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State Of City Comes Across, Good And Bad

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: March 25, 2009

It was not exactly a fireside chat or what you might have expected from a sitting mayor whose eyes already wander occasionally outside city hall.
Mayor Pam Iorio delivered her annual state of the city message Monday. Although it had plenty of self-pats-on-the-back and a video that made you wonder why anyone would live anywhere else, it also outlined where we have strayed and what she says we have to do in the coming year or two.

It was a more reflective and interesting Iorio as she worked through the city's ups and downs. She talked about the unfortunate trend of urban sprawl moving people farther and farther out, suggesting the patterns of growth were hardly a 21st century model.

It was geared to sell mass transit. She pointed out that only Tampa and Detroit are major urban centers without a strong mass transit system.

But more than that, the mayor was suggesting it was time citizens took more control of their destiny instead of ceding it to developers and those who see communities more for short-term profit than creating a way of life.

She talked about a loss of trust in government at the national, state and regional levels.

She might have pushed it a little too far when she tried to stretch her winning triple analogy into a home run by saying we have more trust in city government.

Still, it was a strong performance by the mayor and a reminder of why she remains so high on the popularity charts.

Derailed At TSA

Although the mayor spoke at length about light rail, she never mentioned last week's train wreck at a meeting of the Tampa Sports Authority.

That's where TSA Executive Director Henry Saavedra was railroaded out of his job in a 6-5 vote from the authority's appointed board.

Former Tampa City Council member Bob Buckhorn, a member of the board, called it a "back-alley mugging."

By all accounts I have heard, Saavedra did a top drawer job. The Super Bowl certainly drew praise about the facilities and the way it all came together.

Chairman Vincent Marchetti led the move to get rid of Saavedra, although the architect of the ouster is said to be Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman.

The authority is launching another of those nationwide searches to find a replacement for Saavedra. It is going to have to look far and wide to find someone willing to be attached to the strings of this crowd.

Wild Bill At The Columbia

It has been 23 years this week since they gave Wild Bill Minahan that new kidney.

The former Jesuit coach and athletics director has a few other physical ailments, but none has prevented him and his wife, Martha, from giving something back with fundraisers for others.

On Friday they will host a buffet lunch at the Columbia restaurant in Ybor City to benefit LifeLink patents who struggle with the enormous cost of organ transplants.

There will be a bunch of local celebrities acting as waiters. Fortunately, it will be a buffet, and one of the celeb waiters will be owner Richard Gonzmart, who will make sure the others don't do anything dumb like St. Pete Times columnist Ernest Hooper did with that butter dish incident in 2008.

Other servers will be Channel 10's Dave Wirth, football legend Freddie Solomon, WFLA radio's Tedd Webb and me. Come on over.

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

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