New Tampa Foot & Ankle Can Help Alleviate Your Foot & Leg Pain

Podiatrists Stephen Levin, D.P.M. (left), and Dr. Brendan Barrett, D.P.M., provide outstanding care for any injury or other problem your feet or ankles may have at New Tampa Foot & Ankle, located in the Cypress Ridge Professional Center off S.R. 56.

At New Tampa Foot & Ankle, patients of all ages can be treated for injuries to their lower extremities, often with same-day appointments.

Long-time New Tampa resident Stephen Levin, D.P.M., opened New Tampa Foot & Ankle in 2002, moving the practice to its current location off of S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel (near I-75 in the Cypress Ridge Professional Center) in 2007.

With 20 years of experience in private practice in the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area, Dr. Levin says that what makes New Tampa Foot & Ankle great are the people — both the staff he works with and the patients. “We treat everyone — children through the geriatric population,” he says. “It’s fun and interesting.”

Dr. Levin earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Urban Studies from the University of Maryland in College Park in 1992. He then obtained his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (D.P.M.) degree from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1996. He completed a two-year medical and surgical residency at Montgomery Hospital Medical Center in Norristown, PA, in 1998, and then moved to Tampa, when he began working in private practice. He is the past president of both the Florida Podiatric Medical Association and the Hillsborough County Podiatric Medical Association.

Brendan Barrett, D.P.M., joined the practice in 2016. Now with two full-time doctors on staff, patients have more flexibility to schedule appointments when it’s most convenient for them. When one doctor is in surgery, the other is in the office.

“Also, from a surgical standpoint,” Dr. Levin says, “We tackle tough cases together.”

Dr. Barrett graduated from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, OH, in 2008, with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Biology. He earned his D.P.M. degree from the Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine in Cleveland, OH, in 2013. He then completed a three-year medical and surgical residency at Bay Pines VA Hospital in St. Petersburg and at the James A. Haley VA hospital in Tampa.
Dr. Levin is Board-certified in foot surgery by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery. Dr. Barrett is Board-qualified, meaning that he has passed the board exams and is in the process of becoming Board-certified.

The office accepts many forms of insurance and also offers in-house financing options.

Everything For Your Feet
Dr. Levin and Dr. Barrett care for people with all kinds of foot, heel and ankle pain. They treat issues such as ingrown toenails, fungal infections, Achilles tendon problems, ankle instability, flat feet, walking deformities, diabetic foot care, arthritic foot and ankle care, geriatric foot care, bunions, corns and warts.
Dr. Barrett explains that it’s rewarding to help people in this way.

“A lot of times, you can give people relief right away,” he says. “For example, with ingrown toenails, it’s a lot of pain, but we can take care of it so a patient is completely pain-free, often within a couple of days.”
The doctors commonly see teenagers with sports injuries, and overuse injuries in teenagers and even children.

The office is completely state-of-the-art, with on-site, digital X-rays, ultrasound and laser technology.
“We’ve upgraded to scanning the foot for orthotics, too,” explains Dr. Levin. “It’s much higher tech than plaster molding.”

Among the many services offered is a non-invasive screening tool for people who are concerned they might have poor circulation in their feet, especially for people who have diabetes or a history of smoking. The doctors use a device called PADnet to compare the blood pressure in the arm to the blood pressure in the upper leg, lower leg and ankle, to determine if circulation is good, bad or severely bad.

New Tampa Foot & Ankle also offers Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Technology (EPAT), a method of treating heel pain. In lieu of traditional treatments, such as anti-inflammatory injections or physical therapy, EPAT uses acoustic shock waves to signal the body to increase circulation. Dr. Levin says this allows the area to heal itself more quickly and effectively.

“The technology has been around for one or two decades, but it has become more amenable to an office setting,” he says. “There’s no downtime, no medications and no infections.”

Another major concern for many patients is toenail fungus. “It’s unsightly; it’s embarrassing,” Dr. Levin says, adding that the fungus can be caused by trauma and even by pedicures in unsanitary conditions.

