Growth, Population And Sustainability

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Our county and city will be changing. That is a fact. It is not whether changes will occur but how the changes will occur. We can both anticipate and guide the growth or we can allow for unprepared and ill-conceived plans to happen. Some residents will say that growth is unnecessary and if we just say no it won’t transpire, but that is wishful dreaming. That attitude will only lead to things we know we don’t want such as sprawl.

Stuart is, by definition as a city, a place of greater density than other areas of the county. We should encourage development that will increase our population.  Without population increase, the city will not ultimately be sustainable. While business development is important, it brings very little in new taxes directly to city coffers. Few people realize that sales taxes that are collected in the city do not go to Stuart directly but are re-bated by Tallahassee as a percentage of our population. In effect our businesses collect much more in tax than we receive back.

The city’s sustainability is only assured through residential population growth. That is why I believe it is so important to gear our development toward residential use. That may not always be possible, but that should be our goal. While I want to see Stuart maintain its business friendly reputation, I believe that at this stage of our growth we need to aim to increase our population.

Turning toward the county government, I would like to see a continuation of our slow growth policies in the western part of the county. It makes very little sense to encourage sprawl which will only bring increased taxes to pay for services which are outside the Urban Services Boundary. Inside the USB, new residential and commercial development is needed within a sustainable framework. Density should be allowed within the county’s CRA boundaries. Infill development needs to occur to inhibit sprawl outside the USB.

We live in a wonderful place with caring and thoughtful citizens. It is incumbent on all the elected representatives that they make sure that the best interests of the residents are paramount. This will only occur if we plan for the future in a cohesive manner. Nothing happens in a vacuum. One type of project will result in others being developed to compliment and augment what has already happened. Therefore it is important to remember this principle when we approve new projects.

Thinking of Stuart’s Future

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As we think about how to re-develop our city for the future, it is important to keep in mind what we want to accomplish. Are we planning for the future using the assumptions of the past? Who will be our residents and what will they expect next year and next decade? Too often, our thoughts are ingrained in that past instead of seeing the needs of our future.

How and where will our residents work and live? A recent survey from the Pew Research Center of the millennial generation (those born in the 1980’s and 1990’s) shows that they want to live in an urban environment. This is an ideal development for cities. But in order to keep and attract that generation to our city, we need to examine what they want that urban environment to encompass.

They are against government intrusion into their lives whether dictating who to marry or how to earn a living. Instead of expecting a “job” by either big government or big business, they are entrepreneurial and expert at selling their own brand. They expect to form loose alliances of associates that come together to complete one task at a time. They don’t want to commute to work or be in an office 9-5.

So as Stuart re-writes the Land Development Regulations or develops Sailfish, we need to take into consideration the residents that will be living in our city. We need to make sure that home occupation is not unduly burdened with antiquated notions concerning parking, for example. During the 19th and 20th centuries, artisans and farmers became office and factory workers travelling to a central destination. It now seems we are returning to an earlier time when there was not a distinct place to live and another to work. The most important thing we can do as a city is not be an impediment to these developments.

We must let the market decide what is needed. Ten years ago, who could have foreseen that millions of people would be able to act as hoteliers by renting out rooms in their homes to strangers through the use of airbnb. It is fruitless to try and stop this and other uses from occurring, and instead we should promulgate sensible and not overbearing rules to encourage the payment of taxes for these new uses.

Cities, such as Stuart, will also need to think about re-purposing their half empty retail centers. It is important that we do not stand in the way of zoning and use changes to allow apartments or offices to be built within the center. We are probably at least 20% overbuilt in the retail category, and because of changing shopping patterns, absorption is not likely.

The best we, as a city, can do is to not get in the way of our own future. That does not mean we allow anyone to do anything. Builders and developers still need regulation. It is up to government to make sure that whatever is built is sustainable so it can contribute to our tax base.  Our height limit does not need to be changed in order to accomplish this. In fact, it would be detrimental to our old Florida “brand.” Stuart needs to cultivate the right mix for today and, more importantly, for tomorrow.

