It's good to be Bill Foster and to live in the city of St. Petersburg.
That was the general thrust of the mayor's 40-minute presentation to the Tiger Bay crowd at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club on Wednesday afternoon. Foster gave an informal state of the city address, and discussed the usual items that dominate public policy in the 'burg: the Pier, the Rays, crime and education. To nobody's surprise, he officially announced he would be a candidate for another four-year term later this year.
The mayor cited a recent Tampa Bay Times poll that showed 63 percent of St. Pete residents believe the city is going in the right direction.
"From 2011 to 2012 we issued over 2,000 more building permits than we did the previous year, equaling over $100 million over and above the previous year in construction value," Foster said. He added that his and the city council's job "is to create an environment that entices and welcomes and makes it easy for people to … relocate, for people to grow, existing small business, that's our sole function."
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2013.