Author: opinionstogo

It’s one of those countless events that are always happening around City Hall. An official group from somewhere being acknowledged for something.

In this case, Tampa was adding the eighth international affiliate to its mix of Sister City partners. Hardly stop-the-presses stuff.

The six-member delegation, including the mayor, was from Ashdod, Israel. They would meet with Mayor Pam Iorio and exchange token gifts and formal pleasantries in that intimate, anonymous brick amphitheater outside City Hall.

But Ashdod, Israel is — geo-politically speaking — not exactly Oviedo, Spain or Agrigento, Italy.

Ashdod – population 210,000 – is a deepwater port city on the Mediterranean about 40 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. A third of its residents are from somewhere else -Russia. Its delegation, led by Mayor Zvi Zilker, had an itinerary that included meetings with police officials, anti-drug specialists, Jewish leaders and — port personnel.

Two years ago Ashdod suffered a terrorist attack at its port that resulted in 10 deaths. It could share surveillance, security and first-response information – and advice – with its Tampa counterparts. Post-9/11 America notwithstanding, nobody knows the front lines of terrorism like the Israelis.

And nobody values America’s war on terrorism more than Israel.

“This is important to us,” said Mayor Zilker, “and this is important to Israel to have this contact. The more contact with America, with political persons, the better. We want to explain what’s happening in Israel.”

The prime mover in the Tampa-Ashdod partnership is Jack Ross, 41, a Tampa commercial real estate developer with dual American/Israeli citizenship.

Space happens.

Last week’s column — weaving Mayor Pam Iorio’s walk on the styled side in sensible shoes with a vision of what’s in store for downtown – couldn’t accommodate the entirety of the piece.

Plans for the rebirth of center city residential and the revival of North Franklin Street plus a critical study to determine the viability of the federal courthouse as an art museum were referenced. But in any courthouse/museum scenario, the riverfront must be accounted for. That is now addressed. And change, to be sure, is coming — one way or the other — along the Hillsborough.

From Iorio’s perspective, the arts and the waterfront overlap; ideally they would create an urban synergy – all part of the game plan to help make Tampa a more “livable” city.

That’s why the mayor’s walking tour inevitably stops at the water’s edge.

Those gazing west from Ashley Drive unfailingly notice that the panorama from the 400 North Ashley (“Beer Can”) building to the Poe Garage is incongruously nondescript for such prime waterfront real estate. OK, it’s a crime. The incumbent and underwhelming Tampa Museum of Art is sandwiched between two parks rarely frequented by anyone with a home.

With so much contingent on the study of mold and asbestos at the old courthouse, this unconscionably drab tableau remains in “the conceptual stage right now,” says Iorio.

But the concept is as ambitious as it is pragmatic. The city would demolish the old museum and the parking garage beneath. The grade-level land would become an extended park and a people magnet, while providing a post card vista.

“It’s important to be able to see the (University of Tampa) minarets uninhibited,” explains Iorio.

Plans, which include the Children’s Museum and collaboration with the Riverwalk project, also call for selling development rights for low-rise condos and commercial usage – such as cafes. The residential component, says Iorio, would abut the Poe Garage and help “hide” it. There’s also an “opportunity for development” at the lusterless, virtually hidden Kiley Gardens, next to 400 North Ashley. (Kiley Gardens would also be the backup site for the new museum if the courthouse doesn’t prove feasible.)

Developer money would subsequently fund improvements for the expansive park, (a redesigned) Ashley Drive and the aesthetic trappings for the conversion of Zack Street into an arts corridor.

Iorio doesn’t foresee any trouble attracting the right kind of private-sector interest – and cooperation.

“We’re talking about THE best real estate in Tampa,” she emphasizes. “They would love to build on it.”

And two final thoughts.

First, imagine a walking tour that doesn’t include an obeisance stop at the Trump Tower site. And it’s not just logistics or the mayor’s refusal to wear her broken-in tennis shoes. It’s not included because it’s not necessary.

And, second, imagine a Tampa redevelopment story that doesn’t need to mention Channelside.

