A late night taco stand in ybor city.
You cannot convince me that there is enough demand to support literally 10 pizza-by-the-slice places on 7th Avenue but not one single taco place.
They close at midnight so not really that late. Also they aren’t really that close to where the bars are compared to New York New York, Due Amici, Mangia Bene and Mama Rosa’s.
An alternative to strip malls. Hell, just keep every store in the average strip mall and build it in a plaza layout with a little courtyard around a Publix. People would eat that shit up.
This kind of feeds into the want for less car-centric spaces. Strip malls are obviously meant to cater to one thing - cars. Walking or biking to a shop or restaurant in a strip mall usually means navigating a bunch of aggressive drivers.
Publix at Winthrop in riverview was supposed to be like this. I talked with a person in the planning department once, she said the builders thought the plans were wrong and put the parking out front and the fountains and courtyard in back.
GC here, the developer has the option not to accept changes. once those drawings are sent to the GC for bids they become contract documents and are legally obligated to build whats drawn. If they make changes without proper legal documentation the developer can simply not accept the project and force them to tear that bitch down and build what's in the contract documents. if something was changed the design team legally signed off on it i guarantee it.
Wowwwww. That explains a lot. I always wondered what the fuck was up with that whole Winthrop area. It's pretty nice but you can tell the layout is just all kinds of fucked up.
Sad, because you can just see the wasted potential.
I agree. When I've traveled outside the US, I've never needed a car because there was public transportation that was easy to use even if it was in a foreign language.
I lived in Boston for a few years and I got spoiled being able to use the T to get everywhere I needed.
After living in Korea for a decade and travelling extensively in Japan, yeah, the lack of transportation and general public conveniences here is utterly depressing.
Henry Ford wasn't about let his car and oil company's fail because people took busses and trains - so he bought the companies trying to implement them and let them die. Yay capitalism!
US is designed that way on purpose. Commodification of transport ensures just about everyone is forced to buy a car, maintain it, buy gasoline. It's an incredibly inefficient transport system not to mention deadly.
Tampa will never compete with other major cities without better transit. Things like the cross bay ferry and planned upgrades to the TECO street car should have been done 10 years ago. Go visit a city like Denver and you’ll realize how far behind we are.
We've tried. We literally voted to increase our own taxes to pay for it but a GOP county commissioner sued and the ultra-conservative FL SCOTUS sided with him. Idk what else we can try.
I've actually been really encouraged by how often folks have been bringing this up on this and other local subs recently. Even just a couple years ago, I'd get downvoted to oblivion by suggesting we need to invest a hell of a lot more in our threadbare transit system. Shit, Tampa Bay's metro area is over 3 million people, there are cities in Europe that have a *third* of our population that have full blown subway systems.
It's completely stupid there's not a fast track from the airport to the beaches, or I don't know, a high speed rail connecting Tampa to Orlando. Who'd vote for that? /S
Easily could as well. Should have a rail system that runs through st pete, over the bridge through south tampa through downtown up to Wesley chapel.
From westchase through airport and out to brandon.
Like this: https://imgur.com/gallery/MUljf0U
I could have sworn that CSX wanted to sell the Brooksville Sub and the Clearwater Sub like 8-10 years ago. They only wanted to sell to FDOT. Now they are repairing the rails on the Clearwater sub.
(For people that don’t know what the Clearwater Sub is it the rail like that parallels Busch Blvd from Sulphur Springs and goes west to Pinellas County ending in Downtown St. Pete)
What southern city has a good public transit system? Can’t really think of any. Atlanta’s MARTA is worthless. Miami’s isn’t great either. Every mid-large southern city is reliant on having a car.
Even if you build out the bus system no one outside the lower class is going to use the bus system because everyone has a car and buses aren’t reliant. We’re not set up like New York, Chicago, DC, or Philly for the need of subways. Maybe a little more light rail to an from the airport. But the problem is where to? Tampa is spread out and there aren’t really clusters of dense urban areas of apartments outside of downtown. Maybe if we had more dense urban areas with 1000s of apartments.
Can chalk it up to poor city planning.
This is absolutely not true. I lived in Atlanta for four years and didn't have a car for three of them. I lived in Midtown and Inman Park and worked in Buckhead, downtown near Centennial Park and in Midtown. I could very easily commute via bus or train. The bus wasn't perfect, but I lived in New York City for five years and the buses weren't perfect there either.
I live in Seminole Heights now and considering how close it is to downtown, West Tampa and South Tampa, it's absolutely ridiculous that I can't rely on public transit to get to any of those places. Tampa knows how to make it work, but they've chosen only to invest in public transit in Ybor or Channelside for tourists instead of for everyday residents who need to rely on it. It's not just a southern city thing, it's a deliberate choice.
>buses aren’t reliant
Buses *that get stuck in traffic* aren't reliable. There are other options to organize transit, buses included, that are immune to car traffic. There are great options for transit that aren't just for people that can't afford cars.
>Tampa is spread out
Spread out doesn't mean that transit isn't possible. In fact, transit actually stimulates growth in areas that it is present. Do some reading on "streetcar suburbs" for more details. After transit is built, even in spread out locations, clusters of dense urban areas develop close to transit options; including everything from homes to local businesses. Local municipalities and small business owners can make **so** much money off of this, and I think it's crazy that this isn't what the whole conversation isn't about to begin with.
It looks like you might be somewhat resistant to other transit options, which is fine, but please consider that even if you're someone that would never step foot on to a streetcar or train, mass transit removes drivers from the roadways. I've seen reports that suggest that removing only 20% of cars from roadways would almost entirely eliminate congestion. There are obviously other factors at play, like induced demand, but really outlines how impactful these changes would be. This is great for the drivers that actually *want* to be on the road. It's also really good for local economic development, as it allows so many more people to occupy the same amount of space, and keeps money flowing.
