Keystone and Cops

Though their purposes were unrelated, Tuesday's CAPT meeting brought TPD and Keystone Homes together on the same agenda. TPD was there to present the Neighborhood Watch Program and get contact numbers for volunteers. To come is dividing Port Tampa into manageable watch areas for Block Captains and patrol volunteers, and training. Recent "crime and grime" issues have brought renewed interest in Neighborhood Watch and other community policing efforts.

Keystone Homes' plans may have a bigger impact on crime in the blighted area around the library than TPD or Neighborhood Watch could ever do. Unveiled at the CAPT meeting were the plans for a mixed use development of retail with living quarters above, and a row of townhomes, to take up the block near the library now occupied by vacant lots, vacant buildings, and run down rental units. Assembling the parcels to complete the development could be an issue as this isn't a situation where a developer can come in and buy an entire apartment complex and "take it condo." Residential property in Port Tampa is often purchased one 50X100 lot at a time. I wasn't at the meeting, but the husband reports that the response to Keystone's proposal was very positive. Port Tampans want to maintain a small town feel, but a bit of gentrification on a bad block is a welcome alternative to having our crown jewel of a library surrounded by illegally dumped sofas.

Getting Things Done (Sort of)

My apologies to the anonymous poster who wrote way back on June 19th. Here's the comment that was posted:

Looking for some info. Do you think that the Civic Association of Port Tampa can assist me with getting a road cleared? I have seen the City out trimming trees on the west side tarpon and S. Shamrock St.

Yes I do anonymous, and if you've already tried working with the city I'd say contacting CAPT should be your next step. But if you haven't already done so, I highly recommend making your request through the city web site, tampagov.net You'll find the Customer Service Center link on the right side of the home page. I have had mixed success with this when I report illegal dumping, but it does seem work better than phone calls.

There is a Civic Association meeting tonight, but for between meeting contact e-mail president@porttampa.org

Good luck anonymous. We appreciate people who work to make sure the city does what it needs to do in Port Tampa.

CAPT Meets Tonight

The Civic Association of Port Tampa will meet tonight at the rec center on Lancaster. Start time is 7:00 PM. Planned for tonight is discussion of reviving the Neighborhood Watch program. Some owners of apartment buildings near the library plan to attend so this looks like a good opportunity to get homeowners, landlords, and renters together to work towards improving the neighborhood.

Teachable Moments on Fathers Day

Posted from way north of Tampa. So far north we get Canadian TV on cable.

I spent the better part of this afternoon replacing a paddle assembly on one of those impossible to use plastic pedal boats that kids love so much. Things started out easily enough, and removing the broken part was as "self explanatory" as the boat dealer who had the parts said it would be. However, once I had the old pieces off it became quite clear reassembly would require the instant lengthening of my arms by about six inches, or a helper. Luckily, two kids I know happened by on their bikes and were happy to help since I wouldn't let them throw rocks in the yard.

Today my young friends learned that a lock nut has a plastic lining, that you turn things clockwise to tighten, that things go better when you cooperate, that doughnut shaped piece is called a washer, to put tools away in the right places, and that even a kid can be a problem solver and positive actor in the world. Thank you Daddy, for teaching me all that and more. Thanks too to my grandfather, Pop, teacher of stilt walking and pole vaulting. Pop was a big fan of the phrase "he practiced that." A basketball player could make 20 shots in a row, a baseball player hit a homerun, or a pilot break the sound barrier and the comment would always be the same "he practiced that." With one simple phrase, and a million teachable moments, they both taught me to believe in myself. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, and thanks for teaching me to use power tools.

1 Week To June's Picnic Island Adventure Race

You know you'd rather be doing this on a Friday night, and on June 23rd you could. Visit Tampa Races to register. Check outFlorida Event Photos for pictures of the May race.

Sit, Stay, Beg! Port Tampa Business Bakes Up Canine Rewards

Rex tells all his pals to call Yappy Tails Barkery when they want a birthday cake to remember.

Tarren, Port Tampa mom of four, and full time student with a full time job, somehow carved out enough time to start a business with her children. "I wanted them to learn about business and being entrepreneurs," she says. After brainstorming some ideas, they settled on home baked dog treats that the kids, aged 9,11,13, and 15, could sell at the Picnic Island Dog Beach as a "one time thing." But in April a full blown business was born.

With the enterprise growing a little more quickly than she expected, Tarren has found herself having to call in reinforcements occasionally as her two convection ovens fill with goodies for Treat of the Month club members, birthday party guests, and individual orders. She says "I've kind of deliberately slowed us down." Despite not taking credit cards, and using a comment form instead of shopping cart on the web site, Yappy Tails is gaining a loyal following. Tarren estimates 75% of Port Tampa residents own dogs and feels the business can thrive by focusing on SOG, though she will ship anywhere.

