One year to go for Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio

A conversation with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio as she looks ahead to her final term in office.

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PI: Well, I think there's just huge differences between Mayor Greco and myself. In style and substance and in vision. I mean, absolutely. I probably have bigger ideas. If you really look at it from a factual basis, this whole light rail is transformative for the entire region! You pull out the maps, you're talking about a whole different way to live and smart growth. So, and opening up the river to the people. I think I start with a concept. And-

DW: He starts with a building?

PI: And I think Mayor Greco started with a specific development proposal that somebody brought to him. You know, like someone came and said, "We would like to do Channelside." Someone came to him and said, "We would like to do Centro Ybor." Ok, that's great. As mayor, of course you react to people who come to you and say we want to do something... But I think it's a different kind of visioning when you start with an overall concept... more of "I'd like to see us re-engineer ourselves as a community with smart growth and with an emphasis on mass transit." That's not something that some developer brings to you, that's something you look at from a societal standpoint, from a holistic standpoint. Or you start by saying, "I think we ought to open up the riverfront to the people." That's an urban planning concept. So yes, there are huge difference between the two of us. I think I've started really big-picture concepts and then worked to make them become reality, and I think Mayor Greco, who has achieved a great deal, this is not criticism, this is just an analysis of two different ways of looking at things, I think he started from a "If you come to me with a good idea, I'll embrace it." Those are two different ways of looking at things.

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