"The Town With So Much Potential"

     First of all, Happy New Year to everyone! New Years is probably the greatest holiday; it represents turning a new leaf, trying new things, and changing as to adapt from our past mistakes. That issue of revitalization, not necessarily blatant change, is what I will touch on in this week’s blog.

            Recently I began posting on a few local businesses facebook pages introducing myself and welcoming their opinions, comments, and questions. One local business responded with a very interesting message that I wish to share. “So happy to hear Tarpon Springs will finally be known for more than being ‘a town with so much potential.’ We desperately need a more youthful energy to come into play. Congrats my friend! Hope to see you soon!” I was very excited to hear the compliment and the enthusiasm surrounding my new ideas and energy I am bringing to the table. The sentence that really stood out to me was referencing Tarpon Springs as a town with so much potential. I think many of us have thought this, said this, or heard this before, but every year the same practices still occur. Like New Year’s resolutions, shouldn’t we begin to question the status quo in Tarpon Springs? And in doing so, am I really pushing for some complete new direction, or just in a direction embracing our heritage and realizing we must revitalize our heritage and take into account business practices and the welfare of the city as a whole?

            I am the only candidate proposing different policies than those carried out for years and years in Tarpon Springs, but does that make me an enemy of heritage? I do not think so at all. I love our heritage, it’s the main reason I decided to stay here in Tarpon Springs, to purchase my home here, and begin a life here. At the same time, I believe we can have sensible business practices to welcome new businesses and tourism to the city, and not threaten those concerned with heritage. Heritage and business should be complements not substitutes. While this is touted by many candidates, the continuation of practices unwelcoming to businesses still occurs. A growing book of codes, an increasing amount of impact fees, and a sluggish response by the city to properly advertise Tarpon leads to the stagnation we find ourselves in where we continue to be a town “with so much potential.”

            We need to spark a change here, not a radical one, but a change that preserves heritage intelligently, and welcomes business openly. I have a vision and dedication to Tarpon Springs because of its heritage, but realize we must modernize and strive to be the most business friendly city we can be. Instead of being the town with so much potential, we need to be the community that others look towards to learn how to improve their own. Can we not let the private sector assist in the preservation of our heritage, let them find a way to profit in it, and help the community by growing the tax base? We must not let it continue to be as hard as it is to start a business in Tarpon Springs and we must learn from our past. I am the person for the job if you believe in new ideas, growing businesses, and expanding services for the community. If you blindly oppose any actions by the private sector in Tarpon Springs, if you embrace the stagnation of the “town with so much potential” but do not wish to act to change it, then I am not your candidate. But, I believe it is very clear the costs and benefits of altering the status quo, and it is not invading on heritage. We must revitalize our heritage; Bring Tarpon back to what it was. Bring back the sense of community, the sense of unity, and the embracement of our past. Doing that does not require an abandonment of good business practices, but instead requires it.

            In this New Year, as we all examine our personal lives and the things we wish to improve and change, let us take a look at our policies and procedures and examine why business is not exponentially growing. If we want to see that change, we need to plant the seed and watch it grow. It is time we reunite this community, revitalize our heritage, and grow our economy for the welfare of the majority of our citizens.