Blurbex

There are very few times in a journalist’s life when he or she can write seriously about “bumper nutz.” This is one such time.

On April 17, our esteemed representatives in the Florida Senate banded together to rid our streets of a dubious menace — plastic reproductions of bull testicles hanging from rednecks’ cars.

In a state rocked by budget cuts, home foreclosures, a rising crime rate, deteriorating education and insurance woes, the Florida Legislature has found time to debate the merits of, ahem, “truckticles.”

Are we really surprised that Florida has its own category on Fark.com?

Unfortunately, the bumper nutz bill is only one such example of a state legislature blinded by partisan politics and lawmakers’ focus on trivial issues almost in spite of our larger problems. From a ban on cell phones to laws against baggy pants, lawmakers are wasting time and money — our money — debating essentially non-issues. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they were smoking salvia. But alas, they’re trying to ban that, too.

In this week’s cover story, Wayne Garcia and I tackle the state legislature. Garcia pens a satirical GOP memo while I report on the 10 most inane bills introduced this session.

Check those out here and here.

Then head on over to the PoHo blog for updates on the bills mentioned in the story.

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.

The guys over at St. Petersblog continue to push the St. Pete curbside recycling issue in their own snarky way. Yesterday, they posted a link to a form letter you can use to write Mayor Rick Baker urging him to adopt curbside recycling. Today, they’ve added a scathing response to a form letter they received after e-mailing Mayor Baker.

Particularly galling to the bloggers is this paragraph written by Sanitation Coordinator Bill Sundstrom:

A curbside program would have an annual operating budget in excess of $3 million dollars; generate environmental detriments associated with additional fuel consumption (20,000 gallons per year), vehicle air emissions and potable water usage, with minimal impacts to extending the life span of the Pinellas County Landfill. The high cost of operating a curbside program must be compared to the low resource return, typically from a 2%-4% reduction of the waste stream. This imbalance represents a negative influence on resource conservation, which is the goal of recycling.

That’s my bold up there, because I’m calling bullshit on this one, too.

Last December, during a tour of Pinellas County’s Bridgeway Acres, I interviewed sanitation technician Rick Clarke, who told me recycling is crucial to the longevity of the county’s landfill.

“Seventy percent of this doesn’t need to be here,” he said as we stood on top of an 80-foot mound of trash (the highest point in Pinellas County, I might add). “If all we did was recycle paper, we’d chop a third of it right there.”

When I questioned him on his feelings about the lack of curbside in St. Pete, Clarke didn’t want to comment, though he did say, “Where cities have curbside, there is a lot less recyclables [at the landfill].”

The fact is, St. Pete adds a disproportionate amount of recyclable trash to the county’s landfill. Even the county has recognized this: they’re considering taking care of St. Pete’s recycling themselves.

I don’t blame St. Pete officials for not wanting to start an expensive program when the county might go ahead and pay for it. But tell citizens that and don’t spoon us bullshit like the letter above.

In the meantime, maybe environmental types should take a look at St. Pete Recycling Solutions.

(photo credit: Peter Kaminski on Flikr)

NOBODY’S HOME: The Palm River trailer park that housed nine sex offenders is mostly empty.

The sex offender story in this week’s issue is one of the hardest stories I’ve had to report. In fact, I wrestled with the idea of writing it at all.

Like most people, I abhor sex offenders and their crimes. There’s a comment I heard often this week: Many people regard sex offenders as worse than murderers. It’s true. You can see that in prison; most sex offenders, especially those that targeted a child, try to keep their crimes a secret for fear of violence from other inmates.

But I decided to write the story, because I felt other reporters weren’t asking the underlying question: If we push sex offenders from areas where they are legally allowed to live, where should they go? And are we serving ourselves, and our children, by constantly uprooting these people and regulating them to the far reaches of our county?

Nobody wants a sex offender living next door. I certainly don’t. But as our counties build out, it’s becoming harder to avoid, and situations like the one in Palm River are increasing. But instead of crafting sane policies that keep children safe while also giving these offenders a chance to re-enter society, elected officials try to out-do one another with increasingly harsh ordinances. What isn’t being reported is that these residency restrictions can backfire.

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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.

Dawn Wells, the actress made famous on Gilligan’s Island in the 1960s and who until January owned a home in Redington Shores, this week pleaded guilty to a reckless driving charge in Idaho. From the AP account:

She was sentenced Feb. 29 to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving.

Under a plea agreement, three misdemeanor counts — driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance — were dropped.

