Posts in the category Growth Management
Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 1-22-10 What's Crist to do (besides dropping out and endorsing Kendrick Meek)? By Geniusofdespair Eye on Miami The only person who signed the Corporate papers (filed January 21st) for this 501c4 is Richard E. Coates, a Tallahassee lobbyist, who also happens to have as a client Barney Bishop's "Associated Industries of Florida".CBS Tainting Super Bowl Broadcast By Daniel Tilson Progress Florida In rolling out what they claim is a new policy to begin broadcasting "approved" paid advocacy group advertisements, the CBS TV network is clearly taking the sensitive, low-key high road - airing the first such spot during Super Bowl 44, being played Sunday in our South Florida backyard, with a few additional folks tuning in from around the globe.Six amendments make the ballot By Bill Newton FCAN Blog It will be another busy year for voters. The Legislature wants us to give up public campaign finance, and we have a chance to make Florida's election districts more fair and eliminate gerrymandering. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for the week ending 1-22-10 Representative Janet Long pushes bill for stronger early-education Standards By Steve Schale Steve Schale Earlier this week, I took a look at macro-level Florida voter registration trends, which showed that despite a difficult political climate, Democrats are continuing to grow their advantage over Republicans in statewide voter registration. Want to know where Paula Dockery, Bill McCollum, and Alex Sink stand on major issues facing Florida: education, health care, the environment? Good luck.
Take a look at any of the major candidate websites, and you'll find that Dockery and McCollum have no issue page. Alex Sink, to her credit, has an issues page, but only addresses issues she's tackled as CFO, not what she would do as governor. I'm sure issue stances will be added in the future, we're more than 9 months away from the election, but our state faces huge challenges right now. As people who want to lead the fourth largest state in the country, it would be great to know how they would deal with our state's $3 billion budget deficit, woefully underfunded education system, broken health care system, threatened environment, and the overpowering influence of corporate special interests. Furthermore, I'm really surprised the press hasn't caught this. Yes, they have been trying to corner the candidates on some issue questions (particularly Alex Sink on health care lately), but that's it. The press should call the major party candidates on the fact none of them have any kind of significant issue stances. I'm not asking for or expecting vast policy tracts on every conceivable issue Florida faces. For now, at least a few cogent sentences on a handful of key issues would be nice. Is that really too much to ask? We get so weary of the constant parade of depressing environmental news stories.
So it is gratifying to see the Daytona Beach News Journal's veteran and caring environmental reporter, Dinah Voyles Pulver, actually follow up today on a great environmental sucees in Northeast Florida. Smart and forward-thinking conservationists have been planning and working for a wildlife corridor for years. The idea is to make sure that, as Florida grows, there's still room for wild things. As Pulver points out in the article below, the patience, vision, and hard work of conservationists -- both in and out of the government -- is finally paying off. Enjoy! Daytona Beach News Journal January 05, 2010 Talks in works to protect more corridor land By DINAH VOYLES PULVER Environment Writer When two local officials proposed preserving a wildlife corridor through the center of Volusia and Flagler counties in 1998, it seemed to some an impossible dream. Twelve years later, nearly two-thirds of the corridor is protected. A key piece was acquired by the St. Johns River Water Management District late last month and negotiations are under way for acquisition of another crucial parcel. Reid Hughes, a former water district governing board member, and the agency's director of land acquisition, Robert Christiansen, proposed the corridor. They envisioned a long ribbon of undeveloped land linking public property in South and Central Florida to the Ocala National Forest and other public lands to the north. Not only would it preserve a swath of relatively undisturbed habitat for large animals such as Florida black bears and panthers, but scientists said such corridors also would improve the genetic health of smaller animals and plants. The corridor also would help protect the region's water resources. Working in concert, the district and Volusia County acquired more than 48,000 acres of the planned 