Call it building momentum.

From the Poe Garage to the convention center, we’re finally talking meaningful, positive change for the east bank of the Hillsborough River.

We’re also talking deferred gratification. The complete Riverwalk, for example, won’t be finished until 2010.

But something will be finished a lot sooner than that – and for anyone who travels the bridges on Platt or Brorein streets, it’s hardly insignificant. And it can’t happen soon enough.

We’re talking about that crumbling-seawall, trash-strewn, hell hole of a lot near the convention center. For too long, that off-putting, nasty view had been inflicted on Platt Street bridge motorists as they entered downtown. All that was missing was the “Welcome to Fallujah” sign.

But since late last year, city crews have been at work turning the high-profile Tampa eyesore into a lush public park. It was scheduled for completion this summer, but unexpected excavation problems — i.e., chemical and petroleum products — have delayed construction on the near half-acre parcel. (City crews also have been working on another similar-sized downtown waterfront lot near Washington Street.)

The front-end loaders are now gone, and the park-to-be has a clean bill of health, according to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. Plans now call for it (and its companion parcel) to be finished by mid-October. It’s expected that the University of South Florida will be recognized in some fashion – likely with flags or sculptural elements. (The other park will be dedicated to MacDill Air Force Base with markers and a historical monument.)

For all the fanfare over bigger, sexier projects, the first tangible sign that, indeed, it is really happening on Tampa’s east bank, will be these two urban parks. Their importance is aesthetic and symbolic — but they’re also necessary amenities for downtown residential development to realize its potential.

Would that these were the last words on this notorious subject – that of the videotaped 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed by St. Petersburg Police.

St. Pete Police Chief Chuck Harmon is right. His officers shouldn’t be called in to discipline a 5-year-old.

And the Fairmount Park Elementary School staff deserved better. It’s their job to teach – and discipline. But not to civilize.

If you’re a successful politician, it’s pretty much a given that you can “talk the talk.” Politics is hardly the province of the oratorically challenged. Glib is good. But the key query is “Can you actually ‘walk the walk?'”

In the case of Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, the answer is obvious. She even has sensible shoes on hand to accommodate the feat. The mayor’s beige flats are ever at the ready for her walking tours of downtown.

Not long ago such pedestrian outings would have been as fulfilling as room service at the Floridan. Exactly which vacant buildings and plywood monuments — amid the urban Bataan — would you like to ogle?

But that’s all changing — about as fast as you can say:

* “Stately, ‘Beaux Arts Classical’ federal courthouse as art museum.”

* Or “Skypoint,” the 32-story condo now under construction on Ashley Drive.

* Or “Antonios Markopoulos,” the Floridan’s new owner who plans to turn the 78-year-old icon at Cass Street and Florida Avenue into a luxury hotel.

* Or “residential reincarnations” for the Kress block as well as the Maas Brothers, Woolworth and Newberry properties.

* Or “North Franklin revival,” featuring the Arlington condo project, Franklin Street Lofts, the Residences of Franklin Street and ambitious plans for retail and entertainment.

The winds of rehab, renovation and construction scenarios are gusting downtown, and the mayor wants to make sure that certain individuals eyeball the vision – and look past the eyesores and ad hoc parking lots. So with individual city councilpersons, museum board members, development types or media opinion shapers in tow, she periodically pivots out of City Hall in those sensible flats.

One such foray was last week.

First thing you notice is how many cabbies and cops slow down, beep, smile and salute when you’re with the mayor. Already the city was seeming more pedestrian friendly.

“I’ll be doing a lot more over the next few months if the preliminary study comes back and shows that the courthouse is viable,” says Iorio.

Normally enthusiastic, the mayor now waxes effusive over the prospect presented by the century-old courthouse as an alternative to the awkwardly imploded – some would say undermined — plans for the $76-million model on the Hillsborough River.

She wants a visitor-friendly waterfront and she wants an arts district – ideally not one in the same. She’s enamored of the idea of a museum being in the middle of the urban core. She knows she’s on the verge of squeezing downtown-revitalizing lemonade from the Vinoly-designed lemon.

