But ultimately, I do think that building a publicly controlled rail corridor, high speed or other, linking Tampa, Orlando, and ultimately, Miami, will carry important long-term benefits for the state. And of all the rail routes discussed for Florida, the Tampa-to-Orlando stretch has greatest potential ridership. So, I’m happy to see everyone moving forward on it. (Everyone, that is, except JD Alexander and the Winter Haven folks.)

But, in the interest of intellectual honesty, and embracing the uncertainties and potential consequences of what I support, I want to make a few points:

1) Where is CSX on this? It’s important to remember that CSX gave $50,000 to Jeb’s effort to kill HSR back in the day. The inferred quid pro quo, based on what happened, was that Jeb committed to the CSX rerouting/Sunrail plan. We should be asking what quids, pros, and quos are a part of this resurgent HSR plan. CSX has been very quiet about this. So Gary or Mike, how about emailing me an official CSX position on today’s HSR plan? bitown1@gmail.com.

2) In a related question, what are the technical possibilities for the actual lines? What I mean is, could we build a new freight line in tandem with the HSR line? Would CSX use it? Would it even be helpful in diverting freight out of city cores – Orlando, Lakeland, Plant City, Tampa, included? Does the HSR corridor give us a chance to redesign freight and passenger flow in a way that works better for everybody than the CSX-designed realignment would? Could this be an actual useful public-private partnership, rather than a public-private giveaway?

3) Are elected officials and DOT technocrats prepared for the traffic mayhem that will come while building this thing? As a four-day-a-week commuter to Tampa, I support the project while knowing that it will likely make my driving life hell for some period of time. Don’t underestimate the traffic anger policymakers in the corridor are going to face when construction starts.

4) U.S. 98 v USFP? Where should the Lakeland stop go? My preliminary feeling is that Kathleen/U.S. 98 area makes more sense, with perhaps an express bus linking the station there with USFP campus. But I’m open to argument.

5) This really should have nothing to do with Sunrail. That project is a suburban commuter rail system, designed to bring people in far-flung areas of Orange, Volusia, and Osceola counties into the city of Orlando. If you’re a business person or tourist, you don’t need a commuter train from the HSR station to Debary. You need a light rail connection, or a bus, to Disney, or the airport, or I-Drive. Now, I guess it might make sense to put the HSR station between Disney and I-drive, rather than downtown. But in that case, I don’t see why any business person would use it. Anyway, we should resist efforts to link these projects. They should rise and fall on their own merits. But, as I mentioned before, I do see a chance to explore better routing of freight, using the HSR corridor.

This story, which exists solely as the means for somebody to broadcast that Julian Mullis is in a gay relationship, is an object lesson of everything that’s wrong with institutional journalism in this country. It’s a great example of what I think Chris was saying in his Defeatism column a few weeks ago.

It’s important for me to note that if I still worked for The Ledger or The Tribune, I would almost certainly have written this same story in much the same way my friend Rick Rousos wrote it. So when I criticize, I’m criticizing the corrupt and smug standards of modern newspaper and television journalism that force good, conscientious reporters to act as agents in petty squabbles while ignoring the important investigative or explanatory work because it’s hard and not spoon-fed by a malevolent cop or political enemy. Not having to wrestle with my conscience over this is perhaps the best perk of leaving professional journalism. But I was lucky. I had an option. In this economy, many reporters don’t. They hold their noses and cash their checks and feed their kids.

I called Rick to ask about the origin and thought process of this story, and not surprisingly, he wouldn’t comment. Not because he was combative, but because he didn’t think he was authorized to talk about internal Ledger rigamarole. I did get the impression he took no pleasure in writing this piece.

Understand, there’s no way Rick or one of the cop reporters just happened upon this police report during regular rounds or checks. Somebody, either a cop or a political enemy or somebody who’s just mean, called The Ledger and informed about it. That’s how these things work. Ninety percent – or more – of all scoops come from somebody who wants to use reporters for some purpose. That’s always been the case. The key, as a reporter, is how you deal with that. If there’s a specific quibble I have with Rick’s story, it’s that he did not say who pointed him to the report and provide context as to why they might do that. The rejoinder is, well, you can’t jeopardize sources. Balderdash. In this story, the source, whoever it was, is just as much a character as Mullis.

That being said, under the classic newspaper standards for public officials, you have to write this story. After all, Julian Mullis is a mayor of a city. He’s a public official. If a woman was arrested in his home, you’d write about that. And of course, The Ledger and all newspapers have a solemn duty to closely scrutinize the behavior of our important elected and public officials. After all, look how thoroughly they examined the personal economic interests of JD Alexander and his friends in the CSX and Heartland Parkway deals. Oh right, I forgot. I guess that solemn duty only applies when somebody holds your hand and walks you to it. Or when you can do it with a single phone call and faxed police report.

Newspapers have always published these types of gossipy stories. People read them. They’re easy. They sell. But papers used to try to offset them with tougher, public service pieces that truly helped keep powerful people on notice. Back in the day, circa 2000, despite constant business community pressure on Skip and then publisher John Fitzwater, The Ledger gave me the time and backing to take a blowtorch to the Central Florida Development Council. We ran about 10 A1 stories in a row focusing on the agency’s petty self-dealing in those days. I fear that the days of that kind of institutional support for real local reporting on people and organizations with power have come and gone. The Ledger has lost too many reporters, and there’s too much demand for web porn, along the lines of Mullis story. That’s understandable, given the financial and resource realities. But they ought to stop pretending that this Mullis story serves their public mission. They’ve abdicated their public mission, mainly because we, the readers, don’t want to pay for it.

If papers wanted to be serious about their public mission, they could adjust its tenets based on common sense reality. It is absurd to treat Julian Mullis and Buddy Fletcher as public figures of equal coverage importance. Reporting on the personal lives of the people elected by a few hundred votes with the same ferocity – or more, really – than real politicians with real power makes no sense. You might as well report on the personal lives of PTA chairs.

How about, if these small town officials screw up with public money, you investigate and report it. If they’re arrested, report it. Other than that, let them be imperfect citizens like anybody else. Especially if you have no intention of looking into the personal economic behavior of far more important officials.

This whole thing reminds me of that wonderful Anatole France quote: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” You might rewrite it: “Newspaper conventions, in their majestic equality, forbid Mulberry mayor and powerful state politicians alike from keeping their sexuality private when victimized in an alleged crime.”

Finally, I think this highlights powerfully the sheer destructive force of the closet.

