The Political Whore

It was a horrible choice in the first place, and the idea that Shelton Quarles was going to be the happy face of a regional tax referendum to pay for rail transit was pretty ludicrous. So today we hear that Quarles, the former Tampa Bay Bucs linebacker, will step stepped down. Bay Buzz reports:

Shelton Quarles, the former Bucs linebacker turned transportation authority chairman, is resigning from the board, vice chairman Frank Hibbard said today.

“I was just told yesterday that Shelton had resigned,” Hibbard said, saying the resignation was effective immediately and he would begin overseeing the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority board.

Read my story “Tackling Transit,” on Quarles when he was first appointed and the controversy about his selection.

And read Quarles PR statement released late today after the news already broke. Good job getting out in front of it, TBARTA:

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By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor

Local transportation agencies have been holding joint public outreach meetings in an effort to inform and involve the public on transportation issues. These agencies, which are the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA), and Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART), have coordinated efforts forming a transportation task force which has held public meetings throughout the city.

The need for public transportation is growing, especially in Tampa, which makes these meetings rather important. Wednesday, I attended a meeting at the Community Center on 22nd Street. Thursday, I was able to chat with the MPO Executive Director Ray Chiaramonte.

Why is developing public transportation in Tampa important? Here is what we talked about:

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If your telephone rings next week, it might be TBARTA calling.

The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, the group trying to put together a seven-county transportation and light rail system, is going to randomly call residents starting next week and ask them to participate in a phone-in town hall meeting, in a system called iTownHall.

For those not called, you can take part, too, if you like. Just call toll-free, 1-877-269-7289 and enter PIN# 14837 prior to each call. The schedule for which TBARTA elected officials, staffers and appointed board members, and the full news release, is after the jump:

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From your soon-to-be-receiving-$2 million-in-tax-dollars-unless-Gov.-Crist-vetoes-the-money transportation agency, TBARTA:

 More than four out of five Tampa Bay region residents say that traffic congestion is a serious problem, and there is widespread support for addressing the region’s traffic challenges with a regional approach that includes commuter rail and mass transit.  These findings come from a public opinion survey on regional transportation issues conducted recently by the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA), which was formed in 2007 by the Florida state legislature and tasked with developing a mass transportation plan for the seven counties surrounding Tampa Bay.

Overall, survey respondents cited traffic congestion as a significant problem in the Tampa region. Across all counties, 60 percent of survey respondents rate traffic congestion as an “extremely serious” or “very serious” problem, compared to 9 percent who rate it as “not serious.”

The survey results indicate that traffic congestion is viewed by residents in the Greater Tampa Bay area as a problem that requires a regional strategy. Survey respondents generally favor transit investments over more road building: 59 percent agree with a statement that “highways and roads alone aren’t enough. . . we need commuter rail and more mass transit to reduce traffic congestion,” compared to 34 percent who agree with an opposing statement that argued “build more roads and highways … light rail and mass transit are too expensive and ineffective because not enough people use them to justify the high cost.”

Also, respondents favor an integrated, regional transit planning approach over a county-by-county approach. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) agree with the statement that counties in the greater Tampa Bay region “should join together and jointly plan an integrated regional transportation solution,” while 31 percent agree with an opposing statement that “each individual county should develop its own plans and transit systems.”

Oh, and the public says it has no idea who TBARTA is:

Another key finding is that while TBARTA is still largely unfamiliar among Greater Tampa Bay area region residents, there is strong support for the creation of the organization and its goals.  When survey respondents were first provided with basic information about TBARTA and its mission, and then asked whether they believed such an organization was a good or bad idea, 69 percent agree that such an organization is a “good idea.”

C’mon, my peeps, we did a whole cover story on these guys. Ahh, the awesome power of the press.

More survey results on the jump:

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The agency that will solve all our transportation problems with a former star linebacker at the helm finally has a new website. It is here. (h/t to Tampa Rail)

I’m watching the TBARTA meeting as I write this (on HTV22 if you are in Hillsborough). I was there in person for the first 90 minutes; it was about as exciting as watching snails fuck. You have to wonder how long the major politicos (Iorio, Baker et al.) will put up with attending these kinds of tedious meetings.

Having said that, and despite Chairman Quarles shaky start reading his prepared “How To Run A Govt Meeting” script, they have been setting goals this morning and it does sound like they are focused on transit and the things that will really help this region. They have until July 1, 2009, to come up with a long-term regional plan for transportation.