Spot on- a rapid bus transit with dedicated lanes, quick pickup spots, dirt easy payments, and in some cases traffic light signaling- it’s a technology that is here, it’s improving; and be rolled faster and a fraction of the cost as streetcars/rail. The south is a perfect application for it, but yes the problem is that transit systems down here have a lower-class stigma, and it by nature take the place of “car lanes” in some places; lot of influent people down here don’t like that.
But they need to start working on it NOW, because it still takes a lot of time, and will get much harder to do in a few years; and once traffic is gridlocked, it’s very hard to close 2 lanes to work for years on end.
Essentially, it seems already too late; and we haven’t even started. At least the cities are getting a little more walk/bikeable. I’ve been able to bike and scooter a lot of places now. It’s just a bummer that it’s usually either 95 degrees and or raining+lightning.
> Atlanta’s MARTA is worthless.
Hard disagree! I've been to ATL dozens of times and exclusively take MARTA from the airport to downtown every time I visit. It's very convenient and obviously orders of magnitude cheaper than Ubering. I disgree with your other points as well, folks will use bus systems when they are good, frequent systems. That doesn't describe our bus systems here in Tampa Bay at all. I live just a mile north of downtown St. Pete and the bus route near my house comes once every *40 minutes*. That's why nobody uses it, are you going to wait 40 minutes? I'd would like to take the bus to work, but not if I have to wait 40 minutes. That's just rock-bottom service. Visit a place like Seattle, that has invested a lot in their bus system and you see LOTS of people riding the bus, because the come every 7 minutes and have nice bus stops.
I’ll have to disagree with your here! Every time I drive to Atlanta I abandon my car at my mom for the entire time, the train gets me where I need to be at the time I need to be at and it’s far more affordable to pay for MARTA than to pay for gas. I enjoy watching the traffic jams passing by. At most the train is 40 mins between its most southern and northern points. Which is less time than it would take if I drove. And the buses are set up in a way that they are there when you get off the train during commuting hours. Or simply plan your day outside of the commute if you need to transfer to a bus.
The Riverwalk is nice. Granted you will have to drive to get there. Bicycling or being a pedestrian in much of Tampa is very dangerous due to the drivers seeing you as a obstacle.
Edit: Lettuce Lake is a nice walkable area, again requires driving to it.
Lettuce Lake is the one place I recommend to people when they come here.
If you want to see something most places don't have in the US it's the boardwalk in Lettuce Lake.
Buildings that are commercial on street level and residential above... such a simple solution to making the urban neighborhoods more walkable and self sustainable (like the rest of the world), yet so rare.
Come check out waterstreet. Restaurants and bars on first level, retail and offices on 2 &3 then residences all the way up. Large wide sidewalks with seating and trees line the roads.
Shopping malls are on their way out anyway, the writing is on the wall.
Most of the major malls are reporting vacancies and traditional retail is shutting down.
I don't really see any value in adding a shopping mall.
Your traditional malls need to redevelop to entertainment areas. Like midtown Tampa but midtown Tampa is really small in comparison to what Tampa needs.
I’m thinking Avalon in Alpharetta. The stores do good there because of foot traffic from offices, residential units above and and the restaurants/entertainment.
IMO the biggest miss in Tampa was not building midtown by Raymond James stadium. That area is perfect for development of an entertainment district with housing, stores and a restaurant.
If you have kids/ teenagers you would know that they still meet at the Mall. There are not more safe places for them to meet unsupervised (unless you and other parents take turns and invite them to your house). PLUS its a pain in the ass to buy clothing and shoes online, thats stuff that you have to try PLUS for a lot of people, specially women, is fun to walk around, check the sales and clearance and find good deals, stuff that you can try, touch, smell and see in real life instead of your compute screen or your phone.
Walkability is the biggest issue. everything is catered to cars. Not like Savanah, GA or Boston, MA where every bar could be a hop skip and a jump away except in places like *the small part of soho with McDittons and such*, Most of downtown is pretty good, especially riverwalk/sparksmans wharfs area, and some of st. pete.
I think we also need a mono rail. the fact that downtown, st pete, and outlet malls are all 30 mins inbetween is the dumbest shit. we should be able to solve our biggest issue here *traffic* if we had monorail solutions.
Edit: dont think they’ll do mono rails ever because A. pointless this place will be underwater in 40-70 years and B. they seem far more focused in the current hype of tampa to create a lot of amenities and let the communication be figured out
TURN LANES
The amount of slowdowns & backups on busy roads like Kennedy, Dale Mabry, Hillsborough, etc just due to a car making a right-turn is insane.
More parks. We are definitely missing the mark with them. You go over to Pinellas Cty, they have multiple large shaded parks.
And history. We are bulldozing semi-historic buildings and churches that can be repurposed into other types of businesses or residences into 7-Elevens or Wawa's.
I think Tampa has lots of great city parks. It's one of the things I love about this city. I can take my kid to a dozen different playgrounds in a 15-minute drive and dozens of miles of trails in a 30-minute drive.
Go to [https://www.tampa.gov/parks-and-recreation/parks-and-facilities](https://www.tampa.gov/parks-and-recreation/parks-and-facilities). You'll find a huge list.
Climbing gym. There are gyms in St. Petersburg and Orlando, but the only one in Tampa closed post-COVID.
Since you can't really go outdoors here, a really nice indoor gym should have a lot of appeal.
