For months, protests have raged against toll lanes slated to go along I-275, the so-called TBX project that would level stretches of up-and-coming areas like Tampa Heights (tell us something new).
And although it's largely a state project, activists, officials and candidates at the local level are weighing in.
At a Tampa Tiger Bay Club event Friday, five of the six candidates running for Hillsborough County's open District 6 seat shared their thoughts on the controversial proposal. While TBX is a state-level deal, the county Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is governed by a board consisting of elected officials, including county commissioners, does have a part in the decision-making process (though the MPO has already approved the project).
The candidates' positions on projects like TBX also offer insights into their perspectives on transit in general — i.e. build more roads vs. offer more public transportation options — which might be the most important issue the commission tackles over the next decade.
Of the five present Friday, four were Democrats duking it out ahead of the Aug. 30 primary: former Plant City Mayor John Dicks, longtime lawyer and activist Pat Kemp, former County Commissioner/Tampa City Councilman Tom Scott and newcomer/activist Brian Willis.
One Republican, newcomer Tim Schock, showed.
His opponent, Jim "Lightnin' Jim" Norman, didn't.
Moderator Victor DiMaio said Norman cited an illness in the family, but some surmised his absence had more to do with the embattled former commissioner/State Senator totally eating it in a recent straw poll against Schock.
Most of the candidates who were present said they oppose TBX and some offered alternatives.
In a nutshell, here's how each responded to questions on the issue:
Dicks: Supports. “First of all, it's going to fix Malfunction Junction, finally once and for all," he said. "Second, it's going to fix and totally replace the Howard Frankland Bridge, which is becoming a deathtrap. It has been designed such that right down the middle of it would be [the option] to run transit, like rail or buses.”
Kemp: Opposes. “It's a sprawl machine to bring people down from Pasco County. It's not a transit option, and it's not a good option for our future,” but if it must be installed, she said, it'd be a better fit along the Veterans Memorial Expressway or I-75.
Schock: Supports (mostly). "Because first and foremost is, what TBX doesn't account for, is, it assumes that along the I-275 corridor, that it's a single lane in each direction,” he said. “Why would we not install reversible lanes into that space?”
Scott: Opposes out of concern for how it is likely to impact the surrounding community.
Willis: “There's wide agreement in this community that we can no longer continue to put so much money into only a single mode of transportation," he said. "And so I have been opposed to TBX from the beginning. I think it's a bad idea.”
Since Norman wasn't present at the event, it's unclear what his thoughts are on the controversial project, be we'd guess because critics see TBX as an invitation for more uncontrollable exurban sprawl, he'd probably be in favor.
The five candidates weighed in on a whole host of other issues, among them marijuana.
They all seemed to support use of medical marijuana in instances of terminal illness.
Like TBX, that's a state issue voters will weigh in on in November, but their positions revealed how they may act as commissioners when it comes to possible civil citation policies.
Dicks: Supports, but strictly for medical. “This is something, yes, I do support,” he said.
Kemp: Supports, would also like to decriminalize. “I am totally in favor of the medical marijuana initiative,” she said. “I also am in favor of what the City Council in Tampa did to decriminalize and to give citations to people with small amounts of Marijuana. I think it's something that has to be brought into the county… I know the kind of destruction and havoc that gets wreaked on lives, and I know what it does to young people and people that have this charge against them, and they spend their whole lives having troubles with employment, with housing, with everything else, because of a charge… [for] marijuana that's already legal in several states.”
Schock: Supports, sorta. “I think we do need to do more research," he said. "I Think we need to open the door to more research for medical purposes. But what I don't want to see is a back door to full legalization for recreational purposes.”
Scott: Supports medical. “I support medical marijuana and the passage of it because I think it will help those who are terminally ill and need some relief. We talk about addiction of marijuana and all of that," he said. "Did you know that… more people are addicted to prescription drugs: Michael Jackson, Prince, do I need to call any other names?”
Willis: Supports. “I support the effort to legalize medical marijuana,” he said. “I think we need to be more progressive; we need to look at retroactively trying to clean up the records of people who've already been harmed because they shouldn't have been prosecuted in the first place.”
This article appears in May 19-26, 2016.