Castro and Chavez: Their last hurrah

Speaking on his return from chemotherapy in Cuba, he said doctors had found no malignant cells.

"I haven't for a single moment thought about retiring from the presidency," he said. "If there were reasons for me to do that, I would."

Mr Chavez, who is celebrating his 57th birthday on Thursday, first came to power in 1999.

With his charisma and skills as a public speaker, he centralised government, basking in the political limelight.

His style of government has become known as "chavismo" and his followers are dubbed "chavistas".

"The president's capacity for leadership is extraordinary," Reinaldo Iturriza, a member of Mr Chavez's United Socialist Party (PSUV), told the BBC. "Without doubt, finding another Chavez will be quite difficult."

Few other members of his cabinet and of the PSUV are recognisable faces either within Venezuela or on the international stage.

Nevertheless, if the president's illness were to leave him unable to continue as head of state or run for re-election, the PSUV would be faced with seeking a successor.

Chavez has gone so far as to talk of a "Venecuba", a merger between two allied states. These kinds of ideas - these two men - are relics of another era. While much of the region has embraced free markets and free trade, riding a wave of fast growth and rising incomes, "Venecuba" has lagged behind.

Brazil grew at nearly eight percent last year. The Venezuelan economy shrank by two percent. The year before that, it contracted by another three percent, and that's despite OPEC announcing this week that Venezuela has more proven oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. People in the most oil-rich nation in the world actually suffer from rolling blackouts thanks to years of bad leadership.

Meanwhile, Cuba and its finances are in free-fall, surviving only because of Venezuela.

Remember that Cuba has been a basket case for decades, but it was sustained by billions in Soviet aid. Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Havana lost its ideological ally and its major sponsor. The economy contracted by a third and there were dire food and fuel shortages.

Enter Hugo Chavez. When he became president, he immediately sought the blessing of his hero, Fidel Castro. Association with Castro gave Chavez revolutionary street cred. In return, Chavez has virtually written Cuba a blank check.

According to a Brookings Institute study, Caracas ships 115,000 barrels of oil to Cuba at discounted prices every day. That accounts for 60 percent of the island's oil demand. In total, Venezuela's various types of aid to Cuba is said to add up to nearly $5 billion a year. Havana returns the favor by sending tens of thousands of doctors and nurses the other way.

It doesn't sound like a fair trade. In Cuba, there are signs the leadership realizes it needs to wean itself off Venezuela's largesse. Fidel Castro's younger brother, Raul, is now president and is trying to seek out investment from China, India and Brazil. But, structurally, not much has changed in Cuba since 1991. The island nation is still run on socialist principles that have produced shortages, black markets and mass poverty.

Imagine what happens to Cuba without Venezuela's support, and imagine what happens in Venezuela if its people begin asking questions about why they suffer one of the world's highest rates of inflation, a contracting economy and one of the worst crime rates despite having more oil than any other nation in the world. One day, these two countries will look around, see that Latin America is leaving them behind, and face the future.

So remember the images in the video above of the two amigos. They might turn out to represent the last hurrah of a dying world.

Asia de Cuba restaurant to close

Asia de Cuba will close in October. Earlier this summer, The Morgans Hotel (which houses ADC) bought out the remaining 50% of the company's interests from China Grill Management to the tune of $20 million. They will fill the space with another project, but they have not yet confirmed that it will be a restaurant.

In May, Morgans Hotel bought out the remaining 50% of the company's interests from partner China Grill Management, owned by Jeffrey Chodorow, for $20 million. Mr. Chodorow is holding on to the Asia de Cuba brand, which also has restaurants in Los Angeles, Miami and London. China Grill Management is also the team behind Bar Basque and CarteBlanche.

Representatives from China Grill Management did not return phone calls.

Hotel industry experts say the 98 employees at Asia de Cuba have union agreements that may make it difficult for a restaurant not owned by the hotel to be profitable. Morgans Hotel Group CEO Michael Gross previously told Crain's that Morgans Hotel eventually wanted to run its own restaurant. (Digital subscription required.)

Further, the restaurant is facing increasing competition for hot chefs such as Asia de Cuba Executive Chef John DiLeo. Mr. DiLeo has worked at three China Grill Management restaurants—Hudson Cafeteria, Tanuki Tavern and Asia de Cuba—after spending over a decade and a half as an executive chef elsewhere. Elsewhere, The Mark hotel opened its Mark Restaurant by Jean-Georges after completing renovations last year.

Asia de Cuba, at 237 Madison Ave. between East 37th and East 38th streets, has been in the hotel since it opened in 1984. It has a celebrity clientele that includes Kyle Minogue, Lady Gaga and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club was a members club in Havana, Cuba that held dances and musical activities, becoming a popular location for musicians to meet and play during the 1940s. In the 1990s, nearly 50 years after the club was closed, it inspired a recording made by Cuban musician Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder with traditional Cuban musicians, some of whom were veterans who had performed at the club during the height of its popularity.

The recording, named Buena Vista Social Club after the Havana institution, became an international success, and the ensemble was encouraged to perform with a full line-up in Amsterdam in 1998. German director Wim Wenders captured the performance on film, followed by a second concert in Carnegie Hall, New York City for a documentary that included interviews with the musicians conducted in Havana. Wenders' film, also called Buena Vista Social Club, was released to critical acclaim, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary feature and winning numerous accolades including Best Documentary at the European Film Awards.

