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Keep 7th Avenue closed, police say
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- Tampa police are opposed to opening Ybor City's Seventh Avenue to cars on Friday and Saturday nights when the streets are often jammed with revelers, despite the City Council's request to explore removing traffic barriers. Council member Linda Saul-Sena asked for opinions on allowing cars back into the area -- which has been blocked off weekend nights since 1995 -- after the owner of the Ovo Cafe on Seventh Avenue suggested it might help business. But Maj. K.C. Newcomb of the Tampa Police Department told the council Thursday it was a dangerous idea, considering the thousands of people who throng to the area on weekends -- many of them young and drunk. "Anytime you mix crowds, youth and alcohol, you get potential for trouble," Newcomb said after the meeting. "And when you throw in traffic, the difficulties far outweigh the benefits from a public safety perspective." Newcomb said it would also increase the need for police presence in the area, since he would expect more accidents. He said police would have a clearer idea of traffic patterns in Ybor after the parking garage and trolley route now under construction are completed, but added: "There's no benefit to the public to opening these streets." But Marcie Hoffman Porges, who owns the Ovo Cafe at Seventh and 19th Street, said Seventh Avenue should be a street, not a pedestrian mall. Opening the streets "would breathe fresh life into the district if these streets were brought back to their original intent," she said. "I think it would welcome a broader base of citizen back here." While public safety is important, she said, "these sidewalks are very wide, and it should in no way inhibit the Police Department's ability to maintain public safety." The city is planning to hold a public hearing on the matter, though a date has not yet been set. -- Christopher Goffard can be reached at 813-226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com.
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