Composure

The WayneWho staff believes that the Osceola News-Gazette, in its editorial titled "Developer wants to scold us?", lost its composure and strayed from the path of journalistic integrity. Leveling attacks at a few of the individuals responsible for the mess known as Signature Crossing after it had been safely voted down lacks professionalism and we know that you can do better.

First we would like to state that we understand the frustration and sense of disgust towards the process that came through in the Gazette's editorial. Listening to developers and out of town special interests scold, mock, and talk to our community like we are a collective bunch of morons gets old quick. Welcome to how every regular citizen in this community feels and has felt for a long time.

We understand why the Gazette would pick up the sharp-tongued opinionated attack rhetoric that has come to symbolize our brand of un-news, but we feel there is a better path that could have been taken. Instead of trying to be 'hip' and tearing into the vile nature of the cast of 'Affordable Housing' characters, a better editorial could have been done on the absence of common sense from those elected officials that stood behind this project. If it were not for last minute changes that the School Board Members knew were going to come back to haunt them, this vote would have gone the other way. Several on the board still believe that this was a good plan and that the public was wrong for questioning them and trying to stop the project. Many in the public were castigated for their opposing views on government subsidized housing in the middle of a real-estate meltdown, by not only the developers, but by our own elected and community leaders as well. This is the typical treatment the public receives when it dares to step in front of the podium to voice its concern. Frustrating indeed.

While the WayneWho staff does feel that the reverse scolding by the News Gazette was warranted, we hope that they do not feel that their part has come to a close. Investigations into campaign contributions and board influence need to be done. Discussions on campaign finance and influence peddling need to be had. Articles on how our community can protect itself from the self interest of monied developers need to be written. If nothing else, the Osceola News Gazette needs to become a better part of helping to vet local candidates by sharpening their own skills at understanding municipal government policy. Sometimes more can be done by asking good questions instead of losing your composure in a yelling match. Get back to asking good questions.

E.P.C.O.T.

Part of being old is having the right to be a curmudgeon. It is the gift we receive as the hands of time take everything else. Another part of being old is having the wisdom to know when you are just being a curmudgeon for no good reason.

WayneWho is against the Destiny Housing Development. No matter how many angry e-mails we get from 'Green' consultants, we are not going to change our minds that 40,000 more homes will ever be good for Osceola County if the jobs and a great infrastructure is not put in place. Putting some fancy 'Green' spin on the sales brochure for another tract-home development is not building the community of tomorrow, it is building the next BVL. No offense to our neighbors in BVL, but the county let the developers who built your community put one over on you big time. This is the same thing we see with Destiny. While we are very intrigued by the promise of green technologies, we know snake-oil when someone is trying to sell it.

WayneWho was against Light Rail. While we still continue to talk about the need for it, we have to admit that Paula Dockery was right. It was a bad deal on a transportation system that was anything but mass transit. It was a single thread of movement that would have fallen victim to ridership woes because local governments would have continued to cut the funding for the bus lines that were needed to feed the system with riders. For the burden of the price tag Central Florida was about to get stuck with, it did not make sense.

So as curmudgeons, we were about to just give up on the whole concept of our communities getting their collective acts together enough to ever really compete in the future. We were on the verge of making a pitch for returning the whole area to farm land.

As we were debating the issue, one of our staff was reading a letter to the editor in the Orlando Sentinel from a Frederick Hart of Orlando. His letter titled "Disney World is epitome of quality transportation" talks about a presentation Walt Disney gave to legislators and the public outlining his plan for the Experimental Prototypical Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). Mr. Hart writes, "His boulevards include mass transportation in the forms of raised monorails and magnetic-levitation trains as well as covered pedestrian walkways to protect people from the harsh Central Florida sun. Unfortunately his vision for an EPCOT died with him. All we got was a theme park." Brilliant words.

We have received some e-mails with these ideas before, but being of the 'Curmudgeon Clan' we never really gave it much thought. We decided to use 'the Google' to see if such a plan existed. Sure enough we found several essays on Disney's plans for his "Progress City" as it was originally called. From the essays, you can easily see that Walt Disney's true beliefs, as highlighted in his projects in Florida, were the expanding corporate control over democratic rule. We have to wonder what Walt's feelings would be on the complete corporate meltdowns we have seen over the past couple of years. Maybe there are still some advantages to Democracy.