Accounts of sad, brutal news events fill newspaper pages every day. See Iran. By comparison, the saga of Mulberry’s mayor is, by comparison, a small thing. Yet, I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more heartbreaking quote in The Ledger than this:

“This will be the laughingstock of my family, and we’ve been here for generations,” Mullis said. “I can take it. But my parents, and my children …”

I’m not gay, so I can’t know the fear that motivates people to hide who they are. But it can’t be healthy for a person – or for their family – to live like an actor at all times, to live as if you’ve committed an undiscovered crime.

Outings are complex things. I support them for people like politicians or preachers – like Ted Haggard, for instance – who cover for themselves by spewing homophobia about others. Beyond that, I think each person needs to make his or her own decision about coming out. But all anecdotal evidence I see and read, as well as common sense, suggests that people who live in full acceptance of who they are, live more happily, as do the people who truly love them.

And, one asks of those who oppose gay marriage, or even basic civic normalization of gay relationships, if Julian Mullis and his kids wouldn’t be far better off today if we lived in world where being gay – a thing no one can control – didn’t make you fear making your family a laughingstock? Do you really want to keep human beings in this twilight world of social existence? For those of you who are religious, do you really think this serves Christ’s purposes? Do you care?

In this economy, CSX will not lightly walk away from more than $600 million in cash and system improvements, liability or no. FDOT probably still wants to hand that money over to the company. In fact, it’s already done so to some degree in the form of ongoing overpass improvements in north central Florida. Buddy Dyer is out begging for $20,000 in legal expense money so lawyers can try to figure out a way around the senate. Democracy in action. (Funny that with all the money spent on John Thrasher and other uber lobbyists during the session, Dyer is reduced to panhandling for this. You would think GrayRobinson would just pick it up for him.) Anyway, this isn’t over. But it’s worth taking a moment for some post mortem thoughts before this deal reveals itself as the undead zombie vampire that we fear it might be.

1) First and foremost, this plan, it seems to me, represents the apotheosis of the Florida land boom mirage of the middle of this decade. Everything about it screams early 2005. It’s the product of 2005 land values, hammered out by an imperial, sunshine-be-damned Republican governor who got rich through the classic “conservative” paths of inheritance and developer welfare and by John Mica, a corporate socialist Republican congressman who raised tons of campaign cash from Big Freight Rail and later was against stimulus spending before he was for it. It relied upon perpetual 45 degree upward growth projections for Florida’s population and international shipping container traffic, not to mention contributions from local governments that signed on when they were artificially flush with property boom tax money. CSX and company dressed up all of this in the language of progressive priorities like transit and emissions reduction – “greenwashing,” it’s called. The crash of the housing bubble, and all that ensued, eviscerated much of the underlying logic of the plan. The deal would have committed itself — and our money — to a model of Florida that no longer exists. The shape of the next plan will depend largely on the type of Florida that emerges over the next few years.

2) The politics and future of Florida rail: Fascinatingly, opposition to this deal did not break down along party lines. As Dan Tracy wrote recently in the Orlando Sentinel, senators had many and various reasons for opposing the deal. But I would suggest that grassroots opposition broke down into roughly two camps – those who like rail and transit, but hated this specific deal, and those who just generally consider rail a waste of money. I’m in the former camp. I always considered this plan harmful to the long-term prospects of rail throughout Florida because of its cost, geographical patterns, and commitment to use CSX’s lines on CSX’s usurious terms. Those people who claimed it was a stepping stone for other rail systems never, ever explained how that could be.

Many props to the St. Pete Times editorial page for recognizing this in a recent editorial:

The political and business leadership in Tampa Bay can learn a few things from the failed effort — one they foolishly embraced in hopes of securing support from Central Florida for bay area rail down the road. Tampa Bay sent the wrong message to CSX about how much this community would be willing to pay for similar use of the freight corridor. The trick for Tampa Bay was not necessarily to see SunRail succeed at any cost, but to have its terms be reasonable enough to sell the public on rail in Tampa Bay. That is going to be difficult enough under the most favorable terms to the public.

Precisely.

Indeed, TBARTA has put together what seems to me a reasonable, well-conceived plan that lays out a series of multi-modal projects and projected costs – starting with light rail [as Orlando should have] – and making it clear that it all requires publicly approved funding. Tampa and Hillsborough County may place a sales tax referendum on the ballot in 2010 to fund a light rail program. The Orlando plan had no such ongoing funding base, just a commitment from local county governments to cough up money they don’t have, forever.

Those, like me, who opposed this deal more or less from the left, recognize that transit does not pay for itself any more than roads do. We, the citizens, must decide to pay for it. I personally would vote for the Tampa rail tax in a heartbeat. I would also support some sort of statewide gas tax or sales tax dedicated solely to mass transit, with an appointed board to disperse money to projects designed with public value in mind. Hell, I would support placing a ban on construction of new road capacity for 10 years and channeling all state capacity spending into bus, rail, and car-sharing service. I’d spend much more money on rail and integrated transit plans, if the plans make sense and are designed with public benefit in mind. I’d even support kicking in money to CSX if the company acted like a partner, rather than a dictator. For me, it’s a question of value, not cost. I saw very little value, and much active harm, in this deal.

All of this will require reform of FDOT, an organization that basically functions right now as a risk free, interest free investment bank for development and business interests. On top of that, it is, in the words of one Tallahassee reporter I spoke to, “institutionally opaque.” Opaqueness and billions of dollars almost without exception make a bad mix. Someone, hopefully with a title that sounds like inspector general or St. Pete Times reporter, will now crawl down DOT’s throat over this deal and identify just how much money it may have already spent and how legal its behavior in this deal may or may not have been.

A reformed DOT, backed by a new passenger rail friendly Obama administration, could begin to challenge CSX rather than treat the company as a senior arm of the government. I voted against high speed rail twice (Sorry, Doc) because I didn’t think it belonged in the constitution. I still don’t. I remain agnostic, but convinceable, on the actual idea. But one major potential benefit would be the construction of a new, publicly-owned rail corridor along I-4, which CSX could not control. There’s a reason why CSX fiercely backed Jeb Bush’s effort to repeal HSR in 2004. Once the state commits to using I-4 to connect Orlando and Tampa, rather than the A/S line, CSX begins to lose its lucrative grip on the future of rail policy in the state. Depending on engineering realities, I’d like to see a freight line accompany the passenger line. Tie it into the A and S-line. Railroad law is complex, but I think CSX would have to allow the state to do that because of anti-trust rules. I also think it would have to allow rival Norfolk Southern to access that line through the A and S lines. [I could be wrong on this, though.] In any event, think of rail line as oil. It’s a scarce commodity that becomes more valuable the less of it there is. With the right carrots and sticks, maybe CSX could be enticed/bullied into using I-4 and freeing up the A/S line for true commuter rail for Orlando, Lakeland, and Tampa.

