Category: Tampa Bay

For all the progress we’ve made as a city, it would be a hollow accomplishment if we don’t keep improving our societal game.

Tampa’s Police Review Board must be–and must be seen as–meaningful. Cops must, of course, be accountable. And there should be zero tolerance for “Black Lives Matter Selectively” hypocrisy. We’re either all in–or all misled.

It also means doing whatever it takes in this post-Paris, post-San Bernardino climate to defuse anti-Muslim sentiment–or worse–in this community. To that end, it was encouraging to see Mayor Bob Buckhorn and interfaith leaders gather recently at the Islamic Society of Tampa to express support for an “embrace all” theme. And a reminder that outreach goes both ways.

That’s more easily accomplished in a city such as Tampa, which is blessed with deep, multi-cultural roots. The Big Guava should be better positioned than most communities to meet this most existentially-threatening challenge of our times.

The quintessential context is this. It may be that 2016 is the year that Jeff Vinik’s infrastructure breaks ground, the Riverwalk gets finished and a Fortune 500 company commits to Tampa. But whatever happens to our downtown, nothing is more important than what happens to our community. We all have a role: all races, all religions.

Thank you for your readership. Happy New Year, everybody.

I hadn’t really thought of it until Mitch Perry mentioned it. Perry, a wired-in, political junkie-blogger with a weekly radio talk show on WMNF, had just noted off-handedly on-air the inordinate publicity that seems to accompany anything that Jeff Vinik does or says.

He asked what I thought–after citing the Vinik-prompted, page-one, above-the-fold story in that morning’s Tampa Bay Times. Vinik, it was reported, was thinking about including some smaller-sized apartments among the residential units planned in the first phase of his 3 million square feet of development around Amalie Arena. Flexibility in the marketplace, to be sure, but hardly headline stuff.

I thought he had a valid point. I also thought it said a lot about the unique, hybrid market that is not only Tampa Bay–but specifically Tampa. As much as we need to think regionally, we still can be parochial and personal when it comes to our towns.

Tampa has one of the biggest ports in the country and a world-class airport. It has two major sports franchises and has hosted multiple Super Bowls and a Stanley Cup parade. It’s the hub of a major media market.

But it’s also had an embarrassingly dead downtown, an incongruously industrial river and a municipal reputation as a lap-dance hotbed. Call it the Tampa complex. It fades, but it doesn’t vanish overnight.

Vinik, the wealthy, Boston-based hedge-fund manager, hit Tampa as downtown was beginning to reinvent itself with museums, Curtis Hixon Park, a reinvigorated Riverwalk and a “can do” mentality. He bought the Lightning in 2010–but also bought into Tampa’s untapped potential. “Judge me over time,” he said then.

We have.

He relocated here, fronted his own money to renovate the arena, became philanthropically vested and then unveiled his 10-figure, “live, work, play, stay” project on 40 strategic acres. He has partnered with Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment fund, brought in USF’s medical school as an anchor and established himself as Tampa’s go-to rainmaker for “new urbanism.”

Vinik’s been a much needed infusion of vision, capital and self-confidence. Just ask Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who’s never met a millennial-employing-residing scenario he couldn’t salivate over. It’s validation for those who knew that downtown was more than a Potemkin Village of Maas Brothers nostalgia and surface parking lots.

And that’s how you make headlines without making news.

“If it bleeds, it leads.” That’s the snarky, black-humor reference often aimed at–but also by–journalists in reference to media priorities.

Or as Walter Cronkite once rationalized: “Nobody’s interested in all the cats that did not get stuck in trees today.” Uncle Walter, alas, seemed to blame human nature more than a pandering media.

But we get it. Unbribed judges and uncrashed planes are not “news.” But unqualified presidential candidates are. It is what it is.

But sometimes you just want to put ISIS, Trump, Bergdahl, gun politics, xenophobia, societal paranoia, governmental dysfunction, racial tension, special legislative sessions and local mess transit on hold. Sometimes you just want to be reminded of what’s right with your world. And what is interesting or thought-provoking without having a perverse agenda attached.

Let’s try.

* A global consensus, finally, on climate change and a need to do something.

* No matter how this U.S. presidential race ultimately shakes out, no matter how frustratingly imperfect our system, we know that the electorate will have the final say. It can be with a vote. It can be with an activist role. Or it can be with indifference. The onus–and responsibility–is directly on the people. Citizens United won’t determine the next president, neither will demagogic  bluster. Voters–by what they do or don’t do–will still make that determination.

* Our Tampa diversity. Most of us are from somewhere else. We’re here for a reason–and it isn’t inertia.

