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Ruth: Here's more proof that Hillsborough is where transportation ideas go to die

 
Tampa lacks access to buses and other mass transit, columnist Dan Ruth says, thanks to a decades-old chorus of nos, boos and never. Blame voters asked to fund transit efforts and countless county commissions. [Times file, 2012]
Tampa lacks access to buses and other mass transit, columnist Dan Ruth says, thanks to a decades-old chorus of nos, boos and never. Blame voters asked to fund transit efforts and countless county commissions. [Times file, 2012]
Published Feb. 24, 2017

I am absolutely convinced there is a vast, endless warehouse somewhere in Hillsborough County similar to the final scene in the Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark that is filled to capacity with decades of blueprints, studies, reports, analyses, models, plans and proposals to deal with the region's discombobulated, outmoded and ill-conceived transportation system.

This is Hillsborough County after all — where the future goes to die.

LONG WAY TO GO: Why Tampa Bay has one of the worst public transit systems in America

Last Sunday, Tampa Bay Times reporters Caitlin Johnston and Eli Zhang penned a thorough, comprehensive story about the area's embarrassingly woeful transportation grid and the sad, stumblebum history to do very much about it.

The story was full of comparisons between Tampa Bay and other parts of the country where local leadership has had the vision to integrate road building with enhanced bus routes and rail systems. You know, like a real adult approach to dealing with a vital quality of life issue for their communities.

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But not here. Not by a long shot. Not ever.

If there was one prevailing theme in the piece it was that for over many decades efforts to begin a light rail system or create a truly accessible bus operation has consistently been met with a chorus of nos, boos and never — either by voters asked to fund transit efforts, or by countless county commissions too myopic or too fearful to make a decision.

Either way, after more than a generation of indifference, neglect and hand-wringing Tampa Bay ranks nearly dead last among locales of similar size in addressing a public transportation debacle that only promises to get worse as the area continues to grow in population.

It's not for want of trying on the part of some more forward thinking folks around here. Former County Commissioner Ed Turanchik sounded a clarion call to improve the region's transit needs more than 20 years ago. But nothing happened.

Former Commissioner Mark Sharpe, too, was a leading champion for transit. But he wasn't heeded, either.

Sales tax referendums to increase bus service and develop light rail have come and gone, come and gone.

But perhaps the most telling example of why everything is so mired in nothing was this quote from County Commissioner Victor Crist, who told Johnston and Zhang, "It agitates me, it aggravates me," Crist bemoaned. "How the hell did we get here?"

Actually, the more operative phrase should have been, "How the hell did we get nowhere?"

Crist acknowledged he didn't know the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority's budget was so woefully far behind other similar cities until the reporters showed him the figures. Or consider Crist has served in the Florida House, the Florida Senate and now the Hillsborough County Commission. And it never dawned on him, through all those years of public service, not to mention sitting through countless hearings on public transportation issues, that maybe, just maybe, the bus system was underfunded?

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And thus the years tick by. And so does the economic calculator.

The problems vexing our transit system will only become more exacerbated and the tab to fix them will only grow to ridiculous heights — all because the powers that be lacked the vision and the political skills to fix them.

Here's a prediction.

I first came to the Tampa Bay region in 1973. Even then there was talk of light rail, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. And the blabbing still goes on.

Fast forward 44 years and let's assume Caitlin Johnston and Eli Zhang are still scribbling away as grizzled, veteran journalists.

Some young buck of a reporter will write yet another damning indictment on the paltry state of the area's creaky, antiquated, long-neglected transportation woes. And Johnston and Zhang will think to themselves, "I know, I know. We're going to need a bigger warehouse."