How New Tampa Voted: Blue Wave Floods Longtime Local Pols Out Of Office

Victor Crist

As it turns out, there was a Blue Wave after all.

Locally, though, it was more like a Blue Tidal Wave.

While Democrats lost ground in the U.S. Senate nationally, despite picking up a slew of House seats, the local wave, by a surprisingly large margin, washed a pair of longtime New Tampa Republicans out to sea — Hillsborough County commissioner and Tampa Palms resident and Dist. 2 Hillsborough County commissioner Victor Crist, and Dist. 63 State House Representative and Hunter’s Green resident Shawn Harrison.

And, a third local Republican, county commissioner and former New Tampa resident Ken Hagan, won his election by a much narrower margin than expected.

In the race for the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) District 2 seat previously held by Crist, Hagan had a huge advantage in both name recognition (as the point man in luring the Tampa Bay Rays to Tampa) and in money — he raised more than 10 times what Democrat and political newcomer Angela Birdsong was able to raise.

But, that only translated to a narrow 52-48 percent victory for the seat Crist vacated due to term limits that represents Citrus Park, Lutz, Temple Terrace, Brandon and New Tampa.

“I would say that I expected the margin to be closer than I’ve been accustomed to, so it wasn’t completely unexpected,” said Hagan, who won his previous two elections by double digits. “The reality is, Hillsborough County has gone from a Republican county to a Democratic stronghold. That was reflected up and down the ballot. And, New Tampa also has gone from Republican to Democrat.”

Hagan, who has spearheaded a number of big projects here in New Tampa and has attended two town halls in the area the past year alone, lost New Tampa’s 18 precincts to Birdsong by a surprisingly large number: nearly 3,000 votes. Hagan won just two precincts, 357 (which includes part of Tampa Palms) and 361, which is Hunter’s Green.

Fentrice Driskell

Harrison lost his Florida House District 63 seat to another political neophyte in Democrat Fentrice Driskell, although what is typically a fairly close race wasn’t this time around.

Driskell, seen as one of the rising stars to emerge from the 2018 election, beat Harrison by more than 4,500 votes. She focused some of her campaign energy on New Tampa, and it apparently paid off, as she defeated Harrison 57-43 percent in New Tampa.

Shawn Harrison

The only precinct Harrison won was Hunter’s Green, where he is a resident, and even that was only by a 55-vote margin. In 2016, Harrison beat Lisa Montelione partly on the strength of almost 600 more votes in his home precinct.

The District 63 seat, which also represents Lutz, Carrollwood and the University of South Florida area, is back in Democratic hands for the first time since 2014.

Crist, a visible New Tampa figure who has worked diligently to bring a cultural center to the area, failed in an attempt to win Hagan’s old countywide seat in District 5. He lost handily to Democrat Mariella Smith 52-45 percent, or by nearly 39,000 votes. Crist, who had never lost an election since entering politics more than 20 years ago, had won his last two District 2 races by 38,000 and 12,000 votes.

“It’s something I saw coming,” said Crist. “I believe in scientific polling and we polled early on and saw that there was going to be trouble. I knew even before I had an opponent that I would most likely face a tough time in this election.”

Even on what is essentially his home turf, Crist could not find any footing in New Tampa, losing every precinct by sizable numbers and by a 60-40 percentage.

In the other countywide county commission face, Democrat Kim Overman defeated Republican Todd Marks by 53-45 percent in District 7.

Pebble Creek resident Karen Perez will join the Hillsborough County School Board after besting Henry “Shake” Washington 54-45 percent. Perez, who ran unsuccessfully for the Florida House in 2006, was the voter’s choice in every New Tampa precinct.

In other news, tax referendums to raise money for transportation and education passed by a greater percentage in New Tampa than in the rest of the county.

While the one-cent transportation tax passed with 57.3 percent of the vote countywide, New Tampa voters favored the measure with 60.1 percent saying yes.

