State Representative Fentrice Driskell, considered to be one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party in the Sunshine State, has officially announced that she will seek to retain her seat in the all-important midterm 2022 elections.
Rep. Driskell will be running to hold the Florida House District 63 seat she won in 2018 when she defeated Republican Shawn Harrison and retained in 2020 when she was unopposed. Driskell held her launch party on Oct. 27 at Acropolis Greek Taverna on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (photos)
District 63 includes New Tampa, as well as Carrollwood, Lutz and the Lake Magdalene and University of South Florida areas to our south and west.
Driskell already has at least one opponent lined up for next year — New Tampa Republican Lisette R. Bonano.
The General Election will be held on November 8, 2022, with primary elections scheduled for August 23, 2022. — JCC
ampa Palms Blvd. has been labeled a failing road, and is getting repaved starting sometime next year, but bigger plans to reduce it to two lanes and add roundabouts have been shot down. (Photo Charmaine George)
Plans to convert four-lane Tampa Palms Blvd. — which circles through the Tampa Palms community — into two lanes have been soundly rejected.
After revealing its preliminary Complete Street Project plan at a Sept. 28 virtual presentation and Q-&-A session, the city received near-unanimous opposition from residents. They filled out hundreds of questionnaires for the city demanding that Tampa Palms Blvd. not be downsized to accommodate things like bike lanes, additional school pickup lanes for Tampa Palms and Chiles elementary schools, roundabouts and other safety features, some of which they felt could be accomplished with four lanes.
“I read in total disbelief what the City of Tampa has proposed for Tampa Palms Blvd,” said one questionnaire. “To quote former tennis icon John McEnroe: ‘YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!’”
Tampa planners heard the complaints and have decided to change course.
“We are preserving the four lanes,“ says City of Tampa chief traffic management engineer Vik Bhide, “and we will make (smaller) modifications.”
The $3-million repaving of Tampa Palms Blvd., currently funded in next year’s city budget, will go forward in two segments — the south loop (or Segment 1), which runs from the north intersection of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to the south intersection through Tampa Palms Areas 3 and 1), and the north loop, or Segment 2, which runs from the south intersection of BBD to Ebensburg Dr. in Tampa Palms Area 2.
Some of the modifications mentioned by Bhide include narrowing the lanes in an effort to lower driving speeds, and making improvements at some of the intersections by installing Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs), also known as pedestrian-activated warning devices.
Bhide also says that more pedestrian crossings will be introduced, and there will be an effort to address the traffic challenges around the schools during the busy morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up.
Roundabouts, which cost about $800,000 and aren’t funded at the moment, “are off the table,” as residents seemed extremely opposed to them.
Asked if he was surprised at the quick repudiation of the initial plans, Bhide said it was all part of the process.
“We tried to work with the community and what the community provides with their feedback,” Bhide says. “And we also rely on hard facts and data.”
That data, according to Cal Hardie, P.E., the City of Tampa’s capital projects manager, indicated that both segments of Tampa Palms Blvd. being repaved are great candidates for a “road diet,” due to the number of daily trips on the road.
Hardie said anything under 10,000 is considered a great candidate for reduction, and 10,000-15,000 is considered a good candidate, and Tampa Palms Blvd. currently falls in that range.
But, the residents were clear — “Do not take away any of our lanes!”
The World’s Largest Food Truck Rally 12 may not break the all-time record for largest food truck parade Halloween weekend at the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), but it will have enough food on hand that we can heartily suggest wearing stretchy pants.
The rally, according to organizer Jeremy Gomez, is expecting roughly 80 trucks for the Oct. 30-31 event, which will be held 11 a.m.-6 p.m. each day. That truck number was as of our press time, and is expected to grow.
The World’s Largest Food Truck Rally, a traveling caravan of cuisine, set the Guinness World Record for the largest food truck parade in 2014, with 125 food trucks at the Florida State Fairgrounds. It will headline the 17th annual Wesley Chapel Fall Festival, essentially taking the place of the usual carnival rides and turning the festival into a fall foodie-palooza.
Drew Cecere of Florida Penguin Productions, which is organizing the Wesley Chapel Fall Festival along with the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, says the change was made to mix things up this year, as well as to alleviate the event’s competition with other area fall festivals that rely on rides.
“We went in a totally different direction this year,” Cecere says. “This will help us reach a totally different demographic.”
The Wesley Chapel Fall Festival will still offer live music, kids activities like bounce houses and a host of local vendors. There will be a pumpkin patch, pet costume contest, face painting and a Miss and Mr. Pumpkin Patch pageant. On Sunday, the popular Trunk or Treat event will begin at 4 p.m., before regular trick-or-treating begins.
Tickets to the event are $10, and can be purchased at eventbrite.com by searching “Wesley Chapel Fall Festival.” For more information, visit Facebook.com/WesleychapelFallFestival.
