ORLANDO MASSACRE TRUMPS EVERY PREVIOUS MASS SHOOTING IN THESE UNITED STATES AND GIVES NEW FODDER TO TRUMP THE DUMPSTER

It was shocking, horrible, unimaginable.

The slaughter of 49 people - and 50 more wounded - by a 'lone  gunman ' late on a Saturday night in a night club in Orlando, Florida left us all stunned and shocked, and deeply saddened  early on a Sunday morning.

Why, what, who, where, the basic questions of journalism tumbled out over the following agonizing hours to follow as families and friends and an entire nation waited to see what the hell was really happening here.

Alas, we now have the what, who, where which have filtered out through he first hours of the investigation, but we have no why.

We have the portrait of a deeply disturbed shooter -aren't they all - who took his wrath out on a roomful of people partying hardy in the Pulse  nightclub in Orlando.

His wrath, apparently was being wreaked upon people he hated.  Gays, Blacks, Jews, Women.

All of this information from the news reports accumulated in the hours after the murders.

And we know now, that he was a woman-beating, angry, homophobic bigot who, after gunning down dozens of people, took more people hostage and then called the police to proclaim he was...ISIS.

Puleease.

And back to the why.

And the why goes to the question of how do we classify this latest infamy done supposedly in the name of ISIS.

Well, we can take a cue from President Barack Obama's statement, "This was an act of terror and hate."

We classify this as a hate crime elevated to the act of terrorism which it most certainly was.

Of course ISIS has happily declared they will take credit for any nut case who shoots up a room filled with Americans, but the fact is they had nothing to do with it.

This was the work of a 'lone wolf' guy who, by the way had frequented the very club he shot up, and according to other recent reports,  culled from people who knew him well and partied with him...was himself a self-hating closeted gay.

There you go, just what we need.

Now, anybody who has a love life gone awry, or a tough domestic situation or a giant inferiority complex  can shoot up a bunch of Americans and yell out, " ISIS made me do it."

Which will make ISIS very happy, thank you.

And will make the Dumpster (Donald Trump) equally happy and feel free to go on one of his xenophobic rants.

Before we fire up the nuclear subs and such, we need to evaluate which of these threats are real, and which are being used by people who obviously fell through the cracks of mental health checks.

And we need to do it before some xenophobic, race-baiting, New York bombastic huckster is elected to be the leader of the whole world by playing upon all of these fears.

And our heart is heavy today, along with thousands of  Tampa people who love and cherish our own LBGT community.

And we can only hope that this horrible incident will bring us closer together, and live in love.

TRUMP STUMPS IN TAMPA

Nothing better to do on a sultry Saturday morning in Tampa, we decided to bite it and do the required appearance - hey, every reporter in this town has to do it at least once - at a Trump For President Rally.

We cringed at the thought, having read the reports of violence between Trump and Anti-Trump supporters outside these events in other cities.

And having been in crowds at political rallies in the past which broke loose and caused mayhem  We had a reasonable expectation of spending  at least part of the rest of the day either in the ER or limping away clutching what was left of our clothing.

So, armed with a back pack filled with water and band-aids and clutching a notebook and pen in  hand, We approached the Tampa Convention Center with what we were sure was the attitude of a puppy about to be spanked for spilling her dinner on the floor.

Approached by a TPD finest just outside the Convention Center, We answered his question...."Can I help you, miss?"

"Yup, I'm one of them sleezy reporters this fella keeps yapping about, which way do I go?"

The officer chuckled and pointed the way to the press area, an instruction which we promptly disobeyed, and headed off in the other direction to an area where we had spotted some Anti-Trump people.

On the way to their spot We  took a look around at the crowd.  Well, we say crowd, there were dribbles and drabbles of people hawking T-shirts, buttons, hats and one very loud lady trying to sell shirts emblazoned with the emblem, "HIllary For Prisoner."   Hmmmmmm.

The  crowd filtering toward the Tampa Convention Entrance was varied in age from thumb-sucking toddler to Old White Men.  Not too many women, and nary an African-American in sight, nor Hispanic nor Asian, nor, Gulp....Muslim.

The Anti-Trump people, clad in bright blue T-shirts and khakis were amiable, polite, and eager to talk.

Their signs said it all...Never Trump, etc.   and they were very sincere and very well informed.

One woman voiced great displeasure that Pam Bondi, our State Attorney General would be introducing Donald Trump to the crowd inside the center.