The education tax, which passed all of Hillsborough with 56.3 percent of the vote, received 60.5 percent of the votes cast in New Tampa.

Finally: Bruce B. Done

Imagine being a traffic engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and director of public works in Hillsborough County for 29 years, going to work, designing traffic layouts and signals to help traffic flows in 14 Florida counties.

Imagine doing your highly stressful job so well and acquiring so many admirers along the way, that when you suddenly pass away, it is so heartbreaking that they re-name a road in your honor.

Now, imagine your name is Bruce Barkley Downs.

• • •

In New Tampa, you won’t have Bruce B. Downs to kick around much longer, as the widening of the much-maligned, and breathlessly-besmirched boulevard that bears the late Mr. Downs’ name is now — finally — complete.

But, not completely complete, mind you.

Bruce B. Downs

There is still a light to install at Trout Creek Dr., which was determined to be a need after the project began. There also are a few patches here and there that need to be smoothed out, and trees and other aesthetic elements to put into place.

As we went to press with this issue, just before Thanksgiving, there were portions of a few northbound lanes receiving their final paving layers, and some of those dreaded and all-too-familiar orange cones are lying around. But, by the time this issue hits mailboxes, we are told they will have vanished.

All eight lanes — eight! — of Bruce B. Downs, for all intents and purposes, are finally Bruce B. Done.

“It’s good to finally get the last piece done,” says Jim Hudock, Hillsborough County’s Public Works director, the same job Downs once held.

• • •

The project was a big one, right from the start. Though construction actually began in 2010, the decade before that was filled with discussions and planning and petitions and angry residents, but for years, no money to do anything.

What was formerly N. 30th St. before being named for Bruce B. Downs in 1986, what is now New Tampa’s primary artery, used to be called the “Road To Nowhere,” a seemingly endless stretch of road that ran all the way north to S.R. 54, where it dead-ended at a stack of concrete cinder blocks in someplace called Wesley Chapel.

A light will be installed at this intersection at Trout Creek Dr.

“I remember taking friends home that lived in Pebble Creek, and it seemed like three counties north of here,”  says Ken Hagan, who was elected as the Hillsborough County District 2 commissioner representing the New Tampa area after serving in the same role in the county-wide District 5 seat the last five years.

Hagan remembers drag racing on the “Road To Nowhere,” before it was even fully paved, when he attended Chamberlain High School on Busch Blvd., as his father did before him.

But, New Tampa was exploding — and northern neighbor Wesley Chapel wasn’t too far behind — and it was obvious to everyone that lived here that our main thoroughfare was not going to be able to handle all of that growth.

“That’s why it was always No. 1 on our unfunded list,” says Hagan, adding that he has worked diligently since entering public life to secure more than $100-million for the project. “The road was not initially constructed to hold the existing capacity, much less the growth that was undoubtedly going to occur. Hopefully, we have learned from those mistakes.”

Wishful thinking, perhaps? M/I Homes was recently approved to build 400 more homes in the K-Bar Ranch community, which has only one road out of it and could face similar problems with old, outdated “country roads” like Morris Bridge Rd. in the future.

• • •

The $131-million, 8.5-mile-long widening of BBD, the largest and most expensive of any similar project in Hillsborough County’s history, was done in four segments, and the first — Segments B and C together — was a 3.4-mile stretch from Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms north to Pebble Creek Dr.

Segments B & C were the hardest segments, with more than 60,000 daily vehicle trips and the I-75 interchange to contend with, and ended up costing $52.3 million.

This has been a familiar site for years on Bruce B. Downs. Not for long, says the county.

Segment A followed in 2015, and would cost $54.7 million to transform four and six lanes running from Palm Springs Blvd. south to E. Bearss Ave. into eight glorious lanes.

That last piece, Segment D, began construction in 2016, following a lightly attended public information meeting at Wharton High on Oct. 18.

