Miklb's Mindless Ramblings

www.flpin.net I was recently contacted about mentioning this site, and after taking a look around, it appears it could indeed be a good way of putting people in touch with organizations that deal with issues they are concerned with. Basically you choose issues that you are concerned with, a region of Florida, and then the database outputs organizations that match. You can then sign up for announcements from those organizations, so as to better mobilize concerned citizens. I didn’t look at the registration process, but the privacy policy states that all information such as address and name are voluntarily offered, and that they do not share email addresses with the organizations that are linked to from the site. You can sign up with the individual organizations if you care to do so, but that is all done off site from FL-PIN.
The only problem I had was the broadness that organizations can set for their issues. If I do a search under Protecting the Enviroment, marine/estuary, the results currently are FCAN and Pinellas Progressives. Hardly organizations specifically dealing with such a topic. I would limit organizations to a primary issue, with the ability to choose a few secondary issues. Especially as the site grows, and number of organizations increase. Otherwise, the search concept is useless, as all organizations can simply choose all the areas so as to increase exposure.
All in all, the concept though is a good one, and positive tool for citizens and organizations with common goals to find one another.

Jan Schneider for CongressJust a note to any readers in Congressional district 13, to support Jan Schneider in her attempt to take the seat vacated by Katherine Harris. I’ve gotten several emails pushing for her support, and come across a couple of blog posts as well, so I took a minute to check out her credentials. Not your soccer mom got bored, or super rich white girl with nothing better to do type of candidate. It’s also my understanding that a recent Democrat convert is being supported by the DNC. I hope that’s not the case, and all because one may have a few more dollars than the other. Shame shame.

I’d love to know more about this one, so if you have any details, do share.

(warning- long rant)

While I was loosing my mind week before last, so was Tampa’s city council. The difference is, I’ve finally come to grips with how I did, and how to prevent it, unfortunately, this council hasn’t. To be fair, two, Dingfelder and Saul-Sena, were opposed and clear thinking in how to handle the situation I’m referring to.
For those not familiar with Tampa, it’s a fairly “young”city, not really getting into the swing of things until the late 1880’s, and didn’t really hit it’s stride until just after the turn of the century. Which just happens to coincide with the boom of the cigar industry. Hence the nickname that still lingers for Tampa, “Cigar City”.
Fast forward to 2005. The city’s historic preservation council came to a consensus that there are 15 remaining factories that should be designated as historic buildings to maintain the heritage and fabric of the city. Sounds logical, no? Several of the buildings are boarded up, in some level of disrepair. Others are in use for some type of business, but aren’t necessarily in prime condition, while a scant few, from my understanding, have been rehabilitated, with every effort to maintain the historic nature of the building.
So, trying to make a long story short, (I watch probably 60% of the city council meetings, so I’ve caught most of the discussion) 5 of the factories decided they didn’t want to be a historic building, and are crying “property rights”. Boo Hoo. They knew what they were buying when they did. It’s not like they bought some building, and only after tearing off a more modern facade found they had the original five and dime in an old part of town. It’s a bloody 4 story brick building with the words “cigar factory” painted on the side.
So anyway, after much deliberation, and arguing, and posturing, the council majority decides these property owners should have the option to not be designated. That all property owners should have that option. Hmm.
“You own the oldest building in town, it’s historic, we are going to designate it.”
” No I don’t. I say no.”
“Ok.”
Makes sense to me. Not.
The kicker is, there is already an option to file for economic hardship, and prove that the designation would bring undue financial burdens on you. But these owners didn’t even want to bother. They simply wanted to strong arm the council into letting them have their way. The overall community voice at the meetings were in favor of a blanket designation. But because most of these council members are running for office outside the city council, they don’t want to be painted as “do-gooders” I guess, and alienate the developers that will float their campaign for county seats. So, despite the advice of their lawyer, and testimony of countless citizens and historic preservation experts, they’ve sent the item back to the legal department to draft a ordinance giving property owners the right to decide whether or not their building is historic or not. Hopefully, this will be pushed further than the 6 months they’ve set it aside, and a more sensible group of council members will realize that the historic nature of these buildings, and the fabric of the communities these buildings reside in, depend on their designation, and that the existing laws are sufficient to “protect” the owner.
For those in Tampa, please contact your council and tell them how much these buildings mean to the city. This is not an eminent domain issue. Nobody is taking the buildings away, we simply want to make sure that they are preserved in a matter than maintains the historic nature and keeps the craftsmanship and integrity of the building intact.
Even if you are not in Tampa, but respect the historic nature of such landmarks, feel free to contact them and express how historic buildings in your city are important.

Reuters.com
Take heed school boards, your career may very well be short lived if you decide to force this concept on your district. Read the score, 8 out of 9 encumbents lost their seat. Even the winners were surprised by the results. People in Tampa may very well be watching this, as the debate over holidays rages on.

I was checking my recent referers, and saw that I had several referals from Seminole Heights Blog, and the discussion of the bay area being “blog capital of Florida”. I rarely discuss Tampa issues, and funny enough, I just came across an article at tbo.com discussing Tampa officials wanting to ease laws regarding gifts of tickets. When I read the article, I almost wrote about it then. But after reading the discussion, I feel I must touch on it.

The article discusses the desire of Iorio and city council members wanting to be allowed to accept tickets that cost more than the $100 that they are currently allowed to accept. And my question is this, what events are you wanting to go to that cost more than $100? The article discusses “community events”, but I’m not aware of these events. If they are fundraisers rather than community events, I would question who is raising the funds, and why exactly do they need the mayor or a city council person there? Iorio discusses a USF game recently. Last time I checked, tickets were less than $100 to the game. Likewise in Dingfelder’s Bucs game issues. Tickets can cost much less than $100. Now, in my humble opinion, if these elected officials want to hang out in a luxury box, and eat a catered meal, drink top-shelf cocktails while watching a football game rather than sit in the seats with those who elected them, then they should pay for the difference out of their pocket. Likewise, if it’s a fundraiser, be it children’s causes or Gasparilla, I’m uncomfortable with event planners being able to bring in the mayor for free, which may be a “selling point” to those wealthy enough to attend. Smells fishy all ready.