Transportation Odds & Ends: Is the news that Ray LaHood is staying on as U.S. Transportation Secretary good or bad for Florida? Especially now that straight-shooter John Mica is no longer chair of House Transport. Comm.?; SFRTA's current Fast Start plan for "Tri-Rail Coastal" completely ignores and skips over Hallandale Beach and Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex

SFRTA Fast Start Plan from SFRTA IT on Vimeo.
SFRTA IT Vimeo video: SFRTA Fast Start Plan for Tri-Rail Coastal, Uploaded June 2012. This is one of the two competing proposals for a commuter line on the FEC railroad tracks connecting downtown Miami and Palm Beach County, but this plan as written does NOT currently envision a stop where I live -and where Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex are located - Hallandale Beach. Not that you've read that anywhere in any of the local newspapers or heard it mentioned on local TV newscasts. Or even heard it publicly discussed at HB City Hall. Well, now you know! As planned, we are completely skipped-over and screwed! 

Transportation Odds & Ends: Is the news that Ray LaHood is staying on as U.S. Transportation Secretary good or bad for Florida? Especially now that straight-shooter John Mica is no longer chair of House Transport. Comm.?; SFRTA's current Fast Start plan for "Tri-Rail Coastal" completely ignores and skips over Hallandale Beach and Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino, Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex

Bloomberg News
LaHood Says He’s Staying On as Transportation Secretary
By Jeff Plungis - Jan 22, 2013 11:25 AM ET
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-22/lahood-says-he-s-staying-on-as-transportation-secretary.html

Transportation Nation 
Mica Gets Transportation Subcommittee Posts 
By Matthew Peddie | 01/23/2013 – 4:06 pm

http://transportationnation.org/2013/01/23/mica-gets-transportation-subcommittee-posts/

POLITICO.com 
A picture-perfect end to John Mica's chairmanship
December 5, 2012 04:38 AM EST
By Burgess Everett

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/a-picture-perfect-end-to-micas-chairmanship-84595.html

Meanwhile, this email was sent to you from a city where the most-popular place on the city's 4 FREE Mini-bus routes, the Publix on Hallandale Beach Blvd. & S.E. 14th Avenue, does NOT and has never had a simple timetable posted there so that riders would actually know when the bus departs. 

Yes, as most of you know, I'm a big, longtime supporter of transit, esp. the South Florida East FEC Corridor study effort, have gone to all manner of transit-oriented forums in South Florida  since moving here nine years ago from the Washington, D.C. area, where I rode the DC Metro twice a day, 6 days out of 7.

I'm all for thinking globally and acting locally, but what if your city's elected officials and highly-paid city administrators are, simply put, stone-cold incompetent?

What then?

Then, all the clever and punchy public policy platitudes in the world, and attending or watching all the seven50.org forums in the world, can't help you.

That seems to be one of the South Florida news media's remaining no-no's.

You can't publicly talk about certain cities or pols having devolved into -accurately- becoming labeled as incompetent until further notice, unless they do something to show that they have applied remediation efforts and succeeded.

And besides, why would Hallandale Beach actually want to let riders know when the bus actually departs the most popular destination, when they can, instead, erect those useful timetables at numerous sites throughout the city where no riders are ever present in large part because of the chronic lack of bus shelters to keep the sun and the rain off of riders?

The ones we have less of now than we did three years ago.

The city-controlled bus shelters that were nearly 90% dark at night for YEARS because the city was so damn negligent in properly maintaining them, something that Mayor Joy Cooper did not like my reminding people of at transit forums throughout the area where important people were in attendance.

My fact-telling ruined the illusion of the city she wanted to create and foster.

Just another small reminder why there is no street in Hallandale Beach where logic and reason intersect.

