County Commissioner Janet Long has put her finger squarely on the real problem thwarting a solution to Bay area transportation problems.
St. Petersburg, Fl
Long set up the problem in her Tampa Bay Times op-ed piece: Tampa Bay needs one powerful voice on
transportation.
In her op-ed piece Long
states, "It is past time to
bring our region under one Tampa Bay regional transit authority that develops a
collaborative and collective message and delivers a range of services to all
people regardless of which side of the bay they work or live. The time is now
for planning agencies to collaborate on mobility solutions and to discuss the
advantages of merging organizations to achieve real partnerships across
municipal and county lines. The parochial and independent nature of some of
these collaborative agencies has contributed in great part to our struggles as
a region when it comes to transportation."
If you read my Blog at all, you know I have often been critical of
Long for her actions on the PSTA Board.
From Bay Post Internet:
It is also important to note that Ms. Long is up for reelection,
and she now has a challenger, Martin Hughes, as reported by Ann Lindberg in saintpetersblog: Pinellas
Commissioner Janet Long draws challenger
There are some good ideas in Ms Long's op-ed piece but the
question really is where she has been for the past few years. Most of these
agencies that have muddled up the Bay area transportation problem have been
around for decades.
See my comments in Bay Post Internet piece: Go
Hillsborough.
Bring this group of dysfunctional agencies, many of them
populated by "elected" officials would be like herding cats. Long stated
in the op-ed, "The parochial and
independent nature of some of these collaborative agencies has contributed in
great part to our struggles as a region when it comes to transportation."
In my observation of Ms. Long's political practice, I noted that
she was usually pretty good at defining the problem just not really
accomplished at following up.
It will be interesting to see what the challenger for the
Pinellas County Commission District #1 Martin Hughes has to say about public
transportation, the Rays stadium and a host of other issues.
It would also be interesting to see how Ms. Long proposes to
dethrone the entrenched power players, elected and special interests that have
managed to burrow their way into positions of authority in TBARTA, the MPOs,
the HART and PSTA Boards along with a host of other committees, groups and big
campaign donors.
An op-ed with some detail would be deeply appreciated.
E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com
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Disclosures:
Contributor: Bob Gualtieri for Pinellas County Sheriff
Contributor: Bob Gualtieri for Pinellas County Sheriff
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