Category: Tampa Bay

Amid all the parades, competitions and speeches that honored the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. earlier this month, one notable form of commemoration went under the media radar. It was the seventh annual MLK Day of Service at the University of Tampa.

More than 100 UT students, faculty and staff members took part in volunteer work across Tampa on Jan. 15. The projects ranged from doing yard work at Gorrie Elementary School to mending fences at Bakas Horses for Handicapped to interacting with seniors and cleaning up at Hudson Manor.

“We hope it’s a starting point for students to become engaged in service long term,” explains Casey Stevens, UT’s coordinator of Greek Life and Community Service. “They’ll see that there’s always a need.”

Now, that’s honoring a legacy.

Conventional wisdom says Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio easily wins re-election on March 6. She doesn’t even need a campaign manager, per se. She’s, in effect, filling that position herself. But she does have a headquarters, multiple phone lines, coordinators and plenty of volunteer Iorions.

“Regardless of opposition,” says Iorio, “you run a campaign. You need a mechanism.”

In general, people like her; in particular, she has no serious competition – certainly nothing like 2003 when she entered the mayoral race late and still won handily against the formidable likes of Bob Buckhorn, Charlie Miranda and Frank Sanchez. Even the debut of early municipal voting works in her incumbent favor.

“CW” also says Iorio is fawned over by neighborhoods and frowned at by the business community. That’s what prompted the interest surge in former mayor Dick Greco. She’s also vision-challenged, goes the thesis, and she likes her agendas bread-and-butter basic and “modest,” thank you. But, still, she can’t be beat – not by this field. More viable, would-be candidates are waiting until Pamelot passes in 2011.

But one thing about conventional wisdom. Sometimes it’s neither conventional nor wise.

“The average person doesn’t think like this,” avers Iorio. “I’m out a lot, and the feedback I get from voters is positive. Generally, you get a sense of whether you’re doing a good job or not. I’ve addressed the needs of the city – from neighborhoods to downtown to financial stability.”

While no one actually thinks Iorio — absent a Debra LaFave moment — will lose, some believe she gets a bad rap on this “modest”-agenda-and-“vision” thing. Foremost among those who believe this: Iorio.

The terminally unflappable mayor does bristle a bit when it comes to any assessment — or media perception — that she is at her core little more than an upbeat, hands-on, risk-averse, pothole populist. That’s why the lady is a wonk — and not a big-project visionary.

As if these were zero-sum priorities.

“‘Modest agenda?’ That’s ridiculous,” contends Iorio. “No matter what you do, someone will dismiss it. It gets almost comical. There’s always spin – from those who preferred someone else or didn’t like the (Rafael) Vinoly (Tampa Museum of Art scenarios) situation.”

Or happen to be retired firefighters with pension axes to grind; or disgruntled developers with unanticipated water impact fees; or perplexed city employees with new bosses.

While Iorio doesn’t blame the media, she does note that the sword of journalistic “balance” is double edged. Of necessity, she points out, the media ferret out “unhappy people.” As in: “‘Another good day at city hall’ isn’t news.

“All communities have spin people,” reiterates Iorio. “Some people simply don’t want to acknowledge the progress that has been made.”

In her media e-mail that formally announced her re-election bid earlier this month, Iorio, 47, proudly cited city hall changes on her watch. They included “a new emphasis on issues that directly affect the quality of life for the citizens of Tampa” and “a new vitality in our downtown.”

The quality-of-life part of the equation translates to more than doubling the funding for street improvements, more aggressive code enforcement, a precipitous drop in the crime rate and a $60 million, five-year capital storm water program. Plus, the creation of additional Community Redevelopment Areas (CRAs) and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) vehicles, the establishment of a hurricane reserve fund and an upgrade in the city’s bond rating.

None of it is sexy. None of it the stuff of visionaries. It’s the eyes-glaze-over nature of infrastructure stewardship.

Ultimately easier on the eyes is what is transpiring downtown, asserts Iorio. No longer tolerated: a drive-by, office-building enclave. This is a vital part of her watch too, she emphasizes, as if to say: How “modest” is an extreme makeover of downtown?