79,000-acre corridor. "I don't think anybody thought we'd be as successful as we've been," said Volusia County Councilwoman Pat Northey. The Volusia Forever land acquisition program, approved by county voters in 2000, helped move the corridor project forward. Officials bought some land outright and purchased development rights to other parcels, eventually securing more than 33,000 acres in Volusia and 15,000 acres in Flagler County. Northey said partnerships between the district and the county and other state and federal agencies have been critical to the significant progress made in protecting the "wild heart of Volusia County." At the height of the construction and land value boom, officials feared they might never link all the properties. An Orlando developer had acquired 3,321 acres in Osteen and a South Florida developer put the 4,700-acre Leffler Ranch under contract. Then land values plummeted, creating new opportunities. In December, the district spent $20 million to buy the 3,321-acre Carter Maytown property in Osteen, adding a key link on the corridor's southern end. Volusia County Chair Frank Bruno said the land sold for about half the original asking price. Now the county is negotiating with the Lefflers to buy the family's Osteen ranch. "We're real close," Bruno said. However, if the family and the county reach agreement, the purchase likely will use up much of the county's available land-buying money for the next year or so. The County Council recently voted not to add any other potential acquisitions to its priority list for a year. "We're not out of business, but we have to strategize what's really important to acquire," Northey said. "We'll have to evaluate how we get the rest of it." A decision by state legislators not to put any money into the state land-buying program, Florida Forever, also leaves the district and other agencies short on funds, said Ray Bunton, a land acquisition specialist for the district. But district officials have learned to be patient and wait for opportunities. "We've waited as long as 20 years to complete some projects," Bunton said. After Leffler, the largest remaining missing piece of the corridor is a 4,583-acre property known as Kemcho, along the south side of State Road 44. The county hopes one day to acquire the land, owned by an Orlando investor, but officials say the asking price is too high. If the agencies find a way to buy Kemcho, Bruno said, "that would pretty well wrap up the conservation corridor." A few smaller properties, less than 2,000 acres each, remain on the district's potential acquisition list in Volusia and Flagler counties. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 12-11-09 Teabagger hate splinters GOP By Jacqueline Dowd The 13th Juror If you're feeling like the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, you may be on to something.Elevating Tamiami Trail and Everglades restoration By Gimleteye Eye on Miami The photo was taken yesterday at the ceremony to commence elevation of one mile of Tamiami Trail: the first construction project for the Everglades that is only for the Everglades and not for cities or agriculture. Times may be lean for us ordinary Floridians, but fat cash is flowing in Tallahassee these days. Mystery oil drillers are spreading big bucks around, greasing the Legislature to allow dirty oil rigs to threaten our perfectly nice, white beaches.
It’s really something to watch. The drilling group’s official name is Florida Energy Associates, but we ought to call them Slick Oil, because we have no idea who they are. Slick Oil has hired Florida spinners and lobbyists and fixers of all sorts, and they are waving around stuffed wallets and buying up many people who should know better than to sacrifice our world-class beaches for corporate greed. Everywhere Slick Oil goes, it leaves behind steaming piles of dubious claims. We’ll get money! And jobs! And cheap gas! And a pony! With all the check-writing and back-slapping, the politicos don’t seem to care that we don’t know whether these oil companies are American or foreign, we don’t know their safety records, we don’t know their financial stability, and we don’t have any idea if they’d provide any local jobs. All we know for sure is that they apparently have cash to burn while the rest of us are broke. “Just when you think things can’t get any more dysfunctional in Tallahassee, we get this,” state Rep Rick Kriseman told a Tampa crowd as he described Slick Oil’s last-minute bill to put rigs off our beaches during last spring’s legislative session. (The Florida House approved it, thankfully the Florida Senate did not.) But of course, now Slick Oil is busy bankrolling Tallahassee in advance of this year’s legislative session and election season. Only two guys from