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For the Week Beginning Monday, January 07, 2008
By Wayne Garcia, Creative Loafing, Dec. 26, 2007
On Jan. 29, Floridians will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment. If passed, the amendment would: double the homestead exemption to $50,000; allow portability of existing Save Our Homes benefits; provide a 10% maximum cap on assessment increases for non-homesteaded properties; create a $25,000 exemption on tangible personal property for businesses and mobile home residents; and impact government agencies’ future funding capabilities, potentially requiring additional development, service and staff cutbacks. Join us for a discussion on the pros and cons of this significant issue. Tues., Jan. 15; Networking & Registration – 7:30 a.m.; Breakfast & Program – 8-9 a.m.; Maestro’s at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. To register, click here. Call Kimberly Finn with questions at 813-221-3686.
10. Creative communities have low entry barriers for people. They are places where newcomers are accepted quickly in social and economic circles. 9. Creative communities are highly diverse. Many creative people felt like outsiders when they grew up so they want to live in a place where all kinds of people feel accepted, regardless of ethnicity, age or sexual orientation. Creative communities also seek out the brightest and best from around the world to come to our universities and stay to build innovative companies. 8. Creative people appreciate the natural environment and are drawn to places with participatory outdoor activities. 7. Creative communities value places for their authenticity and uniqueness– things like historic buildings and a deep cultural heritage. Franchise restaurants and chain stores could be anywhere. 6. Creative communities have an eclectic nightlife. Not just bars and restaurants but experiential options including funky music venues, neighborhood art galleries and performance spaces. 5. Creative communities offer transportation options to the car—like pedestrian-oriented mixed-use spaces, light rail, bike and walking trails, vanpools and telecommuting. 4. Creative communities have a thick labor market in specific clusters like high tech, marine sciences, biotech, and financial services. Creative workers are not looking for a single “job” but rather several employment choices and upward mobility. 3. Creative communities have lots of young people aged 24-35 who are both the workhorses and show horses of the workforce. To appeal to this group, a community must be attractive to singles, not just the traditional family. 2. Creative communities are entrepreneurial. There are lots of innovators who commercialize their ideas and start new companies. 1. Creative communities capitalize on their own assets and resist copycat strategies. Picking up on this final characteristic, one of the key initiatives of CreativeTampaBay in 2008 is to capitalize on what clearly differentiates our market from the top 50 in the U.S. – the looming immigration of retiring boomers. As this age group (including yours truly) rejects past concepts of “retirement” and seeks to reinvent themselves in the third act of life, we have huge opportunities to become a far more creative community—on so many of the levels described above. Entrepreneurialism will be our top focus, and you can bet that we’ll be looking for ways to link young talent to this older market with their vast numbers, experience, renewed energy and financial resources. Another of our key initiatives will be supporting the newly formed “Green Dividend Coalition.” Through our participation, CreativeTampaBay will stay true to our commitments to supporting rail and transportation improvements, protecting the precious natural environment that sustains us, “place making” for people to gather and connect—and we’ll support ventures that help Tampa Bay achieve its own “green dividend.” The journey to becoming a more creative community continues. Be a part of making it happen.
You’ll be hearing a lot in the coming weeks about CTB’s latest venture, a follow-up to our collaboration with the Tampa Downtown Partnership that brought Joe Cortright to speak about Portland’s Green Dividend. In the meantime, tune in to local sustainability news in this new section of the Buzz. 3rd Annual Smart Sustainable Tampa Bay Conference
26th Annual Community Design Awards The Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission has issued its Call for Entries for the 26th annual Community Design Awards competition. This program honors design excellence in planning, historic preservation, affordable housing, master planning, environmental sensitivity, public participation, and architectural quality in building and development projects within Hillsborough County. In addition, the awards competition has added a new category for “Green Projects.” The Community Design Awards program invites submissions from planners, architects, builders, developers, residents, community groups, design professionals, local governments and interested parties that provide examples of sound planning and good design in Hillsborough County. Projects completed within the past 5 years are eligible for recognition. The deadline for entries is February 6, 2008. For more information or to download the application forms visit http://www.theplanningcommission.org/ or call Tony LaColla, AICP at 813-273-3774 x350.
