Sometimes PSTA just can’t seem to get out of it’s own way

On my way home Saturday I was driving down 83rd Avenue North. When I got to 9th Street, where there is a light, there were two PSTA buses one on each side of the light on 9th Street.

When the light changed the bus going north moved quickly across the intersection, only to realize that there was not enough room for the two buses to pass side by side.

They kind of got wedged in and neither could move.

As traffic backed up, the bus drivers surveyed the situation, blocked drivers got out to help. For a few minutes things looked a bit hopeless.

Finally with a little help from the public and some careful maneuvering both buses escaped their plight and made it down the road.

There was a small traffic jam but that cleared in just a few minutes.

In the interest of full disclosure, there is some construction at the 93rd Ave. and 9th St. intersection, which has narrowed the lanes.

There was really no harm, no foul and the wedged buses brought smiles to most faces.

The situation does beg the question of whether PSTA should be looking at smaller buses, since both of these appeared to be pretty much empty.

It does reinforce the point that these big buses are well…big. There needs to be a lot of careful planning if we ever really start considering special bus lanes.

E-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net. Or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Twitter@DOCONTHEBAY. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter. See Doc’s Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos

Your Vote Really Matters

Pinellas County November 4, 2014
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD

Almost 207,000 votes have already been cast in Pinellas County early voting. You can see the unofficial vote count at Supervisor of elections Voter Turn Out.

Please vote today. Don't pass on voting because you think your vote will not matter. On the sales tax referendum, GreenLight, the total vote count will be very important.

It is critical that Pinellas County voters send a clear message to the Pinellas County Commission and the PSTA Board of Directors about how they feel about the GreenLight effort.

We need good public transportation in Pinellas County that will actually serve those who need it.

What we don't need is a redevelopment plan disguised as a transportation sales tax that benefits the 30 or so donors who have dumped $1 million dollars into a campaign designed to convince you a train that runs from downtown St. Pete to downtown Clearwater will work in a densely populated, commercially dispersed , three story tall County. It will not.

Don't let all of those claims about reduced bus service and shutting down bus routes scare you.

If GreenLight, fails to pass as it should, all that needs to done is let the politicians know that if they cut bus service, they will experience the same fate as those who voted to remove fluoride from the water.  Problem solved.

Remember that today, election day, you can only vote in your precinct. Not sure where it is? Go to the Supervisor of elections Find Your Precinct.

 Haven't mailed in your mail in ballot? TAKE IT WITH YOU. 

Your vote is your opinion, make it count. 

Watch My Video Green Light - It's a Bad Law Read Green Light Sales Tax Ordinance and The PSTA/ Pinellas County Inter Local Agreement .

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.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.

GreenLight - Yes Their Latest TV Ad

Check out the GreenLight campaign's latest TV commercial featuring former Pinellas County Commissioner Sallie Parks.

One has to wonder if Ms. Parks has actually read the Greenlight Pinellas Tax Ordinance  or realizes these kids she loves so much will still be paying this tax for a train they will likely never use when they are her age.

Why would you mortgage your County's future so 30 or so big donor power players can live off your kids, your grand kids and your great grand kids for the next half century?

GreenLight is not a good idea for these kids, you or anybody else.

Watch My Video Green Light - It's a Bad Law before you vote.

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.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.

Sunday November 2, 2014 PSTA Abuse Of Federal Funds - A more Somber View

Recent revelations regarding the misuse of Federal Homeland Security Funds could be passed off as an overzealous effort by PSTA CEO Brad Miller to get his sales tax initiative passed.

You could pass it off as bad judgment or poor decision making or just more campaign and political high jinks.

You could do all of that - unless you have been reading the headlines and watching the news in the last week or so.

Just watch your local newscast on TV, follow the news on social media or read a news paper.

"Self radicalized" jihadists, school shootings, people jumping the fence at the White House, attacking police officers with an ax, young people being recruited to terrorist acts on social media, the list goes on.

Terrorist transportation attacks are all too common around the world; fortunately we have been spared so far in this Country.

When the federal government through the Department of Homeland Security makes resources available to local public officials to use to warn us and help us protect ourselves that is the purpose for which they should be used.

The PSTA Chair Ken Welch and the PSTA Board of Directors apparently do not see it that way.

I was at the meetings and the smiles and smirks from the Board Members as Brad Miller's actions were revealed were disgusting. It was like they were proud of their boy's efforts to hoodwink the Feds. 

They said so with a vote of confidence.

The snarky comments from the Chairman Ken Welch, which later came back to bite him, showed a total disconnect from the reality of the rapidly changing world around us.

Overwhelmed by the million dollars given by powerful interests to support a self-serving plan, and blinded by the desire to redevelop South Pinellas County for the gains of GreenLight supporters, PSTA could not even bring themselves to legitimately warn their customers and educate them on how to protect themselves.

Instead they illegally diverted the federal funds to their own interests and took no other action than a "conversation with the CEO" and then a vote of confidence when they were caught.

Do you feel any safer?

I cannot even imagine what these people will do if we vote to give them an additional $100 million in uncontrolled cash each year. That kind of money in PSTA, an organization as poorly managed and controlled as recent events reveal, will breed a level of misconduct and corruption never before seen in this County.

See who will really be driving the bus and the train; read the Jamal Thalji Article in the Tampa Bay Times: Greenlight Pinellas has big backers in big business.

Know before you vote. Read the documents you put in force if you vote YES on Green Light Sales Tax Ordinance and The PSTA/ Pinellas County Inter Local Agreement

Watch My Video Green Light - It's a Bad Law before you vote.

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.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.

1 Million Reasons Vote No on GreenLight Pinellas

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD

In the recent financial filings regarding campaign contributions, GreenLight Pinellas has received almost $1 million from about 30 donors. You can see the campaign finance reports here Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections.

Biggest contributor: NATIONAL Association of Realtors who dumped almost one quarter million dollars into the GreenLight political campaign.

If there was any question in your mind about who is driving the "train" and what their motives are, it should now be crystal clear.

Yes for Greenlight campaign manager Joe Ferrell said "donations from hospitals, finance firms, IT companies, the Rays and utilities are evidence that the private sector sees developing mass transit as a priority."

Not so much a "priority" as a business opportunity or a political necessity.

 If buses were the priority then GreenLight might make some sense, but nowhere in the Ordinance you are being asked to make a law, are the buses first in line for funding.

If the train were a real public transportation priority then it would go where the 2% who might use it live and not where the 1% who wouldn't be caught dead on a train live in their million dollar condos.

The train is passing through business parks, malls and other prime Pinellas County real-estate.

The purpose?

Transit oriented redevelopment. In other words a lot of real estate transactions, consulting and planning contracts, bond and financing transactions, construction contracts and a train to buy.

The big dollar players know where this project is going and they just ponyed up almost one million dollars to get their fingers in the pie.

The filling in that pie is your tax dollars.

The developers, train manufacturers, financial institutions, technology companies are throwing big dollars into the Yes for Greenlight till. This kind of money doesn't come with strings attached, it comes with chains attached.

After the smoke clears, should the sales tax referendum pass, just who do you think will really be calling the shots? It sure won't be the taxpayers.

GreenLight and this Tax referendum are bad for all Pinellas County tax payers and our visitors.

There is a solution to all of this. It's called YOUR VOTE.

They can buy all the ads, fill the airways, and stuff your mailbox until it falls over, but don't let them buy your vote.

Watch My Video Green Light - It's a Bad Law before you vote.

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.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks.