Dog Pack Modeling Debut

Tampa, FL - Earlier this week, AGoldPhoto pet photography teamed up with the Seminole Heights Dog Pack in Tampa and outfitted them with LED products from Nite Ize.

As daylight savings time approaches on November 3rd, it will get darker earlier and it's important to stay safe when walking your pups at night.

Watch our cute video as the pups prepare for their modeling debut. Stay tuned for a blog post highlighting the Pack Walk Adventure at A Gold Photo blog.

Seminole Heights Dog Pack Tampa

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Pinellas Commissioner proposes taxpayer funded Über Sky Taxi

Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long is promoting a sky taxi as a transit solution for the Tampa Bay Regional Transit Authority (TBARTA) to consider.

 TBARTA was recently awarded by Tallahassee $1.5 million for its annual operating expenses and $1 million to study transit solutions.  Their mission is to focus on regional connectivity for all and not only a select few. The sky taxi is taking off in Dubai, but they have more money than they know what to do with. We do not have such luxury.

So, we need TBARTA to focus on on-ground mass transit, increase the use of our waterways for mass transit, build infrastructure for electric cars, buses, at grade bus rapid system, bicycles, hoverboards, pedestrian safety, innovative ways to eliminate our carbon footprint, pedestrian overpasses and other innovative transit solutions that will reach the highest number of people. 

I admit I love flying, but the sky taxi idea is not an immediate mass transit solution for our region. 

The full story of the new plan for I-275 malfunction junction = 24 lanes

If you're looking to understand how the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) comes up with highway designs for I-275, and why they don't push for mass transit, then you will want to see this video. An FDOT engineer took the time to walk me through the entire Alternative Public Workshop at the Marriott at Westshore, May 23, 2019.

I taped this workshop to show Tampa that the old model of TBX has not gone away but has re-emerged. These proposals drastically widen and expand the highway, and increase the carbon footprint. They also revive express toll lanes and offer little in the way of neighborhood connectivity. In fact, the configuration of the area known as malfunction junction remains the same but is much larger, with more lanes- up to 24 highway lanes.

Do you know how much we are losing by expanding the highway? Beyond the BILLIONS they want to spend on this that we could put in Transit and improving existing roads, we also lose out on: Millions in tax revenue, property values, neighborhood growth, quality of life, long term jobs, creation of small businesses, and most importantly, our environment and health. The interstate causes us to have an “F” rating on air quality by the American Lung Association.

Before I made the video public, I spoke with Michelle Cookson of Sunshine Citizens. She was blunt and to the point, "For five years now, the community has clearly, consistently said: We reject this same cycle of incredibly expensive, destructive widening, that only ends up with the same failing outcome of clogged roads. We do not want added travel lanes, more car-only traffic, ruined air quality, increased environment impact, decreasing land values, homes, neighborhoods, and communities destroyed and depreciated. The residents of Hillsborough County have grown tired of the excuses, inaction, and no other transportation options and chose to tax themselves to get funding in place to accelerate getting TRANSIT and better transportation. It is time for this onslaught against us and our prosperity to cease- so that we can get to building the future we do desire."

Stop trying to solve traffic and start building great places

It’s a situation far too common for most Americans. You’re sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway, again. Hundreds of cars are idling around you. It’s a typical, backed-up commute to work. Frustrated, you might wonder: How did we get here?

It wasn’t an accident. Our congested commutes are the result of decisions that stretch back decades, to when Americans began to build their communities around cars. Today, the ways in which we plan and invest in transportation continue to contribute to problems like congestion, lack of accessible and affordable transportation options, and a sprawling, unsafe, and ecologically destructive built environment. 

Behind many of these challenges lies a measure familiar to transportation planners and engineers: “level of service,” or LOS. This seemingly innocuous statistic, however, is one of the biggest reasons we’re literally and figuratively stuck in traffic—and it signals a need for a new way to guide our future plans and investments. Click here to read the full article by the Brookings Institute