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Medical school is just what the doctor ordered

 
Published Oct. 11, 2014

A thriving, bustling medical school smack in the middle of downtown Tampa? As Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn puts it, this would be a game changer. (If you don't mind a sports analogy about downtown that has nothing to do with actual sports, or baseball, or baseball downtown.)

A very big buzz about downtown Tampa's future has long been baseball — specifically how to land the much-loved Tampa Bay Rays here from across the bay one day.

Lightning owner Jeff Vinik made things more immediately interesting recently with his vision for reshaping his own 24-acre chunk of downtown with a sweeping urban district of hotels, shops, commercial space, restaurants and entertainment.

Things are happening. So, about that med school buzz.

The University of South Florida medical school on its main Tampa campus is bursting at the seams and in need of new digs.

Do they expand at the campus — or make a big, bold move to give the school urban cachet and help transform downtown along the way?

Imagine students helping to fill a downtown that once slowed to tumbleweed pace when 5 p.m. rush hour hit, living in hipster high-rises, filling pubs, restaurants and stores, taking citified dogs to dog parks on the Riverwalk. Yes, Tampa's newly energized downtown has actual dog parks.

And no, Tampa has not quite reached the breezy, buzzy easiness of living in downtown St. Petersburg, which had a whole lot of historic mindfulness about its waterfront and green spaces. But earlier this year, Buckhorn was at a ribbon cutting for not just another downtown restaurant or hotel — these days you can't walk down the street without tripping over one of our fancy hotels — but at a veterinarian's office.

Hello, downtown grocery?

The mayor loves the idea of a medical school in our midst, a 24-7 changeup for his city. USF's medical school dean has allowed that it could be an "exciting" option. Vinik's people see its potential in this recent statement: "We admire that USF is dreaming big, and we are doing the same thing!"

Not that we're listing reasons this would work, but how about its stone's-throw proximity to Tampa General, USF's main teaching hospital, and the distinct note of kumbaya recently struck by the chief executives of both USF medical and TGH?

How about USF's successful presence downtown already, at the sleek Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation training and research center, known around town as CAMLS?

We do love baseball. We do want baseball, if the stars one day align and the numbers miraculously work. Let there be baseball. Think how it would energize downtown on game days. And how after that last crumpled beer cup was tossed out, a medical school keeps on filling downtown Kahwa Coffee shops the next morning, and beyond.

Recent discussion of this medical school buzz could have first- and second-year students staying at USF proper, and third- and fourth-year students downtown. It would need money, lots of money. USF needs to decide whether to pursue this bold move soon.

A million optimistic sports analogies come to mind — home runs and knocking it out of the park and such. But maybe it's just a good idea that's finally come downtown.