Category: Tampa Bay

That was a nice CNBC shout-out scored by Tampa Bay and Tampa this week. The network’s “Power Lunch” referenced Tampa as a “value stock” well into transformation from its industrial and cigar-making roots.

While it occasionally interchanged Tampa and the 3 million-population, “torrid real estate” Tampa Bay region, “Power Lunch’s” theme was consistent. Business around here is booming, as in financial services, tourism and trade.

Raymond James, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were specifically mentioned. Tampa’s 4.4 percent unemployment rate and diverse economy, including New York Yankees spring training and Port Tampa Bay, Florida’s largest, were singled out.

And once again, the “new urbanism” catalyst that is Jeff Vinik and his downtown development plan became a magnet for outside media. When a billionaire Fidelity Magellan Fund manager from Boston relocates to a Sunbelt city and dubs it a “value stock,” economic insiders tend to take note. Vinik knows the value of newsworthy sound bites as he recruits corporate relocatees, especially in the media-dense Northeast.

“Business is taking off,” points out Vinik, “and I think we are in the middle of a bull market here.”

Two points.

First, you can bet Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s civic sales pitch has already been updated. Second, surprising to see a Tampa-centric, business piece without a mass transit angle.

Finally, it’s over.

That six-month Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office investigation into cronyism and conflict-of-interest accusations hanging over the Go Hillsborough transportation initiative is history. Nothing illegal proved.

Now we can all proceed with not putting Go Hillsborough on the ballot or not voting for it if it does get Victor Crist’s blessing.

As we know, we are constantly confronted with lists, many of which seem inane, arbitrary and self-serving for the list-maker. Who really cares about the best city for public twerking or a Duck Dynasty fan base? But some lists, you have to concede, are downright cool. To wit: WalletHub, the personal finance website, has ranked Tampa the 6th best place in America to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The Big Guava as the Big Guinness!

So, thank you Irish pubs, Ybor City and accommodating weather. And thank you, Mayor Bob, for Saturday’s River O’ Green Festival. You don’t have to have an O’Surname to enjoy–and imbibe. It just helps.

USF, a top 25 public research university and a national patent power, has scored again.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has once again singled out university scientists across the country to honor as AAAS Fellows. Ten are from Florida.

Half are from USF. Biology: Kendra Daly (ocean science), Dennis Kyle (tropical diseases), and Steven Murawski (fisheries, marine ecosystems). Engineering: Venkat Bhethanabotla (acoustic wave chemistry and bio sensors). Geology and Geography: Timothy Dixon (space geodesy).

Three were from the University of Florida and one each from FAU and FIU.

Go, Bulls.

That didn’t take long. Within days of news that Tampa General Hospital’s governing board had voted to pay themselves for their civic services, the board abandoned the controversial plan. In a brief statement, board chairman John A. Brabson Jr. said that “the board believes this is not the right time to move in that direction.”

Two points. First, a paid board for Tampa’s not-for-profit, safety-net hospital was unconscionably poor form. The blow-back was immediate and scathing. Second, the face-saving could have been better. When would the “right time” be?

The Rays have been part of the national news cycle this week for their historic exhibition game in Havana against the Cuban national team. It’s about good will as well as geopolitics. Among those participating: Rays outfield prospect Dayron Varona, a Cuban native.

He probably won’t make the team out of spring training, but he’s made a solid impression on the Rays organization so far. He’s also become compelling media copy. Of particularly poignant note was his comment about his 2013 Cuba-to-Haiti-to-America escape with his mother: “It’s a memory that you don’t want to remember.” Nothing was lost in translation.

Obviously there is no love lost between Bob Buckhorn and Marco Rubio. The two, it turns out, have never met. If you are a U.S. senator, then the mayor of the Tampa Bay hub and I-4 Corridor anchor is a player you have to know. Absent that, it’s a snub. And it’s symptomatic of the poor outreach that Rubio has done in his home state, the one he has to carry next week if he is to have any convention hope.

