Tortoise Race Involving Three of Florida's Major Cities
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How Three Events In The 1950S Set The Stage For A Hare-And- Tortoise Race Involving Three Of Florida’s Major Cities Robert Sanchez SENIOR FELLOW, THE JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE nce upon a time St. Petersburg, sun. The area’s favorite sport seemed to be Florida had a well-deserved shuffleboard, and in the 1930s the city even Oreputation as America’s leading started a softball club pitting two teams – the community for senior citizens. Long before Kids and the Kubs – whose rosters featured the advent of massive retirement enclaves players in their 80s and 90s. such as Sun City and The Villages, the city All of these factors combined to give the proudly catered to the elderly, even lining city some rather unkind nicknames – “God’s its streets with iconic green benches so Waiting Room” and “The City of the Living those up in years could rest or loll in the Dead.” Yet that was then; this is now: Trendy 36 | The Journal, Fall/Winter 2017 The JOURNAL of The JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE St. Petersburg has reinvented itself. Now, team’s name, the Tampa Bay Rays. Worse, with its downtown reviving thanks to an some sportscasters on national TV often influx of young people and with its art scene seem to assume that the team plays its home flourishing, it has long since managed to games in Tampa. overcome its image as a retirement mecca. No it doesn’t – or not yet anyway. Now for the bad news: Despite its Granted, some of Tampa’s civic leaders do progress, the city’s “brand” still needs some covet the team, but public opinion polls work. Indeed, St. Petersburg may well be thus far indicate that the city’s taxpayers – the Rodney Dangerfield of Florida’s major perhaps aware of the way the owner of the cities. That is, it either gets no respect or, Miami Marlins rolled the taxpayers for a arguably, not the amount of respect and palatial ball park with a retractable dome – name recognition that this Gulf Coast city are reluctant to pony up money for a new of 259,906 richly deserves. ball park to replace the Rays’ current home, For instance, St. Pete, as it’s known far Tropicana Field. and wide, isn’t even the seat of government The non-retractable domed stadium for Pinellas County, which was once that the Pinellas County Sports Authority Florida’s fourth most populous county but opened in 1990 while hoping to lure the has slipped to sixth. Instead, the honor of Chicago White Sox south is now widely being the county seat belongs to Clearwater, regarded as one of the worst venues in a town whose population is less than half St. any professional sport. That may explain Pete’s. why the Rays are perennially dead last in Worse, what could be described as St. attendance. Pete’s ultimate indignity is now evident in The woeful attendance means that the a series of promotional announcements team can’t afford to hang on to the best running on National Public Radio. They young players its scouts find and sign as inform listeners that the wonderful white rookies. When they become eligible for free sand beaches of St. Pete and Clearwater “are agency, they sign for big bucks with one only 90 minutes west of Orlando.” of the wealthier teams. This translates into West of Orlando? There was a time less media exposure for the team and for St. not so long ago when Orlando could have Petersburg. been described as being 90 minutes east The Rays aren’t the only entity shunning of Tampa and/or St. Petersburg, the two St. Pete. The St. Petersburg Times, a morning longtime rivals whose individual names newspaper long considered one of Florida’s are often crammed together nowadays as best dailies, recently dropped the city’s “Tampa Bay.” Discerning readers will notice name from its masthead and became the that the phrase manages to include Tampa Tampa Bay Times. The publisher said the but not St. Pete. paper needed to make the change to better Nor is this the only example of St. reflect its expanded coverage area after it Pete’s identity problem. Consider: The city vanquished its last remaining competitor, is actually the home of a Major League the Tampa Tribune. Baseball team. You’d never know it from the The Times’s victory over the Trib was www.jamesmadison.org | 37 The JOURNAL of The JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE an example of something rather rare in to Orlando (average elevation 82 feet.) recent years: St. Pete topping its longtime More likely, Orlando will grow as it rival, Tampa, in something – anything. continues to welcome large numbers of Ironically, however, this victory is what newcomers who are not fleeing abruptly