This is in NO way an endorsement of Miami, but Tampa should take some “image and marketing” lessons from the Magic City.

Tampa officials should take a drive thru Tampa and take notes of eyesores in places where tourists travel. A major clean up and landscaping outside the airport should be completed immediately. It’s the gateway to the city...and like Miami, Tampa should uplight bridge supports and skyscrapers. Tampa is no longer a small town, rather a growing, bustling economic force...the skyline and entryways should reflect that.

Some may consider this inconsequential with so many larger problems, but image IS everything. Tampa needs to start acting like a big city instead of just talking big city.

I have lived in Tampa all my life and grew up in Ybor City. I love this city. Don't have to leave and come back to convince me Tampa is Best city.

I would like to see Tampa make better use on our schools and parks. Let's open schools in the summer and start programs for kids. What happened to candy stripers in hospitals. Let's get corporations the chance to train kids over the summer. When Nick Nuccio was mayor this city had park benches and barb a-q pits and tables in our parks.

The City of Tampa seens to be limiting access to its own city parks. Why? Let's open up the parks and let the people come together. Let's have music, dance, sports in our parks. Tampa has the best parks in Florida but we no longer work to inprove them and use them. Maybe we need an A-dopt A Park program. We meed to make our roads more pedestrian friendly. Yes, we have work to do but the framework is in place and the people here are the difference.

I have lived in Tampa since I was 5 years old. My parents came from Spain and my father went to work as a cigarmaker. I love my friends and family. I enjoy the neighbors and community. I never felt that everyone had to be the same.

There are a lot of things that need fixing in our neighborhood. The streets flood, though they are supposed to start doing something about that. Sometimes I have felt as if this area has been forgotten. But some things are happening. The police are working on cleaning up the drugs on the east side of Spruce.

I love Bayshore Boulevard and Tampa's natural beauty. The water is fantastic. The people here are great. But we need to stop overbuilding. There is no plan. We keep building huge condo after huge condo in south Tampa, and there are only two-lane roads.

I moved to Tampa in 1960 and it was a sleepy little town. Living in south Tampa, I've watch it come into its own. The proximity to the airport and downtown are great, if you know when to travel.

My children have been able to succeed in their careers here. There are economic opportunities, but you have to work for them. The city has great natural beauty. It has a tree cover you can't beat, but we need to protect it. There is plenty to do and see - the arts, MOSI, the aquarium, football, whatever you want to do.

Transportation is a big problem. I served on the county's Committee of 99 and supported what is in our long- range plan - mass transit. I don't know how we will be able to get by without it.

We need to look at new roads`` impact on established neighborhoods so we don't destroy our city as we let more cars go through it. I repeatedly point at Westshore Boulevard, where widening would ruin the neighborhoods abutting it. It would become another Bayshore.

Once you widen a road, you encourage more traffic and speed. We also need traffic calming around the county.

A big problem is all the land uses now in place that allow so much development. I know they can't be changed. But the densities are too high as they are. As rezonings are requested, both the county and city need to look at maintaining the amount of density our transportation systems can handle.

We need neighborhood involvement in growth management issues. Officials should listen carefully to people in the neighborhoods when changes are proposed. They know more about the neighborhoods than anyone else.

We need more funding on stormwater needs around the city, particularly in the south Tampa area. The water issue is important. How are are we going to find enough water to handle all these additional people? I strongly encourage continuation of the reclaimed water system and putting reclaimed water into the aquifer.

I've lived in five different states and traveled to nearly all of the mainland U.S. states, and I'm excited about Tampa. Beside the outstanding weather we all share here, I most like the diversity of citizens that live here.

The mixture of all the different cultures here allows us to learn from and enjoy our ``differences.`` I think it makes the people of Tampa a more tolerant people. I love the bay, the beaches and the events. Yes, and the Bucs!

What do I find worst about Tampa? Well, traffic is a problem that all of us struggle through. What I find most frustrating is that the Hillsborough County Planning Commission's Transportation 2025 study found that we need road improvements, to the tune of roughly $800 million ABOVE what our current tax structure can fund over the next 20 years.

