Category: Tampa Bay

This won’t be politically correct–as you’ll see in a bit.

In the aftermath of that deadly stabbing of a former USF football player outside The Orpheum nightclub in Ybor City, we’ve seen a predictable exercise in finger-pointing, scapegoating and rationalizing. From “It’s not Ybor’s fault” to “Where were the off-duty TPD cops? to “Stuff happens.”

We know that emotionally blindsided USF coach Willie Taggart overreacted when he declared  Ybor “off limits” to his players. Overall statistics show crime in the historic, entertainment district has been on the decline for years. Nobody that matters misses Club Empire. And we know that no cops, for whatever reason, signed up.

We also know that within hours of the Taggart-announced ban–or as long as it took Richard Gonzmart to vent–USF Athletic Director Mark Harlan had it lifted. However awkwardly done, it was the right thing to do.

And we know this: Certain kinds of events–whether in Ybor, SoHo or East Tampa–are problematic at best. An after-hours party after the USF-FAMU football game was sure to lure the usual suspects. It was an all too familiar all-call for those attracted to wee-hours entertainment and all the excesses that can accompany it.

To The Orpheum’s credit, it had nearly a dozen security personnel on hand and wanded its patrons. But that’s also a double-edged, ironic sword.

Put it this way, if a business needs metal detectors and wands because heat- and blade-packers are a likely part of a patron mix, it doesn’t belong in business. Certainly not hosting a mislabeled “official” late-night party.

Ybor, which is increasingly reaching out to fine diners, cultural tourists and the tech-and-social-media set, cannot co-exist with clubs that need to wand their patrons. What’s bad for Ybor is bad for Tampa. It’s lose-lose.

As for that political correctness lead, The Orpheum crowd was racially skewed as was expected. Perhaps this club, should it ever be allowed to put on another after-hours wandfest, should also prominently mount a “Black Lives Matter” banner for any such occasion–just to remind patrons that there are several templates for black-victim violence and collateral outrage.

A compelling casecan usually be made for pitching the entire Tampa Bay area to outside interests. The point is that whatever is being recruited–from events to tourists to businesses–it’s imperative that we land it here in this Tampa Bay market. The ripple effects are regional and worth a united effort.

That rationale is being advanced when it comes to landing a Cuban consulate for this area. There hasn’t been one in the U.S. since 1961. The city of Miami, for obvious reasons, has already opted out of the competition.

Tampa Bay is more than deserving. Some 90,000 people of Cuban heritage live here. There are already charter flights to Cuba from TIA. A consulate would expedite greater trade and convenience–and  underscore Tampa Bay’s ascendant international profile.

But Tampa is most deserving.

While we can argue over, say, which side of the bay the Rays should ultimately wind up on, we should still be able to agree that a Cuban consulate belongs solamente in Tampa. The Tampa-Cuba nexus is historic, the connections familial. This city’s soul is Ybor City, whose roots are Havana and whose history is cigar makers and lectores. There’s a reason there was ferry service between Tampa and Havana. The link is that literal.

Tampa is the city that Jose Martí visited no less than 20 times. There are more than a dozen landmarks memorializing the revolutionary hero. He spoke from the iconic iron stairs of the Martínez-Ybor factory. There’s even a small plot nearby that is literally sovereign Cuban real estate.

But the usual, proactive recruiting effort from Team Tampa is unfortunately undercut by Bob Buckhorn, who is sitting this one out. Tampa’s strong-mayor point man certainly won’t go where his mayoral counterpart, St. Petersburg’s Rick Kriseman, recently went.

In fairness to the mayor, we know his principled respect for those who lost everything to the Castro Revolution and for those who comprised Brothers to the Rescue that he flew with. We also know he cares about democratic deficits still apparent on the island nation.

But the overriding principle is this: U.S. foreign policy and what is best for this state and this city–from both economic and humanitarian perspectives–cannot be held hostage to personal agendas. Those for whom Cuba–or Viet Nam, Japan or Germany, for that matter–is personal can’t be allowed to trump the greater good of U.S. foreign policy priorities. Same goes for Mayor Buckhorn and Gov. Rick Scott. What’s best for Tampa and Florida shouldn’t be subservient to leaders’ personal/political agendas.

We deserve better on this one.

Maybe a few months–or a couple of years–from now this unsightly, confrontational clash between the mayor and city council over a citizens police review board will be old, non-news.

Maybe the upshot will be that a strong-mayored, executive-ordered board was ultimately adjudged a success, even by the Police Benevolent Association.

Maybe that was because Mayor Bob Buckhorn, the personification of a strong mayor when push comes to shove it, was able to reach a statesman-like, face-saving compromise with an ego-challenged city council unhinged by pre-emptive actions and taken aback by rhetoric deemed disrespectful.

Maybe it’s because the quality–not just the demographic and ideological diversity–of the ultimate appointments was soon apparent.

Maybe it’s because the board, although sans subpoena power, turned out to be neither a “kangaroo court” nor a rubber stamp.

