New Jersey Fix

Now it’s official. The 2014 Super Bowl is going to New Jersey, aka New York for such occasions.

This despite an NFL-mandated 50-degree temperature limit for Super Bowl-designated outdoor stadiums. So much for precedent and common sense. The weather-suitable-for-a-centerpiece-marquee-Roman-numeraled-game rule is now superseded by another rule. This one says: If you build a new ($1.6 billion) facility, even one without a roof, but it’s pretty close to New York, the Commissioner will put the fix in, and you’ll get the big winter game in the New Meadowlands Stadium.  

So, Super Bowl XLVIII. Feb 2, 2014. In East Rutherford, N.J. Enjoy.

Fox Folly

It was no surprise to see some moron sprint onto  Tropicana Field the other day during a Rays-Mariners game. Idiocy runs in cycles. We appear to be in one.

What was surprising, however, was that Fox, which was televising Tampa Bay-Seattle nationally, chose to show the whole incident, including the security gang-tackle. Wrong choice.

Getting maximum attention is why such “fans” do such things. It’s a look-at-me trade-off for an arrest and a take-down.

The only exception should be if a taser is used to subdue the trespasser. That’s a much tougher trade-off for fleeting fame — and a likely disincentive.

Revel With A Cause: GOP To Convene Here

Tampa is entitled to some basking. Welcome, 2012 Republican National Convention.

Tampa finally landed that quadrennial political gathering that had been eluding this town for too long. You host multiple Super Bowls — and you’re the keystone of the ultimate battleground state — and the GOP chooses the Democratic stronghold of Minneapolis, Minn.? But that was then — 2008 — and this is not.

In two years Tampa will see an influx of 40,000 to 50,000 people during the visitor-challenged month of August. It will also gain international exposure and reap more than $100 million in economic impact. By some calculations, a lot more. And more to the point, the city — as well as the state — won’t be on the hook for a dime. (As part of its 2008 bid, Tampa estimated its out-of-pocket costs at more than $12 million.)

And thank you, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele — as incongruous as that sounds politically — for underscoring the reality that Tampa was not chosen by “default.” Recall that a number of pols and pundits had speculated that Phoenix was too intolerant of illegal Hispanic immigrants, and Salt Lake City was “too white” and “too Mormon.”

As Steele himself said: “It was strictly a business decision. We were well into the process with our site-selection visits even before the immigration issue. By default? Not at all. Our decision was based on the capacity and capability of cities to meet the demands of 50,000 people.”

Minimum criteria mandated a convention facility seating at least 18,000, access to at least 15,000 hotel rooms, 350,000 square feet for media and parking for up to 300 buses and 1,500 cars. Not a problem. Beyond that, Tampa has a better amenity package to offer — including hotel accommodations, museums, the Riverwalk and tourist attractions — than it did in previous bids. Channelside Bay Plaza and Ybor City should see their share of off-time visitors. This isn’t the beach crowd that is coming in to venerate Sarah Palin and nominate Mitt Romney.

Steele  emphasized that the RNC also wanted its delegates to get “the full experience of Tampa” — not just be satisfied “sitting in the convention hall.” The RNC, he said, wanted to “take the flavor of Tampa and make it part of the convention experience.”

That had to please a whole host of civic movers and shakers — from Pam Iorio to Joe Redner.

The time for basking, however, is just about up. Now comes the prep work. And then it’s gearing up for that fifth Super Bowl pitch. And some 2018 World Cup matches.

Driven To Inaction Over Texting

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted, cell-phone-tethered drivers were to blame for an estimated 6,000 deaths and a half-million injuries in 2008. The overwhelming, specific cause: texting behind the wheel. To further quantify the ever-growing threat: more than 135 billion text messages are now sent monthly. That’s an 80 per cent increase from 2008. While the number of alcohol-related deaths has been declining over the last 30 years, the toll from cell-phoning drivers has been increasing exponentially.

The disturbing trend is why United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has issued a global call to end distracted driving. He’s already started with the U.N. Its 40,000 employees are barred from text messaging while operating vehicles on official business. At last count, 32 countries — including Brazil, France, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom — have passed laws restricting drivers’ use of hand-held devices.

