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PUBLISHER James Howard
ory
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ray Roa DIGITAL EDITOR Colin Wolf FOOD CRITIC Jon Palmer Claridge
tion ................. 5 ory
CONTRIBUTORS Jefferey C. Billman, Rob Brezsny, Thomas Hallock, Kyle Pierson, Jenna Rimensnyder, Dan Savage, McKenna Schueler
eaWorld in February, animal rights aiming theINTERNS practice of Greenberg, keeping wild Chloe Christopher Cann angerous. But even though public PHOTOGRAPHERS SeaWorld animal rights any don’t in seeFebruary, a parallel between the kind Dave Decker, Kimberly DeFalco, Ashley Dieudonne claiming the practice of keeping wild nd the practice of displaying animals dangerous. But even though public SENIOR king for too much? Or is itACCOUNT time for a many don’t see a parallel between the kind EXECUTIVES animals?
CITYOFSTPETE/FLICKR
stion ................. 5
Anthony Carbone, Scott Zepeda and the practice of displaying animals asking for too much? Or is it time for a MARKETING, PROMOTIONS AND t” animals? EVENTS DIRECTOR Alexis Quinn Chamberlain
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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Andrew Zelman CHIEF OPERATING OFFICERS Music: review: Tampa Bay Blues Fest ........................... Concert Artic Monkeys .......................... 42 Chris Keating, Michael Wagner40 VP................................................... OF DIGITAL SERVICES Stacy Volhein Music 42 The ListWeek .......................................................... 46 DIGITAL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR Concert review: Artic Monkeys .......................... 42 Movie reviews ..................................................... 63 Jaime Monzon
Music Week ................................................... 42
Black churches, raised by the hands of individual congregants, no longer stand. Some thoughts on Gas Plant redevelopment in St. Petersburg, p. 19.
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CROSSWORD ..................... 37 Making friends in her 30s didn’t come easily to Tampa resident Tiffany Ellis.
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A Tampa podcast club is helping women address their mental health, p. 29.
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editor's note CITYOFSTPETE/FLICKR
LONGVIEW: It’s hard to see the challenges that a city faces from this high up.
Sunshine city By Ray Roa
T
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St. Pete on our minds.
he new St. Petersburg pier is 23 miles away from Creative Loafing’s Tampa Heights office. Sometimes, from the seat where I’m supposed to do the job of trying to help an altweekly adapt to new challenges without losing sight of its mission to serve underheard voices, The ‘Burg (do you all still call it that?) feels eons away. Especially when unpermitted pro-police street murals are popping up just a few blocks down from your mailbox. The community keeps us in touch, however, and without them—plus this 32-year-old newspaper’s Pinellas-based contributors—St. Pete would feel even more distant. Over the last few weeks, St. Petersburg protesters have given us tips on what’s happening within their movement. CL’s Jenna Rimensnyder has been all over food news and restaurant openings (p. 25). Musicians from the 727 never stopped telling us about their new projects (p. 31) And while we always take officials’ statements with a grain of salt, the city police force’s public information officers are always accommodating and non-combative (both our offices have jobs to do, after all). It even feels like Mayor Rick Kriseman’s spokesperson, Benjamin Kirby, has made a little nook for CL in his text message and email inboxes (CL’s questions are rarely the kind any public relations office wants to get, either). I’m thinking about St. Petersburg right now because it’s mentioned a lot in this issue. It’s in a story about whether or not St. Pete will see its own version of Tampa’s “Back the Blue” mural (one of the last posts from our departing summer intern Chloe Greenberg, who I wish
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we could hire). The pier’s Echelman sculpture is on the cover, too, not just because it addresses the city’s troubled racial history, but because new CL contributor Kyle Pierson dares to ask if there’s a way the Sunshine City can do more to acknowledge the struggle to integrate Spa Beach (p. 19). What really got me mulling about St. Petersburg, however, was Dr. Thomas Hallock’s take on the future of the old Gas Plant site, which was razed in the 1980s to make room for “a domed stadium—for a baseball team that did not even exist.” Hallock—an English professor from USF St. Pete—is one of my favorite writers; his “City Wilds” column makes its return to CL this week, and I’m thrilled about it because uncomfortable conversations should be had. There should be a counterpoint, and there should be room for Black local leaders to reply to Kriseman’s Tampa Bay Times op-ed where the mayor called the future development of the Trop “an unparalleled, generational opportunity.” Hallock makes a good case for why “The history of this place hurts.” And it’s OK to talk about things that hurt because the community deserves a chance at finding some healing. Hallock and Pierson’s pieces offer some ideas on making amends, but we all know that the entire Bay area—and the country at large—has a long way to go on that front. In a way, I hope some of the stories in here are a tiny little part of that conversation. CL’s office might not be in St. Petersburg, but we can feel the sunshine over here—even if its warmth has to spend time trying to fight through clouds every now and then.
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Different strokes Photos by Dave Decker
O
n Sunday—a week after pro-police groups painted an unpermitted mural a block away without consequence—protesters took to downtown Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and started to paint a mural of their own. Seven of them were arrested. Police said they’ve been charged with “Criminal Mischief and POSSIBLY violating City Code 1-21 Criminal Mischief/ Damage to city property.” According to TPD, however, the “Back the Blue” muralists are just “under investigation.” See more photos via cltampa.com and read more on p. 11. —Ray Roa
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DAVE DECKER
TRUE COLORS: A weekend after pro-police muralists illegally closed roads without incident, BLM protesters got zip ties.
Picture that
TPD charges protesters with criminal mischief, while the ‘Back the Blue’ mural is ‘under investigation.’ By Ray Roa
O
n Sunday, more than 12 hours after Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s initial email to its oncall public information officer, Tampa Police responded to say that on Saturday at 6:31 p.m., “Several individuals were seen throwing paint along a sidewalk at Curtis Hixon Park.” Photos shot by CL contributor Dave Decker show red, yellow, orange, green and blue paint on a walkway running north to south across the park (see some on p. 5). In social media videos, protesters question officers while folks being arrested can be heard asking “What am I being detained for?” “Multiple people were taken into custody without incident and charged with Criminal Mischief,” Vanessa Nettingham, who’s normally the department’s Social Media/Community Engagement Coordinator, added. When asked about any potential charges for members of a group who completed an unpermitted “Bock the Blub” mural on Madison Street on August 1, Nettingham said, “TPD provided comment about the murals Thursday.” Nettingham was pointing to an August 6 press conference where Police Chief Brian Dugan provided an update on an officer who was likely cut by shattered glass as he backed his patrol vehicle away from a suspect who attempted to shoot the officer on July 30—an act that is nothing to blink at, even if that young officer is a taxpayer-funded public servant.
In the press conference’s Q&A portion, Dugan responded to a question about the Windingsesque mural by saying that, “There was no approval for that so that’s under investigation.” He added that there’s a criminal investigation underway regarding folks who spilled red and black paint on the ugly public art; those folks are the same ones police say spray-painted “Fuck 12” on the police headquarters. In his comments, Dugan conceded that the U.S. is a country built on protest and freedom of speech before adding that, “What’s disappointing to me is that people are arguing over murals, instead of realizing, we’ve got major problems in our city.” “And I’m not downplaying any of the civil rights issues right now, but murals are not part of civil rights in my opinion. Everybody’s entitled to their first amendment speech, and it doesn’t matter who they’re backing,” Dugan said. “I’m more worried about the real problems of what’s going on—and I and I have to be careful because my words will get twisted—I’m not saying any of that stuff are not real problems, but I’m more worried about the gun violence as opposed to, who painted a mural and who didn’t.” The problem with that statement is that the optics of who’s getting arrested and who isn’t seem to suggest that illegally shutting down a street is perfectly fine, but only if you “Back the
PROTESTS
Blue.” In his press conference, Dugan lauded the TPD officer who put himself in danger to get the July 30 suspect off the street. He called TPD the “guardians of the city” (a city the chief probably doesn’t even live in, mind you, p. 15). But those counter-muralists—also known as protesters, activists and demonstrators—are also met with force and getting pepper-sprayed on other days all while getting arrested and racking up police records that can potentially ruin their own lives. Records show that charges for protesters arrested at Curtis Hixon on Saturday include resisting arrest without violence. Some of those arrested are out on bond while others are still being held, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Protesters and activists are putting their futures at risk, too, so that their city might reimagine and reform their police force in a way that doesn’t disproportionately put Black lives in danger (proposing to increase the police budget by $13 million is an odd place to start, by the way) In a Monday email to CL, TPD spokesperson Jamel Lanee said that her department was told that the unpermitted “Back the Blue” mural was approved. When asked by CL who told TPD it was approved, TPD said “this is all being investigated.” So CL asked, “To be clear: TPD was told the “Back the Blue” mural was approved, but TPD doesn’t know who told the department it was approved,” to which TPD said, “To be clear: ‘The case is under investigation.’” “The group that painted Back The Blue mural will be investigated for the same statutes,” Lanee said “On Monday, City Officials researched the information to learned it was
not. (which we now know and you’ve reported).” She added that once TPD learned of this information, its legal team researched FL Statutes and City codes to see which ones, if any, were violated. “The persons who police are looking for that threw paint on top of the Back The Blue mural, put tar on the road and vandalized HQ is being investigated for the same statutes,” Lanee said. “Specifically for the tar on the road (safety hazard on the road, a car could have slid through it and potentially caused a crash. that’s why the road was closed to deal with that). and vandalizing HQ.” Lanee added that, “The group that tried to paint on Saturday were taken into custody for violating FL Statute 806.13 Criminal Mischief, FL Statute 316.0775 Interfering with traffic device, painting over lines., City Code 1-21 Criminal Mischief/Damage to city property.” “I have to go back and listen to the presser,” Lanee said, “but I believe the Chief said moving forward that ANY group who paints without a permit will be arrested for criminal mischief.” CL asked, if that means the painters behind the “Back the Blue” will be taken into custody under Statute 806.13 or Statute 316.077? Or do those “Back the Blue” muralists get a pass this time? TPD’s response: “This is all being investigated.” If you’re one of the protesters arrested at Curtis Hixon Park on Saturday and would like to share your experience with CL—on or off the record or on background—then please don’t hesitate to email rroa@cltampa.com or DM me on Twitter (@rayroa) so that we can connect there or on Signal.
