Category: Tampa Bay

A recent AOL.Travel item — mixed in amid all the other headlines that greet you when you go online — included this tease: “The 10 most spectacular (and spectacularly cheap) beach resorts from the East Coast to Hawaii.” And, sure enough, there was one of our own, St. Pete Beach, at number 3.

 

The criteria? “Four heart-stopping miles of public white, sandy beaches overlooking the baby-blue Gulf of Mexico can double for the Caribbean, minus the long flights and pumped-up prices.” The stuff we take for granted.

 

Who topped St. Pete Beach?  Cape Cod’s Brewster Beach and Maui’s Sugar Beach. Who also made the top 10? Huntington Beach, Calif.; South Padre Island, Texas; Myrtle Beach, SC; Wildwood Beach, NJ; Windermere Pointe Beach, Mackinac Island, Mich.; Ocean Isle Beach, NC; and State Beach, Block Island, Rhode Island.

Not unlike other universities, USF doesn’t miss many opportunities to tap into its alumni base. From marketing Bulls’ season tickets to soliciting gifts and courting endowment help. It’s what universities do. Especially during budget-cutting, recessionary times.

 

So, let’s hear it for USF for providing, if you will, service after the educational sale. Starting later this month (Sept. 25), the university will inaugurate USF’s Alumni CareerQuest, a free workshop aimed exclusively at alums buffeted by the turbulent economic times and depressed job market.

 

The session will be a primer — or a refresher — on interviewing, resume polishing, and job-search strategizing. Follow-up includes access to USF’s career counseling services. Out-of-town alums can avail themselves of offerings through free webinars as well as consulting – both online and via telephone.

 

CareerQuest is the brainchild of USF Provost Ralph Wilcox who sold the idea to the USF Alumni Association. The need was more than manifest: Within a year, the Tampa Bay area unemployment rate has gone from 6.9 per cent to 11.3 per cent. And a college degree was certainly no surety against joblessness.

 

Interested USF alums must register for the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 25 workshop. Registration begins this week (Sept. 8) at www.career.usf.edu.

 

Go, Bulls.

For all too long it’s been acknowledged that Ybor City needed to broaden its appeal beyond those drawn to tattoo parlors and really loud night clubs. The middle-aged, the un-pierced and the non-rapping favor grown-up retail, decent decibel ambiance and negligible hint of street crime, underage drinking and ad hoc vomitoriums.   

 

So, thank you GaYbor District Coalition – and Centro Ybor.

 

The coalition has been leading diversification efforts – and in the process confirming a politically correct stereotype. Gays are good for business. A form of commercial gentrification, if you will. Well-run, well-patronized businesses are catalytic. And when gay-themed establishments are recognized as fun and quirky, they transcend the sexual-preference market niche. A good time is a good time is a good business environment is a good investment.

 

Enter Hamburger Mary’s. Actually, later this year. It’s a relatively inexpensive restaurant that will take over the space formerly occupied by Dish on the second floor of Centro Ybor. Hamburger Mary’s is a highly successful, nine-restaurant chain (including San Francisco, Chicago and Orlando) that bills itself as “the only national franchise actively marketing itself to the gay community.” It’s as well known for its eclectic diner mix as its wild-hued décor and colorful atmosphere. It’s expected to attract a sizable following.

Which is exactly what Ybor needs.

 

And it wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Centro’s owner, M & J Wilkows. Rather than wring its hands over Ybor’s well-chronicled issues or shoehorn problematic tenants in to avoid the plywood signs of closure, it stuck with its plan to revitalize retail. They know what doesn’t work. Teatro recently opened to favorable reviews. And Hamburger Mary’s is less than three months away.

Let’s set aside some of the career speed bumps and incongruities Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White has experienced along the way. Including those snazzy Italian suits, that drive-by military service, that questionable TPD conduct.

 

In fact, for the sake of (specious) argument, let’s not even concede that the federal jury got it right when it found White, 44, guilty of sexually harassing a former aide, then 22. And forget for now that part of the tab for this legal ignominy will be borne by taxpayers.

 

And never mind that a public steward doesn’t even require an actual resume when hiring an assistant with a certain look.

 

But how bad is it when you’re reduced to using the pimp defense?

 

And how good does White have it when the resultant outrage comes much more from media editorials than constituents and district activists?  

 

Two comments, both made to the St. Petersburg Times, are indicative.

