A new business is set to open Monday in Ybor City.
Miracle of miracles, it isn't a bar or a nightclub for the fake ID crowd.
Instead, it will be a coffee house, a sort of tribute to the beatnik era, called Romeo's Studio 1515. There will be art on the walls and musicians behind the open mic.
At least that's what owner Sara Romeo plans. She has had lots of dreams for Ybor City. She and her husband have owned a building on Seventh Avenue for a decade. They once owned a furniture shop there and later an art gallery.
But the bars and nightclubs moved in, and the 18-year-olds who came to the neighborhood for two-for-one drink specials and head-banging music weren't interested in furniture or art. Romeo and her husband closed shop.
Her hopes are on the rebound now. I'm not sure I share them, but when it comes to Ybor City, it would be a pleasure to be wrong.
Romeo's hopes hang on an ordinance working its way through the Tampa City Council. The ordinance is meant to further rein in the noise that spills onto Seventh Avenue from the clubs.
This is how bad the noise is: There's a nightclub next door to Romeo's space and another across the street. When the clubs get cranking late in the evening, she said, "I can't play music inside my building, a radio or stereo, and hear it."
When she asked the clubs to turn down the noise, she was told that the noise supposedly draws people to the clubs. To turn it down, the argument goes, would be to basically turn the party off. Soon, the clubs might have no choice. The goal is to silence the musical racket on Seventh Avenue.
Noise levels will be measured right at the front door of the clubs. The sound can't be any louder than something between that of a factory and a subway train. They'll even be testing for bass levels, the repetitive, low thumping that some believe damages Ybor City's beloved old buildings.
Tampa police officers will enforce the law. How sweet. They'll be fixing a problem the city itself invited.
It was Tampa that set off the free-for-all in Ybor City, that permitted the bars and bands to rule the neighborhood. The theory was only bars could make enough money to restore and preserve historical buildings. Instead, Tampa's most colorful old street, Seventh Avenue, was trashed.
For years, people such as Romeo complained. No one listened. Only now is the magnitude of the mistake being realized.
This is government carried out backward. But so what? Tampa seems to prefer conducting business this way.
This is the same city that allowed strip clubs to proliferate, then knocked itself out trying to regulate them. You remember: Tampa passed a law that requires dancers to keep 6 feet away from their hungry clients.
Some of the Ybor City clubs have said the noise rule will wreck their businesses, some not.
Debbie Springborn - owner of the Rare Olive, where martinis start at $9 - said she might have to move the bands away from the streetside window or install double-thick panes. But she is willing.
The real trouble might hit the clubs where people dance and drink outdoors, said Vince Pardo, executive director of the Ybor City Development Corp.
I don't feel sorry. The bars have wrecked Ybor City. People are afraid to go to Seventh Avenue. Small retail shops, places that could draw ordinary, sober adults during the day, have to fight to stay. Over the years, several have left.
It might be hard for you to see what street noise has to do with the state of a neighborhood. Check this out: The police want this ordinance passed because the noise is so loud that they can't hear themselves on their radios when they're trying to control a crowd.
I want to believe what Romeo believes, that a new day is coming to Ybor City. But plans for her coffee house reflect the neighborhood's current reality. She intends to close at 10 p.m., when the noise gets so bad her walls start shaking.
