Panel to Review One-Way Streets

From TBO.com, submitted to me by Jay McGee: http://centraltampa.tbo.com/centraltampa/MGBB4Q22RVE.html

Winter Wonderlands

I drive past this house on the corner of Arlington and Indiana every day. It's a great-looking house, and I always laugh at the pack of chihuahuas I usually see in the backyard on my way home.

Since I've lived in Tampa Heights, these guys go BUCK WILD around Christmas. The house sits on a double lot and it's covered - tastefully - with all the symbols of the season. I'm always impressed the put lights on the roof and around every edge with it being a two-story house. I don't know when they do it, either, it just seems to magically appear.

Drive by after dark if you get the chance. It's a spectacle.

Any other great neighborhood light displays we should know about?

TBO story on a former Tampa Heights artist

This was submitted to me through this blog. If you have any Tampa Height news, announcements or anything - please submit them to me through the link on the sidebar.

Gallery closing: ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP

From a release sent to me from Bleu Acier:

Saturday December 2, 2006 from 1 -5 PM we will have the closing for the show Entre Chien et Loup. We will celebrate the Gallery going to Miami for the Bridge Art Fair during Miami Basel (www.bridgeartfair.com) by offering special holiday prices.

Also there will be a sneak preview in the studio of Dominique Labauvie's new sculpture "From the Earth to the Moon" made especially for Art Complement at the Bridge Art Fair.

Bleu Acier is proud to open this season with ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP, a group exhibition which brings together established, mid-career and emerging artists from Europe and the United States to explore different processes and propositions within contemporary painting.

Entre Chien et Loup is a French idiom - which in the literal sense means the difference between the dog and the wolf - and figuratively illustrates the precise moment of the day we call twilight when the sun has just set and the light is non-definitive. Forms, colors and shapes all melt together and the horizon presents new spatial perceptions. The emotional and intellectual limits between the familiar and the unknown are re-defined and the spectator’s visual intelligence is brought to another level. Entre Chien et Loup investigates contemporary artistic thinking and language through the act of painting.

The artists participating in the show are:
Joseph Arnegger, Neil Bender, Megan Bisbee-Durlam, David Brody,
Omar Chacon, Chalet, Vicky Colombet, Elisabeth Condon, Kim Curtis,
Herve DiRosa, Frederique Lucien, Pierre Mabille, Francois Martin,
Steve McClure, Max Neumann, Jovi Schnell, Joani Spadaro,
Judith Sturm, Keer Tanchak, Robyn Voshardt/Sven Humphrey
Stephen Westfall, Jeff Whipple, Theo Wujcik

For further information contact Erika Schneider
erika@bleuacier.com

109 WEST COLUMBUS DRIVE TAMPA, FL 33602 TEL/FAX: 813 272 9746 BLEUACIER.COM

How to submit Tampa Heights news

If you'd like to send me tips, news or anything else (garage sale announcements, openings or closings, etc) for the Tampa Heights area, please send to maladrin AT gmail DOT com, or you may also use the link on the sidebar.

Neighborhood Plant Swap

I've read about a few neighborhood plant swaps, and I thought I might throw some feelers out to see if anyone else might be interested in hosting/participating in one of these for Tampa Heights? I have several plants that are either shooting new things off all the time, or plants I just have a lot of multiples of that I might like to trade up.

Anyone interested?

Send me your news!

I'm one guy, so I really appreciate any leads you all can throw at me. Got a store opening, a property for sale, a place for rent, having a swap meet or garage sale? Drop me a line! I'll never be as good as some neighborhood bloggers, but I'm trying to give it a whack.

More on places to eat ...

Convenience is a major factor to me when I want to get dinner. I hate driving to South Tampa if I can avoid it. I'm also not real fond of driving too far in any other direction either.

So, why don't I get a list of easy-to-get-to Good Eats in and near Tampa Heights. Please feel free to add:

Tampa Heights/Downtown
Pesto's Italian - Tampa St.
Oceanic Supermarket's take-out/deli - Tampa St. - Mmm ... chow fun ... and you can get rad dim sum on the cheap once they've brought everything over after the rush at T.C. Choy!
Gold Ring Cafe - Tampa St. - Great breakfast spot
Grass Root Organic - Florida Ave. - I've still yet to eat there, but I hear the Miso rocks your mom.
Thai Corner - Franklin St. - Between The Hub and Tampa Theater, I have no idea why this place isn't always packed. Try the green curry soft-shelled crab!
Fly Bar - Franklin St. - Sure, it's trendy as hell right now and typically full of people I want nothing to do with, but it's a great spot with great food. The late night menu is very reasonably priced.

West Tampa
House of Soul - Columbus Ave. - Which is actually under new ownership and called something like My House or summat, but the guy told me they're about to start delivery service. Same great food!
La Teresita - Columbus Ave. - This one should go without saying. I love Vaca Frita Friday's!
Ho-Ho - Columbus Ave. - Much better take out than the little skeevy plae on Tampa and Columbus. It's worth the few extra blocks.

