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If you support it, Riverwalk will come

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio launched a campaign to raise $20-million to help build the walkway along the Hillsborough River: "As the money comes in, we'll build it."

By Janet Zink
Published March 14, 2006

TAMPA - The city's $40-million Riverwalk will be a project by the people, for the people, Mayor Pam Iorio said Tuesday.

Iorio spoke at the launch of a capital campaign to raise $20-million for construction of the 2.4-mile walkway along the Hillsborough River from Tampa Heights to the Channel District.

"We're going to need everybody's help. All donations are welcome," she said. "As the money comes in, we'll build it. If people support it, it will get done."

She hopes to have much of it done by 2010.

So far, Friends of the Riverwalk, headed by SunTrust Bank president Dan Mahurin, has raised about $485,000 in cash and commitments and $695,000 in in-kind contributions.

Iorio also hopes to raise $11.4-million from state, federal and other sources, and will devote $4.6-million of city money to the project.

Developers, including the builders of Trump Tower and The Heights, a 2,000-unit neighborhood slated for north of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, will kick in about $4-million.

Iorio shared her vision of the Riverwalk as a place where downtown residents will go for their morning runs, people will eat at outdoor cafes, attend special events at waterfront parks or enjoy a moment of solitude while contemplating the river.

"This is a project for the people -- no admission fee, open to everyone," she said.

Several hundred people attended Tuesday's event, mostly city employees -- workers from the wastewater and parks departments, secretaries, attorneys and planners -- who were told Monday they could take time off to go to the hour-long presentation.

Radio and television personality Jack Harris served as host.

The Riverwalk, he said, "is an uber-passion of the mayor. You know it. That's why you're here."

Kristey Hughes, a fourth-grader at Rampello Downtown Partnership School, read an essay about what she'd like to see along the Riverwalk. She suggested boats, play areas, ramps for people who can't use stairs, and lots of garbage cans to encourage visitors to keep the Riverwalk tidy.

"I would like the water to be cleaner," she said. That will make it prettier, but also more hospitable to fish, tadpoles and frogs, she said.

Those words resonated with Phil Compton, a member of Friends of the River, a nonprofit community group that's pushing the city to put more fresh water in the river and fighting a Tampa Bay Water plan to dump treated wastewater in the lower river.

Compton wore Friends of the River and "I'm a Friend of the Tampa Riverwalk" buttons on his shirt.

He said he's impressed that Iorio has brought so much attention to the river.

"We just hope that she recognizes the fact that this huge capital investment will have much better economic benefit for the city if its built along a live river filled with wildlife," he said.

[Last modified March 14, 2006, 18:18:22]