Musical Melting Pot at SPC Musicians from around the country team up to perform an evening of classical masterpieces including Mozart’s “Quartet for Piano and Strings,” Crumb’s “Voice of the Whale,” and Dohnanyi’s “Serenade.” American Melting Pot, Tues., Jan. 8, 7:30 p.m., $12-$17, the Music Center, St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, 6605 Fifth Ave. N., 727-341-4301. Local ADDY Entries on Display
Tampa Bay's Media Talk From Media Mix at Tampa Bay Brewing Company in Centro Ybor, Media Talk co-hosts Janet Sherer and Rob Tiisler welcome Bill Murphy, retiring news veteran at WTVT-Fox 13 in Tampa, and David Harvey, senior vice president of Chicago-based real estate firm M&J Wilkow. Media Talk is a live, weekly global webcast between 6-7 p.m. each Thursday at www.tampabaysmediatalk.com. Segments are available at Google, YouTube, and AOL (search word: Media Talk Tampa). All Access Happy Hour
Tampa Film Review Anniversary Tampa Film Review celebrates four years of showcasing local independent films. A “Best of 2007” screening and awards show at 8 p.m. will be preceded by live music and refreshments. Tampa Film Review, Fri., Jan. 11, 7-10 p.m., International Bazaar, 1600 E. 8th Ave., Ybor, http://www.thetampafilmreview.com/. Downtown Live After Five Downtown Live after Five takes place this Friday on the 500 block of N. Franklin Street between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Enjoy the sounds of the band d’Visitors and help support a local charity through the purchase of beer, wine and water. This month’s charity is CREW – Commercial Real Estate Women. Stageworks Masquerade Ball
BayCycle Photo Contest Tampa BayCycle announces a photo competition leading up to the second annual Tampa BayCycle campaign, to be held May 2008. Winners of the competition will have their images on display throughout May at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (200 N. Tampa St., downtown Tampa). The photography contest is open to everyone, from the amateur photographer to cyclists living in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Citrus, Pasco and Hernando counties. For a complete list of rules, please visit http://www.tampabaycycle.com/.
Stackhouse’s Swimmers and Floaters at Polk Museum of Art Jobsite Exits Holidays with Dysfunctional, Delicate Family Comedy You may subscribe/unsubscribe to this newsletter by clicking here. If you have a story idea, information on an upcoming event or wish to submit a by-lined article, please email Megan Voeller at voeller@gmail.com. Please submit events in paragraph form like the formatting in this newsletter. You may include graphics which will be used at the editor's discretion. If you are having problems receiving this newsletter, contact the CTB webmaster. Special thanks to this week’s BUZZ contributors:
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01.07.08
CreativeTampaBay.com 01.08.08 - by admin
When I first moved to this area in 1988 to be part of the dynamic newspaper war between the Times and the Tribune, Tampa was flirting with its whole "America's Next Great City" dream. The drinks were cold; the beaches were beautiful. Ybor City was alive and vibrant, with interesting shops, restaurants and artists' lofts that gave way in late nights to tens of thousands of partiers. As I walked through Ybor on a Thursday night last week, I was nearly alone. 
Although Channelside Drive, the Arts District and the Franklin Street corridor have begun to show some retail stirrings after years of stagnation and promises, few would agree that downtown Tampa has yet to show its potential as a vibrant urban center for shopping, dining and entertainment. However, there are small-yet-definite signs that the retail outlook for downtown Tampa is changing. 
Hillsborough County officials are planning to ask for more than $1 million in federal funding to explore an idea that has been floated for years: ferry service between Tampa and St. Petersburg.
As CreativeTampaBay starts its fifth year of operation, it seemed a fitting time to get “re-grounded” in what we’re about. Our mission is to cultivate an environment that encourages innovation, invigorates the economy and attracts creative people. So, borrowing from David Letterman, here’s a top 10 list of what that kind of environment—defined as “creative communities”—offers:
Thurs-Fri., Feb. 7-8, at the Radisson at Feather Sound & St. Petersburg College, EPI Center. Get the latest on the green revolution that's sweeping the worlds of business and government from the green design and sustainability experts who are leading the way. Join key business and government leaders as we learn how to apply these cutting edge principles to helping the Tampa Bay region and our own organizations build a more sustainable and profitable future. 
Local designers shine in this exhibit of advertising work in all media that has been entered in the 2008 ADDY Awards competition. Tampa Bay Advertising Federation Gallery Night, Wed., Jan. 9, 6-9 p.m., R.K. Bailey Studios, 310 N. Boulevard, University of Tampa; RSVP to 
Young professionals are invited for a behind the scenes look at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. While a DJ spins music, guests will mingle with costumed characters and get a look at upcoming events and shows.
This black-tie and costume ball will raise funds for Stageworks’ new Channel District theater in the Grand Central at Kennedy at 12th St and Kennedy Blvd.
