Tampa Port Authority Tunes Out Lindell On Cuba

Once again, when it comes to Cuba, Carl Lindell is odd man out.  

 

Lindell is a savvy businessman and Tampa Port Authority board member who has been pushing for the Port of Tampa – and, by association, this region, state and country – to get pro-active about normalizing relations with Cuba. He recently returned from a fact-finding visit (at his own expense) to Cuba, and he has become outspoken on the issue. Notably, America’s counter-productive, economic embargo that dates to 1962.   

 

His recent suggestion that the seven-member TPA send a delegation to Cuba to assess trade opportunities was greeted by a groundswell of indifference and disagreement by the six other members, including Mayor Pam Iorio.

 

To date, only 6 per cent of (embargo) limited American exports to Cuba originate in Florida. It could be much more, contends Lindell, and Tampa could obviously be a major beneficiary. So why not explore the matter more and, at the very least, make valuable contacts and help pre-position Tampa for the inevitable, approaching day when Cuba does open up? As it now stands, Tampa would be at a competitive disadvantage to cities, such as New Orleans and Corpus Christi, which already have an established presence in Cuba. 

 

Mayor Iorio, whose in-the-best-interests-of-Tampa instincts are invariably on the money, is off her game on this one. “As a collective effort on the part of the board, I don’t think it’s appropriate to focus on a particular country,” she explained.

 

As if any other “particular” country were 90 miles away, shared history and historic trade with Tampa, and was a tragic, atavistic relic of the Cold War. As if any other “particular” country had a similar wherewithal to make a difference during a recession. As if any other “particular” country had humanitarian needs that could be uniquely addressed from this side of the Florida Straits.  

 

The mayor, who has encouraged members of the business community to check out Cuba, has made the point before that Cuba is a “federal” issue. As a result, she has underscored, “It’s not appropriate for me to embark on my own foreign policy.”

 

Of course not. That’s hardly a mayor’s or a port authority board member’s purview. Whether it’s Paris or Pyongyang. Or Havana. No mayor, especially a prominent Democrat with more political life left, would be wise to get out in front of the incrementalist Obama Administration and appear to grandstand.

 

But that’s not to say a key local political figure can’t be part of a delegation logically looking for legal business and making the rounds to help make it happen. That’s why business people and politicians from other cities have already gone.   

 

And continue to go. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson went last week. He accompanied a New Mexico farm products’ trade mission. But nobody thought he was embarking on his own foreign policy, even though he wanted to be president of the United States.

Kids As Political Props

No, this won’t be another screed on the orchestrated, in-your-face, shout-down dynamics of health care-reform, town hall meetings. The yelling, the signage and, alarmingly enough, the weaponry speak volumes. It’s getting harder and harder to separate philosophical libertarians from militia members and amateur anarchists.

 

But in addition to firearms, can’t these people leave their kids home? A photo in Sunday’s Tampa Tribune showed Citizens Protecting the Republic (cute), who are opponents of health care reforms, demonstrating in front of U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor’s office in Tampa. A cherubic child, no more than five, was waving a flag next to someone with an “Obama bin Lyin’” sign.

 

Using those not old enough to understand why they are there as props is objectionable enough. But using the innocent as unwitting participants in the politics of demonization is disgusting.

Rays’ Relo Scenarios

The Rays have arguably done their part. Asked to stay competitive with the obscenely deep-pocketed Red Sox and Yankees, the Rays have more than kept up. They were in the World Series last year and are in the hunt for the playoffs again this season.

 

But it’s not enough in a hybrid market such as this one. One without a strong corporate headquarters presence. One with a spread-out population and no mass transit. One with too many people with allegiances to wherever they came from. One with a leisure lifestyle that doesn’t prioritize summer baseball. And one where not enough people live close enough to substandard Tropicana Field near downtown St. Petersburg.

 

And now the ABC Coalition, the city’s own committee of business leaders, has served up an assessment that can’t be pleasing to City Hall. ABC said the Rays do, indeed, need a better facility (read: retractable roof), and it will likely have to be financed largely with public money. And, by the way, it really needs to be someplace other than downtown St. Pete.

 

Even more to the point, ABC concluded that there are three more logistically viable locations than downtown St. Pete. And two are in Tampa: West Shore and downtown.

 

In other words, expect the Rays to move out of their catwalk house long before their lease is up in 2027. That they will be leaving downtown St. Petersburg is now a given. The key question is will they be leaving this market? Somebody’s going to have to take one for the team to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay.

 

As for the Rays, per se, they continue to do their part in an untraditional, asymmetrical market. But will Major League Baseball be replaced by minor league parochialism?  

Tampa’s New Art Museum Thinks Big

In six months Tampa’s often frustrating, labyrinthian path to a new art museum will be history. Rafael who? Courthouse option? Feb. 5 is the designated date for the riverfront debut of the new, $36-million Tampa Museum of Art.

 

TMA will no longer be woefully undersized, uncommonly nondescript — and a lackluster, poor cousin to its counterparts in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. A sleek, translucent, iconic structure addresses that nicely, thank you. Along with the adjacent Children’s Museum, now under construction, TMA will make the concept of a downtown Tampa cultural district a reality – not hyperbole or an oxymoron.

 

And how significant that TMA is sending all the right signals by bringing in a major Henri Matisse show, featuring many limited-edition prints among the 170 works, for its inaugural presentation. Congratulations, Todd Smith and cohorts. Matisse is one of the great artists of the 20th century.

 

The thinking is big. The bar is set high. And the perspective of expressionism appropriate. Starting Feb. 5, Tampa will be seen differently.

Travel Freedom — For Some

As we know, the reality of open travel between the U.S. and Cuba is in a state of flux. As we also know, Florida is positioned to be a major beneficiary.   

