Fix it now

As of Wednesday, Aug. 20, all future Fix-It-Now posts will be folded into our new blog, The Daily Loaf.

The citizen’s initiative to take growth decisions out of the hands of politicians and give the decisions to voters is fighting back get on the ballot this November. The group remains a few thousand verified signatures short of having enough to be on a ballot, a predicament it blames on ” a hostile Legislature, well-heeled corporate opposition, erratic counting procedures by supervisors of elections, questionable emergency rules from the secretary of state and inexplicably blasé (or non-existent) news coverage.”

What exactly is Florida Hometown Democracy? Basically, it is telling our elected officials that they suck and we no longer give them the right do make growth decisions for us. Sounds like the American way on the surface: Citizens — fed up with politicians who are permanently bent over for big developers with no regard to the environment or our quality of life — start a grassroots petition drive to get an initiative on the ballot. Get enough signatures and, bingo, citizens get to decide if they want to continue to trust the politicians or if they would rather have vote directly on land-use decisions.

FHD gathered the required number of signatures (and then some) and turned them in. Not so fast, said the building lobby (and the politicians that they buy up easier than rural land). The excuses made by the state for not putting it on the ballot were pathetic and seemed downright dirty. FHD did not give up and is now in court to decide whether it will make the ballot.

Opponents of the initiative say it will stop growth … NOT TRUE.

Growth is dictated by local governments’ Comprehensive Plans and will continue as those allow. What Hometown Democracy does is gives the power to decide on whether that plan is AMENDED to citizens. For example, that Comp Plan hearing I attended last week where 6 of our 7 Hillsborough County Commissioners voted to increase densities in rural areas — against the Comp Plan and against the advice of the Planning Commission thus creating more sprawl — I would have had an actual vote on that and so would you!

Only Commissioner Rose Ferlita voted against violating our Comp Plan. Team Sprawl (Jim Norman, Brian Blair, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White,  Ken Hagan and — I am sad to report— Mark Sharpe) voted to violate it, making the perfect argument FOR Hometown Democracy. This isn’t about stopping growth; it is about stopping special interest, out-of-control growth. It is about telling our politicians that they clearly can’t be trusted so we will do it ourselves, thank you.

In my opinion, this is the best chance of saving what we have left of Florida for future generations to enjoy. I believe if the referendum is passed, our grandchildren will have Ms. Blackner, who started Hometown Democracy, to thank for saving Florida from certain demise (unless you live here for the concrete). She is a fearless competitor against a mountain of developers and their sea of politicians.

What can you do? Support Florida Hometown Democracy by signing the petition and spreading the word. Vote to approve it in November, providing the courts do the right thing and actually put it on the ballot.

New Yorker writer and author Malcolm Gladwell uses spaghetti sauce to explain the power and beauty of diversity in this worth-watching 17-minute clip. Take the time; you’ll thank me later:

Hillsborough County’s Environmental Protection Commission just released its slick 2007 State of the Environment report.

Download it here.

Preliminary thoughts, anyone?

I was unable to attend last week’s EPC meeting in defense of our wetlands but I did tune in to catch the end of it. I was very impressed with my fellow citizens as they fought for our environment and held our elected officials accountable for it to the dismay of developers. Seeing them in action is always inspiring, but in addition to their regular performances, there were a few I didn’t expect. As the motion by Commissioner Rose Ferlita to approve the staff recommendation was made and seconded by Commissioner Mark Sharpe, Commissioner Jim Norman jumped in and started to push for the staff to work on classifying the wetlands. This is something that the staff, the advisory committee, and the citizens were on record as AGAINST, yet the developer community wants it. Commissioner Brian Blair seemed like he was going to make a second motion to include this and tried to take his cues from Norman but fumbled.  Sharpe boldly intercepted Norman’s attempt to weasel this directive to staff and even EPC director Dr. Garrity showed a hint of a backbone as he told Norman that the staff was against classifying the wetlands. Blair, still looking like a deer in headlights (after it has been hit), finally just comes out and asks to hear Norman’s opinion but does not end up making a second motion. The staff’s and citizen’s recommendations passed unanimously and even though Norman and Blair voted for it their comments indicated to me that it was not because they wanted to. November is good for this county and so is public awareness.

So, kudos to  Sharpe for taking a stand and not allowing Norman to bully the staff. Thanks to  Ferlita for making the motion in the first place, and Commissioner Norman……….you might want to try clicker training with Commissioner Blair……it seems to work for dog trainers. Blair was still speaking when Commissioner Al Higginbotham adjourned the meeting……..the camera was on just long enough to see everyone get up and leave while Blair still continued on.

