Tampa Taxi Shots

John Morgan Lawyer Pulls No Punches On Political Correctness

John Morgan or Morgan and Morgan is known for not pulling punches. He tells it like it is. I can see by his new billboard advertisement that he is not politically correct. We have a holiday coming up called Christmas. It has always been Christmas. People today are afraid to call it that. They refer to it as the 'holidays.' As if someone will be offended. 

Publix supermarkets will never use the word Christmas. They avoid it and only say holidays.' They say they 'will be closed on December 25th' instead of saying Christmas. This is a cowardly position for a company to take. John Morgan is not a coward.

His billboards say CHRISTMAS! That is, after all, what they holiday is about.  It is also about family and notice he uses his dogs Emma and Ali...how cute.

Tampa Police Trying To shut down Epoch Newspaper

I saw this scene at Kennedy and Westshore. It seems this Tampa cop does not like people selling newspapers. Tampa Florida has yet to be informed that Newspapers are protected by the constitution. You would have thought this was on the streets of Havana with Castro's thugs (Castor's thugs) shutting down freedom of expression and the press. I thought this cop was going to use his taser on these homeless guys. He should have used his pepper spray, right? Maybe he should just go out and right a speeding ticket.

After all, cops in Tampa are only hired to raise revenue for the city. Their time would be better served by just holding a telethon.

How embarrising for a city that is going to host a major political convention next year that they don't even know what peoples rights are. 

Liberty and freedom are important to most people. It is too bad that the Tampa police have never heard of  the Bill of Rights. I see them violating peoples rights all the time. This is nothing new. 

Bob Buckhorn and Chief Castor are not our dictators. I wish they would start behaving and representing the people of Tampa. 

Since  the City of Tampa has outlawed panhandling a newspaper was stated that will allow homeless folks to collect one dollar on every copy of Epoch they sell. It is legal and protected by the Constitution.

This is a drop point by the Army Navy store downtown where they can come and pick up their newspapers. This is how all newspapers are distributed. 

The sellers work hard. They have to ride a bike, or take a bus to the part of town where they work. And they work all day. It is not easy work. If a person was willing to do this, I am sure they would go to a real job if they had one to go to. That is the problem in this economy - There are no jobs.

I hope the publisher of Epoch will not take this sitting down. He needs to get his lawyer involved. This harrasment by the cops should not be tolerated.

The Monster Under The Kennedy Street Bridge Tampa Florida

 People all over the state of Florida have reported seeing monsters.  Every county in the sunshine state has a database of sightings of what is commonly called the ‘’skunk ape.’ 

Is the monster real?  Is it just folk lore of ancient Indians? Possible, but did you know there have been recent sightings in urban areas including one near downtown Tampa. 

A worker getting off late in downtown Tampa saw a bipedal animal swimming under the Kennedy Bridge.  The creatures body was covered with hair and he was eating crabs on the rocks below.  When the man got close, the animal swam off at a very high rate of speed north up the Hillsborough River. The person who reported this said he went back the next day and saw crab shells on the rocks below. Interesting. 

In the last year, I have been searching the swampy lowlands of central Florida and the Green Swamp.  I have found footprints, caught fleeting images on video, and recorded strange howls at night that do not match any classified animal So I thought I would investigate this sighting. 

St Pete Pandhandlers Flood Into Tampa - Are They Begging, Or 'Flying A Sign?'

 St. Petersburg, in my opinion, has illegally outlawed free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, in short, civil liberties by banning guys from standing on street corners 'flying a sign.' This is a great country we live in.  At least it used to be. St. Pete does not think so. There is, however, a real danger to doing this.  Let me explain.

In this great country a person with ambition and skill can rise as far as his dreams will take him. But what if his dreams are not to be an astronaut or a CEO or a doctor, or whatever people think you should be. Hell, what if he wants to be A TAXI DRIVER. What if he just wants to 'hang out' and drink beer with his buddies and go no further than that.  In this country that should be his God given right. Sadly, people don't think so. 

The problem with banning anything is that you move just a little closer to the banning of political expressing, and that is where the danger lies. That is why we uphold the rights of Larry Flint and Joe Redner.  That's right - porn is free expression.  If you ban it someone will come along and say they find a cable channel or a political party to be objectionable. Do we ban this stuff as well? 

