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Columns

With all the ugly, let's save the good

By SUE CARLTON, Times Columnist
Published October 25, 2006

For a nice-enough looking town, Tampa sometimes seems to have a high tolerance for ugly.

Sure, the city has Bayshore Boulevard, the mansions of Hyde Park, the moss-draped river.

It also has a gritty port and an interstate perpetually under construction. We allow abominations like a black towering behemoth supporting a huge billboard off I-275 on Howard Avenue - as hideous a structure as anyone has ever thought up.

All of which makes saving what's good around here that much more important.

The city's few remaining cigar factories are the best of Tampa, its heart and its history. Some of the cavernous brick buildings where workers once rolled cigars now do modern duty as hip office space. Even the boarded and graffitied versions have their ghostly charm. No one will build this way again.

The old cigar factories are caught in a tug-of-war between preservationists and property rights proponents.

Some owners want to be able to say thanks but no thanks to having their properties deemed historic landmarks. Sure, landmark status can come with tax benefits, but it has its price. You can't make big changes without an okay from an architectural review board - a process some call difficult and arbitrary.

But the real objection is more basic: This is mine. I own it. I should be able to do what I want with it.

Preservationists say history trumps that, and they're right. When these buildings are gone, they're gone for good.

Some owners insist they have no intention of tearing them down. Great. But one day the property may change hands. Land sometimes has a way of becoming irresistibly more valuable than the building that sits on it.

The Tampa City Council again takes up the fight Thursday. Council member John Dingfelder proposes that they consider a property owner's opposition in deciding whether a cigar factory should be a made a landmark. The owner's desire to opt out wouldn't be a deal breaker, just one consideration.

Since it's not a bad idea to listen to what people have to say, this sounds reasonable. But only if the city stays focused on the goal of saving history before it's history.

* * *

Speaking of unspeakable things we do to buildings, Charlie Crist is staring over my shoulder as I write this.

Crist's mug stands seven stories high, plastered on a Tampa high-rise outside my office window. That's no shot at Crist - any Godzilla-sized candidate would be equally creepy. Shoot, on a good day, I bet you can see his pearly whites clear to St. Pete.

One problem. A political banner requires a permit and size limits. The building was cited Tuesday. The poster's posters have 30 days to take it down.

But ,hey, that's weeks after the election! Crist supporters probably won't even mind taking it down then!

A Republican spokesman said they think they're okay under the rules. The city is checking whether it would be allowed as another type of sign. If not, it should come down without a wink-wink-nudge-nudge-we'll-wait-because-we-can scenario.

Crist is, after all, our attorney general, head guy for upholding the law. Even at the itty-bitty city level, the AG should get that whole follow-the-rules thing.

[Last modified October 25, 2006, 05:28:49]