Politics and Growth in Twentieth-century Tampa

Politics and Growth in Twentieth-century Tampa
Author: Robert J. Kerstein
Publisher:
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780813020839

"Kerstein tells the story of one of Florida's greatest cities. It is a story filled with drama, corruption, heroism, and hard-won success. This book will forever change the way you look at the Tampa Bay region."-- Lance deHaven Smith, Reubin Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University Robert Kerstein's history of politics and growth in Tampa covers the period from the coming of the railroads and cigar industry through the mid-1990s. Where most other studies of Sunbelt cities have found continuous development controlled by a commercial elite, Kerstein shows that Tampa's development was erratic and--more like that of its northern and midwestern counterparts--was characterized by violence and corruption. He employs a number of theories of urban politics to understand how Tampa emerged from its turbulent past into a modern city, where business, neighborhood, and racial and ethnic interests struggled to influence its politics and development. With Tampa's last century as the case study, Kerstein challenges previous notions of Sunbelt city growth. Drawing upon regime theory to propose an alternative approach, he argues that Sunbelt cities grew and changed over the last hundred years in ways more similar to Snowbelt cities than previously believed. By exploring how city regimes evolve, and the factors most likely to affect that evolution, Kerstein opens up a dimension of urban political theory to important practical implications for city leaders, urban planners, and others interested in positive urban development. Robert Kerstein is professor of government and world affairs at the University of Tampa and author of articles in Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Affairs Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, and elsewhere.

The Politics of Trust

The Politics of Trust
Author: Gordon E. Harvey
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2015-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0817318828

"Examines the political career of Reubin Askew, whose election as governor in 1970 marked the beginning of a golden age in Florida's politics"--

The Metropolitan Revolution

The Metropolitan Revolution
Author: Jon C. Teaford
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231133723

In this absorbing history, Jon C. Teaford traces the dramatic evolution of American metropolitan life. At the end of World War II, the cities of the Northeast and the Midwest were bustling, racially and economically integrated areas frequented by suburban and urban dwellers alike. Yet since 1945, these cities have become peripheral to the lives of most Americans. "Edge cities" are now the dominant centers of production and consumption in post-suburban America. Characterized by sprawling freeways, corporate parks, and homogeneous malls and shopping centers, edge cities have transformed the urban landscape of the United States. Teaford surveys metropolitan areas from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt and the way in which postwar social, racial, and cultural shifts contributed to the decline of the central city as a hub of work, shopping, transportation, and entertainment. He analyzes the effects of urban flight in the 1950s and 1960s, the subsequent growth of the suburbs, and the impact of financial crises and racial tensions. He then brings the discussion into the present by showing how the recent wave of immigration from Latin America and Asia has further altered metropolitan life and complicated the black-white divide. Engaging in original research and interpretation, Teaford tells the story of this fascinating metamorphosis.

Losing It All to Sprawl

Losing It All to Sprawl
Author: Bill Belleville
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2006-03-27
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 081304796X

Losing It All to Sprawl is the poignant chronicle of award-winning nature writer Bill Belleville and how he came to understand and love his historic Cracker farmhouse and "relic" neighborhood in central Florida, even as it was all wiped out from under him. Belleville's narrative is eloquent, informed, and impassioned, a saga in which tractors and backhoes trample through the woods next to his home in order to build the backbone of Florida sprawl--the mall. As heavy machinery encircles Belleville and his community--the noise growing louder and closer, displacing everything Belleville has called home for the past fifteen years--he tells a story that is much older, 10,000 years older. The story stretches back to the Timucua and the Mayaca living in harmony with Florida's environment; the conquistadors who expected much from, but also feared, this "land of flowers"; the turn-of-the-century tourists "modernizing" and "climatizing" the state; the original Cracker families who lived in Belleville's farmhouse. In stark contrast to this millennia-long transformation is the whiplash of unbridled growth and development that threatens the nearby wilderness of the Wekiva River system, consuming Belleville's home and, ultimately, his very sense of place. In Florida, one of the nation's fastest growing states (and where local and state governments encourage growth), balancing use with preservation is an uphill battle. Sprawl spreads into the countryside, consuming not just natural lands but Old Florida neighborhoods and their unique history. In Losing It All to Sprawl, Belleville accounts for the impacts--social, political, natural, personal--that a community in the crosshairs of unsustainable growth ultimately must bear, but he also offers Floridians, and anyone facing the blight of urban confusion, the hope that can be found in the rediscovery and appreciation of the natural landscape.

Castles in the Sand

Castles in the Sand
Author: MARK S. FOSTER
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2023-05-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0813070554