Of course, any plan of that sort would certainly run into opposition from the “Axe-the-Tax” type folks, who acted as enemies of our enemies in this deal. And their objections are legitimate. Building true transit infrastructure would cost an enormous amount of money and would certainly require some kind statewide -and probably local – transit tax. That means referenda – or political leaders who are willing to get unelected over such a deal because its long-term benefits are so good. It would take guts. Supporting the current CSX deal brought that same level of political risk, but with no long term benefit. Thus you have the result.

3) Lakeland’s issues: I took a shot recently at Lakeland city government – minus Justin Troller and Howard Wiggs – over the letter it sent urging state senators to dismiss any communication from Lakeland-area folks who opposed the deal. The “official” position was that the city supports the deal, as long as rerouting language accompanied the final bill.

Anyway, it’s one thing to write a letter saying that people in our community have strong feelings about this deal, which we respect, but think are best addressed by supporting this deal. I have no problem with that. But don’t say – without any public discussion in advance of the letter – that some of your citizens “have conveyed the erroneous impression that the City of Lakeland is opposed to the passage of Senate Bill 1212″ – and please contact the city government only for the real scoop. That’s insulting and anti-democratic. It suggests that government doesn’t care what the people have to say and discourages public participation. Coupled with the Chamber’s literal begs for CSX deal support, this whole process has not been official/aristocratic Lakeland’s finest hour.

While I don’t have any real gripe – in concept – with the city government trying to build rerouting into the deal, it’s worth noting that this approach didn’t yield any tangible results for the city to lose.

If the rerouting – and the billion or so dollar price tag accompanying it – had been added to the deal contract, and thus enforceable in court, the city would have stood on firmer ground in warning that opposition to this deal might cost us. Likewise, if the city or DOT had secured any public hint that CSX was willing to use the Van Fleet line, they could argue that Lakeland deal opponents are taking a risk. But neither of those things happened. Instead we got meaningless legislation and a taxpayer-funded study which was then ripped away because it was only a bargaining chip.

Whatever happens in this deal, freight traffic through Lakeland will only be rerouted if the big regional powers to our east and west realize it benefits them to change the flow of freight in the state. (See the I-4 freight line idea.) No one in an executive position of power in state government cares what happens to Lakeland, per se. I think a number of people in such capacity care about I-4 corridor connectivity and development. In the best case scenario, by staking this deal in its ghoulish heart, we have kept the state and regional powers from committing to a flawed and anti-transit model and given them space to come up with something much better. Worst case scenario, they do this anyway in an underhanded end run around the senate. In that case, we’ve lost absolutely nothing and have hung a political risk around the necks of supporters.

4) My goodness, it is quiet over in Haven blog land. Surely Bob Gernert wants to insult/sic the authorities on us some more. But he’ll have to step up his game if he wants to match the “forces of evil” / “knuckledragging Neanderthals” smack coming out of Orlando.

And there you have it – for now. I look forward to writing about new subjects, though probably not as much as you look forward to reading about new subjects. But thanks for following this.

That quotation comes from a letter City Manager David Greene wrote on Dec. 8, 2006 to then FDOT secretary Denver Stutler, explaining how important the Heartland Parkway is to the CSX rail hub/ILC planned for Winter Haven. The letter urges the state to “authorize commencement of the [preliminary design and engineering] process so the Heartland Parkway can soon become reality.”

The entire letter is a marvelously straightforward statement of the relationship between the proposed Heartland Parkway and the CSX deal, which I’ve always seen as the great untold story of both issues. Between them, these two proposals call for roughly $10 billion in public spending to reorganize where and how freight and people move in Central Florida. When you look closely at the effort to build this wall of money, and at who it might benefit other than CSX, more often than not you see state Sen. JD Alexander, members and alumni of Orlando’s GrayRobinson law firm, and a consistent cast of supporting characters and property owners, who between them own many properties that surround the hub or line the proposed parkway route.

For instance, Highland Cassidy, a partner with Alexander in pushing the Heartland Parkway and in several Winter Haven-area business ventures, has spent at least $8 million since 2004 to purchase at least 200 acres of property surrounding the would-be hub site, according to Polk Property Appraiser records.

I’ve made a habit in this space of casting aspersions on Alexander’s role in all of this, often noting his purchase of Phoenix Industries in the middle of the CSX fight and his relationship to the would-be Heartland Parkway. These references are a convenient shorthand for the set of interlocking and massively complex interests, stretching from Orange County to Hendry County and beyond, that have enormous potential stakes in what happens with the CSX deal. And the least of those interests is whether 3,000 people a day get to ride a train in Orlando.

I got to thinking about this again recently when I read this discussion with Alexander from a recent story in The Ledger:

“I think SunRail is a good policy. It makes sense. But it’s not to die for, for me.” He said the most important issue for him was the relocation of a CSX hub to eastern Polk County that would bring hundreds of jobs, “and that’s done,” he said.

Though a number of news organizations have danced around this, I don’t think anyone has fully laid out why relocating the hub might be “the most important issue” to Alexander. So I’m going to take a stab at it here, using just publicly available reporting, property records, and official government correspondence. I have to warn you that this will get long, but I don’t know how else to do it. Frankly, I’m under no illusion that anybody other than my mother will read all of this piece. But I think someone ought to put it all in one place.

“Final Frontier”

The best place to start, I think, lies in the first few paragraphs of “Final Frontier,” a fabulous piece of journalism from reporter Cynthia Barnett, which Florida Trend magazine published in July 2006.

In February [2006], longtime Orlando lawyer J. Charles Gray, representing a consortium of rural landowners, sketched a suggested route for a new highway onto a road map and faxed it over to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, the agency that builds and runs the state’s toll roads…

…Gray’s map showed Turnpike officials how they could tweak a northern branch of the proposed highway to avoid a private golf community and to end closer to a recently announced intermodal hub for transportation company CSX Corp. in Winter Haven… [Emphasis Mine]

[E-mails Lindsay Peterson and I obtained from FDOT back in my Trib days indicate that Alexander met with then Gov. Jeb Bush and DOT secretary Denver Stutler on Dec. 5, 2005 to pitch the Heartland Parkway. It's not clear if CSX came up that day.]

…The plans made public [in March 2006] by the Turnpike Enterprise followed Gray’s cartography. In fact, internal DOT and Turnpike Enterprise documents show, Gray, [Rick] Dantzler and Florida Sen. J.D. Alexander, a Lake Wales citrus grower, so influenced the planning for the north-south route that they even convinced state officials to dub it the “Heartland Parkway.”

