Category: Tampa Bay

The most recent Tampa Downtown Partnership breakfast meeting was billed as “A Tale of Two Cities.” As in Portland, Ore., and Tampa. The common denominator: Each has a streetcar system. Both were started in the last few years.

End of comparison.

Portland, which is also heavily invested in light rail that intersects and integrates with the streetcar system, is known in transit circles as progressive. Tampa isn’t.

Portland reduces per-capita vehicle miles traveled; Tampa talks of a beltway. Portland’s developers, property owners and governmental entities get it; Tampa has to defend its downtown interests against the provincially myopic Hillsborough County Commission.

The 4-mile, circulator Portland system, which was designed as a magnet for downtown residents, attracts nearly 60,000 riders a week. The 2.4-mile, Convention Center-to-Ybor City TECO Line Streetcar System, which accommodates mostly visitors, less than 6,000.

And yet.

In the opinion of a streetcar expert from Portland, we may be on the right track if we don’t derail ourselves.

“You’ve already experienced some (synergistic) success with Channelside,” noted Rick Gustafson, executive director of Portland Streetcar Inc. and chief operating officer of the Portland Streetcar. “If you complete your downtown loop, it would be dynamite.

“You have your (Southern Transportation) Plaza, the corridor to Ybor, and then you add attractions, including the Performing Arts Center,” added Gustafson. “And then you connect them.”

He then underscored the context that a streetcar system’s success requires.

“It’s a 90 percent economic development tool and 10 per cent transportation,” noted Gustafson. “You have the same potential here.”

Then he cited a downtown rule of thumb: “Poor transit, no mixed-use; good transit; good mixed-use.” One example: the $2.39 billion in private investments generated by the Portland streetcar.

But, no, the formula doesn’t work well with buses.

“You have to think of your customers,” explained Gustafson. “The (streetcar) ride is superior. Noise is an issue. Do you want a latte or a cup of coffee?”

At present, only 600 residents live downtown. That will soon double. And more than 2,200 residential units are now under construction. Many more are planned. But units are not residents. Amenities – from retail to transit – will become paramount in attracting those who want the downtown experience.

But first things first, although community shakers such as Al Austin and Mayor Pam Iorio are increasingly vocal about the need for regional rail. Now in the planning stage is a .3-mile extension of the streetcar system that would run north on Franklin Street to Whiting Street and the Fort Brooke parking garage. A little closer to the heart of downtown.

This is, indeed, a tale of two cities. And, no, Tampa is no Portland. But, yes, it can certainly avoid the worst of times.

Someone had to say it.

But it had to be someone who’s not a Central Casting, American infidel. Someone not in the traditional mold of a politically incorrect, Western bigot. Someone not on the ACLU’s hit list.

Someone whose shoes most of us can never walk in.That someone is Sam Rashid. Yes, THAT Sam Rashid, the conservative political rainmaker from suburban Hillsborough County.

In a recent Tampa Tribune column, the Pakistani native addressed head-on the controversial issue of profiling in the post-9/11 world. As in, “Profile me.”

There was an epiphany, and it came after Rashid saw a young blond woman in a business suit pulled out of a flight-boarding line and subjected to a thorough security check. She had been randomly selected, and he had not.

“I would have felt a lot safer had I been pulled out of line,” wrote Rashid. “After all, I came a lot closer to looking like the face of Islamic fundamentalism than a young blond business woman.

“It would be safer if everyone who looked even remotely like me were profiled,” continued Rashid. “This doesn’t mean we stop the security checks on others; it simply means that we take a closer look at certain individuals.”

Rashid knows that we profile, in effect, for all kinds of things – from car insurance to Hooters’ employment. Why not when we’re at war with crazed jihadis that don’t tend to come in all colors, creeds, genders and ages? When lives – obviously including Rashid’s – could well be at stake?

Granted, Sam Rashid, a U.S. citizen whose children are being raised Catholic, doesn’t speak for all those 17-40 males born in Middle Eastern countries. Would that he did.

