A Closer Look at the Transportation Center

[CS Foltz]

Your right! Amazing is it not how we just keep coming up with money we supposedly don't have! I think the term would be called "Creative Book Keeping 101"! I get the distinct impression Johnny has a double set of books or he is shifting money around or he is borrowing and not telling anyone!

[Ocklawaha]

I wouldn't accuse our mayor of being the slightest bit dishonest... THAT would take some intelligence and he clearly is not qualified.

OCKLAWAHA

[CS Foltz]

You are correct Ock...........I stand corrected!

[stjr]

I find it peculiar that in the last week the Mayor said residential is the key to revitalizing Downtown and then turns around and suggests we spend tens of millions for fixing Metro and Friendship parks and the riverwalks.  I am all for that but only AFTER we have people living downtown.

We need to invest in amenities that Downtown RESIDENTS want to support a Downtown lifestyle.  I have elaborated elsewhere on MJ as to what these would be but none of them are covered by this week's plan unless we plan to add playing fields, bike and walking paths, etc. to the existing parks while improving their connectivity to Downtown living areas.

[CS Foltz]

stjr.............I agree! This is why I keep harping about no vision or no plan! The shotgun approach has not gotten us anywhere or done any one thing for the City as a whole! Certain things have been started and not finished and it has been the same thing over and over! With no clear cut vision of what should be, we are in essenece bandaiding everything and this is not how it should be. The Mayor just doesn't get it.....about much of anything not to mention the City darn sure is not being run like a business! If it was, we would have declared Chapter 11 long before now!

[tufsu1]

We need to invest in amenities that Downtown RESIDENTS want to support a Downtown lifestyle.

As a downtown resident, I'm quite pleased to see the City spending money on the riverwalks and Metro Park....there are plenty of ballfields and courts in Springfield and San Marco to satisfy my needs.

[Ocklawaha]

If Peyton put even a small amount of that money into a fund to give incentives to new downtown businesses, then actively recruited something like "FRESH MARKET" and "FAMILY DOLLAR" and "OFFICE MAX" and 7 day a week restaurants, open all day and evenings... Junk the parking meters and consolidate the Transportation Ranch into a Transportation CENTER, we'd have to beat off the competitors for housing rentals or condo purchase with a stick. Then watch that waterfront bloom with the St. John, Brooklyn Park and The Shipyards suddenly coming back to life.

What do you expect from a mayor who can spend an entire evening in a pub without noticing its a gay bar? He's the only guy I ever saw that could fail an EEG Exam. Someone told me that as a kid, he used to push his little red wagon backwards by its tongue, always following it, and never got the hang of leading it.

OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

really Ock?

remember the $ that was given to Vestcor originally...and the additionl $5 million in loan guarantees they are likely o get now.

[Ocklawaha]

I'm talking smaller businesses, smaller grants, just some perks to pull more residents toward the central city. If we REALLY wanted crowds downtown, we would take the Shipyards site and develop another Landing type property, only this one would be anchored by IKEA, Bass Pro+Marina, Mega Theater Group, Fresh Market, + smaller retail and such. Our main problem then would become parking and transit!


OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

Someone asked me a question today that I could not answer.  Maybe you guys can.  Why do we need a "transportation center" now?  It's not as if we have streetcars, buses, trains, airport shuttles all running and needing an interconnection point.  Isn't there a bus and skyway express interconnection (Rosa Parks Center?) across the the FSCJ downtown campus?  Did I miss something at the beginning of the thread?

Is this whole "center" thing just an excuse for JTA to build itself some new, fancy offices?

[CS Foltz]

Good question Dog Walker! Part of it supposed to go for the Traffic Control end, that is those parts that are integrated in Intelligent Traffic System controlled at a Center to regulate yada yada! That could be anywhere to be honest and as to the rest of it............I have no freaking idea! I do know FHP would have a Headquarters there and JTA's Offices.....other than that your guess is as good as mine! I still say JTA can buy the JEA Headquarters downtown for a lousy $11 Million Dollars and all of that stuff could be under one roof! It would darn sure be lots cheaper than phase one at $60 Million and who the heck knows what all of the other phases will end up costing.......plus parking for all workers yada yada.........so the short answer is "YES"....new office's!

[stjr]

We need to invest in amenities that Downtown RESIDENTS want to support a Downtown lifestyle.

As a downtown resident, I'm quite pleased to see the City spending money on the riverwalks and Metro Park....there are plenty of ballfields and courts in Springfield and San Marco to satisfy my needs.

Tufsu, great, but you are already Downtown and most people aren't.  Not everyone has the same standards for amenities such as recreation.  You may not desire more, but perhaps most of the 99.9% of people who DON'T live Downtown do.  This is for them, not you.

From a safety and convenience standpoint, almost no one with kids is going to consider living somewhere where the kids can't essentially walk outside and within a couple of "safe" minutes be on a playground.  So, either it has to be within walking distance or connected with a reliable, safe, and frequent transit system.  We have neither.

[stjr]

Good question Dog Walker! Part of it supposed to go for the Traffic Control end, that is those parts that are integrated in Intelligent Traffic System controlled at a Center to regulate yada yada! That could be anywhere to be honest and as to the rest of it............I have no freaking idea! I do know FHP would have a Headquarters there and JTA's Offices.....

Didn't the Florida Highway Patrol build a new HQ on the Westside just a few years ago when they lost their previous facility underneath the Fuller Warren due to the bridge's replacement?  Heck, I thought Florida was bankrupt!  Why would they need a new facility already?  As CS notes, with communications, most of these offices and control centers could be just about anywhere.  JTA really wants a new office bad, don't they?

By the way, JTA is a transit agency that fails to perform.  Why do they think they can venture into land development and perform any better than the low levels delivered in their own "area of expertise"?  Ugggggh!

[CS Foltz]

stjr.....I agree! Transportation Center is basically a new Headquarters for JTA! All of the other Agency's are secondary but bet they will have room! JTA wants new, poop on that, buy the JEA Bldg for sale downtown for $11 Million Dollars, renovate for lots less than $60 Million Dollars and shazam! New JTA Headquarters, Traffic Control Center and whatever else they need space for! Why waste Sixty Million Dollars when it could be used for other more important projects? I agree with the idea that JTA, as an Agency, has really failed to perform, yet we keep rubber stamping their Budget? Why are there not attainable goals or levels of efficiency incorperated into their operating scenerio? There needs to be something that measures just how well they are performing their basic function.......people moving! Besides if they have $60 Million available........why don't they build some shelters?

[stjr]

Besides if they have $60 Million available........why don't they build some shelters?

They are.  Unfortunately, not bus shelters, but, instead, gold-plated "executive" shelters.

I can see it already, the nice, shiny, JTA sign atop their "tower", visible to all that heavy traffic on adjacent I-95.  A daily boost to the egos of JTA.  The "big shots"!  No longer buried underneath I-95 in their Myrtle Avenue dungeons, invisible to nearly everyone.