For anyone who wants to be sure their pedicure is clean and sterile, New Tampa Foot & Ankle also has a partnership with an aesthetician who provides medical-grade pedicures in the office.

“Women come in because they’ve had a poorly done pedicure and have gotten a bacterial or fungal infection,” explains Dr. Levin. “We can do their manicure and pedicure here, where everything is sterile and clean and the conditions are controlled, so our patients know what they’re getting.”

Diabetic Foot Treatments
New Tampa Foot & Ankle treats many diabetic patients, who often have poor circulation and nerve damage, need special care for blisters or sores, and need special shoes with more room and protection.
Annette Knecht is a patient who says she has been seeing Dr. Levin regularly for her foot issues related to diabetes since she was diagnosed in 2012.

“I like going there because everyone is very friendly, kind and supportive,” she says. “Dr. Levin is always smiling and gentle. I feel at ease when I’m there.”

Annette says she appreciates Dr. Levin’s approach, where he’ll try the most conservative options first. “For my diabetic nerve pain, he started me on a vitamin regimen,” Annette explains. “It worked, and I didn’t have to go on any more medication.”

Finding You Shoes, Too
Dr. Levin says that some foot problems actually can be solved by wearing the right kind of shoes, so New Tampa Foot & Ankle also carries a full line of Vionic shoes. Men and women can buy everything from dress shoes to sneakers, sandals and even flip-flops, right at the office.

“These are shoes that have an orthotic built into the shoe,” explains Dr. Levin. “They work well for people who have flat- or high-arched feet, or those who experience heel pain. Especially for women, dress shoes don’t typically have great support, but these do, so you can wear a high heel or wedge shoe, and get that built-in support.”

Annette says she does buy her shoes at New Tampa Foot & Ankle. “They seem to work really well with my feet,” she says.

She adds that her “summer shoes” the last couple of months were a pair of Vionic orthopedic flip-flops.
“They’re waterproof and I even wear them at the beach,” she says. “They’re very supportive for my ankles. If I didn’t have them, I’d be barefoot and in pain.”

Dr. Levin says Vionic shoes are sold at other places, but his office offers a better variety. They are currently working to set up a full display in the lobby, where anyone can stop and shop for Vionic shoes. For now, they are sold to the practice’s patients,, so he recommends anyone who thinks they would benefit from the shoes to make an appointment for a consultation.

New Tampa Foot & Ankle is open Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and is located at 26827 Foggy Creek Rd., Suite 104. For more information, call (813) 973-3535, visit NewTampaFootandAnkle.com or see the ad on page 20 of this issue.

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday!

You can now add Ruby Tuesday to the list of New Tampa restaurants that have closed in recent years, as it joins Casa Ramos and Las Palmas this year alone. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Longtime New Tampa fixture Ruby Tuesday abruptly closed its doors in late July, which was a surprise to many local residents.

The restaurant, which boasted “Simple Fresh American Dining” and had arguably the best (only?) salad bar around, was located on the corner of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and Bruce B. Downs Blvd., in front of the popular AMC Highwoods 20 movie theater.

While it didn’t lack for passing traffic, it apparently was lacking in paying customers, joining more than 100 Ruby Tuesdays across the country that have been shuttered over the last year.

According to RestaurantBusinessOnline.com, Ruby Tuesday has closed 400 locations in the past decade.

Based in Maryville, TN, the dining chain was purchased by NRD Capital last year, and named Ray Blanchette as CEO in January in an effort to turn the company around.

Visitors on July 22 were greeted by a printed sheet of paper taped to the inside of the front door, saying “This Location Has Closed,” and directing people to the Ruby Tuesday in Valrico.

The manager at the Valrico restaurant confirmed that the New Tampa location was closed for good, but declined to answer any other questions. Messages left at Ruby Tuesday’s corporate offices were not returned.

Ruby Tuesday joins a growing list of shuttered restaurants in New Tampa in the past two years.
This year alone, Tampa Palms Mexican restaurant Casa Ramos and Pebble Creek’s Las Palmas Spanish Café have closed their doors, joining others like Dairy Queen and Vuelo’s Mexican Grill on BBD, as well as Beef O’Brady’s on Cross Creek Blvd.