Swimmers and Floaters refers to the snakes and boats featured in much of Stackhouse’s work, both of which embedded themselves in his consciousness during his teen years on Lake Juliana in Auburndale. This thirty-year retrospective will be on display December 1, 2007 – March 2, 2008. Robert Stackhouse: Swimmers and Floaters is sponsored by ASC Geosciences with additional support from a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 
Eleemosynary has been called "alternatively funny and poignant" by Variety, and "a funny, perceptive and eloquently written play'' by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Told through direct narration and flashbacks as well as linear storytelling, the tale unfolds via the reversal of cause and effect. Eleemosynary is a celebration of the beautiful, mysterious and painful bonds between mothers and daughters. RSS feed for comments on this post.
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Thanks Creative Tampa Bay, The Top 10 List was great! It will help me in coordinating upcoming efforts to revitalize my “neck of the woods.”
Comment by Billy Wheeler — January 8, 2008 @ 8:48 am
From the Front page of the Tampa Tribune 20 Dec. 2008 in regards to Creative Tampa Bay’s 2008 focus:
Retiree Flow to Florida Slows
By MICHAEL SASSO, The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 20, 2007
SUN CITY CENTER - Retirees used to view Florida as the land of sun, golf and the good life. But these days, Florida sometimes gets a different reaction.
“What I hear from people is, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t move to Florida with all those hurricanes,’” said Paul Wheat, 69, president of the Sun City Center Community Association and a Florida fan.
If they’re not complaining about Florida’s hurricanes, Northern seniors occasionally cite concern about Florida’s sinkholes, expensive housing, and high property taxes and insurance, Wheat said.
There may be something to his impromptu surveys. Florida has been losing ground as a retirement destination since at least 1980, but recent U.S. Census data suggest the state’s appeal among retirees is starting to slip further.
Don Bradley, a sociologist at East Carolina University who has studied retirement migration, said in 2006 that Florida attracted an estimated 13 percent of people 56 and older who moved across state lines.
That was down from about 16 percent in 2005. Figures from 2000 show that Florida received 19 percent of migrating seniors.
Until 2006,
Florida had led the nation in the “net migration” of people 56 and older (people moving into the state minus people moving out), according to Bradley’s analysis. However, in 2006 Florida fell to fourth in the nation in net migration of seniors, after Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.
Florida fell because fewer seniors moved into the state last year than in previous year, while more seniors left the state.
While hurricanes and a higher cost of living have hurt Florida, other Southern states appear to be picking off Florida’s share of retirees through tax incentives, marketing plans and other incentives.
Other States Trying Harder
Florida developers continue to market to the retirement-minded. But Florida’s state government has no formal effort to lure the coming wave of Baby Boomer retirees, according to calls to several Florida government agencies.
A big question: Even if Florida resolves its tax and insurance problems, has the retirement momentum shifted elsewhere for the long term?
“Florida’s been sort of the big kid on the block for so long,” said Charles Longino Jr., an expert on retirement migration at Wake Forest University. “But other states are trying harder now, so it’s bound to affect the outcome.”
There’s debate about whether Florida even needs more retirees. The state now has about 4.1 million seniors, or about 23 percent of its population of 18 million, according to the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
That may swell as the Baby Boom generation retires.
The United States generated about 2 million new retirees in 2000, according to a report by David Denslow, an economist at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
That will grow to about 2.6 million per year in 2010 and swell to 3.5 million per year in 2025. That should increase demand for Florida, Denslow said.
Being a retiree haven hurts Florida’s schools, some state economic development leaders say, because some seniors oppose tax increases to fund education.
Denslow said retirees also create a demand for low-paying service jobs - with the exception of health care workers - and create less demand for high-paying scientists, engineers and managers. That’s because those highly-paid professionals often work for companies that serve national and international markets, not local markets, Denslow said.
Still, retirees are a plus for state economies, Denslow and other economists say. Retirees cost states money for Medicaid, but generally require less in state and local services. Generally, retirees provide $4 in revenue for every $3 they cost in government services, Denslow said.
With that in mind, neighboring state governments and private developers are aggressively courting Baby Boomers. For example:
In Georgia. Gov. Sonny Perdue has been pushing the state’s legislature to exempt income from retirement plans from Georgia’s state income tax. Starting next year, the first $35,000 in retirement income will be exempt from the tax. Perdue wants the legislature to exempt all retirement income, said Bert Brantley, the governor’s press secretary. “It’s certainly meant to help attract retirees to the state,” Brantley said. “The governor sees it as a revenue-positive idea.”
In Tennessee, the state’s economic development department has a new initiative called “Retire Tennessee.” The state has chosen nine largely-rural communities that have amenities and lifestyles for retirees and is helping them market themselves as retirement destinations. Among them is Chattanooga. The state also is sending representatives to retirement-related trade shows nationwide and is advertising in Southern Living magazine.