On Oct. 18, Teton County sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Gutierrez arrested Wells as she was driving home from a surprise birthday party that was held for her. According to the sheriff’s office report, Gutierrez pulled Wells over after noticing her swerve and repeatedly speed up and slow down. When Gutierrez asked about a marijuana smell, Wells said she’d just given a ride to three hitchhikers and had dropped them off when they began smoking something. Gutierrez found half-smoked joints and two small cases used to store marijuana.

Ahh, the time-honored “hippie hitchhikers” defense. She might have wanted to ask the court to face the truth: if all you were known for was a ’60s sitcom that linked you to a goofball like Bob Denver forever and made you the endless butt of ” who was sleeping with whom on the island” conjectures, you would deserve to blaze up every now and then.

Remember Alan Snel?

He’s the bicycle enthusiast I profiled last August. Snel, a former Tampa Tribune reporter, is the director of the South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers (SWFBUD!).

This week, Snel was one of 500 bicycle activists attending the 2008 National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress for pro-bicycle legislation. 500 bicycle lobbyists? That’s a lot of spandex!

Check out Snel’s report here.

Way to go, Alan. A good portion of Tampa Bay’s congestion problems could be solved if we used bikes, even if just for those small two-minute trips to grab a six-pack or lunch. St. Pete has already done a great job creating a bicycle-friendly city, but Tampa still has a long way to go.

What’s the biggest obstacle for bicyclists in Tampa?

(photo via LightMash on Flikr)

UPDATE: Another example of Pinellas County’s innovation.

My excursion into the realm of torture ends this week with an Urban Explorer column that ruminates on my waterboarding experience.

It’s been an interesting several days explaining to people what waterboarding is and why I decided to endure it. Just last night, The Bleepin’ Truth interviewed me on their weekly talk show (I’ll give a link when it comes available).

But before the buzz dies down, there are a couple points that didn’t make it into the final article:

* I am no trailblazer in the world of waterboarded reporters. Fox News correspondent Steve Harrigan and Current TV’s Kaj Larsen have both been waterboarded on camera. And from the looks of those videos, they endured more torture than I.

* Michael Nance, the counterterrorism consultant and former Navy Seal instructor who I quote in my article, says the waterboarding that Ruppert and I experienced was “field expedient water treatment” and not the actual technique used in interrogations. (Dennis Ruppert, the former anti-terrorism specialist who was waterboarded with me, says there are several different techniques used by the military. The Bleepin’ Truth crew said they consulted “advisors from the military and State Department.)

“You really do not want to see a professional one being done,” Nance wrote in an e-mail last week. “… By the time you figure out you are under the process, you are fully involved in trying to survive.”

I don’t doubt him a bit

Price of veggies got you down? Tired of seeing those vacant lots in your neighborhood attract all sort of rubbish? Perhaps you should consider embarking on a quest to create a community garden.

This week’s Urban Explorer chronicles the struggles for a community garden in Bartlett Park, and shines the spotlight on a few other gardens in Tampa Bay.

While researching the story, I noticed there aren’t any local resources for Tampa Bay residents wanting to start community gardens. In fact, I had difficulty cataloging just how many urban gardens there are in the region.

Besides the gardens noted in the article — Tampa’s Garden of Eden, St. Pete’s Azalea Community Garden and Palmetto Park — I found one in Gibsonton and another planned for Tampa Heights.

Do you know about any community gardens I’ve missed?

Last week, TripAdvisor told America what us Tampa Bay residents already knew: Fort De Soto Park is the No. 1 beach in the U.S. (Take that, Hawaii!) Of course, the state park has been on our Best of the Bay lists for years, culminating in a Hall of Fame award in 2006.

TripAdvisor cited “a spectacular combination of soft white sand, calm, clear water and a laid-back atmosphere …” They rated the beach based on user reviews from the web site and TripAdvisor’s staff input.

Now Fort De Soto will be on the rest of the nation’s Must-Do List.

The Bleepin Truth has the video of their waterboarding demonstration up on their site. Besides the video of my experience, and a brief interview, they have two videos of my fellow “detainee” Dennis Ruppert. If you haven’t read my blog item about it, check it out here.

Follow the jump for a few more photos of the mock interrogation taken by Dustin Mathews.

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Remember the double-shocker to the alt-weekly world back in October, when Orlando Weekly and Phoenix New Times staffers found themselves facing arrests and subpoenas after writing several critical articles on local police?

Well, the papers have finally reached some closure.