The definitive biography of the famous developer of Miami Beach  "The definitive biography of one of the most energetic, versatile entrepreneurs of the early 20th century. In masterminding the development of the Indianapolis Speedway and Miami Beach, Fisher played a major role in teaching adult Americans how to play."--James Crooks, University of North Florida In the booming early years of the 20th century, few entrepreneurs rivaled Carl Fisher (1874-1939) for sheer energy and imagination. Born in Indiana, he began as a bicycle racer and salesman, made his first fortune perfecting and marketing the automobile headlight, helped build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and headed promotion of the Indy 500, and was a moving force behind the development of the Lincoln and Dixie highways, America’s first improved transcontinental roads. But all of these accomplishments were only prologue to his grandest adventure, as primary developer and promoter of Miami Beach. This definitive biography of Fisher, abundantly illustrated and written in an engaging style, captures the headiness of the period. Mark Foster traces Fisher’s transformation of the South Florida landscape into a tourist’s dream of golf, polo, deep sea fishing, and luxury hotels and his animation of that dream with bronzed lifeguards, bathing beauties flashing new swimsuit styles, and visiting dignitaries who generated a stream of tantalizing headlines. Foster also treats Fisher’s troubles with labor and with Miami businessmen, his attempted development of Montauk on Long Island, New York, and the collapse of the entire Fisher enterprise in the wake of the 1926 hurricane and the great stock market crash of 1929. Throughout, he sets Fisher’s insights, triumphs, loves, and shortcomings into the context of the early 20th century. This biography of a great corporate builder reveals the emergence of a new American way of life. The man whose genius for promotion turned a swampy spit of land into a luxurious urban locale also framed aspirations of leisure and entertainment for generations of Americans.

Come to My Sunland

Come to My Sunland
Author: Julia Winifred Moseley
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2020-10-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813065976

Like so many midwesterners since, Julia Daniels and Charles Scott Moseley moved to Florida in the 1880s seeking a warmer climate. This collection of Julia’s letters--mainly to her husband, who made frequent business trips north, and to her close friend Eliza Slade--reveals the struggle of a cultured, urban woman adjusting to the hardship and isolation of life in pioneer Florida. And then coming to love it. Tramping through the unsullied land surrounding the Limona community near Tampa, where they settled, she gloried in her "neglected corner in the Garden of Eden," where she "could look up fifty feet and see air plants growing on the branches of great oaks and hundreds of ferns nodding . . . in the sunlight and gray moss moving through the trees like mist." "Think of me gazing up among crane’s nests with redbirds in my own oaks," she wrote. "Even in the nighttime, a mocking bird often sings to me of all the beautiful things I love." Julia (herself a published writer) selected these unedited letters and copied them for her family into a thick leather book. Like characters in a novel, the friends and relatives she describes crackle with personality: a flamboyant Russian proclaims his version of communism, a New England spinster counters with Utopian visions, and a university professor retreats from the ivory tower to agricultural experimentation. Readers observe Julia’s flair for making daily life cheerful and they meet the couple’s two adored sons and Scott’s children by an earlier marriage, as well as Cracker settlers, cattle runners, and assorted seekers of health or wealth. An artist, Julia created a distinctive home designed and decorated in the manner of the pre-Raphaelites. Her palmetto fiber wall covering was exhibited at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and survives today. The Florida house, named The Nest, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Accompanied by 71 photographs of Julia’s home and family, these letters transcend the life of one woman to capture the experience and spirit of 19th-century Florida.

Remembrances

Remembrances
Author: Michael Jamieson
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2005
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0595330517

A riveting book about the life of "America's Lawyer," Chesterfield Smith of Florida, written by Michael L. Jamieson, his protégé, colleague, and good friend for 39 years. It should not be missed by lawyers, law students, professors, students of the profession and professional leadership, and those interested in the role of the leader of the nation's organized bar during the Watergate era.

Ybor City

Ybor City
Author: Sarah McNamara
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2023-02-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1469668173

Decades before Miami became Havana USA, a wave of leftist, radical, working-class women and men from prerevolutionary Cuba crossed the Florida Straits, made Ybor City the global capital of the Cuban cigar industry, and established the foundation of latinidad in the Sunshine State. Located on the eastern edge of Tampa, Ybor City was a neighborhood of cigar workers and Caribbean revolutionaries who sought refuge against the shifting tides of international political turmoil during the early half of the twentieth century. Historian Sarah McNamara tells the story of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas/os who organized strikes, marched against fascism, and criticized U.S. foreign policy. While many members of the immigrant generation maintained their dedication to progressive ideals for years to come, those who came of age in the wake of World War II distanced themselves from leftist politics amidst the Red Scare and the wrecking ball of urban renewal. This portrait of the political shifts that defined Ybor City highlights the underexplored role of women's leadership within movements for social and economic justice as it illustrates how people, places, and politics become who and what they are.

The Rough Guide to Florida

The Rough Guide to Florida
Author: Rough Guides
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2009-08-03
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1405383917

The Rough Guide to Florida is the ultimate travel guide with clear maps and detailed coverage of all the best attractions Florida has to offer. Discover the dynamic regions of Florida from the countless theme parks of Disney World, EPCOT, Universal Studios and SeaWorld, to the canals and beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Art deco sites of South Beach and Florida’s expanding Downtown region. Packed with practical advice on what to see and do in Florida this guide provides reliable, up-to-date descriptions of the best hotels in Florida, recommended restaurants and bars in Florida with detailed coverage on a full range of attractions; from day trips to Dry Tortugas Islands to discovering the historic Stranahan House. You’ll find expert tips on exploring Florida’s amazing fishing and boating activities, golf and adventure sports, Florida’s sensational art galleries and museums, all within walking distance of each other, including the Kennedy Space Centre, as well as cultural attractions, shopping and entertainment for all budgets. Navigate all corners of Florida with the clearest maps of any guide. Make the most of your holiday with The Rough Guide to Florida.

The Unwinding

The Unwinding
Author: George Packer
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2014-03-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0374534608

Paints a picture of the last thirty years of life in America by following several citizens, including the son of tobacco farmers in the rural south, a Washington insider who denies his idealism for riches, and a Silicon Valley billionaire.