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Think everybody loves a front porch? Think again

By SUE CARLTON
Published July 19, 2006

I grew up with a standard-issue suburban Florida carport in front of the house. Since it tended to have a car in it, the carport was not especially conducive to social commerce, unless you didn't mind standing in the oil spot.

So I was utterly ignorant of life on a front porch until I got a house that happened to come with one.

How do you not love a front porch? I read the paper, hail my neighbors, watch the rain. I've shucked corn out on the porch, like there's chickens pecking around my yard and a dinner bell waiting to be rung instead of passing police cars and helicopters overhead.

The idea of the porch dates back to prehistoric overhanging rock shelters, to columned verandas of ancient Greece and Rome, to piazzas in Italy.

All porches are not created equal. Those that front some of the grand bungalows of the Old Northeast and Hyde Park are straight out of Southern Living, long, wide and elegant, draped in requisite white wicker.

Other neighborhoods sport porches with old couches that spit stuffing across sagging floorboards and maybe the occasional clothesline strung over the rails.

With porches, life can happen outside, not just in the air conditioning with the shades drawn and the garage door shut tight.

Cops love front porches, too. They're instant crime watch, great for neighbors keeping an eye out for any suspicious doings on their streets.

So how did a push for more porches get to be the most controversial part of a zoning ordinance at last week's Tampa City Council meeting?

Council member John Dingfelder wanted to offer builders incentives to put up more front porches, and not those tiny faux ones that couldn't hold a house cat.

The incentive allows them to extend an open porch up to 8 feet into the required 20- to 30-feet of setback space.

Dingfelder says builders have told him it's all about how much air-conditioned square footage they can squeeze in. At least this option could add a little outside charm.

Neighborhood associations do not like this idea. Such porches could protrude beyond other houses. What's more, they worry crafty homeowners could eventually enclose those porches to gain even more of that all-important square footage.

Never mind that the ordinance says these porches can't be enclosed. I sense mistrust, a feeling that zoning violations wouldn't mean much once the dust settled and the walls were already up.

"Eight feet is a nice little room," said homeowner and activist Margaret Vizzi. "People have closed in carports over weekends."

City director of code enforcement Curtis Lane says a violation like that would be cited and could mean hefty fines if not brought into compliance. "We see, we'll cite," he said.

My favorite porch-related sentiment came from council member Mary Alvarez, who said she had a home without a front porch and "we survived." Her kids, she said, played in the back yard "where they belong."

Though the ordinance passed, an umbrella group of neighborhood associations is expected to ask the City Council to reconsider.

Hope they don't.

Give builders the incentive, and then aggressively enforce the zoning laws to protect neighbors from a bait and switch.

These days, we're supposed to be all about "livable" cities. Nothing more like real life than people hanging out on the front porch.

Speaking of livable cities, St. Petersburg has once again beat Tampa to it.

The St. Petersburg City Council already approved a brand new ordinance letting restaurants that want to participate admit dogs with their owners at designated outside tables.

In slightly slower Tampa, the City Council is expected to take up the dog-dining issue Thursday.

Lest they think this one's a no-brainer, the dog-dining ordinance has whipped up controversy - from those who say it makes us practically European, and those who think society will surely collapse with a beagle and bone at the next table.

Sue Carlton can be reached at carlton@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 19, 2006, 05:40:49]