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.

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