Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Nine central Tampa developments will be open this Saturday for the Urban Tour of Homes.

Discover what Urban Living is all about! For one day only, 9 of the hottest developments in Tampa will be open to the public! Take a personal tour through some of the Bay Area’s most exclusive new residences and find out why so many people are deciding to calling the city “Home.”

Urban living! It sounds very exciting, doesn’t it?

Participating Developments include Skypoint (777 N. Ashley Drive), Ventana (1238 E. Kennedy Boulevard), The Slade (119 N. 11th Street), Grand Central at Kennedy (1208 E. Kennedy Boulevard), Victory Lofts (101 S. 12th Street), West End Tampa (301 N. Rome), InTown Homes (2008 N. Albany Ave), Harbour Place City Homes (501 Knights Run Rd.), and the Towers of Channelside (445 S. 12th Street).

Five are in Channelside, and there are one each in northeast downtown, Harbour Island, West Tampa, and North Hyde Park. Neither the website nor the printable flyer include any information on parking or transportation between the developments, so (outside of Channelside) you may have to experience these non-walkable places with your own car…

Tampa I Am went last year, and St. Petersblog(spot) took photos.

Over a year ago, Gibraltar Development of Clearwater was looking at some land at the northern end of Ybor Channel.  The developer is now submitting plans, and Dave Pinero at Tampa Rail found some designs in the Tampa Historical Streetcar Board Meeting notes, that include references to "Streetcar Park" (page 44ish) within the "North Ybor Channel Redevelopment Project." Drawings show where the park would be, and it seems to be a good place for greenspace.

Of course, Gibraltar is also supposed to be developing Venu, too, so we’ll see how far this one gets.

While on the set of Flashpoint, I spoke to Christine Burdick about the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s marketing efforts and offered my opinion that the Partnership should put more money into marketing the downtown area and their neighborhoods. But I was wrong about that. They already put plenty of money into marketing, they just don’t get much visible bang for the buck.

Here’s the opening text from Tampa Downtown Partnership Marketing page:

Creating and image and identity for Tampa’s Downtown as one of the region’s most vibrant, active and up and coming neighborhoods and then communicating this message effectively is a major role of the Partnership. The Partnership’s marketing, business development and public relations role involves informing the local media, the downtown workforce, visitors and residents about downtown amenities and happenings to effectively market downtown as a destination. Evidence of this message reaching its intended audience is becoming more and more apparent in the growing trend to live downtown, be seen in a downtown restaurant, work for company located downtown and attend downtown events and festivals.

And there’s the problem. The Partnership’s marketing and public relations role is specifically tied to business development. The vast majority of TDP marketing goes into convincing builders to build, and people to move here. But they are missing a great opportunity. What about the 1,000 people who already live downtown? What about the 66,000 that work in downtown? What about the 80,000 people that live within 3 miles of downtown? They are all but ignored.

Oh, their 2007 list of marketing achievements brag of 19 “major” accomplishments, only six of which are directed at getting potential visitors to come downtown now.

• A new monthly evening concert series – Downtown Alive after Five – was launched. The focus is to attract people downtown in order to explore restaurants, retailers and cultural venues open in the evening.
• Focusing on downtown residents, the creation of a new Web site – www.hilifetampa.com – began to be constructed. It is designed to help residents become more acclimated to the community.
• A new welcome kit for residents was created. The kit contains information about the Special Services District, restaurants, retailers and area attractions.
• Through a new partnership with the Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation, a children’s book titled “Thunderbug’s Street Hockey Tour Downtown Tampa” has begun. The book will highlight fun places children in 4th and 5th grade can take their families in downtown. It will be released in the 2007-2008 school year.
• Tampa’s Downtown Guide Book 2007 continued to be a successful downtown marketing tool to workers, residents and visitors. For the first time ever, the book began to be updated every 6 months.
• The Partnership’s three electronic publications - Monday Morning Memo, Weekly What’s Happenings and InTown Tampa – were increasingly in demand over the previous year and subscriptions to the publications continued to increase.

At least six are in the right direction.  But are these efforts working?  I want to hear from you.

You are a potential visitor to downtown Tampa. How many of the above six initiatives were you aware of before today? Which of the six have convinced you to visit downtown? For those of you who did come downtown for a Downtown Partnership event, how was your experience, and was it as you expected it would be? Let us know here, and feel free to offer any other suggestions.

Despite being a lifelong hockey fan (Red Wings until 2003, then Lightning upon scheduling my move down here) I’d never attended a hockey game until two weeks ago, when a trip to the Forum (part of a bachelor party of which I won’t share further details) for a game against Atlanta showed me what I already knew: live hockey is exciting, entertaining, and LOUD. Even against the lowly Thrashers, the St. Pete Times Forum was packed and rocking — I had a great time. (Skip the Five Guys booth. The burgers aren’t worthy of the name.)

