Author: opinionstogo

Nobody Asked

*If you know people who like to refer to themselves in the third person , you probably don’t like them.

*Whether it elicits laughs or induces winces, Doonesbury belongs on the editorial page. Now more than ever.

*I’ve never been able to disassociate my views on capital punishment from a quote that emanated from Great Britain’s debate on its abolition (for murder). Out of the House of Lords came these words of Lord Gardiner, the Lord Chancellor: “I think that human beings who are not infallible ought not to choose a form of punishment which is irreparable.”

*Periodically, the name of John Hinckley Jr. , President Ronald Reagan’s nearly successful assassin, is recycled into our consciousness. His therapist, we are told, says Hinckley is no longer a threat. Unfortunately for Hinckley — and unlike other would-be murderers — that will never be enough to secure his release from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington.

Hinckley is more symbol than patient or inmate. John Walker Lindh, for example, will be out and studying Arabic while Hinckley is a senior citizen at St. Elizabeth. He will remain a prisoner of an unwritten American law: “You can’t shoot a president and walk. Ever.” Whether it was politics, demons or Jodie Foster that prompted it. *Nothing should surprise us anymore regarding Michael Jackson . That, alas, includes parents still willing to sign off on a Jacko sleepover for their kids — part of the obscene price paid by a society whose obsessive appetite for celebrity can’t be sated.

*Should GDP keep ratcheting up, productivity maintain its ascent and unemployment slide south, next year’s presidential election may not be a referendum on “the economy, stupid” as it almost always is.

What it may be is what it should be in post 9/11 America . How do we best protect ourselves against perverted Islam, and what is the proper role of the U.S. vis a vis the rest of the civilized world, including Israel?

Rhetoric about “tax cuts for the rich,” exported jobs, the deficit, and even prescription drug benefits and Social Security will look like the emptiest of abstractions if life as we prefer it should end. Anyone think 9/11 was as bad as it can get?

*It’s understandable that lots of demonstrators — from Trafalgar Square to Main Street would vent against President Bush over Iraq. It’s less understandable — but hardly unexpected — that demonstrators would also protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting. There have even been go-figure gatherings in support of Michael Jackson.

But here’s a scenario that has yet to unfold. Demonstrations so organized, so huge and so loud as to concentrate the attention of the entire world, including the Middle East, on this verity: the sheer cruelty and barbarity perpetuated by Muslim fanatics is beyond condemnation. But it’s not beyond elimination. They threaten civilization and must be eradicated like any other plague.

Surely the cause of death, despair and evil has adversaries willingly to speak out. Surely.

*So much was written regarding the 40th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination that it’s hard to say anything that isn’t redundant. But I’ll try. How unfortunate that Bill Clinton’s boyhood hero was Kennedy — not Harry Truman.

*I guess I just don’t get it, but I don’t see undocumented, immigrant students being asked to pay out-of-state tuition at Florida public universities as some injustice worthy of outrage and legislation. Why should we expect a student from, say, Thomasville, Georgia to pay out-of-state tuition at Florida State, but not the student from Bogota, Colombia or Montevideo, Uruguay?

In a Panglossian scenario, we would welcome and subsidize everyone in the world who wanted to come here. For a lot of obvious reasons, we can’t — and that includes providing additional incentives for illegal immigration.

* Peter Jennings was in town a fortnight ago, and in several disparate forums underscored that he is very much a pro’s pro. He qualifies as a media elite, but hardly acted the part. Much more than unflappable. Urbane but not pretentious. Witty but not sarcastic. Casual — but not patronizing. Informed — but not fulsomely so. Speaking — but not in lieu of listening.

His aplomb was no less manifest among café con leche-sipping Hispanics, with media representatives at a formal panel discussion or on the portable anchor set of World News Tonight. A lot of local media would have been well served to have taken notes.

*Tampa’s Pam Iorio , not unlike other major city mayors, has her share of frustrations. Anything to do with HARTline surely makes her short list. Getting the new art museum out of the ground is likely there too. Then there are LaBrake leftovers and security concerns. There’s fallout from a county commission that can still dysfunction with the best. Drug deals and code violations still occur. Not everyone agrees with her on condo towers in the Channel District.