In this country, 26 states and the District of Columbia now prohibit texting while driving. It’s why President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning texting while driving on federal business. It’s why Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is pushing for tougher laws and more enforcement. It’s why the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is on a mission to have legislation in place by 2013 for nationwide restrictions. And it’s why Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill that would require states to ban texting while driving — or else lose 25 per cent of their allocated federal highway funds. (In Florida’s case that would be about $195 million.)

Among those not yet part of the trend to rein in this menace that inevitably kills and maims: Florida. The recent legislative session, the one that relied on trust-fund raids and disappearing stimulus dollars in lieu of long-term, revenue-raising solutions, left it unaddressed. Again.

No reason, let alone rationalizations about personal responsibility and governmental intrusions, is acceptable. This is a matter of public safety. It’s also a matter that is eminently preventable. Texting drivers are not multi-tasking mavens. They are drivers who are demonstrably more distracted than if they were legally drunk.

It’s an ongoing outrage that drivers would be so cavalier and careless. It’s an absolute obscenity that those with the legislative wherewithal to do something about it, don’t.

Godspeed, Team America

If it’s not on your bucket list, please add it: Check out a shuttle launch. After Friday’s launch of Atlantis’ final voyage into orbit, there remain but two more. Discovery is scheduled to go up Sept. 16 and then Endeavour in mid-November. NASA plans to end the 30-year program by the end of this year.

Here’s why more than 40,000 spectators packed the Kennedy Space Center area last week. For the same reasons I was there three years ago for Discovery — after having exhausted all the usual excuses: not logistically convenient; susceptible to scrubs; easy to take for granted.    

Here’s what the scene that day looked like:

The otherwise nondescript banks of the Banana River, near Port Canaveral, about 10 miles south of Kennedy Space Center launch pads. Perhaps a thousand people, mainly couples and families, had parked two- and three-deep along State Road 528.

The ad hoc hub was an RV with a big American flag and a large antenna representing the Launch Information Service & Amateur TV Systems, part of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Its speakers were chronicling countdown information. It was also there just in case. Just in case something went horribly wrong with a shuttle that sits atop a half million gallons of rocket fuel and belches 7 million pounds of thrust. LISATS helped defray expenses by selling — for a donation — Space Shuttle Discovery Launch Witness certificates with names computer-printed. Of course, I got one and framed it.

Ninety minutes before scheduled launch, the atmosphere, although rife with anticipation, was casual and friendly. Refreshingly so. The air was occasionally punctuated with heavily-accented German, French and Spanish. Some of the English speakers were British, Australian and Welsh. Out-of-town license plates — from Oklahoma and Texas to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — were almost as numerous as those from Florida. For some reason, North “First in Flight” Carolina plates seemed especially plentiful.

Folding chairs, blankets, binoculars and video and still cameras were much in evidence. People sat on roofs and hoods. But no music, no grills, no adult beverages and no boorish behavior. Tailgating NASA-style. Folks ready to revel with a cause.

That’s what makes it special. This is Team America accomplishing something important by flawlessly sending up another mission to the International Space Station. It’s a respite, however brief, from everything else. From everything that is wrong economically and politically. From partisanship and pandering. From natural disasters, man-made calamities and celebrity meltdowns. It’s seeing “Mission Accomplished” without the cynical, mendacious spin.

Say what you will about domestic priorities and the relative merits of travel beyond earth’s orbit, the moment you see that orange sphere separate itself from terra firma is an uplifting, patriotic rush. At that second, man realizing his potential to transcend his own limits is no mere abstraction. No more than earthly applications of space-travel technology and weightless experimentation.

We overuse and often insult the meaning of “hero.” But these shuttle astronauts redefine it. Memories of Challenger and Columbia are ever present and unspoken as eyes squint to follow the diminishing, booster-less dot and breaths are collectively held as the contrails slowly diffuse.

Godspeed, Discovery and Endeavor.

It’s worth it.

Diploma Bar Raised

Here’s the part that everybody probably gets. A high school diploma in Florida will soon become more meaningful and more relevant. Presumably everyone, even the foremost exponents of “self esteem” curricula, will also agree that high school will have to become more challenging. That’s another way of saying “harder.”

Educating for a global economy mandates no less. Tougher math and science requirements are in.  The possibility that a diploma is a de facto good-conduct medal and attendance certificate is out.

