Author: opinionstogo

When Don Hubert bought The Beer Box in 1989, the St. Petersburg bar had a hardscrabble reputation that needed overhauling. He wanted an unmistakable sign that this was now a safe and welcoming place. So the Rhode Island native renamed it Don’s Irish Pub.

No Irish entertainment, no Emerald Isle artifacts, no Irish employees, no corned beef. Just Guinness and a neighborly attitude.

“I wanted to send a clear signal that this wasn’t a biker bar or something,” explained Hubert. “When you see ‘Irish pub,’ you think friendly, even family atmosphere.”

Obviously something other than Irish lineage and major marketing by Guinness accounts for the increasing proliferation of Irish pubs far beyond the ethnic haunts of Boston, Philadelphia or Chicago. In the Tampa Bay market alone there are nearly 50 – from Clearwater to Carrollwood, Bradenton to Brandon. In Ybor City the Irish Pub and the James Joyce Irish Pub are across 7th Avenue from one another. In South Tampa there’s the “Irish Triangle”: the Dubliner Irish Pub, Four Green Fields and MacDinton’s within walking distance of each other.

“I’d call it an old school brand environment,” says Michael Peters, president of Tampa-based Spark Branding House. “You know what you’re getting. There’s comfort in that. It’s not where you go for a Mai Tai.”

Colin Breen would drink a Guinness or Smithwick’s to that. He opened Four Green Fields in 1992; now nobody in Florida sells more Guinness than he does at his thatched-roof, Irish cottage-motif pub. Here a Sinn Fein poster, there a Gaelic street sign. The entertainment – from the Wolf Tones to Sinead O’Connor – is Irish. So is the menu and the help. Gerry Adams has spoken there.

“In general, Irish pubs do well,” explains Breen. “We don’t have to change with the times. It’s not age-related; it’s not price-driven. The bartenders are outgoing and engaging. We have no TV’s; you have to talk to someone.”

The formula of authenticity has worked so well that Breen has contemplated franchising, although he is now more inclined to consider partnerships. He looks to license his trademark.

The rest of the “Irish Triangle” are variations on an overlapping pub theme.

MacDinton’s is considered “modern Irish,” meaning plenty of Guinness, camaraderie, dark woods and Irish staffers, as well as big-screen TVs, happy hour specials, rock music and even karaoke. It caters to the SoHo trendy crowd.

Over at the three-year-old Dubliner, Dublin-born owner Richard Campion has succeeded at a location previously known as a bar-and-restaurant graveyard. It’s mahogany, stained glass and plenty of nooks and crannies inside – with a deck for music, smoking and televised sports. It’s a favorite watering hole of soccer and rugby players.

“It’s kind of ironic,” notes Campion, “that in Ireland many of the pubs have a more modern, cosmopolitan look. In America, there is still the novelty and the allure of the Old World.”

Whether Four Green Fields authentic or MacDinton’s modern, the common denominator is ambience: Irish pubs are avatars of amiability. Egalitarian comfort zones.

“We have a saying,” says Dublin native Noel Cooney, owner of Flanagan’s Irish Pub in Dunedin, ‘There’s no strangers, just friends you haven’t met.'”

Vice President Dick Cheney and snowboard-cross silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis have something in common besides being controversial names in the news the past fortnight. They both provided teachable moments.

First, the Olympian who pried a runner-up spot from the jaws of gold-medal victory. To recap, Jacobellis, in a Torino version of the classic hare-vs.-tortoise runoff, had Olympic gold all but assured when overtaken by an urge to showboat near the end of her final run. She fell ingloriously and was literally overtaken by a competitor who had all but conceded the gold.

Jacobellis will now be enshrined in that select pantheon of athletes whose exploits become dramatic grist for the half time, pep-talk mill. Regardless of sport. This, however, will be no “Win one for the Gipper” oration.

It will go something like this:

“OK, guys, you have a big lead, but in this game – and against this competition — anything can happen. There’s too much at stake, and this is no time to let up. You’ve got the entire off-season to let up.

“You’re probably too young to remember it, but there once was an Olympian – an American, too – who had a gold medal in a snowboarding event all wrapped up. I mean a humungous lead with the finish line well in sight, when she did something silly and stupid. She played to the roaring crowd with a hot-dog move and fell – splat — and lost the gold medal. Just like that.

“That’s what can happen when you lose your focus. That’s what can happen, frankly, when you get so caught up in what you’re about to achieve that you don’t finish achieving it.

“And another thing. We play with enthusiasm around here, and that’s not about to change. But there’s a difference between enthusiasm and showboating. I don’t think I have to define them for you. Show some class; don’t show off. We defeat opponents, but we don’t rub it in. You’ll be on the other side some day.