“Murals are not part of civil rights in my opinion.”
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 11
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Refund the police
Ignoring protesters, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor wants to increase TPD’s budget by $13 million.
A
fter months of calls from Black Lives Matter protestors to defund the Tampa Police Department, Mayor Jane Castor’s mayoral recommendation for the City of Tampa’s 2021 fiscal year budget proposes a shocking $13 million increase for TPD, totaling nearly $176 million. The police budget figure was not voiced in Thursday morning’s City Council meeting, during which the mayor shared her presentation for the FY2021 city budget of nearly $1.3 billion (see a breakdown of the budget via cltampa. com/news). An unignorable detail of the mayor’s presentation was her ardent support for the Tampa Police Department, which she oversaw herself as Tampa’s chief of police from 2009-2015. The mayor’s pro-police spiel started out with her referring to TPD as “the best police department in the United States.” “We are not willing to defund the police,” Castor said, saying that the city will instead focus on “investing, not divesting” from the Tampa Police Department. “I’m not saying this out of pride or arrogance, because we still have more work to do. I’m saying it because of the value of this high level of service that is virtually unmatched for similar cities.” Throughout her mayoral city budget presentation, Castor continued to offer nuggets of praise for TPD officers, but largely focused on the City of Tampa’s five strategic goals moving forward. These five strategic goals of the Mayor’s Strategic Plan include: Strengthening community-centric services, enhancing workforce development, increasing housing affordability, improving infrastructure and mobility, plus establishing sustainability and resilience. Castor’s game-plan for addressing these five areas were conveyed with a hopeful tone, as the mayor stated her confidence in the city’s resilience. “Despite every challenge, our city has already made major strides towards transforming Tampa’s tomorrow,” she shared, closing out her FY21 budget presentation. Unfortunately for some of those who tuned in to Thursday’s City Council meeting, “Tampa’s tomorrow” currently does not include a mayoral recommendation to defund TPD. Nor does Tampa’s tomorrow look like it will feature a gratifying response to protestors’ call to fire Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan, who has been sharply criticized for his “brutal leadership”
of TPD, stating that George Floyd had to get murdered for people to show up to Tampa Citizen Review Board (CRB) meetings, and other actions deemed impermissible by local protestors. The department, which offers what Castor called a “high level of service,” has still not said whether it will charge mural painters over an unpermitted work completed over the weekend, but it did meet protesters with force and pepper spray on in June and on July 4. Then again, For TPD, illegally shutting down a street is perfectly fine, but only if you “Back the Blue.” Castor also called for increased training for officers, but did not mention any other reforms demanded by local protestors, including followthrough on the body worn camera mandate for officers (which the city has already allocated $1 million for), the withholding of pensions and paid leave for officers under investigation, and requiring officers to be liable for misconduct settlements. Noticeably, the mayor largely avoided any mention of the past few months of police brutality protests, instead praising TPD for a supposed 80% reduced crime rate in the last year. She conveniently left out that, since 2017, there has also been a 24% increase in use of force by police officers, and a 224% increase in the use of chemical agents like pepper spray. What’s uncertain is whether Castor’s definition of “crime” includes police violence against protestors like a 17-year-old protester, who was tackled for “wielding an umbrella” on June 4. Activist Emadi Okwuosa—who was bodyslammed that same afternoon, months before state attorneys said there was no evidence Tampa protest leader incited a riot during that June 4 demonstration. Many more protestors were also pepper sprayed and and victimized by aggressive use of force by officers during the Dale Mabry Highway demonstration on the Fourth of July. The term “crime” also evidently doesn’t fit the actions of drivers who attempt to mow down Black Lives Matter protestors. There have been at least two incidents of Tampa protestors being injured by motor vehicles in the past two months, and one near-disaster on the Fourth of July as one alleged Tampa Police Academy student ploughed through the barriers created by protestors to block off traffic. Incredibly, the St. Pete Police Department has reminded Pinellas residents not to hit protestors with their vehicles. TPD has not yet followed suit. “By making Tampa safer, officers have
LOCAL NEWS
KIMBERLY DEFALCO
By McKenna Schueler
SHOW ME THE MONEY: Protesters in Tampa, Florida on May 31, 2020. helped pave the way for our city’s economic success and improve the quality of life for Tampa residents,” Castor proudly stated. The “residents” Castor refers to here does not appear to include Joneshia Wilkerson, a young Black Army reservist whose life has been “in shambles” since TPD doxxed her in June (Wilkerson is currently under investigation by the Pinellas County Sheriff, which didn’t doxx her). What else happened during the Tampa City Council Meeting? The Twitter meme game of local protestors was strong, with at least one account creating memes in real time in response to the City Council budget presentation. Protestors also called out council member, Charlie Miranada, for reading a Publix ad during the public comments portion, about two hours into the meeting. Is listening to the concerns of Tampa residents really less enticing than this week’s deals at Publix? CL reached out to Miranda’s office for comment on the moment. Local criminal justice reform activists called into the public comments portion to share demands for the city’s budget priorities. Recurrent demands voiced by activists like ErrDaisha Floyd and Shiv Shukla included a TPD hiring freeze, ending targeting tactics against local protestors, and firing Tampa Police Chief, Brian Dugan. These demands have been supported by the local organization, Tampa
Dream Defenders and the Restorative Justice Coalition. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many public speakers also called on the City Council to support the reduction of the city’s jail population by reducing unnecessary arrests. Florida carceral facilities have become hotspots for the coronavirus. Activist, ErrDaisha Floyd, started off the public comments portion with an impassioned takedown of TPD, saying, “Your inability to imagine a world without police has everything to do with your inability to imagine a world where Black people are actually taken care of.” Former volunteer organizer for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign and climate justice activist, Shiv Shukla provided a brief lesson on police abolition, sharing specific examples of public safety alternatives for community response to acts of intimate partner violence, theft, gun violence, broken brake lights, and more. Climate justice advocates from the Cleo Institute and Food and Water Action also called into the public comments portion to demand that the mayor’s Climate Action and Equity Plan involve a move to shift the city to 100% renewable, clean energy by 2030. Another public speaker shared all of the names of Black Tampeños killed by the Tampa Police Department during the public comments portion.
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 13
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ASHLEY DIEUDONNE
PROTECT THIS HOUSE: A majority of the Tampa’s police force doesn’t even live within city limits.
Homeland security
Only 17% of Tampa Police officers live within city limits. By Colin Wolf
T
ampa Police Chief Brian Dugan doesn’t live in Tampa. He actually lives in Lutz, an unincorporated area about 15 miles north of the city he oversees. But he isn’t alone. (Editor's note: As this piece went to print, City of Tampa spokesperson Ashley Bauman said that Dugan has a City of Tampa address, which CL was not able to confirm). For decades, police residency requirements have been connected to better relationships between officers and the neighborhoods they serve. But like many U.S. cities, Tampa doesn’t require officers to reinvest in the cities that invest in them. According to data requested by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, just 153, or 17%, of the 920 officers with the Tampa Police Department live in the city they patrol on a daily basis. TPD wouldn’t give CL the exact addresses, arguing that they are exempt from public records, but did provide a count of zip codes. Because of this, it’s important to note that this 17% figure is probably a generous estimate, since eight zip codes straddle Tampa’s boundaries.