We, as citizens, need to consider that if we will truly resolve the traffic situations that we all hate, we will need to agree to additional taxes for roads. I particularly hate higher taxes, but I also hate facing worsening traffic for decades to come.

Having been born and raised in Tampa, I have experienced unprecedented growth in the area. There are many things that have improved. The bays and river are cleaner and are protected assets, and the unique beauty of Bayshore is a resource we now value. We do live in a remarkable city that is a beacon to many who also want to live here.

This intense growth is a financial boon for many, but we seem to not be developing the infrastructure to support the growth. Issues of water, education resources, protecting our tree canopy, and transportation often seem to not be addressed with each new development.

This boom of growth needs to be redirected to areas that need the influx of capital and resources. Everyone cannot live in south Tampa.

Although neighborhoods are now given unprecedented recognition by this city government, for many, this has evolved into a full-time commitment. These are battles that we should not be fighting. We need our government to step back and look at the big picture. Protect our limited natural resources. Plan for development in a comprehensive way. Plan for future transportation, education and other basic needs. Please do not ask neighborhood associations to be the primary watchdogs for the city.

The best thing about Tampa is being able to exercise in the lovely outdoors 12 months a year. The worst: The incredible amounts of litter and trash on our roadsides.

The Best and the Worst about living in the Tampa Bay area

Best:

An accountable administration that understands the needs of the neighborhoods while understanding the equal need for development. Correcting the problems of drugs, prostitution and crime in poorer neighborhoods. An accountable administration with the ethical backbone and will to enforce the ordinances set forth by the citizens of Tampa. Making Tampa a better place to live.

Worst:

Repairing the past lack of responsibility and interest from an administration that only believed in development projects without understanding the needs of the residents and how these development projects would be paid for rather than at the expense of the neighborhoods and the citizens of Tampa.

Life is pretty wonderful in Tampa Bay to us. The good: Living over 20 years in Northdale with my high school sweetheart that I married 40 years ago. Raising two children who are grown and happily married.

The improving Florida property values help build wealth for future generations. The 3 1/2 percent cap on [increases in] property taxes and lack of a state or city income tax keeps overall taxes low (although that may hamper funding for the infrastructure needs).

The beautiful weather and reasonable utility costs, the great sports teams (sometime world champion Bucs, improving Devil Rays, and how about those Tampa Bay Lightning, of which I am a full season ticket holder for many years!), the wonderful variety of golf courses and many tennis clubs (I do tennis daily at Northdale Golf & Tennis Club) and a great low-crime neighborhood (we are active with our community resource deputy and have a number of crime watch groups).

Northdale has been a great place to live and raise my family. We have a nice business district and shopping center and a great YMCA and county park, which partners with the community through the Northdale Civic Association. The NCA board members represent the 2,700 homes in Northdale and constantly communicate with county leaders.

If other neighborhoods are like Northdale, I would say living in Tampa is mostly GREAT!

The worst about Tampa could be the lack of infrastructure to keep up with the explosive Florida growth. Overcrowding and understaffing in our schools, the rush-hour traffic congestion, the lack of and high cost of water, the dangers created by continuing to saturate areas with new homes when two-lane service roads are severely over capacity, inadequate fire, EMS and law enforcement coverage - these issues have negative effects on most neighborhoods, including Northdale.

We moved here from Minneapolis, MN. And we have found that Tampa lacks some of the conviences we certainly took for granted.

For example, if my children were to go with us to the grocery store in Minneapolis, there was free childcare onsite while we shopped. (Rainbow Foods grocery stores). Some grocery stores even have QuickMed clinics in them with a staffed nurse.(ex. Cub Foods grocery store) This is great for quick exams for illness like strep throat or checking for an ear infection at MY convience.

And speaking of clinics, when my child is ill where are the sick child care programs in Tampa? I have only found one at Tampa General Hospital that offers their services to the public. They are understaffed and not always available to public.

Tampa traffic isn’t as bad as Minneapolis or other larger cities I’ve been to. It seems like the problem lies in the licensed drivers. You’ve got people here from all over the world with different interpretations of road rules. Why doesn’t the City put money into creating a commuting lanes on major highways? The bus system is poorly funded and isn’t reliable! There needs to be another North-South bound highway for the volume of people who commute. I guess if I had the choice to go back in time and ask to be transferred to another state within my company it would not have been to Tampa.

