Roundup 10-23-2015

Contents

Transportation – TBX Listening Tour

Economy – Employment, More of the Same

Economic Development – Searching for STEM

Economic Development – More on Bass Pro Shops

Economy/Economic Development – The Titan That Is MacDill

Downtown – Trump Tower Lot, Step One

Transportation – Another Ferry Idea

International Trade/Economic Development – The County Leads Tampa

Rays – A Little Bit of Truth

How to Really Do Bike Lanes

A Look at Real Transit Oriented Development

List of the Week

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Transportation – TBX Listening Tour

This week, FDOT had a public meeting regarding the TBX variable rate toll lane project – well actually just part of it – and the results were entirely predictable.

The latest public meeting on a proposal to add toll lanes to area interstates drew a less heated crowd than past gatherings that pitted road expansion against neighborhood preservation.

Though of the dozen or so speakers Tuesday night — out of a crowd of about 50 — only one spoke favorably of the Florida Department of Transportation’s Tampa Bay Express plan.

From the Times – click on map for article

Some of the public comments:

The few dozen people who stuck around for the formal public hearing at the TPepin Hospitality Centre called the express toll lane project an over-priced, outdated plan for managing traffic. Instead, they said, state transportation leaders should be focusing on alternative forms of transportation, including rail and mass transit.

The meeting was called specifically to get comment on the preliminary design for express toll lanes on a 22-mile span of Interstate 4 between 50th Street and the Polk County line. The project would include adding one toll lane in each direction at some future date with the first segment running between 50th and Mango Road.

“This plan encourages more vehicles on the roads instead of fewer,” said Liz Johnson of Seminole Heights, a neighborhood that has risen up against the plan. She called for an end to any funding for the Tampa Bay Express project and said FDOT should instead focus on developing a comprehensive plan for bikes, mass transit and other alternatives instead of creating more road lanes.

Annie Hipson, also of Seminole Heights, cited statistics showing that millennials drive less as a generation and likely will continue to do so.

“This is what was needed in the 1990s” and it’s not something that will solve 2025 transportation problems, she said. “Yes, we do need mass transit, but for what this is going to cost we could do rail and have a much nicer place to live.”

But for Tim Smith of Tampa, the express toll lanes make sense. He said he has seen them in Texas and Georgia.

“I’m going with anything that helps with transportation here,” Smith said. “There are too many no-new-taxes people who don’t know what it is costing them to sit in traffic every day.”

That is what some of the public said. This comment does not seem to indicate that FDOT is really considering any changes to their plan:

“We consider every comment that’s made,” said Kirk Bogen, FDOT District 7 environmental engineer. “We will not reduce the number of free lanes that are out there. We’re just giving people some options.”

We have made no secret of our position that variable rate lanes will not really solve any problem, especially because they are designed specifically to not have people drive in them.  Moreover, the entire TBX plan is not coordinated with the as-of-yet nonexistent Go Hillsborough plan – and costs many times more than that idea.  To solve our transportation issues we need to actually identify the needs and create comprehensive, coordinated solutions.  The TBX is not doing that.  Finally, as many commented, if FDOT spent the money it plans to spend on TBX on the actual needs in Hillsborough County, it could fix most, if not all, of them with billions to spare for widening the interstate a reasonable amount – because, yes, the interstates are still not adequate.

And there is one more thing.  If FDOT really wants to relieve some traffic in Hillsborough County it needs to connect the Veterans/Suncoast to I-75 in Pasco so that people do not have to drive through Tampa (clogging traffic to downtown and Westshore) to get to Pinellas. The failure to build that road over the decades is one of the biggest transportation failures in this area.  Then again, as with so much, that failure really lies at the feet of local officials who killed the connection through Hillsborough and who have not been able to get it done in elsewhere. Unfortunately, those failures leave this area stuck with take-it-or-leave-it ideas from Tallahassee that are rubber stamped by local officials who lack the political will to do what is needed and choose to hide behind FDOT.  At least road construction industry will prosper.

Economy – Employment, More of the Same

It is time to check in with employment numbers.

Florida’s jobless rate fell from 5.4 percent to a seven-year low of 5.2 percent in September, according to figures released Friday. In Tampa Bay, unemployment dropped from 5.3 percent to 5 percent, a level last seen more than a year before George W. Bush turned over the Oval Office to Barack Obama.

