Received this Broward County email the other day about an upcoming meeting in three weeks regarding a proposed People Mover System between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l Airport and Port Everglades.
Yes, something which, much as I hate repeating myself, like so many things in South Florida, would already be up and running -and working successfully!- if this were a very different kind of area.
Well, assuming I'm entirely out of my college football Bowl game-induced coma by then, I'll likely be at this Broward meeting on the 10th, ready, willing and able to pepper somebody with questions. http://www.broward.org/airport/pdfs/corridor_report_7307.pdf
For instance, to start with the most obvious question, will this interface with a future train station on the FEC tracks, per the SFECC meetings I've attended in Hollywood and Aventura, meetings which were full of people wanting this to become a reality as soon as possible?
You know, for residents who'd prefer to simply hop a train near their home near US-1, in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties, to take advantage of easier access and cheaper fares than what MIA-based airlines offer, esp on Southwest Airlines?
Smart people who don't want to pay $ just so their car can take a mini-vacation, in an airport-affiliated parking lot where it's liable to be nicked by somebody wrestling their suitcase out of their car in the next parking space, just inches away from yours?
Background info on the county's plan was found at the Broward County Annual Report Fiscal Year 2006's transportation section http://www.broward.org/publicinfo/transportation.pdf
which states:
Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport officials are in the third year of a study to find ways to effectively move cruise passengers between the two facilities. To date, $4 million has been committed to look at long-range alternatives to link the airport and port. Among the many alternatives being considered are a people mover, which could utilize a raised dedicated guideway betweenthe port and airport.
Other odds and ends:
If I didn't know any better, judging by this story, I'd almost think that L.A. mayor Antonio Villaigrosa thought he lived in South Florida, with his policy of corporate cronyism along the lines of the Vladimir Putin/Mara Giulianti crony capitalism model.
L.A. mayor lines up donors for favorite causes
Villaraigosa has plenty of pet projects, and entities with business before the city have been giving generously to them.
by David Zahniser of the Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-funds18dec18,0,3566265.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntothtml
Yesterday's Boston Globe had an interesting update on news about Google's Street View project, which I've been following for a bit now:
http://www.boston.com/
For more info, see http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html
Video Google's "Street View" makes its Boston debut
They already have it set up for South Beach, and if some different people were running things up in Hollywood, perhaps in the not-too distant future, they'd have it there, too.
That is, AFTER they get some bus shelters at Young Circle, which I remind you, is only the busiest transit point in all of SE Broward.
http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2007/10/thoughts-on-broward-county-transit.html
Nearly a year after The Arts Park at Young Circle road construction has concluded, the area still lacks a single bus shelter, much less, an info kiosk with schedule and route information for all the many riders of mass transit there, day and night, rain or shine, heat and humidity.
Not residents who need to be persuaded to use mass transit by Broward Transit's full-page ads in the Sun-Sentinel, but rather people who already use it.
This, in a city like Hollywood that, typically, already thinks it's transit-oriented according to Hollywood Commissioner Dick Blattner. It's ridiculous.
Last Friday afternoon I spoke to someone I know at the Broward County Govt. HQ bldg. on Andrews Avenue, someone very much tuned in to the latest news about all things political and policy in the county.
More importantly here, someone who was also quite familiar with my own particular concerns and take on the way things are done around here -when they're done at all.
When I brought up the old sore subject of bus shelters, which I had mentioned at the Broward County Transit Forum at the Broward Convention Center, which rattleded Commissioner Lois Wexler, specifically, as it relates to both Hallandale Beach and Hollywood's rather disastrous management of them, my friend chimed in that based on everything they knew and had heard, essentially, Mayor Giulianti has next-to-no interest in getting shelters there, despite how self-evident the need is.
Apparently, so I was told, it's really too downscale for her tastes.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to somebody at the Hollywood city manager's office about this subject, and while they were very civil on the phone, they couldn't actually offer up even a guess as to when the necessary shelters would actually be up there. If they go up.
