Blurbex

The talk has been out there for weeks now, but now that Obama’s nomination win looks inevitable, there is no doubt pundits will be pontificating on well-known (and not so well-known) politicians contending for the spot.

The Mother Jones website has a great piece out on Obama’s possible VP choices, their strengths and weaknesses.

The writer doesn’t mention Hillary Clinton since that issue has been examined already. I personally don’t think an Obama-Clinton ticket can work. In my experiences talking with Democratic voters, many Obama supporters are disaffected voters that don’t trust Clinton. And I also think he’s a stronger candidate against McCain than the hated Hillary.

That said, who do you think would make a good VP for Obama? Someone with foreign policy experience? A woman or Latino? Or another progressive candidate with youthful good looks?

Warning: explicit language to follow.

I know, I know — we’ve heard it all before: Ticketmaster(bastard) sucks big fat donkey dick. But I feel the need to bring this matter to light again because I just finished purchasing my Modest Mouse tickets and am (as per usual) fuming over the service charges.

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Just in time for Memorial Day:

Yesterday, coastal expert Dr. Stephen Leatherman — better known as “Dr. Beach” — named Caladesi Island State Park as America’s Top Beach for 2008.

If you’ve ever taken a trip out there, you know exactly why: The sand is white and powdery and the water is a perfect blue-green. There are plenty of kayak trails, a lush mangrove forest and tons of birds. Best of all, there are no roads and, by extension, cars. In fact, you have to take a boat to get there.

Fort DeSoto, a frequent Best of the Bay winner, won this award in 2005.

I’m sure the Pinellas County tourism authority is having a party right now. And I hate to poop in their punchbowl, but there are some troubled waters on Florida’s west coast.

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It’s all about preservation and the Rays’ stadium proposal in this week’s Creative Loafing.

Be sure to check out the cover story on the nine most endangered historical buildings in St. Pete. Even if you already read the print edition, there’s some new information about the fate of the First Baptist Church and the older homes along Fourth Avenue North.

(David Warner has a related short piece on a book of postcards showing buildings of St. Pete’s past.)

Also, Wayne Garcia and I tackle the latest news on the Rays’ stadium proposal.

And blending the two topics together, St. Petersburg Preservation Inc. released a statement yesterday on the historical significance of not building a stadium on the waterfront. Download that letter below.

spp-statement-on-preservation-of-waterfront-park-and-rays-owners-proposal-052108.pdf

Obamaniacs, Pam Iorio endorsements and photos galore!

Check out Wayne Garcia’s coverage of the Obama rally here.

Just in case you Obamaniacs thought you could grab some tickets for the presidential (nominee) hopeful’s appearance at the Times Forum tomorrow, I thought I should let you know: they’re gone.

The hell with the rising price of gasoline; here’s the real news: beer prices are steadily climbing.

With the cost of everything else rising as well, some of us have been able to just grin and bear it, taking solace in our beer. But (sigh) with beer prices going up too, we may be in some real trouble.

Where are our leaders on this issue? Come on, Mr. Bush, how about an alcoholic stimulus package?

The US Labor Department is reporting retail beer prices are up 3 percent over May 2007 prices and are outpacing overall inflation. Beer producers cite an increase in costs for the price hike. Grain costs are up because of a bad barley crop in Europe and the competition of bio-fuels. Shipping costs are up, as are packaging costs.

This all means a slowdown at the liquor store and the local bar. An alcoholic stimulus package, either checks mailed out to drinkers of legal age or as a break from alcohol taxes, would simultaneously help this industry and the rest of us.

If beer prices rise much more we will all have to drink less, putting the entire beer industry in trouble. And if we cannot stop the eventual price hike, an alcoholic stimulus package will help us during our transitional drying-out period.

If we cannot get this beer price issue under control, we will have to cut costs somewhere. Cancel the movie packages from our cable provider. Eat bologna instead of smoked turkey. Wash dishes and clothes with the same soap. Ride the bike to work more often. Anything to make sure the beer budget is unaffected.

You gotta do what you gotta do. When times get tough, the beer must keep flowin’. An alcoholic stimulus check would ensure that it does.

(photo by Eric Ward) 

Just back from St. Petersburg City Council gathering where the first-place Tampa Bay Rays moved their proposal for a $450 million waterfront ballpark another step forward. This time it was a financing plan on how they and taxpayers will come up with that cash.

The news: The Rays aren’t looking at using tax-increment funds generated by growth in the downtown area as was previously widely discussed. They are, however, looking to continue to get tourist taxes and other city dollars now devoted to paying off the Trop. The plan calls for using $70 million that the Rays expect from the sale of the Trop to a private redeveloper

Here’s quick breakdown on the financing:

• $150 million from the Rays (presumably in the form of rental payments over 30 years)
•  $70 million from the sale of the Trop to retire that stadium’s $13 million a year debt, which currently runs through 2016
• $100 million from tourist taxes (which presumably would require county leaders extending it beyond its current sunset in 2016).
• $55 million from parking fees generated at the new ballpark.

