You know what’s actually cool? Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s Neighborhood University program, in which a select group of Tampa citizens (you must live within city limits, people) get to spend several weeks immersing themselves in the many interesting trappings of Tampa’s municipal government. You don’t have to be the kind of person who gets boners for C-Span to take something away from the program, and one of the more interactive sessions found me taking a quick spin in a compressed natural gas-powered “dumpster flinger” (twin-fork trash truck) operated by cool people who have even cooler four-day work weeks.
What’s more is that the city told us that they do everything to keep their solid waste employees like the always-smiling Mr. Wayne Jackson (pictured) comfortable in the hot sun by purchasing uniforms that give workers the best chance at maintaining a safe body temperature during what promise to be some seriously hot summer months.
This article appears in May 11-18, 2017.