Yappy Tails Barkery remains dedicated to Port Tampa dogdom. Tarren plans to use the business, and her newsletter, to launch a campaign to improve the Picnic Island Dog Beach and sponsor Yappy Hours.

What's Going Where Wednesday IX

Many people are asking where all the storm water will go as SOG neighborhoods see more and more development activity. As mentioned in a previous Wednesday post, Ivy Homes has started using a product called Flexi-pave for sidewalks and driveways. In addition to being permeable, thus reducing run-off, it is made from shredding old tires. Pictured here in front of the Emmy Isle model, I think it is a pretty attractive alternative to concrete.

Friends of the Library Book Sale

Port Tampa City Library
photo by raginglily, check out her flickr stream in my links

The Friends of the Library and Maritime Reading Room will hold their first book sale this Saturday, June 17th at the library on Commerce St. Come help with set-up at 8:00AM, stay for bargains when the library opens at 9:00AM.

Learning to Teach

Taking a summer math class and blogging daily don't mix. Generating a general formula for the number of black, or white, triangles in the nth iteration of a Sierpinski triangle, and figuring out how to explain it to middle schoolers kept me pretty busy over the last few days. The formula was easy, figuring out how to teach the problem solving steps that got me there, well that's why some teachers guard their planning time so ferociously and still end up taking work home.

An interesting byproduct of taking this undergraduate class for prospective math teachers is seeing how the teaching of teaching has changed in the last decade or so. Though one class, and my classmates, do not an accurate statistical sample make, it appears that today's teachers are subject to a lot more rigorous training than their predecessors. The best part is that more attention is paid to scholarship about how children learn, but by attention I don't mean jumping on every innovation band wagon. Instead, teachers are expected to be able to read research critically, understand a study's design and limitations, and ultimately use the research to inform their own classroom practices.

But, and you know there's always a "but" in writing about education, you have to know your students to use the research effectively. Yes, I'm in favor of small classes where you can get to know your students on a personal level, but I'm also talking about using available data to know what's happening in the classroom. Never before have schools collected so much information about what kids know, and when they know it. We are testing kids more often, on more subjects. If we only use the information to grade schools and create new regulations, and not change individual teachers' actions in the classroom we are wasting a lot of time, effort and money.

As an outside observer when it comes to actual Florida classrooms (wish me luck on that job search), it was heartening to see Florida's overall B- rating in Ed Week's 2006 Technology Counts report. However, we are lacking in critical areas that could make an immediate difference in any classroom. With all the data generated by the FCAT, Ed Week reports there is no state training on the use of data for instruction, no guides for data analysis, and no templates for analysis and graphing. Sure, my smart, eager, future math teacher classmates could figure all that out on their own, but they won't have time. When teachers must administer tests, and have their performance evaluated by the results, it doesn't make sense not to give them the tools they need to make their teaching more effective.

For a good overview of the Technology Counts report read my favorite education reporter, the Washington Post's Jay Mathews May 16 Class Struggle column. (Sorry, you'll probably have to register to access it.)

What's Going Where Wednesday VIII

We've seen house and condo development race along for some time now but new commercial development has lagged. Could it be that the time is right for new businesses to locate in Port Tampa? Here are a few places where things could go.

If you're a newcomer wondering about the rumored building of a Publix in the neighborhood here is one site that is often mentioned. On Westshore just south of the big gray metal building, this site is zoned IG (Industrial General) and would have to be rezoned. As with any of our former industrial sites some environmental clean up could be expected. Remember, the coming of any supermarket to Port Tampa is pure conjecture at this point.

This building, on the other side of Westshore has been for sale for 18 months that I know of. It is zoned commercial and many of the windows were broken before the boards went up this week. The daughter thinks this would make a good restaurant location. Perhaps she's just tired of her drive up Westshore to work.

Designing out Crime

I had a chat with Geoff Martin, soon to be former owner of one of the troubled apartment buildings on Mascotte. He is selling to someone who already owns a couple of the 4 unit buildings and, according to Geoff, the new owner plans to put up some fencing in an effort to stop illegal dumping and other criminal activity.

Call me a dreamer, but when I walk or drive by these buildings I see some real opportunities for trying some inexpensive Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) measures. As always, my vision starts with some nice low water use plants to replace the dirt that would be lawn if anyone ever watered. But I'll save my Xeriscape rant for another day.

I also see barriers, but not the high chain link fence I fear, more of a decorative barrier to denote boundary between public space like the library parking lot, and private space like the apartment complex would-be grounds. At this time it's hard to tell where the parking lot ends and the garbage dump starts, and none of it looks like the landscaping you'd expect around even modest apartment buildings in a neighborhood as nice as the rest of ours.

