The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners is made up of a group of people who more or less represent the makeup of Hillsborough County. There's a rural conservative who's also a bit of a conservationist. There's a moderate Democrat representing Tampa's predominantly African-American east side and parts of its left-leaning urban core. There's a passionate, eco-minded progressive. And at least one conservative Republican the county's exurban voters carried into office.
But entrepreneur Aakash Patel thinks there's one group that's not adequately represented on the dais: Tampa's young professional set.
And that's why he's running for the District 1 seat, which Commissioner Sandra Murman is terming out of in 2020. It's a district that comprises a southwestern swipe of the county, from Citrus Park to South Tampa to Apollo Beach.
A 33-year-old running as a Republican, Patel is an ardent backer of all things Tampa — he's the one pushing the hashtag #tampahasswagger. The son of parents who emigrated from India and Uganda, Patel is an FSU grad who, upon his return from Tallahassee, became active on the local level. An entrepreneur who founded his marketing company, Elevate, in 2012, he told CL he noticed how in recent years the city has begun to attract scores of young professionals. Many either come to the city to start a business or are wooed by quality employers that come to Tampa to set up shop.
Forbes even wrote about the “Tampreneur” phenomenon in April, which to the likes of Patel suggests that Tampa's appeal to hip, smart up-and-comers isn't a delusion.
But if local government wants this trend to continue, he said, then people who represent this group ought to be in positions of power — and there's a thirst among that segment of the population to be part of the conversation.
“We are now officially a Millennial city because of all the recognitions we've won,” he said. “We have to get people to stay here.”
It's starting to happen already. Tampa City Councilman Guido Maniscalco was 30 when he won his seat in 2015. Brian Willis was the young professionals' candidate in the crowded Democratic primary for the commission seat Pat Kemp ultimately won in 2016 and it would be surprising if someone isn't wooing him to run for something else.
“I just think it's interesting that people are saying in general that Millennials are doing their own thing and they're not interested in community service and aren't into politics,” he said. “I think we're out there. Young people are out there.”
A prime issue that could use the perspective of someone under 36? Transportation.
In his quest to boost Tampa and draw good employers to the area, Patel said he has so many conversations with business owners who love the area, but gripe about the notorious traffic and the lack of alternatives to it.
“The hurtle they always come up with is transportation. They're stuck in traffic,” he said, and employees don't want to live somewhere where they spend hours in their cars each day.
On that issue, the county commission certainly has its voice for wrecking the status quo in Commissioner Pat Kemp, who would like to drastically expand public transit and pedestrian walkways. And no commissioner is blind to the fact that Hillsborough County's gridlock is an impediment to quality of life. There may even come a day when the bulk of them realize you can only widen roads so many times.
While talk of bumping the county's sales tax up by a percentage point to fund a transit overhaul (via a voter-supported ballot initiative) seems to come and go every couple of years, most recently in the form of a half-cent initiative the commission torpedoed last year, Patel said now's not the time to have that conversation. Instead, he said, he thinks the county could put a dent in its transit woes using money that's already baked into its budget.
Thus far, Patel's only opposition in the race is Tampa City Councilwoman Yvonne “Yolie” Capin, a Democrat, who announced her run last week. (It's an open seat, so that will probably change.)
With its patches of suburbia and upscale urban areas, the district leans Republican, but Capin has name recognition, a record to run on and no doubt party backing to help her. And, like Patel, she's also quite the Tampa cheerleader.
It's unclear how the current political climate will affect the race — if the Trump backlash will not just endure, but even bleed some blue into the district.
Patel said even if that's the case, he isn't worried about it because at the local level, it's always more about the candidate than the race (even if county commission races are partisan) and it's up to him to make the case to voters, one by one, that he's their guy in 2020.
“We've seen too much anger in Congress and the presidency,” Patel said. “In a local election, you should vote the person, not the party.”