 

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa has been working hard for months — out front and behind the scenes — to get TIA added to the short list (Los Angeles, Miami, New York) of airports authorized for direct flights to Cuba. That has mattered since the spring when President Obama moved to lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans traveling to their home island.

 

And that certainly matters to Tampa, whose historic soul is Cuba. Why should local and regional Cuban-Americans have to travel to Miami to fly to Havana?  Rep. Castor doesn’t think so and wants Tampa to get a piece of that travel action.

 

But the Cuban-American demographic is only a portion of the potential market for passengers to Cuba. That number could easily triple or quadruple once all Americans are restored their rights to travel freely to Cuba. That’s why it makes no sense – beyond business-as-usual, political calculation – for Tampa’s Democratic Congresswoman to not do everything in her power to fill as many planes from Tampa as possible.

 

Ironically, she, along with the other 26 members of the Florida Congressional delegation, has conspicuously not signed the “Freedom To Travel To Cuba Act.” But more than 150 members of Congress, whose states will benefit less than Florida from free travel to Cuba, have done so.

 

Rep. Castor is uniquely positioned to make a difference in opening up Cuba to American travel. She has the ear of some key people. So, let’s see if we have this right. She wants flights taking Cuban-Americans to Cuba to leave from Tampa because that’s good for them and good for TIA. But she doesn’t want as many passengers on those flights as possible?

Miss Universe Metaphor

Among America’s more high-profile antagonists is Venezuela. But for those looking for signs of encouragement in the strained Washington-Caracas relationship — beyond the Obama Administration’s pragmatic inclination to talk to America’s adversaries — it might lie in the Miss Universe contest.

 

The newly crowned Miss Universe is from Venezuela.  And her predecessor was also from Venezuela. So were four others. Venezuelans lionize good looks. Their beaches are paeans to the T-back. Hey, we can work with these people.

 

They love baseball, including America’s Major Leagues. The Rays even have a prospect compound there. And Caracas, for all of its portentous street crime, is a modern city with enviable light rail and a designated financial district.  

 

It’s a reminder that for all of Hugo Chavez’s blustery rhetoric, rogue populism and oil-skewed, Bolivarian revolution, Venezuela remains a country we should be able to deal with. We have stuff — from cultural excesses to polarized politics to tabloid media — in common besides oil-based economies and political enmity.   

 

We might be imperial “Yankees” on a given day in Venezuela, but that’ll beat anti-Islamic “infidels” any time.

Economic Tracks

It should no longer be up for debate that high-speed rail makes eminent economic, as well as quality-of-life, sense for the I-4 corridor and the Tampa Bay region. And out of the Great Recession, ironically, comes the impetus to make it happen with rail-specific stimulus dollars.

 

A couple of key points. For all of the sophomoric, “Commissioner Choo-Choo” jibes that Ed Turanchik has had to endure over the years, he has stayed ahead of his time. Now the times – and political timing in Washington – have finally caught up with him. 

 

Turanchik now heads ConnectUs, the increasingly high-profile, grass-roots supporter of Florida’s $2.5-billion bid for federal rail funds. Residents wanting to do more than hope that the feds find favor with Florida’s “shovel-ready” Orlando-to-Tampa Bay rail status can do this: Support the effort by signing on at FastRailConnectUs.com. Every bit helps.

 

We all know the nexus that is Orlando-Tampa Bay. But those corridor numbers are truly imposing. We’re talking 23 counties, 8 million residents, 4.4 million workers and more than 330,000 businesses.

 

Eventually, Miami could fit into the high-speed-rail scenario. According to the Tampa Bay Partnership, the aggregate of the Miami, Orlando and Tampa Bay areas yields an economy that would be the world’s 15th largest.

 

But true 21st century mass transit in Florida won’t happen without a successful bid for those stimulus rail funds for Orlando-Tampa Bay. Don’t forget FastRailConnectUs.com.

Lockerbie Disgrace

By some merciful, magnanimous stretch, maybe there could be a scintilla of compassion for that terminally cancerous, convicted Lockerbie bomber recently released from a Scottish prison. Maybe. A scintilla, mind you.

 

But the ultimate outrage was the jubilant, flag-waving homecoming that greeted Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in his home country, Libya. Celebrants were bused in to the military airport in Tripoli. It was beyond disgusting and appalling.

 

It was also a reminder of the civilizational divide still separating the West and many Muslim countries. And Libya, it was thought, was someone we could now reason with.

Truly Senseless Deaths

There are senseless deaths and then there are “senseless deaths.” Some are the awful, happenstance outcomes of wrong place-wrong time accidents. Some, and we as a grieving community experienced one recently, are tragic, line-of-duty scenarios involving unfathomable criminal motivation.

 

And then there are those who needlessly, inexplicably put themselves in harm’s way.  Isn’t there something inherently incompatible about huge, hurricane-causing waves, deadly rip tides and an up-close-and-personal experience that includes children?

Generational Perspective

It’s too soon after the Woodstock anniversary, but once again Beloit College has reminded most of us what it’s like to be literally old school. The Wisconsin college has just published its annual “Mindset List for the Entering Class of 2013.”

 

It’s a look at the frame of reference and, well, “mindset” of those born in 1991. And a reminder to the rest of us about perspective – and what can’t be taken for granted. For example, for the class of 2013 Miles Davis has always been dead, Pan American Airways has always been gone and Jack Kevorkian has always been a felon. Condoms have always been advertised on TV, and Moldova, Georgia and Belarus have always been independent nations. And stuff like wars, coups and car chases have always been on television in real time.

 

This is now – from the cultural to the technological to the geopolitical. That was then.

 

But here’s something else that has always been. Every incumbent generation has to keep up, and every new generation has to, as they say, read the minutes of previous meetings.