Author Topic: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa  (Read 14343 times)

TPC

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #30 on: December 29, 2008, 05:06:32 PM »
I've lived in Clearwater for a number of years and frequented Tampa and St. Pete quite often. When I moved to Jacksonville it kind of reminded me of the three combined into one big city. I would say the Tampa area has much more to offer then Jacksonville when it comes to a nightlife and an urban core. Jacksonville has great potential but unfortunately I don't see any great strides towards progression in the near future.

seaside1991

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #31 on: January 01, 2009, 10:59:16 PM »
I think that this website has a great thing going here with learning from other peer cities. Certain elements of another city can be used with a local spin on it for the betterment of the community. For example: I don't think all cities should have a replica of the Lake Eola fountain but installing fountains in lakes and around town can be a refreshing visual. I live in Tampa. I have previously lived in the Orlando area and I especially became attached to that area through my teen years and early 20's. When I moved to Tampa in late '95 I was appalled at how unattractive the place was, even around Busch Gardens. Simple things like streetscaping were nowhere. Broken signage, old 70s looking buildings seemed to be everywhere. It was downright depressing. Now over a decade later, Tampa is a much better place. It's cleaner, more beautified, more Reconstructed roads, new malls, more things that keep the area up to date. Something that has probably helped is that our mayor has traveled to several different cities on learning expeditions. Hopefully, your mayor checks out this site sometimes.


BTW, I monitor this site because I've always thought Jacksonville is an interesting city. It's unique among the FL cities. The great history, bridges, the great downtown setting, etc. (Good future topic: Gainesville area -Jax expressway)     

DemocraticNole

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #32 on: January 15, 2009, 08:18:27 PM »
I moved from Jax to Tampa in June of 2008. There are pros and cons to both areas. However, I will say that the Tampa area is definitely NOT a thriving area for urban infill growth. To me, South Tampa is the only area around where I see that concept in place. Channelside has some things there, but like others have pointed out those condos are mostly empty. As for Ybor, I know of no one here that actually likes going down there. Most people think it is the ghetto and especially don't want to go down there at night. My friend personally witnessed a stabbing in Ybor just a few years ago. Tampa does seem to be doing a better job than Jax, but that isn't saying much.

One HUGE advantage Jacksonville has is the road infrastructure. There are lots more freeways and well maintained roads up in Jax. When they do build one, it is toll like the Veterans Exwy and Crosstown Exwy. Pinellas County (St. Pete/Clearwater) is really paying for all the freeway revolts they had back in the 1970's. As a result, it takes absolutely forever to get from one side of the county to the other. Outside of I-275 there are no limited access highways in Pinellas County, which has over 900,000 people. They are upgrading sections of US 19 to freeway standard, but not enough of it. If one were to go from say the St. Pete Beach area up to Tarpon Springs, it would take probably an hour to go less than 30 miles. That is not very efficient. Pinellas has also spent no money on a decent public transit system. They have the PSTA Bus, but no light rail. The area would be greatly benefited if there was light rail all the way through Pinellas County and from St. Pete over to Tampa.

Jacksonville also has the advantage of being a city/county government, which means they don't have to negotiate with all the different municipalities. Pinellas County has town such as Gulport of like a few thousand people that are able to hold the whole community hostage if they don't like something. If Jax ever gets competent leadership, they will have a huge advantage at being able to develop the city.

ProjectMaximus

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #33 on: January 16, 2009, 02:13:27 AM »
If Jax ever gets competent leadership, they will have a huge advantage at being able to develop the city.

Just two more years...two more years...i hope

Keith-N-Jax

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2009, 07:48:59 PM »
If Jax ever gets competent leadership, they will have a huge advantage at being able to develop the city.

Just two more years...two more years...i hope

That will be a start, but I think our problems lay much deeper than just one position.

aj_fresh

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #35 on: January 22, 2009, 09:28:07 AM »
Article from MSNBC regarding Super Bowl and things to do:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28628173/

Quote
Municipal rivalries aside, the Tampa area is what it is — cool and diverse enough to be hosting its fourth Super Bowl — because of both cities and the surrounding area. And people coming in for the big game Feb. 1 will be cheating themselves if they don't get away from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa to see what else is out there, including, of course, St. Petersburg.

“There are a lot of unique pockets in the Tampa Bay area that offer a little bit of something for everybody,” said Reid Sigmon, executive director of the Super Bowl Host Committee. “And the weather in January is typically in the 70s and sunshine, which isn't the case in most of the rest of the country.”