The success of both the album and film sparked a revival of international interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music in general. Some of the Cuban performers later released well-received solo albums and recorded collaborations with international stars from different musical genres. The "Buena Vista Social Club" name became an umbrella term to describe these performances and releases, and has been likened to a brand label that encapsulates Cuba's "musical golden age" between the 1930s and 1950s. The new success was fleeting for the most recognizable artists in the ensemble: Compay Segundo, Rubén González, and Ibrahim Ferrer, who died at the ages of ninety-five, eighty-four, and seventy-eight respectively; Segundo and González in 2003, then Ferrer in 2005.

Social club

Buena Vista Social Club members-only club was located in the populous Marianao neighborhood, in Cuba's capital Havana. According to Juan Cruz, a former master of ceremonies at the Salon Rosado Benny Moré nightclub in Havana, the club was located "on Calle 41 between 46 and 48". When musicians Ry Cooder, Compay Segundo and a film crew attempted to identify the location of the club in the 1990s, local people could not agree on where it had stood.

The club was run along the lines of a Cabildo, a community cofradía (fraternity or guild) dating back to Spanish colonialism. Cabildos in Cuba developed into Sociedades de Color, social clubs whose membership was determined by ethnicity, at a time when slavery and racial discrimination against Afro-Cubans was institutionalized. Sociedades de Negros (Black Societies) existed throughout Cuba, and Havana boasted a number of closely linked organizations including the Marianao Social Club, Union Fraternal, Club Atenas—whose members included doctors and engineers—and the Buena Vista Social Club itself.

According to American guitarist Ry Cooder,

Society in Cuba and in the Caribbean including New Orleans, as far as I know, was organized around these fraternal social clubs. There were clubs of cigar wrappers, clubs for baseball players and they'd play sports and cards—whatever it is they did in their club—and they had mascots, like dogs. At the Buena Vista Social Club, musicians went there to hang out with each other, like they used to do at musicians' unions in the U.S., and they'd have dances and activities.

Prominent musicians that performed at the club during the 1930s and 40s include bassist Cachao López and bandleader Arsenio Rodríguez. Rodríguez's pianist Rubén González, who played piano on the 1990s recordings, described the 1940s as "an era of real musical life in Cuba, where there was very little money to earn, but everyone played because they really wanted to.  The era saw the birth of the jazz influenced mambo, the charanga, and dance forms such as the pachanga and the cha-cha-cha, as well as the continued development of traditional Afro-Cuban musical styles such as rumba and son, the latter transformed with the use of additional instruments by Arsenio Rodríguez to become son montuno. 

Performances

The first performances by the full line up of "Buena Vista Social Club", including Cooder, were those filmed by Wenders in Amsterdam and New York. Other international shows and T.V. appearances soon followed with varying line ups. Ibrahim Ferrer and Rubén González performed together in Los Angeles in 1998 to an audience that included Alanis Morissette, Sean Combs, and Jennifer Lopez, Ferrer dedicating the song Mami Me Gusto to the Hispanic Lopez.

Performances in Florida, which has a large Cuban exile and Cuban American community, were rare after the release of the film due to the political climate. In the late 1990s, a concert by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba turned into a near riot when concert goers were attacked and spat at by protesters opposed to the Cuban government. When "Buena Vista" musicians played for a music industry conference at Miami Beach in 1998, hundreds of protesters chanted outside and the convention center hall was cleared briefly because of a bomb threat. In 1999, Ferrer and Ruben González were forced to cancel Miami shows citing fears for their safety after fellow-Cubans Los Van Van drew 4,000 protesters at a previous show, and Compay Segundo was forced to cut short a 1999 Miami performance due to another bomb threat. When touring the U.S., the Cubans are only entitled to their per diem (transportation and lodging) and are not permitted performance fees due to the U.S. embargo. In 2001 a Buena Vista Social Club (with Ibrahim Ferrer) performance was recorded in Austin for PBS and broadcasted on Austin City Limits in 2002.

"Buena Vista Social Club" continue to tour throughout the world as Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, and despite the deaths of six of the original members, the collective performs with many of the remaining ensemble members including Barbarito Torres and "Guajiro" Mirabal. Ry Cooder's guitar parts are handled by Manuel Galbán, a former member of Cuban vocal group Los Zafiros, who played on Ibrahim Ferrer's first solo record with Cooder and appeared in Wim Wenders' film. Following a 2007 performance in London, a reviewer at The Independent described the ensemble as "something of an anomaly in music business terms, due to their changing line-up and the fact that they've never really had one defining front person", adding, "It's hard to know what to expect from what is more of a brand than a band.

Impact and analysis

The international success of the Buena Vista Social Club generated a revival of interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin American music as a whole. Musical director Juan de Marcos felt that the recordings serve "as a symbol of the power of Cuban music, and which to a certain degree have contributed to Cuban music regaining the status it always had in Latin American and world music.