That last figure seems the shakiest; the Rays want the city to lease it thousands of city-owned parking spaces downtown on favorable terms so the team can resell them to fans.

Download the Rays Financing Plan Handout

A little more than a week after returning home from New Orleans, I’ve finally recovered enough to reflect on my experiences.  

We meander down Frenchmen Street casually seeking a place to eat. Me, my husband Phil, and our good friend Alex are three revelers among several hundred soaking up the festive atmosphere and cheerful chaos created by a citywide celebration of good times and great music. It’s the second weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, sometime around 11 at night, and the vibe is laid back in such a way that I hadn’t seen since my first Jazz Fest in ’05, the one before Katrina.  

People crowd the sidewalks and spill out into the streets, some standing in disorderly lines outside the range of bars and clubs, waiting to get ID’d and stamped or wristbanded, others flocking to see a many-piece brass band that has set up right at a crossroads and is playing the sort of lively, Creole-infused jazz you only hear in New Orleans. The performance has caused a traffic gridlock, the vehicles barely able to move around the crush of bodies having a joyous, spontaneous party in the street.

Everyone is having a grand old time. Even the cops seem to be in good spirits; we pass a pair who are patiently dealing with a sloppy drunk frat-looking guy. “Move along,” says one with a long suffering look and a gentle push. Frat Guy’s not catching the hint and in fact, turns around and holds out his hand, slurring to the cops, “Dudes, let’s shake it out. Can we shake it out?”  

“Keep walking,” says Sgt. Long Suffering, more sternly this time and with a forbidding look at Frat Guy’s friends, who start tugging, then dragging him and cajoling him urgently, “Let’s go, man, come on.” We slide around the scene, exchanging amused looks, and make our way a few blocks down and over to grab dinner and drinks at a little bar called Mojo’s on Decatur Street. Once we’ve fueled up, we head back to Frenchmen to see Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey at d.b.a.  

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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.

Last November, before the Rays’ new stadium proposal towered over St. Petersburg politics, neighborhood activists, among them some of Mayor Rick Baker’s most vocal critics, watched the local city council elections intently.

Two of their own — Westminster Heights Neighborhood Association president Wengay Newton and former Northeast High School coach Bill Dudley — were facing off against well-heeled candidates backed by Baker.

When Election Day results came in, and the two self-styled “outsiders” (narrowly) won, disaffected neighborhood leaders heralded the vote as a mandate for City Council to address issues of fiscal responsibility and public safety that had long been ignored.

Yet Newton and Dudley would represent only two votes on a seven-member council that has invariably supported Baker for years. Then, in March, one of the mayor’s strongest allies left the council to run for state House district 55. (Earnest Williams, a two-term councilmember, lost to Darryl Rouson.) Neighborhood leaders saw another chance: Karl Nurse, former three-term president of the Council of Neighborhood Associations, suggested he’d apply for the open council seat.

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Dena Gross Leavengood of Tomorrow Matters talks “sustainability” in The Influencers.

The whole CL staff gives you: “100 Ways To Go Green Right Now.”

And suburbanites are growing “the green” in this week’s Urban Explorer column.

Cruise on over to fixitnowtampabay.com to help us with our upcoming green issue:

Creative Loafing is gearing up for its upcoming Green Issue by assembling a list of “100 Ways to Go Green Right Now.” Got a surefire suggestion? A hint for saving energy, saving trees, saving the planet? Post your idea as a comment below, and we’ll include it in our Green Issue Apr. 16.

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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Education is on a lot of minds this week.

First and foremost, the looming state budget cuts. Newspapers across the state report the state legislature may have to cut up to $3 billion from the budget. Who will bear the brunt of it?

Students. Several school districts across the state are planning hire freezes or simply cutting staff. Class-size requirements may be amended. And that’s not even counting the crisis facing state colleges.

Meanwhile, the Uhurus, angry at what they see as the disenfranchisement of black students, want to bypass the public school system all-together. In this week’s Creative Loafing, I take a look at their plan to create an Afrocentric charter school.

So, how are legislators dealing with this education crisis? By proposing a law to require students to pull up their sagging pants, of course!

And we wonder why half of Florida high schools are called “dropout factories,” by the U.S. Department of Education.

Last weekend, while driving through Tierra Verde, an older gentleman knocked on my window. Expecting him to pull out a squeegee and start cleaning my window, I didn’t respond.

But then I saw the brochures in his hand.

Those brochures outline a Florida Department of Transportation proposal to raise the tolls on the Pinellas Bayway (that section of road from 54th Avenue South in St. Petersburg down to Pass-A-Grille) and Ft. De Soto Park (a recent “No. 1 Beach” award winner).