Maybe it’s because cooler heads realized that even though Tampa isn’t Ferguson, Mo., or Baltimore, Md., perception is reality, and racial crucibles and flash points are more American than apple pie.

Maybe it’s because there is a societal drumbeat beat for more–and credible–police scrutiny, especially when it involves minority communities.

And maybe it was just time to proactively do the prudent, cooperative thing before a preventable spark ignited one of our neighborhoods.

However these Parsons Brinckeroff transportation meetings shake out, this much is evident: The Tampa area will not find itself where it needs to be. And that would be perched to finally add the  missing arrow to the quiver of assets needed to successfully sustain competition with other pro-active, major urban markets: modern mass transit.

At best, we’re headed for a road-skewed plan that does too little for progressive lifestyle and the sort of millennial-business recruiting that leads to an ever-higher profile and ever-burgeoning tax base.

Too bad those efforts to interest the Legislature in city-only referenda never went anywhere. Mayor Bob Buckhorn and peers from St. Petersburg, Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville did their lobbying best a couple of years ago, but there were no takers for municipal self-determination. As we know, recent transportation initiatives were shot down in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties, although they passed in the hub cities of Tampa and St. Pete.

A couple of weeks ago this column noted, in whimsically understated terms, that “sometimes it’s good to be mayor.” As in, of Tampa.

It referenced Jeff Vinik’s ongoing patron sainthood and billion-dollar plans for a “live, work, play and stay” makeover of the Amalie Arena area. It further noted the recently announced, even bigger $1.7 billion redevelopment plans of Port Tampa Bay. It matters whose watch such momentum-ramping, game-changing announcements occur.

Then, of course, there was the ballyhooed Johnson & Johnson announcement to bring jobs and its corporate services headquarters here. And nothing like showcasing the ever-evolving Riverwalk to the 1,000 visitors who came here for the Governor’s Conference on Tourism.     Timing is everything.

But some weeks–actually, fortnights–are better than others. The pendulum of economic cycles and dramatic announcements can swing both ways. And local politics will always be lurking.

Case in point: Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who doesn’t have to go to Dublin to get his Irish up, is now in full principles-and-personality-meets-sound-bite mode. That’s because his unilateral creation of a citizens police review committee–the product of a societal drumbeat–has been perceived as a “pre-emptive” shot across the disrespected bow of city council.

Here’s what the mayor did. After getting a legal go-ahead from City Attorney Julia Mandell, he signed an executive order setting up a Citizens Review Board to scrutinize police. The Board will have 11 members–two appointed by city council, the rest by the mayor. Not unlike a number of other such Boards, such as St. Petersburg, it won’t have subpoena power. The goal is to have it in place by December.

Here’s how the chairman of city council responded: “It reminds me that we’ve been a puppet for the administration, and I’m past the days of being a puppet,” growled Frank Reddick. “I’m tired that we’ve been embarrassed, overlooked, overshadowed. It’s disrespectful.”

Umbrage taken. Turf war on.

For the record, the council voted 6-1 to instruct city attorneys to draft an ordinance that would allow them more Board appointments than the mayor. Also finding fault with the mayor’s executive-ordered Board: Florida’s ACLU, the NAACP and other outspoken community/activist groups. Council members, in a prime position to channel the community/activist “Tampa for Justice” pushback, are set to review Board revisions at a workshop Sept. 24.

“We have been very concerned about the problem of over-policing in Tampa,” underscored ACLU Director of Advocacy Joyce Hamilton Henry. “What has been proposed by the mayor is an ineffective model and is a rubber stamp for existing policies and practices that the community is saying are problematic.”

As for Buckhorn, before his trade mission trip to Ireland, he said: “My responsibility is to the broader community, not to the loudest members of the community.” No, he’s not Mayor Nuance.

Then he doubled down upon his return. “The power to do things like this is vested in the mayor, pure and simple,” he said. “The executive order stands. … I would hope that cooler heads will prevail and the drama will cease.”

Were this merely a local, however controversial, issue, the odds would be better that cooler heads–from bully pulpiteer Buckhorn to posturing council members–might, indeed, prevail. But this is also a societal microcosm.

From Ferguson to Staten Island to Baltimore, the issue of police abuse and minority communities is on every municipality’s radar, especially those, such as Tampa, with large African-American populations. The onus is on police departments, even if the chief is black, to prove that they don’t harbor racists and that they’re accountable. There’s also Tampa’s well-documented, skewed pattern of ticketing minority bicyclists that has incurred the interest of the feds.

It’s a perfect storm. The nation’s racial crucible and the local urban version. Tampa’s strong-mayor form of government and a strong, hands-on, outspoken mayor who actually appoints the police chief and has a long-standing reputation for police support and advocacy. A city council that senses an opportunity for rare ego assertion and is now led by the African-American Reddick, who has a chance to stand tall in defense of a rally-around cause–not just the rehab of an East Tampa swimming pool.

