tampabay.com
TAMPA — Tucked between the interstate and the railroad tracks, woven into the industrial sprawl of Tampa’s eastern edge, 99 tiny white homes sit in a sunbaked lot.These 64-square-foot structures, with fold-out beds and air conditioning, were assembled last April as transitional housing for the homeless. The city of Tampa provided $750,000 to get the project off the ground.But the small homes sat empty for a year.This month, a nonprofit began quietly moving the first residents in, the Tampa Bay T…
16 days ago
tampabay.com
TAMPA — More than three years after the Tampa City Council formally apologized for the city’s racist past, the body unanimously approved the formation of a committee tasked with examining and addressing persistent inequities in Florida’s third-largest city.The 13-member Race Reconciliation Committee will make policy recommendations to “address our economic and racial divide,” according to the resolution passed Thursday, which now heads to Mayor Jane Castor for her signature.The committee will pr…
20 days ago
tampabay.com
During his arrest last month, the union president for Tampa firefighters invoked his official position while appealing for officers to let him go after St. Petersburg police watched him relieve himself in a downtown parking garage, according to body cam footage obtained Monday by the Tampa Bay Times.“Do you know who I am?” Nicolas “Nick” Stocco said to an officer in the early hours of March 24, a Sunday.“Nope,” replied the police officer.Stocco did not elaborate, but about 20 seconds later he ad…
23 days ago
tampabay.com
TAMPA — Military veterans arrive at New Beginnings of Tampa having survived war zones and months, if not years, of homelessness. As the largest shelter for veterans in the Tampa Bay region, the nonprofit has a $3.7 million contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide emergency housing.But confronted long ago with questions about its operations, New Beginnings finds itself mired in uncertainty amid allegations of misconduct by top officials.Eleven former staff and volunteers t…
28 days ago
tampabay.com
Tampa’s top official overseeing economic development, Nicole Travis, is leaving city government after little more than two years with Mayor Jane Castor’s administration.Travis has been a central architect of the city’s growth and housing agenda, and her departure hits Old City Hall as residents continue to feel the tight grip of rising rents and steep property prices, all while new construction continues to bloom.She is starting her own Tampa-based consulting firm, the city announced Thursday. H…
about 1 month ago
tampabay.com
TAMPA — City officials pumped the brakes late Wednesday on a deal that would have allowed Tampa’s police chief to cash in on his pension while continuing to collect one of the largest paychecks in city government, withdrawing the proposal about 12 hours before it was set to go before the City Council.Chief Lee Bercaw is set to retire in September. Under the proposed agreement, recommended by Mayor Jane Castor, the city would have then immediately hired him as a contractor with a $241,000 yearly…
about 1 month ago
tampabay.com
Tampa’s police chief is set to retire in about six months, but the mayor doesn’t plan on letting him go.The city has drafted an agreement that would allow Lee Bercaw, a 28-year veteran with the force, to immediately be hired back by the city as a contractor to continue serving as chief after he retires in September.The maneuver would allow him to cash in on an annual pension payment worth at least $96,000 while continuing to collect one of the largest paychecks in city government. The proposal,…
about 1 month ago
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TAMPA — Surely you’ve seen them dumped on sidewalks, strewn across street corners and littered throughout parks. Maybe you’ve spotted one nestled on the bed of the Hillsborough River, lobbed from the Riverwalk.Now, the city of Tampa wants to crack down on haphazardly discarded e-scooters and e-bikes.As of Monday, riders must park their rented electric vehicles in city-approved designated areas or face a fee of up to $5.The fees will be doled out by the individual operating company, according to…
about 1 month ago
tampabay.com
TAMPA — Two years after the release of a monthslong investigation that found Orlando Gudes made a litany of sexual and crude comments to his former aide while he was a Tampa City Council member, he is seeking more than $45,000 to pay his legal expenses from defending himself.That’s because while the investigation — conducted by a private law firm at the city’s direction and on taxpayers’ dime — found 18 of her allegations to be credible, the lawsuit the aide subsequently filed against Gudes was…
about 1 month ago
tampabay.com
TAMPA ― Rufus Lewis strode into the downtown Tampa police headquarters on the last Monday in February, past his portrait hanging in the lobby.He took the elevator to the 10th floor. There, again, he was greeted by his portrait. Another tribute to his actions as a member of the Fearless Four ― Black officers who successfully sued the city for discrimination in 1974, ushering in new hiring and promotion practices.It had been 10 days since the Tampa Bay Times had published a story about his decades…
about 2 months ago
tampabay.com
TALLAHASSEE — Less than half of the money collected under the now-voided Hillsborough transportation sales tax would be spent on transportation projects, under the state budget proposal unveiled Tuesday for the upcoming year.The money, first collected in 2019, has languished since 2021, when the Florida Supreme Court struck down the tax, while Hillsborough’s population has swelled, its streets continue to clog with traffic and its public transit services remain bare-bones.About $256 million of t…
2 months ago
