Scripps Scenarios and Florida’s Future

It’s too premature, of course, to tell how the Scripps Research Institute’s plans for Palm Beach County will play out. Ground breaking for a 364,000-square-foot biomedical research facility on the eastern fringe of the Everglades has already been postponed once. The issues are the sensitive environment, per se, and the prospect of sprawl that would violate – indeed, mock — the county’s comprehensive, growth-management plan. Two lawsuits have already been filed in state circuit court in West Palm Beach.

Call it contentious right now between the county and Scripps, but don’t call it off.

Three things.

First, it’s critical that the Scripps’ facility, with all its economic and scientific implications, remain in Florida. Other states — with better biotech track records and still smarting that Scripps chose Florida – will not need much encouragement to transition into predator mode.

When Gov. Jeb Bush made his legacy-like announcement last year, he heralded a biotech bonanza of 6,500 jobs over 15 years worth more than $3 billion. This is, of course, critical to Sunshine State aspirations of a more diversified, 21st century economy.

Second, Hillsborough County is absolutely doing what it should by formulating a contingency Scripps plan and offer with new County Commissioner Mark Sharpe as point man. If Palm Beach thinks this is in “poor taste,” so be it. But should Palm Beach have to bail, Hillsborough must be well-positioned because, quite candidly, no place in the state can better accommodate Scripps’disparate amenity needs than Hillsborough County, Tampa and the Bay Area.

Third, Tampa deserved more than a token shot at competing for Scripps from the get-go. And local officials remember well all the help Jeb Bush WASN’T when it came to going the extra mile for Tampa when this city was in the serious hunt for the 2004 GOP convention.

The governor, frankly, owes us if Palm Beach can’t work. More to the point, he owes it to the state.

Sharpe Start On County Commission

Early returns indicate voters chose wisely by electing Mark Sharpe to the County Commission. Common sense and business acumen are a holy alliance.

He’s already been appointed by his fellow commissioners to monitor the unfolding Scripps scenarios in Palm Beach and help prepare a new pitch should the Scripps’ plot thicken.

Moreover, in casting a vote on behalf of property-tax relief for the Lightning, he said something that ought to be repeated every meeting – right after the invocation.

“Sometimes in the effort to save a nickel, we lose a dollar,” he observed.

Amen.

Teach-In Lessons

As someone who has participated in the Great American Teach-In, I can verify that the experience can benefit both students and volunteers. Some, of course, more than others.

What’s important to remember is this. Some speakers share insights on an occupation, avocation or profession. Others are more oriented to delivering messages concerning values, responsibilities and ethics. And then there is the de facto, show-and-tell holiday.

One middle school class gets an oncologist; others get a stuntman, a card trickster, a belly dancer. Still others are privy to a helicopter and any number of things it might be related to. Some elementary school students hear from a former pro athlete and Rhodes Scholar nominee who has a compelling message about staying out of trouble and away from drugs. Others learn about thermal imaging equipment. Others get a spooked gelding.

Circus Maximus: American Culture

For those still expressing outrage over that steamy pre-game promotion preceding a recent Monday Night Football game: Get over it.

Not because you’re overreacting. Not because you just don’t “get it.” And not because “that’s ‘show biz.'”

But because it’s now too late to re-bottle the genie of mainstream cultural sludge.

Frankly, I was more offended by an NBC promo for “Thanksgiving Fear Factor.” It included, and I wish I were making this up, this reference by one of the participants: “Would you like some maggots with your mash potatoes?”

I guess that’s an edgy hoot to some. And truth be told, I might still be laughing if I were still 15. What’s being imposed is the sophomorizing – as well as the coarsening of the culture. You don’t have to check out BET Videos and Jerry Springer or review tapes of the Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers-drunken loser fans “basketbrawl” for a representative sampling.

But back to the MNF flap.

Prime time pro sports – notably basketball and football – have been chronic offenders in the poor-taste sweepstakes. From cheesy chorus lines to police-blotter players and gangsta promos. From “trash-talking” thuggery euphemized as cultural “gamesmanship” to cameras following and focusing on every boorish showboat’s customized choreography.

It is what it is, and the ratings and ad rates haven’t crested yet. As for that racy locker room exchange between Terrell Owens, the NFL poster child for stentorian stud, and some towel-clad bimbo from “Desperate Housewives,” it was merely an extension of an increasingly sleazy entertainment product.

And as black Indianapolis Colts’ coach Tony Dungy has pointed out, the offending cross-promotion of the NFL and “Housewives” even played the racial stereotype card – lest someone be left unoffended.

