Opinion: The developer-mayor

Tampa Mayor Dick Greco can look back with satisfaction on the physical impression he left on the city. New parks, schools, the football stadium, the zoo, the port, Ybor City, the new arts museum, the riverfront project -- this mayor has trowels for fingers and the landscape he shaped will stand for decades. Over eight years in office, which he leaves Tuesday, Greco morphed his public position into a new role, the developer-mayor. His talk and treatment of government as a business was the ingredient behind Greco's successes and his innumerable public embarrassments as mayor.

Greco was elected in 1995 for the second time around, having left as mayor in 1974 for a higher-paying job building shopping malls. Greco chose a good time to rewrite his legacy, capitalizing on the nation's historic economic expansion to invest in services and grow the city. Greco backed new spending at the port and airport to boost Tampa's competitiveness globally. He leveraged public and private funds to redevelop historic Ybor as a tourist destination. Greco was a big supporter of downtown, and to his credit he realized how important the small things -- an aggressive antilitter campaign, a larger police presence -- mattered when it came to luring folks back to the old business district.

Greco's forceful advocacy in 1996 for the countywide Community Investment Tax was a principal reason it squeaked to victory. His payback was the ability as mayor to undertake one of the largest public works spending sprees in the city's history. Greco made some critical investments in roadways, parks and police and fire services, but he refrained until his final months in office to push a modest and much-needed stormwater tax. In 2001, he committed most of the city's share of the tax through 2006 to build the arts museum and expand the zoo -- projects that were never held up as priorities when the tax went before the voters.

Decisions like these are what caused many to question Greco's commitment to neighborhood and bread-and-butter issues. He also closed the decisionmaking process at City Hall, rarely consulting critics unless his agenda was put at risk. Greco's loose and forgiving managerial style gave rise to the most ethically compromised administration in modern times. He bristled at critics, ridiculed their position and questioned their knowledge and love of the city. His sense of nostalgia could warm an audience, but it also simplified complex problems facing the city and ignored the diversity of Tampa's modern makeup.

Greco leaves the city stronger in material terms but there's a reason his successor is Pam Iorio. Voters backed Iorio because she offered a balanced agenda between business and neighborhood needs, between affluent and struggling areas of town. Greco never could recognize the polarity he exacerbated in a city he loves. That too -- along with the bricks and mortar -- is the legacy he leaves this second time around.

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright