare” button on the bottom, and then choose your county. That brings up a list of insurance companies and the amount they charge for a typical home (average $150,000 concrete block home with a $500 non-hurricane deductible, a 2 percent hurricane deductible, no claims, and no wind mitigation discounts). The companies are listed from lowest price to highest - those highlighted in yellow have already written policies in the past quarter, the others have filed to write policies.
Of course, other factors are also taken into consideration, so these numbers are not hard and fast. And as we all know, there is a bit more to buying insurance than just going with the lowest price, anyway. Some companies have better service, some offer quicker claim payouts, etc. Remember that this new website is just one tool available to you, but it really seems this may be a good starting point for finding homeowners’ insurance in Florida.
I am not a poker aficionado — that title belongs to gentlemen like tbt*’s Scott Long and Chris Cosenza, who have a fantastic poker blog and podcast. I do, however, study poker for a living, and thus it’s with great interest I anticipate the arrival of July 1st. Why?
Governor Crist folded to the Florida Legislature’s raise and allowed a bill (Senate Bill 752, to be exact, read its text here) liberalizing Florida’s poker laws to pass into law, going into effect on the 1st. Among other things, the law:
The laws have marginal influence on the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Tampa, as their cardroom rules are set by the Seminole Tribe. No changes are planned at the Hard Rock as of now. Tampa Bay Downs may be the biggest winner once July gets here, as their very nice Silks Card Room was forced to be closed from June-December, when the horses weren’t running. They’re set and ready to be open seven days a week.
The increased limits are a pretty big deal, because it changes the nature of poker in Tampa Bay. The status quo is a purely recreational game; starting next week, it becomes competitive. With higher limits, it means bigger losses for the average lousy poker player… and bigger wins for serious local players like Mr. Decker. Will there be drawbacks? Charlie Crist is noncommittal:
“It’s all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. It depends on whether or not they’re things that already exist. [...] I think my approach to it is to see what passes and then have a chance to evaluate it.”
Thanks for the clarification. *rolls eyes*
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