Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

The devastating storm has really not allowed me to concentrate on anything else, so with that in mind, I’ll try to highlight more connections to our area.

You already knew that Katrina will cause gas prices to rise nationwide, and Tampa Bay is no different. In addition, the natural gas pipelines coming from the northern gulf region supply supplement Florida’s electricity, and officials are asking us to conserve.

You may have known that a cruise ship on a round trip from Mobile, AL was not able to make it back. So they docked in Tampa yesterday, and it remains there waiting for the Alabama port to open. During the unexpected side trip to our fair city, one couple got married at the courthouse. The ship was supposed to head back yesterday, but as of right now, it is still sitting at the terminal.

Since everyone here is from somewhere else, you can imagine that some of our citizens have family and friends in the path of the destruction, including Buccaneer wide receivers Ike Hilliard and Michael Clayton, and Devil Rays reliever Tim Corcoran.

The St. Pete times takes a look at what Tampa Bay might look like if a similar storm hit here.

If you want to help, the fastest way is to give money to the Red Cross. Go there now and donate.

Quick hits in the news recently…

If you want to participate in the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts next year, go apply now. The Festival is scheduled for March 4 & 5, 2006.

The Tampa Bay Lightning is accepting applications for National Anthem singers.

Tampa Digital continues to pursue a TV drama about Tampa Mafia. The working title is King Corona.

Jennifer Porter entered a guilty plea today. She was the teacher who hit and killed those kids crossing 22nd St. and fled the scene.

There are a million ways to measure the size of a city. Density, land area, and the number of pro sports teams are a few of the most common. When determining the nation’s biggest cities, though, I tend to lean on Neilsen as the best barometer. When looking up info on other cities, I check their placement on the Largest TV Markets. I figure if everyone can see the same network broadcast, they can all be counted as the same community.

The Tampa Bay area metro market DMA (which includes Sarasota) has been 13th largest for a mighty long time. But the listing for the new season was recently released, and Tampa/St. Pete moved from 13th to twelfth largest. We barely passed the Seattle/Tacoma DMA, each of us having a little more than 1.7 million TV homes.

Can we now demand better shows from television? Can we control the type of commercials we get? Can we force networks to conform to our standards? No, no, and uh, no. But we can certainly feel superior to those coffee drinkers up there. And put Detroit on warning.

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Leave it to me to find a link between New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, and Tampa.

Saturday, Tampa-based company Odyssey Marine Exploration hosted the grand opening of a new tourist attraction. Shipwreck & Treasure Adventure opened in the Jax Brewery in the French Quarter, right in the path of Katrina. Odyssey Shipwreck and Treasure Adventure Day was cut short because of the hurricane, but only after dignitaries cut the ribbon. All Tampa-based employees are out of New Orleans and headed home.

Thanks to the St. Pete Times for thrusting Sticks of Fire into the limelight. We appreciate the notice, as did Side Salad last week. According to the blurb, Sticks is

One of the pioneering blogs in the Tampa Bay area, with a focus on nightlife and local politics. Written by the lead singer of the Johnny G. Lyon Band.

We appreciate the attention!

I’d like to welcome all new visitors to Sticks of Fire. If this is your first time, feel free to take a good look around. Comments and suggestions are not only welcome, but encouraged. Thanks to Population Statistic for clueing me in.

If you want to find out more about the Johnny G. Lyon Band, please visit the JGLB website and JGLB blog.

It’s difficult to whine about inept local politicians when our brothers and sisters in New Orleans are dealing with a major hurricane. Wifey and I were making our way home yesterday evening discussing the constant construction and overcrowded roads. Then we noticed four or five trucks heading north on I-275 bearing the FEMA logo, which promptly ended all complaints.

I checked the NOLA WebCams, and most were working this morning (8am EST), but all are now offline.

Orbis Quintus is blogging from Baton Rouge

Metroblogging New Orleans, Blogwise New Orleans, FeedMap New Orleans

A couple reporters from the Times-Picayune are blogging from their on-site bunker. Their breaking news is also delivered blog style (hint, hint)

The Memorial Causeway Bridge has finally opened. With as many problems as the Ocean Jewel and the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway, it seemed actually being able to use it was a pipe dream. But in spite of all that, you can now see cars heading in either direction.

So, now that it’s receiving traffic, are its problems gone? Ha! Of course not.

On the first day of traffic, the opening was delayed by bad weather.

The grand opening celebration, scheduled for tomorrow, has been moved. Indoors. The 3K run will might go on as scheduled, but participants would take an alternate route. The bridge won’t close to vehicles for the race, either. Runners will have to sprint along the sidewalk. If you decide to join in the festivities and jog alongside your neighbors, I implore you to be careful.

Why? Less than a week after it opened, someone has already died after biking over the thing.

The Times says the new bridge sure is pretty. Sticks of Fire says it’s the Bridge of Death.