Category: Tampa Bay

We can all probably agree on this: The ongoing $30 million renovation of the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory is a welcome revitalization project along North Howard Avenue. We can all probably agree on this too: It’s not aesthetically improved with the Tampa Jewish Community Center’s plans to add a six-foot high fence across the front of the Art Deco structure.

However, we should all be able to agree on this: The reality is we live in a world where a high-profile Jewish Community Center project can also be a vulnerable target. Anti-Semitic terrorists and lone-wolf crazies exist. No one around here knows that better than JCC officials.

“You need to create environments that you’re able to control and protect,” explains Jack Ross, the JCC’s executive director. Of course, who could argue with that?

Well, three city council members, Frank Reddick, Charlie Miranda and Yolie Capin, in effect, could–and did. They were the minority in a 4-3 vote that ultimately signed off on the inclusion of the fence. They objected that it was inconsistent with the building’s historic character and could look less than welcoming to the public.

Legitimate points, but the same could be said of the White House. It doesn’t look better with a fence, it just looks–and is–safer in an increasingly unsafe world.

The JCC will now be working with the Architectural Review Commission to determine the final look, one that shouldn’t appear uninviting to those who want to visit and also understand the necessary balance between convenience and safety. As for Reddick, Miranda and Capin, their concerns are understandable, but maybe they should check back with council vice chairman Harry Cohen for further reassurance.

We know that as a city and a region we’re fortunate to have a major research university in our midst. But unless we’re talking about a re-locating medical school or a revived football program, it can be easy to take USF for granted. The other night I was privy to the benefits of having a university with a Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies on its campus. Executive Director Mohsen Milani hosted Christopher Hill, former ambassador to, among others, South Korea and Iraq. A few outtakes:

* Chinese vested interest in North Korea: “The problem is deeper than refugee (scenarios). Many in their government see it in zero-sum terms. An American victory and a Chinese defeat (if the Koreas unite under South Korean aegis). We must deal with the Chinese and alleviate their concerns.”

* Iraq: “Will be seen historically as an enormous mistake.”

* Syria: “No victory parade in Damascus. (Look for) negotiations among exhausted parties.”

* ISIS: “There’s no negotiating with ISIS.”

Tampa as a Potemkin Village? OK, that’s an exaggeration, but not as much as it should be.

Since the end of the Great Recession, Tampa has been on the upswing. We’re familiar with counting the ways: From the expanded Riverwalk, a reviving downtown and Channelside 2.0 plans to Bollywood Oscars, a national political convention, championship football games and myriad mentions on a bunch of Internet hipster lists. Even a cross-bay ferry.

Always lurking, however, is a governor on the sort of progress that would ultimately take Tampa to the next level in terms of economic competitiveness and quality of life. Pull back the happening-and-hype curtain and you can’t miss the absence of mass transit. No other market with such aspirations is so immobile. It undermines corporate–and millennial-employee–recruiting.

Then, as we’ve been graphically reminded of late, there is systemic sewer incapacity in our low-lying areas. And given that everything around the southwest Florida coast is low-lying, it’s a red flag and an existential threat whether you acknowledge global-warming scenarios or not.

And Hillsborough County, home to the eighth-largest school system in the United States, now has more than serious debt-service issues. It has problems just keeping its schools air-conditioned.

And what do transit, sewers and schools have in common? They are our critical infrastructure components. Absent reinforcement and investment, we are recklessly gambling with our future.   We need to underwrite what should be our priorities: quality of life and economic viability and competitiveness. Or we will pay a price far beyond infrastructure taxes.

Here’s what TBX, alas, boils down to: If you want important interchanges fixed, then accept the whole package. Zero sum–or else the $6 billion in DOT money goes elsewhere.

Want, say, meaningful mass transit for the masses? Too bad. Want to bridge Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties without confusing, bureaucratic scenarios on the Howard Frankland? Too bad. Want to avoid further impact on minority neighborhoods because of highway priorities? Too bad.

Biggest takeaway from the “Channelside 2.0” announcement: This city continues to open up to its natural resource, the Hillsborough River. Back in the day it was wharves, warehouses and parking lots on the waterfront. Then came a commercial plaza that is closed off to the water. It will be razed, as expectations of new-urbanism visions continue to be raised.

Another day, another Cuba-Tampa scenario. From commercial flights to consulate speculation to environmental cooperation anchored by the Florida Aquarium. Now add this: transshipment.

It’s part of the ripple effect of a widened Panama Canal, Cuba’s expanded Port of Mariel and the possibility of off-loading containers to smaller boats to ship cargo to the burgeoning market of central Florida via Port Tampa Bay. It’s hardly incidental–or coincidental–that Tampa’s port recently spent $24 million for two gantry cranes that are part of a gateway-to-central-Florida marketing campaign.

