aent
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Except, of course, we aren't talking about abortion, we're talking about birth control: Trump says he would support "letting states decide" wether birth control is legal or not
23 hours ago, JFW657 said:At 0:45 in the following video, Trump states clearly and unequivocally that in a second Trump term, "states will determine by vote, legislation or perhaps both" abortion policies within their boundaries.
Can't get it from any closer to the horse's mouth (or in Trump's case, the horse's ass) than that.
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On 5/21/2024 at 6:34 PM, orange87 said:
Trump says he would support "letting states decide" wether birth control is legal or not; then tries to walk back statement
Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/us/politics/trump-birth-control-restrictions.html
Where did Trump say that? That is not the actual quote from Trump in the article.... it was;
“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly,” he said. “And I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting, and it’s another issue that’s very interesting, but you will find it, I think, very smart. I think it’s a smart decision.”
He refused to answer the question the first time, sure, delaying giving an answer, but thats just what he did, he refused to answer, he didn't walk back anything, he literally said I'm not answering your question now, I'll release my policy later, then he went ahead and released his policy later.
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While not local Brightline news, there has been some other Brightline news lately.
1) South Florida appears to be set to fund the Tri Rail expansion in South Florida. Tri-Rail earlier this year was extended to Miami Central station, and now it looks like it will continue the loop up to Aventura by 2028.
For those of us who travel to Miami, it appears that a deal is almost worked out to have Brightline build the first phase of the Tri-Rail expansion in South Florida, making last mile travels easier within the south florida region (and perhaps providing some amount of relief to the local Brightline traffic). The first segment will start at Miami Central Station and end at the Aventura Brightline station, with 5 stops in between, at Wynwood, the Design District, Little Haiti, North Miami on 123rd Street and the Florida International University North Campus along 151st Street. Funding should be approved within 75 days and it should be operational by 2028.
https://www.thenextmiami.com/deal-for-brightline-to-build-commuter-rail-system-nearly-ready/
On top of that, given the imminent expansion of Tri-Rail, Broward County is kicking off its public meeting process for their extension from where this service ends to the existing Brightline Ft Lauderdale, with 4 further proposed stops: City of Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, South Fort Lauderdale, and Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Construction on this has not yet been funded but hopefully should come soon after.
2) Brightline West started construction and Brightline recently released some renderings of their proposed party cars they're planning to order as a new level of first class:
If Brightline can ever get enough trainsets, I hope they consider one of those for us as well.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/brightline-west-high-speed-rail-california/
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On 5/19/2024 at 11:48 AM, Alleri459 said:
Not sure how feasible this location can be with track curves and the existing structures, but I think a Miami Central style station here could work.
Even without the curve issue, that is too close to the planned North-South building expansion so I doubt there'd be any room for that style of building there. On top of your return curve requiring a ton of eminent domain.
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11 hours ago, codypet said:
If they wanted to do it in a pinch today, they probably COULD, but it wouldn't be effective. The OUC line has I think a 5 or 10 mph speed limit, and then they'd have to travel through the Brightline maintenance facility and then the platforms wouldn't fit Sunrail.
So that $400m would be reconstructing a new line from Terminal C to the OUC line outside the Brightline terminal, and then upgrading the track and signals on the OUC line to bring its speeds up to 35/40mph? Then you've got rolling stock and cost of more frequent service. I just don't see it being $400 million.
Its my understanding that the OUC tracks have been determined to be entirely unusable by Sunrail or Brightline. The proposals all include new tracks in the existing ROW from what I have heard. I haven't heard in a while, but previously OUC wanted to remain on separate tracks from Brightline/Sunrail, so it could potentially involve building 2 new sets of tracks on top of moving (or rebuilding) some existing tracks to make room within the existing ROW.
1 hour ago, blt23 said:At this point does anyone even know what’s being contemplated for the South I-drive and Disney Springs stations?
Back when Brightline was proposing the 417 route, their agreement with Disney was for a stub-end station that would have pretty directly connected to the existing Disney springs bus loop. Brightline’s switch to pursuing the northern sunshine corridor option made that original layout impractical (or impossible), so they ended that agreement with Disney and then we all saw Disney go pout about it and publicly distance themselves from the Sunshine Corridor due to it not working for them.
Instead, the Sunshine Corridor proposal very clearly included a “South I-drive” station in the southeast quadrant of the I-4 and 536/Epcot Center Dr interchange as a near WDW alternative. But now it seems that a true Disney Springs station, at least for Sunrail, is somehow back on the table?