Regardless of his political views, we have to wonder if it is not time to drag some of his ideas, for the real version of EPCOT, out of mothballs. Instead of creating a public-private partnership with CSX, why not do it with Disney. They already have working mass transportation systems that are included for the price of a visitor's ticket, and they seem to be able to do it without cars backing up at railroad crossing gates. While monorails and other people movers may not be the taste of today, maybe there are some concepts in the original EPCOT plans that can be used. If not, we assume that a whole team of 'Imagineers' might be able to figure something out.

One thing that is clear from the research is that after spending a good amount of time in Los Angeles, Walt Disney had realized something that our local politicians are just now figuring out. The auto-oriented transformation of our major cities were problems, not successes. His goal was to find ways to put cars in their place and pedestrians back into the plan. While not all of his transportation plans have come to fruition in the theme parks, the designers have come extremely close. Judging by the economic success of the parks, it is hard to argue they are wrong. The sad part is that the Central Florida communities, whose fates are most intertwined with the Disney Projects, have no real public transportation systems. Basically if you want to get to Disney, you have to drive. The best public transportation systems in Florida are just amusement park rides. We find this sad because Disney's 14-miles of a monorail system that carries a reported 80,000 passengers per day, is said to be one the most extensive mass transportation systems in the world. All this right next door to communities that are shutting down bus routes.

While not one of the WayneWho staff are Disneyatics, we understand the concept of hiring a consultant that can offer real world advice based on real world accomplishments. It just does not make sense to us to have the guy from the 'Subway Sandwich' company plan a city of 'tomorrow' when we already have one right next door that is already functioning. We are also fully aware that many of the ideas and concepts that could be the most useful to our local communities died with Walt, but like we said, there must be something that could be dusted off and given a second look. The issue is that you can not build an eco-sustainable city if you have cars driving in and out of it every day. Since 'Destiny' can not show us they can create all of the jobs needed to keep the community self-contained, more cars on the roads are going to be the end result. Osceola can't take care of the roads it has now, even though they are spending a 'record' amount of money on them. Something has to give.

We hope you made it this far in our 'Jay Wheeler' sounding tirade and that you enjoyed it for what it is. This is just a call for our communities to keep thinking about transportation. The death of light rail seems to have caused many to just give up and walk away. We find this sad, because the idea behind light rail actually had found unprecedented support from multiple counties that were actually working together instead of fighting. What failed were the shaky business dealings and sneaky changes that were behind the plan. That's all. Central Florida residents are still in favor of some type of mass transportation system and want some relief from the nightmare known as I-4. It is either that or we start planting orange trees again.

Maybe it is time we go talk to the Mouse.

Source:
The Original Epcot

Then End Again?

We wanted to re-publish an e-mail that we received from Tom Long who has been taking the lead on the Preserve/Signature Crossing housing project. The WayneWho staff figures this bit of good un-news for our community is good as is, so we will take a page from the Osceola News-Gazette and put up Mr. Long's e-mail as is.

One note to the School Board, which any of you who attended the meeting would understand. As Osceola County's most trusted un-news source, we do not consider ourselves to be 'The Media.' We are more like an un-media source providing un-news information to readers who don't really read those 'damn blogs anyway.' What you call lambasting, we call debate on what we believe are critical issues of policy. While the WayneWho staff understand governments aversion to these types of discussions, we still enjoy having them, especially when we can find a way to make a policy point with an un-news article about a self cleaning public toilet. Nobody ever said policy had to be boring.

As for this post, it seems that the community has been able to stop a wasteful development project. As Mr. Long states below, this is not really the end. Even if the Preserve/Signature Crossing project never reappears, other bad projects will. Vigilance is the price of our Democracy and the job of every American. It is not a price that should be paid by only a few. We hope you enjoy an e-mail from one of the few.

"Fellow Taxpayers,

Hopefully for the last time, I can say that Signature Crossing/The Preserve, is finally dead in Osceola County.

