[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Exactly, despite the fact a majority of his constituents were in favor of HSR.

Oh is that why this happened in 2004?

Derailed: Florida Amendment for $25B Bullet Train Bites Dust in Vote - Site Selection Online

[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by OrlFlaUsa

The only silver lining to this is that other young independent voters like me will remember this in 2 years and make sure that the republicans, who we gave a 2nd chance during the mid-terms, will be the minority party for years to come. I try not to polarize in my posts and simply discuss my feelings on certain issues, but this along with all the other far right extremism going on in WI, OH, etc, has me (and millions) ready to switch sides and vote for the President. Oh and I'm sorry, there isn't a potential candidate on the right that can compete with Obama, seriously who??? Gingrich, Palin, Huckabee? If moderate John McCain couldn't pull it out, good luck with any of those 3. However Trump might be an option, just like Rick Scott, he's a CEO and could run America like a business. $75 million for Scott, what do you think sounds right, $250 million for Trump??

Im sure Scott would be happy to take that $$$ and use it for other Florida infrastructure. It's just that the Obama administration has basically told Scott what he has to do with it.

Scott says funding deepening of Port of Miami, rather than funding high-speed rail, will create 30,000 jobs (http://www.flcourier.com/flflorida/4653-scott-says-funding-deepening-of-port-of-miami-rather-than-funding-high-speed-rail-will-create-30000-jobs - broken link)

[hurricaneMan1992]

High Speed Rail SHOULD start in the northeast and California. If the HSR money ends up going there, that's better for the country than a Disney-Busch Gardens train. Meanwhile, the improvements at the Port of Miami, as well as Florida's freight infrastructure in general, create both short-term jobs AND have the potential to attact future business for years to come.

It has been argued that tech jobs would be attracted by having HSR, but I don't buy that. Just consider how decentralized Silicon Valley is...it's not even easy to access on the Caltrain, and BART doesn't even come close. High tech jobs tend to be in office parks that you have to drive to anyway.

[Kevin from Tampa]

Originally Posted by hurricaneMan1992

High Speed Rail SHOULD start in the northeast and California. If the HSR money ends up going there, that's better for the country than a Disney-Busch Gardens train. Meanwhile, the improvements at the Port of Miami, as well as Florida's freight infrastructure in general, create both short-term jobs AND have the potential to attact future business for years to come.

It has been argued that tech jobs would be attracted by having HSR, but I don't buy that. Just consider how decentralized Silicon Valley is...it's not even easy to access on the Caltrain, and BART doesn't even come close. High tech jobs tend to be in office parks that you have to drive to anyway.

AGREED.

It's a fantasy to think that building a white elephant train like this is going to somehow make bio-tech and software companies start popping up in Florida.

You know how we make that happen? Fund HEAVILY in our universities. Make UF, FSU, USF, and UCF centers of research and innovation. Graduate tons of STEM degrees. Make Florida's higher ed system competitive with California and Texas. THAT is how you attract high-tech industry. A bullet train? C'mon.

[tomno00]

Originally Posted by Kevin from Tampa

AGREED.

It's a fantasy to think that building a white elephant train like this is going to somehow make bio-tech and software companies start popping up in Florida.

You know how we make that happen? Fund HEAVILY in our universities. Make UF, FSU, USF, and UCF centers of research and innovation. Graduate tons of STEM degrees. Make Florida's higher ed system competitive with California and Texas. THAT is how you attract high-tech industry. A bullet train? C'mon.

sure, why not? Maybe not right away, but as florida grows and public transportation spawns as a result of HSR, who is to say business would not want to take advatage of that?

[TriMT7]

Originally Posted by hurricaneMan1992

High Speed Rail SHOULD start in the northeast and California. If the HSR money ends up going there, that's better for the country than a Disney-Busch Gardens train. Meanwhile, the improvements at the Port of Miami, as well as Florida's freight infrastructure in general, create both short-term jobs AND have the potential to attact future business for years to come.

Why are you being intellectually dishonest? You KNOW that Tampa-Orlando is the first phase of a line to connect Tampa with Miami.

And, there is no money being offered to "make improvements" to the ports, airports, freight infrasture, or anything else, so that is a red herring argument.

Originally Posted by hurricaneMan1992

It has been argued that tech jobs would be attracted by having HSR, but I don't buy that. Just consider how decentralized Silicon Valley is...it's not even easy to access on the Caltrain, and BART doesn't even come close. High tech jobs tend to be in office parks that you have to drive to anyway.

If not "high tech" jobs, certainly there would business activity spurred at and around train stations? And to maintain the rail? And when the line from Miami to Tampa IS finally connected, the region would be a connected corridor that can share resources. Flying to Tampa is most often prohibitively expensive from the SE coast, yet business people have to do it every day.

[hurricaneMan1992]

I will remind the above poster that Scott is re-directing Florida's contribution to the HSR to ports and freight infrastructure, in anticipation of the Panama Canal widening, so there's no "red herring" here.

Also, "phase 2" tends to get scrapped when "phase 1" is not successful. That's why "Phase 1" would need to be a useful system on it's own, such as Miami to Orlando, with Orlando to Tampa an extension of the system. IMHO, New York and California have much better and viable HSR plans than Florida. Let's not make the mistake of the Miami-Dade Metrorail: the idea that we'd first build the starter system (mostly through low density, undesirable areas) "just to have something" then later expand it to make it useful (e.g., actually going through the dense parts of the County). Well, I'm still waiting for the promised "expansions."

[Steelers10]

So who exactly is running the ship in Florida?

Miami Herald|High-speed rail is profitable, study says: A study shows that high-speed rail from Tampa to Orlando — a proposal Gov. Rick Scott rejected — could be operated with a healthy profit. (http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/09/2106646/high-speed-rail-is-profitable.html - broken link)

A firm was paid $1.3 million dollars to conduct this study. You would have thought the governor of Florida might have wanted to read this, being that $2.4 billion and a $28.6 million operating surplus was at stake and all. Like the guy in the AT&T phone commercial that didn't get his invite to the office party:


"Don't you think this is some information I'd like to know?...Oh...yeah...damn..."

[Maggi07]

He had no interest in those studies. He looked at only one study, which was done by tea party interests that were decidedly anti-rail.

Rejecting the rail had absolutely nothing to do with facts and everything to do with furthering his own ideology.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by Maggi07

He had no interest in those studies. He looked at only one study, which was done by tea party interests that were decidedly anti-rail.

Rejecting the rail had absolutely nothing to do with facts and everything to do with furthering his own ideology.

This ^^^^^