City Hall Humbled

For the second time this summer, City Hall has come up embarrassingly short on a public presentation. First it was a poorly organized forum on site options for a new Tampa Museum of Art. Then there was last month’s stormwater fiasco in front of City Council.

Four points:

Don’t bet on a City Hall hat trick. Pam Iorio is not about to endure a third mayoral mea culpa. Her hands-on reputation was well earned. Assume that those hands are now a lot heavier when it comes to high-profile staff presentations involving the public.

Second, it was a major gaffe for stormwater department director Chuck Walter to make a cursory, one-minute presentation to City Council — no matter what the rationale, including redundancy. (There was a previous detailed presentation to council, and there has been plenty of information in the media – as well as resident mailings — about the $12-to-$36 fee increase as part of a five-year, $60-million plan to address some of the most pressing stormwater priorities.) No politician wants to be perceived as a rubber stamp. It’s a counterproductive insult, however unintentional.

Third, these presentations need to be done – and done well — not just because they’re part of good governance, but because it’s also prudent public relations. Don’t forget, any time there’s a public presentation, especially one that involves residents’ own money, there’s a civic rule of thumb that kicks in. That is, those in opposition – whether it’s to a retrofitted courthouse as museum or to a stormwater fee hike — will usually be the largest in number and loudest in noise. They may or may not speak for the community at large, but they can create the next day’s headlines, sound bites and momentum. At the very least, that has to be factored and, where necessary, countered.

Fourth, good government means both listening – and leading. This has to happen. Tampa is not only among the state’s most flood-vulnerable cities, it’s among the lowest in stormwater fees. A fee hike is no panacea; there are none. But it is a common-sense quality-of life and maybe preservation-of-life step that’s long overdue.

Damn Good Yankee

For the next month the sports media will be especially attuned to the soap opera that is George Steinbrenner’s New York Yankees. That’s a given. They are what they are – all high-profiled, highly-scrutinized $200 million dollars worth.

But what also is a given to anyone around here is something that has nothing to do with pennant races and Steinbrenner’s managerial second-guessing. It’s about doing something for the real home team: this area.

When vandals recently destroyed musical instruments at Hillsborough High School, it was Steinbrenner who stepped in with a $10,000 check for replacements. When Tampa Catholic announced a fund-raising campaign for a new football stadium, Steinbrenner kick-started things with a $250,000 contribution. And these are just the most recent examples of Steinbrenner going to bat for Bay Area causes, big and small, in a public way and behind the scenes.

On so many levels, Tampa Bay is beholden to Steinbrenner. The gratitude, however, ends between the lines. Especially this season. If the Yankees miss the post-season, a major factor will be their inability to handle the Devil Rays. Too bad.

Bullish schedule

With good reason is USF excited about having Penn State and Miami on this year’s football schedule. The credibility curve is further accelerated for a program only in its ninth season. Along with membership in the Big East Conference, the PSU-Miami parlay is further testimony as to how far and how fast USF has come. Plus, the Bulls pick up hefty guarantees, especially at PSU, which accommodates 110,000 live ones.

But in the long run, two other – decidedly less glamorous – games will be even more important to the program: Florida A&M and the University of Central Florida. They’re both home (FAMU-Sept. 10, UCF-Sept. 17) this season, and they both promise what Big East schools can’t: a natural rivalry with a good local draw.

Amid all the talk of being in a BCS conference and the attendant national attention and recruiting boost, the Bulls need to put fans in the stands at the Ray-Jay.FAMU’s loyal alumni travel well, and there’s every expectation that an I-4 rivalry will generate big crowds in Orlando as well as Tampa.

USF President Judy Genshaft and Athletics Director Doug Woolard have been justifiably praised for working to make these two games happen. Their success is critical to USF’s football fortunes. It’s not enough to bring in Rutgers and Connecticut.

MOSI: Educators And Entrepreneurs

The Museum of Science and Industry is lucky to have Wit Ostrenko for president – for the same reason that the Florida Aquarium is fortunate to have Thom Stork as its president/CEO. They both know that to be successful you have to be both an educator and an entrepreneur. The former speaks to the why, the latter to the how.

Stork knows, for example, that following a drop of water from its underground source to the open sea is as fascinating as it is important. But without sharks, sting rays and “Explore a Shore” excursions, not enough people will pay to be privy to the critical message about the precious resource – and commodity – that is water. It’s a function of human nature and the marketplace.

MOSI’s never been about science in the abstract. A premium is placed on application – and the interactive. Don’t just talk of gale-force winds, experience them. MOSI’s mantra could be that learning should be fun – and need not be a static activity.

Ostrenko, ironically, is not above taking static himself on occasion. More the pragmatist than the purist, he’s been known to push the envelope for the cause. He sees nothing inherently incompatible with museums and show business. You have to be aggressive, and you have to compete. And at the end of the day, something educational has transpired.

These past few years MOSI has had to weather the hurricane season from hell plus an economic downturn and fallout from terrorist attacks. Not blessed with an endowment or cash reserves, the South’s largest science museum had to lay off employees. It needed an economic jumpstart to keep doing what it does so well.

