And then again, who pays attention?  The fact people don’t pay attention is why the proverbial wool keeps being pulled over society’s eyes.  But I digress, different rant, different time…

My issue isn’t about money being paid out in the rescue plans…  no, it’s how we’d gotten to the point where “too big to fail” actually existed, and how that issue is still causing grief on the US economy even after all the trillions handed out to financial institutions and other companies in the USA.

The issue is size. Go back to earlier in the decade and you had airline industries pleading for help as they slashed back and retooled their businesses while they were bleeding red regarding their finances.  Stock prices were down, amount of debt was up, etc, etc.  Why was the load so heavy?  You want to blame the unions?  Perhaps blame the white collar guys because of mismanagement?  Blame social conditions because they were absolutely craptastic after 9-11.  All of that plays into it in one part or another but really, that’s not the entirety of the problem.  No, the problem that led to the failures was the buying-out-the-competition of years prior that left the legacy carriers bloated and unable to sustain their own weight.  Part of it was the government turning a blind eye for the sake of letting business do their own thing while business was turning very anti-competitive with thanks to the big boys dominating everything.

Yes, competition still existed.  Yes, many of the smaller carriers simply failed while the bigger, stronger companies bought up their assets in order to strengthen themselves…  But they got too big.

Too big is too big.

You go to the US Auto Industry and you find the same problem — for decades, General Motors swallowed up competitors and added their name to their product line BUT simply sold clone cars that were also available under  different brand names.  Add their complacency that damned innovation in the name of profits and you had the makings of a fine mess.  Ford, Chrysler?  Just as guilty.  And no one in the government thought to break up any of these Big-Three in the name of capitalism.  “Where goes GM, so goes America” after all.

And too big was too big.  We’ve all seen it, GM’s come crashing down under the weight of their empire — bloated and endeared to profit before innovating.  In fact, the US auto industry has fought innovation more often than not — witness the documentary “Who Killed The Electric Car” for an example of this.  Hell, the aged “Unsafe at Any Speed” book by Ralph Nader is another example of this.

The US banking industry is the current example of this too.  The error that the government is playing into is that — in order to keep the financial industry from imploding in on itself, big must swallow big and get bigger in order to keep things afloat.  Trying to make things smaller — more nimble and adaptable – isn’t a consideration in all this mess.  Nope, profits are up, the Dow Jones is up and that means things must be getting better.

They’re not.  Because too big is too big.

This is not an attack on profit margins and all that jazz, it’s not an attack on capitalism…  This is a plea for sanity.  We’ve seen bubble-after-bubble in the market where an industry becomes extremely hot, everyone flocks to it, then the market explodes and those who are left are the ones who swallowed up as many of their rivals during the fallout…  Leaving massive, hulking companies that become “too big to fail” because of how it would hurt the economy and how it would hurt the worker or society in general.

The problem is, the companies are too big to stay solvent too.  Not without a sustianed market uptick.  If they do stay solvent?  They stagnate.  Why innovate when you have the market cornered?

It’s not that simple, but it shouldn’t be thought of as so complex that we should all turn a blind eye toward it.  When you have one big company doing all the hiring, they dominate.  You don’t have alternative places to run to for jobs because there aren’t many or any options.  And when they shed jobs in the name of profits, stock price and financial expectations?  There are not many other options for work in the industry because the big boy(s) have the market cornered.

Too big is too big.  That’s why you’ve heard people crowing about tighter regulations.  Something should be done to encourage competition and limit business size.  Everyone can have a profit, but encouraging the big to get bigger is a hinderence.

I have fits of giggles every time I see this.

I want to know if the TECO Line Streetcar is on this list of projects. I don’t mean the quarter-of-a-mile extension. I mean funding to complete this sucker so it runs through downtown to the north.

Seriously, Tampa doesn’t seriously link it’s new residential units in the Channelside district to central downtown. it hasn’t linked it’s new downtown condos with the entertainment district to the east. How do you do that, stimulate foot traffic in all markets AND potentially stimulate the retail sector? Extend that street car.

That or you can try to get a windfall of cash to do ornate bullshit that shows no vision, no ingenuity, and no long term planning. That’s the usual in Florida…

They’ve craved the status-quo and have shunned, if not feared, the idea of innovation in the production and design of their vehicles. Oh, the fabled “Big Three” have evolved over time but they haven’t broken any new ground. They haven’t taken an ambitious chance. What they have done is simply offer more of the same in different wrappers. Big cars turned into station wagons, station wagons turned into vans and mini vans, vans turned into Sport Utility Vehicles.