In mantra-like manner, she can tell you that from Franklin Street to the Channel District, some 2,800 residential units are either complete or under construction – representing more than $850 million in private investment. There’s the design of the “transformative” Riverwalk, the re-design of Curtis Hixon Park and (finally) plans for a new museum that will feature the art of the pragmatic: the wherewithal to expand in stages. All incorporate unapologetic “pay-as-you-go” principles.

And do recall, the mayor implores, the recently opened Embassy Suites Hotel across from the convention center, the long-awaited (now underway) renovation of the Floridan Hotel, and the real estate vote of confidence symbolized by Novare Group of Atlanta’s multiple projects. And not to forget, adds Iorio, The (Tampa) Heights project that will transform a blighted area north of downtown into 48 acres of Tampa new urbanism. And, to be sure, Super Bowl XLIII, won on her watch, is coming to town in 2009.

Then there’s mass transit, which has been pretty much an oxymoronic concept around here.

Iorio’s a sans-a-beltway proponent. Ideally, downtown would cease being car-dependent. She’s more than willing, she declares, to roll out the bully pulpit, leverage political capital and go to the hardball mattresses for meaningful mass transit. She envisions a regional transportation system, she stresses, that would include some form of rail service that links major employment centers and counties.

“It will bring this whole region together,” she says. “In 20 years Hillsborough County will add a population the size of Atlanta (460,000). Dealing with that, without a doubt, is a priority.”

And, arguably, a vision.

*Do political CEOs, such as mayors, get too much credit and too much blame – not unlike head coaches? “Mayors do set a tone and that tone can affect progress one way or another. We all build on what has been done in the past – coaches and mayors. But ultimately, you (to continue the sports analogy) build your own team, set your own tone and call the plays every day.”

*”Sure, this is a referendum on me. It’s the nature of re-elections.”

*Key lesson learned: “There is such diversity here – from West Tampa to East Tampa to Bayshore to New Tampa. No two neighborhoods are alike. One size doesn’t fit all. It’s a real balancing act. You have to make sure that all parts of the city are paid attention to.”

*Working with the Hillsborough County Commission (which would be critical, for example, in making mass transit happen): “I don’t like rancor. I’ve seen change. I’m hopeful that the Commission can come to that (transit-tax-on-the-ballot) consensus.”

*Future political plans: “County Mayor? I don’t know. I’m not sure how that would work. Certainly I’ve never put my name out there.

“Statewide? No plans in that direction. I’m really not active statewide. I don’t travel much. I’m not sending any signals. But people will say things.”

*Non-partisan races: “I represent everyone. Party labels prevent problem-solving.”

*Personal: The first two years Iorio maintained a semblance of a workout routine at a local gym. No more. She calls it “muscle tone down.” Daughter Caitlan is now away at college, and son Graham isn’t far behind. Husband Mark Woodard “is still OK with all this mayor stuff.”

*Memorial: The mayor and her husband will participate in the Mother’s Day weekend bike ride in honor of fallen police officers that ends in Washington, D.C. They will do the last 20 miles and ride into Washington, where the names of those fallen officers, including Tampa Police Department’s Detective Juan A. Serrano, will be placed on the permanent memorial. Detective Serrano, the mayor’s driver-body guard and friend, was killed in a hit-and-run accident last February.

By all accounts, Gibbs High in St. Petersburg is a mess.

Basic human civility is an oxymoron. Teacher morale is in free-fall. Vandalism is an extra-curricular activity. Serious students are hostage to an educational meltdown. All of which is a reminder that a new, $58-million facility is a guarantee of nothing.

Pinellas School Superintendent Clayton Wilcox has stepped in by assigning some top administrators to help out the (34-year-old, first-year) principal, transferring the worst of the worst students to alternative schools and dispatching maintenance crews to clean up the trashing.

Better late than never, of course.

But here’s another idea. Send in a real gladiator; start all over; and take back the school. Take it back from thugs, Neanderthals and assorted misfits who have been allowed to dictate an agenda of academic and disciplinary travesty.

SOS to Joe Clark.

Clark is the former principal of the once notorious Eastside High School in Patterson, NJ. His autocratic, “tough love” approach in the 1980s turned Eastside into a New Jersey “model school” within two years. And, yes, he earned his share of enemies: punk students and teachers uncomfortable with confrontation. Also resulted in a movie: “Lean on Me,” starring Morgan Freeman as Clark.