led the newspaper to drop St. Pete from its rising sea levels but instead fleeing the rising name in favor of Tampa Bay. tide of red ink and chronic governmental In contrast, it’s unthinkable that the dysfunction on the island of Puerto Rico. Orlando Sentinel would ever make a similar As U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are move and become, say, the Central Florida eligible to vote, unlike immigrants from Sentinel. Indeed, dropping “Orlando” foreign countries. The influx of islanders from its name would be foolish, given that has been a major factor in Orlando’s rapid Orlando, thanks to its many theme parks, growth and in the I-4 corridor’s influential has become as well known worldwide as role as a “swing area” within the “swing Miami. state” of Florida. Moreover, soon Orlando may be Meanwhile, as further evidence of ascendant over other Florida cities, the wisdom of the adage “what’s past is including St. Pete and even Miami. prologue,” several events that occurred Consider a forecast that a political pundit back in the 1950s arguably set the stage for casually made almost as an aside during a the current interplay of forces influencing recent meeting of Tallahassee’s public affairs the respective patterns of growth involving forum, the Capital Tiger Bay Club. three of Florida’s major cities: St. Pete, In analyzing the outcome of the 2016 Tampa, and Orlando. election, he of course pointed out the obvious: the importance of Central Florida’s Labor Day 1954: The Bridge vote-rich I-4 corridor running from the I may be one of the few Floridians who Tampa Bay area through Orlando and on to now can recall exactly where they were on Daytona Beach. The region’s up-for-grabs Monday, September 6, 1954. It was Labor voters serve as a sort of fulcrum point, Day, and the weather was typically hot and geographically and politically, between the humid along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Ike was mostly liberal South Florida and the mostly President. Thirteen months earlier, a shaky conservative North Florida. armistice had brought a halt to fighting in Yet it was something else the expert in the bloody war in Korea. political demographics said that appeared I was about to start my senior year at to catch many of his listeners by surprise. Sarasota High School. The big news in the By 2030, he predicted, Orlando will have four daily newspapers my family received was surpassed Miami to become Florida’s most all about the opening of a long-anticipated populous metropolitan area. bridge. On Labor Day, after a ceremonial The speaker gave no indication that he ribbon cutting, transportation officials were believes this will occur because rising sea going to allow traffic to proceed, toll-free, levels in the next 13 years will force residents across the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” of Miami (average elevation six feet) to flee the Sunshine Skyway linking peninsular 38 | The Journal, Fall/Winter 2017 The JOURNAL of The JAMES MADISON INSTITUTE Pinellas County with Manatee County and and tourism in particular. Motorists who points south along Florida’s Gulf Coast. had been forced to pass through Tampa in This was too good to pass up. I hopped order travel north or south along the Gulf in my Jeep, picked up my high school Coast now could instead pass through St. girlfriend Betty, and drove north from Petersburg on U.S. 19. Sarasota through Bradenton, across the Chalk one up for St. Pete in its rivalry Green Bridge spanning the Manatee River, with Tampa as the bridge gradually paid and into Palmetto. off. At the start of the 1950s, the population Just past Palmetto, however, the line of Tampa’s Hillsborough County was of vehicles ground to a halt. Idling in the 90,000 larger than that of Pinellas County. traffic on a hot day, my 1949 Jeep’s wheezy By the 1960 census, Hillsborough’s lead engine began to overheat. Undaunted, we had shrunk to 22,000. By the 1970 census, pressed onward, finally crossing the main Pinellas’s population was 32,000 ahead of span of the 22-mile-long Skyway, which Hillsborough’s. The future looked rosy for at that time was only two lanes wide and Pinellas and St. Pete. unnervingly steep. When I triumphantly returned home Decision Day 1956: displaying the blue-and-yellow sticker duly The Ghost Of Bottlecap U. noting that I, a 16-year-old novice driver in When I graduated from Sarasota High an overheated Jeep, had braved the traffic School in 1955, there were only two state jam and crossed the Sunshine Skyway toll- universities available to me: the University free, no less, on its opening day, no less, my of Florida in Gainesville and Florida State mother was incredulous and a bit miffed University in Tallahassee.