Our House With The Leaky Roof

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Peggy Noonan’s WSJ column of July 12th was regarding our current immigration crisis. In the column she compares how Washington sees the crises as political and everyday citizens in a much more alarming way. We never imagined that America would have refugee camps housing thousands of children? Then who would have thought that our political system would become so dysfunctional? She compares the nation to a house where the owners can’t both make their mortgage payments and keep up the property.

The metaphor continues that on top of that you wake up one morning to find that there are people standing on your property just looking at you. They begin to gather in your garage and crawl through a window to your cellar. You call the police and when they finally come they take a few people away, always to be replaced by so many more. Your elected officials can’t stem the tide and the news media after a day go on to the next story. Our political leaders shout that the other party is to blame. It appears no one is in charge. No one will take responsibility.
I not only feel that no one is responsible about immigration but that no one in Washington will take charge and will take responsibility about anything. The adults have fled and the children can’t come up with solutions from our failing tax system to social security to our roads and so many other things. The other party or political opponent is to blame. Our elected representatives whether in their first term or tenth say they are powerless to correct what needs to be corrected. It is reminiscent of Pogo’s “we have met the enemy and it is us”.
Closer to home we have AAF that wants to barrel through our community after getting our tax dollars to build their new track. The summer rains will result in the Corp releasing water from the lake again devastating our lagoon. Our governor now claims to be with us except when it impedes FEIC or Florida Crystals. Our former governor, who wants to be our next governor, panders to those he once called liberal Democrats when he pretended to be a conservative Republican.
Our nation and state are not political board games where politicians get to manipulate and move citizens as if they were pawns. We elect people to office and send to Washington or Tallahassee to solve problems and fix things. They are not there to collect money for the next campaign or rig the system against the people to enhance the coffers of big business or labor.
We need a change and that must begin with us. We need to vote and not leave elections to the extremes on either side. We can’t be so dogmatic in our beliefs that we would encourage our leaders to destroy rather than fix the system. As citizens is it too much to ask, that we sacrifice and work with all our fellow citizens, whether we disagree or not. We all need to help America pay the mortgage and fix the roof.

TECHNOLOGY AND US

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When I was a kid, the most advanced technology we had was a black and white television with “rabbit ears”. As I became more tech savvy, I received a transistor radio for Christmas and an old manual typewriter in high school. Rich or poor, there just weren’t many gadgets to buy. There were no cell phones or computers or tablets. You shared a single phone line with several of your neighbors which was euphemistically called a “party” line.

When I first started working in a real estate office, listings were kept on index cards in file drawers very similar to library catalogues. We used ledger books to record rents and expenses. Comptometers (manual calculators) added and subtracted columns of numbers. And, I marveled at the IBM Selectric typewriter.

In the ensuing years technology has advanced and intruded more and more into our daily work and personal life. Now I am instantaneously connected with e-mails. My businesses records and information reside in a “cloud.” I can work from anywhere with any computer and have all my business and personal records available whether I am sitting in my office or using my smart phone in some far off place. This has allowed productivity to be increased exponentially.

As a nation we are unfortunately in danger of not being able to take advantage of all these possibilities. Like so much of our infrastructure, our technology is woefully behind our global competitors. Our internet speed is ranked 11th and the cost is three times as high as France or the UK or most of the OECD due to a lack of market competition. This has led to a lack of spending by the internet providers to improve their product. If this continues along with a governmental neglect of the rest of our infrastructure, the U.S. will eventually not be economically competitive.

The more immediate problem today is the lack of skilled technicians to service our technology. We train electricians and plumbers for years both in school and on the job. The person who fixes our computer or diagnoses our connection problem has two weeks or a month of training before being “certified”. The IT professional in your company could have been self-taught and relies more on trial and error than any real knowledge. There is a growing gap between the technology and the people charged with its maintenance.