"They're a perfect pair," she snorted, I call them Tweedledumb and Tweedletrump."

She was of course referring to the reports of Ms. Bondi, through some sleight of hand had accepted a 25K campaign contribution from Trump a little while back, and then refused to sign onto the lawsuit over the Trump University scandal.

Another fellow spoke up about the real estate scam The Donald pulled here in Tampa a couple of years back on the piece of property at Ashley and Brorein.  The one where a lot of people paid a lot of money as down payments on condos which never materialized.

Donald kept the dough, of course, and promptly disappeared into the folds of the veil of bankruptcy.

On and on we discussed all of the other Trump failures.  Among them, Trump Vodka, Trump steaks, Trump airlines, et al.

So, we asked, "what do you think is the attraction here?"

One of the Anti-Trumpsters, an erudite fellow who happens to be a professor Emeritus of Political Science at University of Tampa, Mr. Richard Piper, explained it all:

"He's pandering, and scapegoating.  Hitting every racist, mean-spirited, disenfranchised and white male discontent  button he can find, and he's a great salesman, so he's doing it well."

Of course he is.  And he's doing it well enough to throw fear into not only the Anti-Trumpsters, but most of the GOP and any reasonable voter in the nation.

However, Anti-Trumpsters can take heart, only four thousand people showed up.

Ah, for the days four years ago, when we were embedded with Occupy Tampa, remember them?

They were fun.  And they were spirited and sincere in their message and in their wish for a better life for all.

And now we have....HHuuuuugggeee.....and talk of walls and no respect for dissent and trying to bully federal judges and on and on.

Donald says he;'ll  be back and back and back in Tampa.

Well, we'll be waiting....oy vey.

TAMPA HOMELESS COMMUNITY NONPLUSSED BY RECENT FEDERAL GRANT LOSS BUT SCARED TO HECK BY THE SPICE EPIDEMIC

Tuesday morning I queried some of the twenty or so Tampa homeless people gathered at Gaslight Park in downtown Tampa for the usual Tuesday morning coffee and bagel breakfast provided by Food Not Bombs  -they also serve on Sunday Afternoons, they're Vegan but what the heck, it's good chow -And many of them shrugged off that morning paper's story about the loss of the 800K to three of Tampa's transitional housing outlets which provide, well transitional housing to homeless and about to be homeless folk.

Most of the people at the park are old-timers - and that does not mean necessarily in years - what it does mean is people who have been at this for awhile, and have learned the ways and ins and outs and twists and turns one must learn to navigate the whole business of living on the street.

And most of them have never been involved in 'transitional housing' and don't care to be, thank you very much.

And many of them have a particular dislike for the Salvation Army.  To a man -or woman - they say it is a hellhole and run by abusive people who could care less about the salvation of anybody.  (Their words not mine as they used words I cannot print here,, but you get the gist)

But one thing they do worry about is the recent rise in the Spice incidents involving overdoses and deaths and way too much heat being brought down on them by the great deal of attention which must be involved by the authorities both in trying to curb the use of the synthetic drug, and the strain all those EMS calls and transport to TGH  are putting on local police and fire department services.

And they also worry about running into these walking zombies who use the drug, especially when the walking zombie turns violent, or spends the nights trolling homeless people sleeping spots looking for money to buy their Spice.

The story in last Sunday Times about the Spice epidemic was excellent, and needed to be done by a high profile newspaper, and they did a great job.

However,  one thing which should have been said in the story  is that most of the homeless  'old-timers' won't touch the stuff, or want to be near anybody who does.

One of the people at gaslight told us, " I took one hit of that stuff one time and woke up three days later in the hospital."  'Nuff said?

For right now, most of the Spice activity is centered around the Marion Transit Center known as Spice Alley, and it is hell down there, don't bother unless you absolutely have to have something to eat from the two snack cafes there....especially Jimmy's biscuits and gravy.

We'll keep an eye on this situation, and hope the authorities can get this stuff off the street, and soon and that the stuck on stupid  knuckleheads who are using it just go away,

Maybe over to Clearwater or something, the Scientologist guys over there could  probably find a way to solve it all, AND make 'em pay for it.

