how is pam iorio doing?
Is Mayor Pam worthy of a second term? Better yet, would she accept it even if she got a unanimous vote?
Running a growing metropolis, making tough financial decisions and trying to corral elected knuckleheads of both the city and county variety has got to be harder than quantum physics on most days, yet Pam for Tampa has managed to do the best she can with few complaints from citizens.
Amazingly, some of the complaints the I-Lady hears happen at the regular neighborhood town hall meetings her administration holds at places like Plant High, where she addressed a few hundred people Tuesday night. Since the average age of the audience was easily classified as old, she pretty much knew what she was in for.
One such elder who had previously complained about a pothole on his street now isn’t happy because it was replaced by a bump in the road. A woman close to his age didn’t like all the extra traffic caused by the four-laning of Himes Avenue between Euclid and Gandy. The most vocal complaints came from longtime South Tampa residents who don’t like all the new condo projects disrupting their neighborhoods. TampaGold has video highlights of the program.
The Mayor can only limit so much real estate development, either through zoning restrictions or increased fees. The latter has developers in a dither lately, and now they’re rumbling about supporting upcoming candidates who will be, umm, friendlier to their plight.
Registered voters still outnumber developers in Tampa, and they need to make their voices heard if they like the way Pam Iorio does her job, or even if they don’t. A good start might be to turn out to the next town hall meeting near you, at least to help scale back the average age.
Future meetings are set for April 11 in New Tampa, August 1 in West Tampa and September 12 in East Tampa. They’re held from 6 to 8 p.m., well before bedtime!
Tags: citizens, city, tampa, Tampa vs Hillsborough
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February 9th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
if the big complaint is little things like potholes - then people aren’t really facing any adversity at all in teh city.
Pam’s doing an OK job but she is beign hindered by th City/County pissing match. The city center is undergoing a massive revitalization and the suburban burg is becoming dense. They can’t keep sprawling development because retirees in the city woudl rather live in a suburban landscape close to things.
Pam’s biggest black eye is the Museum project… It’s a botched attempt at competing with St. Petersburg in teh Arts department and would probably be time better spent focusing on other urban problems in the city such as fundign mass transit options to ease traffic.
February 9th, 2006 at 7:51 pm
I like her! She is tall!
August 31st, 2006 at 11:53 am
What is Tampa turning into? I drive from FL to ATL and I have to cover my children eyes because of the Bill Boards Advertising Prostitution. Kennedy has turned into 42st New York full of Prostitution. So call Japanese Spas. How many Oriental Spas are there in Florida. Orlando cleaned up the adult activities but they came over here to sell there bodies. Strip clubs have a 6ft rule but what about these Spas?
I believe for what you stand for Pam Iorio and Ronda Storm let’s clean up Tampa. Kennedy is so close to Down town I know you have been working hard on closing the strip clubs and there VIP rooms. Let’s stop all of these forms of Prostituion even on the internet EROS.com.
You have a raise in your pay this shows you can do the job. Let make some Big Changes for the whole State of Florida. This will stop them from moving to a diffrent county.
An undercover investigation led to arrests Tuesday at two other Tampa spas. Tampa police say the Bangkok Health Spa and Magic Health Spa on Kennedy Boulevard advertised themselves as massage spas, but offered prostitution services to customers as well.
Sun Deog Lee, 42, Mi Suk Radau, 50, and Ji Young Park, 33, were all
arrested during the operation. Police said they developed a case against the spas after finding they were operating without a proper license.
“We took a different approach where we went in there and actually received massages, undercover officers did,” said Criminal Intelligence Bureau Cpt. Paul Driscoll. “And that in itself, unless you have a license, is a felony.”
“Some of these massage spas have been a magnet for criminal activity,” Tampa police spokesman Larry McKinnon said.
8-31-06