Sure, Mayor Bob Buckhorn just returned from leading that high-profile trade mission to Brazil and work continues apace on the Riverwalk as well as on Le Meridien and Aloft Hotels. It’s easy to overlook lower-profile endeavors that put a premium on quality-of-life upgrades, not just direct, economy-impacting development. Endeavors that tend to be one-day news items that fill in between announcements about the Port Authority, TIA, MacDill AFB, the protean Channelside skyline and the next killer food-truck rally.
Recently, it’s been East Tampa making some news with a leafy new park and a lifestyle-enhancing exercise trail.
Then there’s Encore, the public-housing-replacing, planned-community complex going up on 28 acres north of downtown that is aiming for national certification as an environmentally sustainable, “green” community. Its selling points are more than the memory of the segregation-era Central Avenue business district and the memorialization of Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway and Ray Charles. Encore is being aggressively marketed for its eco-friendly design that includes roof-top solar panels and a storm-water vault that can collect and recycle rain water.
While it didn’t stop any presses, it was noteworthy that the city, which is ambitious but hardly flush, has purchased a bit more land in the growing Channel District community. In combination with a parcel donated by local developer Ken Stoltenberg, the near-acre will be converted to a park, the third such in the Channel District. Yes, the city wants residential infill here, but more importantly, it’s enlightened enough to realize that no amenity is better than nature for the 2,000 residents within walking distance.
And while there’s been a postponement until early next year, we were reminded this month that Tampa is gearing up for a bike-share program. Among the delay issues: finding a corporate sponsor. Among the candidates: banks, whose logos could be affixed to the bikes. Meanwhile, the city is adding bike lanes to streets, and a (federally-funded) greenway is planned beneath the Selmon Expressway linking downtown and Ybor City.
Such scenarios couldn’t come at a better time. As we know, we have an all-too-well-earned reputation for being less than pedestrian-and cyclist-friendly. And as we also know, truly sustainable communities are no longer motor-vehicle driven.
We’ve also seen addition by subtraction when it comes to Water Works Park. A synergistic complement to The Heights development, WWP will feature a bubbling spring and a build-out that will include a playground, a dog park and a floating boat dock. But, no, it will not provide room for parking. To add to the riverfront ambience, the city has eliminated any parking plans. This, we are reminded, is about urban green spaces and walkable, neighborhood destinations that create density.
And it’s that sheer density that encourages scenarios, dare we speculate, for light rail. It’s what big-picture, progressive cities do in their downtowns, even if they are still encircled by provincial, no-tax-for-tracks, downtowns-are-elitists-only-enclaves agnostics.
Sorry for the digression.
No, I’m not.