To onlookers, it appears Tiffany wasn’t down with the Community Venue’s project.
District 6 Commissioner Tiffany Moore joined with Commissioner Fred Brummer, and sided against Central Florida’s future, voting her conscience and dissing her constituents.
No one really knows why Commissioner Moore voted against it. It had the overwhelming support of District 6 voters, the NAACP, Urban League, and Orlando City Commissioner Daisy Lynum.
When contacted by this publicationt, Ms. Moore was unavailable for comment.
Her statements following the vote, did nothing to explain her opposition. Indeed, many wonder why she’d oppose a project that has a 35% minority participation clause, stimulates a decaying area that’s long been bypassed, and creates several thousand jobs on the West Side.
“There have been a lot of promises made that haven’t been put in writing”, Moore uttered just after the vote. “We would never have approved a vote that way in the county”.
The thirty-something Commissioner from District 6 shocked everyone by teaming up with the extremely conservative, Fred Brummer.
Brummer, known for opposing any and everything that Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty supports, cast the only other vote opposing the project thats been vaunted as the biggest thing since Disney came to town.
To many on the west side, the billion dollar project would be just what the area needs. A real shot in the arm. Crime, poor schools, and urban malaise have long kept the area stagnant and excluded from the development that’s taken place around the rest of Orange County.
The whole notion of tourist dollars pouring into west side neighborhoods, resulting in re-development, construction, and training programs is on the surface, a no-brainer.
Yet the speculation continues as to why Moore would not support the Community Venues project.
Unfounded rumors have it that Moore was beholden to I Drive and its big money developers. Some in the tourist sector wanted to direct the money towards I-Drive, and resented any of it going back to the residents.
Gossip abounds that Moore did not want to be seen as supporting anything that Daisy Lynum was heavily involved with.
Still, some believe that Moore had very good reasons for not supporting the project. Among these reasons is that there were not enough bullet proof commitments from the would be players.
One thing is for sure: Tiffany Moore rolled the dice and it may affect her political future. Particularly dangerous is her alignment with arch right-winger Fred Brummer.
West side residents have long complained that tourist sector jobs have keep wages artificially low. Poor pay and inadequate public transportation to the unskilled jobs on I-Drive have long worn out their welcome to west side workers.
Moore cozying up with the special-interest tourist sector that refuses to pay a living wage does not contrast well with the image of Daisy Lynum. The vigor and intensity exhibited by Lynum in pushing for the project, convinced many that Lynum is the real champion of small, minority-owned businesses, as well as the working poor.
The commitments to the underemployed, untrained, and hopeless were vigorously pursued by Lynum and others. At the very least, some of the long term benefits will give rise to new businesses and employment opportunities that currently do not exist on Orlando’s West Side.
The Community Venues project is a long way from being completed. Projections are that construction will begin in late 2008, or even early 2009. In 2010 Tiffany Moore is up for re-election. Will her fateful vote be forgotten by then, or will it serve as ammunition for future opponents.
We shall see.