This is just another symptom of our nation’s failure to confront our problems head on. Many of our governing, educational and social models are no longer capable of providing answers and solutions. We need to rethink and restructure our approach. The world in which we find ourselves today is vastly different than when I was a child or a young adult or even the world at the turn of the 21st century. We can keep our core believes enshrined in the Declaration of Independence but adapt our governance to solve the problems of today and tomorrow.

MAKING STUART STRONG

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I was at a fundraiser for Building Bridges last Friday evening. If you don’t know about this program, it is an East Stuart based organization providing guidance to the kids of that community. While there is help with school work, it primarily strives to give the participants moral and ethical guidance to serve them in life. The whirl wind behind this endeavor is Ollie Harvey ably assisted by her husband, local businessman, Philip.

My involvement with the organization began with the Centennial project of painting tiles for the East Stuart gateway sign which was supported by a grant by Women Supporting the Arts. The kids and senior citizens from the community (with the assistance of artist Maggie Blizard) hand painted tiles that were then kiln fired. City Commissioner Eula Clarke was instrumental in having the city agree to have the tiles placed on the gateway sign.

Over the course of the past year, the Harveys have suffered their own tragedy with the untimely death of their son. It was only their absolute trust and faith in God that have seen them through the hard times. The couple seems remarkably free from rancor as they devote themselves to Building Bridges, the East Stuart community and the city in general. They are inspirational in their wanting to help and improve the life of others.

They are one of the important reasons that Stuart is a good place to live. The greatness of a city is not the buildings and streets but the people who live and work and raise their families there. We need to remember that as we move forward. There are no panaceas or easy answers as we confront the future. But with people such as the Harveys, we can overcome any of our problems and Stuart will continue to be the place we want to live.

My Pledge to Stuart

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As a Stuart City Commissioner I look forward to serving the city, the residents and all stakeholders. We are facing some tough economic, environmental and developmental challenges in the next few years. This will be a critical time for our future and our quality of life. Any one business or project will not be critical to our overall economic development. However, any one business or project could have major repercussions that can seriously affect our future. This is precisely why I believe that growth needs to be organic and in keeping with an overall vision for the city.

I will continue to listen and speak to every individual to understand what is important. During this transition period before taking my seat I will attend, as I have for the past eighteen months, commission and other governmental and civic meetings so that I can “hit the ground running” in a few months. I did not run for the commission not to become involved on a daily basis with our government. I ran to use my experience to help guide and just as importantly see the city grow and expand. In that way Stuart will be around to celebrate its bi-centennial year in 2114.

We can have more residents, jobs and businesses and at the same time keep our “Old Florida Charm” and way of life. For I firmly believe that we should not strive to be a replica of Delray or Boca or even Naples. We are Stuart with our own values and traditions. I pledge to do everything I can to make sure that our ties with the past are not severed on our way to the future.

 

NOT All Aboard Letter to Senator Sessions

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TOM CAMPENNI

700 SW SAINT LUCIE CRES.

STUART FL 34994

 

June 17, 2014

The Honorable Jeff Sessions

Room 326 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

 

Dear Senator Sessions:

As the ranking member of the all-important Senate Budget Committee, you have dedicated yourself to weeding out tax-payer supported boondoggles. You have shown leadership with your opposition to “XpressWest’s FRA loan. It is important that you oppose all such loans including the “All Aboard Florida” $1.5 billion loan for high speed passenger service from Miami to Orlando.

Like “XpressWest,” “All Aboard Florida” is another example of a private company proposing rail service using tax payer financing. This is nothing more than the taxpayers taking the risks without any upside potential. The private company will have very little downside and, in the very unlikely case of success, all the reward. If ventures like these were such worthy and needed projects, why doesn’t the private sector fund them? That answer is rather obvious.