 

Michelle Patty, a high-profile activist who runs a lawyer-referral service, had a racial take on White’s sexual harassment conviction. “I’m out in the community quite a bit,” noted Patty. “What I’m hearing is people are more outraged by the makeup (seven whites, one Hispanic) of the jury.”

 

Curtis Stokes, head of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP, saw the White travesty through a generational lens. “Kevin could use role models and mentors, but they (read: Les Miller) want to run against him,” pointed out Stokes.

 

With excuse-mongers, enablers and wagon-circlers like this, who needs to be overly concerned about what outrages the media?

Once again, when it comes to Cuba, Carl Lindell is odd man out.  

 

Lindell is a savvy businessman and Tampa Port Authority board member who has been pushing for the Port of Tampa – and, by association, this region, state and country – to get pro-active about normalizing relations with Cuba. He recently returned from a fact-finding visit (at his own expense) to Cuba, and he has become outspoken on the issue. Notably, America’s counter-productive, economic embargo that dates to 1962.   

 

His recent suggestion that the seven-member TPA send a delegation to Cuba to assess trade opportunities was greeted by a groundswell of indifference and disagreement by the six other members, including Mayor Pam Iorio.

 

To date, only 6 per cent of (embargo) limited American exports to Cuba originate in Florida. It could be much more, contends Lindell, and Tampa could obviously be a major beneficiary. So why not explore the matter more and, at the very least, make valuable contacts and help pre-position Tampa for the inevitable, approaching day when Cuba does open up? As it now stands, Tampa would be at a competitive disadvantage to cities, such as New Orleans and Corpus Christi, which already have an established presence in Cuba. 

 

Mayor Iorio, whose in-the-best-interests-of-Tampa instincts are invariably on the money, is off her game on this one. “As a collective effort on the part of the board, I don’t think it’s appropriate to focus on a particular country,” she explained.

 

As if any other “particular” country were 90 miles away, shared history and historic trade with Tampa, and was a tragic, atavistic relic of the Cold War. As if any other “particular” country had a similar wherewithal to make a difference during a recession. As if any other “particular” country had humanitarian needs that could be uniquely addressed from this side of the Florida Straits.  

 

The mayor, who has encouraged members of the business community to check out Cuba, has made the point before that Cuba is a “federal” issue. As a result, she has underscored, “It’s not appropriate for me to embark on my own foreign policy.”

 

Of course not. That’s hardly a mayor’s or a port authority board member’s purview. Whether it’s Paris or Pyongyang. Or Havana. No mayor, especially a prominent Democrat with more political life left, would be wise to get out in front of the incrementalist Obama Administration and appear to grandstand.

 

But that’s not to say a key local political figure can’t be part of a delegation logically looking for legal business and making the rounds to help make it happen. That’s why business people and politicians from other cities have already gone.   

 

And continue to go. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson went last week. He accompanied a New Mexico farm products’ trade mission. But nobody thought he was embarking on his own foreign policy, even though he wanted to be president of the United States.

In six months Tampa’s often frustrating, labyrinthian path to a new art museum will be history. Rafael who? Courthouse option? Feb. 5 is the designated date for the riverfront debut of the new, $36-million Tampa Museum of Art.

 

TMA will no longer be woefully undersized, uncommonly nondescript — and a lackluster, poor cousin to its counterparts in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. A sleek, translucent, iconic structure addresses that nicely, thank you. Along with the adjacent Children’s Museum, now under construction, TMA will make the concept of a downtown Tampa cultural district a reality – not hyperbole or an oxymoron.

 

And how significant that TMA is sending all the right signals by bringing in a major Henri Matisse show, featuring many limited-edition prints among the 170 works, for its inaugural presentation. Congratulations, Todd Smith and cohorts. Matisse is one of the great artists of the 20^th century.

 

The thinking is big. The bar is set high. And the perspective of expressionism appropriate. Starting Feb. 5, Tampa will be seen differently.

It should no longer be up for debate that high-speed rail makes eminent economic, as well as quality-of-life, sense for the I-4 corridor and the Tampa Bay region. And out of the Great Recession, ironically, comes the impetus to make it happen with rail-specific stimulus dollars.

 

A couple of key points. For all of the sophomoric, “Commissioner Choo-Choo” jibes that Ed Turanchik has had to endure over the years, he has stayed ahead of his time. Now the times – and political timing in Washington – have finally caught up with him. 

