Category: Tampa Bay

This column gets its share of e-mail correspondence. Some of it favorable.

A recent one merely commented on a current event, one that was largely under the radar at that point. Now it’s the epicenter of a national political firestorm.

So plaudits to Anthony Williams of Apollo Beach, who fired off a heat-seeking epistle upon seeing a CNN crawl about a United Arab Emirates’ (Dubai Ports World) company taking over operations of a number of major American seaports. (There are implications for Tampa as well.) For the record, before talk show hosts, mayors, police chiefs, certain East Coast governors, a senate oversight committee, Hillary Clinton and the White House weighed in, Williams was worried about the possibility of “hiring the fox to guard our henhouse.”

The metaphor may be alarmist and unfair to DPW, whose job isn’t “to guard” anything. That’s the purview of law enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs.

But for an administration glaringly remiss in its efforts to allocate sufficient resources for the protection of our ports from terrorism, it’s an issue that, at minimum, begs more scrutiny. More than 2 billion tons of cargo come through America’s ports annually. Roughly 5% of the 9 million containers are inspected. And the UAE, lest we forget, has some unsettling connections – operational and financial – to Sept. 11.

Moreover, the UAE, although an ally that allows U.S. Customs to inspect exports to America, was a transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components headed for Iran and North Korea. It was also one of the few countries to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government.

Nothing in a post-9/11 world is business as usual any more. The UAE has been cooperative with the U.S., and is hardly a terrorist hotbed. More than any of its brethren, it understands the global marketplace and what anti-modernity has done to undermine the Muslim cause. It is, however, what it is – even if it does host world-class golf and tennis tournaments. It’s a high-end Muslim monarchy that constantly straddles the line between its Western partners and its Muslim peers. Call it “ethnic” stereotyping (as MSNBC’s Chris Mathews, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and others have) or prudent policy, but the UAE is not the UK. It’s just not.

(It should be noted that the controversy erupted when DPW agreed to buy out the previous operator, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.)

Questions remain even for those not asking them. How confident can we be that the details of vetting personnel, for example, will be handled properly? Is there enough transparency? Was this a rush job by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which represents a dozen federal agencies? Is diligence still due? Is this analogous to the Chinese company that ultimately wasn’t allowed to buy UNOCAL?

This isn’t “outsourcing” security, but it is turning over all other operations, including the loading and unloading of everything, to DPW. Is there harm in buying time until the rhetoric recedes and there’s a strong, convincing consensus one way or the other?

Will this become another political hostage to polarized politics? Isn’t it a sign to stop and reflect when Senator Clinton can tack to the right of President Bush? Don’t we need a “time-out” when the president threatens to use his first-ever veto on this?

Or maybe we should just take administration experts at their word and let it ride.

“We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently reassured the public on ABC’s “This Week.”

But isn’t he the guy who was in over his head with a hurricane?

Barring any unforeseen complications with City Council, Tampa has itself a workable art museum plan. Finally. The parties were running out of drawing boards to go back to.

And barring any deathbed conversions, not everyone will ever agree that the new plan is just splendid. Which is pretty much what you’d expect when talking art and politics and money. Then add site-selection subplots, business-plan recriminations and personal pique.

Some recent background on the museum ex machina. Amid rumors that off-again-on-again negotiations with America’s Capital Partners, owners of Rivergate Tower and the “Pavilion” (AKA “the cubes”), were heading south again, Mayor Pam Iorio concluded the city and museum were likely out of viable alternatives if they couldn’t do the ACP deal. Its CEO, Allen de Olazarra, said Iorio “deserves all the credit for this.” As in taking the last-minute, deal-clinching initiative.

It means the city will spend $20 million (of Community Investment Tax money) on the project, including $5.7 million to purchase and $10 million to renovate “the cubes,” which will provide about 28,000 square feet. The city will also temporarily lease about 22,000 square feet in the cylindrical Tower. In addition, it will shore up the maintenance-challenged garage adjacent to “the cubes” and sell it to ACP. Kiley Gardens will ultimately be replanted and reconfigured and serve as part of the museum’s “backyard.” When the relocation is complete, the old (44,000-square-foot) museum will be razed.

Work on “the cubes” retrofit could commence this year. According to Mayor Iorio, the time line on the renovation, the garage and Kiley should be “about 24 months.”