Slick Oil have been identified in the newspapers – Doug Daniels, a Daytona Beach attorney, and M. Lance Phillips, who told the St. Petersburg Times he’s a Texas oil man. Here’s the only other news we have about Mr. Phillips: The Dallas Morning News describes his association with a man accused of a colossal financial fraud similar to the one perpetrated by Bernie Madoff. The man is R. Allen Stanford, a billionaire financier who has been charged with a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of $7 billion. Phillips, according to the paper, helped connect Stanford to U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, for campaign contributions in 2004. “That has become something of an embarrassment for Sessions, since Stanford now stands accused of swindling investors out of $7 billion,” The St. Petersburg Times reported. “Phillips said he helped Stanford only as a favor to Stanford's father, one of his Mexia (Texas) neighbors.” Stanford’s father, the Security and Exchange Commission contends, was part of his son’s investment group. All of this – the secretive oil group, the cash wafting through the halls of the Legislature, the corporate greed at every turn, and the enormous threat this political game poses to a state with a tourism industry that provides $62 billion and 948,700 jobs - is enough to make one pause. But not in Tallahassee. Legislative leaders are pushing full steam ahead for their friends in Slick Oil. We ought to put up a statue in Tallahassee, to memorialize what goes on here. Other cities have statues of town founders, or famous musicians or local heroes. Ours would have two guys in expensive suits, passing an envelope hand to hand. The plaque underneath it would say: Shill Here, Shill Now. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 9-4-09 By Beach Blogger Pensacola Beach Blog Florida senator Bill Nelson, who courts the reputation of being a blue dog, told the Lakeland Register the other day that "Health care reform will pass Congress this year, but without many of the provisions in the House bill and without a public option." My Frustrating Experience With Florida Unemployment Florida GOP gives Hugo Chavez drilling rights off Florida Coast Tallahassee, FL: August 25, 2009: Democrat gubernatorial candidate Michael E. Arth filed a set of grievances and proposals to the Rules Committee and Judicial Council of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) today. The four page list of grievances, titled “The Democratic Party is Not Being Democratic,” include complaints regarding Arth being frozen out by the party leadership, the party’s breaking of neutrality in violation of democratic principles, and the PDP’s blatant support of another candidate long before the primary election, even while enforcing non-endorsement laws on their Democratic Executive Committees. The grievance also lists various proposed changes that would make the Democratic Party democratic. To go directly to Miami Herald's Blog where the grievance has been posted along with numerous comments go here:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/08/democrat-bashes-undemocratic-democratic-party.html OR KEEP READING HERE: Read More » Our Editorial Cartoon of the Week feature is part of Progress Florida's popular FREE Daily Clips service:
Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 8-21-09 By Jillian T. Weiss The Bilerico Project The Employment Non-Discrimination, one of the only LGBT protections likely to be put in place this legislative session, is haunted by a giant shadow of the sordid past. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is For FairDistricts Here’s An Idea Worth Discussing… Our Editorial Cartoon of the Week feature is part of Progress Florida's popular FREE Daily Clips service:
Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 7-31-09 By Buck Banks Pensito Review Not satisfied with losing a bunch of elections last November as well as a whole bunch of formerly loyal members from every level, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) appears to be trying to finish the job through what looks from the outside like a purge of, gasp! — Libertarians. Sen. Bill Nelson is lobbied again on health care Florida to Blue Dog Democrats: go where you are needed most. Sarah Palin needs a retriever ... I imagine most people feel downright giddy at some point in their lives upon meeting someone exciting. Often, these are romantic encounters. Sometimes, it happens upon meeting a rock star, famous athlete, politician, or other celebrity. Rarely though do people seem to get downright giddy about someone they do not have a crush on, or admire as a celebrity. One of those rare moments happened to me recently, and now it has implications for Florida’s future.
