At its 27th Annual Meeting and Luncheon on June 13, the Tampa Downtown Partnership featured a "Fast Forward'' panel of young professionals talking about perceptions of Tampa and shaping what's next for Florida's third largest city.
The "Fast Forward'' panel included Erin Chantry of Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Brandon Hicks of Twelfth Street Studio, Brian Seel of The Beck Group and Ann-Eliza Taylor of the Yates Law Firm. The panel discussion was moderated by Shaun Drinkard, the Partnership's Director of Placemaking.
Below is Chantry's summary of the discussion.
The "Fast Forward'' panel discussion revolved around four questions, each providing different insights into the challenges and triumphs in Tampa's future. Conversation focused on the hopes and commitments for Downtown Tampa over the next decade, the hurdles encountered and opportunities used to overcome them, and the momentum for future change. From the diverse experiences of the panel, themes emerged from the discussion as the most important for moving Downtown Tampa forward.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
Arguably the largest priority necessary to make Tampa a first-class city is to be able to attract industry and workforce, and be able to retain it.
There is no doubt a host of reasons why Tampa is challenged to compete with cities like Charlotte, Houston, or Raleigh/Durham, but two of the most influential are how the city is perceived and what people can find when they get here.
The Florida reputation will be a hurdle to overcome in attracting industry. Among the most talented young professionals in the country, many silo Florida off into three categories: Miami, Disney and retired people.
Unfortunately, Tampa easily can be put in the last category, especially since the Tampa Bay region does host a large number of tourist destinations that draw retirees and snowbirds. Tampa isn't seen as a place that attracts a large number of young professionals on a national scale, and therefore industries are less likely to move here. They want to establish themselves where young professionals will want to stay indefinitely.
Furthermore, the talent that Tampa is able to attract is easily lost later to more competitive opportunities nationwide. Because of the sometimes-limited industry growth, it is hard for employers to promote and develop their employees at the pace expected. When that great opportunity comes up in Charlotte or Atlanta -- they take it.
The question becomes -- how to we evolve Tampa to be a competitive force for industry and jobs on a national scale?
Pirates, Not Palms
The first is to change the conversation. We need to shift our focus from the Florida identity of palm trees and sunshine, to what makes Tampa real. Defining a city's identity on what makes it unique is crucial in its competitiveness. The two things that set Tampa apart from any other American city are its Cuban culture and Gasparilla.
Ybor City was mentioned numerous times by the panel and was a driving force in attracting at least two of us to live and stay in Tampa. Ybor City is where Tampanians can most easily emotionally connect with the Cuban heritage. The cigar factory architecture, ethnic clubs, cigar shops and bars, and restaurants like the Columbia communicate palpably the cultural heritage that makes Tampa unique.
The Gasparilla festival season that runs for the majority of the winter months exhibits the rich arts character of the city. The art, music and film festival put Tampa on the map as a culturally relevant city. The fun devotion and commitment to the invasion of pirates during Gasparilla is a refreshing exercise that identifies Tampa as a creative, fun and interesting place.
Let Clearwater sell the palms -- let's change the conversation to what no other city in the country can offer. We're already very proud of our Cuban and Gasparilla culture, we just need to communicate and market it more effectively.
Trees And Trains
The second way to make Tampa competitive on the national scale is to build our way into offering the lifestyle that young professionals want and expect of their home city. The reason why Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn sets up Charlotte as perhaps our main competitor is because it has been able to attract a lucrative industry and enhance an urban environment based on walkability and transit. Professionals who might normally choose Manhattan or Chicago to work and live are now choosing Charlotte because it offers the foundation of urbanity for a more affordable price.
As a native of Charlotte, I believe the city did two things that have led to its transformation in a relatively short amount of time. The first is that Charlotte made a commitment to be a green city. It has arguably the best urban design and complete street guidelines in the country. Every time a street is repaved or redeveloped, where appropriate, its lanes are narrowed, bicycle facilities are included, sidewalks are widened, and planting of mature trees creates a street canopy. The result is that most of the streets in the city center are a comfortable, safe and attractive place where people want to spend time.
Second, Charlotte embraced very early that it could not increase the capacity of its roads indefinitely. It committed itself to developing a premium transit system in a part of the country that had very little. At times it wasn't understood or seen as necessary by local residents. But the light rail system opened to great success -- it's expansion and the introduction of the streetcar and BRT are following close behind. While the transit system is not expansive yet, it is extremely effective in the territory it does serve. The result is a small, but high quality urban center that has attracted many factors that create a livable environment.