If the moldy and asbestos-housing courthouse, which the city owns, passes muster for viability, there will be direct ripple effects – starting in the immediate vicinity.

The city, says the mayor, would ante up some $20 million toward the courthouse conversion and an “artsy” parking garage at Florida and Twiggs. The garage would be a revenue generator for the museum. There’s also the possibility that there could be allotted museum-staff space in the Franklin Exchange Building on Florida across from the 100,000 square-foot courthouse/museum.

And the intersection of Florida and Zack – where the old Hub bar used to be – could be home to an “arts corner.” Scenarios include artist lofts/studios and an outlet for USF’s renowned Graphicstudio. Yes, Judy Genshaft also has taken the tour.

“Our objective,” underscores the mayor, “is to change the downtown Tampa experience. Currently it’s not pedestrian friendly; there’s not a lot to see; and there’s a lot of spaces between what there is to see. We’re looking at street-by-street development.”

In fact, Iorio would love to implement a redevelopment rule of thumb she learned in a recent visit to Charleston, SC. To wit: “No more than 100 feet without something catching your eye.”

A key artery in downtown’s makeover is Zack Street (from Marion Street to Ashley Drive), which the mayor believes could be an “Avenue of the Arts” and the key nexus in the four blocks between the courthouse/museum and the riverfront. She envisions landscaping, flags, banners, public art – and two-way traffic helping attract plenty of pedestrians and a gallery row.

Waterfront scenarios

Eventually, all walking tours arrive at the waterfront.

Those gazing west from Ashley unfailingly notice that the panorama from the 400 North Ashley (“Beer Can”) building to the Poe Garage is incongruously nondescript for such prime waterfront real estate. The incumbent and underwhelming Tampa Museum of Art is sandwiched between two parks rarely frequented by anyone with a home.

With so much contingent on the viability of the old courthouse, this unconscionably drab tableau remains in “the conceptual stage right now,” says Iorio.

But the concept is plenty ambitious and hardly utopian. The city would raze the old museum and the parking garage underneath. The grade-level land would become an extended park and a people magnet, while providing a vista to die for. “It’s important to be able to see the (University of Tampa) minarets uninhibited,” explains Iorio.

Plans, which include the Children’s Museum and synergy with the Riverwalk, also call for selling development rights for low-rise condos and commercial usage such as cafes. The residential component, says Iorio, would abut the Poe Garage and help “hide” it. There’s also an “opportunity for redevelopment” at the virtually hidden Kiley Gardens, next to 400 North Ashley. (Kiley Gardens would also be the backup site for the new museum if the courthouse doesn’t prove feasible.)

Developer money would subsequently fund improvements for the expansive park, (a redesigned) Ashley Drive and the aesthetic trappings for the conversion of Zack into an arts corridor.

Iorio doesn’t foresee any trouble attracting the private sector’s interest – and cooperation.

“We’re talking about THE best real estate in Tampa,” she emphasizes. “They would love to build on it.”

And two final thoughts:

First, imagine a walking tour that doesn’t include an obeisance stop at the Trump Tower site. And it’s not just logistics or the mayor’s refusal to wear her broken-in tennis shoes. It’s not included because it’s not necessary.

And, second, imagine a Tampa redevelopment story that doesn’t need to mention Channelside.

Call it building momentum.

Mayor Pam Iorio hopes to have an interim museum director on board as soon as practicable. It would be someone who could stay for about a year and would not be interested in the permanent job.

She believes that the permanent director, who will be hired by TMA’s board of trustees, need not be a traditional art history sort but someone with a proven fund-raising track record who can move as “a peer” among the community’s CEOs and presidents.

As to her role in the controversial saga that ultimately became the unsuccessful effort to get guaranteed financing for the Rafael Vinoly-designed new museum, the mayor was blunt.

“Bells started going off early on that this project wasn’t as carefully planned as it should be,” she recalled. “There was no clear handle on operational costs. There was a lack of a strong foundation