'Zombies' and seizures: Tampa Bay discovers it has new problems with spice (w/video)

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TAMPA BAY CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE MARCH 3 ON DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA

WELCOME  TO  THE  21ST  CENTURY TAMPA CITY COUNCIL


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TIME FOR A HEART TO HEART WITH HART

HART would be Hillsborough Area Regional  Transportation, the entity which transports thousands of people around our county and city every day of the year come rain, sleet or people behaving badly.

Somehow, they manage to transport all of those customers along 49 routes, on 214 buses through 1000 square miles of county and city -roughly the size of Rhode Island - across 11 million miles which is roughly 46 times to the moon and back.

And they do all of this on a budget - for 2016 - of 84.7 million bucks.

We know HART drivers and supervisors put up with a lot of guff from - see above people behaving badly - some of their customers.

For instance, many of the customers openly flaunt the HART regulations for riders.

No, weapons, no alcohol, controlled substances, no smoking, no eating or drinking of any beverage, no running in aisles, or playing loud music, of speaking loudly on cell phones, no rude or abusive or vulgar language, no loitering around bus stops.

And we get that handling some of the ruffians who flaunt some or all of those rules can make drivers and supervisors edgy and grumpy and sometimes just plain mean.

For instance, we recently witnessed a driver bodily throwing a snarling drooling half pit-bull, half boxer mixture of dog and his snarling drooling owner off her bus and then having to endure his racial and gender epithets shouted at her as she sped away.

Yeah, that's enough to set anybody's teeth on edge and make the rest of their day miserable.

However, we  think HART should make up a list of offenses which their drivers regularly commit, and post those notices right along with the notices for riders.

Starting out with tardiness.  We have not been on one bus in the past three weeks which has been on time.

We are talking here about departing times, not arriving times due to traffic, weather and snarling drooling animals and people.

We are talking about bus drivers who linger far too long on their cell phones outside the bus, or enjoying just a few more minutes chuckling it up with a pal or flirting with a pretty girl, or, as we recently experienced, a gnawing five minute OCD display by a driver who had to touch his mirror, his seat, his bag and walk around the bus way too many times before departure.

And then there is the safety factor involved while on the bus.

The rider rule is do not engage the driver in conversation whilst driving a vehicle carrying people who are depending on your ability to transport them safely to your destination.

We have seen way too many drivers, trying to drive, while carrying on an animated conversation with a rider who is standing or sitting anywhere from two to five feet behind  him/her which takes many turns of the drivers head, and eyes off the road for what can be the length of a football field.

We have seen drivers texting while driving, we have seen drivers chomping on their dinner whilst driving, and even trimming their long fingernails while transporting their precious cargo...US.

We have also seen and experienced many nasty remarks made to riders who question these offenses.

Such as..."What are you gonna do about it?"  Or "Take a hike."  Or...&^%# off, buddy."

Enough.

Put these people through serious training and monitor them, or fire their butts and get some drivers in there who will respect the riders, and transport them on time and safely.

All the way to the moon and back if they have to.

WHAT WERE THE BUCS OWNERS THINKING?

Just when we think Tampa has attained a world class image, whoooomp.  Something comes along which leaves people shaking their heads and muttering 'what a bunch of roobs they must think we all are.'

'They being all of those people in world class cities who actually have some sense of how important it is for the perception of an ability to field world class sports teams, and leave them to the experienced managers to whom they pay millions of dollars for that yearly huff of a sense of pride which is inhaled when a local team is off to the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup, the NBA finals, et al.

This writer is from Chicago, a city known not only for the legions of dead people who vote in every election, but for legendary sports teams and owners and managers of those teams.

Well, ok, being a long time Cubs fan I, too understand the humiliation suffered at the end of a woulda, shoulda, coulda year....we just had one thank you but I digress.

Here's a better example.

Papa Bear George Halas, the inventor of pro football ( you may disagree, but I dont care), and splendid coach who would never have let the McKaskey family (owner of Da Bears ) or players kick his butt or tell him what to do, and about whom one time legendary Bears player and then Bears coach Mike Ditka once opined,"George Halas throws nickels around like they're man hole covers."

A reference to Halas's long time resistance to large salaries ( a better description would be skinflint) for his players who were firmly under his thumb, and who mostly had to have part time jobs in the off season.

Those days of the "Black and Blue" league (a reference to the roughness of play back in the day in the NFC west conference) are long gone and now we are met with players who make enough dough to probably buy what back in the day most major league football teams were worth.

Ditto for the coaches of major league league football teams.