Economists used to say once unemployment tumbled to 5 percent or lower, it would signal full recovery, or close to it.

While the raw employment numbers look good, there is a continuing problem.

Times have changed. An unemployment stat is no longer the over-arching barometer. Rather, economists now are trying to gauge the quality of jobs created and related wages, the number of part-timers unable to find full-time work and how many discouraged jobless have given up looking so they’re no longer counted in the broadly used unemployment rate.

We are not going to quote the whole article, but, needless to say, most of the jobs are lower wage jobs.

An article from the Business Journal points out why this is such a problem.

When considering income levels in a local area, it is important to consider more than just the raw numbers, but to take into account the cost of living. For instance, in order to have the same purchasing power as a person earning $50,000 in the Tampa Bay area, a resident of Honolulu would need to make $61,820, whereas someone in Akron, Ohio would only need to earn $44,470.

While the Tampa Bay area ranks right around the national average for cost of living, the average income and relative income are significantly lower than in other parts of the country. Of the 106 markets included in the data, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area ranked No. 69 in local average pay for all jobs. The ranking is even more dire when you take into consideration the cost of living. Using this metric, the Tampa Bay area ranks No. 92 for adjusted pay.

92^nd out of 106 is quite bad. Low salaries negate many – really all – of the benefits of low costs unless you are one of small number of higher income individuals (like the people who tend to vote to approve TBX).

So, yes, more people are working, which is good.  But our economy is nowhere near where it should be – it is not a boom.  And the argument that everything in Florida is cheap just doesn’t seem as appealing when so many still struggle to afford it.

Economic Development – Searching for STEM

Speaking of higher paying jobs, there was column in the Times discussing a study by Bloomberg (see here) regarding STEM jobs.

If becoming a 21st century metro area means having lots of better paying technology-related job opportunities, then Tampa Bay should give itself a pat on the back — and keeping pushing for more.

A creative analysis by Bloomberg News recently ranked the nation’s 100 top metro areas for STEM jobs — meaning jobs that required education in science, technology, engineering or math. In the process, the analysis revealed a number of lesser known cities that are STEM magnets, defined as places having higher percentages of the kind of tech-related employment that not only offers better pay but will likely assure these metro areas as more competitive players in the future.

The good news is that Tampa Bay fared better in this STEM analysis than any other metro area in Florida. The analysis, based on U.S. Department of Labor statistics, shows Tampa Bay has 64,290 STEM-related jobs equal to 5.5 percent of its workforce. No other larger metro area in Florida matches either of these measures, though smaller Palm Bay on the east coast claims 9.9 percent of its tinier workforce are STEM jobs.

Orlando closely followed Tampa Bay’s strong showing with 55,350 STEM jobs making up 5.1 percent of its workforce — a signal that the west-to-east Central Florida swath of technology growth is the state’s most promising STEM region. South Florida metro areas, as well as Jacksonville, trailed Tampa Bay and Orlando with lower percentages of STEM-related jobs.

That is good.  But just how good?  First, how do we compare with other areas in other states, which are, after all, most of our competition?

Looking beyond Florida, the outlook is far more challenging. Among larger population states, Florida sadly trails well behind California, Texas and New York (though it is reassuring to see Tampa Bay slightly outranks New York City in its percentage of STEM jobs).

No surprise, the SanJose/SiliconValley area tops the nation with 209,330 STEM-related jobs equaling a whopping 21.5 percent of its workforce. Nearby San Francisco boasts 12.1 percent of its workforce in STEM jobs. In Texas, Austin leads with 11.1 percent, while both Dallas and Houston top 8 percent.

Seattle, home to Microsoft, Amazon and lots of Boeing workers, enjoys 13.2 percent of its jobs in the STEM field, while Boston dominates New England with 11.2 percent. And the Washington, D.C., area tops the country in its sheer number of STEM jobs — 285,470 — representing a respectable 12 percent of the workforce.

The top 20 metropolitan areas by STEM employment account for half the STEM jobs in Bloomberg‘s analysis.

What’s most interesting, perhaps, are some of the smaller metros that are so rich in STEM jobs. They include Boulder, Colo., with 16 percent; Huntsville, Ala., with 16.7 percent; and Durham, N.C. — home to the Research Triangle — 13.9 percent. Huntsville was kick-started with government funding for rocket development there during World War II and, later, with work for NASA. Now it is far more tech-diversified.