While many of the businesses along the corridor suffered from lingering construction at their entrances and issues arose with various underground utilities, the high school was both one of the biggest obstacles — and concerns — of New Tampa residents.

“It took a little bit of coordination with the school, and the School Board was great about working with us,” Hudock said. “Anytime you do a construction project, there is going to be some challenges. This required a lot of hard work from a lot of different agencies. There was a lot of land acquisition; businesses had to work with us out there. We are excited to have it all open, and are hopeful that a lot of the lessons we learned in that corridor can be applied to future projects.”

Hudock has heard all of the complaints. He said his department tried to investigate specific issues that were reported, and worked hard at replying to customer service requests.

• • •

Bruce Barkley Downs, after retiring from FDOT, became Hillsborough’s director of Public Works & Safety and the deputy county administrator. According to a 2007 story in the then-St. Petersburg Times, he was in charge of 2,100 miles of roads and bridges.

In 1983, a local newspaper (yes, it pre-dates the Neighborhood News) wrote a story about Downs, stating he had the most stressful job in the county. The day the story came out, Downs, who battled high blood pressure his entire life, collapsed while having lunch with co-workers. He had suffered a major heart and passed away at the age of 53.

On April 17, 1986, on his birthday, the county renamed 30th St. between E. Fowler Ave. and the county line “Bruce B. Downs Blvd.”

It is the main thoroughfare for the University of South Florida, New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. It also has been regarded as one of the most notoriously frustrating roadways in all of Tampa Bay.

Worst traffic? The #1 road to avoid? Everything that’s wrong with government planning?

Bruce B. Downs.

Known for his reputation for helping people and his love of roads and making them work, the man for whom the road is named would likely be pleased to see a project like this one finally completed. 

So surely, the completion of the widening of that road, along with the bicycle and pedestrian enhancements and intersection improvements, deserves some kind of celebration.

A ribbon cutting? A cake? A concert by BBD (the group Bell Biv DeVoe)?

“Really, it’s about thanking everybody for the hard work and moving on to the next project,” Hudock said. “But this being as big a project as it was, there may be some consideration for something more.”

Latest New Tampa Town Hall Tackles Road Safety, Local Business & More

Hillsborough County School Board member Cindy Stuart (left) and Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera at a recent New Tampa townhall.

Since taking over as the Tampa City council member representing District 7, which includes New Tampa, Luis Viera vowed to try to create a more engaged community by developing local leaders who would hold politicians’ feet to the proverbial fire.

One vehicle for doing so: town halls, which are run by the New Tampa Council, a group Viera helped organize that is comprised of leaders from various local communities.

Here’s what you missed from the latest town hall, which was held Nov. 15 at the Venetian Event Center at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd.

New Tampa Safety Group’s April Ingram.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN — April Ingram, who started the New Tampa Safety Group, continued to beat the drum at the town hall for pedestrian safety in the K-Bar Ranch and Cross Creek areas. She also argued again for more crossing guards at Pride and Hunter’s Green Elementary schools, and suggested that the dangerous Kinnan St. and Cross Creek Blvd. intersection in front of Benito Middle School would benefit from more crossing guards, too.

Cindy Stuart, the School Board member for District 3, which includes all of New Tampa’s schools, didn’t disagree. Stuart, a guest speaker at the town hall, said that crossing guards are not offered by the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office (HCSO) at middle or high schools.

“That’s not my decision,” she says, even though she added she has shared data with HCSO that says middle and high school kids are more at risk than elementary school pedestrians. Stuart says that there is no money to hire more crossing guards or increase their pay, but added that HCSO will be requesting additional funds to do so.

Stuart, who chairs Hillsborough’s School Transportation Working Group (STWG), said the only way to get a crossing guard at Benito (or Wharton) would be to petition HCSO. You could hear light bulbs popping over the heads of many of the 50 or so residents in attendance.

DRIVE, DON’T TEXT — Stuart also said she has had numerous meetings about pedestrian safety in New Tampa, and there are minor changes in the works, such as moving the Benito Middle School bike rack from the side of the school where the buses operate closer to the front of the school, and clearing some trees to remove visual hindrances.

