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Opening A Door To Us

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: January 20, 2009

On a day when symbolism dominates our national scene, Bob Gilder's sign is back up at the elections office on Falkenburg Road.

Gilder was a longtime leader in the civil rights movement in the Tampa Bay area. It was Gilder who helped erase tensions when rioting broke out in the late 1960s. Gilder was more interested in results than civil unrest, and was a force behind positive efforts such as registering thousands of voters.

The Robert L. Gilder Elections Services Center on Falkenburg Road is named for him. At some point his widow, Ellie, learned a sign bearing her husband's name at the center had come down. She was told it was removed during renovations and would be put back up.

But months dragged on and the sign stayed down. Eventually nobody at the office would return her calls.

When Phyllis Busansky, sworn in as supervisor of elections only two weeks ago, found out, she ordered the sign reinstalled. The sign is up and on Friday a picture of Gilder will be placed inside the services center.

There are more symbols changing. At her swearing-in ceremony in front of Chief Judge Manny Menendez and a half-dozen other judges, as well as an overflow crowd at the courthouse, Busansky spoke about opening the offices to citizens.

"Citizens have to have confidence in their public officials and our office is going to be open and transparent," she said. "I can promise you we won't be losing any votes, either."

Our Man In D.C.

This column's official correspondent in Washington today is my middle son, who earned a journalism degree from the University of Florida and decided he would rather be able to afford to eat and now does something else.

"What's eerie," he says, "is seeing police and military at every intersection." He was at DuPont Circle, where "they have what looks to be a 25-foot balloon of George Bush with a Pinocchio nose. There is a rope around it and there is a stack of shoes. People can throw shoes at the balloon."

3 R's Of Redevelopment

Joe Voskerichian, who is executive director of the Gold Shield Foundation, wrote in about a column on the redevelopment along the downtown waterfront.

"Nice article today on the park and what it once was, but remember the three Rs (River, Roses & Requin). As you recall after the garage was torn down and NCNB North Carolina National Bank started to develop the property with the help of Harry Wolf and Dan Kiley, we had to eliminate the Rose Garden, move the USS Requin (submarine) and create the vision that Hugh McCall (CEO of NCNB) had for the property. We lost the roses. The USS Requin was moved to Pittsburgh where it is thriving in conjunction with the Carnegie Museum Science Center.

"Yes, we blocked the view of the river and removed the bicentennial planks (the city of Tampa had them stored in the Parks Department warehouse) and replaced each and every name on the bronze/iron sheets that are on the Riverwalk.

"Then we built a round building with two square cubes and installed the famous 'Exploding Chicken' sculpture that you love so dearly. The sub was moved and we occupied the building in February 1988 and it went downhill from there.

"Also, as an added observation, with the opening of the Tampa Bay History Center, the Requin would have been a great conversation piece to an already popular attraction for our city."

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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