Cuba's burgeoning tourist industry of the late 1990s benefited from this rebirth of interest. According to The Economist, "In the tourist quarters of Old Havana it can seem at times as if every Cuban with a guitar has come out to sing the songs that Buena Vista made famous. It's as if you were to go to Liverpool and find bands singing Beatles songs on every street corner. Although the songs Buena Vista sings are not their own compositions, but actually they sing some popular songs in Cuba, which people have always performed in the street. Despite the appeal of the "Buena Vista" ambience to tourists, Cubans themselves were less aware of the "Buena Vista Social Club" than international music listeners. This was due to the foreign nature of the production, and the dominance of modern Timba, Songo and other musical forms such as reggaetón on the island by luminaries Raul Zeballos the creator of the genre. Some explain that Buena Vista did not impact the Cuban audience, as they were not creating anything new, they were just playing the same songs, Cubans know and have been playing for many years.

Mari Marques, a Cuban American who leads cultural tours to Cuba, contests that the preponderance of traditional musicians was not solely a consequence of the "Buena Vista Social Club". Marques believes the notion that son music had been completely neglected in Cuba is "a romantic exaggeration that was propagated by U.S. media coverage", and the reality is that son trios have existed "everywhere in cities such as Santiago de Cuba in the east of the island. British world music record label Tumi Music, who had worked with de Marcos and many of the ensemble musicians prior to Cooder, asserted that Cuba has over 50,000 musicians all as good as, and some as old as the "Buena Vista" participants, "but these people hardly ever have the opportunity to share their talents with the outside world." The label lamented that, "for the West to pay any real attention and consume the product, you needed someone like Ry Cooder to give it a stamp of approval first.

Writer and academic Mike Gonzalez believes the ensemble provoked a backward glance to "timeless, sensual places where dreams and desire merged in a comfortable, evocative music". Gonzalez asserts that the aura evoked did not represent "the real Cuba" before the revolution of 1959, nor Cuba in the modern era, but that the Cuban government were happy for the tourist industry to "enjoy the fruits of this confusion.The American Historical Review suggested that the Buena Vista Social Club's mise en scène fueled nostalgic, idealistic feelings not only of many Americans and Cubans in the United States who remember the Havana of the 1950s, but also of Cubans in Cuba. The result was a reminiscence about the pre-revolutionary era—dominated by the politics of Gerardo Machado in the 1920s–30s and then General Fulgencio Batista until 1959—which "no longer seems so bad.

Furthermore, given the history of Cuban and American politics the underlying subtext of the film seems to lend itself to negative, condescending view on Cuba. When looked at in simplistic terms, the Buena Vista Social Club can easily be interpreted as the story of the Yankee who travels to Cuba, brings long-forgotten national treasures from obscurity and gives them the long overdue success which evaded them due to cultural abandonment of the Cuban Socialist Revolution. In analysing the implications of the documentary, with its shots of old, run down Havana contrasting the musicians arrival to the modernized city of New York and the overbearing presence of Cooder, it seems Wenders is more than catering to Anglo audiences. Cooder acts as the Anglo connection, visually and aurally, as he gives his narrative and can be heard on the album, on music that would otherwise bear little or no relevance to Anglo audiences. A large part of the romantic mythology behind the making of the Buena Vista Social Club can be attributed to his presence, and the little known facts that go unmentioned in the film. Ruben Gonzalez, for example, was a piano player for a ballet school; he was not without a piano for the numerous years implied. Singers such as Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuondo and Compay Segundo were in fact well known in and outside of Cuba prior to recording the album or the release of the documentary. 

Tampa International Airport

Tampa International Airport, is a major public airport located six nautical miles (11 km) west of the central business district of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. This airport is publicly owned by Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. It serves the Tampa Bay Area and has been widely praised for its attractive architecture and Landside/Airside design of a central terminal ("landside") connected by people movers to satellite airline gates ("airsides"), a pioneering concept when initially designed in the late 1960s. The airport was known as Drew Field Municipal Airport until 1952.

Tampa International Airport currently serves as a main hub for Gulfstream International Airlines under the Continental Connection name. Upon the integration of AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines, the merged airline will serve over 40 non-stop destinations from Tampa. Today, Southwest Airlines carries the largest share of TPA passengers, operating a peak-season schedule of over 80 daily flights. The airport presently serves 71 non-stop destinations, including international service to the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and to destinations throughout the Caribbean. The airport handled 16,645,765 passengers in 2010, making it the 30th busiest airport by passenger movements in North America. International Plaza and Bay Street is adjacent to the airport.

History

Tampa Bay was the birthplace of commercial airline service, when pioneer aviator Tony Jannus flew the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line on January 1, 1914, from St. Petersburg, Florida, to Tampa using a Benoist Flying Boat — the first scheduled commercial airline flight in the world using a heavier-than-air airplane.

Drew Field

In 1928 the city completed the 160-acre (0.65 km2) Drew Field six miles (10 km) west of Downtown Tampa. The more popular Peter O. Knight Airport was opened on Davis Islands near Downtown Tampa in 1935, where both Eastern and National Airlines operated until 1946.