While students need to be taught the safest places to cross streets and not to assume that a red light means a car will necessarily stop, Stuart told the audience that it’s the adults who need to start paying more attention.

“The distracted driving in this community is horrible,” she said. “We have to stop.”

SWALLOWED UP? — A few residents in attendance expressed concerns that New Tampa is getting “swallowed up” by Wesley Chapel, due to the number of businesses that have been closing south of the Pasco line lately. One even suggested starting a grass roots organization to stop spending money in Wesley Chapel, while others worried that the two new tax referendums that recently passed (and have bumped the county’s sales tax to 8.5 percent) will only make it harder on local businesses.

Brad Suder, the superintendent of planning & design at the City of Tampa’s Parks & Recreation Department.

PARK NEWS — Brad Suder, the superintendent of planning & design at the City of Tampa’s Parks & Recreation Department, also was in attendance and provided some of the most well-received news of the night.

According to Suder, the five-acre New Tampa Sensory Park (one of Viera’s pet projects), planned for the land just south of BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms, is not only proceeding, it is, “starting to become a dynamite-looking park.”

Suder, a New Tampa resident, said the original plans left him underwhelmed, but a new approach has yielded fantastic results. The proposed design should be completed by the middle of December.

Now comes the hard part: getting the money to actually build it.

While the $90,000 for the study and design was in last year’s City of Tampa budget, construction will require another $2-million that will have to be approved in this year’s budget come October 2019. It remains to be seen how a new mayor, who will be elected this spring, will affect those plans.

MORE MORE MORE — It was suggested by Arbor Greene’s Laura Blank that perhaps a group should be formed — a “town council” — to meet more frequently about issues residents in New Tampa may want to talk about. For example, why are there so many pizza places on Cross Creek Blvd.? And how about encouraging a breakfast restaurant to set up shop in New Tampa?

Jim Davison, who lost in his bid for the District 7 seat to Viera in 2016, suggested something like Café con Tampa, a weekly neighborhood gathering in South Tampa —often hosted by an area restaurant — where people show up to listen to special guests and talk about various issues.

It wasn’t clear if Davison was suggesting that these could be supplemental to the town halls, or a replacement for them. Davison lamented that “three months later, no one remembers what the hell we talked about.”

Viera, who defeated Davison to win his city council seat, took offense to that claim, pointing out that one town hall (at the New Tampa Recreation Center, or NTRC) was the launching point for local activists to get the NTRC expansion into the budget and approved, while other meetings have sparked things like Ingram’s safety group and a current study to repave the bike/pedestrian paths on New Tampa Blvd. in West Meadows.

MORE PARK TALK — K-BAR PARK ON HOLD? — Despite Davison’s claims, it was apparent that not everyone forgets what was said at previous town halls. K-Bar Ranch’s Will Tyson asked how the plans were coming along for the 50+-acre park planned for K-Bar Ranch that was talked about at the town hall in May.

Viera said that there hasn’t been any progress on the K-Bar park, as the city is trying to pay off some of its debt.

“It was never meant to be on the imminent horizon,” Viera said, putting a timeframe of 1-3 years on getting that park project built.

Business Notes: The Latest On Publix, Main Event, Steak ’n Shake & More

The S.R. 56 corridor in Wesley Chapel, while still changing almost daily, has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past few years.

And, it looks like S.R. 54 might be next in line for a whole new look.

A host of new projects — Wawa, Chick-Fil-A, RaceTrac and some strip complexes with as-of-yet-unidentified retailers and restaurateurs, are currently under way. But, the biggest of all the projects is finally beginning: the Hollybrook Plaza Publix Super Market is expected to move from the corner of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and S.R. 54 to behind the Walmart located right down the street.

Construction plans have been filed with the county to begin work on the $4.4-million parcel in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI). Publix closed on its $3.3-million purchase of its share of the parcel in June.

