Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

When eating breakfast in downtown St. Pete, you could get attacked by a bat. Cheryl Koski was eating breakfast outside of the Dome Grill when she felt something bumping around her leg. It was a bat. Koski whacked the bat with a restaurant tray and called animal control. They said the bat tested positive for rabies Wednesday. Rabies? That’s what they’re telling the newspaper. I’m not so sure about this. I bet it was a vampire, and now poor Ms. Koski will become a member of the living dead. And she’ll be forced to live a life of biting other unsuspecting citizens. Not a life I would want. Of course, the black cape they get to wear is pretty cool. And when she had appointments in Tampa, she could avoid the traffic and the long drive over the bridges. Not to mention flying in to see free Bucs games and concerts at the new outdoor ampitheater. And she’ll live forever. But the “I vant to dreenk your blooood” thing is weird. Couldn’t enter a house without a specific invitation. And I really like garlic. And the hours are difficult.

Personal note to Ms. Koski: If you happen to read this, I want you to know that this is just a lame-ass attempt at humor, and I hope you don’t feel upset that I’m making light of your encounter. I’m sure none of that stuff will REALLY happen. But if it does, please don’t bite me.

For those of you on your way to the KISS show tonight, STOP!!! The show has been postponed. Apparently, Paul Stanley was “poisoned” (heh, heh get it?) at last night’s show in West Palm. From Kiss Online:

The July 31st Tampa show and the August 1st show in Pensacola, FL have been
POSTPONED. During KISS’ high energy show in West Palm Beach, Paul
Stanley lost fluids and suffered heat exhaustion.

Wuss.

“Who is he going to pray to? It’s a free country. Whatever floats your boat.” - Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Alvarez, July 14 on learning an atheist was to deliver an upcoming invocation.

“I [don’t] have to sit here and listen to an atheist tell me what I should and shouldn’t believe.” - Mary Alvarez July 29 after walking out before the invocation began.

“I think this is sending us in the wrong direction,” - Councilwoman Rose Ferlita

Listening to an atheist even one time could unleash a “snowball effect” on government, and he compared it to having unprotected sex. - The St. Pete Times paraphrasing Councilman Kevin White

“I certainly don’t agree with having an atheist come for the invocation. I think the invocation is a time for the council to start their day with an expression of faith.” - Mayor Pam Iorio

“City Hall belongs to everybody - everybody - regardless of what they believe in or what they don’t believe in, that is what our nation was built on. And that is what our soldiers overseas are fighting for.” ”We hear a lot of inappropriate stuff during the invocations, and we don’t respond, I hope the message got across loud and clear that city hall is for everyone.” - Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder, defending his decision to invite the atheist.

With very little effort, City Councilman John Dingfelder opened some people’s eyes to the prejudice and bigotry of some of our public officials. Dingfelder invited an atheist to speak the traditional invocation at yesterday’s city council meeting. Personally, I thought the invite was thoughtful as a small attempt to include all citizens. Mary Alvarez, Rose Ferlita, and Kevin White thought otherwise. These intolerant and hypocritical council members walked out of the meeting, and turned it into front page news, and lead stories on all the newscasts. What a ridiculous waste of time.

Blogwood is disgusted as well, and invites you to email Mr. Dingfelder with encouragement. One of his readers already has. It’s a damn shame to think that, for something so simple as inviting a fellow citizen the opportunity at an invocation, he needs support such as this. But after the reaction from Alvarez and the others, and considering the likely reaction from the Christians (Today’s news: Gay Christian fired from church job for an editorial supporting inclusion), he needs to know he did the right thing.

EDIT August 2: Corrected Councilman White’s first name to Kevin. Thanks, Jackie.

FlaBlog and Blogwood are both keeping their eyes on the e-voting discussions, and both take Howard Troxler to task for his support for receipt-free voting computers. 

New local blogger SoHoTampa suggests that teachers know exactly what they are getting into, and they should shut up and teach.

Stonegauge has his take on the Times recent coverage of Scientology printed in the hometown paper.

DebWire highlights another election-help promotion.  This one’s by PBS:  By the People:  Election 2004  

A Beautiful Accident is reborn.

Abstract Appeal (which may be Florida’s only Law Blogger) has a great fact-based informational page on the entire Terri Schaivo case.  He doesn’t take sides, and presents all the information from a legal standpoint.  If you have any questions about the Schaivo situation, I highly recommend it. 

Newly blogrolled Interstate4Jamming highlights 12th District Republican incumbent Congressman Adam Putnam’s recent campaign strategy miscalculation.

The third installment of the Tampa Tribune’s Tampa Project was published on Sunday.  This one looks at the leadership (or lack of) currently in Tampa.  It includes a story on the rocky relationship between the city and county officials.  The results of such leadership can be seen right in Ybor City.  This piece succintly recaps the way things have been done around here.  In summary, 15 years ago, leaders (and greedy club owners) envisioned turning a quaint shopping district into a mini French Quarter.  Now Centro Ybor, including the movie theater and GameWorks attempt to attract families and children.  The new Club Bling allows patrons 13 to 18, and is the center of the latest controversy.  Most of the clubs encourage the 18 to 25 year old demographic, while some other venues and restaurants desire an older clientele.  The end result is not a mini French Quarter, not a quaint shopping/dining area, not even a real tourist destination, but a hodge-podge of businesses with differing (and not necessarily compatible) visions.

If you put up a sign in the right-of-way of a nearby road to advertise something (maybe a room for rent), and your sign disappears (twice!), you might want to consider all possibilities for its disappearance.  Such as: it might be CODE ENFORCEMENT staffers removing the illegal signs.   You can’t just try to cut off people’s fingers for removing your sign.

Plant City to residents living near train tracks:  Deal with it.  This makes sense since Plant city is named after railroad tycoon Henry Plant.  Now if only the Valricans could understand.

There’s more distress in Ybor City.  Over the past decade, reports of violence disrupting the weekend crowds there have reduced the crowd by about half.  The current round is being blamed on a new teen nightspot, Club Bling.  Kids that should be under their parents supervision are let out of the club after midnight, then take to the streets of the entertainment district, intimidating, robbing, and even aggressively attacking people.  There’s nothing new about teenagers being in Ybor City after dark, but this club has attracted greater numbers of teens, and even younger kids.  I’ve noticed the increase in youngsters and violence over the past couple of months, and watched as these kids run up and down 7th avenue (into and around innocent bystanders) toward the latest fight. 

Those who went to Ybor on a regular basis fifteen years ago are now in their mid-thirties to mid-forties.  And although they now have more money, they have less time to spend it, what with families and jobs and other grown-up stuff.  So when these folks find the time and energy to go out, they no longer feel comfortable around all the minors and stay away from the trouble in Ybor City.  And I don’t blame them.  There are plenty of other options now, such as SoHo, Channelside, Bay Street (International Plaza), Hyde Park and others.  But to visitors, Ybor is still the best known place for drinking and dancing.

I agree with those that say the teens do not belong in Ybor City.  But I also agree with Mayor Pam and Judy Hill who said that this is really a parental issue.  Unfortunately, there is no way to police parenting.  So if the city wants Ybor to be a place where tourists (and responsible locals) will visit, they will have to find a way to get the youngsters out of there.

It’s hard to say what will happen in the end.  The city is obligated to help Centro Ybor succeed, and GameWorks is a national corporation with the resources to influence any decisions made.  Meanwhile, businesses will continue to fail, and Ybor will turn into a place that everyone used to go.