The School Board voted 4-1 to deny it moving forward. David Stone said that this has been a drain on the district. Julius Melendez said the project kept changing and questioned the cost, to date, to the district. Cindy Hartig said the District would be in competition with the citizens. Jay Wheeler was the only one willing to spend your tax dollars against your will. Remember that next year.

I would like to personally thank everyone and every group that has helped end this waste of our tax dollars. I especially would like to thank those of you that took time out of your lives to attend many Saint Cloud City Council, County Commission, Education Foundation and School Board Meetings.

We must remain ever vigilant. This took three years to kill and it has been reported dead before. Greed has an unlimited life span and who knows what tax drain plot will come our way again.

Tom Long"

Signature Crossing IV: From the Ashes

By now all of you know that the Preserve/Signature Crossing Project has reappeared. Much like the character Jason in the Friday the 13th movies, after being left for dead the project has risen from the grave stronger than ever and ready to do more damage to our community. This time the developer, Jonathan Wolf, of Wendover Housing, has completely side stepped that argument he was originally making about helping the local community and has gone straight after the money. This time he has cut out all local boards, because they are subject to the will of the local community, and he has partnered with an Atlanta based 'non-profit' that has experience in forcing communities into building un-needed tax exempt housing projects. While most of the communities that they have established these types of projects in are much larger cities with larger populations of the poor, rural Osceola county seems to be their next target because of the easily accessible local tax money that our school board is all too excited to waste.

We could continue this article by once again explaining the reasons our community cannot afford this project. We could once again explain the fact that the rental prices to be charged are NOT affordable. We could once again explain that this whole project is about politics and not people. But we are not going to explain any of these things. Our readers already know the plot.

We have to confess that the WayneWho staff was actually happy to see the return of the project. Just like in the Friday the 13th movies, each sequel gets worse and has less and less to do with the original. The Preserve/Signature Crossing fiasco is the same. One bad story after another to explain why Wendover Housing should get our state tax money and the residents of Osceola County should get stuck with the bill. What really brings a smile to our face is the political wreckage that this project has created. We have a School Board exposed for their incompetence and for wasting taxpayers money on issues outside of their realm of responsibility. We have a non-profit organization, The Education Foundation, backed by a County Commissioner that has been exposed to the public for its lack of care for our community. And we have a trail of political contributions that light the way for even the tamest of local campaign finance reform. In the eyes of many who have kept up with this project, the process has failed and we can see that it has been hijacked by special interests. While we know that much like the grotesque face of Jason Voorhees under the iconic hockey mask, the nasty underbelly of our local governments is hard to look at, we would remind our readers that we must not turn away. The face of evil may be ugly, but the face of apathy is much worse.

We hope that those who have been working to expose the truth about this project continue to put in the time on behalf of our residents. This is a bad project for our community and will prove to be a drain on our resources for years to come. While we are glad that projects like this and Destiny come around to give all of us an insight into how our government really works, we find it sad that more often than not even bad projects like these get through. Nonetheless, the WayneWho staff is looking forward to the 3D version of the Preserve/Signature Crossing series. Thats when you truly know a series has Jumped-the-Shark and is about to finally go away.

The End??

As 'They' See It

The Osceola News-Gazette this past week published another comical "As I See It" 'editorial' to continue the series. This time it was from Congressman Bill Posey of District 15 which covers Osceola county and some areas just outside of our border. In his "As I See It" article titled "Washington is finding itself very much out of touch" he attacks the Cap and Trade-Energy Bill, H. R. 2454, and promotes the idea that we should continue to risk the security of our nation by keeping our country dependent on oil from rouge nations. As the WayneWho staff read his article we quickly realized that these printed words were not his own thoughts and that Congressman Posey was just reprinting bogus claims from right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. We are not sure which is more sad, the fact that Congressman Posey does not know that he is repeating and reprinting claims that have been proven false, or that he believes that instead of representing the people who elected him into office, that it is his job to be a puppet for lobbyist groups.

