Category: Tampa Bay

The final public hearing on the transit-tax referendum will be next month. Then Hillsborough County Commissioners will officially vote on whether it should go on the November ballot. Until then, apparently,  Commissioner Jim Norman will rail on. He recently noted at a workshop that his fellow (majority) commissioners were “out of touch” and a “laughingstock” for even considering such a referendum during a down economy.

Let’s see if we have this straight.  Surely, the commissioner isn’t saying, in effect: “When in doubt, or certainly when in a recession, we can’t chance letting the people have a say where their taxes are involved. As for the region’s future economic viability and all that, we’ll have to let that ride for now. It’s no time to get all visionary. Let’s concentrate on worrying about the economy.”

Surely.

Death. Taxes. Controversies over the economic impact of high-profile events. Count on their inevitability.

Whether it’s a Super Bowl or a GOP national convention, it matters more to second-tier markets — such as Tampa, Charlotte and San Antonio. The New Yorks and Chicagos and OrlandoWorlds will always get their year-round influx of visitors. A big game or a big gathering is not that big a deal; in fact, it does skew regular business. And name recognition will not be enhanced.

But, come on. If Tampa wins the 2012 Republican Convention (over Phoenix and Salt Lake City), it means approximately 50,000 delegates, politicians and media coming in for the better part of a week. In late August. Plus all the attendant national and international coverage — and gratis publicity.

The point is not whether it means $150 million or $50 million to the area or some other figure that is a function of somebody’s self-serving, multiplier formula. What’s relevant is this: We’re talking a whole lot of visitors — most of whom, expense-account reporters excepted, are big spenders. And to repeat: this is in the summer — when it’s visitor challenged around here. Plus, the city is contractually free from out-of-pocket expenses such as municipal services and overtime.

A national political convention is a big deal. Even if the visitor infusion includes Tea-Partiers, Palin addicts, Fox News, W., Jeb! and the Cheney and Rumsfeld families. It’s worth it, however you calculate it.

As decision day approaches for the Republican National Committee to decide where to put its 2012 national convention, the usual economic-windfall touts and the usual naysayers are having at it. Tampa remains in a very strong position versus its competition — Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

But can’t we at least agree on this: If Tampa is awarded the GOP convention, wouldn’t an influx of some 50,000 visitors — in late AUGUST — be welcome? Especially with the city being contractually free from out-of-pocket expenses and overtime. Especially with signs of the Great Recession still lingering.

A big game or any big gathering doesn’t mean as much to a New York, Chicago, Las Vegas or OrlandoWorld — which are year-round visitor magnets. But Tampa in AUGUST?

The First Amendment.

The embodiment of our freedoms.  It’s what separates us from the Visigoths and the North Koreans. Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition. Our underpinnings.

None, of course, are absolute. All, of course, imply responsibilities as well as rights. Some, of course, will necessarily be confrontational and controversial. A few, of course, will seem incompatible with the common good, if not common sense.

To wit: the disgusting Terri Schaivo TV parody. Or the unconscionable, anti-gay protestors unfurling “Thank God For Dead Soldiers” signage at a Marine’s funeral service. Or “adult” entertainment that demeans meaningful definitions of freedom of expression. It’s part of our American, societal fabric — and legal support system.   

Now another problematic, albeit much more pedestrian, First Amendment application.

Tampa recently refined its street solicitor code. Used to be that those soliciting for charities and selling newspapers in the medians of busy intersections had to be a certain age (18), operate only during daylight hours and not linger when the light turned green. Now such individuals must also sport a safety vest.

And add this subplot: such individuals now include panhandlers — once they’ve been vested in neon orange, yellow or lime green.

No one intended this as a panhandler-helper act, but that’s the upshot. But what can a free-speech venerating municipality do? Accommodate those asking for charitable donations but not those asking for a spare-change handout? Hardly. Abridge no one’s rights. Apparently City Hall’s legal department has tied City Council’s collective hands and manacled its minds.

The code update comes from a good place: safety. A more visible, Home Depo-tized solicitor is a safer solicitor. But it comes — ironically — at the expense of, well, safety. What is needed is not a marginally less-dangerous scenario for all roadside solicitors. That, in effect, only perpetuates an inherently unsafe scenario. What is needed is the removal of ALL such solicitors. That’s safety we can believe in.

Whether they are booted firefighters, garden-variety panhandlers or Philly-style soft pretzel hawkers, nobody belongs in the middle of the street transacting anything. That’s why St. Petersburg banned such accidents-in-the-offing two years ago.

This is no time to go all ACLU about the First Amendment. It’s a time for common sense. It speaks volumes when the City Council member most outspoken on this issue is Joseph Caetano, hardly its most insightful member.

In a refreshingly nuance-free rationale, Caetano said the city should just flat-out ban anybody peddling anything in the middle of the street. What a concept.

The alternative is to continue to ban common sense and traffic in misapplied legal rationales.

Recent Gasparilla Parade post-mortems have featured plenty of criticism as Hyde Park residents  shared tales of out-of-control revelers in their midst.

