Tampa Is…?

Investigative journalism is crucial.  In addition to exposing unethical immoral and illegal behavior, sometimes those journalists find simple (but expensive) stupidity and laziness.

Back in 2004, Greg Neal of Keystone Ventures envisioned a Tampa Sports Centre near Raymond James Stadium.  A couple of months later, HCC envisioned a retail complex including a hotel, conference center, restaurant, medical complex, public pool and sports facility in their “Front Yard” facing Dale Mabry.

In early 2005, Neal approached HCC, and suggested he could build the world-class sports-medicine destination with a luxury hotel and a culinary institute.  Four hundred jobs would be created, and students could learn from sports nutrition experts and hotel management programs.  In return, HCC would guarantee low rental rates on 40+ acres to Keystone for fifty years.

HCC was rightly intrigued, and asked for a proposal with details.

After collecting proposals from them and other parties in 2006, evaluators for HCC placed Keystone fourth behind Cheeseburger in Paradise, Steak N Shake, and a hotel from a George Steinbrenner company.  Although they found problems with the Keystone proposal, those top three did not include using the facilities for education, and HCC leaders kept Keystone on the short list. 

HCC then paid $768,000 to a real estate firm to oversee the project, and that firm gave HCC more specific reasons for denying Keystone’s proposal, such as a lack of experience and unfavorable lease terms.

In an email sent in May 2007, HCC VP Ron Wolf suggested they look out for “smoke and mirrors” from Keystone at a scheduled meeting.  They met with Greg Neal again, and were again blown away by his excitement and vision.  Seems they forgot about the smoke and mirrors, and were still talking about the grandiose opportunities in March of this year.

Luckily, the St. Pete Times took an interest in the story.  Doing the job that HCC leaders, HCC evaluators, and an $768,000 hired gun should have done, SPTimes reporter Thomas Lake has found that Greg Neal is full of sh*t. 

A St. Petersburg Times investigation of Neal’s claims and credentials found nearly 20 statements that were exaggerated, misleading, disputed, or downright false. And public administrators repeated some of those claims in official documents without independently confirming them.

What an outrage!  You would think that these basic background checks would be PART OF THE PROCESS by those entrusted to evaluate the proposal, yet none of it was discovered until the paper got involved.

Of course, in an attempt to save face, HCC plans to give Greg Neal an opportunity to address these new concerns in a meeting next month.

Thanks to Thomas Lake and the St. Pete Times for uncovering this nonsense.  It’s a damn shame we must have journalists doing the job of lazy, uninspired “leadership.”

Kids in Hillsborough County head back to school on Monday, and lots of those students are going to have to walk further to get to the bus stop:

The goal, he said, is to have two to 20 students per bus stop. Some elementary students will have to walk up to a mile and middle and high school students up to 1.5 miles.

Obviously, many of the bus routes have changed from years’ past.  But the School District of Hillsborough County had some trouble getting letters to the mailbox, and parents and students are not certain exactly how the kids are going to get to school, and where to catch the bus.

The Transportation Department is blaming lightning.  Wow - who could see that coming?

The Calusa Indian word “Tampa” means “sticks of fire,” a reference to lightning.  The local Arena League team is called the “Storm,” while the NHL team is called the “Lightning.”  Every day, all summer long, our meteorologists give us a look at the red splotches of thunderstorm activity, interspersed with flashing white flashes that indicate lightning.  You might recall that all of this leads to the Tampa Bay area being called the lightning capital of the United States.

All right, so lightning struck School Bus Central in Thonotosassa, delaying letters to bus riders and their parents.  They set up a hot line so you can find out the details of your kids’ trip to school.  To find out where and when your children catch the bus, call 813.982.5500.  But you may have to try that number more than once.  District officials say the line is often busy because of the lightning strike.

Oh, and for those of you who now have to walk to school or walk further to catch the bus, you may want to keep an eye out for any lightning strikes.

Starting a discussion about what makes a “real” Cuban sandwich can elicit strong opinions and unearth longstanding feuds. There is one ingredient on which all the sandwich sectarians agree. It’s not a Cuban sandwich without authentic Cuban bread. The ingredients are simple enough; flour, water, salt, yeast and lard. But the result cannot be duplicated outside the family owned bakeries of Tampa and Miami; a crusty torpedo that would make any Frenchman envious.

My introduction to the staple came at age six, when I entered the Hillsborough County school system from more Northern climes. I doubt the recipe has changed much in 25 years. The public school version of the Cuban sandwich consists of one or two thin slices of cheap boiled ham and salami, one slice of stinky government cheese, pale neon green pickles and mustard on five to six inches of semi-fresh Cuban bread; a logic defying composition, MUCH GREATER than the sum of it’s parts.

