A Rising Tide May Lift All Boats but... the proposed Wave streetcar in downtown Fort Lauderdale is a bad idea that's the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time. But will simply being a bad and impractical idea be enough for the Broward County Commission to actually kill it? The vote comes today at 2:00 PM - Time to hammer the nails in that coffin!

A Rising Tide May Lift All Boats but... the proposed Wave streetcar in downtown Fort Lauderdale is a bad idea that's the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time. But will simply being a bad and impractical idea be enough for the Broward County Commission to actually kill it? The vote comes today at 2:00 PM  
Time to hammer the nails in that coffin!

Broward Beat

Ft Laud Mayor Dean Trantalis Takes Fight Against Streetcar To The County
By Buddy Nevins

https://www.browardbeat.com/ft-laud-mayor-dean-trantalis-takes-fight-against-streetcar-to-the-county/

@SFBJRealEstate @FixMetroMDT @transitmiami @SEFTAlt 
MT @Buddynevins #FortLauderdale Mayor #DeanTrantalis Takes Fight Against "The Wave" #Streetcar to #BrowardCounty https://t.co/TzRZVXE48G #SoFL #Broward #transit #transportation

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) May 8, 2018

Low bidder for Wave streetcar says city’s vote to withdraw from the rail project was premature and invalid, urges county to wait to hear the contract price. pic.twitter.com/osxiU3JMmL

— Brittany Wallman (@BrittanyWallman) May 7, 2018

Will today be the end for Fort Lauderdale's streetcars? https://t.co/8RcGYADb0p

— Brittany Wallman (@BrittanyWallman) May 8, 2018

I'll be writing something about these articles and what it represents over the next few days, while also finishing up my big long-promised 2018 blog post re Broward County and its longstanding, myriad transportation problems, something that I've been writing off-and-on for many months, while trying NOT to repeat what I've written in any of the DOZENS of fact-filled blog posts I've penned the past ten years about public transportation.

Posts that often caught people's fancy throughout South Florida and caused them to nod in agreement because of both my persuasive writing and institutional knowledge and memory about a lot of transit elements in South Florida that other residents either never knew about, forgot about, or took place before they moved here.

So, actual context for better understanding the current sad and sorry state of affairs.

Like the proposed Miami-Dade Metrorail Purple Line that would've connected NW Miami-Dade to Downtown Miami and the Dadeland South, which is one of the reasons that people in NW Dade voted for Metrorail in the first place -to achieve a sense of connectedness to the rest of Miami, especially its job center, government center and attractions.

To cite but one simple benefit of that Purple Line that was never built, it'd have allowed allowed Miami Dolphins football fans in South Dade as well as notoriously fickle University of Miami students to go to Dolphins and Hurricanes games via the very large University station in Coral Gables. 

No need to drive and pay for parking.   

Just as they could have done for the Marlins baseball team if it the line was up and running years ago the way it should have been, which would've made building a baseball stadium near the football stadium and thereby utilize the same great road connections the area has, including direct access to the Florida Turnpike.

It wouldn’t be the first time Miamians fell victim to a transit bait-and-switch. Miami-Dade voters in 2002 approved a half-penny transit sales tax that was supposed to pay for a massive Metrorail expansion — one new line would jut out west to Florida International University, while another would connect to the Miami Dolphins’ Sun Life Stadium.

As it turned out, county politicians had promised far more than they could ever deliver in order to win voter support. Making matters worse: a 2008 Miami Herald investigation revealed that the county frittered away much of the sales tax money on raises for the politically powerful Transport Workers Union. A wasteful hiring spree, meanwhile, awarded transit jobs to aides or relatives of at least nine local elected officials.

above from: Miami Herald
All aboard! Imaginary Purple Line created to generate interest in mass transit for Miami
By Michael Vasquez
March 08, 2013 07:50 PM
Updated March 08, 2013 09:26 PM
http://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article1948039.html

See also http://www.urbanimpactlab.com/purple-line/

But, of course, those same factual blog posts also earned me a lot of animosity from high-ranking people at local transit organizations -like the Broward MPO among others- for daring to hold a mirror up to their consistently dismal performances given the resources they command and their near-anonymous hold on power.