You really should read the whole thing. Using the Heartland Parkway as an object lesson, it explained how the housing/development bubble economy of 2003-2007 and the struggles of traditional agribusiness were pushing big landowners – like Alexander – into the home-growing business. It’s a valuable snapshot in time that includes many names familiar to Polk Countians.

J. Charles Gray is the Gray in GrayRobinson, the man as responsible as anyone for bringing Disney World to Orlando and USF Polytechnic to Lakeland during his long career of influential legal and development work. In 2006, Gray was the lawyer and registered agent for HEART – the Heartland Economic Agricultural and Rural Task Force – the “consortium of landowners” mentioned in Barnett’s story.

Back in 2007, I posted list of the landowning companies that made up HEART. They are a who’s who of west Central Florida Big Ag and development operations. I want to focus here on three of them: Atlantic Blue, Alico, and Highland Cassidy.

As has been widely reported, Alexander owns a controlling interest in the first two companies. The St. Pete Times delved into how Atlantic Blue and Alico stood to benefit from the Heartland Parkway in a March 2007 story titled “Who’s Driving This Road Effort: Big landowners, including a state senator, would benefit from a highway they want built.”

Follow the link to find a terrific flash map that matches the properties in question with the proposed parkway route that – remember – Gray reportedly drew. You’ll find Alexander’s Blue Head Ranch sitting dead in the middle of the swath, like a rabbit in a snake’s belly. Here are a few key graphs from the story:

Blue Head Ranch is flat, parched grassland split in two by a stretch of blacktop called U.S. 70.

But this dusty outpost could become one of Central Florida’s hottest real estate commodities if a mammoth toll road wins approval by the state. Nearly all of Blue Head Ranch lies within a large swath where a $7-billion expressway could go.

The 62,000-acre ranch belongs to a company headed by J.D. Alexander, a powerful state senator with Florida royalty in his blood.

Alexander has been instrumental in pushing for the road by helping to form a lobbying group stocked with some of the most storied real estate dynasties in Florida. They, too, own thousands of acres along the toll road route.

The road campaign comes at a time when Alexander’s businesses, and those of some of his relatives, are shifting from farming and ranching to land development…

The key thing about both this story and “Final Frontier” is that both focused on property south of Polk County and hardly touched on the spot where the parkway would meet the hub site on SR 60, south of Winter Haven.

With that in mind, let’s revisit Winter Haven City Manager David Greene’s Dec. 2006 letter to FDOT Secretary Denver Stutler, urging him to expedite the Heartland Parkway because of the impacts of the CSX hub, of which Greene may be the single biggest booster. Sorry, I only have this in hard copy. Key passages:

“This [CSX hub] project will significantly affect Intrastate and Interstate highways, as well as the City and County road network(s). The Heartland Parkway will allow CSX the ability to efficiently move goods throughout Florida and the Southeastern United States. Many of the approximate[ly] one thousand semi trucks that will enter and leave the ILC daily will be able to utilize the Parkway, which upon construction will be a more cost effective, safe, and environmentally sound way to move goods. This will significantly reduce traffic on US 27, SR 60 and US Highway 27…

“…The Heartland Parkway will be a vital link to the movement of goods and services throughout Florida and the Southeastern United States. The proposed CSX Integrated Logistics Center is very important to the future of Winter Haven, Polk County, Central Florida and the State of Florida.”

Got that? They’re a package. One helps justify the other. Everyone I ever talked to about the hub, on whatever side, agreed that the existing road network surrounding the hub was inadequate for its long-term traffic impacts. Now, how might you solve that problem?

Alexander himself sounded this theme when I interviewed him in April 2007, back when he would talk to me. I asked him if he was worried about the CSX road impacts, and he answered: “Sure I’m worried, but I have to look at what’s happening. The CSX thing is a reality. It’s going to spur economic development. The county really doesn’t have a choice but to improve our infrastructure.”

More technically, the 2035 traffic projection map Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise produced for the Heartland Parkway route pegs the currently rural hub section of the route as easily the busiest section not directly tied to I-4 by 2035. It’s seen as far busier than where the new highway would meet the Polk Parkway in heavily populated suburban South Lakeland. That would seem absurd if planners weren’t already projecting hub traffic, before the hub even exists.

People tend to think that Gov. Charlie Crist killed the Heartland Parkway in spring of 2007. Not true. The portion that would link the Polk Parkway, the hub, and I-4 is being studied right now. What’s gone is the PR campaign. HEART’s extensive website as been swallowed by GoDaddy, and I couldn’t find a link to the 2035 traffic study map I mentioned above anywhere online. It used to be a quick Google search. (I printed a copy back in the day.)

Anyway, it is true that this so-called “Central Polk Parkway” section does not include the north-south route that would run through Alexander’s property south of Polk and provided much of the highway’s controversy. But supporters always planned to start with the central Polk portion and move south from there. And the CSX hub traffic would greatly enhance the case for the road in Polk. Even I would admit it makes sense to build the Central Polk Parkway if the hub comes to fruition.

Which leads us back to the question of conflict. In the “Who’s Driving This Road Effort?” story, the SPT writes:

About the same time, Alexander said, he asked the Senate’s general counsel whether he had a conflict [related to the parkway]. He said he was told if he avoided discussions with government decisionmakers on a subject that affects him financially, he had no conflict.

Remember that.

The Hub, Highland Cassidy, and Phoenix

Here’s where Highland Cassidy , Alexander’s HEART partner, comes in.

The well-known Polk development company is actually a sort of joint venture of two other well-known Polk development companies: Cassidy Properties (owned by Winter Haven’s prominent Cassidy family) and Highland Equities (owned by Robert and Joel Adams).

Alexander’s Atlantic Blue is in business both with Highland Cassidy and what it calls the “Cassidy Organization” – in a Winter Haven housing development and two Winter Haven hotels, respectively.

By my count, Highland Cassidy owns at least 220 acres of land surrounding the hub site. All of it has been purchased since 2004 at what looks like a total cost of more than $8 million. That does not count the additional 22 acres that an entity called Winter Haven Investment I LLC purchased from Gerald Bowen and former state legislator Marty Bowen on March 15, 2008 for $1.3 million. The managers of that entity are listed as Robert Adams and Albert Cassidy It has since changed its name to Winter Haven Development LLC.

The Polk Property Appraiser web site is a little tricky to decipher, with some of the sales figures seeming to overlap parcels. So I encourage you to check my reporting and math for yourself. Here are the relevant parcel numbers I could identify: Highland Cassidy: 262915000000012030, 262915000000022010, 262922000000011010, 262923000000033010, 262921690500020600. Winter Haven Investment I: 262915000000012090. These two entities own most, though not all, of the undeveloped property shown in the map below. The rail line for the hub is in the southwest corner of the map. Some of the property is off this map, which I’ve provided just for orientation.