-----
http://www.sfeccstudy.com/

I sure hope that your outreach efforts to the public and the pro-transit populace will be better than it has been in the past.

http://www.tri-railcoastalservice.com/

I will have more news next week about SFRTA's Fast Start plan and what it would mean to Hallandale Beach if the city is intentionally passed-over and does not get a train station on the FEC tracks, despite the fact that it would do more for this city -more quickly- than any other city in Broward on the route, in part because there is so much space. 

John Mica on Northeast Corridor high speed rail/transit legislation that works for taxpayers and commuters -open up NEC to competition

Fox Business News Channel - House Transportation chairman John Mica Discusses High-Speed Rail. June 7, 2011.
http://youtu.be/9V2mGU3z81g




U.S. House Transportation Comm. chairman John Mica discusses efforts at reforming American transit/transportation policy, high speed rail legislation in the Northeast corridor, i.e the Mica-Shuster Intercity Rail bill and the importance of having a meaningful public-private partnership (P3) rather than continue to rely on the failed current template, wherein AmTrak makes ALL the decisions.

June 15, 2011 http://youtu.be/k3oDTsp2Bv8

The best story I've seen on this effort to take AmTrak out of the driver's seat, which I agree with, is this one from the National Journal's Transportation Experts blog:

National Journal

Amtrak: Is It Really the Same Old Debate?

By Fawn Johnson

June 20, 2011

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., last week came up with a pretty cool way to unveil an idea that he has been tossing around for some time. His policy proposal, which comes as no surprise, is to separate Amtrak from the Northeast Corridor and open the heavily trafficked route up to private competition.

Read the rest of the post at
http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2011/06/amtrak-is-it-really-the-same-o.php

http://youtu.be/2KmU2Ge_XPo

An advertisement for the X2000 train used by SJ AB -Swedish Railways

http://youtu.be/CaiP2f-s0C4

The jazz music played here in the advert made me think of the pseudo-sophisticated feel we were supposed to get from the Harrison Ford-Kristin Scott Thomas relationship in the 1999 film Random Hearts.

I love Kristin Scott Thomas, but... the constant over-the-top jazz just got me irritated instead of engaged in the narrative!

See also:

http://transportation.house.gov/

Fast Tracks USA YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/USHSR

Fast Tracks USA homepage: www.ushsr.com

Reconnecting America homepage: http://reconnectingamerica.org/

http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/

English language homepage for SJ AB -Swedish Railway:

http://www.sj.se/start/startpage/index.form?l=en

John Mica's great new idea for U.S. taxpayers, art lovers and tourists to Washington, D.C.

I saw this story on Sunday night while looking for some other information on the Washington Post's excellent website, http://www.washingtonpost.com/

I repeat, this is a great idea!

As someone who spent hundreds and hundreds of hours at the National Gallery of Art over the 13 years I lived in the Washington area, there is absolutely nothing to fault in this idea from Central Florida congressman John Mica, whom I usually mention here on the blog in relation to transportation-oriented stories, as he has been both the Ranking Minority member and the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

http://transportation.house.gov/

More personal thoughts of mine on the NGA are below the article.

-----

The Washington Post

Congressman Mica’s quest pits FTC against National Gallery

By Ned Martel

Published: June 19, 2011

Rep. John L. Mica has what he calls a “weakness,” an obsession with art. He has fulfilled it as any aspiring connoisseur might. He scours odd shops and auction sites for objects treasured only by dust mites but still accruing worth with each passing year. He makes frequent trips to the National Gallery to research what he has bought and what he could buy. One day, while at the museum, he looked across the street and saw something old and undervalued: the Apex building, home to the Federal Trade Commission.

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/congressman-micas-quest-pits-ftc-against-national-gallery/2011/06/16/AGqkC4bH_story.html

Back on May 1st, 2005, I wrote an email to a friend whose very popular non-fiction book was to be the basis for a then-forthcoming film, and this excerpt about the NGA seems a propos:

Hey movie star!