Phase two is the construction of a truly “new” museum, on the projected order of about 65,000 square feet, which would be just north of “the cubes.” The two could literally be connected. Target time line for the Ashley Plaza project: within five years.

“The phase two building is totally (design and construction costs) up to the private sector,” emphasized Iorio, who ultimately wants the city out of the museum business.

And that will mean the museum launching a capital campaign and holding on to most of the would-be benefactors who had pledged more than $30 million toward construction of the Rafael Vinoly-designed structure whose plans imploded last year.

At a packed City Hall press briefing, which included city council members John Dingfelder, Linda Saul-Sena and Mary Alvarez, museum board president Cornelia Corbett waxed notably enthusiastic and exchanged rhetorical and literal hugs with the mayor.

“I feel confident we will re-engage 95 percent of those people,” she said. Corbett also noted that it was too soon to put a dollar figure on the new structure.

Added museum interim director Ken Rollins: “There’s a tremendous amount of resources out there waiting for us to come forward with this project.”

Mayor’s compromise

Much has been made of the mayor’s “compromise.”

She obviously preferred the old federal courthouse on N. Florida for a museum and more green space for choice riverfront real estate. She also had said she wouldn’t spend taxpayer dollars until the museum had accumulated a $10-million operating endowment. That mandate has been modified to a phased-in requirement. Upon moving into “the cubes”: $4 million needed. Upon moving into the new museum: $10 million needed. Current total: nearly $2 million. It’s eminently doable.

“This is a real partnership,” said Iorio. “We’re on the same page. With Vinoly and the courthouse, we weren’t on the same page.

“I want the museum to be a success,” the mayor underscored. “To be successful, they have to show momentum. To re-energize the donor base and the museum board. It was worth it to me to compromise. The museum can grow in stages.”

The word “compromise,” however, can be a double-edged sword also connoting sheer expedience and flagrant face-saving.

To museum board member Jan Platt, the plan is “mediocre,” “make-do” and a “blatant political compromise.” She cast the board’s lone nay vote on the plan. Former Mayor Sandy Freedman is disappointed that it won’t be “first rate.”

Among those not disheartened is city councilwoman Saul-Sena, the city’s aesthetics archangel.

“I think the ‘Pavilion’ is the most breathtaking contemporary architecture in Tampa,” she said. “It will be a spectacular place for gathering, for a café and for exhibitions of sculpture work that are not light sensitive. I dare say many people haven’t really walked inside. It’s extraordinarily different.

“I can tell you the people in the design community are all enthused,” added Saul-Sena. “And this will set a really high bar for the next piece that’s built.”

To fellow council member Dingfelder, compromise comes with the territory.

“Politics is all about compromise,” explained Dingfelder. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing. The upside here is if she can pull this off – the Riverwalk, the park, the museum — this could be something special.

“These are unusual and pretty buildings,” said Dingfelder. “And keep this in mind, this is phase one. The museum board has a blank space right next door.”

Re-use perspective

Iorio suspects that re-use, per se, is what truly troubles some.

“I think there exists for some a kind of bias about the re-use of an existing building,” she theorized. “Maybe it’s hard for some to see a building that they have grown accustomed to, in a different light. I heard a lot of that with the courthouse and now with ‘the cubes.’ Older cities often take existing uses and turn them into something new and different. We are still a young city and still have, in part, the mentality that progress means something brand new.

“I suspect that 10 years from now, many people new to this community will assume that ‘the cubes’ were built to house a museum originally.”

It’s more than likely that perspective will ultimately carry the museum day. Proximity to and temporary use of the (Rivergate) “Beer Can” tower will remain an image issue for some. To anyone who ever did business at “the (old NCNB) cubes,” which is actually revered in art circles, this is probably no site to bank on for museum credibility. It will always seem ad hoc or Plan B.

And given the phased scenario, it is necessarily premature to render any ultimate judgment until that final, “signature” piece is in place – and in context.

Until there’s an end product, it’s all high-profile process. And not unlike news editing, law passing and sausage making, it’s not real pretty until it’s finished.

I’ll acknowledge this much up front; I’m one of the Village people. As in Old Hyde Park Village. I prefer town-square ambience to an enclosed, suburban Pentagon. I’m blessed to live within walking distance.