The Dairy Queen location has a new tenant that has yet to open, but is expected to

be a Jamaican restaurant, and the old Vuelo’s site (which was formerly a Romano’s Macaroni Grill) may have a new restaurant group interested in bringing something new to the area, but the others remain vacant.

And, speaking of places that have closed recently in New Tampa, the H.H. Gregg appliance and electronics store located in the Market Square plaza on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms closed last year, and last month, the Staples store in the same plaza shut down.

 

Nibbles & Bytes

Kate Spade Opens In TPO!

“We are now at 100-percent occupancy,” Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) general manager Stacey Nance told me at the July 20 ribbon cutting event for the new Kate Spade store (photo) in TPO. “How many malls can say that?”

In addition to Kate Spade (see below), Nance says the remaining three slots at the outlet mall also are all now taken — True Religion Designer Jeans & Clothing, Salt Life and the Man Cave Store, which has been a hit at other Simon malls with billiards tables, Harley Davidson gear, Mr. Beer and more.

But, there’s no doubt that a lot of people — dozens were on hand during or shortly after the store’s ribbon cutting to check out the deals — are excited about the high-end handbags, wallets, clothing and accessories at Kate Spade, the store chain that the late designer Kate Brosnahan and her husband Andy Spade (the brother of actor/comedian David Spade) created as Kate Spade New York in 1993, combining her first name and his surname. The couple had sold all of their interest in the brand to Nieman Marcus by 2006, which then sold it to Liz Claiborne that same year.

Of course, Kate was found dead in her apartment on June 5 of this year, by her own hand, leaving a note for her daughter Frances.

“We signed this lease in December,” Nance, an admitted fan of the brand, said. “And we’re really excited that Kate Spade is open.”

Get Ready For The Hyatt Place!
“We know there’s not enough hotel rooms in Wesley Chapel right now,” says Karen Martin, the director of sales for the new 132-room Hyatt Place hotel on the north side of S.R. 56, next to Bahama Breeze, which had its “soft” opening on July 31. “But, it’s about to get a lot more fun out here.”

Martin says that although the six-story hotel just opened, “My phone’s been ringing off the hook for weeks, especially with people booking rooms for tournaments at the hockey rink (Florida Hospital Center Ice, located just east of I-75 on S.R. 56, while the Hyatt Place is just west of the interstate).

Although Martin says the new Hyatt Place doesn’t have full Hyatt resort amenities, it does have a Gallery restaurant and bar, a separate breakfast area, an outdoor swimming pool, nice fitness and business centers and meeting spaces with built-in audio/visual features.

The adjacent Sierra Conference Center has a really nice ballroom that Martin says can seat about 350 people with tables in a banquet setup and can be subdivided into three smaller ballrooms, which can each seat at least 250 people each in a theatre-style seating set-up. Martin says she also loves the conference center’s adjacent break-out and outdoor seating areas.

“But, to really get a feel for whether or not we should be hosting your event,” she says, “you should come out and take a tour. We’re all really excited to be open.”

She adds that the hotel hopes to host an upcoming “Final Friday” networking event for the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce and is planning “a big Grand Opening event sometime in November.”

The Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel is located at 26000 Sierra Center Blvd. For more information, call (813) 803-5600 or visit HyattPlace.com.

We’ll have updates about the Hilton Garden Inn & Residence Inn hotels coming soon to S.R. 56 in our next issue.

Here & There, This & That…

• I can’t even tell you how excited my taste buds are now that Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel favorite Nothing Bundt Cakes has opened across from Noble Crust in the Shops at Wiregrass mall. Whether you love red velvet or dark chocolate cake with extra creamy white icing, or the decadent white chocolate raspberry bundt cake, Nothing Bundt Cakes will have you salivating for more.

Check out a free sample when you visit and please tell the staff that you read all about them in the New Tampa Neighborhood News!

