Category: News

Shhh! It’s The Neighborhood News Anniversary Party!!!

If you, like the Neighborhood News staff, enjoy singing, dancing, enjoying delicious food and sipping some great wine or even whiskey, why not join us at our VIP “Speakeasy’ event before our two-year anniversary party at our office on Thursday, January 14, 2016.

It’s easy to sign up. The first thing you should do is go HERE!!!!!! and be one of the first 50 readers to register.

When your registration is accepted, you’ll receive an email telling you the time the VIP event starts and the evening’s password to get in.

The food and fun continue when we open the doors to everyone at 7 p.m. that evening, but to sample gourmet treats from The Private Chef of Tampa, Peter Gambacorta himself (PrivateChefTampa.com), plus wine tastings of the same bottles of wine (there’s six different kinds) we gave as custom-printed gifts from our friends at Time for Wine (TimeforWine.net) this holiday season, as well as free whiskey and vodka tastings, karaoke by my buddy Gary Carmichael (HeartandSoulKaraoke.com), plus free drawings for great dining and other prizes.

It’s as easy as CLICKING ME to get signed up.

Pasco's new logo to showcase vibrant places and spaces

After three years of study, Pasco County has unveiled a new logo with a new tagline — “Open Spaces. Vibrant Places.” – that Melanie Kendrick, the county’s acting program administrator for economic growth, says ties the county’s story together, presents the area with a sense of place and provides a cohesive sales pitch to tourists.

“I think we needed to tell the Pasco story in a holistic way,’’ said Kendrick, a member of the county’s Branding Team, comprised of leaders from multiple departments.

“We don’t have that one thing to sell in Pasco. If you ask 20 people about what makes Pasco, you’ll get 20 different answers. We thought this was a way to unify the county.”

Pasco County Commissioners approved the new branding effort last month by a 4-1 vote, with only District 5 Commissioner Jack Mariano dissenting.

In today’s fast-moving world and an ever-growing social media universe, branding is everything, especially when it comes to attracting tourism, says Ed Caum, manager of the Pasco County Office of Tourism Development, who also was the featured speaker at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce’s October Business Breakfast.

The logo, with carefully chosen orange, yellow and gray colors, a rising sun (as the letter “O” in Pasco) and a sandhill crane flying in front of it, was designed by Jennifer Lachtara, the marketing coordinator for Pasco’s Economic Development Council (EDC). A variation of the logo was in the “MyPasco” app that the county released in the Google Play and ITunes stores in June.

Caum and Lachtara, along with Pasco County public information officer Doug Tobin, were key members of the Branding Team, though Caum stressed it was a county-wide effort involving many.

Caum also says there was talk of outsourcing the re-branding effort, but by doing it in-house, the re-branding committee saved taxpayers roughly $80-120,000. He explains that Hernando County rebranded itself as the “Adventure Coast” in September and that effort cost roughly $85,000.

It was time for the re-branding, Kendrick says. She recalls doing an interview with some USF students about 3-½ years ago, and she asked them what they thought about Pasco County. Some didn’t know where Pasco was, even though they acknowledged hanging out at The Shops at Wiregrass mall.

The county has basically used its seal as a primary logo, with various unofficial logos and catchphrases popping up here and there. “Open Spaces. Vibrant Places.” replaces “Room To Grow” and others like “It’s Only Natural.”

“A seal really isn’t a logo and a seal is not a brand,’’ said Caum, adding that the seal will still be used on official documents. But new county cars will bear the new logo, as will buses, stationary, business cards and shirts of county employees when it is rolled out, which Caum says should be by 2017.

More important, Caum says, is that the plan is to recognize those vibrant places in Pasco County with the new logo, which is already on the county’s website. It will effectively serve as a stamp of approval.

Caum says there will be criteria for those applying to be deemed a vibrant place or an open space. When those criteria are determined, they will be listed on an application for interested parties.

Signs will be positioned throughout the county in areas that are accepted as part of the program, like parks, cities, downtowns or green spaces. Shopping districts and neighborhood associations also can apply to be part of the new “story” the county hopes to tell to visitors, tourists and residents.

“We just need to make sure we maintain a brand standard,’’ Caum says.

Survey says: Wesley Chapel pretty darn great for families

With growing businesses, new residential developments, two major malls including the brand new Tampa Premium Outlets, and highly-rated schools, what is there not to like about living in Wesley Chapel?