Also warranted a classic comment from then-President Ronald Reagan, which should serve as practical advice for Superintendent Wilcox. “Sometimes you need Mr. Chips,” noted President Reagan, “and sometimes you need Dirty Harry.”

USF continues to celebrate its 50th anniversary in the most fitting fashion – by continuing to grow. In quantity and quality. From less than 2,000 students to 44,000. From nothing to more than $300 million in sponsored research grants.

And don’t forget this is an institution that once suffered such unkind appellations as “Sandspur U.” and “Bottlecap U.” Even some of the serious would-be names, such as “Citrus State University” and the “University of Florida at Temple Terrace” were hardly flattering or identity enhancing.

Now USF’s image includes being the 9th largest university in the country – one with more than 200,000 alumni and more than $3 billion in annual economic impact on the Tampa Bay area. Moreover, USF rapidly has ratcheted into a prototypical urban, research university – with a charge to apply knowledge and partner with its surrounding community.

And in this, its golden anniversary year, it is still fast-forwarding in impressive fashion. Just this month:

*USF-St. Petersburg and the Silicon Valley research firm SRI International announced an eye-opening joint venture to develop and market high-tech marine science products.

*We also learned that two alums, Les and Pam Muma, had committed to a $6 million gift (to be supplemented by matching funds) to foster neonatal research at USF and construct a neonatal intensive care unit at Tampa General Hospital.

*There was the blockbuster news that USF-based Moffitt Cancer Center would collaborate with pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. to form M2GEN, a drug-development company specializing in cancer therapies. The prospects include extended and saved lives as well as a 10-figure economic spin-off.

*Finally, there was last week’s announcement that Betty Castor would be back at USF – starting next week – as executive director of the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions.

It was political icon Castor, the former president, who made USF a player in Tallahassee and presided over across-the-board growth during her 1994-99 tenure.

Having the can-do Castor on the same campus with the regionally savvy incumbent, President Judy Genshaft, bodes well for USF’s future.

Starting with year 51.

*A sure, if not jolly, sign that a Hyde Park residential construction project has been around a while: The red Christmas bow on the Port-a-let.

*There are, of course, all manner of Christmas-week rituals – most of which seem to involve malls and the spirit of last-minute shopping. Then there’s that occasional, very special, very moving example of ultimate gift-giving.

This one happened last week and involves man at his best – putting his ingenuity and generosity to work in common cause with nature. In this case it took the form of three ultra lights guiding 17 whooping cranes safely in their Wisconsin-to-Central Florida migration. There’s no more important gift than life to the vulnerable, although eliciting a smile and a tear at the same time is also pretty precious.

*Holiday hero: Would that the words “car jacking” and “Christmas time” never shared a context. But they did recently. And if it wasn’t for one brave man, Jason Sorrow, coming to a would-be victim’s aid, the results could have been tragic – not just frightening. While a crowd kept its distance and watched a screaming woman struggle with a carjacker in a Kash n’ Karry parking lot, Sorrow jumped in to foil the act and helped hold the assailant for police.

Hopefully, there’s no next time. But if there is, then Sorrow’s actions will have been a graphic example of how one person can, indeed, make a difference.

Sorrow’s exploits are also a reminder of what a real hero is. The term is woefully demeaned in our society, especially in athletic arenas. Real heroes are few and far between – but one was surely in that Kash n’ Karry parking lot last week.

*Here’s hoping everyone has had a very happy holiday so far and, more to the point, here’s hoping everyone had a very Merry CHRISTMAS.

Stop in at Channelside’s Splitsville some evening — preferably Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday – between, say, 5 and 8 p.m. And sure enough, there they are: the after-work, Happy Hour crowd winding down over gourmet pizza and Cosmopolitans.

But look a little further. It’s more than urban pioneers and swigging singles.

See who’s using a third of the dozen retro-style lanes in this contemporary bowling alley/modern bar hybrid. The strikes, spares and gutter balls are rolling off the hands of employees on a mission. A team-building mission underwritten by employers ranging from Raymond James & Associates and Numara Software Inc. to WellCare Health Plan and Kforce Professional Staffing. “The Big Lebowski” as corporate chic.

