Saturday, January 29, 2005

Ybor City


Cleveland was cold. Tampa was warm. At least it was to me. Many folks in Florida think sixty degree weather is freezing. Only "snowbirds", the term for the thousands of Ohioians who flock to Florida in the winter, are jumping with joy when the thermometer hits sixty degrees.

Yobr City is an old community near Tampa. Many of streets have buildings from the 1920's. They built this new shopping plaza as a hub in the middle of the city. It works well with lots of outdoor plazas, restaurants, shops and walkways.




These yellow street cars run in a long loop around the Ybor. They match the motif of a 1920's Latino shopping district.




These "bar stoolies" think it's cold today. The food here stinks. It probably would taste better to someone completely "tanked" from the margaritas.




Beer and bucks on the wall. The whole place is filled with dollar bills stuck to the walls, ceilings and archways. Each bill has a message or love wish written on it. There's probably $1,000 stuck to the walls here.




Mike and Jane have no complaints. The view is great and so was the breeze.




The shopping plaza spreads over three blocks. There is a Latino motif throughout as the neighborhood is mostly Hispanic. Lots of nice shops with Latino gifts.




No comment except I don't know where this is going.




This scene reminds of French Quarter in New Orleans.

All photos shot with Canon 20D

Copyright © 2005 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

posted by Jim Fisher @ Saturday, January 29, 2005   1 comments

1 Comments:

At 9:43 PM, Blogger Paul Fresty said...

That isn't the French Quarter that I remember... Although I do see the architectural similarities, there are several things missing...
1) There is no barb wire wrapped around the poles of that balcony to keep the drunks from shimmying up.
2) There does not appear to be any mystery "fluge" flowing in the gutter. It could have not rained for weeks in NOLA and yet there would still be some kind of liquid in the gutters.
3) There appears to be a lone man on the balcony. He appears to be fully clothed. And there are no people on the street exhorting him to disrobe.
I could go on and on... but I won't.
Personally, I love Ybor City. I have been there many times. I used to have family there. In fact, one of them owned a pretty cool herb (the plants not the street herb) shop. The food there was amazing. I once had dinner there at a FANTASTIC Cuban restaurant (whose name currently escapes me) where we saw an incredible floor show of flaminco dancing. The only flaw in having good seats for the show was that when the men would twirl at high speed their sweat-laden hair would shower the audience, and thier $30 plate of Paella. Somehow though... i have to admit... this made it strangely more authentic.
Love Ybor City. It's people, it's food, it's spirit.

 

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