Blurbex

That’s the question progressive District 55 voters should think about before they vote in their August 26 primary. Human rights activists uncovered a 2-year-old video of State Rep. Darryl Rouson on a local talk show and sent it out to media this week that shows the former NAACP president making some inane comments about same-sex adoptions and gays and lesbians in general.

From the video, which CL’s PoHo posted here):

“I think it is wrong to allow adoptions of children by gay and lesbian couples. It sends a wrong message early to a child during formative years that’s hard to overcome just by sitting down and talking to them. …”

“I think lesbianism and homosexuality is morally wrong. The law is supposed to discriminate sometimes, in some respects, it is supposed to discriminate against social order and anarchy.”

In a response to the video, Rouson told the Times he’s “evolved” since that 2006 taping of Florida This Week.

In an interview with me last month, I asked Rouson if any of his values had changed since he changed from a Republican to Democrat to run for the Florida State House seat 55. Here’s an excert:

Did you switch parties for political expediency or a change in your values?

My values have remained constant and consistent for the last 20 years. The ones who are most harping about the political party change are those who feel the most threatened by it. And that is my opponent. No one in the Democratic Party is angry or criticizing the 50,000 change in registrations that’s been occurring over the last several years. In fact, the Democrats are celebrating that, for the first time in 50 years, because of the influx of new registrations of Democrats, we now lead in party affiliation in this county. So, to me it’s a little disingenuous to try and attack me only on that.

In contrast to Rouson’s past comments, his primary opponent, the Rev. Charles McKenzie, has long advocated for gay and lesbian rights. In my interview with him in May, McKenzie did mention his position on human rights. He’s a longtime fixture in progressive circles and also sits on the board has been involved with the Florida ACLU, which supports same-sex adoptions.

So back to the main question: Do you think Rouson’s newfound tolerance is heartfelt, or just a political ploy?

Despite the efforts of some community activists, it looks like the huge Confederate Flag  at I-75 and I-4 will still fly.

As the Confederate Flag Dude himself told me last month: “The flag is going to be flown. As long as I have breath in my body and am able to function and articulate. And even if I’m gone, it doesn’t make a difference, the flag is going up.”

So, I think those opposed to the flag need to think beyond trying to change the minds of those proclaiming “Southern Heritage.” They need to think of a suitable response.

Enter: the Alleycat Players.

The local arts group wants you to submit your own flags that define the South.

From their website:

We’re accepting artists’ submissions in both digital format and as physical fabric art creations. We’re going to create an art exhibit that combines displaying the fabric art flags with large-scale projections of the digital creations.

We will be accepting artwork and forming alliances with other artistic/cultural groups for this project through May of 2009, and will be arranging our exhibition for June-July 2009.

Create flags that are representative of our better selves and our varied traditions, and we’ll fly them all!

Something tells me the Confederate Flag Dude is not going to like this …

(h/t to Calebism)

Now that the Rays have abandoned plans for a waterfront stadium at the Al Lang Field site (for now), preservationists and community leaders are once again petitioning the city to preserve the site as a park.

At tomorrow’s 8:30 a.m. St. Petersburg City Council meeting, councilmember Jeff Danner plans to introduce a resolution to designate the Al Lang Field site as “Downtown Center Park.” The resolution is supported by the city’s Council Of Neighborhood Associations and St. Pete Preservation Inc.

Will Michaels, a CONA board member and president of St. Pete Preservation Inc. sent out an e-mail to members today:

Designation of Al Lang as part of the park zoning will prevent condos and other large buildings from being built on the Al Lang site. It would still allow a Ray’s major league regular season stadium to be built on the site, although that would require a referendum to be approved. The current small spring-training Al Lang stadium may remain on the site. This could be used for high school, college, or Little Leagure baseball, or for cultural activities (plays and concerts), or a new permanent location for the popular Saturday Morning Market, etc. The small Al Land Stadium fits the site and still provides green space and views of the bay for the public. One of our most precious assets is our Downtown Waterfront Park. Placing Al Lang under the downtown park zoning will further help to preserve the Waterfront Park for future generations.

Last year, I reported on residents’ push for this waterfront protection. But the day after I filed my story, the Rays came out with their own plan for the site, completely changing the narrative.

CONA president Barbara Heck already wrote the City Council supporting the resolution, but Michaels says all concerned residents need to contact the City Council to show their support.

(Photo courtesy of Tim Baker)

I always knew Florida contributed disproportionately to Fark.com and News of the Weird entries, but it looks like we’ve earned another distinction: disproportionate effect on global warming.

