Daily Loaf

Have you ever wondered what Williams Park would look like if it were actually green space?

You’re in for some exciting news. According to a report by the Transportation and Parking Department, presented on November 10th at a public meeting at the Sunshine Center, the City of St. Petersburg has hired the private firm PB Americas, Inc. to work with PSTA and conduct a study of the downtown area between Tampa Bay and 5th Ave N, and 6th St and I-275. The study will determine a new location for St. Petersburg’s most congested bus transfer center. Read the rest of this entry »

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor
Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners:
It appears likely that you are going to ask us to approve a 1% sales tax increase in November of 2010 to fund a long range multi-modal transportation package which is highlighting the introduction of light rail to the Tampa Bay region.

At Wednesday’s Regular BOCC meeting it was revealed that, although the referendum’s top billing will be “light rail”, only 37% of the proposed tax will end up going toward an inter-city light rail system. The balance will go toward other forms of transportation, as well as road improvements that are long overdue.

The big question is this – are you going to give voters all of the hard facts surrounding this proposed referendum? And will you incorporate this into your referendum campaign? I know that it will be tempting to take the soundbite approach without providing detail because, as you know, the devil is in the details. Considering that a good portion of this tax would be used to fix infrastructure problems that were created by approving sprawl, how do we know that you’ve learned your lesson? Or that you won’t come back to us 10 years from now and say we need an additional 1% on top of the first 1% because we couldn’t help ourselves from approving more sprawl without getting the money for the infrastructure?

Read the rest of this entry »

Below, is an interview I just conducted with Arlen Slobodow, a local filmmaker who just completed a documentary about air pollution caused by fossil fuels in the Tampa Bay area and how it affects our health and the health of our planet. Also, see my last post which goes more in depth about the film.

The following interview was conducted by phone on the evening of Tuesday, June 16, 2009.

Matt De Vlieger (M): How did you get involved in documentary filmmaking?
Arlen Slobodow (A): I have always been interested in social change work and have found mass media a good way to accomplish that. Read the rest of this entry »

Have fun while benefiting your health and the environment. You remember how to ride a bike, but do you remember how much fun it is to ride your bike? The feel of the wind as you ride down the hill as fast as you can, exploring all day through the neighborhood with your friends, or in college around campus in between class. Not only is biking fun for the whole family, all ages and skill levels, it is a great exercise and totally green.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money either for a good bike. With last Christmas’ bonus check, I purchased a used bike on craigslist of Tampa for $75, put new tires on for $30 and got a $50 tune up at Revolution Bikes; I now have a great bike I paid only $155 in total for what I have been told is worth $200-$300. It is a great and comfortable bike for cruising the Pinellas Trail or just riding through my neighborhood. Read the rest of this entry »

From 10 Connects:

Cars are now driving on a new section of Northbound I-275 that runs from Himes Avenue through Downtown Tampa.

Eventually, the construction there will give drivers five lanes to choose from as they head into Downtown.

The new stretch of road also smooths out some of the hills that take cars up and down as they drive through the area, adds noise barriers, and opens the median for potential use as a path for a light rail line between Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties.

For now, though, the road will be just three lanes wide in some places, and those lanes will be more narrow than usual. So the state has put the speed limit at 45 miles an hour until the project moves into its next phase in about four months.