Heyo Tampa Railers!  Wow, 34 days since my last post here.  That's a long time.  But, not unanticipated, right?  Glad you're all still checking in.  The elevator music will keep on playing a little while longer but it's all toward getting things rolling here again.  Remember, the silence is all part of the restructuring plan.  The inactivity here just tells you it's working.

Now, Which Election Sealed Brian Blair's Fate?

Meanwhile, you folks down there are going to have to help a brother sort something out.  One thing I noticed from my place up in snowy yonder is that Brian Blair lost his seat.  Too bad I'm not particularly active with TR at the moment because you and I both know that that would have been a screaming font entry.  However, what I can't figure out is, how was it he "won" his seat just last August, only to lose it last month (oddly, only to lose it after said losing).  I'm lost somewhere on Hillsborough Political Elections 101. 

I mean, which election is the one that counted?  Maybe someone here can explain it.  In any event, we certainly know that the latest one was the one with the great outcome.

I'm On Track Myself....

I'm shacked up in a Queens neighborhood apartment just off the 7 line.  Every day I take the subway in to Manhattan to my holy-cow fantastic new job on Park Avenue, just off Union Square.  Yes, I'm living the walkability transit-connectability dream I've long held and long bothered the likes of Brian Blair about. 

I wish I could tell you the ironic tale of the local Tampa Rail blogger who, once so big on pushing rail transit here, is now getting a dose of grudging reality and thus chilling out his advocacy in shame.  But, in fact, just the opposite is true.  Folks, it's not as I've said it could be in Tampa and Hillsborough County.  It's better.  Granted this naturally does not mean the new lifestyle is without its occassional oddities.

Tampa should waste no time, and, with patience, we'll get back to that rant. 

For now, my relocation is still very much a work in progress.  Next month I have to find me a permanent place to live.  My current arrangement is me basically taking care of an apartment for two months so I need to start wheeling and dealing for a one bedroom or a studio - preferably in one of these quaint Queens neighborhoods right around a 7 line station.  Between that and learning my freakishly complex job (which involves web technology itself) Tampa Rail the blog can only have the spare attention I can afford to give it.

Meanwhile, Stoke the Fight for Rail at these Fine Alternatives!

That being said, let's not forget.  Tampa, for one reason or another (ahem),  has one of the most active online pro-rail buzz-tricity of any metropolitan area like it.  Here are some other local places you've likely already found by now as your TR-inspired thirst for Tampa urban rail evolution news and views instinctively led you in search of life sustaining rhetorical water:

• Sticks of Fire Transportation Category (and, in general of course!)
• Re/Creating Tampa by David Davisson
• The Tampa Transit Utopia Blog (that's the spirit!)
• The Ybor City Stogie
  
• Tampa Transportation and Infrastructure at Skyscraper City
• It's Time to Get to Work (by the Tampa Bay Partnership)
• Anything Wayne Garcia-ish at Creative Loafing
  

...and of course that list is not all-inclusive of the many, many, possible watering holes out there that either deal with the question of Hillsborough urban rail evolution, or, a more livable, denser, walkable Tampa community.