According to growth management watchdogs 1000 Friends of Florida, Florida’s largest metro areas pump out more greenhouse gases per person than in other large cities. They’re basing the info on a recent report by the Brookings Institution that ranks the carbon emissions of 100 metro areas.

From their press release:

Florida’s metro areas increased their per capita carbon footprints much more dramatically than average in the period between 2000 and 2005. The biggest increase was from transportation, ranging from a 4.6 percent increase in Jacksonville to a whopping 58.6 percent in Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice. By comparison, the average increase in per capita footprint from transportation in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas was 2.4 percent.

Well, damn. Like any Floridian, my first response is to blame the tourists, but I don’t think that explanation flies on this one. It’s our growth patterns. It’s our sprawl. Our short-sighted government leaders.

So, which Florida cities fared the worst in the report?

Jacksonville, Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice and Cape Coral-Fort Myers. Surprisingly, Miami did the best of the Florida cities mentioned, ranking 30th in tons of carbon emited per person.

Good news though: Overall, we aren’t the worst. That distinction goes to folks in places like Lexington (Kentucky), Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Toledo, Louisville, Nashville and Oklahoma City.

Ha! Take that Rusty Belters! Al Gore is gonna run wild on you!

Ahem. As for us in the Tampa Bay area, we rank a mediocre 53rd.

Check out the full report here.

That word comes up a lot in my interview with Beth Littrell, the Lambda Legal attorney who is representing Janice Langbehn in her suit against a Miami hospital. As I mentioned in a previous post, Jackson Memorial Hospital denied Langbehn access to her dying partner, Lisa Marie Pond, because Langbehn was not a “family member” — even though she and Pond were in an 18-year relationship, were raising four kids together and had the paperwork to prove it. The fine folks at ImGay.TV taped my conversation with Littrell during the opening-night reception for last week’s St. Pete Pride weekend. Besides proving once and for all that stripes aren’t slimming (on me, at least), the tape offers useful detail, as explained by the articulate Ms. Littrell, about the background and status of the case. See if you don’t agree with both of us that what happened to Langbehn was “outrageous.”

The St. Pete Pride weekend kicked off last night with A Taste of Pride, a reception at Nova 535, where I got a chance to talk with Janice Langbehn, the grand marshal of Saturday’s parade. Langbehn seems a bit abashed by the lofty title, but her story needs to be told, and the Pride organizers made a brilliant political decision in helping to draw renewed attention to that story this week.

In Miami last year, Langbehn was about to embark on a cruise with her partner of 18 years, Lisa Marie Pond, and three of their four adopted children, when Pond suffered a brain aneurysm and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the hospital, the staff “refused to accept information from Langbehn regarding Pond’s medical history, informing her that she was in an antigay city and state and that she could expect to receive no information or acknowledgment as family.” Langbehn and her children were denied access to Pond for nearly eight hours. When the family was finally allowed to see her, the priest was administering last rites. Langbehn, with the help of Lambda Legal, is now suing the hospital and staffers for “negligent infliction of emotional distress.”

What happened to Langbehn — a heartless, by-the-book bureaucratic foul-up if there ever was one — could become even more commonplace after November’s election. If demagogues convince Florida voters that a same-sex marriage ban, already a law, should also be enshrined in the state constitution, the same thing could happen to anyone in Florida who defines family as other than one man/ one woman in a state-approved union. Unmarried heterosexual couples, senior citizens living together as companions, committed same-sex partners raising a family in relationships lasting 10, 20, 50 years — all of them would be at risk of being treated the same way as Janice Langbehn was treated.

Only if Amendment 2 passes, it won’t be just boneheaded hospital staffers denying people their civil rights. It’ll be the Florida Constitution.

If for no other reason than to show the world that you don’t want that to happen, march in the Pride parade Saturday and show your support for a grand marshal who deserves all the support we can give.

Later this week, I’ll be posting my interview, captured on ImGay.TV, with Lambda Legal’s Beth Littrell, who’s handling Langbehn’s case. And on Saturday, look for Creative Loafing staffers, including myself, riding the Azalea fire truck in the parade and handing out copies of the Openly Gay Issue and special CL “branded” condoms — much better than “beeeeaaaads.” And check out CL’s booth at 25th & Central.

The Florida Professional Firefighters union is joining the campaign to stop Amendment 2, the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment.

According to SayNo2.com, the firefighters union has joined the campaign in light of a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling that found a similar amendment to interfere with public employees’ ability to extend benefits to domestic partners.

