I’ve been thinking about two things in the past week or so, and both have to do with the opportunity, artistic and otherwise, provided by living on the edge of a frontier, an exurban terra incognita.
Thing One: Getting in on the ground floor of any movement or trend is an appealing thought. Your chance to make big profits, be a big shot, re-invent yourself. But the reality of ground-flooring an urbanist movement on the new city frontiers is that of guts, risk, and hard, gritty work.
It seems to me that if your vision of a revitalized city neighborhood seems eminently do-able and just around the corner, it is far too late for ground-flooring. When the local zoning, law enforcement and neighborhood schools and shopping districts are on the way up, so are the property values and speculators.
Historically, who have been the first in?
Which places in the Tampa Bay area appeal to this demographic?
My suspicion is that if it is going to happen on a macro scale, urban pioneering is already happening in subtler, hidden but substantial ways. Without any media coverage. In neighborhoods that are a little, or a lot, scary. Places you don’t visit or have forgotten about. Places that are unpleasant to look at.
Thing Two: Sprawls like the Tampa Bay area have been described as “soulless”, but to the degree than any place has a soul, certainly the Tampa Bay area must have one. Perhaps it is a diffuse essence which is, like everything else in the Sunbelt, spread too thin to be distinctly visible. What is the Tampa-ness of Tampa Bay? What is the special thing that makes it not, say, suburban New Jersey? Or Jacksonville?
Here are some things that do not give regional definition to the Tampa Bay area:
chon
1 year ago
My girlfriend and I just purchased our first home and chose West Tampa. We are moving from an apartment in the suburb. While we are aware of the issues that the neighborhood currently faces we are optimistic.
We are excited to get involved with the groups in the community and join the residents and small business owners who are already working hard to make this neighborhood great again.
I really enjoy your posts- please keep them coming!
Meredith
1 year ago
Crisis and opportunity…
And Tampa does have some architectural distinction. The shotgun houses and social clubs of Ybor. The cigar factories. The bungaloes of the Heights. There’s a flair beyond stucco and pastels, if you look.
Dave Dragon
1 year ago
The Tampa Bay area is so rich with cultural influences that it’s easy to find great ideas; acting on them is what takes the industrious attitude.
Ride it like you stole it
Ed
1 year ago
I agree. We are very diverse and have a slew of authentic places, organizations and persons.
Grant Rimbey
1 year ago
I enjoy your writing.
Sure, we could all relocate to somehwere else that already has it going on and get lost in the crowd.
But that place wouldn’t be here, in central Florida would it? I love the landscape here, and the flora and fauna, and the quality of the sunlight, and we have an intriguing past.
We had GREAT architecture and planning here in the 1920s, you can still see the remnants and ruins, and some of the Mid-Century Modern architecture is cool too, though very underappreciated.
I’d much rather in on be the ground floor, to have that type of involvement, then be in a city with a hundred years of culture and refinement. We are the pioneers.
My place that “most don’t visit or have forgotten about” is 90 year old Temple Terrace. Most folks don’t know what it is or where it is, or they hate it, but I don’t care. I love it and I think it has potential, so I work towards its rejuvenation.
GKR
1 year ago
A similar post on Brand Tampa:
“Neighborhoods – The building blocks of a city”
http://brandtampa.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2144360%3ATopic%3A7701
Ed
1 year ago
GKR – that would be becuase there is nothig origional at Brand Tampa but hey go ahead and keep plugging the junk.