* Proximity to Cuba. Inevitably this will pay off culturally and economically.

* Jeff Vinik. Godfather. Patron saint. Deus ex machina. The “new urbanism” reasons are manifest. It’s a form of validation. We’re lucky to have him.

* But, no, we haven’t forgotten the mega contributions of Frank Morsani, John Sykes, David Straz and Richard Gonzmart. They are more than generous. They are also smart business people who don’t just write checks. They have invested in this community because they believe in it.

* Bayshore Boulevard, the Straz Center, Riverwalk, Curtis Hixon Park, museums, repurposed buildings. Look around and look ahead.

* And don’t take for granted the Florida Aquarium, Lowry Park Zoo and Busch Gardens.

* We’re fortunate to have the dynamic infrastructure duo: Port Tampa Bay, one of the nation’s largest in tonnage, and TIA, one of the best airports in the WORLD.

* Outdoor ice skating downtown.

* Craft beer. Who doesn’t appreciate a niche, especially one garnering a national reputation.

* UT and USF. Never been better. Go, Spartans. Go, Bulls.

* References to “Innovation district” now outnumber those for “Suitcase City.”

* A U.S. Labor Department YouthBuild grant of $1 million to the Tampa Housing Authority to teach at-risk youths and young adults entry-level construction skills.

* Richard Gonzmart’s plans for an East Tampa job-training, culinary school for high school students.

* Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson. Yes, Tampa is about more than call centers.

* Google Fiber. We just might be that hip.

* No downtown tower with the Trump brand on it. Adding by subtracting.

* Finally, a Publix–a key, synergistic downtown cog–planned for the east side of the Hillsborough River.

* The price at the pump for gasoline.

* MacDill Air Force Base. Nearly 25,000 jobs created by activity on the base. Overall economic impact on the region now approaching $5 billion a year.

* Serious discussions–and an early St. Petersburg commitment–about a high-speed ferry from the St. Pete bayfront to downtown Tampa.

* A spate of recent good movies–that aren’t sequels, aren’t based on computer games or comic books and aren’t dependent on chase scenes. Here’s three: “Bridge of Spies,” “Brooklyn” and “Spotlight.”

* Turn off the TVs, computers and devices and make an effort to get to rejuvenated, family-friendly Old Hyde Park Village. Right now it looks like a venue for shooting the best holiday scenes of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” You’ll appreciate the familial photos over the years.

This column takes a dim view of political correctness. There will certainly be no exceptions this week. So do have a very Merry CHRISTMAS.

Right now it’s a symbolic glimmer of hope and common sense. Tampa City Council members recently voted to consider taking part in a national initiative known as “Do Not Stand Idly By.”

It’s a group that wants to enlist the help of public agencies–military and police–that buy tons of guns. The goal is to use that buying power as leverage with manufacturers when it comes to  developing “smart guns” that use owner-recognition technology, not doing business with straw-buyer-friendly dealers, not marketing guns based on lethality and not selling large-capacity magazines.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, which values real-world priorities over political rhetoric, has endorsed the plan.

We’ll know more in the new year when council will look over a report from city attorneys and the police about taking part.

Right now, anything is better than societal hand-wringing, political finger-pointing and NRA advocacy of out-of-context, Second Amendment perversions.

Last week’s news about what’s planned for the erstwhile Trump Tower Tampa site and where Publix has finally decided to locate in downtown was welcome on a couple of fronts.

Synergistically, these are projects–a 52-story, mixed-use high rise on a hauntingly empty Riverwalk lot and a long-sought supermarket–that add economic ripples and community viability.

Symbolically, these are additional votes of confidence in the downtown market. In addition, there’s the bonus of not having the Trump brand on permanent display. Sometimes you add by subtracting.

Good move by USF to ban the use of tobacco on its Tampa campus.

For the last three years, smoking had been allowed in 25 designated zones. As of Jan. 4, the flagship campus will join its regional counterparts in St. Petersburg and Sarasota and become tobacco-free. Yes, that’s e-cigs too. And, yes, that includes all on-campus events.

It will be “peer-enforced.” And, yes, that will probably have its protocol moments during the transition. Watch for the videos.

It’s also about time.

The health-and-environmental matters are more than manifest. Common good and common sense warrant no less.

Moreover, we’re talking about a university. Higher education. It’s more than grades 13-16. It’s the cutting edge of smart. It’s where insight and intellect are developed and exercised. It’s where enlightenment is incubated and truth pursued.

Having smoking zones on a 2016 university campus should be as confoundingly incongruous as, well, hunting in a state park.

