Category: Tampa Bay

Hopefully, this isn’t déjà vu all over again.

Officially, Tampa — along with 30 other cities — is in the hunt once more for the GOP national convention. Prime players, such as Al Austin and Dick Beard, chair and co-chair, respectively, of the bid committee and Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors’ Bureau President Paul Catoe, are back with a pitch for the 2008 gathering. As are key cohorts in Pinellas County.

Recall that Tampa was one of three finalists (along with New York and New Orleans) for the 2004 convention before losing out to NYC. Since its previous bid (in 2002), Tampa has added another 5,000 hotel rooms and more are in the offing — plus condo rentals downtown. The economic impact of the ’08 convention is estimated in the neighborhood of $300 million.

“We lost out by a flip of the coin (to New York),” recalled Austin at the formal announcement of the bid plans.

Actually, Austin, the good Republican soldier who heads the GOP finance committee in Florida, was being diplomatic. He got little help from Gov. Jeb Bush last time, and Karl Rove got his way with Ground Zero symbolism.

This time 9/11 won’t be a driving factor – and more weight can be given to Florida’s pivotal election role and the Tampa Bay amenity package. This time Miami and Orlando figure to be the toughest competition for the late August gathering.

Which, of course, is hurricane season.

It’s never easy.

They could be at the beach. Or a bacchanalian resort. Or queuing up for an MTV backdrop. Or just sleeping late.

But this year some 10,000 college students are spending their spring breaks – as well as their own money – to help clean up Katrina-ravaged regions in Louisiana and Mississippi. It’s all part of Campus Compact, a coalition of colleges and universities that promotes public service.

Locally, USF is represented by some 200 students.

It’s a reminder of the ultimate inter-disciplinary approach: majoring in your fellow man.

If anyone is entitled to speak out about the racial composition of Hillsborough County schools, it should be Sam Horton. A career educator who lived the “separate but equal” crucible, the 76-year-old president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP remains an ardent “integrationist.” It is the guiding principle of a man who grew up when Plessy v. Ferguson was the law of the land.

But now he and the NAACP need a new educational lens, one that reflects societal change, and puts the onus for learning where it belongs: on the learners.

Horton has seen first hand the ironic aftermath of the 1971 federal order that desegregated Hillsborough schools and mandated 80/20, white/black ratios. When the county was freed of the order in 2001, many students returned, logically enough, to their neighborhood schools. A county choice plan has proven ineffectual. Now there are numerous schools that are predominately white or black. There are classrooms where the faces literally are all white or all black.

This is not what was envisioned for the post-Brown v. Board of Education era. And yet, this is not Plessy revisited. And, no, the schools have not been “re-segregated.”

Parents, regardless of color, choosing the nearest school for the sake of convenience and a sense of neighborhood identity is not the same thing as laws directing black students to actually bypass the nearest school if necessary – in order to attend their appropriate color-coded one.

That was segregation. And it was based no less on racial inferiority than were “colored” water fountains, rest rooms and lunch counters. It doesn’t get much more demeaning than that.

That’s hardly the context applicable to today’s racially skewed schools. Moreover, positions such as Horton’s, which prioritize racial balance over all else, are ironically racist. They are saying, in effect, that predominantly black schools and all-black classrooms can not constitute the best environments for learning.

The priority shouldn’t be to dream up more and different choice offerings in the hope of luring students away from their neighborhood schools. The goal should be to equalize the neighborhood schools in all the ways that matter: physical plant, facilities, textbooks, curricular offerings and instructional experience. If it’s de facto separate, make it de jure equal.

This is all within the purview – and wherewithal — of school districts. This isn’t social engineering and pedagogical piffle, the likes of which have bussed us full cycle since 1971. This is common sense. Educators putting students in a place to succeed.

But if they don’t measure up, it isn’t because of “re-segregation.”

It’s because of factors beyond the control – and responsibility – of any school district. The keys are parental involvement and students taking advantage of educational opportunities afforded. Also critical: an environment where academic success isn’t considered un-cool by ‘hood standards. In short, stuff that racial ratios can never remedy.

In his recent address to the Downtown Development Forum, former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy extolled the merits of municipalities thinking outside the governmental box. The erstwhile three-term mayor likened it to being “public entrepreneurs.” In other words, cities have to conceptualize, envision and ultimately act like the private sector.

