Agree with Judy. This is a cycling club not a venue to espouse our personal political views.
From: gccmail-manager@simplelists.com [mailto:gccmail-manager@simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Judy Brumfield
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 12:39 PM
To: 'Kristen Young'; 'gccmail'
Subject: RE: GCCMail: The future of bikes in the county depends on Tuesday's primary results or Why should cyclists vote?
I totally object to this type of activity!
Judy Brumfield
Dear fellow members of the Gainesville Cycling Club,
There is a bike referendum on tomorrow's Democratic primary ballot. It isn’t obvious, but it can be found in the options for the County Commission District 2 and 4 seats. The new commission will be deciding a long list of bicycle-related projects (see below). Based on the all of the candidates' responses to questionnaires, the GCC co-sponsored forum, and interviews, combined with the incumbent’s record, we can predict how these projects will go depending on the candidates elected.
If Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward advance beyond the primary, we have the best chance of seeing the best options for bikes and other multi-modal transportation in the county. If the wrong candidates advance, we will be facing likely repeats of the first Archer Braid Trail nay-vote.
Do you remember the many long meetings for the Archer Braid Trail? The hundreds of emails sent to the commission? The hundreds of names on the petition? The facts presented by dozens of citizens? The pictures of children walking in the grassy swales beside the road from school buses and schools because bike/ped facilities were not available to them? None of that changed the minds of three commissioners who were firm in their anti-bike ideology. Only after an election when the right people were voted into place did the Archer Braid Trail get built. Blind ideology will always prevail over facts. We must be pro-active and vote on all of these bike projects tomorrow.
Vote on Tuesday. You can ride your bike to the polling place (open 7AM to 7PM) and log those commuter miles for the National Bike Challenge! The biggest challenge for bikes is local: the outcome of tomorrow's primary. Our club is large; we could easily decide elections if we only seize that power. Why haven’t we? We won last year’s National Bike Challenge, let’s see what we can do as a club locally. Vote for Cornell and Ward on Tuesday if you have a Democratic ballot. Commit to getting one other person to vote for Cornell and Ward. We need this for the future of bikes in our community.
GCAT director, GCAT regional trails committee chair
3.) These are some of the items that our next county commission will be deciding on with some candidate information:
a.) Acquiring the High Springs to Newberry 11-mile rail corridor for future use as a multi-use trail. This will expand our trail system and potentially lead to the connection of Newberry to the Nature Coast Trail in Trenton, since the majority of that corridor has already been acquired by the state. Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward support and stated their own ideas on how to advance rail-trails in the county.
b.) The bicycle/pedestrian projects list for the proposed surtax. This will create more bike trails and other projects with the goal to connect existing bicycle infrastructure and activity centers. These projects have no design plans yet. Commissioners committed to good and safe design for users are needed. Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward support multi-modal transportation options and recognize the many benefits of trails.
c.) The designs of the bike lanes, sidewalks and multi-use paths that are a part of the roads list for the proposed surtax. I want more than a shoulder as an after-thought bike lane. We need commissioners who are committed to voting for the best multi-modal options for all users. Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward support multi-modal transportation options and recognize the many benefits.
d.) A regional trail system. Once a capital of bicycle activity in the state, our county has fallen behind other counties as they build trails to attract cycling tourism. The Gainesville Citizens for Active Transportation has been working to form a coalition of different groups and community leaders to develop a trail system that will connect county trails to regional trails and also provide innovative infrastructure like designated scenic bikeways. We need commissioners who see the benefits to health, and quality of life of our community that trails bring, as well the economic benefits that cycling- and eco-tourism brings. Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward support a regional trail system. They want our trails connected and the health, economic, environmental and quality-of-life benefits reaped by our community. Ken Cornell sees how this could fund a permanent full-time bicycle position on county staff.
e.) Safe Routes to Schools funding and projects. SW 8th Ave will be benefiting from a Safe Routes to Schools federal grant to provide a multi-use path. This will also provide another link in the Office of Greenways and Trails plans for connecting Newberry to the Archer Braid Trail. Other communities in Florida have pursued and received more funding than our county from Safe Routes to Schools. We need commissioners who will work to support staff finding alternative funding sources to provided more bike/ped facilities. Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward support multi-modal transportation options and recognize the many benefits.
f.) The use of funds other than the surtax to design and redesign roadways for bicycle users and pedestrians in underserved communities. Individuals in the area served by SWAG don’t have sidewalks, bike lanes, or other easy connections to travel from their homes to jobs, clinics, and stores. SW 20th Ave near SW 61st St will be redesigned to include bicycle and pedestrian facilities that will serve people now walking on shoulders or grassy right of ways. Plans for SW 61st to connect to SW 8th Ave so that individuals can easily access a medical clinic, educational opportunities and other resources at the SWAG activity center will be before the board. We need commissioners who realize the need for bike/ped/transit connectivity to underserved communities to advance economic activity and improve health. These new designs must be safe for all roadway users. Both Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward have made economic equality a priority .They support multi-modal transportation options and recognize the many benefits. Harvey Ward sees connecting underserved communities with bike/ped and reliable transit to be one way to combat economic and social inequality.
g.) Plum Creek’s plans. Plum Creek’s request for an unprecedented number of amendments to the county master plan includes plans for 10,500 homes and 15.5 million sq. ft. of commercial space located 9 miles from downtown Gainesville. This leapfrog style of development will reverse the renaissance that downtown Gainesville has experienced. The growing bike culture that includes young urban individuals in and around downtown is an economic engine for local businesses. A new city in the wetlands east of Newnans Lake will compete with the commercial, industrial and residential properties of Gainesville. Downtown and the eastside will lose, just like they did from the expansion west that the interstate caused. Bike culture will lose.
GCC groups love to ride through Rochelle, Windsor, Hawthorne, Campville and all these rural towns. On the day of the Zucchini Festival, rides from the fastest to the pokiest schedule a visit to Windsor. These towns should be more than a place to ride through for cyclists. We should take an interest in the residents and land resources. Plum Creek’s plan will drastically change all of these areas. Ken Cornell and Harvey Ward are the only two candidates to take a stand against Plum Creek’s plans. Kevin Thorpe supports Plum Creek’s plans and serves on their advisory board. Lee Pinkoson refuses to answer questions, despite the fact that the county attorney has clarified that he is able to do so. Lee Pinkoson has never voted against development and his long list of campaign contributors include many developers, real estate agents, and construction companies.
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To unsubscribe from GCCMail, please go to http://gccfla.org/. Sign in to the Members Area, go to the "Me" page, "About Me" box, and click the Unsubscribe button in the Email section. There are also links in the headers of this message that you can use if you know how to access them.