It doesn’t seem like it would be particularly difficult to get a Sunrail only spur from the I-4 corridor to near the Disney Springs bus loop where Disney could get their connectivity, but not so much if it must go through that South I-drive station first. And yet that still seems to somehow be what they’re implying, so I’m very confused.
On the original proposal, Disney was very clear that the 417 route was a condition of them accepting a station on their property. When the route changed, Disney did not want it, as Disney deeply fears a direct connection from Universal to Disney, making it much easier for those who are primarily visiting Disney to escape Disney for a couple days to go to Universal and other area attractions.
As mentioned in the attractions thread, the RCID replacement with CFTOD had a lot to do with Universal lobbying, and I think Universal wants a Disney stop (for the same reason, they think they're going to have a lot more people take a few days off their Disney vacation to visit Universal vs those who take a few days off their Universal vacation to visit Disney, that likely is happening anyways for everyone who wants to as Universal has not been successful at really keeping people on property, at least historically).
I've heard that the CFTOD was going to push for a station on the land they control within Disney, whether Disney wants it or not, because there is a desire for the state to show the nation that Brightline is the right way to do rail (with no taxpayer funding... well, no state taxes since after the original 4 stations, other levels of government started giving Brightline money for building the additional stations), and CA HSR is the wrong way to do it, and a Disney stop is deemed pretty critical to getting ridership to make that point.
With the Disney-RCID-DeSantis lawsuit settling, there clearly has been some agreement made between Disney and DeSantis about what the CFTOD is going to do... as part of the settlement, Disney agreed to invalidate its less minute development plan approvals before RCID was dissolved and replaced with CFTOD, and the settlement clearly involved replacing the entire CFTOD board with a group that both Disney and DeSantis approved of, and there appears to be some understanding of approvals for future development that all parties have agreed to. I think part of that includes a train station on Disney's property, something the state wanted, in exchange for approving most of what Disney wanted on it. I don't think Disney is happy about this, but they might have had no choice in order to get the lawsuit with DeSantis settled and to stop the bleeding from that ongoing lawsuit. Given that, the positioning on Disney's property may be VERY poor, perhaps with Disney trying to get it to be "mainly for employees and locals, not real tourists"
I also think, given what has been done to Brightline, the SunRail tracks have to be rated for higher speeds suitable for Brightline, they're depending on sharing the tracks and potentially collecting rent from one another to help fund the project, but that is also making things more expensive. I'm still confused on where they plan to get funding from, it seems the state has said no to funding this for the moment at least, and Brightline said this route isn't feasible for them to fund. I guess we're hoping some federal dollars appear? Too bad they can't use TDT for this instead of the other projects... seems more... TDT-related then the other projects.
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15 hours ago, codypet said:
Blarg. "Let's make a theme park entertainment district" "Let's keep the 3rd largest theme park in the region next door out of it"
The district is to help cover Universal/OCCC/Brightline specific infrastructure costs. Even the north Universal property is not part of the district, its not a generic theme park district. SeaWorld would not want to be part of the district.
7 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:I wonder if this new Universal special district will be as heavy handed with DeSantis’ appointed people (largely who have no business being there). In fairness, Universal deserves an unqualified group of Tallahassee cronies to govern their piece of the pie too.
Unlike RCID, this new district complies with Florida statutes, and does not exempt Universal from any rules everyone else has to follow. It is a method of giving a tax exemption and financing mechanism for Universal building direct infrastructure projects only. Its a very limited district in power.
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9 hours ago, jrs2 said:
yes. Spirit vs United...
I didn't realize the Tri-Rail vs BL thing going on. Also, Tri-Rail is tri-county rail, right?
How do we get the airport connector done sooner than later for Sunrail? The head County administrator isn't confident in it getting done soon. Or is the whole point what I wrote above?
I think the answer is put Brightline in charge, let them build what they want, where they want it. Brightline said this route wasn't feasible, it was too expensive, and was ready to go on another route. Our local leadership (combined with lobbying efforts from Universal) said NO, we will tell Brightline what to build and how to build it, and Brightline has moved its resources elsewhere. This is no surprise.
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6 hours ago, orange87 said:
On the surface this sounds like a good thing, but it isn't. Just like people mindlessly think GMO is bad even though it's saved millions of people around the world from starvation. People can just choose not to eat lab grown meat. No need for the government to ban it.
Yeah its definitely hard to come up with a reason why doing more then requiring clear, concise labeling for it is necessary.
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5 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:
Who is many? Your rarely back up your statements.
