Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I can’t lie, it’s somewhat comforting to see injuries working in the Bucs favor for once as the Jags are forced to start a former receiver at quarterback. Tampa Bay’s roster has resembled a triage unit lately with injuries to half the offense, the latest to receivers Michael Clayton and Mark Jones. Hopefully, Garrad’s absence will swing the pendulum in Tampa Bay’s favor.

BY THE NUMBERS (DVOA and DAVE explained here)
Buccaneers
Offense: ppg, 17.7 - DVOA, 19.0% (#4) - DAVE, 18.2% (#4)
Defense: ppg, 15.7 - DVOA, -1.8% (#15) - DAVE, -1.5% (#14)
Jaguars
Offense: ppg, 17.8 - DVOA, 11.7% (#6) - DAVE, 11.7% (#6)
Defense: ppg, 14.5 - DVOA, -1.7% (#14) - DAVE, -4.9% (#12)

I wrote earlier this week how the Bucs offense has been surprisingly efficient but has not been anything special. The numbers bear this out as the Bucs have the fourth most efficient offense but are ranked 19th in scoring. They have been moving the ball just fine but have had trouble converting those drives into points, mostly because outside of the constantly double-teamed Joey Galloway the Bucs don’t have any play makers left on the offense.

On the other side of the ball for the Bucs the defense’s stats have decreased the last few weeks as they have played competent offenses. Even without their starting quarterback the Bucs will have a tough test against the double headed monster that is Maurice Jones-Drew/Fred Taylor. Jones-Drew especially has been getting his mojo back as of late, gaining 259 of 359 yards in the last three games (plus all 4 of his touchdowns on the season).

BY THE PLAYERS
Bucs o-line versus Jags d-line
Conventional wisdom says you have to establish the run to pass the ball but this Jags d-line turns that conventional wisdom on it’s head. As the Colts showed Monday an offense needs to establish the pass first to open up run lanes on this defense.

The Bucs o-line looks much improved from last year’s version but the six penalty performance last week is a cause for concern. Detroit has a very good d-line but not as good as Jacksonville’s, which creates the question if the Bucs struggled against the Lions how bad could things get against the Jags? Sunday’s game will be ugly but assuming the Bucs don’t repeat their mistakes from last weekend they should win this game.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has written your state legislators to say the City of Tampa does not want to do what the Tampa City Council says the City does want to do.

Although the Tampa City Council voted unanimously to write this letter (on City of Tampa letterhead) asking state legislators to change the composition of the EPC board to include representatives from the cities, Mayor Iorio wrote this letter (on City of Tampa letterhead) saying:

“the City of Tampa does not support changing the composition of the EPC.”

She emphasized her point by repeating it, using more bold type:

“Again, the City of Tampa opposes any change to the composition of the EPC Board.”

This must be perplexing to the legislators who have now received two letters speaking for the City of Tampa, asking them to change—no, wait! don’t change—the EPC. The mayor’s letter doesn’t mention the city council and their position at all.

She says she’s “had several very productive meetings with [county commission] Chairman Jim Norman and [county] Administrator Pat Bean on a variety of topics.” Not this topic, though. Her letter says they have not discussed the issue of board representation, on which they disagree, but they have “opened up a healthy discussion on common issues.”

So she’s fine with leaving the county commission in charge of the Environmental Protection Commission. And she goes so far as to say the City of Tampa is fine with it. No matter what those pesky City Council members say.

There is plenty to do this weekend so why not get off the couch and go out instead of bitching on some message board that there isn’t anything to do and this area sucks…

Friday Night: Shannon McNally will be at the Tamiami in St. Petersburg

This will be a nice chill show. Perfect for some whiskey drinks on a Friday night after a long week. Self described as North American Ghost Music her voice has been described as sultry, swaggering and sultry and striking a stylistic pose between the R&B grittiness of Bonnie Raitt and the softer jazz/pop edges of Nina Simone. If that sounds like your all then come down to the Tamiami for “an exposition of Americana/bar-band motifs delivered with a fire and finesse that set them well above most practioners.”

Shannon McNally on myspace

Sunday Night: Laura Love will be at Skipper’s Smokehouse

If you do not burn it too hard at Guavaween on Saturday night you can head out to Skipper’s Smokehouse Sunday for one of the greatest female singers/performers you’ve heard of. I’ll quote myself:

Laura’s music is best described as an afrocentric meshing of bluegrass, funk, and folk that is impossible not to move to. Lyrically her songs run the gamut from humorous, to political at times, sometimes personal, but always thought provoking. Then there is her voice. In a word I would have to describe her voice as amazing. Listening to her cover Nirvana’s Come As You Are and the a capella song Blind Bartimus off Octoroon literally gives me chills. You never know where the songs are going. One song she’ll be reciting nursery rhymes and the next she’ll be talking about watching her ass grow. All of this meshes into pure delight.

