Tafuro Communications

The Tribune article, Charitable Bang per Buck Biggest Here, about Charity Navigator’s list of the nation’s top 10 “slam-dunk” charities, highlights the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay for making the list.

The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay is now ranked as one of the most efficient charities in the country.

“We don’t do galas. We don’t do golf tournaments,” explains the foundation’s president and CEO, David Fischer. “Our money comes in and stays.”

Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest charity watchdog, ranks the Tampa-based foundation among the nation’s 10 “slam-dunk” charities. Nonprofits on the list are so efficient that donors know they can’t possibly miss.

The foundation spends a mere 1.8 percent on administration and 1.7 percent on fundraising, leaving 96.5 percent of its resources to fulfill its mission of connecting “donors who care with causes that matter.”

I typically don’t just copy a headline for my entries, yet this one is just perfect as it is. Inc Magazine’s website had this article by August Loten about the sentencing of Robert Soloway, the CEO of Newport Internet Marketing Corp. who federal investigators dubbed the “Spam King.”

Soloway pleaded guilty in March to a series of charges stemming from so-called broadcast e-mail services which used false opt-in addresses or forged headers to promote the company’s own Website.

In plain English, Soloway was sending Spam to millions of email addresses and randomly declaring who the sender was.

If you’ve ever received a bounced email message that was Spam but looked like it was originally sent by you, it’s likely you were a victim of this method of sending Spam.

The City of Tampa needs to address the issue of covering fuel costs for the Tampa Police Department. With the current cost of fuel and the City of Tampa spending roughly $4 million each year for this benefit, it is something that cannot be just reapproved each year.

When asked by the St Pete Times about Mayor Sandy Freeman’s elimination of the benefit in 1988, Mayor Iorio was quoted, “That was one of the worst times with our police department; morale was terrible.”

I have to strongly disagree with the Mayor.

As a resident of Hillsborough County and at times the City of Tampa, I would have to refer to the killing of Detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers by Hank Earl Carr in 1998 as the first “low moral” point I remember as an adult living in this community.

The story to this day still brings back the memory of watching the events unfold on the news.

Not once in the last 10 years do I remember discussing with friend the low moral was due to TPD having to pay for gas.

For more true periods of low moral you can view the Tampa Police Department’s online Roll Call of Honor.

It has been a while since I lived South of Gandy and regularly had to make use of the absolutely terrible Gandy Boulevard. Nevertheless, every time I see something on the subject of the crosstown expressway extension, I think about how anyone living in the surrounding neighborhoods could be opposed to it.

According to traffic counts from last year, up to 48,500 cars use the Gandy toll road daily. The above article also noted that the number of Pinellas to Crosstown through traffic vehicles is not yet known.

Going out on a limb, let’s try to estimate.

According to the 2000 census and this Wikipedia article the population in the Gandy-Sun Bay South neighborhood was just under 17,000. This site which sources 2007 data from OnBoard LLC estimates the population of the entire 33611 zip code is now just over 32,000.

We can assume that the entire 32,000 residents in 33611 do not use Gandy Blvd. every day and certainly not at rush hour. However, let’s be very liberal and say that 75% do use it, this would count for 24,000 vehicles or half of the estimated total cars.

After living SOG (south of Gandy) for two years, I relocated to Davis Islands and then on to South Howard for a total of about three years. In three years I can say I barely ever made a local trip using Gandy Blvd. due to the traffic. I shopped at the Hyde Park Publix or Kash N Karry and for the occasional trip to Target or a bigger Publix, I would go at off hours and utilize Euclid and Himes instead.

That said, we can assume that most people living north of Bay to Bay probably have similar driving habits. It’s the same concept that keeps most South Tampa residents off of South Dale Mabry and instead using Church, Manhattan, Westshore and MacDill.

After our above local estimate of 24,000 we have to account for the other half of the cars that use Gandy Blvd daily. I personally believe it is safe to say that around 18,000 vehicles which use the road each day are through traffic and not local business customers; therefore, they would be diverted by building an elevated extension to the Crosstown.

The potential to remove even close to that much congestion from Gandy Blvd. should have local businesses and residents screaming for the relief.

I met Mr. Hughes on only a couple of occasions and wish that I had more opportunities before his passing this month. I am most appreciative of one bit of advice he gave during my first meeting with him in 2004.

Someone during the meeting answered a cell phone call. Mr. Hughes was not upset by this but simply stated after the interruption that “The conversation in front of you is more important than the one calling in”. That might be slightly off but it was at least close to that.

While there are exceptions, it is advice I use to this day and in meetings have credited Mr. Hughes for my etiquette.

You know it’s going to be a great day when… The Ray’s beat the Sox, you receive a free Dunkin’ Donut with your breakfast order AND get free press!

All before 9 a.m.

From the Tampa Tribune:

Early morning customer Vinny Tafuro of Tampa is not as conflicted as Sox fans taking advantage of the offer. He’s a Rays fan and relishes a win and free doughnut without any misgivings.

Tafuro usually comes into the Fletcher Dunkin’ Donuts shop for a breakfast sandwich, but after a Rays win, he orders a sweet.

“That’s how I moderate my treats,” he said.