Case Study - Pinellas County, FL - Vol. 2

We are currently at Earthtones on Bay Rd. in Penfield while our place is being shown. This gives me a perfect opportunity to get back into the case study. Part 1 yesterday dealt primarily with Clearwater and Safety Harbor. Part 2 will focus on Dunedin, St. Petersburg, and a group dedicated to raising awareness of urban issues as well as forming plans of action. Numbers preceeding cities are in reference to the Pinellas County map integrated into yesterday's post.

#6 - Dunedin

Named in Scots Gaelic after Dùn Èideann, or Edinburgh, the city of Dunedin, Florida is refreshing compared to its neighbors due to a lack of corporate franchise restaurants and signage. Even more shocking for Florida, bicycles are extremely common in the central business district and can be rented at two locations downtown.

Like Clearwater, Dunedin hosts major league spring training. Unlike Clearwater, the park is well integrated into the community and the city offers free parking for games near Main Street. After games, Main Street is abuzz with not only fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, but also the visitors who frequent Flanagan's Irish Pub, the Dunedin Brewery, and Casa Tina's to name just a few. Conspicuously, T.G.I. Friday's and Wal-Mart are completely absent from Dunedin.

Next year, when we plan our annual pilgrimage to masquerade as vacationing Canadians, we are going to strive to avoid the rental car by staying as close to Main Street, Dunedin as we can. The plan is to utilize the Pinellas Trail, a 39-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail, to venture to Honeymoon Island State Park and Clearwater Beach.

If there is a complaint about the urban character of Dunedin, it manifests itself in scale. I don't believe there are any buildings taller than four stories in a city of 36,000. The downtown really is largely limited to Main Street and the immediate surrounding blocks as the neighborhood between it and the ballpark consists exclusively of single family housing. We did however see signs for upcoming townhouse development along Douglas Avenue as more and more 70's era ranches with carports lose their tenants and appeal to attrition.

#22 - St. Petersburg

For a county seeking desperately for a vibrant core with contemporary urban behavior, St. Petersburg is beginning to fit the bill. The largest city in Pinellas County at 248,000 residents, St. Petersburg's downtown is undergoing a construction boom transforming both the skyline and the livability of its core.

On the first day of March, a Saturday, St. Petersburg is the picture of urban living at its best. Baseball fans await the first spring home game of the year at Al Lang Field, home of spring baseball in the city for 86 years. Next year the Rays plan to slide their operation down the coast to attempt to capture a larger market share, but this doesn't mean the end of professional baseball at Al Lang. An organization is proposing a massive development package that would replace the sterile former Florida Suncoast Dome with a new mixed-use urban village community, restoring Booker Creek as a natural waterway.

Many of these fans are sampling the wares of the Saturday Morning Market, St. Petersburg's grass roots farmer's market. Devised in the fall of 2002, the market was organized by a volunteer group striving for a sense of community spirit. Today it bustles with dozens of vendors of prepared food, produce, art, crafts, floral arrangements, and seafood. The market has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds. An artistic extension of it organized to the northwest in Williams Park, more commonly a bedroom for the homeless of the area. This proved so successful in late 2007 that it was extended into April 2008.

Dining opportunities abound along Central Ave. heading west from the old Detroit Hotel. Arcaded sidewalks protect pedestrians from the summer sun and simultaneously advertise a nightspot for any taste. The BayWalk complex (emphasis on walk) north of 2nd Ave. N contains opportunities for the shopper as well as the moviegoer and casual diner. At the far eastern end of 2nd Ave. N, hundreds of feet out into the bay, is the five story inverted pyramid known simply as 'The Pier.' This traditional mall offers a new twist on the experience, complete with fishing access.

Currently, partially finished high rise condo developments tower over the grandstand of Al Lang Field. The city is primed for a re-birth that includes aspects of skyline that were previously missing despite a strong population base. Density, walkability, and mixed-use do not appear to be foreign concepts to the citizens of St. Petersburg and in my opinion, this makes it an excellent place to visit for those who in the course of their travels, appreciate the urban experience first and foremost.

Coda

Copies of the bay area leisure publication 'Creative Loafing' just so happened to be free to patrons of Brady's Backyard BBQ in Safety Harbor (do I plug this place enough?). The February 27-March 4, 2008 edition featured a large torn satellite image of the metro area with the banner proclaiming "FIX IT NOW." Inside writer Wayne Garcia outlined 10 problems Tampa Bay has to fix as soon as possible and invited readers to help become part of the solution. To no surprise of mine, the number one issue was characterized as "Suburbia is Spreading Unchecked." Reading on, "2. The Value of Urban Density is Ignored." Keep going, "3. The Transportation System is Out of Date." Do I even need to say that numbers four and five dealt with environmental protection and energy conservation respectively? Do I need to say that this entertainment guide had my attention through dinner hundreds of miles away from home?