There is not one example of a passenger rail system in the United States that has been operated profitably in decades. Why doesn’t “All Aboard Florida” which once you peel back the “corporate vale” is owned by the $64 billion hedge fund, The Fortress Group, pay for the new tracks themselves? (They are contemplating buying a huge New York City property development of thousands of units spending nearly $6 billion dollars of their own money)  If they are to receive the loan, it would be nothing more than an example of big corporate welfare at a time when we, as a nation, cannot afford to maintain our existing public roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

“All Aboard Florida’s” plan for high speed rail will run through countless small downtowns, such as my hometown of Stuart, on street grade without a sealed corridor which is a very dangerous proposition. The right of way they will use was created for Flagler’s railroad on the east coast of Florida in the late 19th and early 20th century. At that time, South Florida was a sparsely settled area. The state now comprises 19 million residents and is (or soon will be) the third largest in the nation.

The last time passenger trains operated on that track was in the late 1960s when it was discontinued for lack of profitability. Amtrack already runs 4 trains per day between Orlando and Miami unprofitably. Amtrack’s price is about $35.00 one way and takes a little over five hours to complete. “All Aboard Florida,” which will take 3 hours, will purportedly charge approximately $100 one way. Given that the company will be borrowing the funds to buy track and trains, how will it be profitable even with the company’s fantasy ridership projections?

I urge you to look into this and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars to fund one more corporate subsidy for one more favored company. Our government, through our elected representatives, cannot continue to be in the pocket of elite corporatists and then claim to be with we, the people.

Sincerely,

Tom Campenni

NOT All Aboard Letter to US Rep Ryan

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TOM CAMPENNI

700 SW SAINT LUCIE CRES.

STUART FL 34994

 

June 17, 2014

The Honorable Paul Ryan

Room 233 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

 

Dear Representative Ryan:

As the Chair of the all-important House Budget Committee, you have dedicated yourself to weeding out tax-payer supported boondoggles. You have shown leadership with your opposition to “XpressWest’s FRA loan. It is important that you oppose all such loans including the “All Aboard Florida” $1.5 billion loan for high speed passenger service from Miami to Orlando.

Like “XpressWest,” “All Aboard Florida” is another example of a private company proposing rail service using tax payer financing. This is nothing more than the taxpayers taking the risks without any upside potential. The private company will have very little downside and, in the very unlikely case of success, all the reward. If ventures like these were such worthy and needed projects, why doesn’t the private sector fund them? That answer is rather obvious.

There is not one example of a passenger rail system in the United States that has been operated profitably in decades. Why doesn’t “All Aboard Florida” which once you peel back the “corporate vale” is owned by the $64 billion hedge fund, The Fortress Group, pay for the new tracks themselves? (They are contemplating buying a huge New York City property development of thousands of units spending nearly $6 billion dollars of their own money)  If they are to receive the loan, it would be nothing more than an example of big corporate welfare at a time when we, as a nation, cannot afford to maintain our existing public roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

“All Aboard Florida’s” plan for high speed rail will run through countless small downtowns, such as my hometown of Stuart, on street grade without a sealed corridor which is a very dangerous proposition. The right of way they will use was created for Flagler’s railroad on the east coast of Florida in the late 19th and early 20th century. At that time, South Florida was a sparsely settled area. The state now comprises 19 million residents and is (or soon will be) the third largest in the nation.

The last time passenger trains operated on that track was in the late 1960s when it was discontinued for lack of profitability. Amtrack already runs 4 trains per day between Orlando and Miami unprofitably. Amtrack’s price is about $35.00 one way and takes a little over five hours to complete. “All Aboard Florida,” which will take 3 hours, will purportedly charge approximately $100 one way. Given that the company will be borrowing the funds to buy track and trains, how will it be profitable even with the company’s fantasy ridership projections?

I urge you to look into this and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars to fund one more corporate subsidy for one more favored company. Our government, through our elected representatives, cannot continue to be in the pocket of elite corporatists and then claim to be with we, the people.

 

Sincerely,

Tom Campenni

Why Am I Running for Stuart City Commission?

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I was asked yesterday why I was running for Stuart City Commission. The simple answer is I believe that the city is at a tipping point. If we are not careful, we will cease to be a successful municipality. Our downtown has made impressive improvement in the past 25 years in attracting shops and restaurants. But a downtown needs to be more than a block or two of business establishments or it becomes just another outdoor mall.

