Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

While I was away, a couple more high-rise residential buildings were announced for downtown Tampa. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s been a dozen years since a high-rise/skyscraper (either 100 North Tampa, or SunTust Financial Centre) was completed here. There have been others that reached the planning stages. Remember the 45 story “Hillsborough River Tower?” Announced in 1997, construction has not yet begun. How about the huge three-building complex “Heritage Park” to be built just south of SunTrust? That one was proposed in 2000. For sure, the economic downturn in the early 00’s probably had something to do with keeping the shovels out of the dirt. But now, for the last 2 years, residential high-rises (and medium-rises) are popping up all around downtown. Channelside has seen the most activity, with announcements of Channelside 212, Meridian Lofts, Victory Lofts (each 5 stories or less), 12 story Grand Central at Kennedy, double 37 story Pinnacle Place (with it’s ridiculous “space needle”), and twin 30-story Towers at Channelside. A couple residential projects are slated for other parts of downtown, including Bank of America’s three 10-story condos just north of downtown, a couple of small ones on N. Franklin St. Parkside of One Bayshore just west of the river, and the Arts Center Lofts just east of the river. Now to all of that (and I think I may have missed some) add the new 50 story tower on the river, and the new 51 story high-rise in central downtown. Is anyone keeping track of all of this? This and this are the closest I could find of a current comprehensive listing on the ‘net. Should all of these come to fruition, the number of tall buildings downtown would at least double, and the skyline would be significantly altered.

By the way, in the 3rd quarter of 2003, the median price for homes in Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater was $138,600. I don’t recall seeing any of these downtown condos/lofts/residences available for less than $155,000. While getting people to live downtown certainly should keep the area alive after 6pm, it would be nice to see some residences offered for $120K or even less…

The Devil Rays are no longer undefeated. The Yanks beat them this morning 12 to 1. It was one year ago tomorrow (yes, I know – April Fool’s Day) that Tampa Bay sports teams were on top of the world. The entire area was still coming down from the Super Bowl high. The Storm was 7-2 and on their way to becoming World Champs as well. The Lightning was in the top spot of their division, and heading to the playoffs. The Devil Rays won on Opening Day, and stood alone at the top of their division. All four of Tampa Bay’s professional teams were in FIRST PLACE. It didn’t last long, as the D-Rays lost on the 2nd (and the 3rd and the 4th). But April 1st, 2003… that was a great day.

I’m back.

What a blast! NYC is a great place to visit. Driving up I-95 was not really too bad. But upon approaching New York from the NJ turnpike, and crossing over the Hudson River, a couple of tollbooth guys saw my Lightning/Devil Rays/Buccaneers front license plate. Apparently, Giants fans are still a bit upset that the Bucs went further than them in 2002. And that the Lightning are in the run for the President’s Cup (now this morning, the Devil Rays beat their Yankees!!). They wanted to know what the hell a Floridian was doing in New York in March. I told them I needed to get away from all the New Yorkers in Tampa.

But it was cold there last week. We arrived on Friday afternoon, mere hours after the last big blast. We promptly had a snowball fight. On Monday, the first full day of spring brought a high temperature of about 25. And, apparently the leader of HAMAS was killed. So then Tuesday, while at the Grand Central Terminal, we mingled in and around the NYPD, Army peeps, SWAT teamers with big (and I mean BIG) f’ing guns, and official-looking German Shepherds.

Of course, we had planned to make this trip months previous. Of course, Wifey wanted to drive, not fly. Of course, gas prices rose to their highest levels ever. OK… l’m trying to be a smart ass… But we really had a great time. More to come, if I get around to it.

Sticks of Fire is on vacation. Please check the links to the left for local goings-on. Great blogs that keep an eye on the State of Florida include Florida Blog, Florida Politics, Discourse.net, and South of the Suwannee. Blogwood notes Tampa City/Hillsborough County politics. Other local bloggers include Crazy Island, Goatbelt, Duh, and Spiritual Maya. There… that should keep youbusy for a moment or two. See you soon!

Everyone’s up in arms about HARTline, it’s lax processes, and Sharon Dent, executive director. Over the last several years, many concerns have risen regarding HARTline and Dent. In 1997, after the bus agency requested more funding, the Tampa Bay Business Journal suggested an audit was in order. Again in 1999, the Journal encouraged more efficiency at the transit agency. 2001 was a trying year for HARTline: The St. Pete Times opined that the agency had an “image problem, a political problem, and a leadership problem,” and wondered about Dent’s job security; International Plaza was successful in keeping the busses away from the actual shopping areas; The company HARTline chose to build Hybrid electric busses failed; the agency asked for cuts in bus service, and employees were limited to 2 percent raises, while Dent’s salary rose to $120,000. 2003 was tough too. HARTline asked for rate hikes and route reductions, but not for the free downtown fake trolley. The county commission offered a piece of the ½ cent sales tax hike, but Dent could not detail a budget for the money. Also late last year, an employee complained about bidding processes ignored, and curious fiscal practices regarding the streetcar. This year, busses continued operating with wheelchair ramps that did not work until ABC Action news (channel 28) ran a story, after which some of the ramps were fixed.

This week Sharon Dent’s under the microscope again. The county commission voted 5-2 and now officially have “no confidence” in Dent’s ability to run HARTline. Local political activist Norwood has detailed the exploits pretty well, and he just wants Dent gone. Like The Tampa Tribune, I’ll wait to see the final audit before coming to any conclusion, but at this point, it really does not look good for Dent – or HARTline.

If you’ve read local writer Tim Dorsey’s novels, “Hammerhead Ranch” or “Stingray Shuffle,” you may remember Johnny Vegas, the accidental virgin. In real life, we increasingly have to confront accidental p*rn.

On Tuesday, this page detailed the sex talk phone number accidentally printed on Busch Gardens’ Fun Pass advertisements. Now, during the pay-per view of Wrestlemania XX, a p*rn*graphic channel was “accidentally” aired by Bright House networks for a few minutes. A web page at Berkely details accidental p*rn in video games. And when surfing the web, I sometimes end up - and this is completely by accident - sometimes end up on nudie sites. CT at The Critical ‘I’ thinks they may not all be “accidents.” I’d give it a little more thought, but I just happened to find a new, interesting website.

According to AXE deodorant, Tampa/St. Pete ranks 49th best place to date. AXE compared 80 cities in America. Austin ranked 1st, Springfield, MA ranked 9th, New York ranked 18th. Cities slightly worse than Tampa include Dallas (51), Las Vegas (52), and Chicago (56). Kansas City was the worst (80), and Atlanta was not much better than KC at 74.

At most theme parks, you have the option to buy an annual pass. Busch Gardens is no different. Their annual pass is called a “Fun Card.” And in the past, it’s been a pretty good deal; pay for a day, and get to go for a year. As with most marketing gimmicks, if you let your Fun Card expire, you will get a postcard or flyer in the mail, asking to renew. If you got one of these recently, it seems that dialing the phone number printed on the flyer results in a call to the “Pleasure Zone,” an adult chat line. Apparently, a recording of a breathy woman encourages you to give your credit card number to gain access to their “steamy, sexual world” for only $.99 per minute. Boy, it really IS a “Fun Card,” I guess. I can’t wait to see what’s next at Adventure Island.

And no, I don’t think this has anything to do with the sex theme park recently opened in China. By the way, I wonder what their annual pass is called…