No Room For Provincialism

Look who’s back in the city council hunt: Joe Caetano. The New Tampa resident who  represented District 7 from 2007-11, wants his old North Tampa seat back. The one that was won by Lisa Montelione. Last time, Caetano finished third and didn’t make the run-off.

Caetano’s comments upon filing, however, don’t sound like the stuff of a successful comeback. More like the sour-grapes rhetoric of provincialism, something we always need less of around here.

“I think the city is concentrating on downtown too much,” assessed Caetano after indicating that he had no plans to use the Riverwalk.

So be it. Too bad in annexing New Tampa, the city couldn’t extend to all its residents a sense of enlightened self-interest in this city’s downtown–and future. An energized, economically-revitalized city core is not some zero-sum City Hall master plan. It’s not the sole purview of downtown movers, shakers, workers and residents. It’s everybody’s front porch, everybody’s Riverwalk, everybody’s Tampa. Including all those who sit on city council.

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