Last Saturday night, a disappointingly small crowd estimated to be no more than 15,000 journeyed to 7th Avenue in Ybor City to celebrate Guavaween, on what historically has been one of the biggest financial paydays of the year for the entertainment district.
Observers attributed the relatively sparse attendance to the decision earlier this year to ban motorized floats, which apparently persuaded most of the krewes associated with those floats to stay away from the festivities. The ticket price ($17, the highest ever) and the fact that the big night took place on Halloween may also have played a role.
Though the float policy was changed in part to bring the event back to its more grassroots origins (and to save thousands of dollars in renting metal barriers on 7th Avenue), local organizers will undoubtedly debate the wisdom of that decision in the coming weeks.
Those discussions could reverberate into a larger debate on the state of the historic district in late 2009. Some area merchants will tell you there's never been a better time to do business in the district than right now. Others worry that the city isn't doing enough to bring in new residents and developers. But all agree that there's a story to tell about Ybor that not enough people are hearing — that the district's unique history and urban livability are realities that still get overwhelmed by more pervasive narratives, some of which aren't even accurate anymore.
Perception vs. Reality
Take, for instance, the crime rate. Since Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and former Police Chief Stephen Hogue (who just recently retired) took over in 2003, crime overall in the district is down an astronomical 70 percent.
But Ybor's image still suffers from memories of club-related violence in 2007. In May, a fight inside Club Empire ended with one man fatally shot and another charged with murder; a Tampa Police Department report issued to the City Council at the same time included accounts of Club Fuel security guards allegedly robbing and battering patrons. In August, 2007,a shooting took place along Eighth Avenue behind Empire, causing neighborhood activists to call (for the second time) for the closing of both Empire and Club Fuel.
Alan Kahana owns the Castle nightclub and other properties in the area. He attributes some of the lawlessness that was a feature of the district until recently to the "misplaced understanding that we were going to become the next New Orleans in the late 1980s, when the City Council wasn't sensitive to what it took to be a tourist destination."
He also points to the adverse effects of closing off 7th Avenue to vehicular traffic on weekend nights in the '90s. "They didn't think of the unintended consequences of doing so," Kahana says, "which was that we provided a street party for the lowest common denominator."
But in 2005, Mayor Iorio re-opened the avenue to vehicles on weekends, a move that both Boom and Kahana strongly supported. And some of the rowdiest establishments in the district, such as Club Fuel, have moved out.
Tampa Police Captain Craig Roberts says that there are still incidents at some of the clubs, "especially on Saturday nights around 3 a.m. when everyone piles out to the streets. That's when fights start happening."
But he says the problems aren't as acute as in recent years, when the TPD would conduct regular reconnaissance helicopter flights around 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday mornings.
Despite the advances in the neighborhood, though, some negative perceptions remain. And if you talk to anyone closely affiliated with the district, you will hear that it's the fault of local mainstream media — particularly TV stations.
Patrick Manteiga is the editor and publisher of La Gaceta, the tri-lingual weekly Ybor newspaper. He says there needs to be some serious communications with media outlets about the way they report stories "in Ybor."
"The media likes to tag any negative incident near the area as happening in Ybor. But if there's a problem on Bay-To-Bay, you don't hear them saying, 'Here in South Tampa, another crime has been committed.'"
Yet Manteiga says when he reads something about IKEA in the Tampa Tribune, it's referred to as being located in downtown Tampa. (IKEA is on Adamo Drive, just a few blocks south of 7th Avenue, and officially considered part of Ybor.)
Neighborhood activists were so incensed about such coverage that last year Tony LaColla, president of the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association, issued a press release to local media outlets informing them of the exact boundaries of Ybor City (Nebraska on the west, 26th Street to the east, I-4 north and Adamo Drive south), and asking them to stop reporting on crimes that take place outside the district and saying that they occurred in Ybor.
The unrelenting focus on crime isn't enhanced by the fact that the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Operations Center is located on 8th Avenue in the heart of the district.
LaColla said he has specifically requested that television reporters — particularly when the crimes they are reporting on are in faraway regions such as Ruskin — sign off with the phrase, "Live from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department" instead of "in Ybor City."
Telling Ybor's story
In March of 2008, Mayor Iorio said in her State of the City address that Ybor City "is safer than ever. It is blossoming. It is flourishing. It is a place to go out to dinner and have a great time."
Yet that message doesn't seem to be getting through.
Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena says she recently attended a bat mitzvah at the Ybor Museum, and was surprised when she said several parents were "freaked out" about attending, due to safety concerns. "What will change people's minds is for them to experience it," she says.
Should media bear the primary blame for Ybor's image problem? Or is there more the city could do?
Club owner Alan Kahana says that for a long time now, city officials haven't realized the uniqueness of Ybor, and have failed to adequately support it. "We're only here because of the history," he says of many of the business owners in the area. "At the end of the day you either believe it's something special to be a part of a landmark-designated district and you're willing to support it, or not."
Richard Boom is the owner of A Dirty Shame, a bar at 7th Avenue and 20th. He thinks the city needs to make the area more palatable for Tampa residents. "We can get the tourists," he says. "I'd like to see them market Ybor City in Tampa."
Mayor Iorio, in addition to reopening weekend street traffic, gets high marks from merchants for eliminating street parking meters in the district back in March of 2008.
