Crowds

We published a special themed Floridian section last week that I'm very proud of, and I nearly forgot to point out some of the great little stories we pulled together.

Here's the tease:

They're sometimes frustrating, sometimes welcome, sometimes violent.

But in less than three months, the unprecedented happens. The Tampa Bay area hosts the Republican National Convention:

10,000 protesters, 15,000 journalists, 4,000 police officers, 50,000 visitors and 400 charter buses hauling 2,286 delegates and 2,125 alternate delegates around town.

This? This has the potential to be wild. We dispatched nine writers to find stories that help us better understand crowds. Read up. The swarm is coming.

Check the stories:

Leonora LaPeter on a wedding gone sour.

Alex Zayas on the elevators in the county courthouse.

Jessica Vander Velde on a near-death experience at a concert.

Will Hobson on the struggles of Occupy Tampa.

Stephanie Wang on a restaurant that couldn't draw a crowd.

Janet Keeler on visiting ancient ruins with bumbling tourists.

Alex Orlando on bloodshed in Ybor City.

Laura Reiley on the noise of a crowded restaurant.

Michael Kruse on the redemption of ThunderBug.