His first claim is that Bill HR 2454 will be a "1,600-$3,000 energy tax on every family in America" which is a claim that has become one of the main generic talking points disseminated by the Heritage Foundation and CEI. This claim is based on figures from a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the very authors of the study has publicly stated that the "GOP's use of the study is 'simplistic and misleading' and that it ignores key provisions designed to cushion the impact on consumers." And to stick with the "simplistic and misleading" train of thought while we are talking about Congressmen Posey, his argument, as stated in his article, is that we need to stop this tax so "Americans have more discretionary income in order to bring their family to central Florida and to our beaches for a much needed family vacation." WTF? Did Congressman Posey just sleep through the last two years of economic turmoil? Did he not see all of the news reports on the effects of reckless personal spending and that the American public has soundly rejected continuing in this way. The American public has changed its track towards the conservative idea of saving their money instead of blowing it willy-nilly. While all of us in Florida want to see a rebound in tourism, we do not believe that we want anyone vacationing in this state who can not afford it.

Congressman Posey, our state and county needs you to be more than a mouth piece for the very organizations that created the framework for this recession. We need you to understand that our state needs to diversify its economic base by creating the jobs of tomorrow instead of relying on the tourist industry. The incentives for creating green industries alone that Bill HR 2454 puts forward are critical to the economic recovery efforts in the State of Florida, and they are critical in breaking our dependency on foreign oil. We need you to help bring jobs into Osceola County, not take them away while using pretend numbers that you do not even understand.

Our final thought on this issue is a simple question. If Congressman Posey is against creating green industries and does not believe that global warming is a threat, does he believe in eco-sustainable communities? Or is his line of thinking the real writing on the wall for the Destiny housing project? Is the truth really that the jobs that are being promised by the supporters of Destiny will never come because the legislation to help them get off the ground will never be passed? Is that why we have a rush to start home construction in the 'clean-slate' city? Get the homes built and then pull the "ahh-shucks, we didn't know they would shoot down the funding for the jobs," routine. Maybe if Congressman Posey spent a little more time with the people in his district, the ideas coming from Washington, that were overwhelmingly supported by the voters of our country last November, wouldn't seem so out of touch.

SourceWatch:
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Heritage Foundation

FactCheck.org

As We See It

Newly elected Republican State Representative Mike Horner has received a lot of local media attention in the past few weeks so the WayneWho staff decided we should make sure to pay some attention to him as well. Much to the surprise of many of our readers we would have to give Representative Horner a B+ for his first session in Tallahassee. While many of our readers will say he either did better or worse than the arbitrary grade we have given, we think that his record in this session needs to be looked at on bills he participated in individually. It is hard to grade a freshmen Representative on the successes and failures of State Government as a whole. While we feel that state governments let the residents of Florida down this year, Representative Horner stood up for his community. While we do not agree with all of his positions, we feel that on the big issues he took stands that benefit our residents, and that is what representative government is all about.

One of the issues that Representative Horner has made his top priority is covered in an Osceola News-Gazette "As I See It" article this week titled "Insurance Gamble Threatens Us." In the article he states that "The greatest threat to Florida’s economic recovery and future prosperity is the financially unsound state-run insurance program, Citizens Insurance." We would have to disagree. While we do agree that the state run Citizens Insurance program has become a complete mess and needs reform, we have to look at why it exists. Many private insurers, both small and large, failed to protect residents of our state who had been paying their premiums without issue. While it is very 'Republican' to beat the drum for private entities as opposed to government run entities, the truth of which is better is often hidden in rhetoric. The simple fact that Representative Horner does not bring up in his column is that many Central Florida families were left to their own devices by private insurance companies. The same 'Private' companies used trickery and deceit to get out of paying rightful claims. Better capitalized companies could afford the lawyers to drag out processing claims for months while the state remained covered in blue tarps. It was a time of state wide disgrace.