Cuban port leaders are expected to visit Tampa later this year. Next month local maritime officials will travel to Cuba. And President Barack Obama could issue an executive order to facilitate the Mariel-Tampa port connection. Currently ships from any nation that dock in Cuba are prohibited from doing likewise in the U.S. for 180 days.

Maxing out on geography, logistics, economics and history are all in the mix to make a transformative difference for Port Tampa Bay.

But you know what would really help? A closer. The president can sign an order. Delegations can be exchanged. But somebody who’s proactive, a born salesman and the unquestioned political leader of this city with a game-changing port and a strong-mayor system has to step up and make a difference.

In an all-important-hands-on-deck scenario, the missing hand can’t be that of Mayor Bob Buckhorn. But it is. Apparently “This is our time” doesn’t apply to the Tampa-Cuba nexus. Tucker/Hall’s Bill Carlson is more important than the city’s CEO when it comes to Cuba.

And, yes, we know why the mayor prefers his spectator role. Loyalty to friends who suffered from the revolution and those who flew with Brothers to the Rescue. Animus to those who disdain democratic freedoms and devalue political dissent.

But Buckhorn’s first priority should be what’s best for Tampa and all its constituents and all its unrealized potential. Maintaining a personal agenda, to the competitive detriment of his city, in the waning, post-Cold War years of the Castro brothers may still be rationalized and play well in hardliner circles, but it’s blatantly counterproductive in 2016 for Tampa.

When the name of Jeff Vinik is mentioned, we naturally think of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the 40-acre, $2 billion, “Vinikville” makeover around Channelside. But under that owner-developer radar, Vinik stays involved, often eclectically, in the community he’s directly invested in.

The most recent Exhibit A: He was part of the five-person team that accompanied USF President Judy Genshaft to Texas to make a pitch for USF joining the Big 12 Conference. No, it’s not in the same league as a relocated medical school, but it matters.

The bottom line: What’s good for USF is good for Tampa is good for those who live, learn and do business here. Call it enlightened self-interest, the best kind.

First, the good news: Something actually passed on transportation funding here at ground zero for mess transit. The Hillsborough County Commission voted to spend $600 million over the next decade on transportation needs.  The “good news” qualifier: We’re talking budget allocations to help with roads, intersections, sidewalks and bridges. That’s usually called a basic maintenance plan, not a vision to catch up with the 21st century.

It’s not nearly enough for those who understand regional connectivity and for those who know that the city of Tampa will remain on the cusp of transformation without meaningful mass transit.

What still needs to happen: Legislative help so that major Florida cities can hold their own referenda to raise money for priorities such as transit. It’s not fair that this city’s self-determination is, in effect, vetoed by “no tax for tracks” county voters and their Republican-majority commission.

A sheriff’s SWAT deputy shot and killed an unarmed black man in Clair-Mel last week. The context sounds all too familiar. Uncertainty and spontaneity were key factors.

The white deputy initially couldn’t locate the suspect in a bedroom. Then he jumped up and reached toward his waistband. Then the deputy fired a fatal shot. Then it became known that the suspect was unarmed.

Predictably enough, the shooting has enflamed tensions. There have been street demonstrations and protests–as well as calls for calm. The Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office is investigating. And once again, there will be demands for accountability and appeals for “conversations” on police deportment in minority communities.

The refrain is as familiar as the scenario is tragic.

But it’s worth asking how all of this came down. SWAT-team need is much more the exception than rule.

As it turns out, an undercover operation had determined that the suspect was selling marijuana. A search warrant brought police. Suspicion that the suspect might have access to guns brought the SWAT team. The rest is loud speakers and the exit of three adults and a child–but not the hiding suspect. That caused the officers to break through his bedroom window. Then what can go wrong, went very wrong.

Look, no one can say for sure where an incident or arrest warrant will lead–and police, as we know, can be targets themselves. But we’re not talking violent felon or would-be terrorist here. Selling pot–or illegal cigarettes on Staten Island–should not be an exercise in zero-sum, confusion-shrouded overkill for anyone. If community policing isn’t smart, prioritized policing, it’s unnecessarily dangerous policing.

He’s a progressive and a much-needed Democratic presence–and counterweight–on a Hillsborough County Commission too steeped in retrograde Republicanism. He’s on the right side of the important issues. He made history as the first openly gay member of the county commission. He stood up to Brian Blair. He’s term-limited; he’s likeable; he has a future.

This just in: Kevin Beckner’s future is now on hold. At best.

You don’t run an off-putting, negative, primary campaign for Hillsborough County clerk against a beloved, iconic incumbent and a) expect to win and b) expect that there will be no career downside–let alone a political sinkhole.

Why? Awful political advice? Intemperate ambition? Petulant ego? Expectation that an 86-year-old would ultimately rather go out on top rather than risk another term into her 90s–and, if need be, have her replacement be named by Rick Scott? Regardless–disappointing and disconcerting. Or maybe it’s just Kevin, we hardly knew ye. Sad. For all of us.