Trust me, there are few govt/agencies in South Florida who are more used to people telling them how wonderful they were/are than the folks at the Broward MPO.

Which, of course, explains a lot.
The evidence of their collective failure is all around us in Broward
Their failure to take other groups, agencies and elected officials to task publicly and highlight policies and methods that are counter-productive.

Instead, the Broward MPO is known largely by a sub-niche of people within the political power structure, and as I've tweeted about a few times over the years, is often NOT mentioned in the Miami Herald or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for years at a time. YEARS.
Despite their stranglehold on policies and seemingly endless resources.
Where's the media oversight and accountability? MIA.

Though I could be wrong, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of you reading this today to be criticized 

in public by the head of the Broward MPO after I detailed his and his agency's many failings at a Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting some years ago.

Promises, promises, but where were tangible results that Broward residents, taxpayers and Small Business owners actually wanted? MIA.

Thin-skinned Greg Stuart waited until I could no longer speak before blasting me, then obfuscated instead of simply answering the questions I posed to him because the truth was on my side, not his. As both of us knew at the time.

His aides at the time were not exactly the pick of the litter, either, considering their snide remarks at the time that showed that they were more cronies than transportation experts.

Needless to say, then-Mayor Joy Cooper -since removed from office by Gov. Scott after her arrest for numerous felonies- just chuckled from the dais, completely aware that she could prevent me from refuting what Stuart was saying, but unaware that Stuart was, in fact, making a monkey out of her and the entire Commission.

In short, he took advantage of her great ignorance and was flat-out lying to her -to her face- while he also tried to make an example out of me publicly for daring to challenge him and his band of thin-skinned bureaucrats.   

Per the article, as most of you know, I genuinely do consider Beam Furr a friend and believe he's a real role model for what a diligent, hard-working, well-informed and open-minded South Florida elected official ought to aspire to be.
But I also believe that Buddy is 100% right about what he writes here, especially about SE Broward taxpayers' collective disinterest in ponying up money for a bad idea that's the wrong plan in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Didn't know until Monday that Broward County would have been responsible for the secretive Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority's share of possible Wave cost over-runs over DDA's agreed-upon share of $3 Million. Why was that? Whose great idea was this?  

See page 4:

http://cragenda.broward.org/docs/2018/CCCM/20180508_563/26832_Exhibit%202%20-%20Motion%20to%20Discuss%20and%20Direct%20re%20Wave%20Project%20Agreement%20%28002%29.pdf

I will likely be at that Broward County Comm. meeting today at 2 PM, since it could be must-see viewing in-person, as the transit and transportation industry's contractors and lobbyists have so much "riding on" The Wave, and will be happy to break the bank to turn their people out en masse and try to triangulate every county commissioner, however they can.  

But a county like Broward that's suing the state because they say they want to exert "local control" in their own area re guns, is going to have a hard time arguing the opposite POV here, and urging The Wave go forward in FTL when a majority of the elected FTL City Commission clearly don't want it.

https://t.co/GjUiuAVoix

But again, that assumes that logic and reason will plays the deciding role here in making the final decision, and I don't have to remind you where we actually live, now do I?

May 9th 615 PM Update: Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it up to Broward Govt. HQ to see this in person and speak against it because the 2 PM agenda time ended up conflicting with something I had to deal with that I had forgotten about, but I did watch the entire discussion online and was pleasantly surprised that some holdouts, i.e. supporters of The Wave, finally saw the light: #facts

I'm concerned, though, that some people on the Broward County Commission, with the same general facts, would likely have voted for it if it had been in THEIR district. 

Won't name names but it's pretty clear who they area. 

