St. Petersburg resident Rand Moorhead, 53, has the look of an aging beach boy. Born in Michigan, he’s lived all over the U.S. and the world, and by his own estimation has worked in perhaps five dozen jobs throughout his life (including stints organizing transportation conferences at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and teaching English in Japan). But since moving to the Bay area five years ago, his main passion has been to launch a water ferry service between St. Petersburg and Tampa.
Moorhead says he’s attended St. Pete City Council and Pinellas County Commission meetings and spoken with top officials in the city, including Mayor Bill Foster, about the idea, but has mostly been given a pat on the head and told to mind his own business.
“It’s frustrating,” he says, sitting outside a Starbucks in North St. Pete on a recent uncharacteristically warm afternoon. “But it also inspires me, particularly since most ‘real’ people, non-government entities and the like, support it. A lot of 20somethings say, ‘Oh yeah, I’d love to be able to take a boat over to Tampa and party.’” But all he gets from officials, he says, is indifference.
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.