And when Luvie was hired just two years ago to coach the forlorn Bucs, this reporter was thrilled to learn that he would be coaching the football team from my now home town...and I actually started to take interest in the Bucs.

Imagine my surprise when yesterday I saw the headline FIRED on one of the local papers.

Surprise and shock that a team could make a decision to fire a guy who was in the early stages of shaping a world class team, and in the shabby way it was done.

Yeah, I can see why a lot of people around the country are shaking their heads and saying 'What a bunch of roobs.'

In face, down in Gaslight Park, I found myself in the position of being interviewed by another reporter while I was interviewing him, and both of us saying, in effect, what a bunch of roobs' or words to that effect and those words cannot be printed here.

Well, it's a new day, and a new coach is in the offing and a new year for the Bucs, and I have one thing to say about the next Bucs season.

Da Bears.

sinatra story

Ole' Blue Eyes would have been 100 years old on Dec. 12.

That was Francis Albert Sinatra, 'Frank', Chairman of the Board and 'The Man'.

What can we say about his history, his career, his music, his messy personal life and the decidedly manic depressive personality which drove away as many people as were intrigued by his charm and his mercurial nature....and oh yes, the talent.

How about Superb.  And well done, and ring-a-ding-ding (one of his pet phrases)

But the music,   Man that was the thing.  The music which could fly you to the moon; mourn a lost love at 3 a.m. or put your world on a string tied to a rainbow, or give one reflection on his/her life and how it had been lived.

To see him in person was a real treat, whether it was in the confines of a Vegsas theater, a wider concert venue...or a late night trip to a New York or Chicago saloon where he held court till the wee small hours of the morning, surrounded by his small and loyal entourage.

Always the entourage...whether at home, out on the road.  Frank Sinatra hated being alone.  And everybody loved being around 'The Man.'

We knew his personally, and up close for awhile.

Him and his small entourage and his beautiful -then fiance- and then wife Barbara were the source of much entertainment and love and just plain fun.

Something a lot of people never knew about Frank is that he was a well-read man, and very  intelligent and that his favorite piece of music was the musical score of "Madama Butterfly."

There are several places where one can go this weekend and hear the imitators -and some of them are good- doing the Sinatra song book.

But forget that...go the the Hub, that saloon on the corner of Polk and Franklin...it's the kind of joint he would have hung in late in the evening...and go to the juke box and play the Sinatra CD. until the wee small hours of the morning.

And have his favorite drink Jack Daniels.  Three rocks, two inches and a splash.

Well done Mr. Sinatra, Ole Blue Eues/  Frank, Chairman of the Board and  The Man.

Ring-a-ding-ding.

morgan powell has sent you an article found on Examiner.com.

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OLD TAMPA BOOK STORE KEEPS ON KEEPING ON WITH NEW BLOOD AND OLD FASHIONED LITERARY PIZZAZ

Ye Olde  Book  Company

Msmorganpowellmsmorganpowell@aol.com

Ye New  Olde  Book  Company    

It  may  sound  silly, but just walking into the Old Tampa Book Store can  make  your heart beat faster, look around, at the 40,000 or so books lining every surface, and you can only say, whoa...so many  books...so little time.                                                                                                                 

This little store -once a tailor shop- was brought into being some twenty years ago when previous owner David Brown and his wife Ellen Brown relocated to Tampa from Rochester, New York bring all of their belongings, including David's 3,000 books about sports cars.                                                  

The couple parlayed that -by later standards- meager collection, and used personal collections and book fair purchases over the years  to establish this, we hate to say 'relic' so settle for gem of a store which  to this day stands as a sanctuary for book lovers of every genre one can imagine and that includes everything from comics to tomes on how to flyfish, and the great stories of the real Pirates of the Caribbean.                                                                                                                                             

A year ago, when David and Ellen decided to move back North, they left the store in the very capable hands of their long time assistant Carrie Carnes who has added some spice to the Olde store.                 

