Pinellas County’s land use and transportation planning agency will be funding three local projects that make streets safer for all users. The Forward Pinellas board voted unanimously Wednesday to approve up to $1.1 million in funding for three complete streets projects: construction of sidewalks on 34th Street South in St. Petersburg, and preparing plans for…
There is something brewing in Pinellas County. Residents may have noticed the recent rise in the number of breweries, microbreweries, and brew-pubs, and it’s not just a “hop-tical” illusion. Cities like Dunedin and St. Petersburg helped establish Pinellas County as a premier market in Florida for independent craft breweries. Today, the Tampa Bay area…
UPDATE 3/1/2017 11:30 am: The RFP selection committee meeting will be held on March 8, 2017, at 9 am at 310 Court Street, 2nd Floor, Clearwater, Florida 33756. UPDATE 2/17/2017 1:30 pm: The questions and responses to questions are available here. On Wednesday, February 8, 2017, the Forward Pinellas Board authorized issuing a Request for…
It was probably not how Andy Holcombe wanted to start his first day of an internship with the Philadelphia Phillies. Nor was it my intent to spend part of the morning commute flying over my handlebars and a vehicle’s hood to slam hard into the pavement, but there we were. Although this was just a…
Smart Growth America’s Dangerous by Design report released today ranks the Tampa Bay area as the seventh most dangerous metro area in the country for people walking. Despite that dubious distinction, we were encouraged to see our area’s standing in the rankings improve five spots from the past three reports. While the trend is positive,…
Forward Pinellas has new board leadership and several new members going into 2017. By a unanimous vote of the Forward Pinellas Board, County Commissioner John Morroni will be serving as the board’s chair, Clearwater Commissioner Doreen Caudell as vice chair, Indian Rocks Beach Commissioner Cookie Kennedy as treasurer, and County Commissioner Dave Eggers as secretary.…
According to Feeding America, more than 48 million people in the U.S. are not sure where their next meal is coming from. In Pinellas County, Feeding America identifies 16 percent of the population, nearly 150,000 people, as “food insecure.” The numbers are worse for children, nationwide and locally. Nearly one in four of the county’s…
It’s Saturday morning, and Michael Lyman is teaching a class on creating graphic novels. He gestures at a screen filled with giant comic-book panels, pointing to one showing soldiers marching across a bleak landscape. “There’s a lot of space in front. That signifies movement,” he tells the two students in today’s class. “Wider panels indicate…
Two major projects connecting and completing Pinellas County trails have received $7.1 million in funding as part of $44.4 million awarded on Tuesday through the Florida Department of Transportation’s SUN Trail program. FDOT designated $5.7 million for construction to close a gap in the Duke Energy Trail between Chestnut Park and Enterprise Road, a key…
If you ask Joseph Powell, traveling Bay Pines Boulevard can be a perilous endeavor. “I saw four car accidents in three days here last week,” he said. A regular visitor to the C.W. Bill Young Veteran’s Administration Hospital, Joseph relies on public transportation to get around. I spoke to him on September 30 while he…
In the 1950s through the 1980s, the primary transportation focus was on getting people from place to place via automobile. Little attention was given to those walking or riding their bikes. Much of Pinellas County was developed during that time, and our roads and communities reflected that focus. Over the years, local governments countywide have taken…
UPDATE, 10/3: The Florida Department of Transportation has postponed both the Tampa and St. Petersburg hearings to a later date and has announced it will not convert the auxiliary lanes to express lanes on the bridge. We will provide more information on the rescheduled hearings as it becomes available. An average of 72,500 vehicles each…