Category: Tampa Bay

Nobody wants to be on the side opposite the principled. Especially the Constitutionally principled. Especially the free speech variety.

 

But if Constitutional history has taught us anything these last two-plus centuries, it’s that the law is always in ongoing need of interpretation. The necessity is as obvious as the societal differences between the 18^th and 21^st centuries. Core values don’t change, but context always matters. Common sense, perforce, must be a Constitutional complement.

 

Too bad it was vacated last week in St. Petersburg in that counterproductive vote by city council – the one that could have thrown a lifeline to the badly foundering BayWalk complex.

 

To recap, the issue was whether to cede a chunk of sidewalk at BayWalk’s entrance to its owners. The step, contained in an ordinance crafted by the staff of Mayor Rick Baker, would have allowed BayWalk’s owners to, in effect, legally remove undesirables from a stretch of public sidewalk. This was aimed at motley gatherings that ranged from animated, anti-war activists to loitering, anti-decorum, patron-chasing punks. That loud, less-than-inviting, sometimes downright intimidating gauntlet was part of the reason for BayWalk’s precipitous fall from downtown-revival catalyst and “town square” to something approaching boarded-up blight monument and clown square.

 

BayWalk, with its 55,000 square feet of vacant retail and an increasingly problematic Muvico Theaters, had been counting on — and touting the merits of — the ordinance in its tenant-recruiting pitches. BayWalk wasn’t pushing for the elimination of free-speech or its relegation to some Constitution-mocking holding pen. It was pushing for its relocation across the street – where the same audience would still be privy to it – but not accosted or deterred by it.

 

Common sense should have dictated that such a compromise be welcomed – and enacted. It would not have been a panacea, of course, not in this economy. But it would have sent an unmistakable signal that BayWalk was, indeed, the major priority it was said to be. It would have underscored that BayWalk was a downtown domino too important to fall. And it would have reminded taxpayers that its $20-million investment was still considered a public trust.

 

Instead, we have a city council with too many members too concerned with appearing to be a Baker rubber stamp and too municipally myopic to see the big, principled picture. Downtown viability, jobs and public investment are at stake; freedom of speech isn’t. To think otherwise speaks volumes.

I am pathologically skeptical about polls. Too often you don’t know enough about sampling and wording and agendas to confidently assess the merits of the results.

 

Having said that, I hope that the most recent survey on a light rail line done for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit proves prescient. It indicated that two thirds of the (600) sampled adult county residents would either “definitely” support a 1-cent sales tax for light rail or would “probably” support it.

 

This is in marked contrast to a similar survey done in 2006 that showed road improvements were still much more the priority. Perhaps the combination of TBARTA publicity, stimulus-dollars competition and Mayor Pam Iorio’s bully transit pulpit have made a difference. Perhaps too much motorist down time has finally taken its toll.

 

But the reality is this: That encouraging survey is also in marked contrast to the retrograde mindset in general about mass transit that has been dominating this region seemingly forever. It’s a quality-of-life issue, and it’s a business-recruitment issue.  

 

Just ask former commissioner and future mayoral candidate Ed Turanchik, who was lampooned back in the ‘90s as “Commissioner Choo-Choo” by local pundits. All he did was try to rally the public around the concept of doing something other than adding traffic lanes to address our manifestly acute transportation needs.

 

But that was then – and this is not. Hopefully.

 

The survey’s timing certainly seems propitious. County commissioners are now debating whether to put the tax-hike question before voters next year. Also up for debate: What’s to debate? Let the electorate be heard. Too much rides, quite literally, on a rail vote. Most notably: The 21^st century prospects of this region without viable mass transit.

Good move, Tampa City Council.

 

Two weeks ago, the council eliminated $2 million in Community Investment Tax money designated for the Zack Street “Avenue of the Arts” project. It was an understandable move prompted by turbulent economic times and the prioritized neighborhood needs of the parks and recreation departments. A week and some serious City Hall lobbying later, the council restored $1 million for Zack in a 5-2 vote. Ironically, Mary Mulhern and arts patron saint Linda Saul-Sena were the two dissenters.

 

But it was the right, pragmatic call.