And if such poor home-state prep, an undistinguished legislative and attendance record and sophomoric debate behavior leads to a Sunshine State humiliation, he will have undermined his back-up plan: a gubernatorial run in 2018. Among the thankful: Adam Putnam and possibly Bob Buckhorn. Political karma strikes again.

It was a one-day, prominent-headline story. USF President Judy Genshaft re-ups with a pay hike and added incentives.

The next day it was back to USF-in-the-news-as-usual. Medical-school-funding updates for the Jeff Vinik-enabled, downtown relocation. Further reassessment of CAMLS’ robotic charge. The latest in USF’s catalytic role in the Tampa Innovation Alliance. Confirmation of an on-campus Publix supermarket in the works. Plans for a modern housing village. And maybe something about USF athletics still shy of a mega conference.

But Genshaft is no one-and-done news item.

In an era when major university presidents have to be fund-raisers, political insiders, community leaders and campus-friendly icons, she is a multi-tasking, central casting composite. As news-worthy as noteworthy.

With a maxed-out performance bonus, she could make more than $800,000. Good for her. It makes her one of the highest paid public university presidents in the country. For societal context, the minimum salary in the National Basketball Association is $525,000. She’s a bargain.

Genshaft was hired by USF in 2000 as the successor to Frank Borkowski and Betty Castor. Borkowski was more of an avuncular, old-school academic and Castor was a savvy, political player–and exactly what USF, often a step-child of a UF, FSU-dominated system, needed.

Genshaft, with roots in academe (former provost at the University of Albany, SUNY) is a higher-ed hybrid–with an overriding priority for community partnerships. She has held leadership roles in both the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and the Tampa Bay Partnership. She’s an inductee in the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame.

Genshaft knows the societal, synergistic role of a major urban research university that also plays a significant day-to-day role in its community. USF’s regional economic impact is $4.4 billion annually.

Judy Genshaft is no John Thrasher, which is good. She’s a career educator who happens to have the vision and skill set necessary for a 21st century university president. She connects with students as well as business leaders and government officials.

Genshaft, 68, has political instincts, a salesman’s work ethic, a creative aptitude and pragmatic good sense. She has been exactly what USF has needed–and continues to need and value in the marketplace.

Perhaps no comment was more indicative of what the longest-serving president in USF history means today than that of Jozef Gherman, the USF Board of Trustees’ student member. “Thank you, President Genshaft, for always having the students in your heart and being one of our biggest allies,” said Gherman. “We do love you.”

It’s no secret that Tampa International Airport is a world-class facility and one of the true gems of this Tampa Bay region. It’s conveniently located and was obviously built with passengers as a foremost priority. It ranks near the top in any recruiting PowerPoint presentation. What a way to welcome visitors–and returning residents.

It was only appropriate, then, that TIA, in the midst of a billion-dollar expansion and renovation, has added another, albeit much less obvious, upgrade. Its governing board just got better.

Sam Rashid, a problematic political appointee, had embarrassed the board–and possibly himself–with those notoriously slutty comments about a prominent PR consultant. His successor is retired Brig. Gen. Arthur “Chip” Diehl, the former wing and base commander at MacDill AFB.

Diehl knows aviation, and he knows Tampa and the world beyond. He also understands TIA’s role as a regional economic engine and a major American gateway. Chip Diehl is a natural resource for this area, and TIA lucked out in his gubernatorial appointment. Rick Scott owed us–and he came through on this one.

I was walking my dogs recently along a leafy South Tampa street when a thundering noise pierced the mid-morning tranquility. I was more startled than the dogs, who don’t handle loudness well. As it turned out, it was a blown transformer nearby. A TECO robo call later confirmed that it was animal (squirrel)-related and power would be back on shortly. It was. Life in the city.

But here’s what lingered on.

A passerby stood staring at the noise-source area. He focused on a parked vehicle and said, “I don’t see any smoke coming from that SUV.” I know what he meant. It’s the times we live in. Sobering.