Tune in to ABC Action News on Sunday morning at 11am for Flashpoint. Brendan McLaughlin discusses the results from Iowa with Wayne Garcia, and in the second segment, Christine Burdick (President of the Tampa Downtown Partnership), Brendan, and myself discuss the walkability of downtown.
Flashpoint is a half hour show, otherwise, I’m sure the three of us could have talked about the subject for hours. Of course, maybe it’s better that Flashpoint is only 30 minutes – discussing downtown makes for some boring TV. Except for the video that Brendan took while riding his bike downtown. You want to see that. Unless you are prone to motion sickness. Either way, you’ll quickly realize he should always be on the other side of the camera.
Update 7 jan 2008 10am: Video available online soon at ABC Action News – Flashpoint.
Jim Johnson
2 years ago
Good job, Tommy…
wendy
2 years ago
I watched the show this morning. I liked the shots of downtown via the bicycle. I always see possibilities for shops and stores and such. I am not a business owner so I can’t say I would take a chance on downtown now. Only time will tell, really, if commercial shops and restaurants will become more plentiful. I certainly agree a grocery within walking distance is a necessity. You were great on the show but seemed a bit reserved. Must be nerve wracking to be under the lights! Oh wait, you’re a performer anyway!!
Rick
2 years ago
Tommy, I missed it, anyway to view somewhere else?
Ryan Price
2 years ago
On TV? Sounds great! YouTube?
J Cyr
2 years ago
any chance the video will be posted online for us out of towners?
Mariella Smith
2 years ago
It was a good show, and you did well, Tommy.
tommy
2 years ago
Hey everyone,
Thanks for the kind words. The video will eventually be put up at http://www.abcactionnews.com/content/segments/flashpoint/default.aspx
I’m sure DCDave will have it available ASAP.
Jimbo
2 years ago
I definitely understand the blight of downtown, Tommy, but how can a city have civic pride if the people refuse to call the infrastructure by its real name? I heard you call the St. Pete Times Forum, on more than one occasion in the interview, the “Ice Sports Forum.” I’m sure you’re bitter that the St. Pete Times is the Paper of Record for the Bay Area, as well as the largest paper in Florida and 2nd in the Southeast behind the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the name of the arena is the name of the arena. If you called it the “Ice Palace,” “The Times Forum,” or just “The Forum,” it wouldn’t have taken away credibility from what you had to say, because quite frankly, if you don’t know your town well enough to call something by its right name, I don’t wanna hear what you have to say. It shows that your disdain for something so trite as a newspaper outweighs your commitment to a city you claim to love. And because that’s the attitude of most people in Tampa (holier-than-thou), it will always remain 2 steps behind its smaller neighbor on the west side of the Bay, my home of St. Petersburg.
tommy
2 years ago
Hey Jimbo!
Good grief! Are you the guy who paid for the naming rights?
But you do have a valid point. It certainly was not an intentional slight, just meant to say “The Forum.” In writing I get the chance to correct myself. Television is quite different.
But the bulk of your comment is a bit presumptuous. I’m not bitter about anything the St. Pete Times is or does. I happen to think that in many cases they do a better job on Tampa news than the paper on the Hillsborough.
I DO know we are lucky to have two dailies that cover Tampa Bay. And to be perfectly clear, I have no more disdain for the Times than I do the Tribune.
By the way, your comment does show that some St. Petersburgers still have a inferiority complex, and that a “holier-than-thou” attitude is not limited to any one side of the bay, either.
The Carl
2 years ago
Jimbo is a shill for Pravda West, and he’s wrong too. Miami Herald is a bigger (and better) paper than the Times. Tommy has First Amendment rights to call the Ice Palace whatever he wants, or does the Times not understand that anymore?
james
2 years ago
The Ice Sports Forum is the name of the skating rink in Brandon, where the Lightning have training camp every fall. Jimbo’s got a point.
Jimbo
2 years ago
Point taken, Tommy. I should you cut a little slack without knowing your motive. I’ve just seen plenty of people on the other side of the Bay dislike something just because of the name. So, my apologies for being presumptuous on that point. However, it still points out the attitude held my most Tampans that just because they’re bigger, they’re better, because no one else before me caught such a subtle slip-up. And while it’s true it wasn’t the gist of the interview, it really does show that no one worries about the subtly, which is what is needed to improve Tampa. Small, subtle changes will help people who pay attention to the details realize what Tampa could be, and can help boost your cause tenfold.
St. Pete doesn’t need an inferiority complex. The fact is, we both need each other, and until the citizens of both Pinellas and Hillsborough break through the mythical boundary called Tampa Bay (look at the stadium debate; Tampa believes it deserves everything on its side of the Bay, but we didn’t complain when they put the St. Pete Times Forum
in their downtown. So, why complain about putting a stadium in ours? We have to drive just as far to see the Lightning, so why not drive to us for the Rays?), then we can truly succeed as a region. You may point out that San Fran/Oakland have that same rivalry, but they both are larger cities that can stand on their own (but they, like they…and we…should, support each other). Until that day, we won’t win Olympic bids, we won’t have regional mass transit, and we’ll still act like we’re worlds away from each other.
“The” Carl…The St. Pete Times has almost 100K more circulation total than the #2 paper in FL, the Miami Herald, and both are larger than the Tribune. Do research before making yourself look like a fool.
tommy
2 years ago
One Bay, One Love.