Today is link to the Winter Haven Chamber Blog day......
A recent post about the proposed CSX project has generated quite a bit of discussion, 24 comments as of this post. Some of the comments are for, and some are against the project. That's to be expected since it is a big project with pros and cons. What's unique is the venue of this discussion, the chamber blog.
You could expect the chamber blog to be a bit biased towards the economic benefit of the project, and Bob is open and honest about this. However it's been interesting to watch the dialogue between the folks commenting.
The CSX deal is the biggest thing to happen in WH from a growth standpoint in a while and is bound to generate plenty of heated debate for a while.
Perhaps most importantly, they listen to their customers and try to provide them what they need. Shortly after they opened Steve and I suggested they install wifi, within a few days it was done. That's service. Plus they have a great veggie panini.
Flying back from Houston, TX last night, our final approach brought us right over Polk County. I snapped this shot of U.S. 27 just north of Interstate 4. The whitish lights at the bottom of the photo are the warehouse and gas station on Deen Still Rd.
It's interesting to see how the majority of the developments are on the west side of the road until you get to Polo Park.
For the record, we do no how to spell in Polk County. (Yes, a loyal EP reader has pointed out our incorrect spelling of 'know' in that previous sentence...pun discovered)
An EP reader sent me this photo of a sign promoting Polk County Day in Tallahassee, FL.
Red-light cameras are supposed to make us safer by discouraging people from running red lights. The trouble is that they work too well. Numerous studies have found that when these cameras are put in place, rear-end collisions increase dramatically. Drivers who once might have stretched the light a bit now slam on their brakes for fear of getting a ticket, with predictable results. A study of red-light cameras in Washington, D.C., by The Washington Post found that despite producing more than 500,000 tickets (and generating over $32 million in revenues), red-light cameras didn't reduce injuries or collisions. In fact, the number of accidents increased at the camera-equipped intersections.
Likewise, red-light cameras in Portland, Ore., produced a 140 percent increase in rear-end collisions at monitored intersections, and a study by the Virginia Transportation Research Council found that although red-light cameras decreased collisions resulting from people running traffic lights, they significantly increased accidents overall.
One of the issues is revenue from the cameras. Some cities have decreased yellow-time to increase revenue. From the PM article:
This problem can be aggravated by jurisdictions that shorten the duration of yellow lights, apparently to generate more ticket revenue. Last year, CBS News reported on an especially egregious case in Maryland: A traffic-camera intersection had a 2.7-second yellow light, while nearby intersections had 4-second times. Shorter yellow lights are more dangerous--but shorter yellow lights plus traffic cameras generate revenue.
My suggestion: Require that revenues from these cameras go into the state general fund, instead of city coffers. Then see how many cities adopt them as a pure safety measure, with no revenue angle.
Who: Bloggers and Podcasters, fans of them or even those who want to become one…
When: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 — 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Where: Hawks Neighborhood Grill — 3114 Bay to Bay Boulevard, South Tampa
Why: Putting names and faces to the local blogging community, to share a beverage, and say hello.
Starting at a small trailhead off a side road off Wakeford Rd, the Jenkins Trail leads you to a cool tannic stream slicing through the desert-like scrub of the Lake Wales Ridge: Tiger Creek, for which this preserve managed by The Nature Conservancy is named. This is the northernmost trail in the preserve....
All hikes on the site now have UTM coordinates for your GPS and links to the coordinates on Google Maps, so you can print out directions and find your way. It sure wasn’t this easy when I was trying to find places to hike!
It's been fun to watch the number of blogs in Polk County grow over the past year. Shown below is my 'Polk County' folder in my RSS reader. It's not as big as my Tampa, Orlando or Atlanta folders, but it is a growing list. As you can see there are a few that haven't updated in a while (the light brown ones).
What I don't include in this mix are the blogs over at PolkVoice. PV has a number of local bloggers, but also a few PR folks that just use it as a place to reprint press releases.
For the longest time you couldn't get Indian food in Polk County, but Cafe Roti changed that. Now how about some Thai food? I don't know of any Thai restaurant in the area. Typically I am going to Orlando, but I'd love to see one in the area. How about you, what type of food is Lakeland/Polk County really missing?
General Electric has a new advertisement that showcases a variety of new technologies in their 'Ecomagination' series. One of the featured items is a "Cleaner Coal Power Plant in Polk County, Florida". The screen shot below shows the Polk County plant.
Visiting the Ecomagination site (flash-based) you can browse to the Cleaner Coal page and read more about the plant and check out a photo gallery.
I have embedded the commercial from YouTube below:
Watt’s For Dinner, the gourmet wine, meat and cheese shop on South Florida Avenue is relocating to the bottom floor of the developer Jerry Herring’s new condominium tower, which is currently under construction.
Right next door, in a large space currently being used for pool table storage, the upscale Italian restaurant Arabella’s is planning to relocate from Winter Haven.
The standard Google-maps interface is there. You can zoom in, pan-around, etc. The image below is a close-up of the Winter Haven area.
