out of the closet or out of touch?
Mr. BillLast year the Tampa Marketing Company elected to join a number of business groups and organizations. Many have been interesting and have provided us with access to a lot of information and we’ve gotten to meet some very nice and productive people.
One of the groups we joined is the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce. We have been very disappointed in our membership there for a lot of reasons which I could put into a very long list, but rather than resign early, we chose to remain a member in good standing - at least until our dues expire.
Today we learned just how out of touch this group is:
“Show Your North Tampa Pride and Support the Chamber!”
In celebration of the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s 60th anniversary, a commemorative “North Tampa Pride” T-shirt has been created. These colorful shirts are a great way to show your pride in North Tampa. All profits generated support the North Tampa Chamber.
Hey, we fully support GLBT rights, but we also know that the North Tampa Chamber has no clue as to how people in the community will interpret their new message. Or maybe North Tampa Pride is just different than the regular old Tampa Pride or Brandon Pride. Maybe.
Are they now supporting GLBT rights? or are they simply out of touch? Unfortunately, we know the answer.
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May 15th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
why would anyone be proud to live in north tampa suburban cookie cutter hell? yuck.
May 15th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Maybe it means they’re a group of lions, ready to pounce on the future like a wounded wildebeest.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:18 am
These colorful shirts are a great way to show your pride in North Tampa.
There’s your answer right there.
Unless, of course, North Tampa is the new word for Gay, which given North Tampa’s oft-mentioned bland, suburban, witless and artless cookie-cutter nature (not to mention the near-complete domination of the place by Navigator-driving Mommies) I seriously doubt.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Please remember this is the NORTH Tampa Chamber, not the NEW Tampa Chamber. Big difference. They usually meet on Busch Blvd.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I don’t think the gay people would say they OWN the word PRIDE. How ridiculous to cede ownership of a word to one group.
I wish some of the gay people would come on here and espouse how they don’t mind that the rest of the world has some pride, too.
Where did this come from this habit of branding a word as belonging to some group?
May 17th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Oh and …. sulphur springs is TWO neighborhoods BEFORE North Tampa.
North Tampa does not start til Busch Blvd. Sulphur Springs ends somewhere around two blocks before Yukon.
Wow, is this the new blog look? Interesting.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:28 am
no one OWNS any word. But it’s a fact of life that the general populace will easily connect a given word with a given subject. Like the phrase “north tampa,” for instance.
One commenter assumes it is New Tampa, another says it doesn’t include sulphur springs.
FYI, the North Tampa chamber began its life as the Sulphur Springs Chamber of Commerce in 1947.
http://www.northtampachamber.com/officers.html#history
Sulphur Springs was about as north as it got back then.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Yep, I agree. But, we’re discussing their current ‘pride’ LOL. Sulphur Springs residents have taken ‘great pride’ in the fact that they (similar to seminole heights) are their own unique dealio.
North Tampa is merely the urban sprawl.(and some great AWESOME people and neighborhoods)
Sulphur Springs is part of the city, especially recently.
Actually to ME, it never made sense where they divided it; it surprised me. The county does not start at Busch but at Fletcher — I suppose there’s some attempt in there to confuse/overlay county/city services so more buck-passing can go on. Just kidding.
I personally loathe this whole neighborhood division and this city-sanctioned effort to pit neighborhoods against each other when vying for dollars. It’s disgusting. It’s classic divide and conquer strategy. Which I notice did not apply when Pam Iorio decided that ALL of Tampa should pay to fix South Tampa’s ardor for pouring concrete and asphalt over everything and creating drainage problems and lakefront properties when it rains. Which does suck for my friends in South Tampa; mercs and beemers become swimmers and go to bill’s. LOL (not funnY) I actually found this post rather droll but the tag said sulphur springs which didn’t apply. (IMO)
There are so many cool people in North Tampa. My thinking is that the NTC is just a bunch of ‘new people’ who don’t represent the cool people I’ve always known in NT. Just like with all the HOA’s. My ex who is a PhD prof. (smart guy) at usf pointed out to me how these ‘new’ ‘realtors’ start forming HOA’s in order to take over the neighborhoods and that’s just the tip of the ib. He watched it in several hoods he frequented. They outshout the real residents who are not happy with what goes on but have no voice unless they argue with the jerks who swipe the neighborhood. A losing effort because the new guys are city-sanctioned thugs. Too true.