“But not today.”

Read it and veep

As for the veep: Sure, accidents happen, but any public relations intern could recite the fundamentals of how to handle a situation involving a very public person in a very important position in a very, very media-obsessed society.

The customized 10 commandments of common sense for public officials:

1–When you’re in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

2–Never become the news; you become a liability. (But, OK, stuff happens.)

3–And when it does happen, call your boss immediately. Even if you think he’s not your superior. And, yes, YOU make the call – it should be obvious why. (In this case, the boss is trying to make a policy case to the American people about energy, security and such as well as stanch political bleeding and you’ve gift-wrapped the diversion from hell for the professional chatter-heads. You also made the boss look even less boss-like.)

4–As soon as possible, go public with the facts. (In this instance, there weren’t that many, and no one knew them better than you.)

5–Then indicate additional details will be forthcoming as soon as practicable.

6–Then make sure that happens. (And don’t fudge or nuance anything – like blame. And just because Scooter Libby’s out of pocket and Mary Matalin’s out to lunch, it doesn’t mean all is lost. Common sense need not be outsourced.)

7–Think big picture. Who else looks bad if this is mishandled? (See #3 above.)

8–Never make the Washington press corps jackals’ job any easier. (This incident is really more about enlightened self interest than the public’s right to know. Even – or especially — for an imperial politician, Watergate’s rule of thumb trumps all: It’s not the crime (or the accident), it’s the cover-up (or perception of arrogance and excessive secrecy).)

Remember, once a conflict-craving, scandal-starved press supersizes an incident, the ripple effect can be incalculable. A rising tide of unnecessary, drum-beat controversy can engulf any ship of state.

9–Never let personal feelings – such as a visceral loathing for Beltway bombast – cloud good, objective judgment.

10

*Let’s face it; the Olympics were more fun during the Cold War. US vs. Them. Chauvinism for a good cause. Now it’s a global variety show. It’s about individuals and their personalities – and losing the ratings’ race to American Idol. Bode Who?

*Nordic combined, biathlon, curling. Somebody cares even if you don’t, but these participants truly embody the Olympic spirit. No endorsements, no agents, no attitudes – and real jobs to pay real bills in the real world. They love their sport, they’re better than almost everyone in the world at something and they consider it an unmitigated honor and privilege to represent their country. What’s not to love about that? Shani Who?

*Every Olympiad includes events, actually subsets of sports categories, which a lot of us have never heard of. And the International Olympic Committee keeps adding more. Potentially looming in 2014: ski archery, mountaineering and orienteering – a ski race employing the use of compasses and maps.

*Three words: Still no toboggans.

This column gets its share of e-mail correspondence. Some of it favorable.

A recent one merely commented on a current event, one that was largely under the radar at that point. Now it’s the epicenter of a national political firestorm.

So plaudits to Anthony Williams of Apollo Beach, who fired off a heat-seeking epistle upon seeing a CNN crawl about a United Arab Emirates’ (Dubai Ports World) company taking over operations of a number of major American seaports. (There are implications for Tampa as well.) For the record, before talk show hosts, mayors, police chiefs, certain East Coast governors, a senate oversight committee, Hillary Clinton and the White House weighed in, Williams was worried about the possibility of “hiring the fox to guard our henhouse.”

The metaphor may be alarmist and unfair to DPW, whose job isn’t “to guard” anything. That’s the purview of law enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs.

But for an administration glaringly remiss in its efforts to allocate sufficient resources for the protection of our ports from terrorism, it’s an issue that, at minimum, begs more scrutiny. More than 2 billion tons of cargo come through America’s ports annually. Roughly 5% of the 9 million containers are inspected. And the UAE, lest we forget, has some unsettling connections – operational and financial – to Sept. 11.

Moreover, the UAE, although an ally that allows U.S. Customs to inspect exports to America, was a transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components headed for Iran and North Korea. It was also one of the few countries to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government.

Nothing in a post-9/11 world is business as usual any more. The UAE has been cooperative with the U.S., and is hardly a terrorist hotbed. More than any of its brethren, it understands the global marketplace and what anti-modernity has done to undermine the Muslim cause. It is, however, what it is – even if it does host world-class golf and tennis tournaments. It’s a high-end Muslim monarchy that constantly straddles the line between its Western partners and its Muslim peers. Call it “ethnic” stereotyping (as MSNBC’s Chris Mathews, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and others have) or prudent policy, but the UAE is not the UK. It’s just not.

(It should be noted that the controversy erupted when DPW agreed to buy out the previous operator, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.)