What has followed both of these investments in public infrastructure is economic development. Building along the light rail corridor exploded, even through the recession, to transform a historically industrial area to a dense, connected and lively part of the city. Furthermore, hubs of walkability have popped up in central neighborhoods throughout Charlotte, where residents can access local retail and entertainment along redesigned and pedestrian oriented streets. A 24-hour environment that offers a place to live, work and play is becoming clustered in neighborhoods throughout the city.
Tampa has the perfect opportunity to emulate the city that has been labelled countless times as its competition. Tampa has benefited from some projects of the highest design quality in the past decade that has already had a large influence in developing Tampa's downtown into a neighborhood. Curtis Hixon Park, the
Tampa Museum of Art, the
Tampa Riverwalk, and the
Tampa Bay History Museum are new additions that enhance its existing cultural identity built by the Tampa Theatre and Franklin Street. With the addition of two boutique hotels and a new residential tower, Tampa will have even more destinations downtown.
What Tampa doesn't do well enough is connect these assets. The city's gem is the TECO streetcar line that connects Ybor City, the Channel District and Downtown. It is failing, with little funding, poor operation hours and inadequate support by local government. It should be revived and rebranded to be seen as a viable choice in public transportation instead of a tourist attraction, and be expanded to connect multiple urban neighborhoods like Hyde Park, the Heights, and the west bank to the urban core. This is imperative to building the type of city that young professionals expect -- and economic development will follow.
Additionally, Tampa suffers from roads that are far too wide and lack the facilities and the character required to make a pedestrian feel comfortable or safe. If Tampa could make a commitment to rebuilding the streets just in the very core of the city by taking back right-of-way from the automobile, it would communicate to current and potential residents that the city is committed to becoming a more livable place. What will result will be a more active public realm that attracts the 24-hour lifestyle that so many desire.
"Trees and trains,'' panelists agreed, will create the type of urban culture that is wanted and expected by the next generations. Tying the assets of downtown together with high quality public realm design and infrastructure is crucial to making Tampa competitive on the national scale.
A Grassroots Vision
The "Fast Forward'' panel was asked how momentum could be built to see real change in Tampa over the next 10 years. The most notable was that the process must be a grassroots effort. The city has just gone through an extensive master planning process that has established a vision that reflects the priorities of Tampa citizens and stakeholders. While many feel like it doesn’t adequately address the need for extensive transit in the city, it does call for many enhancements in public infrastructure, including streetscape redesign. Many Tampanians work through community and nonprofit organizations constantly to implement this vision. The entire panel agrees that more could be done to bring them together to be more effective in guiding the biggest changes that need to occur. Tampa certainly needs to capitalize on the work of young professionals.
Second, Tampa and those involved in the community need to do a better job of owning our vision and "selling'' it to each other. Many residents of the city aren't aware of the culture, physical and natural assets that Tampa has to offer. The question was raised, "How to we sell the city to others when we can't sell it to ourselves?''
Third, while it's important to focus on the future, the city and its champions should identity the elements of the city that already exemplify Tampa's newly defined vision. If we can communicate the past successes, no matter how small, to Tampa's neigh-sayers, we will be well on our way to changing its perception on a national scale.
The Mayor's Mantra
Also speaking was Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. In office for just over two years, he has committed his work to making Tampa the economic engine south of Atlanta. This has meant facilitating milestone projects like the last segment of the Tampa Riverwalk, the renovation of Tampa’s historic classic federal courthouse as a boutique hotel, the planned construction of a riverfront residential tower, and the completion of the
Invision Tampa Downtown Master Plan. In continuation of the themes identified by the panel, the Mayor focused on building upon Tampa’s biggest strength: diversity. The mayor's speech focused on the investment in the built environment, especially through enhancing the city's relationship to the water and expanding the downtown core to the west bank of the river. He stated this is necessary to create a strong economic climate worthy of attracting the best talent in the country.
The "Fast Forward'' panel was an informative process in changing the conversation around Tampa's Downtown. In addition to its usual program, the
Tampa Downtown Partnership will continue to have more community conversations through the hard work and leadership of Tampa young professionals over the coming year. Competitiveness, marketability, livability and communication are sure to remain as the themes that continue to move Tampa "forward.''
Erin Chantry, a Senior Urban Designer at Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc., has a BA in Architecture, an MA in Urban Design and an MS in Urban Planning. She also is the author of At the Helm of the Public Realm and has written articles for Next City, New Geography and the Congress for the New Urbanism. Erin serves on the executive committee of CNU Tampa Bay. Comments? Contact 83 Degrees.