Giant kudos to Times reporters Rebecca Catalanello and Janet Zink for catching this bit of city hypocrisy.
TAMPA — Wood windows are too expensive.
That’s one of the arguments city representatives made Monday to the Architectural Review Commission, which granted permission to install aluminum windows in the historic City Hall.
That bit of news might make you yawn until you consider this: A Tampa attorney made the same argument last week before a police officer stunned him with a Taser during a code enforcement hearing in that very building.
So, let me see if I understand this. If you’re a black man living in a mostly white part of Seminole Heights and you try to replace the wooden window frames in the backyard addition of your bungalow with aluminum window frames your neighbors will be so outraged that they will rat you out to the Code Enforcement Board which will uphold the capricious rules of the Seminole Heights Historic Preservation Commission.
BUT, the Architectural Review Commission, the group responsible for overseeing actual historic buildings in Tampa, have zero problem with replacing 348 wooden window frames with aluminum window frames at the Tampa City Hall.
This is precisely the point I made initially about this case. Neighborhoods are not museum pieces. While I can completely understand a Neighborhood Preservation Commission wanting to maintain certain cosmetic aesthetics, this case demonstrates how unreasonable and capricious some of the rules are. This case should never had the opportunity to get as far as it did. As soon as Code Enforcement Board heard the nature of the request it should have been granted without hesitation, and the nosy neighbors should have been chided to mind their own business. This is not someone wanting to start a truck repair business on their front lawn. These are backyard windows on an addition to the original house.