If you haven’t seen Pittsburgh since it was the quintessential steel – and soot – city, you haven’t seen Pittsburgh in more than a generation. It literally cleaned up its act, reversed its Rust Belt image and revitalized its downtown. Even includes a Rafael Vinoly-designed building, a convention center, that got built – and applauded.

How ironic, then, that this well-received, “public entrepreneurs” message was delivered the day after Tampa’s city council nixed a compromise that would have kept on track the Doran Jason Group’s plan to build a total of 975 condominium units downtown. The vote was 6-1 in favor of maintaining the historic designation on the facades of the J.J. Newberry and F.W. Woolworth dime-store buildings. It was, at least for now, a deal-breaker.

Some context.

It’s no state secret that Tampa has long needed a catalytic, critical mass of people living in its downtown. It’s beginning to happen as the new urbanism finally finds Tampa. Foremost priority is affordable housing. As in workforce. Not see-through condo units owned by speculators and not just accommodations for the toney Trump Tower set.

But Tampa’s evanescent history can’t be, of course, the price paid for its downtown revitalization. But that’s not the issue. It was only made to seem the issue at the city council vote. As if this were a zero-sum game. As in, history: Are you in favor of it or not? It’s the sort of argumentation that keeps giving sophistry such a bad name.

What it came down to was this. It’s not in DJG’s enlightened self interest to ransack the vestiges of a downtown’s history. Marketing 101, PR 102 and all that. The developer didn’t want the historic designation because it meant being saddled with the Byzantine, picky process that is the modus operandi of the Architectural Review Commission. DJG was willing to preserve the facades – all that remains of the stores — in question and, in a compromise reached with Mayor Pam Iorio, abide by zoning documents and periodic review by city staff. Hardly the approach of history-snubbing, pave-over-paradise philistines.

City council thought otherwise. Basically, if something were historic – but not, of course, a cigar factory — it needed to be so designated. “They should be authentic, not Disney World,” zero-summed up council member Linda Saul-Sena.

Disingenuous developer?

“Our code has a historic preservation process, and I think it’s ‘sound,'” stated city council member John Dingfelder. “The wiggle room should happen at the ARC. If that is not the case, then we need to change the process within the ARC. Our process does not differentiate between downtown or elsewhere

Last week’s unprecedented gathering of the boards of HARTline and Tampa Historic Streetcar was most notable for what it didn’t do. It didn’t make any radical changes.

That means the 2.4-mile TECO Line Streetcar System will still be operated by HARTline – not transferred to the private sector. That became a foregone conclusion – to almost all in attendance — once it became apparent that it wasn’t practicable for HARTline to just farm out its operational obligations – given its maintenance commitments.

What was reinforced, however, was the philosophical divide that continues to fester between the county and the city. The Streetcar Named Scapegoat is the perfect foil.

Because of its eroding endowment and non-commuter patronage, the streetcar is an easy target. For perversely populist politicians as well as carping columnists.

Would that it were viable mass transit – not just an economic development tool valued by Channel District developers, convention planners and visitors. It is what it is right now: an urban design amenity. It’s not a novel concept. Nor is its substantial underwriting by federal and state grants aimed at internal-combustion alternatives.

And as downtown and the Channel District ratchet up their residential components, and traffic in the core commensurately increases, the streetcar’s role should evolve in importance – and eventual expansion.

But that is then and this is now, and endowment shrinkage is a legitimate concern.

Perhaps the next time the boards of HARTline and THS meet, a consensus will result on how best to boost revenues. For openers, they should look to those who benefit most. The time for residential property assessments can’t be deferred much longer. And the time for the business community to step up with more sponsorships and advertising is yesterday.

The Tampa Convention Center is enjoying a spike in good news. Not only will the new, 360-unit Embassy Suites hotel open in June, but another hotel (approximately 340 units) is planned next to it by the same developer (Whiteco Industries). Then diagonally across from the center is a block under contract for a proposed four-star hotel.

Now the center has received word that a big convention it thought it had lost to Richmond, Va., will now be coming here – in 2012. It’s the 1,000-delegate United Methodist General Conference with its estimated $20-million economic impact for Tampa.

The downside is the way it happened. The Methodists backed out when they discovered that the city’s minor league baseball team was the Richmond Braves, an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Methodists contend that American Indian monikers are an expression of racism.

Eliminating Washington because of the pejoratived Redskins or Cleveland because of the Indians’ caricatured Chief Wahoo would make some sense. But “Braves?” That smacks more of wearing your political correctness on your sleeve than rooting out racism as an act of conscience.