To be vibrant and sustainable, a downtown needs to attract residents and the infrastructure to support that population. We are at that point today. Too often, city governments believe that a few boutique stores or restaurants alone are enough to be self-sustaining. If the patrons, owners and employees of the mercantile live elsewhere, then it is a Potemkin village and not a true living city. You need the vitality that is only possible by a concentration of residents being there 24 hours a day.

The key to this organic development is not the “one off” of the proposed Northpoint hotel. It is the un-glamorous building of needed housing throughout the CRA for the patrons, owners and employees of the city’s businesses. The housing stock has to be for all population segments which include both rentals and condos. Incorporated with that residential development is the need for retail so that businesses catering to the increasing population can shop for everyday necessities. While not to be ignored, the need for new office space will be less and less as more and more of us work from home.

Without increased population, the city cannot maintain enough of a tax base to continue to provide services even to its current residents. However, it is important that while seeking new residents, jobs and businesses, we do not lose sight of our “Old Florida” charm and livability. There is absolutely no need to go above the current 4-story height limit or have buildings with architectural styles more suited to Boca than here. The only people who believe that new development is an either/or choice are those that lack imagination. Stuart has a well-established reputation and life style that I will fight to keep while allowing for growth.

We should not look for the “single project or developer” concept so ingrained in many of us. Anything that will be sustainable and successful will require more than any one person or project can accomplish. That is why I pledge, if elected, to work with my fellow commissioners and all stakeholders to not only have growth but to do so in a manner in which we will not lose all that is special and unique to us.

MY REMARKS ON ALL ABOARD FLORIDA AT JUNE 9TH COMMISSION MEETING

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Like many other residents I always believed that the train track running through Stuart was part of our city’s charm. The few freights running were sometimes a pain but as I waited at a crossing it was quite manageable. I would listen with a certain fondness to the whistle almost nostalgically for an earlier America as the train rumbled through at night.

But I no longer view the train track running through our city with charm. Nor when caught now at a crossing waiting for what seems to be an interminable amount of time am I so placid. And the night whistle of the rumbling freight is now not nostalgic to my ears. For I foresee a time when emergency vehicles can’t get through or boat traffic is paralyzed. For now I realize that what I thought was small town charm can possibly destroy much of what Stuart has accomplished in the past 30 years.

“All Aboard Florida” or FECI or FEC or The Fortress Group or whatever they create and call their selves tomorrow is taking away 108 parking spaces from downtown. Increasing the amount of money we need spend to maintain crossings. With the additional track we probably will have to reroute traffic in places and loose turns and create a real confusion at confusion corner.

The worst however is what we don’t know. How much more will the freight traffic increase in the years to come? We hear about the Panama Canal doubling. The Port of Miami and Fort Lauderdale are expanding and the opening of Cuba in the coming years could be a factor. The company is using our tax dollars in the form of federal loans to lay that entire new track. It is as if we are giving them the very means to affect the damage they will do to us.

“Big Cho Cho” and their political allies are telling us how little power, we on the Treasure Coast have to stop them. The governor and maybe the president and his administration is all for this. Well this is not a party issue. It is as nonpartisan as something can be. This will affect our property and our quality of life. Al of us need to be of one voice and mind and prevent this travesty from occurring.

Stuart is celebrating its 100th birthday and Flagler’s railroad was instrumental to our early growth. But we do not live in late 19th or early 20th century Stuart or Florida or America. An entire modern state with millions of people have grown up around the tracks that ceased to be anything more but a charming nostalgic sight with a few rumbling freights fifty years ago. You can’t now try to bring back an earlier business model and devastate the surrounding communities.

I have no doubt that you will take the appropriate step tonight. For what tonight symbolizes is a mark of solidarity with all our Treasure Coast communities and a determination to fight for what is right. This resolution in this fight, to quote a much more polished and gifted person than I, is “not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.