To gather input on what could be described as a rebranding of the much maligned TBX project, a nascent concept now called Tampa Bay Next, the Florida Department of Transportation held the first of a series of community workshops Wednesday at the Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center in Tampa.
Bringing together transportation advocates from across the bay area, FDOT unveiled nothing concrete about the nascent project. Instead, they said everything was on the table. To facilitate such a broad-ranging discussion they brought in Collaborative Labs to organize a workshop that split attendees into twenty groups and tasked them with answering broad questions such as what their ideal vision for the Tampa Bay region should be and what areas should be focused on.
Transit — not toll lanes that would tear through historic neighborhoods — was on many people’s minds
FDOT plans to develop these regional workshops into working groups that they can meet with quarterly, along with smaller groups that can meet more consistently.
For an organization that has been taking in negative publicity for more than a year as it pushed, in a manner some would say was rather tone deaf, for TBX Wednesday’s event was a masterclass. With the vast majority in attendance against TBX, FDOT wisely avoided a town hall approach that would have put them on the defensive and forced them to answer questions about what Tampa Bay Next will become and instead awkwardly bunched people together and encouraged them to answer a question they weren’t thinking about. Tampa Bay Next is only definitely not TBX and nothing else, so what can people be upset about?
While those in attendance weren’t pleased with the lack of any actual plan that comes with the unveiling of TBNext, and most importantly a concrete denial that it would import any of TBX’s least popular aspects, everyone joined into their groups began to develop their ideal vision for the Tampa Bay region.
These visions included multimodal and integrated public transportation (of course), one that was environmentally friendly and contained sprawl. They also sought an affordable system that maintains a vision for the bigger picture and respects Tampa’s neighborhoods. In a nutshell, it was essentially the opposite of what could have been underway had plans for TBX not screeched to a halt. TBX had been in the works for decades, but as its construction drew near, activists in areas like Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights turned their outrage into a powerful movement. In FDOT’s laying the groundwork for Tampa Bay Next, their comments are allegedly being taken into consideration.
Wednesday’s workshop was definitely more cordial than the usual events involving TBX — albeit something that could easily get lost in the bureaucratic rigmarole. And the major question is still unanswered. No one knows for certain if highways will be expanded for the purpose of adding a toll lane.
But Tampa Bay Next is definitely not TBX. We’ve won, guys.
This article appears in May 25 – Jun 1, 2017.