• I also was sad to hear, despite owner Ramses Garcia’s best efforts to negotiate a new lease with his landlord, that Las Palmas Spanish Café, the Latin/Cuban favorite located behind Kobe Steakhouse in the Pebble Creek Collection on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (a mile south of County Line Rd.), had closed.
Garcia had been talking to me for several months about how hard it had been for the businesses in the plaza to stay afloat, with the Bruce B. Downs widening construction still ongoing in front of the plaza, but he was still hoping to work things out less than two weeks before he announced the closing on Facebook. Will Garcia reopen in another location? We’ll keep you posted!

• Meanwhile, congratulations go out to my friends Travis and Fiona Monday, the owners of Fit 4 Life Personal Training & Physical Therapy Studio (17419 Bridge Hill Ct. in Tampa Palms), who celebrated the studio’s 22nd year in business with another great Martini Party, catered by the nearby Stonewood Grill & Tavern, on July 20.

 

Commissioners Hagan & Crist Favored To Swap Seats In November

Hillsborough County commisioner candidates Ken Hagan, Victor Crist and Ray Chiaramonte are among those hoping to advance beyond Tuesday’s primaries to the Nov. 6 election.

Two county commissioners with long-time ties to New Tampa — former resident Ken Hagan and current Tampa Palms resident Victor Crist — will be hoping to win their Primary Elections on Tuesday, August 28, in their efforts to effectively swap seats in the general election on Nov. 6.

Both have been term-limited out of their current positions.

Comm. Hagan, who is currently the District 5 commissioner, a countywide seat, is running in District 2, which represents all of New Tampa, as well as Lutz, Temple Terrace and Thonotosassa. Hagan held the Dist. 2 seat from 2002-10.

Comm. Crist, currently the Dist. 2 commissioner, is running for Hagan’s Dist. 5 seat.

Hagan, 50, has been one of the highest-profile commissioners in recent months, due to his role as the county’s lead negotiator in luring the Rays to Tampa to play in a proposed $892-million stadium in Ybor City.

For his primary race against first-time office seeker Chris Paradies, Hagan had raised a staggering $484,374 at our press time. Paradies, a Keystone resident who has been critical of Hagan’s position as a political lifer who attempts to avoid term limits by jumping seats in order to stay in office, had raised $27,523.

Ken Hagan

Hagan, who has often been viewed as a pro-development commissioner, has been active in seeking New Tampa’s support in his current campaign. He has co-hosted two local town hall meetings with Dist. 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera and has been active in trying to get new parks built or expanded in K-Bar Ranch and Branchton Park off Morris Bridge Rd.

Hagan also proposed adding $250,000 to the county budget last year to speed up a potential connection of Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe.

In June, FloridaPolitics.com named Hagan the ninth most powerful politician in Tampa Bay.

Democrat Angela Birdsong, like Hagan, a Carrollwood resident, has raised $21,674, and she awaits the winner of Hagan vs. Paradies. Birdsong has recently picked up her efforts in New Tampa, as she seeks to expand her profile.

Crist, 61, is running against Angel S. Urbina Capo in countywide Dist. 5.

A longtime local fixture, Crist has been a strong proponent of a New Tampa Cultural Center, which is expected to finally come to fruition — by 2020. He championed, as did Hagan when he served in Dist. 2, the idea of a New Tampa “town center,” which is now under development at the Hunter’s Lake project across from Hunter’s Green.

Comm. Crist had raised $121,300 at our press time, while Capo, a 47-year-old cybersecurity consultant, was at $6,768.

Crist talks to a group at Hunter’s Green Country Club last year about plans for a New Tampa Cultural Center.

Crist’s profile, connections and list of accomplishments in government dwarf Capo’s, and he is favored to win the primary. In Nov. 6, the winner will face Joe Kotvas, who is not affiliated with any party, and whoever emerges from the Democratic primary between Mariella Smith and Elvis Piggott.

Smith, a fourth-generation Tampa native currently living in Ruskin, is a 64-year-old small business owner and has been a longtime citizen advocate and community leader who could present a formidable challenge to Crist should she defeat Piggott, a 30-year-old church pastor who had been out-raised $73,978 to $20,315.