Now Tampa is the big boy here, for sure. It's got the skyline, port, big-city museums, world-class aquarium and Busch Gardens theme park, plus a hockey arena and outdoor amphitheater that draw the concert calendar's biggest acts. Some of the glitziest game week parties will happen in the clubs and restaurants of Ybor City, the former Latin quarter downtown that was redeveloped as an entertainment district before the city's last Super Bowl in 2001.
Living at the beach waiting for the big city...

copperfiend

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #36 on: January 22, 2009, 10:41:49 AM »
If Jax ever gets competent leadership, they will have a huge advantage at being able to develop the city.

Just two more years...two more years...i hope

That will be a start, but I think our problems lay much deeper than just one position.

And if Davis replaces Peyton, there will be no change.

SuburbanArmada

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #37 on: July 18, 2009, 05:16:40 AM »
Hey all, I am from Tampa. I love cities and this paper usually gave good reviews of our metropolises in Florida. Anyway, two things about this article, good and bad news:

1. GREAT photography work! Excellent pictures and in fact I saw a couple street corners I am yet to see here.

2. Although, this article is SEVERELY overlooking and underreporting our urban core:

-Davis Islands was not mentioned. It is a beautiful island community with a small, charming business district that has a lot of nice restaurants and bars, etc. It is located right next to Harbour Island and Bayshore Blvd. One block from the business district you have amazing views of the Seddon Channel, Harbour Island, the skyline, and the Port.

-Harbour Island was implied to be residential-only but indeed it has some of the best restaurants in the area, with waterfront and skyline views. Jackson's is a hugely popular and attractive club on the island that hosted several official Super Bowl parties.

-Hyde Park Village was not mentioned. It is a really nice outdoor shopping area among the streets of Hyde Park, mostly on Swann Ave. Closest thing I can compare it to in Jacksonville is Five Points.

-Nightlife in Downtown proper was not mentioned. There is a lot of nightlife and dining downtown, especially on Franklin Street. The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (TBPAC) is one of the largest in the country and was not mentioned at all. Also, the area is becoming increasingly residential with just as many condo towers as Channelside. The RIVERWALK project was also completely ignored. It will wrap around the entire downtown area going through parks, and even meander to the historic Tampa Heights neighborhood. Speaking of Tampa Heights, it is on its way to being part of the core. You can't discuss Downtown Tampa in 2009 without mention of the Riverwalk.

-Channelside has way more content than was mentioned, including a lot of new shopping, an expanding retail corridor along 12th Street directly in front of the complex, etc. The busy nightlife and tons of luxury residences completed in the district were also not spoken of.

-A map of our urban core was not shown. When you combine the land area/block lengths of Hyde Park/Bayshore, Downtown, Harbour Island, Davis Islands, Channelside, and Ybor City, it is am impressive area that is entirely contiguous. The streetcar lines were briefly mentioned but there is also a separate trolley connecting Downtown, Channelside and Harbour Island. Also not mentioned were the water taxis currently in use and plans to utilize them more fully, AND the Neighborhood Electric Vehicles being used by small companies to shuttle people between these core neighborhoods.

-West Tampa is not too far from the core. It is a neighborhood with Cuban roots on the national register of historic places. Tons of Cuban eateries and marketplaces. The "Vi-Mi/Mills 50" district in Orlando is just like this and was featured.

-Although not part of the urban core, the Westchase neighborhood is suburban but designed like Baldwin Park in Orlando, etc. It has a town center called West Park Village with a lot of shops, bars, etc in a streetside setting. I mention this because similar neighborhoods have been highlighted for other cities but not for this article.

-Perhaps the best part is that this is disregarding the entire other side of the bay: St. Petersburg and its impressive urban core of Downtown/Old Northeast/Kenwood, the 40 miles of ranking beaches, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Gulfport, Palm Harbor, etc. I know this was just about TAMPA only but the Orlando article discussed Winter Park which is not in Orlando proper.

To back up my claims just browse Tampa's well-sourced Wikipedia page. Follow the links to read about all of the core neighborhoods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Tampa

Thanks to whomever read my diatribe, hopefully you'll see Tampa is better than this article described.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2009, 06:27:57 AM by SuburbanArmada »

Omarvelous09

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #38 on: July 18, 2009, 09:45:55 AM »
umm....Tampa? Jacksonville natives should be grateful that our city isn't as awful, and bland as Tampa.  :-\
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Ocklawaha

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #39 on: July 18, 2009, 11:43:09 AM »
Hey all, I am from Tampa. I love cities and this paper usually gave good reviews of our metropolises in Florida. Anyway, two things about this article, good and bad news:

-A map of our urban core was not shown. When you combine the land area/block lengths of Hyde Park/Bayshore, Downtown, Harbour Island, Davis Islands, Channelside, and Ybor City, it is am impressive area that is entirely contiguous. The streetcar lines were briefly mentioned but there is also a separate trolley connecting Downtown, Channelside and Harbour Island. Also not mentioned were the water taxis currently in use and plans to utilize them more fully, AND the Neighborhood Electric Vehicles being used by small companies to shuttle people between these core neighborhoods.