I have been a resident of Tampa since 1981. I was first attracted to Tampa by the sunny weather, attractions and beaches. However, as the years flew by, I came to see Tampa as a dynamic city that has everything to offer to residents, visitors and businesses.

It is the home to some of the best beaches in the country. It has a lot of family attractions like Busch Gardens, The Florida Aquarium, various museums, shopping centers, great restaurants, the Lowry Park Zoo and many recreational parks.

The only bad thing I see in Tampa is that it does not have a good transportation system and this is creating major traffic problems, along with not having enough sidewalks for pedestrians, which creates a safety problem. Other than that, the Tampa area is a true paradise to live in.

What makes Tampa unique is that it is filled with caring and creative people. There is always someone ready to offer assistance to those that need it. The community involvement is incredible. We participated in a project to Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful and went to some of the major businesses in our neighborhood to ask for assistance in donations, and not one hesitated to help.

The Tampa community continues to move forward with new ideas and innovations that will improve services to our citizens as well as the quality of life throughout Tampa. Let's keep working together to make Tampa a better place to live!

The weather. You can't beat the weather. People say it's really humid here in the summer, but it beats freezing in the winter.

I'm from Canada and I married a man from Indiana. The '83-'84 winter did us in.

What I like least is the traffic. I think we have all of the worst drivers from all over the country here.

We immigrated here from New Jersey as snowbirds back in '95. My wife and I were absolutely delighted. It took us a few years to get used to the area, three months at a time.

A couple of factors were important for us. Our church communities - my wife became part of a fine community with her synagogue and I made a good choice with the Christian Science Church.

Of course the weather is a factor. Both of us take part in athletic events. I pitch horseshoes and play golf, and my wife is a tennis player. Both of us for years were Phillies and Eagles fans. We've since switched allegiance to a team we can only hold out hope for.

We had a subscription to the Performing Arts Center and have attended the Florida Studio theater in Sarasota and the Asolo. There's also the Florida Orchestra. So the entertainment has been great. While we lived only an hour from Philadelphia, we rarely would go up there.

And there's the economic aspect. We went from two cars to a car and a golf cart. And the tax structure. Compared to our property taxes in New Jersey, we save $1,500 a year.

I have a hard time thinking of anything negative. I wish Tampa Bay were playing better baseball.

First and foremost, I love the people. They are warm, friendly and supportive. I often refer to Tampa as the world's largest small town. On any given day, I am likely to run into an old teacher, Girl Scout leader, classmate or former neighbor.

The parents of many of my son's friends were my schoolmates. The diversity of backgrounds and family histories within our local population is fascinating.

Secondly, I love the area itself. The architecture, warm weather and proximity to the water all appeal to me. Despite the small-town flavor of the population, we have the culture and amenities of a major metropolitan area.

I am excited by all the projects in the works and the strides Pam Iorio, Shannon Edge [city's director of neighborhood and community relations] and many others have made to improve our neighborhoods.

Despite some growing pains, the quality of life here is superior.

In short, you couldn't drag me out of Tampa.

I have lived in original Carrollwood for just over 40 years, with the exception of college and law school. My family remained there in my absence. I just completed four terms as the Carrollwood Civic Association president and had previously served as the legal adviser to the association and as a trustee of the Carrollwood Recreation District.

In terms of the immediate neighborhood, I now chair the Chamberlain High School Advisory Council.

As far as the worst thing about life here, I would say it is what I perceive as the lack of adequate planning and funding for the infrastructure, particularly transportation. Given our rapid growth, infrastructure simply hasn't kept pace.

Besides transportation, our public school system is an example of the impact of the infrastructure issues. Despite the initiatives passed to build new schools to keep pace, we have been forced to divert too many funds from teaching to capital outlay for renovations, additions and new schools.

Probably one of the most impressive attributes we have is Tampa Bay itself. I have a lot of memories relating to the bay and the rivers feeding it. Living on the Alafia River in my retirement allows me to still enjoy what the bay has to offer.