I like lunch at Restaurant BT, dinner at The Wine Exchange, a movie at Sunrise Cinemas, open-air retail, a place to stroll outdoors, a facility to work out, jazz in the park, a dearth of grazing teenagers and shady spots to read and nurse a coffee.

I’ll also admit that I’m a realist. The writing on the mall was the (2001) debut of International Plaza and the subsequent overhaul of WestShore Plaza. The Jacobson’s implosion left OHPV scrambling for an anchor. A Lifestyle Fitness Center, however welcome, can’t replace a large retail anchor.

The tenant mix has been in constant flux, destination specialty shops on the wane and about a third of the leaseable 270,000 square feet is vacant. Sharper Image won’t be back, and a Whole Foods ex machina is likely not waiting in the wings.

A trolley to downtown, an ambitious but dated movie theater, carriage rides, some cosmetic improvements and tenant roulette won’t save the day.

But David Wasserman, 46, is betting – and investing – like he knows what will.

He’s the principal of Wasserman Vornado Strategic Real Estate Fund, the managing partner of OHPV. It bought a 75 percent stake in the Village last year from previous owner Madison Marquette. Wasserman expects to invest more than $100 million in a “complete renovation” of the village.

The key – and literal – building block is residential. Currently, there are 38 condo and town homes. Wasserman plans to add approximately 250 units – in two separate, 12- and -8-story mid-rises (above storefronts). They would go where buildings now house Sunrise and Brooks Bros. The taller would go on the Sunrise site on Swann Avenue.

“I don’t see us in competition with other products,” said Wasserman. “We’re unique in our quality.” He also knows that whether it’s a bungalow or a condo, Hyde Park remains a high-demand market niche.

Wasserman will also contractually discourage investors. “We won’t be selling to snowbirds,” he stressed. He wants year-round resident-shoppers.

According to Ian Bacon, the company’s development director, the condos would likely sell for “a half million and up for the most part.” Amenities such as higher ceilings and upgraded finishes – plus self-contained parking – would be additional selling points.

Additional plans

The company’s goal, stated Wasserman, is to “unite the intent of the Hyde Park Historic district design guidelines with our development vision.” He called the Village an “amazing property” and “an icon in a unique neighborhood.

“We appreciate historic areas – and increasing property values around it,” he underscored.

Plans for Wasserman’s new lease on Village life also include:

*Creating the right mix of locals and chains, such as the incumbent Restoration Hardware (sans awning) and Anthropologie.

Wasserman’s formula: “Give me the Indigos (coffee shop) and the BT’s and the Pottery Barns. And add residential and a gourmet market.”

*Complete renovation of the former Cactus Club building. The fa

The year was 1956.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was re-elected president. Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. The Yankees beat the (Brooklyn) Dodgers in the World Series. Rocky Marciano retired undefeated. “My Fair Lady” debuted on Broadway. “The King and I” was a box office smash. Elvis Presley recorded “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”

And the University of South Florida was born.

For those of us older than USF, was that a fast 50 or what?

For those of you younger, yes, there really were “Sandspur U” sobriquets back in the day. And, indeed, there was a time when athletics maxed out with intramural championships. And any reference to USF seemingly required an almost apologetic “commuter school” qualifier. USF wasn’t Florida; it wasn’t Florida State; it wasn’t even IN South Florida.

Now it’s the second largest public university in the Southeast, with more than 43,000 students. By 2010, 6,000 will be living on the Tampa campus.

USF is a 21st century research university that is a big-time player in a major metro market and anchors one end of the I-4 tech corridor. It is known to the National Science Foundation as one of the two fastest growing research universities in the country. Research funding now totals nearly $350 million.

USF began with three buildings; the current figure, including new student housing, is almost 400 on four campuses. There are more than 200 graduate and undergraduate programs. Its colleges of medicine, public health, engineering and business are key community partners and bay area recruiting assets. USF is the fourth largest employer in the region, with an annual economic impact estimated at more than $3 billion.

And those intramural leagues have morphed into a Big East affiliation, which guarantees exposure in the country’s largest media market (New York). After only nine seasons, USF played in its first bowl game last month.

