Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn Gives Emotional Farewell

TAMPA, FL -- As Tampa prepares to elect a new mayor, current Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn posted a heartfelt nine-minute video on his Facebook page highlighting his eight years in office and thanking the community for its support

Buckhorn, Tampa's 58th mayor, is relinquishing his position due to term limits but not before he managed to put Florida's third-largest city on the map. Under his administration, Tampa was recognized as a top city for entrepreneurs by Forbes, the best city in the Southeast by Money Magazine, one of the hottest cities for startups by Fortune, top city to invest in housing by Forbes, top city in America for tree canopies by Treepedia, MIT's Green View Index, and one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, according to the U.S. Census.

Buckhorn called being mayor "the best job in America" but also "one of the toughest jobs in the country."

“I came here to do big stuff. I came here to build a city. I came here to change a city. I came here to pull a city up by its bootstraps from that recession that had knocked us flat,” Buckhorn said. "I got up every day to make sure that I left this city in better shape than what was given to me. And, hopefully, when history judges my time here they will say that is exactly what I did.”

The video highlights not only Buckhorn's accomplishments but his efforts to change Tampa's image by marketing the city as a destination for foodies, music lovers and cultural connoisseurs with events like the Mayor's River O' Green St. Patrick's Day celebration, the Mayor's Food Truck Fiestas and the Mayor's Mac & Cheese Throwdown.

"I don't think there is a day I didn't enjoy coming to work, even in the difficult times."

His legacy will include the 25-acre Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park, the completion of the Tampa Riverwalk, the renovation of Perry Harvey Sr. Park, the redevelopment of the Channelside District into Sparkman Wharf, the ongoing $3 billion Water Street development and the $7.4 million Water Works Park.

"It's opened up the waterfront to a generation of Tampanians who had either written it off and decided that downtown was dead or young people who are moving here for the first time and are now exposed to an amazing waterfront," Buckhorn said. "You're seeing hundreds of millions of dollars of capital being deployed as a result of that Riverwalk being finished."

Buckhorn said he is leaving a far different city than the one he inherited when he was elected in 2011. When he was elected mayor, the country was still reeling from the Great Recession and downtown Tampa was hurting. When the workday was over, downtown Tampa became a virtual ghost town. It's top night spots, Channelside and Harbour Island, were virtually deserted.

"It's been an amazing eight years. We've gone from the wreckage one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression to one of the hottest real estate markets in America," he said.

Now, hardly a weekend goes by when there isn't a festival or concert at Tampa's riverfront parks or a major event at the Tampa Convention Center.

"Downtown is completely and radically different than it was eight years ago," he said. "It's vibrant; it's alive; it's busy seven days a week, 18 hours a day."

While he said he's proud of the new development and infrastructure inprovements that are bringing a new generation back to Tampa, "what I'm proudest of is that Tampa swagger, that belief that our best days are yet to come."

I don't think there is a day I didn't enjoy coming to work, even in the difficult times.