Sort of like Go Hillsborough but with a much cooler Logo.
St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author:
In Search of Robin
One of the ways government attempts to get around those pesky
citizens who don’t agree with something the government wants to do is call it
something else and float the idea again. They call that “re-branding.”
We often call that putting lipstick on a pig, but re-branding
is much more millennial.
WALLA - Forward
Pinellas a 2014 Florida legislative
action that combined the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and the Pinellas
Planning Council.
From the Pinellas Forward “branding website”: “The role of transportation and land
development in Pinellas County took on increased importance with passage of a special act of the Florida Legislature in 2014 unifying a 13-member governing
board of local elected officials with responsibility for countywide
transportation and land use planning.”
If you check
closely you will find the 13 elected officials who make up Pinellas Forward are,
for the most part, the same folks that brought you GreenLight Pinellas. There
doesn't appear to be any serious citizen representation on this new
transportation redevelopment (read that light rail) task force.
So if the
mission has not changed, the players have not substantially changed, and the citizenry
has no significant input just what should we expect to change?
Nothing.
They do have
a nice new logo, which I am sure you helped pay for, and a noncommittal mission
statement: “Forward Pinellas will
provide leadership to align resources and plans that help to achieve a
compelling vision for Pinellas County, our individual communities and our
region.”
Does anyone have any idea
what the hell that means?
Let me take a stab at a
literal translation: We are going to package up light rail along with some
toss-a-ways like road improvement, and a few new buses and try to shame you
folks into a sales tax to finance it.
Sort of like Go Hillsborough
but with a much cooler Logo.
I am sure that all the folks
at Pinellas Forward are waiting with baited breath to see how the second run at
getting a sales tax referendum past the Hillsborough County Commission goes.
If it bombs a second-time look for Forward Pinellas to steal quietly
into the background for a while but should the Go Hillsborough machine get the sales
tax on the ballot the next hurdle will be the election, and the folks in
Hillsborough County should send yet another resounding message with a NO vote.
Then it will time for the
Metropolitan planning organization/Pinellas Planning Council/Forward Pinellas
to take a serious look at reality.
Sooner or later, it will
become clear that these groups of elected officials, the big developers and
light rail lobbyists do not a transportation planning organization make.
E-mail Doc at mail to:
dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook
(Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on
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See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos.
Disclosures:
Sort of like Go Hillsborough but with a much cooler Logo.