But some critics say that the mayor's many priorities have not included fostering infrastructure and development in Ybor, certainly not to the extent demonstrated by her predecessor, Ybor City native Dick Greco. He set aside monies to help build the parking garages off of Palm Avenue and next to Centro Ybor, and helped to foster the trolley car system (which, admittedly, gets mixed reviews).
City Councilwoman Saul-Sena said there's no doubt that Greco made more of a commitment to Ybor. She says she's urged the current administration to put a senior staff person in charge of urban design. Such an official might have prevented some recent setbacks to the area, she believes: "We might have saved the Gary School because of better code enforcement. We might have gotten the [Hillsborough County] Sheriff's Department to not close 20th Street. Maybe they wouldn't have paved over the bricks on 4th Avenue."
Manny Leto is the managing editor of Cigar City Magazine, and a contributor to CL. He says Ybor will never really thrive until more residential housing comes to the area. "It's still a tourist destination, so it's subject to the cycles of the seasons."
Tony LaColla agrees. He says his neighborhood association has been pushing for more residential housing since the mid-'90s, to create a truly mixed housing community. He agrees that the previous administration was also more proactive in finding developers to come into Ybor. And he chides the Ybor City Development Corporation (YCDC) for not doing a better job in that regard. "Sometimes you have to coax it along, and develop those relationships. We haven't been doing it the way we should."
When asked to respond, YCDC Manager Vince Pardo acknowledges that residential development has not been a focus of his board previously, but says it is now. And he says his organization is doing a good job of marketing the area to local residents. For example, he notes that most recently the group has had a 30-second ad playing on Bright House Cable that extols the virtues of Ybor. He also says a new billboard will be posted near the IKEA store on Adamo Drive that will promote Ybor to those coming into the District from Brandon and beyond.
Pardo says that the YCDC works closely with the Ybor-based marketing firm of ChappellRoberts on trying to get positive media coverage, and says most of the merchants are "well-versed on what we're doing."
New energy
Despite the concerns, as well as the recession, there are many people in Ybor will tell you that the district is doing quite well, thank you.
Tom Keating is president of the Ybor Chamber of Commerce. Yes, it's his job to tell people that Ybor has never been better. But speaking one recent afternoon at an outdoor table at King Corona Cigars café, his enthusiasm seems genuine. "We're doing better than Channelside or BayWalk. When we lost Starbucks, Joffrey's came in immediately," he says, referring to the caffeine giant's recent departure from Centro Ybor.
When asked if enough is being done by city officials, he admits that he wishes Tampa would "embrace us more." But he says when it comes to inaccuracies in local media coverage, he's not pointing fingers. "It's our job to make it right."
Longtime observers say there's a dynamism that hasn't been felt in the area for a while. At King Corona, for instance, the crowd is younger and hipper than you might imagine. Located on 7th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets, the establishment finds plenty of HCC students working on their laptops while enjoying a café con leche or a quality stogie.
Don Barco says that in his 12 years of owning King Corona and 25 years overall of working in Ybor, this is the golden age. He credits a variety of factors (such as IKEA and the rise of GaYbor) for the good vibe, including, perhaps counterintuitively, the crappy economy.
"It's helped us with 'staycations,'" he says. He also gives credit to Iorio and the TPD for the job they've done in making the area safer.
Many creative industries (including Creative Loafing — see our Editor's Note) have also flowed into the district in recent years. Tampa Digital just celebrated its 2nd anniversary in Ybor. Director of Public Relations Michael Piotrowski extols Ybor's "vibrant, creative atmosphere." He says the digital/film production/technology company has relationships with many other companies in the area, and that they hope to stay in Ybor for years to come.
Another positive development for Ybor has been the emergence of the GaYbor District Coalition, led by the proprietors of the MC Film Fest store, Carrie West and Mark Bias.
West says there are currently 257 members in his organization, including establishments as far away as Key West and Fort Lauderdale. Marking the area as the GaYbor District, he says, has helped Tampa nationally with the gay community, after the deleterious blowback that ensued in the wake of the Ronda Storms-led ban of gay pride events in the county in 2005.
Even though the Coalition's influence has been praised by several merchants, one close observer had surprisingly critical things to say about GaYbor. "The Cuban Club is part of Ybor City. HCC is part of Ybor. They're creating divisions by trying to make the area exclusively gay by pushing a name for it. Don't rename us. Don't re-label us."
When told of these comments, West dismissed them as ignorant. "Over two thirds of our members are straight businesses. We're not about forcing anything on anybody."
And there's no question that in this economically depressed time, gay-friendly businesses like Streetcar Charlies's on 8th Avenue and 15th Street are doing well.
Music establishments continue to thrive in Ybor, too, propelled by the refurbished Ritz Theatre at the corner of 15th and 7th. Crowbar, the Orpheum and New World Brewery still pack in the alternative rock scene on 8th Avenue.
There are high expectations of more development along the eastern edges of the entertainment district, following the announcement in June that construction on the I-4-Selmon Expressway Connector will begin early next year and be completed by 2014, removing the behemoth trucks that rumble down 21st and 22nd streets.
So when it's all said and done, things may be looking more up for Ybor than they have in a long time.
As the Chamber of Commerce's Keating says, "There's a real spirit here. A lot of entrepreneurial spirit. I think that's what keeping Ybor alive. People come back here, trying to make it happen one more time."
Or as Councilwoman Saul-Sena says, Ybor is Tampa's soul. "Without it," she says, "we'd be just another white-bread Southern city."
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.