A night club and apartment complex bear the name "Hyde Park," but the area doesn't.
By RON MATUS
Published May 16, 2003
[Times photos: Stefanie Boyar]
Frank Kane, president of the Courier City/Oscawana Property Owners Association, says "This is the middle section of Hyde Park."
New townhouses, such as these on Westland Avenue, are sprouting up all over Oscawana.
The literary heart of South Tampa beats in Oscawana.
Most neighborhoods would be lucky to have one bookstore, but Oscawana has two. And two good ones at that: Inkwood Books on S Armenia Avenue and Imperial Book Lodge on Kennedy Boulevard.
If you need directions, though, forgive the owners if they don't say, "First head over to Oscawana." Few people know where Oscawana is, including many of the people who live in its modest bungalows, quaint apartments and growing clumps of new townhouses.
Not that they mind when they find out.
When Inkwood co-owner Leslie Reiner was told that the city has her store on the western edge of Oscawana, she broke out in song.
I wish I were an Oscawana wiener . . .
Nobody seems to know how the neighborhood came to be called Oscawana, but a lakeside town in New York shares the name. It's not too far-fetched to think a transplant had something to do with it.
Today, though, many Oscawanans consider themselves Hyde Parkians.
City neighborhood maps show Oscawana extends from a gritty stretch of Kennedy Boulevard south to Azeele Street, and from Armenia Avenue west to the warehouses on Rome Avenue.
"This is the middle section of Hyde Park," insisted Frank Kane, president of the Courier City/Oscawana Property Owners Association. "It's always been that way."
Well, not always. Older city maps show Oscawana as distinct from Hyde Park, too. But over the years, lines blurred, identities merged and Hyde Park outshined its next-door neighbor.
Lots of folks want to live in Hyde Park. Even if it means cheating a bit. The Post Hyde Park Apartment Homes has the name but not the address. The Post's stretch of Fremont Avenue falls in Oscawana.
Like most of South Tampa, lot prices have skyrocketed in Oscawana.
But unlike other parts, residents here want the upscale townhouses stirred into the mix.
Or so said Kane, who owns more than 100 apartments in the area and was elected neighborhood president, even though he lives in Sunset Isles.
At least 32 townhouses on four separate lots are on their way. Dozens more are cropping up in Courier City to the south. Kane sees the trend this way: Higher density development means more people and more money pumped into businesses along Howard, Azeele, Platt and, eventually, Kennedy.
The neighborhood is "definitely on its way up," agreed Tommy Ortiz, 33, pedaling an exercise bike recently on the front porch of his duplex.
Ortiz co-owns Hyde Park Cafe, which, naturally, is in Oscawana.
When he bought the Platt Street hot spot in 1996, prostitutes worked the corners and gun shots weren't out of the ordinary.
"People thought we were crazy," he said. "Platt was so dark and seedy."
Kane offered similar stories. A few years ago, he bought rental homes occupied by transvestites who made a living on Kennedy Boulevard.
But with redevelopment, the sadder corners of Oscawana will vanish, boosters say.
Whatever Oscawana residents call themselves, others call them lucky. Especially others who are, like more and more Oscawanans, thirtysomethings with disposable income.
Within easy walking distance, there's an Irish Pub (the Dubliner), an Asian bistro (T.C. Choy's), homemade pasta (the Ravioli Co.) and coffee to go (Mel's).
If that wasn't cushy enough, Oscawana offers a tanning salon, a plastic surgeon, an acupuncturist and a massage therapist.
It's got a more practical side, too.
If residents get arrested, there's Dolly's Bail Bonds up on Kennedy.
And if they need a lawyer, Oscawana has at least 19 law offices to choose from.
HOME TO: Inkwood Books, Sangria's, the Rack, T.C. Choy's
DOMINATED BY: Law offices, bungalows
TREND: Townhomes
PRO: Walking distance to SoHo
CON: Sad stretch of Kennedy Boulevard
CONTACT: Frank Kane, 251-4456
Tampa is a collection of neighborhoods, with more than 50 south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Hyde Park and Palma Ceia need little introduction, but others do. In an occasional series that begins this week, City Times explores some of them.
[Last modified May 16, 2003, 11:26:37]
