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What's Brewing

Social life can help fight fear

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published July 1, 2005

Shark attacks. Missing girls. Stabbings in Ybor City.

Every day, it seems, there's something else to fear. Another reason to hole up at home. More proof that evil lurks.

And it's sucking the life out of our community.

That was one of the conclusions of a group looking into ways to better connect people so they can work together to solve problems.

Creative TampaBay organized the "World Cafe" event downtown last week to get the conversation started. The question pondered: How do we build links?

The group based the discussion on a 2000 book by Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. He says we don't know our neighbors anymore or get involved in groups or clubs. We spend more time alone, either in our cars or in front of the TV.

All this leads to a decline in what he calls social capital. Have a lot of social capital and people prosper. Have a little and society slides.

The 70 people at the talk blamed everything from technology to suburban sprawl for reducing Tampa's social capital. E-mails and instant messages eliminate face-to-face conversations. Long commutes devour our leisure time.

The word fear came up again and again. We fear getting hurt by strangers. We fear losing our jobs if we don't work long hours. We fear our children will disappear if we let them play outside.

Many admitted that a lot of fear is irrational. Crime is down in Tampa. Police Chief Steve Hogue said so just last week. Still, fear keeps our guard up and alters our behavior. All the stats in the world can show that Ybor is getting safer. But when we hear about shootouts near Seventh Avenue and stabbings at a nightclub, we're likely to stay away for a while.

Why risk it?

David Rigall, a landscape architect who lives in Central Tampa, went as far to say the last election was won on fear. We feared a new president might not have a strong enough plan for fighting terrorism. We feared the bad guys could strike again if we didn't stay on the offensive.

No doubt, 9/11 brought fear to new levels. Now all the closet scaredy-cats had overwhelming reason to be fearful. Our worst fears came true. No one was afraid to be afraid anymore.

The attacks made us more reluctant to meet new people, especially those different from ourselves, said Kimberly Finn, community relations director of the Tampa Bay History Center. Rather than curious, we became skeptical.

The transient nature of Tampa hinders us from building social capital, the group said. People come and go every day. Most haven't lived here their whole lives and haven't had time to dig roots. They come from someplace else for a job, family or the sunshine.

When they arrive, it takes a while to acclimate. They often find connections through work, schools and churches but are afraid to stray from their comfort zones. They don't know their surroundings and lack local perspective.

They say, "How can I weigh in on community solutions when I don't even know the problems?"

Today's cutthroat job market doesn't help, either. People no longer stay in the same job for 30 years, and layoffs are feared - even anticipated.

As a result, we work harder to keep the bosses happy and work harder to cover the duties once handled by two or three people. Leisure time becomes a luxury.

We're in la-la land if we think we can eliminate fear. But we can do a better job of managing it.

The group offered various ways of tackling fear for the sake of building connections.

* Invite a couple that you don't know well over to dinner.

* Put down the remote and take a walk.

* Throw a party instead of waiting for an invite.

* Ride the streetcar or the trolley, even if it takes longer.

* Make a call instead of sending an e-mail.

Creative TampaBay - with help from the University of South Florida - plans to put out a report on the results this fall. Groups met in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg.

Whether it amounts to anything more than academic blather remains to be seen. But at least some people are talking about it.

People swapped business cards and vowed to keep in touch.

Let's do lunch, they said.

Let's try someplace new.

THE LAST DROP: Here's a prime example of partnering from the Tampa Downtown Partnership's annual luncheon on Tuesday. Rain Forest Interiors in South Tampa donated the 75 bromeliad centerpieces and plans to work with the city to find a shady spot to plant them along N Franklin Street.

Susan Thurston can be reached at 226-3394 or thurston@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 30, 2005, 09:09:07]