Let's embrace downtown, but don't forget county folks
By ERNEST HOOPER
Published June 17, 2004
Mayor Pam Iorio galvanized an audience of more than 500 at the Downtown Partnership's annual luncheon Wednesday.
She spoke passionately about a vision of downtown that would find the Channel District booming with retail and residents, the convention center area teeming with meetings and tourists and N Franklin Street bustling with neighbors. You believe her when she says this will be a decade of doing for downtown.
And by this time, a lot of my neighbors have stopped reading.
Even though they need to keep going.
While many may embrace the city's new "I am Tampa" slogan, I am Seffner, and the focus is a little different out in my corner of the county.
I was telling my newsroom colleagues the other day that I have neighbors who have never been to downtown Tampa, never been to the Performing Arts Center, never been to the Columbia.
They were pretty incredulous at those claims, except for the one other person who, like me, lives in Seffner. She came up moments later and sheepishly said, "The Columbia. Is that a restaurant?"
Anyone who lives south of Kennedy or amid the renewal efforts of Seminole Heights and Riverside Heights might be surprised to learn that for folks in the unincorporated part of the county, life does not revolve around the city.
I went to the Valrico Wal-Mart SuperCenter during the Gasparilla parade in February and it was Gaspa-who-cares. The store was so busy I had to park in Chip 'n Dale 57.
Although I think those who come to the city only for a job are missing out, I don't condemn anyone who chooses the cultural quiet of suburbia. There are all kinds of lifestyle influences that prompt some to live in the urban core and others to live apart from city bustle.
But while those differences may define us, we can't let them divide us.
CULTURALLY, THE COMMON GROUND between county folks and city folks may not go much further than a love of church, family, the Bucs and the Lightning. Beyond that, the city seems to embrace the arts - the new museum, the new history center, the Patel Performing Arts Conservatory - while the county watches infrastructure, growth management and wider roads.
Consider the recent focus on the so-called rise of the creative class, aimed at making Tampa culturally more diverse and bringing more high-tech, degree holders to town. It has gained traction in the influential pockets of the city, but if you want to start a conversation in my neighborhood, you would be better off comparing Home Depot with Lowe's.
Maybe that's just the way it is, but I'm not comfortable with the city growing as an island unto itself and the county as an uninterested bystander. In fact, I'm not sure the city can reach its goals if there isn't a climate of cooperation.
COUNTY RESIDENTS and political leaders need to remember that the county benefits when the city does well. Attracting jobs to Hillsborough would be easier if downtown thrived and crime didn't. Investments in the city are not necessarily at the expense of the county, and I'm convinced that under Iorio's oversight, future projects won't bring failure and bailouts.
Most important, County Commission incumbents and candidates shouldn't trade upon the differences just to get cheap votes.
City residents, and political leaders, can tone down what's been described to me as an air of superiority. We county residents are not a bunch of yahoos just because, on some nights, we would rather share the evening with neighbors and sip homemade sangria instead of hearing the orchestra.
A lot of folks in the unincorporated area believe the city still thinks of us as unsophisticated, and even though previous mayors didn't have to worry about the perception, Iorio may want to address it.
The mayor has to center her agenda on pleasing constituents, but her cause wouldn't be hurt by bridging the city-county divide. She wants everybody in the region to think of downtown Tampa as their downtown. If she took her Wednesday message to Brandon or Westchase or Apollo Beach, she would move closer to that goal.
And the reception she would receive might be better than some imagine.
