Green Shift photos

Doorway - take a moment to read everything on the door.







Thousands and thousands of comic books


Guitars galore








Collectables


Green Shift

Sulphur Springs - just behind Krispy Kreme - love the skull and crossbones - I'm not going to mess with that dog 

Wall Art 5 B 

Wall Art 5 - 7111 North Nebraska Avenue (North of Sligh, South of Broad)

Wall Art 4 D 

Wall Art 4C Close Up 

Wall Art 4C (Reverse side of building from Captain America) 

Wall Art 4BA 

Wall Art 4B 

Wall Art 4A - Hillsborough Ave between 12th and 9th Street  

Wall Art 3 - Leo's Lounge - Hillsborough near 22nd 

Wall Art 2 - Hillsborough near Farmer's Market 

Wall Art in and around Seminole Heights -1603 E. Hillsborough  

The final clock

This the 4th clock that I originally was thinking of when I started this little contest. It is at Blosfield's clock repair at Fern and Florida. I was speaking to Sherry Yesterdaze today when she figured out which clock I was referring to. So thanks to the eagle eyes of TC we now know there are 6 clocks in Seminole Heights. I will later post a photo of the Tamayo and Son's clock when I can take one.

Side view 

Sidewalks

"CITY NAMES SILVERS DISABILITY RIGHTS COORDINATOR

Mayor Pam Iorio announced that the City of Tampa recently named Ross Silvers as its disability rights coordinator. Silvers fills a new position that will provide staff support to the Mayor's Alliance for Persons with Disabilities "Ross comes to us with an outstanding background as a disability rights advocate, most recently for the AARP in Washington, D.C.," said Fred Hearns, director of the Department of Community Affairs. Silvers's office is in the Free Library Building, 102 E. 7th Avenue. He will advise the public in reasonable accommodations and other disability related issues and coordinate an annual fund-raising event for the alliance. "

A reasonable accommodation for the disabled would be sidewalks that don't have cars parked on them. I have noticed several places in Seminole Heights where this occurred. Most notably this auto repair place just south of Loma Linda Motel. There are always vehicles on the sidewalk and on the city right of way.


Tommy notes in go use someone else’s sidewalks, some places sidewalks can't get built, as they might create a hazard! I wonder if the lack of a sidewalk is an ADA violation.

Point - Counterpoint. I don't think Tampa Bay is United regarding our Way in Iraq. (ML King and 15th St.) 

Close up

If this is the New Image, imagine how ugly the Old Image was. (4503 Nebraska) 

Clocks - results

TC found three of the clocks I was thinking of and one I missed. He found Open Gate Motel, KRT Enterprises and Alpine Liquors. He also found Hillsborough High, the most obvious one in our neighborhood yet one I had missed, even though I previously posted an article about the clock tower. However there is still one other out there. It's a little trickier, because you might have had doubts that it was included. Hint. It's on Florida Avenue, north of the other 2.

TC joins Torgo as a Seminole Heights Urban Explorer. Torgo is a SHUE for exploring the Tanga Rays and finding out it was a strip joint that illegally had topless activity.


Open Gate Motel - Florida Ave, north of Osborne



KRT Enterprises - Florida Avenue, just south of Mauricio Faedo's Bakery



Alpine Liquors - Nebraska and Broad



Hillsborough High School, Central and Osborne

July 13 Starbucks ARC Hearing

(see prior More on ARC and Starbucks, Tampa Tribune and Starbucks and ARC and We Have a Starbucks

The Architectural Review Commission (ARC) will be holding another meeting on the Starbucks on July 13, 2005.

Here are the plans that will be reviewed, in PDF format. Each is around 1 meg in size. Starbucks 1, Starbucks 2 and Starbucks 3.

Please come to the hearing. The more residents who show, the better, as it will remind ARC that Seminole Heights really wants this store.

Here is a Trib article on the subject

Jul 2, 2005

Review Board Has Starbucks On Agenda

By KATHY STEELE ksteele@tampatrib.com

SEMINOLE HEIGHTS - The Starbucks coffee shop proposed for historical Seminole Heights could face not one but two more appearances before the Architectural Review Commission.

Tampa City Council members said Thursday they are concerned about more delays and want a shorter review process for applicants. The developer, Pursuit Development Co., asked to rezone the site at Hillsborough and Central avenues in February and has appeared three times before the review board. The council overrode the board's objections to the project and approved it in April.

The board will review the shop's facade July 13 at a preliminary hearing, with a final hearing pending.

"We're going to ask for dispensing with the preliminary approval," said Richard Diaz, of local consulting firm Diaz Pearson & Associates, which is representing the developer. "We're going to ask for final approval."

Cynthia Miller, Tampa's director of business and housing development, gave city council a timeline Thursday for the application. She defended the volunteer board, saying it wants to make sure the "baby" is healthy.

The review process for developments in historical neighborhoods is not always clear to the public, Miller said, and "for that I apologize."

Miller said she would come back to the council with recommendations for streamlining regulations. Councilman Shawn Harrison said Miller had no reason to apologize.

However, he was bothered about more delays. It could even come back to the council, Harrison said.

"It's bureaucracy at its worst," he said. "I don't want the neighborhood to lose this amenity because we're going back through the same process."

This story can be found at: http://centraltampa.tbo.com/centraltampa/MGBTW1YVMAE.html

Clocks

While driving to and from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts tonight, I observed that there are four clocks in Seminole Heights. Two work, one definitely does not, and I can't tell about the fourth, but I strongly suspect it does not work.

The first person to post a comment as to where the 4 clocks are, will have their posting name placed on the blog as a Seminole Heights Urban Explorer

Now it may be there are other clocks than the ones I've found. If so, once I've verified the location of those other clocks, that person's psoting name will also go on the blog.