Last week’s post-Gasparilla 2010 gathering at Kate Jackson Recreation Center in South Tampa had a different vibe. Gratitude reigned. “And this was not a one-year crackdown,” underscored Santiago Corrada, Tampa’s Convention Center, Tourism, Recreation and Cultural Arts Administrator. “There won’t be any backing down from us.”

Indeed, year one of changing the punks-and-drunks culture was a success. Not seamless, but certainly successful.

Sure the weather was a factor — but half as many people and three times as many arrests still meant a message had been sent. Via the traditional media, public-service announcements, billboards and school assemblies. And it was reinforced on game day by a Tampa Police Department with a long overdue, coordinated agenda to push back. Logistical changes, such as more port-a-lets, a longer parade route and a new party venue at Curtis Hixon Park obviously helped.

One change for next year: look for more emphasis on the proximity between the Bayshore wet-zone and adjacent areas subject to the open-container laws. Look for high-profile, well-advertised maps highlighting the impacted areas.

And there were a few grumblings about better officer discretion when it comes to imbibing residents who obviously weren’t party to mayhem or underage drinking. To some, it seemed almost arbitrary as to what was and what wasn’t legal quaffing of alcoholic beverages. 

“We will make that crystal clear,” noted TPD Assistant Chief of Police Marc Hamlin. “We thought it was. But we have to change the culture.”

One final note. Corrada, who until recently had been the city Administrator of Neighborhood Services, played a part in Tampa’s official pitch for the GOP convention in 2012. He was still waxing euphoric. “If we don’t get it this time, well, we never will,” he said.

This much we know. There’s probably no changing the dissenting minds of County Commissioners Jim Norman and Al Higginbotham on the transit-referendum issue.  And a tax for anything is now a tougher slog than ever — even if this hub city’s economic viability is ultimately at stake.

But it has to help that the Commission has now approved a list of road projects that would complement new rail lines and bus service. This is no big-ticket abstraction. For many of those not on board for rail, it’s hardly irrelevant that most of the asphalt money will go toward county-owned roads. Projects such as the widening of Lithia Pinecrest Road from State Road 60 to Fishhawk Trails Drive.

Can’t hurt to actually see such a list published. This region’s future is no abstraction.

Good Friday is not a school holiday in Hillsborough County.

Could have fooled us. More than two out of every five students stayed away in droves, including about 70 percent of high schoolers. In addition, nearly 20 percent of bus drivers and 10 percent of teachers took the day off.  There weren’t enough substitutes to go around.  

Those showing up had to feel the sham-school-day joke was on them. Same thing — actually worse — happened in 2008, the last time a school day fell on Good Friday.

It’s expected that the School Board will take up the controversial calendar issue at its upcoming meeting later this month. It’s likely that it will decide to relent and make Good Friday an official holiday again. FCAT schedules, the cost of Good Friday substitute teachers ($68,000) and the avoidance of another busy-work, educational travesty point in that direction.

It’s disheartening. Such a non-secular holiday designation will encourage, for example, more Jewish and Muslim lobbying for holidays aligned with their religions. And why not? Good Friday is not a de facto secular holiday such as Christmas. It’s religiously specific.

Board member Doretha Edgecomb is right when she noted that the student absentee rate is reflective of family choices. Even the president of the Hillsborough County PTA pulled her 7th grade son early to attend a religious service.  

Two other points. Let’s not kid ourselves. While some adults might be responding or rationalizing religiously, a lot of students are using Good Friday as a beach day.

One other thing. This was not a good time to remind the Legislature, seemingly hell-bent on  teacher-unfriendly “accountability” bills,  that one of the state’s largest school districts is still grappling with the separation of church and state.  And just spent $68,000 for one day of busy-work substitutes.

Maybe he’s not “Clueless Joe” after all. Tampa City Councilman Joseph Caetano, that is. While other council members wrung their hands over panhandlers exercising their First Amendment rights on the streets, Caetano was trafficking in common sense.

To review: Recall that back in October Tampa refined its street vendor license criteria. Not only did those selling newspapers and soliciting for charities in medians have to be a certain age (18), operate only in the day time, and scoot when the light turned green, but they now had to don safety vests. A sensible enough change. Among those observing the new safety guidelines: panhandlers — with ensembles courtesy of Home Depot.

What’s a free-speech observant city to do? Accommodate those asking for charitable donations but not those asking for a spare-change handout? Seemingly, City Hall’s legal department had tied everyone’s hands.

And then Caetano pointed out that if safety were so paramount as to warrant vests, perhaps even more should be done to ensure it. Such as banning anyone from soliciting or peddling anything in the middle of the street. What a concept. St. Petersburg actually had such a safety awakening two years ago.

Whether it’s a firefighter’s boot or a panhandler’s booty, it doesn’t matter. Nobody should be transacting anything in the middle of the street. It’s never made any sense. But it took Joseph Caetano to remind council that this truly was a safety — not a First Amendment — issue.

