Category: Tampa Bay

Although Tropical Storm Fay skirted the Tampa Bay area, the implications in her Florida wake should have missed no one.

It doesn’t totally excuse former Gov. Jeb Bush’s indifferent effort on the part of Tampa, but a GOP presidential convention here in September would have had to come with evacuation scenarios and a back-up venue. Last month’s fetish convention might not have stood for that.

There’s also the hurricane-defying tradition of sending our kids back to school in the third week of August. “Welcome Back. See You Later In The Week. Stay Tuned.”

These are not the best of times on our state university campuses. Tuition is going up; budgets are being axed; and key faculty are being wooed like never before.

But USF was able to revel in a major coup with the official announcement that, indeed, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, a non-profit spin-off of MIT, will be locating to the Tampa Bay Area and setting up shop at USF’s Tampa and St. Petersburg campuses. Draper, which will receive economic incentives totaling $30 million from the state, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and USF’s Research Foundation, will build labs to manufacture miniature biomedical machines. Draper will employ 165 workers, at an average salary of $75,000, at the two locations.

USF President Judy Genshaft attributed the Draper score to two keys: last year’s recruitment of SRI (formerly Stanford Research Institute) to the USF St. Petersburg campus and the catalytic role of the Tampa Bay Partnership.

“The leadership of Draper was well aware of that (SRI) success,” said Genshaft. “The Partnership (in working with Gov. Charlie Crist and local governments) did exactly what it’s supposed to do and deserves tremendous credit for helping create the full funding package quickly and smoothly.”

Genshaft underscored Draper’s priority in exploring micro technologies for health and medicine.

“Let’s be precise,” explained Genshaft. “This initiative is exactly where discovery in health care is going. It harnesses all our ideas for the future – the discoveries of the genome system, new understanding of how medications work, the new delivery systems for medications and treatments personally designed for each patient.

“Instead of guessing about how well a drug will work, physicians will be able to tailor treatment plans for you personally,” she added.

Genshaft noted that such an approach is already the basis of the Moffitt Cancer Center’s “total cancer care” initiative and the outpatient treatment plans under way at the Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare on the Tampa campus.

In his town hall meeting at St. Petersburg’s historically black Gibbs High School, Barack Obama fielded questions ranging from the treatment of Iraqi veterans and his assessment of “No Child Left Behind” to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and other economic scenarios.

But none of his responses elicited louder, more enthusiastic applause than his pointed comments on the key non-governmental factor in upgrading American education.

Now we’ve added “Flugtag” to the Tampa lexicon for that which is festive and funky and fun. Move over Gasparilla and Guavaween.

Actually, the Red Bull Flugtag, a celebration of home-made “flying” machines that drew some 100,000 spectators and three dozen participating teams to downtown recently, could carve out its own unique niche.

Frankly, you can make the case that Gasparilla is increasingly compromised by besotted teens and assorted agitators raining on the parade route, and that Guavaween has morphed from bawdy wit and the creative class to crude clichés and perimeter punks.

If Flugtag returns, and the city certainly hopes so, may it remain what it was two Saturdays ago. A salute to teamwork, youthful exuberance, the creative use of PVC pipe and duct tape, and unadulterated fun. There was no need for a Safe House. Only five misdemeanor arrests.

“For us, it was uneventful,” said Tampa Police Department spokesperson Andrea Davis. “We like uneventful.”

According to Tampa Convention Center Administrator John Moors, the city would love a Flugtag II, but that’s up to Red Bull. “I don’t think they plan a long way in advance,” said Moors. “A year or so – and a fairly limited (Tampa, Chicago, Portland, Ore., in 2008) schedule. “But they definitely had a positive experience here in Tampa,” added Moors. “That record crowd. Who could ask for anything better than that? And it was a whole lot of fun.”

And while nobody outdid Icarus, Flugtag, which began in Vienna, Austria, in 1991, did ascend to new heights on the hilarity scale. The themed entries ranged from Baywatch, Gilligan’s Island, the Red Baron and the Flintstones to a flying roller skate, UT Minaret, fire engine, rubber duckie and a Cuban sandwich. Even Elvis dropped in. Locals, especially students, were well represented — as were out-of-towners from as far as Texas and Massachusetts.