You can read more about Laura Love here. Hell, even if you do party too hard on Saturday night is there any place better than Skipper’s to get over a hangover? I think not.

Over and over again lately there have been revelations from Hillsborough County alone with it’s transit planning. Long range planning. Beltway planning. Just today the St. Petersburg Times ran a story about the Tampa Chamber of Commerce visiting Charlotte, North Carolina and being wowed by Light Rail and kept thinking of the Tampa-centric possibilities…

And I worry.

Oh, I’m on board with improvements to transit in the area. But that’s the thing — the area. The region. The greater Tampa Bay metropolitan area. Not county-by-county, separate-but-equal systems that continue the short-sighted, go-it-alone plans that usually end with wider roads, or more roads and complaints that we (read: a single county entity) can’t afford this, that and the other thing, won’t support anything other than roads and citizens should be happy with what they have.

More of the same. More of the insane.

This year, local legislative members in the state house and state senate helped deliver a regional body to organize and govern area transportation needs. The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority was born during the regular legislative session. Of course, Charlie Crist cut seed money to get TBARTA started, but that was to be expected with a property tax backlash and state budget shortfalls.

With the lack of start-up money in mind, let me introduce you to TBARTA’s web presence.

Also with the state-money-cut in mind, let me remind you who ultimately has control of TBARTA — we do. Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties. Where there’s a start-up money crunch, those seven entities could have and should have put forward a pittance of cash each to get things going.

What we’re seeing — though each of those counties are represented in TBARTA by elected officials — is a pittance of faith in the concept. Hillsborough is stressing further go-it-alone planning and approved milking it’s community investment tax money for county road improvements. The other counties continue their day-to-day operations without thought toward this new joint entity.

You’re not going to see administration and coverage coordination in the local bus systems because the counties will keep their transit systems to themselves when it’d be easier to toss that to TBARTA’s rule. Perish the thought that PSTA and HART become a unified entity that is no longer dictated by the whims of close-minded, ideological county commission members. Perish the thought of improved transit between the biggest (population wise) counties of the region. Perish the thought that local officials will put faith in the new organization with responsibilities and funding to pay for them.

Yes, TBARTA is a fledgling entity that has only met a handful of times — it’s next meeting is Friday morning at 9 AM at the Hillsborough County Center in downtown Tampa — yet one has to wonder if local government is going to breathe life into it or condemn it to irrelevance and ultimately death for the sake of traditional go-it-alone bullheadedness?
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Update:: Tampa Rail pointed readers to the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority official web site. That is a correction to the web site which I stumbled upon that I thought was TBARTA’s official web presence. The domains were provided by the Tampa Bay Partnership.

Pinellas County school board member Nancy Bostock made a couple of anguishing decisions recently. First, after months of trying unsuccessfully to find affordable inpatient mental health treatment for her emotionally disturbed adoptive son, she and her husband Craig are relinquishing custody of the boy to the state so he can hopefully get the intensive care he needs.

The child had been in a theraputic group home, but the state would only pay for 18 months of care. He needs more - he has been violent to Nancy and the Bostock’s fear he will harm their two daughters - but the couple can’t afford the $70,000 a year tab.

On Monday, Bostock stepped forward at a meeting of the state Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs and spoke publicly about the devastating situation.

Under the supervision of Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, foster and adoptive care in Florida is better than it used to be - but that isn’t saying much.

Many adoptive and foster families discover almost immediately that the system can be more fractured, neglectful and dysfunctional than the families that produced their scarred children.

And Florida’s limited interest in taking care of throw-away kids wanes when headlines of death and/or abuse fade.

Granted, such care is expensive. Overwhelming. Frustrating. It takes an enormous amount of time, money, community involvement and support to provide for these kids.

Politicians and bureaucrats are not heartless, but they are often spineless when confronted by an electorate that wants its taxes lowered at all costs, be damned the consequences. In the case of some of these kids, the consequences will be dire: a life of dysfunction, drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuity, more unwanted babies, more uneducated, unproductive citizens. Some will end up in prisons, on the streets or worse.

What makes this particular case so unnerving is that it’s so common. Through the years I’ve heard more harrowing stories than I can recount from adoptive and foster parents - most of whom were afraid to come forward because they were afraid of retribution, afraid of losing the kids they love.

Bostock should not have that concern. After all, she is a public figure, an elected official who has not only a tender heart, but political clout.