The Old Tampa Book  Company now has  a musical night, an open mike comedy night, artists renderings of different writing genres and a crowd of visitors and customers, who, according to Carrie's able assistant includes every age, demographic and social group both in Tampa and visitors to the city.                                                                                                                                                

And the new Book of the Month club which they just started reflects the same variety of readers and book lovers, according to Brian Winter, Carrie's assistant who shakes his head in wonder when he reveals to a visitor that, in addition to the 40,000 books on the shelves inside the store, at least 60,000 more are in storage in space at a nearby CVS store.                                                                                   

Whew.  That's a lot of page turning for even the most devout book lover.                                                

And that is a mighty challenge the Old Tampa Book Company -and every independant book store in the country faces, whether or not avid readers will sooner or later succumb to the siren call of the Amazon Kindle.                                                                                                                                              

You know, that battery operated thingy that you use to download a book so that you can turn it on and settle back for a few hours for a nice read.                                                                                                  

Nah.  We prefer, the real and tactile experience of turning the page...and the older the page the better...for a worthy evening, or lazy afternoon read, or just falling asleep to an open page.                   

Just try that with that battery operated Kindle thingy.                                                                                  

The Old Tampa Book Company is located at 507 N. Tampa Street, hours are Monday-Friday 10 to 6, Saturdays, 10 to 5, and Sundays 11 to 4.  Phone is 813 -209-2151, and they take orders on the phon and at their website, www.oldtampabookclub.com  for just about every collectible, rare, and  out of print book you can think of.                                                                                                                                          

Once a month, the store has a 50% off a secion of the store's inventory, and every day you can selecta hardcover book for one buck, or a paperback for fifty cents from the book cases just outside the front door.                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                

 The  book club will meet every first Wednesday of the month, and this month's selection will be "On Chesil Beach," by Ian McEwan and published by Jonathan Cape, a division of Random house.

Or just go on in there and browse through the treasures inside this wonderful store, and make your heart beat faster.                                                                                                                                           

THE SUPER BLOOD MOON. BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS. HOPEFULLY BEGINNINGS OF GOOD...ENDING OF BEARS LOSING STREAK

Shine on, Shine on, Shine on Harvest Moon, and bless the
Cubbies....your ardent Chicago  Ex Pat  Sports  Fan
Msmorganpowellmsmorganpowell@aol.com

TAMPA WILL EXPERIENCE UNPRECEDENTED GROWTH SPURT TO MATCH OUR GROWING REPUTATION AS A WORLD CLASS PLAYER

The August issue of Money Magazine Named Tampa as the best city to live in the Southeastern United States.

The criteria the magazine used in their search of 63 cities with populations in excess of 300,000 were international aspirations, future job growth, affordable home prices, availability of jobs, access to health care, culture, and open spaces.

Tampa, population of 352,000, and according to the magazine,  a median home price of $121,000, average property tax of $1,800, unemployment running at 5.6 percent, plus the presence of three major league sports teams, two recent international film festivals -ok one of them was Bollywood, but what the heck - hosting the  nearly flawless Republican National Convention in 2012, and open spaces and culture galore  plus we are on the water.

We don't have beaches, but we are on the water - Tampa Bay -And if the city doesn't fix the drainage problem around here pretty fast, we might be under water for the entire rainy season next year.

We really don't count the annual Gasparilla  Pirate Festival as a plus -at least not in this column - because it has not yet been determined in any meaningful way that the annual  three-day drunken brawl does anything significant for the city except to bring millions of dollars in beer and rum and net stocking revenue which is about what it costs to repair the damage.

And we have building projects in the works, boy do we have building projects in the works.

Projects which will house all of those 12,000 millennial college grads  whom Mayor Bob Buckhorn wants to lure to the city -the downtown population, according to the Downtown Tampa Partnership, is already 32 percent ages 25-34, and 18 percent ages 55-64 - and Mayor Buckhorn wants them to all move straight to the core urban area  and live in all of those eight or nine new highrises and low rises listed as 'mixed-use' properties, i.e., apartments and businesses when they arent in their high powered jobs at one of the many 500 fortune companies the city is also trying to lure to Tampa so that all of those millennials will be able to make big bucks to pay for those apartments.

Well, as much as we hate to throw a widget into all of this positive thinking about Tampa being the new Belle of the Ball in the Southeastern United States, we need to ask a couple of questions, and to point out some tiny flaws, before we go all wild and start some goofy chant about' Hey, Hey, Tampa is here to stay!'

First question.  Where are the other 50 percent of people in the downtown Tampa partnership head count?  Or did they leave with the Gasparilla Pirates and the Ye Mystic Crewe who thunk them up?

Also what are all those people going to do in downtown Tampa when they get here?

That is if they have any money left over after paying more than half their salary for rent in those fabulous new buildings going up in the next few years, during which time, Harvard University's Center on Housing Studies says is exactly what is going to happen,  To the Millennials and everybody else.

