Mayor Never Mattered More

Whoever the next mayor is, that person will face an immediate crucible. But it will be more than personnel cuts, infrastructure needs, tax rates, city-worker clinics and public-employee pensions. And it will involve more than consolidating services with the county, finishing the Riverwalk, pitching Tampa as a World Cup venue and brainstorming over JOBS-JOBS-JOBS.  

The overriding challenge: How to lead where not enough people ostensibly want to go.

A generic leader, it has been said, takes people where they want to go. Or where they say they want to go. But a truly effective, visionary leader — and arguably tough times mandate no less — takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. Tampa, the catalytic business hub of Hillsborough County, presents precisely that sort of challenge for its next City Hall CEO.

If Tampa cannot manage to incorporate modern mass transit into this region, it will have peaked as a city. And upon peaking, there’s no way to go but down. And the Atlantas, Charlottes, Austins, San Antonios and others will further rise like Phoenixes and gladly enable and accelerate the also-ran slide that we initiated ourselves.

To be candid, we needed grown-up transit a couple of decades ago. So, thanks, again, to those who vilified Ed “Commissioner Choo-Choo” Turanchik. Provincialism stayed on track.

The next mayor will have to do more than venerate the status quo on transit. Much more than concede that “the people have spoken” on a 2010 transit tax. That vote — and the future economic viability of this city and area that it has put into jeopardy — must be seen in context.

A minority of voters (46 per cent) “spoke” at all. Actually a few got out their bullhorns and others lip-synched. Many doubled down on the national anger against government. The 20-something demographic that is most enamored of modern mass transit stayed away from the polls and activism — and the ugly, divisive political process it came to represent — in droves.

The perfect political storm yielded the perfect rhetorical microcosm: “You want to add a penny to the sales tax during a recession! While regional unemployment is above 12 per cent! For a — all together now — government ‘boondoggle’ that won’t pay for itself and won’t be used by everybody!”

Tampa’s next mayor should, despite any political advice to the contrary, embrace a well-used mayoral bully pulpit and make the enlightened self-interest case for Tampa’s future. And present. Modern transit means, ironically, JOBS-JOBS-JOBS. As in the businesses we attract and those we retain. As in those in construction and those that are ripple effects of urban development — and redevelopment — around light rail stations.

And then there are quality-of-life upgrades — from anti-sprawl to anti-gridlock — that impact more than progressive businesses still searching for a “Megatrends” city. John Naisbitt, we are reminded, never noted our narrow thinking.

The next mayor needs to keep impressing upon the suburbs and rural Hillsborough that their stake, including road relief and enhanced bus service, is no afterthought. Any more than intrusive, sprawl-inducing development is a non-factor in their quality of life. Any more than a retro business climate in Tampa impacts everyone. The “No” transit votes were heaviest in Brandon, Plant City and Sun City.

The next mayor may want to heed the counsel of Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Not to get all apocalyptic, but that has to be a prerequisite for whoever takes over in April, even if it’s one of the charisma-challenged candidates. Tampa was behind in transportation. Time was no ally. Now it falls further behind — and sends all the wrong signals to the feds, Gov.-elect Rick Scott, U.S. Rep. John Mica and surrounding, synergistic counties. As of today, there’s an 88-mile, $2.6 billion high-speed rail line designated for a downtown Tampa terminus by 2015. And as of Nov. 2, it will be linking up with whatever HART buses can be spared for shuttle duty.

There will be no lack of residual, high-decibel naysayers who will seek to intimidate the next mayor if a tax for any reason — including one to prevent economic obsolescence — is ever encouraged. They will not want the mayor to deviate from a traditional jobs agenda. Less-than-subtle re-election threats will be a given.  

Of course the next mayor can’t call out the electorate for being stupid and counterproductively selfish. Hardly public official-speak. However tempting. But if the next mayor has both vision and guts, he or she might consider quoting President Abraham Lincoln when he was confronted with a cabinet that resounded with nays on emancipation.

“The ayes have it,” said Lincoln.

Tampa: Sick Transit Gloria

The people have spoken. Well, a few notables yelled and the rest lip-synched. Call the thumbs down on the transit tax a microcosm of what happened nationally. At least it was a bloodless coup. That’s how low the bar has been reset.

Tampa and the rest of Hillsborough County, which needed expanded, modern transit yesterday, will now have ever more time to ponder the implications of falling farther behind the competition. As in those we compete with for, yes, jobs. To recruit the right kind of businesses: the ones that see mass transit as a necessary asset and a quality-of-life  prerequisite. And to retain those still here. Plus jobs generated by construction and the ripple effects of urban development–and redevelopment–around light rail stations. 