In North Carolina one of the hottest retirement destinations is the Asheville region. Richard Lutovsky, president of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, estimated his area has up to 30 planned communities under development, half of which are estimated to have golf courses. Retirees may buy many of the homes, he said.
‘Florida’s Slipping’
One new Tennessee retiree is Laura Imboden, a 57-year-old from Colorado’s ski country. In the past 18 months, she and her husband have toured the country in an RV, but come July, they will retire to Tellico Village, a planned community in eastern Tennessee. Tennessee’s close to family across the Midwest and Northeast and has relatively low taxes, she said.
“Florida had entered our minds,” Imboden said. “Most people from Colorado retire in Arizona, but we knew that Arizona was farther than where we wanted to be. And so is Florida. And it’s just so hot there in the summer.”
Developers that have retirement communities in Florida and actively market to retirees include Del Webb, a division of Pulte Homes, Inc., and WCI Communities, Inc. Company representatives did not return calls for this story.
How many other new retirees will pass over Florida is anyone’s guess.
But William Haas, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina-Asheville, has studied Census data and found that in 2006 Georgia attracted 2.78 people aged 60 or older for every person who left the state. In contrast, Florida attracted 1.12 people aged 60 or older for every person who left the same year.
Haas’ conclusion: “Florida’s slipping.”
Five years ago, former Gov. Jeb Bush created a commission called Destination Florida to find ways to keep the retiree pipeline flowing. Among its recommendations was freezing property tax increases for people 55 and older. The tax increases would be deferred until death, when the person’s estate would pay the deferred amount.
It also recommended eliminating the intangibles tax on stocks and bonds, and having Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs get more involved in the state’s economic development arm, Enterprise Florida.
The state eventually nixed the intangibles tax, but commission Chairman T. O’Neal Douglas said most of its recommendations were never enacted. Douglas declined further comment.
Representatives of Enterprise Florida, Elder Affairs, and Visit Florida, the state’s tourism agency, said their agencies have no marketing program to attract seniors, and it’s not a formal economic development goal.
Douglas Beach, secretary of the Department of Elder Affairs, said the state is working with its cities and counties to make Florida more attractive for young and old alike, part of a program called Communities for a Lifetime.
An example is putting in larger street signs to help seniors, Beach said. Also, Florida is starting an effort to attract out-of-state health care workers to the state, Beach said.
Back in Sun City Center, a handful of seniors were molding ceramics during a morning arts and crafts class. Their prediction: Florida will never lose its luster for retirees.
Even Atlanta is too cold for Nan Burgett, who moved here from Atlanta nine years ago.
“I would never move back,” she said. “I love the weather here.
“We came down here because we fell in love with it,” said Terri Wherle, who moved to Sun City Center two and a half years ago from Ohio. “I do not miss shoveling 20 foot of snow at all.”
Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865 or msasso@tampatrib.com.
Comment by Boomer wave? — January 8, 2008 @ 10:23 am
From Above
1)
Denslow said retirees also create a demand for low-paying service jobs - with the exception of health care workers - and create less demand for high-paying scientists, engineers and managers. That’s because those highly-paid professionals often work for companies that serve national and international markets, not local markets, Denslow said.
2) There’s debate about whether Florida even needs more retirees. The state now has about 4.1 million seniors, or about 23 percent of its population of 18 million, according to the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
Comment by Boomer highlights — January 8, 2008 @ 10:26 am
Boomers Turning Northwest To Head For Retirement
By MEAD GRUVER
Associated Press Writer
28 December 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_AGING_WEST_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Comment by Boomer highlights — January 8, 2008 @ 10:32 am
I like the new format, very easy to sift and read.
Comment by Eliot — January 8, 2008 @ 11:00 am
Deanne’s column is provoking me to write…I love the top ten list for creative communities but take issue with where she winds up.
Deanne emphasizes that creative communities have high concentrations of “lots of young people aged 24-35 who are both the workhorses and show horses of the workforce.” I agree.
Deanne praises baby boomers for their seeking “to reinvent themselves in the third act of life,” and that “we have huge opportunities to become a far more creative community—on so many of the levels described above.” I couldn’t agree more.
But then Deanne takes part of that vision away by saying “we’ll be looking for ways to link young talent to this older market with their vast numbers, experience, renewed energy and financial resources.” That linkage has value, I agree. And there are many ways to be creative. But to me, it suggests that talent only flows one way, and that baby boomers are best at underwriting the creativity of younger people!
