That perception has been the driving force behind The Tampa Project, a series of special reports that we began publishing in The Tampa Tribune on May 16.

That project's first installment examined our sense of place - of belonging (or, as the case may be, not belonging) to a greater whole. The second, which appeared Sunday, looked at our past, where we have come from and how it relates to where we are today - because that often helps people trying to figure out where they're going.

The project is provoking talk across the metropolitan area. Much of it, we're grateful to note, has been in praise of the undertaking.

For example, Rob Blount, president and chief executive officer of the Tampa Bay History Center, wrote to congratulate the team involved in the second installment of the project, ``Our Beginnings.''

Said Blount: ``Tampa Bay history encompasses the trite, the tabloid, the touching, the truth of the essential American experience. It is the gateway to understanding the development of a nation unlike any other.''

Looking For Meaning

Leonardo Leon, Spanish editor of La Gaceta, Tampa's multilingual newspaper (it is published in Spanish, Italian and English), editorialized this week that the project is ``important, enlightening, progressive, profound and genuinely interesting.''

Newcomers and natives need to read it, Leon wrote, to learn where we come from and what we hope to become.

``I believe Tampa is on its way to something big and The Tampa Project can help you understand why,'' Leon said.

Comments like those lead us to hope the project is fulfilling our ambitions for it. Some, though, are still asking what sparked it, why we are investing so much in it, what we hope will come of it.

Journalists are string-savers. We collect odd bits of information, ideas and perceptions and are always looking for the meaning in them. That's how the project began.

What Readers Said

Almost two years ago, the Tribune embarked on an internal mission to redefine its place in Tampa. As part of that, researchers spent hours interviewing a number of our readers.

Several ideas emerged from these conversations: We love it here. As a community, we seem to be on the verge of something, although few could articulate what that might be. We also seem oddly disconnected from one another. More things seem to be pushing us apart than pulling us together. Also, in certain crucial ways, we seem to be drifting.

Although this process of redefinition didn't begin as a journalistic endeavor, it still caused the journalists among us to wonder: What forces were turning this kaleidoscope? Where were they pushing us? What was behind them? What might be at stake?

The more we considered these things, the more important they seemed - to all of us as a community, to each of us individually, to the generations coming behind us. Until at last, all these things wrapped themselves into a single large ball of twine, and The Tampa Project was born.

The next installment is scheduled to be published July 25. It will examine such issues as vision and leadership. We hope you'll watch for it.

Citizens' Voice is written by Tribune editors. This week's column was written by Senior Editor Pat Minarcin. To contact Citizens' Voice, call our automated voice mailbox at 1-800-527-<2758. Or write Citizens' Voice, P.O. Box 191, Tampa FL 33601. Or e-mail

Citizens' Voice is written by Tribune editors. This week's column was written by Senior Editor Pat Minarcin. To contact Citizens' Voice, call our automated voice mailbox at 1-800-527- 2758. Or write Citizens' Voice, P.O. Box 191, Tampa FL 33601. Or e-mail voice@TBO.com.