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Archive for the 'Market Trends' Category

Soon we’ll all be drinking Molson, eh?

So you thought all those Canadian license plates simply belonged to Great White North snowbirds, right? Well, think again — those Canadians may have been the vanguard of an expeditionary force here to claim Florida for its very own.

At least that’s the aim of www.Florida11.com, a website that’s gathering petition signatures aimed at making Florida the 11th Canadian province.

Actually, the website isn’t run by expansionist Canadians at all — it’s run by Visit Florida, a state-of-Florida tourist organization that aims to attract tourists to the Sunshine State.

If you go to the website, you actually can sign a petition that calls for Florida to become a new Canadian province, but it’s all in fun. If you sign the petition (and you are Canadian, presumably), you can win a Florida vacation. There are ads running on Canadian radio stations and in Canadian newspapers that are promoting the mock petition drive.

Note the picture at the top of this article; I swiped it from the website. I like the Florida sailboat with the Canadian maple leaf on the sail.

Canada is fertile ground for attracting tourists to Florida — more that 2 million Canadians visited Florida in 2005.

If you’re from Canada and you’re reading this blog, why don’t you weigh in here for a couple of minutes and let us know what you like about this part of Florida?

Counters

Tags: snowbirds

Get ready for baseball!

If you go back just a half-dozen or so blog entries, you’ll see a picture of me at a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. If you live in Tampa Bay, you’ve got to love football and the Bucs — there’s just no getting around it. This is definitely a football town, and Florida is a football state, for that matter.

But the truth is, I’m more of a baseball person. If you grow up in New England as I did, the Red Sox are almost a religion. If it’s summer, you’re following the Red Sox; if it’s winter, you’re talking about them.

But since we’ve been in Florida, we’ve done something of a baseball about-face, and now we follow the Devil Rays. And in just a couple of days (Friday to be exact), the season kicks off with picthers and catchers reporting for the beginning of Spring Training.

We’re excited. Not because the Devil Rays are likely to turn into winners (they have finished last in their division in every one of their nine years of existence), but because they are an exciting young team that is fun to watch.

The Rays are really just a bunch of kids — very few veterans and a whole bunch of young rookies. But they are loads of fun to watch and root for, and Tropicana Field is a comfortable and easy-to-get-to place to watch a baseball game. No, it isn’t Fenway Park — it’s sort of an ugly domed stadium with artificial grass. But the parking is pretty easy and the park is always 70 degrees, no matter what the weather is outside. And it never, ever rains.

(A few years ago I sold a condo to one of the young Rays minor leaguers. That was a real thrill!)

The Rays’ first workout is this Saturday at the Raymond A. Namoli Baseball Complex in St. Pete, starting at 9:30 a.m. The entire team is supposed to be on hand by Feb. 21.

This workout period is a good deal if you love baseball. Admission and parking are both free, and refreshments and souvenirs are available. The actual exhibition season starts March 2 with a game against the Yankees in Tampa, but you have to pay to attend those games.

Amyway, maybe we’ll see you at Tropicana Field this summer. It’s another great benefit to living here in Tampa Bay.

Tags: baseball, pinellas county, rays

Maybe doggie dining wasn’t such a great idea after all

Back a few months ago I posted a blog entry about a new Florida state law that allowed restaurants to let diners bring their dogs along. There were a number of restrictions — the local communities had to sign on to the bill, and the restaurants had to have outside dining facilities, for example — but a number of restaurants signed on.

One of the local restaurants was Moon Under Water in St. Petersburg. Plenty of Moon Under Water patrons started bringing their dogs along for lunch and dinner. (The dogs had to stay on the floor, but still…)

Well, things got a little out of hand at Moon Under Water. Lots and lots (and lots) of dog owners started bringing their dogs. People and their dogs lined up out on the sidewalk, waiting for tables. Dogs urinated (and worse) on the sidewalks. Some dog owners were outraged that their dogs had to stay on the floor, so arguments weren’t unusual.

So on Jan. 11, Moon Under Water changed its mind. No doggies allowed anymore.

Tags: dogs, pinellas county, restaurants

Crist’s next target — property taxes

Florida’s new governor, Charlie Crist, wasted little time after his inauguration, going right after the insurance industry. He called a special legislative session and, after a week, the lawmakers did come up with a plan that should result in lower homeowners’ insurance premiums.

