Plan To Reduce Tampa Palms Blvd. To Two Lanes Scrapped


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!”

Grand Hampton Residents Turn Community Into A Movie Set

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.

Area Youths Learning How To Play Cricket

While many New Tampa parents can sign their kids up for leagues in sports like baseball, basketball, football and soccer that they themselves played as kids, the same opportunity hasn’t existed for the area’s large Indian population.

But now, that has changed.

Nagesh Nayak and Prahlad Madabhushi, the president and managing director, respectively, of the Tampa Premier League (TPL) — which is based at Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd. — have begun holding youth cricket camps at New Tampa’s Community Park on Thursday nights. The hope is to take younger kids and spark interest, and provide the tools and knowledge, in a game that is near and dear to the hearts of their parents and their Indian culture.

“The reason we started it was there was a great deal of interested parents, asking if there was any cricket coaching for their kids,” said Madabhushi. “There is a large Indian population in New Tampa, so there was a lot of demand.”

Nayak and Madabhushi reached out to City of Tampa Council member Luis Viera for a place to hold their camps, and Viera helped secure the New Tampa location.

While you can find kids learning how to play in the streets and playgrounds in India (like American children learn baseball, basketball and soccer), that is not the case for cricket in the U.S. Nor are there any leagues for younger players, like Little League baseball or Pop Warner football.

Nayak says he would like to provide something close to that for interested players in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. The goal is to develop new players who could then advance to playing actual matches in local adult leagues.

Roughly 40 eager players showed up on Sept. 23 for the first New Tampa camp, which has 4-6 coaches available to teach each week. The kids, who range in age from 5 to 16, are shown how to throw and hit the ball, while also learning the rules of the game.

“I think everyone liked what they were experiencing,” says Nayak, an accomplished cricket player himself. “Hitting the ball, throwing the ball, catching the ball….especially hitting the ball…they enjoyed it.”

Madabhushi has been pleased with the early reception to the camps.

“It’s been amazing,” he says. “The kids are so into it, some of them don’t want to go home. And, the parents appreciate it as well.” 

While the first camp hosted all children of Indian parents, Nayak says the camps are open to everyone. In fact, he says, because of the similarity to baseball — both sports involve a pitcher (called a bowler in cricket) throwing to a batter whose goal is to hit the ball — he’d be interested to see current and former baseball players take a shot at cricket. 

“I think that would be a good transfer of talent,” he says.

Nayak and other adult players in the area typically play on Saturdays and Sundays on a makeshift pitch on some extra, unused land at the Wesley Chapel District Park, roughly five miles north of New Tampa. Their hope is to eventually secure a regulation field, level and well-maintained, at the same park, for future matches and tournaments.

As the new players at the New Tampa camp develop and learn the game, they could graduate to games in Wesley Chapel with the better players.

“Out of the kids we had out there, 25 are between the ages of 5-12,” said Madabhushi. “But, there’s also about 8 or 10 of them who are ages 13-16, who we can take it to the next level. The first step is to move up to the adult league, and when they get familiar with that level, to take them to tournaments.” 

Weather permitting, the camps are held every Thursday from 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. and cost $70 for eight weeks of training.

 For more information, email tampapremierleague@gmail.com, or visit Facebook @TampaCricket.

New Tampa Players Cut Ribbon On Uptown Stage Home

After years without a permanent home, the New Tampa Players could soon have two homes — at the University Mall, where the theatre troupe celebrated signing a lease (above), and at the forthcoming New Tampa Performing Arts Center in the new Hunter’s Lake development.

Although the New Tampa Players (NTP) have big plans for when their permanent home at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC) opens behind the Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza (off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.), the theatre troupe isn’t missing a beat in the meantime, as it brings the performing arts art to the community in and near New Tampa.

Last month, NTP officially cut the ribbon on Uptown Stage, its black box theatre at the University Mall on E. Fowler Ave. 

Moving from space to space is nothing new for the local community theatre troupe, which is made up of performers from all over the Tampa Bay area. In the nearly 20 years since New Tampa Players were founded in 2002 by Doug Wall, it has never had a permanent home. 

While NTP signed a lease for the Uptown Stage in early 2020 and began performances and activities there earlier this year, the troupe held off on an official ribbon cutting until September 14.

“We used Covid to remake the space,” which used to be a Radio Shack, says Nora Paine, NTP’s producing artistic director.  “We did a soft opening through the summer, just to get our bearings and get used to producing stuff in that space. Then, we scheduled the ribbon cutting for September so more people could attend after summer vacations.”

Paine’s role as producing artistic director is new. After serving as NTP’s volunteer president since 2017, and volunteering for the organization for 13 years overall, NTP named her its first official employee.

Because of NTP’s growth and expanded vision, the organization agreed to a governance change and chose Paine to serve in a role that functions as both the troupe’s CEO and artistic director.

She oversees all of the activities at Uptown Stage and is looking forward to when NTP can move into the PAC, as well.

“We will keep Uptown Stage even when we move,” says Paine. “It’s a good space for small shows.”

She says the PAC will be a big stage with 350 seats, allowing NTP to bring back big musicals that are loved by the community, such as “Annie” and “The Little Mermaid.”

At the Uptown Stage ribbon cutting, Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan said the PAC will be ready to open sometime between Aug. 2022 and Jan. 2023.