Found these two Enron movie related postings on pullquote.typepad.com, which, to my way of thinking, is one of the best written film blog/culture sites around, due to its smart and knowing sensibility and encyclopedic film knowledge.

It's smart not snarky, and since any site that -in one month- acknowledges the talent of the wonderful Jena Malone, blisters NYT film critics for both their fashion and literary faux pas, and intelligently discusses Italian docs, is MY kind of site.

A number of summers ago, maybe '96, the National Gallery of Art ran what amounts to a summer-long film course on Italian Masterpieces, and I must've spent just about every Saturday and Sunday afternoon there that summer, except for a few when I had tickets to Oriole games up at Camden Yards.

The NGA, while focused on art and sculpture, has a really great, though smallish film theatre, equipped with excellent sight lines, terrific speakers and a great A/C.

One that made me forget that it was about 96 very humid and miserable degrees outside most of those days.

Seeing practically every great Italian film ever made in just a few weeks, sometimes double-features, often on brand-new prints, was a great experience for me.

I gradually became a regular at their film series on weekends when they focused for 5-6 weekends in a row on French and other international hits as well as classic Westerns -American, Japanese & spaghetti- it was like cowboy heaven.

The famous scene of John Wayne standing in the middle of the door jamb in John Ford's The Searchers never looked like that on my TV screen.

Over the years, I've had the proverbial subscriptions to Premiere, Movieline, Film Comment, BFI, et al, and I used to read them the night before heading over to The Mall.

Those afternoons of great double-features on good film prints in comfortable chairs and a great A/C, while it was sweltering like crazy outside, are some of my best memories of DC.

Then, either going solo or with some friends in tow whose horizons I had just tried to expand, I'd head over to Georgetown or Washington Harbour for cool drinks and some quality people-watching.

After a French film, maybe head over to Au Pied du Cochon for some wine and great bread, and pretend there were actually a lot more people like me than there really were.

But finding parking in Georgetown quickly bursts any illusions that you're living la dolce vita.

Because the NGA theatre was, relatively speaking, towards the small size, I always liked to be there early and grab a seat in the first few rows, towards the middle if possible, so I could see and hear everything without too much distraction.

The few minutes before the film started always struck me as something straight out of a New Yorker cartoon or Will & Grace, before I finally stopped watching it.

Or, where Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David would overhear something they'd incorporate into a classic episode of Seinfeld about human behavior.

With few exceptions, I'd be surrounded by people straight out of Central Casting's bohemian/SoHo/culture vulture dept., complete with their all black ensemble or tweeds -and not just in the fall- berets and oversized egos.

Like a quarterback working the ball downfield in a two-minute drill, they'd wax philosophical in a short period of time about things they appeared to have memorized from some highbrow magazine they'd recently read.

It recalled nothing so much as the Marshall McLuhan scene from Woody Allen's Annie Hallm below.

http://youtu.be/bBtXfBdEXEs

http://www.nga.gov/programs/film/

http://www.nga.gov/podcasts/index.shtm

re John Mica's contention that SunRail is still on track; this issue barely exists in the Miami Herald's world

June 30th, 2009

The Miami Herald has not mentioned

this important story or what John Mica

has been up to the past few weeks in

his attempts to keep SunRail alive.

In fact, the Herald hasn't mentioned the

admittedly not-perfect SunRail by name

since June 13th.

But then as we've all borne witness to

over the past few years, their spotty

news coverage of non-political issues

around the state is hardly Breaking

News, itself, is it?

I'll be doing a blog post in the near-future,

long in the making, on the Herald's

very odd and mystifying coverage of

mass transit in general, and this issue

in particular, since Larry Lebowitz

no longer covers regional planning

and transportation-related issues

for the newspaper, and Alfonso

Chardy does.

The signs were clear for all to see

when the paper didn't even bother

to send anyone to cover the

Tri-county Regional Transportation

Summit that I -and many of you-

attended at the Broward County

Convention Center in FTL, many

Saturday mornings ago.

