The Tampa Monitor is a project aimed at bringing awareness to what is happening in Tampa through the lens of the City Council agenda. It has evolved over time but the idea has always been these questions.

Why did they…

Admit it. At least once you’ve seen a government project and asked why did they do it a certain way. At no other level than local do you have a better opportunity to influence how or if or where a project is implemented. But often we don’t hear about it until after a project has been approved and funded. I hope to reduce the friction for my neighbors to learn about what our city is planning and doing while advocating for the city to make the information more accessible.

But isn’t all there…

It’s great that we have a video archive of all Council, Community Revitalization Agency, Variance Review Board, Architectural Review, and Barrio Latino meetings. There are also transcripts for each meeting generated from the closed captioning. Finally we have the agendas . We also have plenty of open data on the GIS side of the equation. Finally there is Accela.

What if…?

All of this was in one place? Yeah, what if. Until then, that’s the gap I hope to fill in hopes of helping educate my neighbors not only on the week to week decisions of council but how to advocate for issues that are important to them and their neighborhood.

Is it free?

Yes. You can support the site directly or I’m available for web consulting, custom digital map development and slide deck preparation. Drop me an email at michael@webjanitor.consulting if you’d like to discuss a project.