Tampa Taxi Shots

HOLDING AREA AT TAMPA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

This is where the cab drivers go to wait until they are called up to the terminal..

HOTEL FLORIDAN TO REOPEN

Have you ever gone by this building in downtown Tampa and wondered what happened to it?  There was a time when the Florida Hotel was the tallest building in Florida until 1966.  I was driving by it recently and saw construction crews working on remodeling this hotel.  I don't know if it is going to be a hotel again or condos.  Maybe somebody knows.  I always thought it was a shame that this building had gone fallow for so long.

I noticed the arched windows, the iron railings and bottom floor which will have a coctail lounge, a ballroom and spa.  The owner will duplicate the glory days of this hotel as it was in the roaring 1920's.

Antonios Markopoulos, 67, the owner of the Floridan who is bankrolling the renovation of the 19-story hotel, a high-stakes bet that he can re-create a money-making boutique hotel for tourists and locals who remember its decades of history.

It may be to far to walk to the convention center but it will be real easy for cabs to pull up and take them.  We did that when the Days Inn was downtown and now with the Court Yard by Marriott.

I think this project is awsome and has tremendous potential. 

This is a huge upgrade for Tampa instead of homeless people and rats camping out in the building.

  

Everyone in Tampa has seen this building

 

You can see how nice they are making the outside.

 

They are redoing the inside.  This buliding used to house rats!

 

You can see the construction site out back of the Hotel Floridian

A VISIT TO TAMPA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

One of my best plays as a cab driver is to incorporate Tampa International Airport into my daily plan of action.  Between the hours of 9-12 in the morning is when it moves at its best and I have gotten some great rides out of there.  $50-70 is not uncommon.

 

Look at the long line in holding.. The picture above was taken in the second lot.

 

You can see the construction that is still going on around Tampa International Airport

 

One of many Southwest Airlines flights that leave Tampa International Airport everday.  The website says that 23% of all flights out of here are on Southwest Airlines

 

These guys wish they could be big ole airplanes

A RIP-OFF CAB DRIVER

No wonder we have no business anymore. I picked up this couple at the Quality Inn at the corner of Henderson and Dale Mabry. This is cab stand #31. They were going to Tampa International Airport after coming back from a nice cruise on the Carnival Liner that departs every Sunday from Tampa. They told me that believe they had been ripped off by a Yellow cab driver when they were leaving the port.

They said that son was with them on the cruise and he lived in another part of the country. They where going to Southwest Airlines and he was going To Delta. The Yellow cab driver charged them the standard $25 flat rate from downtown. When he dropped them off at Southwest, he charged their son $15 to take him to Delta! That is outrageous.

You see, we do have a minimum fare to take anyone anywhere, but that does not apply in a continuation of 200 feet for a family member. Of course, they did not get the cab number, so there is no way they can report this person. Too bad. Drivers like him are killing our business because they come from a culture where all you do is rip people off.

They said he was a Haitian driver. Figures, they have no soul.

NO CASH, NO CREDIT CARD, NO NOTHING, WHY ARE YOU IN MY CAB?

I picked up this young lady right after the bars closed this morning at 1120 E Kennedy at a swanky condo.  She seemed a little upset(like all women do at this hour), and wanted to go to the condos on Theresa Circle, which are open now.  She said nothing during the entire trip.

When we got there, she did the charade of looking in her purse and could not find any money or credit cards.  She finally found a credit card, but I called it in for a verification and it was declined. Now I am getting pissed.  I tell her she needs to come up with the ten bucks or I'm calling the cops.

She the fact that her boyfriend was sleeping with another "random chic" at the condo downtown was more important than my cab fare.  Oh ya, I tell her to cough up the dough or I call the cops.  She says Im an asshole.  Wow....How original.

She finally called her mother and I did a credit card transaction over the phone and got paid.  She was crying the whole time and her makeup was smearing down her face.

The reason I'm telling you all this is because it was a scam from the word go and that women are way to emotional to be leaders in our society.

Sorry about the blurred photo, my batteries were going dead.

THE WOODS, THE NRA, THE BUCCANEERS

They say that when you are in the woods you should wear something optic orange in case you run into hunters.  You don't want to get shot by drunk hunters or those on acid. 

I wear one of my old Tampa Bay Buccaneer hats.  This one is many that I have in a collection.  Its to bad some hunters will shoot at anything moving. 

The NRA is the biggest proponent of safe and responsible gun use in America.  They do not support wholesale slaughter of people.  I wear the orange hat because there may be non-NRA members out there with guns.

ANIMALS NEED WATER

The St. Pete Times had an article today of how Animals invade Tampa in search of water during droughtThey are getting close to man.  A coyote ate a Pomeranian in East Lake. A fox bit a woman in Citrus Park. A wild hog invaded a back yard in St. Petersburg.