Sorry SuburbanArmada, but the "separate trolley's," are NOT trolleys at all. They are cheap imitation Mickey Mouse vehicles that are more Potato Chip Truck then either a bus or a streetcar. In Jax even the JTA refers to them as "PCT Trolleys." They are an insult to passenger intelligence as well as passenger comfort. In fact they are such a nothing that when pitted against streetcars in Tuscon, they lost badly. The formula? The Tuscon streetcars run only on the weekends with volunteer labor. They don't go all the way from the University into downtown as they were built by railroad buffs and the city using very limited funding. As a weekend attraction the streetcar charges around $2.00 per ride. The PCT "trolleys" ran every day, all the way into downtown and only charged a quarter. Guess which one got the most ridership?

STREETCARS!


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tufsu1

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #40 on: July 18, 2009, 10:59:43 PM »
no need to attack the folks from Tampa....they have a point...Tampa's urban core (including downtown, Hyde Park, Channelside, Ybor, David Islands, and Tampa Heights) is very nice.

Here in Jax, we would include Springfield, Riverside/Avondale, and San Marco as well as downtown into our urban core.

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #41 on: July 18, 2009, 11:13:09 PM »
no need to attack the folks from Tampa....they have a point...Tampa's urban core (including downtown, Hyde Park, Channelside, Ybor, David Islands, and Tampa Heights) is very nice.

Here in Jax, we would include Springfield, Riverside/Avondale, and San Marco as well as downtown into our urban core.

I'm with you on this one tufsu1, I've always thought of Tampa as a sort of kid sister to Jacksonville. If we had to pick another Florida town or City which is similar to Jacksonville, without regards to size, I'd say Tampa (and maybe Palatka). Tampa is not all bad, after all THEY BUILT OUR STREETCAR after we wrote the concept back in 1980!

OCKLAWAHA

thelakelander

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #42 on: July 18, 2009, 11:47:42 PM »
Welcome to Metro Jacksonville, SuburbanArmada.  Thanks for the extra input on what Tampa's urban core has to offer.  If you don't mind, I'll try and respond to a few of your points.

Hey all, I am from Tampa. I love cities and this paper usually gave good reviews of our metropolises in Florida. Anyway, two things about this article, good and bad news:

1. GREAT photography work! Excellent pictures and in fact I saw a couple street corners I am yet to see here.

2. Although, this article is SEVERELY overlooking and underreporting our urban core:

-Davis Islands was not mentioned. It is a beautiful island community with a small, charming business district that has a lot of nice restaurants and bars, etc. It is located right next to Harbour Island and Bayshore Blvd. One block from the business district you have amazing views of the Seddon Channel, Harbour Island, the skyline, and the Port.

Davis Islands, as well as West Tampa, Tampa Heights and a few other neighborhoods were not mentioned.  These photos tours tend to be brief highlights of cities across the country.  Nevertheless, feel free (as you have done) to add information on them, as well as images to expose more viewers to what Tampa has to offer.

Quote
-Harbour Island was implied to be residential-only but indeed it has some of the best restaurants in the area, with waterfront and skyline views. Jackson's is a hugely popular and attractive club on the island that hosted several official Super Bowl parties.

Thanks.  My intention was not to imply that there was no commercial development at Harbour Island.  I'm not crazy about how the south half of the island has been developed, but the northern section is an excellent example of a infill pedestrian friendly mixed-use community.

Quote
-Hyde Park Village was not mentioned. It is a really nice outdoor shopping area among the streets of Hyde Park, mostly on Swann Ave. Closest thing I can compare it to in Jacksonville is Five Points.

Hyde Park Village was not mentioned this time around, but a few images of HPV were included in the SOHO section.

Quote
-Nightlife in Downtown proper was not mentioned. There is a lot of nightlife and dining downtown, especially on Franklin Street. The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (TBPAC) is one of the largest in the country and was not mentioned at all. Also, the area is becoming increasingly residential with just as many condo towers as Channelside. The RIVERWALK project was also completely ignored. It will wrap around the entire downtown area going through parks, and even meander to the historic Tampa Heights neighborhood. Speaking of Tampa Heights, it is on its way to being part of the core. You can't discuss Downtown Tampa in 2009 without mention of the Riverwalk.