Cities including Denver; Minneapolis; Portland, Ore.; Detroit and Warren, Mich. (both presumably full of auto engineers), Oakland and San Diego, Calif.; and Albuquerque, N.M., all ranked in the high single digits for STEM jobs in their workforces.

And that’s not all.  Let’s look at some other areas you would not think had much STEM: Charlotte (6.8%); OKC (6.2%); Kansas City (6.6%); St. Louis (6.3%); Buffalo ( 5.1%); Rochester, NY (6.9%); Indianapolis (6.8%); Pittsburgh (6.5%); Birmingham (5.2%).  If we are doing well, they are doing just as well or better. In other words, our percentage of STEM jobs numbers are nothing great – good for Florida, but not that good (though not awful either).

Now, let’s drill down a little deeper.  Not all STEM jobs are the same. STEM can include a number of things from high level programming and research to basically customer service for software companies.  Those things obviously have different salaries.  They also create different clusters of expertise that lead to different levels of economic development.  The higher the level jobs, the more likely they are to generate more high level jobs.

So what kind of jobs forms the biggest group of STEM jobs in the Tampa Bay area? According to the Bloomberg piece (see here) the largest group is computer user support specialist at about 10% of our STEM jobs, with a median salary of $43,430.  By contrast, a bit over 10% of Charlotte’s jobs are computer systems analysts with average salary of $88,370.  Denver’s biggest group, also around 10%, is software developers with an average salary around $100,000.  Kansas City’s biggest group (also around 10%) is also software developers with average incomes around $90,000, though St. Louis, like the Tampa Bay area, has a big group of support specialist with average incomes of $49,610. As you can see, just saying we have STEM jobs does not really say anything.

So the point is this: yes, we are doing well in number of STEM jobs for Florida, but we are not doing that well – certainly not as well as the hype would have you believe.  We have to both improve in quantity and quality of STEM jobs.  Customer support jobs will not create a high wage economy or a tech cluster. We have made some progress, but there is a very long way to go.

Economic Development – More on Bass Pro Shops

And speaking of economic development and low paying jobs, this week the Times gave us one more reason why the Bass Pro Shops subsidy was a waste of taxpayer money.

This morning, an engineering firm that frequently represents Nebraska-based Cabela’s — a leading specialty retailer of hunting, fishing, camping and related outdoor merchandise — is scheduled to meet with the Pasco County planning staff to discuss a proposal for commercial space within the Cypress Creek Town Center.

County documents described the proposed development, across the street from the about-to-open Tampa Premium Outlets mall, as a 105,712-square-foot retail store with adjoining parking field and boat storage space.

Representatives for Cabela’s, a chain in the midst of a multiyear expansion, and the project manager from Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc., the engineering firm that has represented Cabela’s in other locales, did not return telephone messages for comment.

The size of the proposed store in Wesley Chapel matches the dimensions of a Cabela’s store that opened in April in North Carolina. At 105,000 square feet, it would be about 19 percent smaller than the Bass Pro Shops store in Brandon that opened in July. 

Not only is Bass Pro building a store in Sarasota, but now Cabela’s might go into Pasco.  Sure, people love Bass Pro Shops, and we hope the Brandon store does well.  And it is good to have some more jobs. But holding it out as some sort of tourist destination or major economic development project that deserves taxpayers’ money is silly.  And if roads needed to be widened because of the Bass Pro development, there should have been impact fees (really, mobility fees) that covered it.  It should not be on the taxpayer.

The fact is that the Bass Pro deal was a mistake.  It is indicative of so many mistaken (seemingly back room) policies in this area. There really are no excuses for it or the arguments made in favor of it – which were obviously wrong.

What is really amazing is that the same thing is being said about Cabela’s that was said about Bass Pro:

A Cabela’s outdoor store is a natural next step for the retail growth in Wesley Chapel along Interstate 75, said Steve Kirn, executive director of the David F. Miller Center for Retailing Education and Research at the University of Florida, who added that the retailer tends to open stores in bustling suburban communities.

“They’re a destination store. So, by putting one in Wesley Chapel, they’ll attract people from the Orlando market as well as all of Tampa Bay,” Kirn said. 