That has been my underlying theory in my search for the elusive Florida Skunk Ape or Bigfoot.  I have trekked into unexplored areas north of the Hillsborough River off of hwy 301 and found areas with water untraveled by humans which would be a prime source of water for secretive beast.  One of my comments on You-Tube said it looked like I had found a prehistoric land near Tampa.  You can view Green River Swamp Bigfoot of how I found and documented this area.

This area is a tributary called Trout Creek in North Hillsborough County and the algae bloom shows not many canoes or kayaks come this way.  This would be a perfect "watering hole" for something that did not want anyone to find his ass. You can hear my theory and how I am closing in on my search at this You-Tube video.  Sorry St. Pete Times, I recorded this video on You-Tube over a month ago about the drought in Tampa and its effects on large mammals.  I was ahead of the curve. Good as time as any to announce my new blog Tim Fasano.com "What most people are afraid to say"

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

Hear the recordings that I have made at sunset in Florida and watch my attempt to communicate with Bigfoot--something responded. See Baynews 9 Report

HOW OPEN MINDED ARE YOU?

Serious.  Are you open minded to the prospect of an advance life form previously unknown that my be living in North America and has found its way into Florida?  There is a body of evidence that is now supporting this theory.  

Michael Crichton.in his novel Congo speculated on what would be the circumstances of man encountering a previously unknown intelligent primate that may have branched off of our evolutionary tree. I am not talking about the movie which was loosely based on the novel, but his book which was more interesting.

The research I have done is leading me to this conclusion that there is more out there then what we know.  In the North East part of Hillsborough County I have found "Forest Anomalies" that the team Bigfoot Research Field Investigators have found throughout the country.  It is beleived that these structures are territorial markers used by Sasquatch to mark or show a pathway thru the forest.

The image above is of a dead 50 foot tree that has been placed up against a live tree and lodged into the fork of the tree. This video I posted on You-Tube shows many such structures and even what I believe is a burial mound.  When I tried to dig it up, I found out it was entombed in a solid formation of a wood floor.  I could not get into it!

I have encountered tree knocking and other strange things that I will soon be posting about.  Keep an open mind.  Check out my new blog at:  http://timfasano.typepad.com/bigfoot/

SUNDAY MORNINGS

Sunday mornings are special time for me.  Most of the time I have had a decent morning money-wise, and the sun is rising giving hope for the new day.  The traffic volume is at its lowest for the week and it is cool outside.  The hot season is just around the corner, however.

Many good fares come out on a Sunday morning.  You have what I call "displaced drunks" and house parties.  The people need to go back to where they started from, and that can be a long way from where I picked them up.  That translates to good fares for the cab driver. The only real problem can be that you get belligerent assholes at this hour and people with no money who think they can scam you out of ride.  That is usually what are called TPD calls. 

A TPD call involves the police.  The dispatcher will tell you to look for the police car on the side of the road and pick up the person he has decided not to arrest.  For whatever reason, they never have money.  That is why you have to make them count their money in front of you and the cop.  Cops usually get pissed when you do this because they know you will not transport without money.  We are not social workers.

There is just enough variety to keep things interesting.  You can go from picking up beautiful looking women at an upscale condo on Bayshore, to picking up your down on their luck fares at low end motels.   At this swanky motel I picked up a lingerie model who wanted to go to MacDonald's to buy food for her two kids and her boyfriend that she was supporting.  She did'nt seem happy; I guess life is not a bowl of cherries for everyone.

That was one of the things that Nancy Castelano told me when I first got into this business, you don't always pick people up under the best of circumstances.

Its not Sunday Morning for everyone.

THIS IS WHY I HATE BLOGGING NOW

A comment received by a young black girl who thinks I am a racist because I did not vote for Obama on political reasons.

"haaha, you are one said old man. No wonder you drive a cab for a living...anyone so clueless about reality like you are must be an idiot.

OH NOES MY TAXES ARE GOING BACK TO THE WAY THEY WERE IN 2001 LET ME MAKE UP ALL KINDS OF LIES TO SPREAD FEAR. DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT! FEAR, CLING TO YOUR GUNS TOO DESPITE THE FACT OBAMA IS PRO OWNERSHIP!

BE AFRAID! "

 

And you wonder why I have lost my interest in this shit.

 

Here is a link to her Youtube site that has no channel subscribers or no videos posted.  She is 37 years old and so ugly she took her own photo down.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT PEOPLE COULD NOT GET WORSE

Cab drivers in the early morning hours check into zones.  That means we do not have to sit on a stand.  We can be a little more strategic and find a spot that puts us on the cusp of several zones.  If your smart, that is what you will do. Lately, I have been sitting at the corner of Mac Dill and Empendrado which borders three very good zones for airport runs in the early morning.

The spot I use is in front of the Salvation Army.  I sit on the East end of the building and on the West end of the building is an area where people can drop off donations for the Salvation Army to sell inside.  It mostly looks like junk. 