Kudos to Mr. Garcia for standing up to this wasteful culture and holding the stench of their major issues directly under their noses. He's not only done so through the periodical, but also through the launch of fixitnowtampabay.com. Here blog posts meld with reader comments and announcements such as the meeting places and times in each county for the Tampa Bay Area's Regional Transportation Authority's master plan discussions. The image above was lifted from the main page. It illustrates 22 years of 'growth' in the region from 1984-2006.

Case Study - Pinellas County, FL - Vol. 1

This is the third case study post I've undertaken. This one should live up to its name moreso than the others in the sense that I plan to discuss an entire populous region less from a tourism/neighborhood angle and more from the standpoint of a quality critique of various municipalities.

Over the last 12 months, I've spent roughly 8 days in Clearwater, Florida with side trips to Dunedin, Clearwater Beach, Safety Harbor, Pinellas Park, and St. Petersburg. The stated purpose of these trips has been to watch live baseball ahead of spring in the Northeast. One can read our travel logs at my Spring Training blog linked to on the lower right.

Pinellas County is unique to northerners from a governmental standpoint in that there are unincorpoated areas encompassing 36% of the land area in the county. Residents in this region do not see their first layer or goverment until the county level. The map on the left (used by permission of GNU Free Documentation License 1.2) shows incorporated municipalities.

#5 - Clearwater

It's really amazing how much people change, even over the course of a single year. Perhaps part of my crankiness this year driving Florida Route 580 toward northern Clearwater was caused by our travel timeframe (we didn't make it to our hotel until midnight), but more likely I've developed a more critical eye for what is community and what is crap.

Just about any yellow major road seen on a google map of Clearwater is low density commercial in nature. This is what much of the U.S. Americans are used to these days unfortunately. U.S. Route 19 however, takes it to a whole new level. Take the stretch near Florida-580 (itself a 6 lane suburban thoroughfare). Picture an elevated highway, 3 lanes in each direction, bounded by two lane frontage roads that front 400 space parking lots serving single story big boxes such as Lowe's, Walmart, and the occasional mall. Major east-west roads of any value only occur at 1.5-2 mile intervals as subdivision planners discourage a real street grid and thus multiple traffic reducing connections. Forget about pedestrian utility here folks! The sidewalk (I'm surprised it even exists) can only talk you to a Burger King half a mile down the road buffered by two to three car dealers. Crossing the street in areas without elevated highway is akin to scaling the Berlin Wall. This pattern of elevated/at-grade six lane repeats over and over from Palm Harbor all the way to South St. Petersburg 20 miles away. And you (Rochesterians) thought Jefferson or Ridge roads were bad?

To be completely fair, Clearwater has a traditional downtown as seat of Pinellas County. Unfortunately that downtown is compromised by the world headquarters of the "Church" of Scientology. Across the causeway is Clearwater Beach, a popular spring break destination with many restaurants, boats for hire, and other activities (the picture of me on the right was taken there). But on the whole a major issue of scale/density is presented when comparing Clearwater's meandering boundaries with a population of just over 100,000.

#18 - Safety Harbor

We didn't make it into Safety Harbor in 2007 which is unfortunate. Safety Harbor, or at least Olympia Development who seems to hold a lot of the prime downtown real estate rights, seems to have a decent understanding of what makes a community. We ventured into Safety Harbor this year in search of good southern barbecue and came out with a vacation redeemed and the faith that somebody in Florida knew what they were doing.

Beginning in late fall 2004, the gears were set in motion for Dunedin based architect William Touloumis to leave his fingerprints on the first block of main street in the heart of Safety Harbor. More pieces of his master plan were realized when his company purchased the landmark Safety Harbor Resort and Spa in order to block development that would have a negative effect on Harbour Pointe.

We were able to see the completed retail/office facility at Harbour Pointe, home to an upscale restaurant, a wine store with tasting bar, a Coldstone Creamery, a cellphone retailer, and a Starbucks. It was a three story breath of fresh air. Excellent scale considerations for a minor city of 17,000. Directly across the street is the old St. James Hotel, successfully renovated into Harbor House, another three story mixed use complex on a reasonable footprint.

Respect is given to the pedestrian in Safety Harbor. At every intersection of Main Street, curbs are bumped out to eliminate tricky turning lanes and effectively slow down other traffic. Stop signs are abundant. On street parking is also marginally protected by these bumpouts and it was free as far as I could tell.

One block west of Harbor House, we came across the former site of Harbor Plaza. Noting at the time that an out of place stripmall had likely met its demise, I was pleased to just find out through the magic of the internet that the site, formerly only utilizing just over a quarter of its effective footprint (must provide off-street parking!), will be developed into Parkview at Safety Harbor, a retail/office/townhouse project.

It would appear that Safety Harbor is in capable hands. I look forward to seeing it in five years.

I was planning on tackling #6 - Dunedin, and #22 - St. Petersburg tonight, but will instead try to break up my heinously verbose case study posts into pieces this time around. Also in store in Volume 2 is the recognition by some Tampa Bay area resident that the time to act to address density/sprawl issues is now. The goal is to complete the balance tomorrow, but we are leaving for a period of time while our realtor holds our house open, so it may be published Monday morning.