On 5/2/2024 at 1:55 PM, cubanbread said:Obviously many is a subjective word, but here's some backup to the statement:
- If you follow the Brightline reddit or YouTube video reviews, for example, it is overwhelmed by people who are trying to use it locally, and with Brightline consistently raising its peak pricing for local travel as a result of all trains being at capacity, it is extremely common to see reddit posts to the nature of "Your going to force me to go back to Tri-Rail, please don't, this is unfair that you are raising the price on us by this much" (although the trains keep selling out, and they have not been able to obtain more as of yet, so they have little choice)
- Brightline has modified its ticketing system to reserve many seats for Orlando to Miami, and has been holding back seats, to the dismay of many trying to use it locally
- Actually, since I made my last post, and before your post, Brightline is dropping the commuter passes causes a lot of complaints on Reddit right now, they want are doing a massive price hike because so many people are using it instead of Tri-Rail. They say they are working with Tri-Rail to setup an Express train to get the time more comparable at least.
I didn't mean anything as negative towards Tri-Rail. I used to live in South Florida, and I rode Tri-Rail a lot, and loved the service and I'm not discounting anything of what Tri-Rail is, but its obvious if you have the disposable income, Brightline is a waayyy nicer service. I mean, just look at the stations, the trains, every single detail. There is plenty of room for both to coexist (and expand) as demonstrated by Brightline continuing to hike prices and still fill the trains up (and they're optimistic too, they've ordered 30 more train cars, and they're not for any Orlando expansion, and the first 10 are supposed to arrive in a few months)
I'm not saying Tri-Rail shouldn't exist. They have more stops, they are cheaper so a different market segment can use them, and Brightline just doesn't have the capacity for the demand. If Brightline and Tri-Rail both continue to expand, it will encourage more transfers and make it easier to ride the system without having to transfer to a car.
I do think it will be great if Tri-Rail approves the proposed partnership with Brightline to expand the service further with the Northeast Corridor (and wtf is with that name Tri-Rail, its not in the Northeast of your region, let alone the proposed rail line (coastal link) and that name is already used by those referring to the busiest passenger rail system in America)
On 5/2/2024 at 5:05 PM, jrs2 said:I agree about the speeds. As for Sunrail vs BL ala cost savings per ticket, dunno; it could be akin to taking Spirit versus Delta somewhere. As for service frequency, that's where the choice would come in, except that CRT isn't LRT with stops every 5 minutes...so...not sure.
I think that is a very apt comparison, and whats all I was trying to say. For those who can afford it with more disposable income, they want to be on Delta or Alaska airlines, nobody wants to really be on Spirit or Frontier if it wasn't a matter of price. That doesn't mean I think Spirit or Frontier shouldn't exist.
Like seriously:
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9 hours ago, jrs2 said:
Here's a couple of images from Google. I'm not impressed with these concept designs, but, anything is better than 1-2 story motel-style hotel buildings on I-Drive. The Masterplan doesn't look the same as a prior one from like 6-7 years ago. It looks like a lot of that surface parking behind say Chuy's will be removed. But I can't locate a second garage they had originally earmarked for behind Longhorn...
I think its fairly obvious that the limited parking depicted on that map isn't going to support much of anything, they would have to put multiple garages in...
They also have split the parcel into 2 pieces recently, which is either likely done because one part will be residential, the other part will be commercial/hotel, or perhaps to phase the development. They might try to keep the event center (at least for the moment), so my guess is there thought is to build residential in the blue area, and a hotel north of it.
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9 hours ago, jrs2 said:
so Medicare doesn't cover it?
OMG, I didn't think of that, that would be so absurd.
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3 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:
It would be interesting to see who would win that ad war. Brightline would need to match pricing to Sunrail since technically, they are sharing tracks on the Sunshine Corridor.
Why would you take Brightline to Universal when you could take Sunrail for cheaper?
I don’t know much but I assume Brightline along that route will travel at the same speed as Sunrail due to frequent stops, so it’s not like the “high speed” spin works here.In South Florida, many are taking Brightline over Tri-Rail, or at least try to. The service is just sooo much nicer, even if its cheaper. Why would anyone stay at a nice hotel when there is a cheap one that still has beds? Why buy a Tesla or BMW when you can buy a Nissan Sentra?
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The Unicorp owned Wyndham on the corner of I-Drive/Sand Lake is closing for redevelopment into a more modern hotel tower along with some residential and maybe more retail. Hopefully they complete their master plan and also redevelop the shopping center in between this and Icon Park, this will really change this corridor even more if they do.
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22 minutes ago, jack said:
Because the plan they want makes less and less economic sense as time goes on. Office is a dud in most markets, urban retail is tough, high rise multifamily is not a walk in the park either.