Bottom line: Business partners with JD Alexander have more than $9 million invested in 242 acres of land surrounding the hub site. I do not allege that Alexander is a partner in these hub properties. I have no evidence of that. But CSX has told Tom Palmer that the timeline of constructing the hub “will depend on whether the commuter rail legislation, which includes some funding to move some equipment to the Winter Haven facility from the current facility in Orange County, passes.”

CSX told the Tampa Tribune recently that it “will build the hub within the next five years even if the commuter rail deal fails.” Five years? Now that’s a number I hadn’t heard before. Think all that money Highland Cassidy spent on hub property might start getting heavy in this economy if it has to wait a few years for the hub?

It’s important to remember that the deal includes $23 million for “relocation” of the Taft Yard hub in Orlando to the Winter Haven site. No one I know, myself included, has been able to get FDOT to define “relocation” clearly. But the state’s announcements indicate that the money will save CSX some hub-related cost. It’s about a quarter of the $100 million price tag CSX has assigned to building the hub. Alexander has worked for and voted for this deal, particularly the hub part. One could reasonably ask if it’s in Alexander’s best interest for his business partners to receive a healthy return on their investments near the hub and if the hub’s quick construction would help. And will that relocation money he’s voting for help ensure that. I don’t know, but I think it’s a reasonable question. And for any reporters out there, keep an eye on that $23 million even if the CSX deal goes down.

And then there’s Phoenix Industries, which Alexander’s Atlantic Blue bought in very early 2008. The warehousing and distribution company sports CSX’s logo on its homepage and boasts of “unique dedicated service offerings with CSX and Union Pacific Distribution Services.” It’s an “approved transloader” for CSX and owns a warehouse a mile or two up the rail line from the hub site.

Alexander recently addressed the Phoenix question in a Ledger story:

He said that Phoenix does less than two percent of its business with CSX and he requested an opinion from the Senate lawyer before the 2007 purchase to make sure there would be no conflicts of interest.

“For me to be muzzled by unfounded allegations and not advocate for the jobs that will help the people in my district would be a much greater wrong,” he said

Maybe Alexander could make some of these legal opinions public?

Anyway, because it’s a fool’s game to argue with a company about its operations, I can’t confirm or refute that incredibly vague “less than two percent of its business” line. Phoenix doesn’t talk about its revenue. But assume for a moment that two percent of general revenue comes from CSX business. Phoenix employs more than 60 people, and I would guess that $20 million per year in revenue is a pretty conservative estimate. Two percent of that is $400,000. That’s not trivial, at least not for a schlub like me. And does anybody think that number is going down if the deal goes through?

Remember what the SPT reported in its Heartland Parkway story:

About the same time, Alexander said, he asked the Senate’s general counsel whether he had a conflict. He said he was told if he avoided discussions with government decisionmakers on a subject that affects him financially, he had no conflict.

GrayRobinson

A stone’s throw from Highland Cassidy’s hub properties, along SR 60, we come to our next chapter and ask this question:

What would it be like to own oodles of acres of undeveloped agricultural land at the very spot where an existing highway, a major rail distribution hub, and a major tollway are projected to meet? Ask the Stokes family.

CSX, in at least two separate transactions, has already paid a total of $1.2 million to Robert G. Stokes, Jeffrey Stokes, and Stokes Groves for the land with which to build the access road from SR 60 to the hub site. Again, here are the parcel numbers: 262927000000044010 and 262934000000033030.

Robert G. Stokes is a former Polk circuit judge who works for GrayRobinson. A Jan. 2007 profile in InTheField magazine says he joined GrayRobinson in 1995, but I don’t think that’s right. I think it’s more likely he worked with Lane Trohn in Lakeland until GrayRobinson absorbed it circa 2002.

The article is cute, waxing on about how “Robert and his family have always valued this beautiful piece of old Florida, but he realized then how important it was to other people, especially in times of so many developments.”

Meanwhile, back in the real world, in August of 2008, The Ledger reported:

Winter Haven City commissioners gave preliminary approval Monday night to develop 676 acres near the planned CSX rail facility with a mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses.

The property owned by Stokes Groves Inc. is north and south of State Road 60 and east of County Road 655A. It is now woodlands, pasture, groves and wetlands.

City officials said that within five years, 93 residential units, 100,000 square feet of retail, 65,000 square feet of office space and 500,000 of industrial space are planned. The rest of property will be developed over 20 years.

Whatever. It’s the Stokes’ land. Good for them.

But the whole thing is emblematic of how GrayRobinson people just keep showing up everywhere in the CSX/Heartland Parkway axis.

Obviously, Gray established HEART for Alexander and friends and apparently drew the Parkway route, as I’ve mentioned. I am told by a source I trust implicitly, who was there, that it was Gray who last year put Gov. Charlie Crist on the spot during a meeting in Tally with Orlando-area business and civic types by asking for and receiving a public statement of support for the CSX deal.

Gray also appeared with Crist, Alexander, and a few other folks last legislative session to announce Crist’s support for USF Polytechnic. Gray represented the landowner of the property in question — the Williams Company. But that’s a whole other story, as they say.

But it’s Gray’s partner, Fred Leonhardt, who gets much of the credit for pushing the deal on behalf of his lobbying clients, which include the city of Orlando, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX), Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, and Floridians For Better Transportation.

Leonhardt’s Florida Chamber of Commerce bio identifies him as “the lead lawyer for the 55 West Condominium project in downtown Orlando.” I don’t know if that’s still the case. The troubled project appears to be the latest reincarnation of the once-famed Church Street Station complex. For what it’s worth, SunRail includes a Church Street Station stop on its line.

Lakeland native and future House Speaker Dean Cannon, the driving force for the CSX deal in the House, worked for GrayRobinson until 2007.

And last week, during a contentious committee hearing over the CSX deal, the parliamentary tactics of Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami on behalf of the deal left Sen. Paula Dockery fuming. And why might this south Floridian maneuver on behalf of an Orlando-area priority? Who knows? But it’s worth noting that his brother, Renier, is a lobbyist and lawyer working for GrayRobinson’s Miami office.

I’m sure there are other GrayRobinson connections I’m missing, but you get the picture. Look, I’ve got no problem with effective advocacy and skillful use of power. That’s what clients pay for. When that machine works for you, it’s great. See USFP. When it works against you, not so much. But at some point, just as a matter of general civic principle, it would be nice if I could tell the difference between my government and a law firm.

Conclusion

Yes, yes, I know, my God, he’s finally almost done. Sorry.