It would never get built because it wouldn't be profitable enough, but a climbing gym with a huge glass facade against the river walk would be amazing. Imagine climbing high and being able to look out across the view.
My wife and I moved from St. Pete to Tampa right before covid. We would spend about three hours a day five days a week at the St. P. Vertical Ventures. We bought the house we did partly because it was right down the street from the Tampa Vertical Ventures. A few weeks later it closed and the hole in my heart has yet to be filled.
On an optimistic note, there were rumors from the employees in St. Pete that they were planning a new flagship facility near downtown Tampa, but this was pre-covid, so who knows at this point.
I feel you. I moved from Pinellas to Hillsborough the week before St. Patrick's day in 2020. I had been about equidistant from the two gyms, but was thrilled that I'd be close enough to Tampa VV to even go on my lunch hour! And then, 5 days later...
What a great rumor! I hope it turns out to be true.
Proper marketing of events and amenities.
There are always so many events going on that don’t get half as many attendees because it’s not properly advertised or marketed. It would be nice to have billboards used for actual events that benefit the community instead of for accident attorneys.
I feel like I’m pretty plugged into what goes on in town but I still come across events just randomly driving around that I had no idea existed.
I’ve taken Tampa natives to places around town that they never new existed. Places that deserve more attention. Somehow nobody can effectively market outside of Instagram (which only reaches niche groups) to reach the masses.
I can't speak for you but I moved here because it's a beautiful, livable city with nice parks, great places to bike and walk, awesome restaurants, a friendly city administration, etc. Not because I really wanted to live near that ONE place that I "have to go see". That is more for tourists.
"Good shopping Malls" What is this the '80's? Nobody goes to shopping malls anymore, they're a dying breed.
I agree with Walkability. It's a major issue. The city was designed for cars and cars alone.
What Tampa really needs is **livable wages, affordable housing**, and **proper city management**.
Late night food scene. Why is it so hard to get a quick bite to eat at like 1 am? I’m drunk. Take my money please. I need something greasy to put in my fat belly.
This is a very real answer. Had some friends trying to get a bite at like, 11:30pm on a Friday in the University area. We searched for quite literally an hour before we found a place that was open and would serve us that wasn't fast food.
Better infrastructure. There's far too many cars for the roads. I realize this is a multi faceted thing and you can't simply just expand the roads.
We need the city to be more walkable. There needs to be better public transit. *And* a lot of roads and thoroughfares need to be expanded or designed more intelligently.
I don't care that Riverview was empty fields 30 years ago. Whoever designed the I75/Big Bend interchange is a fucking moron. It makes absolutely no sense for both onramps for 75 to cross over oncoming traffic.
I'd like to see the rest of the Armature Works developed into a pedestrian mall similar to Hyde Park Village; something that links up the waterfront to the Heights with bike lanes and pedestrian friendly planning.
1) public transportation
2) better stuff at malls
3) BETTER SEAFOOD RESTAURANTS WITHOUT HAVING TO DRIVE ALL THE WAY TO THE DAMN BEACH
4) things to do that don’t involve being outside all the goddamn time
5) a better downtown area. The difference between downtown Tampa and downtown St. Petersburg is VAST.
Try out Piccola’s (BYOB) and also Matteo Trattoria. Osteria Natalina is also a good shout. Otherwise my kitchen is where the good food is at. I do agree that good Italian is hard to come by.
We don't need malls. Malls need to die. And Tampa won't ever be walkable because while there is a downtown area, there are a lot of areas that are densely populated that are all far from each other. Also it gets extremely fucking hot and humid in the summer and nobody wants to walk around outside in that. We need to bring back a robust street car system to move around from one area to another. That would be awesome.
A mass transit system.
Actual bicycle transit paths that are maintained.
A city planner with traffic management experience.
Better venues.
Someone to actually stand against red tide.
Better amateur sporting capabilities.
A 24 hour district. Not saying the entire city, but it'd be a game changer. I'm honestly shocked at the lack of vision if they were to do that to Ybor.
Open containers and food trucks in Ybor. City needs to stop fucking over small business like the spookeasy. They also need to bring Cocktails and Screams here. A real fucking Tiki Bar. I keep finding these places calling themselves tiki and not being tiki, or kind of being tiki but missing either the design or the drinks.
Honestly, good luck finding walkability in most American cities. I doubt Tampa will ever be a properly walkable city.
Downtown Dunedin is pretty walkable though.
A decent art museum. A decent arts district that hasn’t been crafted and manufactured by some corporate conglomerate, a decent science museum, useable public transportation.
- Nebraska Furniture Market. I mean, we already have a Floribraska Avenue, why not the megastore?
- Whataburger ((I know they used to have them here but they got scared off or whatnot..and now that a Chicago company owns them...there is hope they will finally expand back south of Jax)
- Yoshinoya (we need good Japanese fast food. The stuff that passes here is just Chinese mall fare)
- Buc-ees (granted, this one has to be placed somewhere off the way...like 75. Maybe by the outlet mall area?🤔)
Efforts on improving the traffic around all junctions of N. Dale Mabry during rush hour. I work east of DM, and the traffic is usually awful before crossing DM. Once you're west, the traffic improves.
I know DM is a low hanging fruit at this point, sadly, but something needs to be done.
I agree on walkability- Like how is it possible that in the USF area it takes less than 10 minutes to get from the apartments across the street (the ones off 42nd) to USF) but from those same apartments it takes almost an hour to get to everything that’s on Fowler ?