Why not link baby boomers to baby boomers to create a potentially even greater impact? Why not help restructure employment opportunities to enable well-educated, highly successful baby boomers to come here from other creative climes and apply their insight to our community needs and issues and industries? Many baby boomers have some resources but aren’t ready to retire. They wish to use their hard-won skills and interests to do something meaningful, earn some money and health benefits, and enjoy schedule flexibility, as well as the Florida environment. But these opportunities don’t yet exist for them, or the innovative young parent who wishes to work part-time.
Baby boomers are work horses and showhorses, too, and may be better equipped to take risks than the younger age group. In my third act, I am an online facilitator, helping nonprofit and public sector groups around the world to engage online to stay focused on their mission, learn faster, build knowledge, improve performance, and strengthen their connections to their peers–in-house experts–whenever they need help. I love my work and am not done yet.
Maybe I’ll learn to play the piano next or start painting–after all, no one would have bet on me–a computer phobic ten years ago–to do what I am now doing–we are all capable of expressing ourselves in new and beneficial ways if the circumstances encourage us enough.
Thanks for the leadership all of you are providing to our corner of the world. Your work matters!
Comment by Doris Reeves-Lipscomb — January 8, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Forget Florida and Arizona: More baby boomers are heading West
By MEAD GRUVER
Associated Press Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_AGING_WEST_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Retiree Flow To Florida Slows
By MICHAEL SASSO, The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 20, 2007
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/dec/20/na-pipeline-of-seniors-to-florida-slows/
Comment by Booming CTB — January 8, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
Important quotes from
Retiree Flow To Florida Slows
By MICHAEL SASSO, The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 20, 2007
There may be something to his impromptu surveys. Florida has been losing ground as a retirement destination since at least 1980, but recent U.S. Census data suggest the state’s appeal among retirees is starting to slip further.
There’s debate about whether Florida even needs more retirees. The state now has about 4.1 million seniors, or about 23 percent of its population of 18 million, according to the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
Being a retiree haven hurts Florida’s schools, some state economic development leaders say, because some seniors oppose tax increases to fund education. Denslow said retirees also create a demand for low-paying service jobs - with the exception of health care workers - and create less demand for high-paying scientists, engineers and managers. That’s because those highly-paid professionals often work for companies that serve national and international markets, not local markets, David Denslow, an economist at the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research said.
Offtopic, a question from me and not a quote. Will CTB erase this post for a 4th time or have the guts to deal with publically available information?
Comment by Booming CTB — January 8, 2008 @ 6:53 pm
Moderator’s note to the poster above: Your comments were not deleted, but they *are* held for approval after you submit them, which can cause a delay in their appearance on the website. -MV
Comment by pro-creative — January 8, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
PLease then take less then a day to approve comments, and consider some day fixing the page format issue that has lignered for months.
Comment by Boomer Glee Club — January 11, 2008 @ 11:21 am
Don’t count on influx of boomers
By JAMES THORNER, (Un)Real Estate
Published January 11, 2008
Saint Pete Times
Has any group been more analyzed than the baby boomer generation, that demographic bulge moving through our body politic like a bunny through a boa constrictor?
As if those 76-million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 didn’t get enough attention, they’re now being asked to do the seemingly impossible: restore Florida real estate to its glory.
You couldn’t button-hole a Realtor last year without getting an earful about the baby boomer as Housing Industry Messiah. The assumption is that creaking joints and Florida warmth go together like bacon and eggs. All those boomers entering their 60s will abandon Icy Forge, N.Y., for Florida’s year-round golf.
The first boomers turn 62 this year. Over the next 18 years, an average of 4-million boomers a year will reach that magic age.
Housing analyst Tony Polito pushed the boomer theme at a lunch by Tampa Bay Builders Association this week. Polito argues that as boomers retire, about 20 percent plan to change homes. That’s 800,000 people thrust annually onto the market. Twenty percent of that group could retire to Florida. By that logic, 160,000 people will arrive each year.
If true, that’s good news for the Florida housing industry. Forbes magazine has dubbed Tampa the No. 1 place in the nation to retire. But forgive me some skepticism. These surveys assume retirees’ tastes are cryogenically frozen. Who says the retiree of 2015 will mimic the Detroit autoworker retirees who settled in Pinellas County in the 1990s?
A MetLife survey confirmed that about a quarter of boomers plan to move. Dig deeper and you learn most respondents said they’d move within their own state - not surprising when you realize that millions migrated to the Sun Belt during their working years.
Twenty percent of migrating retirees did choose Florida in 2000. By last year, it was down to about 13 percent. Maybe higher taxes turned people off. Maybe it’s the hurricanes.
But there’s nothing more dangerous than predicting the changing tastes of America’s Second Greatest Generation.
Comment by Booming CTB — January 12, 2008 @ 1:41 pm