How ironic during a recession-induced, unemployment spiral.

But it’s what happens when a region confronts a job-challenged down economy with anti-tax bullhorns and bumper stickers that say, in effect, “Moving Hillsborough Backward” and “If You Like Detroit, You’ll Love Tampa.” Now how taxing will the future be?

And let’s not forget, although it likely was lost on a number of the 47 per cent who bothered to vote, that doubling the number of buses and improving key roads and intersections in the county would have accounted for a majority (57 per cent) of the funds that would have been raised by the one-cent transit tax. And a quarter of that revenue would have been paid by visitors.

Now add the subplot that the transit-tax defeat sends the wrong signals to the feds, the already skeptical Gov.-elect Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who’s expected to chair the House transportation committee–and is much more committed to Orlando than Tampa. Plus, surrounding, synergistic counties. There’s an 88-mile, $2.6 billion high-speed rail line designated for a downtown Tampa terminus by 2015. As of today, it will likely link up with whatever HART buses can be spared for shuttle duty. Maybe those outdated “Tampa: City of Champions” signs can be updated with: “Tampa: Where the 21st Century Meets the 20th.”

Good luck to the next mayor. Pam Iorio fought the good fight for something that had to happen. It may yet. And may it not be too late.

But a mayor’s job is to lead. Not to nod assent to the forces of the status quo because a tax is involved. It will require making the future-economic-viability-is-dependent-on-modern-transit case–not placating the masses, a percentage of whom just doubled down on being angry with government. It will require correlating jobs with overcoming onerous, transportation deficits. It will require equating sprawl disincentives with quality of life. Time is not an ally of this county or of its business hub, Tampa.

Suspended Credibility

So what was the big deal about the suspension of Keith Olbermann by MSNBC for donating money ($2,400 apiece) to three Democratic candidates? You’d think he was a journalist taking sides and hypocritically embarrassing himself and his employer.

But he’s not a journalist. He’s a politically partisan entertainer. One of many. He happens to be on the high-decibel left side of the ideological spectrum balancing out the usual suspects on the outrageous right.

Olbermann doesn’t even have to feign objectivity. Donating money to a candidate is an extension of donating his “Countdown” show, only much less obnoxious. If MSNBC needed a credible reason to suspend Olbermann from “Countdown,” its most popular show, it could have gone with, say, over-the-top arrogance and outlandish cheap shots. But that’s why they hired him.

Don’t Ask Top Marine

If anyone is looking for progressive input on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, they now know not to ask the new commandant of the Marine Corps. Gen. James Amos is on recent record expressing his misgivings about any effort to lift the 17-year-old DA/DT law. Something about possible loss of unit cohesion and combat readiness.

An eminently more sensible policy, one that the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs would accede to, would be: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, But If You Do Tell, So What?” Gen. Amos might consider that the most logical response to the service of gay marines, given the likelihood that they would be pressed into Middle East combat under hellish circumstances, would be: “Thanks.”

TPD’s Most Frustrating Case

The jury–metaphorically, alas–is still out on what, if any, charges will be brought in the frustrating case of Cortnee Brantley, accused of not telling authorities she knew that Dontae Morris was a convicted felon illegally possessing a loaded gun on the night two TPD officers were shot and killed. Brantley left the scene where the two officers lay dying, where every life-seeping second mattered, and later exchanged perverse loyalty texts with Morris, the double-murder suspect.

However this shakes out legally, this much is certain: It’s too bad that conduct unbecoming a human being isn’t a crime. It’s criminal that it isn’t.

Sports Shorts

* We all acknowledge that the quintessential Tampa Bay Ray, veteran Carl Crawford, will soon be an ex-Ray. It’s a function of free agency and the small-market Rays’ announced need to cut payroll. We all understand that Crawford, an All-Star leftfielder and a classy guy, now has his moment to max out.

He is already wealthy. The issue is whether he will sign with a team, say, the Los Angeles Angels, that will make him outrageously wealthy or with one, say, the New York Yankees, that will make him obscenely wealthy. Do the classy thing, Carl, and don’t come back in pinstripes.

* A lot of football fans around here remain disappointed that USF no longer wanted to continue its series with UCF. USF, which won all four games, noted the one-sidedness of the rivalry with the in-state upstart from a non-BCS conference, but really wanted more schedule flexibility. Never mind that both schools could use a natural, I-4 rivalry game that would energize campuses and guarantee big crowds and low-overhead travel.