I started this off by talking about “a set of interlocking and massively complex interests” that have major stakes in this logistical reshuffling of Central Florida. I hope I’ve at least provided a comprehensible description of what I perceive them to be.

A couple of caveats: obviously, macroeconomic conditions are vastly different now than they were when all this began to play out in 2005 or so. I don’t know what ultimate impact that has, but it’s certainly likely to have some. I think the downturn has already made the CSX deal a much harder sell than it otherwise would be. That being said, every deal I’ve addressed here remains alive.

Also, it’s important for me to note that most of what I reported here is easily available online. Indeed, much of it has already been reported by other news organizations. Other elements come from public records that are a little harder to find, but still available. It’s hard to allege conspiracies when so much of this happened in broad daylight. It takes a certain size of stones for a sitting state senator to announce, in the middle of a heated legislative debate over CSX in which that senator taken CSX’s side, that he’s purchased a big company so tied to CSX that it keeps its logo on its homepage . I don’t think anyone can accuse Alexander of going out of his way to hide things.

Rather, I’m sure he thinks he’s done nothing wrong . And maybe he hasn’t. It’s not for me to judge in any official capacity. Maybe this is just the way things are done. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people tell me that in the last few years.

But I’m sure that’s what Ray Sansom thought, too.

PS — Anyone mentioned in this piece who wants to respond to anything in it will have free rein to do so. I will happily correct any demonstrable errors of fact.

(Note: First posted at Lakeland Local .)

Each of them, through committees and employee donations, provided $10,000 to Mica’s 2008 campaign, according to Opensecrets.org.

The railroads are tied for third among Mica’s largest contributors. Did I mention this is a freight deal?

Why aren’t the fiscal conservatives or the fiscally responsible in Tallahassee asking why the state of Florida is paying a national corporation that made a record $2.2 billion profit last year – up 26 percent from the year before, incidentally – so much for a project that some observers say could be done for one-third or less than the current price tag? — State Budget Priorities: Florida Holds Gold Mine for CSX

The Ledger editorial writers understand what so many reporters in Central Florida have missed with their questions about train noise and city versus city squabbles. The CSX deal is corporate welfare at a time when the citizens of this state can not afford to pay for basic services.

I urge you to take the time to pass along The Ledger editorial to your friends and family. Take a moment to explain the history of the commuter project. Remind them this isn’t a deal for a commuter railroad, this is a deal to railroad the commuters.

photo credit: by Chuck Welch for Metro I4 News

[ONE QUESTION WASTED]
Townsend interviewed in Ledger’s “Five Questions”

Last night the Ledger posted an article where Lakeland’s paper of record asked the Downtown Lakeland Partnership’s Julie Townsend* five questions about her organization’s continuing fight against Florida wasting taxpayer dollars to give CSX corporate welfare.

Yes, the project that used to be called Central Florida Commuter Rail. The project that used to be responsible for forcing CSX to build a new ILC in Winter Haven and running many more longer trains through downtown Lakeland.

You remember that don’t you? But I guess the Ledger believes we have always been at war with Oceana.

Back to the Townsend questions. I finished the article and wondered why 20% of the questions ere wasted on:

CSX officials have said that if the purchase of the 61 miles of track goes through, there will be money available to help to install quiet zones along the rail corridor in<0x00A0>downtown Lakeland, but if the deal falls through, the quiet zones are probably off the table. Which is a bigger issue for the DLP: quiet zones or the increased number of trains the Orlando deal will bring?

Townsend gave a courteous answer “To my knowledge, CSX has never offered to pay for quiet zones….”

I wish she had said, “Stop misleading with talk about quiet zones. It’s the wasted tax money and traffic stupid. It always has been” (To paraphrase a Bush.)

File Storms Under Aquatic Birds (genus Gavia)

Part of our reading area has a state Senator, Rhona Storms. She was in the news recently:

The economy is a shambles. State revenue is in a free-fall. House leaders in both parties stand accused of misusing their political powers. This week, state Sen. Ronda Storms identified another menace: The Dewey Decimal System — Libraries Offer Plenty For Storms To Stew Over

Some might give Storms credit. The Dewey Decimal system is a proprietary product of OCLC. Libraries use the company to catalog books and must pay a small price per item placed in their catalog. (Assuming they want to use OCLC’s common cataloging info. They could save the money and not join with OCLC, but it would cost them more to do all their own original cataloging. Trust me on this one. I spent seven years dealing with OCLC and catalogers on a daily basis.

There is a system that is owned by the American people: the Library of Congress system, but cataloging under that system also has costs.

Storms proposes libraries use the BAM method. You know where bookstores place items under big signs in some odd sort of order. You know how easy it is to find the book you need at Borders or Books-a-Million?

(I’ll wait for my sarcasm challenged daughter to catch that last sentence.)

OK, it is simply silly that Storms believes only “little old librarians” will be upset to lose proper shelving of books. So will every single library patron. It’s not a miracle that you can look up a book and go to a shelf and find it properly placed. It is the result of a lot of hard work and a precise system of cataloging.

It may save a few dollars to not use Dewey, but I promise that when your child needs that book on loons the night before the paper is due…you will be glad you don’t instead find a biography on Rhonda Storms.

And as a bonus, this headline from today’s Ledger:

Woman Accused of Biting Hubby’s Thingy

Seriously? “Thingy”?! It’s a penis people.

The Orlando Sentinel, where the Ledger got the story, wasn’t much better: Angry wife jailed after biting husband’s you-know-what

Note that the Sentinel’s URL does reference “penis.”

* – Townsend is the wife of Lakeland Local writer Billy Townsend, but that makes no difference to me.

photo 1 credit: Cat Carter for ylakeland

photo 2 credit: becflies2001

(Cross-posted at LakelandLocal.com)

First, and most remarkably, Executive Editor Janet Coats and Publisher Denise Palmer co-wrote (one wonders how much co-writing was really involved) a top of the page declaration that the paper would not cease to exist after the Super Bowl, as various rumors have suggested in recent weeks.

But it didn’t stop there. The piece went on to compare news hole and coverage with the Trib’s arch-rival, the St. Pete Times. The Trib’s piece concludes, with stats to back it up, that the Trib is providing more local coverage generally, and far more Tampa and Hillsborough coverage specifically, than the Times. It also sought to portray the Times as disguising the level of its own content and newsroom cuts.

I’ve never really seen anything like it in a major publication. On the other hand, I have long thought newspapers and other journalism institutions should engage each other – not just on business issues like this, but on coverage and public issues. I think it is that the real strength of the blogosphere relative to traditional news.

