This is Andy’s, a burger joint that has been in business since 1951. It is actually Andy’s Igloo, even though the sign says Andy’s Drive-In. The burgers are tasty and the prices are good. I’m told the milkshakes are delicious but have not been able to try one yet. The top of the sign used to have spires, but a friend tells me they were blown off during the 2004 hurricane season. For the time being, a Google image search still turns up examples of the sign with spires.
Long before the Desperate Housewives or the Real Narcissistic Housewives of a Large Semiurban Area, there were the Wild Wives, as depicted in this Ybor City storefront. Actually, Amazon lists a Wild Wives, but not “The Autobiography of Linda Butler,” as this book claims to be. And I found many Linda Butlers through a Google search, but I’m pretty sure they are different Linda Butlers. So the book is something of a mystery for now.
It was a chilly, windy day when I walked around Ybor City recently. This silhouette of a palm tree made me recall winters up north, when we would dream of palm trees and sandy beaches.
I hadn’t been to Ybor City in a while and enjoyed a recent stroll through the neighborhood. On one restaurant I noticed the above graffiti. Could this be the work of Hot Dog, whose tags/vandalism/public art (depending on your point of view) I highlighted July and November of last year? After exploring a bit longer, the image below, while faded, confirmed that this was Hot Dog’s work.
A few more photos of public art displayed in downtown Winter Haven. Above is the fountain in Central Park, where some of these works are displayed.
These are the downtown Tampa luxury residential towers, Element on the left and Skypoint on the right. Believe it or not, they were built by different firms.
There are some differences in the two buildings, but they are too similar for my tastes. I don’t mind the glass-and-steel-tower look, I would just like to see more variety in new developments. Element is the 5th tallest building in Tampa (34 stories and 460 feet) and Skypoint is the 9th (32 stories and 361 feet). I admit I was startled by the nearly 100-foot difference in the buildings’ height, as they seem so similar to me.
I caught a shot of these lovebirds at the University of Tampa and thought it would be a nice post for Valentine’s Day. That’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park across the river.
Winter Haven has a series of adjoining parks – South Central Park, Central Park, Virginia Miller Park, Joyce B. Davis Park, and Johnny Patterson Park – that amount to a long, skinny greenspace running north and south through downtown. The sculpture above is in Johnny Davidson Park, but I couldn’t find a title or artist information for the art.
Some of these works, like the one below, are part of a temporary exhibit, from a nationwide competition sponsored by the city of Winter Haven and the Polk Museum of Art.
As a dog lover, “Lucy” is my personal favorite.
More public art from downtown Winter Haven next week.
Evening light at Cypress Point Park in Tampa’s Westshore area. See the category cloud at the bottom of the page for other photos from this urban gem.
It’s no secret that cities are better for the environment than suburbs. Here’s a passage from Anthony Flint’s 2009 book Wrestling With Moses:
Cities are also increasingly seen as an answer to the challenge of climate change. They are dense and have transit; if their buildings can become more energy efficient, they represent the potential for the greenest form of human settlement, and compared with suburban sprawl can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Manhattanites, on a per capita basis, consume less energy than anywhere else in the country.
Building up instead of out is more costly in the short-term but on a long-term basis it is more efficient. I’m still amazed at how many people think of cities as nothing more than wretched hives of scum and villainy. Don’t take my word for it, listen to David Owen. If you haven’t read his outstanding book Green Metropolis, I hope you’ll add it to your reading list.
Another good reference is an article in the March, 2011, issue of The Atlantic: How Skyscrapers Can Save the City (excerpted from Edward Glaeser’s book Triumph of the City). It gives a brief history of skyscrapers and describes how important they are to urban development. For the hyper-efficient, here is the bottom line:
Consider that carbon emissions are significantly lower in big cities than in outlying suburbs, and that, as of 2007, life expectancy in New York City was 1.5 years higher than in the nation as a whole. As America struggles to regain its economic footing, we would do well to remember that dense cities are also far more productive than suburbs, and offer better-paying jobs. Globalization and new technologies seem to have only made urban proximity more valuable—young workers gain many of the skills they need in a competitive global marketplace by watching the people around them. Those tall buildings enable the human interactions that are at the heart of economic innovation, and of progress itself.
Of course, skyscrapers aren’t the only way to improve density, but they are part of an integrated solution. A durable local economy needs diversity; the Tampa Bay Area needs more tall buildings, and we need more of them to include retail, office space, and affordable residential space. So here are two photos looking up at one of Tampa’s few tall office buildings, 100 North Tampa, better known as the Regions Bank Building. Check the Category Cloud at the bottom of the page for a few more images of Tampa’s tallest building.
