Downtown Clearwater’s fate was sealed 40 years ago

“No finer place for sure, downtown.” When Petula Clark sang that in 1964 she well could have been describing downtown Clearwater. It was thriving with movie theaters, stores like Franks, Colony Shop, J.C. Penney and dozens more. It continued to do well until the mid-1970s. Then the twin specters of malls and Scientology started it in a death spiral from which it has not recovered. The latest blow was the Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s announcement that they were not moving forward with their plans for a major, albeit financially shaky, plan to relocate downtown (more on the ramifications of that in a future Rants). Also a plan for a pedestrian mall downtown is being shot down by virtually everyone – with good reason. Probably the best two chances for revitalizing the downtown – a defeated late 90s plan by a developer to redevelop the area on his dime and then a wasted chance by the city to keep the beach route through downtown came and went. Now many of us seriously doubt we will see any sign of life in downtown during our lifetimes.

Around the bay:

1. Recent media coverage reported that an ethics charge filed against Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham resulted in a verdict of not guilty. That’s not quite correct. The official response to the flimsy charge filed by his unsuccessful challenger, Pat Kemp, was more on the order of “get out of town”.

2. There are some government officials who were just rock solid – Pinellas County’s Fred Marquis, Clearwater’s Ream Wilson and Dunedin’s John Lawrence come to mind. We lost one of those rock solid folks last week with the passing of former Pinellas County Emergency Operations director Guy Daines at the age of 78. He was a steady hand during the many emergencies that threatened Pinellas during his nearly twenty year career with the county.

3. Nothing more soothing for your mood than after a day at work, you pick up your three items for dinner only to get in the Publix 10-item aisle behind someone who obviously missed counting class in the first grade. Come on Publix, either enforce those aisles or get rid of them.

4. Clearwater Marina Update: There is no update. The place still looks like a war zone. But some day we will have a Mexican Restaurant – yippee!

5. You’ve really lived in the bay area for a while if you remember when the land where Big Top Flea Market sits was the home to of one of the country’s best short tracks – Golden Gate Speedway.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. By the author’s admission, it is not an objective book but 41 –the biography of George H. W. Bush written by his son, George W. Bush, is an interesting read. Lots of inside baseball on policy making and Texas politics bring a dimension no other volume on our 41^st president has done.

7. Our Rants and Raves focus group (composed of three old, cranky people) wants to know what Hillary Clinton has to say that is worth $200,000. (Margin of error – plus or minus 50 per cent).

8. His real name was Benjamin Nelson. His first chart record was a rock and roll classic – the innovative and haunting There Goes My Baby – on which he sang lead for the Drifters as well as wrote. Ben E. King passed away last week at age 76. He was a rock and roll legend.

9. We often borrow a gem from the great 5:05 Newsletter. This was from one of their most recent issues. “Pope Francis said that one of the things he misses most about ordinary life is the ability to go out and eat pizza without being recognized. I wouldn't worry. Nobody's going to believe the guy who works at the pizza place when he says, “Hey, do you know who came in today? The Pope.”

10. Best wishes to one of baseball’s true “gamers”, Kirk Gibson, as he battles Parkinson’s disease. Gibson was the NL’s 1988 MVP. He is also the only MVP in either league to never be named to an All Star team in his career – odd.

Speeding up and strengthening the game of baseball, part I:

(Editor’s note: one of our valued readers sent along some notes last week on accomplishing what Commissioner Rob Manfred is striving to do – speeding up and strengthening the game. The thoughts are too good to give short shrift and summarize, so we will feature a suggestion a week for the next several issues – and we invite your own commentaries on the national pastime as well.)

Three Pitchers per Game

Forget a bullpen full of arms and a revolving bullpen door matching up one pitcher for one batter, then another pitcher for another batter. This isn't speed dating. Instead, managers are given three pitchers per game, that's it. Use them wisely because once that third pitcher takes the mound, he's it.