The bread was so hard and chewy that it often led to the lunchtime extraction of the last of my baby teeth. New teeth grew in, almost as fast as I grew an appetite for that most Cuban of confections. At least once a week, and later as a daily option, the Cuban sandwich was the heart of the school lunch menu. As bland and unassuming as it sounds, that simple chewy sandwich was a welcome relief from the reheated Salisbury steak and chicken nuggets. Throughout our school years, my classmates and I consumed millions.

More than just a meal, the Cuban sandwich was my introduction to the history and cultural identity of Tampa Bay. The sandwich was a bridge that connected me to the Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, the mysterious minarets of the Plant Hotel, cigar factory workers of Ybor and the Diaspora of communist Cuba’s refugees; some of whom were my classmates.

I’d like to think that the Cuban sandwich has given me a certain kind of cultural identity, something that everyone who has grown up in Tampa Bay has in some part shared. As I’ve traveled to and lived in other cities across the country, I’ve sampled many imitation Cubans. Their similarity to and difference from the five inch version that I had in school fondly reminds me of bay area and that culture and history that we’ve all shared.

That’s why it saddens me to read that Pinellas County schools will no longer be serving locally baked Cuban bread in their cafeterias. For the students and staff, who will now dine on soft and starchy instant-bake rolls of the frozen variety, it’s not just a culinary tragedy. It’s a cultural tragedy.

Here’s hoping that Hillsborough schools will not follow suit. For pennies on the dollar, Cuban bread is worth a little extra dough.

With a surprising show of common sense, the Hillsborough County School Board disallows any use of cell phones or other electronic devices:

Beginning the first day of school, that cell phone better be off and out of sight — or else…

“We see it, we take it” is the new mantra…

That includes lunch. No exceptions once the first bell rings.

“We’re going to have to be really clear that this is a rule that applies to every student, every day, every time you walk onto campus,” School Board member Candy Olson said.

Why such a strong statement? Because the school board previously pandered to helicopter parents who felt the need to be in touch with their kids throughout the day. In fact, they are already getting complaints about the new ruling:

Assistant superintendent for administration Lewis Brinson already has received e-mails from parents complaining that the rule amounts to a violation of their constitutional rights.

Good grief! You wonder how these parents can make it through the day.

The kids are at school to learn. They should be allowed to do that with no distractions at all. You don’t have a “constitutional right” to disrupt education.

Even though their lack of foresight originally assisted to this problem, we commend for the School Board for correcting the problem and finally getting this one right.

Now, about these busing problems…

If you’re not already depressed about the state of our state, don’t read the story in Time magazine that seems to suggest that the Sunshine State is crashing and burning.

Writer Michael Grunwald, who lives in Miami, says there is trouble in paradise.

“We’re facing our worst real estate meltdown since the Depression. We’ve got a water crisis, insurance crisis, environmental crisis and budget crisis to go with our housing crisis,” he writes.

“We’re first in the nation in mortgage fraud, second in foreclosures, last in high school graduation rates.”

Population is also stagnant and the Florida Legislature would rather focus on the State song than more substantive issues.

There’s more, but read it for yourself. You’ll also see a familiar name quoted in the story: USF historian, Gary Mormino.

He says to Grunwald, “The dream is fading. People think Florida is too crowded, too expensive, too crazy, too many immigrants - name your malady.”

We have a lot of maladies - far too many to list here.

But is the dream really dead? Has Sunshine State really lost its luster?

What do you think?

For the second straight year, Tampa ranks as the worst city for young professionals, according to Forbes.com. 

Here are the highlights of the Forbes article:

In measures of outdoor activity, living on a fixed income, weather, access to beaches and low health care costs, Tampa rises to the top.

But youngsters (those of you between 25 and 35) don’t care about that stuff.

Of the thousands of class of 1998 graduates from Stanford, Rice, Princeton, Harvard, Duke and Northwestern, no city attracted fewer graduates than Tampa. It finished behind New Orleans, Detroit, Indianapolis and Providence RI. 

Go ahead, say it out loud.  Tampa finished BEHIND dirty and crime-ridden New Orleans, Detroit murder city, that hotbed of excitement known as Indianapolis, and some city that needs the state attached to identify it.

Don’t they want to work for any of Tampa’s great employers?

Of the 400 best big companies and 200 best small companies, as rated by Forbes, only one calls Tampa home (Sykes Enterprises).

Forbes says that USF research is lacking as well.  Go ahead and read all of the gory details at Forbes.com.

As some Sticks readers may know, I was one of the first volunteer Community Columnists for the Tampa Tribune (2005-2006), writing opinion editorials for a year, and in December 2007, I wrote another op-ed which was so kindly accepted.