Seems that all went as well as it could in the red carpet treatment of the Republican National Convention site selection team who checked out Tampa and St. Petersburg last week. The key variable: the weather. The GOPsters mostly dodged the rain bullet, let alone the hurricane missile. Nor were local media in full, cone-of-Armageddon, drumbeat mode with nothing much going on except rip tides off the coast of Guinea-Bissau.

Then behind closed doors, the RNC team was told up front about hurricane possibilities. National Weather Service meteorologist Shawn Bennett calculated the likelihood of a hurricane hitting the Tampa Bay Area in the Sept. 1-4 (2008) time frame was 2 percent. For good measure, it was less than subtly noted that the chances of that happening in New York were 1.7 percent. New York, of course, was chosen last time.

Because of hotels, Tropicana Field, the Gulf of Mexico, a vibrant downtown and visitor amenities, it was only proper that St. Petersburg share the stage — and stagecraft — with Tampa. It also helped underscore the numerous, eclectic venues available for convention attendees.

“It created in their minds all of the possibilities for their delegates,” said Karen Brand, vice president of communications for the Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. “There were 400 official events the week of the last convention (’04 in New York). They’re interested in everything from corporate office space to museums to universities to yachts.”

One other thing: The site selection team went, as always, out of its way to avoid any direct clues that might hint of Tampa’s standing vis-a-vis the other finalists: New York, Minneapolis and Cleveland. And Jo Ann Davidson, a co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and head of the site selection team, reminded interested parties that for all the exuberance and hospitality, it was still a “business” decision.

Hopefully, Karl Rove will get the memo this time.

USF’s loss: By the end of next year, Peter Betzer, 64, will be retiring as dean of USF’s College of Marine Science. The search for his successor has already begun – and it is international in scope. Betzer is that good.

In effect, Betzer IS the marine science program at USF. He built it, and its renown is a direct reflection of his vision and his willingness — indeed, preference — for working outside the cloister of academia. His has been a refreshing, entrepreneurial presence and the college he molded from a modest department has become a recruiting magnet – for USF as well as the city of St. Petersburg.

First the good news: USF will play Interstate-4 rival UCF two more times after the Sept. 16 game in Orlando. This is good because it’s USF’s only true rivalry game, one that drew a huge crowd to Raymond James Stadium last year. USF sorely needs big home crowds and also benefits by a good pay day on the road not offset by significant travel expenses.

The bad news: USF, now in its second year of Big East affiliation, has made it clear that it is playing these games because it HAS to – not because it wants to. It’s part of USF’s Conference USA exit agreement. Anything after 2008 is problematic.

That’s too bad, but it’s understandable — to a degree. USF wants the national exposure afforded by scheduling BCS (Bowl Championship Series) teams – and not the unglamorous likes of UCF. As a result, USF has recently added home-and-home series with Indiana and Michigan State – to go along with North Carolina State, Kansas and Miami.

Maybe it will all work out, and USF will become a recognized beast in the Big East and have no need to slum with UCF in order to goose up home attendance. And then again maybe Indiana will have its first good team since facemasks became all the rage.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor, the favorite to succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Davis in Congress, is an interesting study. Actually, an intriguing composite.

She has, of course, that pedigreed name: her mom, Betty Castor, is a political icon. She has the look: 40-year-old cute, winsome yet wholesome. She has the smile: winning. She has the family portrait: photogenic husband and two daughters. She has the demeanor: serious but friendly, unflappable but approachable — energetic but not melodramatic.

Growing up, Castor recalls, she “always loved public policy.” Presumably, ponies, puppets and dress-ups also made the short list.

The young Patty Duke could have played the lead in a Kathy Castor bio pic.

More to the point, she has the budget: $1 million — that no one else in the District 11 race can match. Collectively. She has the orientation: regional – not parochial. She’s had the lead in every poll. She’s the only female in a five-candidate primary. She has strong cross-over appeal among blacks and Hispanics in a district that is hardly diversity challenged. She even has the right adversary: Ronda Storms, local Democrats’ Darth Vader.

She’s been known to play hardball behind the scenes – as with the orchestration of a county commission turnout big enough to convince enough commissioners to finally vote to increase an unconscionably low impact fee for new residential construction.

