There's a lot in the oven right now and the area journalists and MSM are doing a great job covering it all.  From a local referendum on the radar, to, what looks to be like imminent word on a high speed rail terminus smack dab in the center of Tampa, it seems it took the kid getting out of there for things to finally kick in. 

What up with that, anyway?

Another development as I've noted is the vast array of transit-positive online media Tampa and Hillsborough County enjoy, largely due to the Tampa Bay Partnership's enthusiastic and well-studied Web 2.0 approach to keeping the mission of regional transit and rail development "real".  HART is on board with that too having recently revamped its website, and, also, introducing a Facebook and You Tube pages.

What I'm Talking About, Sample Hillsborough Transit Online Outreach

Here are some of the most recent new transit effort sites I'm talking about:

• The Transportation Lounge (by TBARTA)
• TBARTA Twitter Feed
• TBARTA You Tube Channel
• TBARTA Facebook Page
  
• HART You Tube Channel
• HART's Northeast/West Corridors Analysis Page (BRT/Rail Routes)
• HART's Facebook Page
  
• Mark Sharpe's Twitter Feed (Dude!)
• Hillsborough County MPO Twitter Feed
• Teco Line Streetcar Whiting Street Extension Project Page
  

This is a top-o-the-head list, but, if you know of another shining example I will top-post any additional suggestions.  Leave a comment about what I missed and I will highlight it in a new entry similar to this

And Now for Something Completely Different: A Singing Cowboy

While we wait for the next big word on something - which seems like nearly every other day now - let's take a brief entertainment intermission with Tampa local talent.   Folks, let me introduce Wally Cowboy.  About four months before my departure from the city, I met up with Wally and his then girlfriend "Diana".  They were attending an imaging conference in town and, ever content hungry for Tampa Rail, I convinced them to allow me to videotape them using the streetcar to get to the convention center from their hotel in Ybor. 

Unfortunately, after shooting a lot of random footage, I could never realllly get the entire "production" together - or at least haven't yet.  But, amid all the material just sitting around was a spontaneous serenading by Wally Cowboy, who turned out to be a great guitar-strumming country crooner.  Twice.  So while I may never stitch together all the scenes from my collection, I thought it imperative to at least share this local talent gem directly with the TR readership.

If anyone is interested in contacting Wally about these videos, feel free to contact me.  He's an offline sort of guy, but I'm presently helping him with his You Tube Channel.  He's probably available for booking or something.