There also are plans in the county system to connect Wiregrass Ranch Blvd., which runs north and south through the DRI, to S.R. 54, where the road current ends at the Walmart.

Also, just north of the future site of Publix, construction has begun on a 12,600-sq.-ft. strip center (see picture) that West Palm Beach-based commercial developer John Dowd hinted at way back in May of 2016 at a Wesley Chapel Economic Development meeting.

Dowd said at the time the that two restaurants had already signed up, but they are not named in the county filings, which list 5,610- and 6,995-sq.-ft. spaces both labeled for future retail/restaurant.

PLAY BALL: Is yet another sports bar is headed to Wesley Chapel?

Just a few weeks before Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar broke ground in Cypress Creek Town Center North on Nov. 3 (across S.R. 56 from the Tampa Premium Outlets), representatives from Bubba’s 33 filed preliminary plans with Pasco County hoping to build right down the road, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Bubba’s 33 will be located on Silver Maple Pkwy., off the south side of S.R. 56 and the east side of I-75, near the Texas Roadhouse that is already there. The founder of the Louisville, KY-based Texas Roadhouse, Kent Taylor, also started Bubba’s 33 in 2013.

Boasting wall-to-wall televisions and a garage-like feel, Bubba’s 33’s menu offers your typical sports bar fare — burgers, wings, pizza and beer — but with housemade burger buns and pizza dough. It also serves a special burger blend with 33-percent ground bacon.

GO TEAM!: Another sports-related business moving towards opening in Wesley Chapel has officially filed its site plans with the county.

Main Event Entertainment, which will be located on the south side of S.R. 56 between the Tampa Premium Outlets and I-75, submitted construction plans on Oct. 9 to build a 49,608-sq.-ft. center that will feature state-of-the-art bowling, multi-level laser tag, gravity ropes adventure courses, billiards, video games and other entertainment, as well as a restaurant.

Main Event Entertainment representatives initially met with the county on April 24, filing preliminary plans to build Main Event’s third Florida location, joining centers in Jacksonville and Orlando on International Dr.

Main Event, which the company claims serves more than 20 million guests annually, also will offer full-service catering with private rooms that will appeal to large group events, and also is expected to bring roughly 150 full- and part-time jobs to the area.

HOW CONVENIENT: First, it was a run on shopping, then restaurants, and then storage centers.

Now, developers can’t seem to build gas station and convenience stores fast enough.

There are at least four convenience stores that have submitted plans with the county that already have begun work in Wesley Chapel, most notably the Wawa on the northeast corner of S.R. 54 and BBD next to Walgreens. Wawa began construction last month.

The others in the process include a RaceTrac on S.R. 54 at Vandine Rd., across the street from Freedom Plaza and approved last month, and a Circle K a little further east on S.R. 54 at Meadow Pointe Blvd., which was approved Nov. 7.

A 7-Eleven on BBD is currently under construction at Vanguard St., just south of the Shops at Wesley Chapel plaza across the street from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel.

SHAKES AND MORE: A new Steak ’n Shake has been approved for construction on S.R. 54 between the Palms Car Wash and the Ker’s Wing House of Wesley Chapel, and a Twistee Treat is headed to the Wesley Chapel Village Market just south of the Burger King on BBD at S.R. 54

Steak ’n Shake, founded in 1934 in Normal, IL, pioneered the concept of burgers — or, in its case, STEAKburgers — and milkshakes, according to its website. There are roughly a dozen locations in Tampa Bay, including one in New Tampa, but the Wesley Chapel location will be only the third one in Pasco County, joining locations in Port Richey and Trinity.

Twistee Treat, which serves soft-serve ice cream, shakes and sundaes, is known for its 25-foot tall ice cream cone shaped building.

FORE!: For more than a year, local residents fought a proposal by owner Andres Carollo to build homes to replace Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club, but Pasco commissioners okayed the plan for proposed new homes in July 2017, and now construction plans have been filed with the county.