In April, I was invited to co-facilitate a discussion at Stetson University following the viewing of a documentary film about a maverick urban designer and policy analyst. As a political sociologist with only an amateur interest in development and design, I knew next to nothing about the man going into this event. The documentary revealed how he transformed a dilapidated, crime-ridden neighborhood of DeLand, Florida known as “Crack Town” into what is now called the “Garden District,” a beautiful place with trees, walkways, white picket fences, clean, brightly colored homes, and a charming courtyard with a fountain at its center. For those who do not know of whom I speak allow me to introduce you to Michael E. Arth. Some argue that one must “pay one’s dues” to become a viable candidate for higher office. Aspiring politicians should patiently, over years, work their way up the political ladder, commonly starting with school, city or county office. The trouble is that this prescription does not apply to the rich. From Ronald Reagan to Ross Perot to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mitt Romney, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and current New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, the list of rich people who have launched political careers without “paying their dues” is long. The grim reality is that nowadays winning high office is less about paying one’s dues in the political trenches than having the support of a lot of rich and powerful people, and outspending your opponents. Sadly, our media deepen this problem not only because candidates pay dearly for newspaper and TV ads, but also because news organizations have the self-fulfilling tendency to fetishize the richest or most famous while they ignore or minimize candidates without deep pockets. The result is often a stale choice between two establishment candidates, and an accordingly narrow political discourse that dulls debate and impoverishes our political imaginations. Yet just as the economy benefits from energetic innovators, so too does our democracy. This is why individuals like Michael E. Arth matter to Florida’s future. I talked with Michael for about half an hour after that event at Stetson back in April. What energized me then, and in subsequent interactions with him, is his remarkable combination of vision and pragmatism, intelligence and clarity, energy and focus, passion and caring. Michael E. Arth has designed communities, built homes and neighborhoods with his own hands, confronted drug dealers and reduced crime, navigated government to get things done, and developed innovative and cost-efficient solutions to homelessness, poverty and pollution. In a state so rich in sun yet still so poor in solar energy, in a state so rich in commercial development yet so poor in walkable communities, an urban planner with bright ideas and practical experience transforming crack towns into beautiful neighborhoods may be just what we need for governor of Florida. If an actor can become a governor and even president, surely can an urban planner and policy analyst with Michael Arth’s broad experience. The question is: will we, as Florida’s voters, give ourselves the chance? Paul Lachelier is an assistant professor of sociology at Stetson University in DeLand, FL. He can be reached at placheli@stetson.edu. For more on Michael E. Arth, visit michaelearth.org. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 7-17-09 By Kenneth Quinnell Florida Progressive Coalition Our good old friends in the FFA have released the following breathless e-mail filled with lies and distortions so that their followers will contact Senators to urge them to pursue an agenda of hate. Damn You, Stimulus! If ever there was an era in which to slash away at all those money-green umbilical cords linking Florida's well-endowed Big Mamas of economic development -- the real estate and commercial development interests that rule the roost -- to their dutiful, mostly obedient offspring -- the state legislators and other officials still sucking on their cash-cow teats -- well hell, you'd think this would be it. But just how widespread and effective such efforts will be, remains to be seen. Floridians of all stripes are going to have to demand that any politician whom they would even consider voting for, first publicly pledge allegiance to protecting and promoting the best interests of the state's working families, small businesses, and mismanaged natural resources, by growing a greener economy. So let's all take the time to turn up the globally warmed heat on Governor Crist, on his two most likely successors, Alex Sink and Bill McCollum, and on all the other Florida politicians, officials and regulators who like to talk a good environmental game, without ever actually playing to win. After all, wouldn't it make more than a little sense for the freaking Sunshine State to finally become a dynamic leader in supporting and promoting solar power and other Green business initiatives, like those featured in the 5-minute video, "Growing Green Jobs & Clean Energy in Sunshine State". Now is the time to transition Florida to the 21st century, no? The name didnt ring a bell when I saw it in my local paper a few weeks ago. It announced that he was running for Governor on the Democratic ticket in 2010. I meant to cut the article out and google the guys name but the paper made it to the recycle bin before I got to it and remembering names isnt as easy as it used to be in my younger days.
