Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Several weeks ago I took a vacation to San Francisco and for a whole week I consumed some of the best food and wine in my life. Needless to say, returning to the reality of everyday life has been especially hard and I’ve done my best to come down from the vacation bliss. Imagine my shock yesterday morning when I opened up the local paper online and was met with a picture of a former Tampa chef, in San Francisco!

According to the article by Chris Sherman, Chef Scott Howard cut his culinary teeth in Tampa at top-notch restaurants such as rg’s, Capriccio and Mis en Place. Unfortunately for Tampa, Chef Howard felt that in order to make it big, he had to leave the area for a city more serious about food. So he moved to San Francisco and is now doing things with food that Tampa won’t see for a long, long time. I am ecstatic that a Tampa Bay chef has moved on to find great success, but in the same note I find it disheartening to learn of such a talented chef who felt the need to leave the area in order to succeed.

Sherman interviewed Chef Howard about his “move to California, his cooking philosophy and how the chains are eating Tampa Bay.” One of those questions struck me particularly close to home, especially since I have done quite a bit of writing on the subject:

On what Tampa Bay needs to become a “food town”:

“…I talk to my friends every week on the phone. When I speak to Marty (Blitz) and B.T. (Nguyen of Cafe BT in Tampa’s Hyde Park), they say it’s become so saturated with chains. That’s the big difference. Chains don’t survive here. Or maybe, they don’t thrive. There may be an Outback around, but I don’t know where.

People here support individual restaurants and chefs; they really demand quality.

Of course you’ve got some really great restaurants (in the Tampa Bay area), but the competition from the chains is really strong, especially in the casual restaurant segment. You (Tampa Bay diners) just can’t support many good independents.

How do you feel about this statement? I do my best to promote independent restaurants but I’ll admit that I have an occasional meal at Bonefish or Fleming’s. Are we doing our best as a city? If you are a frequenter of chain restaurants, what makes you gravitate toward them? What would you like to see from independent restaurants? I have my own opinions about these questions and freely admit that the some of the chains do a great job with customer service and marketing. But is the food really better?

Local restaurants mentioned:

Restaurant BT
www.restaurantbt.com

Mis en Place
www.miseonline.com

… at least for Miguel Angel Suarez:

The insurgents never got him. But early Saturday, Suarez was gunned down and left to die a mile and a half from his childhood home.

The thug wanted Miguel’s necklace.

Found in the St. Pete Times: The online edition of Forbes magazine, with help from business prognosticator Moody’s Economy.com, touts the Tampa Bay area as the No. 1 place in the country to buy a house. From the Forbes article (I bolded):

Tampa is a perfect candidate for a V-shaped recovery, according to research from Moody’s Economy.com… The local economy remains strong, and subprime lending is relatively low. Tampa’s problem? A high investor share that lead to high vacancy rates. When the market turned sour in 2005, more than 25% of Tampa homes were owned as investment properties. Investors are quicker to flee during a downturn, thus creating a glut of available housing stock. In Tampa’s case, vacancy rates now stand at 3.5%.

“As investors exit, the market revives,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at West Chester, Pa.-based research firm Moody’s Economy.com, as fewer speculative buyers results in a more stable market. “Tampa’s a pretty affordable market and first-time buyers can come in once prices fall.”

Based on Moody’s Economy projections, Tampa should burn off its excess inventory and hit a price trough in the first quarter of 2008, at which point prices are expected to increase by 10.6% the following year.

So go buy a house, huh? I mean, assuming you can afford the insurance and property taxes, that is…

Who would think that a $5,000 per member restaurant club couldn’t succeed in SoHo Tampa? We were surprised it lasted this long.

Take a few minutes (8:16) and watch this video, and understand just how fast things are changing in our world today. Did you know 2.0

(Per the YouTube description…An official update to the original “Shift Happens” video from Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, this June 2007 update includes new and updated statistics, thought-provoking questions and a fresh design. For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com — Content by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design and development by XPLANE.)

hat tip to Todd And

Now we know why the local theme park removed the floor from Sheikra! They don’t want the additional, uh, sickness sloshing around.

Back in the dark ages - before television, air conditioning, DDT, the endangered species list, the Sierra Club, the Environmental Protection Commission and the term “wetlands” - you will probably not be surprised to learn there were developers in Florida.

While some of those developers focused on the Tampa Bay area, others made their way to Miami. Eventually, a few looked west and discovered the Everglades - the once vast and pristine natural wonder that Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote about in her epic 1947 book, “The Everglades: River of Grass.”

When they spotted all that vacant land, the developers said: “Oh, boy!”

Or something like that.

There was one tiny problem, however. The River of Grass was full of water - fresh water flowing from the central part of the state and emptying into Florida Bay. All that water would certainly swamp efforts to pave it over. These guys weren’t giving up, however.

“I know,” said one. “We’ll plant Austrailian Melaleuca trees. Those babies will suck the water right out of that muck so we can put the land to ‘good’ use; we’ll be able to build houses all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.” And so it came to pass.

Punk trees began to attack the Everglades. Pretty soon, the entire state, or so it seemed, was full of punk trees.

To be fair, no one knew back then that the state had been “punked” by punk trees.
They and their nasty cousin, the Brazilian pepper, came to be commonly used as landscape plants everywhere in the state. My father, like many of our neighbors, loved them. Both invasive specie grew quickly and provided some shade. They were cheap, too.