Another real plus for us here in Hillsborough County is the Hillsborough River drainage basin, or ``swamp,`` as I call it. Way back in the '50s, I enjoyed fishing and hunting in the areas around the river up near Highway 301. Back then we did not have that much access. In addition to the Hillsborough River State Park, we have access points at Morris Bridge, John B. Sargeant Park and Trout Creek, all of which are user-friendly. We are fortunate to have this wilderness in our own back yard.

Lettuce Lake Park is probably one of the best in the state and maybe the country, great for walking and wildlife viewing. It also lets people see firsthand a true semitropical swamp and all of its related wildlife and vegetation. I visit Lettuce Lake two to three times a week.

Years ago there were not many reasons to visit downtown, except maybe to watch the Gasparilla parade or take in a movie. Now we enjoy the Performing Arts Center, The Florida Aquarium and the Channel District activities. A drive down Bayshore Boulevard is always pleasing, and a visit to the Ballast Point pier or the Colonnade brings back good memories.

We enjoy cruising and we appreciate having the cruises leave and arrive this close to home.

The USF Botanical Gardens is also a good thing.

As in most large population centers, traffic in the Tampa area is terrible. Fortunately, since I am retired, I do not have to drive in it every day. I usually plan my activities so that I miss the morning and afternoon rush periods.

I live back off the paved road. It's pretty quiet, pretty peaceful. I love the weather. I like the people. When you go in the stores, everybody knows you. It's a more relaxed way of living.

I'm most unhappy with some of the county staff. We have got some people down there who are wonderful, but some are dictatorial. It's frustrating.

There is no planning and there is no growth management. The lack of planning is my biggest beef of all.

We choose to live in Tampa because of its small-town atmosphere with big-city attractions. Tampa offers a variety of enjoyment.

Theater - downtown and community plays.

Sports - baseball (major and minor), football, hockey, golf. Most communities have swimming pools, tennis and handball courts, etc.

Amusements - Busch Gardens, Lowry Park, a short ride to Disney and attractions in nearby cities.

Travel - major airport located in Tampa, cruise lines leaving from this port.

Outdoors - numerous parks, fishing, boating.

Wildlife - abundant wildlife not only in parks, but in your back yard.

Education - Numerous institutions of learning (USF, HCC, FMU, Stetson, etc).

Libraries throughout.

What I dislike about Tampa:

Public transportation is limited. If you do not own a car, getting around the city is very hard and time-consuming.

Contractors - There is a lack of pride in the work done by contractors. Finding one that is reliable, trustworthy and competent is very hard. They seem to not care, and if the job is not what they agreed upon or if they damage your property, most often your only recourse is to take them to civil court. There are agencies in place where you can check their credentials and make complaints, but I've found they are not effective in getting results.

As a lifelong Tampa resident, I have watched Tampa grow from a sleepy Southern town into a major metropolitan area. Tampa is on the verge of becoming a vibrant city. As an early urban pioneer in Southeast Seminole Heights, I have watched and been involved in its makeover.

It has been an exciting process as Tampa's older neighborhoods have experienced a rebirth. Watching neighborhood after neighborhood become alive with citizen involvement, commitment and dedication has been one of the most rewarding parts of my life.

Tampa is a city of neighborhoods, each one unique and special, all working collaboratively to make this a better city. To me, that is what is great about living in Tampa!

Tampa still has a way to go in learning to appreciate the diversity of its citizens. For Tampa to move up to the next level, we must learn to value the contributions of all of its citizens.

Prejudice toward others is still far too prevalent in the Tampa Bay area. Until we learn to cherish the diversity in our great city, we will never be able to call ourselves a world class city.

As far as likes go, for four months out of the year the weather is lovely, and we have modern stores. Shopping, especially in the Brandon area, is extremely convenient.

As for dislikes, the Department of Transportation has talked about traffic for 20 years. It's now a real problem.

How many thousands of apartments do we have to have adding to the burden for everyone? No matter what they say, the public's got to be made to realize they've got to spend money fighting the zoning board and developers.

We still have a water problem.

I don't think, for the taxes that we pay, that we are furnished that much. We never see a sheriff's car patrolling on our street, ever. If you call, they may come or they may not.

I think we need professional administrative and financial people in charge of the school system with so-called education people reporting to them.

