Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas, and I’d like to wish you the best for 2005! Tomorrow night, Friday, just past midnight, after I give my beautiful wife a big kiss, I shall drink a toast to all of you who have stopped by my little site here during the past 10 months. Thank you for visiting, commenting, and reading. Have a happy and prosperous year, all of you.

I’d like to announce a slightly belated welcome to all students, fans, alumni and football players of the Wisconsin Badgers and the Georgia Bulldogs. Both schools’ teams are in town for the annual Outback Bowl. I hope everyone enjoys the great hospitality that Tampa Bay has to offer. This week the players enjoyed a great steak dinner from Outback Steakhouse, and visited the kids at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. They also had a day of fun at Busch Gardens. Yesterday’s weather for the Clearwater Beach outing was beautiful, but it seems that Georgia might be more focused on football. The Wisconsin Cheerleaders won the tug of war, and Badger fans took the top spots in the sand castle building and the Key lime pie eating contests. The Outback Bowl parade is Friday night, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN on Saturday morning. Welcome all of you from Wisconsin and Georgia – have a great time!

Leland Hawes is stepping down from the Tribune. For years he has written the History and Heritage page, which is always an interesting read. Hawes will be choosing his favorite past columns to include in a new book. USF’s Gary Mormino will be taking Hawes place at the newspaper. Mormino co-wrote Tampa: The Treasure City with late Tampa historian Tony Pizzo. Written in 1983, Tampa: The Treasure City is one of the most complete accounts of this area’s fascinating past. This Tampa blog wishes the best of luck to Hawes in his (semi)retirement, and we look forward to reading Mormino each Sunday.

Speaking of history, another Florida political blog has debuted by the Conquistador of Florida politics, Blog de Leon. The writer promises to look at current politics from a historical view. Thus far the writing is excellent, and includes photos of old Florida. Three other newish blogs that focus on statewide politics are Pensacola Beach Blog, dred and the already famous Florida News. Along with relative old-timers South of the Suwannee, FlaBlog, Bark Bark, Discourse.net, and Florida Politics, the subject of politics is beginning to be well covered by bloggers. Of course, there’s always room for more.

I know you have heard about Robinson graduate and Vanderbilt football star Kwane Doster who was shot and killed at 2am Sunday (Saturday night) after hanging out at a nightclub. TPD is still piecing together the events of that tragedy. Late Monday night, current Robinson student Johnathon Simmons was shot and killed in Bradenton at 1:50am after a teen party at a club.

If you couldn’t tell, there will be few posts this week. Mostly I’m bummed about the bad news in the papers lately, and don’t even want to write about it.

Forgive my lack of knowledge here, but I’m not a tree-hugger. I don’t want to screw up the environment, but I’m not gonna lay down in front of bulldozers, either. With my limited knowledge, I may be way off base here. If so, feel free to set me straight.

Environmentalists get all up in arms (and rightly so) when natural resources are getting spoiled by industry/business/development. In theory, studies are done, blame is laid, fines are levied, and cleanup begins. Except for the part where there’s never enough money, it’s all good.

But what about when it’s nature kicking nature’s ass? Who gets fined then? Who pays for the cleanup? Why you and I, of course.

As Lake Panasoffkee grows older, it shrinks. It’s water is supplied by the Famous Florida Aquifer, which includes calcium carbonate picked up from the limestone. Once in the lake, the mineral hardens and settles to the bottom. It grows about an inch every 12 years, so over the last 3,000 years, it’s gotten 20 feet deep. And since the ‘40’s, 800 acres of lake are gone. From the Tribune’s Neil Johnson:

The solution is to dredge the sediment down to the original shell bottom… With… money from the water district, the Florida Legislature, federal sources and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, planning for the $25 million restoration project started in 1999.

The solution? But what’s the problem? The article doesn’t mention the problem or say is why this is necessary, but… Hold the phone! There it is, buried after the See page 4:

Lake Panasoffkee’s problem is not pollution… the work will give waterfront homeowners better access to the lake… “…you couldn’t see any shells. It’s absolutely necessary.”

Oh, it’s to see the shells. WTF? We’re just going to erase 3,000 years of Mother Nature’s hard work so private homeowners can have better access. And it’ll only cost $25M! Someone explain this to me.

Costa over at Population Statistic notes another article about sprawl in Tampa. This one points to New Tampa, and discussions about widening Bruce B. Downs. The article notes that wider roads do not relieve congestion. We’ve been increasing the capacity of roads here forever, yet your commute is longer than ever. But take a look at the bigger picture, and you find that part of the appeal of moving to Tampa is being negated. Many folks come here because of lower taxes, including a fairly low property tax. What they don’t realize is that they are paying more in transportation costs. My opinion echos Costa’s, and I’m not so eloquent, so go read about it over there.

37% of the consumers in Tampa have made at least one late payment within the last year. Tampa ranks in the bottom five of the twenty largest markets. Dallas, Houston (41%), Phoenix (38%), and Orlando (37%) round out the highest credit risk. Note that those five are all warm-weather cities in the south, with a high percentage of service jobs.

But in Minneapolis (top of the list) 26% have at least one late payment. If the best we can do is 26%, I’d say there’s a problem with the companies extending credit, not the consumers. A quick check of the national score index shows the South Atlantic closely mirrors the national average in most credit categories. Experian Consumer Direct came up with the report.

Michelle notes that Festivus begins today. And although Festivus is actually celebrated in quite a few places*, I have only heard of one public display. That, of course, is the Festivus display in Polk County, Florida. It was put up in response to an unauthorized nativity scene. Others followed suit. The displays will not be taken down until after December 27. Happy Festivus.

*Will someone please tell Allen Salkin (and the NY Times editors) that there is no such city as Tampa Bay, FL.