"No Progress in Paradise Without Public Transit" by v. johns
With the current mortgage and foreclosure fallout on our hands now - not to mention a souring economy and potentially irresponsible state budget cuts - a descent transportation system for all of South Florida is probably the last thing on the minds of all these politicians and officials we've managed to elect to screw us over and beat us out of countless dollars. Countless dollars that, in addition to building a world-class education system, could have also been used to fund and attract matching federal dollars to build a world-class transportation system. Instead, we've allowed short-sighted and, often crooked, politicians who run and win on empty promises of "cut taxes" or ''no taxes'' take control of our state and shift our hard-earned money into the already fattened pockets of road builders, home developers, tax-evading corporations - and their ilk.
Here's what's funny about all this? For a state that's run on the cheap - a state where everything is so cheaply executed and poorly planned - there sure is a great deal of money that's either being wasted or going into the wrong pockets, isn't there? It's like living with a roommate or relative who spends thousands of dollars annually on Lotto, cigarettes and booze... but won't buy toilet paper... even when it's out... Funny how some state-level politicians will scoff at funding sorely needed social programs and services while showering corporate cronies and chums with unholy amounts in tax breaks, ''incentives'' and subsidies.
To say all this is not to argue against progress. I'm arguing FOR progress. SMART progress. Without jobs a community cannot prosper. Yes, we know this. But without the means to get to all these wonderful jobs we crave so much, any progress made can quickly be strangled and choked off from inefficiency, low productivity and lack of further private investment in any given community. The ''build it and they will come'' approach to public transportation is not what I'm advocating. I'm advocating the very foundation of a regional framework for economic prosperity... public mobility...
Our cities, towns and villages have formed into a regional multi-city agglomeration with ever-growing needs and demands from its citizens. At this point, mobility has become, not an option, but a must. What I'm proposing is, not only the building of a comprehensive regional inermodal mass transit system, but the changing of a mindset of an entire region. Leaders and advocates are going to have to work hard and market a whole new attitude toward local travel to get people out of their cars and SUV's. And they are going to have to make sure that whatever is built meets or exceeds all expectations.
Before I continue any further, a word on the issue of gridlock: There is no permanent cure for this headache. It can only be eased, channeled or contained - not stopped. Road-building, though needed sorely, isn't the answer to eliminating gridlock. And it certainly isn't the solution for boosting an overrated tourism-based state economy. More personally, it definitely isn't the answer for those party animals up here in Martin county who would love to go down to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale - every weekend - on the cheap.
So, why is the so-called Department of Transportation here in Florida so bent on constructing more highways and toll roads at a time when cities are drowning in gridlock and demanding alternatives to cars, bikes and walking shoes? More roads only lead to more vehicles. We've heard all this before. But where I diverge from the anti-gridlock crowd is in my capitalistic training in economics and business: My argument for good public transit is based on economic and regional promotional considerations. But there is no doubt that in addition to those benefits, some environmental and personal comfort concerns can also be satisfied, in the process, with innovative regional mass transit initiatives backed by governmental powers...
When I think about transportation, my differences with other people tend to go out the window. I feel that there are a lot of people down here in South Florida who are lazy and don't want to work. I don't trust, nor do I get along to well with, people who are able to work and choose not to. But I also see that there are only so many opportunities to work in any given community or town and when they run out, you gotta look over and see what the next city or town has to offer. And I pray that you have a car or a ride of some sort as you are looking for your first or next job.
Just to let you know, I'm one of the many so-called "working poor" living down here in this sub-tropical land of riches and gold. I don't have much, but what I do have, I damn sure earned it. I work and go to school on my own dime. I avoid expensive habits. And I don't drain relatives of their hard-earned cash when things get bad. I take my medicine like a man. If I can't, I get a payday loan! So, yes, I pull myself up by the jock straps, boot straps - whatever! - as much as I can. But all over Florida and much of the South, there seems to be this idea that we REALLY are - each individual - 100% on our own. We CAN make it without other people... On our jobs, we'll make money, even if no one buys our employer's products and services... If we're self-employed, same thing: our products and services will be purchased, not by people, but by thin air and we'll be rich from now until infinity if we just dig in and let thin air do its thing, right?
Anyway, the idea of shared public space is a concept that seems to be embraced more freely up north than it is down south. Down here, in the South, even in Florida, we value private property. The only problem is that, eventually, you get all these private properties sprawling out and running into one another until you get this big, bad 7000+ sq. mile swath of seaside, beachside, lakeside, riverside - not to mention canal-side - chunka land called South Florida that has become the 5th or 6th largest urban metropolitan statistical area in the nation that's over HALF the size of New York in population. Okay, NOW what?