Imagine my surprise, then, to see on the front page of Yahoo.com an article about the death of “Hockeytown, USA,” self-glossed sports nickname of Detroit. The essay, written by Pro Hockey Writers Association chapter chairman Ross McKeon of Yahoo.com Sports, reveals its writer as being suspiciously uninformed about the sport of which he pledges to be an expert.

Mckeon highlights the decline in attendance at Detroit Red Wings games and claims that Detroit is “no longer Hockeytown, USA.” He then presents arguments for why other cities are worthy of the title — and how others can’t maintain a local hockey interest. The problem, of course, is that his criteria are entirely arbitrary (despite his initial argument being predicated on home attendance). He categorizes each team’s support, among the noteworthy:

“Pretty darn good, in their own way”: Dallas, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Jose
“Nice try, but this doesn’t really work”: Tampa Bay

Let’s look at average attendance figures from the past three years, shall we?

2005-2006

Tampa Bay: 20,509 (103.8% capacity)
Dallas: 17,828 (96.2%)
San Jose: 16,831 (96.2%)
Pittsburgh: 15,804 (93.2%)
St. Louis: 14,213 (74.7%)

2006-2007

Tampa Bay: 19,876 (100.6%)
Dallas: 17,914 (96.7%)
San Jose: 17,422 (99.6%)
Pittsburgh: 16,424 (96.9%)
St. Louis: 12,520 (59.6% — last in the NHL)

2007-2008

Tampa Bay: 19,172 (97%)
San Jose: 17,496 (100%)
St. Louis: 17,492 (83.3%)
Dallas: 17,193 (92.8%)
Pittsburgh: 17,058 (100.6%)

As you can see, hockey clearly doesn’t work in Tampa. Feel free to provide Ross some feedback on his misguided assertions.

This entry also appears in a slightly different form at Journeys of Jack Tripper.

Tonight the Tampa Downtown Partnership held their 2nd annual update for their “Vision & Action Plan.” It attracted a crowd of 30-35 people. Here are some of the highlights, in the various focus areas:

Culture & the Arts

• One of the audience members was adamant about keeping the existing Tampa Museum of Art building. He apparently doesn’t want to live in a City that will tear down a 27-year old “perfectly good” building. Nevermind that it leaks or that the City is almost 99% set on tearing down the building to provide a better view of the City (as well as serve as part of the Riverwalk).
• However, a better suggestion was that the Partnership and City work to bring more festivals downtown.

Education

• School Board member Candy Olson was in attendance and talked about the School Boards nascent efforts to convert the old Federal Courthouse building into a new high school. It would serve the downtown residence and employees - who could bring their children to school downtown. The school will be tied closely to the business community, offering internships for students between their junior and senior years. The school would also offer extensive foreign language education, including Spanish, Chinese, and ESOL.

Environment/Open Spaces

• There is a continued desire to ensure the open spaces help draw people.
• One person asked about the development of bike paths. There is a new bike lanes on Jackson Street, but the plan includes non-street bike paths.
• One resident commented about the (illegal?) feeding of the homeless in downtown areas when there are homeless services north of downtown. He suggested that the city work with these “out of town” organizations to provide a designated place near the Salvation Army shelter on North Florida to distribute food. (The biggest problem, he said, was the littering that occurs when these organizations bring food to area parks to serve the homeless.) However, most people seemed to agree that there is a need to provide more service to the homeless in Tampa.
• On the Riverwalk, one resident specifically wanted to ensure it includes water access (it will). Another mentioned the potential water pollution issues with the Hillsborough River. A third wanted to make sure there would be plenty of shade - but with the problems with transplanting larger trees, it might be possible to use shard structures rather than trees.
• There were also suggestions for a community garden and a dog park, as well as discussion about Herman Massey park.

Hospitality

• One person requested the inclusion of new hotel space in the current study of the future expansion of the Tampa Convention Center.

Housing/Residential

• The first request, and there was a lot of discussion on this subject: affordable housing. Virtually all of the current residential projects include some aspect of mixed-income housing. The Tampa Heights and Central Park projects on the periphery of downtown include a significant amount of affordable housing.
• I also learned recent market conditions, as well as the covenants most developers are using, are providing a greater and greater ratio of residents to investors in the newer properties. This will provide more residents living in downtown and Channelside.
• No one mentioned the Donald pulling out.
• The Tampa Tribune is reporting in “Downtown Condos Put on Hold” that the redevelopment of the old Maas Brothers building is on hold indefinitely.  The same developer has also  decided to turn their Downtown West project, The Boulevard, from condos to rental units.  They may do the same with the Maas site, or just wait until the market turns around.

Office/Commercial Real Estate

• There wasn’t much discussion of the commercial properties in downtown.

Planning/Zoning

• One of the major topics was parking. One of the biggest issues is the requirement from the City of one parking space per 1,000 square feet. This means new buildings have to include a parking garage (expensive) or find other arrangements within 250 feet. There is an effort to extend the radius to 1,000 feet which would be a five-minute walk. One person suggested developers who pay the “in lieu” fee to use other parking include a component to pay for the operation of a circulator in some areas.

