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SHERRI DAYAlleys provide parking and access for utility companies. They're also known for trash dumping and illegal activities.
SOUTHEAST SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - The sight of discarded plywood, plaster and chicken wire piled high in alleys throughout his neighborhood makes Rich Guagliardo so mad he shakes.
In the past few months, illegal dumpers have become more brazen, Guagliardo says, often unloading refuse in broad daylight. Guagliardo, a Realtor and homeowner in Southeast Seminole Heights, takes the dumping personally and suspects contractors are responsible.
"Had it been somebody's garbage, I would have gone through it to see if I could find a name, and I would have been the first person to march up to that house," he said. "For somebody to disrespect our whole neighborhood like that and treat us like a dump, that's unacceptable."
Last month, Guagliardo told his neighbors about the dumping on several alleys, including the one behind his McBerry Street home. His fury rekindled a simmering debate about the fate of alleys in Southeast Seminole Heights.
Proponents of keeping alleys open say the roads provide much-needed access for utility companies and motorists who park in their back yards. (Garbage trucks have long stopped using the alleys.) Supporters also argue that the alleys serve as a visible link to the neighborhood's history.
But to a growing number of homeowners, the alleys are havens for trash dumping and illegal activities, including loitering and prostitution.
Constructed in some of Tampa's oldest neighborhoods from the 1920s to the 1950s, alleys pose a present day dilemma for neighborhoods throughout large swaths of the city, such as Virginia Park, East Ybor, Davis Islands and Tampa Heights. Built to accommodate garbage trucks and utility companies and to give people access to their back yards, many alleys have fallen out of favor with residents who say the negatives outweigh the benefits.
Tampa has more than 4,500 alleys, according to a city land development report. About half of them remain open.
In Historic Hyde Park, the city paved the alleys, which are named after cats, such as Calico, Cheshire and Tabby. In West Tampa, many of the alleys are overgrown with grass. SoHo's alleys provide rear access for many business owners.
In Southeast Seminole Heights, many of the alleys are dirt roads and, all too often, become hiding places for revelers, stolen cars and trash, residents say. In an effort to reduce crime, neighbors successfully lobbied the city in 1998 to close 52 blocks of alleys. These days, the neighborhood can't agree about what should happen to its remaining open alleys.
Many old-timers, frustrated with dumping and crime, want to close the alleys to vehicle traffic but fear they lack enough community support.
Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association president Beverly Morrow and local preservationists want the alleys to remain open.
"I personally would like to see us correct the problems that we're seeing in the alleys and try to keep them open," Morrow said. "They could be a more pleasant place for people to utilize them."
Residents who want to shutter an alley must submit an application, which is reviewed by more than a dozen city agencies and ultimately the City Council, said Thom Snelling, the city's land development manager. The cost of closing an alley can range from $400 to $950 per application.
The city currently has no requests for large-scale alley closings.
While community support is important, residents do not need 100 percent approval from their neighbors to seek closure, Snelling said.
Even homeowners who support alley closures concede that the narrow roads are not inherently problematic. For Randi Raaen, a certified public accountant who also lives on McBerry Street, the rub is the city's rule for keeping alleys clean. According to city code, homeowners who abut an alley are responsible for its upkeep. Although Raaen doesn't throw trash in her alley, she has paid for someone else's dumping.
"Unless we protest vociferously, we get charged with the pick up," said Raaen, who was charged more than $100 to remove illegally dumped items.
Raaen's neighbor Andrew Baker, an urban planner who led the first alley closure effort, also has paid for picking up others' trash.
William Doherty, the city's deputy code enforcement director, said those cases are anomalies. If property owners have not dumped in their alleys, they should not incur cleanup charges, he said. Fines can range from $1 to $5,000.
"If we verify that it's been illegally dumped on, then they won't get charged," Doherty said. "Sometimes, it's difficult to tell, I'll grant you that. But anybody who can prove their case can have their day in court."
Baker said code enforcement needs to step up its patrols. He recently removed a fence blocking off his alley after enforcement officers told him it violated city code because the council had not closed the alley. If dumpers trash Baker's alley again, he promises to revive efforts to close it.
His neighbors will have to work together to pull off a community-wide effort, Baker said.
"It's going to be up to each block to try to walk their block, talk with their neighbors on both sides of the alley and see if they would be amenable to close their alleys," he said.
Southeast Seminole Heights resident Stan Lasater, the founder of N.I.C.E. - short for Neighborhood Improvement Code Enforcement, would back an attempt to close problem alleys.
So would Jennifer Zapasnik. A robber recently tried to break into her house through the back door. The would-be thief entered her yard from the alley, she said.
Preservationists hope the effort fizzles before it begins.
"I know alleys in neighborhoods that were considered to be real problems and the neighbors got together and did monthly alley cleanups," said Steve Gluckman, a preservationist and board member of the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association. "As soon as they began cleaning the neighborhood, their problems disappeared. (But) It's not easy to get people interested in cleaning alleys."
Morrow, the association president, would like to emulate Historic Hyde Park, where walkers, joggers and bicyclists dot the alleys. Mary Ester Parker, the longtime alley chairwoman for the Old Hyde Park Garden Club, said Southeast Seminole Heights could revive its alleys with regular cleanups and by installing special lighting.
"The people who don't believe in alleys need to understand the positives of it," she said.
Other alley supporters include the occasional sailor, who stores his boat in his back yard, and the antique luxury car owner, who keeps her automobile tucked behind her home.
Guagliardo doesn't really care which side prevails.
"People want to keep them open, that's fine," he said. "If you want to close them, that's fine. But just don't dump in my neighborhood. It's not just my business. It's my neighborhood, and I'm very protective about it."
- Sherri Day can be reached at sday@sptimes.com or 813 226-3405.