Other supporters of Florida Red and Blue include the League of Women Voters, NAACP, the Florida Education Association and Florida CFO Alex Sink.

In other news, the proponents of Amendment 2 over at Yes2Marriage.org are growing increasingly concerned over California’s decision to allow gay marriage’s.

They also can’t spell and have terrible sentence construction:

“All 27 states that have had marriage amendments on the ballot have one, except Arizona who lost by a couple of points. In Arizona they stopped promoting the idea so called gay marriage altogether and created a new argument and tactic.” – Yes2marriage.org, under opponents arguments.

Who’s in charge of their website?!

Yet another reason why I’m not happy Publix is taking over Albertson’s stores across St. Petersburg.

Honda Motors has announced it will be soon releasing a hydrogen-electric car in California. The Honda FCX Clarity runs on a combination of a hydrogen fuel and an electric motor.

The FCX Clarity mixes hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity to power an electric motor, which drives the wheels. The only exhaust it emits is water and heat.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the known universe, constituting around 75 percent of the universe’s elemental mass. In addition it also has a higher energy content per weight than any other fuel. Considered an energy carrier (like electricity), as opposed to an energy source (like gasoline), hydrogen can be added to other fuels or burned by itself.

The car gets the equivalent of 74 miles-per-gallon and can go around 300 miles on a tank. It has a top speed of about 100 miles-per-hour.

For now, the FCX Clarity is only being released in what’s-green-is-chic Southern California because there are hydrogen-fueling stations in the area necessary to keep it on the road. Honda received more than 50,000 lease applications but was limited to approving only those applicants who lived near one of three hydrogen refilling stations in SoCal.

While hydrogen is remarkably cleaner and more efficient than fossil fuels, an obstacle in the way of widespread hydrogen cell vehicles is actually making hydrogen fuel, a process which often produces the same greenhouse gases hydrogen-driven motors are designed to replace. Scientists are working on ways to use wind and solar power to make hydrogen fuel.

Another obstacle for hydrogen stems from the memory of the ill-fated “Hindenburg” — that hydrogen is volatile and dangerous. If we can use modern technology to control nuclear power, however, we would surely have no problem controlling hydrogen cell motors.

It will be interesting to see how this technology and other fuel technologies develop over the next few years as fossil fuels become more scarce (and expensive) and the oil-producing parts of the world become more volatile. Several other automobile manufacturers are working on releasing hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Honda is planning to have a few dozen FCX Clarity vehicles available for consumers this year and 200 available within three years. Three year leases will run about $600 a month.

(photo by BBQ Junkie)

It’s not often I’m surprised by an article in one of our local papers. As a native Floridian, few things surprise me about this state anymore (News of the Weird — that’s all I have to say).

But a front page story in today’s Times did it:

Celebratory gunfire is a statewide problem

What?!

From the article:

Celebratory gunfire like the kind that precipitated the fatal shooting of Javon Dawson at a crowded graduation party Saturday night is on the rise around Tampa Bay and the state, causing injuries and even deaths, say law enforcement officials.

This is so much of a problem that St. Pete police even created a public service announcement in April warning party people about the dangers of celebrating with guns (as if the laws of physics are lost on these pistol-wielding revelers).

What is this? Pakistan?!

Anyway, the news about this surrounds the recent shooting of a 17-year-old black teen by a white St. Pete police officer. Last weekend, police responded to a graduation party after calls about celebratory gunfire. According to police, Javon Dawson had a gun and pointed it at police. They shot him twice.

Back to celebratory gunfire: the article above quotes a Gulfport police officer who says on New Year’s Eve, you can’t go 30 seconds without hearing gunfire. In fact, the department even has a special unit to deal with such crimes. I have to admit, I’ve been out of town for New Year’s the past two years. Anybody else hear celebratory gunfire in their neighborhood on New Year’s Eve?

Am I just close-minded and blind to the cultural differences in our state? Or is this quite possibly one of the stupidest trends in Tampa Bay, right after bead throwing?

I snapped this photo while walking along the Eastside Gallery during a recent stay in Berlin, and I couldn’t agree more with the person who wrote this. The Gallery is a 1.3km-long section of the Berlin Wall, and is supposed to be an “international memorial for freedom.”

Every day I have to fight myself to not check Facebook multiple times, or to stalk that girl that’s dating my best friend’s boyfriend’s sister’s cousin, who I am just fascinated with. I mean, why am I even friend’s with her?