 

Mayor Pam Iorio and Mary Huey, the city’s economic and development administrator, obviously made the case that this didn’t have to be a zero-sum exercise pitting a reconfigured “artsy” thoroughfare against pools and parks. In short, the arts have economic clout. Cities overlook that reality at their own peril, especially during a recession. For example, we know from recent studies that this county’s nonprofit arts industry generated nearly $300 million in economic activity and was responsible for more than 8,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2008.

 

In Tampa’s case, two-way, pedestrian-friendly Zack Street — replete with murals, sculptures and engraved, sidewalk poetry — would be the key connector between the Franklin Street business district and the city’s burgeoning waterfront. The latter will soon feature the Tampa Museum of Art, the Glazer Children’s Museum and Curtis Hixon Park. To badly paraphrase Gertrude Stein, Tampa will shortly have a sense of “‘there’ there.” But it can’t afford to leave it there, untethered from in-town.

 

Not unlike the streetcar, an artsy Zack Street is an economic development tool. In this case, a catalytic one that can help realize the synergetic potential between the revitalized riverfront and downtown businesses. It’s what progressive cities do. They find ways to bring people downtown. They know that aesthetics and economics can — and should — be complements.

Bennie Holder. Stephen Hogue. Jane Castor. There’s a pattern in Tampa Police Chiefs. They keep getting better. St. Petersburg should take note – and notes.

 

Hogue, the consummate professional whose six-year tenure ends this month, was a major upgrade. But even Hogue concedes that eventually Castor “is going to be recognized as the best police chief this city has ever had.” It was more than press conference hyperbole.

 

Castor, 49, can’t avoid the historic credentials. She is Tampa’s first female police chief, and she is openly gay. Much more to her credit than precedent, however, is the consensus that she is so much more than a pioneer-role model-future icon. She is so much more than the ninth female police chief in Florida. She is the right person for the right reason.  

 

The Tampa native and Chamberlain High grad is the embodiment of modern law enforcement: a well-educated and well-rounded careerist. She has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from the University of Tampa – where she had been recruited with a basketball/volleyball scholarship. And she has a master’s in public administration from Troy State University. She’s also a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

 

And supervisors and peers will tell you she’s so much more than an impressive resume. Traits such as “common sense” and “quick study” are frequently referenced in descriptions of Castor. She’s principled – but not Peter Principled. Personally, she’s known to be “popular” with the rank and file and to manifest “good rapport” with the public.

 

And with 25 years on the Tampa Police Force — from corporal to sergeant to lieutenant to captain to major to assistant chief – she knows this community like few could. She knows the streets and has worked everything from narcotics to sex crimes.

 

She also knows the big picture issues – and has first-hand experience with the complementary priorities and synergies of police work and national security. Since 2005, she has managed a $56-million budget for the Department of Homeland Security’s Tampa Bay Urban Area Security Initiative.

 

Jane Castor is the total, modern law-enforcement package. She is now Tampa’s top cop – and Tampa couldn’t be luckier.

Plant High School unabashedly proclaims itself the “Home of State Champions.”

Those words are even emblazoned on the water tower that hovers over the campus. Indeed, the 83-year-old, South Tampa institution has won 14 state championships – from football and volleyball to girls’ cross-country and golf – in the last 15 years.  

 

And while nothing succeeds in the public eye quite like sports, it was — more importantly — reassuring to see that Plant had remained an academic powerhouse. It’s easy to take for granted that nearly 97 per cent of Plant grads go on to college and that it’s consistently ranked among the “100 Best High Schools in America” by Newsweek magazine.

 

But now we learn that no school in the entire Tampa Bay area has more semifinalists named to the National Merit Scholarship Program than Plant. PHS has 11.

 

And the competition was stiffest in its home county. Hillsborough – with a total of 53 Merit semifinalists – has more than any other school district in Florida.

We know that it takes more than artifacts to make a successful museum. Among other factors: location and amenities. A prime example: the Tampa Bay History Center. It basks by the Garrison Channel across from Harbour Island – and is proximate to Channelside synergy. It was a coup when it landed the Columbia Restaurant, a destination in its own right.

 

Now the word is that Mise en Place will be working with the new Tampa Museum of Art on the revitalized Hillsborough River waterfront.

