Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Back in April 2005, the TBBJ told us that the Hotel Floridan was purchased with plans for renovations. We too were excited about Tampa’s long dormant historic landmark getting fixed up, too.

But some people have remained skeptical that the Hotel Floridan would truly be renovated and restored to former glory. Even after renovation started, some of the readers here said they didn’t believe it would happen unless they saw dumpsters outside filling up with debris.

To be sure, other than Fox 13 airing a video report of the internal work ongoing at the Floridan in August of 2007, there has not been many tell tale signs of the reconstruction under way at the Hotel Floridan. Though you may or may not have noticed the facade and window restorations/repairs from the last few months, besides that, there hasn’t been much of anything..

We now, however, submit to you Exhibit C of the restoration in progress: The sign atop the old building identifying it as HOTEL FLORIDAN has once again been erected on the southwest corner of the hotel.

A bunch of local fans of urban development and architecture hang out at Skyscraper City’s Tampa/St. Petersburg forums, and have been watching exterior renovations through the Skypoint construction webcam. Forum contributor and all-around good guy Cavernw works nearby, and took this fantastic photo of the completed sign. Nice shot, Cavernw!

You can also see the completed sign and watch other ongoing exterior renovations by visiting the Skypoint webcam and zooming in on the Floridan building in the upper right portion of the camera’s viewing range.

For further discussion on the restoration of the Floridan, come hang out with us at SKyscrapercity.com.

Over at the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, they have collected a bunch of historical maps of the state of Florida, and planted them online.

This is a map of Hillsborough County in 1845:

Yeah, it stretched from today’s Marion County down to Lake Okechobee. If you want to line it up with a current map view, go there, scroll down and download the Google Earth file. If you don’t have it, you can also download Google Earth for free.

Matt Stout is a reporter for the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin. He was following the UConn basketball team for the Final Four, and gave his blog readers some Tampa Tidbits on his Matt’s UConn Men’s Basketball Blog:

downtown Tampa seems relatively clean and safe (My hotel is about a mile away from where myself and some of the other writers grabbed dinner last night, and my walk back alone was uneventful). There are a few restaurants and bars, too, and two blocks down from the St. Pete’s Times Forum, there is an outdoor mall-like area that has stores, a Bennigans, a Thai place, a Hooters, etc. Included in there, interestingly enough, is a place called Banana Joe’s, the infamous spot of the Carolina Panther cheerleader incident a few years back.

Glad he felt safe here, but it’s sorta a bummer to read that Banana Joe’s is a notable landmark.

Your afternoon daily news:

Tribune Front: 

• Remember nearly a year ago when there was concern about the C.W. Bill Young Regional Reservoir having cracks?  TBO’s Mike Salinero and Steve Andrews follow up and finds that some of the cement walls are only 3 inches thick when they should be a foot.  The worst part?  Tampa Bay Water knew about this in November, and are just now getting around to telling folks - 6 months later.  TBW Executive Director Gerald Seeber says everything is fine, and there is nothing to worry about.  I wonder if Gerry lives next door to the thing.

Times Front:

• Red Sox fans in Tampa Bay are starting to root for the Rays.
• Like the airlines, local restaurants are beginning to nickel and dime their customers, adding fees for lettuce, extra sauce, and other stuff.  Some have created new lower-priced menus.

Tribune Metro:

• The 93 year old elevator at Tampa City Hall is getting electricity.
• Pinellas County commissioners approved an agreement with a development group that plans to build a massive town center-type project on the 240-acre former Toytown landfill in northeast St. Petersburg.  Might they work with the Rays on a new stadium?  They might.

Times Local:

• Former Miss Georgia Jennifer Holloway is leaving Bay News 9 to focus on promoting the exercise machine she invented, the Workout 180.

Do you remember the Fronton down on Dale Mabry just south of Gandy?  Tampa Jai Alai opened there in 1953.  But in 1979, the Seminole tribe began bingo operations, which began the decline of Jai Alai in Florida.  Strikes by the players, and rumors of fixing games didn’t help the sport, and by 1998, the Tampa Jai Alai was losing big money, and it closed on July 4 of that year.

But Jai Alai is once again being played in Tampa Bay.

The National Jai Alai Association is based in St. Petersburg.  In April, they opened the world’s first publicly supported Jai Alai cancha (court).

St. Petersburg Cancha at Puryear Park includes a main court and three practice courts, and was approved by St. Pete City Council last year. 

You might also like:  The Outback Bowl (formerly the Hall of Fame Bowl), had an annual invitational at the Tampa Fronton from 1992-1997.

As someone who lives on the Babe Zaharias golf course, I’ve always been a little leery of the stuff I see groundskeepers spreading on it. Sometimes the chemical smell is overpowering. Sometimes my dog and cat get inexplicable itchy blisters.

