The Trop is about 1.5 miles from the harbor. There's a lot space between it and the commercial strip that is somewhere between underutilized and vacant. Furthermore, I don't really think that you can say that downtown is booming. It's doing OK, but it's not desperate for space. I mean, eventually it will probably want to expand that way. But not soon.

I've been a twice-annual visitor to St Petersburg for 14 years, and at the rate things are expanding I'd guess that it will be at least another 14 years before there's any real desperate need for commercial development in the area that the Trop currently occupies. That means 2027... right when the Rays' lease expires! How convenient for everyone.

Stu Sternberg is all aquiver contemplating these visions of glacial economic development.

A buyout settlement from the Rays could help underwrite streets and utilities, he said. The city could offer free land for the right corporations.

This corporate welfare ######## really needs to stop.