There’s a growing uproar in regards to the location of the new, improved Tampa Museum of Art (TMOA).
You may recall, Mayor Pam suggested TMOA should be in the old federal courthouse and virtually assumed that’s where it would go. The city authorized a “study” to determine the feasibility. Only because of outcry by the museum board, two other sites were incorporated into the report. But since the two comparison sites were included just for show, there was not much thought (or sense) put into them. The idea is to shove the courthouse site down your throat.
When the review was released (find the study here), Mayor Pam solidly backed the courthouse site, announcing sham sites A and B were “not particularly” enthralling.
To keep up the façade of citizen input, the city scheduled a few “public meetings” to discuss the feasibility study, and “help” determine the fate of TMOA. The end result of these would show much support for the courthouse, and not these other two (lame) choices. The first of these “public meetings” was held last night.
Things are not exactly going according to plan. It seems the good citizens of Tampa had the unmitigated audacity to actually show up to the meeting. The good citizens of Tampa lambasted the study and the consultant for not considering any associated parking costs. The good citizens of Tampa were offered no written information detailing the “choices.” Even though there was plenty of time, the good citizens of Tampa were not given much time to comment. The meeting was scheduled to end at 8pm, but wrapped up shortly after 7 o’clock.
The good citizens of Tampa also wanted to ask their Mayor a few questions about the process. Alas, Mayor Pam was nowhere to be found.
You see Mayor, the good citizens of Tampa DO care about their art museum, their city, and where/how their tax dollars are spent. In fact, some care so much as to submit their own suggestions, at no cost to the city. YARD-OPS (Young Architects Resisting Destruction Of Public Spaces) handed out maps to all citizens who showed, suggesting there may be alternatives. At least one person thought YARD-OPS plan was better than all of the others, after all, they are young architects. Side note: YARD-OPS is partly motivated by a desire to save Kiley Park.
If you have an opinion, the next (and final) meeting scheduled for discussing the sham study is this Wednesday, July 20, 2005 from 6pm to 8pm (maybe) at the Jaeb Theater at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
