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Making our mark, barely

Tampa Bay, it seems, is third among 50 big metro areas behind No. 1 Las Vegas and No. 2 Cincinnati in the adult entertainment business.

By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published May 21, 2006

In the eternal quest to put Tampa Bay’s best business foot forward to the national and even global community, some of our most memorable traits are those we’d rather forget.

At last week’s annual regional leadership conference at the Don CeSar Resort in St. Pete Beach, a gig put on by the regional marketing group Tampa Bay Partnership, a new study on “what makes Tampa Bay unique” predictably mentioned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but noted our depth in the employee leasing industry, big business, medical device manufacturing … and strip clubs.

Tampa Bay, it seems, is third among 50 big metro areas behind No. 1 Las Vegas and No. 2 Cincinnati in the adult entertainment business.

This isn’t exactly what most regional business leaders want to rally around as a marketing pitch for Tampa Bay’s economic future.

But it reminds us that for all the talk about fostering a more “creative” metro community and attracting higher-wage jobs, there are enduring legacy businesses here that clash with our higher-brow expectations.

At the least, last week’s $40,000 study concludes Tampa Bay is known for something. But is this region intensely unique in any (positive) way? That’s the challenge ahead.

How to sell Tampa Bay? Biotech or lap dances? TIA or, oh, never mind.

If this column carried a soundtrack, you’d hear a lot of sputtering in disbelief at the political spin under way by the insurance industry and our state government a mere 10 days before the start of hurricane season.

The biggest private insurers of Florida property — State Farm and Allstate — must have big, uh, deductibles. State Farm seeks a 71 percent statewide average rate hike this summer. And Allstate wants to drop late this year 120,000 policyholders, and possibly 120,000 more. These two bombshells were announced just before June and just after state legislators patched together a weak package of legislative Band-aids to carry Florida through another storm season.

No one would be so upset if the insurance industry did not embrace such a two-faced approach to the Florida insurance market. While property insurers poor-mouth their plight in the Sunshine State, Wall Street crows about how great a year it will be for insurance industry profits.

Now comes news that Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of last resort, is about to zoom past State Farm (again) to become the largest property insurance company in the state of Florida.

It’s so bad out there that sales of homes are falling through because buyers belatedly realize they can’t get affordable coverage. Even some commercial real estate deals are collapsing from scarce insurance.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Citizens and the inability of the state to come up with a more authoritative solution to the insurance crisis. Many readers responded, upset to say the least with their dire plight and the state’s puny efforts.

One insurance agent, reading the column online from Colorado, argued that Floridians should put up or shut up. There was no reason, he said in an e-mail, for people in faraway Colorado to pay more for insurance to subsidize storm-prone Florida policyholders.

Funny, I thought that was the whole concept of insurance. Spread the risk around. You help us. We help you. Remember his “you’re on your own’’ remarks when Colorado is threatened by another series of forest fires.

Every time the unemployment figures for Florida come out, I see the state doing another round of the limbo dance. How low can we go?

Friday’s report — Florida unemployment at 3.0 percent, Tampa Bay’s at 2.7 percent — continues to astound. In April, the state created 15,000 jobs; in March, it was 24,500; 22,900 in February; and 31,100 in January. Is April’s number a seasonal breather or is Florida starting to slow?

No need to worry. In the past year, April to April, Florida was the top job-creating state at 261,300.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

[Last modified May 21, 2006, 18:08:25]