Jobs Projections

With unemployment at 11.9 per cent statewide and 13.1 per cent in the Tampa Bay area, we all could use a dose of good jobs-news anywhere we can find it. The current issue of Time magazine at least features some hopeful scenarios.

According to IHS Global Insight, whose projections are based on a large-scale macroeconometric model of the U.S., its regions and industries, Florida is one of seven states with projected annual growth of more than 3 per cent over the next four years. (The others are Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho.) Of major metro areas (populations in excess of 1 million), Tampa was one of nine with a projected growth rate of more than 3 percent. (The others are Orlando, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Las Vegas and Riverside, Calif.)  Elsewhere in Florida, Jacksonville and Miami projected growth rates between 2 and 3 percent.

The article asserts that in the “long term,” there’s only one way to create enough jobs for the post-recession economy: innovation.  Austin is its avatar. The key criteria: an educated (43 percent of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree) workforce, a robust venture-capital scene, a supportive community of peers and a state government willing to get hands-on in helping to kick-start promising companies.

Underscoring the last criterion is University of Maryland economist John Haltiwanger, who has determined that approximately a third of all new jobs created come from start-ups. “These are the rocket ships of the economy,” he says.

The Case For Civics

When it comes to a Legislative session, it’s a given that the annual Tallahassee gathering will feature its share of problematic bills. They can range from the absurdly unnecessary to the recklessly dangerous. This year’s Exhibits A and B would arguably be the ban on bestiality and the proscription on adoptive agencies asking prospective parents if they have any guns around the house.

And yet this session looks promising — in both the House and Senate — for a requirement that has been too long deferred — the teaching of civics in middle school. The wonder is that we’ve tolerated its absence so long.

The need to know about government and the value of civic engagement is especially acute in a state such as Florida, where so many are from so many other places — such that a sense of community is much more of a challenge.

And getting an early handle on how government works can help prepare tomorrow’s voters to discern whether, frankly, it does or doesn’t. And who knows, perhaps a better grounding in civics will lessen the need for so many adults to outsource their views — from term limits and Hometown Democracy to the intent of the founding fathers — to partisan political hucksters.

Two other points. The civics class, aimed at being in place by 2012, comes with an end-of-course assessment test. In a state educational environment that defines accountability — and priority subjects — via tests, it was the correct, pragmatic route to go.

Second, this effort deserves a shout out to former Governor and Senator Bob Graham, who, along with former U.S. Rep. Lou Frey, worked tirelessly to make the teaching of civics in our schools a priority. Graham has long been making the case that our system of government is only as good as its citizens. We undereducate them in the basics at our own democratic peril.

Iorio Uses Forum For Light Rail

Technically, Mayor Pam Iorio has one more State of the City speech to give. But the March 2011 address will be largely “retrospective,” she acknowledged. The last one to come with a bully pulpit was last week’s.

 

After a shout-out to city employees (a number of whom were in attendance) and their “sacrifice together” ethic amid layoffs and budget shortfalls, she moved posthaste to her agenda. She continues to leverage her political capital on behalf of a Nov. 2 referendum that would ask Hillsborough County voters to agree to a 1-cent sales tax hike to pay for modern transit, including a major light rail component. What’s at stake: Tampa’s future.

 

Basically Tampa doesn’t have a very viable one without it, said Iorio.

 

“We will lose our competitive edge,” she stressed. “It’s the key to smart growth and urban infill.” Its track record, she pointed out, is irrefutable.  It’s been a “magnet for private-sector development wherever it has gone.”

 

Modern transit is needed for “economic stability,” explained Iorio. “For future job growth.”

 

Not to go this route, she emphasized, is to venerate the status quo of sprawl. Tampa would remain on the path to the past — of following “the urban planning errors of the 20th century. …This is the biggest issue of our time. Of our generation. We are not defined by our problems, but how we solve them.”

 

Iorio also put light rail into historic perspective. It’s an extension of America’s can-do, visionary aptitude in the face of challenge and the prospect of spin-off benefits. The Trans-Continental Railroad, the Interstate system, the space program – and Tampa International Airport came readily to the mayor’s mind.

 

“Let’s never stop progressing in the great tradition of our country,” she exhorted. “It’s not about careers and the next election. It’s about the future and future generations. It can’t just be about the ‘here and now.’”

 

To underscore the generational commitment, she nodded to the front row of the packed Tampa Convention Center room for a visual aid. There was Exhibit A for a future light rail beneficiary.  It was her 20-year-old son, Graham, home on break from Florida State University. Indeed, it has been seven years now!