You make it sound like it ever made economic sense. Remember, the city already gave massive subsidies here.... first, they subsidized the rent the entire time they were building the new arena, then after subsidizing the rent for years, they kicked everyone out and knocked down what was a reasonable looking city block with street level retail and parking above, rebuilt the facilities such as the police department elsewhere for many millions that probably didn't need it. And then they sold it to the Magic at a subsidized price. If they just did nothing, it would have still looked like a perfectly reasonable city block instead of a blighted empty lot. Its not like there was trash here before they got involved, it was reasonable... yeah, it wasn't great, but it wasn't anything anyone would really call awful.
Edit to add a street view link of this area a decade ago: https://www.google.com/maps/@28.5401728,-81.3832778,3a,90y,287.03h,86.59t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sn-9CCzuTyvhvso_JMoxRDA!2e0!5s20140301T000000!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
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On 4/4/2024 at 2:52 PM, codypet said:
Yea hopefully. Aside from drainage needs, the also need room for the signal houses and the maintenance access. I wouldn't be surprised if they opt to go single track if they're looking for that tight of R/W.
The plans have it as double track. Considering its only planned to be used by Brightline, they might have minimal signals and switches perhaps? I also imagine the equipment can be post mounted in the air if need be, and that some areas will have some extra room
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3 hours ago, codypet said:
44'? That's not wide enough. BL had 50' and still didn't have room for the drainage swales and signals.
I-4 Beyond the Ultimate South is being designed to transport all stormwater off to the sides of the highway with underground stormwater facilities, without any need for swales. and such, with retention ponds along the sides of the highway, at exit ramps, etc. The entire median will have jersey barriers to protect vehicle from entering into the rail ROW. Also, since this new corridor is supposed to be used exclusively for trains with no freight, they can have the tracks slightly closer together. I'm sure Brightline would be speaking up if they did not have adequate space.
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7 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:
If there isn’t enough money for it, one must ask where it’s going instead of the most clogged artery in Florida.
Why is DeShameless wasting your tax dollars to put up signs at the entrance to Disney called the Central Florida Oversight District?Florida is doing a lot of things wrong right now but term limits are not one of them.
They are literally building the express lanes in the Disney area starting construction in the next year or so, it was literally funded BY DeSantis. Prior to DeSantis overhauling the plan and prioritizing I-4, the Beyond the Ultimate improvements were expected to take 30+ years to be completed. Now many of the improvements are being pushed up by decades over what was planned before DeSantis was in office, in the Disney area. The area immediately south/west of Disney wasn't slated to get any improvements for a long time, but now, starting construction late this year or early next year, the project has been extended by 10 miles of giving 4 express lanes. He is literally doing exactly what you want.
He also has spent zero of our tax dollars on any signs for the CFOD. I checked, the number is ZERO.
2 hours ago, jrs2 said:And on the public transportation front, what has Soto done to get $$$ for the Sunrail airport link? He's been in office for 3-4 terms now, and that's squarely within his district. That's public transportation, isn't it? And it benefits his district, doesn't it? DeSantis's fault too, huh?
Yup, and don't forget OBX. Mica got funding to get some improvements done, and we were expecting OBX to start construction within a year when he got voted out. Now we've literally got nothing, directly because the complain about everything, do nothing democrats took over.
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33 minutes ago, shardoon said:
Wait, they are not building them? I thought the plan was an express lane, kind of like South Florida with the rubber sticks separating?
That did get funded, but original plans called for a double decker which has been deemed necessary to get 4 express lanes in that area and there isn't enough money for that... that has been put on hold in favor of temporarily adding 2 express lanes. The 4 express lanes were funded in Osceola County. If Disney paid their fair share of impact fees, its likely the full project would have been funded, but they seem to have escaped that.
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2 hours ago, F-L-A said:
Sue us? Do you work for DeSatan?
Disney's fight is with him, not actual Floridians. He was willing to foot us peasants with the bill left by taking away Disney's special district. All that infrastucture Disney pays to maintain? Dear leader wanted us paying for it all instead. We'll still be paying for the damage he's done to Disney's reputation amongst gullible conservatives for years to come. Not that I want them all coming here, but we're a tourist economy, in a state run by an imbecile who is more than happy to burn it all down for his own benefit. Disney will never have any reason to invest large amounts of capital into their property here as long as they have Tweedle-Dumb actively sabotaging their business. Their cancelled relocation of entire divisions to Lake Nona serves as a testament to his incompetence.
