Showing posts with label commuter train. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commuter train. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA mtg re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station

Important development and gridlock hearings/meetings in Hallandale Beach and Hollywood today: Huge Oasis development project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. and Hollywood CRA meeting re Downtown Hollywood commuter train station




Tonight at 8:30 PM the City of Hallandale Beach City Commision is schedued to come face-to-face with its future direction when it has the Second of two required hearings on the second incarnation of the HUGE Oasis project on Hallandale Beach Blvd. next to Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino's northern entrance on Hallandale Beach Blvd., which first came up ten years ago.

I attended those meetings, too, where then-state Senator Steve Geller represented the developer. At the time it featured two very large buildings as well, but seemed to be set back farther from the sidewalk so didn't seem quite so... looming, and featured a not-unattractive office and retail building in front of a residential condo.
Not fantastic, per se, but certainly much better than what HB usually has presented before them in terms of looks of proposed buildings and projects.
That was then.

Well, this new proposal has the buildings side-by-side, and what seems to me to be closer to the road and both large buildings will be residential, which means ... MORE cars on F-rated HBB.

This is a time-certain agenda item at 8:30 PM
But then you know how time certain things are in HB, so, get there earlier!


I plan on being at the Hollywood CRA meeting at 10 AM that will feature what's being called an "Updated Presentation" by Dana Little, Urban Design Director, Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, regarding The Station Area Master Plan. 
That is to say, what's what with where the Hollywood Blvd. area commuter train station may be located and other useful information about what will completely transform Downtown Hollywood and US-1 once a commuter train is up and running, whether that's the Tri-Rail Coastal that I've championed forever, or something that's the creation of Brightline, not my favorite people these days, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/989981873278541824
who seem very much to want to elbow SFRTA out of the picture entirely, and with it, some real public accountability and oversight. 

Not that the local South Florida news media is asking too many hard questions about that, though it's been low-hanging fruit for MANY MONTHS. 

I spoke with Dana Little and his associates a few months back at an informal meeting on the train station project for just under an hour at the Littman Center.
I was very surprised and angry that there were ZERO fliers and or sandwich boards on US-1 and in the downtown area, inc. on store fronts, about the meeting, just as there were none regarding the Young Circle meetings last year that I felt were preposterous on so many levels.
Very, very curious that.

Last I heard, the downtown train station will be on FEC tracks between Dixie Highway and N. 21st Avenue between Taylor and Fillmore streets, 4-6 short blocks north of Hollywood Blvd., in part because the city owns much of the land in that vicinity and can control what happens.
(Yes, the same Fillmore Street I lived on off US-1 for a few months after Thanksgiving until last month.)

I will also be at the Hollywood City Commission meeting scheduled for 1 PM, 
with some time afterwards to catch my breath, grab something to eat, write some clever and informed words on what I saw and then head over to Hallandale Beach to see what sort of turnout there is for the Oasis project, which will likely be the largest development project coming before the HB City Commission for the rest of the year.

Coincidentally, coming just as many of the city's best-informed citizens and part-time residents have fled for northern climes before the heat and humidity hit us like a hammer for the summer.
Like my friend and fellow civic activist Csaba Kulin to name but one.
Just as happened with the meetings regarding The Related Company's Beachwalk project a few years ago.
Sure, there's nothing at all curious about that.

----

5:45 PM Update

I've included a link to Google Maps here, right above my friend and fellow Broward civic activist Csaba Kulin's comments so that those of you who don't go by this site on Hallandale Beach Blvd. very much -the only east-west street that connects A1A to I-95 in HB- could et some useful perspective for what an unmitigated disaster this could be unless the developer and Gulfstream Park reach an accord so that construction crews entering and exiting the site spend a minimum amount of time on HBB.


It's time for Gulfstream Park to actually BE a good neighbor instead of just talking about it, having gotten their way years ago when they got the clueless city to approve their three employee dorms/apts.RIGHT WHERE Hibiscus Street should have been extended east from US-1 down to behind the Publix on 14th Avenue many years ago, so that local traffic, esp. Three Islands residents, could avoid HBB instead of being forced onto it, with ZERO 
alternatives.