Reform is the key. The ray of hope that we see in Representative Horner is that he understands the processes and knows that reform is needed. We just hope that he understands that reform is needed at all levels and not just on the Citizens Insurance program. We also hope that typical political buzzword scare tactics like throwing the word 'bureaucrats' into an article do not turn Representative Horner into what Representative Frank Attkisson had become, a right wing ideologue that had forgotten what good government was really about. It is hard to take a politician seriously that tries to scare us about 'state bureaucrats' when those same politicians champion quasi-governmental agencies that operate at the whim of the same 'state bureaucrats.' Our roads, tolls, growth and economic development futures are all in the hands of these same bureaucrats and quasi-governmental agencies that operate outside of the control of the public. If Representative Horner believes that these people are bad, then maybe he needs to start working on dissolving some of these other agencies that have hurt our local area and our residents.

To close we would only bring up one other point. Does Representative Horner believe that insurance is "greatest threat to Florida's economic recovery and future prosperity" because of problems it is creating in the home building community? As with most politicians, he did not clarify what he sees as 'economic recovery.' His close ties with the development community and years of championing the oversupply of our housing market makes us very suspicious of his motives. Almost every sane economist says that Florida's number one threat to economic recovery is the oversupply in housing and the failure to create any sustainable industries. Are the economists wrong and the bureaucrats right? We believe that these issues need more explanation because recreating the housing bubble is the wrong move. We would also like to see Representative Horner's 'As I See It' article on HB 360 which just gave developers the upper hand in continuing to promote sprawl and enabled unneeded, and unwanted, developments like Destiny . If he is going to promote sensible reforms and regulations on a state run program, then maybe it is time to admit that the the citizens need to be protected by sensible growth management regulations.

The WayneWho staff hopes that this article does NOT create a tone of attack on Representative Horner. We had honestly thought he was going to turn into a puppet for the Dark Side, but it seems that he still has some fight for the people left in him. We look forward to reading your philosophical articles on other issues and we will enjoy the debate on these topics as we know the Osceola News-Gazette will keep printing anything sent to them without properly vetting the pieces first.

As wee see it, it was a good first session.

Destiny's Wrath

The people say it's stupid. The State of Florida says it is a mistake. Even our housing happy County Commissioners wince with pain when they have to talk about anything other than the few jobs the Destiny housing project might bring in. Not even the lure of fanciful water taxis transporting the spoiled upper class to the 'Green' retail outlet of their choice seems to be building much support in the community. But that has not stopped the 'clean-slate' city of Destiny developers from trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Osceola County residents. It seems that the community that our County Commission, Economic Development clique, and the developers of Destiny itself wanted to write-off in favor of their new city, is now important to them. You can see the name Destiny slapped on all kinds of event sponsorships in an attempt to lull our community into a more favorable opinion of the idea of destroying more of natural Florida to make way for more homes. We guess like any good developer, they just can not take 'no' for an answer.

We assume it is in the spirit of Destiny trying to re-write its own destiny that the President and CEO of the oxymoronic Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission (EDC), Ray Gilleym, was brought in to educate us dumb country folk. In a letter to the Osceola News-Gazette he writes, "I am writing to voice my support for Destiny, the only proposed completely eco-sustainable community in Florida." It is too bad that Mr. Gilleym and his little group that has met with limited success in the Orlando area was not more focused on building sustainable communities instead of communities with pretend titles. While some of the principals of the clean-slate city as far as being greener are commendable, the community will be far from eco-sustainable all on its own. Its eco-sustainability is based on factors that will actually be more detrimental to the surrounding communities that will be forced into a supportive role. Maybe the Orlando EDC should focus its efforts of creating sustainable communities that are not riddled with foreclosures in their own back yard instead of trying to expand the level of ignorance across the border. Simply put Mr. Gilleym, adding 50,000 homes into a battered housing market would not help our local economy. Adding 50,000 homes means we need to add at least 80,000 jobs to support those who would be fooled into moving into this social experiment. What was the record of job creation last year for the Orlando EDC Mr. Gilleym? That's right, the job pool shrank. Maybe Mr. Gilleym should write a letter explaining his group's record to the Orlando taxpayers instead of trying to make things worse here in Osceola County.