Plus, the birds particularly loved those red pepper berries and spread the plants far and wide. Pinellas County has been trying to get rid of the Brazilian peppers on Weedon Island Nature Preserve for years.

My father was so enamored of the punk trees that he planted a line of them - about 30 - on three sides of our home in the Disston area of St. Petersburg. He spent the last 10 years of his life cutting them down, one by one, by hand. He said it was good exercise.

Only too late had he - and everyone else - come to realize exactly why the trees were imported. Punk tree roots head for water with the same gusto as Harry Potter spoilers jumped to reveal the ending of the seven-book series before the final book was even released last weekend. Pretty soon, those punk roots clogged city sewer pipes, city water pipes, the lines from those pipes to homes, septic tanks, wells. You name it. The damage they and other exotic plants and animals have done to the Everglades and other areas is significant.

There is a point to all of this besides a primer on exotic and invasive species.

I spotted an Associated Press story in the St. Petersburg Times Monday and a brief in the business section of The Tampa Tribune Tuesday that says that a new controversy is brewing: environmental groups opposed to cypress mulch are involved in a national ad campaign that asks consumers not to buy cypress mulch and they are criticizing the retailers who sell it.

Some gardeners are choosing a perhaps more environmentally healthy alternative, says an extension agent in Brevard County: mulch from invasive species such as melaleuca and Australian pine, yet another of the baddies imported from somewhere else.

The logging industry doesn’t agree that cypress mulch is a waste of native cypress trees, arguing that only the tops of already harvested cypress is used in the mulch.

My point here isn’t to start an argument over who’s right, although I suspect I know.

I’m siding with the environmentalists.

To that end, I want to know where to find mulch made out of invasive species. I’ve called around and can’t find it. Does anyone know?

Congratulations are in order for Natalie Pandorf. Natalie finished as the 1st runner-up in the Miss Hooters swimsuit contest. Natalie was born in Daytona Beach, but raised in Tampa since she was 11, and she represented the Hooters on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. She’s changed a bit since she was a Hawaiian Tropic Girl in 2003.

You may have missed this article in the Tribune: Outspoken Tampa Housing Official Is Denied 2nd Term. This article is cut up in the order I want to present it, and I’ve also highlighted in bold where you may have more questions):

Mayor Pam Iorio chose not to reappoint… Gerald White, a one-term housing commissioner, who was known for asking questions and challenging housing officials. White was one of the few board members who would speak to reporters.

“Usually I do reappoint people, but not always,” she said. “Sometimes I feel that a change is needed, but it’s not necessarily a poor reflection at all.”

We’ve complained before about Iorio firing people without reason. Please continue..

White, a Tampa Electric Co. power plant operator, was a long-standing advocate for Central Park’s redevelopment. The future of the dilapidated housing property was still in question when he joined the board in May 2003.

Despite a housing authority preference that board members not speak to reporters, White typically returned phone calls. He and former Hillsborough County Commissioner Rubin Padgett were the only board members who did not adhere to the preference.

White often appeared at odds with the board and Ryans during meetings. Most recently, he spoke up during [property manager Fred] Rath’s presentation [about complaints and problems at River Pines Apartments, a senior complex the authority owns in northeast Tampa] in May, calling for an independent inspection of River Pines and a special meeting to let board members hear from residents.

White was the only board member to question how conditions got so bad at River Pines. Mold and other problems were identified in almost half of the 300 units after complaints reported in The Tampa Tribune.

Though White did not make either request in the form of a motion, neither [Housing authority President Jerome] Ryans nor [Chairwoman Hazel] Harvey pushed for discussion.

So Gerald White was a bit of a rebel-rouser, at least concerned enough to question the status quo. But was he good for the housing authority?

Padgett said he didn’t always agree with White, but he praised his contribution. “Gerald was very, very honestly involved and worked hard on that board,” he said. “He asked questions. He served well.”

Housing authority President Jerome Ryans said the board is better with Scriven. “I think he’s going to be a tremendous asset,” Ryans said. “We had a good board. Now we’ve got a great board.”

Ryans also complimented White. “Gerald was very outspoken. If Gerald had an issue, he raised the issue. I don’t expect any different from Lance.”

He denied there was friction between White and the board or White and housing officials. “He never got under my skin,” Ryans said.

So what is the deal? Maybe Pam gave us hints a month ago…

During an interview in early June, Iorio spoke in general about the pitfalls that outspoken board members face.

“Board members chart their own reputations and course,” she said. “By their behavior month in, month out, day in, day out, their peers and colleagues either take them seriously, or sometimes they don’t.

“I can only appoint the members,” she continued. “Once they get on a board, they have to determine if their behavior will earn the respect of their colleagues.”

Ohhh.. Maybe the colleagues were disingenuous in their praise, and White was a ninny. If so, he could be replaced with someone just as concerned about the state of public housing, and willing to stand up for what is right.

In his place, Iorio picked Lansing Scriven, a lawyer and former president of the Tampa Club.

Scriven, whose appointment was approved Thursday by the city council, declined comment Friday. He said he did not know whether he would attend Tuesday’s housing board meeting. His term, which lasts four years, ends in 2011.

Iorio said she did not know whether Scriven had experience with public housing, but she praised his legal expertise, particularly as the authority moves forward with its redevelopment of Central Park Village.

Nope - White was replaced with just another lawyer.

So basically, Iorio gets rid of someone passionate about substandard housing, and replaces him with a guy who is connected (the Tampa Club), but may have no experience with public housing.

Something is not right here…