Indeed, some weeks are better than others. Ironically, if we weren’t paying so much attention to the divisive bickering over a police review board, we’d still be assessing how it is that the Tampa Bay mayor pushing for a Cuban consulate is Rick Kriseman of St. Petersburg.

Parking garages are urban givens in the downtowns of major cities. Seemingly, so is an unwritten law that absolves them from any sense of design beyond function. They are acceptably boring and vibeless because of their expeditious purpose. Thus, their aesthetics bypass.

Exhibit A, the Poe Garage downtown that straddles the railroad tracks next to the art and children’s museums. It is what it is. Municipally bland, although bordered by creativity.

Well, some of that creativity–not just an occasional light show–will now be directed at the garage. Starting next month two local artists will begin adorning the outside of the garage with colorful murals with the theme “Stay Curious.”

The $100,000 commission will come out of the city’s public-art budget.

And speaking of public art, isn’t this really a classic use? It’s an identity canvas. It can reflect who we are and what we’re evolving into. And it’s accessible to everyone. It activates imaginations. It encourages passersby to think and pay attention and engage. And to smile or ponder.

And, yes, public art has practical applications. It’s well documented that cities with an active and dynamic cultural scene are more attractive to individuals and businesses.

Call it a $100,000 investment–as well as aesthetic relief from blatant blandness.

One more thing. When these artists, Leon Bedore of Tampa and Ales Hostomsky of St. Petersburg, have finished their two-month project, could we find a way to get them to work on the Con Agra silo?

The Bucs have made news with their “Red” marketing program that targets female fans, and some have weighed in on the grammatical appropriateness of their “Siege The Day” print ads. No big deal, frankly. But I will take issue with the actual design and placement of those “Siege The Day” ads.

They’re not just on the sports pages, where they most obviously fit, but they are also found amid world and local news. That’s ok because you want to reach people. But the design and layout is inappropriate.

It’s not your basic, clearly defined, half- or quarter-page ad. No, these feature rampaging defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, a good player and good guy, literally crashing through the copy–not just an opponent’s offensive line. The design and layout are beyond intrusive and insulting.

If there’s one thing that newspapers and those who advertise in them shouldn’t want it’s to ironically make the reading experience, already under siege too often with typos, even more of a challenge. Siege the marketing department.

Those looking for any and all possible signs that Mayor Bob Buckhorn is ultimately eying a run for higher, statewide office now have another clue. Replacing the well-regarded Ali Glisson as City Hall’s public affairs director is Ashley Bauman. The latter’s political-communication background is rooted in the Democratic Party.

Prominent among her experiences: former senior communications adviser to Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee’s chairwoman. She also was a key operative in Florida for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Mayor Buckhorn was less than nuanced in his appraisal of what the Naples native, 32, brings to City Hall. “I like communications directors that have come out of campaigns,” he noted, “because I think they bring a special skill set that normal public information officers don’t have.”

And, BTW, Glisson’s departure further reinforces the chemistry–and synergy–between City Hall and Strategic Property Partners, the Jeff Vinik company with billion-dollar development plans for the Amalie Arena area. Glisson becomes director of communications for SPP–and joins former City Attorney Jim Shimberg Jr., now the company’s COO.

In a pre-Christmas presentation,Jeff Vinik rolled out his ballyhooed, billion-dollar, makeover plan for 40 “live, work, play and stay” acres around Amalie Arena. VIPs and local officials were among those who swooned at the Marriott Waterside Hotel presentation and civic game-changer.

Now, fast forward eight months.

Imagine, Jeff Vinikis merely planning the second-biggest and boldest project around downtown Tampa. That’s because Port Tampa Bay just revealed its 45-acre, $1.7 billion plan to develop apartments, hotels, offices, stores, a marina, an urban waterfront park, two gigantic residential towers and bigger cruise ship terminal.

Timing, as Bob Buckhorn well knows, is everything. Especially for a mayor with a vision for a vibrant, millennial-magnet downtown.

“And, by the way,” Mayor Bob would likely add: “Did you see where Money magazine just ranked us as the No. 1 city in the Southeast?”

Sometimes it’s good to be mayor.

As we know,portions of Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park are temporarily closed for repairs and renovations until Oct.1. Specifically, the Great Lawn and paver walkways are off limits right now because of drainage repairs. It’s part of a two-year, $2.1 million plan for overall repairs and improvements that will be funded by the Community Investment Tax. And another reminder that the CIT pays for a lot more than a football facility.

It’s also a reminder of what we should never take for granted: eight acres dedicated to downtown’s de facto gathering place. From hanging out to attending festivals and concerts, Curtis Hixon Park is the go-to place to be. It’s all a lot of downtown residents have known. But it’s only been five years since Mayor Pam Iorio dedicated it on that special sunny Sunday of Jan. 24, 2010.

For years, it was decried that–in the words of Gertrude Stein, who was referring to Oakland, Calif.–there was no “there” there in downtown Tampa. No place with a vibe and soul and identity that was vintage Tampa. No, The Hub didn’t count. Tampa was empty at its core.

No longer. Now it has a magnet for new urbanism.