She was also savvy enough to work into the circle of Democratic Congressman Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, the ranking member on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which covers, among other things, aviation, ports, pipelines, railroads and economic development. Castor was part of a group that recently squired Oberstar around key Tampa facilities. And, yes, Castor would dearly love to be appointed to that committee. And, yes, stranger things have happened than an opposition party reclaiming Congress. Ask Newt Gingrich, not just Nancy Pelosi.

Castor has core issues: from family-friendly health and education advocacy to environmental stewardship to ethical overhaul to withdrawal from Iraq that resonate especially well in a safe, heavily Democratic district. A district, by the way, that includes a sizable chunk of her county commission District 1. A district – including Tampa, the U.S. 41 corridor in southern Hillsborough, south St. Petersburg and a sliver of northern Manatee County — where Betty Castor won 65 per cent of the vote in her 2004 U.S. Senate race against Mel Martinez.

The political planets seem aligned for the Sept. 5 primary, which is really the de facto general election.

So what’s the homestretch strategy? Some consultants advocate playing it as if you’re behind and working that much harder.

“I disagree with that,” says Castor’s campaign manager, Clay Phillips. “When you do that you start changing what doesn’t need to be changed. We’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

Which has meant a constant cycle of challenging logistics — bouncing among county commission meetings, constituent gatherings at local libraries, congressional campaign forums and fund-raising events. Which also meant a recent working lunch — and a food-for-thought media interview — sandwiched between a downtown Florida KidCare news conference and a growth management meeting at USF.

“Voice of the people”

Castor has earned a reputation as the patron saint of wetlands and seniors confused about the Medicare Part D prescription drug program. She’s also been a frequent county commission vehicle of dissent — sometimes the only one — on high-profile issues ranging from a proposed beltway (“precious dollars going to a sprawling roadway”) to a $40 million amateur sports complex (“so many other pressing needs”).

If she has a mantra, it would probably be “voice of the people” or “reformer.” As in protecting the less powerful against special interests, typically defined by their financial heft and political clout. In effect, if it’s big, Castor is looking askance at it. To wit: Big Oil, Big Utilities, Big Pharmaceuticals, Big HMOs, Big Insurance, Big Developers, Big Lobbyists. Not unlike “tax cuts for the richest Americans,” it’s a winner, Big Time, in District 11.

She prefaces comments on immigration reform with acknowledgements that the Tampa Bay area has always “valued diversity” and economic sectors such as tourism and agriculture have long been reliant on immigrant labor. She wants “adequate slots” for guest workers. She supports increased border security, but not blanket amnesty or “cutting in line.”

As for Iraq, Castor says it has long passed the political tipping point. “That was some time ago,” she states, “when it became clear we were misled by the president, Rumsfeld and Cheney.”

While she’s not about to put a precise timetable on troop withdrawal, she’s all about getting soldiers out of Iraq and “changing course.”

“America’s forces should be downsized this year and either repositioned outside Iraq or brought home,” she says in a position paper. “Overall, America must execute a more intelligent national security policy to address threats from around the globe by coupling America’s military might with moral authority.”

Castor is comfortable with a foreign policy of enlightened self-interest. Call it a contemporary, customized Marshall Plan. “In Congress, I will support a long-term political and economic strategy for changing the biased and squalid conditions that breed fundamental extremism.”

She also supports talking to anyone. From North Korea to Iran to Syria to Cuba.

That includes a “new dialogue” with Cuba. But it doesn’t include unilaterally ending the economic embargo. “I’m not sure it’s not Fidel and the cadre in control who are benefiting – not the people,” she explains.

Castor, however, is less interested in talking when it comes to the possibility of drilling closer to Florida’s Gulf coast for oil or natural gas.

“I’m not interested in any compromises,” she stresses. “It’s short sighted. It puts our fishing and tourist economies at risk as well as the natural environment. There’s a perception that it could help lead to lower prices. That’s not true. It’s just the wrong way to go.”

Outtakes

*Her name: “It’s an advantage, to be sure. But it also means people have very high expectations. And don’t forget my dad (retired County Court Judge Don Castor) and his (‘Save Our Bay’) efforts to help clean up the bay.”

