On the day after Christmas last year, we published our annual Top 10 issue. Among the usual lists of the year's best stuff, we included an essay by our political editor, Wayne Garcia, which took a more critical tack:
He proclaimed that Tampa Bay had jumped the shark.
A great place with great ideas had reached a point where it was no longer coming up with good solutions, he declared, and was in danger of cresting the hill and heading downward. He cited 10 problems that need to be resolved as soon as possible if Tampa Bay is to regain a sense of momentum and optimism, to reach its full potential, to build a civic community that rivals the region's tremendous physical beauty.
The response was strong.
Reader Bill Peak wrote, satirically, "Based on your recent (admittedly brilliant, insightfuland revolutionary) 'to-do list' for the Tampa area, 'The Guardians of the Status Quo (TGotSQ)' have unanimously voted to ask you to immediately relocate out of our area. Your independent thought scares us."
Former Tampa City Council candidate Kelly Benjamin wrote, "Your year-end diss of my hometown reads like my campaign platform a few years ago. I'm glad to see it in print and hope some civic leaders pay attention."
A reader named Laura wrote, "This article should go to every public official in the Bay area."
Some e-mailed Garcia directly and asked, "Where exactly do we start?"
This week, we have an answer to that question. Below you'll find an expanded version of Garcia's original list of 10 crucial problems, this time with suggestions for first steps that can be taken to address them. And each week from now on, in print and online, we'll follow up with information, interviews and ideas aimed at making headway in the 10 problem areas. At the same time, we are launching a new blog, Fix It Now Tampa Bay, which will feature activists intimately familiar with the 10 issues we outlined, as well as information from Loaf staff.
It's all part of an experiment in civic and citizen journalism, one aimed at providing solutions — and getting our government officials to take action.
Log in and become a Fix It Now'er. It's not too late to save Tampa Bay.
FIX IT NOW: The Ten Problems Tampa Bay Has to Address
1. SUBURBIA IS SPREADING UNCHECKED
The problem: Rapid population growth in the Sunshine State is overwhelming our ability to plan and control development, pushing it out from urban areas into cheaper lands, former farms and other rural properties. Environmental authors Leon Kolankiewicz and Roy Beck (creators of sprawlcity.org) list Tampa Bay as the eighth-worst example of sprawl in the United States, based on U.S. Census data.
A first step: Hillsborough's planners and county attorneys need to start working now to examine how sustainable zoning and land use changes can be made without wrecking private property rights. The county's Planning and Growth Management Department doesn't list such an examination as a priority or current activity, but county commissioners could vote to make it a priority. You can reach the commission offices at 813-272-5660 and the Planning and Growth Management Department at 813-272-5920 to voice your support for sustainable land-use plans.
2. THE VALUE OF URBAN DENSITY IS IGNORED
The problem: If we're going to limit sprawl, we must pump up our densities in urban areas. We're not talking Trump Towers here, but mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly "urban villages" that promote a "live, work and play" dynamic in our neighborhoods. Currently, many Florida cities — including Tampa — are stuck with zoning codes that hark back decades, locking us into growth patterns that increase sprawl, worsen traffic and allow inner cities to deteriorate.
A first step: Changing city codes is no easy task — just ask St. Pete city planners who overhauled a large portion of St. Pete's zoning codes last year — but it is possible. In fact, Tampa city officials have already heard residents' calls for change. Last year, city planners selected Seminole Heights for a pilot project on "form-based codes" that will rely on community input for the future look of the area. A series of public meetings will be held nearly every month for the next year (check out the schedule at tampagov.net/dept_Land_Development); interested citizens from other neighborhoods should attend.
3. THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IS OUT OF DATE
The problem: Long commutes and soul-sucking traffic jams. Thus far, the answer to this problem has been: Build more roads, and make the existing ones bigger. A regional transit group, TBARTA, has talked about outfitting the Bay area with effective public transportation — right now, local bus lines are a mess — but thus far it all sounds like a pipe dream. If something doesn't get fixed, and quick, Tampa Bay could start to resemble Los Angeles when it comes to vehicle gridlock.
