Connor Barwin's Civic Season

As we have seen in comparisons of Philadelphia to both Dallas and Charlotte, Tampa is yet again another Sunbelt city, with similar characteristics: Strong population growth over the past several decades fueled in part by territorial expansion and a vibrant economy, with employers like Verizon, MacDill Air Force Base and the  University of South Florida. All of this explains at least part of why Tampa beats Philadelphia in terms of education levels, poverty rates, and the number of people moving to the city.

Like other Sunbelt cities as well, Tampa is pretty low density, which would explain the lower percentage of folks commuting via bike. “Being newer than your typical big Northeastern city, Tampa does not have much in the way of rail transit,” reports Professor Richardson Dilworth of Drexel’s Center for Public Policy. “In fact, on its website, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority actually includes telecommuting as a ‘transit option.'”

 As for our superior voter turnout, both cities hold off-year elections, which always decreases turnout. But Dilworth says it goes beyond that. “Tampa’s last election appears to have been uniquely boring, possibly in part because the incumbent mayor who was running was so popular that no one really wanted to run against him,” Dilworth says. And what made Mayor Bob Buckhorn so popular? Could our mayor-elect Jim Kenney take some notes?

“He is very effective in implementing an agenda of infrastructure investment and downtown development, focusing in particular on the waterfront, having extended the popular Tampa River Walk,” Dilworth says. “He also landed the 2012 Republican Convention and a coveted TIGER infrastructure grant from the US Department of Transportation, the same federal money that paid for most of our Dilworth Park renovation. So if Buckhorn continues to make Tampa a more downtown-focused city perhaps he will help boost the percentage of folks commuting via bike.”

On Thanksgiving, we take on the Detroit Lions.