It’s a given — or it sure in hell should be — that this area’s image, attractiveness and future will take a major hit if we remain in a state of mess transit. “Keeping up with Detroit” is not exactly mantra material.

However, there’s another reputation stalker afoot: the Hillsborough County Commission. The concerns being voiced — from business leaders to City Hall insiders — have become increasingly visceral and not so sotto voce.

For too long we’ve become inured to a commission that is an exercise in generic dysfunction and a provincial rural-vs.-urban disconnect. But the current three-ring-circus incarnation has been more than frustrating and, well, embarrassing. It’s been a message to those who matter that this just might not be a particularly sophisticated, progressive place to do business.

Welcome to Bumfolk, Fla., where you can truly make a difference — and not get fired — if you’re merely incompetent.  But, yes, you could be suspended — as we’ve just seen — but seemingly only after damage control and face-saving  has morphed into a running joke, public outrage and a local low-lights media staple. Have to draw the line somewhere.

Put it this way, when decision-makers are in town — whether for an event or a transaction — they often take advantage of the cameo to get a feel for what’s going on locally. They will look at a newspaper other than USA Today. They will flip on a local newscast. No, this is not market research. More like drive-by impressions and frame-of-reference material. But they matter.

It hardly helps that they have been seeing or reading about Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean, who might be unprincipled as well as Peter Principled. Something about ill-advised pay raises as well as e-mail snooping that may or may not have included “inhaling.” Prior to that, the issue had been pretty much restricted to her priorities, judgment, vision, initiative, leadership and innovation instincts during the worst recession in memory.

In lieu of a pink slip, which would come with a pricey, six-figure severance send-off, she was admonished and given a term paper to write about her goals. She turned it in late and sans meaningful details. Which were caustically — and condescendingly — noted.           

The county attorney, Renee Lee, was unable to help out on the e-mail debacle because she was in the dock herself over electronic snooping into what may or may not have been privileged. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will make a determination.  So the commission had to seek the counsel of an outside lawyer. Lee, of course, had her own mouthpiece, as did Bean.

For additional spice, it’s been abundantly evident that both Bean and Lee, now suspended (with pay) for 90 days pending an FDLE investigation, didn’t just dislike the rhetorical flogging by the commission; they also dislike each other. And for another subplot, there was Commissioner Kevin White, avatar for the ethically challenged, intimating the other day that the scrutiny of Lee might be racially charged. Thanks, Kevin, we had almost forgotten about what you had been bringing to the propriety table before the Bean-Lee farce began dominating print and electronic news outlets.  

Interested outsiders could also have seen a recent County Center crowd primed for a sideshow masquerading as public officials at work. There were some belittling signs and at least one visitor brought popcorn to “Government in the Sunshine Meets Its Match” or “A Dysfunctional, Posturing Commission Tries to Figure Out Exactly What to Do About Those Who Aren’t Good Enough to Keep Their Jobs.” Squirming Room Only.  

But here’s hoping that those sampling local government also were privy to the fact that some serious business did get done. After months of wrangling and parsing, commissioners finally approved ballot language for that critically important, transit sales-tax referendum in November. But, no, it wasn’t unanimous.

Dissenters in the 5-2 vote were Jim Norman and Al Higginbotham. Perhaps they’re just not on board with the correlation of modern transit, including light rail, with economic viability and quality-of-life scenarios. Or maybe they just can’t justify any tax — even one to avoid a path to the past and counterproductive sprawl. Or maybe they just don’t like run-on sentences.

That other bit of serious business wasn’t on the agenda. It simply eclipsed it. That would be the rationale that was reinforced that there’s an overriding need for a county mayor. Not just someone who is not Pat Bean. Someone who, by virtue of an election, can actually be in charge. A real leader who isn’t vision-challenged and can bring innovative, regional thinking to bear during the most challenging of economic times.

Now that would be worth watching.

With unemployment at 11.9 per cent statewide and 13.1 per cent in the Tampa Bay area, we all could use a dose of good jobs-news anywhere we can find it. The current issue of Time magazine at least features some hopeful scenarios.

According to IHS Global Insight, whose projections are based on a large-scale macroeconometric model of the U.S., its regions and industries, Florida is one of seven states with projected annual growth of more than 3 per cent over the next four years. (The others are Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho.) Of major metro areas (populations in excess of 1 million), Tampa was one of nine with a projected growth rate of more than 3 percent. (The others are Orlando, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas and Riverside, Calif.)  Elsewhere in Florida, Jacksonville and Miami projected growth rates between 2 and 3 percent.

The article asserts that in the “long term,” there’s only one way to create enough jobs for the post-recession economy: innovation.  Austin is its avatar. The key criteria: an educated (43 percent of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree) workforce, a robust venture-capital scene, a supportive community of peers and a state government willing to get hands-on in helping to kick-start promising companies.

Underscoring the last criterion is University of Maryland economist John Haltiwanger, who has determined that approximately a third of all new jobs created come from start-ups. “These are the rocket ships of the economy,” he says.