Category: Tampa Bay

By all appearances the University of Florida did quite well in landing Bernie Machen as its new president. The former president of the University of Utah is known to be as candid as he is compassionate. The one time pediatric dentist is personable and puts a premium on good teaching. He likes short meetings and long rides on Harley-Davidsons.

Two other things.

Machen is a crusader for diversity who just recently found out about this state’s anti-affirmative action “One Florida” policy. And last year he fired Utah’s head football coach.

In a previous incarnation I was the media relations manager at the University of South Florida. Among the folks who staffed the office was Juanita Holbrook Ingram, a pleasant, 50ish woman who not so secretly harbored a desire to write. She took some courses in USF’s School of Mass Communications. She learned to craft a news release.

After retiring in 1996, Juanita and her husband Bob did some serious traveling in their Winnebago. She became intrigued with the history of places they traveled to out West. That led to some serious writing — of the historical Western fiction genre — especially suitable for young adults.

She just authored her third book, “Blue Mountain.” She’ll be doing a book signing at the Henry B. Plant Museum on Nov. 11, 10:00-noon.

But pursuing and realizing her dream may be the best story of all.

Some unsolicited advice for those Tampa City Council members who recently voted for that 23 per cent pay hike that ultimately failed, 4-2. It was a valid question, and there were legitimate arguments to be made.

But first things first: Earn it.

Not to be unkind, but isn’t it ironic that the twosome that voted for the increase, Mary Alvarez and Gwen Miller, have done the least to merit it. They are the council’s least accomplished members. Moreover, the catalyst and foremost proponent for the proposed pay hike, Kevin White (who missed the final vote), is a rookie with no track record for meriting anything yet.

NEW PORT RICHEY — The big yellow stickers said: “You BET I’m with BETTY for U.S. Senate.” On this day, they could have said: “You can COUNT on KATHY.”

On a Saturday afternoon at New Port Richey’s downtown library, the West Pasco Democratic Club was awaiting the arrival of U.S. Senate candidate Betty Castor. A gathering of some 75 members, a number of them seniors, was on hand.

Several wore caps designating military service. A middle-aged guy sported a T-shirt emblazoned with “Regime Change Begins At Home.” Some wanted to tell Castor that they didn’t much care for the current Administration’s non-support for the expansion of veterans’ disability benefits. Most just wanted to hear what Florida’s pre-eminent female political icon had to say to this Main Street (Democrat) assemblage.

What they got was a pretty good surrogate, Kathy Castor. She’s articulate, enthusiastic and hardly hustings-challenged. She was pinch-hitting because her mom had been called out of town — to Glassboro, N.J. — to be with her dying, 85-year-old mother, Gladys Evans.

Kathy Castor, to be sure, is no neophyte. In fact, over the last decade the current Hillsborough County commissioner has had more experience running for office than her mom. Betty, of course, was busy being president of the University of South Florida and president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

In addressing the gathering, Kathy highlighted her mom’s bio, reminded everybody that there has never been a U.S. senator from the Tampa Bay area, pointed out that her mother’s timing has always been “impeccable” and served up some campaign boilerplate.

Her mom, she said, looks at Washington and “sees a lack of policy direction, a lack of vision and a lack of clear understanding of how the federal government affects the lives of people

First the good news.

Two Saturdays ago more than 2,300 volunteers combed the county’s riverbanks and bay shores during the Florida Coastal Cleanup. Included were a number of high school students learning first hand how to be good stewards of the fragile, coastal environment they have inherited.

Now the bad news.

It was that necessary. If the volunteers’ haul, which included beer bottles, cigarette butts, rotting food, fishing lines, shopping carts and boxes of spent firecrackers, was anything like the previous year’s, they picked up some 70,000 pounds of debris.

Now for those of us who didn’t participate because we had a conflict.

We got what we deserved. That Gators-Tennessee game.

Congratulations to USF’s Leslie Elsasser, a graduate student in the College of Fine Arts. She recently left for a year in India as a Fulbright Fellowship grantee. She is USF’s first College of Fine Arts student to earn the prestigious grant.

Elsasser, a native of New Jersey who grew up in New York, is already an accomplished artist, with numerous exhibitions of oil paintings and drawings to her credit. She will work with miniatures in India. Her works will specifically depict women through the lens of Hindu mythology. The lion’s share of her time will be spent at Banaras Hindu University near New Delhi.

Next year she returns to USF to defend her thesis. She plans a “Women Series” exhibition for her master’s thesis show.

Then she looks for opportunities to be a teacher and an artist — in New York. But it’s nothing against the Tampa art scene, she insists.

“There are some absolutely fabulous artists here,” she said. “And a lot of bright, artistic minds like Paul Wilborn. I go to New York all the time — to Chelsea and Queens and Williamsburg — and come back and I’m impressed with what’s here. The cultural awareness is not as sophisticated, but it can be. But the art being made there is no better than here.

“But it’s too hot here, and I don’t like to drive,” she explained. “I like the subway.”

It’s official. Ye Mystic Crucible is over.

Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla has let it be known that it’s now OK with them if other krewes in pirate attire continue to dress as pirates for the annual pirate invasion. Apparently Ye Mystic Krewe feels assured that it will only be blamed for disorderly conduct by its own members.