*Fundraising: “We can improve on campaign finance reform. But we have to play by the rules as they are now. It’s an early measure of credibility. It’s important for momentum.”

*Congressman Jim Davis: “Jim Davis has stayed in touch. My approach would be similar. You have to keep your ear to the ground on local issues.”

*Her successor: “(Democrat) Mary (Mulhern) would make a very good commissioner. I also have respect for (Republican) Rose (Ferlita). We’ll see.”

*Labels: “There’s a need for independent voices in Washington now. There’s a need to stand up for real people, however you want to word that. I mean, not paving over every single inch of land sounds pretty conservative to me.”

*Hillsborough County Commission: “I’ve been around boards all my life. I’ve never seen that type of behavior. Long term issues don’t get prioritized. As for the ‘us-vs.-them (city vs. county)’ matter, I don’t understand it. It’s not rational.”

*Lesson learned: “You just have to persevere. As in the final impact-fee (increase) vote. We needed to get support from teachers and parents and get a big turnout. That’s what it took.”

*County mayor: “It’s a good idea. This is a large, growing county. We need a leader to guide us through regional issues.”

Postscript

You would think most congressional rookies and wannabes, in their heart of hearts, would be somewhat deterred or even a tad intimidated by the prospect of America’s ultimate power corridors and agenda-filled backrooms. And let’s not forget the for
eboding atmosphere fostered by divisive demagoguery and the political pandering that is ripping at our democratic fabric.

Quite possibly, however, that won’t be Castor’s take if she wins.

That’s because in an ironic, perverse way her experience with that mother of all dysfunctional bodies, the Hillsborough County Commission, may have prepared her well for whatever awaits in Washington. To an unlikely crew member on the partisanship of fools, the U.S. House of Representatives may look downright deliberative.

The business of politics too often involves trafficking in labels. One person’s “liberal” may be another person’s progressive, limousine leftist, tree-hugger or “blame-America-first” ideologue. “Conservatives” can be neocons, Reagan conservatives, family-values true believers or right-wing religious loons. And who, truly, is a “moderate” anyway?

Another label is “wonkish,” often euphemistic for boring. It’s been affixed like a “kick me” sign to Jim Davis, the five-term congressman who is running for governor. No, he’s not charismatic like his primary opponent Rod Smith.

But, no, he hasn’t had a charisma bypass either.

At last week’s Tiger Bay Club of Tampa luncheon, Davis came across as thoughtful as well as passionate about the choices Floridians face. Substance usually trumps style, but, still, it’s obvious that the Tampa Democrat is a little less formal, a bit funnier and more energized than previous campaign incarnations.

“I’m not the screamer, not the cheerleader,” he acknowledged. “I am who I am.”

Only with a few more style points this go round.

By now, many voters have seen those Al Fox billboards around town, including the ones that asked “Who’s Al Fox?”

One answer: A likeable enough guy with Washington connections who seems to be on the progressive, government-activist side of some key issues. He supports, for example, universal access to healthcare, a national catastrophic homeowners’ insurance coverage program and a strong stand against global warning. And he’d also like to see American ground troops out of Iraq – “tomorrow.”

But he’s hardly the only Democratic candidate in the Congressional District 11 race that is in favor of protecting Americans home and abroad.

What really differentiates him from the others – including frontrunner Kathy Castor – is his Cuba stand. Essentially, it is: End the embargo, jettison Helms-Burton, normalize relations and talk to (one of the) Castro(s). He gets hammered by hardliners labeling him traitorous and dismissed by pragmatic politicians playing it safe. He’s long been at odds with official U.S. government policy. It comes with the tumultuous territory.

He’s the founder of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation and stresses that a more sensible, humane approach is, for openers, good for America. As in American business, including the Port of Tampa. It would also be family friendly, he adds, and a step in unmaking the Ugly American image that is increasingly the face of U.S. foreign policy.

The only problem: Do enough people really care?

Likely answer: No.

Fighting and dying in Iraq and paying bills at home is agenda enough for most geo-politically-challenged Americans. Besides, even those who are passionate about the issue tend to be on the other side – the one fraught with anti-dictator recriminations and ongoing, emotional outrage.

