Elements of Urbanism: Downtown Tampa

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Downtown Tampa



Metro Jacksonville explores a downtown that has made significant redevelopment strides since our last visit in 2008: Downtown Tampa.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-dec-elements-of-urbanism-downtown-tampa

[DemocraticNole]

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park is a nice new feature, but it remains underutilized because of the lack of residents downtown and the fact that people have to basically pay to park to use the facility. It's interesting you point out Tampa's mob history. Curtis Hixon was one of the folks who was on the mafia dole, so to see his name on a prominent downtown feature is appropriate.

I really think of all the current downtown projects, the success of Encore is most important to the redevelopment of downtown. That will put a lot more residents downtown with a mix of incomes and cultures. If it is successful, it should spur growth around the area. I am also hopeful that Rick Scott does not cancel the Florida High Speed Rail. Getting that here would be a good start in developing a transit network that should include light rail one day, even though the idiots here just voted down the one-cent sales tax.

What the Rays do with their stadium situation will also be interesting to watch. It is clear they want out of the Trop and downtown Tampa would be the best location for them to build a new stadium, especially if the FLHSR does in fact get built.

[duvaldude08]

Tampa is redeveloping very nicely. Hopefully everything works out.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Duvaldude man use your spell check . Tampa is a place I like to visit often. I've won a few bucks at the casino and I have friends there as well. Even though their highway system is horrible I think they are moving further ahead with their DT than we are. I think we have more potential if we just implement and follow our DT masterplan.

[duvaldude08]

Duvaldude man use your spell check . Tampa is a place I like to visit often. I've won a few bucks at the casino and I have friends there as well. Even though their highway system is horrible I think they are moving further ahead with their DT than we are. I think we have more potential if we just implement and follow our DT masterplan.

hey dont judge me 

[duvaldude08]

I agree that our DT has more potential. Man if leadership could ever follow through with anything, (As tampa is doing now) our DT would really be banging.

[fsujax]

as Stephen would say "meh"  I am not really impressed with Tampa's downtown.

[Keith-N-Jax]

No nothing to write home about, but slight edge to Tampa IMO.

[finehoe]

I'm struck by how similar Tampa and Jacksonville look.  As someone pointed out previously, growth in both cities seems to have taken place roughly at the same time.  Many of the above photos could've been taken here.  All the more reason to bemoan how our lack of leadership has cursed Jacksonville to always be the also-ran.

[duvaldude08]

I'm struck by how similar Tampa and Jacksonville look.  As someone pointed out previously, growth in both cities seems to have taken place roughly at the same time.  Many of the above photos could've been taken here.  All the more reason to bemoan how our lack of leadership has cursed Jacksonville to always be the also-ran.

There is a very shocking similarity. Tampa looks like a Jacksonville that is developing. Only difference were are MUCH larger than Tampa. (land wise and city population, metro they have us beat). But our downtown look almost indentical. Some new building and upgrades, but not much activity going on.

[duvaldude08]

No nothing to write home about, but slight edge to Tampa IMO.

I agree. There DT is a more of an edge than ours. Not much, but its a little more attractive IMO

[tufsu1]

Tampa has made some big strides since I moved from there to Jax. in 2006....much of that credit goes to Pam Iorio, who used her second term as Mayor to make things happen (the same can't be said of her first term).

Unfortunately for Tampa, they are about to shift into neutral again...the three leading candidates to replace Iorio aren't exactly young visionaries...in fact Dick Greco (the likely frontrunner) has already served 4 terms of Mayor, with his first term in the 1960s!

[thelakelander]

The largest difference I noticed between the two DTs was that Tampa's has a number of small businesses, restaurants and retailers that are now also open on the weekends and at night.  In DT Jax, there's not much open on a consistent basis once you leave the hotel lobbies or the Landing.

For example, on Saturday morning I wanted to get some breakfast.  Along Tampa Street (similar in character to our Bay or Forsyth Streets) there were several restaurants adjacent to each other that were open.  I spend most of my time in DT Jax and I can't tell you three places in the entire Northbank that aren't located in the Landing or in hotels that offer dine in breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays.

In the past two or three of years, they've been able to renovate a couple of urban parks, expand their riverwalk, construct three major museums and get several affordable housing projects off the ground.  I wonder where the money came from to pull all of this stuff off?  If you listen to news around here, we can't afford to do much and we're a consolidated city.

[duvaldude08]

^^^Agreed. I remember when I stayed at the Hyatt downtown in Tampa last summer and...... I wasnt too impress. After getting lost when I was drunk (yes I was leaving Ybor City) I rode just about the whole city within 45 minutes before I located downtown again. LOL From my drunken tour, the city its self isnt much. But they are ahead of us in redevelopment for sure.

[Ocklawaha]

Obviously way behind Jacksonville, I used 31 photos, those I considered typical sidewalk scenes, allowed the river walk in, and counted 70 people in the scene. That's only 2.25 people per scene or roughly per block. On Monday, Stephendare and I did a lunch hour count in downtown Jacksonville and got about 6 per block! Hey we're on a roll!

OCKLAWAHA