Clicking on one of the pins will give you the details about that particular school, including previous FCAT scores. Shown below are the details for Wahneta Elementary.
It's that time of year again, sculpture time. A new series of sculptures have been chosen for the Seventh Annual Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition. The sculptures will be installed in Lakeland and Winter Haven during the weeks of March 5th – 16th and will remain on display till February 2008. Listed below are the selected sculptures by city. If the artist's name is linked it will go to a bio, if the name of the sculpture is linked it will display a picture of that sculpture.
I was in Miami yesterday for the WeMedia conference at the University of Miami. During one of the breaks I walked out of Storer Auditorium on campus and spotted a large portrait of George Jenkins, the founder of Publix, in the lobby. Of course I snapped a photo.
I'm in Atlanta till next Tuesday, so posting to EP will be sporadic.
How many of you remember Polk County's biggest & best internet service provider (ISP)? Dial-up seems so antiquated now, but there was a time when that was the only way to get online and in Polk County the name was iThink.
iThink was founded by Ingram Leedy back in 1996. I worked at iThink as part of the iThink/Webcode combo. iThink was the ISP, Webcode handled the web development. Not many people knew of iThink till the dial-up business was launched (archive.org snapshot). After that quite a few people in the community had the @ithink.net e-mail address.
Eventually iThink was sold to Durocom which became Volaris, which was eventually rolled-up into Earthlink. Confused? Soon after that the @ithink.net e-mail address went away.
Willie Nelson is appearing at Cypress Gardens today. It doesn't take a genius to realize that Willie likes the weed and is probably traveling with some. Why do I see Willie getting arrested again for possession and Polk County, Winter Haven and Cypress Gardens getting some interesting press.
How about another coincidence? According to the photo description it was taken in Polk County. Polk County, Tennessee that is.
This was photographed at a closed station in rural Polk County, Tennessee near Reliance. According to the inspection decal this pump was last used in 1996.
The Ledger has launched some blogs. (The Ledger is a client of mine, but I was not involved with the development/launch of these blogs) With that out of the way let's take a look under the hood.
Chuck over at Lakeland Local has some initial impressions. I especially agree with #3 on his list. Nowhere on the blog posts does it list the name of the author. That's one of the biggest tenants of blogging, taking ownership of your own words. It's kinda surprising from a journalism standpoint. I think however it's more a result of the platform they're using (iUpload) and not an omission on the part of the blog authors.
I'm looking forward to Lenore's blog, specifically since she said they (meaning the journalists at the paper) would never blog. Of course at the time I think she had the definition and purpose of a blog somewhat mixed up. Her first post sums up what we can expect.
The big issue with any newspaper blog is will the journalists adopt the methodology or just the tool? We'll check back in a few months from now and see.
Over the holiday break and this past week I visited my mother in Atlanta, GA. During my stays I frequently visit the local Whole Foods near her house (photoset here). If you haven't been to Whole Foods before, it's an experience. Their prepared food area is absolutely amazing. Anybody that has been to one usually walks away impressed and is more than willing to tell others about the experience.
The question is, would a Whole Foods make it in Lakeland?
I think the Lakeland area has the demographics to support the store (if Talbot's thinks the market works, Whole Foods should as well). However how would the Publix-loving Lakelanders take to the store?
I've been a Publix fan all my life, but if a Whole Foods opened up in Lakeland I'd start making the trip from Winter Haven, at least once a week. The selection and variety is unbelievable. The photo below is just one side of the beer aisle.
I use the words selection and variety with a grain of salt though. Whole Foods is not a regular supermarket. Often you won't find a large selection of traditional staples, i.e. paper towels, cleaners, etc. They just stock one brand, and often that's the Whole Foods private label brand. The one I visit in Atlanta doesn't even stock Pepsi or Coke products. The variety and selection has to do with produce, ethnic foods, meats, cheeses, etc. When was the last time you visited an olive oil bar?
Without a doubt though the biggest draw is the prepared foods section. I'm not talking about grabbing a baked chicken from Publix, I'm talking about hundreds of gourmet options with a different flare every night. The busy folks in Lakeland can stop in and grab a complete gourmet meal in a few minutes. The other night in Atlanta I had smoked mozzarella salad, mixed greens, grilled asparagus and sesame encrusted tofu (photo below). A few weeks ago I had a feshly made pizza out of the stone oven.
As a vegetarian (and tofu eater) I appreciate that every night they have 6-8 prepared tofu options. The Thai food section is also a favorite of mine. You can also make you own peanut butter. The store also has table/counter service if you want to sit and eat.
The question remains though, would it make it? I think so...once you experience Whole Foods it's hard to go back to anything else. Yes they are a bit more expensive, but it's one of those weekly treats you give yourself.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever been to a Whole Foods? Would you frequent a location in Lakeland?
A hyperlocal blog about Imperial Polk County, Florida. It is written by local residents that wish to provide an alternative to traditional media sources. The focus is commentary and open discussion of the issues that face Polk County, FL.
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