MINARET UNIVERSITY OF TAMPA’S NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1933
THE Vo l u m e
80
Number
6
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October
3,
2013
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ut.minaret@gmail.com
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theminaretonline.com
UT Club Bands Together to Save Historic Bro Bowl By JESSE LONG News Writer
Leah Beilhart/Tumblr A Member of the UT surf club enjoys the Bro Bowl at Perry Harvey Sr. Park, which is in danger of being demolished.
The City of Tampa is working to renovate Perry Harvey Sr. Park, while incidentally having to tear up the “Bro Bowl,” a skating attraction that has been with the park since it opened in 1978. These plans for redevelopment have created a spark among the local skate community, and many local skaters are taking a stand to save their beloved bowl. City officials scheduled a public meeting to discuss the redevelopment of Perry Harvey Sr. Park on Sept. 16. At the meeting local skateboarders, including members from the UT surf club, came to protest the new park proposal due to the fact the plan includes the removal of the Bro Bowl. Frederico D’Apuzzo, senior international business and entrepreneurship major, started the UT surf club with the intent to teach students how to surf and skate. They use the bowl for this purpose. “I had always wanted to do surfing here, so we went to OSLE and it was a really easy process,” D’Apuzzo said. “After that, we just started recruiting people and we teach surfing and surfing-like stuff.” The members of the UT surf club are concerned that if the Bro Bowl is destroyed, they won’t have a place to teach students how to skate. “The way it’s set up it’s almost like surfing. The way the curves and drops are, it’s almost like riding a wave,” said Dylan Cucci, a junior business management major and member of the surf club. “The club would help kids learn. We could teach more people, possibly on a weekly basis if they keep the Bro Bowl.” The City of Tampa plans to honor the African-American history of Central Avenue by creating a history walk-through in Perry Harvey Sr. Park, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The history walk is a memorial to honor former black leaders of the Central Avenue area.
The city is hoping to make everyone happy by creating a park that honors the area’s heritage of arts and music while creating a brand new state of the art skate park just south of I-275, according to 10 News Tampa Bay. However, local skaters believe it is a historical landmark and a part of skateboarding’s heritage. Many of these people are petitioning to get the bowl on the National Register of Historic Places. “It’s one of the original skate bowls in the country. It has lots of culture and its been there mad long. [The local skaters] are trying to get it registered as a historical monument,” Cucci said. The Bro Bowl was built in 1978 during the “skatepark era,” according to the Bro Bowl’s website. This era ranged from 1976 to 1982, and during this time, over 200 skate parks were built throughout the U.S. Today only three of those original skateparks still exist, the Bro Bowl in Tampa, Kona in Jacksonville and Derby in Santa Cruz, Calif. The Bro Bowl was once the only public skatepark in Florida and was only the second built along the East Coast. Chad Greenberg, freshman journalism major and another member of the UT surf club, said, “It is history. You can feel the amount of people that have skated there.” The Bro Bowl is the last remaining historical structure from the park when it first opened, and it only occupies one percent of the 11 acres that make up Perry Harvey Sr. Park. On the Bro Bowl website, there is a revision of the city’s original plan that was created to show how the renovations could be completed without the destruction of the Bro Bowl. It is also argued that the Bro Bowl should be a part of the history walk that would be created during the reconstruction. Not only is the Bro Bowl known in the historical community, but it has also gained See BOWL Page 4
New Recyclable Boxes Improve UT Dining Eco-Footprint By TAMARA GRANT News Writer
Sodexo and UT Dining have recently made the economical switch from Styrofoam to recyclable takeout boxes. This change has helped to create a more eco-friendly environment among the UT cafeteria and possibly to other eating facilities on campus. School waste, such as in-class recycling, green waste recycling and others, is up to 80 percent recyclable, according to lessismore.org. Many schools have chosen to start recycling due to the large amount waste they produce, much that can be recycled. However, 4.8 percent of school waste, such as Styrofoam, is
In Other News...
non-recyclable trash. Switching from Styrofoam to recyclable material has also saved schools money. The switch saves the average college about 36 percent of the money previously spent on nonrecyclable materials, according to lessismore.org. Goleta Union School District saves $47,000 to $71,000 a year just by recycling. UT junior Emma Badger thinks UT Dining’s green decision is a good step. “I applaud the transition towards recyclable containers because Styrofoam contains known carcinogens and using Styrofoam sends a bad message about where UT is going in the 21st century,” Badger said.
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Although recyclable takeout boxes and Styrofoam boxes are both reusable, recyclable can last longer, according to benefits-ofrecycling.com. Styrofoam is also nonbiodegradable, and due to its light weight, the polystyrene within it takes a while to disintegrate. Styrofoam is one of the main components in marine debris. The main reason it cannot be recycled is because most recycling companies do not accept polystyrene. When making Styrofoam, there are 57 chemicals released into the air, which can cause air pollution, greenliving.lovetoknow.com. When Styrofoam is used for packaging
Stacy Wright/Flickr
Styrofoam boxes are not offered in the cafeteria.
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See RECYCLING Page 4 News..................................2 Diversions.........................6 A+E....................................7 Opinion............................ 11
Sports..............................16