There’s no exact reason for the fact that the vast majority of TPD doesn’t live here, but the cost of living in Tampa is a good place to start. Tampa is consistently ranked near the bottom for median household income ($54,599), as well as one of the least affordable cities. Tampa police officers can earn between $55,140 and eventually up to $89,544 a year. But living in Tampa is expensive, so it makes sense that the further you move, the cheaper it is. A 2019 study from the Tampa Bay Times found that the areas with the highest average household incomes are actually found in Tampa’s surrounding suburbs, which are also predominantly white. TPD’s racial makeup is also predominantly white. Nearly 69% of Tampa police officers are white, while serving a city that’s just 45% white. This is noteworthy, because according to a report from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Black and Hispanic officers are far more likely to reside in the cities they police than white ones.
To its credit, Tampa has tried to incentivize city employees to buy homes within city limits. Tampa’s Community Heroes Home Ownership program and the Dare to Own The Dream program, can help officers with upwards of $20,000 for a house downpayment. But Tampa’s issue is hardly a new one. Back in the 1970s, a few American cities reinstated residency requirements for local police officers, but eventually recruitment rates dropped and police unions argued the rules violated the protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Now, only 15 of America’s largest police departments still have strict residency requirements for police officers. However, Tim Stevens, the chairman and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, told FiveThirtyEight that residency requirements are still an effective way of generating tax revenue and fostering a better connection between police officers and the community. “If they live in the city, they belong to a neighborhood, and they are part of the city,” he said. “They’re not just coming in from the suburbs. There’s an allegiance to the community they serve other than a paycheck.” Tampa protesters have regularly voiced
LOCAL NEWS
frustration about this topic, specifically that one of the requirements for Dugan’s new “Community Advisory Team” on policing is that applicants must have lived within Tampa’s city limits for at least five years, a prerequisite the chief of police cannot even fulfil. This hypocrisy is especially glaring since Dugan seems to have massive blinders for the city he protects. In June, Dugan admitted during a “Fox and Friends” interview that he thought a weekly block party in one of Tampa’s largely Black and Hispanic neighborhoods was a Black Lives Matter protest. “You know, that’s what’s difficult to tell,” said Dugan. “That’s where we’re running into problems is what’s organized, what’s a protest, what’s a block party.” Except residents in the neighborhood registered noise complaints with TPD about those same block parties for almost a year. Experts agree that a police force which reflects the community it serves isn’t a total panacea to the unfair policing and violence activists are making noise about. The effectiveness of policing by officers who live in the neighborhoods they patrol is also still up for debate. But after a long summer of continued violence between Tampa Police officers and Black Lives Matter protesters, perhaps residency requirements are at least worth discussing.
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DAVE DECKER
Back the blue pt. 2
FOR THE ‘GRAM: Don’t expect a ‘Bork the Blub’ photo opp in St. Petersburg anytime soon.
People have asked St. Pete for a ‘Back the Blue’ mural—but no one’s applied for a permit. By Chloe Greenberg
W
hile downtown Tampa’s pro-police “Back the Blue” mural was created without a permit and has since been met with intense criticism, it seems to be inciting interest for a similar project in St. Pete. The Tampa mural appeared outside of the downtown Tampa police department over the weekend, and while the city of St. Pete has not received any formal applications or proposals, residents have expressed interest in emails to the city, St. Pete spokesperson Benjamin Kirby told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I understand that we’ve gotten maybe some email inquiries about, ‘Could this be done?’ or those kind of general inquiries around it but nobody has approached us formally,” Kirby said. The organizers of the Tampa mural, which was completed before the City of Tampa approved the permit, have not been met with any penalties for the mural, blocking traffic or defacing street markings. While Kirby did say completing a street mural prior to an application being approved is clearly a violation, he hasn’t said exactly what the penalties would be. The City of St. Pete is currently home to three street murals, including the recent Black Lives Matter and Pride murals, all three of which have been completed as city initiatives, Wayne Atherholt, St. Pete’s Director of Cultural Affairs told CL. Although the city’s only street murals have been proposed internally, external clients are required to follow the same proposal process. Depending on the scale of the mural and what may be involved, the proposal, including a preliminary request for a street closure, would go through a number of city departments. This includes the St. Petersburg Police Department, the Department of Transportation and Engineering, the Department of Traffic, the permitting department, the department of
cultural affairs and the mayor’s office. “We had to produce drawings that showed what the mural is going to look like, how it’s going to be positioned, where it’s going to be, where the roads are going to be closed off, what time they were going to start, it was going to be primed, when it was going to be prepped—all of that,” Atherholt said. “You just don’t get a road closure permit and start painting.” He said there’s no way to estimate a time frame for any particular proposal. This can also depend on whether the application was completed properly and whether organizers have insurance. “There’s a lot of factors, especially with the coronavirus. God only knows how long that would take.” The City of Tampa has not said when the organizers of the Tampa mural submitted their unapproved application. The city is in the process of sending a copy of the “Bock the Blub” mural permit to CL. Once a proposal application is approved, Atherholt said, the City of St. Pete requires a certain type of paint mixture to be used on the street, as well as an agreement to future touch ups or damage. “Somebody’s gotta be responsible for maintaining it,” he said. “And they would sign off on their agreement to maintain it for X number of years. More than likely, it would be a nonprofit; I can’t imagine an individual just making an application to paint on a public street.” The city also requires liability insurance for any and all nonprofits it works with. “The fact that there is insurance involved, when this is done, it’s pretty involved and detailed—we think it through. Somebody just doesn’t come to the permitting department and get the road closed and start painting. That would never happen—legally, anyway.”
LOCAL NEWS
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 17
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18 | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | cltampa.com
History hurts
Held against promises made 40 years ago, today’s plans for the Gas Plant raise red flags.
F
rom a view of decades, the story is damning. African-Americans arrived in St. Petersburg with the Orange Belt Railroad, and despite their missing names on historical markers, they effectively built this city. Segregation laws, passed in the 1930s, kept Black folks to neighborhoods with colorful nicknames—Pepper Town, Methodist Town, the Deuces and Gas Plant. Over time they developed their own thriving businesses, churches, and clubs. During the 1970s, Interstate-175 leveled well-constructed homes of doctors, teachers, pastors, dentists, professionals, and entrepreneurs along Fifth Avenue South. Ten years later, the city razed Gas Plant, the adjacent and poorer section of town. The city first promised light industry then built a domed stadium—for a baseball team that did not even exist. Fast forward a few more decades. Seats remain empty at Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays threaten to leave, and baseball or not, the city will implode the dome and develop a new community over the 86-acre Tropicana Field site. Mayor Rick Kriseman, writing in the Tampa Bay Times, calls this an “an unparalleled, generational opportunity.” He promises inclusive collaboration with local partners, jobs, mixed-income housing, and a street grid that reconnects downtown with the geographically severed Southside. But there is cause for doubt. Architectural renderings, to date, propose restoring eastwest arteries (not so much the vital north-south connectors). Kriseman gushes over spaces for “research and innovation,” plus hotel and conference venues. Who will benefit from the new Gas Plant plan? The history of this place hurts. The community’s destruction started with the interstate, which the city rightly hopes to trim back. Following a nationwide pattern, the highway first bowled through St. Petersburg’s African-American community, leveling the fine homes on what was affectionately called “Sugar Hill.” Savvy residents understood property values, and several owners negotiated against “eminent domain,” but the loss remains. Our hole in the city core is personally felt. “I cannot take my children and show them,” long-time resident and St. Petersburg griot Gwendolyn Reese tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The church where I was baptized and married is no longer there. The building my parents lived in is no longer there.”
