Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

On the afternoon of Aug. 18, Pinellas officials ordered mandatory evacuation of the county’s most flood-prone areas for 6am the next day.  Tropical Storm Fay was heading our way.

Over at the TradeWinds Island Resorts in St. Pete Beach, visitors checked out and took off.  They say they missed out on over $150,000 in canceled rooms and missed food and beverage sales.

The storm shifted and ended up making landfall south of Naples.  Pinellas canceled the evacuation order at around 5:30am.

So now, hotel managers are saying that Pinellas “overreacted.” 

“It was outrageous for the authorities to make the call prior to even being put on hurricane watch,” wrote Philippe Eversdijk, general manger of the Marriott Suites Clearwater Beach. “The decision … shows lack of respect for our area’s bread & butter: tourism.”

It sure is easy to whine about everything a month later.  Pinellas County Commission Chairman Robert Stewart wants the hotels to man up and deal with it:

“This was an unavoidable development,” Stewart said. “We’re always going to err on the side of caution.”

Pinellas is Florida’s most dense county - they have more people per square mile than anywhere else in the state.  The land is surrounded by water on three sides.  Any storm is going to cause trouble, and a big storm will nearly flood the entire county.  With that big of a responsibility, officials must act early. 

If your business loses a couple of bucks to ensure that nobody gets hurt, then you gotta tough it out.  You have another 330 days of the year to be profitable.  Or, you can move your multi-million dollar resorts somewhere else, perhaps New Orleans.

I bet these guys piss & moan about the insurance bill, too.

We recently mentioned the low voter turnout for the primaries in Pinellas and Hillsborough, and suggested that you just don’t care about picking a leader.  But was that a fair statement?

Creative Loafing’s Wayne Garcia weighed in on the sorry turnout for voting in the primaries, calling it “crappy.”  He says the “circumstances” include (my highlights):

few good choices on the ballot in either county. And no exciting races. And little to no television coverage of the campaigns. And a presidential battle that is sucking all of the oxygen out of the political-attention room.

Comments you left here on Sticks of Fire support those conclusions:

• “nothing that [I] cared about…”
• “no one candidate seemed any better… than any other…”
• “school board and circuit court judges [don't] drum up any attention.  Voters didn’t know who they were.”
• “nothing but judges and school board seats…”
• “they pimp the federal election for 3 years and the local election for 1 day…”

So basically, voter turnout was crappy because getting involved is a big pain in the ass.

Nothing about electing a leader is thrilling.  But it is important.  These people we are electing are in charge of the day-to-day decisions surrounding your home, your job (assuming a brick & mortar operation), the bars and restaurants you frequent, and retail stores where you buy supplies, and more.  In addition, they have a direct effect on the parks  you use, the roads you drive, safety in your neighborhood, and on and on and on.

Even the School Board affects each of us, from the number of busses that are on the road to the amount of your tax money being spent.  Not to mention quality of education given your employees, coworkers, friends, business partners, and the young girl taking your order at McDonald’s.

Of course this stuff is not very glamorous or exciting.  But neither is shopping for a mortgage, or insurance, or a mechanic.  Neither is driving during rush hour.  Neither is going through the honey-do list.  Neither is preparing for a hurricane.  Yet those things are important enough that you should spend more time on it than you would like.  If you did a half-ass job at any of them, your quality of life will decline.  It’s called paying the rent.

So what if you did care?  If everyone were concerned with electing real leaders, I believe you would see a difference in the above-mentioned “circumstances.”

• More qualified people would enter races if they were respected for doing so, giving you better choices.
• Better choices would lead to spirited discussions about their differences, making it a BIT more exciting.
• Local Newspapers and TV would be forced to actually cover the races.
• Leading to (hopefully) a bit less coverage of the presidential race.

So, what can we do to get more folks to pay better attention?  What can I do to convince you to become involved?  Seriously, I want ideas.

Was asked to do an interview Monday based on my post about Holly Benson.

The interview happened so fast I didn’t have time to do my hair or make-up so viewer discretion is advised.

I swear the camera adds twenty pounds, but yes, I recognize the fact that I made fun of Holly’s hair and then got on television with a brillo pad atop my own head.

Laugh it up, fuzzballs.

Thank God they didn’t mention my site - I’d like to charm my co-workers before I start alarming them.

I’ve only been back a month. That’s gotta be some kind of record.

Update 5pm: Commenter Lee Nelson noticed that the Buzz also picked up the story.

The Honorable Judge Wayne S. Timmerman of the 13th Judicial Circuit has summoned me to appear at the George E. Edgecomb Courthouse for jury service.  From the summons:

Your name has been randomly selected by computer from the list provided by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (Drivers Licenses) or from those who have executed the affidavit prescribed in F.S. 40.011.  The court realizes that jury service imposes a hardship on citizens.  However, the right to trial by jury is one of the principles guaranteed by the constitution.  It is the duty of every citizen to serve when called to do so.

Unfortunately, many people complain about how they can’t “waste their time” by serving on jury duty, and try to get out of it.  It’s not like it is hard work.  From the jury duty website:

Protection of our rights and liberty is achieved in large part through the teamwork of the judge and jury, who work together to practice the principles of our great heritage. Judges decide all issues of law and give jurors instructions as to the law applicable in the case. It’s your job to determine the facts of the case by actively listening to all the evidence and by determining the weight and credibility to be given to each of the witnesses’ testimony. You now have a direct hand in the administration of justice. Without you, the jury system cannot work the way the authors of our Constitution wanted. You don’t need any special skills or legal knowledge to be a juror. You do need to keep an open mind and be willing to make decisions free of your personal feelings and biases.

Of course, voting has even fewer restrictions, and many of you don’t do that, either.