And yet, an educated guess is that her short list is topped by the homeless. It’s one of those visceral issues — where the humanitarian and the pragmatic collide. Where doing the right thing for all but the homeless doesn’t feel very righteous.

While not a social engineer, the mayor, at her core, is a do-gooder. Especially on behalf of the disadvantaged and disaffected — whatever their story. The story of the homeless, however, is problematic. For one, it’s not a housing problem. It’s largely one of addiction and institutionalization.

But it’s also a litter, panhandle, public health, and, well, image problem. Image sounds so shallow — so, well, political — when juxtaposed to the “homeless.” But if you’re the mayor, the realization of downtown’s business and visitor potential is no superficial issue. Neither is the maintenance of a clean, odor-and-flasher-free library for tax-paying residents. Been to San Francisco lately?

*Two weeks ago Orlando broke ground for the Florida A&M University Law School. Good for Orlando, good for FAMU — but better for Tampa. As you’ll recall, Tampa was not “selected” for the FAMU project, which would have involved, among other giveaways, free riverfront land. Instead, Tampa SOLD the downtown parcel to Stetson University College of Law, which will have its impressive, new law school facility ready in the coming year.

*Finally. Elections chief Miriam Oliphant , Broward County’s icon to incompetence, has been removed from office by Gov. Jeb Bush. Apparently there actually is a limit to how much gross mismanagement is tolerable when the politics of race is involved. What was outrageous was that Broward voters were held hostage so long to Oliphant’s electoral bungling and cronyism.

*I hope Madstone Theaters in Old Hyde Park Village makes it. For bringing in movies and a theater ambience that are not aimed at 15-year-old boys and for helping to re-energize the Village. Having said that, I can’t help but remain skeptical that a destination for the “sophisticated” movie set will be a big winner. I wonder if that niche is viable enough. It will require regional patronage as well as support from the neighborhood.

Then again, I never expected to see Neiman Marcus in our town. Now if Crate ‘n Barrel opens in the Village

Peter Jennings Comes Calling on Tampa

Tampa is no stranger to national news — from Teddy Roosevelt prepping for Cuba to the Buccaneers canning of Keyshawn. National correspondents have reported on a wide spectrum of Tampa-generated stories ranging from MacDill’s role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the war on terror to city council’s efforts in the battle against lap-dancing.

Never, however, until last week did we have a national network newscast actually anchor itself here. As if Tampa, itself, were of an interest that transcended that day’s headlines.

So when Peter Jennings of ABC’s World News Tonight reported on same sex marriage in Massachusetts, retaliation in Iraq, President Bush in London, Michael Jackson in denial and Rush Limbaugh out of rehab — with a backdrop of downtown Tampa — it was a pretty big deal. And not just to the genuflecting affiliate, WFTS-Channel 28.

Mercifully, there was no mention of lap dances, senior citizens, hanging chads — or fired wide receivers.

In the first of his two Tampa newscasts from outside the Tampa Museum of Art, Jennings stated that he was reporting from the biggest city “on the Western flank of Florida.” It was a place, he said, that was an intriguing barometer of presidential politics, one with a significant Latino population.

He pointed out that in the 2000 election, Hillsborough County voted 48.8 percent for George W. Bush and 48.8 percent for Al Gore. “If you want to win Florida,” opined Jennings, “you’d better get Hillsborough on your side.”

Among those up close and personally privy to the Jennings’ style was Patrick Manteiga, editor and publisher of the Ybor City-based, trilingual weekly La Gaceta . He met with Jennings at Ybor’s Tropicana restaurant. Members of Jennings’ staff had contacted him to see if he would be available to chat “about Cuban politics” and if he could round up a few locals to talk shop. Answering Manteiga’s call were several “yellow dog Democrats” and a lone Republican.

“We had about a 20-minute conversation,” recalled Manteiga. “Jennings has a very easy going demeanor. He’s somebody who talks TO you — not above you. He takes his own notes. He was sharp and witty. I was very impressed.

“He seemed to have a pretty good grasp,” added Manteiga. “He certainly understood the difference between Miami and Tampa Cubans. And he apparently speaks Spanish. The banter certainly sounded good.”

Manteiga was surprised that Cuba wasn’t the focal point of the discussion. Just one of a number of topics, including local reaction to the war in Iraq. But he was satisfied with the sound bite selected from the conversation.