Item is scheduled to come up at 8:30 PM tonight.


---


 Mayor London, Vice Mayor Lazarow and Commissioners,

What one hand gives the other hand takes it away.

On one hand you have done a great job fixing N. E. 14th Avenue. Narrowed the roadway to reduce speed, added a bicycle lane and created a lovely landscaping.

We are very happy about it. Thank you.


On the other hand you are about to approve the Oasis (1100 East Hallandale Beach Blvd.) with its flawed traffic proposal. Exiting the property you have to cross three (3) lanes of traffic to get to N.E. 14th Avenue and ether make a U-turn or turn left into N.E. 14th Avenue. It does not make any sense.

If you allow this to happen you just created a major problem for the next 100 years.


During the last 10 years no better solution has been found than this? There must be an effort made by the developer to come to an agreement with Gulfstream to allow an exit to Gulfstream Boulevard and N.E. 8th Avenue. It will cost money but otherwise the residents will suffer.

In my opinion when FDOT installed the dividers on Hallandale Beach Boulevard they significantly reduced the utility and value of that property.

The Oasis owners are sophisticated investors, they should have known this fatal flaw in this property.

Now you are facing no win situation tonight. Either the developer or the residents will be upset with you.

You can explain to the residents when you will be knocking on doors this summer.  

Sincerely,

Csaba (Chuck) Kulin 

---------


Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Long-overdue reality check for FDOT re Tri-Rail Coastal on FEC tracks: When is the Tri-Rail Coastal Station Refinement Report FINALLY going to be released?

Wednesday March 2nd, 2016
What follows below is a predicate for better understanding my tweets this afternoon to the Florida Dept. of Transportation, District 4, which covers Broward County, Florida, which are at bottom of this post.

 



Well, the facts speak for themselves.
Facts that I as a longtime public transit advocate and supporter of the SFECC Study and a Tri-Rail Coastal commuter train system between downtown Miami and Palm Beach, via the FEC tracks, find extremely frustrating and exasperating.
To say the least.


But then I've always been consistent about the fact that just because I've been a strong pro-transit advocate wherever I have lived -because I actually used it myself almost everyday in Chicago, Evanston
and Washington, D.C./Arlington
- didn't mean that I would sit back quietly and accept a lack of public candor, transparency and level of public accountability from transportation officials and consultants
regarding proposed public transit projects.

Especially if they clearly have some flaws worth pointing out or exhibit a lack of common sense, logic and utility. Or, are clearly projects engaging in fanciful thinking about the public's expected behavior and future usage of a prospective system, link or improvement, because some special interest group stands to benefit
inordinately from its construction and prefers the public pay instead of an appropriate fee paid for only by actual users.
To quote myself, "Just because you're pro-transit doesn't mean you have to ignore displays of transit incompetency or mismanagement when you see it!"

The latter, sadly, are things that have been FAR too plentiful in South Florida since I returned to the area from DC in 2003, and I've continually used my blog as a forum to communicate the facts with the public and
interested parties about the problems in detail since 2007, including most recently, the lack of public engagement in Broward of officials associated with the All Aboard Florida project, who backtracked
from their initial plans to NOT having a public meeting in Broward County after I got the attention of the public, the news media and angry local public officials who were surprised to discover they were
being ignored -until I pointed it out to them.


A refresher on that issue if you need one:

May 6, 2013 - More Transit Policy Woes in South Florida: With stealthy and self-sabotaging friends like All Aboard Florida and SFRTA/Tri-Rail, pro-transit advocates in South Florida don't need any more enemies; 'All Aboard Florida' fails to schedule a single public scoping meeting in Broward County this Spring despite Fort Lauderdale being a proposed station, while SFRTA chief refuses to answer a simple question -Will Hallandale Beach have a station under the proposed Coastal line plan?; Just because you're pro-transit doesn't mean you have to ignore displays of transit incompetency or mismanagement when you see it! 