Yes, the Usual Suspects! :-(

@SFBJRealEstate @FixMetroMDT @transitmiami @SEFTAlt @shcalvert13 @CGreenbarg #Broward's top electeds wave adios to The Wave #streetcar project in #FTL as @browardinfo votes UNANIMOUSLY vs plan that came to be seen as more #development than #transportation in words of @beamfurr 😊

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) May 8, 2018

Dave 

HallandaleBeachBlog@gmail.com

Hallandale Beach Blog: 

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Snapchat: SoBeHoosier

Managed lanes: Broward MPO & FHA up to patronizing mischief on Thursday that'll cost you $$$ to drive on primary roads -the ones YOU already paid for

My answer to the Broward MPO's outlandish proposal to consider charging me and other Broward taxpayers and visitors to use roads that taxpayers have already paid for, is to call their bluff and to instruct them to make the first experimental pay roads in the area, Andrews Avenue and Las Olas Blvd. in downtown Fort Lauderdale, roads with businesses where elected officials, lobbyists and mouthpieces congregate, even while tourists stay away in droves.

To quote Matt Damon as Will in Goodwill Hunting, "How do you like those apples?

February 10th Broward MPO agenda at:
http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/tpi01507.pdf

***TIME CERTAIN – 11:00AM – MPO MANAGED LANES REGIONAL BRIEFING***
I guess they put that in red on the website so that members of South Florida's news media, esp. those with a penchant for showing-up late, will know what's going down and when.
(Unlike the Hallandale Beach City Commission meetings where time certain items rarely come up on time and the meetings just go on forever and ever...)

Later that same day, the Broward MPO and the Federal Highway Administration are hosting a workshop on expanding toll lanes to Broward County’s arterial roads.
You know, the roads that you use most?

Since space is limited, of course, you need to RSVP to attend the workshop, which is scheduled to go from 1:30-5 p.m. at the Broward MPO Board Room, Trade Centre South, 100 West Cypress Creek Road, Suite 850, Fort Lauderdale.

This is right next to the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station.

Christopher Ryan of Broward MPO is the contact person: (954) 876-0036 or ryanc@browardmpo.org

Look at this video produced for the Broward MPO's on the 2035 Long Range Transportation Plan. http://www.youtube.com/user/jacobsproductions1


Their homepage is at http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/2035lrtp/index.html

Do you see any 2009 PUBLIC meetings scheduled in Hollywood or Hallandale Beach?No, there weren't ANY in all of southeast Broward County.

Check for yourself on the website above and you'll see that I'm right: Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Pompano Beach.
Satisfied?

Really, no meetings in southeast Broward County, nothing east of I-95 and south of the airport, that's your idea of community outreach?

Richard Blattner, a Hollywood City Commissioner, is the current Vice Chair of the Broward MPO. You might want to ask him how it came to be that IF he were doing such a great bang-up job, there not only wasn't a meeting in Hollywood, one of the five biggest cities in the county, but not a single one in SE Broward.

That's NOT exactly my idea of vision, leadership or a solid performance on the MPO.
Seems more like he's sleepwalking.
Blattner's city commission info: Telephone: (954) 921-3321
Email: rblattner@hollywoodfl.org
http://www.hollywoodfl.org/city_commission/district4.htm

And while you're talking to Blattner, whose transportation expertise and prowess seems to me to be more media-generated than genuine, you might want to ask him whether or not he will actually be around when the City of Hollywood finally has covered bus shelters for riders at Young Circle, instead of slabs, since it's the busiest stop in all of SE Broward.
Looking north on East Young Circle/U.S.-1 in Hollywood, FL, just east of the ArtsPark, at the bus stop at the strip mall owned by Equity One, featuring Publix and Walgreen's. February 5, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

