New JTA leader could mean new direction for authority

[mtraininjax]

Ock, great stats as always. I don't agree on the education argument. I know Oregon leans to the left on many of its issues, in fact it is a mostly democratic state with 40% of the registered voters showing a democratic card. 57% percent of the state's population is in Portland, and was shown to be the 4th most liberal state in the country.

Compare this to Jacksonville. Is our great city in the same league as the progressives in terms of risk taking for a transportation solution? We have the history of tracks here, but the enthusiasm is not here, we are far too conservative to get to the need of a new rail system. This is an area that has not supported a democratic presidential candidate, except Jimmy Carter in 76, since 1952. This was further demonstrated with Delaney becoming the FIRST republican mayor in the area since 1887.

I like the ideas, would love to see rail cars somewhere in Jax, but I think we are in the minority, the extreme minority.

[thelakelander]

We don't need to be a majority.  All we need to do is let the mobility fee moratorium sunset and let it start generating funds for starter projects in the urban core.

[tufsu1]

The list is back down to 3....unfortunately, Flowers from Charlotte didn't make the cut

http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-09-20/story/jta-selects-finalists-executive-director-job

[thelakelander]

Crap. Out of these three, I'd rank them as 1. Ford, 2. Bland and 3. Martin. That means the Atkins guy (Martin) will win.

[wsansewjs]

Crap. Out of these three, I'd rank them as 1. Ford, 2. Bland and 3. Martin. That means the Atkins guy (Martin) will win.

Make it two except Ford should win if MARTA screws up.

-Josh

[thelakelander]

More info about Bland:

Port Authority board Chairman John A. Brooks is doubtful CEO Steve Bland would leave for a similar job in Atlanta, where he is one of two finalists to run the country's ninth-largest public transit system.

But despite the fact that people close to Mr. Bland note that he did not seek out the Atlanta position -- or a top transit post in Jacksonville, Fla., for which he is also a candidate -- the truth is that Mr. Bland hasn't taken himself out of the running, either.

"We thought all the candidates certainly expressed interest in the position otherwise they wouldn't have been here," Charles N. Pursley Jr., general counsel for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, said Monday.
Mr. Pursley said all seven short-list candidates, including Mr. Bland, had traveled to Atlanta for an interview before the list was pared to two, who will be announced Wednesday.

He said MARTA hopes to make a decision by its Oct. 9 board meeting or sooner.

full article: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/port-authority-chief-still-in-running-for-atlanta-post-653838/

[urbaknight]

TUFSU1, I believe your making excuses for JTA. The reason that Portland is a world model isn't because they have a highly educated populace, and we don't. We lead Portland in High School Grads, people with 'some college' and those with an associate degree. Several cities including Portland lead us in bachelors or graduate degrees but counting all students age 25 or under, Portland has exactly 11,627 more then Jacksonville. That's roughly the population of Palatka, hardly a stellar difference.

Fact is, Portland has imported transit talent, it has cultivated transit talent, and Portland could actually be called "The Bold New City Of The Northwest." Here's the actual data:

So what about other cities that have embraced rail, either old, new, or planned? Well there is Memphis, which already has a growing streetcar system using actual historic cars as a vital piece of the regional transit agency. Based on your argument, Memphis should be light-years ahead of Jacksonville in the education field, but we blow them away in EVERY category.  That Memphis streetcar track is built to light-rail standards and will make a great downtown loop for fast light-rail trains into the burb's at some future date. This is called planning ahead, and it apparently didn't take rocket scientists to work it out.

What about a city with the oldest continuously operated streetcar system in the United States? A system largely abandoned then given a last hour stay of execution only to be wiped out in 'an act of God.' Sorry, no cigar. New Orleans also gets trashed by Jacksonville's education numbers. Though they, like several other cities, lead us in percentages of grad students, we have many more actual people with advanced degrees.

Norfolk should be an interesting case study, here is a southern/mid-Atlantic city that has just opened an amazing starter line that now has disbelievers in Virginia Beach begging for a link. So is Norfolk's population smarter? Not even close to Jacksonville's actual numbers, Norfolk does have a less then 1% lead in graduate degrees completed, but the actual numbers show Jacksonville with a lead of 28,046 people that actually have completed a grad degree. Yet even with our own highly educated populace, we are continuously screwed by JTA, FDOT, COJ... etc...