But here’s the part that still takes me aback. Until now (actually 2011), biology wasn’t a high school requirement?

Cuba On Their Georgia Mind

Look who’s going to Cuba next month.

According to reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it will be Georgia Gov. Sonny Purdue. He will lead his state’s trade delegation. Sure, he’s a free-market Republican, but it’s hardly commonplace for a sitting Southern governor to head to Havana. Anyone envision a Gov. Crist, McCollum or Sink making such a move? What proximity? What opportunity? What recession?

What Georgia has on its mind is obviously a trade upgrade. They want to increase their farm-product — mostly frozen chicken — exports to Cuba. Last year it was worth $42.5 million. In addition to agricultural products, U.S. law permits exports of medicines as well as medical and telecommunications equipment to Cuba.

“Georgia is strategically located to Cuba with Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and both of our ports,” explained Heidi Green, deputy commissioner for global commerce with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Good point. Why wouldn’t Florida’s northern neighbor want to take advantage of its “strategic location?” Who, within reason, wouldn’t?

Transit Minority Malfunction

If ever there was call for unanimity, it was the County Commission vote on light rail.  They weren’t voting for or against it, but for or against letting the voters have the ultimate say. And yet the vote was 5-2?

Thanks for nothing, nay-voting Jim Norman and Al Higginbotham.

How do you not vote to let the people determine if they want to add a penny to the sales tax to pay for rail, buses and roads? Even if you think the 21st century should be repealed and that future economic viability lies in ever more sprawl, how do you not let the voters make that critical call about their future and that of their kids?

Unconventional Gentleman

Obviously a lot of factors are weighed — from the purely political to the largely logistical — when a political party decides what city it wants to serve as host for its national convention. From whether it’s in a state colored red or blue to whether there are enough hotel rooms and sufficient space for delegates and media.

In Tampa’s case, winning the 2012 GOP convention, even after four Super Bowls, is still a coup. An influx of 40,000 to 45,000 people in the visitor-challenged summer is big. So is the international exposure and economic-impact number — by whatever formula is applied. And the city and state won’t be on the hook for a dime.

But amid all the variables, including the competition, there has been one constant in every GOP convention pitch by Tampa. The singular, host committee presence of long-time developer Al Austin, “Mr. GOP” around here — and one of the foremost fund-raising mavens in the country.

He’s been a key point man for previous attempts. He’s been bitterly disappointed, but only showed the disappointed side and always took the high road. In an atmosphere of polarizing politics, he remains a stalwart Republican without morphing into a zero-sum cartoon. He’s a gentleman in an era of rogue political cachet.

Now in his 80s, Austin didn’t have many more of these brass-ring quests left. The 2012 GOP convention is assuredly a coup for Tampa — but it’s also climactic for Al Austin, a civic  natural resource for Tampa. Well timed, well done. Thank you.

Sports Shorts

* The Tampa Sports Authority is drafting a 10-year strategic plan that includes a scenario for a Tampa Bay Rays’ stadium.  The TSA, which operates Raymond James Stadium and several public golf courses, doesn’t have tax-levying power. But it does have an obligation to include contingency planning about a future Rays’ facility.

Would that comparable bodies in Pinellas were as open to regional reality. The Rays won’t stay hostage to stubborn, counterproductive, St. Petersburg parochialism forever. Actually, “forever” comes due a lot sooner than that 2027 lease date for Tropicana Field.

* Alas, it was no surprise to see some moron run onto the Trop field the other day during a Rays’-Mariners game. Idiocy runs in cycles. We appear to be in one.

What was surprising was that Fox, which was televising Tampa Bay-Seattle nationally, chose to show the incident, including the security gang tackle. Wrong choice. Getting attention is why such “fans” do such things. It’s a trade-off for an arrest and a take-down.

The only exception should be if a taser is used to subdue the subject. That’s a tougher trade-off for fleeting fame — and a likely disincentive.     

* Good bye, finally, to budget-busting bust Pat Burrell, the Rays’ designated out. I still miss Jonny Gomes.     

* Why bother having a world hockey championship during an Olympic year? Just a couple of months after Canada dramatically defeated the U.S. for gold in Vancouver, Germany is hosting the world championships. Many NHL players couldn’t participate, because their teams were still in the playoffs. The result: a tournament that is necessarily second rate and anti-climactic.