Black churches, raised by the hands of individual congregants, no longer stand. A parking lot now occupies the site of McCabe United Methodist Church, where 175 exits onto Dr. Martin Luter King Jr. Street South. “Black people got together,” McCabe pastor Jana Hall-Perkins recounts, “pooled their resources and physically built, brick by brick, this place of worship.” But the building is gone. “So what kind of message does that send— spiritually, emotionally, psychologically—to the people who worked for free? That now, in place of a community they called home, is a parking garage?” There is an adage, fool me once .... Local historian Gary Mormino likes to cite a quip by Mark Twain—that history does not repeat itself, it rhymes. Held against promises made 40 years ago, today’s plans for the Gas Plant raise red flags. In the 1980s, the city promised “light industry”; instead the people got a stadium. The “urban renewal” meant 285 buildings bulldozed, 500 households leveled, businesses closed, at least nine churches relocated. The betrayal was palpable. All to easy for city government to gloss or ignore, the obligations remain. “When you went into this area and moved out all the people, you said you were going to rehabilitate and create light industry and create jobs,” said David Welch, one of the city’s first Black council members. “You have a moral obligation to those individuals who were moved out for what you have told them.” In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us all that white “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked with ‘insufficient funds.’” Today a city with the street that bears King’s name holds the resources to make good on that debt. The 86-acre Gas Plant site, first and foremost, should redeem our past default. Mayor Kriseman and planners regard this site as a once in a generation chance. And they are right. Few issues in the United States are as emotionally fraught, or difficult to transact, as reparations. The single most pressing quality of life problem in St. Petersburg remains racial inequality; poverty is hardscaped onto our city street grid. The future Trop site has already been studied and workshopped to death, though before moving forward, I propose three steps:
CITY WILDS
CITYOFSTPETE/FLICKR
By Thomas Hallock
GENERATIONAL OPPORTUNITY: We now have a chance to fix what we broke. (1) Acknowledge egregious mistakes. With the earlier promises for Gas Plant redevelopment, the city gave the Black community (what Gwen Reese calls) a “straight up lie.” The current administration did not commit these lies; they are not at fault for their forefathers’ crimes. But as representatives of the city today, they have a “moral obligation” to explain--in no uncertain terms--what happened. (2) Apologize. This one is easy, once you face the hard truth. Call a press conference. Set up a podium on the steps of City Hall. Say to those who lost their homes and businesses and churches to the highway, parking lots and unwanted stadium, “I’m sorry.” (3) Convene church leaders. Several relocated religious communities survive to this day. Why not meet privately with ministers from those
churches? Outside the glare of focus groups or public hearings, the clergy may offer a healthy, healing perspective. The Black church has a long record of speaking Truth to power, and offers a conduit to people’s unvarnished memories. Ask our pastors, “how should we move forward?” The 86-acre Tropicana Field is indeed the opportunity of a generation. More than a hotel or festival space, more than the live-work-play formula, bike trails or access to a creek that is very prone to flooding, we need to undo a harmful past. The city did wrong. We now have a chance to fix what we broke. Mayor Kriseman, make it so. Creative Loafing welcomes back Thomas Hallock’s monthly “City Wilds” column. Hallock wrote this essay at the Clayton, Georgia home of civil rights author Lillian E. Smith.
“The site, first and foremost, should redeem our past default.”
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TIA DUFOUR
MO
SMILE, BOYS: If Trump is defeated, all bets are off.
The last throes of the Trump regime Expect the worst, and a lot of it. By Jeffrey Billman
I
f the last four years have taught us anything, it’s that Donald Trump is preternaturally reactive and impulsive. There are no grand Machiavellian schemes to divert attention when things go south, even if they work out that way on occasion. If you blindfold me, point me in the general direction of a dartboard, and give me enough darts—maybe 100, maybe 1,000, maybe 10,000—I will eventually hit a bulls-eye; that doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing. When his poll numbers hit the skids, Trump— being reactive and impulsive—reacts impulsively, leading to a greater-than-normal torrent of the outrages that have defined his presidency. And as the campaign entered the home stretch with the president flailing, it was inevitable that he’d show his whole ass in ways big and small. I won’t belabor the stories that have dominated recent news cycles: Trump’s WT-actual-F interview with Axios’s Jonathan Swan; his postmaster general’s effort to slow mail delivery ahead of the election; his paramilitary invasion of Portland; his TikTok ban, which might be retribution for teenagers pranking his Tulsa rally; his remark that Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, would “hurt God” if elected, which is probably news to the omnipotent deity in whom the pussy-grabber now professes belief; his team’s bumbling negotiations over a stimulus package, which will likely end—by design, I suspect—with the president (illegally) extending
unemployment benefits via executive order in a transparent attempt to make himself the hero of a dysfunctional Washington. As the election nears, these stories will come fast and furious. Trump and his allies will say and do outlandish things to drag Biden and create media storms. Already, despite the pandemic and economic crisis, Senate Republicans have found time to launch an “investigation” into Hunter Biden and Burisma, using “evidence” cooked up by Russiaconnected Ukrainians and laundered through Rudy Giuliani. In the background, however, the Trump administration continues to make real policy decisions with real human consequences that often receive little or no notice, the constant chaos providing cover for the destruction. A few examples: • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services introduced what Washington Post writer Catherine Rampell aptly described as a Kafkaesque policy to reject visa or green card applications if a person doesn’t fill in all the fields on an application, even if those fields don’t apply to them. For instance, if you don’t have a middle name, and you leave the space for “middle name” blank instead of writing “N/A,” your application gets tossed. Worse, some spaces on the online USCIS application form don’t allow you to type in “N/A” or “None.” Immigration attorneys began doing it by hand. So USCIS extended the policy
INFORMED DISSENT
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to documents that law enforcement or medical officials have to fill out, as they’re not always fastidious about these things. • The administration is using the pandemic to bypass anti-trafficking laws and a decadesold court order governing the care of migrant children. Instead of being sent to government shelters and placed with sponsor homes, kids are now carted off by private contractors to hotels before being deported. It’s a “shadow system in which there’s no accountability for expelling very young children,” an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law told the Associated Press. • The Census Bureau will end its constitutionally mandated decennial count a month early, meaning Latinx, Black, Asian American, and Native American populations will be undercounted—and whites overcounted—as the country reallocates congressional districts and federal resources. We’ll be stuck with this rigged count for a decade. • The Department of Housing and Urban Administration quietly—at first—gutted an Obama-era policy designed to combat longstanding segregation by requiring local governments to show that they were providing fair, affordable housing to receive federal housing funds. HUD deemed the policy a “waste of time” and decided local governments could “self-certify” instead. The move only received wider attention a week later, when the president said the quiet part out loud, assuring (white) suburbanites that he wouldn’t let “low-income” housing into their neighborhoods. • The Trump administration will almost certainly fail to renew a nuclear arms-control pact with Russia, as Moscow and Beijing have rejected the administration’s demand that China—which has a much smaller arsenal but is the focus of the president’s election-year ire— be included as well. The Russians have said
Amal Bay L while Playo $50 e
they would unconditionally extend the existing treaty, negotiated by President Obama in 2010. Trump has refused. If the New START Treaty isn’t finalized by February, Russia will have no restrictions on its nuclear weapons. • If Democrats win Congress and the White House in November, the Congressional Review Act will allow them to overturn rules made at the end of Trump’s presidency. So with the clock ticking, the administration is furiously scaling back regulations on fuel efficiency standards, air pollution emitted by power plants, and pollution in waterways and wetlands. Meanwhile, it’s rolling out the red carpet for oil drilling, logging, and mining operations, relaxing liquified natural gas standards, and—why not?—removing dams in the Pacific Northwest that protect threatened salmon. Once entrenched, these rules will take years to reverse. I could go on, but you get the idea. For the 80-plus days until the election, the administration can keep chipping away at environmental protections and civil rights rules and enact more immigration roadblocks, things likely to stay just below the radar. But if Trump is defeated, all bets are off. A wounded and unstable president who’s demonstrated a vindictive streak and shown little regard for democratic norms would have 78 days until the inauguration with nothing to lose and the same powers he has now. He could pardon his friends. He could sic Homeland Security agents on cities that opposed him. He could have the Justice Department investigate conspiracy theories about the election and undermine its integrity. He could start a war. He could launch a nuke. He could tear the country apart out of spite. The point is, the last throes of a regime are often its most dangerous. Expect the worst— and a lot of it.
“It was inevitable that he’d show his whole ass in ways big and small.”
Shit Happened FRIDAY 07
Florida superintendents ask the state to address what happens if students and staff test positive for COVID-19. The state asks Google how to type “¯\_("))_/¯”.
MONDAY 10
GAGE SKIDMORE
Amalie Arena announces plans to let Tampa Bay Lightning fans order arena food to watch while the Bolts play in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoff bubble. Tell me I won’t stress eat the $50 eight-pack of hot dogs all by myself.
The Super Bowl LV Host Committee says the Super Bowl Experience Tuesday fan event will be 100% free and outdoors as it takes over Julian B. Lane Park and 2.7 miles of the Tampa Riverwalk. We’re guessing TPD will probably arrest protesters who try and demonstrate at that, too.
TUESDAY 11
WFLA shares video of a man belligerently crawling through the window of a Tampa Wendy’s restaurant. That extra side of sweet and sour sauce is not worth getting arrested by TPD, dude.
Busch Gardens announces a modified production of its annual Howl-O-Scream event. We don’t know how they’re going to manufacture that many Ron DeSantis masks in time. We’re up to our ears in shit these days. Jump in via cltampa.com/news.