Taking on a child so troubled came with more problems than the couple expected.

“We naively thought our love and our stable home would be enough,” Bostock told the committee.

It wasn’t.

So now the couple has made what is certainly an anguishing decision.

Bostock can’t feel good about this. She must be humiliated, mortified. But she came forward anyway to try to change things.

The terrifying part of all this is that if someone with political savvy and influence - she is a conservative Republican, by the way - can’t get services for a seriously disturbed child, who can?

Ever heard of the Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority? They seem like such a nice bunch of girls. And according to Wikipedia they have an admirable goal:

The purpose of Zeta Tau Alpha is to intensify friendship, promote happiness among its members, to perform such deeds, and to mold such opinions as will conduce to the building up of a purer and nobler womanhood in the world.

That may be so, but check out the Zetas that go to U of F. Look at the photos page - have you seen a group photo with more white than that first one? The way they flash their gangsta sign on the “leadership” photos is kinda creepy. But you just know that these Gator Zetas sure know how to have fun. Click on over to the social activities page:

At Zeta Tau Alpha our social calendars are always full. From the classy to the crazy, Zetas know how to party with style. There are plenty of opportunities to pair up with different fraternities for fun-filled social events including themed parties which give each of us the opportunity to reconnect with our inner child and rediscover the joys of dress-up! Favorite past themes have included Harley Heaven, A Day at the Races, Barbie and Ken, Desperate Housewives and Pool Boys, Rescue 911, and Viva Las Vegas.

What? Are these the parties at the Gainesville sorority trailer? Purer and nobler, indeed. Continue on:

Zetas love road trips, so each semester we hold date functions that take us to other locales in Florida. We can be found taking in a Tampa Bay Lightning hockey game or some Miami Heat basketball. Tampa is a favorite destination for Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream and Orlando for the many theme parks found there…

But they left out the part where they go to Ybor and get drunk, and turn the Columbia Restaurant “into a frat house,” stealing liquor, breaking toilets and tables, puking all over the place, and getting into fights. The Columbia Restaurant has been open in Ybor City for 102 years, and catering Manager Caroline O’Connor says it’s the first time they have ever had to call police to break up fights between guests.

Good grief, don’t these girls know that all the high class trash hangs out in SoHo now?

Of course, ZTA is officially concerned about college students drinking alcohol responsibly:

Since the fall 2006 semester, Zeta Tau has required all members of its 146 collegiate chapters to complete and pass AlcoholEdu® for College, an online alcohol prevention program. This decision reflects ZTA’s commitment to the health and welfare of its members, especially as it relates to risky behaviors affiliated with drinking…

In 2006-2007, ZTA’s first full year of participation in AlcoholEdu, 11,000 members logged in and 95 percent completed the course.

It appears the other 5% go to the University of Florida.

Girls… Next time you come down to Tampa, take a moment to ask yourself: What would Gator class of 2000 sister Zeta and one time Tampa resident Erin Andrews do?

Maxim just wrote about America’s Top 10 Party Cities, and Tampa has made yet another list. We’re number 6:

It’s four o’clock: Do you know where your dad is? He’s probably at one of the city’s 49 strip clubs. That’s more booby-barns than you’ll find in Vegas. Yes, the city’s median age is a list-high 40.45 years, but citizens down 5.41 cases of beer at home annually.

Of course, Mayor Pam says having fun doesn’t necessarily mean hanging out at strip bars or drinking until the wee hours.

Beer consumption, total number of strip clubs and condom sales are part of the data. In calculating the party quotient, they also use the number of 24-hour restaurants, modeling agencies, divorces, gambling laws, residents’ median ages, and number of colleges.

Here’s the entire list:
10. Chicago
9. Dallas
8. New Orleans
7. Detroit
6. Tampa
5. Las Vegas
4. New York
3. Atlanta
2. Los Angeles
1. Miami

Oh - I almost forgot… Meet us at Bobalouies’ for Happy Hour this Friday.

Want to meet a blogger? Want to be a blogger? Want to know more about what these bloggers do? Or maybe just ask them why they think anyone cares?

Maybe you just wanna have a drink, and shoot a game of pool.

In any case, you should join us for happy hour!

Friday night, October 26 is the day before Guavaween, and we’ve staked out a spot in northern central Tampa to gather.

AT least a half dozen bloggers have promised to show, and I expect several more to jump on the bandwagon soon.

Meet us at Bobalouie’s Grille & Sports Garden - 1913 E. Bearss Av. in Tampa.

For those of you who want to make a night out of it, the 28th Annual Freaker’s Ball is at Skipper’s Smokehouse later that night just down the street.

Leave a comment if you think you might join us.