CL spent several hours yesterday in the back row in the chambers of the Tampa City Council, where we were joined at one point by dozens of members of Occupy Tampa, who made the walk from Curtis Hixon Park to 315 East Kennedy Boulevard yesterday morning.
Occupy Tampa was the source of discussion at the meeting yesterday – bottom line is, nothing's changing. The police are allowing the protesters to continue to sleep on the sidewalk in front of the park – some protesters want to be able to sleep a couple of feet inside the park, but the cops say no.
After a year long debate, Tampa finally has a panhandling law. Mayor Bob Buckhorn will sign the ordinance today at 10 a.m.
When we did a story about the state of Ybor City two years ago, we learned from several bar and restaurant owners that they believed the neighborhood would be considerably safer and would draw more local and national tourists if the notorious Club Empire would just go away. Now after another murder at that facility, the community has had enough. But the city's legal department says they'll research if a case can be made to close the establishment.
Did you hear that Congresswoman Kathy Castor said she intends to travel to Cuba? That's sort of a big deal, or might be.
And after President Obama began separating into pieces part of his $447 billion job bill, the U.S. Senate promptly rejected it, thanks to a few conservative Dems.
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2011.