That speaks volumes about the way things are in Hollywood right now, and why yours truly would like to see big changes in leadership up there come the January 29th election.
Getting back to Street View for a sec, the Top 15 Street View sightings, as of May, are at: http://mashable.com/2007/05/31/top-15-google-street-view-sightings/
Speaking of infrastructure...
But seriously, I've been meaning to post something about privatization for a bit, and especially since I first read an excellent overview of the subject in Business Week in May titled, "Roads To Riches, Why investors are clamoring to take over America's highways, bridges, and airports—and why the public should be nervous" by Emily Thornton.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_19/b4033001.htm
Per this subject, there's a lot of controversy back in Indiana over the moves that Gov. Mitch Daniels has made in that regard in his first term.
Most specifically, regarding the Indiana Tollway, which may even affect the gubernatorial election there next year, since it gets to basic notions of what the role of the state should be, policy-wise, in the 21st century.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/06/30/the_road_to_privatization/
Speaking not of the Tollway specifically, but the broader topic, is it a hopelessly old-fashioned notion for the state to do something for residents that could be done for them cheaper, more efficiently and faster by private enterprise, just because they always have in the past?
(If you're a regular reader, there's no point in me mentioning again having spoken to Democrat Jill Long Thompson quite a few times over the past 20 years. Jill's currently got a big lead for the Dem gubernatorial nomination in the Hoosier state.)
Oddly enough, though I don't think I look like either one of them, when I lived in the D.C, area, people used to walk up to me -esp in Georgetown for some odd reason- and mistake me for either Mitch Daniels or Vice President Dan Quayle's resident genius on hand, David Frum. http://www.davidfrum.com/
They always seemed SO disappointed when I told them they were mistaken!
I'll have a post in another day or so about the Orange Bowl's Beach Bash not being convenient and fun, since for the second year in a row, it will be held in that bastion of daytime fun, downtown Miami, instead of its four-year home, Hollywood Beach.
http://www.orangebowl.org/
As a consequence, it's no longer a Beach Bash but a Fan Fest.
http://www.orangebowl.org/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11800&KEY=&ATCLID=694673
See my July post for more info on the Beach Bash, formerly one of the true highlights of the year.
http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2007/07/happy-27th-birthday-jessica-simpson.html
______________________________________________________
http://bcegov2.broward.org/newsrelease/viewscreen.asp?MessageID=1640
Public Workshop on Project Development and Environment Study Scheduled January 10, 2008
12/14/2007 2:33:21 PM
DATE: December 14, 2007
CONTACT: Ellen Kennedy, Manager of Corporate & Community Relations
PHONE: 954-468-3508
WHO: Broward County Port Everglades and Aviation Departments
WHAT: Project Development and Environment (PD&E) Study Public Workshop Public input is requested for the PD&E Study of a Broward County Intermodal
Center and People Mover System between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Int'l
Airport and Port Everglades.
WHEN: Thursday, January 10, 2008
WHERE: Broward County African-American Research Library & Cultural Center,
Auditorium, 2650 NW 6th Street (Sistrunk Blvd.), Fort Lauderdale, Florida
TIME: 6:00 p.m. Information and exhibits 7:00 p.m. Presentation and Q&A
WHY: The Intermodal Center will provide a regional transportation hub to connect
transit users to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and the Port Everglades (Seaport). The People Mover will offer a high capacity system to provide efficient access to FLL, to the Seaport and between FLL and the Seaport for regional users, employees and air/sea patrons. The goal is to alleviate road congestion on the limited access roads between the two facilities and facilitate the need for efficient freight, cargo and petroleum movement out of the regionally significant port.
Members of the project consulting team and Broward County Port Everglades and Aviation Department staff will share project information and answer questions regarding the project.
CONTACT: Carmen Ayala, MTM Partners 954-620-7044 or via email
http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/