Much of the Florida political establishment reacted euphorically at the news the state would receive $1.25 billion for a high-speed rail line going from Tampa to Orlando. Among the locals, nobody was more enthusiastic, or came out looking better, than Ed Turanchik, who as president of the local organization ConnectUs had worked since last August on a campaign to win federal stimulus funds.
But now that the celebrating has died down, the question remains: What becomes of ConnectUs? Turanchik was on the losing side of two previous high-profile campaigns: his quixotic attempt to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics to Tampa and the aborted Civitas project in 2004, a mixed-use residential and commercial development which was supposed to transform downtown's public housing projects. He has scaled down his ambitions somewhat in recent years with his InTown Homes project in West Tampa, which is doing relatively well in a brutal housing market.
In an interview with CL last week, Turanchik discussed what's next with high-speed rail, why he thinks it will transform the region, and why he just might want to try to lead Tampa when elections come around in a year.
"The mission is less clear until the dust settles," the former Hillsborough County Commissioner says when asked what happens with ConnectUs. "Everyone in Florida is now waiting for guidance from the federal government." Turanchik says once the feds and Governor Crist give the OK sign, "We can get on the project."
When asked his ambitions, which many say include running for mayor of Tampa a year from now when Pam Iorio term-limits out, the always ambitious Turanchik sounds like he's ready to run. "It's a possibility," he admits when the subject is first broached. But then he launches into Turanchikspeak, in which high-speed rail is portrayed as possibly the greatest thing ever to happen in the history of Florida.
"Tampa/Orlando now becomes the most dynamic two-city pair in the Western hemisphere," he begins. "The prospects are spectacular for our future. We will have America's finest transportation system that can accommodate growth without congestion and attract a new generation of employees and employers. We create a 1. 7-million job market. Walt Disney World is now part of the Tampa/Orlando super-region. It just changes everything. You'll see ticket packages with sports, and entertainment events with high-speed rail. You'll see people going back and forth like water in a bathtub…"
He goes on for a while, but you get the picture. The man is pumped, believing that life along the I-4 corridor has been transformed forever. And you want to believe him, even though there are so many other issues that plague the Sunshine State that were not a problem just five years ago.
But if you ask Turanchik about the dearth of ideas stemming from the Florida Legislature when it comes to issues like job growth (such as the recent claim from Representative Dean Cannon of Winter Park and Senator Mike Haridopolos that growth controls are making it harder for builders to develop), the man derided years ago as "Choo-Choo" praises the legislature for having the insight to pass a rail bill in December to pave the way for the federal largesse.
"I was wholly impressed that the leadership in the legislature so quickly got how high-speed rail is transformative. I mean, the shift on this is tectonic and historic." But the former Sierra Club political director quickly demonstrates that he hasn't lost the big picture. "Florida's economic development strategy has been focused the wrong way. Its economy's been driven by greenfield development and strip malls and sprawl. And you know, there's a lot of vacancy and sunshine around the U.S. That's how we're going to compete in the future. The 21st century is about competing for place and people."
Mentioning how Hillsborough County schools recently won $100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to overhaul teacher training and evaluation, Turanchik says that makes Tampa the only city to combine such funding with a high-speed rail line. "It's fabulous!" he exclaims. "There's no city in America that has that combo, so we have to grab it with all the gusto we can. This is real, and part of the reason I'm thinking for mayor. I'm not there yet, the dust is settling. It's just very exciting. That hasn't sunk in yet, and it will as things move forward and people are going to say, 'I want to be a part of that.'"
When told that those words sound like something he might say in declaring his candidacy for mayor, Turanchik sounds almost offended, insisting that it's no speech, but simply an honest account of where he sees the region going. For decades, civic leaders and politicians have boasted that Tampa is on the verge of becoming "the next great city in America." Whether or not that happens, you can be sure that if Ed Turanchik is running, you'll hear a lot more of that language. Will the public buy into that message, and the messenger delivering it? That will be his next great challenge.
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2010.