When it looked like automakers would be forced to adhere to tough air regulation rules in California? They fought it with lawyers. Oh, General Motors went ahead and actually made an electric car in case they lost their case but after they won? Not only did they shelve the things, they had all existing models destroyed. Perish the thought they would try something different when they didn’t have to.

But big cars don’t need to be fuel inefficient. Ask Jonathan Goodwin.

Over the last few weeks, that article on the “Motorhead Messiah” kept coming back to my mind. I originally saw it in 2007 before gas prices topped 4 dollars a gallon in some places. Goodwin has taken Hummer’s and made them flex-fuel (biodiesel, diesel, etc), more fuel efficient and with more power than they originally had. All with standard parts from General Motors. And he’s been doing that for years. He’s been working with Neil Young to convert Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental into an electric-natural gas hybrid.

Oh, General Motors finally caught on… But they did it real late at that.

In reality, Goodwin’s work has begun to influence some of Detroit’s top auto designers, but through curious and circuitous routes. In 2005, Tom Holm, the founder of EcoTrek, a nonprofit that promotes the use of alternative fuels, heard about Goodwin through the Hummer-junkie grapevine and hired him. When Holm showed GM the vehicles Goodwin converted, the company was duly impressed. Internally, Hummer executives had long been looking for a way to blunt criticism of the H2′s gas-guzzling tendencies and saw Goodwin’s vehicles as an object lesson in what was possible. So GM decided to flip the switch: It announced the same year that, beginning in 2008, it would convert its gasoline Hummers to run on ethanol; by 2010, it said, Hummers would be biodiesel-compatible.

I went into absolute hysterics when I read that paragraph. Hysterics because GM was not only introduced to this years ago, but also because they were going to wait years to implement things… That 2008 target? Gone, because the Hummer brand is for sale and the production all but ceased.

You look at Apple Computers and the ambition they have shown the last decade with the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone — three items that have revolutionized computing and consumer electronics… And then you look at the Big Three US automakers and note that there is no innovation and ambition in their development and design of vehicles.

There is the status-quo, the tried-and-true… and that’s why all three are suffering billion dollar loses fiscal quarter after fiscal quarter.

GM, Chrysler and Ford need ambition and innovation again. They need someone like Goodwin (outside the box, outside the bubble) in charge of engineering, and someone of the same quality in charge of the companies themselves, to get back into the swing of things.

You can’t bank on things staying the same, and for the Big Three? Their downfall was expecting just the opposite – for things to stay the same, perpetually.

It’s an election year… Early voting is over and the bulk of those planning to vote in this country will do so on Tuesday. Me included.

So I took a look at my own ballot this afternoon on the Supervisor of Elections web site to see who would be running for what. I know who I will be voting for in several races (be it presidential, federal, state representation, school board, etc) except County Commission. I had thought to vote party line on everything but this is where I’ve gotten frustrated with either party involved: The planning in Pinellas County and it’s involvement in the region.

Which brings us back to transit.

I’ve got two county commission races on my ballot, both at-large seats here in Pinellas. One pits Rene Flowers against Nancy Bostock while the other pits Paul Matton versus Neil Brickfield.

I visited all four candidates web sites and… well, I’m a little upset. Yeah, a lot of citizens are upset over a lot of issues from the County Commission regarding their conduct (the Jim Smith land deal and other such things), seeing phrases like Restore Confidence in our local Government doesn’t surprise me, and seeing a heavy use of phrasing about responsible spending doesn’t surprise me with candidates of either party…

But where’s the beef?

Seriously, there is no true coverage of the issues on Bostock or Flower’s web page — one has banalities and another has nothing at all.

Matton and Brickfield aren’t much better — Neil has key phrases for stump speeches used on his site while Paul has essays about Accountability, Sustainability and Responsibility.

But as a voter, I am not looking for catch phrases or essays. I’m looking for an answer. An answer to a question that seems to be missing every election year in Pinellas County: What do you plan to do about transit issues?

Earlier this evening, I emailed all three campaigns and posed a variation of the same question:

know it’s AWFUL late in this election cycle to ask questions, but I was wondering about your stances on local transit and mass transit?