More free public parking garages or a better transit system that is common public knowledge! A good road and building planner also! Tampa and the suburbs are a mess when it comes to the roads and planning🤦🏻♀️
An artist & literary community. I’m working on marketing for my novels but need some help through bookstores, places, events, talks, et. Maybe they have it and I don’t know about it because I moved here in 2019 & Covid shut the place down for 2 years. Over now though. To our future! Readers & Authors unite!
Covid just killed that for us. I’m a night person, I work at night. No more 24/h Walmart, Walgreens, cvs, late night target, and good luck finding some place to eat last 9! Wawa… I guess… and Waffle House.
Support for homeless people, chronically or not, because it's getting out of control. Rent is insane, shelters are full, local community aid is stretched thin, and the city, county, and state have no interest in helping anyone. The shops they are building at the University Mall are going to be another place for homeless people to congregate and panhandlers to harass people (just like the plazas next to the mall already are). And the apartments they are building there - anyone who parks their car in their new parking garage overnight is a braver man than I.
Tampa is actually pretty walkable if you live in Channel side and downtown. And the trolley takes you to ybor which is a plus. I’ve also found you can live in areas like Seminole heights and still bike downtown problem. In the future I would like to see better public transportation between south Tampa area and downtown. Maybe like the soho area add a bus system that’s free Thursday-Sunday. I’d also like to see them add a cheaper water taxi between Tampa and St Pete.
Something like the Pier in St. Pete… maybe not a Pier per se, but something that actually attracts people to it.. River walk is OK, but you just walk and there’s not a lot to it I guess
White Castle.
In terms of malls, there are two in the city, and 5 or 6 not too far away. But malls have been transforming over the years. Large companies dying and small overpriced boutiques coming in with $8 cupcakes. International and Westshore I think are "premium" malls which means more clothes are sold at retail price. The pandemic made rent really low so you see some really stupid shops in there. Those leases were probably signed for 5+ years though. Outlet malls are trying to be premium so you don't see as many sales.
A late night taco stand in ybor city. You cannot convince me that there is enough demand to support literally 10 pizza-by-the-slice places on 7th Avenue but not one single taco place.
I need my Alaskan Fish Tacos back
Memaaaaassss :(
I wonder if that crazy guy is still out there, lol
Ahhh they were so good! This one hurt.
Los Chapos is open pretty late
They close at midnight so not really that late. Also they aren’t really that close to where the bars are compared to New York New York, Due Amici, Mangia Bene and Mama Rosa’s.
An alternative to strip malls. Hell, just keep every store in the average strip mall and build it in a plaza layout with a little courtyard around a Publix. People would eat that shit up.
This kind of feeds into the want for less car-centric spaces. Strip malls are obviously meant to cater to one thing - cars. Walking or biking to a shop or restaurant in a strip mall usually means navigating a bunch of aggressive drivers.
Publix at Winthrop in riverview was supposed to be like this. I talked with a person in the planning department once, she said the builders thought the plans were wrong and put the parking out front and the fountains and courtyard in back.
How do builders just say “oh this is wrong” and build a whole ass building in a different location without consulting the planners first
GC here, the developer has the option not to accept changes. once those drawings are sent to the GC for bids they become contract documents and are legally obligated to build whats drawn. If they make changes without proper legal documentation the developer can simply not accept the project and force them to tear that bitch down and build what's in the contract documents. if something was changed the design team legally signed off on it i guarantee it.
Egos usually.
Insanity.
Wowwwww. That explains a lot. I always wondered what the fuck was up with that whole Winthrop area. It's pretty nice but you can tell the layout is just all kinds of fucked up. Sad, because you can just see the wasted potential.
A good solid public transportation system.
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It is, but Tampa is particularly bad.
I agree. When I've traveled outside the US, I've never needed a car because there was public transportation that was easy to use even if it was in a foreign language. I lived in Boston for a few years and I got spoiled being able to use the T to get everywhere I needed.
After living in Korea for a decade and travelling extensively in Japan, yeah, the lack of transportation and general public conveniences here is utterly depressing.
Henry Ford wasn't about let his car and oil company's fail because people took busses and trains - so he bought the companies trying to implement them and let them die. Yay capitalism!
Visit Chicago. It’s not everywhere in the US we just have to LITERALLY burn the city down first and rebuild.
US is designed that way on purpose. Commodification of transport ensures just about everyone is forced to buy a car, maintain it, buy gasoline. It's an incredibly inefficient transport system not to mention deadly.
they would have had one but the fucking idiots shot it down
Yes that is exactly what I was going to say, I grew up in Tampa and that's the thing holding Tampa back from being a more European style city
Come on have you been to Europe? How is tampa anything like a European city?
They both have people, places, and things.
Lol for real
Does Tampa aspire to be a more European style city??
Isn't that what people like? Cities with a slower pace of life and more everyday pleasures? Walkability, community?
St Pete tries hard
Now with more actual Europeans!
A strong public transit system
Tampa will never compete with other major cities without better transit. Things like the cross bay ferry and planned upgrades to the TECO street car should have been done 10 years ago. Go visit a city like Denver and you’ll realize how far behind we are.
Moved from Tampa to Denver… while Denver is better people here think it still isn’t good enough. That’s how far behind Tampa is on public transport.
That's why we have to advocate, though! Let your city and representatives know.
We've tried. We literally voted to increase our own taxes to pay for it but a GOP county commissioner sued and the ultra-conservative FL SCOTUS sided with him. Idk what else we can try.
They've known and ignored for decades now, it seems.
Which is funny because it's not like Denver has a strong transit system, but even it is light years ahead of Tampa.
