Providing locals with reliable and convenient public transportation was one of Castor's platforms while running, so being tapped to represent the city of Tampa by HART seems like a natural choice.
"I am honored to welcome Mayor Castor to our Board of Directors. Mayor Castor's presence and leadership will shape the opportunity HART has to provide innovative and sustainable transportation solutions for decades to come. Mayor Castor will be an asset to the HART Board of Directors and to the organization as a whole," announced HART CEO Benjamin Limmer in a recent statement.
Through this role, Castor can better fulfill her promise of increasing innovative solutions to better transportation throughout Tampa by implementing walkability, bike-ability, rapid-transit buses, and an extension of streetcar routes with the help of the passage of the All For Transportation sales tax. The one-cent sales tax will fund projects like new roads, fixing sidewalks and mass transit.
"Our communities in West Tampa, East Tampa, and Sulphur Springs need reliable bus service they can count on. As Mayor, I will use my seat on the HART board to fight for every neighborhood to have the dependable bus system they deserve through upgrading existing transfer stations and building multi-modal hubs with fixed transit lines that connect riders from Westshore to New Tampa," said Mayor Castor in a recent statement.
Seems like Castor isn't wasting any time in her new position. Can we start with the potholes?
Stay up to date on Tampa Bay news, culture, food, events, music and more — subscribe to our newsletters.
This article appears in May 2-9, 2019.