As for the food vendors, there will be a variety of local trucks along with those that travel with the rally. Here’s some to check out, according to World’s Largest Food Truck Rally organizer Jeremy Gomez:
TACOS Y SNACKS EL INDIO: One of the most authentic Mexican trucks around, and the owners are the hardest working I know. HORHAY’S MAC & CHEEZ: Absolutely amazing mac dishes. Comfort foods with a modern twist like their Ghost Pepper Mac N Cheez. RENEGADE BURGER COMPANY: Best burgers around. RED ZEPPELIN ROCKING LOBSTER :Lobster Rolls from heaven. TRES SUSPIROS HANDMADE BRAZILIAN CHOCOLATE: The absolute best chocolate around. Works of art. Brigadeiro Chocolate is a skill that not everyone can master… and Chef Amy has done that. These are works of art and taste even better. HOTT MESS: Tater Tots like no other! Everyone does tots now… Hott Mess has been doing them always, they wrote the book. They also have some amazing giant breaded pork sandwiches that are really hard to find this far south. SHEFU: Super authentic Chicago Style Dogs and more. And, they also are just amazing people. We know its “just” a small Chicago-style hotdog trailer, but the owners go out of their way to import everything from Chicago, making it truly authentic, and hard to find down here. SMOKIN MOMMA LORA’S BBQ: Some serious serious BBQ glammed out to the hilt. Her BBQ is on another level. TREE DOG ROOTS: Absolutely amazing mash, veggie dishes, and everything else. The owner is so sweet and has been at this for a long time…really knows her flavors. Her specialty is mashes and root vegetables, which by itself is rare.. but what she does with them is amazing. CHAZITO’S LATIN CUISINE: They make amazing food. They follow us all over the country, four generations work the truck…and they are all awesome. Their mix of Spanish/ Cuban/Puerto Rican style is super refined, and is hard to find at other places. PHILLY T’S CHEESESTEAK AND PO’BOYS: His sandwiches (pictured) are just amazing.. and they also follow us all over the country DAVIS ISLAND VIBES: Amazing tropical fruit beverages served inside a pineapple. They have been a major hit every year..and its because the drinks are fantastic. PAMZ PIZZA CONEZ: They take pizza and make them into these cones that you can hold… so they are like cups of amazing pizza goodness… that you can then eat…really clever.
Other Halloween Events In/Near Our Area:
The Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center (6585 Simons Rd. in Zephyrhills) is hosting its first annual Halloween Dog Show (see ad, right) on Saturday, October 30, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. It costs $20 to enter your dog, and there will be prizes for the top 3 dogs, as well as raffles, gift doggie bags, a bounce castle and more. Plus, 25% of all proceeds will be donated to Allie Cares, a nonprofit organization which offers free medical care treatment options for animals and families in need. For more information, call (813) 361-6660.
The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is hosting its second annual “Halloween Hullabaloo” on Saturday, October 30, noon-4 p.m. The event will feature a 3v3 basketball tournament, a 5v5 indoor soccer tournament and a volleyball tournament. The cost is $100 to register each team. There also will be activities for kids in the lobby from 2 p.m.-4:30 p.m. The cost is $10 for spectators. For more information, or to register, visit Wiregrass-Sports.com.
Fall Fest at The Grove is billing itself as Wesley Chapel’s biggest Halloween celebration, and it runs through Sunday, featuring amusement rides, a pumpkin patch, carnival food, Halloween activities and more. Plus, there is a Costume Contests at 4 p.m. on Halloween. You can buy ride tickets HERE.
The scene that started it all for “Grand Hampton: The Movie Series,” with Antony Capers and his son Merric.
A strange alien-like creature is chained to the wall. Four kids lay motionless on the floor, marked with blood. A menacing woman in a white lab coat steps over them to talk to a baby girl dangling from the ceiling. A light fog flows through the scene.
This is just a regular Wednesday or Thursday night in the Grand Hampton garage of 45-year-old Antony Capers, where, on this night, he is filming another episode of his quirky, campy, creepy — and even funny — web video series that has much of his community buzzing.
Capers, a freelance designer who owns his own production company, Reelistic Tales, is an accomplished painter, graphic designer and has even written and illustrated children’s books. He also is the creator of “Grand Hampton: The Movie Series.”
He says the series, which so far has posted 17 episodes and can be viewed on YouTube by searching for “Grand Hampton Movie,” has changed his life. The series has 151 subscribers, and roughly 6,000 total views. A party was held in the Grand Hampton clubhouse for the Season 2 premiere.
He doesn’t get paid to do the show — a new episode is posted each Monday — but he says it has brought him the kind of joy that is priceless.
“It’s really a labor of love for me,” Capers says. “I’ve met so many of my neighbors, and it’s become a close-knit production of new friends.”
