A coalition of groups eyeing expanded transportation options in the Bay area convened Saturday morning at the Pinellas Realtor Organization in Clearwater for the Tampa Bay Transit Talk Workshop, an event intended to educate citizens on upcoming transit initiatives and then improve their ability to communicate those issues to the public.
The event was guided by Kevin Thurman of Connect Tampa Bay, Phil Compton of the Sierra Club and Tim Heberlin of the Florida Consumer Action Network. Through a combination of presentations and training sessions, they sought to improve the audience's ability to recruit like-minded citizens, organize meetings, and debate naysayers.
“We're not normal,” said Heberlin. “We come across the bridge, of those of you from Hillsborough, to talk about transit. We're sort of the exception to the rule and we're looking to change that over the course of the next few months to make sure that everybody is talking about this.”
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2013.