Cue “Bodies, the Exhibition.”

Ostrenko had taken the initiative, and plans finally fell into place early this summer. The respectful yet controversial exhibit of posed, preserved cadavers – plus more than 200 organs and partial body specimens — is currently playing to record crowds and will run through February.

Not everyone, of course, is comfortable with unclaimed, unidentified bodies as point guards. And undoubtedly the morbidly curious have found their way to MOSI. Then there’s the obscure Florida Anatomical Board that refused to endorse “Bodies.”

When confronted with the unexpected obstacle presented by the Anatomical Board, Ostrenko didn’t blink. MOSI had been above board and ethical – the bodies were legally obtained from China — and state law was unclear. And even if that were to change, it would be after the fact (as in February). Moreover, the controversy only lit a firestorm of local – and even national – publicity. Ostrenko, hardly sound-bite challenged, was center stage; it was all economic upside. The first four days drew more than 12,000 visitors, including nearly 6,000 for the first Saturday.

But for all the chutzpah and controversy, the response has been overwhelmingly positive by the medical and educational communities as well as the general public. Ostrenko is even making sure that information and forms are available regarding the donation of bodies to science and organs to LifeLink of Florida.

At the end of the day, education has, indeed, happened – on several levels.

Fuelish Ways Update

As gas prices continue heading inexorably up, this much seems likely. At some point, the economic hit will be significant, perhaps seismic.

Also evident is this: We are preparing for such a scenario as if deferring the day of reckoning is a viable strategy. We have, in effect, an ostrich plan, but there is no domestic-energy Manhattan Project in the offing, even though national security is very much at stake.

The recent energy bill’s message was clearly – and unfortunately – one of compromise, not crisis or commitment.

Refineries, as we know, are built as infrequently as nuclear power plants. The Arctic and outer continental shelf can’t buy enough time. China continues to boom on the demand side, and there’s no lack of scary scenarios – from Islamic terrorism and sabotage to Venezuelan nationalism – on the supply side. Mess transit is still the rule, a prescript the Tampa Bay area continues to traffick in.

This is the worst of times for an SUV – unless it’s Some Utopian Vision of priority revision. But we see the Bush Administration propose raising fuel economy standards that don’t apply to passenger cars and don’t cover SUV behemoths, such as the Hummer H2. Gasahol is a Corn Belt ruse. Windmills are for tilting. And on a visceral, consumer level, hybrids – from generic looking to butt ugly — remain a minor market factor.

Manufacturers are still pandering to customers’ emotional tastes and egos rather than assessing society’s needs and priorities. Do Hummers belong in a war zone or a wet zone?

A recent quote by Robert Lutz, who heads product development for General Motors, underscores the problem — without acknowledging there is one. “We’re not in the transportation business,” emphasized Lutz, “we are in the arts and entertainment business.”

But for how much longer?

Costas’ Correct Call

In the scheme of things, it probably won’t warrant more than a footnote in the chronology of saturation news coverage and cable news fixations. But let’s hear it for Bob Costas refusing to pinch hit for CNN’s Larry King last week. The subjects were Natalee Holloway still unfound in Aruba and more postmortems on the vile, monstrous acts of Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer.

Enough is enough and someone of import — and maybe some impact — had to say it.

What goes without saying, however, is that such subject matter is ratings driven. Which means plenty of people want to watch.

Robertson’s Gotta Go – Feet First

“Take him out!”

Hugo Chavez? No, Pat Robertson. Please. Feet (after removal from mouth) first.

Robertson, who doesn’t stop at character assassination when it comes to Venezuela’s elected socialist president, doesn’t speak for the United States and hopefully not for any Christians. He’s simply an evangelical fool who owns his own network and hosts the most-watched religious television show in the country.

But because his pulpit is equal parts politics and religion – and he’s a former presidential candidate – what he says, no matter how outrageous and stupid, gets noticed.

And exploited. America’s enemies, for example, have already exhumed unflattering U.S. involvements in Cuban and Chilean politics. Imagine how this has played on Al Jazeera. And imagine how this has played in Venezuela, which provides 13 per cent of U.S. oil needs.

Armed with his evangelically perverse chauvinism, Robertson’s a national security time bomb. A weak apology didn’t mitigate the injurious impact.

Take him out.

Metaphorically, that is.

No Safe Havens For The Enemy Within

Those blaming Tony Blair for being George W. Bush’s eloquent caddy on Iraq, should concede this: He’s making the right call in the aftermath of last month’s terrorist bombings – and near bombings – in London. It’s time for the Brits to show more than a stiff upper lip.

“Staying here carries with it a duty,” pointed out Blair in referring to foreign-born Muslim clerics who glorify terror on British soil. “And that “duty,” Blair underscored, includes the requirement “to share and support the values that sustain the British way of life.” Last anyone checked, British values still make no allowances for suicidal mass murder – whether as political grievance, infidel repellant or expedited trip to Paradise.