“It’s a throw-away (issue) for most politicians,” acknowledges Fox, a 61-year-old son of Ybor City. “But I can’t walk away from it.”

The occasion of Fox’s most recent rhetorical walk on the riled side was a press conference at Tampa International Airport minutes after he had deplaned from his 56th visit to Cuba.

The trip had been planned before Fidel Castro was hospitalized, but he was encouraged by his Cuban hosts to follow through. Besides, he explained, on a subject about which there are so many ill-informed opinions, he wanted “to have the most current information.”

Havana routine

Havana, he said, seemed to be “operating normally.” He was told, however, that the military was on “high alert.” He was also told – by National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon – that the alert was more a function of external contingencies. In case the U.S. might, according to Alarcon, “look the other way” and allow “some crazies” to embark on a misadventure.

He was also told by Alarcon what Cuba has been telling the rest of the world: Castro is alive and recuperating after a “complex operation” and is “lucid and asking questions about state affairs.” He also said that Alarcon asked in exasperation: “Why is it so difficult to understand what we have said?”

That may have been the glib Alarcon playing the disingenuousness card. Governments in a transition crisis that don’t present living presidential proof – and don’t deign to have their acting president (Raul Castro) make a statement in public – only fuel the flames of rumor-mongers and their agendas. Governments typically want more control than that.

Unless.

The death-watch scenario is really the ultimate in micro-managing by the ultimate micro-manager, Fidel Castro.

Fox’s take is that the detail-challenged approach could very well be a way to “gauge” reaction – domestic and foreign — to Castro’s eventual or imminent demise. A mortality dry run, if you will.

It may also be another way, he said, for the Cuban David to “get under the skin” of the yanqui Goliath with some dearly departing misdirection.

As for Raul’s public no-show, that shouldn’t be overanalyzed, noted Fox. “Not seeing Raul means nothing,” said Fox. “Nobody ever did.”

Other Fox comments:

*”At the end of the day, any change in Cuba will come from within.”

*”You hear (Bush Administration) talk about a ‘return’ to democracy. When the hell was that?”

*”As Jimmy Carter said, ‘Americans are our best ambassadors.’ “We should extend that to Cuba too.”

*”We are their first choice for oil drilling. I asked Alarcon if there were still enough of that pie. He said, ‘Absolutely.'”

*”ALIMPORT (Cuba’s food import agency) could start tomorrow doing business with the Port of Tampa.”

*”It’s not the right-wing Cubans who are the real problem. It’s the political leaders of both parties. They all pick on Castro to show how tough they are. I thought Madeleine Albright was bad

Talk about your dilemmas.

Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard is an aesthetic icon. Small wonder nearby residents took considerable umbrage when the city waste water department built a concrete block enclosure in the median to house a generator.

The city, however, has a case. There is a demonstrable need for a back-up generator, because the Bayshore pump station necessarily fails during power outages. The generator is part of a $1.7 million project to prevent wastewater overflows.

A couple of points in the context of compromise.

There’s nothing aesthetic about spilled sewage. And that’s what results when stormwater flooding meets wastewater meets a thoroughfare. Both motorists and residents will benefit by a pump station that stays on line.

The city, to its credit, knows an ugly, iconically-challenged concrete box when it constructs one. For its part, it will paint and landscape it.

Then it should call it public art — and convert remaining detractors into philistines.

According to collaborative research by iPiQ, an intellectual property consulting firm, and the Wall Street Journal , California still dominates when it comes to inventive cities – as defined by overall patents. Twelve of the “Top 20 Inventive Towns” are in California – topped by San Jose (3,867 in 2005). None were from Florida. In fact, the “closest” was Houston.

However, on a supplementary list of “Up & Comers” – where the criterion was a high percentage of patents given to individuals or small businesses – the Tampa Bay Area’s Palm Harbor (33) is represented. An accompanying comment referenced the town’s strong magnet school, Palm Harbor University High School, and proximity to Sensor Systems, which developed camera equipment for the Mars Rover.