The Gandy Debate Continues

Yet another workshop put on by the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority occurred tonight. The public hearing took place at The New Beginnings Christian Church, on Manhattan Ave. I salute the handful of Regency Cove residents present.



As usual , the two sides of the controversy were divided, the locals in the seats facing the speakers at the microphones, and the other side, standing in the back.

Councilman Dingfelder, currently running for a County Commisioner seat, listens attentively to residents on the stage?

OOps no, a little preoccupied.

These are the folks who aren't particularly listening, or even applauding as the neighborhood residents express their concerns for their businesses and livelihoods, for their homes, their families, and the futures of their children living under a 35 foot concrete bunker.


Photos below depict the Ranch House Grill restaurant without and then with the concrete roadway. Attractive? I think not.

Here is SweetBay on Gandy with and without a concrete choker. Hmmm... what do YOU think is more attractive?

They never presented any computer generations of the front of Regency Cove. We probably don't want to see what that's all about. There are negotiations for a path behind the bait stores for a safe exit, with a light. Fooey, I'll believe it when I see it. Will I live that long?

The audience was definitely stacked with the locals who are against this atrocity defiling our neighborhood. See their vision below. If you can remember what they presented years ago, the photos are becoming more chilling, more descriptive of what Life will be like under a concrete embankment.

Jerry Frankhouser, the president of Bayside West Neighborhood Association, has made it clear to the Authority that we do NOT want the overhead or the round-about plans at West Shore Blvd or Manhattan, set forth by the Expressway Authority. The Authority, he claims, does not even have a current traffic count to show that it is necessary, nor an Economic Study as to what their plan will do to the neighborhood businesses. Most of the business are against this plan and many business owner spoke tonight opposing this plan. Many local residents also took took the microphone.


Regency Cove, along with the neighborhood association has been battling this project since its inception years ago. Past-President Ellen Nimon continues to serve as a champion against the cause, the Authority. When will it ever end?