“Braves?” It’s a good thing we’re Bulls, Rays, Bucs and Bolts – unless you’re counting the best high school basketball team in Tampa: the Chamberlain Chiefs.

Where does it end?

Frankly, who could blame Richmond if, in a moment of frustration and civic pique, it didn’t just decide that if it were going to be branded “racist,” it might as well get its lost money’s worth.

“The Methodists have shown themselves to be the ‘Indian givers’ they are.”

So there.

The Committee of One Hundred is an arm of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Its charge is economic development – not cheerleading. That was recently underscored – and then some – by the Committee’s newly-installed chairman, Bob Abberger.

The regional director of development for the Trammel Crow Co. didn’t revel in Tampa’s ratcheting reputation as a major metro market. Instead, he laid out the challenges Tampa must meet to truly transcend its service, manufacturing and tourism economy – and attract more corporate headquarters, international businesses and biotech operations.

It means, Abberger emphasized, evaluating the competition and homing in on areas of relative and serious concern: affordable housing, wage levels, labor scarcities and that key infrastructure tandem: overburdened roads and underperforming schools.

Abberger knows this is not a zero-sum game. The Orlandos, Jacksonvilles, Raleighs and Atlantas are hardly wart-free. (Try comparing, for example, Tampa and Atlanta when it comes to crime rates, public housing scandals, gridlock scenarios or the quality of the rivers that run through them.) Tampa is a player with still-untapped potential that has been generating momentum. But momentum is worthless if not built upon.

Abberger’s message was as on-target as it was timely.

When Don Hubert bought The Beer Box in 1989, the St. Petersburg bar had a hardscrabble reputation that needed overhauling. He wanted an unmistakable sign that this was now a safe and welcoming place. So the Rhode Island native renamed it Don’s Irish Pub.

No Irish entertainment, no Emerald Isle artifacts, no Irish employees, no corned beef. Just Guinness and a neighborly attitude.

“I wanted to send a clear signal that this wasn’t a biker bar or something,” explained Hubert. “When you see ‘Irish pub,’ you think friendly, even family atmosphere.”

Obviously something other than Irish lineage and major marketing by Guinness accounts for the increasing proliferation of Irish pubs far beyond the ethnic haunts of Boston, Philadelphia or Chicago. In the Tampa Bay market alone there are nearly 50 – from Clearwater to Carrollwood, Bradenton to Brandon. In Ybor City the Irish Pub and the James Joyce Irish Pub are across 7th Avenue from one another. In South Tampa there’s the “Irish Triangle”: the Dubliner Irish Pub, Four Green Fields and MacDinton’s within walking distance of each other.

“I’d call it an old school brand environment,” says Michael Peters, president of Tampa-based Spark Branding House. “You know what you’re getting. There’s comfort in that. It’s not where you go for a Mai Tai.”

Colin Breen would drink a Guinness or Smithwick’s to that. He opened Four Green Fields in 1992; now nobody in Florida sells more Guinness than he does at his thatched-roof, Irish cottage-motif pub. Here a Sinn Fein poster, there a Gaelic street sign. The entertainment – from the Wolf Tones to Sinead O’Connor – is Irish. So is the menu and the help. Gerry Adams has spoken there.

“In general, Irish pubs do well,” explains Breen. “We don’t have to change with the times. It’s not age-related; it’s not price-driven. The bartenders are outgoing and engaging. We have no TV’s; you have to talk to someone.”

The formula of authenticity has worked so well that Breen has contemplated franchising, although he is now more inclined to consider partnerships. He looks to license his trademark.

The rest of the “Irish Triangle” are variations on an overlapping pub theme.

MacDinton’s is considered “modern Irish,” meaning plenty of Guinness, camaraderie, dark woods and Irish staffers, as well as big-screen TVs, happy hour specials, rock music and even karaoke. It caters to the SoHo trendy crowd.

Over at the three-year-old Dubliner, Dublin-born owner Richard Campion has succeeded at a location previously known as a bar-and-restaurant graveyard. It’s mahogany, stained glass and plenty of nooks and crannies inside – with a deck for music, smoking and televised sports. It’s a favorite watering hole of soccer and rugby players.

“It’s kind of ironic,” notes Campion, “that in Ireland many of the pubs have a more modern, cosmopolitan look. In America, there is still the novelty and the allure of the Old World.”