Not to sound overly biased, mind you, but I have noticed that these politicians, particularly these Republican types (I'm Independent, by the way), have quite often played the urban and not so urban places against one another and have used their clout to punish the generally more liberal and Democratic urban areas with budget constraints and conflicting state rules. While at the same time allowing their developer friends to make money off of them in the midst of their problems. With us ever-mindful, common-damn sense independent thinkers forever caught in the middle of all this foolishness. Ahhh, the politics of fear at its best!
So, for those of you who subscribe so whole-heartedly to this ''pull yourself up by the bootstraps'' nonsense espoused so arrogantly by some in our wonderful state and local governments here in the Sunshine State, I've got news for ya... There are no boots left. And the straps, apparently, have come off!
See, the problem with Florida is that people all over the world continue to actually want to live here. Yeah, I can't believe it either! What the hell are these people smokin'? And as much as some of us cringe at the thought of overpopulation, by law, we can't prevent people who want to move here from moving here. Unless they're a threat to our national security. And just as the rich are attracted to our state, so too are the middle class and the poor. As common as car ownership is, many people arrive here with no transportation (Especially those from large cities with transit so available that driving is just nonsense). Some have barely functioning vehicles when they get here. While others lose their transportation when they get here. What do we do with these people? Tell them to suck it up and walk 30 miles from their home in Indiantown to their job in West Palm? Tell them to quit that 75K job in Lauderdale and work at a grocery store in Jupiter where they actually live?
This whole tough guy, ''I got mine... screw yours'' thing is really bad up here in the northern districts of the Treasure Coast and has lead to, in my opinion, some of the most backward demands and idleness from our citizens... causing a very bizarre and unnecessary type of isolationism that most modern, progressive communities are trying to do away with. We've let our own personal disgust with other types of people and their various habits cloud our picture of the grand scheme of things. But since we don't value each other as much as we should, let me translate this into I, I, I, Me, Me, Me: I don't care how tough and independent you think you are, a bad day or week is always lurking around the corner for ya. And if your brand new Hummer breaks down or your ride to work stiffs you or you have no driver's license temporarily or if you become disabled and you can't get to your big, bad, high-paying tough guy job down in Miami or West Palm Beach... buddy... you ain't gonna be making no money on that day, that week that month, that year, etc.! So, cut the crap put yourself in other people's shoes for a change...
My argument for regional public transportation is for the greater good of a long stretch of municipalities and counties that have grown and ran into one another and formed a densely-populated territory and now depend on all the others, to some degree, for economic sustenance and vitality. Come on, do you really think that even he mighty Magic City of Miami can be on its own without the rest of South Florida feeding into it? Its like New York saying that its economy has nothing to do with North Jersey! Really, folks. Come on, now... Put two and two together, here, will ya? It's a no-brainer, people: Without mobility, there IS no economy. If people can't get to work consistently and efficiently, exactly what sense is there for any given job or business to exist? Why should I relocate my world-class corporate headquarters from a world-class place like New York or D.C. where the pool of available people who can make it to work is much larger than what you people got down here? Why should I relocate my world-class headquarters from a place where 90% of the citizens graduate from high school and can measure and calculate things based on my company's needs... to a place where the graduation rate is 40% and its citizens so poorly educated that hiring them would risk the vitality and productivity and therefore, profitability - and even very existence - of my company?
We don't always see how all these things fit together, but now that we've formed into an alleged national and international regional powerhouse with stiff competition from the likes of Dallas-Ft. Worth, the Northeast, Phoenix Valley of the Sun, Las Vegas, Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle, Greater Los Angeles, etc. - not to mention our very own Tampa Bay, Central Florida and North Florida - we had better start thinking this way! The sooner we get this thing up and running, the better off we all are. We need JOBS down here, man. BETTER jobs, at that. And what do job creators look for other than loyal customers? They look for people with talent and means to make it happen. People who can arrive and show up on time and attain and keep loyal customers and satisfied clients. So, let's not take ourselves too lightly...
Tourism and home-building can only get us so far. There's a lot of fun and sun in South Florida, for sure. On the surface. But there's also a lot of big business and strong national and international connections going on in the background that isn't always apparent to ourselves nor outsiders. That's what makes this area so appealing, if only subconsciously. Why is this concept not being cultivated and integrated into our own international mystique?