What began as a short 45-second clip morphed into a series of short episodes filmed exclusively in Grand Hampton, starring only the community’s residents.
“It’s like my Hollywood playground back here,” says Capers, a Queens, NY native.
Which is not how it all began. His initial 45-second clip of his son Merric staring out across a lake in a trance, pointing at something only he could see, was done for Capers’ portfolio.
But, he decided to post the clip on Grand Hampton’s community Facebook page for fun, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Everybody who commented asked what Merric was looking at, and not to leave them hanging,” Capers said.
So, he didn’t. He shot two more episodes with his son, basing the story on an idea that has been bouncing around his head for years — where a community that is comprised entirely of people in the witness protection program is used to harvest the lungs of those who won’t be missed.
Antony recruits another neighbor to join the cast.
With requests for more episodes, Capers started asking for community volunteers to play roles in the production.
Richard Villarino was first, playing a neighbor in Episode 3 concerned that children were disappearing.
Another neighbor, Annette Simmons-Brown, sent in a head shot and, perhaps because her bald head (at the time) gave her a more minacious look, was pegged to be the evil Dr. Annette, the harvester of kids’ lungs, a few episodes later.
“I don’t know why he picked me…but I’m glad he did,” Simmons-Brown says. “It’s been so much fun. If I had to rate the whole experience on a scale of 1-to-10, I’d give it a 15.”
Taabish Ajaney, a 15-year-old North Tampa Christian Academy student, messaged Antony on Facebook looking for a role. He landed a part, but also has extensive editing experience and has taken on the role of intern, helping shoot many of the scenes.
Julia Rees, a 26-year-old medical school student, donned a red hood, black makeup streaked across her face and a 10-inch knife while emerging in the Season 1 finale as a mysterious hero…or perhaps a villain.
“He just said I’d be a bad ass,” says Rees. “I’m not sure where the character is going, but I’m along for the ride.”
Roughly 50 neighbors, many who gathered to watch the filming of the latest episode, have played roles. Kelly and Lura Mulroy and Latasha Scurry play television anchors, Henry Scurry is convincing — and arguably the best actor in the series — as the head bad guy, and Ishban Howard has played multiple roles, including one as the chained up alien.
Nicole Reber is another bad guy who made her debut recently in Season 2, Episode 3, and her three children — Ashton, Dylan and Skyla — were all snatched by the aliens in the same episode. Others have helped build sets and set up other scenes, while Capers’ next door neighbor Chace Scurry not only played a part, but her infant daughter Jahnai was the one dangling from the ceiling while mom nervously looked on. “Can you believe she let me do that?,” Capers says, chuckling.
Jordan Caviggia read about the show on Facebook, and brought his son Jaxon, 9, to the most recent shoot, where he played one of the children in the garage.
“It sounded like it’s a fun time, and I thought Jaxon would enjoy it,” Jordan said.
Capers thanked him for showing up, and asked the elder Caviggia if he was interested in having a part, too. Five days later, Caviggia filmed a scene playing the head of a newsroom.
“This has really ended up being about bringing people together,” he says. “It’s not about the show. I mean, there’s a story there, but it’s about community. It’s weird, and it’s a weird thing that’s happening, and I love it.”
Would Capers love for his show to catch the eye of a Hollywood executive? Of course.
“If not, I’ll just keep filming with my friends,” he says.
The Lotte Plaza Market coming to New Tampa could look a lot like the one above, which is located Rockville, MD.
We told you back in February that the long dormant Sweetbay Supermarket property, after eight years of being empty, was finally sold to the folks who run the popular Lotte Plaza Market Asian grocery stores, and the new owners have officially begun the permitting process.
According to City of Tampa permitting records, Emerald Coast Permitting in Santa Rosa Beach, FL, applied for a zoning review in order to receive approval for a grocery store with a limited food court, which city planners deemed to be acceptable.
Next up will be a construction permit prior to work beginning to overhaul the old Sweetbay into New Tampa’s largest ethnic grocery store.
The Lotte Market will be approximately 55,000 square feet. Taaza Mart, which opened last year, is 17,000 feet.
Founded in 1976, Lotte Plaza Market is one of the premier Asian groceries in Maryland and Virginia, where it has 12 locations. It opened its first Florida location in Orlando on W. Colonial Dr. in February 2019. New Tampa will be its second Florida location.
All Lotte Plaza Markets offer a wide choice of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food items and ingredients, an impressive selection of meats and fresh fish and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables typically not found at your regular American grocery stores.
Although there aren’t yet any detailed plans available, the Orlando store, as an example, also has a hair salon, bakery and a food court that are all draws themselves, featuring restaurants like Seoul Soon Tofu, Joen Korean, Izziban Katsu, Pho 54 and Taglish, a Filipino-American concept.
