Good to live near a city that's always thinking. Actually, I came up with something like the Space Needle idea back in 1989 when I recommended that the communities of Dade City and Lecanto consider building massive piers like the one in St. Petersburg. I feel reasonably sure that we could attract tourists with the offer of stunning vistas of rock mines, citrus processing plants and auto sales lots. It wouldn't take much imagination to switch over to the space needle concept.
Space needles make as much sense in lightning-prone areas as paper lanterns during a monsoon.
I suspect that part of the reasoning behind the Tampa proposal has to do with the town's semi-professional hockey team and a jingoist desire to be able to finally say that the Lightning hit something. Spotters on top of needle could see far enough to find Ybor City parking spaces. Feminists organizations would come to town just to protest the shape. Same people who thought up the Whydah slave ship museum idea could come up with something like a Hindenburg Memorial docking mast on top. Window-washer accidents would attract national instead of just local coverage.