(Perhaps they were staking-out

Father Cutie, instead?)

Yet because of the nature of the

debate, that would have been the

perfect venue for the Herald to

actually incorporate some of that

multimedia element they keep

talking about, but when they had

the chance to do it, and truly help

illuminate an important issue,

they just blew it.

The Herald's almost complete

indifference to SunRail's future,

and what that might mean in

Central Florida for common sense

TOD, and locally for Tri-Rail,

coupled with what I perceived to

be their very moralizing editorial

against it on May 9th, is, to me,

just another sign of its swift decline

from quality newspaper into

near-irrelevance, just when South

Florida needs the paper to actually

be much better than its been in

quite some time.

But then what would you expect

from the Miami Herald,

whose Editorial Board foolishly

backed the taxpayer-funded

Marlins Stadium, and seemed

to be okay with the City of

Miami and Miami-Dade County

NOT submitting the issue to a

public referendum, but which

not only raps SunRail, but

seems inclined to nail the

coffin shut on SunRail on

account of taxpayer costs?

Wow!

When exactly did the Herald's

Editorial Board start worrying

about costs like they were

Ohio Republicans?

Costs and basic physics didn't

and haven't prevented them from

championing a proposd cargo

tunnel to the Port of Miami,

even though, to me at least,

that's clearly going to be a

financial and natural disaster

waiting to happen.

Just in case you forgot how

things are really done down

here in South Florida, here's

a reminder:

Fired Miami Bureaucrat

Continued To Get Full Pay

http://cbs4.com/iteam/CIP.City.Miami.2.1059931.html

I-Team: Fired, Retired, But

Still Working

http://cbs4.com/iteam/Fired.CIP.Director.2.1064666.html

CBS4's Gary Nelson shoots

-and he scores!

-------------

Daytona Beach News-Journal

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02063009.htm

June 30, 2009

Mica: SunRail is still on track despite political setbacks

By JAMES MILLER
Staff Writer

ORLANDO -- The proposed commuter-rail line connecting DeLand and metropolitan Orlando is not dead, despite two consecutive years of dramatic setbacks in the Florida Legislature, supporters said Monday.

In fact, SunRail is very much alive.

Negotiations to carve out a commuter-rail agreement palatable to wary lawmakers will be extended for six months.

The project could have been shut down today, according to an opt-out clause in an agreement between CSX Transportation, which owns the rail corridor, and the state Department of Transportation, which wants to buy it.

"We are on target to keep moving the project forward," U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Winter Park Republican and SunRail proponent, told an audience of SunRail supporters and media Monday at Metroplan Orlando headquarters.

Mica said the 61.5-mile system was necessary "for the sake of the environment, for the sake of energy, for the sake of moving people around our community."

Envisioned by boosters as a key transportation alternative in the growing Interstate 4 corridor, SunRail has been estimated to cost the federal and state governments and five local partners -- Volusia, Orange, Osecola and Seminole counties and Orlando -- $2.7 billion over 30 years, including operations.

But the project appeared to reach a dead end this spring when, for the second year running, the state Senate rejected legislation needed to make it a reality.

Controversial language addressing liability for accidents, budget woes and union opposition helped lead to the defeat.

On Monday, Mica said proponents were working to address each of those issues.

Perhaps most important, he said CSX had agreed to revisit the liability language.

As proposed this spring, it would have shielded the rail company from up to $200 million in damages to commuters or other people in the corridor, even if CSX caused the damages through its negligence.

The FDOT was slated to pay CSX $432 million in a purchase deal, but CSX would have leased the corridor for freight traffic so its trains also would be in use there.

"The long and the short of it is CSX has agreed to look at new terms of liability in which there will be certain limits, I believe, and responsibility for CSX in case of negligence," Mica said. "I don't want to get into specifics."

In a statement, CSX said it planned to continue discussions for six months at the request of elected officials.

