BlogWood Redux: Tampa’s Welfare Daddies
Note: as promised, this week will feature some BlogWood classics that may just provide a little background to current events. This post first appeared in December of 2003. Click here for more on Civitas and Ed Turanchik's almost successful plan to take over the world.
December 18, 2003
Tampa's Welfare Daddies
Corporate welfare roles in Tampa continue to rise unabated as Tampa's elite join forces to attempt a massive transfer of public wealth into private hands.
BlogWood has learned that lazy, shiftless corporate entities are living large off the public dole, and asking for more! While honest taxpayers struggle to make ends meet, their government is taking their hard-earned money and throwing it at football fat cats, hot hotels, and loony land deals.
Years ago, Tampa leaders borrowed against our collective soul and built a fancy new football stadium for a bunch of rich white men. Complete control of said stadium, including all revenue streams, has been ceded to these Welfare Daddies in exchange for vague promises to try real hard not to ask for another stadium for at least 2 or 3 more years. The Buccaneers are worth $671 million dollars.
More recently, Tampa cut a deal with some other rich white men that pays them $32 million to operate a profitable hotel. But let's not begrudge these guys a little much-needed help. Why, one small part of the Marriott clan, John and Richard Marriott, are way down in the 100's on Forbe's list, with a measly net worth of just $6.2 billion.
Now, Civitas, a company owned by the creme de la blanc of Tampa's elite Welfare Daddies, is in need of our help. See, Ed Turanchik's Plan to Take Over the World can not possibly proceed without a little public assistance. Investors might not be guaranteed to make a profit if they have to pay for everything themselves, and if they can't make a guaranteed profit, then how do you expect them to steal from help the poor?
Make no mistake: Civitas is in business to help the poor. In fact, their primary goal seems to be to help the poor population near downtown Tampa to get the fuck out so that our homegrown Welfare Daddies can start making some money.
Their first pitch was in a meeting with City officials yesterday. Today, Ed Turacnchik will be making a presentation to the City Council.
Civitas' latest proposal calls for the city to swap land it owns within the company's 157-acre target area northeast of downtown for scattered sites the company owns in those other neighborhoods, said Mark Huey, Tampa's economic development director.
Civitas' latest proposal calls for the city to swap land it owns within the company's 157-acre target area northeast of downtown for scattered sites the company owns in those other neighborhoods, said Mark Huey, Tampa's economic development director.
Wednesday was the first meeting between Civitas and city officials since the company unveiled plans Dec. 4 to bring homes and businesses to Tampa's Central Park area.
Civitas also proposes buying some city land, and it wants city help to pay for road work, waterlines and other infrastructure improvements.
``This was the top layer of the onion,'' Huey said. ``We have a lot more meetings to have.''
Translation: 'We'll give up these sub-prime properties that are scattered all over the place in exchange for city properties that are concentrated in the area where we are working to acquire land. We absolutely need these city properties, so an ordinary seller could command top dollar, but we will pay or trade the city next to nothing for them and we will also be asking for many more handouts along the way.'
Stay tuned!
(Updated to add the rest of the Tribune quote I thought I had added in the first place. Doh.)
Civitas secrecy starting to ruffle feathers
Finally, others seem to be taking note of all the secrecy behind Ed Turanchik’s Secret Plan to Take Over the World:
Hillsborough commissioners say the people hoping to remake central and east Tampa into a hipster haven better start producing some facts soon if they want anything from the county - real soon.
They can start by telling commissioners just what it is they want from the county, they said.
"It sounds like a lot of people have a lot more information about this than I do," said Commissioner Jim Norman. "I haven't seen one piece of paper, and I haven't talked to one single person."
The board was reacting to the proposal from former Commissioner Ed Turanchik and his investment group, Civitas, to raze the Central Park public housing project as part of a massive east-side redevelopment project.
Turanchik has been promoting the project for weeks, after his investment group spent two years gobbling up more than 200 parcels of property as part of the project. But he has released little in the way of documents or details about what he wants to do with it all.
A centerpiece of the project is teaming up with the Tampa Housing Authority to seek $20-million in federal HOPE VI money to demolish the Central Park public housing project and replace it with a mixture of low-cost and high-end housing. The poor people who live at Central Park would be moved to new housing while the project was being built, then be able to move back to low-income units at the new development if they qualify.
......Turanchik has been meeting or seeking meetings with individual commissioners and top county staffers during the past two weeks. Bean said she met with representatives of Civitas last week. They gave a presentation, but not with enough detail for her to provide an analysis for commissioners and nothing in writing to share with them.
"They took all of the papers with them when they left," Bean said.
Meeting with only one public official and leaving no papers means that there is little or nothing that can be gleaned by the public under Florida’s Sunshine Laws.
This scam known as Civitas is just too much. Look at it this way: Ed Turanchink is a car salesman. He wants to put you in a new vehicle today. Sign here. Now. Just sign. Don’t worry about which model you’re buying, what color it is, whether or not it is used or flood damaged. No need to talk price or financing or gas mileage. Trust the car salesman. Everyone knows that car salesman are an honest lot. Ed would never sell you a lemon in order to earn a commission. Hurry. Sign now, or you might miss out on this great deal!
More on Civitas.
Civitas details hard to find
A local activist complained to the state ethics commission Monday that the Tampa Housing Authority attorney has denied him public documents about a downtown redevelopment plan.
Terrance Neal of Temple Crest said attorney Ricardo Gilmore has stonewalled requests for maps and other papers regarding the Civitas company's plan to replace public housing with private development.
Gilmore said Tuesday that he is not the ``custodian of records'' designated by the housing authority to respond to such requests.
The ethics commission keeps complaints confidential unless the agency finds probable cause to investigate. Penalties include fines, suspension or removal from office.