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Letters to the EditorsWe need new faces on council© St. Petersburg Times published March 2, 2003 Editors: I am impressed with some recent articles in North of Tampa, such as the one written by John Balz: "Build an east-west road, mayoral candidates say," on Feb. 23. The east-west "network" of roads was first proposed in the original Master Plan for Tampa Palms, which was approved by both Hillsborough County and then by Tampa in 1986. Some of these original Tampa Palms subdivisions have since been renamed Highwoods Preserve and West Meadows. The network of roads was originally engineered to include two new Interstate 75 interchanges north and south of the existing I-75 and Bruce B. Downs interchange; two major east-west roadways traveling in a northeast and southeast direction from a proposed Interstate 275 interchange to the two proposed I-75 interchanges. These were eliminated along with a network of secondary collector roads, thereby creating the on-going New Tampa traffic conditions and the over-use of subdivision roads within various neighborhoods. So what happened? Well, two things happened. First, the Florida Department of Transportation decided that two new interchanges along I-75 were not necessary. Second, the notice of proposed change process, a function of Tampa City Council. So when I hear those same Tampa City Council members, Charlie Miranda and Bob Buckhorn, who are now running for Mayor saying, "yes, build it," I don't know whether I should laugh or cry because they created the problem in the first place. To be fair, other City Council members -- namely Rose Ferlita, Linda Saul-Sena, Gwen Miller, Mary Alvarez and Shawn Harrison -- also participated in the same notice of proposed change process, and are now running for re-election to City Council. So what are we to conclude from all this? Maybe it's that we not only need some new roads in New Tampa, but we also need some new faces in the mayor's office and on City Council!
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