And ironically look who USA Today now has ranked higher than USF–as well as UF, FSU and Miami? Indeed, UCF, the second-biggest university in the country with more than 56,000 students, is ranked 23rd–and UF 24th. The others didn’t make the top 25.

* We know that Skip Holtz was brought in to take USF to the next level. To do more than pull some upsets and then fade fast and limp off to a minor bowl game. But Holtz also knows that he wasn’t brought in to do better at any price.  Here’s a reminder of his “other” task. The most recent study (that follows the class of 2003) by the NCAA of Graduation Success Rates shows USF at an unflattering 46 per cent for football. The national average was 69 per cent. As for the Big East, USF was eighth out of the eight conference members.

Quoteworthy

* “The Iraqi people are better off with a government that answers to them instead of torturing and murdering them.”–Former President George W. Bush in his memoir, Decision Points, in defense of his decision to invade Iraq.

* “We will get some interesting questions. We will get some outrageous questions. The United States is used to public scrutiny.”–Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council, on the precedent-setting move by the U.S. to submit its human rights record for other nations to scrutinize.

* “I look forward to a reformed U.N. Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.”–President Barack Obama.

* “We’ll work with the administration when they agree with the people, and confront them when they don’t.”–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

* “If Obama wants to get things done, he must recognize that in Washington only the president has the power to make the first big move. He should start by agreeing to extend all the Bush tax cuts for two years. He’ll have to give Republicans something he doesn’t support–an end to hiking taxes on top-earning Americans, for example–and Republicans will have to yield on something they want, namely making the tax cuts permanent. But that’s the only way to make agreements in an era of divided government.”–Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush.

* “Republicans can’t accomplish big things without Democratic help. They can’t defund Obamacare on their own or pass a new tax law.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “Democrats miscalculated that the economic crisis presented a New Deal moment–a chance to expand the social safety net and increase the progressivity of the tax system. Actually, most people just wanted the economy improved.”–Michael Gerson, Washington Post.

* “While the Founders may have generally agreed on a limited government, there was as much debate then on what the proper limits of government should be as there is today.”–Peter R. Henriques, professor emeritus of history at George Mason University and author of “Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington.”

* “It almost forces you to get along.”–Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham on the potential upside to bipartisan control of the House and Senate.

* “I fan the flames of Jon Stewart, because I think he does keep people honest. People are upset that young people get their news from him. But Jon helps lead them to the news, which is a good thing.”–Former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw.

* “No one should be penalized for being wealthy. But no one should be able to purchase high public office, either. As always, the people and the press must vigilantly check ‘checkbook excess.'”–Larry Sabato, director, Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

* “Starting today, I work for every Floridian. I’m giving you my word: Better days are coming.”–Gov-elect Rick Scott.

* “When you’re running the company, you’re the one in charge; everyone has to listen. (As governor) you have to win over a majority of the legislature. It’s a lot easier said than done.”–Independent political consultant Brian Crowley on possible scenarios between Gov. Rick Scott and a veto-proof (GOP) legislature.

* “If I were Bill Young, I wouldn’t stand on any high balconies with Crist.”–GOP consultant and Charlie Crist critic Ana Navarro.

* “It’s petty. They have more important things to do.”–Response of former City Council member John Dingfelder to new Council rules requiring members who step down early to campaign for higher office to sit out a four-year term before running for Council again.

Obama Does “The Daily Show”

If I’m in the company of Jon Stewart fans or, more to the point, pragmatic political operatives and observers, I’m definitely in the minority on this one. President Barack Obama should not — repeat NOT — have gone on “The Daily Show” with Stewart recently. According to the aforementioned PPO&Os: “Get real. You gotta do what you gotta do. Go directly to that demographic. And personally make your case–as no surrogate can–filter free. And in so doing, try one last time to energize and motivate your base barely a week before the election.”

It’s good advice for the orator-in-chief. He’s good. And he’s in trouble. His Administration’s record is vulnerable to partisan attack and his party’s Congressional prospects have been on the ropes for a while. And, what the hell, he’s already done Leno and Letterman.

But the point is this. Context matters. This is, ipso facto, about the presidency, not merely the person, however articulate and charismatic, occupying the “highest office in the land.” It must sound unconscionably old school, but I think it’s demeaning for the president to walk on a late-night comedy set. Period. And one that had just satirically teased “Indecision 2010.” But seriously, folks.

To Stewart’s credit, he’s smart and quick and often funny. He knows more than a lot of the pols and pundits he parodies, but he’s a comedian. He’s paid to be an entertaining smart ass. That’s why when Obama noted–in an unfortunate George W. Bush/”Brownie”-like reference–that top economic adviser Larry Summers had “done a heckuva job,” Stewart responded with, “You don’t want to use that phrase, dude.”