The United States Army Air Force took over Drew Field during World War II and expanded and modernized the airport. The airfield was used by Third Air Force and renamed it Drew Army Airfield. Third Air Force used it as a training center by 120,000 combat air crews and flew antisubmarine patrols from the airfield. There was one accident in 1943 that killed five fliers. Despite this, Drew Field set a safety record for the Third Air Force in 1945 after 100,000 flying hours had been completed over a period of 10 months without a fatal incident. The aircraft operated included the B-17, C-47, AT-6, B-25, and others.

Tampa International Airport

After the hostilities, Eastern and National Airlines moved to Drew Field. The reason for the relocation was that the Peter O. Knight Airport was too small to handle the new Douglas DC-4, DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation prop-liners that were being placed into service. During this period the airlines were housed in the former Base Operations Building which was converted into a terminal.

Trans Canada Airlines inaugurated international flights in 1950 and Drew Field was renamed Tampa International Airport. The airport's second terminal opened in 1952 near the intersection of Columbus Drive and West Shore Blvd. The building, which was built for three airlines, was soon swamped. The Civil Aeronautics Board granted Capital, Delta, Northeast, Northwest and Trans World Airlines authority to fly to Tampa during the late 1950s and as a result created havoc at the undersized terminal. An annex was built east of the terminal to accommodate the new carriers.

Jet-powered operations began in 1959 when Eastern Air Lines introduced the Lockheed L-188 Electra. The following year National Airlines began turbojet service with the Douglas DC-8 jetliner. Flights to Mexico City began in 1961 with weekly service by Pan American.

Congestion became a serious problem at the 1952 Terminal when the airlines began to replace their piston-powered equipment with larger jetliners. As a temporary measure the terminal was once again expanded to handle the growth in traffic.

Terminal, airlines and destinations

Tampa International Airport's Landside/Airside terminal was the first of its type in the world. There is a central Landside Terminal where baggage and ticketing functions take place. The Landside Terminal is surrounded by four Airside satellites where airliner embarkment and disembarkment occur. Each Airside is connected to the Landside Terminal via an elevated automated people mover (APM) system which employs 16 Bombardier Innovia APM 100 Shuttle Cars. TPA was the first airport in the world to deploy a fully automated, driver-less people mover system and is host to Bombardier Transportation's longest-running APM system. The terminal was originally designed to limit the walking distance between the automobile and airliner to 700 feet (210 m); today, it has increased to about 1,000 feet (300 m), due mostly in part to the larger, more modern airside buildings which have replaced the original, smaller structures. The future of the Airport is certain to see continued growth and success. Many plans have been set in motion to expand the airport and its facilities as the Tampa Bay area continues to thrive.

Airsides

Today, there are four active airsides (A, C, E and F) with 62 gates. All were constructed after 1985 and all airsides include a food court and gift shop, and outdoor smoking patios. Airsides E and F contain duty free shops in addition to the regular gift shops to serve passengers arriving or departing on international flights. As of 2011, the security screening area in each airside is equipped with Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) walk-thru detection machines, made by L3 Communications, whose devices use Millimeter wave scanner#Possible health effects millimeter wave technology and not backscatter radiation. A brief description of each airside and the airlines they occupy are listed below, including the major cities/hubs that each airline serves from TPA.

Airside A

includes gates 1-12 and 14-18

it was opened on March 16, 1995 and was designed by Continental Airlines

Airside C

includes gates 30-45

it was the last airside to be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up; it was reopened to passengers on April 19, 2005

Airside E

includes gates 62-75

it was the first airside to be demolished and rebuilt

the current fourteen-gate facility was designed for Delta Air Lines and was dedicated and opened to passengers on October 15, 2002

the facility includes one airline lounge: the Delta Air Lines "Sky Club"

Airside F

includes gates 76-90

it was opened on November 4, 1987 and was designed for international flights

the facility includes two airline lounges: the US Airways' Club and the International Club which is used by British Airways passengers

the customs/immigration center is located on level

Public art program

The Airport's public art program was established in 1998 to enhance the traveling public's experience and to bring forth Florida's history and culture. A committee selects the art through a jury process.

Permanent exhibits:

Landside Terminal Level 3 at the observation deck includes paintings, sculptures, glass art and mixed media presentations. Various artists contributed.

Airside E boasts a collection of seven WPA (Works Projects Administration) murals which were originally painted in the 1930s and restored for display. These originally adorned the Peter O. Knight Airport until 1965. Artist is George Snow Hill.

Landside Terminal Level 2 has a collection of copper, nickel, silver and bronze alloy suspended Pelicans and a mangrove tree sculpture. Original to the airport when it opened in 1971 the collection is known as "The Meeting Place". The mangrove tree is 15 feet (4.6 m) tall with a flock of 22 life-sized pelicans all in copper roosting and circling around. Pelicans are also "flying" above the escalators. Artist Roy Butler of Plantation, FL.

Landside Terminal Level 2 near the United ticket counters is a presentation of 28 Cirkut images (A type of Kodak camera). They are 20.8 x 10 feet (3.0 m). The photographs depict the unique history of social and urban growth of Tampa, FL and the west coast. Included are a team photo of the New York Yankees (1927) and a 1922 Gasparilla Invasion. Artist: Brothers Al and Jean Bugert

Blue Side Baggage Claim includes artwork by Elle Terry Leonard and Josh Johnson above the marine exhibit.