To the Destiny housing developers: It does not matter what you sponsor or who writes letters for you. The proof will be in the jobs. You need to be able to prove that you can create 80,000 sustainable jobs. Green, not green, blue collar, or white collar jobs should be the focus. Until it is proven that 80,000 jobs can be created, any approvals on building more homes, let alone a new city should be 'No' votes. Our community can not afford more broken promises under the banner of Economic Development no matter who writes the letter.

Love That Filler

With the start of Baseball season underway, the WayneWho staff loves to take in a game now and then to enjoy all that our ballparks have to offer. There is nothing better on a weekday than catching the Rays and enjoying a hot dog or two. Hot dogs always taste better at the ballpark than they do at home, so it is worth the gas on a trip to Tampa to savor the flavor of fillers we can't actually identify. The same thing goes for Kissimmee City Commission Meetings. Lots of fillers that we are just not sure about, but with enough mustard, we eat anyway.

Tonight's City of Kissimmee Commission meeting is a good example of useless filler mixed with some real issues that will probably not get the attention they deserve. The first 'Proclamation' filler on the agenda is to proclaim this week, All-America City Week. This is the one year anniversary of our grand slam win (among the other winners) of the All-America City pageant bestowed onto us by the National Civic League. For those who remember our slide into home plate for the pageant last year, you will remember that no one from the National Civic League visited our city, and that the only criteria was to pay an entrance fee, pay to send a team of cheerleaders to Tampa (with private money, unlike the year before), and then once we were declared one of the winners, pay the National Civic League to use the winning logo. From the looks of our city compared to a year ago, the only real winner was the National Civic League because everyone has to pay them. The WayneWho staff thinks our city looked much better before we won the pageant. The signs went up and the businesses pulled out. We can only assume that this is a chance for those who want to run for office again to remind everyone of their pageant success so when they illegally use the All-America City Logo on the next set of campaign postcards, it will mean something.

We assume that this discussion will elicit more cheers from the commission than the discussion on adjusting the types of businesses allowed in the Historic Downtown corridor. It seems the main focus, that we agree with, is to make sure the Downtown Corridor does NOT end up with a 'Check Cashing' or 'Payday Loan' front in its mix. The problem that we see with the changes to the ordinance is that the commission has relied on staff to create the vision for what the downtown is to look like without communicating with the business community already in the downtown. What types of businesses are talking to building owners to rent a space that are automatically being turned away? With the addition of all the new bars in downtown, are there other types of businesses that should be looked at to continue to build a nightlife? And, the most important question, is that really the downtown our community wants? Relying on staff to create this vision from the safety of their offices is probably not the best long term strategy if the plan is to win a pennant. Staff has consistently steered the commission and policy in the wrong direction creating many errors on the field. While this has not always been the fault of staff because of the bizarre directions given by the commission, staff has still not proven to be the best choice in visioning a real community.

While we would encourage the commission to look at passing this item, we think that a quick meeting with the current business community in the Downtown and the groups that represent it should be done first. Not as much to change this amendment, but to make sure that the vision that is being created is one that will ensure us a series title. If nothing else, it might give everyone a chance to sit down and enjoy a hot dog or two.

Out of Ideas

Reminiscent of Kissimmee's 125th Birthday Celebration Event that a sitting Commissioner, at that time, took charge of and then ran out of ideas for, the Kissimmee CVB seems to be in the same spot. As many of you will remember, there was a self-proclaimed Kissimmee Commission Cheerleader who cheered week after week about what a great event the 125th Birthday Celebration was going to be until it was discovered that no real plans had been put in place for the event and said Commissioner was scrambling for ideas and input. After quite a bit of bad press most of us thought that we would not see another botched event unfold like that one did, but hey, this is Osceola County after all.