 

“We are the last of the major metropolitan areas in this country that has failed to invest in a modern transit system,” Iorio stated. “We must be willing to make this kind of investment to be a first class community,” she added. “We have everything else.”

Hopkins And History

There’s a lot not to like at what has been going on at St. Petersburg’s embattled John Hopkins Middle School. By all accounts, it’s a mess borne of chronically disruptive students, also known as “hoodlums” to the euphemism challenged. A weak administration and irresponsible parents are enabling, powder-keg factors.  

 

But here’s something to ponder while waiting for Joe “Lean On Me” Clark to come out of retirement to kick butt, put parents on notice and tell Uhurus to help out or hit the road. The Hopkins’ disgrace is cause for as much sadness and reflection as anger and alarm.

 

That’s because Hopkins, which is in a predominantly black neighborhood, is only three years removed from being a model school for voluntary integration. Well-regarded magnet programs were its hallmark. There was even an award-winning school newspaper and a touted orchestra. All of that is now seriously at risk at a school widely perceived as out of control. Magnet applications are half of what they used to be.

 

The usual societal factors and insufficient resources are referenced. But nothing resonates like Pinellas County’s reversion to neighborhood schools, a concept that almost everyone agrees with – in the abstract. But in concrete reality, it means some schools will be skewed by low incomes and academic underachievement. Which is code for black neighborhoods. Hopkins now “leads” all middle schools in the number of over-age and learning-disabled students.

 

But this is not the era of Jim Crow segregation and degradation, where black neighborhoods circled the wagons and took care of their own – a nurturing network of nuclear families, neighbors, shop owners and preachers. Life was legally unfair, but it wasn’t dysfunctional. Discipline was ingrained and reinforced. There were no Hip-Hopkins Middle Schools.

 

Now it seems the largely discredited and uniformly disliked social experiment of massive busing has been turned on its head. Hopkins even feeds the insulting stereotype that a majority-black school and educational excellence are somehow incompatible, if not oxymoronic. 

 

Joe Clark, please call the Pinellas School Board.

Foreign Fodder

  • Thanks, 51st state. It’s beyond effrontery that Israel would choose Vice President Joe Biden’s fence-mending visit to unveil plans for new housing in East Jerusalem. Everyone knows the ultimate genesis of the Arab-Israeli/American animus is the Palestinian quagmire. It’s a long shot that the U.S., deeply invested in a two-state scenario, can be perceived as an honest Mid East broker with influence and leverage to both sides. But it’s a no-shot with unilateral, unconscionable acts such as the diplomatic smack-down of Biden. Then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu preposterously adds additional insult saying he was unaware of the timing. If so, what else is “Bibi” out of the loop on? Israel’s nuclear program?
  • Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has formally distanced himself from the “(Colin) Powell Doctrine,” one that advocated “overwhelming force.” Mullen favors the use of measured and precise strikes in “adapting appropriately to the most relevant threats to our national security.” Makes eminent sense. But here’s hoping he doesn’t discard Powell’s take on the Mid East and the reason why he, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs and later as Secretary of State, still favored stopping short of Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War. He didn’t want the U.S. to be perceived, he presciently noted, as the “occupier of Muslim land.”
  • Let’s put that recent Iraqi parliamentary election in context. The turnout was approximately 62 per cent. That’s higher than any turnout for a U.S. presidential election since 1960. It’s also more than 10 times higher than that recent special election in state House District 58.
  • Change we can believe in? The U.S. and China have their issues. China’s under-valued currency and foot-dragging on Iranian sanctions among them. But we’re still selling weapons to Taiwan? The State Department’s rationale: the U.S. is obligated to provide the island defensive weapons under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. Oh.
  • It’s tough enough having to deal with the Iranians and North Koreans about, well, anything, but what the U.S. State Department surely doesn’t need are reckless and self-absorbed Americans trespassing across some of the world’s most sensitive, problematic borders. Such as that American missionary who crossed a frozen river into North Korea and the three American hikers who ventured into Iran. The predictable upshot: they immediately became grist for the diplomatic leverage mill – and helped renegade governments score domestic propaganda points. Let’s just say that behind close doors, the State Department language probably isn’t very diplomatic. Nor should it be.
  • Yemeni irony. The poverty-stricken country of Yemen is now rife with calls for secession from previously independent South Yemen. Southern Movement leaders speak of systematic discrimination, land expropriation and job expulsion by the North. They say they want independence and democracy and accuse the North of using jihadists as proxy warriors. They also say they are nostalgic for the 128-year British occupation of South Yemen. The Brits left in 1967. Imagine, nostalgia for the Empire! So much for the connotation of imperialism in 2010 Southern Yemen: the rule of law and a degree of prosperity have never mattered more.
  • Change of fortune? Corruption, riots and sectarian slaughters have been wreaking havoc in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. Moreover, President Umaru Yar’Adua has been incapacitated, and his status is uncertain and politically confusing. The Nigerian Acting President? The ironically-named, former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan.