Also, while Mayor Pam Iorio will certainly be prominent at Gasparilla 2004, at least one former mayoral candidate will actually be marching in the parade. Look for Frank Sanchez, who is a member of the Krewe of Mambi, to be in uniform and hoofing it along the parade route.

No doubt Sanchez hopes to be in a convertible in future parades. He’s still mulling other opportunities on the political horizon.

That audible sigh of relief you just heard likely came from Tampa Electric Co. officials. If so, it’s probably the prospect that TECO and its transmission totem poles could have real competition for unflattering publicity, corporate ham-handedness and headlines that won’t go away. CSX Transportation is on the case.

Expect to see, hear and infer a lot more about the simmering discord — and increasing dislike — between CSX and city officials responsible for Tampa’s successful, new trolley line. Mayor Pam Iorio and City Attorney Fred Karl are earning their stripes on this one. Now they understand what Dick Greco and Ron Rotella went through.

It’s all about where the trolley crosses CXS tracks just south of Fifth Avenue near Ybor City. Never mind that hundreds of cars, trucks, buses and cyclists cross these tracks daily without colliding with a train.

It’s all about how the conductor on the trolley communicates with the CSX flagman in his trailer to help make sure that trolleys and trains are not intersecting. Literally.

It’s also all about some uncertainty back in July. That’s when safety concerns were raised resulting from apparent conductor-flagman miscommunication.

While incidents didn’t become accidents, they sent an alarm that somebody needed to be, well, watching out for trains.

But, no, it wasn’t the flagman’s job; CSX doesn’t want any part of such liability. As a result, common sense is derailed.

In a division of labor that would make any Teamster drool, the flagman’s responsibility is to verify that the approaching trolley conductor actually sees the signal light, which is eminently visible. He then logs in the time the trolley passes. He then returns to his crossword puzzle. He doesn’t need a flag.

It’s good, old-fashioned, feather-bedding work if you can get it, and that’s why it goes to high-senority, maximum-wage CSX employees.

But if not a flag-less flagman, then who is actually going to look out for trains?

As it turns out, a streetcar field supervisor has recently been posted near the tracks. He climbs aboard all approaching trolleys. The supervisor and the conductor jointly radio the nearby flagman and then they all decree: “Yes, there are no trains coming.” Then the trolley crosses the tracks on the yellow caution signal. On the other side of the tracks, the supervisor gets off and awaits the next streetcar.

At a contracted price of $37.50 an hour, the position costs more than $2,000 a week — or more than $100,000 a year. And keep in mind that there are typically only three or four trains per day; some of them at hours when the trolley isn’t running.

Some recent historical perspective.

CSX has all the leverage; it’s their tracks.

Last year, it initially demanded a $500 million liability insurance policy to permit streetcars to cross those tracks. The $1 million premium, however, seemed prohibitive to the city. The parties then negotiated a two-year agreement, whereby the city would give CSX upwards of $300,000 a year, which would include paying for the flag-less flagman. The city also provided the air-conditioned trailer, installed signals and paid for the tracks’ interlocking mechanism.

Until July, it appeared that the city had at least bought itself some time.

Now there have been threats to shut down the trolley crossing and render the two-year agreement null and void. And CSX is still holding out for that $500 million insurance policy. There have been some frayed tempers — and some blinking. Negotiations continue, and Karl is still scrambling. Steep insurance premiums would likely mean invading the trolley’s endowment fund.

As one insider put it, “The streetcar could do 500,000 riders this year. The business community has embraced it; tourists love it; groups book it; and it’s talked about around the country. The CSX people are sharp, but they’re also arrogant and ruthless. They’re bullies.”

And they’re calling the shots.

And you haven’t heard the end of it.

It should surprise no one that Mayor Pam Iorio, whose instincts are “hands-on” and “right away,” would personally intercede in a site plan for The Bellamy on Bayshore, a 26-story condominium tower. The 64-unit condo, between Knights and Wallcraft avenues, is properly zoned, but its main access — on Knights — is an issue. Knights is a narrow, residential street.

Iorio and Elton Smith, Tampa’s transportation chief, sat down with representatives of the developer, JMC Communities.

Iorio should be applauded for responding so directly and promptly to the legitimate concerns of a neighborhood. Two points, however.

This will be a precedent. And it won’t be the last pricey development with design-and-impact issues. Going to the city’s CEO won’t always be practicable.

She should be, in baseball parlance, the “closer.” There’s no one after that. But there are some “set-up” talents.

In the future, might not this be a role for someone like City Councilman John Dingfelder? The Bellamy is within his district (4) and his background includes some unique qualifications. Not only is he a veteran of Tampa’s Variance Review Board, he’s also professionally trained as a mediator.

Just for future reference.

The countdown to the 100th birthday of Salvador Dali gets going in earnest next Wednesday (Sept. 24) at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Florida First Lady Columba Bush will be among those gathering for announcements that will formally kick off a series of events in the Salvador Dali Centennial Festival culminating in the Surrealist master’s birthday on May 4, 2004.

Concurrent with cultural events in St. Petersburg will be those in Philadelphia; Venice, Italy; and Barcelona, Spain.