Questions remain even for those not asking them. How confident can we be that the details of vetting personnel, for example, will be handled properly? Is there enough transparency? Was this a rush job by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which represents a dozen federal agencies? Is diligence still due? Is this analogous to the Chinese company that ultimately wasn’t allowed to buy UNOCAL?

This isn’t “outsourcing” security, but it is turning over all other operations, including the loading and unloading of everything, to DPW. Is there harm in buying time until the rhetoric recedes and there’s a strong, convincing consensus one way or the other?

Will this become another political hostage to polarized politics? Isn’t it a sign to stop and reflect when Senator Clinton can tack to the right of President Bush? Don’t we need a “time-out” when the president threatens to use his first-ever veto on this?

Or maybe we should just take administration experts at their word and let it ride.

“We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently reassured the public on ABC’s “This Week.”

But isn’t he the guy who was in over his head with a hurricane?

Barring any unforeseen complications with City Council, Tampa has itself a workable art museum plan. Finally. The parties were running out of drawing boards to go back to.

And barring any deathbed conversions, not everyone will ever agree that the new plan is just splendid. Which is pretty much what you’d expect when talking art and politics and money. Then add site-selection subplots, business-plan recriminations and personal pique.

Some recent background on the museum ex machina. Amid rumors that off-again-on-again negotiations with America’s Capital Partners, owners of Rivergate Tower and the “Pavilion” (AKA “the cubes”), were heading south again, Mayor Pam Iorio concluded the city and museum were likely out of viable alternatives if they couldn’t do the ACP deal. Its CEO, Allen de Olazarra, said Iorio “deserves all the credit for this.” As in taking the last-minute, deal-clinching initiative.

It means the city will spend $20 million (of Community Investment Tax money) on the project, including $5.7 million to purchase and $10 million to renovate “the cubes,” which will provide about 28,000 square feet. The city will also temporarily lease about 22,000 square feet in the cylindrical Tower. In addition, it will shore up the maintenance-challenged garage adjacent to “the cubes” and sell it to ACP. Kiley Gardens will ultimately be replanted and reconfigured and serve as part of the museum’s “backyard.” When the relocation is complete, the old (44,000-square-foot) museum will be razed.

Work on “the cubes” retrofit could commence this year. According to Mayor Iorio, the time line on the renovation, the garage and Kiley should be “about 24 months.”

Phase two is the construction of a truly “new” museum, on the projected order of about 65,000 square feet, which would be just north of “the cubes.” The two could literally be connected. Target time line for the Ashley Plaza project: within five years.

“The phase two building is totally (design and construction costs) up to the private sector,” emphasized Iorio, who ultimately wants the city out of the museum business.

And that will mean the museum launching a capital campaign and holding on to most of the would-be benefactors who had pledged more than $30 million toward construction of the Rafael Vinoly-designed structure whose plans imploded last year.

At a packed City Hall press briefing, which included city council members John Dingfelder, Linda Saul-Sena and Mary Alvarez, museum board president Cornelia Corbett waxed notably enthusiastic and exchanged rhetorical and literal hugs with the mayor.

“I feel confident we will re-engage 95 percent of those people,” she said. Corbett also noted that it was too soon to put a dollar figure on the new structure.

Added museum interim director Ken Rollins: “There’s a tremendous amount of resources out there waiting for us to come forward with this project.”

Mayor’s compromise

Much has been made of the mayor’s “compromise.”

She obviously preferred the old federal courthouse on N. Florida for a museum and more green space for choice riverfront real estate. She also had said she wouldn’t spend taxpayer dollars until the museum had accumulated a $10-million operating endowment. That mandate has been modified to a phased-in requirement. Upon moving into “the cubes”: $4 million needed. Upon moving into the new museum: $10 million needed. Current total: nearly $2 million. It’s eminently doable.

“This is a real partnership,” said Iorio. “We’re on the same page. With Vinoly and the courthouse, we weren’t on the same page.

“I want the museum to be a success,” the mayor underscored. “To be successful, they have to show momentum. To re-energize the donor base and the museum board. It was worth it to me to compromise. The museum can grow in stages.”

The word “compromise,” however, can be a double-edged sword also connoting sheer expedience and flagrant face-saving.

To museum board member Jan Platt, the plan is “mediocre,” “make-do” and a “blatant political compromise.” She cast the board’s lone nay vote on the plan. Former Mayor Sandy Freedman is disappointed that it won’t be “first rate.”

Among those not disheartened is city councilwoman Saul-Sena, the city’s aesthetics archangel.

