News & Public Affairs

Tampa water bill task force update & city spent $165,000 on Gasparilla listen

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Tags: high water bills, water, Tampa City Council, Gasparilla, Hyde Park

Today Tampa City Council heard an update on the administration’s task force into unusually high water bills. Recently the council suspended the top billing tiers for the city’s highest water users. Steve Daignault, the city’s utilities administrator, said only a small fraction of the spiked bills are due to tiered bill...

Hyde Park residents call for Gasparilla audit listen

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Tags: Gasparilla, Tampa, Hyde Park, Tampa City Council

All the plastic beads and empty beer cans may have been swept away days ago in the wake of Gasparilla, but questions about what the city of Tampa gets out of the debauchery still remain. Some South Tampa residents are calling on City Council to audit the nonprofit that puts on the annual parade.

Thousands of people pack Downtown Tampa every year for Gasrparilla festivities. Many patronize nearby hotels and eateries. The festival has become a large part of Tampa’s identity on the national s...

City Council looks at Gasparilla listen

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Tags: Gasparilla, City Council, events

The Tampa City Council met this morning in a public workshop to discuss all aspects of the 2010 Gasparilla Parade. Members of the public gave input concerning operations and logistics for the event that some residents are concerned has brought too much chaos to their neighborhoods.

Staff from the Tampa Police Department, the Parks and Recreation Department, and the organizers from Event Fest spoke at the workshop. Santiago Corrada is the City of Tampa’s Neighborhood Services Administrator...

Neighborhood activist pleased at new Gasparilla regulations listen

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Tags: Gasparilla, public indecency

For years, some residents in Tampa’s Hyde Park District have become increasingly angry at the annual Gasparilla Parade event.

The signature Tampa street party brings several hundred thousand people to town in mid-February. Many of those people drink alcohol, sometimes beginning early in the afternoon. That’s led to lots of reports of public urination, belligerent attitudes, and other related aspects of drunken behavior.

In response, the organizers of the event met with some residents...