After going into late-night overtime the week before, the Tampa City Council finally gave its blessing – or at least its majority vote – to the rezoning plans of Wasserman Real Estate Capital to redevelop Hyde Park Village.
Despite all the histrionic fuss, partisan controversy and inevitable divisiveness, there’s actually a lot for most interested folks to agree on regarding the 10-acre Hyde Park Village and attendant plans to help revitalize it.
*Hyde Park Village is not what it used to be. Selena’s is still missed. Sharper Image won’t be back. Jacobson’s is gone forever. No more movie theater.
*Nostalgia is not a strategy for success.
*Wasserman’s motives aren’t altruistic. It wants what’s best for Wasserman.
*Compromise has occurred.
*An open air, urban village is for real shoppers, outdoor diners and imbibers, and serious strollers – not roving, mall-magnet teens. This is good. In fact, it’s very good.
*Upscale living proximate to retail works. Europe’s been doing it for centuries.
*(To virtually all but Councilwoman Mary Mulhern), the status quo has become notably lusterless and unacceptable. Not vibrant enough and not nearly enough retail traffic. International Plaza, WestShore Mall and Channelside are more than formidable. Synergy with downtown visitors has never happened.
*Tell-tale signs of a prominent, mid-neighborhood retail loser is a worst-case scenario for every stakeholder – from shop owners to nearby home owners.
*There is no pleasing everybody.
Even Wasserman should agree that shoehorning two mid-rises and 163 condos –along with improved curb appeal and more retail and business space — into the village is less than ideal. But the numbers on a $100-million investment have to work, and it’s not as if the immediate vicinity is totally devoid of structures taller than 40 feet.
Holding out for the Panglossian ideal in an imperfect marketplace has already bequeathed us the Woolworth and Newberry plywood palaces downtown.
Some observations from the recent City Council dynamics involving the Village vote:
*Do not do important business after 1:00 a.m. Some members, notably Linda Saul-Sena, seemed frazzled by the endurance test a fortnight ago. This is no way to decide matters of magnitude.
*Those members who live farthest away – Joseph Caetano, Tom Scott, Gwen Miller and Charlie Miranda – favored the redevelopment plan.
*While a lot of articulate, caring members of the public crowded into City Hall to speak up, nobody made a more pointed comment than Kit Stewart, who owns Kit’s Well Heeled & Well Dressed shop. “There are more people in this room than there are (shopping) in Hyde Park Village,” noted Stewart.
Amen.