The Orlando Weekly’s blog reports the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation dropped its racketeering charges against the paper:

Breaking: The MBI has dropped its racketeering charges against the Orlando Weekly, as well as misdemeanor and felony charges it filed against three Weekly employees last October for  selling ads to prostitutes. As it turns out, the MBI brain-trust hit a small hitch – there’s not really anything illegal about that.

Per the settlement, the three employees will enter into what’s called pre-trial diversion – the same thing that happened to Buddy Dyer when the state dropped charges against him in 2005. The paper also agreed to stop running the Adult Services ads, and reimbursed the MBI $10,000 for its investigation.

Over in Phoenix, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office dropped charges on New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin months ago. And now the New Times is filing a formal Notice of Claim, a precursor to a lawsuit:

The notice, required under Arizona law before government officials can be sued, paints a political landscape gone awry, with public servants turning taxpayer-supported institutions on end in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, due process, and the right of a free press to operate without intimidation.”This is not a decision undertaken lightly,” said Michael Lacey, executive editor of Village Voice Media, which owns New Times, and who, along with CEO Larkin, founded the paper. “We are not an organization, and Larkin and I are not individuals, that sue people. It’s just not what we do. But I feel like if we don’t do something, it’s an invitation for this kind of behavior to continue.”

The “behavior” to which Lacey referred was particularly chilling: a special prosecutor running amok, issuing overbroad and unconstitutional subpoenas aimed at the reading and browsing habits of citizens; a vendetta by Sheriff Joe Arpaio against New Times and its staff, the arrests of the paper’s executives on petty charges in the middle of the night by members of the sheriff’s clandestine Selective Enforcement Unit.

“What emerges is one of the most nakedly oppressive, conscience-shocking assaults on a free press by police and prosecutors in U.S. history,” observes New Times lawyer Michael Manning in the Notice of Claim.

For more info on the notice of claim, click here.

For the backstory, check out the story I wrote back in October.

In light of the recent ordinances targeting the homeless, and the waning influence of homeless advocates, I recently interviewed Rev. Bruce Wright of Refuge Ministries. We talked about his 15 years of activism related to homelessness and the present situation in St. Pete.

Wright, 46, could be called the Michael Moore of St. Pete: supporters praise his uncompromising fight for the city’s poor and critics deride him for his leftist rhetoric and “in-your-face“ political stunts. Though Wright still holds a lot of influence in the progressive community, city leaders have been increasingly hostile toward him.

Read the interview after the jump and then check out this week’s Urban Explorer, which examines the push for a homeless-free downtown.
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Matthew Culp, left, and his partner Wade Burghardt stand in front of a renovated home in St. Petersburg’s Palmetto Park neighborhood

In many ways, St. Petersburg resident Matthew Culp could be considered a model citizen.

Three years ago, he bought and rehabilitated a home in Palmetto Park, one of St. Pete’s rougher neighborhoods. He’s heavily involved in the Palmetto Park Neighborhood Association and the local crime watch. He’s bought other dilapidated properties to ease blight in the area. He has a spotless criminal record and participates in community events.

So when Culp applied to the city’s Citizens Police Academy — an 8-week course designed to give residents a better understanding of the police department — he never imagined he would be denied. But last week, St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman Bill Proffitt called Culp to say he would not be allowed to attend the course this spring.

SPPD spokesman Proffitt declined to discuss his decision to reject Culp, except to say, “The police report speaks for itself.”

Which police report is that?

You may remember Culp from CL’s story back in August 2006. On May 21, 2006, a local drug dealer threw concrete chunks through the windows of Culp’s home. Culp responded by emptying his personal handgun into the ground outside his home. Police arrived, alerted to the shots, and no charges were filed, but police claim Culp used a racial slur while explaining what happened. After police left, a man paid off by local drug dealers threw a Molotov cocktail at Culp’s home.

That firebombing proved to be the final salvo for Culp and several neighborhood activists across St. Pete, who loudly criticized Mayor Rick Baker and Police Chief Chuck Harmon for a blasé attitude on crime. In several media accounts, including in Creative Loafing, Culp railed against the understaffed police force and called for changes in department leadership.

Culp denies using the racial slur and maintains he was within his rights in his use of the handgun. He’s not alone.

“If they are judging a person for protecting his own self, then that is very poor for the police department,” says Lurlis Simmons, president of the Palmetto Park Neighborhood Association. Simmons also doesn’t believe Culp made the offending comment.

Every applicant to the Citizens Police Academy is required to undergo a criminal background check. According to Proffitt, a handful of applicants are denied each session based on their criminal records. Even applicants with simple misdemeanor charges are “generally” not allowed in the course, he says.