According to WalletHub, not much at all. The personal finance website recently rated Wesley Chapel the 7th best city for families in Florida. Wallethub compared 115 Florida cities across 21 metrics, with Wesley Chapel scoring No. 1 for housing affordability and wealth gap, and finishing in the top 10 for general affordability (5th) and divorce rate (9th).

“I am very pleased with the rating,’’ says Hope Allen, the president and CEO of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC). “To be No. 1 in affordability and housing says a lot about our area and community. People do look at national ratings when looking to relocate, so it’s very important to do well in these.”

Allen also noted that Wesley Chapel is a Census-Designated Place (CDP), and to be ranked with cities across the state is a great achievement. “Pretty impressive to make the list when we’re not even a city,’’ Allen said. Wesley Chapel received its lowest marks for education, health and safety (77th).

The No. 1 city rated overall was Parkland in Broward County, just north of Coral Springs.

WalletHub’s report looked closely at four specific categories: Family Life & Fun; Education, Health & Safety; Affordability; and Socioeconomic Environment, attributing 25 points to each category.

Within those categories were 21 different metrics. For example, under Family Life & Fun, WalletHub’s experts looked at number of playgrounds per 100,000 residents, the number of family attractions like parks and museums, the percentage of families with children under the age of 18, weather and average commute time.

In 2014, Wesley Chapel was rated the fourth-best place (out of 179 studied) to own a home/raise a family by the national consumer advocacy website Nerdwallet.com. In June of 2015, Nerdwallet.com bumped Wesley Chapel up one spot to No. 3 in the ratings.Top 10 Cities

Editorial: We’ll Show You Ours (Distribution Numbers) If They Show You Theirs

By Gary Nager

In recent issues we have run a 1/4-page advertisement that tells our readers (many of whom own businesses that want to get the most for their money in our only two distribution markets, New Tampa & Wesley Chapel) that “We’ll Show You Ours If They Show You Theirs.” Although the ad makes a light-hearted joke about it, we are deadly serious when it comes to distribution figures.

Because both of our publications are distributed by direct mail through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), we can’t “audit” our circulation figures through an independent agency (none of the accredited circulation auditors will audit direct-mail publications, and we don’t really need them to because, in order to receive the special Bulk Mail rate publications like ours receive, we have to give the Post Office enough copies to put one in at least 95 percent of every mailbox in every postal carrier route we serve or the Post Office will not deliver any of them!).

But, we think our postal receipts are an even better proof of how many households (not people; more on this below) receive our publications in their mailboxes (not thrown on their driveways in the rain) and therefore offer the most possible people in both zip code 33647 (New Tampa) and zips 33543, 33544 & 33545 (Wesley Chapel) the opportunity to read them.

As most of our readers in both markets already know (because you tell us so every day), when you have the best, most informative content of any local media outlet as well as the largest circulation, our advertisers can rest easy that there will be more eyeballs reading our words and checking out their ads than any other local medium.

And, the number of those eyeballs keeps on growing, especially in Wesley Chapel, where we have added more than 5,000 additional direct-mail households since the economic bubble hit in 2008, all at our own expense and without any significant rise in our advertising rates!

But, my primary reason for writing this piece today is to tell you that, thanks to input from readers in New Tampa (specifically living in one carrier route in Cross Creek and one in Heritage Isles) who suddenly didn’t receive one or both of our last two issues in their mailboxes, we have recently added two routes and more than 1,000 additional households in zip code 33647, bringing our all-direct-mail circulation to 26,200+ households in New Tampa.

With an average of just about three people living in every household in our area (yes, many have both more and less than three, but that is the average), that means we have nearly 80,000 potential readers in New Tampa (including one carrier route in Lake Forest, which is a Lutz address, but located along Bruce B. Downs Blvd., just south of Tampa Palms) alone! When you add the nearly 21,000 households (also unmatched in the marketplace) we direct mail to in our three Wesley Chapel zip codes, the total number of people who have ongoing direct-mail access to our publications is nearly 150,000 every four weeks (we publish 26 issues, 13 in New Tampa and 13 in Wesley Chapel, every year).

Here’s an explanation you can check with the Post Office as to why we felt we had to add two more carrier routes in New Tampa. Whenever new communities, like K-Bar Ranch, begin building in an already-established area, the Post Office will wait until there are enough households in that new development or subdivision before adding another route. That means the new households in those just-developing areas will simply be added to existing carrier routes located near that new neighborhood until there are enough households in the new community itself to warrant a new route.

