Around the web: A roundup featuring comments from tampabay.com. The comments included here are occasionally edited for length but otherwise appear as they did on the article or column online.
On an article about Tampa Bay Rays owners saying they will pay for at least half of the stadium cost proposed for the Hillsborough College campus.
Well, now. It looks like the Rays just got themselves a stadium in Tampa. — J. Clearwater
Don’t kid yourself. Where is at least $1.15 billion going to come from? Are we going to bleed our coffers dry to this extent? There are WAY more questions still than answers. — J. Davison
It will be sold not as a tax, but an investment. — J. Clearwater
If we are paying half the cost, do we get half the profits? — N. Archer
I’m trying to figure out how I can start a business and get taxpayers to pay for 50% of the land acquisition of said business. Any ideas? — B. Rosenheim
Who is going to cover the other 50%? Not me! My road hasn’t been repaired/paved in decades, our resources are spread too thin, our schools need more help and so does law enforcement. No way do I want my tax dollars, that are already way too high, going to this! Love the game? Then, YOU pay the price to enjoy it! — J. Carufel
On a column about Pinellas County closing public schools due to a lack of kids.
Lack of Affordable housing for those with children? Pinellas leaders (especially downtown St Pete) have focused on attracting those who can afford million dollar high rise living. My Dad said a couple decades ago that the average family wouldn’t be able to live in Pinellas County one day, and he was right. The average retiree is barely hanging on so those with children must feel like they are drowning just trying to afford housing and food. I can remember high school double sessions from too many kids back in the late 70’s so much has changed indeed. — C. Bishop
Not sure closing schools is the right way to attract more families. Maybe we should be fixing why people left in the first place. — A. Haley
On a column about the problem with old and leaking septic systems polluting waterways.
I think what we need to do is a targeted phased grant approach – the two big barriers towards septic conversions are the upfront cost to a homeowners as well as the maintenance obligations of the modern treatment systems. Having a targeted approach that groups systems together with grant based funding will allow neighborhoods to be converted on a group basis, with opportunities for either the private sector or municipalities to take over the maintenance obligations without adding additional burden to homeowners who most likely will not know that the newer septic systems require additional maintenance. — J. Benji
On an article about possibly building a new cruise ship port outside of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Manatee County.
There is nothing in that area to support a cruise port. No hotels, no restaurants, the nearest beach or hotel is 20 minutes away. No port type infrastructure, no fuel, no loading docks, not even an access road! So we get 5 + yrs of construction along busy 275. GREAT!
As for creating jobs, you’d just be moving jobs from Port of Tampa to the new port. The only people benefiting from a cruise Port are the owners of the port and the politicians that support them. How many more tourists are really going to come? How many more can we handle in the spring or winter months.
AND, most of these people are just passing through. They fly in, MAYBE spend a night, board their ship and sail away. When the ship returns, they disembark and board a flight home, maybe they spend a night. They aren’t coming to support local businesses, they are only coming to the area to leave on a ship that or the next day. It might be a benefit for the locals that cruise but we can drive the 21/2 hrs to Canaveral and 4 to Miami or Ft Lauderdale. — J. Freebery
People are pouring their energy into stopping a cruise port that would disturb a few dozen acres of seagrass, but we’re ignoring the real environmental math. Tampa Bay didn’t recover because we blocked development — it recovered because we cut nitrogen. That’s why the bay gained roughly 40,000 acres of seagrass, a turnaround so dramatic it was documented by the Smithsonian.
If we want another win like that, the fight isn’t at the Skyway. It’s in the Kissimmee River Basin, the largest source of nutrient pollution feeding Lake Okeechobee and the algae blooms that hit both coasts. Reining in that basin would protect more acres of water and habitat than any port fight ever could. Tampa Bay proved what works: focus on nutrients, not distractions. — E. Quintin
Do we really want Tampa to be Miami? There is nothing wrong with the “smaller” 90,000 ton cruise ships sailing out of the current Tampa cruise port. As a 72 year old native Floridian born in Manatee County, I oppose this project. — J. Avery