Of course, Orlando has a Bass Pro and there is a Bass Pro in Orlando on the way to Wesley Chapel, so it is doubtful that anyone would come from Orlando except to get a special deal they cannot get at the Cabela’s website.  Not to mention that, if Cabela’s enters the Florida market, it is highly unlikely that they will ignore the Orlando market.

We have nothing against getting Cabela’s – especially if they do not get a subsidy.  The real questions, though, is will this area ever learn – can we break the cycle of BS?

Economy/Economic Development – The Titan That Is MacDill

There was a new report on the economic impact of MacDill on the Tampa Bay area.

The economic impact of MacDill Air Force Base, including military retirees and spouses living within 50 miles, was $4.7 billion in fiscal 2014, a jump of $1.3 billion in two years, according to the 6th Air Mobility Wing, the base host unit.

On Wednesday, the base released a fiscal 2014 financial impact statement showing it pumped $2.94 billion into the local economy in fiscal 2014, compared to $2.3 billion in fiscal 2012. These direct economic impact numbers include total payroll, local expenditures and local job creation.

But the biggest reason for the overall jump was the payroll of military retirees and their spouses, which is not included in the direct economic impact numbers. This category increased by $660 million over the period.

Retirees or not, that is a huge impact – every year.

The biggest change in the direct economic impact of the base was a $320 million boost in the value of jobs it created, according to the report.

In fiscal 2014, the base said it created more than 24,000 jobs, with an average annual salary of $46,748. That represents an impact of $1.14 billion.

In fiscal 2012, the base said it created more than 18,000 jobs, with an average annual salary of $44,876. That represents an impact of $820 billion.

The next biggest change came in the total payroll of the base, which grew to $1.07 billion in fiscal 2014 from $853 million in 2012, an increase of $217 million.

And total local expenditures — including military construction, service contracts, the commissary, education and other line items — grew to $729 million in fiscal 2014 from $587 million in fiscal 2012, an increase of $142 million.

The 2014 report says there were more than 73,000 military retirees and spouses living in the area. The 2012 report does not list a comparable figure.

We all know that MacDill is very important to our area (and the country), and we are very lucky to have it. Sometimes it is good to have a detailed reminder.  And the fact is that, if the previously discussed SOCOM program to develop local industry really gets going, the impact will be far greater, including a lot of those truly STEM jobs.  We know that there is consensus on protecting MacDill, but this is just one more reminder of why it is so important.

Downtown – Trump Tower Lot, Step One

The unnamed project for the old Trump Tower lot moved slightly forward this week.

Plans for a 52-story mixed-use tower on downtown Tampa’s waterfront are one step closer to reality.

The city’s Development Review and Compliance staff has decided that the plans developers proposed in July are not a substantial change from the plans originally approved for the site, which is at the intersection of South Ashley Drive and Brorein Street.

With that decision, the plans aren’t subject to city council approval, and the project is ready for permitting — which means developers are likely to move forward and close on the 1.47-acre site. It’s currently owned by Brownstone Tampa Group LLC, which picked up the site and the adjacent CapTrust office building for $5 million in 2011.

We are not sure how likely this project is to actually get built, but this step removes one hurdle.   Another question still over this proposal is whether the FAA will allow the proposed height, which is about 30 feet higher than the approved height for the Trump Tower project.  In any event, it will be interesting to see.

One thing we did notice was the renderings in the Business Journal article were a little less than inspiring, like this:

From the Business Journal – click on picture for article

Sure, it is basically a line drawing with a very limited palette, but we would like to see a bit more.  In any event, we are sure more will be forthcoming if the project moves forward. And maybe some news about whether the height will be allowed.

Transportation – Another Ferry Idea

The last few weeks, the Mayor of St. Pete has been proposing to use some of the money that St. Pete received in the BP settlement for a ferry between downtown St. Pete and downtown Tampa.

Mayor Rick Kriseman’s proposal for a ferry service between St. Petersburg and Tampa has won praise in some circles.

That he plans to put $350,000 from the city’s $6.5 million in BP oil spill settlement money toward his vision has also brought harsh criticism.

And that sum is just seed money for a plan that could require as much as $1 million before the first ferry pushes off from the docks.

“It is a contingent investment, and it represents the city’s contribution to a pilot program,” Kriseman said in a memo. “If the other participants do not provide their share of the investment, the city will not either.”

