walking in tampa
tommyOn New Year’s Eve, the St. Pete Times had a couple of dueling editorials.
Greg Minder is president of intowngroup. He is an executive committee member for the Tampa Downtown Partnership, the Urban Land Institute, and a board member of the Tampa Museum of Art. He says that Downtown Tampa is a great place to walk:
Downtown Tampa has become a great place to walk… Downtown residents walk to restaurants and to cultural and entertainment venues… They walk their dogs in Curtis Hixon Park and walk through the green space along the Hillsborough River.
For a lunch break or evening out, there are many restaurants within walking distance, too. The Web site www.hilifetampa.com, sponsored by the Tampa Downtown Partnership, lists more than 100 restaurants located downtown. The Fly and Malio’s are trendy hotspots that attract a crowd, and dozens of other dining options provide plenty of variety to meet every taste.
With community leaders in government and the private sector taking action to foster the growth of downtown, Tampa has made great strides toward its goal to be a vibrant city that offers employment, residences, shopping, dining, entertainment and cultural venues, all within walking distance of each other. Especially as more residents move downtown, this trend will continue.
If you want to picture a place where you can walk out of your home and to almost anywhere you desire, picture downtown Tampa. The reality is there are plenty of people… who are already doing just that.
Meanwhile, St. Pete Times editorial writer John Hill says Downtown is a terrible place to walk:
… Downtown is a terrible place to walk - dead, ugly, dirty, vast expanses boarded up. And as long as civic leaders keep spinning fantasy and public officials remain in denial, the environment will not change.
… the hype about downtown is so far off the mark it could spark a backlash among the very people who are buying into the urban experience.
Take Franklin Street, downtown’s main pedestrian thoroughfare. Head south from Tyler, at the north end, and here’s what you see: a park surrounded by a 6-foot fence. Vacant lots. Empty storefront after empty storefront. A nightclub. A condemned building. A city block boarded up in black-painted plywood. More empty storefronts. A restaurant, movie theater, parking lot and a bank. Another vacant lot (”Coming soon - New Condos”). A couple of offices, a couple of shops, more vacant storefronts.
Ashley Drive isn’t much better. The library is dead; so is Curtis Hixon Park. The art museum is closed until 2009, when the city will replace it with something better. From the rusted terrace last week, hidden far back from the street, the scene in the park was the usual: one woman and her dog, eight homeless men and a drinking fountain that didn’t work.
… For downtown residents, the diversions are slim pickings. Beyond seasonal events, there is little nightlife, or day life on the weekends. The nearest grocery is hardly a quick or easy walk away. While walking to the Times Forum may sound nice, only a fool would walk home after a hockey game.
On Florida Avenue today, there is one place to buy a Coke in the 11 blocks from City Hall to the interstate. The city has made progress, but there is work to do to make downtown livable. Step one is to draw the right conclusions from one woman and her dog and the fountain that doesn’t work.
I’m not here to tell you who is right and who is wrong. But I will point out that if we hear from anyone representing the Downtown Partnership, we can count on them saying two things:
#1 - Nothing ever is wrong with downtown Tampa, EVER. EVER.
#2 - Fly Bar is the most awesomest place in the world.
ABC Action News anchor Brendan McLaughlin lives in Tampa Heights, and says downtown is unsightly and that city administration creates a barrier for new businesses. Downtown Tampa will be a subject on this Sunday’s Flashpoint.
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January 3rd, 2008 at 8:44 am
My friend and I walk everyday after we eat our lunch and it is not easy to get around. The river walkway has people sleeping on the benches and people hanging out behind the museum that basically make us nervous. Then we tried the downtown streets. Between construction, broken sidewalks and some areas smelling like urine that was not pleasant. We know stick to the main traffic areas for the lunch rush, Franklin Street to Ashley and we just walk in a big square.
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 am
When I do go downtown, it’s usually for a transfer at the Marion Transit Center. I usually take a few minutes and walk around the “neighborhood.” What a place. It’s king of like standing between the edge of a cliff and an alien landscape. Aside from the cars speeding up Florida Avenue, it’s usually deathly quiet. All the empty store fronts and vacant lots make me imagine the ruins of a forgotten civilization.
In other cities that I’ve lived in, gentrification usually starts when the artists and the gay community come in a liven a place up with studios, boutiques and cafés. Just about the time that the area becomes a place where people would want to hang out or live, developers come in and price out the pioneers. It seems like downtown Tampa skipped step 1. Despite the blight, downtown real estate has never been accesible to anyone but transnational corporations and speculators.
What’s the deal with fly bar anyway? It’s a swingers-type-money joint for sure but everytime I’ve been there, it’s dead. On Saturday afternoons, in that part of town, you can hear a pin drop two blocks away. God blees’em but they’re 10 years ahead of their time.
I would have to take issue with one point from the Times article. If there was ever a time when it would be better to walk downtown, it would have to be during or immediately after a major event like a hockey game. Save your sanity, gasoline and put one less car in that mess. Take the bus.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
That’s Channelside. Not the downtown core, but Channelside… Artists were conveting warehouse space into studios and lofts… then started selling their properties off to developers.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:36 am
The Tampa Downtown Partnership (TBP) is but a cog in the wheel that keeps our area “frozen in time”.
Both the Tribune and the Times are currently battling one another to discredit the Brookings Report findings that say our area is “not walkable”.
It’s true, our area “is not walkable”, now what are we going to do about it?
Sure, several streets in Dunedin are walkable, heck my own street in Temple Terrace is “walkable”.
What about the larger context? What about alternate forms of transit tying our area together?
There is something in the attitude of our so-called local leaders that makes them ignore our real problems and put a smiley face on everything.
Our area needs a ton of work to improve it’s quality of life, and this work won’t be done until we admit there is a problem, and are able to bypass status quo groups like the TBP, and the BOCC for that matter.
We don’t need more cheerleaders and shell games, we need real change, and now!
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I’ve worked in downtown Tampa for 13 years and know it well. When the condos started going up, I eagerly waited for an affordable building to come along so I could sell my South Tampa condo and become a walk-to-worker. I’m still waiting for “affordable.”
A couple of months ago, I had some errands and decided to do them downtown, on foot, instead of in my car in South Tampa. After work, I walked to CVS for some basic purchases, walked to the library to do some travel research for an upcoming trip, then walked to a restaurant to eat dinner. By the time I finished, I decided that no matter how inexpensive the condos get downtown, I don’t want to live there. As everyone else mentioned, the trash, homeless people, and empty streets made it a very unpleasant experience … not to mention all the concrete and lack of plants/greenery. Downtown, even the trees live in cages. I know from experience that cities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia are NOT like that. Plus, they have public transportation so that people who want to hang out downtown after work can easily get back home to the open spaces in the burbs.
By the time I finished my tasks, I was honestly looking forward to the short commute home, partly because I could enjoy the greenery along the way!