“Team building was really big in the 1980s, then it leveled off for a while,” points out Deirdre Dixon, Program Director of the TECO Energy Center for Leadership at the University of Tampa. “Now it’s back in the forefront again.”

In many companies, team-building has become embedded in the culture. It’s a way of assuring that fiefdom-like business units and insulated departments actually come in contact with each other. There’s nothing bad about good morale.

“We want to knock down some of these (personnel) silos that inevitably build,” says Tony Thomas, Numara’s product manager. “Once you get in a comfort zone, it’s easier to communicate, to ask questions.”

These days, facilitating such goals entails a lot more than choosing between Outward Bound and tug-of-war. “Right now interactive places such as Splitsville and Disney Quest are very popular because they involve individuals as a group and allow them to work together for a visual goal and have fun while doing it,” says Vanessa Daniel, Training Operations Coordinator for Kforce.

“In today’s world, everybody wants a good, cohesive team at the top of their game — whatever the endeavor,” adds UT’s Dixon. Team-building exercises – ranging from sailing, drumming, rock climbing and bowling to volley ball, video games and scavenger hunts — help to develop a “more synergistic operation” and provide opportunities to use the “diversity of the whole team.

“Companies, quite understandably, want to ensure that they are getting the most from their employees,” underscores Dixon.

Splitsville owner Guy Revelle is certainly seeing the payoff. Splitsville realizes nearly 25 per cent of its overall sales from team-building events. That’s 40-50 per month.

Nothing about bowling for the bottom line surprises Revelle. The sport, he maintains, is the most egalitarian of all team-building activities. Skill isn’t a requisite, and it’s gender friendly. For example, golf, 5-k runs and even office foosball – all team-building staples – still require talent, endurance and dexterity.

“Bowling has been around forever and is something that almost everyone can do,” explains Revelle. “I mean, even if you’re not any good, it’s still fun. In bowling, the receptionist may be better than the president.”

To Numara’s Tony Thomas, the real fun is in the fundamentals. As in return on investment. What happens in the alleys doesn’t stay in the alleys.

“We do see the benefits,” says Thomas. “Building camaraderie and synergy is important. And with bowling, you don’t have to be an athlete; it appeals to multiple age groups; and it lends itself to teams.

“Even the heckling is fun.”

For Gale Pippin, taking her 14-year-old Yellow Lab to the veterinarian had become a Sisyphean task. The car ride had morphed into the transit from hell with a large, stressed-out dog. Then the tell-tale smell of a vet office terrified him.

Moreover, appointments — and the attendant down time — were rarely convenient for Pippin, who works full time in the accounting office of a Tampa law firm.

The South Tampa resident needed an alternative and asked around.

She found Vet Calls, a mobile veterinary service. Five years — and one euthanasia and two little Yorkies — later, she’s still waxing grateful.

“I think Dr. (Jennifer) Claxton is wonderful,” she says of her Vet Call vet. “The dogs totally trust her. And they obviously have her total attention. There’s no one else in line, no distractions.”

By all indications, Pippen is part of a national trend. According to the American Association of House Calls and Mobile Veterinarians, some 5,000 vets now make house calls nationwide in both rural and urban areas. Several dozen are here in the Bay Area.

As for Dr. Claxton, 41, four days a week she leaves her St. Petersburg home in her 24-foot, customized (mini pharmacy, EKG and lab equipment, computer) RV and drives to South Tampa, to rendezvous with her assistant, Lisa Hearne, 28. They then head out on the day’s appointed rounds – that can be as far afield as Westchase, South Pasco, Brandon and Riverview.

Her clients tend to be busy moms, the elderly, those without transportation and those with old, large or multiple pets. Her patients: 60 per cent dogs, 40 per cent cats. The procedures: 80 per cent routine, 20 per cent problem-solving and minor illnesses. Neutering, spaying, dental cleaning and micro-chipping can all be done in the van. More serious cases are referred to specialists and hospitals. Standard house call fees are $35 for South Tampa and $45 for North Tampa and vicinity. Basic exam fee is $36.

