LOL...JTA wants suburban office buildings for BRT!

[thelakelander]

I had the opportunity to briefly stop by JTA's public hearing for BRT tonight for the Southside line.  I've always thought the plan was a bad one, but this is rediculous.  Check out the locations for their proposed transit stops down Philips Highway and Southpoint!  They're targeting major modern office facilities....

1. Kings Avenue Station - Here they want the mid rise office complex across from the Wyndam Hotel and all of the renovated buildings lining Kings Avenue.


here's an aerial of that office complex and the buildings surrounding the existing skyway station


2. Emerson Street Station - Although the BRT line runs within a block of the Publix development going up at San Marco Square, there will be no stop for San Marco at Atlantic Blvd.  Instead riders will stop at Emerson, at a station replacing a large office park


here's an aerial of the office park, which is one of the nicer ones in the Emerson area.


3. Southpoint Station - Everyone should be familiar with the mid rise office building on the corner of I-95 and JTB, with the University of Phoenix logo.  If JTA has their way, it may become the site of a BRT station.


here's an aerial for those who aren't familiar with the site.  Can you really imagine a decent percentage of Southpoint office park workers taking buses to a stop at this location and walking in their business suits across the numerous surface parking lots in 90 degree weather or afternoon summer thunderstorms?


Wow, JTA is going all out with this boondoggle.

[gatorback]

Given our propensity to file suit, do you really think local companies will have shuttles to and from the station?  Will JTA offer trolly service?

[spidey]

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that JTA probably hasn't even thought it out that far ahead, gatorback.  They and the City are notorious for coming up with these big elaborate schemes, and then considering the details later......much later.   And then, either the deal falls through or ends up costing the taxpayers millions of dollars more than they originally estimated.

[gatorback]

If I lived in Baymeadows or Southside, heck even down JTB and worked downtown, I would park and take the BRT from there if the cost was 2.00 bucks or something like that per day if I got there and back faster then I could drive..

[Ocklawaha]

Say, I do live off of JTB and the "new" beach express JTA #BH50 blows right past Hodges, Kernan and San Pablo, but it stops at St. Johns Town Center. Trouble is, if I want to go to St. Johns Town Center, I've got to walk there to catch the bus! You would think the route planners and the BRT folks would be working in concert to make all of the express flyer's operate like BRT well in advance of the system. NOPE, just the same old thing, no bus service for a couple of miles either way on my street. Maybe I should move back to Grand Crossing... oops I forgot, I didn't have a bus there either. When I was a small kid, there was the old 70 Naval Air Bus, which ran to NAS JAX. Trouble is, we had to walk to NAS to catch the thing... but that was in 1960... This is 2007 and I'll have to walk to Mayport NS to catch one now! I'll just wait for the Trolley (on track)...

Hell, I took more trips with Timothy Leary then with JTA! Besides the Surrealistic sleigh ride, See-Saw and Yellow Submarine gave out free transfers...JTA doesn't.

Ocklawaha

[gatorback]

god love austin's free xfer.  i'm in high hog heaven.  gosh, jta give us transfers--oh wait they do at the 3.00 price point.  jta  beaches shuttle, gives them out....i remember what bus is that S Beach.  don't get drunk and get on that one, it takes hours to make it back downtown.

[Lunican]

So after JTA puts all of this time, money, and effort into acquiring these pieces of property, then what? What if none of these property owners want to sell? Will they then try to use eminent domain? They probably couldn't even make a case for that.

They are putting their effort into all the wrong things. Acquiring this land does absolutely nothing to improve the transit system.

[Ocklawaha]

Future Snapshot? "It was part of the
Baymeadows Office Park before JTA
bought it back in 07."

The brilliant slight-of-hand that they are pulling is keyed in the "Willing Seller" aspect. They get all of this (they think) from willing sellers. Everyone has a price, and they don't worry because it isn't coming out of THEIR wallet.

So in theory they collect all of these properties "For Station Development". Then they do NOTHING, just own the land and play landlord. Along comes the funding requests for the BRT freeway, 5, 10 or 20 years from now. They get a typical 80/20 split, and have to cough up the 20%. The fun part of the government grants is everything from property investment to volunteer labor can be priced as "our" part of the 20%, for grant purposes. At this stage they'll claim, "Look, we've already invested XXX Million's in Station Property. (Even though they KNOW that they'll never use but a tiny fraction of this land - if at all). So they will get the BILLION they need to complete the bus freeway system. When (IF) construction starts, it will be funded with UNCLES dollars... The folks in those office towers and plaza's will never feel a thing, except a "Landlord change". Somewhere on the property, they will build the little BRT stations and everyone will live happily ever-after...free to pursue a life of religious and sexual fulfillment.

About the only part of this they haven't calculated, is the poor schmucks that have the JTA as their landlord. Has anyone LOOKED at I-95 downtown? God help these people if they need the lawn mowed, mulch or flowers and shrubs. Change a light fixture? Repair the roof? HA!

Ocklawaha

[Lunican]

I see. So it's kind of like running a scam on the federal government. How could they lose.

[gatorback]

While their friends get rich and they retire happy pig porkers!

[big ben]

what happened to the brt being flexible?  this seems like heavy investment for something "flexible" like brt is supposed to be.  i realize they will need park & ride lots and such, but this seems a little excessive to me. 

what about the other parts of southside?  i seem to remember a lot of empty land along 9a, south of jtb and there are a lot of cars trying to jam through jtb during rush hour. 

[thelakelander]

The flexible aspect is that this is a bus highway.  Any city bus will be able to hop on at one of the interchanges...I mean bus stations and travel non-stop to downtown, flying over traffic congestion and pedestrians in urban neighborhoods.  Then if it fails, we can use them as HOV lanes for regular traffic. 

[Lunican]

Using mass transit money to build highways. Mission Accomplished.

[gatorback]

The way I read that is using mass transit money to keep people purchasing gasoline...gee, if I was a good o'l boy I'd love to have fillings stations all over a town that has that plan.  Oh wait.

[thelakelander]

I guess if that happened, they'd call them TODs.