Every night I am there, I will see cars pull up.  They will not unload.  They will PICK-UP!    The other night, I saw a lady in an SUV at 4:30 in the morning make a quick getaway with a coffee table tied down on the top of her vessel. 

I know times are hard, but this is ridiculous.

GPS

I have a GPS.  I wish I had got this technology a long time ago.  Man, does it make a cab drivers life easier.  Even though I know the Tampa area very well, there are streets I am not familiar with and neighborhoods that are like a maze, such as Culbreth Bayou and Davis Island.  All you do is enter the address and it will guide you in with a women talking to you all the way.

I had it added to my Metro PCS phone service.  It is a new feature that they are offering and It works just like the bigger dash mounted cams that are common.  Why pay $300 when you can have it on your cell phone?  If you can text, you can GPS.

I CAN DO MY JOB!

One of the things that really gets me is when a dispatcher thinks I can't do my job, such as correctly find an order with a clear and precise address.  Sunday morning "Shoe" or weekend dispatcher, gives me an address in zone 51 of 4214 W. Cayuga.  I go there and it is a towing company.  The only thing behind the barbed wire fence are cars and tow trucks.

It is possible that somebody lives in an apartment in the back, so I blow my horn.  Nobody responds.  So, I call it into dispatch as a no show.  Shoe starts giving me the third degree about are you sure you are on Cayuga and at the right address.  He says we pick this guy up everyday and he is never a no-show.

I cannot speak to that issue but I can tell you I was at the right place because I used my camera to get a photo of the sign. No doubt about it, I was at the right place.

Shoe no-shows the order but you can tell he is pissed and thinks I was screwing up.

Later I heard an order go out for 4214 E. Cayuga!  That makes all the difference in the world.

I know how to do my job.

A CELL PHONE, A HAPPY MEAL, AND 55 CENTS

I have Metro PCS (Ghetto PCS) for my cell phone service.  My payment is due on the second of every month.  The problem is that you can't mail in the payment, you have to go down to one of their offices and pay a"convenience" fee of 3 dollars on top of the bill (rip-off).

I was on my way to pay the bill since I was late and afraid that I would be cut off.  When, all of a sudden, dispatch is calling me about a special in the Westshore area for me only by a women named Jeana.  She is an exotic dancer and goes thru money like water and only calls me when she ain't got no money and needs credit.  She ALWAYS pays the next day.  I have never been stiffed.  So I roll on the call.

Today, she wants to go to a strip club in Sarasota to make money and will pay me the next day.  The reason she called the office was because she has Metro and her phone was cut off! 

A perfect match. 

Don is now calling me on the cab radio to see if I got her.  Ya, Ya,  I  got her.  I try to call out on my phone on the way to Sarasota and my phone is now cut off! 

Birds of a feather.

She is hungry and has no money, so I go to MacDonald's and get some burgers and her a happy meal for girls.  Cool.  I get the toy.  It is from the movie Monsters and Aliens.  You wind it up and it runs across the floor or any flat surface like the hood of the taxi.

By the time I take her there, go to the store, buy gas, go to MacDonald's, this trip has cost me $50.  What is wrong with this picture?

When I stopped at the store, this homeless guy ask me for 55 cents.  I tell him I am having a bad day.  When I come out of the store, he is talking on a cell phone!

I got life messed up.

What does the Happy Meal toy remind you of?

JUST GIVING RIDES?

On most mornings, you begin your day with somewhat of a positive attitude.  Why not?  All you have to do is get your call from the dispatcher, roll on it, pick the people up and take them where they want to go.  It is not always that simple.

I got a ride at 4:45 AM, at about the time you would expect a "time-call" to come out for a pick up in which you have 15 minutes to get there.  The people said they wanted to use a credit card to pay.  Cool.  Everything seemed to be going well.

Until I got there.

This man and woman came out of the house and they had to have been drinking all night long.  Why, the woman was more concerned about if she could smoke in the cab instead of where they were going.  She kept screaming "Do you take credit cards. Your dispatcher said you do."  True.  But not true.  I take them for business people and people going to the airport, not for fucked up drunk people.

They went to 606 W Azelle street.  The man gave me his phone and said he would go inside and get the money, and I could hold his phone, and her, as collateral.  

He never came back.

She was pissed.  She said he was going to get her some weed and now she had nothing. 

Fine.  I told her SHE now owed me the fare.  At first she refused to pay.  I told her I would put her in jail if she did not.

She finally took that Goddamn credit card and bought me $30 worth of gas. 

What is funny, is that when I was dropping her off back at her place, the guys phone rang and he said he was sorry, but his girlfriend was giving him major shit about being out with the chick I had in the cab.

She now said she was hungry and wanted me to take her to MacDonald's.  I agreed.  I did not know that we would wait in line for twenty minutes while every other stoner in Tampa put in their order for .."I'll take ahhhh...ahhhh.....number 1, no2...ahhh...ahhh..."

This job is not for everybody.