"Those discussions will center on whether options exist to bring the transaction to a successful conclusion," according to the statement.

Company spokesman Gary Sease declined to elaborate.

If SunRail proponents are able to hammer out a revised proposal, it could go before the Legislature in a special session this fall, said Sen. Lee Constantine, an Altamonte Springs Republican who's been shepherding SunRail in the Senate.

Constantine said lawmakers likely will have to go back in the fall for at least one other issue, anyway.

"Having it in the light of day by itself with very few other issues I think would be a real positive for us," he said.

Other changes discussed Monday include a potential state application for transportation stimulus money for the project.

Using additional federal money could free state transportation dollars for projects in other parts of the state and potentially soften some lawmakers' budget-based opposition.

Although much of the recent wrangling over SunRail has been happening at the state and federal levels, local officials almost certainly haven't had their last look.

Significant changes to already negotiated agreements would put SunRail back before the Volusia County Council, said County Chairman Frank Bruno.

Only one council member -- Jack Hayman -- has voted against SunRail so far, citing uncertainties about long-term costs and ridership.

james.miller@news-jrnl.com

-------------

This story includes multimedia on the URL

Orlando Sentinel

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-commuter-rail-csx-062609,0,43843.story

Orlando Sentinel Exclusive

SunRail commuter train might be back from brink

By Dan Tracy, Sentinel Staff Writer

June 26, 2009

Just days before facing a potentially crushing deadline, the SunRail commuter train proposed for Central Florida might be chugging along again.

Backers of the $1.2 billion project have won a crucial negotiating extension and likely will be heading back to the state Legislature, which has scuttled the plan twice before, most recently two months ago.

"It's far from a done deal. But what we have is one more chance," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who chairs the local SunRail committee.

Added state Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs, and a prime SunRail supporter: "I think we are off life support. We're still not healthy, but the prognosis is improving."

A key development was the waiving of next week's deadline to buy tracks from CSX, the Jacksonville train company that owns the line SunRail intends to use.

CSX officially agreed this week to back off the June 30 cutoff date to give lawmakers another chance to consider the plan, company spokesman Gary Sease said.

"We are talking to the Florida Department of Transportation and local officials about options to continue the transaction," Sease said, declining further comment.

Without CSX, it would have been impossible for the train that would link DeLand in Volusia County with downtown Orlando and Poinciana in Osceola County to ever materialize.

Insurance still issue

But SunRail still remains far from becoming a reality.

Most vexing remains the problem that stopped SunRail in the Legislature the past two sessions: getting an insurance policy.

The state Senate has twice balked at approving a $200 million pact that assigns liability in case there is an accident. Opponents contend the plan placed too much risk on the state and not enough on CSX.

Dyer said SunRail hopes to blunt that criticism by having CSX assume more risk, particularly when its employees are at fault.

Critics also have decried the high cost of SunRail, saying it amounts to corporate welfare. It was an especially effective argument during the past legislative session when lawmakers were forced to raise some taxes and fees, raid trust funds and rely on federal dollars to plug a $4 billion hole in the budget.

But U.S. Rep. John Mica, R- Winter Park, said he hopes to win even more money from the federal government — close to $250 million — from the nearly $800 billion stimulus package approved earlier this year by the Congress.

"More federal money, less state money," Mica said. "We'll get as much as we can get there."

Some of the money saved by the state could, in theory, be diverted to the struggling Tri-Rail commuter train in South Florida. Constantine tried to win votes in that region last session by offering to back a $2 surcharge on rental cars, but South Florida lawmakers turned him down.

Now that Tri-Rail is facing layoffs, service reductions and a related loss of federal funding, Constantine said, they might be more willing to work with SunRail supporters.

Mica previously has applied for $300 million in federal funding. About $40 million was aside for SunRail in the current budget, he said.

Special session?

Constantine and Dyer said they could bring SunRail back to the Legislature when it meets early next year or during a special session.