“It’s a potluck kind of thing,” said Manteiga. “You never know what they’ll choose. But what they pulled was fine.” It was a quote about the diversity within the Hispanic community.

“A lot of politicians want to treat us as a tribe

UT Profs Advise Mexicans

Earlier this year, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani paid a very high-profile visit to Mexico. His consulting firm was there to advise Mexican officials on matters related to crime and endemic corruption.

He preached the gospel of zero tolerance. It was a strategy that had brought results in New York — no modest accomplishment.

Last month another American contingent visited Mexico on a similar mission. Only this one was well under the publicity radar. And it brought a different message.

The group of four academics included three University of Tampa criminology professors: Christopher Capsambelis, Anthony LaRose and Thomas Hickey. Under the auspices of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, they were invited to make presentations to police and justice officials regarding Mexico’s well documented bribe culture — or “mordida.” Their advice: endemic corruption does not lend itself to zero tolerance. Forget that approach.

“If change is going to occur, it will have to involve a change in the culture,” stated Hickey, an expert in U.S. constitutional law. “We’re talking long-term enterprise. Zero tolerance is just a Band-Aid, sound-bite solution that displaces people to other social service agencies. And Mexico doesn’t have that kind of safety net.”

The only realistic strategy, said Hickey, was two-pronged and would likely span at least three generations. From the top down, it had to be communicated that “mordida” was no longer acceptable. He was encouraged, he said, because the rank-and-file officers they met “overwhelmingly” expressed the view that they didn’t want to be regarded as corrupt.

But more important was education, he stressed, which meant schools and — especially — the home. “Parents need to develop a sense of conscience in their kids,” he explained. And, yes, there was reason for optimism because the sense of family — and extended family — is so strong, he noted.

Hickey likened the approach to America’s experience with anti-smoking campaigns. They’re having an impact, but it didn’t happen overnight.

“It really begins within the structure of the family and the educational system,” underscored Hickey. “Reductionist, simplistic suggestions are just Band-Aids and won’t affect long-term change.”

Keyshawn: Gone But Not, Alas, Forgotten

The world of professional sports is often at odds with logic. It finally prevailed, however, when the Bucs jettisoned Keyshawn Johnson.

For several years, one of them a Super Bowl season, “Meshawn” was contributing enough to offset his singularly selfish, sophomoric, the-rules-don’t-apply-to-me attitude. He was valuable enough to negate the classless manner in which he went about showing up his coach.

But that all changed when the team started to lose. Worse than tolerating a talented, morale-infecting brat is tolerating a talented, morale-infecting brat while losing. That makes no sense, regardless of the financial implications. The logic of the ultimate bottom line, W’s and L’s — finally caught up to Keyshawn and his tenure in Tampa. Would that he had enough class to be embarrassed.

He won’t be missed. What will be missed is what could have been had Johnson ever grown up.

Built-Out Clearwater Recruits Redevelopment

CLEARWATER — This city wants to be known for more than a great beach, awesome sunsets and a drive-thru downtown.

To that end, city officials are aggressively marketing downtown to developers, getting creative with incentive packages and investing in infrastructure amenities. The word has gone out: there are prime parcels — public and private — for redevelopment. Among them: City Hall itself, which overlooks the harbor.

According to Reg Owens, the city’s director of economic development and housing, the campaign has generated about 65 face-to-face meetings with developers — predominately residential — over the last year.

“What’s really driving us is the national trend for urban living,” points out Owens. “Clearwater is safe and clean. Properties can be assembled, and there’s a water view. And now that so much is built out, developers are looking at infill projects. We qualify.”

The city would get no argument from Nick Pavonetti, director of development for Beck Development LLC. Beck is positioned to begin the 140-condo-unit Station Square by the end of the first quarter of ’04.

“Clearwater is ripe for downtown residential,” states Pavonetti. “The support of everyone from Mayor (Brian) Aungst down is the reason we’re here.”

Among other planned downtown projects is the 20-story, $80-million Clearwater Bay Club, a hotel-condo-retail hybrid.

“If you’re putting something into the ground, this is the place,” says Lee Arnold, CEO and chairman of Colliers Arnold, the developer of Clearwater Bay Club. “We see pent-up demand.”

Ralph Stone, Clearwater’s assistant city manager, put the prospects in perspective.