“I think the ‘Pavilion’ is the most breathtaking contemporary architecture in Tampa,” she said. “It will be a spectacular place for gathering, for a café and for exhibitions of sculpture work that are not light sensitive. I dare say many people haven’t really walked inside. It’s extraordinarily different.

“I can tell you the people in the design community are all enthused,” added Saul-Sena. “And this will set a really high bar for the next piece that’s built.”

To fellow council member Dingfelder, compromise comes with the territory.

“Politics is all about compromise,” explained Dingfelder. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing. The upside here is if she can pull this off – the Riverwalk, the park, the museum — this could be something special.

“These are unusual and pretty buildings,” said Dingfelder. “And keep this in mind, this is phase one. The museum board has a blank space right next door.”

Re-use perspective

Iorio suspects that re-use, per se, is what truly troubles some.

“I think there exists for some a kind of bias about the re-use of an existing building,” she theorized. “Maybe it’s hard for some to see a building that they have grown accustomed to, in a different light. I heard a lot of that with the courthouse and now with ‘the cubes.’ Older cities often take existing uses and turn them into something new and different. We are still a young city and still have, in part, the mentality that progress means something brand new.

“I suspect that 10 years from now, many people new to this community will assume that ‘the cubes’ were built to house a museum originally.”

It’s more than likely that perspective will ultimately carry the museum day. Proximity to and temporary use of the (Rivergate) “Beer Can” tower will remain an image issue for some. To anyone who ever did business at “the (old NCNB) cubes,” which is actually revered in art circles, this is probably no site to bank on for museum credibility. It will always seem ad hoc or Plan B.

And given the phased scenario, it is necessarily premature to render any ultimate judgment until that final, “signature” piece is in place – and in context.

Until there’s an end product, it’s all high-profile process. And not unlike news editing, law passing and sausage making, it’s not real pretty until it’s finished.

I’ll acknowledge this much up front; I’m one of the Village people. As in Old Hyde Park Village. I prefer town-square ambience to an enclosed, suburban Pentagon. I’m blessed to live within walking distance.

I like lunch at Restaurant BT, dinner at The Wine Exchange, a movie at Sunrise Cinemas, open-air retail, a place to stroll outdoors, a facility to work out, jazz in the park, a dearth of grazing teenagers and shady spots to read and nurse a coffee.

I’ll also admit that I’m a realist. The writing on the mall was the (2001) debut of International Plaza and the subsequent overhaul of WestShore Plaza. The Jacobson’s implosion left OHPV scrambling for an anchor. A Lifestyle Fitness Center, however welcome, can’t replace a large retail anchor.

The tenant mix has been in constant flux, destination specialty shops on the wane and about a third of the leaseable 270,000 square feet is vacant. Sharper Image won’t be back, and a Whole Foods ex machina is likely not waiting in the wings.

A trolley to downtown, an ambitious but dated movie theater, carriage rides, some cosmetic improvements and tenant roulette won’t save the day.

But David Wasserman, 46, is betting – and investing – like he knows what will.

He’s the principal of Wasserman Vornado Strategic Real Estate Fund, the managing partner of OHPV. It bought a 75 percent stake in the Village last year from previous owner Madison Marquette. Wasserman expects to invest more than $100 million in a “complete renovation” of the village.

The key – and literal – building block is residential. Currently, there are 38 condo and town homes. Wasserman plans to add approximately 250 units – in two separate, 12- and -8-story mid-rises (above storefronts). They would go where buildings now house Sunrise and Brooks Bros. The taller would go on the Sunrise site on Swann Avenue.

“I don’t see us in competition with other products,” said Wasserman. “We’re unique in our quality.” He also knows that whether it’s a bungalow or a condo, Hyde Park remains a high-demand market niche.

Wasserman will also contractually discourage investors. “We won’t be selling to snowbirds,” he stressed. He wants year-round resident-shoppers.

According to Ian Bacon, the company’s development director, the condos would likely sell for “a half million and up for the most part.” Amenities such as higher ceilings and upgraded finishes – plus self-contained parking – would be additional selling points.

Additional plans

The company’s goal, stated Wasserman, is to “unite the intent of the Hyde Park Historic district design guidelines with our development vision.” He called the Village an “amazing property” and “an icon in a unique neighborhood.

“We appreciate historic areas – and increasing property values around it,” he underscored.

Plans for Wasserman’s new lease on Village life also include:

*Creating the right mix of locals and chains, such as the incumbent Restoration Hardware (sans awning) and Anthropologie.

Wasserman’s formula: “Give me the Indigos (coffee shop) and the BT’s and the Pottery Barns. And add residential and a gourmet market.”

*Complete renovation of the former Cactus Club building. The fa