Emails I wish you had written to me:
You: Should I feel guilty that I didn't care what pier was chosen as long as it wasn't the favorite of the snobs of Old Northeast?
Me: Yes, you should feel guilty. Also giddy.
You: The Rays had sparse crowds at Tropicana Field for six games against the Red Sox and Yankees. Should we be worried about attendance?
Me: The short answer is yes. We get so accustomed to small crowds, the temptation is to grade Tampa Bay's attendance on a curve. That's a mistake.
The Rays have had the worst attendance in baseball for three consecutive seasons, and they're back at the bottom today. Not only that, but their numbers are down 16.6 percent from this time last year.
In the past 60 years, only two franchises have been at the bottom of MLB's attendance chart for four or more consecutive seasons. The 1998-2004 Expos (who moved from Montreal to Washington) and the 1955-59 Senators (who moved from Washington to Minnesota). I wouldn't call that an omen, but I would say it's a concern.
You: Is it really such a big deal that former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco moved to St. Petersburg?
Me: Of course it's a big deal. It's not every day that an 81-year-old chooses to retire in St. Petersburg. Wait … maybe it is every day.
You: It's an outrage that computer woes have adversely affected so many students taking the Florida Standards Assessments this spring. Is it fair to label these tests a disaster?
Me: Yes, but not for the obvious reasons.
The computer problems are regrettable, but not unexpected. A switch from pencil-and-paper tests to a computerized assessment in a state this large is bound to have technical hiccups.
The true outrage is that lawmakers are so worried about upsetting Jeb Bush's legacy of education reforms that they refuse to back off some of the high stakes attached to these new tests, even though the computer problems could have been predicted and the tests themselves, in many ways, have not been validated.
In their zeal to promote classroom accountability, legislators ignore problems everywhere else. We hand over vast authority to out-of-state testing conglomerates with little transparency or oversight. Accountability needs to be a two-way street.
You: Less than six months ago, a majority of voters supported a constitutional amendment for medical marijuana, and yet our lawmakers continue to drag their feet on this issue. What's wrong with Florida politicians?
Me: Unfortunately, that's not a rhetorical question. There are almost as many answers as there are lawmakers. For every legitimate public servant such as Jack Latvala or Tom Lee, there are a dozen pretenders who care more about pleasing party leaders or political benefactors than their voters.
You: Tampa police Chief Jane Castor was unhappy with a Times report about the high number of bicycle infractions given to African-Americans, and she seemed to suggest the story unfairly painted officers with a broad brush. Does she have a point?
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Explore all your optionsMe: Think about that. It's fair for police to use crime statistics to target low-income neighborhoods, but it's unfair for a newspaper to use statistics to question the results?