But a check of Pinellas County court records online shows at least three attendees in the last three years have entered the academy with criminal histories, mostly single misdemeanors involving theft, weapons violations or alcohol infractions. One participant was arrested for trafficking in hydrocodone, a felony charge, though the state attorney had dropped the case.

The Palmetto Park crime watch leader sees a double standard and suspects retaliation on the part of SPPD.

“Anybody who has been vocal about the inaction of the city has been marginalized. It’s not a matter of my background — they think I’m a threat. It shows they have vengeance toward me.

It’s starting to look like St. Petersburg might succeed in sweeping the homeless out of downtown.

At tomorrow’s St. Pete City Council meeting, councilmembers are expected to pass two more ordinances targeting the city’s homeless that would ban all storage of property in the right-of-way, and prohibit sleeping or “reclining” in the downtown area during daylight hours.

A St. Pete Times article today says a compromise might be a storage area at St. Vincent de Pauls on Fifth Avenue North and the Salvation Army on Fourth Street South, however a city official mentioned funding a guard for the storage sites, which might not go over well with taxpayers.

This follows an expanded anti-panhandling ordinance passed earlier this month and a series of rules passed last year aimed at tent cities, camping in city limits and sleeping on sidewalks.

In fact, more ordinances governing homelessness have been passed in the last year than any other year in recent memory. By next week, those unfortunate individuals who have found themselves living on the street will no longer be able to sleep (day and possibly night), ask for money or store their belongings. Many of the ordinances have targeted the downtown region, which in all likelihood will push these individuals into surrounding neighborhoods or municipalities.

All issues have multiple sides, but most of the attention has gone to the opinions of city officials and business owners. Below are two letters CL has received in recent weeks regarding the situation in St. Pete.

The first is from G.W. Rolle, a formerly homeless man who spent four years on St. Pete’s streets. Last year, he was featured in the widely viewed Easy Street documentary chronicling the homeless situation here.

The second letter is from Richard Shireman, one-half of the city’s Homeless Outreach Team and a longtime staffer of Operation Par Inc., which serves the needs of people suffering from mental illness.

Follow the jump for both letters (mostly unedited, though I’ve added Web site links for context):

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That’s one of the big questions I had coming out of last week’s St. Petersburg City Council meeting where council members unanimously passed an ordinance expanding the anti-panhandling zone to include most of downtown. The ordinance goes into effect this week.

Panhandlers and street musicians do share some similarities. They both gravitate toward downtown sidewalks. They both hope to leave with a few extra bucks in their pocket. And they both annoy some business owners and residents.

City Attorney John Wolfe says, “Street musicians are excluded from the [panhandling] ordinance.” St. Pete Police Department spokesman George Kajtsa says a separate ordinance deals with street musicians, limiting their busking to the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Kajtsa says he has no record of any street musician arrest, while panhandling citations occur several times a week.

Of course, the main difference is panhandlers approach people (many times aggressively) while the street musicians strum their guitars, hoping you’ll drop a dollar or two in their case.

But what if panhandlers adopt the same strategy? What are the legal differences between the guy playing Eagles covers and some dude mumbling to himself with a Styrofoam cup in front of him? I’m sure some lawyer could argue they both can be entertaining and neither one is outwardly asking for cash. As police begin to crack down on panhandlers, I can see a new breed of hustlers flocking to downtown, armed with badly sung Stevie Wonder songs and bucket drums, trying their creative luck. Downtown could suddenly fill up with guys like this:

If enough panhandlers turn to the arts, how long until the City Council bans street musicians all together?

Don’t get me wrong: some of my favorite buskers have lived (and worked) on the street. And I don’t think being homeless disqualifies someone from plying his or her creativity on the street. But when the City Council passes a knee-jerk ordinance, attempting to solve a complex problem, it can have unintended consequences, like negatively affecting one of best things about downtown St. Pete — the eclectic street musicians.

(Check out Eric Snider’s profile of St. Pete buskers from last year’s Summer Guide to see some of our talented downtown entertainers.)

I’ll leave you with a homeless singer from Rhode Island who I wouldn’t mind giving a few dollars to.

Jim Shanklin, who fought the city of St. Petersburg for four years over the 10-foot hedge in his yard, sends me this missive questioning why citizens have to worry about code enforcement, but city officials can turn a blind eye to the trash collecting around City Hall due to the homeless sleeping there at nights.

