Tommy at Sticks of Fire led me to a recent St. Pete Times article on a guy living at the Towers of Channelside with his entry Vibrant Downtown Tampa Condos. The intended trajectory of the story is about how he and his girlfriend manage life in the huge building which is reputed from those of us on the outside, to be sparse of occupants.

• Tampa Condo is a Tower of Solitude

A second, perhaps unintended, trajectory, takes off in the direction of how cavalier this individual can be with his share of responsibility for the property and even the safety of others traversing below.

Potential buyers mull living room in Towers of Channelside condo.

As I read it, I was left thinking, whoa, cool. I mean seriously, it's one thing to have enough money to afford one of those condos, but what luck it is to be an early and lonely steward who has most of the joint to himself. Man, I would love it! The story tries to push in the direction of how shameful it is that those who've nested in before the crowd must endure their solitude. But you'd have no such pity for me. Were it I, I would look at it as an opportunity to ground myself in and welcome the incoming population over the many years it will surely take to pack the place. To be part of something that is nothing now, but something tomorrow would be very exciting. In fact, I for one hardly consider Johnny's "predicament" a "predicament".

It's even difficult to take from the story that Johnny Foens doesn't enjoy it judging by how much of the freedom and convenience he's capitalizing on. Some of his behavior, which I'm betting now he wishes hadn't be so publicized (the reader comments following the St. Pete Times story are going pretty hard on him and the GF), shows a downright disrepect for his wealth and his place in Tampa history. He more or less admits to vandalizing the property because maintenance wasn't fast enough in resolving a problem, and, if I'm comprehending it right, throwing stuff off the balcony out of pure boredom. I mean, c'mon John! The nasty commentators might have a smidge of a point.

But still, if you can look beyond the candid pretty-boy disclosures (and who's to say he won't shapen up now), he is a commercial for what Channelside is striving for, and, for the Teco Line Streetcar system which he merrily points out can be used by one to "hopscotch" and "rock" to Ybor on. That's more like it! He may not be the ideal where maturity and grandiose virtue are concerned, but in a growing society, John actually does represent the most important element for Tampa's urban success which is the dynamic human element. What do we want, after all? Do we want the urban evolution to be led by just those silvered-haired men and women who lined up one year to admonish the litter left behind by push-cart cigar vendors in Ybor? (By the way, since that time when they lined up to have those vendors outlawed, I have yet to see those senior men and women actually hanging out in Ybor - what's up with that?). I'll take pretty boy and hottie med-school girlfriend, antics and all, any day of the week thank you. Though, preferably, we'll wind up with a mix in good time.

The "alone in a Channelside condo" angle is actually not new. The Trib did a similar score last month with As Sky Falls, Condos Look For Protection which spotlighted the similar lonely existence of Bonnie Dealva, who, the article reads, decided to leave after getting sick of hearing her own echo. She concluded for sake of the Trib story that Channelside had not lived up to becoming the vibrant place she thought it would - which, if you're expecting that vibrancy to be part of the welcome kit or something, would be disappointing. But again, I think the joy for any urban pioneering tenant is to be in place before that eventuality. God, I would absolutely love it.

Hey, are you in one of the condo projects enjoying or hating being first? I'd get a kick out of hearing about your comments as I'm sure we all would.