The ultimate value, lest anyone need reminding, is life itself. Multicultural tenets of tolerance are secondary, if not moot in a time of war. The kumbaya crowd is no deterrent to the enemy within. More like a vulnerable society’s soft, inviting, clueless underbelly.

The usual suspects overreacted and whined about an incipient police state and terrorist-matching intolerance as Blair proposed laws to deport extremist religious leaders and shutter the mosques that mock honest Islam. The government would also ban groups with a track record of supporting terrorism and bar radicals from entering Britain. The blame throwers then warned that such a crack down would further alienate British Muslims.

Needless to say, none of these critics is responsible for public safety, let alone the maintenance of Britain as a land of — dare we reiterate — British values.

In a variation on a theme, Lenin may be doing another turn in his grave. He thought for sure the West would sell its arch enemies the rope to string ourselves up with. Blair won’t go along.

The application for the U.S. is self-evident.

Open societies cannot permit open season on themselves. It means getting deadly serious about our borders, especially the 2,000-mile one with Mexico. It means profiling where common sensically necessary and making port and power grid security more of a priority. It means better intelligence gathering – including prisons — and not backing off the Patriot Act.

And it also means acknowledging an immigration reality. No longer are those who come here mostly “huddled masses yearning to be free.”

Increasingly, those coming here – as opposed to their predecessors – seemingly want what’s best from America – without becoming an “American.” In fact, not necessarily liking or respecting America. Just skimming some economic cream.

And then there are those who want what’s worst for America. At their most benign, they only enable terrorism. They have no yearning curve.

They can’t be tolerated because staying here also “carries with it a duty.”

Tampa Bay’s Notorious 5

Bernard Goldberg’s latest shot across the bow of liberalism, “100 People Who Are Screwing Up America,” includes many all too familiar names: from Michael Moore and Jerry Springer to Eminem and Maury Povich. They skew and coarsen the culture, contends Goldberg. It’s not that hard a case to make. The challenge had to be narrowing it down to a manageable 100.

At the end, Goldberg even invites readers to try their hand at their own list. Here’s an abbreviated, customized version: “5 People Who Are Screwing Up Tampa Bay.”

#5 BRIAN BLAIR: Would you suspect this rookie member of the Hillsborough County Commission is a former pro wrestler? Of course you would. Carrying the water for Republican puppet masters Sam Rashid and Ralph Hughes, Blair is earning a reputation as clownish obstructionist while waving the banner of fiscal conservatism.

#4 DWIGHT “CHIMURENGA” WALLER: As president of the Uhuru Movement, Waller has carved out St. Petersburg’s pre-eminent race-card niche. Acts as a one-man governor on revival scenarios of St. Petersburg’s historically impoverished Midtown section. His charge is to hector, not to help. Has only criticism for those, such as Mayor Rick Baker, who are actually working – and succeeding – in bringing investment to Midtown.

#3 VINCE NAIMOLI: From the get-go, the wrong owner of a Tampa Bay Devil Ray franchise already beset with issues of facility design and regional location. Still calling all the important shots. In so doing, has turned national reporting into a firing squad of bad publicity for the team and the area. Keeps payroll low enough to assure also-ran status and declining attendance, lowest in Major League Baseball. Franchise viability a serious concern to MLB. Compounds Rays’ poor performance with several, nationally-reported PR gaffes annually. Refuses to fire GM Chuck LaMar or himself.

#2 JOE REDNER: Tampa’s strip club impresario has made a financial killing perverting the First Amendment. Gets away with it because he’s street smart about the law’s slippery slopes. No one more responsible for Tampa’s unsavory image as the epicenter of “lap dancing.” Should have made Goldberg’s list too.

#1 RONDA STORMS: This Hillsborough County commissioner is much more dangerous than the average yahoo-pandering pol because she’s smart, glib, fast on her feet, always prepared and nasty. Single most polarizing presence in the region. Politician most responsible for the ongoing – and escalating – misunderstanding and antipathy between Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa. Led the crusade against even “acknowledging” Gay Pride, the implications of which range from the ethical to the economic. Topped Vince Naimoli as a recent magnet for national notoriety.

Back To School: Leave No Felon Behind

Oh, that first week of school. We’ve all been there, in one capacity or another. It’s an institutional rite of passage where shear enthusiasm and anticipation ultimately trump uncertainty and anxiety — and the de facto end of summer.

But those first few days can be confusing for many, chaotic for a few. Logistics that go wrong. Stuff that isn’t ready. New students, new teachers, new rules, old habits.

Hillsborough High would have settled for all that – and more — a fortnight ago.

The first day featured a 15-year-old who brought a .38 caliber handgun to school. Apparently needed protection from some toughs he had tangled with the previous day. Fortunately, no one was hurt. He now awaits arraignment and a criminal justice no-choice plan.

Day two was weapon-less — but more physical. A mother and her 16-year-old son shared felony charges. The lad, all 265 pounds of him, “body checked” the school resource officer, and his mom jumped on the officer’s back and began punching him. That occurred as they were being escorted off campus. The upshot: apparently he was supposed to go to Middleton.

After leave-no-felon-behind week, it’s now back to business as usual: school bus roulette and the FCAT countdown.