Retail/Entertainment

• This is one area that gets a lot of attention. The first issue that was explored was part of the original 2005 Vision and Action Plan. It was suggested that the Partnership lease 10 properties in a master lease, then subsidize subleases for the properties so retail, dining, and entertainment businesses could move in. The plan required a $5 million investment, for some capital costs such as ADA modifications, but the remaining funds would offset the subsidy for the subleases.
• The Partnership is building a “Space Bank” that includes talking with most of the property owners as well as reviewing the available space. Many of the owners don’t want to start leasing their property in the hopes they can sell to a developer.
• Another asked for more grocery stores. Michael Chen with the City of Tampa said that several grocery stores have looked at space in the area, but will not be building this year. Of the new projects in the Channelside area, it would be possible to have a small 20,000 - 25,000 square foot store in the future.

Transportation

• One suggestion was to expand the Intown Trolley to include Davis Islands.
• Another was to make a greater effort to use Peter O Knight Airport as an Executive Airport.

Conclusion

Now, all of these efforts are being coordinated by the Tampa Downtown Partnership, which is funded by property tax dollars. Now we all know that there will be a Special Session to reform property taxes. Michael Chen with the City of Tampa noted that the City was planning fund $40 million of downtown improvements with bonds backed by property taxes. He indicated that the changes proposed in Tallahassee could eliminate some - or all - of the ability to borrow this money.

One participant noted that local governments have done a bad job - I’d say a piss-poor job - of tying property taxes to government services. So when people hear their property taxes will go down, they don’t realize it means some service they want could be cut or eliminated.

Moreover, it’s possible the Legislators either don’t understand - or even don’t care about this problem. Because they include provisions for the City Council to vote to go over some proposed tax cuts, Legislators can say they cut property taxes while local elected officials are forced to raise them back to cover the services demanded by their shared constituents.

Lorna Bracewell’s On This Earth, a benefit for Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas County, will be Friday night at 7pm at the Faith Covenant Church at 62nd Ave. and 1st St. N in St. Pete.

Lorna, founder of the benefit series, will perform and host the show that includes The Florida Orchestra’s flutist Lewis Sligh on and cellist Sasha von Dassow. Lyndie Laramore, a soprano from Boston rounds out the group.

The On this Earth series hopes to enlighten and empower audiences to make a difference on this earth in their communities.

Tickets are $15 and proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity.

How have you gotten involved in your community today, this week or this month?

Also happening this weekend on that other side of the bridge is the Gulfport Women’s Festival on Saturday from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. on the beach by the Gulfport Recreation Center. Go Fish writer and star Guinevere Turner will be at the Friends of the Festival booth from 1-2 p.m.

But if you don’t want to cross the water to meet Guin, she’ll be at One Love in Ybor Friday night, 1910 E. 7th Ave. and on Saturday at the Chanelside IMAX for a screening of film shorts selected by new TIGLFF Program Director Roberta Munroe.

And don’t forget to end the evening at the Cuban Club with CL’s Sensory Overload. Lots of art, music, eating, and drinking to ensue. And I hear some of their delightful writers will be in attendance and available for autographs/proposals of marriage.

I thought those t-shirts my friends wore in junior high were funny but they appear to be legally inaccurate. In a stunning act of poor judgement (in my own pathetic opinion) a Tampa police officer arrested this guy for skateboarding on Channelside.

When I saw the story I thought surely the arrest was for something else and he just happened to be skateboarding when caught.  Nope.  The charge reads “Unlawful Rollerskating.”

Sunday morning, Kowzun said the judge and lawyers laughed when his charge was announced.

Apparently this isn’t the first time skaters were arrested in Tampa.

I arrested 2 skateboarders a couple years ago who 1) damaged a marble staircase to the tune of $400 and 2) refused to leave when asked. Also seized their boards AND their video camera as evidence. It’s not funny when your business is out the repair money or sued when mom and dad look at the tape of Jr. breaking his arm and say “Why didn’t somebody stop my son from breaking the law and his arm??”

OK.  Although it doesn’t appear this guy damaged anything and he apparently followed instructions to leave the area, albeit on his board. Also, and I know I am going to regret saying this, isn’t 25 a bit old to still be a skater?

(x-posted on the not-defunct, just-dormant Boltsmag)

Friday night opens play of the first annual Lightning College Hockey Classic at the St. Petersburg Times forum in downtown Tampa. All of this is a prelude to Tampa hosting the Frozen Four in 2012.

The ironic thing about the event (which is taking place on Friday and Saturday) is that Notre Dame is officially listed as the host college of the tournament. The University of Alabama-Huntsville is the closest hockey program to Tampa. That’s not saying there aren’t hockey programs at the universities of Florida, Florida State, South Florida, Miami and other places in the state — that is saying they aren’t NCAA sanctioned hockey programs.