The project will be called Siena Cove, and plans call for 379 single family detached homes to be built in five phases on 174 acres of what were formerly fairways and greens off of Old Pasco Rd.

Local Student Is Florida’s First Boy To Perform A ‘Bharatanatyam Arangetram’

Wesley Chapel resident Parth Madabhushi is the first young man in Florida to have performed a Bharatanatyam arangetam, a two-hour-long, solo folk dance recital from India.

Wesley Chapel resident Parth Madabhushi is carrying on a family tradition.

His mother, Sabrina Madabhushi, is a teacher of Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance that originated in the Hindu temples of Tamil Nadu in southern India.

Sabrina’s mother, Geetha Raaj, is a guru who has taught thousands of students the traditional art form as she has traveled the state of Florida sharing her knowledge of the dance since 1990, and prior to that in India.

Of the thousands of students she’s taught, only some rise to the level of training where they are ready to ascend the stage and make their performance debut, sharing their dance with an audience at a demanding individual recital called an “arangetram.”

For Guru Geetha Raaj, her 150th student to perform an arangetram just might be the most special. In addition to being her grandson, Parth is the first boy among her students to achieve this level of training.

“It’s not like children learning ballet,” explains Sabrina, “where you learn a little bit of ballet and do a recital. An arangetram is the first time you show yourself on stage, after all these years of learning Bharatanatyam.”

It typically takes about 10 years, she adds.

“I started learning the basics when I was about 4 or 5,” says Parth, who is now 14. “I was 11 or 12 when I knew I’m not just a kid learning anymore. Now I have to prepare to perform. I turned on a switch I didn’t have before.”

Parth says it was last November when his guru decided he was ready to begin preparing for his arangetram, and that’s when the more rigorous, everyday work began.

Parth’s arangetram was held on September 16 at the India Cultural Center in Tampa. More than 600 people attended, including Florida Senator Dana Young and Tampa City Council member Luis Viera.

An orchestra from India played live music while Parth danced for more than two hours, with just short breaks in between long, individual dances, showing the mastery of Bharatanatyam he has accomplished so far.

There is still much more for Parth to learn, though, says Sabrina.

“He will continue learning after this stage,” she says. “You can get more into the deeper intricacies of the dance. There’s so much mythology, and so many characters you could portray.”

For his arangetram, Parth portrayed masculine characters, something that is not seen as often in the dance form because there are not that many boys who study or perform it.

Sabrina explains that Bharatanatyam is for everyone, but more girls choose to study it than boys, comparing it again to ballet.

“For every 25 girls in a class, you might get one boy,” she says, “and he might drop out after two years.”

The ‘Dance’ Of Karate, Too

Besides honoring his family tradition to learn Bharatanatyam, Parth participates in another family activity — karate.

“We are a family of black belts,” says Parth’s dad, Prahlad, who is taking both Parth and his sister, 11-year-old Nitya, to the World Karate Championships in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by the World Karate Commission.

Parth qualified on a national level to compete at the world level in several divisions, including point sparring, continuous sparring, creative weapons, creative forms and team forms.

His mom says karate has given Parth the physicality and the stamina to be able to perform Bharatanatyam in a masculine way.

“My two main passions are karate and Bharatanatyam,” says Parth. “They are completely different forms, but I’ve seen how one helps me do the other. By doing one, I get moves (more easily) in the other. They have both helped each other to help me.”

One connection is that he uses a sword in the creative weapons division of karate, and included a sword in his arangetram.

With his arangetram behind him, Parth is focused on preparing for the World Karate Championships, which will be held after we go to press with this issue, ending on Nov. 2.

Then, Parth will be back to balancing his two passions.

“I did feel my arangetram was a huge accomplishment,” says Parth, “but now I don’t want to stop dancing. I’m one of the few people in the world who have three generations of the family who are able to learn the art form and present it at the same time.”