Bridge over Hillsborough bay? (Jacksonville, Tampa: homes, neighborhood, construction)

[VanHalen5150]

Light rail would not work in a place like Tampa / St. Pete.

Reason? There is no one "central place" where people go to work. Even downtown Tampa. Say you build a light rail line from south tampa or carrolwood or brandon to downtown, what percentage of people in the bay area actually work downtown? I bet a low percentage.

Light rail, subways, heavy rail dont work when your workforce and population are spread out over such a high geographic area. The only cities in the South that have any sort of light rail are Atlanta and Charlotte. Charlotte's downtown is bigger than tampa, and from what i understand it's not very utilized. Atlanta's is, but it goes such few places it's hardly effective

[ApolloBeachRetiree]

Originally Posted by VanHalen5150

Light rail would not work in a place like Tampa / St. Pete.

Reason? There is no one "central place" where people go to work. Even downtown Tampa. Say you build a light rail line from south tampa or carrolwood or brandon to downtown, what percentage of people in the bay area actually work downtown? I bet a low percentage.

Light rail, subways, heavy rail dont work when your workforce and population are spread out over such a high geographic area. The only cities in the South that have any sort of light rail are Atlanta and Charlotte. Charlotte's downtown is bigger than tampa, and from what i understand it's not very utilized. Atlanta's is, but it goes such few places it's hardly effective

Precisely. If it was built, it would be vacant most of the time. Atlanta's subway was planned piecemeal and is useless unless you live relatively close to a station.

[dothetwist]

I strongly disagree about light rail. If you build it, they will use it. And the time to start building mass transportation is BEFORE it's necessary.

I moved to DC when Metro was still on the drawing boards. Lots of localities/states/feds involved...lots of naysayers back then.

But it's a success AND what happens is that as each station is built, businesses MOVE to it and it creates new business centers. Yes, initial stations are planned to serve existing business centers, but after everyone one sees how practical it is, the demand for more stations grow. You can bring your bike onboard, so you can bike from home to station, then bike from station to workplace.

At the time of initial planning there were localities and neighborhoods who fought tooth and nail against having a Metro stop near them...guess what?, these localities are begging for its expansion to them.

The newest line now serves Tyson's Corner and its terminus will be Dulles Airport; there's already a stop at National (Reagan) Airport.

BTW...housing prices for homes near a Metro stop sell for 25% higher AT LEAST than homes not near one.

[ApolloBeachRetiree]

Originally Posted by dothetwist

I strongly disagree about light rail. If you build it, they will use it.

I moved to DC when Metro was still on the drawing boards. Lots of localities/states/feds involved...lots of naysayers back then.

But it's a success AND what happens is that as each station is built, businesses MOVE nearby. Yes, initial stations planned to serve existing business centers, but after everyone one sees how practical it is, the demand for more stations grow. You can bring your bike onboard, so you can bike from home to station, then bike from station to workplace.

At the time of initial planning there were localities and neighborhoods who fought tooth and nail against having a Metro stop near them...guess what?, these localities are begging for its expansion to them.

The newest line now serves Tyson's Corner and its terminus will be Dulles Airport (there's already a stop at National (Reagan) Airport.

BTW...housing prices for homes near a Metro stop sell for 25% higher AT LEAST than homes not near one.

I disagree re home values. In 1990, when MARTA was doing "impact studies" for extending the line up GA 400 and building a North Springs station, we had our house on the market. Because our home in Sandy Springs (Atlanta) was designated as "impacted" in the MARTA study, we were only able to sell it for 175K rather than the 235K we had in it.

[dothetwist]

Originally Posted by ApolloBeachRetiree

I disagree re home values. In 1990, when MARTA was doing "impact studies" for extending the line up GA 400 and building a North Springs station, we had our house on the market. Because our home in Sandy Springs (Atlanta) was designated as "impacted" in the MARTA study, we were only able to sell it for 175K rather than the 235K we had in it.

http://www.nhc.org/media/documents/T...g_10_20111.pdf

Here's a study, one of many, supporting that usually there is a considerable rise in home values near mass transit. However, the values are the highest when the system is mature.