“But, if we want to do smaller shows with less name recognition, or do some things that are normally not done, Uptown Stage will be a great spot,” says Paine, “so we intend to keep both going.”

The Uptown Stage space also allows NTP to stage smaller productions, where people who have never been in a show and would like to try can gain a small experience to help them develop their acting “chops.”

Uptown Stage keeps NTP close to the audience they’ve developed while performing at the nearby University Area Community Center the last few years. As the Center’s own programming grew, however, the performances could no longer be supported and NTP had to find a new location.

The first show at Uptown Stage was held in May. For NTP’s summer season, small groups performed “The Amish Project,” “Motherhood Out Loud,” “Bloom” and “Polka Dots.”

The space also is used for Saturday morning arts classes for students at nearby Muller Elementary. These often bring in guests to connect kids to the arts, and range from puppet theatre to acting to painting.

“Uptown Stage allows us to continue to pursue our mission to give as much access to the arts to as many people as possible in Tampa,” says Paine.

More than a half-dozen additional shows remain for NTP’s 2021-22 season. In January, for example, the troupe will present “Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Pinata Woman and Other Superhero Girls Like Me,” in cooperation with Tampa City Ballet, combining the arts of theatre and ballet for the audience. Tampa City Ballet’s Paula Nuñez will choreograph pieces especially for the NTP production.

Coming up next is a production called “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later,” which is a follow-up to “The Laramie Project,” a show about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. “10 Years Later” is from the same creators, looking at what happened in the decade after that tragedy.

“Lots of people do ‘The Laramie Project,’” explains Paine, “but I haven’t seen ‘10 Years Later’ done anywhere in this area.”

“The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” opens on Friday, October 15, at Uptown Stage. Tickets are available at NewTampaPlayers.org /tickets.

In addition, this fall will mark Season 2 of NTP’s “Amazing Arts Challenge,” a reality show modeled after “The Amazing Race” on CBS-TV. It sends teams all over Tampa as a way to bring arts organizations together and share with the community all the “cool arts stuff” in the area. 

Last season featured well-known spots like the Tampa Theater and Straz Center, along with lesser-known murals, dancing companies, and more.

“We were looking for a way to brings arts organizations together during Covid,” Paine explains. “We wanted to be outside and not have people packed closely together, and give people the opportunity to watch from home but not be sitting in front of a computer for hours.”

Last season’s Amazing Arts Challenge can be viewed on the website, as well.

Anyone interested can learn more on the NTP website at NewTampaPlayers.org or by emailing Nora.Paine@NewTampaPlayers.org.

New Tampa Scores In City Of Tampa’s Fiscal 2022 Budget

District 7 Tampa City Council member and New Tampa resident Luis Viera was happy that so much of the City of Tampa’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget benefits our area.

The City of Tampa’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget includes money for things like fire stations and better roads, but the process, for a change, didn’t involve having to put out any proverbial fires nor did it even encounter any bumps in the road.

Instead, it was smooth sailing, as the Tampa City Council unanimously approved Mayor Jane Castor’s $1.8-billion budget on Sept. 28.

There was nothing but praise and back slapping as the budget passed its final challenge, and few Council members were happier than District 7’s Luis Viera, whose district includes the city portions of New Tampa.

Not only did Viera help secure millions for fire rescue overhauls in the North Tampa area of his district, but there were also millions more included for a number of New Tampa projects, like a future Tampa Fire Rescue (TFR) Station (No. 24) in K-Bar Ranch and $1.6 million for the completion of the New Tampa Inclusive Playground, as well as almost $3-million for the repaving of Tampa Palms Blvd. (see story on pg. 4).

“I want to highlight that this is a really historic public safety budget,” Viera said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, and they tell me they have never seen a budget like this.”

While maintaining high standards of public safety is arguably the most important task of City Council members, issues related to fire rescue reached a boiling point late last year, when a report released by the International Association of Fire Fighters showed major issues with the city’s fire rescue network.

While Fire Station No. 13, located near Busch Gardens and the busiest station in Tampa, also is located in Viera’s district and was of the greatest concern, the four Tampa Fire Rescue (TFR) stations currently located in New Tampa are all among the six with the slowest response times in the City.

New Tampa’s four TFR stations include: No. 20 (located on Bruce D. Downs Blvd. in Tampa Palms), Nos. 21 and 22 (both located along Cross Creek Blvd.), and No. 23, which opened in 2019 on Trout Creek Ln., just south of County Line Rd.

The budget includes about $5 million to fix the issues in North and New Tampa. Roughly $3.5 million will go towards building and staffing Station No. 25, a few miles west of the beleaguered Station 13.

The rest will go towards Station No. 21 upgrades ($160,000), a heavy duty rescue vehicle for 21 ($810,000) and $650,000 towards the design and planning of a new station, No. 24, in the K-Bar Ranch area.

“I know the people of District 7 are very, very thankful to the Mayor and the Council for their collaborative leadership,” Viera said at the Sept. 28 Council meeting. “That means millions of dollars for North Tampa. And a brand new fire station, that is a major thing….as well as millions for New Tampa which has 4 of 6 longest response times in the City of Tampa.” 

The new budget went into effect at the start of Fiscal Year 2022 on Oct. 1.