Keep in mind, this article was primarily a photo tour with little written information about individual projects and destinations in the downtown core.  However, the set up of our online discussion allows these articles to grow as time goes on.  The additional information you add to the discussion will be seen by all who view the original article.  With that said, can you fill us in on the riverwalk project?  Is it already complete?


Quote
-Channelside has way more content than was mentioned, including a lot of new shopping, an expanding retail corridor along 12th Street directly in front of the complex, etc. The busy nightlife and tons of luxury residences completed in the district were also not spoken of.

-A map of our urban core was not shown. When you combine the land area/block lengths of Hyde Park/Bayshore, Downtown, Harbour Island, Davis Islands, Channelside, and Ybor City, it is am impressive area that is entirely contiguous. The streetcar lines were briefly mentioned but there is also a separate trolley connecting Downtown, Channelside and Harbour Island. Also not mentioned were the water taxis currently in use and plans to utilize them more fully, AND the Neighborhood Electric Vehicles being used by small companies to shuttle people between these core neighborhoods.

As mentioned earlier, the original article was basically a brief photo tour of Tampa's downtown and a few nearby vibrant districts.  However, I'll keep this in mind the next time I'm in town to snap a few images for a Tampa update.

Quote
-West Tampa is not too far from the core. It is a neighborhood with Cuban roots on the national register of historic places. Tons of Cuban eateries and marketplaces. The "Vi-Mi/Mills 50" district in Orlando is just like this and was featured.

I love West Tampa.  It has some great architecture remaining from its days as a cigar manufacturing community.  I actually prefer it to the Vi-Mi district.  Btw, while Orlando's Vi-Mi was mentioned, Parramore and a few other Orlando neighborhoods were not, in that particular article.

Quote
-Although not part of the urban core, the Westchase neighborhood is suburban but designed like Baldwin Park in Orlando, etc. It has a town center called West Park Village with a lot of shops, bars, etc in a streetside setting. I mention this because similar neighborhoods have been highlighted for other cities but not for this article.

All of the Elements of Urbanism articles are unique in their own right.  They aren't intended to cover every urban district or infill project in every city each time.  However, this does not meant additional areas will not be covered in future articles.  Also, if you would like, we'll be happy to let you put together a more detailed Tampa article.  It would be interesting to see things from a local resident's perspective.  

Quote
-Perhaps the best part is that this is disregarding the entire other side of the bay: St. Petersburg and its impressive urban core of Downtown/Old Northeast/Kenwood, the 40 miles of ranking beaches, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Gulfport, Palm Harbor, etc. I know this was just about TAMPA only but the Orlando article discussed Winter Park which is not in Orlando proper.

To back up my claims just browse Tampa's well-sourced Wikipedia page. Follow the links to read about all of the core neighborhoods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Tampa

St. Petersburg was large enough for their own separate photo tour.  This helps keep the number of images shown, per article down to a reasonable number.  Here is a link:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-dec-elements-of-urbanism-st-petersburg

Quote
Thanks to whomever read my diatribe, hopefully you'll see Tampa is better than this article described.

Thanks for the input.  Looking forward to hearing more about what urban Tampa has to offer.

"A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.” - Muhammad Ali

thelakelander

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #43 on: July 19, 2009, 12:00:26 AM »
Speaking of not covering all urban districts, a year or so ago, we ran a downtown Atlanta photo tour that did not include Buckhead or Midtown.  I'm in Atlanta tonight and my plan before heading back to Jax tomorrow, is to take shots for a future Midtown/Buckhead photo tour.  However, I'll most likely not take shots of places like Cabbagetown or Five Points this time around.  As mentioned earlier, outside of the statistics at the beginning of each article, most will be unique in their own right.  Some can be of a downtown, a specific urban neighborhood or a mixture of both.  It really depends on the amount of time I have to spend in each community at a given date.  Nevertheless, the underlying point remains the same.  That is to give viewers a visual image of various urban districts, successes and failures across the country.
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SuburbanArmada

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Re: Elements of Urbanism: Tampa
« Reply #44 on: July 19, 2009, 04:26:03 AM »
Ok, good deal. I may have unintentionally come off as aggressive, my apologies. Me, write a more detailed Tampa article? Sounds like an idea actually, if someone lets me in on how to do that.