Viera Still Hoping For A NT Police Substation; NT Blvd. Repaving Delayed & More

If you read this publication regularly, you know that District 7 Tampa City Council member and New Tampa resident Luis Viera will reach his term limits when Tampa’s Municipal Elections are held next March. 

You’re probably also aware that Viera is now actively campaigning to replace his friend (and current Florida House Minority Leader) Fentrice Driskell in the Dist. 63 State House seat in the November midterm elections. 

But, that doesn’t mean Viera is done fighting for the New Tampa community he calls home in City Council. Not by a long shot. 

Below are just a few of the items Viera has either recently gotten passed or is still working to bring to fruition: 

Morris Lopez Street Renaming — Although this one doesn’t directly benefit New Tampa, Viera has been lobbying for months to rename a street in Ybor City in honor of Tampa Police Officer Patrolman Morris Lopez, who was murdered on the streets of Ybor more than 75 years ago. Ofc. Lopez’s grandson, also named Morris Lopez, is not only a long-time New Tampa resident, but is also one of at least three people (Alan Cohn and Patricia Alonzo are the others, although only Lopez was listed at VoteHillsborough.gov as having officially filed his paperwork at our press time) to fill Viera’s soon-to-be-vacant seat. 

City Council is expected to have a first reading regarding the street renaming in Lopez’s honor at one of the May Council meetings. 

Viera says the honor for Patrolman Lopez is long overdue: “It’s just the right thing to do.” 

New Tampa Police Substation — Viera, who has been fighting for months for a TPD substation somewhere in New Tampa, said during the Apt. 7 City Council meeting that he “rejected” the memo he and the other City Council members received from Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw on Mar. 17 (right) that said, “Currently, however, the department’s most critical infrastructure priorities remain the construction of a new Forensic Facility and the development of a new Police Headquarters…Once progress is achieved on these critical projects, the department can better evaluate the need for future facility expansion opportunities, such as a New Tampa Substation, within a comprehensive long-term facilities plan.” 

“I’m not asking for a Taj Mahal big expenditure,” Viera says. “But all of the Tampa Police Officers I’ve spoken with in New Tampa support renting some small office in a strip center where the officers could meet with the community.” 

Viera’s motion for the City Council staff to look into what a substation office would cost and present a report to the Council, by the end of April or sometime in May, passed 5-0. 

New Tampa Blvd. Repaving — The funds allocated for this item were approved by Council months ago, and construction was expected to begin by sometime this month, but has been delayed until June or July of this year. In the meantime, almost all of the existing potholes on the 1.8-mile stretch of New Tampa Blvd. were recently filled in prior to the repaving (at left is one pothole that hadn’t been filled in at our press time). 

The City’s engineering department sent Viera the following memo: “The New Tampa Blvd project is ready to execute once the processing is complete of the 26-C-06 contract that council approved during the 3-26-2026 meeting. We are expecting paving to begin on New Tampa Blvd around June/July 2026, but this may vary to be sooner or later depending on the contractor’s schedule/availability.” 

Viera says, “You know I’ll be obnoxiously on this one until it’s done.” 

Nature Park All-Abilities Equipment Allocation — Viera also lobbied successfully for the City of Tampa to spend some of its surplus funds from the Fiscal Year 2025 budget on two pieces of All-Abilities equipment for the New Tampa Nature Park off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. 

The equipment is allocated to cost $175,000 of the $4.4-million of the surplus funds to be spent on parks throughout the city. 

Viera On The Passing Of Gwen Henderson & The Repaving Of New Tampa Blvd. 

Gwendolyn Henderson (Photo source: Tampa.gov) 
On The Passing Of Councilwoman Gwendolyn Henderson 

My City Council colleague Gwendolyn Henderson (above) has passed on (only five days after attending the kickoff event for Viera’s campaign to be the next Dist. 67 State Representative; see story below). Gwen was many things — a fighter who was hilarious, independent and stubborn and a woman with a beautiful heart. 

Councilwoman Henderson was raised in Carver City — a Tampa community created for returning black veterans in the 1950s. Her Dad, Asbury Henderson, was a Korean War veteran. Her mother, Gladys Henderson, was a caring woman of faith. Gladys was descended from Sam Hightower — an enslaved man who was emancipated in Georgia in 1865 and would die in 1932. 

Gwen owned the Tampa Heights Black English bookstore. If you want to see the heart of Councilwoman Henderson, go to Black English bookstore. It is a love letter to Black History and people like Sam Hightower and Asbury and Gladys Henderson. 

