learn to live with what you are
tim permalink | categories: arts, development, economy, tampa, transportation, usfby tim @ 12:19 pm
I’ve just returned from a long conference trip in Boston for the joint meetings of the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations. The five days I spent in Beantown were intellectually stimulating and culturally enlightening; I attended panels dealing with topics ranging from Lonelygirl15 to podcasts to Penny Arcase to Jeanette Winterson… and myriad other topics.
More importantly, however, I took the opportunity to really experience Boston (my previous excursion to the city was for another conference during which I was much busier with social obligations) and my observations really highlight how very different the Tampa Bay community is from places up north.
I’m not just speaking of the giant white snowflakes that fell as I emerged from the Prudential Center station on the Green Line of Boston’s T Subway. I might, however, be speaking of the fact that I arrived at my destination with a minimum of walking for the price of only $1.70. I might be speaking of the fact that Boston has a subway system at all, I suppose, but that comes into play several times in my story.
I have no inherent love for Boston, and I consider their baseball fans to be a bit obnoxious. Yet I find in one of our nation’s oldest cities some suggestions for making Tampa Bay a better place.
This was certainly exemplified upon my return home. As I ate a quick meal at a local tavern and eatery I overheard one of Tampa’s many young professionals discussing his personal life with a friend. The conversation was of a lurid and prurient nature, as the young man told of the many women he “bagged” and how impressive they find his car, which was some kind of shiny Italian red sports type.
In Boston, of course, few people have a car. A young woman who invited me to dinner Thursday informed me she hadn’t owned a car in twelve years (despite, as I came to find, being somewhat of means herself, her mother being a Belgian princess or something); the Boston transit system made it unnecessary. And thus an issue that has plagued me since my arrival in Tampa Bay (social strata being mandated purely by what automobile one drives) is completely eliminated there, and in most major cities with mass transit. People aren’t less superficial, they just have fewer material objects to utilize in the evaluation process.
However, upon my meanderings around Boston’s Back Bay area, the presence of students from Boston’s several colleges and universities led me to consider the importance and contributions of higher education to a city; not only do they bring art, culture, and knowledge-creating functions, they bring MONEY. It’s then that I realized that while USF is a very large and successful university, it’s only one of the few institutions of higher education in the Tampa Bay area (and, again, the lack of mass transit means these schools are very much isolated in their own little places.)
I think Tampa Bay needs more colleges and universities. I don’t think U.Tampa or USF need to get bigger, I think we need different ones. Of course, as I highlighted in an earlier post, the Bright Futures program makes it very difficult to sustain a private college in Florida. As the Tampa downtown area in particular is invaded by very wealthy outsiders, perhaps we can take a future glance at creating an environment to attract younger individuals who can grow to love all that Tampa has to offer and perhaps stick around a while.
I’d like to think the conditions are in place to make myself one of those people, but it’s not yet true.
Tags: arts, development, economy, tampa, transportation, usf
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April 9th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I lived in Boston for 4 years. Our apartment was in the North End where Italian restaurants fill the air with delicious smells. I worked in the South End and every day I walked past the Old North Church, the Green Dragon Pub (Best. Bar. Ever.), through the Common and Public Gardens to get to work. That’s right - walked. Every single day I smiled at my surroundings and felt blessed to live there. One day, when our children are raised and have benefited from living near family, we will return. I get teary-eyed just thinking of that glorious community and its friendly and remarkable people.
Education and Medicine - those are Boston’s biggest employers. And the city reflects and benefits from such an intelligent and prosperous citizenry.
Through Boston, I experienced the world. Working with politicians who command international attention, surrounded by intellectuals who are focused on making the world a better and smarter place, and visitors from every corner of the globe who want to see where American democracy began - yes, it makes me giggle at the small-minded among us who want to focus on what car we drive. They’d be laughed out of Beacon Hill.
Oh, and go Red Sox.
April 9th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Tim, this is very enlightening and boy would I LOVE to see some of these Tampa people without their cars.
Probably they would replace them with huge mercedes benz gold thingies …
no, wait they already did that …..
You are RIGHT !!
Tampa needs more QUALITY education. Tampa U is held up as quality but it has a reputation of not quite. It’s not the best and brightest but the right last name …
Mixed with the few, the proud, the truly brilliant …. who manage to overcome the obstacles to higher education in Tampa.
And the dogged and persistent.
Well, whatever power you have — enlist the princess if you must — whomp us’n’s up some new ivy halls.
Now THAT would be a welcome addition.
Why didn’t any of the new people think to bring anything good like that?
LOL !!!
April 9th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
usf and ut just dont add much to the mix in tampa, and i am not sure why. thats typically a sunbelt thing, though places in the south certainly benefit from being college towns. see athens, ga., ole miss, unc, duke and uva, for starters. tampa is just lameass. face it. there is nothing to gain from wishing it was boston. you choose one or the other and live with it, good and bad.
April 10th, 2007 at 8:48 am
I couldn’t agree more Tim. The same goes for my native DC area. Public transportation, many universities (George Mason, George Washington, American, Howard, UDC, Georgetown and Maryland, just to name a few) and a populace enlightened do create a significantly different atmosphere where the car you drive is simply a footnote. Besides, especially in DC, there’s not much difference between a Maserati and a Mazda when it takes 3 hours to go 3 miles.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I’d love to see more public transportation and more universities in the Tampa Bay area.
I think we’re fighting an uphill battle on public trasit, though. Most places that have good transit were largely settled in a pre-car era. Those cities are much more dense. Tampa experienced most of its growth in the automobile age, so it is far more spread out, and much harder to connect efficiently.