Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

100 years ago…

April 30, 1906 – The Tampa Tribune reports that “youthful desperadoes” were tormenting residents of Tampa’s Hyde Park neighborhood. A “gang of bad boys” had, for the past few nights, committed “all manner of outrages against property,” including slashing automobile tires and throwing rocks. Some residents knew who some of the boys were and claimed that they would go to the police if “they do not desist.”

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

95 years ago…

April 29, 1911 – Frank Bower, president of Tampa’s Board of Trade, claims that Hillsborough County is “safe” from being broken up, stating, “I am confident that the bill to divide Hillsborough County will never get past the [State] House [of Representatives].” Bower was wrong, and Pinellas County was created from Hillsborough County the following year.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

After last night’s game, it’s obvious this needs to be finished in order to remain even vaguely pertinent.

Miss Vicky (you’ll remember her earlier offhand remarks) got some further information for us about the capital of Canada. I’ll include Tampa’s info for a comparison.

According to the city of Ottawa, population in the city was 774,072 as of February 2003.  According to Wikipedia, the entire the metropolitan areas population is 1,063,664.
As of the 2000 census, Tampa has 303,447 in the city,  and the entire area includes more than 2.5 million.

Ottawa is the fourth largest city in Canada.
Tampa Bay is the largest MSA in Florida, 2nd in the southeast, and 12th in our nation.

Ottawa is also the Nation’s capital, the home of our parliament and plenty of national institutions.
Tampa is also Cigar City, home to plenty of world famous institutions (NSFW).

Ottawa: Main Industry is Government or Public Service
Tampa: Tourism – another form of Public Service

Ottawa: Our growing second Industry is Hi-Tech. We’re known as “Silicon Valley North”. We also have a growing biotech industry.
Tampa: Call Centers. If your job wasn’t outsourced to India, it was probably outsourced to Tampa.

Ottawa’s best known festival is Winterlude, a February festival which features ice sculptures, outdoor concerts and activities, and skating on the Worlds Longest Skating Rink, our Rideau Canal.
Tampa’s best known festival is Gasparilla PirateFest,  a February festival which features pirates, outdoor concerts and activities, and a running race along the Worlds Longest Sidewalk, our Bayshore Boulevard.

Ottawa also has a Tulip Fest in May. The origin of this festival was a gift of 100,000 tulips to the people of Ottawa and Canada by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in 1945. They were a token of thanks for hosting her family during the Second World War (and there’s that other matter of our troops liberating the Netherlands). Anyway, the blooming tulips have grown to over 3 million - quite a sight every spring!
Tampa: Well, we haven’t received any gifts like that. But we do have Guavaween.  And, of course, the Strawberry Festival.

Hockey themed sports bar?
Ottawa: Don Cherry’s
Tampa: Dave Andreychuk’s

Burger Joint near the arena:
Ottawa: the Works, a burger joint to end all burger joints.
Tampa:  Hattricks serves a pretty good pre-game burger.

Goofiest Politician:
Ottawa: Well, we are the nation’s capital. There’s many goofy politicians here. Let me check with my neighbours, and I’ll to get back to you.
Tampa: We are the nation’s afterthought. There’s too many goofy politicians here, too.

One last interesting side note:
After we first started this, an interesting conversation was started on transportation in both Tampa and Ottawa. It seems we might be more alike than you would have originally thought.

Thanks for helping us out, Miss Vicky!

Go Lightning!

No one is going to confuse New Tampa with Haight-Ashbury.  But I am now prepared to say that my neighbors are a bit more proactive than I first gave them credit.  Maybe I’ll eat a little sourdough with my crow for effect.

When I headed for work on Monday morning I was faced with heavier than normal congestion on Bruce B Downs.  Not aware of any special events, I figured traffic accident or cows (just because it’s fully suburbanized doesn’t mean the Downs is completely immune to some country antics - trust me, it’s happened).  Lo and behold the hold up was a direct result of a small group of people with signs on the median between 42nd and Skipper.

Signs on Bruce B Downs usually mean condo sales or a new development, but these signs were political in nature. The signs were protesting, well, gridlock.

Well, actually it was a little of both. From a Tribune article:

…plans were forged for a third ad hoc committee of residents to battle the proposal to rezone one of the last undeveloped tracts in New Tampa for 1,500 condominiums.

That’s right - a third ad hoc committee. This has happened before, and successfully - once to prevent a Walgreen’s from being built, another to keep a billboard from the Downs.

I can’t say whether New Tampa residents simply did not have the energy to fight the endless previous developments in the area or if someone decided that once they reach 499,328 (number to be verified), it’s time for the brakes.

Cynicism aside, I was prepared to give them points for trying, but I didn’t have the time on Monday or Tuesday.  I haven’t seen them out there since Tuesday; it may have been a short-lived demonstration.

If you read this and were a part of the activity out there, we’d certainly love a comment with further explanation of the situation.

As for those New Tampa residents that just drove on past: don’t let these good people down. Regardless of which way you feel about this issue, say something!  At the very least you’ll give the county commissioners something to do, hopefully taking time away from their usual commission activities.

105 years ago…

April 28, 1901 – Tampa’s Peninsula Telephone Company announces plans to extend long-distance telephone service down to Braidentown (Bradenton) and Manatee within the next six months. The company accomplished this by buying up the service in those areas and consolidating them into their own.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

If Seinfeld (the show) was a newspaper column.

Or a blog post.

Born in Georgia in 1898, Herbert D. Carrington, Sr. passed away this week.

Mr. Carrington came to Tampa in 1917.  Dude helped build the original Gandy Bridge in 1921.  He was then a chauffer for the Dupree family.  He also was maitre d’ of the Tampa Yacht Club for almost 60 years.  Last year, this living piece of Tampa history was certified as the oldest living heart valve recipient.

Well-wishes and good thoughts go out to Mr. Carrington’s friends and family.

I drive the Gandy almost daily and the twin radio towers posted at the base of the bridge on the St Pete side have long been my goalposts that signal the end of the day for me.  

For a while now, I’ve been watching them being dismantled and chopped into pieces right next to the road.  More recently, they have been replaced with smaller towers.

The entire soap opera has been interesting but I had idly wondered why they were being replaced.  I was far too lazy to actually call and ask, though.  Luckily the St. Pete Times wasn’t as lazy.

It turns out the old towers were in danger of falling over.  With the ferocity of the storms and hurricanes the last couple years, they were getting beat up pretty badly, and The Sports Animal would prefer they don’t fall on commuters such as myself.

I prefer that too.