While other, more progressive regions, around the nation and around the world have, at least, heard the call for revival and greatness, South Florida is in danger of becoming the story that could have been. Drowning in a massive sea of reidential, tourist-trap madness - while other areas build great monuments to their honor and make great efforts to prepare their citizens for the fast approaching future. Still, it's not about being like New York or NOT being like L.A. It's about creating an entirely new dynamic in a way that only South Florida and its people can brand most successfully. A dynamic so original and so profound that it's mere imitation would demand that it be packaged and exported as THE blueprint for successful regional interface cultivation. The potential is there. Unfortunately, the character... and the will... are not...
Here's what's funny about all this? For a state that's run on the cheap - a state where everything is so cheaply executed and poorly planned - there sure is a great deal of money that's either being wasted or going into the wrong pockets, isn't there? It's like living with a roommate or relative who spends thousands of dollars annually on Lotto, cigarettes and booze... but won't buy toilet paper... even when it's out... Funny how some state-level politicians will scoff at funding sorely needed social programs and services while showering corporate cronies and chums with unholy amounts in tax breaks, ''incentives'' and subsidies.
To say all this is not to argue against progress. I'm arguing FOR progress. SMART progress. Without jobs a community cannot prosper. Yes, we know this. But without the means to get to all these wonderful jobs we crave so much, any progress made can quickly be strangled and choked off from inefficiency, low productivity and lack of further private investment in any given community. The ''build it and they will come'' approach to public transportation is not what I'm advocating. I'm advocating the very foundation of a regional framework for economic prosperity... public mobility...
Our cities, towns and villages have formed into a regional multi-city agglomeration with ever-growing needs and demands from its citizens. At this point, mobility has become, not an option, but a must. What I'm proposing is, not only the building of a comprehensive regional inermodal mass transit system, but the changing of a mindset of an entire region. Leaders and advocates are going to have to work hard and market a whole new attitude toward local travel to get people out of their cars and SUV's. And they are going to have to make sure that whatever is built meets or exceeds all expectations.
Before I continue any further, a word on the issue of gridlock: There is no permanent cure for this headache. It can only be eased, channeled or contained - not stopped. Road-building, though needed sorely, isn't the answer to eliminating gridlock. And it certainly isn't the solution for boosting an overrated tourism-based state economy. More personally, it definitely isn't the answer for those party animals up here in Martin county who would love to go down to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale - every weekend - on the cheap.
So, why is the so-called Department of Transportation here in Florida so bent on constructing more highways and toll roads at a time when cities are drowning in gridlock and demanding alternatives to cars, bikes and walking shoes? More roads only lead to more vehicles. We've heard all this before. But where I diverge from the anti-gridlock crowd is in my capitalistic training in economics and business: My argument for good public transit is based on economic and regional promotional considerations. But there is no doubt that in addition to those benefits, some environmental and personal comfort concerns can also be satisfied, in the process, with innovative regional mass transit initiatives backed by governmental powers...
When I think about transportation, my differences with other people tend to go out the window. I feel that there are a lot of people down here in South Florida who are lazy and don't want to work. I don't trust, nor do I get along to well with, people who are able to work and choose not to. But I also see that there are only so many opportunities to work in any given community or town and when they run out, you gotta look over and see what the next city or town has to offer. And I pray that you have a car or a ride of some sort as you are looking for your first or next job.
Just to let you know, I'm one of the many so-called "working poor" living down here in this sub-tropical land of riches and gold. I don't have much, but what I do have, I damn sure earned it. I work and go to school on my own dime. I avoid expensive habits. And I don't drain relatives of their hard-earned cash when things get bad. I take my medicine like a man. If I can't, I get a payday loan! So, yes, I pull myself up by the jock straps, boot straps - whatever! - as much as I can. But all over Florida and much of the South, there seems to be this idea that we REALLY are - each individual - 100% on our own. We CAN make it without other people... On our jobs, we'll make money, even if no one buys our employer's products and services... If we're self-employed, same thing: our products and services will be purchased, not by people, but by thin air and we'll be rich from now until infinity if we just dig in and let thin air do its thing, right?
Anyway, the idea of shared public space is a concept that seems to be embraced more freely up north than it is down south. Down here, in the South, even in Florida, we value private property. The only problem is that, eventually, you get all these private properties sprawling out and running into one another until you get this big, bad 7000+ sq. mile swath of seaside, beachside, lakeside, riverside - not to mention canal-side - chunka land called South Florida that has become the 5th or 6th largest urban metropolitan statistical area in the nation that's over HALF the size of New York in population. Okay, NOW what?
Not to sound overly biased, mind you, but I have noticed that these politicians, particularly these Republican types (I'm Independent, by the way), have quite often played the urban and not so urban places against one another and have used their clout to punish the generally more liberal and Democratic urban areas with budget constraints and conflicting state rules. While at the same time allowing their developer friends to make money off of them in the midst of their problems. With us ever-mindful, common-damn sense independent thinkers forever caught in the middle of all this foolishness. Ahhh, the politics of fear at its best!