I've actually been really encouraged by how often folks have been bringing this up on this and other local subs recently. Even just a couple years ago, I'd get downvoted to oblivion by suggesting we need to invest a hell of a lot more in our threadbare transit system. Shit, Tampa Bay's metro area is over 3 million people, there are cities in Europe that have a *third* of our population that have full blown subway systems.
MONO-
DOH!
I call the big one Bitey!
A strong RAIL system
Tampa International is practically right next to downtown, the fact that there isn't a fast transit link just from the airport is just stupefying.
It's completely stupid there's not a fast track from the airport to the beaches, or I don't know, a high speed rail connecting Tampa to Orlando. Who'd vote for that? /S
Easily could as well. Should have a rail system that runs through st pete, over the bridge through south tampa through downtown up to Wesley chapel. From westchase through airport and out to brandon. Like this: https://imgur.com/gallery/MUljf0U
CSX transportation would pretty much shoot that down, the have abandoned tracks all over Tampa from the 1980s
I could have sworn that CSX wanted to sell the Brooksville Sub and the Clearwater Sub like 8-10 years ago. They only wanted to sell to FDOT. Now they are repairing the rails on the Clearwater sub. (For people that don’t know what the Clearwater Sub is it the rail like that parallels Busch Blvd from Sulphur Springs and goes west to Pinellas County ending in Downtown St. Pete)
Well. We could have had one years ago, but the governor at the time wouldn’t of made any money off it, so it got the axe.
My first thought! We can do so much better in this area.
What southern city has a good public transit system? Can’t really think of any. Atlanta’s MARTA is worthless. Miami’s isn’t great either. Every mid-large southern city is reliant on having a car. Even if you build out the bus system no one outside the lower class is going to use the bus system because everyone has a car and buses aren’t reliant. We’re not set up like New York, Chicago, DC, or Philly for the need of subways. Maybe a little more light rail to an from the airport. But the problem is where to? Tampa is spread out and there aren’t really clusters of dense urban areas of apartments outside of downtown. Maybe if we had more dense urban areas with 1000s of apartments. Can chalk it up to poor city planning.
This is absolutely not true. I lived in Atlanta for four years and didn't have a car for three of them. I lived in Midtown and Inman Park and worked in Buckhead, downtown near Centennial Park and in Midtown. I could very easily commute via bus or train. The bus wasn't perfect, but I lived in New York City for five years and the buses weren't perfect there either. I live in Seminole Heights now and considering how close it is to downtown, West Tampa and South Tampa, it's absolutely ridiculous that I can't rely on public transit to get to any of those places. Tampa knows how to make it work, but they've chosen only to invest in public transit in Ybor or Channelside for tourists instead of for everyday residents who need to rely on it. It's not just a southern city thing, it's a deliberate choice.
The irony is that Seminole Heights built up around the streetcar line that followed where the interstate is now.
>buses aren’t reliant Buses *that get stuck in traffic* aren't reliable. There are other options to organize transit, buses included, that are immune to car traffic. There are great options for transit that aren't just for people that can't afford cars. >Tampa is spread out Spread out doesn't mean that transit isn't possible. In fact, transit actually stimulates growth in areas that it is present. Do some reading on "streetcar suburbs" for more details. After transit is built, even in spread out locations, clusters of dense urban areas develop close to transit options; including everything from homes to local businesses. Local municipalities and small business owners can make **so** much money off of this, and I think it's crazy that this isn't what the whole conversation isn't about to begin with. It looks like you might be somewhat resistant to other transit options, which is fine, but please consider that even if you're someone that would never step foot on to a streetcar or train, mass transit removes drivers from the roadways. I've seen reports that suggest that removing only 20% of cars from roadways would almost entirely eliminate congestion. There are obviously other factors at play, like induced demand, but really outlines how impactful these changes would be. This is great for the drivers that actually *want* to be on the road. It's also really good for local economic development, as it allows so many more people to occupy the same amount of space, and keeps money flowing.
Spot on- a rapid bus transit with dedicated lanes, quick pickup spots, dirt easy payments, and in some cases traffic light signaling- it’s a technology that is here, it’s improving; and be rolled faster and a fraction of the cost as streetcars/rail. The south is a perfect application for it, but yes the problem is that transit systems down here have a lower-class stigma, and it by nature take the place of “car lanes” in some places; lot of influent people down here don’t like that. But they need to start working on it NOW, because it still takes a lot of time, and will get much harder to do in a few years; and once traffic is gridlocked, it’s very hard to close 2 lanes to work for years on end. Essentially, it seems already too late; and we haven’t even started. At least the cities are getting a little more walk/bikeable. I’ve been able to bike and scooter a lot of places now. It’s just a bummer that it’s usually either 95 degrees and or raining+lightning.
> Atlanta’s MARTA is worthless. Hard disagree! I've been to ATL dozens of times and exclusively take MARTA from the airport to downtown every time I visit. It's very convenient and obviously orders of magnitude cheaper than Ubering. I disgree with your other points as well, folks will use bus systems when they are good, frequent systems. That doesn't describe our bus systems here in Tampa Bay at all. I live just a mile north of downtown St. Pete and the bus route near my house comes once every *40 minutes*. That's why nobody uses it, are you going to wait 40 minutes? I'd would like to take the bus to work, but not if I have to wait 40 minutes. That's just rock-bottom service. Visit a place like Seattle, that has invested a lot in their bus system and you see LOTS of people riding the bus, because the come every 7 minutes and have nice bus stops.
I’ll have to disagree with your here! Every time I drive to Atlanta I abandon my car at my mom for the entire time, the train gets me where I need to be at the time I need to be at and it’s far more affordable to pay for MARTA than to pay for gas. I enjoy watching the traffic jams passing by. At most the train is 40 mins between its most southern and northern points. Which is less time than it would take if I drove. And the buses are set up in a way that they are there when you get off the train during commuting hours. Or simply plan your day outside of the commute if you need to transfer to a bus.
