Tampa Strip Clubs: Years of trial, triumph
December 31, 2009More people lived and worked downtown as the Centro Ybor entertainment complex and an assortment of new condo towers opened, the Tampa Bay History Center debuted, streetcars returned and the mayor’s Riverwalk project grew. Trump Tower Tampa never got off the ground, but a new Tampa Museum of Art (pictured) and Glazer Children’s Museum were approaching their debuts along the Hillsborough River at decade’s end.
9. DUBIOUS BEHAVIOR
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson left a budget deficit in the millions and a legacy of uneven leadership after being defeated in a re-election bid. The Lowry Park Zoo’s board of directors forced Lex Salisbury out of his job after investigations revealed he mixed the zoo’s assets and animals with those of a wild animal park in Polk County. State appeals court Judge Thomas E. Stringer resigned, and later pleaded guilty to bank fraud, after helping a stripper hide her financial assets from creditors. And Ralph Mervine resigned as executive director of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority in 2006 after it was learned he owned a pornography production company in San Diego.