Not to put too serious a point to it, but the timing was more than fortuitous. Given all the usual reasons to be gloomy or cynical, could there have been a better time for laugh therapy? The themed flying machines, the whimsical choreography, the aerial high jinks, the comic splashdowns. It was fun, and it was funny. Thanks.

Too often, in the era of an individually-wired citizenry, the virtual experience and on-line everything, there are decreasing opportunities to literally come together as a community. And as opposed to a game or a concert, this one was free.

It also fostered teamwork – whether among aeronautical engineering students, former lifeguards, firefighters or the generically goofy. Just a guess, but I’d wager that when (not if) Flugtag, The Sequel occurs, competition will feature a number of corporate entrants – the slapstick, team-building counterpart of those who compete in the International Dragon Boat races that have proven so popular.

Flugtag also underscored downtown Tampa as the place to revel with a cause. Where traffic and humidity – if not gravity – can be defied for a good time.

The good news is that a few weeks ago Tampa was cited as the only Florida city to win a 2008 Outstanding Achievement City Livability Award by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Tampa’s prominent recognition was in the large cities, quality-of-life category — along with Chicago, Honolulu and Seattle.

Among other things, such publicity is an obvious recruiting tool.

The bad news is that first place went to Louisville. The same city that’s trying to eat our lunch by enticing Tampa’s young professionals to “Move to Possibility City.”

Look closely and you’ll notice it’s not just the Tampa Bay History Center that is under construction near Garrison Channel. Work is also under way on the Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park Project sandwiched between the history center and the existing Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park.

The focal point will be Heroes Plaza, which will commemorate those who sacrificed their lives in war. In addition, there will be memorials to law enforcement and emergency response personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Project work will also include shoreline restoration and construction of a segment of the Tampa Riverwalk.

Projected completion date is early 2009 – but after the Super Bowl.

The Hillsborough School district now has what appears, finally, to be a serious policy regarding students and their cell phones. The phones have to be off and out of sight when school is in session. No exceptions. Or they will be taken.

The surprise is that it has taken so long to enact such a “we-mean-business” measure given the pervasive, distracting plague that in-school, cell-phone use has become. The fallout — including inappropriate photography and cheating — has been obvious for some time.

The true test will be in enforcement. Any policy — especially one that runs counter to popular-culture mores — only works when those in authority act accordingly. Like adults in charge.

What a concept.

Judy Genshaft, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Albany, knew what she wanted when she applied for the presidency of the University of South Florida in 1999. A major research university in an anti-ivory tower, urban environment. A place young enough — 40-something — to still be making its mark. A place where community synergy and economic partnership could be more than idealistic aspirations or trendy buzz words.

Then throw in the unique, semi-tropical locale that is the Tampa Bay region.

Nine years later, she’s reflectively buoyant and no less optimistic. She has presided over unparalleled growth in one of the largest universities (45,000 students) in the country. The budget now approaches $2 billion annually. Sponsored research tops $300 million, second in Florida.

USF used to look like an industrial park. Now, adorned in bougainvillea and dotted with recent and ongoing construction, it looks like the sort of place where — literally — a third of the students will reside within five years.

USF, which had converted “commuter school” into a local pejorative, used to be dubiously dubbed “the biggest school in the country without a football team.” Now it’s a Big East Conference stalwart, and a football season that doesn’t end with a bowl game is a major disappointment.

As befitting one whose university has a $3-billion economic impact on the region, Genshaft, 60, has become an economic-development dynamo since her formal appointment in July 2000. She currently chairs the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and is the immediate past chair of the Tampa Bay Partnership. She’s a member of the Florida High Tech Corridor and the Florida Council of 100 and was named Tampa Bay Businesswoman of the Year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal in 2007.

Along the way, the Canton, Ohio native has weathered the Sami al-Arian firestorm and the Byrd Center flap and forges on fighting for regional-campus, best-case scenarios and adjusting on the fly to state budget roulette.

She took some time recently to muse on the USF experience, one that began, ironically, with a misplaced welcome mat.

That’s because it was in front of the Lifsey House, the president’s official, 9,000-square-foot, contemporary residence near the main entrance of the Tampa campus. Lifsey, with all of its glass, Pentagon-like corridors and Graphicstudio ambience, was well suited for receptions.