Dr. Delay, the Times‘ traffic columnist, recently received one of the brochures, too. He The doc outlines the FDOT proposal and finds most of the info on the brochures is correct:

The Stop Toll Hikes pamphlet lists current tolls and proposed fees that may go into effect July 1.

The current toll to cross the Bayway is 50 cents for east-west traffic and 35 cents the original 1962 fee to head south to Fort De Soto. The hikes would bump the Bayway plaza tolls to $1.25 (or $1 for SunPass holders) and the Fort De Soto toll to $2.50 ($2 for SunPass holders). The cost of an annual pass is proposed to increase from the current $50 per year to $125. A third column ambiguously labeled “later” lists proposed hikes to $3.50 for the Bayway bridges, $7.25 to access Fort De Soto and $256 for an annual pass.

In advance of the hearing, we talked with DOT officials and asked if the information in the literature being distributed is accurate. It is, but there’s more to it.

The “later” toll rates are proposed for the year 2038. Planning for a project as huge as replacing three bridges (the reason for the proposed toll hikes) requires revenue projections – in this case, decades ahead. But since “later” could mean a year from now, it’s good to know it’s 30 years from today.

DOT officials say they want to get the bridges replaced soon.

Hey, I’m all for replacing bridges. Last thing our tourist economy needs is a bridge collapse. But $2.50 to drive to Fort De Soto?! Already on top of the $1.25 you’ll pay to get on the Pinellas Bayway?! I can take the Pinellas Bayway increase — there’s a beach trolley that runs from downtown St. Pete to the beach anyway — but there is no bus to Ft. De Soto.

Maybe if it were just this toll, I’d reluctantly reach deeper into my pocket to enjoy our beautiful beaches. But, why do I get the feeling this is just the beginning of increases in taxes and fees throughout the state?

If you want to attend the DOT meeting on this issue, set your Blackberry to Wednesday, March 12 at 6 p.m. inside the St. Pete Beach Community Center.

(Photo courtesy of Mrs. Gemstone on Flikr)

In one hour, the Hillsborough County Commission will hold its public hearing and final vote on installing red light cameras at busy intersections.

By the comments I’ve heard from Commissioner Ken Hagan, chief supporter of the cameras, the concept looks like a shoo-in.

Which is unfortunate. Of course, nobody likes people who run red lights. But there are more issues with these cameras than just finding a way to prevent accidents.

There’s the privacy issue.

There’s the rear-end collision issue.

There’s the “Does it really work?” issue.

There’s the issue of a private company conducting law enforcement duties for profit.

Plus the issue of the government choosing these cameras to fill their own coffers.

And it’s even against state law (some counties in Florida have found a loophole, though).

I don’t think these issues are getting as much play as the “let’s-get-cameras-and-we’ll-all-be-safer” line. Pam Iorio agrees, reports the Times:

Mayor Pam Iorio recently considered and scrapped a proposal to install red-light cameras in Tampa. She said some research has shown the cameras cause accidents because people slam on their brakes when lights change.

She also expressed concern about a company issuing the citations and keeping a portion of the fines.

“The jury’s still out as to whether that approach works,” Iorio said.

Admittedly, some arguments against the cameras are better than others. But from personal experience, cameras do little to combat red light runners. Running a red light is usually a split second decision made by a hurried driver. If they are already risking life and limb to save a few seconds, I don’t see how they’ll care about a ticket.

If it works and saves lives, I won’t complain. But, honestly, this smells much more like a business opportunity for some Arizona company, at my expense no less.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Yup, we got ‘em.

During last week’s extensive media coverage of a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy dumping a quadriplegic out of his chair at Orient Road Jail, you might have missed the widely viewed video of a Baltimore cop berating a 14-year-old skateboarder. It’s quite possibly the best YouTube video I’ve seen since the Gainesville tasing incident.

Last week, the Baltimore Police Department suspended Officer Salvatore Rivieri for taking down a skateboarder in a headlock and scolding him for “disrespect.”

Here’s the video:

I’m officially inducting the cop’s quote, “I’m not ‘man.’ I’m not ‘dude.’ I am Officer Rivieri!” to the YouTube Phrase Hall of Fame, joining “Don’t Tase me, bro!” and Mitt Romney’s ”Who let the dogs out? Who, who.”

The whole episode reminded me of a Sticks of Fire post from last week that  pointed out the arrests of a few Tampa skateboarders. Really, why do cops hate skateboarders so much?

But if you thought Officer Rivieri’s 15-minutes of fame was over, check out this new video where the plump police patroller goes ballistic over an art student’s use of a remote control car:

Out of control cop? Abuse of power? Should the Baltimore Police Department institute diversity training?

Naw. After seeing the second video, I’m blaming Officer Rivieri’s anger on having to ride in that dorky little car all day.