By the way, thanks to Bright House Networks, the courthouse offers free wi-fi for jurors.

Now, homeowners associations are foreclosing on your home for the smallest reasons.

By 2005, the family of five had fallen behind on dues to the homeowners association of The Glen at River Ridge, which represents about 150 homes in a west Pasco County subdivision. The result: In September, the homeowners association foreclosed on the house for owing $580.

HOAs were thought up by people who just got tired of letting everyone be unique. Houses look the same, no cars in the drive, keep your grass green, no signs in the yard, no painting your house, etc. Oh, and whatever arbitrary rules the association dreams up.

And you get to pay them too. There may be a community pool, security, landscape and maintenance, and cheaper (or more expensive) cable.

Just remember that when you move into an area with an HOA, they dictate nearly everything - you have already given up your property rights. Fall behind on a small bill, and now they will be taking your home, too.

Danger! Danger!

Florida’s economy is on the brink of recession:

“Florida is the epicenter for all the problems that exist in the housing industry,” said Lewis Goodkin, president of Goodkin Consulting Corp. and a property adviser in Miami for the past 30 years, who also foresees a recession. “”The problems we have now are unprecedented and a lot of people will get burnt.”

If the housing glut isn’t going to kill us, the new municipal taxes will:

The fee increases threaten to erase some or all of the initial savings in property taxes, which lawmakers put at $174 for the average homeowner this year.

I tend to worry — a lot — but I wasn’t thinking about any of these things as I slept at noon on Saturday, dreaming of waking up to see a foot of fluffy white snow outside my window. Instead, I woke to the sound of a fist on my door, a fist connected to the body connected to the scowling face of my landlord. Actually, he wasn’t scowling, but I sleep with my contacts in and things tend to look upside down in the moments after I awake.

My landlord, who also goes by the name of “my roommate’s dad,” invited me to renew my lease in the house where I live in Countryside. There were, of course, some consequences:

1. My rent is going up $100 a month.
2. My roommate’s boyfriend is also living with us now.

Only in Florida does adding a roommate increase your rent. To his credit, I understand why my rent has to increase. He was taking a huge loss on the mortgage with my only paying $500 a month on this very nice three-bedroom house in north Clearwater. Yet in the volatile housing market, there’s a big difference between $500 and $600 a month, especially when your annual income is only $10,000 before taxes (as mine is). Throw in the long commute I’m currently suffering and I have to seriously consider moving to Tampa. Can I find housing equal to where I’m living now for less than $600 a month in Hillsborough? Here in Countryside I have a garage, a nice kitchen with new appliances, a backyard, a giant palm tree, a quiet neighborhood, and a roommate whom I’m sure will never return my affections, especially considering that her boyfriend lives with us now.

This isn’t a “find Tim a new place to live” post, because I’m pretty sure I’m just going to absorb the rent increase by switching from Boddington’s to Michelob Light at my new favorite bar, Mike & Lisa’s Cricketers. It’s more intended to get a reaction from you about what real-world impacts property tax (etc) increases have on people. If we’re headed toward recession, and it’s getting obscenely expensive to live here, who’s going to move here but wealthy retirees? How will USF survive without graduate assistants (all of whom chose other universities where it was cheaper to live) to teach 60% of classes? How will Tampa survive when its artists and actors and musicians and comics leave town because the income isn’t meeting the expenses?

Danger. Danger.

I’m sure you heard about the high school student who mooned his teachers. TBT* Basically glorified the kid on their front page. Not so enamored was the school, which suspended him and wants him to finish his high school career somewhere else. The parents have now sued to let the punk stay at Palm Harbor University:

A high school senior acknowledges he went too far when he mooned a teacher.

He thinks the decision of school officials to send him to a new school for the rest of the year was too harsh, however, so his family is suing.

Tyler Tillung, 18, mooned a teacher “suddenly and without thinking about the consequences” in February, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday…

“We’re talking about his graduation,” said Tillung’s lawyer, B. Edwin Johnson. “That’s an important event in a guy’s life. … This kid deserves a break.”

No, the kid does NOT deserve a break.

You wanna know why young adults are soft these days? Because they are spoiled. They are taught that there are no consequences. This is a perfect opportunity to hold the kid responsible for his own actions. But the parents are too weak. And they are not helping Tyler at all. In fact, since this punk has no respect for the school, teachers, and himself, I’d guess the parents have not taught the child well enough his entire life. But then again, the so-called “parents” are not in charge - the kid is obviously running the family. Read the second paragraph again:

He thinks the decision of school officials to send him to a new school for the rest of the year was too harsh, however, so his family is suing.

The school says they will stand by their decision, and I hope they do.

Any longtime readers of my Jack Tripper blog know I met my roommate, Jenn, through the internet — and we’ve lived together 2 1/2 years in nearly perfect harmony. (It helps that she’s smart, cute, and absolutely loves doing housework.)

Meet Jill. Jill is looking for a roommate of her dreams for Fall 2007. In Jill’s words:

Hey, I”m a female USF student and I’m looking to rent an apartment next year, somewhere in the area of the university.

If anyone knows they will be needing a roommate (or has a friend who will) please let me know! In case you were wondering I’m a fairly neat person, definitely willing to do my share of cleaning. I don’t have any pets but don’t mind if you do. I’m very accepting of people of different backgrounds/beliefs as long as you are accepting of me. I don’t smoke and only drink occasionally but I have no objection to others drinking/smoking in my presence.

Reply to me at jmongato@mail.usf.edu or just post areply here. Thank you!
Posted by JillVader.

http://www.43places.com/person/JillVader

See? She’s neat! Go get ‘em, kiddos. Maybe you’ll end up with a “roommate of a lifetime” like mine.