Category: Tampa Bay Area

Recently, Hillsborough County commissioner White toured portions of Hillsborough County by helicopter with Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee. White has reportedly made “preventing unmitigated sprawl his top priority as commissioner.” The Guardian sat down with White for…

The Tampa Bay Times assigned two reporters to cover the City of Clearwater’s purchase of 1.4 acres of downtown land last night. However, the Times assigned no reporters to cover the city’s embarrassing loss in…

The decline of bus ridership on the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) network of routes continues, despite new programs aimed at boosting ridership. At the current rate, PSTA is headed for its lowest total number of bus revenue…

The second “Public Input Open House” on Penny for Pinellas renewal was held by Pinellas County government last night in Gulfport. County voters will be voting on whether to renew this 1% sales tax on November…

As reported by TBNWeekly.com, which are the Beacon, Leader and Bee free local weekly newspapers, ridership for the Cross Bay Ferry (CBF) in February was over 6,000 people. The Guardian has previously reported on CBF ridership,…

Brandi Gabbard, 40, a broker and associate at Smith & Associates Real Estate, is running for the District 2 seat on the St. Pete City Council. The seat is currently held by Jim Kennedy, who is…

The total ridership for the taxpayer-subsidized Cross Bay Ferry (CBF) was 3,867 in January. This was a 24% decline from December, with both months having 29 days of vessel operations. See our article on the CBF from last…

Pinellas County commissioner Janet Long has put her foot in her mouth yet again. In an interview last week with Mitch Perry of SaintPetersBlog, Janet Long said this about TBARTA, the Tampa Bay Area Regional…

In an interview with NewsChannel 8 Weekend Morning on Sunday, Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn claimed that people in the Tampa Bay area are being “prosecuted for being muslim”.  NewsChannel 8 reporter Paul Mueller did not challenge Buckhorn’s obviously false claim.…

Republican Florida state senator Dana Young has filed a bill in the 2017 legislative session that she describes as an “anti-fracking bill” (SB-442). Young is reportedly an environmental attorney, and would therefore presumably know how write this…

In his proposed budget, Florida governor Rick Scott is bringing pain to Tri-Rail after it awarded a controversial $511 million contract to the highest bidder last week. Scott wants to withhold all state funding from Tri-Rail. Tri-Rail,…

Why should residents of the Tampa Bay area care about a procurement by Tri-Rail, a transit agency in southeast Florida? Because $57 million of state funds annually go to fund Tri-Rail. The three counties in…

The heavily taxpayer-subsidized Tampa Bay “Crossbay Ferry” pilot project is currently on track to attract approximately 27,000 paying passengers in total during its six-month pilot. Whether the project is a path forward, or a bath for the taxpayers,…

One day before the election, the executive assistant to Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Michael Bennett claimed that contacting voters using publicly available information is “misuse of voter registration data”.  The executive assistant, Debbie Scott,…

The final  treasurer’s report from the “Forward Manatee” political committee was filed electronically with Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Michael Bennett at 2:10 P.M. on Thursday. Forward Manatee’s filing came well ahead of the Friday…

Only after a query from the Guardian did PSTA post its full-year ridership data on its website Monday. The data showed a decline of 10.2% in total passenger trips compared to its previous fiscal year. This…