Random Musings on Tampa

Tampa is such a strange place; full of potential but devoid of people. Although small, the downtown is beautifully designed and laid out. There are plenty of pedestrian malls complete with fountains, the sidewalks are spacious and a pleasure to walk on, and yet the place is like a ghost town. It’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, Florida style.

The problem is four-fold:

1) For all the beautiful buildings that are present downtown, not one of them is residential. It’s the whole “If you build it, they will come” syndrome. People are generally homebodies, and you can guarantee that if they live downtown they will play downtown.

2) If you aren’t going to let people live downtown, at least make it easy for them to get there. The metropolitan area known as Tampa - St. Petersburg is choked with highways, and more often than not these arteries are under construction. It’s not pleasant to drive into downtown; not when a five-mile trip takes 45 minutes.

3) The public transportation here is a joke, almost not even worth mentioning. Sure the city has a bus system, but it is woefully inadequate. Besides, I have a hard time believing people down here would be willing to give up their automobiles for anything less than door-to-door rail transportation.

4) Last but not least, there is nothing for anyone to do downtown. In a city that has been overrun by Starbucks, there are surprisingly few cafes downtown (read: none). There are no shops for people to browse, there are no restaurants for people to eat in, and there are no bars for people to get wasted at. Why should anyone go downtown where there is nothing for them to do once they get there?

This place feels like the Los Angeles of the East, but it is admittedly very beautiful.