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RESTAURANTS
RECIPES
DINING GUIDES
BOULEVARD BURGERS
Set the table Nothing but openings, baby. By Jenna Rimensnyder
T
he food news keeps flowing as local concepts are itching to finally make their delayed debuts (read: viral sensation Chick’nCone which was slated to open last December). Another golden nugget of foodie info is that Karma Juice Bar has taken over the Baum Avenue Market space and is sharing it with a new Filipino food joint. Tampa is getting another boutique grocery store and a chocolate shop, too. Very big things are happening, people, very big things. (Restaurants are nimble entities which can change hours and menus based on the flexibility of its staff. Please contact them to get the most up to date information.) OPENINGS Chick’nCone This weekend, August 15, the long-awaited viral concept is making its debut. Chick’nCone is known for its fried chicken, tossed in a variety of sauces ranging from sweet to mild to spicy, and served in a handheld waffle cone.The grand-opening will offer free chicken samples and $5 Chick’nCones all day, as well as $5 local beers on tap. The spot will have both indoor and outdoor seating and a dog-friendly patio. 425 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. chickncone.com Pinoy The traditional Filipino restaurant, inspired by the Tarlac region (which is two hours north of Manila), is serving up adobo chicken, beef afritada as well as a few vegan options. The space, formerly housing Baum Avenue Market, is also home to Karma Juice Bar. 1113 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. @pinoystpete on Instagram. Preez Distillery & Tasting Room The veteran-owned distillery specializes in vodka flights. The tasting room is hosting parties up to 20 and drop-ins. Masks are required, and social distancing is enforced. 10550 72nd St. N., no. 503, Largo. @preezdistillery on Facebook. Sus Hi Eatstation Ninja-themed joint is slinging all things sushi—burritos, bowls and rolls—near the University of South Florida. The Fry Me a River burrito is packed with white rice, salmon, tuna, spicy krab, cream cheese, avocado, edamame beans, purple cabbage and cucumbers. You can try the new ninja in town by dining in, ordering pickup or delivery. The Eatstation is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. seven days a week. 2309 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa. sushieatstation.com
Sucré Table The niche dessert shop offers highend pastries and made-to-order cakes by Food Network competitor chef Brenda Villacorta. If you’re still wanting to enjoy local eats from your couch, Sucré Table can be found on Postmates, and customers can snag orders via curbside pickup. 4048 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. sucretable.com Tampa Beer Works After being forced to close, Tampa Beer Works has reopened its doors to customers, serving brews and now grilled cheese sandwiches. The bar has acquired its 509 Restaurant License, allowing it to once again open its tasting room and serve drinks on site. Loopholes, baby. 333 N. Falkenburg Rd. no. 407, Tampa. tampabeerworks.com Wild Child The bistro and cocktail bar makes its debut in St. Pete’s Grand Central District. Just a heads up, for the first week of its soft opening, the concept is solely offering table service. The concept is brought to the ‘Burg by The Bends’ Matt Kaye and Rob Reinsmith, former executive chef at Noble Crust. 2710 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. @wildchild_stpete on Instagram.
OPENINGS
COMING SOON Peterbrooke Chocolatier Opening this September in downtown Tampa near Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, Peterbrooke is known for decadent truffles, hand-made caramels and cherry cordials. The shop will also be loaded with chocolate covered cookies, pretzels, scratch-made marshmallows, potato chips and strawberries are hand-dipped daily with Peterbrooke’s own proprietary blend of milk, dark and white chocolate. Have your dentist on speed dial. 777 N. Ashley Dr., Tampa. peterbrookechocolatier.com Sprouts Farmers Market The boutique supermarket announced expansion in Tampa Heights, although a location or grand opening date have yet to be announced. The grocer is known for having a wide selection of natural and organic foods, which includes produce, vitamins, packaged groceries, seafood, deli, baked goods, dairy products and frozen foods. Taco Dirty The health-focused Mexican fast-casual restaurant took to social media to announce the expansion into St. Pete. Although
BARKIN’ BURGERS: Boulevard Burgers on St. Pete Beach is serving mini burgers for Fido this month for $3. the location and opening date has yet to be announced, we can expect the concept’s signature loaded bowls and tacos on the menu. Xtreme Tacos Looks like the restaurant is packing up its SoHo location and officially moving into its Seminole Heights location in early to mid-September. Until then, you can grab massive burritos from both its SoHo location (223 S. Howard Ave.) and food truck. 5609 N. Nebraska Ave., Tampa. xtremetacos.com ICYMI Fido Burgers Boulevard Burgers is offering up eats for your pup. The mini-burger entree add-on is available to all guests for $3 with a
purchase of any entree. The offer goes until August 31, but Boulevard’s Yappy Hour is now extended to seven days a week all month with $4 well drinks and $5 Jose Cuervo margaritas. Things might get a little weird, but at least you don’t have to share your burger with your dog anymore. 5905 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach. blvdburgers.com Made Coffee Cold brew from Tampa Bay’s Made Coffee now comes in a box. “We roast our Single Origin El Obraje coffee and cold brew it to perfection,” the company wrote. “Clean, delicious energy to keep you pumped all day (or night).” The boxes retail for $35 via drinkmadecoffee.com.
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#TheDali now open, in real life Solace. Inspiration. Reflection. An unparalleled collection of Salvador Dalí works awaits. Visit The Dalí safely Wed-Sun 11am-6pm (until 8pm on Thu & Fri). Advance tickets now required.
TheDali.org/safe
26 | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | cltampa.com
VISIT ST. PETE CLEARWATER
MOVIES
THEATER
ART
CULTURE
Bend it further
Does St. Pete’s “Bending Arc” make big enough strides? By Kyle Pierson
S
culptor Janet Echelman titled her new installment on St. Petersburg’s Spa Beach “Bending Arc,” and with that she invoked Dr. Martin Luther King and his famous quote, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” When she researched the Spa Beach location for her new installation on the Pier, she discovered in 1954 powerful Jim Crow laws governed the city, inspiring the name “Bending Arc.” Today, in this place, some are asking how much further the arc must bend before reaching justice? True, the civil rights battles of the 1960s ended Jim Crow segregation, but protesters on the new Pier are still demonstrating against police brutality, a fight that MLK brought to the streets. The battle never ended. Echelman’s name choice carries echoes of the past, but is that conflict too distant for most people to connect it with her sculpture in the here and now? With “Bending Arc” in St. Petersburg, she hopes viewers get the message when they experience it. Seen against the night sky, illuminated with bright blue, pink, and white lights, she hopes visitors and residents will feel a deeper connection for public spaces and their city. St. Petersburg historians doubt that visitors will see a billowing, colorful net wafting in the wind and think of desegregation. In 1955, African Americans sued the city for the right to use municipal Spa Beach and Pool. City Manager Ross Windom retaliated by closing the pool for “repairs” rather than allowing integration. The case, Fred Alsup v. St. Petersburg, went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which refused to hear the city’s appeal and thus upheld Black St. Petersburg residents’ rights to use the beach. In 1958, Mayor John D. Burroughs responded to the ruling, “I like the Negro. I like him in his place. I do not believe in integration.” When I visited the site I didn’t see a plaque giving this history. The plaque in front of the sculpture celebrates the current inclusiveness
of the beach, but it doesn’t directly reference the background. Gwendolyn Reese, president of the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, “There is no mention of the struggle for desegregation on that beach. There is no connection between the sculpture and the quote.” Before COVID-19, Reese led regular tours of the African American Heritage Trails in St. Petersburg to help preserve Black history and educate residents. “At this particular time,”Reese added, “there is so much of history that is unknown. It’s disappointing that the city didn’t take the opportunity to tell both sides of that history, even the dark side of history.” Carla Bristol, a community activist who participates in nightly protests on the Pier and on city streets, has visited the sculpture multiple times. “I don’t see anything [connected to the sculpture] that suggests that there may have been dialogue between Echelman and the Black community. If it’s going to be promoted as a healing sculpture, there should have been better outreach.” In July, when pier-goers and and some outlier protesters clashed, the Tampa Bay Times’ editorial board—Elizabeth Dijinis and four white men tasked with being the “institutional voice” for the Bay area’s vaunted paper of record—asked protesters to, “Take your skateboards and go home,” adding that, “The leverage of social justice is working. There’s no sense in becoming the problem or overplaying one’s hand.” Bristol observed that when she saw “Bending Arc” recently, a football was stuck in it; she also thinks it’s unfortunate that people can’t see the dramatic nighttime lighting from outside the immediate Spa Beach area. On a positive note, when she was there recently, a drum circle was performing under the net. “People’s energy was incredible, and it felt like a welcoming space,” Bristol added. USFa professor of English, author, and civil
SCULPTURE
ILLUMINATION: Echelman’s St. Pete Pier sculpture has opened an important conversation. rights scholar Julie Armstrong, noted, “I’m glad to see that the sculpture’s description alludes to the location’s history, although I would also like to see, at the bare minimum, a historical marker that provides more specific details. The way I see it now, the piece’s title and its allusion to Spa Beach provide a self-congratulatory, feelgood story for Pier visitors without doing the actual work of truth-telling, making amends for the past, or addressing current inequities that have their roots in St. Petersburg’s history of segregation.” In an email to CL, City of St. Petersburg spokesperson Benjamin Kirby said no one has made a request for such a plaque explicitly acknowledging the segregated past and struggle surrounding Spa Beach. “It is also important to remember that the Pier, including Spa Beach, is for everyone. The mayor raised a great deal of money to have this work, entitled ‘Bending Arc’ installed, and accessible to all,” Kirby added, noting that unfortunately Spa Beach was not the only segregated place in St. Pete. “That said, we have a well-documented history, and we’ll continue to build a city of opportunity.” In numerous interviews, Echelman, a Tampa Bay native, said she wanted to honor that civil rights history with the MLK quote. The artist told Fast Company, that her work represents strength through resiliency and flexibility, qualities she believes she captured with the medium.