Lastly, how about a city that has fought the good fight and come out a winner in the race to get new streetcar systems up and running? Cincinnati, Ohio, The Midwest, The Industrial Heartland...etc. Surely Cincinnati's population is highly educated beyond Jacksonville's wildest dreams? One might be forgiven for thinking so, after all we have more high school dropouts then Cincinnati, or Norfolk, or New Orleans, or Memphis, or Portland. But we also have about 100,398 more high school graduates then Cincinnati, 82,704 more people with some college then Cincinnati, 33,071 more people with associates degrees then Cincinnati, 50,790 more people with bachelors degrees then Cincinnati, 16,537 more people with graduate degrees then Cincinnati. So to extrapolate on your theory, since Jacksonville has far more highly educated people, we should be working on phase 7, of regional light-rail, streetcar, BRT, aerial cable, commuter rail and corridor train services... It's not education that we lack, it's BOLD NEW LEADERSHIP!

I've lived in Portland, and Sandy, and Boring, Oregon. Jacksonville might have it's rednecks, and our rednecks might have a largely unearned reputation for a lack of formal schooling, I have never seen a bigger collection of toothless, tobacco chewing, musclebound, dope smoking, axe swinging, beer swilling, dumb asses in my entire life then one can find in Portland. But this is not to knock Portland or Jacksonville, Portland through maverick leadership, bold planning and state of the art execution has overcome a bad hand, and dealt itself a royal flush. Portland sparkles, and I believe that Jacksonville can shine.

Wow Ock, that's a lot of info! A great amount of research, did it take long? Why don't you run for some kind of city office? Or at least work as an adviser for the city, that is if anyone's wise enough to hire you and take you seriously.

[urbaknight]

$20 says the Florida guy will win, anyone wanna bet me? If he wins, JTA will not change, and that's how they want it to stay. I might as well make some money from my misfortune.

[Tacachale]

TUFSU1, I believe your making excuses for JTA. The reason that Portland is a world model isn't because they have a highly educated populace, and we don't. We lead Portland in High School Grads, people with 'some college' and those with an associate degree. Several cities including Portland lead us in bachelors or graduate degrees but counting all students age 25 or under, Portland has exactly 11,627 more then Jacksonville. That's roughly the population of Palatka, hardly a stellar difference.

Fact is, Portland has imported transit talent, it has cultivated transit talent, and Portland could actually be called "The Bold New City Of The Northwest." Here's the actual data:

So what about other cities that have embraced rail, either old, new, or planned? Well there is Memphis, which already has a growing streetcar system using actual historic cars as a vital piece of the regional transit agency. Based on your argument, Memphis should be light-years ahead of Jacksonville in the education field, but we blow them away in EVERY category.  That Memphis streetcar track is built to light-rail standards and will make a great downtown loop for fast light-rail trains into the burb's at some future date. This is called planning ahead, and it apparently didn't take rocket scientists to work it out.

What about a city with the oldest continuously operated streetcar system in the United States? A system largely abandoned then given a last hour stay of execution only to be wiped out in 'an act of God.' Sorry, no cigar. New Orleans also gets trashed by Jacksonville's education numbers. Though they, like several other cities, lead us in percentages of grad students, we have many more actual people with advanced degrees.

Norfolk should be an interesting case study, here is a southern/mid-Atlantic city that has just opened an amazing starter line that now has disbelievers in Virginia Beach begging for a link. So is Norfolk's population smarter? Not even close to Jacksonville's actual numbers, Norfolk does have a less then 1% lead in graduate degrees completed, but the actual numbers show Jacksonville with a lead of 28,046 people that actually have completed a grad degree. Yet even with our own highly educated populace, we are continuously screwed by JTA, FDOT, COJ... etc...

Lastly, how about a city that has fought the good fight and come out a winner in the race to get new streetcar systems up and running? Cincinnati, Ohio, The Midwest, The Industrial Heartland...etc. Surely Cincinnati's population is highly educated beyond Jacksonville's wildest dreams? One might be forgiven for thinking so, after all we have more high school dropouts then Cincinnati, or Norfolk, or New Orleans, or Memphis, or Portland. But we also have about 100,398 more high school graduates then Cincinnati, 82,704 more people with some college then Cincinnati, 33,071 more people with associates degrees then Cincinnati, 50,790 more people with bachelors degrees then Cincinnati, 16,537 more people with graduate degrees then Cincinnati. So to extrapolate on your theory, since Jacksonville has far more highly educated people, we should be working on phase 7, of regional light-rail, streetcar, BRT, aerial cable, commuter rail and corridor train services... It's not education that we lack, it's BOLD NEW LEADERSHIP!