There has been talk about good planning and controlling development here for 20 years, but there's been a free ride to developers with the taxpayers picking up the bill.

I am fortunate to live on my particular street in the north Tampa area. There are only about 32 homes, no outlet and therefore no through traffic. The homes are well cared for and the neighbors are very sociable and friendly.

Through community efforts many projects have been accomplished: the pond has been cleaned and revived; our entrance has been landscaped; crime watch is in full force. We gather each summer for a pot luck dinner block party.

There is an old- fashioned ``neighborly`` persona that is hard to find in today's fast-paced society.

My personal pet peeve for Tampa and Florida in general is the public school system's serious overcrowding and shortage of good teachers. Our future depends on the quality of our children's education. Other than the heavy traffic clogging Tampa's roadways, I enjoy living and working in the city of Tampa.

I bought a house in the Sanctuary at Tampa Palms while I was living and working in Bermuda. Our daughters were in boarding school in the U.S. and we could have gone almost anywhere.

We picked Tampa because it had a great international airport, which has direct flights to London and access to New York/Washington, D.C., shopping, dining and theaters in about the same time it would take if we lived in Westchester or Bethesda. We have world-class health care in the USF area.

New housing developments were [priced] at least 20 percent below national average. We got the warm weather we had become used to in Bermuda and easy access to beaches, year-round golf, tennis and al fresco dining.

We loved the elegant, spacious feel of Tampa Palms after living on a small island. Tampa has some of the benefits of a big city, and they are all within easy reach.

The traffic has become worse, but it is still a long way from that of New York or Washington. It will get worse as development farther north on Bruce B. Downs continues and until the new connector road is built between I-75 and I-275. Despite this, south of I- 75, where Tampa Palms is located, traffic is lighter and the environment is much greener.

Bruce B. Downs Boulevard is lined with new restaurants, big box stores and smaller strip malls. We welcome the extra services they offer close by, but we are proud that we have maintained and enhanced the feel of Tampa Palms almost 20 years after the development started and was named the ``the top master planned community in the U.S.`` by the National Association of Homebuilders.

Street-level prostitution is one of the worst things. We and our children observe prostitutes and their customers engaging in their trade on our street corners as we go on our daily business, we find residue of their activities on our yards (condoms, panties and crack bags and other drug paraphernalia) and we become victims of other crimes associated with prostitution.

The outlook on prostitution is changing due to much grass- roots citizen activism. Tampa Police Department is increasing enforcement and disruption of the prostitution business. The state attorney is following this up with appropriate prosecution. Treatment for prostitutes and for their customers is available, and often court-ordered, through Tampa Crossroads, a local nonprofit community organization. This has caused a dramatic reduction in prostitution activity in the neighborhoods.

Ironically, although the prostitution is what is bad about Tampa, this resulting citizen/community organization/government collaboration is also what is now good about Tampa.

Tampa has a good diversity in the broad sense of the word. Our Seminole Heights/East Tampa subneighborhood is composed of 30 percent various white cultural groups, 30 percent various black cultural groups and 30 percent various Hispanic cultural groups. We also have varied income levels, social class levels and sexual orientations. I live across from a family whose father is a native Ukranian, next door to an African-American family whose mother practices the Islamic faith, catty-corner from a Puerto Rican family, three houses away from a brother and sister of Brazilian origin and three houses away from two gay men. Several blocks east down the street is a boarding house of people who are marginalized in society due to mental illness or other issues, and two blocks north is the home of a Tampa City Council member.

This daily close contact with other varied cultures is something suburbs lack. However, whether people choose to use this diversity opportunity is another matter; consequently, racism and other ``isms`` still abound.

David Scott Banghart

Hillsborough County Prostitution Task Force moderator; resident of Southeast Seminole Heights (2003 National Neighborhood of the Year)

I moved back nearly four years ago after growing up in Tampa, so I've seen how other cities operate. What I like best about Tampa is that in certain ways it still has a small-time feel about it.

At the same time, it has big-city activities. And I am very excited about what the mayor is doing to promote the arts, her vision of downtown. I'd loved to be able to live downtown where you could go to the theater, concerts, museums and other activities.

But the flip side of that small-town feel is that you encounter some small-town attitudes. There is a belief on the part of some that you don't have to expect much from your neighbors or from yourself.

