The Skinny

Everyone now knows that—despite his popularity and presence in local politics since 2016—Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera will not run to be the next mayor of Tampa. “It’s not my time right now,” Viera, who is terming out of his District 7 seat, told The Skinny last Friday. He did not rule out runs for…

You probably don’t know five people who’ve set foot on Egmont Key, a roughly 250-acre island at the mouth of Tampa Bay. The rapidly-disappearing land mass is visible from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, but only accessible by boat (or a long swim). To discuss Egmont Key’s fascinating past, present, future and relationship with the humans…

There are 721 days left until 2027. That’s when Tampeños will vote on a successor to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, who won re-election in 2023 and is term-limited. Alan Henderson would like a shot. Last week, the soon-to-be-24-year-old filed his statement of candidacy to run for that very office, and held a press conference outside…

“You can’t underestimate the toll it takes on people’s mental health,” Rep. Lindsay Cross said on WMNF's The Skinny.

After South Florida, Tampa’s population of Cubans is larger than anywhere else in the United States And still, the Bay area feels closer to the Caribbean island than almost anywhere else in America. Albert A. Fox Jr., a Tampeño who’s spent decades working to normalize relations between Cuba and the U.S., joined us in the…

Florida’s voter registration deadline is on Monday, Oct. 7, and mail ballots are on the way to addresses across the Tampa Bay area. On the top half of the show, Katie Blaxberg spoke about her race for the final seat on the Pinellas County School Board. Blaxberg—a University of South Florida alum who pivoted to…

It’s been less than two weeks since a Georgia school shooting that killed four and injured nine others—and six years since a shooting at Florida’s Parkland school shooting that killed 17 people. Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, a Democratic lawmaker from Broward County, was the Mayor of Parkland in 2018 and joined The Skinny to talk about…

Preservation is often associated with old buildings, and the past, but working to keep historic structures and neighborhoods from being demolished not only opens the door for a city’s residents and visitors to continue their own placemaking journeys, and prepare to share their stories with others.  Manny Leto and Karen Kress have a lot to…