Those new 'mixed use'  buildings are not going to be cheap.  For instance, one of the projects, which was recently ixnayed by the neighbors was planning to require a minimum $100,000 annual salary to even get in the door, and if you think that anybody could live in those new high and low rises on half of a salary even a that of a  very smart newly minted college grad who Mayor Buckhorn is so desperately trying to draw to downtown Tampa, re-do the math.

Then there's the downtown area itself.   There's nothing to do in the downtown area after, oh, say 8  p.m. The downtown  closes down after the last commuter has left on Kennedy Boulevard to go North or South or wherever hardworking people go, and then those few lucky affluent people who live in either the Element or the Sky Point have the entire area to themselves to walk their designer clothed dogs.

Mayor Buckhorn and his city planners need to re-tool some of their building plans to include downtown Tampa, before all of those thousands of people turn up here and realize they cannot afford an apartment and that in all of downtown Tampa after 8 p.m.  there is no place to buy socks or underwear, a tie a bandaid, or some fresh basil.

The only place in downtown Tampa doing business at night is the Hub, the famous saloon which has been there for decades, but you if you are living in a downtown building and holding a job in a 500 Fortune company nearby, you probably should avoid that place for happy hour until the weekends, The bartender who has been there for decades pours the stiffest drink in the city.

Not good for early morning 500 Fortune company career moves.









Msmorganpowellmsmorganpowell@aol.com

I hate Mondays.

TAMPA AND ST. PETE 'BRANDING CAMPAIGNS' REVEAL REGIONAL IDENTITY CRISIS

Msmorganpowellmsmorganpowell@aol.com


Two years ago the city of Tampa launched "Unlock Tampa,"  a project designed as an' economic development mission' by the tourism bureau here  (Visit Tampa Bay )to attract visitors to this city who were interested in a vacation, a getaway, preferably with the family in order to enjoy the best that Tampa has to offer to the stressed out, the snow-bound, the harsh weather fed-up who are looking for a little time to  un-stress, hang out in flip-flops and  t-shirts, have some fun in the sun and surf and probably a few margaritas after the kids are down for the night.

Now comes St. Pete, whose wise leaders have launched their own' economic development mission' to attract jobs and businesses to their city.  A mission which in essence is attempting to sell St. Pete as the place in this part of Florida to start up your new business, or move your corporate offices, or open branch offices which would employ many people in jobs other than hospitality gigs.

And the St. Pete  tourism mavens , or rather their adversising agency, Clear Labs, has given this mission a name: 'You Are My Sunshine'- You meaning St. Pete - and the hashtag #SunshineStPete, plus a contest to write the lyrics to  a song about your city.

Oh, For Pete's sake.

Clearly, there is an identity crisis in the understanding of these two cities of their real missions, and we need to clarify those respective missions for the sister cities perched on either side of Tampa Bay.

We're not going to include the city of Clearwater in this scolding, because they have their hands full with the Scientology crowd.

St. Pete, you over there, you have Beaches.  That's right, beaches.  Beautiful beaches, you have the Grand Prix, a really hot music scene, beach drive with all the fancy schmancy cafes, a rockin' downtown area with great bars and art galleries and the new six million dollar Hofbrauhaus, which is all the things that people who are snowbound, stressed out and fed up with harsh weather are looking for when they are in vacation or honeymoon mode.

In a clam shell...you have margaritaville.

  And attempting to bring business men and women here for a look-see at the possibilities of  relocating here and doing serious business in paradise...well, just imagine a northern, stressed out, snowbound, fed up with harsh weather business man  in your office, listening to you yap away about bushiness incentives, ratios, tax breaks, yadda yadda yadda, and all he can think about is the beaches laid out in the picture window that his gaze is fixated on right behind your head.

Tampa, you have no beaches.  You have rocks  -hence Rocky Point - and rush hours, and  downtown during the week, masses of stressed out business men and women  running around in business suits and shoes and women in fancy dresses, suits and five-inch high heels in a  downtown clearly made for business people to go about  doing corporate business and which shuts down after six p.m. when the last commuter escapes to the outlands for a little rest and maybe a little fun at the local sports or Irish bar.