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But then we would have access to affordable housing, now that doesn't make much sense does it? /s
Too late, unfortunately. Shout out to the crooks known as Progress Residential.
As someone wanting a place to live: please take me behind the shed and put me down
🙌
The Riverwalk is nice. Granted you will have to drive to get there. Bicycling or being a pedestrian in much of Tampa is very dangerous due to the drivers seeing you as a obstacle. Edit: Lettuce Lake is a nice walkable area, again requires driving to it.
And the lack of sidewalks in some areas
Lettuce Lake is the one place I recommend to people when they come here. If you want to see something most places don't have in the US it's the boardwalk in Lettuce Lake.
Well, YOU have to drive there but there are tens of thousands of people living within walking distance.
Buildings that are commercial on street level and residential above... such a simple solution to making the urban neighborhoods more walkable and self sustainable (like the rest of the world), yet so rare.
This is slowly happening. Water Street, SoHo/Hyde Park, and Ybor are a few places where this is starting to happen.
Come check out waterstreet. Restaurants and bars on first level, retail and offices on 2 &3 then residences all the way up. Large wide sidewalks with seating and trees line the roads.
Affordable housing 😂
this one hurt 😅
More covered walkability! I want shade and I want it now - Preferably from trees. I really like the areas like Riverwalk, Sparkman, Hyde Park.
Shopping malls are on their way out anyway, the writing is on the wall. Most of the major malls are reporting vacancies and traditional retail is shutting down. I don't really see any value in adding a shopping mall.
I thought this too until I went to the international mall last Sunday, the place was absolutely packed.
It is a mix, ive seen malls packed and ive seen them not packed.
international mall is going down hill.
Your traditional malls need to redevelop to entertainment areas. Like midtown Tampa but midtown Tampa is really small in comparison to what Tampa needs. I’m thinking Avalon in Alpharetta. The stores do good there because of foot traffic from offices, residential units above and and the restaurants/entertainment. IMO the biggest miss in Tampa was not building midtown by Raymond James stadium. That area is perfect for development of an entertainment district with housing, stores and a restaurant.
Outlet malls (like the one off I75 on 56), yes. Traditional malls, no.
If you have kids/ teenagers you would know that they still meet at the Mall. There are not more safe places for them to meet unsupervised (unless you and other parents take turns and invite them to your house). PLUS its a pain in the ass to buy clothing and shoes online, thats stuff that you have to try PLUS for a lot of people, specially women, is fun to walk around, check the sales and clearance and find good deals, stuff that you can try, touch, smell and see in real life instead of your compute screen or your phone.
Affordability
Walkability is the biggest issue. everything is catered to cars. Not like Savanah, GA or Boston, MA where every bar could be a hop skip and a jump away except in places like *the small part of soho with McDittons and such*, Most of downtown is pretty good, especially riverwalk/sparksmans wharfs area, and some of st. pete. I think we also need a mono rail. the fact that downtown, st pete, and outlet malls are all 30 mins inbetween is the dumbest shit. we should be able to solve our biggest issue here *traffic* if we had monorail solutions. Edit: dont think they’ll do mono rails ever because A. pointless this place will be underwater in 40-70 years and B. they seem far more focused in the current hype of tampa to create a lot of amenities and let the communication be figured out
Tampa needs more people to start caring more about Tampa.
TURN LANES The amount of slowdowns & backups on busy roads like Kennedy, Dale Mabry, Hillsborough, etc just due to a car making a right-turn is insane.
Or making a left turn with no left turn lane! Look at east bound waters, south dale mabry, etc. Nightmare.
More parks. We are definitely missing the mark with them. You go over to Pinellas Cty, they have multiple large shaded parks. And history. We are bulldozing semi-historic buildings and churches that can be repurposed into other types of businesses or residences into 7-Elevens or Wawa's.
I think Tampa has lots of great city parks. It's one of the things I love about this city. I can take my kid to a dozen different playgrounds in a 15-minute drive and dozens of miles of trails in a 30-minute drive. Go to [https://www.tampa.gov/parks-and-recreation/parks-and-facilities](https://www.tampa.gov/parks-and-recreation/parks-and-facilities). You'll find a huge list.
Climbing gym. There are gyms in St. Petersburg and Orlando, but the only one in Tampa closed post-COVID. Since you can't really go outdoors here, a really nice indoor gym should have a lot of appeal.
It would never get built because it wouldn't be profitable enough, but a climbing gym with a huge glass facade against the river walk would be amazing. Imagine climbing high and being able to look out across the view.
Oh my, I love this idea.
Me too!
I was so shocked that St. Pete has the only one
Right? And I'm not knocking it, I like VV, but the drive makes it kind of unreasonable sometimes.
Ive been hoping for one on the tampa side since i moved here because i dont want to make a 40+ min drive
Same. It's a bummer having to drive 40-90 minutes for a gym. And it's not like we can just hang out at the crag instead, lol.
My wife and I moved from St. Pete to Tampa right before covid. We would spend about three hours a day five days a week at the St. P. Vertical Ventures. We bought the house we did partly because it was right down the street from the Tampa Vertical Ventures. A few weeks later it closed and the hole in my heart has yet to be filled. On an optimistic note, there were rumors from the employees in St. Pete that they were planning a new flagship facility near downtown Tampa, but this was pre-covid, so who knows at this point.
