We call ourselves the Tampa Bay market for more than geographical reasons. It’s because contiguous counties can carry more clout collectively than individual entities, notably municipal ones. From beaches to bio-tech, from phosphate to higher education, from the Salvador Dali Museum to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, from Tarpon Springs to Ybor City. [...]
OK, so how many of you who can’t countenance the depressing reality that Sarah Palin remains a viable presidential candidate and are infuriated that the media enabled her book-huckster tour – still watched either the Oprah Winfrey or the Barbara Walters’ interviews? Same here. Enough to give perverse curiosity a bad name. Think: “Octo-Mom.” [...]
Once again Notre Dame seems primed to change head coaches. Incumbent Charlie Weis has been as disappointing as his two fired predecessors, Bob Davie and Ty Willingham. And once again the name of Florida’s Urban Meyer is prominent in the speculation about a successor. To date, Meyer has done and said everything to indicate that [...]
*Speaking of UF, it’s near certain that, barring injury, Tim Tebow will soon become the SEC’s all-time, total-offense leader. He needs about 300 more yards to surpass – Chris Leak. Remember him? The “other quarterback” – who only led the Gators to a national championship – in the first year of the Tebow era. *At [...]
“When we started talking about what we could do, we discovered that the city picked up garbage only on land – nobody had the job of cleaning it up once it was in the water.” – Vince Albanese, one of the founders of the 3-year-old, award-winning Green Armada, whose flat-bottomed boat helps remove debris from [...]
The “David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts.” That will soon be the new name for the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. By any other name, however, we are talking about one of the premier performing arts venues in the Southeast. Recall its brief, uniquely Tampa, history. Tampa was a late cultural bloomer. [...]
Call me naïve. I just assumed those pious-looking Salvation Army folks ringing holiday bells in front of collection kettles were volunteers. Actually, they’re minimum wage employees. In a better economy, many of those jobs would go unfilled. Not now. The Salvation Army recently hired more than 200 bell ringers in St. Petersburg – at $7.25 [...]
“This is an opportunity to create a jewel. …That’s why we’re working so hard collectively to make it work.” – Mark Huey, Tampa’s administrator for economic development, on the prospects of USF choosing the Heights for its Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation. “Dogs inspire us to be better than we are, while cats [...]
As the campaign over transportation inevitably ratchets up, the myriad of issues — as defined by opponents and advocates — will be regularly reoccurring news staples. Most will be economics-driven. Some will be ideological. *A tax hike during a recession, one that would give Hillsborough County the highest sales tax in the state. *Questions about [...]
Tampa City Council is to be commended for not falling for the siren song of “local preference” in recently voting not to give local businesses, however tempting, an insider’s advantage on government contracts. We all want to take care of our own first, but not at the risk of limiting competition, increasing costs, encouraging retaliation [...]
