Davis Islands Today

Editorial by Bill Sharpe

While we do have a parking problem in SoHo, we don’t believe any of the measures being taken will reduce the number of cars coming to the neighborhood.

While many businesses have not provided adequate parking, or have refused to allow their parking to be used during their non-peak hours, the addition of townhomes on single family lots have also contributed to the problem, bringing more cars while reducing street parking space, too.

When a store provides the city-required number of parking space, yet still needs additional parking, should we congratulate that business on their success, or should the city increase their parking requirement?

Nearly 700 parking tickets were issued last year.  Combine that with the almost $200 per car for those towed away and you can see that parking is a big business.  Now the City plans to get in further on the action with residential permits.

The Oscawana/Courier City Neighborhood Association is well on their way to getting the City of Tampa to implement permitted parking and increased fines, so perhaps fewer cars will park on residential streets in SoHo. 

But what impact will that have on the neighborhoods immediately surrounding O-CC?  Residents in any of those neighborhoods should be greatly concerned about any parking problems being pushed their way. 

And it’s only going to get worse. 

You may have noticed all of the new construction on Kennedy between Howard Ave and downtown.  If not, once the Wal-Mart opens you will notice the additional traffic. 

Futhermore, we have been told the hotel/retail Ar mory project will be under way by next summer.  Previous studies indicate the Ar mory will have a larger economic impact on Tampa than Channelside.  Once it is complete, you can be sure that the South Howard area will be expanding quickly to connect to the North Howard area.

Last year, a special Hartline trolley route for SOHO and Hyde Park nearly came to reality, only to vanish because of severe budget cuts.  But a transit system is still a viable option. 

So is a parking garage.  Property values are in a decline, and there is an empty block at the corner of Cleveland and South Howard.  It may not be the best location for SoHo today, but visionary when you consider the Ar mory Project. 

Even without purchasing property, a garage could be built over city-owned retention ponds. 

The City helped create this problem over the years with narrow streets, a lack of enforcement, and a lack of planning.  It is past time for the City of Tampa to step up and address this growing problem.

Bill Sharpe

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 8:19 am and is filed under SoHo. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.