Today, however I got a second chance. While perusing the columnist archives of Pamela Hasterok at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, I came across another column of hers in which his name was mentioned and promptly went to Google. Mr. Arth is quite popular on Google. And for good reason. His list of creds is impressive. Artist, author, home/landscape/urban designer, futurist, and now a developer of a pedestrian friendly Garden District in Deland, FL once referred to as Crack Town. Once completed he made a documentary about the project titled NEW URBAN COWBOY. A review of it may be found here: http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=17554&reviewer=392 While Mr. Arths chances of being elected doesnt stand a snowballs chance in hell, it wouldnt hurt for Progressives to talk him up. Its the least we can do for a fellow that is willing to walk the talk. And it proves that the New Urbanism concept, can and does work. Another more familiar name for some of us, Eric Draper, has also popped up as a Democratic candidate. Mr. Draper, Deputy Director of Audubon of Florida, has announced his candidacy for State Agriculture Commissioner. According to Ms. Hasterok, Draper has an eight word platform, safe food, clean water, save land and green jobs. This candidacy is a can do if Progressives get behind him 100% and the benefit to the state would be enormous. Progress Florida's Best of the Blogs for week ending 6-26-09 By Kenneth Quinnell Florida Progressive Coalition In his column last week, Gary Fineout did Democratic primary voters a service that few journalists in Florida have done in recent years — he gave us actual substance to compare two candidates on. Campaigning on Marriage Equality Mar-co! Mar-co! Mar-co! Clueless Florida Republicans ‘Celebrate’ Juneteenth Amendment 4, aka the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment, would take land use decisions away from county commissions and give them to voters via referendums. As I said in a previous blog post, the Chamber of Commerce and big developers are vehemently against voters crashing their lavish party.
You can expect the Chamber and their anti-Amendment 4 front group, the Orwellian-named "Floridians for Smarter Growth", to use every ridiculous argument under the sun to stop Amendment 4. Here's a foretaste of things to come: The money quote from Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson: What the special interests behind Amendment 4 want is no jobs and no growth. Exactly! I'm sure those are precise intentions of Amendment 4's backers - we don't need no stinking jobs! Oh brother, it's going to be a long fight for Hometown Democracy backers. I hope Wilson's quote is played over and over as an example of just how embarrassingly desperate the supporters of the status quo are. Hometown Democracy backers should still be careful - no matter how ridiculous the above talking point is - simplicity sticks. If Amendment 4 is successfully framed as "anti-jobs" - it's game over. However, if Amendment 4 can successfully be framed as "pro-sustainability" or even "pro-democracy" - then it may just have a chance. In addition, there's also the opportunity to frame the anti-Hometown Democracy folks as tools of the developers, a group of people who most Floridians look upon unfavorably. A few weeks ago, Gov. Crist signed SB 360, a horrendous bill that significantly weakened Florida's growth management laws, inviting more urban sprawl in rural areas. Environmental groups, and Progress Florida, vehemently fought SB 360 for this reason. For more info, watch this great YouTube video:
We unfortunately lost that battle, but in the wider war against wasteful and destructive low-density urban sprawl, who is really going to win? That question has not been answered yet. While it seems that big developers won the day, they might have just shot themselves in the foot at the same time. You see, as the title of this blog post suggests, every time big developers and their allies in the Florida Chamber of Commerce push through another short-sighted bill that extends the already hated status quo, the more support builds for solutions like the Florida Hometown Democracy Amendment. Some folks consider Hometown Democracy a very radical solution, taking land-use decisions away from county commissions and instead turning them into public referendums. This would undoubtedly slow down the rate at which farms are gobbled up and turned into golf courses and gated communities. Many Floridians think this would be a good thing, but developers obviously view it as a terrifying prospect. When SB 360 passed, I heard the same refrain from several unconnected individuals - that this will make it easier for Hometown Democracy to pass. I think they're right. The passage of SB 360 will only harden local resistance to sprawl, and the seemingly impossible notion of attaining real growth management regulations from the state will only drive more moderate environmentalists and Floridians into the arms of Hometown Democracy. I actually consider myself among the latter group. I have my qualms with Hometown Democracy, mainly because I think sprawl can be stopped and new urbanism promoted through stronger and more consistent community organizing at the county level (something that really doesn't exist right now throughout Florida.) However, I know that for the sake of our state's future, sprawl has to be stopped in the next few years. I'm willing to embrace Hometown Democracy if the developers, the Chambers of Commerce, and the Builders Associations keep pushing for the kind of nonsense "solutions" like SB 360 that merely advance their bottom line at the expense of everyone else. Should Hometown Democracy make it onto the ballot (an increasingly likely prospect) and pass the necessary 60% mark, it will be due both to the hard work of the Hometown Democracy movement, and the developers' own short-sightedness and utter greed. Our Editorial Cartoon of the Week feature is part of Progress Florida's FREE Daily Clips service:
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