Are you for the go-it-alone version of transit solutions or are you a backer for the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority? Are you more inclined to support road projects or do you see a fixed-guide way (rail) form of transit as an integral part of Pinellas’ (and Tampa Bay’s) future?

These issues — planning, implementation, administration, funding and oversight of transit in the county and the region — have an effect on residents lives every day. It’s not in the same league as some party-line generality issues such as positions on guns, having military service to ones resume, position on marijuana or what not. Every time you step out your door and drive somewhere, walk somewhere, grab a bus somewhere, etc. you’re affected by how Transit is handled in the area.

I’ll post any replies here when they come in.

Update 11/03/2008 8:30 AM: Paul Matton replied to my email with a short line that didn’t really answer my questions:

before we go with rail we need to fix transportation as your commission I will do that

Heck, look at the city of Oldsmar’s description of it’s Canal Park complex — “Sprawling” over 46 acres. 46 ACRES!

What ever happened to neighborhood parks? Or neighborhood playing fields? Why put multiple fields in one location and treat it like a friggin’ mall (one stop shopping!) instead of a more localized situation?

First of all, I guess developers are in part to blame, as well as the county. The county, while trying to address needs, puts for the most cost effective plan — as multiple fields in one location can be maintained easier. Of course, the concept of civic and neighborhood pride doesn’t play into this… But from an administrative level, it makes as much sense as putting bus stops in easily reached logistical locations without thinking about traffic (the old busing plan for the county that resulted in anarchy and deaths of students who had to cross multiple lanes of traffic to get back home).

The developers get the blame for, and this is common in Florida, not helping the county by providing infrastructure and space. Where neighborhoods like Lake St. George, Lansbrook, Ridgemore and so many others were built to the brim with housing styles… Public space wasn’t offered outside of clubhouses paid for in part by home owners association fees.

Logistically, it might be easier to have several ballfields in one location instead of them dotting the landscape — one here, one there, several miles apart — but at the same time, you will not have the same volatile reaction by putting a baseball field in an already estabilished neighborhood compared to building large scale park complex and bringing development, noise and light pollution into a sparsely developed corner of the county.

Congratulations! From the looks of things, Democrats have once again conceded your home base of Palm Harbor and Pinellas County. During this primary season, I have gotten more mailers (2) from you than from the three Democratic primary challengers (none). No signage was put up, no canvasing took place, no interest in GOTV efforts, no intention to help down ballot candidates in turning out voters. Are you listening John Dicks?

It happens annually – my district race turns into a farce where no one presents themselves (tactically or politically) as worthy congressmen. Oh, this includes you Gus, but you’re the incumbent. It says volumes if others don’t present themselves as a better choice than yourself – let alone their primary opponents.

Signed,
Disgruntled

The truth is out there. You may not accept it, but then again there are some people that don’t accept men landed on the moon, or the Holocaust, or that New Coke sucked.

When snark and sarcasm are employed on a serious issue, over and over again, it seems to signal indifference.  If not indifference, then powerlessness.  if not powerlessness, it’s simply ignorance or acceptance of the status-quo.

I read Stadium for Rent by local author Bob Andelman during high school and it showed the battle — political and logistical – to get Major League Baseball in town.

It’s out of print but there are copies for sale out there, also the entire thing is available at the above link. It’s very much worth a read for both pro and anti-stadium people. I oppose the stadium for economic issues (the timing sucks, Stu) as well as logistical reasons, but it’s important to be armed with the facts instead of making up hearsay or misconstruing what is really going on.

I plan on buying a used copy of Stadium For Rent for quick reference in the future. I’ve held it in high regard long enough….

Low Pants Controversey Grips Florida — Locals plead Tallahassee for Action

(maybe now the legislature realizes how ridiculous their attention waste of time on the matter looks.

I ordered a couple of day passes in order to use the bus to get to Clearwater Beach. I had found out it would be around an hour ride around the time I had written that first aforementioned post. But after I got everything set up in it’s little row and just needed to confirm time and places to be in order to catch the bus to and from the Beach?

The origin has no stops within the distance we consider. Please contact the information center.

It’s not a browser thing, it’s not a technical thing… It’s a failure of public service thing.

UPDATE: it woudl appear Route 63 — the Neilsen bus route that I was going to take as a first step to the beach, has been canceled. Though I can’t find official word that it has been.