While we should do everything we can to encourage people to call the police when something suspicious happens, and expect TPD to take active policing measures to help us keep the open air pharmacies out of Port Tampa, it's time to also find incentives for owners and residents to install and maintain attractive landscape elements. These apartment buildings need both plant material and hardscaping that says "This is private space! Someone who cares and has TPD on speed dial lives here!"

A lot has been written about why these small efforts could do a lot to change our problem blocks. In Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, Jane Jacobs listed the three attributes needed to make a city street safe: a clear demarcation of private and public space; diversity of use; and a high level of pedestrian use of the sidewalks. Jacobs was then an editor at Architectural Forum magazine, with no formal training in urban planning but to say Death and Life influenced a new way of looking at cities would be a massive understatement. By the mid 70s urban planners and criminologists had come to similar conclusions and the terms "defensible space" and "CPTED" were coined.

CPTED is no panacea* but you can read a nice summary of the major concepts in
Watchword, TPD's monthly Neighborhood Watch newsletter.

* Which begs the question, what would be a panacea? I've often thought it might be worth buying a beach house in Panacea, FL just so I could use the phrase "now this is a true Panacea."

Port Tampa Immortalized by Thomas Edison

Exploring Florida, USF's web resource for Social Studies teachers has some short movies from the Spanish American War. Yes, we are talking about 110 year old movies. Check out, African-American troops disembarking at Port Tampa, from the steamer "Mascotte." (scroll down)

Pie and Chips

Who wouldn't want free pie and chips?

And who wouldn't like a Finnish Reggae Band singing songs of sauna? Conga Se Menne hails from northern Michigan and will be playing at the KAXE Mississipi River Festival (opposite end of the river from New Orleans). You can listen to samples of their songs here.

Listen to how they got started with Finnish Reggae, and many more song samples, in an oldMinnesota Public Radio interview.

Now everybody say sow-na, the correct pronunciation of sauna. IT IS NOT saw-nu.

A Teaching Life

Updated! Thanks to Tommy for pointing out a previously broken link.
The job search is on. Can an experienced teacher with a Masters + bazillion credits, working on a Masters in Special Ed, but certified in Florida for Social Sciences 5-9 and 6-12, whose first name is not Coach, find a job in Hillsborough or Pinellas Counties, preferably in Alternative Ed.? We'll see. Yesterday's Hillsborough County Schools Secondary Job Fair was an interesting start to the interview season. Now I'm forced to decide if I should jump on an opportunity that has been presented, or hold out for something else.

That the job fair was held on June 1-2 brings me to a point about teacher quality and urban school systems. Hey folks, wake up, you will never attract a large percentage of the best and brightest if you continue to wait so darn long to hire people. That's not just me talking. The Education Writer's Association report Unintended Consequences blasts both school districts and teachers' unions for teacher transfer practices that delay new teacher hiring until suburban districts have pulled off most highly qualified teachers, particularly in shortage disciplines. For a less anti-union view you can read what the Democratic Leadership Council has to say in Help Wanted. Hillsborough and Pinellas won't lose an opportunity to hire me, I'll be around because the husband is stationed at MacDill. But, if I were completely mobile I'd be teaching in a school district able to commit to hiring in March, or even January as I did with our last military move. Pay is important, and there is no way any school district in Florida is competitive with the area I left. Even no state income tax and mild winters can't make up for a 25% pay cut. But, most people who stick with teaching long enough to call it a career are interested in making a difference in children's lives. Though we want to make a decent living for our own children while we're at it, many would choose a lower paying job in an urban school system if we just knew there would be a job. Why pass up a job in March for one that might materialize in June or July?

A little buzz from yesterday, overheard at the Century 21 table: "I thought the cost of living was supposed to be lower down here."

Port Tampa Jobs

If you worked here you wouldn't have to worry about traffic...

Italian Cast Stone, located on Ingraham and taking up the whole block from Morton to Germer, has the hiring sign out on the fence by their manufacturing building behind Tillie's Bar. Apply in person. This place looks so cool as all manner of concrete and foam ornamentation piles up in the yard then gets loaded on trucks for use in fancy homes and commercial buildings. I have no idea what they're like to work for but I do think they're pretty good neighbors. They can have a forklift and piles of stuff all over both sides of Morton all day long and be buttoned up neatly with nary a stray piece of trash left out at closing time.

As reported in the May 18 issue of the Florida Baptist Witness First Baptist Church of Port Tampa is currently accepting applications to fill TWO BI-VOCATIONAL STAFF POSITIONS. Youth Pastor and Worship Leader. Please send your resume to Search Committee, FBC Port Tampa, 8306 Interbay Blvd, Tampa, FL 33616.