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/more-transit-policy-woes-in-south.html

May 16, 2013 -Reverse engines! Reluctantly but prudently, All Aboard Florida wises-up and agrees to have a Fort Laudedale scoping meeting after all, on May 29th; 5 weeks later, still no response from SFRTA Executive Director Joseph Giulietti about whether or not Hallandale Beach will have a station as part of their proposed Tri-Rail Coastal plan

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/reverse-engines-reluctantly-but.html

March 26, 2015 -South Florida has once again redefined the meaning of "Free Ride." But shouldn't we all realize by now that when it comes to #TransportationPolicy in #SoFL, there's no such thing as a free ride? But #Miami pols, @Tri_Rail & @AllAboardFla can't help themslves when it comes to taking taxpayer dollars and taking credit for something BEFORE the facts are ALL in

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/south-florida-has-once-again-redefined.html

August 5, 2015 - Common sense questions about public policy, process and public engagement -to say nothing of financial risk- continue to dog @AllAboardFla and the Fortress Investment Group as they seek $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds from the Florida Development Finance Corporation for their planned Miami-to-Orlando express train, via Fort lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Some observations on what we know and what reporters should have been asking all along, but were NOT.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/common-sense-questions-about-public.html

August 22, 2015 -Thoughts re role of Tri-Rail Coastal commuter rail on HB/Hollywood redevelopment, per City of Hollywood's community meeting on Monday Aug. 24 for its Regional Activity Center re-zoning, which includes U.S.-1 & Pembroke Road

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/thoughts-re-role-of-tri-rail-coastal.html

So, that said, I could have written the tweets below I sent today to FDOT over a year ago, 9 months ago, 6 months ago or at Christmas, and whenever I did so, it would be 100% true.
Just as it is today.

There's been nothing useful to the general public at the Tri-Rail Coastal website for over a year about the most important and most-anticipated information -the location of stations for the
initial stage of the project.
Instead, they have been content to do ZERO updates and leave it marked "Coming Soon."
No, a year is not soon!

And it's NOT how you properly engage and inform the citizenry about a project that completely depends upon public funds for its creation and maintenance.

Station Refinement Report
This report provides a summary of the planning analysis conducted to identify recommended initial station area locations on the FEC corridor. It also outlines a recommended phasing strategy for subsequent station development to assist project stakeholders with future planning efforts. The report recommendations will form the basis for the alternatives to be analyzed during the next phase (Project Development.) Coming Soon
 
And though I could have said something particularly critical about it, I chose NOT to comment in my tweets about how the information on their website labeled Station Area Opportunities reads more like like
fiction, esp. the material about Hallandale Beach.
Frankly, it's as if they swallowed whole the city's PR Kool-Aid without blinking, instead of posting objective information because they understood implicitly that area residents and business owners would both rely upon
the information to be accurate.

Station Area Opportunities

The Tri-Rail Coastal Link Station Area Opportunities publication is intended to summarize the station area visions created by many communities for their station areas, as well as provide information about the development potential for the area surrounding each station.

Download PDF (32MB)
http://tri-railcoastallink.com/downloads/Station_Area_Opportunities.pdf

So tell me, how can it be that after all this time that FDOT STILL hasn't released the initial locations of Tri-Rail Coastal stations in South Florida, and as it directly affects me and so many of you receiving this email, the location of those sites in NE Miami-Dade and SE Broward?
I know from MANY phone conversations and emails to and from many of you that station locations have been guaranteed by local city officials and Electeds to be part of the initial operation of the commuter line, when, in fact, they WON'T be?

And just as I state below in my tweets from this afternoon, I DO know the names of people who has been misleading the public and Small Business owners, trying to sell them a bogus bill of goods.
People who deserve honesty are instead receiving duplicity from public officials who are supposed to be working for them, not against them.


Another question that comes to mind is WHY is the local South Florida news media, print and electronic, has largely been snoozing on this important storythat directly affects important issues like South Florida's transportation gridlock and the local economy -and parts of local cities near the FEC
tracks that remain in a funk and economically depressed
-
instead of properly demanding honest answers and a thorough justification from public officials (and consultants) in charge at FDOT for their lack of candor, public engagement and snail-like pace?