What can you do? Stay informed and get out and vote.

As I have watched the discussion about an elected county mayor unfold, I have to chuckle. Politicos wanting another political position, what a shock. But with so many unanswered questions, how is a voter to make an informed decision?

The first question: What actual authority this mayor is going to have?  This is an important question, because the specter of litigation regarding any created veto power has already been raised.

Second, how much is this new position going to cost? I imagine that no one looking at the office is going to do the job without all the trimmings, including, but not limited to, staff, office space and maybe even a few monthly television shows.  In the city of Tampa, the mayor’s office costs in excess of $1.5 million year.  How much is it going to cost the county, and what current services does everyone want to cut to fund this new position?

Third, will this simply add more politics to the county government?  It is one thing for staff to pay little attention when a single commissioner tries to influence a department.  However, you won’t be ignoring someone who does not need four other votes to fire.  While this may be appealing when you think your candidate is going to be elected, imagine what happens if your candidate loses.

Fourth, is a county mayor going to need his/her own legal representative?  The city of Tampa has shown us what happens when an administration and council don’t agree.  So that is another $150,000 a year, plus that attorney will need office space, secretary, etc.

Then there are the more philosophical aspects.  For example, I have watched as many current politicians have already started maneuvering themselves for a potential run for this position.  The question then becomes will this new county mayoral position cause a disconnect between local leaders who are suppose to be looking out for the city and their ambitions to run for the county, thus giving the county’s political views more influence in the city?

Whatever the answers to these questions, the one thing for certain is that information is scarce. Everyone is talking about the position as a magic potion, a panacea to the city and county woes, but if ultimately all we are doing is shuffling the deck of the same leaders is there any benefit? Only with detailed information can citizens be informed before voting on the best way to FIX IT NOW.

This just in from the folks who want to solve our regional transportation problems, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority:

TBARTA Now Offering Community Workshops Online -
Giving the Public Even More Opportunities to Participate

The Transportation Authority seeks public participation in the second phase of its master plan development

Tampa, Fla. - (July 17, 2008) - An online option for public participation in TBARTA’s Community Workshops will be available for this round of regional transportation master planning.

On Tuesday, July 22, from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., and Wednesday, August 6, from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m., the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) will host Community Workshops online at www.tbarta.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

I know we have 10 categories to choose from in Fix it Now and usually my posts fit nicely under transportation or suburban sprawl but this one really needs another category, WTF will probably do it.

Boy, just a few short days to celebrate the death of the Bypass/ Green Swath of Death and then I read the July 1 front page of the Trib showing the cracks in the reservoir. Great, so I won’t have a road destroying my community but now I might need to don my scuba gear to get out to the barn. Tampa Bay Water (who look to me like the TBARTA of water with their regional board) are saying that the reservoir is safe (yeah and their inspectors said they had 12 inches of cement when it turns out there is only actually 3 in some places). Hmmm, claiming to have 12 inches while really only sporting 3…………. seems to me that overestimating how well-endowed the reservoir is could be disastrous. When it comes to holding back 15 billion gallons of water, I think size probably does matter and oh yeah, taxpayers paid for 12 inches! This photo is from last year’s report that I found on their website, so they have known about this for some time.

When we first heard these rumblings last year we were told everything is fine, and not to worry our pretty heads about it. I was busy fighting a road at the time and Ronda Storms said in the paper she would take care of it. (hey, give me some credit here for not making a comment about Storms). After reading the most recent article about the cracks, I contacted some of our BOCC (Commissioners Higginbotham and Sharpe are on TBW). Mr. Johnson, Higginbotham’s aide, replied promptly via e-mail and gave me some information about the reservoir. Mr. Johnson explained that the soil-cement was a less expensive alternative than other options such as rip-rap. He also made me aware that it was “essentially recycled material” since the native soil from the excavation was used. (Not a good case for recycling but I give him an A for effort on that one). He also provided parts of David Carrier’s June 20th report and describes Carrier as the state expert from FDEP on dams and reservoirs. Carrier reports his findings from the consultants Black and Veatch who are excavating the test pits. Here are the parts of his report that scare me: the B and V folks found seepage/erosion conduits in the soil beneath the geotextile. The diameter of the conduits varies from several about 8 inches; and they “evidently meander beneath the soil cement.”