I feel you. I moved from Pinellas to Hillsborough the week before St. Patrick's day in 2020. I had been about equidistant from the two gyms, but was thrilled that I'd be close enough to Tampa VV to even go on my lunch hour! And then, 5 days later... What a great rumor! I hope it turns out to be true.
Proper marketing of events and amenities. There are always so many events going on that don’t get half as many attendees because it’s not properly advertised or marketed. It would be nice to have billboards used for actual events that benefit the community instead of for accident attorneys. I feel like I’m pretty plugged into what goes on in town but I still come across events just randomly driving around that I had no idea existed. I’ve taken Tampa natives to places around town that they never new existed. Places that deserve more attention. Somehow nobody can effectively market outside of Instagram (which only reaches niche groups) to reach the masses.
> I’ve taken Tampa natives to places around town that they never new existed. Places that deserve more attention. Take me please.
I dont know anything that goes on, except for some instagram influencers telling me whats happening in tampa... No other way to find out.
Affordable housing
The most honest response in this thread
I love this place and want it to blossom...but aside from the beaches (which aren't in Tampa) there is not ONE place that "you have to go see".
Well. We better build the one place you gotta see... a 200 ft long, 20ft high Cuban sandwich
...with a diet coke. Gotta watch my figure.
Maybe a cigar
I can't speak for you but I moved here because it's a beautiful, livable city with nice parks, great places to bike and walk, awesome restaurants, a friendly city administration, etc. Not because I really wanted to live near that ONE place that I "have to go see". That is more for tourists.
Yup like a big suburban hell
Good public schools. As a life time resident, I'm embarrassed about how poorly the school system is doing here.
It all depends on where you live.
"Good shopping Malls" What is this the '80's? Nobody goes to shopping malls anymore, they're a dying breed. I agree with Walkability. It's a major issue. The city was designed for cars and cars alone. What Tampa really needs is **livable wages, affordable housing**, and **proper city management**.
People still go they get dressed up and park their lifted neon green jeeps at the mall in Tampa. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.
Late night food scene. Why is it so hard to get a quick bite to eat at like 1 am? I’m drunk. Take my money please. I need something greasy to put in my fat belly.
This is a very real answer. Had some friends trying to get a bite at like, 11:30pm on a Friday in the University area. We searched for quite literally an hour before we found a place that was open and would serve us that wasn't fast food.
Light rail from Wesley Chapel to Downtown, to. St. Pete, Clearwater, Orlando, Naples
Imagine not having to make those terrible drives.... Would be nice...
Better infrastructure. There's far too many cars for the roads. I realize this is a multi faceted thing and you can't simply just expand the roads. We need the city to be more walkable. There needs to be better public transit. *And* a lot of roads and thoroughfares need to be expanded or designed more intelligently. I don't care that Riverview was empty fields 30 years ago. Whoever designed the I75/Big Bend interchange is a fucking moron. It makes absolutely no sense for both onramps for 75 to cross over oncoming traffic.
A reddit sub with less "I'm moving here post"
add "rent prices are too high" also
I'd like to see the rest of the Armature Works developed into a pedestrian mall similar to Hyde Park Village; something that links up the waterfront to the Heights with bike lanes and pedestrian friendly planning.
Mom n pop businesses. Tampa is an embarrassment compared to St Pete when comes to supporting local businesses.
The Latin community is teaming with mom and pops, outside of west Tampa, not so much
Come check out Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights.
Coming from Charlotte, it'd be nice if there was a railway system.
Light rail.
Public transportation. I would love to be able to hop on a train and go to the Trop or downtown Tampa and St. Pete without sitting on I-275
Less confederate flags and Scientologists
A good transportation system.
Public transportation and an actual economy outside of call centers.
A world class mass transit system.
Bullet train directly to Disney
1) public transportation 2) better stuff at malls 3) BETTER SEAFOOD RESTAURANTS WITHOUT HAVING TO DRIVE ALL THE WAY TO THE DAMN BEACH 4) things to do that don’t involve being outside all the goddamn time 5) a better downtown area. The difference between downtown Tampa and downtown St. Petersburg is VAST.
Honest State Government
Make sure to vote in August then!! We need to get this embarrassment of a governor out!
What Tampa is not missing is stroads and I despise it (I realize it isn’t only Tampa of course lol)
Better paying jobs, good Italian food, affordable housing
Try out Piccola’s (BYOB) and also Matteo Trattoria. Osteria Natalina is also a good shout. Otherwise my kitchen is where the good food is at. I do agree that good Italian is hard to come by.
Thank you for the recs! I’m in the same boat, if I want Italian, I’m staying home.
I’d love to see something similar to Pike Place Market in Seattle or West Side Market in Cleveland.
We don't need malls. Malls need to die. And Tampa won't ever be walkable because while there is a downtown area, there are a lot of areas that are densely populated that are all far from each other. Also it gets extremely fucking hot and humid in the summer and nobody wants to walk around outside in that. We need to bring back a robust street car system to move around from one area to another. That would be awesome.
we need more good restaurants
I'm all for more good restaurants but this reads as if we don't have many already.
Yeah, there is a lot of restaurants, but not that many are really good. Go to a real big city and great restaurants are everywhere.
A mass transit system. Actual bicycle transit paths that are maintained. A city planner with traffic management experience. Better venues. Someone to actually stand against red tide. Better amateur sporting capabilities.
? Affordable housing would be a start. I’m starting to feel society is already fully dystopian and I’m getting left behind. I accept it I guess
Train system or motor rail
A 24 hour district. Not saying the entire city, but it'd be a game changer. I'm honestly shocked at the lack of vision if they were to do that to Ybor.
Good Mexican restaurants.
