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Fact-Checking Mayor Bob Buckhorn's Promises

politifact.com
Credit politifact.com

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn made a lot of specific promises when he ran for that office, from improved parks and public spaces to incentives to get police officers to live in the city, and more. 

How has he done on keeping those promises?

"Bob Buckhorn made 34 campaign promises that PolitiFact Florida has tracked over the last three-and-a-half years," said PolitiFact's Richard Danielson. "But there were four that we rated just recently and one of the most interesting may have been his promise on parks and public spaces."

PolitiFact rated that a promise kept on its "Buck-O-Meter," even though the mayor didn't deliver exactly what he promised... he delivered more.

"His program was so much more ambitious and detailed and sweeping than what he had promised," Danielson explained. "He didn't talk about doing partnerships like Water Works Park where he got Richard Gonzmart to spend six million dollars putting a restaurant in the old city pump house. And he's done a number of other things -- Wi-Fi on the Riverwalk, a proposed program to allow people to have drinks as they stroll along the Riverwalk, The Coast Bike Share project about to start."

Overall, Danielson said that Mayor Buckhorn scores pretty well when it comes to fulfilling his campaign promises.

"We rate him 21 promises kept, nine compromises and four broken," said Danielson.

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I started my journalism career delivering the Toledo Blade newspaper on my bike.
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