Around a thousand people gathered Tuesday morning at the Bryan Glazer Jewish Community Center, a former sporting venue and the place where President John F. Kennedy spoke in Tampa only four days before his assassination, to hear Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn share his yearly State of the City speech. As he addressed his fans, Buckhorn appeared jubilant.
“Just over five years ago, you gave me the very distinct pleasure of hiring me to be your Mayor and every day since then I have been proud to represent each and every one of you,” Buckhorn said. “Through the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, we have prevailed, come out stronger and better than ever.”
Referencing the challenges posed by the recession, by crime and by a lack of infrastructure investment, Buckhorn was quick to thank all those that had helped get Tampa back on track.
“We built a city that has an identity, a city that, just this year was named the best city in the Southeast by Money Magazine,” said Buckhorn.
With a nod to immigrant and minority communities, vital to Tampa’s diversity, Buckhorn acknowledged many of the achievements from the past five years with a tone in direct contrast to that of many right-wing politicians currently filling up news feeds.
“You can see it in North Tampa, where because of our efforts in Sulphur Springs, nearly 400 tons of trash and debris have been removed. New houses are emerging in neighborhoods that had once been plagued by drugs, gangs and guns,” Buckhorn said.
He touted investment in Tampa's downtown, completion of the RiverWalk (after decades) and the attraction of millennials as well as “true intellectual capital” to the city as efforts that have reaped significant benefits over the years.
Fostering a friendly business environment, he said, resulted in the city landing “global giants like Google Fiber, Ashley Global Retail, and Johnson & Johnson to name a few.”
Those comments we all met with rapturous applause from the assembled Tampanians.
A common refrain throughout Buckhorn's speech was the phrase, “we built this” complete with a corresponding hashtag, #WeBuiltThis, with adorning video boards hanging high above the stage showcasing things like Tampa International Airport's recent ranking as the ‘best large airport’ in the nation by passengers using the mobile app AirportXP.
He then talked law enforcement, one of the more touchy subject in the city.
Despite criticism over its program targeting of African-Americans on bicycles and conflict over his civilian review board, Buckhorn was keen to praise Tampa Police Department, noting how in the past decade “crime in this city has been reduced by 57% and in some of our toughest neighborhoods crime has been cut in half."
"The men and women who put on that uniform everyday are proud to wear the badge and they deserve our prayers and our thanks for being willing to put their lives at risk for us,” he said
In perhaps a pivot towards a wider statewide audience with a rumored desire to run for governor in 2018, Buckhorn went after Republicans in Tallahassee, a longtime target for Democrats who think the manner in which Governor Rick Scott and lawmakers run the state is utterly asinine.
“If Tallahassee politicians can’t even acknowledge the existence of climate change, then maybe it’s time for a regime change," he said. "The question becomes, are you going to listen to the small minority of folks who are worried only about their financial self-interest, or are you going to hear the voices of those neighbors whose homes and livelihoods are at risk every time we have a severe rain.”
He said acknowledging environmental problems — and investing in their solutions — is obviously better than pretending they don't exist.
“We should take great pride in the fact that Hillsborough Bay is the healthiest it’s been in over 50 years. That didn’t just happen,” he added.
An increasingly vocal voice within the Democratic Party, Buckhorn also made clear his position on a living wage.
“While other cities have struggled to pay their employees the minimum wage, I have ensured that no full-time employee at the City of Tampa makes less the $12 per hour. Our hard-working staff deserve to make a living wage,” he said.
One of the biggest cheers of the morning occurred when the mayor delved into the notion Tampa should have a mass transit system to ease its traffic woes, including rail.
In 2010, voters throughout Hillsborough County rejected a sales tax hike proposal that would have funded a comprehensive transit overhaul, including a light rail line that probably would have run from USF to downtown Tampa. Among the county's tea party activists and politicians, rail became something of a dirty word because of its cost and the notion that cities that have constructed light or commuter rail are typically quite progressive.
Buckhorn said he's not afraid to embrace rail.
“Just imagine a city connected to the region, a city with modernized mass transit …. rail, and, yes, I said rail," he said. "Commuter rail moving in people throughout the region and a streetcar connecting neighborhoods to businesses and jobs."
As his speech came to a close, a spring in Buckhorn's tone emerged.
He touted a vision of turning Tampa into a 24/7, culturally diverse, vibrant city; a city offering “jobs of the future, not jobs of the past,” with inclusivity and diversity being key proponents of such a future; city primed to be the “gateway to the Americas.”
As he closed his speech, he referred back to officials at the state level whom he thinks have repeatedly dropped the ball on turning Florida into a competitive state on both the national and international stage, mostly because of ideological leanings and powerful industry lobby groups like the National Rifle Association.
“If Tallahassee cannot get the job done because they are paralyzed by partisanship, then step out of the way and let Florida’s cities lead," he said. "Our statewide elected leadership should pay less attention to the NRA and more attention to the PTA. Here in Tampa, we focus on what unites us, not what divides us. We have become that city of hope, not cynicism. Fellow Tampanians, we built this. The State of our City is good and the future is within our grasp … That choice is ours … Let’s go get it done.”