Hell, we live in a country now where you can't even go into a bar and light up a smoke....WTF?

So when you see the guy on the side of the road and you give him a couple of bucks, you better believe it will go to fast food, a cheap motel, a quart bottle of beer (several) and a pack of cigs. 

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Sunrise Tribute To The Fallen On Memorial Day

I go every year to the VFW cemetery on Kennedy Blvd in Tampa Florida at sunrise. My reasons are deeply personal. Today I gave a little speech while I was there. We owe our freedom to the fallen soldiers that lie here. 

The Scene Of The Accident

 I sort of had a strange 'accident' Sunday afternoon.  It was raining cats and dogs and if you drive in Tampa you know that the roads flood like Noah's Ark. ( It is a problem I thought they had fixed with all the pipe they had been putting in for years).  I had a call on north B street just north of Kennedy.

I picked up Orlando (my fathers name) he is a regular and goes to a restaurant on south Howard.  In front of his house was a puddle of water.  It did not look that deep.  "Turn around don't drown" is the saying.  It really did not look that deep.  I drove through it and my car sank hard.  I did not see the pot holes that lurked below.  I was almost underwater!

The problem with that is that if you taxi cab takes water into its engine - you just bought it.  United Cab has a 'no tolerance' policy on this matter.  I also heard a very load bang sound.  When I got to the stop sign at the end of the block, the car was knocking.  I must have taken in some water.  I have never don that is all these years of driving cab. 

Later, when I was at the gas station, I filled up on premium thinking that would get rid of the knocking - no such luck.  It was running rough man...very rough. 

This morning it was a little better and by the end of the day, my taxi was running just fine.  I think I burned the water out of it.  It must have been just a little bit. 

Homeless Work Hard In Tampa Bay

There is a group of homeless people who work the corner of Kennedy and Dale Mabry every day; they show up on time and put in a solid eight hours. That should make them a good employee for any business, if there were any jobs out there.

In A Five Car Accident And FIVE GOOD DAYS IN A ROW!

I was west bound on Kennedy while stopped at the Dale Mabry light.  There were two cars in front of me and one was a Yellow cab.  While we waited for the light to turn green, the north bound car on Dale Mabry was struck by a east bound car on Kennedy that blew the red light.  The force of the collision knocked both cars into the cars in front of me.  I thru the car into reverse and got out of the way just as the car that had been struck came to rest where my taxi cab had been sitting.  She did hit the front of my taxi, but only some scuff marks - no damage.  My passenger thanked me for taking the evasive action and another cab was dispatched to pick up my passenger (the wreck cost me $20).  You can see the car sitting where I was at five seconds earlier.

The back office was so happy about my avoiding such a bad situation, they gave me a free day!  Now how cool is that.  It goes along with my FIVE GOOD DAYS IN A ROW.

Protest Outside The University Of Tampa

Lots of people can be seen right now on Kennedy blvd., holding signs protesting our communist president. I know people will just think they are a bunch of wing-nuts, berthers, rednecks, idiots and so forth, but their numbers are growing.  Sorry mr. Obama if we don't do back flips over your stupid train that NOBODY will ride. Just my view from the front seat of the taxi cab.  

I do like the 23,000 jobs that it will create in the next four years.  That WILL stimulate the local economy.  That is a good thing.  I just think in the long run, it will be hardly used.

If you have lived in Tampa a long time, you will remeber Sandy Friedman and her downtown Tampa monorail.. Nobody road the thing and eventually the city of Tampa had to spend over a million dollars to take the thing down.  Just my opinion from the front seat of the taxi cab.

Roads blocked off around UT

They already have blocked off n boulevard between Kennedy and Cass. There are also National Guard troops patrolling the neighborhood near the university. It will get worse around Tampa as the day goes on.

NEW FAD IN TAMPA

What is with all the mannequins on sidewalks that I am seeing in Tampa lately?  It used to be the gorillas at the vacuum store on Kennedy, now its hot looking store mannequins on Kennedy, Hyde Park, Columbus and several other locations. 

I am not sure why.  Perhaps, to draw attention to the business that it is out front of.