The ArtsPark at Young Circle was finished four years ago, so what's the big hold-up on getting the appropriate sized shelters that bring in revenue thru advertising and keep mass transit riders out of the rain and sunshine?
That's a reasonable question he and his colleagues should've been asked and forced to answer in public a long time ago!
Looking west on Tyler Street in Hollywood, FL, just northeast of the ArtsPark, at the bus stop north of the strip mall owned by Equity One, featuring Publix and Walgreen's. That's The Radius condo in middle of photo, which has a Starbucks on ground floor.
February 5, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Actually, I did ask that question aloud at the County's transportation meeting a few years ago at the Convention Center, the meeting where Broward Commissioner Lois Wexler refererred to me as "the young man in the back" when I got off a litany of self-evident but largely-ignored transportation problems in Broward, not all of which were the responsibility of BCT.
(Another current transportation problem in SE Broward that is being completely ignored is coming to the blog within the next week to ten days, complete with embarrassing photos.)

This, famously, was the same transportation summit I've written about previously on the blog where Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper came up to me after and started making excuses for why well over 90% of all the bus shelters in Hallandale Beach on the city's three main streets had lights that been out at night for YEARS, as I had told everyone assembled.

Her first response was how much she hated Clear Channel, the advertising company that the city had a contract with that generated revenue for them.
Fix the problem!

It took YEARS, and there are now dozens of them on main roads like U.S.-1 that have been out for 6-9 months, in front of the Steak & Shake restaurant opposite Gulfstream Park, for instance, near the cityline with Aventura.

Where's the public oversight Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew are responsible for?
Missing in action!

Well, they've been MIA for so long they are presumed brain dead.

As I said, Blattner is the Vice Chair, but some woman I've never heard of named Rae Carole Armstrong, the mayor of Plantation, is the MPO Chair.
I don't know her from Eve, but if she has any common sense, she will wise-up in the coming days and realize that this absurd anti-democratic, top-down policy proposal going forward will be a political noose around any and all elected officials on the MPO who vote to approve this.
I will personally work to ensure that.

And Armstrong, personally, better be prepared to answer some tough questions from citizens about costs and why if this group of her's is SO professional, a very big if, why there are barely more than a handful of people in ALL of South Florida who even know about these two Thursday meetings.

A case could be made that the Broward MPO is the single most dysfunctional public policy group in all of South Florida, given their paltry results and public awareness versus their salary costs.

For instance, look at how many people have seen the county's MPO's video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps8U2RuM98c

Really, 156 views in almost 20 months, two of them, me?
That's pathetic and epic failure.
Elsewhere, that's the sort of piss-poor response rate that gets people fired from their jobs.
Nice going geniuses.

I'd love to know how much it costs taxpayers to put this together, since it really gives you some insight into how totally screwed-up transportation policy is here!
And look at the pathetic In the News section of the 2035 homepage, where you'd expect to find accounts of news stories.
http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/2035lrtp/inthenews.html

The most recent thing there is from January 23rd, 2009.
That's right, the most recent thing is from over TWO YEARS ago, which means that none of the so-called public meetings ever so much as made a dent in the Miami Herald or Sun-Sentinel news coverage, or local TV stations, because you know that they would have it there if it had seen the light of day in print.
Smells like failure to me.

The MPO has a so-called blog on their web page http://www.browardmpo.org/mpo/2035lrtp/comments.html Here's what it says:

Post your comments on the Broward MPO 2035 LRTP Blog

The discussion is open to the public and people are able to respond to others comments.
Some topics of discussion include overall Broward County Transportation Issues and innovative transportation solutions.

*Comments posted here are visible to the public.

Guess what happens when you go there to look at the public's questions and comments?There Are NO Questions or Comments.
What does THAT tell you about what sort of job they're doing?

Here's the list of MPO members along with contact information. http://publicforum.broward2035lrtp.com/mpo/boardmembers.htm and here's the staffers info, http://publicforum.broward2035lrtp.com/mpo/mpostaff.htm

You might want to consider adding MPO head honcho Greg Stuart as a cc in any of your queries. For more on Greg Stuart and what's been going on with him in charge, see this post of mine from May of 2010, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/brittany-wallman-is-on-top-of-broward.html and this Broward Bulldog piece from September of 2010, one of a series on very curious doings at the Broward MPO,
http://www.browardbulldog.org/2010/09/whistleblower-probes-expose-bad-blood-behind-county-mpo-split/
I will be at the meetings Thursday and you can pretty much guess what I'm going to be talking about.
By the way -surprise!- there has not been a single mention in the Herald or Sun-Sentinel about Thursday's two meetings.
Or anything on local TV newscasts.