Airport Chapel level 3 of the Main Terminal has the first ever commissioned artwork of glass art adorning the entryway door and interior. Artist Yvonne Barlog.

Richard J. Frank's watercolor on paper "Off Doolin" hangs in the shopping arcade of the landside Terminal.

Ticket Level/Red Baggage Claim Tapestries were hand-made by twenty women from Phumalanga, Swaziland in Africa. Each is 34 feet (10 m) by 8 feet (2.4 m) and depict familiar Florida nature scenes. They serve two purposes. The first is to provide eye-pleasing decoration and the second is to provide a sound absorption method.

Red Baggage Claim Aquarium tile collage by E. Joseph McCarty.

Main Terminal Level 3 "World Traveler" glass vase. Uses the graal and overlay technique by Duncan McClellan.

The Airport also has a collection of rotating work and exhibits on loan in addition to the permanent collections. They include the exhibit at Airside A security screening and the gallery in the arcade to the Marriott Hotel.

Airside C includes: (totaling over $1 million)

Spiraculum, a collection of twenty-six mosaic floor medallions at the shuttle lobby by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel.

Final Boarding Call, an 11 ft (3.4 m) by 17 ft (5.2 m) Oil painting on Belgium linen by Christopher Still. It's located at the TSA checkpoint.

q, a 90-foot (27 m) long sculpture of cut-out figures. It depicts travelers from different time periods and forms a timeline of advances in airline travel.

Barnstormer, an 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) silicon bronze statue of a pioneer pilot. It weighs more than 1,000 pounds and sits atop a 4-foot (1.2 m) high cement pedestal. Artist: Harrison Covington

Orange Blossom, an aluminum sculpture by Stephen Robin. The fragrant flower blooms in the spring and is Florida's state flower. This sculpture is 13 ft (4.0 m) by 9 ft (2.7 m) by 5 ft (1.5 m) and weighs about 1,300 lb (590 kg).

[edit]One Buc Place

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' team headquarters were adjacent to the airport from their inception in the 1976 to 2006, when they moved to a new facility at the former Tampa Bay Center. It is located just across the street from their home field, Raymond James Stadium, and close to the airport.

Accidents and incidents

In 1943, five people were killed when their B-26 crashed on a flight from Avon Park to Eglin field. The pilot attempted an emergency landing at Drew Field and overshot the runway. Two others on board survived. This occurred one hour after an A-24 flying out of Drew Field crashed in Mullet Key near St. Petersburg, a bombing range at the time. The pilot ditched the plane and lived but the gunner bailed out and drowned.

On November 6, 1986, an Eastern Airlines Captain, George Baines, Age 56, was flying in his private aircraft, Piper PA-23, (N2185P) from his home to Tampa International to catch a flight. As he approached Tampa International's 36L (now 1L) with 1/16 Mile Visibility in Fog, he declared a Missed Approach and went around to try it again. On the second attempt, he touched down on a parallel Taxiway and ultimately collided with a Pan-Am 727 that was taxing on this taxiway. Mr. Baines lost his life in the accident and was the only fatality. No other injuries were reported.

On June 27, 2009, US Airways flight 1241 underwent a rough landing causing the front tire to blow. Subsequently the blown tire caused the landing gear to collapse. None of the passengers or crew on board reported any injuries. However, television pitchman Billy Mays was on this flight and was hit on the head, possibly by falling luggage out of the overhead compartments, during the rough landing; he was found dead the following morning. No evidence of interior or exterior head trauma was discovered during the autopsy.

Tampa, Florida

Tampa, is a major city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709.

The current location of Tampa was once inhabited by various indigenous cultures, most recently the Tocobaga. It was spotted by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century, but there were no permanent American or European settlements in the area until 1824, when the US Army established a frontier outpost called Fort Brooke at the site of today's Tampa Convention Center. The village of Tampa began as a small group of pioneers who settled near the fort for protection from the Seminole population in the area.

Today, Tampa is a part of the metropolitan area most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area. For U.S. Census purposes, Tampa is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida MSA. The four-county area is composed of roughly 2.7 million residents, making it the second largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the state, and the fourth largest in the Southeastern United States, behind Miami, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. The Greater Tampa Bay area has just over 4 million residents and generally includes the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas. The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year. Between 2000 and 2006, the Greater Tampa Bay Market experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million people mark on April 1, 2007.

Tampa has a number of sports teams, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL, the Tampa Bay Lightning in the National Hockey League, and the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies in North American Soccer League (2010). The Tampa Bay Rays in Major League Baseball, are actually based in neighboring St. Petersburg, Florida.

In 2008, Tampa was ranked as the 5th best outdoor city by Forbes. A 2004 survey by the NYU newspaper Washington Square News ranked Tampa as a top city for "twenty-somethings. Tampa is ranked as a "high sufficiency" world city by Loughborough University and is one category away from becoming a Gamma world city. According to Loughborough, Tampa now ranks alongside other world cities such as Phoenix, Cologne, and Osaka. In recent years Tampa has seen a notable upsurge in high-market demand from consumers, signaling more wealth concentrated in the area. Tampa has been tapped to host the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Tampa Bay Hotel

In 1891, Henry B. Plant built a lavish 500+ room, quarter-mile (400 m) long, US$2.5 million eclectic/Moorish Revival-style luxury resort hotel called the Tampa Bay Hotel among 150 acres (0.61 km2) of manicured gardens along the banks of the Hillsborough River. Plant's resort featured a race track, a heated indoor pool, a golf course, a 2000-seat auditorium, tennis courts, stables, hunting and fishing tours, and electric lights and telephones in every room, plus the first elevator in town and exotic art collectibles which Plant had shipped in from around the world.

