🌱 Tampa Best Places To Live List + Bloomingdale Bulls Basketball

Happy Thursday, Tampa! Happy St. Patrick's Day. Here's everything you need to know about what's happening today in town.

First, today's weather:

Mostly sunny and pleasant. High: 80 Low: 63.

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Here are the top five stories in Tampa today:

1. 4 out of the 5 best places to live in Florida are in Tampa, according to Niche's 2022 Best Places To Live survey. On the list are Spanishtown Creek, Harbour Island and Historic Hyde Park. Most of the recommended places are located near South Tampa. (Tampa Patch)

2. The Bloomingdale Bulls basketball program has won its first district championship since 2016, now under Head Coach Shawn Vanzant. The team faced plenty of challenges during the season including an injured star player and a losing streak before the championship, yet prevailed in the end against the Manatee 64-52. (Osprey Observer)

3. United Way Suncoast has released a dashboard that puts the figures that explain the affordable housing crisis in one place. It features data about rental rates, eviction filings, and available emergency rent assistance in the Tampa Bay area. The counties covered include Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, Sarasota and DeSoto. (WUSF)

4. The 2022 budget passed by the Florida Legislature includes millions in funds for three Tampa Bay airports with most of the funds going to The Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ), followed by The Zephyrhills Municipal Airport and the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport. SRQ saw a 113% increase in traffic from last year as demand booms. The budget still awaits a signature from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Subscription: Tampa Bay Business Journal)

5. Volunteer pilots delivered pups on a private flight from California to the Tampa Bay area to become service dogs with Canine Companion. The company normally uses commercial airlines to transport the pups to their volunteer raisers, however, since the COVID-19 pandemic, it's become increasingly difficult to make a smooth delivery on commercial. The pups will now train to help people who really need them. (WTSP)

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Today in Tampa:

• Green Ride On The Green Spine at Centennial Park. (7:30 AM)
• St. Patrick's Day Party at Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel (9:00 AM)
• St. Paddy's Day Parties at Irish 31. (12:00 PM)
• Kid Crafts: St. Patrick's Day at Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative. (6:00 PM)
• Downtown Tampa Food Truck Rally. (6:00 PM)

From my notebook:

• Richard Marx plays Clearwater concert next week at Capitol Theatre. (Creative Loafing Tampa)
• TECO Streetcar has added a tracker with a real-time map for their cars. It can be found online or on the OneBusAway Tampa app. (Twitter)
• Ferg's Sports Bar in St. Pete has added a pizza vending machine to the bar. They say they made the investment due to a shortage of kitchen staff. (Twitter)
• Artist and gallery owner Lina Teixeira defeated Aaron Smith-Levin in the race for the soon-to-be-vacant Clearwater City Council District 5 seat. (Florida Politics)
• City Commissioner Costa Vatikiotis will replace outgoing Mayor Chris Alahouzos in the North Pinellas city of Tarpon Springs. (Florida Politics)

More from our sponsors — thanks for supporting local news!

Events:

• Breast Ultrasound Screening Coming Direct to You! (March 21)
• Social Security Seminar 3/22 & 3/23 (March 22)
• American Diabetes Association Diabetes Alert Day: Understand Your Risk (March 22)
• Creating Income in a Low Interest Rate Environment (March 29)
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For sale:

• Buy 2nd Amendment Decals On Etsy - Riverview Area Seller (Details)
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Housing:

• Rare St Pete Beach Lot: Open House (Details)
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Now you're in the loop and ready to head out the door on this Thursday. See you all tomorrow for another update!

— Carlos Hernandez

About me: Hello my name is Carlos Hernandez and I am a food writer with over 10 years of experience in the industry. I write the food blog Carlos Eats (http://www.carloseats.com) and also contribute to several newspapers and magazines with food-related blogs and articles.