First, note that he is just saying that St. Pete will put up some money if others do to, which is a big if (especially given how long it is taking for Hillsborough County to decide about the previously proposed ferry there).  Nevertheless, it is an interesting idea.

Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik said he has talked with Kriseman about how a ferry service could work. Turanchik recently proposed a ferry project to Hillsborough County officials that would link MacDill Air Force Base and south Hillsborough County, and also include a Tampa-to-St. Petersburg leg.

The service proposed by Kriseman is “entirely feasible, but it will take a certain amount of regional corporation from a facilities and funding perspective,” Turanchik said. He estimated that it would cost at least $1 million to get the service running and to operate it for the first six months.

“But that’s total costs before revenues come in and the revenue would offset those costs,” he said. “It is unlikely to be profitable, but it will be a pretty cool tool for our tourism and a fun thing for our residents.”

We understand it will not be profitable, just like roads (if they were profitable, we would not need impact fees or referenda to fix them).  There is a question of just how unprofitable it would be and what development it would create.  That is not known, but is important.

And then there is this:

Others, like David Downing, executive director of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, said the ferry service is just what the area needs. Such a plan is simply good for business, he said.

“Two of the fastest-growing segments of our tourism demographics are international visitors and millennials. They consider it a failure if a destination doesn’t offer robust transit options,” he said.

“So anything a city can do to offer transportation alternatives on any front — by rail or sea, even a bike-share program — would provide them with a marketing advantage, if their objective is to draw visitors.”

We like transit.  We have nothing against a ferry.  However, the one thing that the streetcar in Tampa has shown is that if tourism is the planned basis for the project, you probably should not do it.  That is not to say that tourism would not benefit from it.  It would, and that is fine.  However, if your real motivation for a transit project is tourism rather than serving residents (and business travelers), do not do it.  To succeed, transit needs to serve residents and workers.  That is really the only way to get enough people to use it on a consistent basis.

So it is an interesting idea, but definitely needs more study. Not to mention actual discussion in Tampa, where there has been silence.

International Trade/Economic Development – The County Leads Tampa

While the Tampa administration has been decidedly lukewarm on the idea of a Cuban consulate in Tampa, apparently the County is not.

During Wednesday’s meeting, County Commissioner Les Miller said Hillsborough is the most logical home, even more than heavily Cuban Miami.

“Miami is a Johnny-come-lately to Tampa and Hillsborough County,” Miller said.

He talked about the strong Cuban influences he grew up with in Ybor City.

“I remember the heyday when people from Tampa and Hillsborough County went to Cuba on the weekends to have a good time,” Miller said.

The board acknowledged that the island nation still has issues to resolve, but was receptive to the argument made by Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, that the county should get ahead of what is happening in Washington, D.C.

“We need to be proactive about what is coming down the road,” Rohrlack said. “We have the infrastructure already in place — a top-ranked airport and a top-ranked seaport.”

* * *

The board voted 5-0 to draft a resolution in support of the consulate. Commissioners Al Higginbotham and Ken Hagan were in Toronto on a business trip. Commission chairwoman Sandy Murman said the board has been anticipating this issue and the resolution should be ready soon.

It is rare that the County Commission gets out ahead on an issue, but this is apparently one of those cases.  And apparently they did not need permission from anyone to actually promote Tampa and Hillsborough County.

Rays – A Little Bit of Truth

Three was an excellent column in the Tribune regarding the whole Rays saga.

We’ve been talking about this issue for five years or so, and the only progress so far has been … um, none. Last December, council members voted down the only solid proposal in front of them to let the Rays look around the entire market for a new home. Since then, crickets.

So why the rush now?

There’s an election on Nov. 3, that’s why.

Chairman Charlie Gerdes started the party with an idea he said could break the impasse between the Rays and the city. It’s probably a coincidence (wink-wink) that Gerdes is running for re-election. Then Councilman Jim Kennedy chimed in with his version, even though he isn’t running for a couple of more years.

Both plans involve the Rays paying a lot more money than they will ever agree to if they want to move out of Tropicana Field in downtown St. Pete.

In other words, the plans are not really serious, which is not surprising.