The Tampa Bay Hotel was relatively prosperous for about a decade. The resort hosted thousands of guests and many celebrities of the era, but was only filled to capacity during the Spanish-American War (see below). Henry Plant died in 1899, and his heirs sold the facilities to the city of Tampa in 1904. The city operated the hotel and used the grounds as a community gathering place until 1932, when the resort was closed, remodeled, and reopened as the University of Tampa a year later.

Architecture

Tampa displays a wide variety of architectural designs and styles. Most of Tampa's high rises demonstrate Post-modern architecture. The design for the renovated Tampa Museum of Art, displays Post-modern architecture, while the city hall and the Tampa Theatre belong to Art Deco architecture. The Tampa mayor as of 2008, Pam Iorio, has made the redevelopment of Tampa's downtown, especially bringing in residents to the decidedly non-residential area, a priority. Several residential and mixed-development high-rises are in various stages of planning or construction, and a few have already opened. Another of Mayor Iorio's initiatives is the Tampa Riverwalk, a plan which intends to make better use of the land along the Hillsborough River in downtown where Tampa began. Several museums are part of the plan, including new homes for the Tampa Bay History Center, the Tampa Children's Museum, and the Tampa Museum of Art.

Tampa is the site of several skyscrapers. Overall, there are 18 completed buildings that rise over 250 feet (76 m) high. The city also has 69 high-rises, more than any other city in Florida after Miami. The tallest building in the city is 100 North Tampa, formerly the AmSouth Building, which rises 42 floors and 579 feet (176 m) in Downtown Tampa. The structure was completed in 1992, and is the tallest building in Florida outside of Miami and Jacksonville.

For most of the first half of the 20th Century, Tampa was formed with small brick and block building, such as Senator Arthena’s joyner’s former builing at 1112 E. Kennedy, that is now occupied by Tampa Bankruptcy Attorney Stanley Galewski .

Neighborhoods and surrounding municipalities

The city is divided into many neighborhoods, many of which were towns and unincorporated communities annexed by the growing city. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown Tampa, New Tampa, West Tampa, East Tampa, North Tampa, and South Tampa. Well-known communities include Ybor City, Forest Hills, Ballast Point, Sulphur Springs, Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Palma Ceia, Hyde Park, Davis Islands, Tampa Palms, College Hill, and non-residential areas of Gary and the Westshore Business District.

Higher education

There are a number of institutions of higher education in Tampa. The city is home to the main campus of the University of South Florida (USF), a member of the State University System of Florida founded in 1956.In 2010, it was the eleventh highest individual campus enrollment in the US with over 46,000 students.Its mascot is the Brahman Bull, with green and gold as its colors. The University of Tampa (UT) is a private, four-year liberal arts institution. Founded in 1931 and located across the Hillsborough River from downtown Tampa, UT has over 6,500 students attending. Its mascot is the Spartan, with scarlet, black, and gold as its school colors. Hillsborough Community College is a two-year community college in the Florida College System with campuses in Tampa and Hillsborough County.

Other colleges and universities in the wider Tampa Bay Area include Eckerd College and St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg.

Economy

Service, retail, finance, insurance, shipping by air and sea, national defense, professional sports, tourism and real estate all play a vital role in the area's economy. Hillsborough County alone has an estimated 740,000 employees, a figure which is projected to increase to 922,000 by 2015. Many corporations, such as large banks and telecommunications companies, maintain regional offices in Tampa. Several Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in the metropolitan area, including OSI Restaurant Partners, WellCare Health Plans, Inc., TECO Energy, and Raymond James Financial. MacDill Air Force Base also remains a major employer as the parent installation for over 15,000 active uniformed military, Department of Defense (DoD) civil service and DoD contractor personnel in the Tampa Bay area. A significant majority of the civil service and contractor personnel are, in fact, themselves retired career military personnel. In addition to the 6th Air Mobility Wing, which is "host wing" for the base, MacDill is also home to Headquarters, United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), the 927th Air Refueling Wing, Headquarters, United States Marine Forces Central Command (USMARCENT), Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command Central (USSOCCENT), and numerous other military activities of the active and reserve components of the armed forces.

Downtown Tampa is undergoing significant development and redevelopment in line with a general national trend toward urban residential development. The Tampa Downtown Partnership notes development proceeding on 20 residential, hotel, and mixed-use projects as of April 2007. Many of the new downtown developments are nearing completion in the midst of a housing market slump, which has caused numerous projects to be delayed or revamped, and some of the 20 projects TDP lists have not broken ground and are being refinanced. Nonetheless several developments are nearing completion, which city leaders hope will make downtown into a 24-hour neighborhood instead of 9 to 5 business district. As it stands, Tampa residents face a decline in rent which has decreased an average of 2% next year. Nationally rent has decreased 4%.