 

Turanchik now heads ConnectUs, the increasingly high-profile, grass-roots supporter of Florida’s $2.5-billion bid for federal rail funds. Residents wanting to do more than hope that the feds find favor with Florida’s “shovel-ready” Orlando-to-Tampa Bay rail status can do this: Support the effort by signing on at FastRailConnectUs.com. Every bit helps.

 

We all know the nexus that is Orlando-Tampa Bay. But those corridor numbers are truly imposing. We’re talking 23 counties, 8 million residents, 4.4 million workers and more than 330,000 businesses.

 

Eventually, Miami could fit into the high-speed-rail scenario. According to the Tampa Bay Partnership, the aggregate of the Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay areas yields an economy that would be the world’s 15^th largest.

 

But true 21^st century mass transit in Florida won’t happen without a successful bid for those stimulus rail funds for Orlando-Tampa Bay. Don’t forget FastRailConnectUs.com.

Tampa, as has been well chronicled, has had to shut down its electric-cart operators. To be sure, the city didn’t need this. Especially with a downtown that’s still amenity challenged, pedestrian averse and sans realistic taxi alternatives. Especially during a recession.  

 

Especially with the county, hardly a municipal soul mate of the city, playing a role.

 

The Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission, which includes both county commissioners and city council members, had an opportunity to help out downtown on the electric-cart issue. It needed to be reasonable, and it needed to be creative. It was neither. It couldn’t reach a sensible consensus on what, if anything, to do about those open-air, shuttle rides around downtown and the tourist-oriented Channel District. So the county PTC pulled the plug after cab attorneys called the carts unsafe and unfair competition.

 

This should never have been a zero-sum matter. Sure, the carts had been unregulated. They didn’t charge fares. But that was a technicality. They made money on ads, and tips were expected. They should have been regulated – with assurances of safety and insurance required. It wouldn’t have been a deal-breaker. It remains eminently doable.

 

Since the county has no formal category for electric carts — and there were no more taxi licenses — the smart move would have been to, well, create a hybrid category. The carts had been a welcome addition to downtown. They had responded to an obvious need. That’s the way the marketplace is supposed to work.

 

The PTC response to the cab companies should have been something other than acquiescence. The only reason there were electric carts transporting visitors and workers around downtown in the first place was because such mini-hauls were a viable, however narrow, niche – one conspicuously unserved by taxis.

Common sense ultimately prevailed on the matter of Tampa’s variance board voting to allow Derek Jeter to erect a 6-foot privacy fence around his gigantic new home now under construction on Davis Islands.

 

Put it this way. Once you’ve established the reality of the largest house in the county (at 33,000 square feet) shoe-horned into a residential neighborhood, you’re going to quibble over a 2-foot differential on fencing?

 

But even more to the point, the reality of a mammoth, celebrity-owned mansion is that it will be a beacon to gawkers. Logistically, Bahama Circle is hardly well suited for drive-by voyeurs. Better that the word get out that there will be no gratuitous Jeter sightings.

 

Even though the Davis Islands Civic Association opposed the variance, Jeter’s immediate neighbors, the ones already impacted by ratcheting traffic, lobbied for it – a position that understandably carried the day.

Under normal circumstances we would expect there to be this conversation. Faced with a pay freeze, public unions would tell their employer it’s not acceptable. Not even close. No way. The municipal employer, in this case the City of Tampa, would point to budget constraints, which are not exactly rare. Both sides would rhetorically dig in, and some sort of compromise, including the face-saving variety, would result.

 

But there’s nothing normal about these times. It can’t be business as usual when you’re in the midst of the worst economic downturn in three generations.

 

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has already presided over more than $40 million in budget cuts the last two years. But more positions than employees were affected. Benefits and raises went untouched. But now the 2010 budget has a shortfall of more than $50 million. The city can’t drain all its reserves and undermine borrowing ability, and it can’t compromise necessary services. Something has to give. And go. That means raises. City worker raises. And that includes firefighters and police. And, yes, those (annual) step raises.

 

This is understandably touchy. But this is not about appreciation or respect. It’s just not understandable — or even good governmental stewardship — to not freeze raises of all city employees.  

 

It’s called taking one for the team. It’s called doing the right thing. It’s also called helping save fellow employees’ jobs. Talk about a benevolent association.