5 Comments

1. What do you want? A personal invitation? on January 17, 2022 at 4:19 pm

   This is it folks.

   If you care about the future of Winter Park, attend this Candidate Forum.

   Reply
2. WP: The Next Ten Years on January 19, 2022 at 8:24 pm

   An Open Letter to Winter Park Voice Readers

   Residents have become more politically aware thanks to the work of Winter Park Voice during the past ten years.

   Yet, Winter Park now has more apartments, hotels, bars, parking garages, construction and traffic than ever before.

   Residents can be sure, that had it not been for Winter Park Voice, conditions would be far worse.

   But most residents aren’t satisfied with “less bad.” Most residents want “good.” So how do residents make sure that the next ten years’ performance of their City Commissioners is good?

   Residents have to step up their game a notch for that to happen.

   Too often, residents find a candidate they like and trust, and once they are elected give them a free pass on anything they do. While it’s good to support the best candidates, it’s not good, once they are in office to look the other way when they stray from what the residents want. First thing residents can do when they disagree with their favorite Commissioner is send an email letting them know.

   Human nature is what it is, and the same pattern always emerges. Candidates start out good, but once elected, they slowly compromise with the developers until the day they leave office.

   How does that change?

   Residents need to start grading their City Commissioners.

   Take a lesson from the major interest groups that influence politics in Washington D.C. They all have “score cards.”

   If your Commissioner votes the way the residents want on every issue they score 100%

   If your Commissioner votes putting residents first 9 out of 10 times, the Commissioner scores 90%, and so on.

   Such a scorecard would be updated after every City Commission meeting with the ratings continuously updated.

   When they seek re-election, it will be clear to residents if these same Commissioners that residents once thought were “perfect” are even close to what they promised when they ran.

   The following statistics may shock you:

   No Commissioner in the past ten years would have ever scored 100%.

   No Commissioner in the past ten years would have scored 90%.

   No Commissioner in the past ten years would have scored 80%.
   I’ll stop there in the interest of not bursting anyone’s bubble. But you get the idea. The key in designing a scorecard is to be very specific about the grading parameters.

   Such as include Commission votes on:
   Increasing Density
   Increasing Building Heights
   Loosening Comprehensive Plan Resrictions
   Expanding Bar/Restaurant Operating Hours
   Number of new Bar/Restaurants Opened
   New Apartment Units Approved
   New Hotel Rooms Approved
   New parking garages approved
   New Buildings on City park land Approved
   Number of cars on Winter Park roads during rush hours

   In other words, FIRST…. Residents have to decide what they want to MEASURE during the next ten years to GRADE their City Commissioners’ performance.

   Second…Residents have to decide HOW to apply the measuring criteria.

   For example…. If the Commissioner approves one new apartment unit built in three years are the scored as badly as if they approved 1,000 units?

   All of these details need to be worked out BEFORE the scorecard is launched. As well as who will design the scorecard. Who will update it. Who will make any changes needed along the way.

   The purpose is to create a feedback loop for both residents and Commissioners to have a continuous “reality check” so everyone stays on the same page. Otherwise, ten years from now, Winter Park will have a worse quality of life than ever and be back to the drawing board once again.

   If it’s important, MEASURE it.

   Reply
   • Pitt Warner on January 25, 2022 at 3:05 pm

     I live in a 104 home subdivision that has as many homes as it did in 1965. I’m guessing, but I’ll bet the population of the neighborhood is significantly smaller now compared to 1965. People are living longer. Families are smaller. On my street there are 8 homes; 12 adults and 1 house has 2 kids. In 1975, there were 17 kids in the 8 homes. And if you could find some historical demographic data, I’ll bet again that using the boundaries of WP circa 1965, 1975, 1985,1995, our population hasn’t grown. Annexations have increased the city’s population not increased density or apartments within the boundaries. As far as traffic counts, you can log on to OC traffic counts. All traffic counts in WP for the last 20 years are flat or have an insignificant increase. Everything is OK today, but a city needs to grow to keep pace with inflation. Only 3 ways to do it: annexations, density or tax increases. Your choice as a voter is….

     Reply
     • This Tree Don't Need More Bark on January 25, 2022 at 5:19 pm

       Is this what you call the City paying $50 million for that “thing” in MLK Park?

       “needs to grow to keep place with inflation”

       Pitt you sound like an old broken record.

       Your arguments for unbridled growth are tired and lame.

       Why don’t you tell us, Pitt.

       How much are you in for?

       How much do you have invested in Winter Park real estate LLC’s?

       How in over your head are you?

       If you want the residents to bail you out with a bunch of density just because you were foolish enough to put all your eggs in one basket, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

       Reply
     • Where Is the Yard? on January 27, 2022 at 8:19 am

       My experience is the opposite. Homes sizes and number of children in my 2-3 block area have increased dramatically. Lots splits and tear downs have meant no yards, less pervious space and far fewer trees. Kids have to play in their driveways because they have no grass. Million dollar homes are razed to make way for larger, more expensive homes. We need parks because many families have no yards.

       Reply