Tampa's port is now the seventh largest in the nation and Florida’s largest tonnage port, handling nearly half of all seaborne commerce that passes through the state. Tampa currently ranks second in the state behind Miami in terms of cruise ship travel. Besides smaller regional cruise ships such as Yacht Starship and SunCruz Casino, Tampa also serves as a port of call for three cruise lines: Holland America's MS Veendam, Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas, and Carnival's Legend and Inspiration.

The main server farm for Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects is located in Tampa.

Airports

Tampa holds a unique distinction in the history of aviation, a status gained just ten years after the Wright Brothers first took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On January 1, 1914, pioneering aviator Tony Jannus captained the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, the world's first commercial passenger airline. The airline flew scheduled flights from downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, across the bay to just south of where Tampa International Airport sits today, carrying just the pilot and a single passenger in a flying boat biplane. The airline's historic significance is officially recognized by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and its pilot is memorialized annually by the awarding of the Tony Jannus Award to individuals of outstanding achievement in scheduled commercial aviation.A permanent exhibit honoring the award recipients is maintained at Tampa International Airport, which also hosts a 12.5 feet (3.8 m) painted mural from the 1930s titled, History’s First Scheduled Airline Passenger Arrives in Tampa, depicting the events of New Year's Day, 1914.

Tampa International Airport (IATA: TPA, ICAO: KTPA) is Tampa's main airport and the primary location for commercial passenger airline service into the Tampa Bay area. It is also a consistent favorite in surveys of the industry and the traveling public. The readers of Condé Nast Traveler have frequently placed Tampa International in their list of Best Airports, ranking it #1 in 2003, and #2 in 2008 A survey by Zagat in 2007 ranked Tampa International first among U.S. airports in overall quality. During 2008, it was the 26th-busiest airport in North America.

Peter O. Knight Airport (IATA: TPF, ICAO: KTPF)is a small general aviation terminal located on Davis Islands near downtown.

Tampa Executive Airport (IATA: VDF, ICAO: KVDF), formerly known as Vandenberg Airport, is another option for general aviation fliers. The airport is located east of Tampa in Hillsborough County, near the interchange of I-4 and I-75.

St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (IATA: PIE, ICAO: KPIE) lies just across the bay from Tampa International Airport in neighboring Pinellas County. Though mainly a general aviation facility, the airport has become a popular destination for passenger service by discount and charter carriers. A joint civil-military aviation facility, it is also home to Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, the largest air station in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Tourism and recreation

The city of Tampa operates over 165 parks and beaches covering 2,286 acres (9.25 km2) within city limits; 42 more in surrounding suburbs covering 70,000 acres (280 km2), are maintained by Hillsborough County. These areas include the Hillsborough River State Park, just northeast of the city. Tampa is also home to a number of attractions and theme parks, including Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Adventure Island, Lowry Park Zoo, and Florida Aquarium.

Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo features over 2,000 animals, interactive exhibits, rides, educational shows and more. The zoo serves as an economic, cultural, environmental and educational anchor in Tampa.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a 335-acre (1.36 km2) Africa-themed park located near the University of South Florida. It features many thrilling roller coasters, for which it is known, including Sheikra. Visitors can also view and interact with a number of African wildlife.

Adventure Island is a 30-acre (120,000 m2) water park adjacent to Busch Gardens. It features many water rides, dining, and other attractions typical to a water park.

The Florida Aquarium is a 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m2) aquarium located in the Channel District of Tampa. It hosts over 20,000 species of aquatic plants and animals. It is known for its unique glass architecture. Adjacent to the Aquarium is the SS American Victory, a World War II Victory ship preserved as a museum ship.

The Tampa Bay History Center is a museum of Tampa Bay History located in the Channel District, Tampa, Florida of Tampa. It boasts over 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) of exhibits through 12,000 years. Theaters, map gallery, research center and museum store.

Well-known shopping areas include International Plaza and Bay Street, WestShore Plaza, SoHo district, and Hyde Park Village. Palma Ceia is also home to a shopping district, called Palma Ceia Design District. Previously, Tampa had also been home to the Floriland Mall (now an office park), Tampa Bay Center (demolished and replaced with the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers training facility, known as "One Buc Place"), and East Lake Square Mall (now an office park).

Gasparilla,Events

Perhaps the most well known and anticipated events are those from Tampa's annual celebration of "Gasparilla", particularly the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, a mock pirate invasion held since 1904 in late January or early February. Often referred to as Tampa's "Mardi Gras", the invasion flotilla led by the pirate ship, Jose Gasparilla, and subsequent parade draw over 400,000 attendees, contributing tens of millions of dollars to the city's economy. Beyond the initial invasion, numerous Gasparilla festivities take place each year between January and March, including the Gasparilla Children's Parade, the more adult-oriented Sant'Yago Knight Parade, the Gasparilla Distance Classic, Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, and the Gasparilla International Film Festival, among other pirate themed events.