House of many colors part 2

House of Many Colors

One interesting thing about living in a 1922 bungalow is that you can use lots of colors to paint the house. Many house have at least 4 or 5 colors. We have 11.

We did not intend to have 11 but for the moment it has ended up that way.

When we bought the house 5 years ago, it was painted "Paint Your Heart Out Pink" as was our neighbors house. White trim and black screens.

We immediately painted it a gold yellow, as can be seen just behind the fence. However we had not painted trim, as it required a lot of scraping. That dragged on and did not get done, except for the front porch. The porch ceiling was painted a light blue and the door a purple blue.

Last year we painted our fence a green/yellow color and it clashed with the yellow gold on our house. so instead of repainting the fence (as most sane people would do) we choose to repaint the house. We choose a dark taupe color for the base with 2 versions of the yellow green paint on selected pieces of trim. The cap pieces on columns were painted burgundy. The door repainted another version of blue. The entire front was done when the project was interrupted.

7 months passed and our neighbor next door painted his house a dark green. On the other side our neighbor has a orange house. We decided we no longer liked the taupe and decided to repaint the whole house different colors. We chose a grey green color (see next photo) as a base color and a dark blue as a trim color. Our chimney was a dirty grey color, that we decided to paint adobe type color. As we are in middle of painting everything, right now there are 11 different colors all over the exterior of the house.

Life living with an artist is certainly interesting.

Greater Seminole Heights Merchants Association

In response to my post about the Seminole Heights Business Alliance, there have been much talk about how the Alliance is not doing what it needs to do to bring new businesses to Seminole Heights and to help the existing businesses.

"Several established SH business folks, I have spoken with, had belonged but quit because they did not see any benefit of membership and resented paying dues that did not produce anything. And, some of their stories are even more scathing and critical towards the SH Business Alliance. . . It's too bad, the business sector really needs to work on promotion and marketing, plus have somewhere to turn for information and support. "

and

"There are significant barriers for resident-serving businesses moving into the area, and significant incentives for current businesses to resist any changes to the status quo. . . . Perhaps we need to create a second organization that can offer the services the BA doesn't and focus more on a balanced view of commerce in our area. "

Apparently this conversation has been going on in Seminole Heights for a while.

Among people I've communicated with, the consensus is that a second organization does need to be created. This would be an organization that would cater to the brick and mortar businesses (stores, restaurants, and etc) but also to the businesses run out of the home such as artists, craftspeople, tradespeople, graphic designers, realtors, etc. The only criteria is that they be located in Seminole Heights.

Some of the goals would be some of the same as the BA, except that they would actually be implemented instead of just lip service. Other goals would be to aggressively market the businesses of Seminole Heights areas outside of Seminole Heights. Brochures, websites and other marketing devices. A web/email forum for businesses to communicate and share ideas and problems would be created. The creation of a Business Crime Watch. Aggressively soliciting new businesses to come into the area. Applying for grants to assist in these activities. Seeing if there are ways to use existing tax breaks/incentives to assist new or existing businesses. See if new tax breaks/incentives are needed. Interface with the various CRA's. Evaluate current zoning rules and see if they need to be change to reflect urban business life. And other ideas.

At this point the organization is in the concept stage. A working title for the organization is "Greater Seminole Heights Merchants Association". However this is up for grabs if something better can be created. If you have better or alternative ideas ( I know they are out there) send to me via email or as comments on the blog.

If you are interested in this organization email me and I will put you on the greater Seminole Heights email group, where discussion of this will continue. As interest picks up and things start to get nailed down , an organizational meeting held. Details of that meeting will be posted here and sent out via various email groups.

Fireworks

So it's another holiday with fireworks.

Oh its not. It's the day before the holiday. And 2 days before and 3 days before. Fireworks going on day and night. And they will go on day after day after the holiday.

I'm angry. It's been 5 hours and my male Jack Russell terrier has been to afraid to pee. Everytime he goes out to the backyard some fireworks explode and he runs for the back door.

Fireworks that explode are supposed to only be used by farmers to scare off pests. I live in the middle of the city. We don't have any farmers here. Instead we have pests that set off the fireworks. So why are these fireworks bought? Because people lie and teach their children to break the law. People sign a form stating they are using them for agricultural purposes and buy them.

Apparently over the years efforts to make the law stiffer has failed in Florida Legislature. I guess fireworks money talks and safety and peace and quiet does not.

So the efforts turned to banning these city by city, county by county. In 2003 Pinellas County pass a law banning all fireworks except smoke bombs and sparklers. There was attempt to do so in Hillsborough County in 2003 but it failed.

Rhonda Storms of course had something to say then, " "When you close your eyes and you think of July Fourth, what do you think of?" said Commissioner Ronda Storms, conjuring images of barefoot children waving sparklers and their fathers shooting off the real thing.
"Baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet - and fireworks," Storms added."

So did the firework people ""Thank God for the Hillsborough County Commission," said Todd Pressman, a lobbyist for the fireworks industry."

Thomas Scott voted against the ban. Another reason to get rid of the guy.

I will be bring this issue to anyone running for County commission. Asking them to commit to banning all except smoke bombs and sparklers. Ask them to give my dog some peace and quiet.

Maybe if I made this a Homeland Security Issue something would happen. With this easy access to explosives there could be some local whacko terrorist grinding up firecrackers to create a massive bomb to explode at Macdill AFB. Hear that Michael Chertoff?

Seen on Nebraska Avenue #2

Great planning - must work for the VA budget office.

Seen on Nebraska Avenue #1

I wondered why I had not seen Chip and Dale recently.