Summer is here, and while Creative Loafing is celebrating the change of season this week with our annual Summer Guide, not everyone is looking forward to longer, hotter days.

My Urban Explorer column this week examines how the end of tourist season affects the Corey Avenue shopping district in St. Pete Beach, along with the larger question of redevelopment in the beach community.

The issue hit home when I found out the Bamboo Beer Garden closed last week after 60 years of business on Madeira Beach. Right next to John’s Pass, this little tiki bar has been a favorite for locals and tourists alike, proven by all the pictures and license plates given to the bar by loyal patrons and visitors. The beer-only establishment offered a nice reprieve to the packed, tourist-driven boardwalk.

Whenever my friends visited, I made it a point to take them to Bamboo Beer Garden, which I felt represented a distinct part of what Florida meant to me. On one of my most memorable experiences at the bar, a Connecticut friend and I met two scruffy Treasure Island denizens who invited us back to their place to see the toilet/bench they set up in their front yard. The man looked like an emaciated Charles Manson and the woman resembled Janis Joplin had she lived to 60. Although we didn’t end up going with the couple (for obvious reasons), we did chat for a while about how we liked older beach establishments such as the Bamboo Beer Garden. I still have the pictures they insisted we take with them.

When I stopped by yesterday to take a few photos of the bar, I approached a man with a blonde handlebar mustache parked out in front, staring at the closed building. He had a 40 oz. of Budweiser between his legs and a Labrador in the back seat.

“I’ve taken a few sips here,” he told me. “This was the place down here. More than all this.” He pointed to John’s Pass.

“Nothing is historic down here,” he continued. “It’s all about the land. That’s what’s valuable.”

And, unfortunately, he’s right.

This article appears in May 9-15, 2007.