Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Tampa City Council members listened intently today to the double-edged information presented by Tindale-Oliver and Associates about the current problems and future concerns about transportation and roads in the South Gandy area.

As always, an elevated roadway over Gandy was discussed, too. But the costs and reactions from nearby homeowners make this on-again, off-again proposition unlikely.

The two hour long event (that started 20 minutes late) boiled down to these four main facts:

1. Congratulations to the City for getting stagnant construction turned into significant growth from the 1980’s to the late 1990’s.
2. CURRENT Reality:  road capacity in the SOG area is near 96%
3. Already Permitted Near Future:  if the current APPROVED development occurs, the roads will be 50% OVER capacity
4. IF the additional 300 acres that COULD be developed are eventually developed, the picture only gets worse

The final result probably includes at least a couple of these hard-to-swallow pills:

• increase city impact fees,
• shift property tax money will be to roadways
• subject businesses and other properties in the affected area to additional taxes, OR
• hope to talk the state out of more money

And by the way, if you think this is going to happen quickly, guess again.  The objective is to have several scenarios/proposals by the end of this year, sort it down to one plan by June of 2007.  Hopefully adopt the chosen plan by September of 2008.

So that means if construction on this proposal begins in 2009 it might be a miracle.

TBO is reporting that Shaun King was scheduled to work out with Bucs earlier today.  I have always rooted for Shaun King.  I wanted him to show the city what he could do and I wanted him to shine.  After 2000, that never seemed to happen.  He has since been cut by two other teams, but there is another possibility he will become a Buccaneer once again.  Of course, he already has my full support.

But regardless if King is picked up or not, it seems to me we may just need to claim this season as “the year the Bucs were playing for the best draft pick.” 

Way back in December, Tyler found Google Transit which gives Portlanders a quick way to determine various mass transportation schedules and comparing the times and costs to driving. And although he acknowledged that it made great sense in Portland, Tyler practically begged Google to partner with HARTline here in Tampa.

I guess Google Transit read The Casimir Effect, because Tampa/HARTline has been chosen as part of an growing network of cities with Google’s mass transit schedulizer thingy. (Funny - it sounds like HARTline alluded to this development in a meeting Tyler attended last December).

From Tyler’s post today:

Google announced today that it is expanding the Google Transit program to include Tampa. Hartline helped out Google at no cost except some extra time on the part of their technical staff, and will be promoting the program heavily over the coming months.

Go ahead, try it out for your own commute, or take a look at my commute. Apparently the system doesn’t use express routes so my commute time is shown as 46 minutes. Compare to 16 minutes driving. Ugh. Still very cool work on the part of Google and Hartline!

So now you have a tool to really compare driving vs. taking mass transit. Which leads me to the next part of this story - how good is HARTline?

I want all of you to go visit Google Transit, plan the route from your home to your job, and give me the comparison in cost (use .48 per mile driving) and time. The more of you that respond will give us a clearer picture. Please take just a few minutes to find out and share it here so we can get an idea of HARTline’s effectiveness.

Example Route: From Freedom High School in New Tampa to the Port Tampa City Library takes 2 hours & 13 minutes with HARTline.  Driving the 28.7 miles takes about 39 minutes, and costs $13.77 (28.7 miles * 48 cents).

30 years ago…

September 26, 1976 – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally get on the scoreboard, courtesy of three Dave Green field goals, but ultimately fall 14-9 to the heavily favored Buffalo Bills. Tampa Bay’s defense held running back O.J. Simpson to just 39 yards on 20 carries. Prior to the game, Tampa Bay Head Coach John McKay had a warning for his defense: “If you over-pursue Simpson, he’ll kill you.” Linebacker Calvin Peterson forced the future Hall of Fame running back to fumble in Bills’ territory late in the fourth quarter, setting the Buccaneers up with excellent field position. Needing a touchdown to win, however, Tampa Bay’s drive stalls at the Bills 24 yard line as the team drops to 0-3 on the season.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

In Jules Verne’s novel “From the Earth to the Moon,” Tampa Town is the place chosen for the launch.  The novel was written around 1865, yet it seems many of his notions were dead on.

Verne’s spacecraft was launched in December, from latitude 27 deg 7 min North, longitude 82 deg 9 min West (which I think is actually near Sarasota). After a journey of 242 hours 31 minutes, including 48 hours in lunar orbit, the spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 20 deg 7 min North, 118 deg 39 min West, and was recovered by the US Navy vessel Susquehanna.

Here’s a map that appeared in the book. Click on the image to see a bigger image.  Notice Tampa is also known as “Moon City.” There’s also an image of the map translated into English.  You can find a bunch of images from the Verne’s works at The Illustrated Jules Verne.

After considering 12 sites in Texas and Florida, Stone Hill, south of Tampa, Florida is selected in Jules Verne’s novel.

One hundred years later, NASA considered 7 launch sites and selected Merritt Island, Florida. In both cases Brownsville, Texas was rejected as a site; politics played a major role in the site selection; and site criteria included a latitude below 28 degrees north and good access to the sea.

The City of Tampa pays a bit of homage to Jules Verne in South Tampa.  You can travel on Verne St. near Ballast Point, or take a drive on Jules Verne Ct. a little further south.  There’s also an historical marker at the park formerly known as Jules Verne Park (renamed Ballast Point Park in 1920).

Other interests also made the Tampa/Verne connection.  In 1891, the Whiting Manufacturing Company created a spoon with a depiction of “luna via Tampa FLA”.  Tampa cigarmakers A. Ramirez & Co. created a cigar label with Jules Verne in the 1940’s.  Remember the Walt Disney World attraction based on Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?  According to one guy, those submarines were built by Tampa Ship in the 1970’s.

While driving through Clearwater yesterday en route to the Sunday night TAMPA GHOST WATCHERS radio show, I happened to notice that many Pinellas gas stations posted $2.279 cents per gallon prices, while many of the Tampa stations were $2.599.  We know that gas taxes in Hillsborough are higher than in Pinellas, but I don’t think there’s a difference of 30 cents.  Maybe Attorney General Charlie Crist should take a quick break from his campaign for Governor and investigate price gouging.  What do you think?

40 years ago…

September 25, 1966 – Claude Kirk, Florida’s Republican candidate for governor, brings his campaign against Democratic opponent Robert King High to Hillsborough County. At a fish-fry in Brandon and a spaghetti dinner in MacFarlane Park in West Tampa, Kirk rips into High for his record as mayor of Miami, citing the explosion there in crime during his tenure. He also calls for a medical training school at the University of South Florida, saying it is “something we must have”, and vows to get that school started if elected.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.

The Sunshine Editor has come up with a unique proposal for limiting problems in Ybor.

This would be the deal. The City offers a special permit for nightclubs and bars to sell alcohol for one more later, if the clubs agree to two provisions: no drink specials other than 2-for-1, and no allowing anyone under 21 years of age to enter. The City could even offer to make that two extra hours, if no one under 23 years of age are permitted. Those who don’t could still face the end of certain drink specials anyway, so I think most clubs would look to get something instead of nothing.

That’s thinking outside the box. Mayor Pam ought to give it a look.