I live in a public housing facility - the projects - but I still have high expectations. But there are people who have not embraced the idea they are going to have to be responsible for making changes in their lives. And the city provides people a lot of opportunities and programs to better themselves.

There are so many good things about living in the Tampa Bay area, it's difficult to narrow it down to two or three.

We would say the wonderful weather and the many outdoor activities are among our favorites. Living in south Tampa, we can really appreciate what we love most: the grand oak trees which encourage wildlife habitat. It's so wonderful to walk our neighborhood every morning and listen to the birds sing. It promotes a happy and healthy atmosphere.

Likewise, there are so many bad things it's difficult to pick two or three. Traffic congestion tops our list. The area really needs to improve the infrastructure (roads, schools, water availability, stormwater runoff, etc.) before allowing more massive development. Speeding on neighborhood streets also needs more enforcement and heavy fines.

I still live on the land I was born on, 100 feet from where the house was. It burned in 1955, and my father built the house I live in in 1956.

I like the Southern air. I like the country because it's kind of private.

I plant a vegetable garden year-round. My father did that when we were children. We had the first sealed house owned by a black person, and a lot of whites didn't have that.

My family sold the land to build the Seventh-day Adventist Church [next door]. I have one daughter who lives to the north of me and one to the south. My sister lives next door. And her daughter lives across the street from her. I've lived on this land since my father acquired it. We inherited it. It's comforting.

I'm glad to see the land stay with the families because they have a sentimental feeling about it that other people do not have.

Five of us, when our parents died, inherited a little more than 100 acres. My father just kept buying land around the house. This land cost $9 an acre. Today I could sell it for between $50,000 and $75,000 an acre.

I haven't thought about selling anything. I haven't sold one inch.

I don't like how we are increasing the density in areas like this, where the planning department says it wants to keep it rural. When they increase densities, they're looking at water bills, light bills, taxes to give revenue to the county. But they keep on allowing people to come in, and the infrastructure is not updated. They let them build right up to the road, and when the time comes to widen the road, there's not enough land.

Sometimes [the planners] listen, but when they have a bent to do what they want to do, they do it.

The best thing about living in Tampa is the small-town feel to the big city. No matter where you are in the Tampa area, there is an easy smile and a friendly face waiting. Also, there are opportunities for almost anyone.

The Tampa area is a melting pot of talent, skill and craft from all over the United States, and industry and cost of living make it possible to follow the American dream.

The worst shortcoming is that there is no organized public transportation system for students, visitors and tourists.

If tourists could fly into Tampa International Airport and get to the zoo, Busch Gardens and downtown on public transportation and to their hotel, why would they need to navigate our overcrowded roadways?

I``ve lived most of my life in Tampa. I like the location I live in. I like the people. I like the weather when it's not too hot.

We are on the verge of changing. This administration is a lot different. Some changes that needed to be made are being made. I felt neighborhoods were being left out before. But this [Mayor Pam Iorio's] administration is turning things around. We just had our neighborhood cleanup. We've been doing it since 1993. But nobody was around to cover it.

It seems sometimes that people only want to cover the negative. But I'll say this: I do think things are going in the right direction in the city now. The administration and employees seem to want to work with you.

Four Oaks lies on Gunn Highway near Plantation. We're rural and yet suburban. We have some of the most beautiful property out here in north Tampa, a mixture of trailers and houses.

We're centrally located. We're a neighborhood the city forgot, founded in May 1925. We're a village, not deed- restricted, and rely solely on code enforcement to get things done. We can get away with a little more than the surrounding communities.

We're in a beautiful area. It's quiet. There's not a lot of traffic.

One of my concerns is development. They come up with a plan for 2005 or 2003 and then a developer comes along and changes everything. You'll have something with a swamp on it and they dry it up. They change the water flow. They change the environment.

This city needs better retail options.

We have lived in the Tampa Bay area for only three years. As we travel through the downtown area we see that Tampa has so much potential to be a grand city.

We have lived in Rhode Island all of our lives and we saw how Providence was able to fully realize its great potential. So we know that it can happen here in Tampa. It not only takes people with vision and creativity to conceptualize the plan, but it takes dedicated people to implement the plan.

