Author: opinionstogo

Like a lot of Hyde Park residents, I dutifully filled out my “Design Guideline Revisions” comment sheet. I like where I live and care about its context. It’s not Cheval by the Bay.

I checked Option 1, which unabashedly mentions the word “historic.” It notes that “new construction would reflect traditional styles currently found in the district.”

That’s a sentence Bill Clinton could parse to death, but it’s serviceable and sensible.

Option 2 says “guidelines that allow for influences from the mid-20th century and early 21st century would permit contemporary structures to be built.”

Sounds like a loophole the size of a McMansion, which is where we came in, isn’t it?

U.S. Congressman Adam Putnam is, at 27, the youngest member of Congress. Were he an intern or a page, the Bartow redhead might still get some doubletakes. He’s that boyish looking.

His early Washington experience includes being ID-carded by political-reception bartenders as well as Capitol security. He’s heard all the age jokes — and retells his share. He’s obviously savvy enough to know that self-deprecating humor usually plays well. Why not use it and defuse it?

He cites, for example, the increasing number of politicians who have had to rationalize, if not lamely explain, embarrassing incidents of their past as “youthful indiscretions.” We the empathetic public tend to cut them some slack because we’ve all been that age and, well, done that.

“You can imagine what that does for a guy like me,” deadpans Putnam.

But the rookie Republican rep knows that the age card is a double-edged one. You can, of course, look too young for a big job, or you can appear surprisingly mature beyond your years — and appearance. It’s a variation on the expectations theme — a scenario that has benefited, among others, President George W. Bush, who also played, lest we forget, the “youthful indiscretion” card.

Putnam, whose 12th district will include a redistricted sliver of Temple Terrace, acquitted himself well in a recent talk to the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa. The fifth generation Floridian may look like Opie, but he communicates more like Ron Howard.

Cut clean and conservative, he’s more Up With People than MTV. He’s hardly a poster pol for the greens.

He doesn’t cringe, for example, at the prospect of drilling in 2,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nor does he think campaign finance reform is such an urgent issue.

To wit:

*”Florida is the only Gulf state that objects to drilling

When Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Pam Iorio opted out of the mayoral race she was a formidable, de facto candidate in, speculation was rife as to where her support would go. Conventional wisdom said that the lion’s share was likely to be divvied up between City Councilman Bob Buckhorn and business consultant Frank Sanchez.

Word now has it that Sanchez is getting more than his share of Iorions. And that includes more than half the members of Iorio’s erstwhile finance committee as well as key members of an incipient Iorio real estate/development committee.

They are not the Bucs, Rays or Lightning, but they do represent Tampa and surrounding counties — and they are perennial winners.

So, congratulations again to the acclaimed Toast of Tampa Show Chorus. The 93-woman, barbershop-style singing group finished first at the recent Atlantic Gulf Region of Sweet Adelines International competition in Orlando.

TOT topped 14 contenders from around the state to advance to the International Chorus Championship next year in Phoenix.

To some, this might sound, at some point, insensitive. It’s certainly not meant to be. To others, it may seem cruel. It’s assuredly not meant to be that either.

The intent, however, is to put something sad into perspective. The intent is also to lessen the chances of more such sadness.

Barely a fortnight ago, three Tampa teenagers, ages 15, 16 and 17, were killed when the stolen car they were in crashed. The wreck, a particularly horrific one, ended a brief chase by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies. The 15-year-old driver survived, tried to flee and was arrested.

Predictably and understandably enough, media coverage focused on young lives lost and the pursuit policy of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department. Grieving mothers wanted to know why their sons — cruising in a stolen car after 10:00 p.m. on a school night — had to be chased.

Seems to me that asking more immediate and obvious questions — like Where? What for? With whom? Are you kidding? — might have obviated the need to ask one about the Sheriff’s chase policy.

And speaking of said policy, the department apparently followed its guidelines. That included verifying that a felony had been committed and getting the pursuit go-ahead from a supervisor weighing a checklist of criteria. A sheriff’s deputy even set stop-sticks, designed to deflate a car’s tires, but the fleeing vehicle went around them. It eventually careened into a median and struck a concrete overpass support.

The following day grief counselors were at Hillsborough High School, where one of the victims, 17-year-old James Lumpkins, was a student. The resultant talk, according to a school district spokesperson, was “all positive about the student.”

Lumpkins and two buddies, however, were not 9/11 victims, innocent bystanders or “life isn’t fair” poster boys. They were, although teenagers, fleeing felons.

Here’s another approach.

In lieu of grief counselors, send a deputy and crime scene photos to Hillsborough High. Call an assembly and say, in effect: “This is the result of a group of young men, one of them a Hillsborough High student, thumbing their noses at society and stealing someone’s car because — they wanted to. All they cared about was what they wanted. The law? Other people’s property? Anyone who got in their way? Not a concern of theirs. This is sad, and it’s a shame. But we’re not here for eulogies today.

“What they did ended this way because we would not let them get away with it — and they chose to run. Life is about choices.

“Any questions?”