A new study that ranks the Tampa area dead last among 30 cities as a "walkable urban place" leaves the false impression that life here is conducted at the drive-through window. ...more

December 10, 2007

TAMPA - A Brookings Institution survey of "walkable" U.S. cities ranks the Tampa area dead last. ...more

December 4, 2007

The Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency has the right idea about banning parking on the downtown Circle. This runs counter to the other issue of not enough parking in the area, but in the long run, and with additional parking added somewhere close, this idea makes sense. The CRA is creating plans for Streetscape IX, an ongoing downtown project to make it more attractive and bring people downtown. The parking issue is being discussed as the plans are drawn up. Parking in any downtown is a big issue. In Sebring, parking on the Circle isn't particularly handy, and sometimes it's a little scary backing out as traffic flows around the Circle. On top of that, some people who work downtown fill those coveted parking places all day with no regard to customers looking for easy access. ...more

November 30, 2007

SEBRING — Oct. 14, 1942, is a day Ted Biever Sr. remembers vividly. On that fateful day, Biever, a retired Air Force master sergeant, who served as a gunner on World War II aircraft, was shot down while conducting a mission over Germany. "To tell you the truth there was so much going on when we were shot down that I had no idea it was happening until we hit the ground," said Biever "I slept all night inside of a haystack," said Biever. "The following day I got up, and I was in the middle of Germany. I didn't speak the language, didn't have a compass and didn't have a map, so all I could do was hope to run into someone friendly on the ground." So, Biever, then 21, approached a group of farmers he thought looked friendly. "I was hoping they'd be friendly but they weren't," said Biever. "They took me into a village and threw me in this one-man jail until some German soldiers came and picked me up." Over the next 21 months, Biever was held captive by Nazi forces. ...more

November 11, 2007

In 1932, I was a 7-year-old boy living at the Children's Home, which was the orphanage in Tampa located on Florida Avenue. ...more

November 6, 2007