And as a bonus, there’s a big interview with John Mica, R-CSX, the congressman from Orlando who is the driving force behind the rail deal. It’s a beaut. You need to go read it for yourself. This guy is a piece of work. These types of printed transcripts of interviews tend to obscure personality. Not in this case. Here’s one key excerpt:

Tribune: One of our concerns with the Orlando rail plan is how it might affect Tampa and Lakeland. CSX told us they are moving more freight trains to this side of the state and wouldn’t allow passenger trains on freight lines here. What are your thoughts on that?

Mica: That’s not true. What they have said is that their plans right now wouldn’t be to do anything. I don’t have a proposal from this area. That’s why I’m saying this area has to get in the mix. Most of existing rights of way are owned by CSX. If you pee on CSX’s parade in Central Florida, do you think they’re going to cooperate with other entities?

Uh, yes it is true, unless you pay CSX giant access extortion fees and put it in complete control of all rail policy in the state and build it whatever it wants. Trust me, pee or not pee, CSX is not going to “cooperate with other entities.” It is going to dictate.

Say this with me for the 8,000th time: John Mica doesn’t care a whit about commuter rail. Mica cares about using taxpayer money to construct a single, massive freight rail corridor through west Central Florida and otherwise putting in place CSX’s business plan for the state with no consideration for how it affects communities. The crappy Orlando system is a fig leaf.

photo credit: theogeo

They seem to have momentum on their side, but it seemed that way last year, too. So we’ll see.

But no matter what happens, this is great: “Central Florida rail backers through MetroPlan Orlando have met privately with their counterparts in Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and South Florida over the last six months to get all four regions on the same page behind Central Florida’s plan.

For starters, expect backers to launch a new marketing campaign for the project dropping the “Central” from Central Florida Commuter Rail and calling it something other than commuter rail.”

Two thoughts:

1) More secrecy. Hmmmm, because, of course, this project has suffered from too much transparency. If any transportation official in any region thinks this plan, as currently constructed, doesn’t delay or drive up the cost any plan they might have, they are fools.

2) They are going to rename it. Hee. But the name can’t have “Central” or “commuter” in it. Hee hee. The cabal doesn’t want anybody to know that the Central Florida Commuter Rail Plan is a Central Florida commuter rail plan. A destructive boondogle/corporate giveaway by any other other name…

Anyway, in the spirit of regional cooperation so on display here, let’s help out our friends from Orlando and have a little fun. Send in your suggestion for a new CSX/Commuter Rail name.

If you don’t want to comment, you can do it by email. Reach me at bitown1@gmail.com. Here’s a couple from me:

“The $1.2 billion state and federal implementation of CSX’s business plan.” – Admittedly, not very catchy or creative.

How about the “John Mica post-Congressional cushy freight rail employment plan?”

All right, smarty pants, see if you can do better. Remember, no “Central,” no “Commuter.” After careful scrutiny, I will select a winner. The lucky submitter gets a used gift card and my appreciation. If that’s not enough, go Blagojevich yourselves.

Cross Posted at Lakeland Local

photo credit: Liquid Lucidity

“Teachers in Central Florida public schools are headed back to the classroom this year without a pay raise.” — Teachers ‘not going to get a penny’ in raises

“Gov. Charlie Crist told state agency heads Thursday that he wants construction projects sped up so more money can be pumped into the sluggish state economy.” — ‘Accelerate Florida’ With Construction, Crist Says

Bonus:

Now the true costs start… “The construction of two new roads that could help relieve traffic problems that the planned CSX rail freight terminal will make worse should be top priorities for seeking state road funds, the Polk Transportation Planning Organization agreed Thursday.” — CSX Project Pushes 2 Roads Higher on Construction Request

“On Aug. 29, Garcia and thousands of other Spanish-speaking Hispanics in Central Florida will read El Nuevo Dia for the last time.” — Spanish daily El Nuevo Dia Orlando about to fold

One of the sillier editorials you’ll read. Don’t miss the reader comments. “District 19 deserves better than Mr. Siplin. But a weak opponent compels us to endorse Gary Siplin in the Aug. 26 Democratic primary.” — A weak primary opponent compels us to endorse the senator

Note: MI4′s Don’t Miss column will be missing in action this weekend. See you Monday.

“The campaign to wipe out most school property taxes in Florida moved to a courtroom Wednesday, with an openly skeptical state judge raising the possibility that the ambitious tax plan could be torpedoed before it ever reaches voters.” — Judge has issue with wording of Amendment 5 tax ballot

“The Central Florida Regional Planning Council on Wednesday approved the proposed 318-acre rail terminal site in southern Winter Haven. The approval, with 61 conditions on traffic, the environment and other factors, has been forwarded to the city of Winter Haven.” — Planning Council Approves CSX Project

“Remember the scene in “Airplane II, The Sequel” where two airport security guards get their kicks watching a special camera “undress” female passengers? We laughed about it then, but real-world technology that peeks under your clothes is now headed to Tampa International Airport, and it’s nothing to smile about.” — A Step Too Far For Airport Scanners

OK. I promise not to say anything too snarky or gratuitous today. It’s all business. I want to address a key line of rhetorical attack that Ms. Healy and some of our friends and neighbors in the Winter Haven government and chamber and Orlando area have used throughout this saga.

Here it is, distilled, in a quote from Ms. Healy’s most recent column:

“Instead of representing voters in Osceola, [Paula Dockery] seems far more concerned about pleasing trial attorneys and labor unions, and about the possibility of a few extra freight trains in her hometown of Lakeland.” (emphasis mine)

Put aside the dirty trial lawyers and awful working people for now, let’s consider this “just a few trains” line. Take a close look (you too, Bob) at the two property appraiser images pictures that accompany this post.

Those parallel lines you see running through the heart of downtown Lakeland represent the 100 feet of right of way that CSX owns. As you can see, CSX is not using anywhere near the full 100-feet right now. The rest of it extends into downtown parking areas and sidewalks – almost to Munn Park – and even into some existing buildings, including the one housing Crispers on Kentucky (Are you listening, Publix?) and the police station. It does pinch down a bit east of downtown, and I’m not sure what the ultimate consequence of that might be.

Some years ago, and I’ve seen the old photos from what I guess were the 60s and 70s, there were multiple rail lines – not one. They cut a much wider swath through downtown. I don’t know all the history behind their disappearance, but I suspect they went away at the time that freight rail nearly disappeared in the country as a whole, back in the 70s and early 80s. (That’s an entirely different, but very important story.) No one, including the rail companies, who wanted to get rid of lines for efficiency reasons, thought they were coming back. But they are, thanks to the cost of oil.

