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Around the Bay

Business news from around Tampa Bay

By Times Staff
Published August 27, 2007

Tarpon Springs

It's voyeur dorms vs. city, Round 2

In the struggle between adult entertainers and the governments that regulate them, it's a constant battle to stay one step ahead.

"Someone always comes up with some angle that falls in the cracks," said city attorney Jim Yacavone. "Thirty years ago it was nudie bars. Then it was massage parlors."

And now this.

After receiving a recent inquiry from a Bulgarian company, Power Vision Ltd., that wants to start a "voyeur dorm" in Florida, Tarpon Springs is revisiting its adult-use ordinance. While the city can't ban such an establishment outright, it can make life hard for would-be adult entrepreneurs.

"I don't feel that type of business is welcome in Tarpon Springs," said Mayor Beverley Billiris, who led the effort to shut down a voyeur dorm in the city six years ago. "But what we can do legally and constitutionally is another thing."

Voyeur dorms are particularly difficult to regulate, said Shauna Morris, an attorney for the city who is updating the city's adult-use ordinance. The First Amendment protects the "speech" itself - any activities broadcast from the house - and patrons don't visit the location in person, as they would a strip club or an adult bookstore.

If there are no adverse effects on neighbors, "then they have the First Amendment right to use the airways," said city attorney John Hubbard.

Clearwater

On Drew Street's eclectic jumble, some survive, some struggle

Drew Street is a scrappy four-lane street lined with neighborhoods and quirky mom-and-pop businesses. It has only one fast-food restaurant: Subway.

Running east-west from McMullen-Booth Road to the Gulf of Mexico, it carries more than 23,000 vehicles per day.

You can buy groceries from Central America, hormone-free beef, exotic birds, stylish hats, ski boots or a custom-made guitar. You can have your teeth drilled, your car repaired or your shoes resoled. You can get a bike, a tattoo or a bridal gown.

It is a street with a personality and energy all its own.

"Gulf-to-Bay is a highway," said Marie Kelly, an employee of Athena's Bridal Boutique. "Drew is a street."

But in recent years, several big road projects have strained the relationship between Drew Street's merchants and their customers.

The road itself underwent a $5.2-million expansion in 2003.

It also was heavily affected by a $30-million project to put an overpass at U.S. 19, which was completed last year, and the Keene Road expansion finished in 2004.

Because of the changes, some businesses closed, and others are still trying to recover.

"A lot of us stick together," said Dottie Jessup, who owns the thriving Chainwheel Drive bicycle store with her husband, Tom.

"During the expansion and the Keene Road project, we really stuck together."

St. Petersburg

Architectural perceptions clash in neighborhood

Downtown development is pushing into the Old Historic Northeast, and residents there aren't too happy about it.

Nowhere is this change more evident than Fifth Avenue N, where at least four condominium projects and two hotels have been proposed since 2004. The modern lines of the new buildings stand in stark contrast to the Old Northeast's mix of Mediterranean, Colonial and Prairie Style homes shaded under maple, magnolia and jacaranda trees.

Fifth Avenue is the border between the downtown and Old Northeast neighborhoods.

"That area has sort of a bleary vision," said architect Tim Clemmons, who is building a seven-story condo called 475 on Fifth Avenue. "It is a mix of downtown's high density and the Old Northeast's small-town feel."

While city officials have traditionally embraced all new development downtown, residents in the Old Northeast have slowly started to push back.

Homeowners and activists worry that towering new developments will cloak sidewalks in shadows and alter the charm of the historic neighborhood.

[Last modified August 24, 2007, 20:34:50]