Over the next few days I am sure there will be a lot of
whining from PSTA, the politicos and special interests that public
transportation in Pinellas County was the victim of the Tea Party extremists.
The facts are the Tea Party had little to do with the GreenLight
election results and there just aren’t that many extremists in Pinellas County.
The public did not vote against public transportation they
voted against special interests and being taken advantage of.
The Headline says it all: GreenLight defeated. Not public transportation... GreenLight was defeated.
GreenLight was a badly flawed plan, a poorly constructed
Ordinance that really had very little to do with real public transportation.
Add to that the nefarious actions of the PSTA CEO including misusing
Federal Homeland Security funds and the total inaction of the PSTA Board and
there was no way Pinellas County residents had the confidence to tax themselves
for ever for few buses and a 24 mile train to benefit the power players and not
the public transit users.
GreenLight was a victim of same approach that lead to the
defeat of the LENS in St. Petersburg.
What started out as serious effort to meet a public need was
hijacked by special interests and over a number of years turned into a self-serving
effort.
No Tax for Tracks, by simply pointing out the obvious: that GreenLight
was more about money, redevelopment and special interests than public
transportation and sticking to that message, doomed GreenLight to defeat.
The level to which GreenLight was poorly developed, planned
and executed is most simply told in the fund raising numbers. Out funded 10 to 1 No Tax for Tracks brought GreenLight
to its knees by simply getting the facts out.
It is unlikely that any amount of money could have gotten
GreenLight past the voters.
There are a lot of lessons to be taken from GreenLight and I
will explore a few over the next few weeks.
For now there needs to be some serious soul searching at the Pinellas
County Commission and some serious reorganization at PSTA. Pinellas County needs properly
implemented public transportation and the only way to get it is by reorganization at the PSTA.
At least now the politicians should know how NOT to go about
it.
E-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net. Or
send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be
sure to share on Facebook and Twitter
Let these power players demonstrate their power and the supposed strength of their idea by going out and raising the money privately. Why do they have to come to government and its stream of money that comes from us? It is not there to take away their risk. Then we can talk about how government might help with the idea i.e. quick review of permits, loosening of restrictions where it makes sense, etc.
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