A first step: Carpool, dammit. Statistics from 2006 say that Tampa Bay has 1.25 million commuters: 81 percent drive alone; 9.5 percent use some form of ridesharing and 1.4 percent take public transportation. "If everyone did something other than drive to work alone one day a week, not only would it have a momentous impact on air quality and the environment, but each person would save 20 percent of their commuting cost," says Sandy Moody, executive director of Bay Area Commuter Services, a nonprofit funded by the Florida Department of Transportation that promotes alternatives to driving single-occupant vehicles. Learn more about BACS at tampabayrideshare.org, 813-282-8200.
4. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS ARE WEAK
The problem: Our water supply is threatened by overpumping and pollution from new development and commercial activities. And our car-addicted sprawl has created an air pollution problem; Florida ranks third in the nation for smog emissions annually (a whopping 946,000-plus tons chugged out into our skies).
A first step: The fight over the environment is front and center in Hillsborough County, where a conservative Republican commission majority has undertaken a crusade to weaken its own Environmental Protection Commission's wetlands regulations and regulators. A compromise last year saved the wetlands division, but it is being studied and modified over the course of this year. You can let Hillsborough County commissioners know how you feel about altering wetlands protections by e-mail via an online form at www.hillsboroughcounty.org/bocc/about/contactus.cfm or by telephone at 813-272-5660.
5. LIVING GREEN IS NOT A PRIORITY
The problem: For those who care about the environment, the hot catchphrase is "reduce your carbon footprint" — in other words, limit the amount of pollution you put into the air and water. But a slumping economy has given homeowners with strained bank accounts yet another reason to find areas in which they can limit the amount they spend on energy costs.
A first step: The website energystar.gov has a wealth of information and practical steps for lowering your energy bills while also doing the environment a service. The section on "Products" shows how switching to items that carry the "Energy Star" rating can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also saving you bucks. By navigating to "Home Improvement" you can find out what steps you can take to improve energy efficiency, from heating and cooling to insulation.
6. WE IGNORE THE VALUE OF RACIAL, ETHNIC AND CLASS DIVERSITY
The problem: Latinos make up nearly 13 percent of Tampa Bay's population, yet are nearly invisible in the popular media and politics. Significant Latino subcultures now join under-covered African-American neighborhoods and growing Asian-American enclaves in creating a potential for a richer, broader cultural and economic mix. How does not knowing our own cultural blend hurt us? Trade advocates fighting for more international flights, for instance, recently told CL that one obstacle was a lack of knowledge by airport and business leaders of the various Latino ethnicities present in Tampa Bay.
A first step: Creative Loafing's first step will be to include more stories that reflect the full diversity of Tampa Bay's population. We would hope that other media outlets would take similar pledges. A wider first step would be for public and private schools in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties to include specific demographic and cultural information about Tampa Bay in high-school social studies courses, something that is not part of the larger history and civics curricula at this point.
7. PRO SPORTS ARE OVER-SUBSIDIZED AND OVER-IDOLIZED
The problem: There's nothing wrong with sports. Tampa Bay, however, is out of whack with reality when it comes to subsidizing professional sports, which — at their core — provide direct economic benefit only to millionaire owners and millionaire players. Local taxpayers built three major sports facilities: Raymond James Stadium ($168.5 million, paid for through a special voter-approved sales tax); the St. Pete Times Forum hockey arena ($139 million); and Tropicana Field ($185 million, mostly from tourist hotel taxes). None of those figures includes the interest paid annually on the money the public borrowed to build the facilities, nor do they include the cost of operating them.
A first step: Take one day (or night) where you have tickets to a pro sports event, donate the tickets to charity and instead attend a play performed by a local theater company, or listen to a concert by the locally owned Florida Orchestra, or take a soccer ball out to a nearby park and kick it around with the kids. Find new heroes in our community, or make yourself a hero.