A crowded field is seeking the District 7 seat, which also is countywide.

Four Democrats – Ray Chiaramonte, Mark Nash, Kimberly Overman and Sky White — are running. All have either governmental or activist experience.

Nash has held the edge in fund-raising, pulling in $82,768, but Chiaramonte wasn’t far behind at $74,876, followed by Overman ($54,410) and White ($9,718.22).

Chiaramonte, who stopped in at the Neighborhood News office to talk county politics with editor Gary Nager, has been the executive director of the county’s Planning Commission, Metropolitan Planning Organization and most recently, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA, from which he elected not to renew his contract last year).

He says that as a lifelong Hillsborough resident and regional transportation specialist, he is the candidate in the best position to help focus on the transportation issues throughout our area. Look for more of Gary’s interview with Chiaramonte in these pages if he wins the primary.

Republican Aakash Patel, however, has raised more than all of them combined. With a $381,594 war chest (that tops half a million dollars when you include money raised by his political committee, Elevate Tampa), Patel also has some big-time endorsements from Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, State House Speaker Richard Corcoran, former Speaker Will Weatherford and Congressman Gus Bilirakis.

His opponent on August 28, attorney Todd Marks, had raised $138,866.

School Board primary elections also will be held, though not for New Tampa’s District 3 seat, currently held by Cindy Stuart. However, a countywide seat in District 6 (to replace April Griffin) is up for grabs, and a field of six candidates will contend for the spot on Primary Day.

 

Fixing Bruce B. Downs Traffic | Solutions & Study

To appreciate what local drivers endure every day and to find ways to fix our traffic problems, traffic engineer Jerry Wentzel had a computer-equipped car make more than 180 runs driving the speed limit through the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. corridor in New Tampa collecting data.

And, perhaps, a few choice words by those frustrated that the car was driving the speed limit.
“If you did see the car, I hope you’re not the people that were giving us obscene gestures,” Wentzel joked. “A lot of drivers in your community don’t think 45 is the right speed limit.”

But, by the end of his presentation to roughly 50 people at Compton Park in Tampa Palms on July 25, the only gesture Wentzel — the Southeast Regional manager for DKS, a transportation planning and engineering firm that recently completed a traffic light study in New Tampa — received was a thumbs up.

Wentzel and Vik Bhide, the chief traffic management engineer for the City of Tampa, told an audience of New Tampa residents, as well as a handful of political hopefuls that not only are changes in the traffic light cycles speeding things up, plans for three additional turn-only signals will continue to ease congestion.
“You should be able to recognize there has already been an improvement,” said Wentzel.

The traffic light study was hatched to address a number of concerns, primarily helping move traffic through side streets like Cross Creek Blvd., Amberly Dr. and Tampa Palms Blvd. onto and off of BBD and facilitating a steady traffic flow during peak hours that would make the roads safer, not just for cars but for cyclists and pedestrians as well.

The lights are also now timed to favor busier traffic at certain times. For example, in the morning, the lights will favor southbound traffic, and in the evening, they will favor northbound traffic.

“In the past….BBD was one giant green (light),” Bhide said. “You were running four-and-a-half-minute cycles. If you were on Bruce B. Downs and got the first green light, you were great. If you were on a side street, you were waiting for a very long time. Our goal was to reduce the delay for everyone.”

Three corridors were studied for improvements in the weekday a.m., midday and p.m. hours, as well as Saturday morning and evening hours. The Saturday results were applied to Sunday, which was not specifically studied.

“In some cases, the signals were really way off,” said Wentzel. “The timings were changed dramatically.”
The four-mile stretch from I-75 to E. Bearss Ave., which has nine traffic signals, saw the largest improvements.

According to the study, by recalibrating the cycles of the signals from an average of 222 seconds (3:42) to 146 seconds (2:26), the average delay was reduced from 139 seconds (2:19) to 73 seconds, or 1:13.

