Category: Tampa Bay

There’s tragedy — planes crash and local soldiers die — and then there’s this: A pineapple grenade blows up in the face of a 9-year-old, Lakeland boy. The boy’s mother had bought it at an auction. The boy’s father helped him fill it with black firecracker powder.

 

The boy pulled it off a shelf and ignited it with a lighter.

 

A grenade? Even a python makes more sense.

The University of Tampa recently announced that it was adding a new Student Health Center as well as another academic building. It’s all part of accommodating a campus that has now reached an enrollment of 6,300.

 

And yet it was barely two decades ago that expansion and new construction were hardly agenda items at a struggling UT — one with an enrollment well below 2,000. It fact, there was renewed speculation about UT as a downtown campus for USF.

 

The rest, of course, is history. A thriving private university in Tampa is a critical catalytic element in downtown’s ongoing revitalization.

Item: Last Thursday police arrested 15 people at Tampa’s Mirage nightclub. Charges ranged from drug possession and probation violation to felon with a firearm. 

 

Item: The week before two Mirage patrons were shot and hospitalized. The arrested suspect was accused of pointing a gun at an officer and trying to run over another.

 

Item: From August 2008 to August 2009, there were 137 calls from Mirage for police help.

 

Item: The after-hours Mirage scene is so disturbing — and so predictable — that TPD officers have been regularly assigned there for the last year.

 

Question: This magnet for mayhem is still open? TPD officers have to police it? And be at risk? And not be somewhere else protecting the, well, innocent?

 

Response: To usual bureaucratic answer is that filing a complaint with the city’s nuisance abatement board – anarchy abatement board, anyone?  – can be a laborious and Byzantine process.

 

Conclusion: Had one of those officers who was fired on two weeks ago been wounded – or tragically killed – a way would have been found to scissor the NAB red tape. So, why wait?

It’s that time again. With appropriate fanfare, the Hillsborough Education Foundation has named its teacher of the year. Congratulations Emily Marrero, a fifth-grade teacher at Philip Shore Elementary Magnet School. Her award includes a $4,500 scholarship from USF and Nova University, plus $1,000 in cash. It’s always gratifying to see our best teachers, too often taken for granted, receive such recognition — and rewards.

 

As School board chairwoman Susan Valdes noted at an assembly, Marrero, an 8-year-veteran, “was chosen No. 1” in a district of more than 14,000 teachers.

 

But once again — as when Megan Allen of Cleveland Elementary won it last year — this award begs a fundamental question. Why not give more than one? One for elementary, middle-school and secondary teachers. As hard as it is to single out one outstanding teacher, at least do it in the context of comparable criteria.

 

The template for good teaching is not the same for all teachers, K-12.  Of course, they all put a premium on motivation and creativity – as well as results. But non-elementary teachers are subject specific – and impacted by FCAT subplots and adolescent rites of passage. But what they do is obviously built on the foundation that must be laid at the elementary levels. The teacher roles are complementary, but not identical.

 

Thus the evaluative criteria can’t be the same when the focus, content and group dynamics are so different. As different as grade school is from high school. Exceptional teachers at all levels should be honored. It’s only fair.

From August 2008 to August 2009, there were 137 calls for police help from Tampa’s Mirage nightclub. After-hours at the notorious nightspot were no mirage; it had become an ugly, ongoing, brawling scene that often involved guns.  Still does. It’s so disturbing – and predictable – that Tampa Police Department officers — sometimes as many as a dozen — have been routinely assigned there at closing time for the last year.

The most recent incident (last week) picked up by the media involved two hospitalized shooting victims and the arrest of a suspect also accused of pointing a gun at an officer and trying to run over another.

This is an outrage on several, more than manifest, levels. This incubator of violence and magnet for mayhem is still open? TPD officers have to police it? And put their lives at risk for it? And not be somewhere else protecting the innocent?

“It’s a very laborious process,” laments Laura McElroy, TPD spokeswoman. “It’s a last resort for us.”  In other words, this involves the sometimes byzantine process of filing a complaint with the city’s nuisance abatement board. Would that this merely involved a “nuisance.” Perhaps the city needs an anarchy abatement board.

But “laborious process?” “Last resort?” I’m just guessing, but had one of the TPD officers been shot – or worse yet, tragically killed – the other night, we would no longer be so accepting of bureaucratic inertia. So why wait?