“It’s easier on everybody,” says Claxton, who has three dogs (mixed-breed rescue animals) and four cats of her own. “And it’s more personal. I can’t imagine being a stationary vet. We’re making veterinary care part of a lifestyle – instead of a huge challenge that some people – and pets – dread.”

No call, however, is more daunting – nor ultimately more appreciated – than the one for euthanasia. It’s a significant percentage of most mobile vets’ house calls.

That’s certainly the case for Dr. Mary Schenk of Tampa. She estimates that nearly a third of her calls are to euthanize a pet. And while it’s painless, it never gets easier, she says. But a “last memory at home,” she stresses, is always preferable to the impersonal.

“It’s peaceful, and the owners are grateful,” Schenk, 37, adds. “It’s easier on everyone.”

From the perspective of Lutz-based Dr. Octavio Blanco, 51, house calls – irrespective of their nature — create much more of a “natural state” – and he’s been creating them for 15 years. “The animal is always more relaxed at home,” he explains.

According to Blanco, the house call trend could burgeon further. Most pet owners, he maintains, still don’t realize such a service is available.

“The medical profession has done a real good job of training the masses,” points out Blanco. “The public is so trained to go to a physician, they assume they have to go to a vet as well.”

But now they’re finding out — increasingly — about those with a special calling.

The only thing more disgusting than the News Corp. O.J. Simpson book “If I Did It” and the scheduled interview on the Fox Network was Fox’s disingenuous spin that the system works. As in, when the people speak out, Fox is doing its job by listening and responding accordingly. Hence the cancellation of plans by Hubert Murdoch’s News Corp. and Fox Broadcasting, respectively, to publish the book and air the interview.

The reality is that the Murdoch network was desperately looking for a smashing sweeps hit and was counting on enough voyeur viewers – already inured to the crass, the vulgar and the insipid – to watch. And they might have, but the sponsors – who know a bottom-line train wreck when they see one headed their way — revolted.

Speaking of revulsion, don’t you know the book and interview will eventually surface.

Oops. The gathering of those underwriting a commissioned statue of former Mayor Dick Greco, 73, was last Tuesday. Election day. Among the many who had political obligations and itineraries that day: Dick Greco. When he left the nostalgia and well wishing at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina, he had to hustle to the WFLA radio studios where he teamed up with Jack Harris for election-day analysis.

The statue will pose a contemporary Greco (his idea) on a bench – legs crossed and one arm draped over the top of the bench. A likely site: TECO’s Southern Transportation Plaza between the Marriott and the Convention Center. Cost: $50,000. Already raised: approximately $40,000. Target date for unveiling: November 2007. The sculptor: Tampa’s Steve Dickey, whose acclaimed work already includes prominent likenesses of iconic Tampa figures Roland Manteiga, Nick Nuccio, Tony Pizzo, Al Lopez and the Gonzmarts — Cesar and Adela.

Greco, now executive vice president for Lindell Properties, was on his game at the Marriott reception. To wit:

*It really is a strange feeling. I feel awkward. I’ve seen a number of Steve’s works. Excellent. But they’re all dead.”

*”There was talk of whether it should be (30-something) me in the early years or (60-something) later. One friend said, ‘Just dip him in bronze for the best likeness.'”

*”I’m very grateful. I’m still alive. I’m gonna start jogging tomorrow.”

*”If some good looking girl sits there, I’d probably come back to life.”

As for Dickey, 57, he acknowledges how unique it is to work with a live subject.

“Normally I just deal with families,” he says. They provide photos and insider input, and he goes from there.

For the Greco project, Dickey will shoot 360-degree photos. Later there will be formal sittings. “It helps to know the subject,” he explains, “and that transfers. You watch the features at work.

“But, yes, there’s extra pressure,” concedes Dickey. “I mean the individual is right there. It’s gotta be right. I have to come up with something that looks human. We’re not talking about memories here.”

While he will still be soliciting opinions from family and friends, Dickey stresses that this isn’t art by committee. “Opinions I need, and they’re valuable,” he underscores, “but at the same time, the buck stops here.”

As for Greco, if he doesn’t like the finished product, he can always sit on the bench and simply be beside himself.