This one sort of got my attention.  She seems to be rather well endowed.  You will find her outside of Anytime Fitness at Kennedy and Habana (daytime only).

Some USF students once stole a gorilla from out front of the State Vacuum store.  They returned it, however, when the owner went on TV and said no questions would be asked if they brought it back. 

You would think some "Jeffry Damer" type, or garden varity pervert,  would steel one of the hot mannequins.

Auto Accidents All Over Tampa

I have been seeing a lot of traffic accidents in Tampa lately. Drivers are way to aggressive and some civility on the roads is in order.

The upside down car here at Platt and Cleveland must of been hauling ass. How else to end up like that? The police had the entire street blocked off and this was as close as I could get from Kennedy and Boulevard.

I had just left the scene of another wreck at Kennedy and Howard where a Pepsi truck ran the red light and a lady crashed into it. It looked bad. I did not stick around.

Aggressive driving is a threat to all of us and I believe the police should do more to stop it than staking out Hillsborough and Dale Mabry every Saturday morning using radar on the southbound traffic coming over Hillsborough. IT IS THE ONLY TIME OF THE WEEK THAT YOU CAN GO OVER THE SPEED LIMIT.  They do it on Sunday morning right after sunrise so they can get their quota and again...no real traffic enforcement. Just ticky-tack stakeouts.

FOOTNOTE: In case you were wondering why I have not been posting...Just a little burnout....I needed a break....Now that my break is over....Watch out Tampa...YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!!!!!!!!!

The Newspaper Street Corner Hawkers

If you are out and about on Sunday mornings, you must have seen these guys at the major intersections in Tampa selling the Sunday paper. They are really doing a good service to the community.

Most of these guys (some girls) are homeless and they get a chance to make up to $75 for their efforts. It is honest work, and who are they hurting. How it works is they pay 25 cents for each paper, and sell them for one buck. Sell a hundred...you make the $75. Not bad.

It seem St. Pete considers this activity panhandling and they want to ban it over there. That is a shame.

Many of them have interesting stories, and seem to be very motivated when they sell the rags.

I always buy from them when I can easily pick up editions anywhere I want. I just want to help.

Bahasa Night Club In Tampa Suddenly Closes

Bahasa Nightclub in Tampa is now closed. It happened very suddenly for a club that was really packing them in. I heard they got in trouble with the authorities.

What I heard in the cab was that they were not checking id's on hot young girls and many underage girls where going into the club. They should of known better then that.

The club was a success and there are plenty of "grown up" women that you don't need to go were they went....allegedly.

A Tale Of Two Laundromats

The laundry mat at 2708 W. Kennedy blvd closed the other day. Just another sign of how upscale the areas of Tampa that Kennedy blvd dissects are becoming. I mean, it was the working poor that used this laundry. No more. The building of high end condos that replace affordable housing in south Tampa and Hyde Park is now finding its way north of Kennedy blvd and into West Tampa. Business that serve indigent and poor people are vanishing.

When I started driving cab in 1995 there were two prominent laundromats in the Hyde Park area. You had this one and the one at the corner of Platt and Howard, which is now a mortgage brokers office. I was a friend of the owner Bob and he said a week did not go by without someone coming in and making him an offer for the property and they did not plan on keeping it a laundromat.  He finally got an offer he could not refuse...and sold!

After Bob closed down, I started doing my laundry at the location on Kennedy and often talked to the lady that owned and ran the place. She owned it for years. One day, she candidly told me that the business was not doing well and her income was now dropping like Bill Clinton's pants. She said she no longer had the money to continue with the necessary maintenance that is required of running a laundry. The last time I saw her was about six months ago. Since then the number of baskets has been dwindling away, most of the machines were now broke, and I can't remember when the soap dispenser had any soap in it.

Now I know why. She was clearly planing on closing and had lost her interest in it. What happens now I mean, where do renters go to do clothes....This just in - Not everyone lives in a $400,000 condo. I think this is just more evidence of the vanishing middle class.

While I was there today taking these pictures, a car pulled up with laudry in the back. The guy got out and read the sign in the window...looked discusted and then left. There must still be a demand for this kind of service.