Technically, Mayor Pam Iorio has one more State of the City speech to give. But the March 2011 address will be largely “retrospective,” she acknowledged. The last one to come with a bully pulpit was last week’s.
After a shout-out to city employees (a number of whom were in attendance) and their “sacrifice together” ethic amid layoffs and budget shortfalls, she moved posthaste to her agenda. She continues to leverage her political capital on behalf of a Nov. 2 referendum that would ask Hillsborough County voters to agree to a 1-cent sales tax hike to pay for modern transit, including a major light rail component. What’s at stake: Tampa’s future.
Basically Tampa doesn’t have a very viable one without it, said Iorio.
“We will lose our competitive edge,” she stressed. “It’s the key to smart growth and urban infill.” Its track record, she pointed out, is irrefutable. It’s been a “magnet for private-sector development wherever it has gone.”
Modern transit is needed for “economic stability,” explained Iorio. “For future job growth.”
Not to go this route, she emphasized, is to venerate the status quo of sprawl. Tampa would remain on the path to the past — of following “the urban planning errors of the 20th century. …This is the biggest issue of our time. Of our generation. We are not defined by our problems, but how we solve them.”
Iorio also put light rail into historic perspective. It’s an extension of America’s can-do, visionary aptitude in the face of challenge and the prospect of spin-off benefits. The Trans-Continental Railroad, the Interstate system, the space program – and Tampa International Airport came readily to the mayor’s mind.
“Let’s never stop progressing in the great tradition of our country,” she exhorted. “It’s not about careers and the next election. It’s about the future and future generations. It can’t just be about the ‘here and now.’”
To underscore the generational commitment, she nodded to the front row of the packed Tampa Convention Center room for a visual aid. There was Exhibit A for a future light rail beneficiary. It was her 20-year-old son, Graham, home on break from Florida State University. Indeed, it has been seven years now!
“We are the last of the major metropolitan areas in this country that has failed to invest in a modern transit system,” Iorio stated. “We must be willing to make this kind of investment to be a first class community,” she added. “We have everything else.”