Ybor City
New World Brewery - 1313 8th Ave. - Thin-crust pizza and more beer than you can swing a dead cat at.
Tampa Bay Brewing Company - Centro Ybor - I'll admit, I'm still not thrilled with having to go to Centro to get my BrewCo on, but after a few months deprivation, the food was just excellent and will likely keep us coming back. Try their homebrews.
Laughing Cat - 15th St. - This place has to have the best lunch buffet in town. The dinner menu is also great, a bit more pricey though.

AMERICAN BUNGALOW COMES TO TAMPA

Adapted from an item in the Tampa Heights e-News:

American Bungalow, "the magazine published in the interest of preserving and restoring the modest American 20th Century home, the bungalow and the lifestyle that it affords," is coming to Tampa this spring. Editor John Luke will be giving a presentation at the Seminole Heights Church on Thursday, April 19, at 7pm. Alexander Vertikoff, chief photographer for the magazine who has photographed Arts and Crafts buildings for such books as American Bungalow Style, Bungalow Nation, and Stickley Style will accompany him to photograph our bungalows for inclusion in future issues of the magazine.

They have requested scouting shots, interior and exterior, so that they can have their shooting schedule arranged before they arrive. If you wish to be considered for inclusion in the magazine, please send your digital photographs on CD to 5306 N. Suwanee Ave., Tampa, 33603. Be sure to include your contact data, plus any interesting facts that you have about your house, on a document in the CD. Feel free to include before and after shots. If you have any photos of the house from the early years, please scan and include as well.

The deadline to have these photos is Nov. 1, 2006. Feel free to call Suzanne Prieur at 813.610.5255 if you should have any questions.

Tampa Heights Civic Association Meeting - 10/26

Location: Stetson Law School, 1700 North Tampa Street at 7:00pm.

Topics: Ken Gentile from Metropolitain Ministries will present what they are doing for the holidays.

Community meeting signs announcing general meetings will be placed at strategic locations throughout the neighborhood to generate interest and remind us of the upcoming meeting.

See you at the meeting, and bring a neighbor!

Open thread: What does Tampa Heights need?

Let loose, folks. How long til they turn that area between Florida and Tampa on Columbus into a decent shopping district? What about streetcar access? Need more of that? Less of Mr. Simmons asking if he can rake your yard til that check comes in? Less shed break-ins?

Speak up!

Getting the ball (bowl?) rolling ...

Anyone have any neighborhood eatery recommendations here in Tampa Heights?

I haven't tried Grass Root, but I've heard some good things about the food (I've also heard get takeout because they don't have AC). Just this week in Creative Loafing's Best of the Bay Issue they gave them a BotB for Best Miso Soup. I really need to check that place out.

There's also that orange Two Plate Minimum joint over near there that has a hoppin' parking lot on most nights. Anyone had the food from there?

I have eaten at Pesto's, but I really can't give a full review because I just got salad.

So what're you eating, Tampa Heights?

What's the buzz?

If anyone has Tampa Heights news that they'd like to share, please send it on to maladrin AT gmail DOT com. I'd be happy to post it here.

In the meantime, I need to figure out how get more content up here more often. I started this blog because it seemed like a good idea, all things considering with the other Tampa neightborhood blogs. Then all of a sudden I clammed up once I did.

Wicked wreck on Indiana and Tampa St.

Last night while sitting at my desk working on my next show, I saw - or rather heard first then saw the aftermatch of - a nasty wreck at the corner of Indiana and Tampa St.

Two white older-model sedans totally made out in a very ugly way, knocking down a street sign, a for sale sign, kissing a telephone pole and also a retaining wall in the process.

Seems two girls were in the car going down Indiana and didn't stop for the stop sign (not a surprise - happens daily) and got nailed by a car coming down Tampa. The car the girls were in continued down Tampa until running into a wall, and the other car is the one that ate it into a street sign, for sale sign and telephone pole.

The best part was the two girls quickly got out of the car, grabbed their stuff and walked about a half a block away where they hopped into a brown Suburban and left the scene completely. I thought (as well the rest of my neighbors did that saw it) that the girls were intially just getting away from the vehicle.

No one got a tag. Looks like a forensics team showed up a bit later to dust the car down for prints before it got towed off. Stolen vehicle? Maybe. I don't understand why else someone would do that.

Good times ...

Introductions

I've been a Tampa Heights resident since July of 2004.

I was very excited to move to Tampa Heights, in the very first home for me and my wife. Previously residents of Sulphur Springs, we were attracted to the lower crime rate, cleaner streets and old 1920s bungalows that didn't come with the Seminole Heights price tag.

I'm now very proud to call Tampa Heights home. It's a 3-minute drive with very few stoplights and zero time on the interstate from my home to work in Downtown. I drive less and get out more. Sure, there could be more shops and places to eat closer to where I live, but it's getting better all the time.

There are several neighborhood-specific blogs here in Tampa, but I'd yet to see one for my 'hood and I thought it was time.

I'm not the most zealous of bloggers, but I'll do my best to post news often. Feel free to send me tips at maladrin AT gmail DOT com.

Welcome

Tampa Heights, represent!