“Clearwater doesn’t enjoy position on the transportation network, but we do enjoy a unique piece of geography,” points out Stone. “We can bring the waterfront into downtown. This could be Dunedin on steroids.”

City officials have also looked west — and did a double take when they glimpsed their pristine beach through the filter of reality. It was world-class in sand and water — but second-class in its many tired properties.

While the proposed $350-million Blue Isle Resort remains uncertain, it’s nothing but clear sailing for JMC Communities. Last year they opened the Mandalay Beach Club luxury condos. JMC is currently building Belle Harbor Condominiums, which will total 200 residences, some priced at more than $1 million.

“We looked at the beach market and saw a lack of recent quality development,” says Lee Allen, JMC’s vice president of finance. “A lack of supply of quality second homes.”

It’s the same story for hotels, according to Richard Gehring, a partner in the ownership group that is developing the Seashell Hotel near mid-beach. Seashell Resort LLD hopes to break ground by the end of next year on its 250-unit, $85-million project.

“We’ve had a lot of city support on issues such as density,” says Gehring. “There’s been no new resort development here for some time. And there’s still strong visitation.”

It’s all enough to get Mike Meidel gushing like the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce president that he is. “I’d call it a self-feeding catalyst,” says Meidel. “The city doing streetscapes and public amenities pools. We’re recruiting retail and restaurants. A number of residential properties are going through the permitting process. All the parts are coming together.”

Infrastructure Help

Clearwater’s synergistic scenario for redevelopment includes more than $100 million worth of capital infrastructure improvements downtown and on the beach. Among them:

*The $64.2-million Memorial Causeway Bridge, set to open in early ’04.

*A 90,000-square-foot, $20-million main public library.

*A $7.5 redevelopment of Coachman Park and environs.

*$13.6 million worth of (downtown) streetscaping.

*Town Lake: $11.8-million urban park and lake.

*Approved plans for a 138-slip marina

*$2.5 million for streetscaping Mandalay Avenue on the North Beach

*Commitment to future development of a pedestrian beach promenade

Advice For Schiavo: Be Above Bashing

Who among us doesn’t ache for all immediately touched by the tragic Terri Schiavo case? Having said that, if I were advising Michael Schiavo, I’d make a couple of suggestions. And they are, admittedly, designed to help carry the day in the court of public opinion. That may seem coldly calculating to some, but isn’t that why Schiavo and his attorney, George Felos, went on Larry King?

To wit: “Michael, you can’t help looking drained and anxiety-ridden at this point. The ordeal has taken an obvious toll on you. But you don’t have to sound as cold as you do. So do this. Play up dignity and empathy and play down the obvious animus with the Schindlers. Frankly, something tells me you might not have been on the best of terms during the best of times.

“Try this: In any public forum, always, always include a preamble that acknowledges that you understand in a very visceral way the Schindlers’ position. Even though you adamantly oppose it.

“But do agree that any parent, given such traumatic circumstances, could understandably be driven to see what they want to see. After all, how emotionally wrenching must it be to gaze upon your own flesh and blood in such a state? And yet there is life.

“As a result, what parent wouldn’t want an infinite number of straws to grasp? Who, under such unfathomable stress, wouldn’t perceive possible signs of possibly meaningful cognition? Who, then, wouldn’t hold out for a miracle recovery? Parents can’t just go on with their lives after the natural order of life has been reversed.

“Then make your case, which you articulate well, for what you believe Terri would have wanted — given the nature of her well-documented ‘permanent vegetative state.’

“As you know, there is no happy ending. There is just the most merciful conclusion, one based on a humane preference that you — her husband and legal guardian — were privy to.

“Let others criticize the Schindlers and castigate the right-to-life crowd, the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush. Be about Terri — but above the bashing.”

Courting Judgment

*The ambiguity over Scott Peterson’s alibi would rule me out as an unbiased juror. Here’s a guy — whose wife is eight months pregnant — trying to decide whether he should play golf or go fishing on Christmas Eve. Next case.

*The media need to be more precise when reporting on trial results. Defendants, as we know, are convicted or acquitted as a result of having been adjudged “guilty” or “not guilty.” The latter, however, is not synonymous with “innocent.” It’s a moral judgment, not a legal term; its use is inappropriate when assessing the result of evidence presented and doubts weighed.