The most probable scenario, Constantine said, is a special session called during September or October, when regular committee meetings are held.

"Let's tee it up," he said.

Likely standing in the way will be Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, who successfully led the two previous fights against SunRail.

Dockery, whose hometown would be forced to accept extra freight rerouted by SunRail, has argued the commuter train is too expensive and the insurance policy is loaded against the state.

She was traveling Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

The attempt to resurrect SunRail largely came together Wednesday, when Dyer flew to Washington to meet with Mica, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and representatives from CSX, the Federal Transit Administration, Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak.

Dyer and Mica both characterized the talks as "very positive."

The federal representatives, Dyer and Mica said, stressed that SunRail is critical to state hopes of building a high-speed train because they want it to connect to anther form of mass transit, not just a large parking garage.

Florida is seeking $2 billion in federal money to pay for a 90-mile link between Orlando International Airport and Tampa with a train capable of going at least 110 mph.

Ten areas have been declared eligible by the government. Besides Florida, other likely applicants include California, North Carolina, the Pacific Northwest and Pennsylvania.

As much as $8 billion is up for grabs. The Obama administration might start awarding grants by the end of the year.

Dan Tracy can be reached at dtracy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5444.

Reader comments at: http://www.topix.net/forum/source/orlando-sentinel/T8H3RS1HPU26EI2AU

Rep. John Mica fires back at commuter rail critics; Lebowitz reveals all

Monday June 9th, 2008
1:45 p.m.


Received my Central Florida Political Pulse earlier this afternoon and finally noticed the interesting story below that should be of interest to all of you.


For both good and bad sometimes, the one thing that Rep. John Mica of Winter Park -and brother of former Rep. Dan Mica- has always been known for is his dogged persistence.


Based on my experience of seeing him in person at congressional hearings, as well as his comments and persona at Florida-oriented functions in D.C., my sense of things is that Mica won't be giving up the fight for a commuter rail in Central Florida ant time soon.


I also expect that he realizes that the most recent approach, whatever its intentions, simply failed to take into account that the popular sentiment of Central Florida residents alone would not guide elected officials behavior.


He also probably figures it's time for someone like him to use his influence while he has it to force some other third parties, with power, influence and smart upper-management, who've been sitting on the public policy sidelines of this fight, and to FINALLY get suited up and into the game.


To become more fully engaged supporting the common sense transit approach, before Central Florida becomes more paralyzed than South Florida.


You can't win with just diplomats, and it's always good to have someone on your team who's willing to push and cajole others and make crystal clear the reality of their situation.


Make clear that his memory's working fine, thank you, and that his future actions and behavior will be, in some fashion, directly related to their willingness to participate, work hard and share the financial burden of getting things done, rather than simply talking things to death.


That approach clearly has about as much efficacy up in Central Florida as it does down here.


John Mica's just sick-and-tired of Paralysis thru Analysis.


I wish that more local and state elected officials were taking that approach on transit down here, but...


In my opinion, in this particular case, Mica's unwillingness to simply give up on this issue is very helpful, since his spirited marshaling of the facts will, if nothing else, help prevent mis-information from being the coin of the realm down here in the future, where it might be recycled to fight commuter rail locally, along what should be a natural transit-oriented corridor along the FEC tracks.


You know, the place that the City of Hollywood is actively engaged in, however imperfectly, even to the point where Bernard Zyscovich specifically mentioned the positive tangible effect of a commuter rail line, with a station on Hollywood Blvd., on its downtown area last Thursday at the public forum I attended at Hollywood City Hall.


Meanwhile, as with so many things, the City of Hallandale Beach snoozes at their peril.


That point was underscored by the fact that last Monday, at the most recent public presentation by EDAW's Donald Shockey of the city's Master Plan, I was the only person to ask questions about the so-called transit corridor, and whether or not EDAW drew up any projections in their plan that contemplated the tangible effects on the city of a future commuter rail.