Other notable events include the Outback Bowl, which is held New Year's Day at Raymond James Stadium. Each February, The Florida State Fair brings crowds from across the state, while "Fiesta Day" celebrates Tampa's Cuban, German, Italian, African-Cuban, Jewish and Spanish immigrant heritage. In April the MacDill Air Fest entertains as one of the largest military air shows in the U.S.. Guavaween, an nighttime street celebration infuses Halloween with the Latin flavor of Ybor City. Ybor also hosts "GaYbor Days", an annual street party in the GLBT-friendly GaYbor district. The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, held annually since 1989, is the city's largest film festival event, and one of the largest independent gay film festivals in the country.

Cuba draws on the past as it struggles with economic reform

Communist regime officially has no tolerance for privileged classes, social elites, specially anointed Beautiful People. And so even as the country moves inexorably toward the political metamorphosis that is widely predicted after the death of Fidel Castro, an image persists of a Cuba whose citizens drive vintage cars, wear faded clothes and generally inhabit the anachronistic bubble depicted in “Buena Vista Social Club.

President Raul Castro appeared at an early morning ceremony here in lush central Cuba but did not speak. Dressed in a white guayabera shirt and straw hat, he enjoyed chants to his name and greeted guests but otherwise left the speechmaking to others.

The holiday marks the 58th anniversary of the unsuccessful military assault on the Moncada army barracks that launched the revolution that ultimately brought his older brother, Fidel Castro, to power on Jan. 1, 1959.

This year's celebration comes as Cuba marches along a steady but uncertain path of economic reform. Under Raul Castro's direction, the communist government is experimenting with a limited form of capitalism that has seen more than 300,000 Cubans acquire licenses to open or work in new businesses, from the selling of trinkets on a corner to running restaurants and hair salons.

Soon, they will also be allowed, for the first time under the regime, to legally sell and buy property.

But change comes in fits and starts. Thousands of Cubans have lost their jobs as the state attempts to cut deadwood, become more efficient and push workers into a fledgling private sector. And many budding businessmen and women complain of high taxes and shortages of the supplies they need to work.

"The battle we wage today is a daily struggle without quarter against our errors and deficiencies," Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura said in the keynote address. "We must definitively break the mentality of inertia.

Some in attendance were disappointed that Castro did not speak, having hoped he might better outline government plans. He is likely to deliver important remarks at next week's opening of the National Assembly.

In another sign of changing times, Fidel Castro was barely mentioned and did not even appear on billboards. The ailing former president, who turns 85 next month, ceded power to his younger brother in 2006 and has gradually taken a back seat in most affairs of state. This anniversary five years ago marked his last public political speech.

Organizers of the event also read out a message from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has come to Cuba twice in the last two months for cancer treatment. Chavez expressed his "gratitude and admiration" for Cuba.

The Venezuelan socialist said this week that he intends to run for reelection next year, but questions swirl about the true state of his health. A malignant tumor was removed last month, and last week Chavez underwent a first round of chemotherapy. He has not revealed exactly what kind of cancer he has, although speculation focuses on colon cancer.

Chavez gives Cuba thousands of barrels of heavily subsidized oil as well as other benefits. Many see that continued backing as key to sustaining economic reform, measures of which were approved by the ruling Communist Party in an extraordinary congress in April, during which the steps were pronounced as necessary to "salvage socialism.

Cuba approves Havana-Tampa flights

TAMPA, FLORIDA – The Cuban government on Wednesday authorized passenger flights to take place between Cuba and Florida's Tampa International Airport after almost 50 years, the airport announced.

Tessie Aral, President of ABC Charters, a Carrier Service Provider (CSP) with license to provide travel and charter services to Cuba, said it has secured Cuba Landing Rights for Tampa International Airport. She informed airport officials that Tampa's first flight to the Caribbean island could be as early as September 10, 2011.

"This is a monumental day. It took many people and many years working together to secure Tampa International Airport as the new gateway airport to Cuba," said Joe Lopano, CEO of Tampa International Airport. "Accessing this vital international destination will benefit all of Tampa Bay with its economic impact and it is great news for our Cuban-American community."

The State of Florida, by U.S. Census statistics, has the largest Cuban-American population in the United States. The airport said there are nearly 140,000 people of Cuban ancestry living within 90 minutes of Tampa International Airport.

Tampa airport officials said there were about 140,000 people of Cuban ancestry living within 90 minutes of the airport. The Tampa Bay area ranks second in the nation only to the Miami area in the size of its Cuban-American population, according to the U.S. Census.

Tampa was one of eight U.S. cities approved for charter flights to Cuba in March by the U.S. government but Havana had not given its go ahead for the Tampa flights until now.

Before March, only Miami, New York and Los Angeles had air service to Cuba.

The Obama administration has eased Bush-era restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba and now allows Cuban-Americans to visit as often as they like. Restrictions have also been eased to allow more "people-to-people" visits to the island by U.S. cultural and educational groups.

Tampa used to have flights to and from Havana until the U.S. trade embargo was imposed in 1962 to put pressure on the Cuba's communist government.

"ABC Charters is proud to facilitate the reunification of the Cuban American families in Tampa and the adjoining areas," Aral said. "They no longer will need to drive several hours to Miami, so they can visit their families in Cuba.

During the 1960s, Tampa International Airport provided regularly scheduled services to Havana aboard National Airlines with a pre-jet airliner DC-7B. Since then, there was no flight service between Tampa's airport, which is the 30th busiest in North America, and the Caribbean island.