*Is anyone not nostalgic for Dan Kleman yet?

 

*One additional question in the sordid, sexual discrimination case involving Kevin White. Exactly what was the experienced-challenged, resume-lacking Alyssa Ogden interviewing for?

 

*Bennie Holder, Stephen Hogue, Jane Castor. It keeps getting better. And Hogue is not an easy act to follow. Police Chief Jane Castor: The right choice, the right reason.

It’s easy to view the recent diversion of proposed funding for the “Avenue of Arts” project to the city’s parks and recreation department as an unfortunate, but necessary, aesthetic hit for Tampa. Even City Councilwoman — and arts avatar — Linda Saul-Sena signed off on the transfer of Community Investment Tax money from downtown to pools and parks. That had to be a Hobson’s choice.

 

To some, converting Zack Street into an artsy, two-way, pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare was an unaffordable frill during turbulent budgetary times. But as we’ve learned countless times, the arts also have economic clout. A recent national survey, for example, has estimated that Hillsborough County’s nonprofit arts industry generated nearly $300 million in economic activity and was responsible for more than 8,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2008. It also raised more than $11 million in local tax revenues. In short, the arts are no abstraction. Neither are they isolated venues where the effete and elite meet.

 

In other words, Zack Street is about a lot more than arts.

 

Not surprisingly, Mark Huey, Tampa’s economic and development administrator, sees the transfer of CIT funds, however well-intentioned, as short-sighted. He was envisioning a pedestrian-friendly corridor that would connect the Franklin Street business district with the burgeoning waterfront that will soon feature the Tampa Museum of Art, the Glazer Children’s Museum, Curtis Hixon Park and ripple-effect retail.

 

“We’re building an economic engine along the waterfront,” Huey told City Council. “If we don’t connect them, it won’t work.”

 

Huey obviously didn’t connect well enough with the Council.

Could there be a last hurrah, Republican National Convention chase left for local GOP icon Al Austin? The GOP fund-raising maestro is definitely interested, and the city of Tampa, rejected for both the 2004 and 2008 gatherings, has been asked to make another pitch – for 2012.

 

Recall that Tampa, a city that has hosted four Super Bowls, came ever so close for ’04, but New York carried the day in the patriotic aftermath of 9/11. Tampa was also a finalist for ’08, but tropical storm-free Minneapolis/St. Paul won the bid.

 

Also recall that having the president’s brother as governor of Florida was worthless. Tampa was never a priority for (Miami-oriented) Jeb Bush – outside of tapping into the fund-raising connections of Austin.

 

Ultimately, September in hurricane-prone Florida may be an even bigger deal breaker than putting together a winning package — necessitating the commitment of eroding tax dollars — during a down economy.   

 

But if Tampa decides to gear up and give it another go, here’s hoping that Charlie Crist sees it in his own interest to help deliver the GOP convention to the biggest swing state – one with 27 electoral votes – in the country. Maybe a Bush-less Tallahassee could matter this time.

 

And maybe Tampa could win one for Al Austin too.

It was no surprise that USF finally came around to the reality of offering full domestic partner benefits to its employees. Many other universities already do, including a number of large research institutions with whom USF competes for faculty. If there’s any place where discrimination shouldn’t be countenanced, it’s an institution of higher learning.

 

“We believe it’s the right thing to do, and we’ll work to make it happen this year,” said USF President Judy Genshaft at last week’s annual state of the university speech. USF has budgeted about $500,000 annually to pay for the expanded benefit package. It currently has about 13,000 employees across four campuses. Nearly half are covered for university benefits.

 

While details remain to be worked out, this much is certain. The domestic partner benefits apply to both heterosexual and same-sex couples.

 

Not to be, well, nitpicky, but that seems more than fair. As in unnecessarily so. Same-sex couples in a committed relationship can’t, as we well know, get married here – and thus can’t qualify for spousal benefits. A progressive, partners-benefits plan will now address that.

 

Good for those affected, and good for USF. It’s the right move, and it’s the smart move.

 

As for heterosexual couples, they obviously have no legal proscriptions precluding marriage. Their commitment stops shy of marriage. So should their benefit rationales.