“I think that’s a metaphor for how to live in these times,” Echelman said. “One of the most exciting parts about public art is not only its potential for community engagement, but also its ability to address the historical context of its site,” Katherine Pill, MFA Curator of Contemporary Art, told CL. In a divided country, Echelman’s message of unity seems especially timely. To create the net, the artist tied over 1.5 million knots and twisted 80 miles of hand-spliced polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) fiber into twine. The net metaphor suggests that it takes many hands and miles of string to weave a strong and flexible social fabric. Openings are strategically incorporated within the netting to suggest gaps, and invites the question, “who or what is slipping through?” But, is that too abstract a connection for most people to make? Echelman began studying cities in 2011. Six years later, in an interview for Adobe Create Magazine, she described the process of building a net and her artistic philosophy. “I’m trying to understand the identity the city wants to become,” she said. Adding a plaque shining a light on Spa Beach’s Jim Crow history, and acknowledging that it was the site of government sponsored racial segregation would make long strides toward justice and diversity in the new 2020 Pier District.
“There is no mention of the struggle for desegregation on that beach.”
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28 | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | cltampa.com
Tampa woman’s podcast club turns focus on minority mental health.
COURTESY
Listen closely By Chloe Greenberg
M
aking friends in her 30s didn’t come easily to Tampa resident Tiffany Ellis. It was hard to connect with others and even harder to navigate job relocations and life changes. Wanting a way to build authentic relationships and bring women experiencing similar struggles together, Ellis founded the personal development platform Pods & PR. What began with Ellis sharing podcasts with those around her grew into a deeper look into the mental health needs of women of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds. Ellis told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Pods and Perennial Resolutions is like a book club for podcasts. Groups of women come together for a guided discussion through different podcasts and different issues and happenings in life. But throughout July, designated National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in 2008, Ellis placed a special emphasis on the mental health needs of her community. “We’re intentional about the content we’re putting out in terms of reminding people to care for their mental health, reminding them to find people they feel safe having conversations with and things like that,” Ellis said. Early on in Pods & PR’s existence, Ellis saw the need for a professional presence, as many of the sessions were met with heavy subject matter and emotional responses. This led her to bringing on therapist and friend Shanta Jackson. The two moderate events together. “There’s a stigma attached to therapy, particularly in the minority community,” Ellis said. “I said if I can bring her on board and I can help my audience to really connect with her way of therapizing the ladies, then what it did was it helped to normalize therapy.” With the help of Jackson’s professional expertise, many Pods & PR participants have gone to seek further counseling and come to terms with previously unaddressed issues, Ellis said. “The women in the community have started to say, ‘You know what? Because of Shanta, I sought out a therapist and now I’m breaking some people into therapy and now I’m working through this childhood issue I had from 20 years ago,’” she said. “And I’m seeing exponential growth from the ladies because of the fact that they feel comfortable being vulnerable in that safe space we’ve created.” Typically held in person in different womenowned businesses and event spaces in its four
core cities, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Tampa, Pods & PR is now being conducted on online platforms, through the free and twice-monthly Virtual Connections sessions. “We had never hosted a virtual event before, but when COVID happened, we noticed that people, especially the women in our community, were struggling,” Ellis said. “And so now more than ever they needed us, and we had to find a way to emerge.” As Pods & PR has helped many recognize a need to seek mental health support for the first time, another Tampa organization is only furthering its role in providing these types of services. Natasha Pierre is the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Hillsborough (NAMI), a countywide affiliate of the grassroots mental health organization, which specializes in education, support and public outreach. In its recognition of Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, NAMI and its Hillsborough County affiliate are implemented several support and educational groups to provide connections to the communities that need it. NAMI’s “Sharing Hope” presentation focused specifically on the impact of mental illness on the Black and African American communities, while the docuseries, “Strength Over Silence” and “You Are Not Alone” campaign explore the intersections between culture and mental health and highlight the voices of those affected. “When people are experiencing really tough times, when they’re experiencing a mental health challenge, it’s beneficial for them to connect with people who understand their journey and their experience,” Pierre said. “Do they understand the Black experience? Do they understand being a combat veteran? Do they understand being a mom of a child with special needs?” The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to have access to or use mental health services and are more likely to use emergency departments and receive lower quality care. “When we’re talking about minority mental health, it is recognizing that the challenges aren’t occurring in a vacuum,” Pierre said. “We cannot ignore the greater systemic and social constructs that make it challenging and harder and pose barriers for someone to improve their mental health.”
PODCASTS
“What it did was it helped to normalize therapy.”
TUNE IN: Pods & PR participants have gone to seek further counseling. In Hillsborough County especially, Pierre said, NAMI sees a need for support groups among those living with a diagnosis and increased education within the community, especially with the area’s high numbers of Baker Act cases. Florida’s Baker Act is a state involuntary commitment law that allows for the involuntary placement of an individual in a mental health or psychiatric treatment facility to be examined or committed for up to 72 hours. This can be done without consent and while these cases can be reported by anyone, they are initiated by judges, law enforcement officers, physicians and mental health professionals. “There’s a lot of Baker Acts in our county, a lot of repeat Baker Acts and we’ve even in the last year had some Baker Acts of children,” she said. “So, part of our work and our outreach is connecting with our community partners, law enforcement, schools, hospitals, so that we can better educate them and so that we can also educate the county on what to expect, what services are available and hopefully we can drive those numbers down.”
As of July 1, the revised definition of “mental illness” as it relates to the Baker Act excludes “dementia” and “traumatic brain injury.” This change prohibits those with dementia or traumatic brain injury from being inappropriately admitted for examination or committed, Pierre said. As July and Minority Mental Health Month have come to a close, Ellis and her Pods & PR community look to the future as a continuation of the support and awareness she sought to achieve when Pods & PR began. “As we look forward, Shanta and I are committed to keeping mental health at the forefront of our movement,” Ellis said. “Our community can expect virtual workshops, resources and strategic partnerships, creating accessibility for those who need it most. They can also expect us to consistently show up via The Virtual Connections, which will remain free taking place twice monthly, future Pods & PR pop up events (once the world reopens) and who knows where you’ll see us next! Great things are underway.”
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 29
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30 | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | cltampa.com
PROFILES
MUSIC WEEK
Fountain of youth New local music for your earholes.
