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What's Tampa's Image? It Depends On Who You Ask

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2007

"Be careful who you pretend to be because you are who you pretend to be." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., "Mother Night".

TAMPA - Just what is Tampa pretending to be?

If you believe the latest accolade bestowed on this town, Tampa is party central. Maxim magazine this week dubbed Tampa sixth on the Top 10 list of party cities, based on a formula that awards points for the number of strip joints, bars, divorcees and even condom sales. And if Tampa teetotalers object, look no further than Saturday night's Guavaween, the annual drunk fest costume party in Ybor City that runs a close second to Gasparilla in inebriation.

Then, there are the Tampa-is-good, wholesome touters.

Tampa Bay & Company, which pushes tourism in Tampa, doesn't mention the crime here or the rush-hour traffic or housing slump or the beer-soaked festivals on its Web site. "You want Florida," the Web page says, "you want it all, and you only want to unpack once. No problem. You want Tampa Bay."

City government has a Web site that spews facts and figures about the town being the third most populous in Florida, with an economy that is "founded on a diverse base that includes tourism, agriculture, construction, finance, health care," and so on.

Sports fans recognize Tampa as the home to an NFL football team that can either be really good or really bad and a hockey team that falls into the same category. College football fans are just now finding out where Tampa is, thank you USF.

Vacationers see this place as home to Busch Gardens and the Florida Aquarium, and an easy drive to some picturesque sandy beaches and only two-hour ride to any number of theme parks in other cities.
Residents may see it differently, splitting their opinions between a good place to raise a family (Lowry Park Zoo is named the best family zoo in America by Child Magazine) or a dangerous place (see after-midnight crime statistics in Ybor City) where crime doesn't take a Gasparilla holiday).
Tampa's image, it seems, depends on who you talk to.

Maxim, the monthly purveyor of cheesecake photos of celebrities and lusty young women, has pigeonholed Tampa as a major party city. Each city was summed up in one paragraph and next to Tampa's description was a photo of the 2001 Odyssey strip club sign. Here was Maxim's take on Tampa:

"It's four o'clock: Do you know where your dad is? He's probably at one of the city's 49 strip clubs. That's more booby-barns than you'll find in Vegas. Yes, the city's median age is a list-high 40.45 years, but citizens down 5.41 cases of beer at home annually.

The designation brought a variety of comments from Tampa Bay Online viewers:

Willis: "Hooray! We have more drunks per square foot than any other city. I'm proud - reaaal proud."
Roberto: "Yep, it's all fun and games until you try to find a nice clean person to settle down with. Oh yeah, and then try to have kids and raise them in a respectful and safe environment. I'm not looking to make it a retirement community, but it would be nice to live in a place that wasn't consistently bombarded with DUIs, shootings, etc."

Jdxnyc: "Tampa leads the state in DUIs and is the second-most-dangerous place to drive, walk or bicycle in the country (based on traffic fatalities and pedestrian fatalities). Only Detroit is more dangerous. Look at all the crosses on the side of the road. Look at Gasparilla, a legalized drunk fest. What an embarrassment. Yeah, go Tampa."

Allcolorsandnone: "Between being a crappy city to live in for young professionals, the median wage rate being below average and the housing market being particularly bad here, at least we have the party atmosphere to look forward to!"

Maybe there's some truth to all this party-city talk.

After all, some big headlines around town recently and not so recently have had to do with drunken shenanigans.

University of Florida sorority girls earlier this month soaked the Columbia Restaurant with vomit and generally trashed the place during a dinner party.

Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were arrested two years ago after, police say, they sparked a drunken brawl outside a Channel District nightclub rest room.

A man visiting Clearwater this week was accused of getting naked on the beach and fondling himself and was arrested only after he tried to swim away from authorities in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the business front, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is poised to become a regional hub for gaming operations, a development that could make Tampa a tourist destination for fun-loving gamers from all over the nation.

City officials said this week, that being known as a party town is good for tourist business, and a big lure in the angling of convention business is the nightlife. Any town that wants to be a tourist draw had better paint itself as a fun place.

Lisa Humphrey, spokeswoman for Tampa Bay & Company, which is a nonprofit group that aims to draw tourist business to the area, said Tampa is pitched as a family friendly destination that has many components, including nightlife. She said the party facet of the town, "is only one component" of a total package that is this town.

Tampa Bay & Company Executive Vice President Steve Hayes said, "Our strength is our variety."
So, does Tampa want to be known as a party capital or a family town? A sports mecca, perhaps, or Bible-town?

Opinions are many.

Phil Walters, a lifelong resident and licensed alligator hunter, said Tampa has grown too much from when he was a kid.

"It's too big," he said. "I need to move to Georgia. I've been here my entire life. I can remember when Tampa didn't have an interstate. I remember when we had to shoo cows from the football field of Leto High. I remember when we could shoot ducks out on Lake Egypt; it was in the middle of nowhere.

"Clearwater was a beach town and you drove through some woods to get to Indian Rocks Beach and then you drove through some woods to get to Redington Beach."

Still, if out-of-town friends call and ask if Tampa is a good vacation town, Waters tells them: "Come on down. It's fun. We have a lot going on here."

That sounds like a party town.

Linda Unfried may disagree. She's the founder and head of the local chapter of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving and she has never considered Tampa as a destination party town.

"You can see it on Gasparilla and on Guavaween," she said, "and that's twice a year. I don't know that I like to see that Tampa is number six in party towns. It's very serious to me. It's not attractive to me to have that designation.

"It's just not the image I see here," she said. "It's just a regular kind of city to me."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or at kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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