(from the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts)

I mean, I just wrote an article last week at Boltsmag (yeah, it isn’t gone yet) about sports fans not being willign to leave their comfort zone to devote themselves to something bigger than their pro sports team… So what do you say about a political junkie who cynically tears down an issue, or a candidate, or a part position… All for the sake of the opportunist stance of “wait and see”?

If you really believe in something, aren’t you supposed to be willing to stand up for that something or at least do what you can to put it’s best foot forward? Be it an idea, a team, a principle, etc? Or are we all supposed to be just blind soldiers who will accept whatever we are handed by the powers that be?

Perfect weather and perfect to go out and do stuff in, right?

So I got the urge to get out and about the Bay area during this past week and – just to humor myself, I checked PSTA‘s web site in order to see if there was a bus route I coudl take to get elsewhere in the Tampa Bay metro area. And herein lies the mockery of mass transit options in Tampa Bay or poor use of tools that have been newly employed on local web sites.

So earlier in the week I wanted to go across county lines to downtown Tampa and meet up with a friend to hang out. Cynically, I already knew the chances of me finding anything were slim to none (means to get into the other county) or impossibly out-of-my-way… But I decided to humor myself and just go to the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority’s website and see what I could find…

What jumped out right away on PSTA.net (besides horrid flash animation that serves absolutely no purpose, and stupid cartoon characters that seem to marginalize and mock riders and workers alike without really realizing it) was the list of 100x-300x buses. These three buses are all express buses between counties to serve the commuter set. I knew this before hand but I figured I would check out there schedules. Serendipity maybe and just hit paydirt without even trying and such…?

Yeah, right.

The 200x line is closest to where I live in North Pinellas – following that way-out-of-my-way motif of leaving from a softball field area at Drew Street and McMullen Booth intersection called the Eddie C. Moore Complex. I know the place and have passed it many times before while bumming rides off other people…

The Moore complex itself would amount to being a 15 to 20 minute bus trip… If I could find the damn thing in the PSTA trip planner to begin with. yup, the new automation that PSTA has implemented to make it easier to follow schedules and take advantage of them doesn’t even recognize the Eddie C. Moore complex park-and-ride.

That was a moot point anyway. Even if I could make it to said park-and-ride lot, the 200x route boasts a total of just five round trips all day — three in the early morning, two in the afternoon.

I realize it’s for commuters specifically but good god damn, this is a joke.

There is no other cross-bay option that I am aware of via public transit. While you can get to the Hillsborough County Line via Route 93 on PSTA, HART (Hillsborough Area Regional transit) doesn’t make it very clear where there map starts and ends.

So in that regard, anyone wanting to cross the county line is in a bind unless they drive on their own – which i don’t.

So that faded out of my memory and instead, while relaxing today I thought it would be cool to take the bus to Clearwater Beach — hey! it’s in county and shouldn’t take much extra time and effort to get there… So lets try the ole’ route map and give it a whirl huh…?

I flubbed around with that most of the afternoon and I found out that “Clearwater Beach” is not listed as a landmark. “Pier 60″ is not listed as a landmark. I kept trying combinations to find a route to Clearwater beach and kept being told that you couldn’t find that there is no bus.

Of course, that’s not the truth. the problem is the route map just doesn’t accurately define things.

I went back to the rout map tonight and found some interesting things — for example both Pinellas and Hillsborough county addresses and intersections are placed within the route finder. Of course you can’t get there from here but that’s already been touched on. What was also discovered is that every single PSTA bus stop is marked off on the map with a little widget. you just ahve to zoom in close enough to see things.

After discovering that, trying to plan my trip was a snap — just drag the map over to the exact location you want to venture to and presto… It’ll take an hour and 13 minutes to get from my neck of the woods to Clearwater Beach. That ain’t so bad. The reverse trip ain’t so bad either. Just less than an hour (barrign traffic incidents in both directions).

Just thinking about this sorta peeves me. It’s such a minor detail, usability. I don’t know if people at PSTA are truly aware that they are using jargon in trip planning in some instances — no one is looking for Stop #201 Mandalay Blvd. They’re looking for Clearwater Beach.

Of course there is also the problem of commute time that makes PSTA a hassle more than a help… 2 and a half hours or more from Palm Harbor to St. Petersburg, 3 hours from St. Petersburg to Tampa International Airport, etc.

Something’s gotta be done about this mess — because the impossiblity of getting there form here is why the roads are congested and people shun the bus.