Category: Tampa Bay

Some things–for example, car-racing on public streets or “celebratory” shooting–are so unconscionably stupid and dangerous–and so hard to prevent–that when someone is actually arrested, the bookcase should be thrown at them. No second chances–because we all know this was only the first time being caught–just a high-profile maximum sentence. To make a well-publicized example of. No, it won’t stop all others, maybe just a few. That’s worth it.

It was a Bullish week for USF.

Most notably, it won recognition as one of Florida’s “preeminent” universities. Move over, Florida and Florida State.

It means prestige and more annual funding, which can lead to even more prestige. It came as a result of USF meeting targeted goals–from incoming-student GPAs and six-year graduation rates to achieving national renown for ratcheting numbers of patents and research dollars. The challenge will be to keep going across three campuses without compromising diversity. That’s how memberships in Phi Beta Kappa and the Association of American Universities happen. That’s next up.

It also made headlines with its hiring of a new athletic director. By all accounts, Michael Kelly, 47, the chief operating officer of the College Football Playoff and former USF associate AD under Lee Roy Selmon, checks all the boxes, including the one that says “no baggage.”

Kelly comes with a reputation as a well-organized, disciplined visionary for whom networking and thinking big are givens. A formidable agenda–from Power Five conference membership and upgraded facilities to a revitalized men’s basketball team–awaits.

Kelly’s high-profile hiring is a reminder that athletics at the university level is more than mere sports. It is, as Skip Holtz once observed, a school’s “front porch.” It can attract outside interest that can lead to involvement in other areas of university endeavor. It can aid and abet fund-raising. It can be a bottom-line contributor in today’s TV network-driven marketplace. It can also rally a student body, boosters and alumni like nothing else can. It matters on multiple levels.

The welcome tandem of good news was also a reminder of what a regional asset USF is–and has been. Even through its formative years when it was often referenced as (merely) a “commuter school” just because it was a non-land-grant, major city university addressing the higher education needs of non-traditional students. It hasn’t been “Sandspur U” for two generations.

USF is an avatar of higher education’s future: Not in college towns–but in synergistic, urban hubs where research can also be applied.

Go, Bulls.

If you’re the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ management, these are anxious, unsettling times. Trying to right the franchise ship, save jobs and put last year’s lost season behind them isn’t made easier by the season-opening, three-game suspension of starting quarterback–and, alas, face of the franchise–Jameis Winston.

Winston, we know, came to the Bucs with all that sexual assault notoriety–plus other conduct baggage from Florida State–as the league’s number one draft pick. He was damaged–but talented, Heisman-winning–goods. But he has been incident-free in the Tampa Bay community. In fact, the Bucs have been pleased at how he has officially represented them around town.

But other towns count no less. Now there’s the groping case involving a female Uber driver in Las Vegas that has put Winston and Bucs’ management into the national #MeToo crosshairs–not where any organization with a social conscience and PR cognizance wants to be. Now there’s the league suspension, which Winston didn’t appeal, after an eight-month investigation that refuted his denials. He ultimately offered up a lame, pro-forma apology.

And rest assured, “win one for the groper” has been making the rounds.

There’s also this. Three years in, Winston still doesn’t look as good as expected–or as needed. More Josh Freeman than Tom Brady. Much more.

The Bucs bottom-line dilemma: Can they really win with this guy? And if so, would they be winning with Dr. Jameis or Mr. Hyde?

Ever notice how often transportation is in the news around here? Within the last fortnight we’ve been reading and hearing about a possible HART takeover of the Downtowner shuttle, the need to get regional partners on board for the cross-bay ferry, grant-subsidizing, free-rides on the TECO Streetcar Line and a citizens group gathering signatures for a transit initiative.

Ever notice how little has changed while the rest of Tampa Bay reinvents and re-imagines how to keep pushing this otherwise fast-forwarding, major-metro market envelope of the 21st century?

Two takeaways:

* The streetcar has been an amenity for visitors, not a form of meaningful transit. It looks nostalgically cool, even with all the ads, and is prominent in convention pitches and network TV coverage of Tampa sports events.

But it was supposed to be much more by now. The streetcar movers and shakers always envisioned their project as a starter set for light rail mass transit. Not even close–but an extension to Tampa Heights could still happen as more people move downtown and more people start taking advantage of upcoming free fares, which could prove catalytic and habit-forming.

*Good luck to the citizens group, All for Transportation, that is now collecting signatures to get a sales tax initiative on the November 6 ballot that would raise billions for roads, bus expansion and, yes, light rail. Time is short–July 27–to get nearly 50,000 signatures. But Jeff Vinik is a key supporter, and he is the avatar of “can-do” around here. Plus, Mayor Bob Buckhorn, the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and a number of political leaders are supportive.

But the “Can’t Do” crowd remains the problem. It always has. The county’s GOP-leaning, no-tax-for-anything-especially-tracks crowd outnumbers more Democratic city residents. Absent a city-only referendum, the odds remain challenging–especially in an off-year election–to get a county-wide tax passed. The irony is that 600,000 new residents are projected to move here in the next 30 years–and they all won’t be moving to Water Street Tampa or The Heights.

We need a blue wave in November for all kinds of reasons.