One that connected Hallandale Beach residents to their jobs and diversions in both downtown Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.


One that would encourage development away from the beach and Hallandale Beach Blvd. and get it focused on points west, maybe even to the Northwest!



As it happens, I was the last member of the public to ask questions that night.



While they used certain generic transit phrases in their presentation and the documents that were printed, for all practical purposes, from my p.o.v., the answer to my question was Nope!


In late February at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, when the much-anticipated and overdue Hallandale Beach Transportation Study was presented by Kenneth J. Kelgard of HDR Engineering, I was concerned by some of the thing I was hearing, like traffic measures conducted during the slowest part of the calendar year.


But I was more concerned by what I wasn't hearing.



Finally, when given a chance, I took the microphone and asked, among other things, why as a HB resident, I needed to go to Hollywood or Aventura in order to attend a SFECC public forum.



Why were none ever scheduled in Hallandale Beach to get the input and thoughts of HB's own residents, when that might've been possible?



Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good said that he would have his staff find out if there'd ever been a possibility of that happening, but I've yet to hear anyone at Hallandale Beach City Hall publicly speak about this matter at any meeting I've attended in the intervening three months.



Both locations were easy enough for me to get to, it's just that the folks at Hallandale Beach City Hall were asleep at the switch when it counted, and weren't pro-active about getting a formal presention scheduled at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center when it might've benefited everyone concerned.


Frankly, to actually have some FEC commuter rail facts interjected into that debate locally would've only been an improvement, since I've met so many people over the past two years around here who have no tangible sense of what it's all about.


What they do recall is usually some hazy remembrance of something they heard in a two-minute local TV news report from early 2007, and is usually incorrect.


I checked the website of the group mentioned below which is sponsoring today's John Mica Regional Rally for Rail, he Central Florida Partnership, but didn't see many specifics.
http://www.centralfloridapartnership.org/index.php?src=events&submenu=about&srctype=detail&category=Meeting&refno=4


Hopefully, there'll be more specifics available by tomorrow morning, and I might even be able to catch some local Orlando TV 11 p.m. news segements from tonight, via my computer.


Closer to home, if you haven't already started reading Larry Lebowitz's insightful Miami Herald series on the broken promises and consequences of Miami-Dade's vote for the half-penny tax increase six years ago, get with the program and get on the bandwagon.


Sunday June 8, 2008
Dade transit watchdog finds its power limited
A special panel was meant to be a watchdog over the transit tax, but government attorneys and politicians took away most of its bite.
http://www.miamiherald.com/428/story/561866.html


Monday June 9, 2008
Some Metrobus routes motivated by politics not need
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/563276.html


Congrats on the great series, Larry!!!


Your head must ache from all the negativity and incompetency you encountered and wrote about, knowing you couldn't possibly include everything you found out about.


I commiserate.

I know the feeling.
___________________________________
Central Florida Political Pulse

Mica fires back at commuter rail critics
posted by Mark Skoneki on Jun 9, 2008 11:10:57 AM


Jay Hamburg just filed this report


In an effort to rebuff critics of commuter rail, U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, released a national study today that shows the proposed liability agreement is in line with about 20 other similar freight-and-commuter arrangements around the nation. "It will debunk some of the myths relating to commuter rail liability," Mica said of the study done by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Highways and Transit and Railroads Subcommittees. Some opponents of the $1.2 billion Central Florida commuter rail project have attacked the proposed no-fault liability arrangement between the state and CSX.

Both sides were to carry $200 million liability insurance for the 61-mile system to run from DeLand to Orlando to Poinciana.


To read the rest of the story, go to: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/06/mica-fires-back.html

For more information on the issue of liabilty agreements, see
CSX Safety Issues Cloud Liability Deal
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/apr/22/na-csx-safety-issues-cloud-liability-deal/
and the Central Florida Political Pulse archive stories on commuter rail
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/commuter_rail/index.html