Sports Shorts

  • I hope I’m proven wrong, but I still say it would have been better if Tim Tebow had bowed out on top — after that monster Sugar Bowl game against Cincinnati — instead of heading off to the NFL with every hot-shot college player hoping to cash in. Now Tebow has a bad All-Star game on his resume – as well as a below average score on the league’s Wonderlic intelligence test. He won’t be a number 1 draft pick because he doesn’t project as a prototypical quarterback, no matter what Jon Gruden taught him. Tebow is a gifted athlete with a secure legacy as one of the greatest — and nicest — college players of all time. But more importantly he is a special person with a special calling. Chances are he can only compromise that status in the NFL, where players are shilled as show-biz commodities.  
  • What will it take to ban maple bats in Major League Baseball? For several years the anecdotal evidence has been mounting that they shatter more often than any other kind. A lot more often. It’s why Minor League Baseball has banned them for all players who have never played in MLB. The other day a big piece of a shattered maple bat almost splintered the face of Rays’ pitcher David Price. What will it take to ban them? Presumably when a player or fan is actually maimed. That’s unacceptable and negligent.

Taking Gates For A Spin

It’s hardly Gatesgate, but it does beg a key question.

 

Why does the School District of Hillsborough County need to spend $375,000 on an outside public relations firm to explain the $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the public — and to its 17,000 teachers? The district has its own staff of communications specialists. If this doesn’t fall within its purview, priorities or skill set, something’s wrong.

 

“We don’t have time to do PR,” Communications director Steve Hegarty told the Tampa Tribune. Oh.

 

We’re told that the Gates folks were adamant in putting a premium on communicating what’s entailed in its seven-year commitment to change how county teachers are recruited, trained and paid. Of course, they want this explained effectively. Nine-figure overhauls require no less. But they never demanded it be put out for bid.

 

The 18-month contract is with the Tampa office of Hill & Knowlton, an excellent choice if you must choose. It will be interesting to see how this is invoiced. In addition to making the case for what the Gates grant is all about and why it is so important and necessary, will H&K also make the case for why they needed to be hired to spin it? Bet on it.

 

On a related Gates’ front, the district apparently did a good job getting the word out about the peer evaluation system and the need for peer evaluators. There are approximately 116 spots available. To date, more than 660 teachers have applied.

(Un)Common Sense

Everybody, of course, still feels awful about that recent incident in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park where one dog fatally attacked another. The owners of the attacked dog, a 10-pound Shih-tzu, are calling for rules that would separate dogs by size in the park’s small run. The dog that attacked the Shih-tzu was a 110-pound mastiff mix.

 

Officials note that Curtis Hixon Park is too small to justify separating dogs by size. But other, larger city parks can – and do – separate animals by size. To date, no such fatal attacks have ever taken place there.

 

Regardless, rules for all parks put owners on notice. Your dog is your responsibility. Alas, the signs reminding owners of that reality had not yet gone up when the incident occurred at Curtis Hixon.

 

But the point is this. Do you really need a reminder that a mastiff shouldn’t be mingling with a Shih-tzu in confined quarters? Even more to the point: If you really must have a 110-pound mastiff downtown, the onus is always on you.

Commuter Beware

OK, commuting around the Tampa Bay area – one that is conspicuously, unconscionably minus mass transit – is not a drive in the park. And it’s gotten worse with increased sprawl. But dead last among 60 major metropolitan areas? That’s where Forbes.com put us – ostensibly based on travel time and delays.

 

Forbes even has us behind Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia! I used to live in Marietta. Once you get out of your cul-de-sac community, it’s impending gridlock. Whether you’re heading into Buckhead, commuting into downtown via the merging lanes from hell that is Interstate 75 or going to the store.

 

The upside, however, is that it just may help make the 1-cent, sales-tax case for the November referendum on modern transit/light rail. Maybe.