By Zach Sherman
Ybor City is Tampa’s oldest district and a popular destination for entertainment. Ybor’s workers and residents face challenges that the Ybor City Community Advisory Committee aims to fix, offering residents a chance to use their voice at public meetings.
Rich Simmons, the current chairman of the committee seeks to tackle Ybor’s most prominent issues facing the community. Simmons joined the committee as a former resident of the area and is a member of the Barrio Latino Committee, which strives to protect Ybor’s historic architecture.
“The point of the committee is to fight plight in underserved areas and try to prioritize the needs of those who are overlooked,” Simmons said.
The Ybor City Community Advisory Committee is a voluntary group appointed by the Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency board and is made up of residents and business owners in Ybor City. Meetings take place on the fourth Tuesday of every month. The meeting on Saturday, Sept. 24 focused on surveys completed by those who reside and work in the area conducted by the HCP Group on behalf of the Ybor CAC, along with other pressing issues.
The presentation focused on what Ybor City can do better to accommodate workers and residents. For residents, the biggest issue was affordable housing, a trend in the Tampa area. For workers, the biggest concern was affordable parking.
The presentation compared current statistics to the past. From 2016 to 2018, the biggest concern was personal safety for residents which is shared by workers as well. The two groups differ between 2021 and 2023, with workers continuing to share personal safety as their biggest concern, while residents felt general cleanliness was the biggest problem.
The slideshow addressed security as a prevalent issue, with 71% of residents and 69% of workers believing that Ybor should add more lighting to the area. Other figures show that 70% of residents and 69% of workers also believed that cameras should be prioritized. Overall, 64% of residents feel safe while walking to their cars, while workers are at 57%.
Simmons takes these issues as the committee’s biggest concern. Ybor before being a residential district was purely entertainment and he wants to strike a proper balance, focusing on both the needs of the workers and the residents. He said that the increased police presence can benefit Ybor, as it is such a unique area.
Ybor is desirable to those who live there, with 84% of residents reporting that they would recommend a friend to live there. Throughout the years the statistics show that Ybor is becoming more and more favorable to live.
Carolyn Cheatham Rhodes, a representative of the Historic East Ybor and Gary Neighborhood Association, feels Ybor is highly important to the Tampa Bay community and strives to make improvements. Rhodes moved from North Tampa in 2001 and has been in Ybor ever since.
Rhodes said that there is a misperception with Ybor and how the media portrays it making it feel like a dangerous place.
Rhodes says that she loves the community of Ybor and how the residents and workers live together. She also enjoys the character the homes have and the vintage vibe of the city while still being in close proximity to downtown, she said.
“The historic character, the architecture, the legacy and history, the cigar workers, it’s an urban city but feels different,” Rhodes said.
The president of HEYGNA, Denise Sansur, is originally from the north and knew Tampa only from Ybor’s cigar factories and its historic nature. Sansur views Ybor as the “Manhattan of Tampa” with how the district has been developed along with the diversity of the district. She also appreciates how it is in the heart of Tampa and views Ybor like no other city.
The committee also discussed issues with homelessness and flooding in South Ybor. There is a pipeline being built to attempt to help the flooding, but progress is so slow so the committee proposed to allocate funds to try and speed up the process. For the issues with homelessness, members are instructed to report them if they are on property to authorities.
Tackling these issues brings pride to board member David Bailey, also a member of the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association responsible for ensuring that historic architecture is preserved in the district. He feels as a member of the neighborhood he knows how to operate bureaucratically and get things done.
“Most people look at things in their town and wish for something to get done,” Bailey said. “It gives me pride to see the change I want happen.”
The committee will propose their ideas for fixing the flooding later in November to the Tampa CRA hoping to get the issue solved quickly. The committee also hopes to get their name out more in the community and ensure that the urban sprawl works in harmony.