Evidently meander? Hey, I am not a scientist or engineer but evidently meandering past the layer that of geotextile that is supposed to be keeping the water out of my neighborhood does not make me feel safe. It gets worse he is later quoted in the report: “In one of the conduits a tape measure could be pushed to a length of 12 feet, but presumably it extends even farther.” Presumably? How much money does this guy get paid to presumably inspect the reservoir that evidently has some meandering holes underneath the cracking surface? These types of descriptions from an expert beg the question………… Is he inspecting crack or smoking it? As you can probably tell, I wasn’t feeling too confident about this guy when I read the end of his report “In particular, the geomembrane deep in the embankment has not been breached and the safety of the dam has not been compromised.” Um……Mr. Expert, how long before those 12 ft (but presumably farther) conduits extending beneath the geotextile meander even farther? What happens when the dam has 15 billion gallons of water in it instead of just under the 4 billion gallons that it is holding now?

Why should you care especially if you don’t happen to live in rural Lithia? Because your tax dollars built this cracking mess and it is costing a fortune to fix it. After reading Wayne’s recent article on Ralph Hughes, concrete mogul, and his ties to 6 of our 7 current county commissioners I am surprised they couldn’t at least get us a deal on real concrete.

My question is how far does 15 billion gallons spread if the reservoir is completely breached? Can anybody presumably guess just how far that water will meander if it breaks through the rest of the barriers? TBW is proposing to put another reservoir out here. I say NO. Why should one little corner of the region assume so much of the risk for all the counties (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas) that TBW supplies to? The land surrounding the current reservoir will be for hiking, biking and horse trails and it is scheduled to be opened next spring. This sounds great but adding another reservoir would decrease the land available for this and certainly increase the risk they have already imposed on our community.

TBW needs to FIX IT NOW but the question is how? The pictures in the Trib show them patching up the visible cracks where the reservoir is dry but I wonder how they patch those cracks underwater and how do they fix that tunneling that is described outside the cracks and in the mound itself? You can contact TBW here and ask them. You can contact our BOCC here and let them know if you have concerns. Mr. Johnson assured me that Commissioner Higginbotham will continue to monitor the reservoir very closely and remains committed to ensuring the safety and continued operation of the reservoir. I do hope that is the case but if living in rural Lithia has taught me anything it is that citizens need to pay attention and look out for ourselves.

UPDATE: Since this was submitted I heard back from Eric Larson, Commissioner Mark Sharpe’s aide.  I have found him to be accommodating and helpful anytime I have a question or request.  He provided me with more information (in the linked .pdf) regarding the structure itself and assures me that the safety of the dam has not been compromised.  He provided contact information to TBW and suggested I attend the next TBW Board Meeting on August 18 in Clearwater and put my concerns on the record.  I did email TBW on July 3 regarding this issue and have yet to hear back from them.  I also questioned what they were filling the cracks in with since it looked like real concrete and not soil-cement to me in the pictures.  Mr. Larson informed me it was grout cement.

I also heard back from Mr. Johnson who expressed confidence in the state inspector.  They both harped on the fact that the soil-cement is not what is holding back the water it is just a wave-attenuation (so I could have been surfing in Lithia if not for this wave-attenuation device?) and that the cracks have nothing to do with the integrity of the structure.  It is the “evidently meanders beneath the geotextile” part that is scary to me.  I am glad that I am a good swimmer just in case that meandering continues.

You probably know by now that I am not TBARTA’s biggest fan. When I was in Tallahassee earlier this year I stopped by Governor Crist’s office to try to tell him about my concerns but he was out. Anyway, I signed his book and said in it that I had concerns with TBARTA. I later wrote to Gov. Crist before he approved the budget to let him know I OPPOSED the state funding TBARTA. I outlined my concerns and asked him not to fund the agency at this time. He later approved their funding despite my opposition.

Here is the funny part - I recently received an e-mail from one Aundra Bryant from the office of the Governor. Charlie thanked me in the e-mail for taking the time to write to him in SUPPORT of the appropriations for TBARTA and proudly proclaimed that he signed the act that would support them. I was not the only one, as two others in opposition informed me they received the same letter back as I did thanking them for their support. Way to keep your finger on the pulse of the people Governor. This inability to differentiate opposition vs. support could explain a lot!

What can you do? Sorry no suggestions this time as I am still shaking my head and rolling my eyeballs.