But it was ill-suited for real-world living. Especially if that world were inhabited by family members. This one was: Genshaft and her husband, Steven Greenbaum, and their adopted sons, Bryan, then 3, and Joel, then 6. The immediate “neighborhood” included Fowler Avenue and the next-door Sam and Martha Gibbons Alumni Center.

She stayed a month – and then moved the family into more traditional digs in nearby Tampa Palms.

“It was not a house for kids,” diplomatically recalls Genshaft. “I wanted a regular house in a regular neighborhood with playmates for our children.” While USF hosts some 70 events a year at Lifsey — and Genshaft loves playing the hostess card — the president doesn’t so much as keep a wardrobe change there.

Genshaft Outtakes

* “As a public university, our responsibility is to be part of the growth of the economy, now centered in cities.”

* “We are a large, major research institution; being in the Tampa Bay area makes it extra special.”

* The Tampa Bay region: “This is an area that you just have to see for yourself. Tampa is a city with character – from Bayshore Boulevard to Ybor City. If you’re re-locating with kids, take them to Busch Gardens right away. And then you have to see the city of St. Petersburg and visit the beaches.”

* Regional role of USF: “Education doesn’t know about bridges or bad roads.”

* Role of USF’s regional campuses: “Let them be all they can be. We want students to have an on-campus experience.”

* Her favorite day is Wednesday; it’s the day she maxes out on personal contact with on-campus constituencies. It begins with meetings with senior vice presidents and other administrators. It will include lunch with a dozen or more graduate and undergraduate students. Later, there’s a drop-in session with the faculty senate.

* Leadership style: “I’m a collaborative leader. The key is being willing to listen. But I can make the tough decisions. If I believe in something, I’m a great fund-raiser.”

* Her psychology (doctorate in counseling psychology from Kent State University) background: “It’s helpful. I like to work with – not against the system. A lot of leadership is the power of persuasion – getting people on board. A lot of group dynamics.”

* On being the only female president in the 11-institution State University System of Florida: “I don’t perceive it as a problem. I think people treat you the way you behave.”

* On being a traditional president – rooted in academe – not a politician hired for influential contacts and fund-raising acumen: “I’m still the majority model. I’ve worked my way up through the ranks. And I wouldn’t trade that background for anything.”

* Value of high-profile intercollegiate athletics: “It’s very important to a major institution. It’s a huge part of the school atmosphere. Sports is really the front porch to the university. It brings out spirit and pride. And what people sometimes forget or don’t know is that no instructional money goes into athletics. It’s self-generated.”

* On balancing work and family: “You really don’t balance it. Different times of the year are heavier or lighter and you adjust accordingly. It’s prioritizing, not balancing. I’m fortunate to have a supportive family.”

So, St. Petersburg’s Jabil Circuit might be picking up its corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility and heading elsewhere. Taking its 1,900 jobs and leaving a property-tax void of $1.6 million.

Unless.

Of course, we’ve seen this leverage game before. It’s usually played by those who need a new facility – often known as a stadium.

There are questions yet to be answered in that tragic, shooting death of 17-year-old Javon Dawson in St. Petersburg. But this much we do know. There was a graduation party chaotic enough for the cops to be called to disperse it. And there were “celebratory” gun shots fired in the air.

A St. Pete police officer said Dawson had a gun, didn’t obey a command to drop it and pointed it at the officer. If true, that’s a death-wish trifecta. But an inquiry is underway, as it should be.

Given the prevalence of the “stop snitching” culture, witnesses have been impossible to come by so far. But the officer’s version is in dispute — notably by the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. They know a white cop killed a black kid, and that’s enough. And when in doubt, call a press conference and plan a demonstration.

Regardless of the inquiry’s outcome, the key query is this: since when do you “celebrate” anything — outside Iraq — by firing a weapon? Bullets, wherever fired, have a way of landing. On occasion they still have enough velocity to kill.

Next week local TV stations will begin running a public service announcement made by the St. Petersburg Police Department that reminds viewers that “If you shoot a bullet in the air, it can seriously injure someone on the way down.”

Who would have thought you would need a PSA to make that point? Somewhere Sir Isaac Newton is shaking his head in bewilderment.