Take a lesson from Providence, they have turned a dying river into a jewel in the crown. On weekend evenings “Waterfires” are lit down the entire river. People come from all over the United States to view this spectacular display. The tourist trade, the restaurants, department stores, etc... are all flourishing.

I can envision the same situation happening right here in Tampa along the banks of the Hillsborough River. The River is a treasure.

Tampa is a good city. Not a great one.

Sure Tampa may be the best city in Florida. But nationally, we have some work to do. The biggest problem is our downtown. We do not use it. We do not live there. Downtown Tampa needs to become a place where people live, shop, work, and relax. As of right now, people only work.

If you go to any big city, their downtown is full of people unlike ours. Sure our malls and attractions are crowded, but we need to focus on downtown. I think Mayor Iorio will improve this a lot. Besides working on our downtown, I think Tampa is a good city. I also think Tampa needs to “campaign” and get more people to move to the inner city. Tampa could easily pay for some ads in New York. People are always moving from New York to Florida. But they pick the suburbs and not our city. Lets get the city population up to about 500,000 and a vibrant downtown, and we will be great.

My Sunday School instructor once told me that the reason we have so much hate in the world is that we never take the time to get to know one another.

Never a statement more true could reflect the spirit of Tampa Bay. I’ve been to most of the “big” cities in this country and the one edge I’ve noticed that every vibrant city has is the attractions and the diversity of it’s biggest gathering place, downtown.

Here in Tampa, we have our big buildings, but our downtown is designed to attract the affluent and that's all. We’ve removed Walgreens, McDonald's, Kress, Grants, Woolworths, Central Avenue, Palace, Maas Bros, Florida Theatre, Mirandas etc.

For whatever reason, these places no longer exist and they were all places frequented and supported by the surrounding community, rich, poor, homeless alike. All the big cities have places like McDonald's, Payless, Walgreens, Ross, Best Buy where average people get to shop and yes kids hang out and the homeless sleep, it’s life! They are people and like it or not, it’s the make up of successful, thriving, bumper to bumper communities. We are so afraid of our elite being asked for spare change, until we have choked the life out of the entire city. I love the Bay area and I’m always bragging about this town, but when it comes to how we get along, it’s not because we know each other, it’s because we are so divided according to our wealth and status, we should be ashamed. Harbour Island failed because there was nothing there for the “EveryDay Joe” and the same will happen with Channelside. Are we really this dumb, racist, or do we simply think that we can make it on our own.

Great overview of a GREAT place to live, work and play.

I am no “newcomer,” having selected this area as “home” in 1959. I was a small factor in design and construction of the many buildings needed by the businesses to support the needs of the growing population.

I have known Loraine Duffy since she first worked for the County and I was on-board the Committee of 100 with Jim Shimberg and the many others who dreamed big dreams for this portion of “paradise.”

I applauded Matt Jetton as he made “Carrolwood” into a nationally acclaimed residential area. I am sorely distressed at the blasphemous negativism constantly paraded before us as to the “dirty , greedy, selfish, developers,” without whom this wonderful piece of Florida could not be home to so many of our citizens seeking the good life for their families.

This is NOT the NEXT great city — it IS the great City of Tammpa! The rabble rousers and naysayers to the contrary, our tranquil domiciles in lovely subdivisions are now called “urban sprawl” as in “ugly.” Nothing could be further from the truth as buyers snapped up the homes available. That is what they wanted, not some stacked up bunch of high-rise crime centers. When those “greedy” developers tried to develop interlocking “pods” of housing, business and retail complexes (live, work and play here) they were inevitably stymied by the omnipotent “planners” of our life who zoned work and play areas many miles from “home” which have now forced the very traffic delays that could have been (avoided). Builders will only — I repeat only - build where there are willing buyers. If Loraine wishes to live in a mass housing project downtown — bully for her — she works downtown. The rest of us would like to continue our options to live where we decide is best for our family and that does not include forced high density enclaves.

The “planners” have had their way and the result is now irreversible as the entire economy is based on the individual mobility to and from the centers that provide for our very existance.

So, now, get used to it, settle in and enjoy life in the GREAT CITY and environs of TAMPA.