Friday, January 06, 2017

Congressman Mario Diaz Balart Patiently waits to Help Miami Dade County Transit But His Hands are Tied. By Geniusofdespair


With regard to Transit for Miami, Mario Diaz Balart, The head of the Transportation Sub-Committee in Federal Government,  is left twiddling those long thumbs.
Mario Diaz-Balart not only supported the Tweeter in Chief before anyone else, he is also Chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee. He is in a great position to get us transit money so we all don't sit in mind numbing traffic day after day -- not only at rush hour.

Why isn't he getting us some rail, some meaningful transit?

The frustrated bigwig in Transportation in the Federal Government, U.S. Rep Diaz Balart said of his good relationship with the incoming President leading to Miami Dade County getting some Federal transit funds:

If they don’t have viable projects, it doesn’t matter,” Diaz-Balart said. “It wouldn’t matter if Mayor Gimenez was president.”

WHY DON'T WE HAVE VIABLE PROJECTS? WHY?

What is wrong with this picture?

The County.

They don't give the guy anything to work with. The county is focused on generating funds from electronic signs at bus stops when we need rail desperately. Where are the priorities? Why is the County dragging its feet presenting Mario with any viable projects? What the hell is Alice Bravo doing? What is the Mayor doing?

Transit sucks. I watch buses and trolleys pass me empty. Why? They don't go where the people want to go or their routes are so crazy ass it takes you all day to get anywhere. And the buses are in the same traffic as the rest of us.  Buses suck.

So, when it comes to Miami Dade County, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart is left twiddling his thumbs, doling out money to OTHER areas of the country.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Steve Bovo going to save the day?

Anonymous said...

Imagine if the County had not applied for project funds when Congressman Bill Lehman controlled the purse. There would be no Metromover downtown, and no Metrorail at all.

Failure to set priorities is not a SMART Plan. The County Budget allocates over $30 Million for engineers to develop preliminary plans for every corridor. Several years from now the County Commission will asked to accept the conclusions of the engineering firms. One or two corridors will then be identified to move ahead of the others.

In-house planners could easily develop ridership projections for each of the proposed corridors. The corridors that have the highest potential ridership numbers should be ranked and prioritized. But, outsourcing $30 Million to firms who make hefty political contributions is obviously the preferred method of our local officials.

Unless one of the elected officials grows a pair and makes a call to prioritize a corridor now, we will have to wait for this slow-moving, outsourced program to produce a recommendation. By then, Mario Diaz-Balart will likely lose his Chairmanship. Timing is everything, and in this case, Miami-Dade County will lose out to other metropolitan areas that have set their priorities.

Anonymous said...

The mayor is what is wrong with this picture.

Anonymous said...

What happened to all the transit bond money? I thought It was to be used to match federal dollars for transit projects. We got robbed. The ITT was a joke.

WOOF said...

19th century ideas are not the answer to problems of the 21 century.

Geniusofdespair said...

What do you suggest Woof, hovercraft?

WOOF said...

Small driverless electric vehicle public transportation,
good bye UBER and Lexus lanes.

Anonymous said...

When the dim and spineless (Bovo & Gimenez) are not in the way, look what is possible: Brightline train service into downtown Miami in record time.

Anonymous said...

try looking into the MPO plans for the Kendall transit corridor (i.e. Kendall Drive and 874). No help there, just business as usual.