it sure is different
tommyA developer wants to put city hall on top of a grocery store:
“We’d like to build a city hall on the property and build it on top of Sweetbay [supermarket]. We want to integrate the two and have a real downtown.”
As if Temple Terrace isn’t funny enough already.
Tags: city, development, retail, tampa
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October 6th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
Oh dear god, gag me…
October 6th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
screw it. let’s just put City Hall INSIDE Sweetbay.
October 6th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
This is a crazy town, believe you me.
Here are some of the ways they have entertained us over the years:
* They have been in a protracted legal battle costing tens of thousands of dollars with a Temple Terrace business owner wanting to expand his corporate headquarters and needed a piece of right of way that was platted in 1925 and never been used. The piece of land, which would just allow the owner to meet setback issues for his property, is just 10 yards wide.
* We all know about one councilwoman’s opinion of businesses having signs up supporting her opponents.
* In 2001, the city administration came up with a brilliant idea: if you work for the city, you can’t smoke. Ever. If you were caught smoking, even at home or anywhere, you would be immediately fired. However, if you did drugs, you had a chance to go to rehab (on the city’s tab) and come back to work once you completed it. Smoking, last time I checked, was legal — drugs were not.
* The city paid more than $100,000 to buy out a lease of a business owner and former city councilman who was paying something like $12,000 a year for his lease, which had two years remaining and a few options. It was said to be “fair” even though this businessman was building a new hq for his office off-site, and most likely would not have exercised any other options after two years.
* This was the home of Sami Al Arian.
October 6th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
“* In 2001, the city administration came up with a brilliant idea: if you work for the city, you can’t smoke. Ever. If you were caught smoking, even at home or anywhere, you would be immediately fired. However, if you did drugs, you had a chance to go to rehab (on the city’s tab) and come back to work once you completed it. Smoking, last time I checked, was legal — drugs were not.”
that is not unheard of, it lowers the city’s insurance costs as well. Most law enforcement agencies do the same now. Some private companies have done so as well and it has survived multiple legal challenges.
October 7th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Jason … no offense, but can you please show me where and when insurance rates have actually been lowered?
That is the line that is put out by governments and any other private firm trying to promote such an action, but the health effects of smoking are not short-term, they are long-term. If you were smoking for 25 years, and then quit so you can take a job being an accountant … do you think you will not suffer from any long-term health effects?
And this leads to a further question of what will come next if employers can restrict LEGAL activities that their employess do on their OWN TIME.
I did a Google search on Temple Terrace’s smoking policy, and found this editorial from the Temple Terrace News from back in that time:
Cigarette smoking is an addictive habit. Millions of smokers in this country have been made aware of that for years through constant warnings from the U.S. Surgeon General and through numerous commercials depicting cigarette company owners as devious and manipulative. But quitting just isn’t that easy.
Temple Terrace city officials recently revealed that you don’t need chewing gum or a patch to end the nasty habit of smoking; just apply for a city job and you will be permanently cured.
Smoking has been linked to many different health disorders, including lung cancer and emphysema. It also creates other problems, city officials said, like employees taking more sick days or being forced to take too many breaks. Put all that together, and you get higher health insurance rates being paid out through tax dollars.
Because of that, Temple Terrace is no longer hiring smokers. When you fill out a job application with the city, you are asked whether or not you smoke. And that doesn’t just mean on the job, it means anytime — at work, at home, even on vacation. If you say you don’t smoke, and it’s later discovered that you do, you could be fired for lying on your application.
On paper, this appears to be a good policy with the city having our best interests at heart. As taxpayers, we should be happy because the savings in health insurance cost will eventually be felt. As health-conscious people, we should be happy because Temple Terrace is looking out for our well-being and discouraging all of us from lighting up a cigarette. But what about a person’s privacy?
With this new rule, government has found yet another way to get into your homes, and this time they’re bringing employers with them. Despite the fact that smoking remains legal in the United States, you could lose your job with the city for something you do off company property, off company time. Even if a co-worker catches you smoking a cigar to celebrate the birth of a child, you could be standing in the unemployment line by morning.
Now that the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that employers can discriminate against people based on legal activities that could possibly raise health insurance costs, will it end with just smoking? Drinking alcohol has been linked with chronic liver problems and the infamous hangover. Will the question asking whether or not you enjoy an occasional glass of wine be next on the application?
And how long will it be before you have a 9:30 curfew every night because staying up late leads to stress-related disorders? Or you can no longer eat chocolate? Or watch scary movies?
It’s admirable that city officials are working to save taxpayers money, but the end certainly does not justify the means.
If Temple Terrace wants to reduce costs through smokers, why not ban cigarette smoking on company time? End the regular 15-minute breaks smokers get. Work with the insurance company to put heavier restrictions on which smoking-related illnesses will be covered. Institute educational programs on the dangers of smoking, and provide ways to help smokers break the habit.
When I am at home, that is my domain. As long as what I do is legal, neither the government nor an employer has any business being there.
It’s irrelevant whether the courts have upheld Temple Terrace’s policy to ban smokers. The city isn’t politely knocking on the front door asking to come into your home. It’s plowing through your wall with a Sherman tank with its gun aimed at you while you try to eat your eggs and read the morning paper.
Saving a few dollars is not worh the price of freedom.
October 7th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Let me clear the air LITERALLY on this matter: If you smoke cigarettes, you are a certifiable dumbass! How much more proof do you need over the past 100 years or so that people who smoke are umpteen times more likely to DIE of lung cancer than those who don’t. Besides there are myriad other health problems that result from this heinous habit, and guess who pays for that? Yup, employers and governments, both whom pass the expense along to employees and taxpayers.
By the way, anybody know this writer from the Tampa Business Journal? Name seems familiar as far as Temple Terrace stuff goes.
October 7th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Yeah … he was the editor of the Temple Terrace News for years before becoming a writer for the journal. In fact, I think he wrote that editorial.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:23 am
[...] Of course urban renewal is not an easy thing to outrun. Temple Terrace has its own slowly-developing revitalization project; proposals have run the gamut from the sensible to the city hall-topped Sweetbay Supermarket, an idea that resides firmly in the ridiculous. [...]