We are two – thanks to James, Robert and the “dirty half dozen”

Really stupid actions motivate us. Many years ago, a sitting Clearwater City Commission sold a perfectly fine building that had been acquired a year earlier to be used as a city hall – for a million dollar loss. That helped launch a very interesting six-year adventure in our life. Two years ago, a politician, with a huge sense of self-entitlement, decided to move from eastern Hillsborough County and bail out little Pinellas County by running for a Congressional seat in a District where she couldn’t name half the cities. That launched this weekly effort on March 9, 2014. It has been a joy because, as we often mention, it mostly writes itself. Now, as then, we are thankful to James Foster and Robert Brucker for their technical expertise to make this happen, a tight cadre who advises and helps out on the writing/editing side and the half dozen or so folks who actually read the first edition. Our sixth edition hit a thousand, actually two thousand, readers and we thank James, Robert, our “kitchen cabinet” and all of you for making this effort fun - now, on to year three.

Around Tampa Bay

1. The city of Clearwater is in a dither about what to do about parking at the Clearwater Marina. They have known for three years that a restaurant seating a couple hundred (if it ever opens) was coming. They did nothing. Now their solution is to throw marina employees under the bus and possibly charge clients of the various businesses in the marina more than you pay at Disney World for parking. Nice planning folks.

2. Just a reminder that down ballot on next Tuesday’s presidential preference primary, there is an election in Clearwater featuring an underwhelming incumbent against an unknown college professor. The other two council members up for reelection are unopposed. Yawn.

3. As for the referendum questions on the Clearwater ballot, only one raises our eyebrows – Number 4 allowing extremely long leases of “surplus property” for up to 65 years without a referendum. Not sure that much power should be taken out of the hands of the electorate. And a yes to Numbers 5 and 6 would make our waterfront truly a waterfront – like so many other communities have done with great success.

4. Speaking of Clearwater, the city could raise more than a few bucks by stationing a couple low level cops at say, the intersections of MLK and Court Street and Island Way and Causeway Boulevard during spring break and ticketing thoughtless morons who insist on blocking the intersections in epidemic proportions.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater for a long time if you remember the names Joe Devlin, Harnold Falconnier and “Captain” Frank Parker. They provided daily fishing news and information from the Clearwater Sun, WAZE and WTAN respectively.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. You have to wonder how objective Channel 8 News could be in covering the Erin Andrews trial. For example, at 6 p.m. last Monday night, of Channels 8, 9, 10, 13 and 28, only Channel 8 led with the trial story. Andrew’s father, of course, is a member of Channel 8’s news team.

7. If only the late Cecil Englebert were still around. The city of Dunedin is running out of time to keep the Blue Jays in the city with a lease running out next year. Former Mayor Englebert spearheaded the drive to bring the Blue Jays to Florida’s smallest spring training city. Right now, it doesn’t appear that anyone in Dunedin has the juice to keep them there.

8. Factoid as we rumble through this election year: two of America’s greatest Presidents weren’t close to being the overwhelming favorite of their parties first time around. It took Abraham Lincoln three ballots and FDR four to secure their party’s nomination in their first run for the presidency.

9. Dave Cameron of the website Fangraphs ranks the Tampa Bay Rays off season moves as the 7^th best in baseball while tempering his remarks with the fact that he is probably higher on shortstop Brad Miller than any other baseball observer out there. Time will tell – so much depends on Miller and the other acquisition with mixed reviews – Corey Dickerson.

10. Here’s something to put in the “futures” file. If all else fails and the Rays leave the bay area, we’d put our money not on Montreal or Charlotte or Mexico City but on San Antonio, Texas, a sports hotbed with 1.3 million people and lots of disposable income.

A taste of Clearwater – apologies to the annual event

A blogger we read with some regularity was asked recently about the dining in his hometown of Minneapolis. He rattled off a neat list which got us thinking about what to tell someone who was coming to Clearwater for, say, spring training. Italian and atmosphere – Capogna’s on Gulf-to-Bay; seafood – any Frenchy’s but particularly the one on East Shore Drive; good food with an even better view – the Palm Pavilion, north Clearwater Beach; family restaurant - Largo Family Restaurant on Missouri; pizza – Post Corner, south Clearwater Beach; BBQ – Ozona Pig, off Tampa Road; finer dining – the Beachcomber; greasy spoon – Olga’s on Belcher at Nursery. And that doesn’t include some neat places involving a bit of travel – Keegan’s on Indian Rocks Beach; Sweet Sage on Redington Beach and Bern’s in Tampa. Sadly, it’s too late to enjoy Siple’s Garden Seat in Harbor Oaks and Butler’s BBQ in St. Pete.