I've lived in Portland, and Sandy, and Boring, Oregon. Jacksonville might have it's rednecks, and our rednecks might have a largely unearned reputation for a lack of formal schooling, I have never seen a bigger collection of toothless, tobacco chewing, musclebound, dope smoking, axe swinging, beer swilling, dumb asses in my entire life then one can find in Portland. But this is not to knock Portland or Jacksonville, Portland through maverick leadership, bold planning and state of the art execution has overcome a bad hand, and dealt itself a royal flush. Portland sparkles, and I believe that Jacksonville can shine.

Not to continue pushing this even further away from topic, but those figures seem to be tied to the city population. Due to consolidation Jacksonville's figures include many suburban areas that aren't included for other cities. Conceivably, the suburban populace has higher levels of educational attainment than the core cities. Overall, I think it's pretty clear that the Jacksonville area, like all of Florida's largest metros, has a pretty unenviable level of educational attainment.

[Tacachale]

Unfair? Hardly, more like inept leadership at JTA being a reason why UNF started their own transit service. RTS (Gainesville) operates FREQUENTLY all over the UF campus... where is JTA? 16,500 students and faculty are not enough to get JTA to the table? Over at FSCJ,  7,535 full time students and 18,151 part time at various campuses, get the typical 30-45 minute headway JTA 'accommodation,' which is quite shy of a real 'service.' 751 more at Edward Waters College, 3,715 over at JU and toss in 1,753 more at the FCSL, all get the, "Well the bus comes around every hour or so, so the students definitely have 'convenient transit, even if they have to stand in the rain and wait," excuse. As long as our 'Transportation Authority' is missing in action, it's a fair comparison.

Has ANYONE at JTA ever thought what a community shuttle running on 15 minute headways during school day and evening hours, between the schools (thus connecting all school facilities with each other), and research facilities such as the 3.5 million volumes at the downtown library? Or perhaps directly linking the schools with the Beaches, Highlands, Mandarin, Pablo Creek, Regency Square, South Mandarin, Southeast, Wesconnett, West Regional, Argyle, Northwest, Brentwood, Myrtle Avenue, Maxville, Murray Hill, Eastside, San Marco, University Park, Westbrook or maybe Willowbranch libraries? Recreation facilities? Military Bases (which often have excellent training facilities and thousands of college age - education paid - students or prospective students).

Likewise has JTA ever thought about a career focused shuttle? How about linking all of our major medical facilities with a dedicated frequent service? Have they ever sat down with the commander of Kings Bay, Marine Corps Blount Island Command, Mayport, JIA Air National Guard, NAS JAX and the various armory's? Hell they even managed to miss the massive Baptist Hospital and the oldest insurance building on the south bank with the Skyway, and there is no easy way to walk from the San Marco Station. This is not to mention Shand's, San Marco, Brooklyn and the Stadium District somehow fell off the Skyway's goals.

No excuses, JTA is a rogue agency that needs to focus 100% on mass transit or highways, but not both. It's fleet and 'accommodations' have fallen sharply behind many regional towns and cities, and TRUE SERVICE is nearly nonexistent.

END OF RANT...

Not to defend JTA, but UNF's "transit service" is just a shuttle system connecting people between the outlying areas and parking lots and the core campus. I wouldn't expect JTA to cover that. JTA does run buses to UNF and some students take them.

However, there is now a shuttle running between campus and the St. Johns Town Center mall, and that's probably something that JTA ought to cover. And at least one of the nearby apartment complexes that caters mostly to students runs its own shuttle to campus, and that shouldn't be necessary. However, we're currently in talks with JTA about offering a discount rate for our students, so hopefully things will improve.

[thelakelander]

Why is every arterial on the Southside at gridlock today? Damn, a fixed transit alternative would be great.

[ben says]

Why is every arterial on the Southside at gridlock today? Damn, a fixed transit alternative would be great.

+1000

[tufsu1]

Why is every arterial on the Southside at gridlock today? Damn, a fixed transit alternative would be great.

must be the accident on I-95 near JTB

[thelakelander]

Sucks to not have a grid. I was on I-95 when that accident happened, so I avoided I-95 on the trip back.  However, all of my Southside goat's paths were gridlocked.  Those included Beach, Bowden, Touchton, Gate, Southside and Belford.  It ended up taking me an hour to get from University & I-95 to Target on Southside Blvd.

[fsujax]

three accidents on I-95 and the entire southside is stuck in gridlock. we need alternatives!

Here is an article from Charlotte on Flowers. Of course we know she isn't coming to JTA now.  Interesting comments.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/09/19/3539890/cats-flowers-on-short-list-for.html