Case in point: “Fugitive Heir Found Innocent of Murder.” A number of media outlets — especially on line — actually found that to be an appropriate headline for the not-guilty verdict rendered in the notorious case of New York real estate heir Robert Durst.

Here’s a rule of thumb: Never use “innocent” in a case where a defendant has acknowledged dismembering a body.

One Punch, One Death, One More Question

For those family members personally impacted by the “one punch” death last year of 18-year-old Christopher Fannon, the recent mistrial must be agonizing. Jurors deadlocked over whether the freakish, lethal punch — thrown by defendant Alan Thompson, 22 — was a matter of murder or manslaughter.

A retrial awaits.

But something else lingers on. A different question.

Fannon, a Sickles High School senior, was out with some buddies the night he was felled by that punch at a Citrus Park Steak n Shake. At 3:30 a.m. Not to be insensitive, but what rationale was so compelling — including approaching graduation — that permission was given or inferred for a group of high school teens to be out at such an hour? There are, as we all know all too well, a number of things that can happen at that hour. Almost all are bad; some tragic.

Big Yeast Rising

For too many years USF bore the burden of an unfortunate inferiority complex. “South Florida” was a confusing, geographic misnomer. The university was “merely a commuter school.” It was some Brobdingnagian misfit — the biggest school in the country without a football team. It was this area’s “best kept secret.” Etc.

No more.

USF is an acknowledged national player among urban research universities. It has taken quantum leaps in on-campus housing. Its annual regional economic impact is measured in 10 figures. It’s unabashedly accessible to its students and plays a key, hands-on partnership role — from health clinics to urban planning — with its community.

And, yes, it has a head-turning, 1-A football program that calls the best stadium in the country home.

And now that football team — and all other intercollegiate sports — will soon be part of the Big East Conference. Definitely, by 2005. Possibly, by 2004.

The Big East is big prestige and bigger dollars than USF is used to. It means entrée into the media markets of New York, Philadelphia and Washington. It means name-dropping Notre Dame. And it means the basketball program may finally find a niche other than under-achiever.

There’s also another reality. In the higher ed scheme of things, it shouldn’t matter whether you’re in a BCS conference or not. Nor should it matter how you are represented on the fields and courts of play. But it does. Unless you are an ivy-festooned institution founded in the 18th or 19th centuries, having this kind of high national profile matters a lot. And it matters across the board — from endowment gifts to student and faculty recruiting.

It took a while, but USF obviously has learned a key lesson. If you choose to play, you must play to win. With an enrollment of 40,000 and the nation’s 13th largest TV market, USF couldn’t be satisfied with staying in Conference USA any more than it could have been content with playing 1-AA football.

St. Pete’s Bad Rap

Some folks love nothing more than a really vulgar, really loud, cacophonous performance. Others don’t. That juxtaposition apparently accounts for what happened last weekend at Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg. The “Urban Car Show” tour, featuring rapper 50-Cent, was in concert. It is what it is.

A number of those not among the 5,300 attendees complained. Perhaps they had only themselves to blame. They were, after all, walking, driving, boating and living nearby. Anyway, the UCS was that loud and, apparently, that crude. By all accounts, the complaints were pretty loud too — many of which were aimed at city officials. As in never ever put something like this here again.

And those officials should have been chewed out. The city, whether it was clueless about rap or feckless about its fans, actually co-sponsored the event. Maybe officials were just amenable to authorizing anything that didn’t promise a public suicide.

Some, of course, are already characterizing this as a free speech/censorship issue. While an exercise in First Amendment parody might be more accurate, it needn’t come down to that. Nor is it about “dissing” somebody’s “art.”

This is a matter of responsible judgment — and lack thereof. It’s a matter of what a city will sponsor and what it will permit as a venue.

Its decision must be based on more than the preferences of sponsors and fans. Neighbors and passersby shouldn’t have to be hostage to assaultive entertainment. That’s not an acceptable trade-off. Vinoy Park, a jewel along downtown St. Pete’s waterfront, was not appropriate for a hip-hop performance headlined by 50-Cent. Not even close.

If the “Urban Car Show” couldn’t be accommodated in an enclosed concert venue, it should have been detoured somewhere else. Atlanta comes readily to mind.