Hold on to your confidence socks, because the WayneWho staff was just forwarded an e-mail from the Kissimmee CVB seeking the same kind of direction for the fall marketing season. Yes, the people sucking up tourist tax money because they are supposed to have the marketing thing nailed down are asking for any concepts or ideas people might have to help get the Kissimmee Market through the time period between Labor Day and Christmas in a year of economic turmoil. The e-mail states, "the Kissimmee CVB is looking for ideas for targeted special events for the upcoming Fall travel season. The CVB would like to find several concepts to develop, preferably that have the potential to grow into annual events that will attract visitors to Kissimmee and Osceola County from outside of the Central Florida area. ...Please send any ideas for potential concepts to Tom Lang, CVB Director." Basically Mr. Lang's idea is to fritter away money on any crazy idea that the tourist industry might put forward to get access to this tax money. Instead of doing the smart thing and lowering the prices, by cutting the tourist taxes to make our area more attractive to those with fewer and fewer vacation dollars, we are just going to blow the money on anything. Of course that means that we will all have to endure Power Pointless presentations that show how a specific crazy event idea is going to '..create jobs in an effort to stimulate the economic climate by engaging groups of fall travelers' or some other type of made up wording that will easily confuse the CVB board and the County Commission into fessing up the Benjamins. Get the popcorn popping.

The WayneWho staff's first reaction was that of Mr. Donald Trump. Your Fired! Mr. Lang was hired to put the CVB back together and bring ideas to the table on how we could better attract more visitors into our area. Anyone who was able to graduate elementary school could probably figure out that being the head of the 'Visitors' Bureau would somehow translate into working with and attracting visitors, but maybe we are just asking too much. After the WayneWho staff calmed down we realized that we should probably give the guy a break because at least we have not heard of a scandal breaking out at the CVB for at least a couple of months. Things at the CVB could probably be much worse than they already are.

In the spirit of the anger turning to shock moment, the WayneWho staff decided that there might be an opportunity for us to hit the tourist tax lotto with a doomed-for-failure plan like this from our CVB. So we brainstormed for a micro-second or two and came up with the idea of a Guitar Hero Tournament. Guitar Hero is still a pretty popular game and there is even a website that will tell you how 'Run a Guitar Hero Tournament.' And if Guitar Hero is not to your liking, then our other suggestion is to create a 50 foot high Plinko Board and do a Plinko competition. 'The Price is Right' fans are a zany bunch and they would drive to Florida to see something that freakish. We could even fly-in Bob Barker to give the event that high-end celebrity feel.

Just remember, you heard those ideas here first so you tourist tax addicts come up with your own ideas. We had the Guitar Hero and/or Plinko ideas first.

Ca-Ching.

The never ending story

Much like a DVD of “Bob the Builder” on repeat play in the back seat of a family minivan, it’s time for the annual replay of everyone’s favorite conceptual vision, The Future of 192.

The 192 visioning process has become a self-fulfilling fulfillment of self. For to create a vision, you must have a process. During the process, you must refine the vision. And it is a process to articulate the vision that has been processed once it has been envisioned. Planners plan, and consultants consult.

While we wait for the end credits on “Bob” to run through as the DVD begins another loop, let us commoners ask...

For as long as the current 192 vision has been floating around, it has focused on mass transit. An east-west bus corridor (ie reserved bus lane), connecting to a downtown commuter rail station to move people north and south. The city’s internal and external experts say this is a key feature of 192 development, and it’s still a large part of the latest vision review, mere weeks after the state said no to SunRail. So, local leaders, who is right...the planning professionals who champion mass transit, or the elected officials who voted it down? How did the vision of the Bronson park, including a bus stop, jibe with your discussion last year of where the local Lynx station might be located?

Another focus of the vision is on “clusters” or “stations” or whatever the conceptual word is. The idea being that the desired purpose of the clusterstation is to show what type of buildings are appropriate for that area of 192. As the professionals say, once they have established the standards, when someone wants to build a tall building or a short building, they’ll know where to put it along the corridor. But the chicken and egg process of envisioning the clusterstations continues, because, even if someone wanted to start a project today, the city still hasn’t established their clusterstation standards in year whatever this is in the project. And who would plan their four story building if there was a chance that they were going to be proposing it in the clusterstation that would turn out to allow two story buildings?

And, of course, there’s the money question. The question of “where will we get the money” comes up often in this discussion. But, truly, that is the man-on-the-street question...the question that someone asks when they’re shown a summary of this multiyear project and given five seconds for a response. The studied questions to be asked from those who have been involved with this project should be more along the lines of “if we implement this vision what will the return to the community be?” and after receiving that answer, “what are we willing to invest to achieve that return, and over how long of a time period?” as well as “if we do nothing, what is the impact?” and “what is the minimum action we must take to prevent further erosion of the corridor?” All of this assumes that you can quantify the costs and returns of a vision.