And every day I have to fight myself from getting that happy feeling because a new friend request from someone I barely know just came in. It’s just so great knowing someone wants to stalk you back. I think on the grand spectrum of Facebook addiction, mine is pretty bad, but atleast I’m not alone (from the “Facebook is ruining my life” Facebook group):

“For all the people who find themselves addicted to facebook. You are on facebook everytime you’re on the computer and you don’t even hesitate before doing so.

Facebook comes into play in every discussion we have, whether it’s at school, home, a restaurant… whatever. In time, facebook will rule the world and become the new Sun that the Earth orbits around.

Every event is on facebook, and all previously nonfacebook invitations are extinct. Invite your friends, we’ll all become facebook addicts together… there’s no way to fight it.

Thank you very much Mark Zuckerberg… jerk.”

Facebook has more than 70 million users, and MySpace has 110 million. It’s no wonder social-networking has caught on with such a fervor because reconnecting with old friends and keeping in touch with new ones is great, but sometimes I feel the need to ask myself: “Are you in charge of Facebook, or is Facebook in charge of you?”

From our YouShoot page submissions, this shot from the Florida National Cemetery near Bushnell, about an hour north of Tampa:

Photo by juxtapose^esopatxuj/some rights reserved

After returning to Florida two years ago, one of my first “urban explorations” was driving on down to Upham Beach and taking a swim. Nearly every summer day growing up, my grandmother, who worked on St. Pete Beach, used to bring my brother and I there for some fun in the sun.

But on this day, as I walked onto the sand, I swore some jaundiced whale had beached itself on the shore. On closer inspection, I discovered the huge, yellow mounds were sand-filled fabric tubes used for erosion control.

Over the last several years, Pinellas County officials noticed that erosion is particularly bad on this part of Long Key. For years, they’ve paid to bring in tons of sand to nourish the beach area, to little avail. The installation of these tubes was a last ditch effort to stop the erosion.

Well, not everyone likes the water barriers. One group even has a petition calling for their removal.

On May 9, the Surfrider Foundation, a non-profit organization “dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches,” published the “Free Upham Beach Petition.” They claim these tubes are detrimental to the environment and seem to have amassed research backing their claims, including an United States Army Corps of Engineers’ Coastal Engineering Manual and several professors from Western Carolina University.

They want all five tubes off the beach — along with a promise of no additional tubes in the future.

This is the Surfrider Foundation’s first local campaign.

So what do you think? Should the jaundiced whale-looking tubes stay, as Pinellas County officials want. Or do you agree with the Surfrider Foundation’s call to action?
(Photo courtesy of Surfrider.org)

Last night, St. Petersburg Preservation Inc. held an awards ceremony for property owners who have shown a dedication to the city’s historical structures.

As promised, here is the list of the winners (after the jump):

(more…)

To the uninformed, Florida history might seem like an oxymoron. But it almost goes without saying that the state, and the Tampa Bay region, has a rich history.

In  many cases, the only things remaining from that era are the buildings. And during Tampa Bay’s waves of condo development, those historical structures have fallen fast.

In the next Creative Loafing, my cover story deals with the nine most endangered buildings in St. Petersburg. Some of the structures on the list might surprise you.

In the meantime, St. Petersburg Preservation Inc. is holding its annual Preservation Awards ceromony tonight that honors property owners who see the benefits in preserving the city’s historic structures.

SPPI is holding the event at The Studio@620, 620 First Ave. S. Reservations aren’t necessary and the history buffs plan to have a cash bar. (Woo!)

I’ll post the winners later tonight or early tomorrow morning.

Breaking news from the Times:

TAMPA — Early this morning, someone swiped a 6-foot hot dog costume from a Sonic diner on Bearss Avenue.

The hot dog costume, worth $1,600, disappeared at 3:50 a.m., according to Hillsoborough sheriff’s officials.

A witness saw a man running from the restaurant with a big hot dog suit in his arms, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

So many possibilities with this one, folks …

(BTW, the photo above is not of the suspect. Apparently, the Internet is full of photos of people in hot dog costumes. This one is courtesy of Officergleason.)

… and now it’s time to think about the animals on it.

Florida Voices for Animals is holding an educational event at University of South Florida-Tampa on Thursday, April 24. The animal rights activists will hold a demonstration in front of the university library between 9 a.m. and noon.