For those of us who have been around for awhile–long enough to recall how Tampa routinely ignored its good fortune in having a river running through it–what’s been happening along the Hillsborough River in downtown is nothing short of a reincarnation. It’s as if we had seen what San Antonio had done with its well-marketed, catalytic little creek and civically said: “They’re doing all this with that? And we have an actual river? Enough is enough.”

Some propitious business cycles, a recession recovery and several pragmatically visionary mayors later, we have the magnetic Riverwalk, the booming, multi-faceted Tampa Heights area and the makeover of the re-debuted Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park.

The Riverfront Park, the $35-million venue that has morphed from easily ignored, nondescript, green space into a sprawling, eclectic place of note and notice, was the appropriate venue for Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s recent State of the City speech. The site was as symbolic as it was celebrated.

This 23-acre park isn’t just for visitors or millennial hipsters or chamber of commerce reps updating their PowerPoint presentations. Its appeal is to rowers and residents. To those who enjoy courts for tennis as well as basketball. For concert goers, for bocce ball players, for public art devotees, for pet owners who love dog parks. For those who love splash pads–and who doesn’t? In short, for us.

It’s a far cry from those days when the “West Bank” of the Hillsborough River meant, in effect, the “other side of the tracks.” Would-be investors looked askance at the unappealing weedy lots and looked hopefully across the Hillsborough to where the real downtown and the real development potential was.

Now Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park can be a key catalyst in stimulating development on its western side of the river. It’s hardly happenstance that the massive West River urban-renewal-development project just to the north has been jumpstarted this spring. The ultimate master plan and Buckhornian vision are to expand the footprint and synergy of downtown across the river and toward the neighborhoods of West Tampa.

“This park will stand as a testament to the commitment of this city to ensure that the rising tide of prosperity floats all boats,” inclusively noted Mayor Buckhorn at his State of the City speech.

With progress, ironically, also comes a caveat. Heads up for increased river traffic.

What with all that has changed along the downtown course of the Hillsborough, it’s inevitable that it would now be attracting ever more boaters to an ever busier river scene.

“It’s going to require a culture change,” pointed out Heather Erickson, the city’s athletics, aquatics and special facilities manager. Indeed, heightened awareness and a push to educate boaters is now underway.

And who would have thought not many years ago that a river that featured wharves and surface parking lots would now be an aesthetic catalyst for culture change and morph into a place where lots of people would want to be? Hell, who would have thought that Tampa would have an athletics, aquatics and special facilities manager?

A few takeaways from those stop-the-presses headlines showcasing Tampa’s future as “Soaring and Luxe.” That’s what you get when you announce that the massive downtown makeover now well underway will include, but hardly be limited to, two new Marriott hotels, one a presumed, 5-star Edition brand, plus the imminent opening of a sales center for the 50-plus story Riverwalk Place.

* From its sleek, towering design, Riverwalk Place looks more Dubai than downtown Tampa, but its mixed-use composition could be catalytic, and it would further distance the city from the days of Trump Tower Tampa buzz.

* The combination of Jeff Vinik, Bill Gates, hotelier Ian Schrager and the tandem of Feldman Equities of Tampa and Two Roads Development of South Florida amount to a Tampa vote of confidence in the multi billions.

* We all remember September’s close call with Hurricane Irma–and those ominous Bob Buckhorn quotes. Had it hit, it could have set Tampa back by decades. But that dodged bullet has not deterred investors. Tampa is still prime real estate reality. “We’re long-term owners,” underscored James Nozar, CEO of Strategic Property Partners, the development company launched by Vinik and Gates.

* Imagine all this commitment, all this investment and Tampa still lacks serious, major-metro mass transit?

We’ve known for some time about the perilous budget status of the Hillsborough County School District. It was only made worse when lawmakers required it to add armed safety officers or “guardians” to every school campus. Then they underfunded it.

Too bad the Gates Foundation isn’t interested in helping with something that matters more than morale-depleting, peer evaluators.

The annual Mayor’s River O’Green Fest at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park is now a fixture in downtown. We are the better for it. It looks like Tampa. Ethnicity and race are incidental. Everyone is a most-welcome, shanty Irish reveler. Even Boston Bruins fans. Maybe.

The weather on St. Patrick’s Day was chamber of commerce pleasant; there was a deep (biodegradable) Kelly green river; and there was live music, dancing, games, multiple beer-selling tents, goofy hats, ties, vests and T-shirts and a certain new pub with a certain thatched roof. No way that doesn’t induce Irish-ishness. The mood–and theme–were emblazoned and reinforced on countless T-shirts–ranging from distilled-spirits themes– “Arrive Thirsty; Leave Tipsy,” “Shamrocked,” “BE:ER O’Clock” and “Fit Shaced” to the less-than-innocent “Irish You Were Naked.”

Complementing the high-energy Riverwalk vibe were the picturesque backdrops of Minarets and museums. It’s a scene that couldn’t have been imagined not that long ago. Back when the Hillsborough was an industrial river with all the ambience that wharves and surface parking lots can provide. Now–and both Mayor Bob and Mayor Pam deserve particular shout outs for their catalytic roles–there is something symbolic of much more than Irish heritage on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s symbolic of a downtown with some serious “there” there. Gertrude O’Stein would approve.