Do We Have The Jump On Tampa?

[Ocklawaha]

Guess it all depends on how much longer the COJ drags it's feet in the race to be/remain a second or third tier city. This article makes it clear Tampa doesn't expect any competition from us. If our officials would just ACT FAST, we could actually advance faster then Tampa. We've got the funding mechanism in place for the start of Streetcar and we're jumping into a more advanced phase of the required Federal Commuter Rail hurdles. Lastly, in regional passenger rail, JACKSONVILLE, NOT TAMPA, has the Florida East Coast Railway headquarters and mainline, running right past our grand old Jacksonville Terminal directly to Cocoa, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, so as the new "All Aboard Florida," cranks up, we hold most of the cards. So for the moment, RIGHT NOW, we have the jump on Tampa all around, and in STREETCAR we have the jump on all of the local cities but Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta.

Tampa Bay transit efforts remain stalled two years after referendum defeat
Tampa Bay Business Journal by Mark Holan, Staff Writer
Date: Friday, November 2, 2012

Two years ago, on Nov. 2, 2010, Hillsborough County voters rejected a 1-cent sales tax to fund transportation initiatives, including light rail.

The margin was roughly 58 to 42 percent against the measure.

“We are disappointed, but we will start working right away to help bring this before voters again,” then Greater Tampa Chamber Chairman Chuck Sykes said in a statement after the defeat.

“The Tampa Bay Partnership remains committed to its view that investment in infrastructure, including public transit, is absolutely necessary to building inclusive, sustainable and productive prosperity for the entire Tampa Bay region,” then Partnership Chairman Gary Sasso said in a post-election statement. “We cannot give up on this vision anymore than we can give up on Tampa Bay.”

But there are no transit initiatives on Tuesday’s ballot in Hillsborough or Pinellas counties. Most of the people I talk with don’t foresee a new transit proposal reaching the ballot next year or even 2014.

There have been studies and talk about transportation improvements, but virtually no action. Remember it will take years to build a system if and when taxpayers and the community get behind the proposal.
Funding

A few months after the 2010 transit referendum defeat, Gov. Rick Scott waved off $2.4 billion in federal investment and killed the proposed bullet train between Tampa and Orlando. Scott sent the money back to Washington, where it was redistributed to other states.

A second, more critical phase of the bullet train would have linked Orlando and Miami. Now Florida East Coast Industries proposes building a privately financed, $1 billion fast rail connection between the two cities.

Orlando also is busy building the SunRail commuter line at a cost of more than $615 million in federal, state and local tax dollars. The local trains are expected to start running by 2014.

As the Orlando-Miami connection grows stronger, and those cities show more dedication to making progressive transportation improvements, Tampa Bay risks looking more like a secondary destination within Florida and becoming more diminished at the national level.

“Those projects are real game-changers,” likely to attract all sorts of related development and job activity, a commercial real estate broker told me this week.

So here are two critical questions:

How many more years will it take to change the transit and transportation game in Tampa Bay?

Who is going to push (and pay) for Tampa to get connected to the Orlando-Miami rail project?

SOURCE: TAMPA BUSINESS JOURNAL: http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/2012/11/tampa-bay-transit-efforts-remain.html