Time was – and it wasn’t too long ago – that downtown St. Pete could do nothing wrong and downtown Tampa could do nothing but cite plans and point to a street car and a new hotel.  Fast forward to now.

Not to be petty – or to traffic in schadenfreud – but St. Pete is in a slump. BayWalk is a shame, the Pier an ongoing enigma and the Trop, an exercise in obsolescence. Tampa just debuted a park and a museum. Another museum debuted last year. Yet another will open later this year. The Riverwalk continues to infill. The Floridan is nearly restored, there are places to live downtown, Encore was just infused with HUD money, a high-speed rail terminus seems likely and some restaurateurs have been positioning themselves for post-recession success. Tampa hosted a Super Bowl last year and is a finalist for the GOP national convention in 2012.

But no, Tampa, is not the equal of downtown St. Pete, with its spectacular waterfront, attractive residential mix, USF campus, multiple museums, the Renaissance Vinoy, outdoor dining and aesthetic, arts-driven ambience. And no, BayWalk will not remain mired in plywood, the Pier has more tourist-attracting incarnations left and a mixed-use development will ultimately replace the Rays’ cat-walk house.

But, yes, it’s not your parents’ downtown Tampa any more. And, yes, we all benefit when this metro market’s two major downtowns complement each other.

To be sure, the rain was a major factor in the reining in of the sort of crude and lewd conduct that had annually come to characterize the “adult” Gasparilla parade. “Invasion” was all too literal. But check out these statistics: Half as many spectators, three times as many arrests.

A message was sent. “Zero tolerance,” which had been heralded in drumbeat fashion for months, was obviously enforced and reinforced. Next year, presumably without the rain, we’ll see how that message has resonated – and what remains of the learning curve. But so far, so good.

The word is out. An arrest warrant, court date and a dumped open container are sobering disincentives to anyone trying to channel the Gasparilla drunkfest of 2009.

A few more afterthoughts on Gasparilla 2010:

·         For too long, the city tolerated the intolerable. South Tampa homeowners, maybe because they were lucky enough to live in nice houses in an affluent neighborhood, were supposed to take one for the team and not overreact to grossness and property destruction in their midst. Frankly, I think the turning point — in addition to more unified, publicly-expressed outrage — was the cell phone video footage of last year’s debauchery, which went YouTubing everywhere. It made Tampa look awful. Hardly the sort of city that was trying to burnish its image with light rail, new museums and convention-and-tourism ambience. We think Super Bowl; others saw Super Brawl. A viral video is the PR from hell.

·         Ratcheting talk of “attractive nuisance” lawsuit threats — in the aftermath of any serious injury or death — is always unsettling. And Tampa was looming vulnerable.

·         Nobody went from the St. John’s “Safe House” to the hospital this year.

·         Basically, Bayshore Boulevard is one, long “wet zone.” That must seem downright arbitrary to the Bud Blight brigade cruising the neighborhoods adjacent to the zone. No, it’s not an unconscionable double standard, and it doesn’t, of course, excuse illegal acts and boorish behavior — but it hardly helps. There is talk about limiting alcohol to that purchased and consumed in the zone.

·         Here’s hoping the inviting, concert-perfect Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park – and the nearby establishments — becomes party central for the demographic that is being weaned off of pre-2010 behavior.

·         And speaking of Curtis Hixon Park, it was, ironically the scene of the most notable Gasparilla incident. A worker with the sound production crew that was breaking down the stage damaged a corner of the new Tampa Museum of Art with a piece of equipment. Some things you can’t blame on drunken revelers.

·         “Flinging in the Rain”: Hats – or ponchos – off to Mayor Pam Iorio.  She was not deterred by the rain even if her signature coiffeur turned into a flattop. It wasn’t a flattering look, but a becoming effort. Equally drenched spectators appreciated it.

·         Too bad someone on President Obama’s staff didn’t do a better job of backgrounding him on Tampa before his town hall meeting. The UT gathering was only two days before Gasparilla. Some in his audience were bedecked with beads, which the president mistook for “New Orleans” style. What an opportunity he would have had to remind everyone within earshot that “Responsibility is the Key” for Tampa’s signature event. How’s that for reinforcement?

·         Final words: “Children’s Parade.” The right kind of crowd, even gigantic, is not incompatible with a residential neighborhood. Families fueled on lemonade police themselves.

Gasparilla 2010, both the children’s parade and the pirate invasion, have come and gone. What have we learned?