You seem to be entirely unaware of what the lawsuit was about. First off, it was suing the State of Florida, so as a resident, yes, it includes us, and second of all, DeSantis was never willing to put any of us with the bill. All bills have always been assigned to the district in which Disney is the primary taxpayer. Disney, while they pay to maintain their infrastructure, has avoided paying the taxes on said payments that everyone else, including me, Universal, and SeaWorld, all have to pay on services that are done for ourselves. In fact, with the investigation done so far, Disney is also now negotiating with the IRS about not paying taxes in relation to RCID that they were covering up.
DeSantis has always offered Disney huge benefits to get them to move stuff here... he offered benefits and was courting the relocation to Lake Nona, prior to Disney going and attacking the State of Florida. DeSantis was a huge Disney fan, he even got married there. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see further news about Lake Nona, as Disney has multiple issues in relation to that project that are unsolved, they are legally unable to just sit on that land without building what is promised, they have a use it or lose it provision and tax benefits tied to it they already agreed to, and rumors are the Disney settlement involves them massively increasing spending in Florida.
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There also appears to be some very good news regarding Disney! It appears their battle against Florida is coming to an end, with them giving up entirely on the fight against DeSantis, and it appears that the settlement negotiations involve requiring Disney to do massive investments into their Florida properties that were not otherwise planned. It likely will take a bit of time for it to be sorted out, but Disney is now negotiating with the state about what they are going to be building here instead of trying to sue us.
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On 3/19/2024 at 7:46 PM, F-L-A said:
I'm personally not a fan of SeaWorld's identity crisis in the wake of being targeted by animal activitists. It's quickly turned into a Six Flags with a different name, not just due to their propensity for building nothing but coasters now, but also due to their falling show standards overall. The park is currently in a sad state, and I can't imagine what will happen when they have to phase out the orcas and possibly other animal shows. They're certainly not up to competing with Universal, at Halloween or just in general. Howl-o-Scream is a decent little diversion, if repetitive, but it's nowhere close to dragging people away from HHN. The crowds have always been very light in my experience, about what you'd expect for the level of product on offer. HHN is perhaps too popular for its own good, but it still has no real competition.
I still think SeaWorld's decline has little to do with the animal activists and Blackfish, and everything to do with Busch selling them to private equity, and subsequently removing free stuff and customer service without lowering the price. SeaWorld then double downed by downgrading all the animal exhibits as well. SeaWorld would be wise to embrace the animals again, no one with that mentality is ever going to SeaWorld anyways, and listening to those people in just bad business.
I'd really like to see some stuff other then coasters. I do have to admit on Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld, I thought the shows were literally BETTER then HHN. They did a stunning job on their first few years bringing the event to Orlando. The haunted houses also seemed to be close to competing with HHN, but they seemed quite a bit understaffed (and an employee confirmed that to me that there were supposed to be many more "Scare-actors" working that night, but I got the impression that was a recurring issue.
4 hours ago, IAmFloridaBorn said:it's either gonna be that or the old turtle trek building for something unless they decide to build a parking garage and free up some of that horribly used space in their parking lot
Unless they're changed it, the master plan is to eventually relocate the parking to the Aquatica area, its unlikely they put money into a parking garage on that side of the street. This first hotel is replacing the team member parking surface lots, so thats likely the first thing to move.
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22 hours ago, dcluley98 said:
Agreed, which is why many of us knew it was slated for the Cocoa curve. It is slowing down there anyway, so doesn't add as much time wasted for the stop. As for Stuart, that bridge is supposedly getting fixed, so I am not so sure that was the deciding factor on Stuart. The demographics and ridership probably was a large factor.
Even after the bridge is fixed, it will still have a much slower speed limit then the rest of the route due to the curvature, it just won't be 25mph and single-tracked slow.
The Republic Is Saved.
in Orlando Coffee House
Posted
The difference is... you are lying, and apparently knowingly and openly
Can you explain how that is obvious? He did nothing like that when he was President, he never said he wanted to anything like that, and said he wouldn't when liars claimed he did say it.
Nothing gives men control over women in any of the bills, under no circumstance would a man choose what a woman does with their body, you again are lying.
Its pretty clear we have an interstate commerce clause where as long as some states keep abortion legal, women will be able to access it by hopping in a car and driving to another state. In fact, since the supposed "abortion ban" supreme court ruling, abortions are up in every metric, because the ruling actually made abortion more legal in states that allowed late term abortions, and many non profits pay for that transportation to make sure abortion remains accessible to everyone in this country, even if some specific communities don't want the actual process to happen in their location.
He doesn't, you are just lying.
Or maybe that is what you are trying to do by knowingly lying?