And, yet, a university is so much more than the sum of its disparate parts. It’s more than bricks and mortar and payrolls and grants and endowments and TV exposure and enrollment explosions. It’s also having half of your (190,000) alumni living and working in the Tampa Bay area. It’s being home to the nationally acclaimed Graphicstudio. It’s being a de facto corporate headquarters – only the implications are as varied as advances in Alzheimer’s research, consultations on urban transportation issues, expertise in marine science or contributions to national security via bio-defense and sonar innovations.

And sometimes, it’s as mundane as a bunch of college kids getting down and dirty to help their community. That’s what happened a couple of weeks ago when USF’sStampede of Service Day drew more than 1,000 students from sororities, fraternities and service clubs to East Tampa to clean up parks and roadways.

One other thing.

Sorry, but I’m still steamed about that Connecticut game.

Go, Bulls.

Perhaps you heard about the extended family that is the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, that recently barnstormed through Tampa, rhetorically pillaging as it went. Maybe two dozen in number, they shouted their offensive litany at several sectarian venues, including St. John’s Episcopal Church in Hyde Park. The Westboro web site, www.godhatesfags.com, pretty much tells you everything you need to know to have an informed opinion of them.

They are precisely what we see entirely too much of: loathsome yahoos and repellent odd balls deigning to speak for the Deity. Pat Robertson never looked so elevated.

I witnessed the confrontation at St. John’s, winced at the vulgar hectoring and placarded insults and admired the tolerance and discipline of the 400 congregants who were subjected to the spew-fest. My most charitable thought: “Nothing good ever comes from inbreeding.”

Even the Rev. Douglas E. Remer, rector of St. John’s, got a hearty, probably off-the-record, perhaps therapeutic, laugh out of that one.

“When we heard they were coming, my first inclination was to give them a cup of coffee and invite them in to worship,” acknowledged Remer. “But the police said not to. Not to give them the satisfaction and the publicity.

“I thought I was prepared for their level of viciousness, but they surpassed that,” added Remer. “Not just slogans but personal insults – even to the (sidewalk queuing) chalice-bearers. That’s what I found most offensive. But not one of our folk took the bait.”

So, how did that Sunday’s sermon go?

“We have just witnessed the personification of hateful, hurtful behavior,” he told the congregation. “Within the context of everything we know, that is outside the bounds of Christian living. All we can do is control how we act. To return hatefulness is to sink to their level.”

No one did.

As we know all too well, there’s been a recent rash of criminal cases involving sexual relationships between teachers and students. While the dynamics are all different, a common thread is that adults in positions of authority have abused a sacred trust and taken advantage of a child under their tutelage. All are nearly impossible to fathom.

What was truly inexplicable, however, was a father’s reaction to the sentencing of the Lecanto High School teacher and coach, 36-year-old Amy Lilley, who had engaged in a sexual relationship with his daughter.

“I don’t believe she is a victim,” he said of his daughter, now all of 15. “I believe that two people can fall in love.”

That can’t help.

Could there really be something in the water? Why do we keep having these highly publicized, outlandishly unnecessary issues such as the controversy over the “Welcome To Tampa/ City of Champions” signs? When you say “Champions” and then you note: “Super Bowl,” “Stanley Cup” and “Arena Bowl,” isn’t it obvious what you’re getting at? Three Tampa-based franchises recently won championships (well, 2003-04).

But to throw the New York Yankees, who spring train here and are owned by the philanthropic, Tampa-residing George Steinbrenner, into the signage mix is beyond irrelevant. Historically, the Yankees have been baseball’s gold standard, but there’s a very good reason why they’ve been called the “Bronx Bombers” for nearly a century. And, frankly, it’s been a while since they’ve won a World Series. But they do have local signage; it’s all over the taxpayer-underwritten “Legends Field.”

This whole flap about including the Yankees should actually embarrass Steinbrenner, if not certain city council members. Especially Rose Ferlita, who has most vocally made the specious point that “the Yankees are the home team.”

Maybe the only relevant point is this: Ferlita, who is stepping down from city council, is already prepping for the county commission, where parochial, needlessly divisive and petty issues are routinely raised, if not venerated.

Among those things that Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms is adamantly against is the very concept of an elected countywide mayor. The irony is that without her polarizing presence, one that fails to recognize the inevitable synergy between unincorporated county and the economic hub that is the city of Tampa, there likely would be no county mayor issue.

