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Rowers' Graffiti Churns Up Debate

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2007

TAMPA - With plans to build a $40 million, 2.2-mile Riverwalk through downtown, one lingering question is what to do with the rowing crew graffiti, insignia or urban art along the sea wall and bridges.

'I would like to get to the point where we say we keep it or not,' said Lee Hoffman, the city's Riverwalk development manager. 'Right now, it is hanging out there.'

Hoffman has taken comments, sought opinions and asked members of the Citizens Riverwalk Connection to get feedback from their neighbors. He said most people want the bright, large insignia to stay because they are part of local history.

'It is a signature on Tampa of people who have been here, and we have left that signature on the wall,' Hoffman said.

Elizabeth Settle, assistant sales director for the Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel, appreciates the insignia but said the history needs to be explained to visitors. The hotel, 200 N. Ashley Drive, sits on the bank of the Hillsborough River and offers a view of the college crews' colorful designs.

Settle is working on creating a plaque for the hotel's lobby that explains the history of the crew art. She said some online reviews of the hotel have questioned the insignia and called it graffiti, which has a negative connotation.

'I want more information out there so people know what it is,' Settle said. 'If people don't know what it is, they are going to walk away thinking it is bad.'

Crews from up North began using the river in 1941 when the University of Tampa started its rowing team, said Tom Feaster, president of The Stewards Foundation of Tampa.

The nonprofit foundation organizes the visits of university crews from January to March. Feaster estimates about 1,200 rowers trained in Tampa this past year, coming from Princeton, Yale, Rutgers, Dartmouth and other colleges.

The crews disembark from Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, 1001 N. Boulevard.

Just when crews began leaving their marks along the riverfront is up for debate.

According to a UT crew Web site, university rowers Joel Harris, Jonathan Day and Carlos Garced painted the first graffiti in 1974.

But Feaster said he rowed on the river from 1966-69 with Marietta College in Ohio and remembers the graffiti back then.

Feaster, a UT crew coach from 1975-79, said the foundation tells rowers not to deface property. But he likes the 'urban art,' which is seen in other areas where crews row, including Boston, Washington and Philadelphia.

'It shows the river is being used,' Feaster said. 'People from other parts of the country appreciate our river.'

As downtown changes with more housing and the Riverwalk, the graffiti won't lose its charm, Feaster said.

'It can survive whatever the transformation is because of the tradition,' he said.

UT junior Craig DeCosta can live with or without the graffiti but said new business owners and residents downtown won't tolerate it.

'I think the people would expect this to be cleaned and not to be there,' said DeCosta, a biology major.

Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, said she hasn't heard much discussion about the graffiti through the years and hasn't heard anyone ask for its removal.

As for Burdick, she likes it.

'It is a reflection of young people's expression and their wanting to leave their mark on Tampa in a nonharmful way,' she said.

Robin Nigh, the city's art program manager, calls the graffiti fascinating but said some of it seems out of place, as if the crews chose the spot randomly.

'We do need to look at the right way to do it,' Nigh said.

'It is so very much Tampa,' she said. 'It is like a suitcase where you get a sticker of everywhere you have been. It is like a well-traveled suitcase.'

Researcher Buddy Jaudon contributed to this report. Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 835-2110 or jpatino@tampatrib.com.

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