It was the height of hypocrisy for ABC, the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles organization to have feigned regret over the incident. After a few pro forma apologies, they were all high-fiving each other over their collective PR coup.

If you’re a parent, don’t waste your breath complaining; the league is more Ray Lewis than Derek Brooks. Might as well wax disturbed over an MTV Awards’ show. The best thing you can do is to be an example to your kids and not applaud the “colorful” antics of dysfunctional-culture athletes because they are home town players.

More Mayoral Theatrics

Picture this: A shouting match at a street dance in downtown St. Petersburg between Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker.

Actually, it’s a scripted exchange from an upcoming musical comedy, “Crossing The Bay,” that plays next month (Jan. 25-30) at Tampa’s Falk Theatre. The play, which is filled with local history from both sides of the bay, features Mayors Iorio and Baker in cameo roles (opening night only) that underscore — in a good-natured way — the historic, inter-county rivalries and prejudices.

“Crossing The Bay,” which will debut in St. Petersburg Jan. 5, is a production of St. Pete-based LiveArts Peninsula Foundation, a 3-year-old organization whose mission is to preserve and celebrate Florida’s heritage through the stories of its past. A previous LiveArts production was a reprise of the acclaimed “Webb’s City: The Musical.” In fact, “Crossing The Bay” is by Bill Leavengood and Lee Ahlin, the writer-composer/lyricist team who created “Webb’s City.”

“Crossing The Bay” is based on Jane Austin’s comedy-of-manners classic, “Pride and Prejudice,” and is reset in the post-Civil War Tampa Bay area. The playwright draws parallels between British middle class and aristocracy clashes in the 1800s and conflicts between rural Southerners and wealthy Northern industrialists. The vehicle for such conflicts is the competition to bring the railroad to Florida’s West Coast.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” says Leavengood, 44, “and I didn’t know some of the history between the counties. We’re bringing that to life. And ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is just so much fun to adapt – it’s full of fabulous characters and subtext.”

Tickets may be purchased through the website: www.liveartspen.com . Information is available at the box office (813) 426-3416.

Cuban Club New Year’s

If you’re looking for something a little different – actually, a lot different – this New Year’s Eve, you might consider ringing in 2005 at Ybor City’s Cuban Club (Circulo Cubano de Tampa). It’s not your basic holiday bash; it’s the semi-formal (black tie optional), annual New Year’s Eve Ball hosted by the Krewe of Mambi and the Cuban Club – and held in the building’s elegant Grand Ballroom. The historic club building is located at the corner of Palm Avenue and 14th Street. Parking will be available at the Fernando Noriega City Parking Garage behind the Cuban Club.

Tickets are $75 per person and include: dinner; open bar-8 to midnight; live music by the 11-piece Orquesta Infinidad; a continental breakfast; and a champagne toast. Plus all proceeds go to a good cause: the ongoing restoration efforts at the vintage 1917 edifice.

Doors open at 8 p.m.; dinner is served at 8:30. No tickets will be sold at the door and seating is limited. The number to call for reservations is 248-2954. For those interested in sponsorship opportunities, the number is 508-1025. Ask for Jorge Diaz.

This Thanksgiving: The Ultimate Thanks

I remember it as if it were this morning.

Hurricane Charley was bearing down on Tampa Bay. A direct hit, that which we had been lured into believing couldn’t happen here, loomed likely. Tampa Bay as a meteorological funnel would be catastrophic.

Plywood and sandbags were the Maginot Line of defense. Rolled up carpets reminiscent of deckchair rearrangement on the Titanic. Hillsborough Bay was frighteningly close.

You evacuate, you hope and you pray for the best.

In the process, you take inventory. You and your wife have each other; the family pets are with you and ready to hit the road. You are thankful for friends in higher places. You scoop up favorite family photos and special mementos, trying not to focus on all you’re leaving behind, which is virtually everything. The memorabilia gets packed among the underwear, insurance documents and computer CPU.

On the way out, you pause wistfully for a long look, which could be a last look at an 85-year-old bungalow. You tell yourself that it’s all just “stuff,” that what really matters are loved ones and their safety. It’s all too true, of course, but you can’t help seeing your house through the lens of loss. Charley won’t just damage it, you admit, but not out loud, Charley will destroy it.

But this was a microcosmic view of what was in the awful offing.

With the city in its cross hairs, Charley could destroy Tampa as we knew it — leaving center city devastated and surrounding communities pulverized. Recall Andrew hammering Homestead; this would be worse. Tampa wouldn’t recover in our lifetime.