I worry about the ducks, squirrels, frogs, lizards, turtles, Sandhill cranes, ibis, bluejays, mockingbirds, and even hawks and spoonbills that hang out there. I never see a single rabbit, raccoon or possum, which were all plentiful in Seminole Heights, where I used to live. I also worry about the guys who work on the course every day and the kids and elderly people who live there, absorbing those chemicals through their skin and lungs.

Then the St. Pete Times ran a story about the Sports Authority using a dangerous chemical called Curfew at the Babe. Of course the Sports Authority says they use it properly, meaning within the guidelines set by manufacturer Dow Chemical, based on studies Dow Chemical paid for.

I know I trust chemical manufacturers to place my health above their profits. How about you?

I have dealt with representatives from the Sports Authority before on safety issues and can say that the ones I spoke with could care less about my health and safety. Even if you don’t live on the golf course or near it, those chemicals enter the air and the groundwater.

I love the Babe, but for the fact is that it is not currently being operated in a way that is responsible to the environment and the community. But there is hope.

More than 2,110 golf courses in 24 countries around the world have become greater assets and reduced the harm they do by joining and becoming certified by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.

“The ACSP is an award winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect our environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf. By helping people enhance the valuable natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency, and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf operations, the ACSP serves as vital resource for golf courses… The ACSP is all about results. Participating golf courses improve environmental performance and community relations, reduce liability, save money, and contribute to the conservation of our environment.”

If you’ve got the time, drop in at the City Council meeting Thursday at 9am and tell the Tampa Sports Authority to show some intelligence and responsibility to the community and the environment. Based on my past experiences with them, I have a hunch they won’t do it unless forced to by the public.

The Babe, by the way, is one of Tampa’s more interesting historic sites. Creative Loafing ran a great story about the Babe some time ago.

You may have heard. There was a new giant confederate flag flying near the intersection of I-4 and I-75 yesterday.

As you might expect, and as the organizers probably wanted, it sure is getting a lot of attention.

Steve Otto says it is Another Questionable Landmark:

“I would suggest that if Mr. Lambert or the good people of the Sons of Confederate Veterans want to get some tips on how to honor those who served and died, they ought to head up I-75 near Bushnell and drive over to the Florida National Cemetery, a magnificent memorial and resting place for those who served in our military.”

Sue Carlton thinks the Message is Clear:

“Supporters will tell you it’s all about preserving heritage. Sorry, but I don’t buy that wide-eyed line, or the idea that well-intentioned people interested only in remembering their history would use a symbol so abrasive, incendiary and hurtful to so many fellow citizens. Or that there is no other way to honor family than this.”

A Tribune editorial suggests the Flag Flies in Face of Good Taste:

“… if the group is sincere about wanting to honor its heritage, it would make the flag’s size proportional to the veterans’ memorial below. That would be the neighborly thing to do. Yet in its quest for attention, the Sons overlook the greater good. It’s a selfish move.”

If someone wants to put up a flag of the armed forces of a foreign country that only existed for less than five years over 140 years ago, well, this is the United States of America. And partly because the armed forces of the Confederate States of America lost their asses to the United States of America, being a citizen of the USA gives you and I the freedom to choose to pay $800 for a giant rebel flag made in China, and the liberty to raise it 139 feet in the air or so.

God Bless the USA

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could grab a spare bicycle at The Pier in St. Pete, and ride it to Tropicana Field for a ballgame, where someone else could use that same bike to get to the Dali Museum?  Once the Rays finish beating the Yankees, you could pick up another spare bicycle outside, and ride over to Baywalk, and put it in the bike rack with a handful of other bikes available to anyone to use for free.

Awesome idea, huh?  And the (turn down audio before clicking!) Green Bike Initiative wants to do just that:

Seeking to fill a niche need within our community, St. Pete’s Bike GREEN initiative was launched in March 2008 by cycling enthusiasts around Pinellas County. Having seen successful Public Utility Bike (PUB) programs in a number of European and American cities, founders Andrew Blikken and Brent Bruns decided the time had come for their own community to benefit from such an initiative.

It will never work.

The Tampa Downtown Partnership tried a similar program 10 years ago.  All 50 of the hideous orange bikes were stolen within a week.

Even Bike GREEN knows it.  In an interview with Big 13, BikeGreen.info founder Brent Bruns expects problems:

“We’re anticipating a thousand bikes to be stolen each month for six months, which is why we are launching with 8,000.”

Holy cow! - You’re telling me that you are going to flood downtown St. Pete with 8,000 green bicycles?  Imagine that for a second.  And then you expect 1,000 to be stolen each month for six months!  What happens in month 7?  Do people get bored with stealing bicycles every day?

And just how on earth are they raising money for 8,000 bicycles?  The obvious - they are selling handfuls of Altoids for $.25 each from vending machines.

This has success written all over it.