Project Manager 

Amie Goddeau
FDOT Project Manager, FDOT District 4
3400 West Commercial Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309-3421
Read the tweets below from the bottom up.


































































Dave 
Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Some informed thoughts and useful facts re recent Florida Bulldog article on Hollywood Comm. Peter Hernandez and his curious (and ineffective) efforts to kill the Hollywood Beach CRA. This is a perfect example of his 3 years in office so far, and why he should face tough & articulate competition in 2016

Some informed thoughts and useful facts re recent Florida Bulldog article on Hollywood Comm. Peter Hernandez and his curious (and ineffective) efforts to kill the Hollywood Beach CRA. 
This is a perfect example of his 3 years in office so far, and why he should face tough  & articulate competition in 2016

My comments are below the recent article and the public comments so far at their website.
I've held off on sending this for two weeks -plus its publication in Miami Herald on Sept. 20th- to allow a little more time to develop for people to both respond to what's written there and for the City of Hollywood's budget process to play itself out.

I wouldn't bring it up if it wasn't an important subject -CRA's- AND something I've previously
discussed publicly, including in conversations with some of you over coffee and bagels at Panera Bread and other eateries hereabouts.
Most of it was sent out as an email by me on Wednesday afternoon to people around Hollywood, Hallandale Beach and South Florida, and a few folks in Tallahassee.

Dave



---
Florida Bulldog
Hollywood Beach CRA the target of moves to cut its funding, or kill it
By William Gjebre, FloridaBulldog.org
September 15, 2015 at 6:28 am


Hollywood City Commissioner Peter Hernandez says the Beach Community Redevelopment Agency should be abolished because it has had increasing property tax funds for its use — at times exceeding its needs — while the “rest of the city is starving” to pay for operations and needed improvements.

While his proposal has yet to gain support from his colleagues, Hernandez and other city commissioners, who also serve as directors of the CRA, have directed the city’s staff to explore options that would redirect the Hollywood Beach CRA funds left over at the end of the year to the city. Such a revenue give back would mark a first for a CRA in Broward.

Well, where to even begin?


Not once in this Florida Bulldog article do you see a single instance where Hollywood Commissioner Peter Hernandez speaks with any sort of specificity about any serious 

attempts by him to make a motion that would annually CAP the specific amount of money the Hollywood Beach CRA has control over.

For instance, like publicly recounting the first date that he brought it up as a topic for debate on the dais -as well as the most recent time- and summarizing what his particular logical arguments consisted of then, plus what he's learned from losing the argument that day and changed to make it more reasonable and likely to pass.

Also noteworthy for its complete absence from the Bulldog article is Hernandez detailing 
any efforts he has personally made to engage the larger Hollywood community in the weeks and months prior to his bringing it up the first time on the dais at City Hall. 

In other words, the very first thing that I and most of you know from experience would be necessary to change and improve public policy in Hollywood, regardless of the issue, given how much more of an engaged political/social culture exists in Hollywood than in other broward cities, esp. Hallandale Beach.
A level of public participation and engagement citizens and Small Business owners fully expect, and for good reason.

(Just wondering: Why has Comm. Hernandez ALSO done such a consistently dreadful 
job publicly of informing/educating Hollywood area residents and 
businesses about what's really going on these days with the myriad milestones of the TriRail Coastal commuter line that will run thru HIS district? 
It's positively dumbfounding! 

Even by the most charitable of standards, Hernandez has remained a virual cipher publicly about the one non-tourism issue that can most rapidly and 
dynamically improve the economic condition of Hollywood in general and its downtown area -and his neighborhood- in particular: the TriRail Coastal line
Frankly, I would be very surprised if his opponents in next year's election don't 
choose to ask him those very same questions in a much-less friendly way.
Wouldn't be surprised if they didn't demand some reasonable explanation from him about why he's seemed asleep at the wheel on this issue, judging by his lack 
of energy or effort.

He has nothing specific about the CRA funding issue or TriRail on his campaign's 
Facebook account,
http://www.peterforhollywood.com/index.html which doesn't seem to have had anything added to it in well over three yearsSo much for communicating.)