Tampa is a growing and spirited center of commerce, a real comer in the hot Southeast Corridor Business Sector and the mavens here are doing everything they can to attract people who have advanced degrees in business and technology and know how to use them,  and is  not equipped to entertain whole families - or newly wed -stressed out, snowed in Northerners looking to unwind and run around in flip-flops and t-shirts  and have a few margaritas after the kids are down for the night having enjoyed a perfect day at the beach.

  A beach with sand, not rocks.

And Tampa has three professional sports teams - yeah, that's right, it's the Tampa Bay Rays. And, well, depending upon if you like about 150,000 drunks scantily clad in pirate gear once a year during the Gasparilla festival running around the downtown area -  Just the kind of thing to attract the corporate set, not a family who could care less about sports  or drunken pirates scaring the children during what is supposed to be a honeymoon or  a laid back vacation.

And we have not seen too many tourist people clamoring to get into the Tampa Museum of Art, or begging a tour guide for please just one more look at the fabulous Plant Museum, or seeking some of those yum gourmet breakfasts and mingle with the city leaders and politicians and poo bahs over at the Oxford Exchange.

We hope these two cities have not so far spent a lot of  money on the two ad agencies ((Clear Labs in St. Pete and Sharp in Tampa) who are engineering these economic development missions, because , for instance, we really have not noticed a whole lot of people kayaking on the Hillsborough River -something the Tampa mission brochure offers up to vacationers  as 'water sports'-

Best thing for these two identity challenged cities to do really, is to assume/resume the role they have so artfully and successfully carved out for themselves.

St. Pete gets to be Margaritaville.  Tampa gets to be Washington D.C with palm trees.

Can the economic development mission stuff and trying to be who you are not, and embrace who you are.  It's a zen thing.

There, that's settled.

IN THE AIR TONIGHT

It's nine or so at night, you're walking your puppy, Noodles through Curtis Hixon - or just about any - park in downtown Tampa, and there it is.

In the air tonight, and every night in Tampa.

That sickening sweet and acrid aroma of the devil's brew, the concoction the' fashionable' druggie people sell and buy in increasing amounts in an effort to jazz up what can only be a demented mind especially if they've been using, i.e. snorting, smoking etc. for any length of time.

Which would not be too long as the average life expectancy of any spice or bath salt user is increasingly narrowing just as the ingestion grows and grows.

Call it the inverted math principle of abusing your mind and body so badly that eventually something's got to give, and it's usually sooner than later.

Ok, people use and abuse many other psychotropic substances, weed, cocaine, crack, meth, alcohol, hell even caffeine and nicotine if you want to get right down to it.

However, we are talking here about a drug which is cheaper than all of the above, probably easier to acquire, and in the short and long run, is most likely to wreak havoc in your body and mind.

It's easier to acquire because every 'jit' ( check Webster's under 'juvenile in training') are all over town selling the stuff.

The demand is bigger than ever, and growing.

The profits from the sale of spice are bigger than ever and growing.

You know that guy who is dishing out your food in the hospital cafeteria?  Well, just minutes ago on his break, he was out in the park having one of his many spice tokes of the day.

The bird-brain on the bike who just nearly nailed you to the sidewalk is smoking it as he rolls.

The cab driver who can't quite remember if he's taking you to the airport or the laundromat, well, his cab is reeking with the smell of the stuff and you probably just got a contact high just by clinbing into his vehicle.

That nut-case over in West Tampa who just tore apart the interior of a van with his bare hands, and who had to be restrained by five TPD uniforms and two passers-by, was smoking it all day and mixing it with alcohol.

Ohl and let us not forget the skate-boarders, the woman with the kid in the stroller, the banker who sneaks down to the park for his daily ration, or those three people on the park bench leaning back and looking like they've just been punched in the head.  . Like it or not, they are all part of the 'fashionable' spice using crowd.

Look around you, it's all over this city, and the merchants of death who sell the stuff are getting away with it.

They're getting away with it because people will not speak up.

Let's go back to you and walking your dog on a nice, balmy night, and enjoying the beautiful sights of outdoor downtown Tampa while Noodles is doing his business.

Take note of your surroundings, most likely the smoker and his dealer will be nearby.

They really can't get too far on foot for a little while after that first puff.

Here's some advice, if you value your family and yourself, and anybody you love who might get into the way of one of these people high on spice.....call the cops.

And keep calling them whenever and wherever you see this increasingly unholy business going on around in the air...whether or not it's day or night.