I just double-checked.
As IF I really needed to!
-----
See also: http://browardnetonline.com/2011/02/fha-to-discu-expre-lane-expansion-on-all-roads-warning/

Brittany Wallman is on top of the Broward MPO scandal. Where is rest of South Florida news media?

Early this morning, I sent this email below about a jaw-dropping blog post about the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) written at the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog by Brittany Wallman to about forty people in South Florida.

All of them are transportation professionals or people who work for the State of Florida or local/county government in areas involving long-term planning and/or transportation, including some usually well-informed elected officials.

By the time I checked my email for the first time today, somewhat later than usual, there were over eight responses waiting for me, all saying variations of the following:
"There's SO much more behind this story. I'd love to fill you in on the details!"
Clearly, this story on the inner workings and petty machinations of Broward's bureaucracy will have legs, and I'll try my best in the future to tip you off as to who in the local news media is doing a good job of connecting the dots on this story, so we can all find out what the true facts are, since it seems clear that for now, facts are at a premium.
So far, that entire news media list consists of Brittany Wallman.

-------------
1:15 a.m.

There are two articles below worth your attention.

I'm too tired and dumb-founded by the first story to say anything terribly original now, but even by South Florida's traditionally low standards, this definitely seems like something that taxpayers should've been hearing something more about this issue before it actually happened.
Like maybe actually being mentioned on the 11 o'clock TV newscasts, perhaps?

Not to say I told you so... but a few months ago, I noted on my blog that in my opinion, Broward Commissioner Kristin Jacobs getting named to the SFRTA Board was not the greatest news in the world for people who genuinely want to see this area move forward and get out of the dysfunctional past.

Nothing personal, I just didn't think she was qualified, and still don't.
http://www.broward.org/jacobs/welcome.htm

This criticism of mine obviously bothered her, much to my surprise, because one of her staffers actually kept calling me for a few days to complain about what I'd written.

The problem for Jacobs and her staffer was that what I said was 100% true - that for all her talk about being interested in transportation policy, Jacobs had a funny way of showing her interest.

She has been an invisible presence at every single major regional Transportation summit, forum and what-have-you that I've attended for the past 5-6 years, where I have met and spoken with so many of you, both publicly and privately afterwards.

The internal logic of my point couldn't be rebutted by her staffer, especially when I named the many transportation events I'd been at that Jacobs was AWOL for.

Call me old-fashioned, but showing up is Job One for an elected official, and a County Commissioner like her showing-up at least once in a while is the very least we can reasonably expect.

But to my mind, she's failed even that simple test.
And judging by what Brittany Wallman has written below, I'm not at all surprised to read that Kristin Jacobs has once again said something that was so easily dis-proven when reality came knocking.
Broward Politics blog
County: MPO is laying off some employees, then bumping up salaries
Posted by Brittany Wallman
May 19, 2010 08:30 PM

UPDATED 8:30 p.m.

One day soon, 24 of the 25 county employees working for the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) will get pink slips. And one day soon after, the 17 employees who are fortunate enough to be employed there will enjoy a pay raise.

The head of the MPO, executive director Gregory Stuart, says the facts have been twisted and that the reality is not as bad as it looks.

Read the rest of the post at: 

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/05/county_mpo_is_laying_off_some.html

See also:
http://www.broward.org/mpo/ -Current Broward MPO webpage that will likely change soon! http://www.broward.org/mpo/orgchart.pdf -Broward MPO organization chart
http://www.broward.org/mpo/boardmembers.htm -Broward MPO Board Members