TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Tampa as All-America as it gets

ADVERTISEMENT

By STEVE OTTO Steve Otto

sotto@tampatrib.com sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: June 19, 2009

At some point this evening, the judges will turn in their ballots. The 32 groups from across the country that have been doing whatever junketeers do on the road will look at the stage at the downtown Marriott Waterside and the announcement will be made on which 10 cities are this year's All-America City award winners.

Tampa, one of the finalists, is also one of the favorites. I mean how could you spend a few days at the Waterside, sipping pina coladas, eating grouper sandwiches and strolling up and down the Riverwalk, and not love us? OK, skip the Riverwalk part. It's way too steamy, and some of those people from up North probably would collapse if they went more than 50 yards. Save the Riverwalk for the snowbirds who come back this winter.

Home sweet home

I never would belittle any of the other finalists, although I'm not sure how you compare cities like Phoenix and Tampa with Benson, N.C.; Rowlett, Texas; and Rancho Cordova, Calif.

I'm sure all are fine places to live, although Rancho Cordova has been incorporated for only five years. Rowlett, which used to be called Morris, is more a bedroom community of Dallas than a city. Benson, like almost anywhere in North Carolina, is a great place to be, although its presentation largely is based on the expansion of a pound cake company. I think I would rather see Rowlett in a barbecue contest, matching its Texas brisket against the North Carolina vinegar sauce and coleslaw pork of Benson.

There is Bensenville, Ill., which is best known as the place where the gangland Spilotro Brothers (you might have seen this in the movie "Casino") were executed in somebody's basement.

Lately, the town has been fighting with its big sister, Chicago, which wants to move a cemetery to lengthen a runway at O'Hare International Airport.

The truth is all of these are American communities doing their best not just to survive but to offer some hope for the future. If the All-America City competition is just marketing fluff, then maybe that's not so bad. We can use some good PR.

Our town

We were declared an All-America City in 1990, when Sandy Freedman was mayor. Whether that made any difference in anything is up for debate, except that today former Mayor Sandy is president of the National Civic League, which sponsors the event. And once again it is being held in Tampa, where the other finalists are spending their bucks.

I think we already are winners, if only because we are facing the challenge of other American cities: preserving those things that made us what we are while trying to grow into this still young century; looking ahead as much as to the past.

So I say get out and celebrate this All-America weekend. Have a Cuban sandwich, check out the new Tampa Bay History Center, or do what most Tampa residents traditionally do on steamy weekends like this: Hide in the living room with the air on and something cold to drink.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT