Discover Top Posts Tagged with #star center

The missing link: How Tampa's dysfunctional streetcar could be the answer to downtown transit

View Photos

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer

Reporter- Tampa Bay Business Journal

Rolling through downtown Tampa's Channel district, the bright yellow TECO Line Streetcar creates the illusion of urban vibrancy -— a whimsical method of moving around the city center.

But it is just an illusion. The streetcar is a failure from another time, a system rarely used even as the neighborhood around it grows.

Although the residential population in the Channel district grew from 500 to 3,500 between 2007 and 2014, streetcar ridership peaked in 2009, with 462,704 trips. Ridership has declined every year since, falling to 277,896 trips in 2014, though the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority notes the system is popular during large conventions and special events such as Gasparilla and the Cuban Sandwich Festival.

That's the problem: The streetcar is a tourist amenity in a neighborhood that no longer caters

only to tourists.

The Channel district is about to become even more densely populated with residents, workers and visitors, with Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik's Strategic Property Partners pursuing a billion-dollar mixed-use development there. Transit, SPP executives say, will be crucial to the success of the district. There needs to be a fast, efficient method of moving people between the SPP development on the southern fringe of downtown and the central business district — and that doesn't exist in car-dependent Tampa.

Fixing the streetcar has been discussed for years, though Vinik's plans have created a sense of urgency in the conversation.

Transit is key to revitalization and economic development, say champions of urban renewal. A vibrant downtown requires more people than cars, and an efficient transit system creates the kind of city in which young, educated workers are clamoring to live.

"Rail has a sense of permanence," said HART CEO Katharine Eagan. "Knowing there will be a rail station open gives you a different perspective on where you open a business, where you buy a condo

and make long-term plans. Nationally, you see a sense of permanence attached to investments going around rail."

Providing leadership

SPP executives say they're willing to "take a leadership role" in working to make the streetcar a reliable transportation method, though they're yet to define exactly what that might look like.

Discussions are in early stages, and specifics are few, but Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn says he'd like to see expanded operating hours within six months. That will be a trial for deciding whether to pursue a long-term solution.

Expanding the operating hours to begin at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays — five-and-a-half hours before it hits the track now — along with running more frequently during rush hour and expanding weekend service would bump the operating budget from $1.56 million to $2.8 million, according to HART.

But the streetcar already runs at a deficit and as of the end of fiscal 2014 has depleted its $5 million endowment fund, according to HART. The agency is projecting a need for an additional $265,000 beyond its current funding sources, with $148,000 of that slated to come from the city.

That need for subsidy makes the streetcar a politically charged topic. Tampa Bay voters have rejected public funding for mass transit on multiple occasions. But if Vinik's team and the public entities involved can make the streetcar a success, it could make larger-scale transit issues an easier pitch to the public, said Buckhorn, an outspoken transit advocate.

"I think it helps with the longer and bigger picture of transit in the urban core," Buckhorn said. "[The streetcar] is an easy example for anti-transit people to point to. I don't necessarily think it's reflective of transit in general or potential success, but it's a very vivid example for people to use, and they do so with frequency."

Fitting into Vinik's vision

Transit is one of the top priorities of Vinik's development team, said Jim Shimberg, chief operating officer of SPP. SPP has sent one of its executives around the country to study other cities' streetcar systems.

"The streetcar is an asset that runs right through the district," Shimberg said. "It makes sense."

There's a consensus that the streetcar will make more sense when its operating hours are extended to accommodate the growing residential base.

"We're really close, and getting there in the scheme of things is really easy," said attorney Ed Turanchik, of counsel at Akerman LLP in Tampa and transportation policy adviser to SPP. "It takes a little more capital and a little more operating dollars. Having said that, those numbers are still significant, and you have to figure out a way to cover the operating costs in a way that's fair to everybody."

Getting there

HART, SPP and the mayor agree that additional operating hours are the first step toward making the streetcar a useful transit method. But what's yet to be determined is where the money will come from.

"The community has come to the consensus that [the streetcar] is never going to make money, and now is the time to fix it," Buckhorn said. "It doesn't matter how we got to this position. What matters is that we get it to a place that it is functional and people use it."

SPP has drawn up plans that show a potential streetcar extension into the central business district, stopping just south of Zack Street to avoid crossing the CSX Corp. rail line that runs through downtown Tampa. Insurance for the places where the streetcar line already intersects the CSX line is 18 percent of its operating costs.

Beyond SPP's plans, HART has drawn up several extended streetcar routes and studied replacing the historic replica cars with modern cars. Depending on the route, HART projects those extensions costs could run from $37 million to $60 million.

Those are big numbers. But connecting Vinik's development to the CBD could give Tampa the kind of dynamic urban core that would attract residents, corporations, conventions and tourists and create a true live-work-play-stay environment.

"The streetcar today is like being on the five-yard line in the red zone," Turanchik said. "We've been there for awhile and it wasn't necessarily important to score a touchdown before, but now it is."