 Well, it is finally over. After more than a year of fighting with local and now regional government officials, the ill-conceived Green Swath of Death, Bypass, Beltway, Sprawlway, and most recently “Freight rail Corridor” that would have cut through rural and preservation lands in Hillsborough bringing with them certain sprawl, is finally dead. TBARTA voted Friday morning to go with the recommendations of the revised Master Plan that does not contain Corridors C or D on Map 8. George Niemann of U-CAN delivered the eulogy during public comments, and I couldn’t resist dressing in all black for the occasion.

Lies, conspiracy theories and loss of government trust are all things that came with this experience of fighting the Swath. Massive citizen opposition has killed this idea many times over, including an EAR amendment, the BOCC, the South County Transportation Plan, and finally the MPO Needs Assessment Map. That is a lot of funerals, but it was dead at the county level.

TBARTA is regional, and for some reason it thought it would be appropriate to resurrect the Swath. So, should we have ever had to wage this war in the first place? No. The good news is that the power of the public prevailed in spite of the hidden agendas, political motives, and the powerful developers that wanted to make this road a reality. Mr. Neimann asked TBARTA to please nail the casket shut this time. Maybe now they can get on to finding transportation solutions where people already live……..INSIDE the URBAN SERVICE AREA.

Here is an interesting note……..before the final vote to approve the map with the remaining routes, commissioners, appointees on the board, and mayors spoke up about specific lines that did or did not make it to the next phase. They noted the actual placement of lines, some because it would never work and others because they don’t see the exact alignment they want,and this goes on for quite some time. I have attended the last three meetings, and I found it funny that I haven’t heard them speak out about this before now with the exception of Commissioner Nora Patterson of Sarasota, who is not shy about protecting her community. In other words, turns out - they are all just a bunch of NIMBYs like me. Finally, Patterson makes an amendment to the motion that includes everyone’s concerns regarding the remaining lines. (I know you are dying to know if our Hillsborough representative, Commissioner Ken Hagan, said anything about our county……………he wasn’t there). Mayor Pam Iorio gave them a lashing for their maps, though, since she didn’t see the part of the Tampa Rail line she wanted. Bob Clifford of FDOT assured her that it was there.

Oh and there is more promising news. Chairman Shelton Quarles, former Buc, knew where the meeting was this month, and there were two great presentations given by agencies in our county (I can’t believe I just said that). Was I just so excited that the Swath was removed that I actually enjoyed these presentations? No. Over the last year I have suffered through many presentations at the BOCC, the MPO, the Planning Commisson, TBARTA, and community meetings, so I know a good one when I see it, and these two were both excellent on Friday. The Hillsborough Aviation Authority gave a great presentation on how it is  ready for mass transit. Ray Chiaramonte of the MPO also gave an excellent presentation of Hillsborough’s plans for mass transit. Both presentations showed me that our area has done their homework with respect to their plans. I hope TBARTA will do the same.

I hope this is my last post about the Swath. What can you do? Go out and celebrate!

If you want to reduce your carbon footprint and save some money in your ever-dwindling fuel budget you may want to stop making those time-consuming and wasteful left turns.

This strategy has been implemented by numerous companies, including UPS, FedEX and Home Depot. UPS’s routing software, also used by Home Depot, plans routes for drivers that minimize the number of left turns a driver makes. This measure reduces idling time if drivers have to wait to make the turn. While left turns cannot be completely eliminated, left-turn reductions have reportedly saved UPS over 28.5 million miles of travel, which in turn resulted in over three million gallons of fuel and shaved carbon emissions by 31,000 metric tons.

Many companies with freight-shipping operations are changing routes and shipping methods in order to reduce transportation costs. These are necessary strategies that make shipping operations more efficient and prevent excess costs from being passed onto consumers. For now, at least. Read the rest of this entry »

As City Council gets ready for another vacation, leaving work on the budget and Tampa’s down turning economy on the table, angry citizens in Drew Park met to discuss eliminating the city’s hastily and completely backward proposed land-use changes. With citizens sick and tired of a city working against them at every turn, the voices had one common thread: the city needs to get out of our way, handle the basics of government (which they can’t get right) and leave the rest up to us.