Your drop in value probably had to do with the construction phase of the project. Sorry for your loss. But, check back on that property after the system is complete and you'll likely find a big bump in value/sales.

[Enyar]

Originally Posted by MAniacTHW

Or we can encourage people to make and spend their money in Tampa or St. Pete, instead of having people commute here, make their money, then take it back to their suburb and spend it.

Seriously. Don't like the traffic/congestion with getting to Brandon? Don't move there.

[Sunscape]

Originally Posted by dothetwist

I strongly disagree about light rail. If you build it, they will use it. And the time to start building mass transportation is BEFORE it's necessary.

I moved to DC when Metro was still on the drawing boards. Lots of localities/states/feds involved...lots of naysayers back then.

But it's a success AND what happens is that as each station is built, businesses MOVE to it and it creates new business centers. Yes, initial stations are planned to serve existing business centers, but after everyone one sees how practical it is, the demand for more stations grow. You can bring your bike onboard, so you can bike from home to station, then bike from station to workplace.

At the time of initial planning there were localities and neighborhoods who fought tooth and nail against having a Metro stop near them...guess what?, these localities are begging for its expansion to them.

The newest line now serves Tyson's Corner and its terminus will be Dulles Airport; there's already a stop at National (Reagan) Airport.

BTW...housing prices for homes near a Metro stop sell for 25% higher AT LEAST than homes not near one.

I agree with you. That Metro system in DC is fantastic.....

[Not_liking_FL]

Originally Posted by Annie of Oldsmar

I agree with you. That Metro system in DC is fantastic.....

And it's getting better. Pretty soon it will be possible to take the Metro from Dulles all the way to DC.

[SeaSpur]

Originally Posted by MAniacTHW

Or we can encourage people to make and spend their money in Tampa or St. Pete, instead of having people commute here, make their money, then take it back to their suburb and spend it.

Only so many people can move into Tampa and St. Pete...you are going to have people commuting no matter how you slice it.

Until Tampa and St Pete adopt mass transit systems that encourage denser living and settling into urban cores, people are going to buy further out and commute into where the jobs are.

[SeaSpur]

Originally Posted by dothetwist

I strongly disagree about light rail. If you build it, they will use it. And the time to start building mass transportation is BEFORE it's necessary.

I moved to DC when Metro was still on the drawing boards. Lots of localities/states/feds involved...lots of naysayers back then.

But it's a success AND what happens is that as each station is built, businesses MOVE to it and it creates new business centers. Yes, initial stations are planned to serve existing business centers, but after everyone one sees how practical it is, the demand for more stations grow. You can bring your bike onboard, so you can bike from home to station, then bike from station to workplace.

At the time of initial planning there were localities and neighborhoods who fought tooth and nail against having a Metro stop near them...guess what?, these localities are begging for its expansion to them.

The newest line now serves Tyson's Corner and its terminus will be Dulles Airport; there's already a stop at National (Reagan) Airport.

BTW...housing prices for homes near a Metro stop sell for 25% higher AT LEAST than homes not near one.

I totally agree with you and have been screaming this ever since I moved to Tampa. We are so far behind in mass public transportation and that situation is compounded each day nothing is done about it.

It's easy for opponents to say "it won't work here", but at some point you have to try and find out. OF COURSE with our current layout of the city, mass transit doesn't seem like an immediate fix to our transportation issues...but like you said, once the transit systems are in place- business sprout near the stations, homes in the areas of stops become in high demand, and you see more vertical building as people move into the urban core to live where they also work...living becomes a little more dense but less people are on the highways.

How people can be against mass transit in our area is beyond me. I think a lot of it here has to do with the old population. You don't see them in larger cities where mass transit is available. Not only can most not keep up and it is too "new" to them, but they also don't support the tax increases necessary to fund a venture like mass transit. They have moved to Florida from some place up north and feel they have already "paid their dues." Horse****.