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Greco Enters The Bronze Age

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By JOE O'NEILL Tribune Columnist

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2008

Dick Greco is a Tampa original.

His roots are Ybor City; his passion is Tampa. He has dined with presidents, generals and at least one dictator. He has never met a stranger. He is old-school loyal - sometimes to a fault.

He became mayor of Tampa when he was young. He quit before his second term was up. He returned in his 60s to serve two more terms.

His sales pitches were part charm offensive and part blunt, deal-cutting pragmatism. His legacy includes the Tampa Marriott Waterside, the Stetson University College of Law and the Community Investment Tax - and all the resultant ripples.

Now the former, four-time mayor has his own image as public art. And the recently unveiled bronze homage is a Tampa original. For openers, such honors are typically reserved for the deceased. Greco, at 74, looks like he has more city hall terms in him.

And his life-sized likeness is not so much mounted as it is affixed - to a bench across from the convention center and behind Embassy Suites in the Southern Transportation Plaza. It's now "Dick Greco Plaza." A pedestal would have been inappropriately formal; a bench with room for an old - or new - friend is appropriately approachable.

•At the official unveiling, Mayor Pam Iorio, Greco's successor, was gracious in recognizing his contributions, and whatever she omitted was largely fleshed out by Ron Rotella, longtime city hall official/consultant and a Greco confidant. But ironically, no one in Greco Plaza mentioned the streetcar. Sure it's controversial, but it was Greco who signed off on the project. He saw beyond the nostalgia to an investment in an economic development tool with major implications for the convention business - as well as a potential, light-rail starter set.

• The statue, by local sculptor Steve Dickey, was paid for with private funds. Councilman John Dingfelder was the driving force behind a group that raised $55,000. Biggest contributors: Don and Erika Wallace, Edward DeBartolo Jr. and John and Susan Sykes.

• Dickey's approach was to approximate the Greco look between mayoral tenures - roughly age 50. That, however, precluded the likeness from being dead-on for contemporaries. For future generations, the point, of course, is moot. But for now, frankly, you'd have to know it was Greco.

• Such eventful civic ceremonies will always draw key politicos and Jack Harris. But such an occasion wouldn't truly be complete - or appropriate - without a formal contribution from James E. Tokley, Tampa's poet laureate.

"... upon this likeness give respect

for a dreamer and an architect

A man who had a million friends

Whose word was his bond that he would defend ..."

You don't have to be a Greco fan - or crony - to appreciate the natural resource that is Tampa's own ode-meister, James E. Tokley.

Iorio Plays Hardball
Mayor Pam Iorio acquitted herself well on her recent appearance on "Hardball with Chris Mathews," even if the confrontational format is hardly her forte. She was on in the aftermath of her endorsement of Barack Obama. Her counterpoint partner was U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the South Florida congresswoman who is a national co-chair of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

"I am not sure I am 'Hardball' material," assessed Iorio. "I don't like to cut people off and argue so much."

Basically, Iorio and Wasserman Schultz disagreed over the ultimate Florida disagreement - how to count the Sunshine State's primary votes and parcel out the delegates. Iorio was about moving forward and then fixing a process that is an obvious mess. Wasserman Schultz was about looking back and fixating on the vote and delegate counts.

The tete-a-tete was an apt metaphor for the Obama-Clinton primary marathon. Pam was upbeat Pam and above the fray. She could have been weighing in on concerts in the park. Wasserman Schultz, who began more than one interruption with the disingenuous "With all due respect," was unyielding and strident.

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesez@aol.com or www.opinionstogoonline.com.

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