Whether Four Green Fields authentic or MacDinton’s modern, the common denominator is ambience: Irish pubs are avatars of amiability. Egalitarian comfort zones.

“We have a saying,” says Dublin native Noel Cooney, owner of Flanagan’s Irish Pub in Dunedin, ‘There’s no strangers, just friends you haven’t met.'”

Vice President Dick Cheney and snowboard-cross silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis have something in common besides being controversial names in the news the past fortnight. They both provided teachable moments.

First, the Olympian who pried a runner-up spot from the jaws of gold-medal victory. To recap, Jacobellis, in a Torino version of the classic hare-vs.-tortoise runoff, had Olympic gold all but assured when overtaken by an urge to showboat near the end of her final run. She fell ingloriously and was literally overtaken by a competitor who had all but conceded the gold.

Jacobellis will now be enshrined in that select pantheon of athletes whose exploits become dramatic grist for the half time, pep-talk mill. Regardless of sport. This, however, will be no “Win one for the Gipper” oration.

It will go something like this:

“OK, guys, you have a big lead, but in this game – and against this competition — anything can happen. There’s too much at stake, and this is no time to let up. You’ve got the entire off-season to let up.

“You’re probably too young to remember it, but there once was an Olympian – an American, too – who had a gold medal in a snowboarding event all wrapped up. I mean a humungous lead with the finish line well in sight, when she did something silly and stupid. She played to the roaring crowd with a hot-dog move and fell – splat — and lost the gold medal. Just like that.

“That’s what can happen when you lose your focus. That’s what can happen, frankly, when you get so caught up in what you’re about to achieve that you don’t finish achieving it.

“And another thing. We play with enthusiasm around here, and that’s not about to change. But there’s a difference between enthusiasm and showboating. I don’t think I have to define them for you. Show some class; don’t show off. We defeat opponents, but we don’t rub it in. You’ll be on the other side some day.

“But not today.”

Read it and veep

As for the veep: Sure, accidents happen, but any public relations intern could recite the fundamentals of how to handle a situation involving a very public person in a very important position in a very, very media-obsessed society.

The customized 10 commandments of common sense for public officials:

1–When you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

2–Never become the news; you become a liability. (But, OK, stuff happens.)

3–And when it does happen, call your boss immediately. Even if you think he’s not your superior. And, yes, YOU make the call – it should be obvious why. (In this case, the boss is trying to make a policy case to the American people about energy, security and such as well as stanch political bleeding and you’ve gift-wrapped the diversion from hell for the professional chatter-heads. You also made the boss look even less boss-like.)

4–As soon as possible, go public with the facts. (In this instance, there weren’t that many, and no one knew them better than you.)

5–Then indicate additional details will be forthcoming as soon as practicable.

6–Then make sure that happens. (And don’t fudge or nuance anything – like blame. And just because Scooter Libby’s out of pocket and Mary Matalin’s out to lunch, it doesn’t mean all is lost. Common sense need not be outsourced.)

7–Think big picture. Who else looks bad if this is mishandled? (See #3 above.)

8–Never make the Washington press corps jackals’ job any easier. (This incident is really more about enlightened self interest than the public’s right to know. Even – or especially — for an imperial politician, Watergate’s rule of thumb trumps all: It’s not the crime (or the accident), it’s the cover-up (or perception of arrogance and excessive secrecy).)

Remember, once a conflict-craving, scandal-starved press supersizes an incident, the ripple effect can be incalculable. A rising tide of unnecessary, drum-beat controversy can engulf any ship of state.

9–Never let personal feelings – such as a visceral loathing for Beltway bombast – cloud good, objective judgment.

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*Let’s face it; the Olympics were more fun during the Cold War. US vs. Them. Chauvinism for a good cause. Now it’s a global variety show. It’s about individuals and their personalities – and losing the ratings’ race to American Idol. Bode Who?

*Nordic combined, biathlon, curling. Somebody cares even if you don’t, but these participants truly embody the Olympic spirit. No endorsements, no agents, no attitudes – and real jobs to pay real bills in the real world. They love their sport, they’re better than almost everyone in the world at something and they consider it an unmitigated honor and privilege to represent their country. What’s not to love about that? Shani Who?

*Every Olympiad includes events, actually subsets of sports categories, which a lot of us have never heard of. And the International Olympic Committee keeps adding more. Potentially looming in 2014: ski archery, mountaineering and orienteering – a ski race employing the use of compasses and maps.

*Three words: Still no toboggans.