Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Verizon is making a killing on this FiOS gimmick. The demand for FiOs is so overwhelming, that at the beginning of this year, the company moved a bunch of repair technicians away from fixing landline telephone service in order to install service for those new hungry FiOS customers. 

Because of that, some landline customers have had to wait up to a week for phone repair.  But that’s a problem. The State of Florida wants to make sure that your phone works if you have to call 911, so they require phone companies to repair service within 24 hours at least 95 percent of the time in any given area. 

Verizon knew they were not quite meeting that goal, so they went to the Public Service Commission in March to ask for an exemption.  Thankfully, the PSC said no, and in fact began a probe to see just how bad Verizon was performing.

Turns out that over the past 6 years, Verizon’s record declined steadily, and failed to meet the standards 262 times in 2007, compared with five times in 2001.  What was their excuse?

Verizon officials traveled to Tallahassee in April to tell regulators that the company was simply overwhelmed with demand for the FiOS service…

Attorney General Bill McCollum is not impressed, and asked the PSC to open a formal case, and begin piling on the fines.  At $25,000 per violation in 2007, the petition calls for over $6.5 million in fines.

Go Florida!

The Rays want St. Petersburg to build a $450 million ballfield on the waterfront in downtown St. Pete.  They have come up with a financing plan for Waterfront Stadium that they say doesn’t include any new taxes.  Here’s where the money comes from:

• $150-million up front from the team.
• $100-million from extending a 1 percent tax on Pinellas County hotel stays for an additional 25 to 30 years. That tax is now paying for Tropicana Field.
• $75-million from extending the city’s contribution to Tropicana Field for another 25 to 30 years.
• $70-million from the developer buying Tropicana Field.
• And $55-million in guaranteed parking revenue associated with the 34,000-seat ballpark.

There are supporters.  Fans for a Waterfront Stadium is a “citizen’s coalition made up of lifelong St Petersburg residents, downtown visionaries, teachers, baseball fans, business owners, parents and neighbors” who are pushing for Major League Downtown.  But St. Petersblog says the list of business supporters is suspect.

Meanwhile, Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfront (POWW) is a “group of concerned St Petersburg residents from all walks of life (and from all parts of town) who have decided to work together to provide the community with information regarding the proposed development of the Tropicana site and new baseball stadium at the current Al Lang Field.”  They want to “preserve our world-famous downtown waterfront for generations to come…”

POWW says sports stadiums don’t help local merchants, and instead those stores would see a “sharp decline in business.”

Meanwhile, Rays Managing General Partner Stuart Sternberg made it clear that the stadium would either be open by 2012 or it will not happen. If the referendum does not pass this fall, there will not be another attempt to get it passed.

Perhaps St. Pete doesn’t even need a baseball team.  The team is winning, and they couldn’t get 21,000 to show up for the Yankees.  Times Sports Columnist John Romano says that maybe “St. Petersburg has neither the wealth nor the civic roots to support major-league baseball.”