If DOT pays the $600 million-plus to merge the A and S-lines into the single JD Alexander/Bob Gernert Memorial Freight Superhighway and runs it through Lakeland’s core, does anyone think CSX won’t unleash bulldozers up to the edge of its full downtown right of way? Does anyone think those multiple tracks aren’t coming back? I don’t have timetables or copies of secret plans. But at $4 gas, freight rail owns the future of shipping.

In those pictures I’ve seen, the tracks and area around them looked ugly and industrial. A lot has happened in downtown Lakeland since those tracks reduced to one. Millions in public and private investment have created a walkable urban core that can rival any mid-sized city. We have grown smartly and responsibly – unlike our friends in Winter Haven and Orlando.

So this deal is not about “a few trains.” It’s not about numbers. It’s about setting patterns, forever. This has always been about reorganizing Florida’s shipping economy around CSX and a few other people. Passenger rail is an afterthought. For Lakeland, this means the long-term, irreversible creation of an industrial corridor through what has become the living room of our city. It is the squandering of huge public investment spent in good faith and under the principles of good growth in the service of a plan in which we were never included.

I’m not sure whay it’s so hard for the people behind this deal to acknowledge this and act in good faith to mitigate it. I welcome anyone to explain why I’m wrong. Tell me why what I’m describing won’t happen. And don’t just shout “misinformation,” make an argument.

Even if Jane Healy – or Buddy Dyer or Dean Cannon or Bob Gernert or Jacob Stuart – think I’m full of it, why not just humor us? If it’s really “just a few trains,” why not call on CSX and the state to write into the deal that CSX can’t use any more of the right-of-way in Lakeland than it already does and that any new line built on the existing line must be dedicated for passenger rail?

Again, if it’s just a few trains, that shouldn’t be a problem. Least of all for Ms. Healy, as a writer with no accountability. I have no idea if this would fly with anyone. But it would be one more concrete offer than anyone in any significant position has made to ease Lakeland’s concerns.

That’s what so amazing to me. Lakeland, and the many east Polk residents who don’t want State Road 60 and their neighborhoods turned into the mother of all truck stops, are less powerful than the Orlando political cabal. We have been reminded of that incessantly. The only leverage we have over our future in dealing with this deal is its lack of existence. The moment it does go through, CSX and the state will say Lakeland who? Polk how? Seth what? We will be at the mercy of whatever makes CSX money. That means there is zero incentive not to fight. CSX will punish Lakeland if it’s lucrative for it to do so. If it’s not lucrative, it won’t. So there’s nothing for Lakeland to lose. I promise you that CSX won’t spend one red cent more on any mitigation than someone in a position of power makes it spend. Why on earth wouldn’t the state offer Lakeland something to lose solely out of tactics? And no, rumblings about a quiet zone and meaningless legislative intent don’t count.

And for those people who say this is the first step in a Jacksonville to Tampa rail link, please explain how that will physically happen over a right of way CSX needs for its supersized freight ambitions. I still haven’t heard it. Bob Gernert said a while back that the state would double track all the way to Tampa eventually. Really? And how does it plan to get access to CSX’s property? Once the state commits itself in Orlando to using CSX land for its statewide rail links, CSX gets to name its price and its access rules for each new segment. We are already paying more than $400 million for 61 miles. According to deal proponents, that’s the true value of the corridor. How much will that per mile cost jump, and what concession will the state yield for the next chunk, whereever it may be. Think about that TBARTA.

Meanwhile, California just agreed to pay $14.3 million for 32 miles of active freight track. I’m a writer not a mathematician, but…I know, I know, somehow that’s apples and oranges.

Jane Healy would serve Orlando’s best interest if she pressured her people, the state and CSX to either move the Winter Haven hub or come up with a meaningful mitigation package. But that would require strategic, regional thinking, not verbal spitballs. It would require her to drop the ego and the attitude and look for solutions, not villains. She could provide a service by calling on the state to wait for the results of the DOT study of Polk impacts and rail future that should have been done at the beginning. She could call for a reasonable compromise on the liability issue, which frankly, is not my area of expertise.

The idea that we must hurry because federal money for rail transit is going to go away with $4-gallon gas, a Democratic congress, and most likely a Democratic president is laughable on its face. There is no urgency beyond the urgency of people who know they are pushing a destructive, anti-transit deal.

Just take another look at those maps.

Oh, and for good measure, the regional planning council should vote down the hub in Wednesday’s hearing. It’s a vote without consequence since everyone supposedly knows Winter Haven will ignore the council. It will be intriguing to see where Lakeland’s own County Commissioner Bob English, up for re-electioin, stands. Remember, he didn’t even want a DRI for the hub. Anyway, I say the council should make a mockery of a process that’s a mockery.

P.S. I would love for anyone involved in this deal, Jane Healy or otherwise, to respond to anything I’ve written. Chuck is more than willing to publish serious responses here on LL.

“Thirty-one miles of the 61-mile Central Florida Commuter Rail project has been approved for final design, project backers announced Monday.” — Orlando Commuter Rail Takes Another Step

“With a boost from some tax-break incentives, Orlando-based Planar Energy Devices Inc. says it plans to establish a microelectronics plant in Central Florida within the next three months.
” — Tax incentives to fuel energy startup’s presence in Orlando

So many reasons why you should oppose Amendment 5 and Homebuyers, Beware: Tax Aid Is Loan

“Nagging complaints about some generic drugs are casting doubt on one of medicine’s most widely held assumptions: that generics are just as good as brand-name versions, only cheaper.” — Rx for trouble? Generics don’t always work as well as brand names, critics say. The FDA disagrees. We take a look.

“In 2015, just a few years from now, Florida will be in deep trouble. Who wants the dubious notoriety of “last in the nation?”" — Florida’s Coming Medical Disaster

Bonus:

The Sentinel is still mad at Paula Dockery

“Home builders demanded answers Saturday to questions about a proposed constitutional tax amendment that voters will decide on the Nov. 4 ballot. While state leaders who favored the tax-swapping Amendment 5 promised builders their tax bills would drop, opponents assured an audience of about 100 that their taxes would increase.” — Rival claims of tax-swap backers and foes baffle Florida home builders group

Editorials:

“Someone in state government needs to step up and address the standoff over the proposed commuter-rail project in Orlando.” — DOT Should Review Other Options To Build Commuter Rail In Orlando

“The old maxim that Central Florida officials couldn’t care less about conserving resources no longer holds water — especially when you consider how so many of them literally are now working to change the landscape.” — Smarter landscaping could help relieve water crisis

Bonus:

“He was a playboy bachelor, the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction and a promising candidate for the vice presidency. His name was Claude Kirk Jr.” — ‘Claudius Maximus’ Blazed Trail Followed By Crist