So, for those of you who subscribe so whole-heartedly to this ''pull yourself up by the bootstraps'' nonsense espoused so arrogantly by some in our wonderful state and local governments here in the Sunshine State, I've got news for ya... There are no boots left. And the straps, apparently, have come off!
See, the problem with Florida is that people all over the world continue to actually want to live here. Yeah, I can't believe it either! What the hell are these people smokin'? And as much as some of us cringe at the thought of overpopulation, by law, we can't prevent people who want to move here from moving here. Unless they're a threat to our national security. And just as the rich are attracted to our state, so too are the middle class and the poor. As common as car ownership is, many people arrive here with no transportation (Especially those from large cities with transit so available that driving is just nonsense). Some have barely functioning vehicles when they get here. While others lose their transportation when they get here. What do we do with these people? Tell them to suck it up and walk 30 miles from their home in Indiantown to their job in West Palm? Tell them to quit that 75K job in Lauderdale and work at a grocery store in Jupiter where they actually live?
This whole tough guy, ''I got mine... screw yours'' thing is really bad up here in the northern districts of the Treasure Coast and has lead to, in my opinion, some of the most backward demands and idleness from our citizens... causing a very bizarre and unnecessary type of isolationism that most modern, progressive communities are trying to do away with. We've let our own personal disgust with other types of people and their various habits cloud our picture of the grand scheme of things. But since we don't value each other as much as we should, let me translate this into I, I, I, Me, Me, Me: I don't care how tough and independent you think you are, a bad day or week is always lurking around the corner for ya. And if your brand new Hummer breaks down or your ride to work stiffs you or you have no driver's license temporarily or if you become disabled and you can't get to your big, bad, high-paying tough guy job down in Miami or West Palm Beach... buddy... you ain't gonna be making no money on that day, that week that month, that year, etc.! So, cut the crap put yourself in other people's shoes for a change...
My argument for regional public transportation is for the greater good of a long stretch of municipalities and counties that have grown and ran into one another and formed a densely-populated territory and now depend on all the others, to some degree, for economic sustenance and vitality. Come on, do you really think that even he mighty Magic City of Miami can be on its own without the rest of South Florida feeding into it? Its like New York saying that its economy has nothing to do with North Jersey! Really, folks. Come on, now... Put two and two together, here, will ya? It's a no-brainer, people: Without mobility, there IS no economy. If people can't get to work consistently and efficiently, exactly what sense is there for any given job or business to exist? Why should I relocate my world-class corporate headquarters from a world-class place like New York or D.C. where the pool of available people who can make it to work is much larger than what you people got down here? Why should I relocate my world-class headquarters from a place where 90% of the citizens graduate from high school and can measure and calculate things based on my company's needs... to a place where the graduation rate is 40% and its citizens so poorly educated that hiring them would risk the vitality and productivity and therefore, profitability - and even very existence - of my company?
We don't always see how all these things fit together, but now that we've formed into an alleged national and international regional powerhouse with stiff competition from the likes of Dallas-Ft. Worth, the Northeast, Phoenix Valley of the Sun, Las Vegas, Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle, Greater Los Angeles, etc. - not to mention our very own Tampa Bay, Central Florida and North Florida - we had better start thinking this way! The sooner we get this thing up and running, the better off we all are. We need JOBS down here, man. BETTER jobs, at that. And what do job creators look for other than loyal customers? They look for people with talent and means to make it happen. People who can arrive and show up on time and attain and keep loyal customers and satisfied clients. So, let's not take ourselves too lightly...
Tourism and home-building can only get us so far. There's a lot of fun and sun in South Florida, for sure. On the surface. But there's also a lot of big business and strong national and international connections going on in the background that isn't always apparent to ourselves nor outsiders. That's what makes this area so appealing, if only subconsciously. Why is this concept not being cultivated and integrated into our own international mystique?
While other, more progressive regions, around the nation and around the world have, at least, heard the call for revival and greatness, South Florida is in danger of becoming the story that could have been. Drowning in a massive sea of reidential, tourist-trap madness - while other areas build great monuments to their honor and make great efforts to prepare their citizens for the fast approaching future. Still, it's not about being like New York or NOT being like L.A. It's about creating an entirely new dynamic in a way that only South Florida and its people can brand most successfully. A dynamic so original and so profound that it's mere imitation would demand that it be packaged and exported as THE blueprint for successful regional interface cultivation. The potential is there. Unfortunately, the character... and the will... are not...
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