If you have been keeping your ear to the ground over the past few years, you'll know that the topic of mass transit in Tampa Bay and in Florida has started to heat up.   In my role as a volunteer for the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, I have attended a few briefings on the light rail proposals for the area, including a piece that will be traveling from USF to Downtown right through Seminole Heights. 

Last week's St Petersburg Times ran several articles on mass transit along with a few on the oil disaster in the Gulf and a study that showed a trend for the college educated to move back into the urban centers.  If you have the time to read them online, I've linked to them below (links open in a new window or tab):

Imagining a less-driven Florida

By Bruce Stephenson, Special to the Times
In Print: Sunday, May 9, 2010

Funneling one's life through an auto-oriented landscape has social consequences as well. In a seminal study of civic society, Harvard's Robert Putnam found a 10-minute increase in daily driving translates into a 10 percent reduction in "social capital," the measure of civic involvement. It's not surprising Orlando ranks 46th and Miami 50th (of 50 cities) in community volunteering.

Getting up to speed on mass transit

By Pam Iorio, Special to the Times
In Print: Sunday, May 9, 2010

Bringing light rail to our community may be a new concept in Tampa Bay, but it is not across the nation. In fact, the Tampa Bay region stands alone as one of the last major metropolitan areas in the country that has failed to build a modern transit system.