For those of you unfamiliar with the drew park economic development plan here is a quick rundown, drew park the area west of Raymond James stadium, north of Columbus Ave, south of Hillsborough Ave. and east of the airport, is a CRA (community redevelopment area) and it has a TIF (tax increment financing district), which means that the area gets to keep all of it’s tax revenue over a base year to spend solely in the area, but the money can’t be used for traditional city services. Every time the city creates one of these areas they then go out and hire a consultant costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell them how to spend the money. (You could figure this out by walking the neighborhood and asking a few people, but who needs the exercise?)

The city then adopts the plans that often include land-use changes. In the case of drew park, a mostly industrial area, the city consultants decided that jamming residents into the neighborhood and forcing business out was a great way to start. Then in traditional city fashion, instead of carefully studying the plan, the city quickly adopted it because they wanted the plan adopted before councilwoman Alvarez retired from council. So basically they shoved through with no thought a plan affecting thousands of businesses, and turning a neighborhood on its head for over a year because they wanted a nice going away present. What everyone quickly discovered is that businesses could not borrow money because lenders were afraid of losing money if the property lost its zoning, business could not expand and the area quickly ground to a halt. Then the city suspended the land use change part of the plan and discussed it for over a year.

Now, finally having enough, the people have spoken and voted to tell council to stick the plan where it deserves to go, in the trash!Just a few weeks later when the business of Drew Park thought their voices had been heard; city council showed just how out of touch they really are.  To add insult to injury the city council so eager to get finished with its meeting because the hour was late — 11:00 in the morning. They decided they just did not have the time to deal with the suffering of hundreds of businesses. Now remember this is the elected body that pushed through this land use change as a present to one of their fellow council members as a retirement present [needs link to newspaper story] in just one week, and that has spent more than a year trying to undo the damage, the whole time with not a peep from Mayor Pam Iorio. Oh that’s right she is out of town riding the rails in other cities, after all what is of real concern to these businesses that can’t expand or grow is mass transit. But don’t worry, Drew Park, they will take the matter up at their next meeting in 30 days, WOOPS my mistake, it will have to wait 60 days, council is going on vacation. Apparently the world stops this month: people don’t have to worry about their mortgage payments, or putting food on the table, or paying their exorbitant city property taxes. And don’t count on 60 days, either; from what I hear, council’s schedule is so packed already with unfinished and new business that it is not going to have time to discuss it then either, so tack on another 30 days to that at least. So only another quarter of a year until council discusses how it stuck it real good to this neighborhood. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the outcome.

Here is an idea; council should cancel its vacation, and start meeting every day until all city business is finished. That way we can get our local economy moving again. Now for full disclosure, I was one of only a handful of people to originally object to the plan when it was being considered. I informed city council that the land changes would make lending impossible and my companies could not lend money under the conditions they were imposing. I have repeatedly been at council asking that the changes be eliminated. While I appreciate that some members want to carefully deliberate any changes one has to ask where the thought was when this plan was passed.

Remember when TBARTA came out with its proposed maps with routes C and D on Map 8 (aka the revisitation of the Green Swath of Death bypass highway)? It made about as much sense as the county proposing to give away our land use and transportation planning to special interests………NONE!

Recall I asked the question several months ago about a red dot (listed as a major employer) in the middle of the Green Swath just as it made the 90-degree turn to the east. That turn now avoids plowing over my neighborhood but still appears to bisect a state park. Who is employed there at that mysterious red dot, I asked in April……..a Park Ranger? Even though the map was vague and didn’t show environmentally sensitive lands or parks, it looked to me as if it was right in the middle of a state park!

Well, TBARTA has new and sort of improved maps on their website that now depict parks. Right where that red dot was claiming to be a major employment center…………is indeed …….A STATE PARK! If this confirmation wasn’t so sad I might tout I TOLD YA SO but I will refrain. You can see the other State Parks, wetlands, and environmentally sensitive lands these two corridors would destroy. I wonder how much this effort cost the state since FDOT provided the technical support and created these maps for TBARTA from a regional needs assessment study earlier this year.

Here’s the before and after versions of Map 8:

The good news is that now TBARTA, the regional transportation authority, is suggesting that both lines — which would destroy rural and preservation areas, bring with them unwanted sprawl and, oh yeah, have public opposition — be removed. Ya think?

In the meantime, looks like the Green Swath is sporting a new summer dress as she has gone from Green to Orange, and the Purple leg of the green swath of death is now Blue. Note to TBARTA: We can fill in the blank for whatever color you choose for your ill-conceived Swath of Death and calling it the Sprawlway covers just about the whole color spectrum…………although sprawl is usually the anti-Green.

Both lines are Grey on the