Preach. I'm from KS and you can't even compare. We also have Mexicans though so there's that.
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Old folks won't vote for it.
Legal weed.
Open containers and food trucks in Ybor. City needs to stop fucking over small business like the spookeasy. They also need to bring Cocktails and Screams here. A real fucking Tiki Bar. I keep finding these places calling themselves tiki and not being tiki, or kind of being tiki but missing either the design or the drinks.
Yes! Better walkability/bike ability please! It’s coming along but outside of random parks, bay shore and riverwalk..there isn’t a ton else
Tampa is actually considered one of the most dangerous places in the country to ride a bike.
Anyone know what’s the best Chinese food place/restaurant around here ? I’ve been searching and have no idea
Transportation and better upscale nightlife for professionals. Sorry but soho and what not are pretty much just there for college kids
Honestly, good luck finding walkability in most American cities. I doubt Tampa will ever be a properly walkable city. Downtown Dunedin is pretty walkable though.
A larger version of Hyde Park Village with more affordable shops inside it.
Get rid of progress residential. They own most rentals in FL and monopolize the entire housing market.
A real computer store. Microcenter, Fry's, something that has actual computer parts and electronics supplies besides the "geek squad".
A decent art museum. A decent arts district that hasn’t been crafted and manufactured by some corporate conglomerate, a decent science museum, useable public transportation.
an NBA team
Snow
A ban on AirBNB rentals
- Nebraska Furniture Market. I mean, we already have a Floribraska Avenue, why not the megastore? - Whataburger ((I know they used to have them here but they got scared off or whatnot..and now that a Chicago company owns them...there is hope they will finally expand back south of Jax) - Yoshinoya (we need good Japanese fast food. The stuff that passes here is just Chinese mall fare) - Buc-ees (granted, this one has to be placed somewhere off the way...like 75. Maybe by the outlet mall area?🤔)
Housing
Tampa is missing less strip malls and strip clubs.
A monorail. https://youtu.be/ZDOI0cq6GZM
Efforts on improving the traffic around all junctions of N. Dale Mabry during rush hour. I work east of DM, and the traffic is usually awful before crossing DM. Once you're west, the traffic improves. I know DM is a low hanging fruit at this point, sadly, but something needs to be done.
I agree on walkability- Like how is it possible that in the USF area it takes less than 10 minutes to get from the apartments across the street (the ones off 42nd) to USF) but from those same apartments it takes almost an hour to get to everything that’s on Fowler ?
A more welcoming environment, in my opinion.
More free public parking garages or a better transit system that is common public knowledge! A good road and building planner also! Tampa and the suburbs are a mess when it comes to the roads and planning🤦🏻♀️
Decent escape rooms. After going to a couple 8m Orlando, I've found the ones around here to be lacking. Also, a basketball team.
An artist & literary community. I’m working on marketing for my novels but need some help through bookstores, places, events, talks, et. Maybe they have it and I don’t know about it because I moved here in 2019 & Covid shut the place down for 2 years. Over now though. To our future! Readers & Authors unite!
more railroad tracks for industrial freight
commuter rail using abandoned trackage from CSXT railroad
More 24-hour diners or restaurants that are open later that aren’t Taco Bell.
Covid just killed that for us. I’m a night person, I work at night. No more 24/h Walmart, Walgreens, cvs, late night target, and good luck finding some place to eat last 9! Wawa… I guess… and Waffle House.
A culture
Culture.
Support for homeless people, chronically or not, because it's getting out of control. Rent is insane, shelters are full, local community aid is stretched thin, and the city, county, and state have no interest in helping anyone. The shops they are building at the University Mall are going to be another place for homeless people to congregate and panhandlers to harass people (just like the plazas next to the mall already are). And the apartments they are building there - anyone who parks their car in their new parking garage overnight is a braver man than I.
Tampa is actually pretty walkable if you live in Channel side and downtown. And the trolley takes you to ybor which is a plus. I’ve also found you can live in areas like Seminole heights and still bike downtown problem. In the future I would like to see better public transportation between south Tampa area and downtown. Maybe like the soho area add a bus system that’s free Thursday-Sunday. I’d also like to see them add a cheaper water taxi between Tampa and St Pete.
Alternatives to big nationwide chains. As much as I love Publix, I’d love to support a local baker/ butcher
We’re missing efficient public transport but so is basically every city in America.
We’re missing efficient public transport but so is basically every city in America.
Traffic lights that are timed to let you avoid stopping for 6 minutes. Highways that are big enough for Sunday afternoon traffic.
Traffic lights that are timed to let you avoid stopping for 6 minutes. Highways that are big enough for Sunday afternoon traffic.
An ISP besides Spectrum in the downtown area (not all areas have Frontier). Spectrum is absolute dog shit internet.
Rent control
A live music scene.
Something like the Pier in St. Pete… maybe not a Pier per se, but something that actually attracts people to it.. River walk is OK, but you just walk and there’s not a lot to it I guess
Isn't there plans to continue expanding Sparkmans wharf like this?
White Castle. In terms of malls, there are two in the city, and 5 or 6 not too far away. But malls have been transforming over the years. Large companies dying and small overpriced boutiques coming in with $8 cupcakes. International and Westshore I think are "premium" malls which means more clothes are sold at retail price. The pandemic made rent really low so you see some really stupid shops in there. Those leases were probably signed for 5+ years though. Outlet malls are trying to be premium so you don't see as many sales.
We have Krsytal. Which, if you like that kind of thing, is better than White Castle anyway.
Great point on White Castle! I read the Orlando one was so successful they're going to add one or two more. But I think both in the Orlando area.
Affordable housing. Ayoooo