From Mitch Perry: Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio is thrilled about the major developments in downtown Tampa that have finally reached fruition, and she just can’t hide it. So one day last week, after a sit-down interview with CL (see p. 5), she took this reporter, CL Editor David Warner and former Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth on a tour she’d probably like to give all of the critics who never warmed to her grand ambitions for the Riverwalk. Beginning at the east end of the walkway at the foot of the Tampa Bay History Center, Iorio provided commentary as we followed the still unfinished path to the Convention Center. Captain Cliff Conatser’s river taxi continued the journey up the Hillsborough, before docking at the centerpiece of the city’s transformation, the new Tampa Museum of Art and the just-reopened Curtis Hixon Riverfront Park.
Hackworth attended as the winning bidder on a CL holiday auction item last year that promised lunch with yours truly and a local elected official. Having been in office himself (and perhaps again, as he contemplates a run for Pinellas County Commissioner), he had lots to talk about with Mayor Iorio over salad and Cuban bread at the History Center’s Columbia Cafe. To read the rest of this article, click here.
