By Jason Marlow
Quarantine has now come and gone. The question is: have we learned anything?
I’m personally skeptical at best that anything will really change from this. My gut tells me that most people will so hurriedly attempt to return to normalcy that our COVID numbers may surge and subsequently things might not be normal for some time. We’ll see.
What have we learned here locally in Hillsborough County?
- The EPG or Emergency Policy Group simply does not work. As it is currently constructed, the EPG board consists of five Republicans to three Democrats in a county with 77,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. It wasn’t hard to see how partisanship bled into the proceedings. County Commissioner Kim Overman and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor have consistently been the only true voices of reason on the board and to their credit have steadfastly put public health and safety before profit for which they’ve been ridiculously derided as “authoritarian”. While the curfew vote was attacked by some of the left and many on the right, it is concerning that a simple vote approving the enforcement of wearing a mask in public was voted down essentially along partisan lines when the science about mask wearing helping prevent the spread of the virus remains indisputable. Furthermore, the meetings were fraught with technical and other issues that showed the limitations both of our technology and our capacity to competently meet virtually.
- We flattened the curve frankly because Mayor Castor, Commissioner Overman, and others had the foresight and wisdom to shut things down without waiting on Governor DeSantis to act. Looking backward, the timeline clearly shows that local and county officials drew on the virus before DeSantis did and Madame Mayor specifically deserves a solid amount of the credit for helping flatten the curve in our county. I would argue Mayor Castor has come out of this crisis as the most singularly powerful political figure in the Tampa Bay region with a rising national presence.
- Testing in Hillsborough County remains inadequate. We are not alone in this and this remains a problem nationwide. Earlier on in the crisis, there were so few test kits available at the testing site at Raymond James Stadium they had to shut down testing early. It remains to be seen if we can effectively and safely reopen the economy without the mass testing public health experts are saying is necessary.
- We were not prepared for this. Although local government acted swiftly, I think it’s abundantly clear that on all levels of government, most noticeably on the federal level, we were not prepared for this. While this pandemic has fortunately not devastated the Tampa Bay region as it has many others across the world, it would be wise for us to examine and review our regional public health apparatus and see how we can be better prepared for the next public health crisis.
- In the midst of all of this, All For Transportation’s future remains in limbo. Hillsborough residents have to simply hold their breath and hope that the Supreme Court doesn’t kill what our County Commission (looking specifically at Commissioner Stacy White) has now failed to protect (looking also at Commissioner Les Miller).
- Speaking of Commissioner Les Miller, while I personally vehemently disagree with his April 15th vote against All For Transportation, it is specifically worth mentioning that the racially oriented hate speech and vitriol he received over his curfew vote was beyond the pale and absolutely unacceptable. Frankly, it’s something non-partisan that we simply shouldn’t stand for. I’ll also say however that “The Godfather of East Tampa” has definitely undermined his political legacy with his flip flop on AFT. The people of Hillsborough County Commission District 3 will specifically suffer the most from a failure to improve regional transportation. We will also have to see how and if Commissioner Miller personally plays in the current five-way election to succeed him. The Hillsborough County Commission District 3 race remains the only race in the county even the most seasoned prognosticators are wary of predicting.
Hopefully we’ve all come out of this period of time a little more appreciative and self-reflective. Hopefully we’ve all become more engaged in our communities and neighborhoods, come out of this crisis with our families and friends healthy, and hopefully together we will all get through our collectively uncertain future. A special thank you to all the people out there who have helped us get through this crisis. There are far too many unappreciated and underpaid heroes out there that not only deserve our respect but deserve us to fight for better public policy on their behalf.