Davis Islands Today

More Than Just ‘SoHo’

Often identified as the place with MacDinton’s and South Howard Avenue’s restaurant row, the neighborhood’s real name is not SoHo.  However, the area around SoHo is as diverse and interesting as any in Tampa, draws a great number of visitors, and it is becoming more pedestrian-friendly every day.

The Courier City/Oscawana neighborhood stretches from Rome Avenue on the east to Armenia Avenue on the west, the northern border is Kennedy Boulevard, and Swann Avenue in the southern boundary.

The historic fabric of the Courier City/Oscawana neighborhood is the 1920’s-era Florida bungalows.  While there are fewer bungalows still standing, those that remain have been well-preserved and are highly-valued by their owners and nearby residents.  Interlaced with those notable bungalows are several multi-family housing structures, including duplexes, triplexes, 4 unit apartments, and larger condominium buildings.  Newer developments in the neighborhood include three and four unit townhouses, mostly built on single lots, with front doors leading to both the streets and the alleyways.

The people living in these homes are just as diverse as the structures themselves.  There are young, 20- and 30-something singles and couples, families – with children of all ages, as well as a contingent of retirees. 

What they all have in common is they choose to live in this area for its amenities – closeness to downtown and a strategic central Tampa Bay location, with convenient access to bountiful entertainment and fantastic restaurants.  All of this is within a mile of Bayshore and the Hillsborough Bay and one of the hippest addresses in town. 

When the focus is on the amenities, what gets lost is the infrastructure in this urban atmosphere that easily brings people together.  Walkable streets and alleyways help to create a close-knit neighborhood where neighbors chat with each other as they pass by on walks throughout the neighborhood, and on the way to and from their car.  People in Courier City/Oscawana watch out for each other while on vacation, and many folks lend a hand when they see a neighbor in need.

Interspersed with the residences are commercial buildings, businesses in converted homes, and more and more new developments.  SoHo, the area on Howard Avenue south of Kennedy constitutes the commercial heart of the Courier City/Oscawana neighborhood.  The number of commercial structures and food & drink establishments along Platt Street continue to grow rapidly.

The numerous local businesses and prominent national chains that compose the commercial corridor make South Howard one of Tampa’s most unique and desirable destinations.  Along Howard, you can mail a package, drop off your dry-cleaning, shop for clothing, visit a salon, have lunch or dinner and celebrate a promotion – all on one block.  This variety draws visitors and residents alike while it rarely disappoints.

This fall, Courier City/Oscawana will welcome a new Publix Greenwise, an all-natural, organic and earth-friendly grocery store and the newest large business in the neighborhood.  The Greenwise market will include two stories of parking on top of the 35,000+ square foot store.  The CCO Resident Homeowner’s Association worked with Publix and the developer (RMC Property Group) to keep the store on the first floor – a welcome addition to the neighborhood’s pedestrian-focused amenities. 

As part of the store’s development, Publix donated $125,000 to the City of Tampa through the Courier City/Oscawana Resident Owner’s Association to improve the infrastructure in the neighborhood.  The association met over several months to develop and vote on a plan which would utilize the funding to increase the neighborhood’s pedestrian-friendly fabric.

Working with the City of Tampa’s Sidewalk and Streetlight Program, the association installed 12 blocks of new sidewalks and improved sidewalk corners to make them disabled-accessible.  Still in the works are landscaping improvements along the new sidewalks and a high intensity crosswalk at the corner of Azeele and Howard.

The Courier City/Oscawana Neighborhood Residents’ Homeowners Association was formed in November 2005, so that residents could have a voice on important issues like new development, public safety, parking and traffic, and making our neighborhood more pedestrian friendly. 

We make every effort to represent the resident owners’ views with the City of Tampa, Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County.  We work with local businesses to try to improve everyone’s quality of life.  The people who choose to live in this neighborhood do so because they appreciate an urban lifestyle that includes mixed-use development, higher density than a suburban neighborhood, and thriving neighborhood businesses knit together by the historic fabric of the Florida-style bungalows.

The Courier City/Oscawana Neighborhood Residents’ Homeowners Association welcomes participation by all resident owners. For more information, or to join the association, please contact Libby Devlin at libdevlin[at]verizon[dot]net or Gina Space at ginabspace[at]gmail[dot]com.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 6:24 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.