Buckhorn — who opposed the streetcar when he was on Tampa City Council — says he sees a role for it now, especially in light of Vinik's development plans, but also as a way to prove mass transit can work in Tampa.

"If we can fix it and show that people will ride it if it's convenient and the frequency is increased and the cost is reasonable," Buckhorn said, "I think it helps buttress the larger role of transit moving forward."

Channelside Map

#WIERD #AWFUL #FLORIDA #PINELLAS PLANT #STAR CENTER #TAMPA #STREET CAR #dol #doe #niosh #gend #young #rainey #star #center #anwag #pinellas #plant #sec #cdc #eecopia #va

Book Excerpt: The Sky is Not theThe following is an excerpt from The Sky is Not the Limit, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s memoir. In a recent interview, deGrasse Tyson spoke with Bill Moyers about the importance of science education and the television series he’s hosting called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a revival of the original PBS series Cos

Book Excerpt: The Sky is Not the Limit

Still Paying $300 for Prescription Glasses? (GlassesUSA)

January 10, 2014

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

The following is an excerpt from The Sky is Not the Limit, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s memoir. In a recent interview, deGrasse Tyson spoke with Bill Moyers about the importance of science education and the television series he’s hosting called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a revival of the original PBS series Cosmos, with Carl Sagan.

When I was in elementary school in the public schools of New York City, I distinctly remember that it was important for me to be athletic — in particular, to be able to run fast. I was encouraged by all around me. My reward was the respect and admiration of classmates and especially my streetmates.

In junior high school it was important for me, now that I was certiﬁed the “fastest on the block,” to slam-dunk a basketball. To do this you have to jump high and palm the basketball. On April 17, 1973, I was the ﬁrst in my grade to slam-dunk a basketball. I then asked myself, “Is this all there is to it?” The answer is basically yes, yet one can imagine creative variations such as a 360-degree pirouette in midair preceding the dunk, but you still score only two points.

About the same time, I learned that light, traveling at 186,282 miles per second, moves too slowly to escape from the event horizon of a black hole. This was more astonishing to me than a 360-degree slam-dunk. I soon became scientiﬁcally curious and read everything I could ﬁnd about the universe. I began to see myself as a future scientist — in particular, an astrophysicist. It became a deeply seated dream.

I shortly came to the shattering awareness that few parts of society were prepared to accept my dreams. I wanted to do with my life what people of my skin color were not supposed to do. As an athlete, I did not violate society’s expectations since there was adequate precedent for dark-skinned competitors in the Olympics and in professional sports. To be an astrophysicist, however, became a “path of most resistance.” I began to wonder whether I originally wanted to be an athlete more from society’s interest rather than my own. My brother, Stephen, today a professional artist, could run faster and jump higher than I could. He, too, felt these forces of society.

In high school, nobody probed further about how I became captain of the wrestling team. But when I became editor-in-chief of my school’s annual Physical Science Journal, my qualiﬁcations were constantly queried. And when I was accepted to the college of my choice, I was continually asked for my SAT scores and grade point average. Indeed, one fellow student, who worked in the ofﬁce of the guidance counselor, threatened to ﬁnd the ﬁle in the school records to read my scores himself, if I didn’t tell.

When I ﬁrst entered graduate school, before transferring to Columbia, I was eager to pursue my dreams of research astrophysics. But the ﬁrst comment directed to me in the ﬁrst minute of the ﬁrst day, by a faculty member whom I had just met was, “You must join our department basketball team.” As the months and years passed, faculty and fellow students, thinking that they were doing me a favor, would suggest alternative careers for me.

“Why don’t you become a computer salesman?”

“Why don’t you teach at a community college?”

“Why don’t you leave astrophysics and academia? You can make much money in industry.”

At no time was I perceived as a future colleague, although this privilege was enjoyed by others in graduate school.

When combined with the dozens of times I have been stopped and questioned by the police for going to and from my ofﬁce after hours, and the hundreds of times I am followed by security guards in department stores, and the countless times people cross the street upon seeing me approach them on the sidewalk, I can summarize my life’s path by noting the following: in the perception of society, my athletic talents are genetic; I am a likely mugger-rapist; my academic failures are expected; and my academic successes are attributed to others.

To spend most of my life ﬁghting these attitudes levies an emotional tax that constitutes a form of intellectual emasculation. My Columbia PhD, conferred in 1991, brought the national total of black astrophysicists from six to seven, out of four thousand nationwide. Given what I experienced, I am surprised that many survived.

My Columbia PhD, conferred in 1991, brought the national total of black astrophysicists from six to seven, out of four thousand nationwide. Given what I experienced, I am surprised that many survived.

I eventually learned that you can be ridden only if your back is bent. And, of course, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. When I had ﬁnally transferred my graduate program to Columbia University, where I was welcomed by the Department of Astronomy, I received a twice-renewed NASA research fellowship, published four research papers, attended four international conferences, had two popular-level books published, was quoted three times in The New York Times, appeared twice on network television and was appointed to a well-respected postdoctoral research position at Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysical Sciences.