So let’s just skip the theatrics. We’ve waited this long for consensus on a stadium solution. Everyone can wait a couple of weeks until after the elections so we will know who is on the council and what the chances are of actual serious negotiations.

When that hour comes, hopefully the city is finally prepared to accept an uncomfortable truth. Major League Baseball doesn’t work in downtown St. Petersburg, and it never will.

Council members can talk about exorbitant exit fees all they want. They can wave the lease that binds the team to the Trop until 2027, too. A better strategy would be to deal in reality.

The Rays were last in attendance out of MLB’s 30 franchises for the last four seasons. They were next-to-last in 2011.

This season, they averaged nearly 2,500 fewer fans per game than Cleveland, the 29th-place team.

Normally you get those kind of numbers when a franchise is dreadful, but the Rays put a good product on the field. Over the last five years, their record was 430-381, with two playoff appearances. Their television ratings have been strong throughout.

So what’s the problem?

The location in St. Petersburg is the problem. It always has been.

Which is something that St. Pete has just not been willing to accept, but facts are facts.

The council, however, continues to insist the Rays belong solely to St. Pete. That’s no way to treat a partner who helped pay for the stadium.

You expect a large amount of posturing in any deal of this size, of course. What St. Pete doesn’t understand is how its grip on the Rays loosens every time a year passes without a deal. It’s time to get serious.

Actually, it’s way past that time.

Based on what we’ve seen so far, though, we can wait a couple of more weeks.

That is true.  The last mayor wasted his term playing games.  The present mayor tried to get a deal only to have the City council play games, like approving a more expensive deal than the Mayor’s and one which the Rays have basically already rejected – as though somehow St. Pete’s leverage is increases rather than decreasing every day.   Maybe a new City Council will do something.  Maybe not.  Only time, hopefully a short amount of time, will tell.

How to Really Do Bike Lanes

URBN Tampa Bay found a really interesting piece about how to actually do a bike lane, so we thought we would also reference it, especially since the bike lanes in the area are either just a bike painted in the middle of a road with a “share the road” sign, just a stripe on a road that no one in their right mind would ever bike on (because traffic is too fast and people cut into the lanes all the time) or are the slightly better but still not very good lanes like on Platt or Cleveland, which are not protected (in fact they invite cars into the lane to get to parking spaces or turn left).

Riding through a city on a bike lane that’s separated from cars feels great. But when you roll up to a light, the infrastructure often vanishes, leaving you feeling vulnerable as you cross busy lanes of traffic. Now a new type of intersection might keep cyclists safer and more visible. And it was created by a designer who used to make video games.

The US’s first “protected intersection” opened this month on a busy corner in Salt Lake City. With only a few modifications to the traditional car-centered intersection, it keeps cyclists completely separated from vehicular traffic, makes them easier to see, and even gives them a head start at the light.

Here is a video showing the plan.

You can go to the article here for a fuller discussion.  If we are going to spend the money to actually help people bike, let’s do it right.

A Look at Real Transit Oriented Development

In almost every article regarding MetroRapid there is a comment on transit oriented development.  Needless to say, because it is just a better bus, MetroRapid has created basically none.  For real transit oriented development to occur, you need a commitment to a specific transit line over a long period of time to get people to commit their money to a development (makes sense).  Proponents of most almost-BRT or things like Metro Rapid say their idea is better specifically because it does just the opposite – it can be moved easily. (Some, actually pretty much all, BRT proponents use the example of Cleveland’s Healthline BRT, but anyone who has ridden the Healthline knows that much of the development counted in studies is either downtown or  Cleveland Clinic and University Circle development that has pretty much nothing to do with the Healthline – and note that there is a rail stop near University Circle.) But what does transit oriented development really look like?

Well, here are a few examples.  First, from Bethesda, MD (see article here)

Before:

From Bethesda Magazine – click on picture for article

After:

From Bethesda Magazine – click on picture for article

And for even more detail, a couple or article from LA showing how areas have been transformed by TID.  See here  and here.

When you look at all these pictures, what you see is that there is nothing magical about the areas.  They were very much like most of our area.  It was the investment in proper transit that led to private investment that improved the areas greatly (and raised tax revenue).  It could easily happen here, even in suburban areas of Hillsborough. What you need is a commitment to real transit (not just a better bus) and proper planning.  There is no mystery.

List of the Week

This week, the lists are embedded in the items above.