Your Turn
Development should fit in with neighborhood
By Letter to the editor
Published October 24, 2003
Regarding the two letters Oct. 17 about development in the Channel District, I am glad to see there are others out there who are passionate about the urban scene. I wholeheartedly agree that Tampa needs improvement in its city fabric. I, too, have my issues about how this town is evolving.
My problem is with the recent development at Britton Plaza - specifically the insertion of a big, beige box store on the Euclid Avenue side of the plaza. Please, someone else out there tell me that they see it as a step toward the suburbanization of South Tampa.
Consider the fact that this virtual strip center on steroids is plopped down with its back side facing Euclid Avenue and Sterling Street. From these two vantage points, one sees nothing but the huge, deadening, blank walls on the back and side of the stores. They rudely confront the passerby and, to add insult to injury, the Dumpsters and other detritus in the back alley are on full display. There's absolutely no connection with, or sympathy for, the dense, established residential neighborhood they front.
If South Tampa is the city neighborhood, then there have to be guidelines for how things get built. S Howard Avenue got on the right path a few years ago by mandating development be built to the sidewalks. Look at how that has played out. At Swann Avenue, the south side of Howard is emerging with a good urban look and feel. The sidewalks are getting pedestrian traffic. It's interesting and actively developing.
South Tampa continues to attract the development to keep it moving forward. All I'm saying is that the development has to be compatible with qualities that attracted people to South Tampa in the first place. Let the stores in, but make sure they fit in with an urban setting.
John Jezek, Virginia Park
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Your TurnDevelopment should fit in with neighborhood
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