My experience with the Editorial Staff, and responses received from readers, was nothing less than an extreme pleasure.

So, although I was not a paid employee, I am sorry to see the Tribune layoffs happen. First and foremost, sorry for the Tribune employees’ sake; but also for the fact that having the experience of touching fingers to paper, be it in newspapers, magazines or books, I fear will soon be a long-lost sensory delight and loss of choice.

When I first came to Tampa over 20 years ago, things were still as they were when I was a little girl. I went to the Tampa Public Library to search for something on paper cards in tall card files. I loved going through the cards, making the discovery of what I searched for and then being able to find the books on the aisles.

Now, we sit down at a computer, that can have all sorts of uninvited stuff on it, and we stare at a screen to find what we want. Is it my imagination that the smell of the library is even different?

As people read more and more online, instead of spending the very small price for a newspaper, we see that jobs will be cut. Eventually, will all newspaper publications close down?

With the advent of e-books and “e-zines”, what about printed books, magazines, bookstores and libraries? Will children soon not even know what they were? The feel of the pages, the smell of the print, the satisfaction of turning the last page - will it all soon be gone? Will it be replaced by even more tired, bleary eyes from endless hours staring at a screen?

I know we all got used to 8-tracks, videos, cassettes, and then CD’s instead of records, and then DVD’s, and now i-Pods and MP-3’s. And it’s great that you can listen to a whole book in your car. But I don’t want to think about the day when all printed material will be a thing of the past.

Plus, what about older people who just don’t want to buy a computer at their age? My mom and mother-in-law don’t want to start that now, at 76 and 80!

I think we are coming to depend on computers way too much, and I also think that the powers-that-be know that. I keep thinking of George Orwell’s book “1984″ and then the movie. The less we have in our hands or at least in our possession, the less we have access to without assistance from some huge monopolizing organization, the more controllable we are.

The main character in 1984, Winston Smith, had to retain a lot of information in his head. Stuff he wanted to know that was ripped from his grip. The possibility of the Tampa Tribune one day only being online, where we don’t have the choice of buying the newspaper on the street, reminds me of all the times people have tried to burn books, especially the Bible. There may come a time when this verse needs to be very true for those of us who believe:

“Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11, NKJV).

We’d better start memorizing what we want to remember of books, because eventually, our search on the computer might be limited by the economy too, especially if we ever start being charged for the Internet by the click, as has nearly come to pass several times.

For good.

This past year in Colorado Springs has been quite a challenge. I worked at Academy 20’s Expulsion Program and my fellow teachers seemed to like me until they realized that the Christian books and subtle intimidation tactics weren’t working. I am going to stay Jewish and liberal. That’s when they decided I was too “East Coast” for their liking.

My children didn’t fare any better. They attended Freedom Elementary in District 11. This is a school district NONE of my Springs friends would send their kids to, but I swore it’d be different for us. ‘Cause my boys are smart and delightful. Turns out, too smart and delightful. Principal’s exact words were:

“I wouldn’t say they’re cocky. But they are confident. They communicate well. They don’t hesitate to say they’re great basketball players These aren’t bad things. Your children are also sensitive and sweet. Kind to everyone and very polite. It’s just that their more mature qualities make them a bit of a target with the other kids who don’t excel as much.”

What to do with such a town? Some might say to stick it out and fight for change. Why should I? I’m not a fan of dry skin, wild animals, or snowstorms in May. Why should I settle for second best, headaches, and intolerance?

Family counts for a lot. Not only do we have my parents in Tampa, but relatives from up north - the dreaded East Coast - visit Florida all the time. Three cousins arrived yesterday. Those with tight-knit families understand my point. I want my kids to experience the love that can only come from family.

Few months back, Husband green-lighted a job search in the Tampa Bay area. And I got *two* positions. A freelance writing job and a full-time gig going back to corporate training where I also get to dip my well-manicured toe into sales. I will wear suits, heels, and work from home whenever I want. Beat that.

Then my boys were accepted at a private school in Tampa. As a former public school teacher, I am supposed to hate private schools. But I don’t. The people I know who have attended them are the most tolerant, intelligent folks around. My kids will not be a social experiment. They will feel safe. They will feel secure. And they will receive a superior education no matter what neighborhood we live in.

Despite everything, I can’t tell you how happy I am for this past year.

I got to experience life away from everything I’ve ever taken for granted. I learned to appreciate. I got to join a great synagogue, a writer’s group, political activities, and the PTA. I got to meet some wonderful people I will never let go of and reconnect with others I’ve come to cherish even more. I got to stand up for my beliefs amid hostility and intolerance, which only made me stronger. I got to further appreciate a man who supports anything that is best for his children.

And then I got to come home.

With all its charm and challenges, Tampa is home.

For good.