I’m back and I am angry and thoroughly disappointed in our local and state elected officials. As we all work harder than ever to try and survive this economic disaster we are in, our elected officials seemingly decide that it is time to put their feet up and get lazy. On two fronts, affordable housing in Volusia County, and on SunRail, our central Florida commuter rail project, leadership has been absent, foolish, or simply lazy.
On the affordable housing front, the County Council was mandated by the State of Florida to create an advisory committee on affordable housing to find ways to add to the affordable housing stock in the County, an admirable idea. Except, after assembling a very good advisory committee, seated with people who are hands-on day in and day out professionals who deal with housing as a career, the County Council, and staff, as expressed by County Manager Dineen, blew them off.
After many meetings and with the help of a creative and forward thinking Growth Management Director at the County, the committee developed a report outlining what steps should be taken to enhance the amount and quality of the affordable housing stock in the County. The advisory committee met twice with the Council. At the final presentation of the report before the Council, the final blow off ensued.
According to several on the advisory committee and other interested parties, such as Volusia Home Builders Association, it became very apparent, that most, if not all, of the Council had not read the report released prior to the meeting or simply didn’t care about what they read. The same goes for County Manager Dineen who was quoted as saying that given the current market conditions, the supply of affordable housing is not an issue; that was echoed by at least one of the County Council members. Current market conditions, really, how stupid, how ignorant, how arrogant!
Affordable housing is needed in all market conditions, good or bad, and the issue has many layers all of which relate to one another. For example, affordable housing isn’t just about a recession making 3 bedroom 2 bath houses in Deltona or DeLand or Edgewater available to rent for just $800.00/month. Its about whether all of our communities have an affordable progression of housing stock in all areas where people choose to live.
What I mean by this is that there does need to be apartments available for those just entering the workforce out of school or for those who are retired and don’t want to own; and then we need some townhomes for those seeking to make their first purchase for new couples and folks finally ready to make a purchase; and finally, we need affordable single family detached housing for those new young families who need more room after having children and for elders who desire to still have their own place but don’t need as much space as they had before. Without this progression of housing stock, folks are often forced to live further away from their work and family circles or prematurely purchase a home which has caused much of our trouble.
Additionally, the employment that building affordable housing creates allows more people to purchase homes or rent and simply survive in this economy and is a very important layer to the issue. Mr. Dineen and the Council, as one member of the advisory committee told me, ” don’t have a clue about what affordable housing really is”. Of course not, they have never built it or financed it, or developed it; they don’t know what they are doing. That is what the advisory committee was for, too bad they blew it off.
On the SunRail commuter rail front, we couldn’t have a bigger bunch of idiots in Tallahassee, particularly in the Senate and out Guvna. This project comes up for approval at a time when the thousands of jobs it will create and its billions of dollars of positive economic impact over the next ten years is most needed. It comes at a time when the President Obama is holding out nearly 13 billion dollars for high speed rail, with Orlando to Tampa slated as one of the priority corridors (been their done that folks until Jeb killed it). We will never see this Federal money unless we can get the low hanging fruit of SunRail passed. What the hell is wrong with us? Are we all fools?
We will never have another chance in our life time to build these projects and finally move our State into the current century and be prepared for the next for our grandchildren and great grandchildren. These project are really for them. Are we too selfish and irresponsible to look beyond the current budget cycle? The Governor, says he supports it but fecklessly. In the dictionary, next to the word “equivocation”, is a picture of Charlie Crist (in black and white, not tanned). Love him or hate him, his predecessor, Jeb Bush, if he supported commuter rail, would have had this thing passed last year because he would have led. Crist has been looking for an exit from Florida so hard its as if he has already left. As a result, he has failed yet again to lead on this issue. What a complete failure and disappointment this guy has been.
So here we are, do we forgive and forget, or do we forgive, and then remember at the polls next election? I say we remember hard and send all of them packing!
Tags: affordable housing, clueless, commuter rail, Florida, housing, lazy, SunRail, volusia county, Volusia Homebuilders Association
I would have a hard time arguing that the state officials are not clueless. The last clue rode the Gulf Wind out of Tallahassee back in March, 1971.
Still, let us consider the present terms of Sun Rail, the DeLand..Poinciana commuter project. The railroad will sell us the track, as far south as Poinciana, but we have to agree that there will never be commuter service south of that point.
This is folly. Tampa commuter service really needs to come up north of Lakeland, and the obvious point would be Auburndale or Poinciana. You’ll have to put in a wye wherever the service terminates.
Which exposes another folly: service terminating. It takes a fair amount of time to turn a train. The shorter the trip, the greater the overhead percentage of turn time. Fifteen minutes to turn a train after an hour run is a much worse ratio than fifteen minutes after a two-hour run.
There is also a traffic problem between Tampa and Orlando. Ever drive I-4 south out of Orlando? You know there is traffic all the way through Polk. There’s no excuse for an Orlando commuter not to go to Lakeland.
From this we ought to be able to figure out that a single commuter system would be appropriate: DeLand to Tampa, stopping in Orlando and other places. You get to re-use the seats: DeLand to WPK/ORL, ORL to LAK reverse commuters, and LAK to TPA. In the evening, the same trainset that carries the early leavers from Tampa to Lakeland carries the heavy traffic from Orlando to DeLand.
The rail is not the issue (failed in South Florida, which was one nail in the coffin). Blame the almighty union. They wanted to have control of the workforce and “god Forbid” non-union workers get these contracts to control costs. There’s also the issue of liability (which I’m sure lawyers (no offense Mr. Andrews) mired the proceedings) whether intentional or unintentional. The rail was shut down sir (if I may call you that), not by the best of intentions, but knuckleheads giving in to unions. Sad that a project of this scope has been dismissed when many are seeking opportunities to work.
“Except, after assembling a very good advisory committee, seated with people who are hands-on day in and day out professionals who deal with housing as a career, the County Council, and staff, as expressed by County Manager Dineen, blew them off.”
Under the current administration, that’s no surprise.
Affordable housing is even more important in difficult economic times.
As for commuter rail (sigh), we need to put it in. It’s been too bogged down in political slop to move forward in any kind of cost-effective way, as it should.