He addresses Mayor Baker and the City Council:

Your code department spends four years and thousands of our tax dollars taking my wife and I to court over our hedges. The reason was that a 10-foot hedge in the front yard is “aesthetically displeasing” (but a picture of one is just fine). This past weekend we went to Baywalk and passed city hall on the way. There were piles of personal belongings, shopping carts, bicycles, and just plain crap all over the sidewalk around the building. It was not what I would call aesthetically pleasing to the eye and creates a real public safety issue. What do you plan to do about it? Or is storing personal items in front of city hall now allowed? If so I will empty the storage space I rent and bring all my stuff on down and store it there for free. Is this an issue I need to come to the next code enforcement hearing and ask about? It seems pretty hypocritical to me that code enforcement would cite homeowners for outdoor storage and levy fines when bums can do it on the public sidewalks in front of public property. Am I going to get an answer? I doubt it.
On another note I was in Tampa yesterday and passed city hall. It seems that Mayor Pam does not have piles of crap in front of her office. What is your problem?

Shanklin’s point is well taken, but city officials do have a plan for that mess at City Hall. On Thursday, the City Council meets for a first hearing on a new ordinance that would ban all storage of property in the right-of-way, including sidewalks. Those who defy the ordinance will have their property impounded and/or disposed of.

This ordinance joins two other “quality of life” statutes that the City Council will introduce this week: the expansion of the no-panhandling zone downtown and a prohibition against sleeping or “reclining” in the downtown area during daylight hours.

Is it any coincidence tourist season is now in full swing?

Just in case you thought those anti-war types only like to protest against the Iraq War, Jay Alexander from Tampa’s monthly Vigil for Peace sent me these photos as proof of what some demonstrators do to support the troops.

Over the holidays, Alexander and other volunteers passed out 700 phone cards to veterans at Bay Pines VA Medical Center and James A. Haley VA Medical Center. The phone cards were provided by the national Veterans for Peace and CREDO (part of the group, Working Assets).

And if you didn’t read my December Urban Explorer column on Tampa Bay’s anti-war protests, check it out here.

The Buena Vista Neighborhood Association isn’t wasting any time to work on their improvements to St. Pete’s Bartlett Park neighborhood and for city recognition. Resident Scott Swift forwarded me information on the new association’s latest clean-up and petition drive this last weekend:

We picked 10 full bags of garbage on 13th Avenue and went door to door with our petition to have our new association recognized by the City. I am thrilled to report that everyone we met with supported the formation of a new neighborhood association and NO ONE declined to sign! Some people weren’t home, but we collected 19 signatures (excluding several people already in our group who will sign later) just on 13th Avenue alone!

Going door to door allowed us to get feedback from 13th Avenue residents regarding their concerns. The key things we heard were disillusionment with the status quo & concerns about drugs and speeding. Other broader concerns were drop out rates of school children and lack of parental responsibility.

I have attached pictures from the cleanup. Since some of you receive e-mail at work, I have excluded shots of the more “interesting” litter we found (at least 3 used bullets and several drug baggies and one pink thong!!). Not surprisingly, all the ammo and drug paraphernalia was located in front of the 2-3 properties that residents have constant concerns about regarding drug dealing.

So far we’ve had a positive meeting the Deputy Mayor David Metz and Susie Ajoc, have covered about 15-20% of the area we need to cover with the petition, distributed our 1st newsletter, cleaned up 10 bags of litter on 13th, met lots of interested residents, and finalized our mission statement. All in just our first 2 weeks!

The new association split from the established and recognized Bartlett Park Neighborhood Association. Read what caused the split here. And don’t forget to read the reactions to the new organization on my first blog post about it here.

As today’s Times reports, the Florida International Museum received yet another bailout from the St. Petersburg City Council yesterday, this time to the tune of $260,000. The Mayor praised the unanimous vote and, once again, the Times editorial staff was on the winning side.

But if you look deeper into the coverage of this seemingly benign agenda item, something is amiss.

On Wednesday, a Times editorial supporting the forgiveness of a $260,000 city loan to the museum stated: “The relationship between the city and museum is complex and goes back a ways.”

You don’t know the half of it.

Back in 2001, Creative Loafing’s John F. Sugg reported on the “complex” relationship between the museum, the Times and Mayor Baker. He detailed the Times cheerleading of the museum’s opening. He uncovered Baker’s connections to the museum, in which he served as lawyer, board member and chairman. And Baker’s push for a $5.4 million bailout in the mid-90s.

Read Sugg’s story here, then re-read the Times coverage this week and tell me something isn’t amiss.