Tom Hall, the chairman of Tampa public relations firm Tucker/Hall, spoke to the Florida Venture Forum on Wednesday about his "6 Ideas to Make Tampa a Cool City."
The group of entrepreneuers
heard Hall's ideas on development and transportation, but not the building of a new stadium - an idea he says would be bad for the
city.
IDEA 1 - Use public-private partnerships to encourage development of a full-scale residential, retail, hotel, entertainment, and office center. Hall suggests the current ConAgra factory location
for the complex, and compares the idea to Miami's Brickell City Center.
IDEA 2 - Connect the major downtown districts with
elevated, air-conditioned, moving sidewalks. The "city center" complex
would act as a hub, connecting to both the Channel District to the East
and the Franklin Street area to the West. Hall says the idea is modeled
after successful sidewalk projects in Hong Kong.
Read the rest of the ideas on WTSP.com here
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LOL, "some guy" sitting around talking about "if I had unlimited $, OR if I was Mayor, I WOULD!". We all have our own thoughts about crazy situations like so, it's just that we haven't had someone like Noah exploit it on HIS blog because it coincided w/ his belief or opinion that "the idea of a ballpark in downtown Tampa SUCKS!"...
ReplyDelete1. Something needs to happen with the ConAgra location and the empty lots to the south. That's not the best use of the land, and the food plant could be relocated to an industrial area. I know a lot of people have that pegged as the stadium location, but I've had my doubts about that and it's interesting to hear this gentleman throw cold water on it as well.
ReplyDelete2. Elevated moving sidewalks sound really cool and futuristic, but I can't imagine there being support for the cost of something like that.
3. Rail has been discussed ad nauseam. I'll believe it when I see it. I am interested in the self-driving car technology. I also think that there should be more investment in systems to monitor traffic patterns and instantly transmit data to drivers. Also more responsive traffic lights. We could at least cut down drive times and make commutes less stressful.
4. Higher-paying tech-oriented jobs would be great, but that's hardly a new idea. If it was that simple, I imagine they'd be doing it already
5. Probably could use a couple more parks in the area.
6. Downtown Tampa does lack the artistic side that St. Pete has. I suppose the sculpture idea is as good as anything. Have some kind of running theme that connects the area.
Great point about ConAgra...no matter what you do, its impeding the Franklin and Channelside districts from flowing freely.
DeleteWhile there are some decent ideas from the guy, a lot of them are regurgitated old ideas.
ReplyDeleteThe light rail idea is crap. People like their cars and if they cant get rail built in CA, then it's not going to happen here. Certainly not at the inflated, ridiculous ridership levels that get tossed around. Here's a better idea - Stop ripping up the highways for ineffectual "improvements" that take years and make commuting a pain for thousands of drivers.
Art and parks are nice. It'd also be smart to ease up on restrictions and red tape BS for small businesses, in both Tampa AND St. Pete. My sister is trying to get a gym opened and it's endless, useless rubber stamps from this agency or that.
But hey, at least he's not saying 'Dump ALL Tampa's money into another useless, empty structure to benefit a monopoly of billionaires."
I think you're confusing California's high-speed rail with the proposed light-rail in Tampa Bay. Pinellas County will vote on it next year and prospects are good.
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