Tuesday, April 17, 2007
So I stood outside the Hyatt in downtown tonight and I watched how the Bell Hop had to call over several times the waiting cab at the corner. A guy wanted to go to the airport. First the bellman yelled, no response. Next he walked out a little in the road area, still no response. He finally walked clearly in the middle of the road, and the cab driver finally inched up and said (within ear shot) where is he wantin' ta go? The handsomely dressed bellman said the airport, the cabbie said hm ok.

Why doesn't this hotel have a shuttle to the airport? Why is it that on that very same corner during the day you see cabs just parked there?

Enough of that. Tonight I had the pleasure of visiting with the Tour Florida rep. Spell it out with me... C L U E L E S S ... As we discussed (I discussed, she looked glazed over from the 3 complimentary glasses of wine) the need for mass transit, and the combined counties needing to get on the stick with Mass Transit. She actually said to me, you just don't get it. It's really the County Commissioners fault, they don't want to share the wealth.

Sweetheart boy do I get it. You have zero clue or inkling to what makes this City, or neighboring Cities tick. I quizzed said drunk rep about the Grand Prix, and she said no one really came for that. I said you realize YOU can't get there from here, right? She laughed and squinted her nose, saying, you are sooooo funny. seriously.

I find the tourism department for Hills County extremely antiquated, and without merit in their cause.

I outlined for her the issues of not getting around downtown just as a group of 75 youth walked like a chain gang up Tampa Street heading oh you know, that way... I said wouldn't it be great if those traveling dollars were spending money some where instead of walking like Zombies because they don't know where to go?

I will tell you this, if it hadn't been for the free liquor, she wouldn't have attended, and that my friend is the issue behind the glass... More on this later...

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posted by Nite Cricket at 8:49 PM |


1 Comments:


At April 18, 2007 at 10:27 AM, Blogger Tom

The city is about to invest tens of millions of dollars in a new parkng garage at the airport. This comes at the expense of needed mass transit improvements.

People are demanding tax cuts so we really can't afford both. If we start to shift subsidies from autos to transit we can grow ridership and revenue from fares. And cut traffic for those who need to drive.

Big hotels may want to run their own shuttles to and from the airport but a city funded shuttle would benefit everyone.

Tourists and business travellers must spend a significant part of their travel budget on renting a car. A modest improvement in transit would let them spend more downtown and less on driving around. They would avoid renting a car or rent one for a day or two instead of for their entire visit. We would also attract visiters from big cities and Europe who don't want to drive.