8. MEDIA CONSOLIDATION THREATENS INDEPENDENT VOICES
The problem: Last year's Federal Communications Commission hearing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center underscored the fact that our region is ground zero in the battle for consolidation and cross-ownership by giant media conglomerates. The reason: Media General's common ownership of The Tampa Tribune and Newschannel 8 is grandfathered against current regs that prohibit such cross-ownership and could prove a model for Wall Street on how to make their media properties more profitable.
A first step: Sign up for daily updates on the battle for a free, independent press at freepress.net, the leading media reform group. Locally, search out alternatives to the mainstream in media — ethnic newspapers, local weeklies and magazines, public access television shows — and patronize them and their advertisers.
9. THE ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT IS A MAJOR STEP BACKWARD
The problem: Conditions have unquestionably improved for the gay and lesbian community in Florida and in the U.S., but forces exist that want to roll back that progress — and nowhere are those efforts more insidious than in Florida's battle to add a gay marriage ban to the state constitution. And even though the measure is labeled the "marriage protection amendment" by its supporters, it threatens to strip protections from couples both gay and straight. This month alone, there have been legal threats to domestic-partner benefits offered to opposite- as well as same-sex couples by state universities and city governments in Michigan, Idaho and Kentucky — all states that have passed similar amendments.
A first step: Two organizations — Fairness for All Families and Florida Red & Blue — are leading the fight against Amendment 2 in Florida. Learn more at fairnessforallfamilies.org and floridaredandblue.com, both of which provide ample info on how to donate and volunteer.
10. ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE YOUNG ARE FEW
The problem: In a 2003 USA Today analysis of the number of young college-educated workers in 14 different metro areas in the United States, Tampa Bay ranked last, with only 9 percent of its population being young, college-educated professionals. Why? You need look no further than the 2006 report "Things Are Different Here," produced by an economist for the Creative Tampa Bay group: Tampa Bay has less entrepreneurship than the national average, fewer patent holders and lower-than-average numbers of jobs in creative, manufacturing and science occupations.
A first step: Various chambers of commerce have instituted organizations to create a more hospitable environment for young professionals. But there's no quick marketing fix to the youth drain problem. A good start would be for local governments and businesses to recommit themselves to funding the arts, which would provide a hipper Tampa Bay and keep creatives here instead of sending them fleeing to New York or Austin. Plus, the arts have a tremendous economic impact, one that generally stays in the area.
Join the conversation on our new blog, Fix it now
Resource list
1. Suburban sprawl
Sprawl City, a website about consumption and population growth,
sprawlcity.org
Download the 1000 Friends of Florida's Florida 2060 study at 1000friendsofflorida.org/PUBS/2060/Florida-2060-Report-Final.pdf
2. Urban density
The Urban Charrette, a group of young design and architecture professionals seeking a better design-driven urban area, urbancharrette.org or e-mail info@urbancharrette.org
3. Transportation
Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA), tbarta.com
4. Environmental protections
The Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission's Wetlands Division, epchc.org/wetlands.htm
5. Living green
Become part of The Sierra Club's 2% Solution, cutting your energy consumption and carbon footprint by 2 percent a year to meet the challenge of global climate change, sierraclub.org/twopercent
6. Diversity
The Hispanic Business Initiative Fund, hbiftampa.org
7. Over-subsidized pro sports
St. Pete POWW, a civic group opposing the proposed Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, stpetepoww.com
8. Media consolidation
Track the FCC's plans to relax further media ownership rules, fcc.gov/ownership
9. GLBT rights
Equality Florida addresses issues of concern to the GLBT community, eqfl.org
10. Opportunities for the young
Emerge Tampa Bay, emergetampa.com; St. Pete Young Professionals, business.stpete.com/SPYP.html; HYPE (Hispanic Young Professionals & Entrepreneurs), hypetampabay.org; HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Emerge) Pinellas, hypepinellas.org; download a copy of Creative Tampa Bay's "Young & Restless" study of young professionals in the region, restlessyoung.com/public/pdf/Tampafinal.pdf
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 4, 2008.