From their release:

In honor of World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL April 20th-April 27), Florida Voices for Animals (FVA) is organizing a leafleting event at USF Tampa’s library. World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL) is an annual event designed to expose the plight of animals used for testing and research. WWAIL seeks to arouse concern for animals in laboratories as well as educate the public about the scientific, moral, and economic objections to animal experimentation, also known as vivisection. Although recent changes worldwide have brought major advancements for animals in labs to end their use in drug and chemical screening tests, millions still remain captive in laboratory cages, subject to intolerable cruelty. Scores of innocent beings endure torture, life long enclosures and ultimately death for obsolete, imprecise, and heartless animal experiments.

Lab testing is a sensitive subject — this demo could get interesting.

Gwendolyn Reese, one of the candidates running for St. Petersburg City Council’s vacant seat, returned my call today, offering up some insightful comments not only on her candidacy, but also the politics surrounding the selection process.

Reese, a longtime community activist and CEO of Infinite Solutions, has never run for office before, but after Ernest Williams vacated his council seat, she felt compelled to apply.

“I would not be a politician, I’ll be a public servant,” she says. “There is a distinction.”

Reese says many residents in District 6 — one of the most diverse districts in the city — did not feel they had been represented well over the last eight years.

“I had been hearing that many white people in the community felt that they had not been represented at all,” she explains. “They felt very excluded, but that was also the case in the African-American community. We did not feel like we had the ear to our representative and that there was somewhat of a disconnect.”

As for her priorities, Reese echoes the other applicants I talked to: the threat of budget cuts and the Rays’ stadium proposal.

“A major concern for the African-American community is the redevelopment of Tropicana Field,” she says. “Many in the community feel promises made to them [when the stadium was first built] were not kept.”

(Earlier this year, I highlighted those concerns in a story about the old Gas Plant neighborhood leveled for Tropicana Field. Read it here.)

But Reese’s most interesting comments were on the politics surrounding this campaign-less election. As Darden Rice, who ran for the District 6 seat in 2005, told me last week: “Mayoral politics is the real 600-pound gorilla in this room, which is determining how [the councilmembers] will vote.”

Reese echoed some of those concerns.

It’s almost as if there are “gatekeepers” that a candidate must get permission from in order to run, she says, “and that’s just not something that I do.”

“I’m surprised by people who feel a candidate is an excellent choice, but don’t feel like they can support them openly or at all because of a system that is in place,” she says. “… Experience should be the requirement, not loyalty to something or someone.”

That kind of thinking is not only detrimental to constituents, she says, but “our whole democratic system.”

The City Council appoints their next colleague on Thursday.

There are a plethora of environmental-type events happening over the next several days, as CL details in this week’s “Green Issue.”

One event that didn’t make it in: Tampa Bay Green Drinks.

Just like Drinking Liberally began as an opportunity for politicos to socialize and debate, Green Drinks International formed to give the eco-concious a weekly chance to talk about environmental topics in a relaxed atmosphere.

In 2006, the Tampa Bay chapter held its first gathering and they’ve rapidly gained members since, according to organizer and member Sean Brennan.

Today, Tampa Bay Green Drinks meets again at Mac Dinton’s Irish Pub.

From Brennan:

What: The original Tampa Bay Green Drinks monthly gathering
Where: Mac Dinton’s Irish Pub & Restaurant – 405 South Howard Ave. Tampa, FL. **On the main wooden deck that is immediately on your left as you enter MacDinton’s from the parking lot side. WE WILL BE ON THE WOODEN DECK** IF IT RAINS, WE WILL BE IN ONE OF THE EMPTY ROOMS INSIDE MAC DINTON’S. Look for the hanging TBGD sign.
Date: Wednesday, April 17, 2008
Who: Those folks currently interested in, wanting to learn more about ‘being green’ or ’sustainability minded’, or for those that just want to get together with a good crowd and network to see how we can all become a little more environmentally friendly in the Tampa Bay area.
Time: 6:00pm
Why: Fun, knowledge, contacts, drinks, info, inspiration, business ideas and pleasure.
How: Walk, cycle, bus, taxi, swim, teleport or any other low impact method

So grab a Creative Loafing and stop by for some conversation, beer and maybe a compost tip or two. Don’t be late — there’s two-for-one beer specials until 7 p.m.

State plans to raise the tolls for those heading to Fort De Soto were dropped yesterday.

From the Times:

“This year? It’s deader than a doornail — I mean it is flat, Black Flag dead,” said state Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, who sponsored bills with Rep. Jim Frishe, R-Belleair Bluffs.

I’m guessing it had something to do with the hundreds of angry people who came out to last week’s public meeting discussing the toll hikes. Chalk one up for public participation.