CONNIE CALCATERRA
REVIEWS
By Ray Roa
W
e could spend every week writing doomsday articles about the live music scene (spoiler alert: without federal aid or a real plan to combat coronavirus, outlook not good), but let’s not do that today and instead turn our focus to some of the new local music that’s been sent to us since the pandemic took hold of our lives in March. Your ears will do better to navigate to cltampa.com/music to actually hear all this. We’ll spend the rest of the time until clubs reopen blogging about new local music, so follow along. 13% Riley Morgan, multi-instrumentalist for St. Petersburg psychedelic mindfuck rock outfit Pleasures has a side project called 13%, which feaures Adam Deranian, who Morgan met while playing together in another band called Crystallized. For 13%’s new release, the pair dove into a computer and mixed as many genres as possible to come out with an electronic sound that Morgan says sounds like a “candycoated video game soundtrack” that ventures “into dark valleys of dystopian drum-and-bass, ending on a broken plain of soothing acoustic guitar and distant vocals.” Daniela Soledade “Comment Te Dire Adieu” St. Petersburg-based Brazilian jazz vocalist and songwriter Daniela Soledade switched to French on this new single, a move which she said presented its own certain set of challenges. And while she’s like every musician who can’t tour or play gigs for real people right now, she’s been spending time polishing up her new full-length, which is due in March 2021. “I don’t think this virus has changed me as a person, but it has certainly made me a better artist,” Soledade told CL. danielasoledade.com
Kyshona Armstrong who he met during her gig at the Straz—lifted him up for this new song, which he called a catharsis. “Being able to sculpt the song and parts, working with people that I absolutely adore and respect, allowed me to not be overwhelmed by all the tumult,” James told CL. kristopherjamesmusic.com Row Jomah “Devil’s Fair” It’s never fun to try and categorize a Row Jomah song, so we won’t when it comes to “Devil’s Fair,” which was released in May after bassist Vinny Svoboda lent his talent to the cut and its engineering. The Clearwater-based quintet spend some of its pandemic livestreaming from places like deBine Brewing, Seminole Heights’ Far Forest and the Player’s music school. rowjomah.bandcamp.com Stoney Hoop Mixed Sheep It’s only been… three full months since Tampa rapper Stoney Hoop filled us in on his latest full-length, Mixed Sheep, but we’re happy to finally write about how highlights like “Southerngangstaplaya” and “Stay Down” make us wanna celebrate Tampa and also learn how to meditate and grow the way Hoop has since the pandemic unfolded. “I’m with the rest of the world just kind of waiting for things to get back to normal, taking it day by day,” Hoop told CL. “I’ve started to meditate, been writing some new music as well. Learning new things and unlearning old ways that don’t help me anymore. That sort of stuff. It’s a difficult process, but it’s something I’m constantly working on.” soundcloud.com/stoneyhoop
LOCAL MUSIC
Kristopher James, “Never Had To Find Our Way” After releasing a full-length in September, St. Petersburg songwriter Kristopher James had plans to spend 2020 releasing some songs individually. But helping friends after the Nashville tornadoes and navigating COVID19 proved to be a creative gut punch. Some of James' friends—including Nashville songwriter
Youth Remedies “How Do You Sleep At Night?” DieAlps! Co-founder Frank Calcaterra wrote this three-minute rock song after Trump was elected in 2016. It didn’t fit with the style of his band’s album, so it’s being released as a solo cut under the Youth Remedies moniker. The sentiment—confusion and disappointment about half the country’s adoration of a sleazy salesman who cheated and lied his way to the Oval Office—hasn’t changed, but some optimism shines through in the chorus. The overall vibe, however, is worry, and it hasn’t aged well in three-and-a-half-years.
TO BE YOUNG: Youth Remedies’ song reacting to Donald Trump’s election is still strangely relevant today. “After the initial shock of the election results I told myself it can’t be as bad as they say. Surely his advisors and the real powers that be will prevent anything catastrophic from happening, but when I look around now it’s so much worse than I could have ever imagined,” Calcaterra told CL.
“1,000 people are dying every day from an airborne virus and we’re re-opening schools and everything else because the richest country in the world doesn’t want to give “handouts.” The spread of misinformation is fueling division and it’s actually pretty concerning.” soundcloud.com/ user-775558955
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 31
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Leo
The lion.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the dictionary, the first definition of “magic” is “the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of sleight of hand and deceptive devices.” A far more interesting definition, which is my slight adjustment of an idea by occultist Aleister Crowley, doesn’t appear in most dictionaries. Here it is: “Magic is the science and art of causing practical changes to occur in accordance with your will—under the rigorous guidance of love.” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the latter definition could and should be your specialty during the next four weeks. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “The soul, like the moon, is new, and always new again,” wrote 14thcentury mystic poet Lalleswari. I will amend her poetic formulation, however. The fact is that the soul, unlike the moon, is always new in different ways; it doesn’t have a predictable pattern of changing as the moon does. That’s what makes the soul so mysterious and uncanny. No matter how devotedly we revere the soul, no matter how tenderly we study the soul, it’s always beyond our grasp. It’s forever leading us into unknown realms that teem with new challenges and delights. I invite you to honor and celebrate these truths in the coming weeks, Virgo. It’s time to exult in the shiny dark riddles of your soul.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Refine your rapture,” advised occultist Aleister Crowley. Now is an excellent time to take that advice. How might you go about doing it? Well, you could have a long conversation with your deep psyche—and see if you can plumb hidden secrets about what gives it sublime pleasure. You could seek out new ways to experience euphoria and enchantment—with an emphasis on ways that also make you smarter and healthier. You might also take inventory of your current repertoire of bliss-inducing strategies—and cultivate an enhanced capacity to get the most out of them. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Are you ready to make the transition from slow, deep, subtle, and dark to fast, high, splashy, and bright? Are you interested in shifting your focus from behindthe-scenes to right up front and totally out in the open? Would it be fun and meaningful for you to leave behind the stealthy, smoldering mysteries and turn your attention to the sweet, blazing truths? All these changes can be yours—and more. To get the action started, jump up toward the sky three times, clicking your heels together during each mid-leap.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Greenland is a mostly autonomous territory within the nation of Denmark. In 2019, US President Donald Trump announced that his government was interested in buying the massive island, describing it as “a large real estate LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): deal” that would add “I have one talent, and considerable strathat is the capacity to tegic value to his By Rob Brezsny be tremendously surcountry. A satirical prised,” writes Libran story in The New author Diane Ackerman. I advise you to foster Yorker subsequently claimed that Denmark that talent, too, in the weeks ahead. If you’re responded with a counter-offer, saying it feeling brave, go even further. Make yourself wasn’t interested in the deal, but “would as curious as possible. Deepen your aptitude be interested in purchasing the United for amazements and epiphanies. Cultivate States in its entirety, with the exception of an appreciation for revelations and blessings its government.” I offer this as an example that arrive from outside your expectations. To for you to be inspired by. The coming weeks the degree that you do these things, the won- will be a favorable time for you to flip the derments that come your way will tend to be script, turn the tables, reverse the roles, enlivening and catalytic; unpredictability will transpose the narrative, and switch the be fun and educational. rules of the game.
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Author and theologian Frederick Buechner writes, “If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, we must see not just their faces but also the life behind and within their faces.” The coming weeks will be prime time for you to heed Buechner’s advice, Scorpio. You’re in a phase when you’ll have extra power to understand and empathize with others. Taking advantage of that potential serve your aims in profound ways, some of which you can’t imagine yet.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Motivational speaker Les Brown says his mission in life is to help people become uncomfortable with their mediocrity. That same mission is suitable for many of you Rams, as well. And I suspect you’ll be able to generate interesting fun and good mischief if you perform it in the coming weeks. Here’s a tip on how to make sure you do it well: Don’t use shame or derision as you motivate people to be uncomfortable with their mediocrity. A better approach is to be a shining example that inspires them to be as bright as you are. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus musician and visual artist Brian Eno has a practical, down-toearth attitude about making beautiful things, which he has done in abundance. He says that his goal is not to generate wonderful
creations nonstop—that’s not possible—but rather to always be primed to do his best when inspiration strikes. In other words, it’s crucial to tirelessly hone his craft, to make sure his skills are constantly at peak capacity. I hope you’ve been approaching your own labors of love with that in mind, Taurus. If you have, you’re due for creative breakthroughs in the coming weeks. The diligent efforts you’ve invested in cultivating your talents are about to pay off. If, on the other hand, you’ve been a bit lazy about detailoriented discipline, correct that problem now. There’s still time to get yourself in top shape. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Gemini musician Kanye West confesses the decadent and hedonist visions that fascinate and obsess him. Personally, I’m not entertained by the particular excesses he claims to indulge in; they’re generic and unoriginal and boring. But I bet that the beautiful dark twisted fantasies simmering in your imagination, Gemini, are more unique and intriguing. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to spend quality time in the coming weeks diving in and exploring those visions in glorious detail. Get to know them better. Embellish them. Meditate on the feelings they invoke and the possibility that they have deeper spiritual meanings. (P.S. But don’t act them out, at least not now.) CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Make all your decisions based on how hilarious it would be if you did it,” advises Cancerian actor Aubrey Plaza. I wish it were that simple. How much more fun we might all have if the quest for amusement and laughter were among our main motivating principles. But no, I don’t recommend that you always determine your course of action by what moves will generate the most entertainment and mirth. Having said that, though, I do suspect the next few weeks may in fact be a good time to experiment with using Plaza’s formula.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Doris Lessing told us, “It is our stories that will recreate us.” Whenever we’re hurt or confused or demoralized, she suggested, we need to call on the imagination to conjure up a new tale for ourselves. “It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the mythmaker, that is our phoenix,” she believed. The fresh narratives we choose to reinvent ourselves may emerge from our own dreams, meditations, or fantasies. Or they might flow our way from a beloved movie or song or book. You’re ready for this quest. Create a new saga for yourself.
