10 Projects Critical to Tampa Bay's Future

"Nobody wants to bungle a major project deemed fundamental to the Tampa Bay region's future health and standing as a metro area worthy of greater national attention," writes Robert Trigaux to introduce his list of ten projects central to the improvement of the Tampa Bay region. But he also wonders if the region lacks the "muscle" to do the heavy lifting necessary to deliver the projects on the wishlist.

In fact, Trigaux also assigns grades to each of the projects on the list to indicate how well the region has done in proceeding with the project so far. And those grades don't average well. According to the list, there's only one grade above a B, an A- for "Jeff Vinik's 40-acre urban 'work, live, play' real estate redevelopment just south of downtown Tampa."

Earning the lowest grades are two areas of critical infrastructure concern including "Inbred energy policy" (Grade: F), which, Trigaux argues, limits the region's capacity to deliver half of the other projects on the list, and "Transportation that works" (Grade: D).