Like so many locals, we live in Tampa by choice – not happenstance or inertia. Our residential frames of reference include Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta. We know what we have here. We’ve moved away, only to return as soon as practicable. After some three decades, this is our town – no less than it is the multi-generational home of blue-blood first families.

We love Tampa’s “small big city” feel – even as we celebrate its downtown growth and root for revitalization. We’re enamored of its rich history, its diversity, its Bayshore, its future.

To envision it leveled and washed away was wrenching.

But Tampa, as fate would have it, was spared. To live another day. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of its city charter next month. To move closer to the realization of a residential downtown and a viable cultural arts district. To become a larger, grander scale version of that “small big city” that is uniquely Tampa.

We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. We still have our homes – and our home town.

Journalistic Judgment Call

Journalism is the only profession with its own amendment, the First. It is the bedrock of democracy.

But it is not a science – rocket or otherwise. The practice is rife with judgment calls. Among them: How do you handle controversial photos?

You know the one: that gut-wrenching shot of the dying American soldier in Fallujah being unsuccessfully ministered to on a gurney. It had to have been the subject of countless editorial discussions – some doubtlessly heated — across the expanse of American newspapers. That obviously included this market.

A couple of points.

First, photos are more than layout elements. Chosen well, they graphically show what a thousand words of copy can only describe in the abstract. Chosen well, they help convey the truth.

This is what the photo of the dying soldier did, and that’s why it ran on a lot of front pages, including that of the Tribune.

But here’s the other side.

While journalists continuously work to rein in – or just limit – their subjectivity, they shouldn’t be checking their empathy at the newsroom door. The news isn’t reported – and consumed – in a vacuum. At its core, news is people. Subjects, suspects, victims –and readership: the nation, the region, the community.

What works for a national magazine might be less appropriate for a daily newspaper that is a community staple. Demographics also matter in a democracy. What works on the jump might be more appropriate than what is displayed across three columns on page one.

In this case, maximum impact was the wrong call for the right reason.

Urban Renewal In Gainesville?

Urban Meyer may be the next head coach of the Florida Gators.

With good reason have many of the usual suspects anointed the 40-year-old head coach of the University of Utah. He’s been highly successful at Utah and prior to that as head coach at Bowling Green. Known as a hard-driving innovator, Meyer loves a spread out, high-octane offense. And he’s tight with first year UF President Bernie Machen, who hired Meyer at Utah.

But here’s one variable that could be a double-edged sword. He’s a strict disciplinarian. Very strict. And that includes the deportment department.

No boorish, “look at me” antics euphemized as unbridled enthusiasm. No “trash talk” explained away as cultural gamesmanship. Players scoring touchdowns are expected to toss the football back to the referee as if they’ve done it before. No choreography. No showboating. Don’t embarrass your team, your coach, your school or yourself. Show some class or be shown the door.

Frankly, that’s refreshing. Many coaches make a deal with the devil to bring in blue-chip players with cow-chip characters. It’s the trade-off to win games, fill stadiums, get on TV, go to bowl games, appease the alumni and keep their jobs. Miami, Florida State and Florida are not exceptions to this rule.

But Utah is. What it is not is Florida. Not in its highly prized, highly praised high school recruiting base. Not in its take-no-prisoners alumni. Not in the pressure to win the Southeastern Conference and compete for a national championship every year.

Frankly, Meyer may be a better philosophical fit at Penn State, but, well, never mind.

Monday Night Sleaze

Re: The flap over the controversial pre-game promotion before last week’s Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.

Get over it.

Not because “it’s no big deal.” And not because “that’s ‘show biz.'”

But because we’re not re-bottling the genie known as mainstream cultural sludge. And prime-time pro sports – notably basketball and football – are chronic offenders. From cheesy chorus lines and police-blotter players to gangsta promos. From “trash-talking” thuggery euphemized as “gamesmanship” to cameras following every boorish showboat’s customized choreography.

It is what it is, and the ratings and ad rates haven’t crested yet. As for that racy locker room exchange between Terrell Owens and some towel-clad bimbo actress, it was merely an extension of the increasingly sleazy entertainment product that is the NFL. And as black Indianapolis Colts’ coach Tony Dungy has acknowledged, they even played the racial stereotype card — lest someone be left unoffended.

It is the height of hypocrisy for ABC, the NFL and the Eagles’ organization to feign any regret over the incident. After a few pro forma apologies, they are high-fiving themselves for all the publicity.

If you’re a parent, don’t waste your breath complaining. Any more than waxing disturbed over an MTV awards’ show. The best thing you can do is to be an example to your kids and not applaud the “colorful” antics of dysfunctional-culture athletes because they are home town players.