What the annual book report on the vision process tells us is that, in order for redevelopment of 192 to be successful, the area around the corridor needs much higher residential density, higher household incomes, and better transportation options. If it were only the 192 corridor that was suffering from these deficiencies, that would be enough of a challenge. On the other hand, when someone finishes the book and fixes those problems for this one area, those lessons can be applied to the rest of the local community as well. Maybe we’ll even name a road after the person who comes up with the successful strategy.

For the short term, perhaps local officials would accept this suggestion. Start the process by showing your commitment to making initial fixes to transportation along the corridor. Invest some staff time, but probably not a lot of money, in ‘syncing’ or ‘timing’ or ‘fixing’ the traffic lights along the corridor so that a vehicle moving through the corridor does not need to stop at every traffic light along the way. While traffic is being streamlined, complete the zoning regulations or design guides so that those who are penciling in their plans for when the market turns around can know what kind of buildings might be acceptable to the community. Perhaps even start working on that long-rumored commercial property minimum maintenance ordinance in the corridor.

In the meantime, we’ll see you at the next round of visioning meetings.

Magic Win

As most of you know by now, the Orlando Magic won the Eastern Conference Title on Saturday night against the Cleveland Cavilers who were the favorite to win. While our un-news site is not usually devoted to sports, our staff decided that we could not let this moment of Central Florida pride and inspiration slip by without some comment.

Congratulations to the Orlando Magic team and coaching staff. Your ability to believe in yourselves against all of the 'critics' and being able focus on playing stellar basketball is a testament to your professionalism. While a few Osceola County residents spent their weekend sitting in their underwear, in the dark, hunched over their computers chirping about secret identities, one real secret identity was revealed. Dwight Howard is Superman. There is just no denying it. Whether, or not Kobe Bryant will prove to be his Kryptonite remains to be seen. For now we will just have to 'Believe in Magic' and the power that the Florida Sun can give to some.

For those so wrapped up in the political underworld that they can only derive inspiration from those like Doug Guetzloe who revel in the politics of personal destruction, maybe you should stop pecking out attacks and watch a game or two. You might learn something about the spirit that really makes us Americans.

By almost all accounts from so-called knowledgeable sporting consultants, the Orlando Magic had no shot at winning this conference. The Kobe-Lebron match up in the NBA finals was a given to many. The Cleveland Caviliers had the best record in the NBA, but the Magic, as a team, soundly defeated them and the critics who said it could not be done. Teamwork was the key. If 'Regionalism' worked like this, we would all be on board.

But what lessons should be learned by the local tin-foil beanie-hat-wearing conspiracy commenters who attack other blogs for fun? The most basic lesson would be the great philosophy behind the Terminator movie franchise; "There's no fate but what we make." Destiny can be changed if you are up for a good fight. We saw evidence of this last week when the 'Signature Crossing' housing project fell apart. Many believed it was a done deal, but because of the persistence of some in presenting real facts through the spin of developers, the disaster was stopped. We saw this evidence as an inevitable gas tax was shot down when a community said no more. We again saw a similar version of this as those who believe they control the destiny of our community were caught in a RFP review scandal in the county. Perceived destiny often times must take a back seat to drive and determination.

What other lessons can be learned? As the Magic players said on Saturday night when they clinched the title; there is more work to be done. This is a lesson for all of us. Victories are passing moments in time. Winning is not just about checking off items on a to do list. Winning is not just about slapping together some half hearted meetings where old strategies are covered as something new. Winning is about turning dirt, hard work and playing every game like it is 'Game 7'.

For those of us at WayneWho headquarters, we pledge to continue to provide our community with our best in un-news stories. We do find it interesting that the challenge in the NBA finals has taken on a challenge we have faced for a long time. East vs. West. Florida vs. California. Kissimmee un-news sources vs. Simi-Valley political consultant bloggers. Looks like the game is on. Bring it California.