She was proud to be a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (a sisterhood comprised primarily of Black, college-educated women with more than 1,050 chartered chapters worldwide), and a Carver City woman. She was proud to be a Dragon from Jefferson High School. She was proud of her Christian faith. She was proud to be a mom. And, she was proud to be a public servant representing the community where Gladys and Asbury Henderson raised a family. 

She was also hilarious. I sat next to her [at City Council meetings] and laughed a lot. But, she was a tough lady, too. She endured some mean political attacks and never flinched. Public service can be a pleasure — but there are those who take the cheapest of all shots from the cheapest of all seats. Councilwoman Henderson punched back against those cheap shots. 

I last saw her at an event she put on for young people attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). I told her: “Look at all of these young people, you are doing what you were meant to do.” 

She brought a passion to the plight of everyday families like the one raised by Gladys and Asbury Henderson. She had a beautiful heart and will be missed. 

On The Repaving Of New Tampa Blvd. 

New Tampa Blvd. — home to God knows how many potholes and broken tires — is finally in line to be repaved. 

This $2.5-million mobility project will repave 1.8 miles of the main road through the West Meadows community — from Meadow Pine Dr. to Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. The project will include pedestrian accessibility features with safety and ADA improvements. 

This work will begin in Quarter 2 of 2026 and is set to be finished by the end of 2026. 

I am glad we are finally getting here. Had the 2018 penny sales tax not been struck down in court, New Tampa Blvd. would have been repaved long ago. As it stands, I had to fight hard to get it in the budget — and I thank Mayor Castor and my fellow Council members for the support. 

I would be remiss if I did not give a shout out to my long-time friend, Brad van Rooyen of West Meadows, who has been pushing for this project for years. If Brad is Captain Ahab, then West Meadows is his Moby Dick. 

Not long ago, we got portions of Tampa Palms Blvd. repaved. We will finish the rest of Tampa Palms Blvd., too. Remember folks, like the Johnny Cash song goes: “One piece at a time.” Until we get better funding sources for mobility, it’ll have to be just one piece at a time. 

On The Fourth Of July 

The Fourth of July is coming up and I look forward to marching in some Independence Day parades. I love the Fourth of July for many reasons — for sentimental reasons and because I was raised in the 1980s. 

And, I love how it is a good time to celebrate our country. A former President once said: “What is right with America can help heal what is wrong with America.” This Fourth of July, think about what is right with our country and how that good can help overcome what is wrong with our country. It has in the past and it will again. 

Know what a real pleasure it is to represent you all in public office. 


Viera Kicks Off Campaign To Succeed Rep. Driskell 

As we told you back in April, District 7 Tampa City Councilman and New Tampa resident Luis Viera has announced that instead of running for Mayor of Tampa, a citywide Council seat or a spot on the Hillsborough County Commission, he is instead seeking the position currently held by his long-time friend and Dist. 67 Florida Rep. (and State House minority leader) Fentrice Driskell. 

Viera officially kicked off his campaign for the seat at a fund-raising event held at the Columbia Centennial Museum in Ybor City on June 5 that was attended by more than 200 people, including Richard Gonzmart (at microphone, left), the chairman of the 1905 Family of Restaurants (including the original Columbia Restaurant adjacent to the museum), who introduced Viera to the crowd, as well as fellow City Council members Gwendolyn Henderson (who passed away suddenly a few days after the event) and Charlie Miranda and Dist. 1 Hillsborough Commissioner Harry Cohen. 

Unable to attend the campaign event was Leader Driskell herself, who was (and is) still in Tallahassee with the rest of the State Legislature trying to get a Fiscal Year 2026 budget passed. 

Viera, who was actually the second Democrat to enter the race for Driskell’s seat, no longer faces a primary election, as retired U.S. Air Force Colonel William “Will” Atkins, the first candidate to file for the seat, pulled out of the race after reading my profile of Viera (photo, right) — at least, that’s what Will told me when I saw him at the YMCA groundbreaking in Wesley Chapel last month. 

“I come from the heart,” Viera told the crowd at the event. “I always tell people I’m the same guy on Saturday night that I am on Sunday morning. That means that I’m the same guy I was before I got elected, and [I’ll be] the same guy when I go to Tallahassee that I am now. And by the way, I’m gonna be the same guy in the primary that I am in the general election, because you don’t put your finger in the wind on your values. Your values count when they are rock-solid. They come with you, and they don’t change based upon what’s happening. I always believe in dignity for all, which is the idea that you’re entitled to dignity and respect — the idea that we all do better when we all do better.” 

For more information or to make a donation, visit VieraforFlorida.com. — GNÂ