catching that south tampa buzz!
tommyCrime in Drew Park? That’s how it goes.
Crime in Suitcase City? What do you expect?
Crime in Ybor City? Such is life.
Crime in South Tampa? OMG! This is horrible! Send in more cops! Raise my taxes!
Tampa Tribune Community Columnist Buzz Kelly writes an opinion piece that is sure to be well-received outside of Palma Ceia. Buzzy K says crime is out of control in South Tampa, and your Tampa Police Department needs to increase patrols:
…it’s increasingly clear we need more protection. The weekly crime reports are rising - vandalism, robberies, car thefts, home invasions. This once idyllic part of Tampa is changing. We need marked cars cruising the streets, patrolling, watching, checking. I’ll say this: If South Tampa is becoming Baghdad, and if my taxes have to go up so Humvees can guard us, I’ll pay it.
Good Grief! The last thing we need is a bunch of cops driving Hummers. But what about this rising crime in South Tampa? I haven’t read that anywhere. It must be true, because his victimized friend agrees:
Telling me about it later, she said, “This is South Tampa, a safe neighborhood … things like that aren’t supposed to happen here!
How many stories do you read in the papers and see on the news on a daily basis? But Buzzy K is not concerned with crime until a personal friend of his is a victim. The best part is that he already is convinced that TPD prefers South Tampa anyway:
“South Tampa has the fastest police response time in the city, usually less than 10 minutes…
C’mon, now Buzzy! That’s ridiculous. Do you really believe that TPD pays more attention to SOK than the rest of the city?
I asked TPD PIO Andrea Davis about that. She told me that there are no statistics to back up Buzzy’s claims, and suggested Mr. Kelly check out the TPD website.
We did it for him.
A quick glance at the Tampa police crime activity maps shows steady crime rates throughout South Tampa (priority 1 and priority 2 crimes) across the last six months - no rise in sight.
As for response time, according to the 2008 budget, TPD has an average response time of under 7 minutes for priority 2 crimes. For the entire city.
This is the sort of thing that feeds the reputation that those who live in South Tampa are nothing but selfish brats. But we know plenty of South Tampa folks who do not feel this way. Based on this and a couple of his previous columns,
- When we vacation, we’re rich enough to afford an animal lady to care for our pets. You should too.
- The recession is great! Poor people are desperate and will work cheaper!
perhaps this is the closest his posh life has been to crime, and he’s just a little freaked out.
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May 31st, 2008 at 10:16 am
I work in South Tampa, people there live in a totally different world, not just a different part of the city.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:00 am
I am sure it’s all relative, South Tampans are generally out of touch with the reality of the Tampa area. For instance, the preservation movement in Hyde Park has devolved into purchasing antique looking street signs. Meanwhile, across the Tampa area architectural gems like the Rialto Theatre and the Strand Theatre (oops, that one was just demo’d) are crumbling. South Tampa is an out of touch gated community without the gate that is so used to its own hyped words of praise that they’ve lost touch. Go north of Kennedy sometimes folks! You may just learn something about what the Tampa area rwally is, and where we’re going.
It is my view that the myopic la-la fantasy of south Tampa is hurting our region.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:12 am
The City of Temple Terrace Police Department has an average response time of 2 minutes for in progress crimes and 4:48 for urgent crimes.
Get the lead out Tampa.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
at SpotCrime, we are working on a Tampa crime map. Data is limited right now because of the difficulty in getting access to police department data.
Please let us know what you think.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
crime may not be rising in so tampa, but there is plenty of it, and plenty of it is pretty sordid if you examine the details.
there may be pockets of affluence, but there is also a lot of poverty, sometimes right next door.
i know bec i live there. all youve got to do is take a look around.
the hyde park street signs are fine. theres more elitism in new tampa, westchase, cheval etc than youd find in so tampa, in reality. the stereotype is a myth.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I recent Ybor City being thrown in with suitcase city and Drew Park. Yes, we get the highly-publicized shooting/machete-attack nightclub-related crimes but you go one block south of 7th and things are really very peaceful.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Aw! Swanp Tampa every street has a waterfront view in the summertime. Plus that wonderful, refreshing, smell from the Bay.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I love Peak’s characterization of ST as a gated community without the gate. There’s a huge snob factor in south Tampa, but a lot of good people and true public servants live there too. However, Buzz has proven himself time and again to be out of touch, opportunistic, self-important and idiotically self-serving at best in his writings and his stumblings about town. I can’t believe the Trib gave him a column. Least they should do if they’re gonna give him a public forum is make him do his homework before letting him spout off.