A compelling casecan usually be made for pitching the entire Tampa Bay area to outside interests. The point is that whatever is being recruited–from events to tourists to businesses–it’s imperative that we land it here in this Tampa Bay market. The ripple effects are regional and worth a united effort.
That rationale is being advanced when it comes to landing a Cuban consulate for this area. There hasn’t been one in the U.S. since 1961. The city of Miami, for obvious reasons, has already opted out of the competition.
Tampa Bay is more than deserving. Some 90,000 people of Cuban heritage live here. There are already charter flights to Cuba from TIA. A consulate would expedite greater trade and convenience–and underscore Tampa Bay’s ascendant international profile.
But Tampa is most deserving.
While we can argue over, say, which side of the bay the Rays should ultimately wind up on, we should still be able to agree that a Cuban consulate belongs solamente in Tampa. The Tampa-Cuba nexus is historic, the connections familial. This city’s soul is Ybor City, whose roots are Havana and whose history is cigar makers and lectores. There’s a reason there was ferry service between Tampa and Havana. The link is that literal.
Tampa is the city that Jose Martí visited no less than 20 times. There are more than a dozen landmarks memorializing the revolutionary hero. He spoke from the iconic iron stairs of the Martínez-Ybor factory. There’s even a small plot nearby that is literally sovereign Cuban real estate.
But the usual, proactive recruiting effort from Team Tampa is unfortunately undercut by Bob Buckhorn, who is sitting this one out. Tampa’s strong-mayor point man certainly won’t go where his mayoral counterpart, St. Petersburg’s Rick Kriseman, recently went.
In fairness to the mayor, we know his principled respect for those who lost everything to the Castro Revolution and for those who comprised Brothers to the Rescue that he flew with. We also know he cares about democratic deficits still apparent on the island nation.
But the overriding principle is this: U.S. foreign policy and what is best for this state and this city–from both economic and humanitarian perspectives–cannot be held hostage to personal agendas. Those for whom Cuba–or Viet Nam, Japan or Germany, for that matter–is personal can’t be allowed to trump the greater good of U.S. foreign policy priorities. Same goes for Mayor Buckhorn and Gov. Rick Scott. What’s best for Tampa and Florida shouldn’t be subservient to leaders’ personal/political agendas.
We deserve better on this one.