Based on my continuing conversations, emails and phone calls with Hollywood citizens, 
residents and Small Business owners, especially those over on the Beach, unless Comm. Hernandez has been acting with the sort of stealthiness that characterized the Manhattan Project, he seems to have made exactly ZERO public attempts to engage the larger Hollywood community beforehand, so that he could then make the logical case from the dais that he and his arguments represent a tangible segment of the community who want to reform the CRA by enacting a CAP.

We can all agree that a well-appointed tool box is a good thing to have around, since you never know in advance what specific tool you might need to resolve a problem around the house or office. 

But just as there's a big difference between reforming the Beach CRA and eliminating it 
completely, it's troubling to me and many others in the community that Comm. Hernandez 
seems so consistently eager to use a hammer or a saw on the problem he sees -perceives- instead of what perhaps the problem more reasonably seems to require: a well-placed screwdriver to tighten certain things up accountability-wise so that the public is satisfied.

Even worse than his bad choice of tools, though, in the opinion of some who pay attention, Comm. Hernandez seems to be woefully naive on what the logical negative consequences would likely be for the city as a whole in eliminating the Beach CRA, both as a practical matter and from a PR point-of-view. 

The latter angle -PR- carries much more weight here than in does in most communities given that tourism and hospitality -and specifically, projecting a family image- is Hollywood's economic bread and butter now and for the forseeable future.

So, despite there being plenty of options in the tool box to accomplish his goal -whatever that actually is- Comm. Hernandez seems to have compounded his problem by being apathetic and naive about engaging the Hollywood community at large.

This, DESPITE the fact that a CLEAR MAJORITY of well-informed people I know and respect in Hollywood -with very different political ideologies- are largely in agreement that more serious reforms are and have been needed at the Hollywood Beach CRA over the past few years.
And some of them have been implemented.

Most of them believe that the first step in beginning to bring back increased public support to Beach CRA activities is capping its yearly spending, and removing the (perhaps unfair) illusion that it operates like it has an unlimited credit card.

(The VERY same thing that Hallandale Beach residents believe to be the case with its long troubled CRA -but for MORE and different reasons- who have also been desirous of 
having better oversight tools like a CAP.)

In fact, an even larger number of people probably support this CAP approach to the CRA 
than probably agree on any other aspect of Hollywood public policy that I can think of. 

Not only was I persuaded many years ago to the merits of a CAP on the Hollywood Beach CRA, 
but so was my friend, former Hollywood Balance Sheet blog co-editor Sara Case, before she left Hollywood for DC.

Sara even wrote as much on the blog, something I was reminded of recently when going thru some 
old email, and found her responding to someone who'd refused to really see what had been going on with the city's budget, and then suggested how it could be reformed and improved.

So what does Comm. Hernandez prefer to do instead of organizing Hollywood citizens and businesses in favor of a meaningful CAP that gives a degree of certainty? 
He blusters and seems to make ill-conceived threats that he seems to be in no serious position to carry out.

The truth is, I can't honestly say that I know Comm. Hernandez very well , since I don't, and I've never pretended otherwise on my blog or in my emails to many of you. 
I suspect Comm. Hernandez would likely recognize me on sight ONLY if I was wearing my trademark red IU ballcap, while standing behind my video-camera and tripod recording something at Hollywood City Hall, while I took copious notes.
In short, the position I've been on so many occasions over the years on so many issues large and small. 
Otherwise, to him I'm a complete stranger. 
Which is fine by me.

Whether its because he so loves the "working man" persona he's created or simply his muddled way of thinking, I can't say, but a few things are clear to me.
One is that my own sense of things from first-hand observations of him and conversations with Hollywood friends and citizens who keep on top of things at Hollywood City Hall is that Comm. Hernandez, whether intentionally or not, has created the impression that he is someone who actually enjoys being seen as combative, even when it's not necessary, and often even when it's actually MORE injurious to his particular argument, case or cause.

That doesn't make him unique in Broward or South Florida local govt., of course, but it is the particular sterotype he has largely helped craft for himself, based on his own actions and words and votes.
From a distance, it seems that what he has really built is more of a self-constructed cage than a public platform for fully engaging the community.