Politicians always have trouble finessing the “legacy” question. If their answer is too candidly concrete, it seems hubristic. As in “monument to me.” It’s easier, and typically more relevant, to talk in terms of “direction” and “progress” across a spectrum of issues.

While Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio won’t be able to escape the art museum as a barometer of achievement or disappointment, she has been taking on the monumental, decidedly unsexy task of infrastructure upgrades. Some long overdue, others merely due on her watch.

The stormwater fee was the former. A start in the retrofitting of a system long overburdened and unaddressed. An example of the latter is the recently announced $1,500-per-unit impact fee to pay for rapidly accelerating water distribution needs in downtown and South Tampa.

Not surprisingly, developers have taken umbrage. Only they called it “blindsiding.” Some city council members resented a fait accompli approach.

Presumably, Iorio could have been more forthcoming, even though the code call is hers — as authorized and implemented by the Water Department director.

But maybe it just comes down to this. Absent the fees, higher water bills are inevitable. The bottom line is growth paying for itself – too frequently an oxymoronic concept around here.

Yes, the mayor could have been more inclusive in her approach. Maybe even hosted a public forum, and demurely sat through another naysayers’ field trip. The minimum result, of course, would have been delay while the usual suspects played their agenda games.

Some times the top elected official just needs to get out in front of a problem and lead.

Valerie Hnatio-Dotts, 37, of Palm Harbor knew her boyfriend had something different in mind for her birthday. He said the recently purchased bracelet was merely Part I.

Kyle Cutcheon, 39, said they were going to do something unique and fun. He told her to dress casually–and include a hat, sunglasses and sneakers. And be ready before sunrise. Cutcheon, a loan officer for Bay Lending Corp. in St. Petersburg, had reserved a late summer, hot air balloon ride with Tampa-based American Balloons Inc.

The Lutz-Land O’Lakes area never looked so good, recalls Cutcheon. “You see everything, and you see it quietly,” he says. “I had no idea of the number of lakes; we saw horses out of their stables. And the sunrise was the best–as you’re floating through the air. Very romantic.”

It was “breathtaking and peaceful,” says Hnatio-Dotts. “It was romantic for him to even think of that.”

For Tom Warren, the FAA-certified pilot/owner of American Balloons, it was a familiar response. But it’s never another day at the office when you’re in a basket under a flame and 100,000 cubic feet of nylon-encased hot air, floating serenely 500 to 1,000 feet above it all. Above pastures, farms, ponds and neighborhoods–as well as fauna as diverse as deer, wild hogs, alligators, hawks and eagles.

On average, he’ll stay up for an hour–and travel 10-12 miles. He works with a seven-member crew that includes his wife and his mother. The former acts as crew chief, the latter is a notary and has performed marriage ceremonies prior to lift-off. There is also a chase crew in a van that is in radio contact with the pilot and follows the balloon’s path.

“I always enjoy it,” says Warren, who also owns T & A Truck Inc. of Tampa. “You see areas of Florida you can’t see any other way. Nothing is disturbed.”

For the most part, Warren’s world is a customer base largely comprised of celebrants: birthdays, Mother’s Days, anniversaries, engagements, weddings. Individually, the cost is $160 per person, which includes a champagne toast and light brunch. It’s $450 per couple–for an exclusive “sweetheart flight” in the 5′ x6′ basket.

It’s all part of an international pattern. Balloon rides–once the exclusive province of hobbyists and tourists to haunts more exotic than north Tampa–have never been more popular. There are no fewer than a half dozen companies in the Bay Area offering hot air balloon rides. Some have multiple balloons.

“The popularity is at an all-time high,” says veteran pilot Joe Settecasi, who owns Bay Balloons, Inc. of Tampa. “The technology is better, the equipment top of the line, and people now see ballooning as a safe, unique and wonderful experience.

“Plus there’s that element of romance,” adds Settecasi. “I would say that 95 per cent of those I took up were couples. They love the sense of the world waking up. It also lends itself to surprise, although you have to invent a pretty good lie to get up that early.”

That early hour is critical for such a weather-sensitive pursuit. Balloons must have stable air. The energy of the sun is an unwelcome variable. Surface winds of more than about 7 mph are problematic.

“We refuse to fly unless it’s safe,” underscores Warren. “We get weather updates like a 747 pilot. There’s nothing more peaceful, and we want to keep it that way.”