Tampa Is…?

Each year since 2003, the City of Tampa has chosen a photographer to chronicle the city for The Big Picture Photographer Laureate Program.

The purpose of the project was to commission an artist to photograph and respond to life in the City of Tampa. The Photographer Laureate Program is inspired by historic photographic projects including the Farm Workers Administration, the National Endowment for the Arts, and regional Photographic Archives. The program’s long-range vision is to build a public collection comprised of images that are representative of the life and times in Tampa, by regional, national and international photographers.

Over the course of the multi-year project, an artist will be commissioned to “add a volume” for one year. The volume must be built upon a theme/topic selected by the artist/photographer and approved by the committee. Over the course of time, the city hopes to accumulate and display a full and varied representation of the multiple and diverse perspectives of artists on Tampa.

The artist chosen for 2007 was Marion Belanger (www.marionbelanger.com) from Connecticut, and the Big Picture Photographer Laureate, Volume V is now finished, and Marion’s work is open to the public.

Check out Real Estate/Spaces in Transition on view at the American Institute of Architects Gallery in downtown Tampa at 200 N. Tampa Street, Suite 100.  Find it on the west side of Tampa St. just south of Jackson.

You may want to check out the online work of previous Tampa Photographer Laureates, including 2003 Photographer Laureate Beth Reynolds, 2004’s Suzanne Camp Crosby, pinhole photographer Rebecca Sexton Larson in 2005, and 2006’s Steven S. Gregory.

The 2008 photographer, Jeremy Chandler, is busy taking photos now.  Look for his exhibit in about a year.

Oh boy!

In another one of those kooky quirks of scheduling, Tampa played host to both the Women of Faith Infinite Grace conference and the 2008 FetishCon this past weekend. One event featured appearances by Eden Wells, Kumi Monster and RubberDoll, the other featured Patsy Clairmont, Sandi Patty and Marilyn Meberg. I’ll let you Google those names and figure out who was where, but the real delight is in knowing that these people and their fans were both occupying the same relatively small space at the same time.

Event organizers and venue bookers will both say that Tampa is a large enough city now that having multiple events that draw large and disparate crowds at the same time really shouldn’t be an issue. And they’re probably right. But…

Women Of Faith was held at the St. Pete Times Forum, which can hold up to 20,000 people and FetishCon, which draws over 2,000 people, was held at the Hyatt Regency about a half mile away. There are four, maybe five, hotels and about a dozen or so restaurants that you could reasonably classify as within walking distance of those two sites. Factor in just how dissimilar these two groups are and you have a recipe for awkward social interaction comedy gold, baby!

I’m just picturing two groups of people, clutching either bibles or leashes with people attached to them, waiting for the streetcar to Channelside or for a table at First Watch: “Umm…that’s okay, you go ahead. No, really. Please.”

Cross posted at Ridiculous trickle of consciousness

Matt Stout is a reporter for the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin. He was following the UConn basketball team for the Final Four, and gave his blog readers some Tampa Tidbits on his Matt’s UConn Men’s Basketball Blog:

downtown Tampa seems relatively clean and safe (My hotel is about a mile away from where myself and some of the other writers grabbed dinner last night, and my walk back alone was uneventful). There are a few restaurants and bars, too, and two blocks down from the St. Pete’s Times Forum, there is an outdoor mall-like area that has stores, a Bennigans, a Thai place, a Hooters, etc. Included in there, interestingly enough, is a place called Banana Joe’s, the infamous spot of the Carolina Panther cheerleader incident a few years back.

Glad he felt safe here, but it’s sorta a bummer to read that Banana Joe’s is a notable landmark.

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.

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The Tampa Downtown Partnership (TDP) commissioned the Downtown Tampa Workforce and Residential Study.  The Tampa Tribune’s A1 front / above the fold / lead teaser offers stats about "people living in downtown" from the recently unveiled survey, and opens the teaser with "Now that these residents are settled in…"

Fortunately, we also have the St. Pete Times, who took the time to separate the facts from the bullsh*t.  The stats quoted on the Tribune’s front page are made up of mostly people who DO NOT LIVE downtown.  In fact, less than 30% live in the core area:

Of the 212 who responded to the residential part of the study, only 63 actually live in downtown or the Channel District. The rest — 149, about two-thirds of the total — hail from Harbour Island, Hyde Park, Ybor City, Bayshore and South Howard, neighborhoods that are a far walk from downtown.

So much for Elements of Journalism at the Tribune. The TDP trots out the dung, and the Tribune serves it up on a dish.

Back in 2004, the Towers of Channelside took reservations on all 257 condo units. In August 2007, they had sold 4 of 5 retail spaces in the towers, and began closing on the condos.

Alas, by January of this year, they had only closed on 89 units, and filed for bankruptcy protection.

Tampa I Am visited on a recent home tour. He’s fairly impressed with Towers of Channelside, until he hears about all the costs:

seemed a little small, and left little room for any storage, the balconies and views were amazing. I’m not sure though that the views and wrap around balconies, large pool area, and location in the new urban residential area downtown warrant prices of over 1/2 million $$, with monthly HOA fees running around $500/month, but that’s just me.

Last month, the Trib reported that there are “about 150-200″ people living at theToC. That number means nothing.

Reporter Ben Montgomery of the St. Pete Times did a piece on a single guy living at the Towers. Montgomery’s fantastic writing gives us the impression that some dude named Johnny F lives in there all alone with a stuffed Buffalo head and his girlfriend visits once in a while.

But I’m irritated at what this article and all the others DON’T tell us. How many total sold? How many are available for sale right now? How many are being rented? Why aren’t people moving in? How much is the current asking price for these condos? How much did the ones sold pay for? How much are similar properties?

Realtors, developers, and flippers don’t want us to know these numbers, because they all feel that they have to sell a dream, instead of selling the reality. They all need to just suck it up, accept the “risk” part of the equation that they signed up for. If these condos are all they are cracked up to be, you should have no problem selling them for what they are worth.

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.

The Tampa Tribune reports that the developers of Trump Tower Tampa are close to giving up the ghost. One single financing option remains, and if that fails, they are ready to walk away and sell.

You might remember when Donald Trump welcomed everyone to get in on the ground floor of the “tallest building on the Gulf Coast.” Now his name is becoming mud all over America. No matter, the Donald is looking to Puerto Rico.

As far as the downtown spot, mayor Pam Iorio has had her eyes on the riverfront property since July of last year. Look for the city to buy it and add to the Riverwalk.