·         A family-oriented, lemonade-fueled crowd, however huge, can co-exist with an adjacent neighborhood. 

·         A serious, concerted effort to warn and rein in those responsible for mayhem in the past seemed effective. But “wet-zoning” is still a mixed message.

·         Half as many spectators; three times as many arrests. A “zero-tolerance” message has been sent.

·         Next year, provided it doesn’t rain, will demonstrate where we really are in the learning curve. May Ye Mystic Krude be banished for good.

It was a good week for Tampa.

First the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development notified the city that it would be getting $38 million in stimulus money – most of it for the Encore project. Encore is a potentially catalytic, public-private venture that will redevelop the former Central Park Village, 28 acres between downtown and Ybor City.  

Then word spread that President Obama and Vice President Biden would be holding a town hall meeting at the University of Tampa this week. That, of course, generated a major morale buzz about the prospect of Florida getting serious dollars for a high-speed rail line from Orlando to Tampa.

Last Saturday, it was Tampa’s ever-burgeoning, increasingly popular Children’s Gasparilla Parade. An estimated 200,000 were in attendance. The following day: the official debut of the much-anticipated Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in downtown.

Signature Success

For those of us all too familiar with the street party from hell that the adult version of Gasparilla has been devolving into, the Children’s Parade is a welcome reminder of what we have that is uniquely Tampa. It is a special, signature fun time.

No longer is the Children’s Parade a token gathering of parents and kids. Now it is a really big deal with some 100 floats and more than 50 participating krewes. Plus marching bands and dance squads. It even comes with its own air show and fireworks extravaganza.

But most importantly, it comes with spectators on hand for all the right reasons. It is family oriented – black, white, brown; African-American, Anglo, Hispanic. It is vintage Tampa. Chi-chi corporate tents don’t crowd out the hoi polloi. Kids on the shoulders of dads. Little ones in strollers and tykes – not tankards – in wagons. “Wet Zones” feature lemonade. Port-o-let queues are orderly and, well, sober.

This is not the Bud Blight crowd. Beads are bestowed without breasts being bared. There is no need for St. John’s to open its “Safe House.” It’s a parade without arrests – and a celebration of Tampa and its families. It’s not an invasion of punks and drunks.

This Saturday, of course, will be the adult version. But it’s also the debut of “zero tolerance” for those who can’t abide by civilizational norms. “Responsibility is the Key” is the official theme. We’re hopeful; a lot of commendable pre-planning has occurred. There’s ample precedent that a mega signature event need not be a rite of pissage. We were just reminded that those arriving for a huge family-friendly parade know how to enjoy themselves without quality-of-life tradeoffs.

Tampa’s Got “There”

For the longest time, OK forever, Tampa hasn’t had a bona fide, designated gathering spot. To celebrate. To rally. To vent. To enjoy. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there was no “there there” in Tampa. Downtown was public square-challenged.

Now there’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. It’s more than a postcard pretty, $43-million, scenic landmark.

It’s eight acres of greenery and interactive fountains and features a playground, a dog run, restrooms, a concert stage, art displays, a boat dock  – and a construction trailer where a new restaurant will be built. It’s the gateway to and frontage for two art museums, and it has revamped and revitalized a sizable chunk of the Riverwalk.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio seemed more than perky and positive, as is her unflappable wont, at the ribbon-cutting. She was emotional and viscerally proud.

“It taught me the importance of perseverance,” she said. “Progress only happens incrementally. You have to give a vision time.

“In the worst of times, we have built the best of assets,” she added. “This city never folds. Our mindset is growth and investment. …This is a beautiful day for our city.”

Iorio reminded the diverse crowd, which included families, public officials, civic activists and even former Mayor Bill Poe, that “This belongs to you. Downtown is everybody’s neighborhood. As we improve the city of Tampa, we improve it for everybody. This is a drawing card for the entire region.”

The regional theme was well underscored by all the speakers. From New Tampa to South Tampa, from SkyPoint to Seminole Heights: Curtis Hixon would be everybody’s public square, everybody’s front lawn. The inclusiveness was palpable, even with a notable — and understandable — exception.

“You can throw a football, kick a soccer ball!” proclaimed Iorio. “But, no, you can’t skateboard. No.”

Good.

And by the way, have you noticed the Poe Garage lately? The configuring of the contemporary museum tandem actually complements it. Artfully done.