Imagine, some major infill updates for downtown–and Jeff Vinik isn’t involved. It’s a reminder that some other folks with business acumen, a vision and financial wherewithal want in–or want a bigger stake.

First–because it’s as symbolic as it is synergistic–are the announced plans for a 52-story, $200-million, downtown building along the Hillsborough River on the erstwhile Trump Tower Tampa site. “Riverwalk Towers” will be a mix of office space and upscale condos.

Feldman Equities and Tower Realty Partners just paid $12.1 million to Brownstone Tampa Partners for the 1.5-acre site and don’t plan to sit on it. Market dynamics dictate no less. They plan to break ground on the luxury office-and-condo project in 2016.

“It’s our goal to provide an iconic building that’s going to change the skyline of Tampa,” exclaimed developer Larry Feldman.” Mayor Bob Buckhorn couldn’t have said it better.

“We intend to build the best building ever built in the Tampa market,” added Feldman. Donald Trump couldn’t have said it any better.

Speaking of, it’s hard to estimate the worth of a high-profile piece of riverfront real estate no longer enclosed with chain-link fencing and no longer used as a construction staging area. Its impact ripples will be area-wide. Moreover, for a lot of folks, it’s impossible to calculate the value of not having the Trump brand on permanent, prominent downtown display.

Timing, indeed, is everything, whether real estate cycles or political candidacies.

The second major announcement is that finally–after all those rumors and false starts–Publix is coming to downtown.

No sooner had Mercury Advisors of Tampa applied for a building permit, than it was posted on the city’s web site. It’s that welcomed as the critical amenity to support the rapidly ratcheting, downtown residential population.

Plans call for a two-story, 37,600-square-foot store at the corner of E Twiggs Street and N Meridian Avenue in the Channel District. With rooftop parking. Mercury’s grocery plans call for the store to be paired with a 21-story apartment tower and parking garage in a project known as the Channel Club.

Mercury, headed by veteran Channel District developers Ken Stoltenberg and Frank H. Bombeeck, expects to begin construction in the first quarter of the coming year.

“It’s the last missing piece of a downtown that is about ready to explode,” rhapsodized Mayor Bob, who couldn’t have said it better.

It’s actually such an important piece that it has been a priority target of Vinik for the “live, work, play and stay” downtown community he’s developing on those 40 acres around Amalie Arena.

So, do Mercury’s announced plans subtract one major recruit from the Vinik bucket list?  Would seem so. Ali Glisson, communications director for Vinik’s Strategic Property Partners LLC, was in non-committal mode and didn’t want to distract from the big-picture, good vibe.

“We’re just excited that Publix will have a presence,” said Glisson, who previously held a similar communications position at City Hall. “This is a community amenity. It’s a good day for downtown.”

To be sure.

The point is that a grocery of Publix’s stature will be in the hood–on the east side of the river not far from downtown. Two years ago Publix backed off interest in Encore Tampa. Today they want in at Twiggs and Meridian.

Timing, indeed, is everything.

Anyone else blown away by that anecdote of St. Petersburg Police Chief Tony Holloway about stolen cars? In case you missed it, he was at a meeting of neighborhood leaders and pointed out that in a recent week 25 cars had been stolen in St. Pete. “How many keys do you think were in those cars? Twenty-four.”

That’s beyond dumb. That’s being a de facto accomplice.

And as we know, car thievery is not merely an owner-victim scenario. No one has ever suggested that car thieves are paragons of driving responsibility as they ride off to wherever to do whatever.

The last time the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce was in the news was over an understandably critical letter to Gov. Rick Scott from Chamber president Bob Rohrlack. Scott had appointed right-wing, political flamethrower Sam Rashid–of “taxpayer, subsidized slut” infamy–to the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. The chamber’s board, in cover-your-ass mode, rebuked Rohrlack and sent an apology to Scott.

Now the chamber’s board is weighing in on the issue of a transit referendum. But blunt and direct–and even to the point–it is not. Perhaps it’s overcompensating with a letter by committee.

The chamber released a statement that Rohrlack said was in support of a sales tax transportation referendum on the 2016 ballot. Yet the statement never actually referenced Go Hillsborough or a half-cent sales tax increase to fund transportation projects. It did, however, note that it would “support a referendum that includes measureable transportation outcomes, including mobility options and additional funding sources.”

Close enough.

Who knows how the stormwater standoff  between Mayor Bob Buckhorn and City Council will play out, but here’s one possibility. The city re-submits its fee proposal with tweaks for proportionality and fairness. It’s called a compromise–aka a critical, face-saving ploy for a council with its share of neighborhood populists and power complexes over a strong mayor.