USELESS
Thank you for bringing up this topic (Cover Story, "The Most Useless Job in the World," Nov. 9-15). For years I have been proclaiming my displeasure with these Washroom Wardens. They are not only useless, they are incommodious (pun intended). Please, can I just use the restroom in peace! NO lotion, NO fragrance, NO stool-softener needed! I seem to manage just fine at home without the assistance of these Lavatory Vultures and their buffet of toiletries. Why must we feel indebted to them for the paper towel forced upon us from their well-guarded stockpile? Then comes the guilt, the feeling that you just stole something when you don't compensate them for their painstaking deed.
I have a dream … a dream that someday a man can walk into a bathroom, any bathroom … and take care of his business without another man standing over his shoulder.
Kevin Voyer
Tampa
MORE USELESS
My nomination for useless job would be: boss. I think most work centers could be successfully run by consensus, and eliminate the majority of bosses, leaving more money for workers' salaries.
The majority of bosses I have seen in 34 years of work are magnets for ass-lickers. They favor and promote slaggards who flatter them, while spending up to half of each 8-hour workday avoiding work. These employees say they aren't paid enough for what they (are asked to) do, so they are justified in all of their work avoidance actions.
So far as I am concerned, you don't need anyone to attend meetings, then hold others to pass on what they hear at those meetings. You don't need anyone to threaten to fire you, while coddling lousy workers, either.
Frank Starr
Tampa
NOT SO USELESS
I'm one of those wonderfully "useless" people on the entertainment team at the St. Pete Times Forum! I'm not writing to berate you or trash your article as I tend to agree with most of it and I think your paper is a real asset to the Bay area.
I DO want to thank you for giving us a little shout out. We do, after all, love attention.
I could go on and on about how sponsors pay big money to have so many people drawing attention to the goodies launched from that cannon and therefore it serves their purpose as well as the teams and … well, you get the point. The organization is also outstanding (I got the chance to be a part of our Hurricane Katrina donation drive as well as work to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness, toy and food drives and the like). Having been a diehard Lightning fan since the team's inception, getting paid to go out on NHL ice and do an amazingly fun job that many wouldn't even imagine existed is pretty much a dream realized. Maybe I don't dream big enough.
Thanks, again. I'm sure everyone I work with will get a real kick out of being mentioned.
Denise, TECO Energy Team
Via e-mail
The Wal-Mart Greeter actually has a purpose. They watch for people bringing in returns/exchanges. They mark them with a tag so people aren't accused of trying to get a refund for something they just picked up in the store. They also tag your soda bottle or the pillow you brought in order to match your drapes with your couch — so the cashier knows you don't have to pay for it and the security guy doesn't chase you into the parking lot for stealing.
Sarah C.
Via website
SKATER BOI
Loved the article (Life Sentences, "Above Board," by Scott Harrell, Nov. 9-15), and still like to freak out the youngsters occasionally riding on my hands down a gentle hill. I was heavily into skateboarding during the mid-to-late '70s popularity surge, the "first wave" of your article, right? As a 13-year-old, after a weekend of hard labor mixing "mud" for a brick walkway, I was rewarded with a $25 membership to Skatewave on Hillsborough Avenue. Later, and similarly short-lived, there were concrete skateparks on Drew Street near U.S. 19 and on Fletcher west of BB Downs, both with bowls and half-pipes just short of vertical. Of course, my brother and I had primitive wooden ramps on our front porch in Land O' Lakes, too.
We slalomed down the Drew Street hill behind Coachman Park — beautiful. Now I highly recommend the skatepark behind Desoto Elementary in Palmetto Beach, overlooking the Spicola Pool and Mackay Bay. Plus, the parking lot has just enough slope to carry me on a 100-foot handstand. The locals love it.
Mac Fleming
Tampa
INNER SPACE
Maybe your article (Cover Story, "Empty Spaces," by Wayne Garcia, Nov. 2-8) focused on Florida cities only, but you didn't mention the biggest casebook example of how artists can transform a neglected neighborhood: SoHo (NYC). There was a time that many people forget when SoHo was a seedy slum. It was artists who transformed the area by slowly moving into abandoned buildings during the 1960s.
But there's something else at work here in Tampa Bay — something far more ominous that squelches creativity (which leads to no support for artists or artists' "enclaves"). And that is an institutionalized intolerance and bigotry and a rampant anti-intellectualism. "Leaders" set the tone, and are hugely responsible for a city's "brand" or image. Hillsborough County Commissioners have done so much damage in this regard. The message is: If you're not white, heterosexual and Christian, you're not welcome here. "Creatives" (however one wishes to define that term), in particular, artists — don't dig that s**t.
Scott Taylor
Via e-mail
Fascinating article, and here I thought Tampa was a natural to become the next great City of the Arts. Apparently there is a lack of vision there — or a lack of understanding for those who do have vision.
I have been working in cultural industry development for several years. In researching your city, Tampa appears to be splendid — so much potential that I, an outsider, can easily recognize the development prospects so readily apparent.
Or are they? What is going on in your city? Do any local civic or business leaders look to the future?
Casual research reveals one of the most dynamic trends sweeping the globe is the economic development going on precisely because of cultural industries — principally ARTISTS of all types.
Tampa is a natural. Get with it! You are missing a global phenomenon!
What are you waiting for? Your city is poised for great things… Leadership anyone…
Ken Conner, Arts and Economic Development Consultant
Via website
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2005.