All ongoing direct-mail businesses are required by the Post Office to get updated carrier route numbers, but only every 90 days (three months), so until we get our updated counts again, some of the households along those now-larger existing routes may not receive their Neighborhood News until we get our next route count update.

The Post Office has even been known to change existing routes to make it easier for the postal carriers to make sure everyone they serve receives all of their mail — and, as a federal government-funded entity, the USPS isn’t required to tell anyone about those changes (go figure).

Therefore, it’s up to you, faithful readers, to tell us if you suddenly aren’t receiving your Neighborhood News in your mailbox, so I’m always grateful when you do. I can (and I’m always happy to) prove exactly how many copies we print and distribute in each of our two markets, but I can assure you (because I always know how much we spend to mail our publications to you), that if any other local medium claims to have higher numbers of homes, apartments, businesses or readers in either market than we do, all you have to do is ask them to prove it and they’ll likely back off their claim.

A ‘Chaotic Symphony’ & A ‘Wobble’ At The Shops At Wiregrass

wiregrasslights4 — Max, the lead singer in the New Tampa-based kid band ‘Beyond Chaotic,’ sings ‘Radioactive’ by the Imagine Dragons.By Gary Nager

I was on hand for the “Symphony in Lights” Presented by Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel — the every-hour-on-the-hour (between 6 p.m.-9 p.m.) tree-lighting-set-to-music” event at Wiregrass — on Nov. 25, when the Tampa based kid band (its oldest member is 11-year-old Max, the group’s lead singer) known as “Beyond Chaotic” performed three sets of — if you can believe it — alternative rock music — between each of the 10-minute tree-lighting events. I’m not the biggest fan of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but between synthetic ice skating on Piazza Ave., and music every night through December 31, the Shops is still a cool place to shop, with multiple restaurants that sell alcohol and provide additional entertainment.

I was at the Shops that night as part of an informal gathering of Rotarians from the original New Tampa (which has been meeting at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club on Friday mornings for 20 years, the oldest Rotary in either of our distribution areas; we’ll have pics from the club’s 20th anniversary, which was celebrated on Black Friday Night, the night I went to press, but we’ll have a recap in our next issue) and Wesley Chapel (our area’s largest current club, which meets Wednesdays at noon at Stage Left Bar & Kitchen in Lutz) Rotary Clubs. Fun.

While many of those same WC Rotarians were serving meals to 500 people in need at Atonement Lutheran Church on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel the following morning, a number of NT “Breakfast” Rotary members also were on hand at the Shops the following morning for the third annual “Wiregrass Wobble 5K,” of which which the New Tampa club has been a major sponsor (along with the New Tampa Family YMCA & the FitNiche store in the Shops) since the event’s inception.

I neither attended nor covered this year’s “Wobble,” an event which already has had more than 3,000 participants and raised $45,000 (combined) the previous two years. But, with perfect weather this year, I hear the 5K run was packed again this time around. Since my friend and New Tampa Rotarian (and TV/film director/producer) Craig Miller of Full Throttle Intermedia (Facebook.com/Full Throttle Intermedia) was there, I “borrowed” a couple of his great pics for this story. I hope to soon update the huge number of runners and funds raised at NTNeighborhoodNews.com and in our next issue.

Truly ‘Beyond Chaotic’

My favorite thing about the mall at this time of year is definitely the entertainment. Beyond Chaotic is made up of music students ranging in age from 8 to no older than 11, no less at Bigel Music on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. across from Paul R. Wharton High, in the plaza next to MidFlorida Credit Union.

If you haven’t seen this too-young-to-be-this-good alternative rock band that performs everything from Imagine Dragons to AC/DC, make sure you like their page at Facebook.com/Beyond Chaotic. If you’re like…well, everyone who has seen these kids sing and play guitar, bass, drums, violin and keyboards, you’re going to want to check out their upcoming gigs. And you should.

And, if you or your children want to explore your own musical talents, I think Beyond Chaotic and the Bigel Music Chorus both speak loudly (yet melodically) about owner Larry Bigel’s Bigel Music. For info, visit BigelMusic.com.

There’s lots of other great local entertainers performing every night at the Shops through December 23, too.

For more information about synthetic ice skating, Visits with Santa, or your chance to win a “Santa’s Gift Grab” $1,000 shopping spree, visit TheShopsatWiregrass.com.