Now, the governor is dropping big hints that he wants city and county governments in Florida to reduce their property tax rates.

There are going to be hearings on property taxes over the next several weeks around Florida. One of those hearings is going to be in Tampa.

State figures show that property taxes in Florida have gone up an average of 83 percent in the past five years. During that same period, personal income has gone up just 37 percent.
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“People are paying exorbitant property taxes at the local level and they wonder what the money is being spent on,” Crist said. “So do I.”

The housing industry came to a screeching halt about a year ago in this part of the world. There were a number of reasons for that, but skyrocketing insurance and property tax rates played major roles.

The market has been getting better, and it should improve in a hurry if we see some meaningful property tax relief. But watch out — if property taxes and homeowners’ insurance rates go down, we’re apt to see property values go up.

Tags: property taxes

Homeowners’ insurance; relief is on the way?

Okay, first of all — sorry, sorry, sorry for being away so long. It seemed like the holidays were just too demanding of my time this year, and, between that and the usual work demands, there just didn’t seem to be any blogging time at all. Soooo, I took a bit of a hiatus. Hope you didn’t miss my chatterings too much. Anyway, I’m back…

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It looks as though we may be on the verge of getting some much-needed homeowners’ insurance relief. And it seems that we have our new governor, Charlie Crist, to thank for that.

When he was running for governor, Crist said that the insurance companies were profiteering and they needed to change their ways if they were going to keep doing business in Florida. This past month, Crist told the Legislature that they needed to get serious about reforming homeowners’ insurance, and it looks like lawmakers might have used a one-week special legislative session to good advantage. As of yesterday, it looked as though they might actually pass legislation that contains some teeth, telling the companies that they have to write homeowners’ coverage if they want to sell other types of insurance in Florida.

Basically, the packages that the legislature is considering shifts more hurricane risk to homeowners and to the state and away from the companies. Not ideal, but I imagine we’ll support anything that gets rates out of the stratosphere.

We’ll see what happens in the coming days…

Tags: Charlie Crist, Florida, insurance

Hitting the bricks in Tarpon Springs

If you love historic old brick streets enough to actually work on them, the city of Tarpon Springs has a great deal for you.

Tarpon Springs decided a few years ago that one way to preserve the old brick streets within the community was to offer local residents the opportunity to rebuild and repair the streets on a volunteer basis.

City officials learned that the city of Punta Gorda, Florida, had a similar program that was working very well. So last fall they decided to give it a try in Tarpon Springs, asking local volunteers to help with the reconstruction of Cedar Street.

The city hired a professional contractor to prep the street, remove the old bricking and install new water and storm sewer lines. Then the volunteers were turned loose to install the bricks.

It worked out so well on Cedar Street that the city is now having a contractor prep Bay Street from S Spring Boulevard to Lime Street. Once Bay Street is rebuilt, some other historic brick streets in town may be rebuilt with volunteer labor, too.

Want to learn more, and maybe take part? Get in touch with the Tarpon Springs Engineering Division at 727-938-3711.

Tags: brick streets, Tarpon Springs

Cody’s Steak House

Cody’s was on hand with ribs and a number of other offerings. Cody’s is a very good steak house that offers good food at moderate prices — a great place for the family. There are a number of Cody’s locations in the Tampa Bay area, but the closest one to us is in Tarpon Springs, at 39870 U.S. 19 N.

Tags: Palm Harbor, restaurants

Snapper’s Bar and Grille

Another of the restaurants taking part in the Taste of Palm Harbor was Snapper’s Bar & Grill. I had some spicy chicken wings and some great french fries.

Tags: Palm Harbor, restaurants

Eagle from the Lowry Park Zoo

 
This American Eagle looks so perfect that he almost doesn’t look real in this picture, but he was very much alive and regal looking. The Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa sent this fine eagle over to the Taste of Palm Harbor, and he got quite a reaction from the crowd.

Tags: taste of Palm harbor

Taste of Palm Harbor

Here’s another view of the crowd that showed up at the taste of Palm Harbor event this afternoon (Sunday, Oct. 1)

Tags: Palm Harbor