“Dude?” Who cares if Sara Palin’s husband was the “First Dude” of Alaska for a while, but I don’t want my president being referred to as “dude,” unless it’s Michelle doing the dude deed. But it comes with the late-night shtick that passes for repartee.

And even though the president had the opportunity to make points about health care reform, economic recovery and financial reform, he had to make most of them after commercial breaks. As a result, talking about stabilizing the economy seemed more petty than presidential after ads for Kit Kat chocolate bars, Twix and Southern Comfort Lime, a trailer for “The Hangover” and promos for “The T.O (Terrell Owens) Show” and Comedy Central’s own gross-out newcomer, “Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time.” And, alas, more.

Here’s some additional context. John F. Kennedy set the precedent by going on the “Tonight Show” with Jack Paar–before he was president. Witty and telegenic played well. Paar was deferential. And candidate Richard Nixon went on “Tonight” with Steve Allen and played the piano. It was humanizing. And it was smart to go beyond the sober, Sunday morning, political-junkie talk shows.

Now it’s de rigueur for all candidates to hit the late-night, comedy-and-chat circuit. It reaches a substantial market. It’s a savvy campaign move. It’s what contemporary CANDIDATES should do.

But wherever the president goes, so goes the presidency. The office transcends its occupant. It should never be diminished or demeaned, even if it does promise good ratings. Richard Nixon didn’t do his “Laugh In” turn while he was president. Even Bill Clinton, notorious for the liberties he took after the oath of office, didn’t go on Arsenio Hall after he became president.

Frankly, I like my presidents with a ready wit, a captivating presence and an articulate command of the issues. That’s what one-on-one sit-downs and prime time press conferences are for. That’s why Jack Kennedy never returned to the “Tonight Show.”

And as for one last shot at motivating the base, it’s a sad commentary when the prospect of the other (by now demonized) party getting in isn’t sufficiently motivating to the base. That would truly be some sad stuff, dude.

High-Tech High Hopes

USF, to be sure, is no longer that “commuter school” near Temple Terrace. It’s the ninth largest public university in the country with a regional economic impact in excess of $3 billion annually. Its cutting-edge research  reputation ranges from Alzheimer’s to oil-spills. Recession notwithstanding, its Tampa campus alone is in the midst of a $300-million construction boom.

But it just upped the ante again.

USF will now be a major player in the next chapter of downtown Tampa’s development. That’s the upshot of its latest envelope-pushing foray: a 90,000-square-foot, high-tech medical training facility, the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, which will break ground within weeks on South Franklin Street near the Tampa Convention Center. USF paid the city $3.5 million for underutilized, strategically-located land.

It will put USF on the global map when it comes to robotic surgical training. And it will give a synergistic jolt to the area.

CAMLS will attract physicians from around the world. It will also bring in several medical equipment manufacturers that will set up training and R&D offices. It will be a leg up in attracting more prestigious medical conferences to the convention center. And visitors will need a place to stay.

There are a lot of reasons to be bullish on USF these days. Even better is that USF is bullish on downtown.

Apply Common Sense To Panhandling Issue

Anyone who drives is increasingly familiar with this city scene: the burgeoning numbers of panhandlers on Tampa streets.

The economy is part of it. Bad luck is part of it. Self-induced bad luck is part of it. And a ban on street vending in St. Petersburg is a big part of it. According to police, the Tampa panhandler count is now up by a third. No area has been more impacted by the St. Pete action than Tampa.

“The situation has gotten out of control on our streets,” bluntly assesses Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, not one given to alarmist rhetoric. But the urgency of the public-safety issue is why Iorio, who favors a street-solicitor ban, will be lobbying City Council. As for said Council, it had a chance to enact a ban last month — but declined to do so. The Council has done nothing but furrow its collective brow about tough times since mandating those cheesy Home Depot vests.  Now those times are increasingly dangerous as well as tough.

The rising Tampa numbers have even caused a new panhandling dynamic: accounts of squatters’ rights issues and turf scrums at especially prime intersections. It’s merely a matter of time before incidents become accidents. Think queuing panhandlers, distracted motorists and traffic lights that routinely turn from red to green.

And then how quickly will public safety trump recession-related rationales and faux first amendment rights.

But until then, apparently, the issue will have to be studied some more. City Council Chairman Tom Scott indicated that he will wait to see what a Hillsborough County Commission study committee would recommend.

Here’s hoping the Commission committee recommends the use of common sense and a regional ban on roadside solicitation.