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What's Brewing

Area rises above its reputation

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published April 14, 2006

It wasn't too long ago when prostitution, crime and code enforcement dominated talk about Southeast Seminole Heights, a neighborhood saddled by a not-so-nice stretch of Nebraska Avenue.

People who bought there were considered risk-takers. Their friends from elsewhere called them crazy.

Today it's a different story. Young couples replace absentee landlords. Neglected bungalows boast new shines. Old-timers reap real estate rewards.

Rather than patrol for prostitutes, residents grill kebabs at neighborhood porch parties.

The parties, held the first Friday of every month, started about five years ago. Maria Garcia-Gutierrez hosted the first one at her 1925 craftsman-style bungalow on North Bay Street. Fourteen people showed up. Nearly everyone brought chips and brownies.

The early parties were interesting, especially when the ladies from nearby Nebraska sauntered by late at night. Over time, they disappeared.

These days, the parties rotate from house to house, with each host selecting a theme. Last week's was "You kill it, we grill it.'' Next month's is Cinco de Mayo.

The parties attract about 40 people, most of them members of the Southeast Seminole Neighborhood Association. They gather for the food and fun, but mostly to bond with others who laugh at the notion of living anywhere else.

To say these people are enthusiastic about their neighborhood is like saying Tom Cruise has a fondness for Katie Holmes. It's like they've found some utopia behind the tattered chain-link fences and overgrown yards and want all the world to know it.

Their energy makes you want to sign up for their club, and pronto.

Their club consists of what they call "breeders" heterosexual couples and "nonbreeders" (gay couples), along with singles and some retirees. They wish more of their black neighbors would join them, and, for now, kids are a rare commodity, largely because the local schools have a ways to go.

Members are people like Rich Guagliardo, a real estate agent who was born in the neighborhood and recently returned because "there's no place like it.''

Or August Vanderdonckt of Belgium, who makes bread in his back yard as a hobby and gives it to neighbors. He reluctantly began coming to the porch parties with his wife about six months ago and now "counts down the days to the next one.''

Old-timers like Michael Palmer, a 20-year resident, remember when the area wasn't so neighborly. Police helicopters routinely circled overhead. Rowdy patrons of a bar called Boogie's left beer bottles and condoms in people's yards.

People often asked Palmer and his partner why the heck they wanted to live there. Their response was simple: They liked it and saw the potential.

Together, Palmer and his neighbors pulled up the neighborhood one fight at a time. The bar closed, and the prostitutes moved away. Crime didn't evaporate but has dropped significantly.

To cope, people have dogs. And they walk them at night, as if to psyche out the bad guys and mark their turf.

Palmer declares the neighborhood as going from "rock bottom to top of the world.''

Southeast Seminole Heights is bound by Hillsborough Avenue, 15th Street, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Interstate 275. Call it the little sister to Old Seminole Heights, an older, more established community to the north.

To new devotees, it's close to South Tampa, but far enough away.

Take newlyweds Kirk and Brenda Donahoe. A 1999 Plant High graduate, Kirk was "scared to death to leave the square'' - West Shore, Kennedy, Bayshore and Gandy boulevards. But after finding nothing in their price range but cookie-cutter houses in the 'burbs, they decided on a bright blue bungalow known as the "Smurf house'' on New Orleans Avenue.

Kirk, 25, proposed on the day they closed and carried Brenda, 24, over the threshold. Minutes later, the Brinks guy showed up to install a security alarm. Welcome to Southeast Seminole Heights, they say with a laugh.

A year and a half later, the couple is giddy about their new life. Kirk is "completely over'' South Tampa and no longer considers himself "snotty.''

Not burdened with an expensive mortgage, Kirk was able to quit his old job to pursue his passions, including real estate. Brenda loves being part of a neighborhood on the rise.

Sipping beer and tanned from a Friday afternoon in the sun, Kirk said, "Life is good, real good.''

Raising their glasses, his neighbors certainly agreed.

THE LAST DROP: Pedestrians and motorists take note. The long-awaited traffic light at Bayshore Boulevard and Howard Avenue is up and running. Push the button to stop northbound Bayshore traffic and cross safely. Otherwise, the light stays green.

Susan Thurston can be reached at thurston@sptimes.com or 226-3394.

[Last modified April 13, 2006, 13:07:13]