The life you could be saving could be your own, or your kid...or even Noodles.








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TAMPA MAYOR BUCKHORN MAKES AN END RUN AROUND CITY COUNCIL TO CREATE CIVILIAN REVIEW BOARD

Mayor Bub Buckhorn  pulled a fast one last Friday when he signed an executive order - after being assured by city attorneys that he was well within the law - to create Tampa's first Independent
 Civilian Review Board, an entity which will  recommend to the mayor and to the Tampa police department ways in which they can improve police  relations with the community they serve.

Black residents, civil rights groups, the City Council, the local chapters of the NAACP  the ACLU , religious groups and other concerned citizens had been clamoring for a Civilian Review Board to oversee the police department since the revelation by the Tampa Bay Times report back in April which revealed that the Tampa Police were writing more tickets for bicycle infractions -80 percent - to black people.

While denying any wrongdoing, the city still asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the issue, and since then, according to The Tampa Bay Times the city of Tampa has written fewer tickets for bicycle infractions than any summer in the last decade.

While the special interest groups and concerned citizens pressed for the idea of a Civilian Review Board, and activists were scouring the city for petitions to present to the City Council, and a meeting had been set for the City Council to take all of this into account, Mayor Buckhorn, along with Tampa Police Chief Eric Ward met during a series of confabs last week and hammered out their version of the Civilian Review Board which the mayor and the chief presented as a fait accompli during a press conference on last Friday.

You wanted a Civilian Review Board? There,  You got a Civilian Review Board.

Mayor Buckhorn consulted with other cities around the country who have had Civilian Review Boards for, oh, centuries, and he came up with using the St. Pete model.

A model which has been described by many as a "Useless inneffective Civilian Review Board."

Something even Chief Eric Ward said he did not want.

The duties of this board will be to review cases involving use of force and pursuits, and others resulting in internal investigations and hot button social issues, and then they will make recommendations to the Police Department, and one assumes, the mayor.

The same mayor who could issue that executive order because Tampa is governed by the so called "Strong Mayor - Weak Council" form of municipal government arrangement, as are only ten other cities in the nation.

In this case, you might want to call it Strong Arm government, as in it's my way or the highway.

It will be interesting to see if this new Civilian Review Board can actually work given that it has no subpoena power -like the St. Pete model - and cannot force officers who have been accused of wrong doing to actually appear before them to explain.

Tampa has not had the problems of, say Ferguson, Baltimore or Cleveland, and in all respects they 1000 man sworn officers appear to be above average performers- the crime rate in this city has been reduced by 60 percent - compared to the dismal and oft times outrageous acts  perpetrated by many police officers around the country.

However, in the event of the need for any serious investigation into police activities in the pursuit of their duties as law enforcers, we will be woefully underserved if the admijistration of any justice is going to be served up by an 11 member committee who have been mostly handpicked by one man - Mayor Buckhorn,  (The City Council will have the honor of choosing two of the members of the Board.  Big Whup.)

Now, in order to maintain at least the appearance of 'transparency as a core value of government', which all in the city government maintain they are seeking to do, they are, according to Chief Eric Ward, developing an application process so that anybody who wishes to, can apply.

There are rules.

You must be 18 years of age, and able to make a four-year commitment to the Board, you must be employed in the city of Tampa or own a business, you may not be involved in law enforcement, or be a politician or running to be a politician, you must go through a thorough background check, and you may not be a felon.

You must attend a citizen's police academy, and go for several 'ride-alongs' with real policeman. (we are going to assume here that those ride-alongs to not include with the horse or bike police.)

And, according to the mayor, you cannot hate policemen.

The Civilian Review Board will  be up and running by December.

And good luck to all you applicants, we hope the city will give each and every one of you a code ring and a T-Shirt which reads, "Beer is your Friend."

DOWNTOWN TAMPA HONORS THE VICTIMS OF 911

: Downtown Tampa honors the victims of 9/11

IN TAMPA DURING THE RNC, SOME PEOPLE WANTED THINGS TO GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

In Tampa during the RNC, some people wanted things to go bump in the night

TAMPA WAS TRUMPED BY THE DONALD IN ONE OF HIS MANY 'ARTS OF THE DEAL'

: Tampa was trumped by 'The Donald' in one of his many 'arts of the deals'

TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL AT HEART OF THE MATTER IN MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH

: Tampa General Hospital at heart of the matter in matters of life and death