There are no limits when you are surrounded by people who believe in you, or by people whose expectations are not set by the short-sighted attitudes of society, or by people who help to open doors of opportunity, not close them.

On my college application a questions asks, “What are your goals?” My response was simply, “A PhD in astrophysics,” a goal that had been planted within me from when I was nine years old. With the conferral of my Columbia PhD, I had lived and fulﬁlled my dream, yet I knew my life had just begun and that my struggle would continue.

Excerpted from Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2004). Copyright © 2004 by Neil deGrasse Tyson. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the publisher; www.prometheusbooks.com

mos, with Carl Sagan.

“Why don’t you become a computer salesman?”

“Why don’t you teach at a community college?”

“Why don’t you leave astrophysics and academia? You can make much money in industry.”

At no time was I perceived as a future colleague, although this privilege was enjoyed by others in graduate school.

#Excerpted from Neil deGrasse Tyson The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist #star center #dol #doe #niosh #gend #young #rainey #star #center #pinellas plant #anwag #sec #Flickr #cdc #va #eeocipa

On This Day: January 7

#On This Day: January 7 #anwag #young rainey #star center #dol #doe #niosh #gend #pinellas plant #sec #tools #cdc #eocipa #va #eeocipa

Dr. Mercola and Ori Hofmekler Discuss Radiation Protection Part 1/2

#Dr. Mercola and Ori Hofmekler Discuss Radiation Protection Part 1/#anwag #young #rainey #star center #dol #doe #niosh #gend #pinellas plant #sec #articles #cdc #eocipa #va

Mighty Manhattan, New York’s Wonder City 1949

#Mighty Manhattan New York’s Wonder City 1949 #pinellas plant #young #rainey #star center #anwag #gend #dol #doe #niosh #sec #articles #cdc #eocipa #va

CIA and FBI Used ‘Over 1,000 Ex-Nazis and Collaborators’ as Spies During Cold War

Ξ Leave a comment CIA and FBI Used ‘Over 1,000 Ex-Nazis and Collaborators’ as Spies During Cold War 2,056311 Select Language▼

usa-nazi-intelligence-spy.si

CIA and FBI used at least 1,000 ex-Nazis of all ranks and collaborators as anti-Soviet spies during the Cold War overlooking their war crimes and concealing it even from the US Justice Department, The New York Times reports citing newly disclosed files.

The NYT cites the materials from a book by Eric Lichtblau “The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler’s Men,” which is to be published on October 28 and tells a story about US intelligence services cooperating with ex-Nazis after the World War II.

Newly declassified records and interviews show that in 1950s the CIA and the FBI began to actively recruit the former Nazis and collaborators. It is reported that the US highly appreciated their “value” against Russians and used them as secret “assets” in confrontation with the Soviet Union. Even the war crimes were not an obstacle, the disclosed files say.

Richard Breitman, a Holocaust scholar at American University who was on a team that declassified war-crime records, said the morality of recruiting ex-Nazis was rarely considered.

“This all stemmed from a kind of panic, a fear that the Communists were terribly powerful and we had so few assets,” he said.

The first public evidence of these facts appeared in the 1970s but recently disclosed archives show that the number of recruited Nazis was much higher than thought before and the government was trying to conceal this until recently.

Norman Goda, a historian on the declassification team, says a complete count is impossible as many records still remain classified.

BIO-HITLER-HIMMLER

“US agencies directly or indirectly hired numerous ex-Nazi police officials and East European collaborators who were manifestly guilty of war crimes,” he said. “Information was readily available that these were compromised men.”

In 1980 the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations requested the information with the FBI about 16 suspected Nazis living in the US but the Bureau refused to provide it. According to new data all 16 people worked for FBI as spies and informants providing leads on Communist “sympathizers.”

An FBI official left a memo stressing the need for “protecting the confidentiality of such sources of information to the fullest possible extent.”

The intelligence services hired Nazis of all ranks, sometimes very high. For instance, just after WWII the CIA recruited Otto von Bolschwing who was a top aide to Adolf Eichmann, mastermind of the “Final Solution” – Nazi Germany’s plan during World War II to systematically rid the world of its Jewish population through genocide. In 1954 he was relocated to the US and granted citizenship as “a reward for his loyal postwar service.”

Von Bolschwing lived in the US for another 20 years before US prosecutors discovered his past. His son, Gus von Bolschwing, said the cooperation between his father and the CIA “was not consistent”with American values.http://worldtruth.tv/cia-and-fbi-used-over-1000-ex-nazis-and-collaborators-as-spies-during-cold-war/

“They used him, and he used them,” he said in an interview. “It shouldn’t have happened. He never should have been admitted to the United States. It wasn’t consistent with our values as a country.”

The intelligence agencies’ protection of their ex-Nazi spies continued long after the end of the Cold War. According to a government official cited by The NYT, in 1994 US prosecutors were pressured by a lawyer with the CIA into dropping a probe into an ex-spy implicated in a Nazi massacre of thousands of Jews in Lithuania.

source