Perhaps because of either his ambition or ego, Comm. Hernandez not only doesn't seem to appreciate 
that his continuing to act like the tactics he regularly employs are actually working -when it's clear to nearly everyone that they aren't- but he also seems blind to the fact that when he specifically talks about the city having more money to spend, he has
NOT made the case that a majority of Hollywood citizens or Small Business owners necessarily believe that's a good idea.
For good reason - they DON'T!

When Hollywood citizens I know and respect hear a Hollywood Commissioner say that they want more money to spend, given what has happened there in the recent past and what was required -a bitter referendum on the city's budget priorities- those citizens immediately grab for their wallets or purses to make sure they are STILL there.

They ALSO begin to immediately suspect the Commissioner who publicly says they want more money to dole out at City Hall wants to give an even higher share of the city's limited budget to the Police and Fire Depts. -with the resultant increased pension costs and negative financial consequences sure to follow.

THAT particular approach is NOT a public policy decision those Hollywood citizens I know and respect will support, since it took so long for the city to rein those things in in the first place.
They don't want to go back to how things used to be.
If you missed my recent email to Hollywood's City Manager about what's going on with the TriRail Coastal commuter line, I've placed it on my blog here, so take a look: 
I've included some helpful Google Maps to connect-the-dots a bit.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Reverse engines! Reluctantly but prudently, All Aboard Florida wises-up and agrees to have a Fort Laudedale scoping meeting after all, on May 29th; 5 weeks later, still no response from SFRTA Executive Director Joseph Giulietti about whether or not Hallandale Beach will have a station as part of their proposed Tri-Rail Coastal plan

Fresh from my email Inbox and into your transportation stream of consciousness...


---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: All Aboard Florida
Date: Thu, May 16, 2013 at 10:18 AM
Subject: AAF to host additional open house in Fort Lauderdale for EIS process



Having trouble viewing this email? Click here.
   

May 16, 2013
All Aboard Florida and the Federal Railroad Administration announce an additional public scoping meeting/open house in Fort Lauderdale as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process. The EIS will evaluate the potential environmental and related impacts of constructing and operating an intercity passenger rail service between Orlando and Miami with intermediate stations in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The public scoping meeting/open house will be held on Wednesday, May 29, between 3:30 and 7 p.m., at the Holiday Park Social Center, 1150 G. Harold Martin Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304. We invite you to attend and share your comments on the project. There will not be a formal presentation or comment period. Information from previous public scoping sessions will be shown at this venue.

If you cannot attend but wish to submit a comment, they must be mailed or emailed to Catherine Dobbs, Transportation Industry Analyst, Office of Railroad Policy and Development, Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590, or catherine.dobbs@dot.gov.

For more information on the meetings, please contact Public Affairs Manager Ali Soule, 305-520-2105, or eis@allaboardflorida.com.

Thank you,
All Aboard Florida Team

Please visit our website for more information and share this email with interested parties so they can receive updates from All Aboard Florida. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

-----
My May 6th blog post, below, about my perspective on the public outreach efforts of All Aboard Florida and SFRTA/Tri-Rail, left no stone un-turned -or thrown if it deserved it

For those of you who are curious, I have still never received a response to my April 12th email to SFRTA Executive Director Joseph Giulietti about whether or not Hallandale Beach will have a commuter train station as part of their proposed Tri-Rail Coastal plan, which currently shows no proposed station here in their released plans.

Tomorrow will make five weeks and counting since I wrote it, which itself, was the second effort to get an honest answer from SFRTA/TRi-Rail, with my previous email never getting a response, either.

More Transit Policy Woes in South Florida: With stealthy and self-sabotaging friends like All Aboard Florida and SFRTA/Tri-Rail, pro-transit advocates in South Florida don't need any more enemies; 'All Aboard Florida' fails to schedule a single public scoping meeting in Broward County this Spring despite Fort Lauderdale being a proposed station, while SFRTA chief refuses to answer a simple question -Will Hallandale Beach have a station under the proposed Coastal line plan?; Just because you're pro-transit doesn't mean you have to ignore displays of transit incompetency or mismanagement when you see it!