The BBD widening project allowed weekday PM cycle lengths to be reduced from 254 seconds (4:14) to 130 (2:10).
“Because it’s now four lanes, it allowed us to reduce the cycle length and give more time to the side streets and cut the delay for coming off the side streets,” Wentzel said.

The changes also helped increase the average travel speed along BBD from 31.6 miles per hour to 37.6 mph, suggesting a smoother flow of traffic. The biggest increases were seen in the weekday midday hours (31.5 to 39 mph) and Saturday p.m. hours (32 to 43).

“That’s pretty dramatic,” Wentzel said. “People in that corridor should feel the changes, should be driving better, stopping less and spending a lot less time in traffic.”

Requiring minor tweaks in the cycle lengths was the corridor along Cross Creek Blvd. between BBD and Morris Bridge Rd. Improvements there helped reduce the average delay for drivers by 37 percent. Delays getting off the side streets were not as much of an issue, so the improvements focused on the east-west movement along Cross Creek Blvd.

“From one end to the other was 134 seconds (2:14), now down to 85 seconds (1:25),” Wentzel said. “That’s a pretty big reduction and something the average person should feel. We felt those were good results, very positive results.”
The third corridor studied, BBD from Cross Creek Blvd. to I-75, was the trickiest, Wentzel said.

While the signals clearly favored BBD traffic, it did not recognize that 40 percent of the traffic in the corridor was coming off Cross Creek Blvd. The result has been significantly longer cycle times for traffic turning south onto BBD from Cross Creek. That has slowed the average speed in that corridor by 1 percent and increased the average delay by 10 percent, numbers that Wentzel called insignificant.

 

Statistics from study regarding signal timing changes at the Cross Creek/BBD Intersection (Graphic Design: Gavin Olsen)

“If you look at the study results, it didn’t really benefit BBD traffic, because the intention was to help Cross Creek,” he said.
While the study may produce small numbers measured in seconds and minutes, when you multiply that one car by days and then times per month, you get a bigger, brighter picture (see graphic above).

“The cumulative savings to the community are significant, and to the environment are significant” Bhide said.
Bhide also said the light signal changes also will benefit bicyclists and pedestrians, who tend to take risks crossing when they are stuck at long cycles favoring BBD.

Combined with the significant amount of time saved by motorists, as well as the environmental benefits, Bhide said this light study was a success.

“We don’t always see these kind of dramatic results from signal changes,” he said. “This just happened to be a pretty good story for us to tell.”

Right-Turn Signals To Be Added!
In addition to the recently completed traffic light changes, right-turn signals will be installed at northbound BBD and Cross Creek Blvd., as well as eastbound Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and BBD (where p.m. traffic from the business campuses behind the AMC Highwoods movie theater complex can stretch on and on) over the next 80-90 days.

An Aerial Shot of the Cross Creek & Bruce B Downs Blvd. Intersection in New Tampa. (Photo: Eagle Fly Media)

Both lanes are choke points during peak traffic hours in the evening, and the BBD/Cross Creek Blvd. location in particular has drawn the ire of many local residents.

“We’ve done what we can with signal timing, but the right turns could be going at the same time the lefts are going if we had a signal for it,” Wentzel said.

As for a third left turn lane off Cross Creek Blvd., Wentzel and Bhide both said that’s just a matter of time, and money. While Bhide works for the city, that intersection is a county asset that the city maintains, per an interlocal agreement.

“We have talked to the county about putting that as a project in their capital improvement plan, and tentatively, they are reviewing that and will try to get it funded in the next few years,” Bhide said.

The traffic signal study was hosted by the New Tampa Council (NTC). Along with District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who founded the NTC, the crowd also included a handful of political candidates running for seats, either in the upcoming “mid-term” elections in August and November, or in March 2019, that will represent New Tampa — Angela Birdsong (running for Hillsborough County Commissioner District 2), Joseph Caetano and Joe Citro (Tampa City Council Dist. 1) and Fentrice Driskell, who is running against incumbent Shawn Harrison for the Florida House of Representatives Dist. 63 seat.