The 2008 topics list

I carry around a low-tech, static "data-storage device" (in other words, a piece of paper) with a list of potential column topics. The list has no real rhyme or reason, and some topics stay there for months before I just cross them off.

I cheerfully ignore my list whenever something comes up in the news that merits a column. I also cheerfully ignore my list when I am fed up with the news or just want a change of pace. The idea is to end up, on average, at a happy median between Too Trivial and Too Boring...

Here's some of what's on my current list. Most of it will never see the light of day as a column, I fear. Feel free to suggest other topics or give me a shove in the right direction...

* The property tax cut on the Jan. 29 ballot, of course. Probably my topic for tomorrow's newspaper.

* The St. Petersburg baseball stadium proposal, of course. On an ongoing basis.

* The status of the Hometown Democracy movement, which faces a Feb. 1 deadline for getting enough signatures to be on the November ballot.

* Whether we ought to support a neuter and release program for feral cats. (Hey, I TOLD you there's no rhyme or reason or ranking of priorities here.) There's an event coming up in Hillsborough this month that I promised to look into.

* This ruling by the EPA that cracks down on states like Florida that want to have tougher emissions standards. My off-the-cuff reaction is to be angry, but I saw we had an editorial the other day that said it was a reasonable decision. I want to know more.

* St. Pete's attempts to annex parts of Tierra Verde, and the suspicions of residents as to why. In a related vein, the proposals for higher tolls to the barrier islands and points south. The problem of annexation in Pinellas County in general, especially in the Lealman area. The ongoing Wal-Mart fight in Tarpon Springs. The city of St. Petersburg's foot-dragging over vendors at Albert Whitted Airport.

* Whether to have a county mayor in Hillsborough, and the county's decision to fight a county-mayor petition. I still have half an itch to do a public-records request and figure how much it cost to make Commissioner Al Higgenbotham's holiday-greetings commercial at public expense.

* The open fire hydrants at the southern tip of St. Petersburg, an almost daily event to flush the city's water system (I happen to live down there and see it all the time.) I'd like to videotape it and show it to the governors of Georgia and Alabama.

* A look ahead at curriculum reform in Florida and what our Legisalature might do. Touches on the whole evolution-vs.-faith thing but that's just one piece.

* Florida's energy future, especially now that several coal plants have bit the dust, along with the real usefulness of biofuel and the governor's global warming efforts.

* Odds and ends: Whatever happened to the USF kids thrown out for blowing up plastic soda bottles with water and dry ice. Compensation for wrongly imprisoned Alan Crotzer. The quest for a new state song. Whether to privatize toll roads such as the Sunshkine Skyway. Visiting St. Petersburg's homeless camp and visiting a public-school science class.

* More odds and ends: The status of the lawsuits against Bright House for moving government access channels. I want to stick up for state Sen. Charlie Justice's bill, which he has filed again this year, to crack down on local governments that take sides in their own elections. I'd like to know more about the various malls and development springing up in Pasco County and the near "border war" between Pasco and Hillsborough over development.

* Yet more odds and ends: A proposed pipeline trunning hrough Tampa. The upcoming same-sex marriage amendment. Whether the Bush Administration ever followed up on the idea of selling parts of the Ocala National Forest. The status of the Everglades. The rules for buying and selling used music CDs in Florida, which apparently are more rigorously than for guns. The never ending-fights over feeding ducks in various Pinellas burgs.

Again, happy new year to all... is it too early to start plugging the return of the weekly live chat next Tuesday?

Comments

[wazzamattaU]

How about choosing something relevant and important, such as the illegal alien invasion of our nation, and how our government is ignoring it?

[Jonny Anonny]

Hey, Howard -- those are all really good!

I have but one idea to offer, and it's a bit meta, as they say in the online/blog world. I wonder what you think of how all this technology has changed how you write your columns. Specifically, this blog and your semi-regular chats. Surely this is all an added burden...
Then again, what do I know. I'm not a journalist.

[Howard Troxler]

Jonny, it has indeed changed things, but as a column topic it seems a little bit like navel-gazing. I never much liked columnists who wrote columns about the nature of writing columns...

The need to put something on the blog almost daily has changed the way I look at the newspaper in the morning and the structure of the day. There also is a risk of being too reactive, just looking at the news and saying, "Here is an off-the-cuff reaction to that" that does not have much added value.

In turn, the daily obligation, time spent on weekly chats, etc. has changed the way I research and write print columns, and I have not made the adjustment yet. Whereas I used to be a carefree fellow on non-deadline days, going here or there, now it has to be more planned and structured. I definitely feel the effects of not getting around as much and this is one of my goals for the new year.

More than you wanted to know.

[Howard Troxler]

Oh, and about the invasion... I'll put it on the list. :)

[Barbara F Hildebrand]

Does not St. Petersburg have water police? Why do hydrants need to flushed in St. Pete and not Tampa?