Tampa's been busy the past year, here is the annual video presentation(there is also an 'entire presentation' which inludes the video portion).

http://www.tampagov.net/dept_Mayor/Presentations/State_of_the_City_2010.asp

I'm pretty upset Miss Pam can't run again, she has been the best mayor Tampa has seen in a really really long time. This video reminds us of the advancements made here. I hope that Tampa is able to keep up the progress with the next administration. She has faced a lot of opposition and it is sad to see a great leader leave.

I'm the most proud of our police force which IMO is one of the best in the U.S.
Say what you want TPD are some of the nicest cops I've ever met. And bringing down the crime rate 56% (even with moving all of the projects out) is still a fantastic statistic. I think our cops have demonstrated the priorities in this city which is PROTECTION and alcohol problem prevention. There are other cities that are wasting millions of dollars on stupid shit and TPD hasn't. So thank a cop next time you see them, they deserve the appreciation.

Its kind of been an odd thing throughout the nation that crime generally has gone down. Now 56% certainly kicks ass and when we lived in Tampa, TPD always seemed to be exactly what I would look for in a PD. The basically leave everyone alone and only go after criminals.

You are right about losing Pam to term limits. Its the biggest problem I have with term limits, you constantly lose good public officials because of some arbitrary limit. To me its the "my guys keep losing, so I'll find another way to win," route to electoral success. Take John Morroni, not exactly Conrad Adenauer in stature, but certainly good enough on the state or local level and the guy has to constantly hop around because of some damn term limit. Pam ought to be able to keep being a great public manager of the City of Tampa as long as the voters want her.

I agree about the comments about Pam -- just the type of mayor that a city like Tampa needs. I've only lived in the city for three years (three years in Clearwater before that) but I look around and take a look at what's happened in the city -- during a severe recession, none the less -- and feel grateful of everything that she's done.

Think about all of the "small" things that add up -- a stronger Ybor City, Riverwalk, Meridian Avenue, History Museum, Art Museum, Children's Museum, Curtis Hixon Park, streetcar extension, tons of new restaurants and bars downtown, people actually *walking* around downtown/Channelside at night, etc.

Whenever and wherever she runs again, I'm on her side.

I agree with you all. When I was living in Clearwater, I saw Pam Iorio run for office and I liked her from the beginning. She is the best mayor for Tampa.

I'm not tickled pink with everything she's done, but I will certainly agree that she's done better than I think any of her opponents would have done.

However, I will always chastise her (and the city council) for not at least expanding the streetcar and doing more for LRT than she did. Criminy, she was in office for almost a decade. It's really inexcusable imo.

Coming in and finally saying she's going to push for it now that the business community is pretty solidly behind it is nice, but it isn't exactly getting the job done in a timely manner. Imagine Tampa's trajectory out of this recession if we had leaders who had made these tough choices 5 years ago, when the choices could have easily been afforded... As it is, we're going to have plenty of lovely office and retail space available for expansion, and new cultural amenities to spruce things up... But what we won't have is a transportation system that is capable of moving many more people without crashing into gridlock twice a day.... Sorry, but the blame lies with our leaders. We've had the local activists pushing on them for years, shouting loudly about the obvious shortcomings that were developing, and they all turned a deaf ear. And that includes Iorio.

Tampa has made quite some progress and I agree about TPD they really are a good police department. Iorio has done quite a bit but there is still a ton of work to do in Tampa so lets hope the next mayor is just as good if not better.