I was away this summer and missed weighing in on the Best of the Bay, so here’s my take on projects and persons to celebrate — and some to revile.
Best cause for civic optimism
Healthy neighborhoods in Tampa? Yes! The Clinton Global Initiative will partner with Jeff Vinik and others to create a wellness district in Tampa. The $20 million project will “create a road map for how cities worldwide can be designed and developed to support public health.”
This commitment to health is layered upon Vinik hiring Jeff Speck, world-class urban planner, to shape his 40-plus acres in downtown Tampa. Speck’s worldview is based upon the pedestrian experience. What potent alchemy… to rework surface parking lots into walkable blocks filled with a mixture of uses sprinkled with community gardens and cafes. Kind of like swords into plowshares.
Worst loss of historic protection
Florida’s State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), hampered by no money to travel and actually see the historic properties they’re opining on, relied on Google Earth images as a basis for “De-listing” three historic buildings in Hyde Park from the National Register of Historic Places District… which means the wrecking ball looms.
Property owners who’d rather sell a scraped-clean piece of land requested this de-listing, and the mayor’s staff did not object or hold a public hearing. The implications for any historic building listed in a National Register District but not specifically protected by local rules is grim.
The solution is for the mayor and Tampa City Council to fund a re-study of these areas in order to protect them with local ordinances. Otherwise, hundreds of contributing structures are at risk of demolition.
Hottest mobility game changer
CSX, the train folks, have stubbornly refused to cooperate with local transit planners for decades. Suddenly they’re chatting amiably with Hillsborough and Pinellas County about sharing their train tracks, which run both north to south and east to west.
Did someone put something in their drinking water? Or did they wake up and realize that working together could be profitable? Beth Alden, Tampa’s MPO director, enthuses, “Using the CSX tracks presents a unique opportunity in a highly congested area to create additional mobility.”
Stay tuned.
Best grass-roots campaign
Seeking to protect Tampa’s inner city neighborhoods from the loss of historic homes, businesses and community assets, local activists created STOPTBX.COM to stop the Tampa Bay Express (or TBX) project, which would add toll lanes and drastically widen I-275. Architects, planners, computer geeks and neighborhood folks gathered together under the banner of Sunshine Citizens to launch this website and organize grass-roots protests.
Over 400 citizens attended the September meeting of the MPO to voice their objections to the proposed highway expansion, which would provide express lanes for motorists able to pay the tolls. This effective mobilization of folks is unprecedented in Tampa Bay for an issue that doesn’t include dogs or sex!
Worst neighborhood chop-up by a single developer
Certainly not all old buildings are worth saving, but David Weekley Homes seems to have it in for the historic neighborhood of Allendale. This national company, which builds primarily in newly minted suburbia, decided to purchase two grand historic homes with mature gardens in this turn-of-last-century neighborhood.
They proceeded to demolish these and build 11 new, ordinary homes, leading to a lamentable loss of fabric and scale. The original rhythm of house, garden, house, garden is now a staccato: house, house, house, house, house, house, house. Please, David Weekley, stick to cow pastures and stay away from mature, lovely neighborhoods.
Best physical expression of urban energy
Kudos to SHINE, the St. Pete art initiative responsible for brightening more than 10 locations with impressive public artworks. Their murals were painted by a variety of artists, both local and national, with opportunities for ordinary folks to lend a hand.
What a massive, successful undertaking, combining stimulating visuals and community engagement. The variety of images and the diversity of locations maximized the impact on the whole urban core. An expression of local energy and creativity which will continue to goose our imaginations.
Best re-purposing of public space
St. Petersburg developed a plan over 100 years ago to reclaim its waterfront from the Snell Isle Bridge south to Albert Whitted Airport for a park. By relocating industrial uses and transforming the waterfront into public park space, citizens made St. Pete more walkable, beautiful and desirable.
Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard could be rethought as a park, too. Wouldn’t it be great to bicycle or walk up Bayshore with plenty of room and no fear of cars? Well, Mickey Jacob and Elizabeth Corwin are proposing that the northbound lanes, the ones closest to the water, be so repurposed.
Since Jacob, the architect, and Corwin, a diplomat, are methodical, they propose we start gently — adding days after the Children’s Parade, Gasparilla and Gasparilla Run as test cases — to work out the logistics.
The long-term goal would be the reframing of the center green space into a linear park replete with excellent sculpture and transforming the paved northern lanes into a permanent walk/bicycle space. Maybe a few years off, but St. Pete’s model is pure inspiration.