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 33
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Married people By Dan Savage
I’m a 38-year-old bi woman who has been sleeping with a married male coworker for the last eight months. We’re a walking cliché: I’m a nurse, he’s a doctor, and one night he ended up spilling a lot of personal information about his marriage to me (sexless, non-romantic, she might be a lesbian) before asking if he could kiss me. I declined. Three months and many text messages later, I met him for drinks. The next thing I know we are falling in love and spending as much time together as we can manage. Even though he is married and has kids, this has been one of the best relationships of my adult life. He loves me in ways I never thought possible. (He even savors my COVID-19 curves.) The obvious problem here is that he is married and his wife allegedly doesn’t know about his unhappiness in their marriage. We have to arrange our dates around his work schedule and his lies to his wife. I find myself becoming increasingly jealous of the time he spends with his wife and his inability to spend more time with me. I want him to confront the issues in his marriage and I want him to at least attempt being honest with her so we can figure out if it’s even possible for us to move forward. My question is this: How do I have this conversation with him without it seeming like an ultimatum? I adore him, and I don’t think he’s lying to me about his marriage. But I long to have more freedom in our relationship. I love that I finally found someone who treats me so well when we are together but my heart is breaking because our love exists in the shadows. It’s a win/win for him—he gets his marriage, his kids, his “real life,” and me too. But I can’t even text or even call him freely, and I certainly couldn’t rely on him in an emergency. I want this to work. I don’t necessarily want him to get divorced, Dan, as I fear it would cause him to resent me, but that would honestly be my preference. What should I do? —Outside The Home Exists Romance
time from women who ask me how to issue an ultimatum without seeming like they’re issuing an ultimatum. I don’t get many letters from men like that for good and not-so-good reasons: Men are socialized to feel entitled to what they want, men are praised when they ask for what they want, and consequently men are likelier to get what they want. To get what you want, OTHER, you’re gonna have to man up: feel entitled, act entitled, make demands. And you gotta be willing to walk. You have to go in fully prepared to use the leverage you actually have here—your presence in Dr. Married’s life—or nothing will change. His circumstances have required you to live in the shadows if you wanted to see him, and maybe that worked for you once. But it doesn’t work for anymore and Dr. Married needs to understand that if his circumstances don’t change—if he doesn’t change them—then he’s going to lose you. There’s a middle ground between divorce, your preferred circumstance, and things staying exactly as they are. Dr. Married’s wife is surely aware that her marriage is sexless and non-romantic—assuming he’s told you the truth—and if his wife’s actually a lesbian, well, perhaps she’d like the freedom to date other women too. (Or date them openly, I should say; for all we know she’s been getting some pussy on the side herself.) If they want to stay together for the kids, if they have a constructive, functional, low-conflict loving partnership, and it would be possible to daylight you without anyone having to get divorced, maybe you could settle for those terms.
SAVAGE LOVE
What are you willing to settle for, OTHER? If you can’t live without Dr. Married and you can only have him on his terms—terms he set at the start, terms designed to keep his wife in the dark—then you’ll have to accept his terms. You can only see Dr. Married during office hours, you can’t call or text him, and you’re on your own if you have an emergency outside office hours. But agreeing to his terms at the outset doesn’t obligate you to stick to his terms forever. Terms can be renegotiated. But unless you’re willing to issue an ultimatum, OTHER, Dr. Married has no incentive to renegotiate the terms of your relationship. Zooming out for a second: I get letters all the
I’m a bi man in a straight marriage. We have two young children. My wife and I have been working through some relationship issues. Because of these, she has not been open to sex with me, and for 18 months our marriage has been essentially sex-less. I’m not happy with this, but we are working on things. Since we stopped having sex, I have been using my wife’s used panties to masturbate. I work from home and do a lot of the household work, including laundry. Every couple of weeks, I will take a couple of her panties from the laundry. I rub myself with one pair and sniff the other one. I enjoy the way the fabric feels and am turned on by knowing that they’ve been rubbing up against her pussy. It makes me feel very close to her. I finish by ejaculating into her panties and then I rinse them out and wash them. I’m very careful not to stain or damage them. This is something I do to feel more connected with her sexually. I don’t get hard thinking that she’s wearing panties I came in; I get hard thinking about coming in panties she’s worn. But I worry
that I’m violating her—which is not something I want to do. I know that if I were doing this with a stranger’s panties, or with the panties of someone I knew but was not in an intimate relationship with, it would be at best creepy and at worst a sex crime. But she’s my wife, and although we are in a hard place right now, we’re trying to find our way back to each other. So, is this an acceptable way for me to get off while we work on our relationship? Or is it a violation? —Wonders About Nuzzling Knickers I’m torn, WANK. If you and the wife were fucking, WANK, she might enjoy knowing that, however many years and two kids later, you’re still so crazy about her that you’re down in the laundry room perving on her dirty panties. But you aren’t fucking, and things are strained for reasons you didn’t share. So you need to ask yourself whether this perving, if your wife were to find out about it, would set you two back. If you think it would—if, say, your wife isn’t fucking you because she feels like you don’t respect her opinions, her boundaries, her autonomy, etc.—then the risk (further damaging your marriage) has to outweigh the rewards (momentarily draining your sack.) That said, WANK, if perving on your wife’s panties—without damaging or staining them—is helping you remain faithful during this sexless period of your marriage… and sustaining your attraction to your wife though this difficult time… well, an argument/rationalization could be made that your wife benefits from this perving. And these aren’t stolen panties—these aren’t a stranger’s panties or a roommate’s panties—these are panties your wife hands over to you for laundering. That you derive a moment’s pleasure from them on their way from laundry basket to washing machine could be self-servingly filed, I guess, under “what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” But if you feel like your wife would regard this as a violation—and I’m guessing you feel that way, WANK, since you’re asking me about it and
not her—then you might wanna knock it off. Quick question: Why get married? I’m a 29-yearold lesbian who got married to a woman at 26 and divorced at 28. We had a pretty low-key wedding, but we still stated to all of our friends and family that we were in it for the long haul, people wished us well, bought us gifts, gave us money. When I realized it was a huge mistake (we rushed into it, we ignored huge incompatibilities,) I felt terrible for all the usual reasons involving a break up, Dan, but I also felt like we were letting down our friends, family, and all gays everywhere. I’m jaded right now, I realize, but seriously: WHY DO THIS? Why get married? Why do this thing that adds so much stress and pressure to leaving a relationship that might have run its course, as MOST relationships eventually do? —Marriage-Averse Dyke Quick answer, MAD: People get married for love—ideally, at least these days, and it was not always thus. (Suggested reading: “Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage,” by Stephanie Coontz.) But sometimes I think people marry for the same reasons you think no one should, MAD: the stress of ending a marriage—the pressure to stay in a marriage—often prompts a couple to work through a rough patch. Of course that pressure can keep two people together who really shouldn’t be together anymore—or never should’ve been together, MAD, like you and your ex-wife—but sometimes two people stick it out to avoid the embarrassment, expense, and drama of divorce and eventually get to a place where they’re genuinely happy to still be together. Maybe a wedding isn’t a promise that two people will stay together forever, MAD, but rather a promise that two people will have to think long and hard before parting. Contact mail@savagelove.net, follow @ FakeDanSavage on Twitter, and listen to savagelovecast.com where this week it’s Millennial vs Boomer with Jill Filipovic.
cltampa.com | AUGUST 13-19, 2020 | 35
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A TRULY IMMACULATE LUTZ ESTATE
LOCATED IN SANCTUARY AT LIVING STON! 4 CG & An ABUNDANCE of windows. Ornate formal rooms w/ TRAVERTINE & CROWN MOLDING. FR w/ stone FP, LUXURIOUS KITCH EN, GRANITE COUNTERS, CUSTOM CABINETRY, PENDENT LIGHTING, butler’s pantry, wine cellar, & GAS COOK TOP. OFFICE, Master BR FP, pool access, & custom walk in closet.. Master BA w/DOUBLE SINKS huge SHOWER & TUB. All BR’s w/ large walk in closets. LARGE MEDIA ROOM w/ bar & PATIO, POOL & SPA. Offered at $1,290,000
CUSTOM ODESSA ESTATE! Built in 2010 by interior designer Paul Lewis. 3,517 sq ft , 3 BR, 4 BA 2 CG, + workshop/storage, Dock w/ lake access, + pergola! 50 YR SLATE ROOF, 10’ ceilings. WALNUT CABINETRY, BRAZILIAN STAR BEACH GRANITE, CABINET FACED SUB-ZERO fridge/freezer, Enjoy the LAKE LIFE on your deck, pergola, overlooking SERENE CYPRESS trees & FRENCH INSPIRED landscape. Located in the highly coveted STEINBRENNER SCHOOL DISTRICT. offered at $1,495,000.
to advertise by phone 813-739-4800 by email dlancaster@cltampa.com
CLTamp.com
John LaRocca REALTOR® John@MyHomeTB.com 813.990.7488 ADULT/Models
TRANS Model Yazmine: 813-508-1441
Cash/Credit Cards Accepted MM#6181
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